A critical assessment of 2 pieces of drama around the theme of Space Essay Example for Free

A critical assessment of 2 segments of drama sanely the understructure of Space EssayIn this essay I will be writing near how I performed to pieces of improvised drama based around the dependant of space. One of the pieces had to be d i in a realistic style and the otherwise an abstract.initial Reaction to StimulusWhen we were first told that are stimulus would be space, we either sat down I and had what could be c totallyed a brain storming session. This was to consider how such a broad subject could be perceived in twain pieces of drama. initial of all we had to consider how space could be identified. There are many kinds of space, which can be make into forms of drama, and we would need to select sensation that could produce the to the highest degree gripping. For this we identified just how space could be used, and came up with the following ideas for realistic or abstract piece (we could the ideas into abstract drama later)Space, as in the final frontier, could be used to great effect. Space and the entire notion of the great beyond could be used. Maybe having typesetters cases interacting with character not of this planet, peradventure contrasting views or morals. Maybe having the outsider coming to earth from space. Using space in this way opens the door to all sorts of soulification of space utilize a science fiction spin. This could be done in some sort of Star Trek, thought provoking scene involving space.Personal space, or the neglect of it. For a realistic piece, maybe something to do with the prison system or freedom infringements. If we set it in a cell (an area where in that respect is brusque space), not only would thither be a direct physical relation to space however also the characters will be able to parade space in there speech and movements.Taking this idea further, we could battle array how the lack of space mentally. Instead of the characters talking about space directly, it could be implied indirectly by their psychological flaws. These psychological flaws would build been caused by space, either too much of it or not enough.These are all ideas in their early stages and all need developing. But even at the early stage, the idea of psychological flaws caused by space was very appealing.For the abstract piece of drama, these initial ideas will give to be developed in an entirely different way. It will need other dramatic techniques to fit the criteriaA surreal piece would lease us to incorporate much style and personalization in to piece. When infering about abstract and surrealism in drama, the first thing that comes into my head is to name situation of drama or else of a continuous story. This would allow us to show the subject matter, space, in a number of different ways.Freeze-frames could be used while distributively character explains information about them and their situation (character monologues). This would show to the au dauntnce character depth that could not be seen in just a one short scene.As for the content of this abstract piece, I had some ideas of separate pieces revolving around the subject space. This would allow us to put a lot of imagination in each piece without needing to worry about what would follow it.GroupsFor the first piece I worked with the following peopleAlain BransonStuart MulranyChris JonesHussian KerianFor the back piece, we decided to take off up and work with different. The important reason for this was to keep all the drama fresh with fresh ideas. Although we thought that we were capable of producing another piece drama, tensions were building in the group and we agreed to spilt. For the second piece I worked withAlain BransonPlotThe first piece we worked on had a plot that I think was well structu reddish. It allowed character depth and development. The first two lessons after we formed are group were spent on structuring a plot which could show off are acting talents and incorporate the idea of space. First we deci ded that it should be based around a main character.An idea that has always interested me was personifying a character sub certain. This might sound a precise far fetched but it would give the character to a greater extent than substance and the audience something to relate to. This would not be his conscious or a good or bad angel but a version of himself that is not usually seen.With that starting point we went ahead and considered how the space theme would fit into this idea. We thought a family clash about space would put this character in the right frame to create good drama around him. This could be mirrored with a character that is in a way opposite him.We all thought that it would be a good idea to have a visual conscious for him like with the other character. This would allows us to show the de dissipateures in these characters and it would fit in with the number of people in are group. How these conscious would look actually on stage would be greatly influenced by Stuar t, who put in a lot to the actual conscious theme.Taking all this we constructed a story which we split up into scenes. This is the first draft of the scenes and what they would containScene 1 This scene would contain an argument between the main character and his Dad. It has to be his Dad because I do not believe any of us could pull of a convincing woman. This argument would be about space, and the childs lack of it. This will end in the character storming out to see his friend. This will show the trouble space has already caused. This will be set in the house.Scene 2 This would be an interlude where the audience gets some in sight into the relationship between him and his scruples. It will be the main character complaining to himself with the conscience talking around him. This will show how the character relates to something, which in essence, him cannot see or hear. This will be set in the walk between his house and the park.Scene 3 This will be conversation between the main c haracter and what appears to be his opposite. This conversation will unc everyplace some back round information about each character and will explain their personality faults. It will also set up the events for the next scene that involves criminal activity brought on by conversation. This will show the parallels between twocharacters who see and treat space in different ways and how it has effected them. This will be set in a peaceful place, a parkScene 4 In this scene the two main characters will get involved in study arson. This will result in an explosion off stage and the two running off. This shows what space capers can result in. This will be set in the other end of the park.Scene 5 This will be like the first scene, with an argument between the Dad and the main character. This will be a lot fiercer than the first and will increase in tension as it progresses. This is the finale of the drama and will bring out all the aspects of space we have been nerve-wracking to portray . This will be set back in the house.In terms of evaluating the plot, I am proud of it. I vie a tough part in crafting it and personally I feel happy with it. Problems with it may be finding enough for the consciences to say and do since they are simply other version of the characters that already present.CastingWe found casting very difficult, particularly a part for Hussian. First of all, we thought it would be best if he had the contribution of the Dad. But we found a stern sort of character wasnt suited for him. We then had the idea of changing the Dad to a Mum. But Hussian playing a woman in my opinion, and on previous acting receive, seems to be type cast and contrary to some people opinion he was cast in a role that would highlight his acting talent. The other characters were relatively easy to cast. Here was the final cast listLeigh Turner The DadAlain Branson Gary (the main character)Stuart Mulrany Gary conscienceChris Jones Damien (the character opposite to Gary)Hussia n Kerian Damien conscienceSetAbove is the set we choose to use. It is fairly basic with the stage being split into three sections, one representing the house, one the park and the other the journey in between.The props were also very simple, with a table and chairs representing the house interior and a bench representing the park.Lighting vault of heaven of lighting for scenes 1 and 5Area of lighting for scenes 2, 3, and 4CostumesThe costumes we used were authentic of the parts we played. I played the Dad, so I wore clothes that represented a Dad. I just wore a black T-shirt and jeans, which is what my Dad would wear. Gary wore typical teenage clothes, a musical composition scurfy to help show the difference between him and Damien. Damien will also were typical teenage clothes, but nothing like Garys.The consciences wore suits. This would show how they different from the other characters and yet still an important part of the drama. We would also be able to visual show aspects of there personality. This means Garys conscious is good, so he wore a white suit and Damiens conscious a black suit.RehearsalsRehearsal started well with Alain and myself going though the first argument many times. The first argument we thought needed to build in belligerence as it went on. We found this hard at the beginning because we found that we got very angry very quickly and needed to take it slower. This was a small problem and was easily overcome.After we had the basic of this scene, we moved on to the bench scene. This scene was hard to rehearse, and certain members of the cast did not help. Small arguments in the group made rehearsing slow and grinding. Out of all scenes, this one was the one that never in reality was rehearsed to maximum affect. Chris and Stuart, to major parts in this scene, had moments of inspiration that helped give a sperm-filled picture of are story.About half way though the rehearsal time the group came to a discussion that the story needed a more conclusive ending. We needed to change the story and keep the scenes the like so it would not interrupt rehearsals too much. We decided that in scene 4 that Gary would die in the explosion and the final argument would be between Damien and the Dad about the blame. This would show the consequences of space and add to the drama. The explosion would be a red strobe light operated of stage and Damien and Gary would be blown on stage, with only Damien getting up and running any.This means we would have to put in refreshing spin on the final argument so Damien would fit into the ending. We decided that if Damien were to come to see the Dad so it would be Damien trying to explain himself. This would allow Chris to show of his talent (which may not get shown in previous scenes) and allow me to say something different to a different person.The more rehearsal went on, the more we touched up the scene. Stuarts contribution to the way consciences move and talk was a big help. Hussian, Alain and Chriss determination helped finish the scenes kept it all going. Still, I dont think we really got the park scene nailed.Piece 2After we changed groups, the first thing we did was to decide how to make this piece abstract and surreal. Most of these ideas were covered in the Initial Reaction to the Stimulus. Sam and Alain played a major part in deciding how the play would actually work. We wanted to consider all the ways we could show space in a surreal way so this took quite a bit of time.Instead of just repeat what I said at the beginning the essay, basically we decided to have pieces of drama (with monologues and freeze frames) linked by a tableaux. Admittedly, I would have liked to try something a bit more, well adventurous but this seemed to fit the bill and with the right characterization would create gripping drama.The pieces of drama would involve to 2 conflicting character. The third person in the group would give a monologue while the others are in a freeze frame. After this the characters would return to a platform at the back of the stage and do a tableau reflecting what has just happened. There were4 pieces if drama and to save confusion, we named the characters with one name, no matter what scene there in.Alain Branson Tony (Gangster, Brother, Teacher)Sam Jordan Harry (Gangster, Dad, Pupil)Leigh Turner Jack (Barman, Brother, Son)Scene 1 Jack is arguing with his Dad (Harry) about space. Jack is child that has had his own way most of his and it is only recently that his Dad had not been allowing him to go out. This sparked the argument. His dad is not over protective, but wants the best for his son. Jack is a typical teenager that is over emotional and arrogant.Sam played the Dad with depth and sternness, just like a real Dad and dominated the scene. I think I played the teenager well, remembering my constant arguing with my folks. The problems with playing a teenager is that in and argument they have limited vocabulary and generally say the sam e thing over and over. Anyway, I think this was a strong scene that set the standard for the rest of the play.Scene 2 Harry (a schoolboy) is arguing with his teacher (Mr. Tony) about a detention. Harry has been having a few family problems at home and this has crossed over into his schoolwork. This has lead to Mr. Tony having to give him a detention. The argument consisted of Harry trying to explain the situation to the teacher.Sam once again pulled of a very good portrayal of character, but due to the nature of the role was not the sovereign character. Alain played an excellent teacher character, really showing talent a presence on stage. Once again, teachers are stubborn so not repeating yourself would have been hard, but Alain was very believable.Scene 3 Tony starts an argument with this brother, Jack. This is over how Jack gets more space and time off of their dad. This is the first time they have had an argument like this one and Tony is unsure how his brother will react. This leads to an argument, which neither of them gain the upper hand until the end, where Jack hits Tony.Alain was very convincing as the somewhat confused Tony, adjusting to the tone of the argument accordingly. I was not so good. I had trouble adapting to the level of aggression I should use in the argument.Scene 4 Two rival gangster have an argument over, wait for it, space and end up shooting each other. The two have a reddened history and this is the final straw. The initial meeting takes place in a bar where Tony is enjoy a drink with barman. Harry walks in and the argument between the two eventually leads then to a shot out. Once again Sam and Gary where very convincing drawing on there past experience of gangster roles. I really took a minor part in this scene, letting the gangster create the drama. I did show a friendship with Tony, but this was short lived and explored.This I think was the weakest of the 4 scene and was performed for the wrong reasons (i.e. they were both inv olved in gangster related drama during the writing stage).SetAs you can see, we used a very Brecht set, with very few props to speak of. This minimalist stage meant we had more space for acting and movement. Brecht played a part in designing the stage because we all felt that a performance like this one needed a strong style so it separates it from other abstract pieces. Special lighting was not needed, so full house lights were used.CostumesWe all decided to wear suits in all the pieces. This would make it more abstract and they a very versatile to the parts we played (teacher, gangster etc.)RehearsalsWe had many rehearsals, which we managed to fit into a very short time space. We went through every scene in order constantly with very little variation.I would like to put a lot more detail into this but there was little else we did. We looked at the tableaux and changed them a few times till they represented each scene perfectly. The monologues were rehearsals a lot till everybody k new what everybody what going to say.Evaluation (of both) both(prenominal) the performances went very well and very few mistakes. In comparison the two piece are different but with one on going theme. This is that they all show a single characters problem with space.This allowed us to show how different people can react to space. This, however, lead to some of are character sound the same.I terms of actual work, I think the last group I worked was dedicated than the first and wanted to get the work done more. As is said earlier, some scenes in the first performance I would have liked to go over a few more times.This I think can be related to the size of groups. Think you can get more work done if there is a smaller number in your group. You can concentrate more and work more in a complete group.In terms of plot, I think are first piece was better. This is not that the second piece had no plot, but I think the first performance was more gripping and kept attention better.

Single parenting households Essay Example for Free

Single parenting households EssaySingle-parent families in todays society nurture their share of daily struggles and long-term disadvantages. The issues of expensive day care, shortage of part time with children, balance of work and home duties, and economic struggle are among the seemingly endless problems these families must solve. As a subject for my photographic essay, I illustrate the concept of the individual(a)-family and their corresponding struggles with daily life.As many single-parent households are female-headed, their economic burden is much greater than that of a single-father family. This issue results from the fact that single women typically do not earn the same income as a single man thence, there is a consequent economic struggle not experienced in the single-father household. An offshoot of this economic struggle is the balance of work and family duties. Single mothers often must work overtime shifts to compensate for the low salaries, thus taking time aw ay from their children and other domestic chores.This results in a child that is home alone, without adult supervision, or placed in a daycare service for up to 8-10 hours per day. Government subsidized daycare is not yet a realized dream, and many single mothers pay large fees for this service. Also include in this essay is an illustration of the perspectives on child adjustment following a divorce. The photographs incorporate the parental loss, parental adjustment, parental conflict and economic hardships outlined in Newman and Grauerholz (2002).I expect my finished essay to evoke a well-founded respect for single-parent households and enhance a general understanding of the circumstances inhering therein. Two parents are always better than one according to the parental loss perspective. In a two-earner family, one parent may be commensurate to stay at home with the children. But in a single-parent family, the parent rarely has the option of staying home to care for children fu ll-time. Finding affordable, available childcare is plausibly to be a challenge.According to the parental conflict perspective, children suffer from witnessing spousal abuse. The parental adjustment perspective suggests that children in single parent families suffer because their parents have difficulty adjusting and functioning. According to the economic hardship perspective, children suffer from write down incomes more common among* single-parent families. Children in single-mother households are especially vulnerable because women tend to earn lower pay.

A Review On Alcoholic Detection From EEG Signals

A Review On Alcoholic Detection From electroencephalogram Signals addict This review covers advances of the past decade, in the development of pneumoencephalogram signal impact algorithms for intoxi canistertic undercover work. In recent years, various computational approaches drop been proposed to detect boozing from encephalogram recordings. In this paper, we review slightly of those approaches, and discuss their limitations and potential In part I, an introduction to the sum of inebriant on EEG is discussed briefly. We review whatsoever of the known effectuate of inebriant on EEG signal in part II. Some of the exiting solid ground of the art signal impact techniques for cloudburst detection in EEG recordings argon discussed in part III. A review of various signal processing methods utilize to split alcoholics and haves is done. The potential and limitation of such(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) computational approaches are discussed in part IV. A discus sion on the potential use of EEG as a biomarker for intoxication and as a mass screening tool is similarly discussed .At the end of the paper, we conclude by briefly addressing the future challenges and open problems in part V.PART I admissionAlcoholism is a social bane that is affecting the human life in all aspects. Not only it causes damage to the human oral sex and former(a) organs of the dead body in various ways, it also brings about a lap of difficulties and discomfort to an alcoholic psyche in his/her social life. A lot of enquiry has gone into finding the ill effects and the extent to which it damages the human body. Some of the harmful effects include lack of coordination between body and mind, loss of vision, imbalance in walking, incoherent speech, memory slips, depression to name a few. These effects can be observed after only a few drinks and they may vanish once the person gives up drinking. However a person who is addicted to drinking large quantities of alcoh ol for a dogged duration may be affected with these effects that persist for a capaciouser time and severely damage one or more organs of the body. The way in which alcohol affects the superstar and the probable reversal of the ill effects caused by sinister drinking on the principal still wait as hot topics in alcohol research 1.Some of the factors that determine the extent to which alcohol affects the promontory are i) quantity and how frequently a person drinks ii) the age of the subject at which the habit of drinking started and how bulky it is being continued iii) subjects age, education, gender, genetic predisposition and family history of alcoholism iv) possibility of prenatal picture show and the general health tick off47.Heavy drinking non only affects the human brain but it also damages other vital organs of the body. It is also found that fe antherals are more affected than males in the way the alcohol using up damages the various organs of the body. For ex ample, a few years of heavy drinking in women cause cirrhosis 48 cardiomyopathy 49 and nerve damage 50 than in alcoholic men. However, the studies on sensitivity of females brain to alcohol-induced brain damage as compared with males, have not shown whatsoever conclusive results 1. Alcohol intake combined with poor general health condition or with severe liver unsoundness causes damage to the human brain in an indirect manner. For example, thiamine deficiency is common in people with alcoholism which is a result of poor overall nutrition 1.A large percentage of alcoholics suffer from thiamine deficiency and some may even develop severe brain disorders such as 51 Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome (WKS) 52. The symptoms of WKS include mental confusion, oculomotor disturbances and difficulty with muscle coordination, forgetfulness and frustration and have difficulty with walking and coordination 53 .One of the organs that severely gets affected by long term alcohol consumption in large qua ntities is the liver. In a person with a history of heavy semipermanent drinking, the liver s intimacy is to breakdown alcohol into harmless by-products and flush them out of the body. However, the liver may get damaged collect to excessive alcohol intake, leading to liver cirrhosis. This condition of the liver can harm the brain, leading to a potentially fatal brain disorder called hepatic encephalopathy 54.Some of the effects of Hepatic encephalopathy are disturbances in sleep patterns, mood swings, personality counterchanges, anxiety, depression, attention deficits, difficulty in coordination like shaking of the hands ( asterixis). In the worst case, patients may slip into stupefaction ( hepatic coma), which can lead to death. It is indeed difficult to diagnose these effects as related to hepatic encephalopathy. New imaging techniques assist researchers to believe detail regions of brain in such patients, which helps them in knowing exactly how hepatic encephalopathy progre sses. The studies have confirmed that at least two toxic substances, ammonia and manganese are trusty for the development of hepatic encephalopathy. The severely damaged liver cells allow these harmful toxic products to enter the brain, which in turn harms the brain cells.Alcohol consumption during pregnancy may lead to physical, learning, and behavioural problems in the developing fetal brain. The most serious of these problems is the fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). Children with FAS may have distinct facial features 1. FAS infants growth may be lesser than average. They may suffer from microcephaly. In infants with this syndrome, only a fewer neurons may be expose or a fewer neurons may function properly. This will lead to problems in learning and behaviour for a long term.All alcoholics do not experience the ill effects of alcohol consumption in a similar manner to the same extent. The source of the disease may be disparate for different patients. This makes it difficult to pi npoint any one disputation as responsible for the brain disorders found in alcoholics. That is why, one of the active areas of research is to study why some patients are vulnerable to brain deficits while others are not 55.Most alcoholics vile from cognitive disorder improve in the anatomical structure and functioning of the brain within a year of abstinence 56-58.This may not be true in all cases. Therefore clinicians must direct different types of treatment methods to cater to different patients. They use brain-imaging techniques to determine the course and progress of treatment over a period of time. Researchers use imaging methods such as magnetic resonance imaging (magnetic resonance imaging), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), positron emission tomography (PET), and electrophysiological brain mapping. These methods provide precise and accurate discipline on structural, functional and biochemical changes in patients brain over time. Some measure, two or more brain imaging met hods are used together to correlate the results and varan when a chronic alcoholic patient stops drinking and again after long periods of sobriety ,the possibility of relapse of the drinking habit in the patient 59.The process of memorization and retrieval depend on factors such as attention and motivation 60. MRI of brain assist the physicians to study the effects of long time abstinence from alcohol on memory and attention, as well as changes that take place when drinking habit relapses. The aim of these studies is to tick between the alcohol-induced permanent effects on the brain and those which are reversible with abstinence. PET imaging assists researchers to visualize, in the living brain, the damages associated with heavy alcohol consumption 61. This also enables scientists to analyse alcohols effects on neurotransmitter systems, brain cell metabolism and blood flow within the brain. These studies on alcoholics have shown the frontal lobe disorders, which are responsible fo r various functions associated with learning and memory and deficits in cerebellum which controls movement and coordination. PET can also be used for monitoring the effects of alcoholism treatment on the affected parts of the brain and may give new directions in developing medications to rectify the chemical deficits found in the brains of people with alcohol dependence. legion(predicate) studies have shown the ill effects of alcohol on the human brain by observing and analysing the electroencephalogram (EEG) of the alcoholic subject and compared with that of a control subject. Electroencephalography (EEG) is a simple non invasive tool that records the brains electrical signals by placing electrodes on the scalp. These signals show real-time activity as it occurs in the brain. Many studies have shown that the effect of alcohol on the human brain can be perceive by processing the recording the EEG of an alcoholic subject. The single channel EEG recordings of a control and an alcohol ic subject are as shown in fig 1.It can be observed that the time series EEG data of twain control and alcoholic subjects are not clearly perceptible to the bare human eye. However, with the help of certain(p) signal processing techniques either in the time domain or frequency domain or time-frequency domain or spatial domain techniques, the latent features can be extracted to identify the effects of alcohol on the human brain. As an illustration, the PSDs of the EEG of both control and alcoholic subject are as shown in fig2. From this it is very clear that the power contained in various frequency components are different for both control and alcoholic subjects.CUsersMUDocumentsMATLABeeg_epilep_codestime_series_data.jpg CUsersMUDocumentsMATLABeeg_epilep_codespsd_c_a.jpgFig 1.Time series EEG data of control Fig2. PSD piece of EEG of controland alcoholic subjects and alcoholic subjectsMany alcoholic men have low amplitude of their P3 components (fig 3). P3 amplitudes in alcoholic wo men reduce to a lesser extent than in men. The uniqueness of the reduction in P3 component among other symptoms is that even after the patient drops the habit of drinking alcohol, this reduction in P3 persists63.Therefore this debate can be thought of as a biomarker for alcohol dependence rather than an effect of alcohol consumption. There are many studies conducted on the trim P3 amplitudes of young people who are not exposed to alcohol but their fathers being alcoholics 64, 65.Therefore, P3 can be used as biomarkers to help recognizing people who may be at greatest risk for developing problems with alcohol.graphFig 3 . P3 amplitude in control and alcoholic subjects (Courtesy1)Compared to other imaging methods discussed above, electrophysiological methods such as EEG processing for detection of alcoholics has a lot to offer in terms of mobility and cost involved. Hence it can be used as a mass screening tool for the underprivileged with a history of alcoholism.PART IIEffect of Al cohol on EEG recordingsStudies have shown that some of the major effects of alcohol on EEG are i) enlargement of frontal negative occipital wave component ii) increase in ventricular and sulcal CSF volumes iii) Reduction in p300 component iv)Reduction in pre frontal cortical excitability v)Reduction in the amplitude of Error related negativity vi) Binge drinking effect on and steadfast waves vii) Reduction in the power of EEG signal in frontal region and enhancement of waves . viii) laid-back and power in the resting EEG, abnormalities in eye movements, in saccadic inhibition during antisaccade tasks.These effects, however, are not always easily detectable. There tends to be a large variance from patient to patient. As a result, none of these phenomena allow at present to reliably detect the effect of alcohol at an early stage. Many recent studies have concentrated on how to improve the sensitivity of EEG for detecting alcoholism. In the following we briefly review some of th ese studies.A. Enlargement of frontal negative occipittal wave component bearing back in 1990, Jerald Varner et al., reported a study of alcoholic organic syndrome patients using the occipital wave components of the event related potential (ERP) as an electrophysiological parameter 3. The study was conducted on normal, Korsakoff, and alcoholic dementia patients. The frontal negative occipital wave was observed to be increased in alcoholic organic brain syndrome patients and it was concluded that it was probably due to an attention deficit, indicating a probable frontal lobe dysfunction.B. Increase in ventricular and sulcal CSF volumesAdolf Pfefferbaum et al., 4 quantified brain cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) volumes derived from computed tomography (CT) in alcoholics and controls. The results showed that the ventricular and sulcal CSF volumes in alcoholic patients were greater than was expected for their age. This also proved the previous results obtained from a similar study using CT an d MRI display greater vulnerability of the aging brain to alcohol. The absolute ventricular volumes were similar in MRI and CT, while MRI results showed larger sulcal volume estimates than the CT. It was concluded that MRI slice thickness and its resolution to partial volume effects led to this increase in sulcal volume estimate.C. Reduction in p300 componentShirley Y. Hill et al., analyse the effect of alcohol on the p300 component 9 .According to this study , it was found that only patients(female) with comorbid depression had a reduced p300 amplitude ,while there was no difference in other alcoholic and control subjects(male and female) . From this study, it was also concluded that the P300 amplitude reduction seen in children prone to developing alcoholism seems to represent a delay in neuron development that normalizes as they grow into adulthood.In another similar study, Michio Hada et al., used bootstrap analysis method in which P3a current source concentration (CSD) maps showed distinct topographic mapping between alcoholics and control subjects in all the brain regions 10. More sources and sinks were seen in the alcoholics than in the control subjects for P3a. The reduced P3a amplitude and sinks in alcoholics coupled with less specificity in their CSD maps, suggested disorganized less efficient functioning of the brain. This suggests a probable underlying CNS hyper excitability in alcoholics due to cortical disinhibition .D. Reduction in pre frontal cortical excitabilitySeppo Kahkonen et al. 13, reported the effects of alcohol on the prefrontal cortex in nine healthy subjects using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) activated electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. Changes in EEG activity lasting up to 270 ms post stimulus were observed as a reaction to activation by TMS. The changes were observed more prominently at anterior electrodes suggesting the reduction in excitability in the prefrontal cortex due to alcohol.E. Reduction in the amplitude o f Error related negativityA study by Clay B Holroyd et al., indicated that alcohol consumption reduces the amplitude of the error-related negativity (ERN)14 component of the event related potential(ERP), a sharp negative going signal that occurs in the EEG at the instant when an incorrect motor response starts ( ie.,error commission).F. Binge drinking effect on and fast wavesKelley E Courtney et al. evaluated the spectral power in the and fast waves of EEG recordings of young undergraduate university students who varied in their binge drinking history 18.The aim of the study was to characterize the effects of binge drinking on key nervous system(CNS) neuroelectric activity in male and female undergraduate subjects. The EEG recordings of these subjects showed enhanced spectral power in the (0-4 Hz) and fast- (20-35 Hz) bands for the high-binge drinkers. Although the dependence of fast- power on binge drinking still remains unclear, the change in fast- power indicates that EE G spectral pattern of high-binge drinkers is similar to that of alcoholics. This study indicated that the relative enhancement in fast- power may be used as a biomarker for potential future alcoholism even in the absence of familial alcoholism.G.Effect on , , waves ,eye movement disorders and saccadic inhibitionWu Di et al., discussed the change in the power of EEG signal in various parts of the brain after consuming alcohol , resulting in harmful effects on different parts of the brain and the body19. It was observed that while in the frontal region the power of the EEG signal decreased with the increase in the quantity of alcohol intake, the power of the EEG signal in central, occipital region increased. This study also revealed that while in the frontal region, the alcohol intake caused a transformation in the fast wave with decrease in the power of EEG signal, the fast wave reduced with an increase in the power of EEG signal in the central and occipital region. It was also obse rved that while the effect of alcohol in the frontal region indicated nerve stimulation of alcohol in this part, making drinkers to beat excited after alcohol intake, in the central and occipital region, the effect of alcohol consumption led to an inhibitory action on the neuron cells, resulting in the weakening of the body coordination and eyesight. Further it was noted that increase in alcohol intake resulted in waves generation and gradual enhancement as the subjects were in state of drowsiness and the central nervous system(CNS) of the subjects was inhibited. At the same time, and waves were seen to gradually enhance and the region of these waves expanded after consuming alcohol. The study also indicated that the correlation between parts of brain decreased gradually because the clustering of the EEG signal was separated gradually into small clusters with increased alcohol intake. From this observation, it was concluded that too much drinking may lead to the decrease of bala nce, stability between the parts of the brain.S. Campanella et al., 41, studied various physiological parameters such as continuous EEG, oculomotor measures, cognitive ERPs and event-related oscillations that are affected in chronic alcoholic patients compared to healthy controls. This study was aimed at identifying links between these physiological parameters, altered cognitive processes and specific clinical symptoms. The result of their study showed(1) high beta and theta power in the resting EEG, suggesting hyperarousal of CNS (2) abnormalities in smooth pursuit eye movements, in saccadic inhibition during antisaccade tasks, and in prepulse inhibition, suggesting disquieted attention and abnormal prefrontal inhibitory cortical dysfunction (3) decreased amplitude for cognitive ERPs situated along the continuum of information processing, suggesting that alcoholism is associated with neurophysiological deficits at the level of the sensory cortex and not only disturbances involving associative cortices and limbic structures and (4) decreased theta, da Gamma and delta oscillations, suggesting cognitive disinhibition at a functional level.Ajayan Padmanabhapillai et al.,71 investigated the early evoked da Gamma band response in male adolescents at high risk and at low risk groups for a visual stimulus. The results indicate that the wanting(predicate) early evoked da Gamma band response may indicate the risk of development of alcoholism and could be a potential bio marker for future addiction to alcoholism.David A. Kareken et al., 72 used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine how family history affects the brains response to subjects preferred alcoholic drink odours (AO) as compared to appetitive control odours (ApCO). This study suggested that a family history of alcoholism and brain exposure to alcohol odour in heavy drinkers differentially affect the way in which brain responds to alcohol cues.H.Whole-genome association study on EEG wavesV ariation in resting EEG is associated with common, complex psychiatric diseases such as alcoholism, schizophrenia and anxiety disorders although it can not be used as a diagnostic tool for any of them. Such traits appear to be dependent on the underlying molecular(a) processes than on clinical symptoms, and points to an alternative method for the identification of genetic variation that characterize complex psychiatric disorders. Colin A. Hodgkinsona et al.,39, performed a whole-genome association study on important (), beta (), and theta () EEG power in a Native American cohort of 322 individuals to maintain the genetic and environmental homogeneity of this population. Three genes SGIP1, ST6GALNAC3 and UGDH were nominally associated to variability of or power. SGIP1 was estimated to account for 8.8 % of variance in power and this association was replicated in US Caucasians, where it accounted for 3.5% of the variance. Bayesian analysis of prior probability of association based upon in front linkage to chromosome 1 and enrichment for vesicle-related transport proteins established the genuineness of the association of SGIP1 with power. It was also found that the association of SGIP1 with alcoholism provides validation of the use of EEG as an endo phenotype for alcoholism.I.Effect of alcohol on facilitation effectThe aim of this study by P. Maurage et al., 32, was to study cross modal (auditory-visual) processing while the subjects were given an emotional stimuli and specifically the auditory-visual facilitation effect. Twenty patients suffering from alcoholism, and 20 healthy controls were asked to identify the emotion (anger or happiness) displayed by auditory, visual or auditory-visual stimuli. The stimuli were designed to elicit a facilitation effect (namely, faster reaction times (RTs) for crossmodal condition than for unimodal ones).It was observed that the alcoholics showed less significant facilitation effect compared to their healthy counterparts. This lack of facilitation effect may be used as a biomarker for an impair auditory-visual processing in alcoholics.PART IIII. Signal processing techniques for detection of alcoholism in EEG signalThe Electroencephalogram (EEG) is a bio signal containing information about the state of the brain. The latent information present in the EEG signal may not be visible for the human expert and any subtle variations hence cannot be observed and monitored as and when it occurs. Especially in the time series EEG data, subtle variations can not be perceived by human eye. In such a situation the computational approach becomes very important to extract any such micro variations in the EEG recording, containing significant information about the status of any pathology present. Also, since EEG is an inexpensive method and due to its portability, it can be used as a powerful mass screening tool.EEG signals are the signatures of neural activities. They are captured by multiple-electrode either invas ively or non-invasively, over the cortex under the skull, or certain locations over the scalp, and can be recorded in different formats. The signals are normally presented in the time domain, but by applying simple signal processing tools such as the Fourier transform to perform frequency analysis and some imaging tools to visualize EEG topographies , the brain activities can be visualized in frequency or spatial domains respectively. Various time domain, frequency domain, time-frequency methods, statistical signal processing technique such as Wavelet transform 5, continual Neural earnings 6, nonlinear systems 7, logistic regression 8, spectral densities of DWT coefficients 16, etc., and chaotic signal processing techniques 2 are used to study the pathology of brain such as epilepsy. These techniques are also used to classify between alcoholic, non-alcoholic and epileptic subjects. In recent years, several research groups have started investigating the potential of electroencephal ograms (EEGs) for detecting alcoholism and study the short term and long term effects on the brain. There have been many algorithms developed so far for processing EEG signals. Some of the operations include time-domain analysis, frequency-domain analysis, spatial-domain analysis, and multiway processing. Also, several algorithms have been developed to visualize the brain activity from images reconstructed from only the EEGs. Separation of the desired sources from the multisensor EEGs has been another research area. This can later lead to the detection of brain abnormalities such as epilepsy and the sources related to various physical and mental activities. In this section, some of the signal processing techniques applied to EEG signal for the detection of alcoholism is reviewed.A. Extraction of spectral band power and parametric methodsOng, Kok Mang et al, have shown that VEP (visually evoked potential) could be influenced by long term alcohol abuse 20. The power spectral density o f the recorded VEP was estimated using Burg algorithm (parametric analysis) and the extracted Gamma band power was used as features to nurture the neural network to classify the alcoholics and non-alcoholics. The authors claim that classification result of 97.50% accuracy has been achieved, to discriminate alcoholics from non-alcoholics.Kok-Meng Ong et al., have proposed Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method for the optimization of the survival of a subset of channels for single trial ocular Evoked Potentials (VEP) signals 23. The proposed method was successful in optimizing a subset of channels that guaruntees high classification accuracy of alcoholics and non-alcoholics other similar study by Ramaswamy Palaniappan et al., show that the difference of VEP signals between alcoholics and non-alcoholics can be observed using two spectral power ratios in gamma band (37-50 Hz) extracted from seven channels. This result implies that gamma band spectral power could be used as a biom arker on the lasting effects of long-term use of alcohol on visual response though the studied alcoholics have been abstinent for a minimum period of 1 month. Here communicable algorithm (GA) is used to optimize the selection of subset of the feature set and classification is done with Fuzzy ARTMAP (FA) classifier 11, using VEP signals. The seven spectral bands of VEP signals are extracted using countless impulse response (IIR) band-pass filters with constant gain and uniform bandwidth. Spectral power in these bands is calculated using Parsevals theorem and used as features to train the FA and ML-BP classifiers. The proposed technique discriminates alcoholics from non-alcoholics with high accuracy.In continuation of the previous work, Ramaswamy Palaniappan et al., in their work have derived second order autoregressive (AR) coefficients 21 to discriminate alcoholics using single trial gamma band Visual Evoked Potential (VEP) signals using 3 different classifiers Simplified Fuzzy AR TMAP (SFA) neural network (NN), Multilayer-perceptron-back propagation (MLP-BP) NN and Linear Discriminant (LD) function . Here elliptic filtering was used in the gamma band spectral range on single trial VEP signals. The average classification errors of 2.6%, 2.8% and 11.9% were obtained from LD, MLP-BP and SFA classifiers. The high accuracy of LD classification results show the dominance of the proposed method to discriminate between alcoholic subjects and controls. Several improvements were proposed to previous work of automated classification of alcoholics and non-alcoholics 24 by the same author. In the previous paper, MLP-NN classifying energy of gamma band VEP signals gave the best classification performance using 800 VEP signals from 10 alcoholics and 10 non-alcoholics. Here, the dataset was extended to include 3560 VEP signals from 102 subjects 62 alcoholics and 40 non-alcoholic. The classification performance was improved by i) increasing the gamma band spectral range ii) Multiple Signal Classification algorithm was used to obtain the power of the dominant frequency in gamma band VEP signals for feature extraction iii) the use of the k nearest neighbour classifier. The performance was validated by a 10-fold cross validation classification. qualifying resulted in an improvement in the classification percentage from 94.49% to 98.71% in maximum averaged CVC accuracy.In this paper by Ramaswamy Palaniappan 30, a method is proposed to discriminate chronic alcoholic from non-alcoholic subjects while the subjects were sober. Energies of EEG signals in multiple gamma bands were used as features while the subjects were asked to do a picture recognition task .A neural network was used for classifying chronic alcoholic subjects from controls. Leave one out cross validation strategy revealed that alcoholics could be discriminated from non-alcoholics with accuracy of 94.55%. This study shows that the energy in gamma band spectral energy can be used as a biomarke r for screening of alcoholics.The classification of chronic alcoholics from non-alcoholics using the EEG is studied in this paper by A Shahina et al., 27.Weighted Linear Prediction Cepstral Coefficients were extracted from the VEP and used as discriminating feature vectors. Auto associative neural network was used to classify these vectors into alcoholics and non alcoholics. A recognition accuracy of 52.5% is achieved. This shows that all the 64 channels do not have the same discriminatory attributes causing a reduction in the accuracy levels. Hence the authors conclude that in order to improve the classification performance, there is a need for the optimization of the number of channels to be considered for classification.In this study by Tugce Balli et al., 31, they investigated the electrophysiological differences between alcoholic and control subjects using two different approaches namely complexity and energy analysis. The EEG data used in this study were recorded from 77 alco holic and 44 control subjects while the subjects were performing delayed matching to sample object recognition task for 3 types of stimuli. The experimental paradigm evokes object recognition, visual short-term memory and decision making abilities. The results indicated that all regions (i.e. frontal, central, temporal, parietal and occipital) in the brain exhibit more complexity and less energy for alcoholic subjects as compared to controls. When different visual stimuli pairs were compared among alcoholic and control subjects, the results from energy analysis showed group wise differences in occipital and parietal regions. These results provide a strong indication on the impairment in brains electrophysiological activity for alcoholic subjects due to a history of long term alcohol abuse. Chronic alcoholism is classically associated with major deficits in the visual and auditory processing of emotions. However, the cross modal (auditory-visual) processing of emotional stimuli, whi ch occurs most frequently in everyday life, has not yet been explored.

The Bureaucracy Of The United States Government Politics Essay

The Bureaucracy Of The United States Government Politics EssayThe Executive Branch of the federal government of the United States of the States is charged with the task of exercising the billets of the government over its citizens as well as enforcing the laws readyd by the Legislative Branch, the sex act. Although overseen by one person, the prexy of the United States, more more tidy sum atomic number 18 involved in the process. The United States sex act consists of a fair number of flock from the 535 elected members and their personal staff members to the victuals staff who move in the Capitol Building itself. The Judicial Branch as well has many members from the Supreme Court Justices to other Federal Judges in lower courts. However the Executive Branch contains the most members in its composite and massive bureaucratic governing body. All organizations, administrations, and agencies, frequently part of what is referred to as the Federal first principle soup due to t he many abbreviations, that fall beneath this branch originate from some power granted by the somewhat vague Article II of the United States Constitution, or as means of exercising the powers granted to Congress in Article I.While the federal bureaucracy demonstrated in the administrator branch may appear to be massive and complicated, the goal is to bring about an understanding of its purpose in the United States government and how it plays a fictitious character in an ordinary citizens life. In almost every aspect of ones life, a person must interact in some way, direct or non, with a federal agency from the Internal R flatue Service for tax payment to the subdivision of Labor ensuring fair payment for a persons work, or the Occupational sentry go and Health Administration which ensures a persons safety in the workplace. By having increased understanding in the purpose and operation of much(prenominal) subdivisions in the federal government, a citizen is more able to eat up true understanding of issues pertaining to them that have potential to influence their voting for not only the President, but also members of Congress.The reason I have selected this upshot to focus on in my research is primarily due to the fact that, outside of presidential actions, the importance of the rest of the people in the Executive Branch is often not taught in Social Studies classes or high school polity-making science-based classes. Students are taught that the role of the Executive branch is to implement the laws passed by Congress, but the actual process of how much(prenominal) action occurs seems to be missing. In some cases in my research I was surprised when I began make connections among ideas, especially when I began to realize the sheer size of some departments. Therefore, for my own sake, I would like to look into this dark and mysterious area so as to enlighten myself and become better in ca-caed how agencies that already affect me operate and who is truly in charge.Literature ReviewThe Federal Bureaucracy at bottom the Executive Branch of the United States government is an administrative center where the laws created by Congress are put into action. According to Lowi, Ginsberg, Shepsle, and Ansolabehere (2011), from an organizational standpoint, the bureaucracy is a outline created by the elected politicians seeking to accomplish objectives as well as solve issues created by the nature of collective action (p. 272). A law offernot be put into action without supporting systems in place to ensure compliance, regulate actions of those affected, and so forth. Because of this connection, the system of last maker agencies exists in a unique balance between dickens branches of government, Executive and Legislative. Carpenter (2005) notes that, go these agencies operate under the President of the United States, departments including, but not limited to, defense, education and agriculture are truly operated by Congressional action and mandate. Because of this the true nature of this bureaucracy is shaped, perhaps, not by the Chief Executive, but rather by the Legislature.The clear path for analyzing such as system as is found in the federal government is to begin with its creation. For the United States this is to look at the men who created its Constitution and through their work shaped the future of the nation. Looking at the document itself reveals little information to assist in an understanding of the idea. Article II of the US Constitution states that the administrator power is portrayn to the President, and further reading only elaborates a minor amount to state that he is also the Commander in Chief of the arm forces, but only two minor clauses give any indication to the actual powers granted to this position. The first indicates that the President may require the heads of executive departments to give their opinion to him, such as advice, related to their duties for their department (U.S. Const. a rt. II, 2, cl. 1). The second establishes the presidents power to appoint people to positions such as ambassadors, Judges and others with the consent of Congress (Ibid., cl. 2). These two clauses alone shed little light on the powers presumption to the President and how the bureaucracy was created.As previously noted, the other aspect of the federal bureaucratic system lies in its role of executing the laws created by Congress. Article I of the Constitution enumerates many specific powers given to Congress which, while they are able to create legislation to regulate such areas, the actual execution or regulation occurs through agencies and departments of the executive branch. Therefore it corporation be taken that the task of such groups, as well as the President as Chief Executive, does not need to be as clearly stated due to the already keen powers of Congress. However, this seems not to be the truth behind the probatory lack of information presented in the Constitution about a piece of the government that now, in hindsight at least, is the most relevant to the everyday citizen. Perhaps at the fourth dimension of writing the document they were unaware of the significance of such a branch, or, as Irons (2006) argues they simply wished to not focus on such an issue. Instead they preferred to focus even more on the Legislature they were creating and would focus on the presidency at a later date (pp. 37-40).Departments of the Executive BranchIn the early years of the United States, the departments falling under control of the executive branch were a few(prenominal) in number, yet significantly large for the time. In fact, these departments began under the idea of committees of areas including correspondence, claims, and war to avoid creating departments too similar to colonial bureaucracy experienced under British rule. These committees are the equivalent to the modern-day State Department, Department of the Treasury, and Department of Defense, respective ly (Carpenter, 2005, p. 45). However, this was quickly dropped in favor of the disliked, yet highly effective executive agencies seen in Britain and France at the time. These few departments, however, were significant in their size as Carpenter explains. He notes that in the early 1800s, the US Post Office Department employed over 8,000 employees, larger than many private companies at the time. This does not even consider the size of the military departments especially in a time where the United States continued to face many conflicts, including the War of 1812 (Ibid., p. 42).Andrew Jacksons presidency is significant in the expansion of executive departments and is viewed by some to be the creator of the American bureaucracy. Crenson (1975) argues this point citing Jacksons significant reorganizations of several departments during his administration in the 1830s. Major tacks occurred in the Post Office and General Land Office, as well as multiple, lesser changes in both the War and State Departments. Additionally he targeted the Treasury Department and Navy Department but was denied these changes by Congress (p. 3). The idea of reorganizing a department is important in the creation of a bureaucracy because it takes vague ideas of operational standards, stripping them from the people performing them, and redefines them as abstract functions (Crenson, 4). These functions are no longer related to a specific person, but rather a role deep down the institution that must be filled and put into action. The department loses personal ideas in favor of uniform and efficient operation, an effect that may be positive or negative given an individual departments situation.The influence of presidents on the bureaucracy they control has been mostly maintained throughout its history through the spoils system. This system is the collective idea that once a person is elected to a position of power, they will give those they like or those from whom they want support positions o f importance indoors the government, namely as a departmental head within the bureaucratic system. Andrew Jackson is one of the presidents known best historically for major change in the positions of the bureaucracy. Crenson notes that in a significant number of departments Jackson took people important from his campaign and past endeavors giving them grand supervisorial positions within the executive branch.Research StatementThe bureaucracy of the executive branch of the United States government is an implausibly important structure to the operation of the federal government and the nation collectively. Every person, on a regular basis, must interact in some form with one or more of the departments, agencies, or corporations within the executive branch. Because the structure is so massive and complex with structured employee and supervisor roles it can be complicated to richly understand how it operates and its impact on the lives of citizens. As such, further study must be comp leted for a person not otherwise familiar with the organizational structure and politics of such a system for complete understanding to be attained.Based in the information already presented, it is clear that in that respect is a unique history to the system of bureaucracy that exists within the United States government. This is especially true in the influence both the President and Congress have on the operation and scope of the departments. How, therefore, do the department and cabinet members of the executive branch function in regard to decisions by the President of the United States? Additionally, as demonstrated by Andrew Jackson, the president has an important role in the selection of important members of bureaucratic agencies. How, in this case, do presidents, namely Presidents Jackson and George W. furnish, shape the operations of these departments on an institutional level as well as personally with department heads and cabinet members?The questions above are significan t to a discussion of the American bureaucracy because the role of the president as chief executive of the branch is of significant importance to the operation of the agencies falling under his power. Additionally, because each president is given the authority to appoint persons of his choosing to significant positions within the agencies, it is clear that this would give him power to control the agencies in manners in line with his political partys ideology. Full comprehension of this matter is important to understanding the overall operation of the agencies within.Research FindingsDepartments and the PresidentThe function of bureaucrats within the executive branch is determined largely by Congress through bills passed by them however, the President holds an important role in shaping the manner in which agencies operate within the scope of such Congressional statutes. Shane notes that since the cardinalties the President of the United States has changes roles from being an overse er of the executive branch to one who makes decisions for the agencies. Congress, in passing bills which shape the role of the executive branch, tends to be somewhat non-specific in its language, often to please both parties and allow such a bill to pass. As a result, the directives to the executive agency may leave room for presidential policy to be implemented (2009, p. 147). That is to say that the method by which a Congressional statute is carried out can be dependent on the political views of the President. The President can make such decisions in multiple ways, from creating administrative rules and suggesting policies to the departments within the executive branch to his selection of administrators for these departments, to be analyzed more fully in the following section. The Presidents control of the bureaucracy is described as a principal-agent problem. (Lowi, et al., 2011) The idea in this situation is that the bureaucratic agencies must satisfy the desires of both Congres s and the President, lest Congress pass more specific legislation or perhaps decrease their budget and scope of authority or the President seek to change the organizations structure to suit their desires. Therefore the agency will wish to respect the Presidents desire for bureaucratic drift for the sake of the continuation of their position. Bureaucratic drift, as utilise by Lowi, et al., is the difference between the original legislations intentions and the final outcome as implemented in the executive branch.President Franklin Roosevelt is a advanced vitrine of the pedagogy the White fireside as a collective, that is to say more than the President and to include his advisors and other staff members, provides to its agencies. He created in 1937 the Committee on administrative Management which was an official way in which a group of experts, along with the President, could monitor bureaucratic action and enforce Presidential decisions in the agencies (Lowi, et al., 2011). Presi dent George W. supply also made clear his views of the power of the President to have the authority to specify how executive agencies were to operate within the confines of Congressional statutes. Shane states that during the first six years of the G. W. Bush administration, that is 2001-2007, he objected 363 times when signing bills noting that Congress may be stepping on his executive power to direct agencies with their bill (2009, p. 155). Such a direct statement makes clear that many people believe the President to have significant power in the operational procedures for the agencies within the Executive Branch. Shane notes, however, that while the President does have significant policy setting power within the executive branch, agencies are not required to follow such requests as they are not hard and written law, but rather have the power of suggestion. The recourse a president could take against agencies not following such Presidential policy is to modify the organizations l eadership structure as will be seen in the next section. However, just as an agency not following the Presidents desires can find themselves in a tough situation, the reverse is also true. A president who publicly declares displeasure with an agency and an attempt to change the way it operates often finds himself in a less than ideal situation in which he appears to be in the wrong. Shane (2009) notes that the desire for appearing to be a strong and virile president often stops such drastic backlash against the department from happening for the sake of public image. Even so, the President still maintains a significant role in determining the execution of Congressional statutes in the operational policies of executive bureaucracy.Administrators and the PresidentThe President has significant power to determine policy within the executive branchs bureaucracy in two ways. The first, dictating policy to the agencies, has been analyzed previously and now the focus can be shifted to the s econd power of the President, nomination of departmental administrators. Although Congress must approve all appointments the President makes, unless a significant problem exists with a nomination it will generally be supported by Congress. Lowi, et al. (2011) speaks about the many controls a President has on the operation of the bureaucracy, and the importance of before-the-fact controls. They suggest that the most powerful control of this sort a President can have is that of the appointment process. There are many reasons that this power is so significant to a president. First, the appointment process allows a president to select administrators for the departments that, ideally, contribution his political view and are on good terms with him so that when he makes an executive decision over the agencies he can expect the decision to be carried out as he wished. Secondly, this process, by selecting trustworthy individuals, allows a president to be comfortable knowing that they do not need to endlessly be a watchdog for the agencies because they can trust the administrators who are running such agencies. Andrew Jackson was, according to Crenson (1975), the first president to truly utilize the power of the appointment to its fullest. In addition to the previously mentioned bureaucratic reorganizations he implemented with the help of Congress, he also appointed many administrative positions, carefully selecting people to create a more personal bureaucracy for him to work with. Amos Kendall was a prime example of Jacksons ability to handle administrative appointments well. He was appointed a chief clerk and in his work created strict bureaucratic policies for those he oversaw, exactly as Jackson wanted to happen. A quality appointment leads not only to a bureaucracy that operates as a President wishes, but also to one that recognizes his power as Chief Executive (Crenson, 1975, p. 75).To see the blow scenario in which a poor appointment of someone not in line wi th presidential opinion, as well as poor handling of bureaucratic operation, one can analyze the appointment and work of Christine Todd Whitman by President George W. Bush. Whitman was selected to be the head of the Environmental Protection Agency shortly after Bush won the 2000 election. Flanders argues that her appointment was motivated by a desire to balance Bushs planned appointments, as Whitman was often described as a quite odd Republican, or a liberal conservative. Again we see here the impact of public view, and Congressional opinion, of bureaucratic operation and how the President must step carefully through such decisions. Whitman served less than two and one-half years as the head of the EPA for several reasons. The media often wrote about her clashes with President Bush over policy for the EPA, as well as Bushs White House staff members and his own suggestions as to the dissemination of information to the public about pollution and environmental safety. Of bad-tempered note was the EPAs role after the attacks of September 11, 2001 in their analysis of the safety in New York City. Although denied by Whitman afterward, there is distinct evidence, according to Flanders that the White House put pressure on her to release false information, as well as the White House also altering press releases on the topic of air quality. Almost immediately after the attacks Whitman declared the air safe to breathe and said there was no concern for people to return to work. President Bush wanted Americans to continue on in their lives and keep the nation, especially its economic center, moving forward. Many scientists within the EPA warned that the asbestos levels alone were of significant concern, but their opinions were drowned out.The example of Christine Todd Whitman is important because it demonstrates what can happen when a president and those he appoints do not get along in terms of policy views. A good choice for department head can turn bad when such policy is central to an administration, and when an administrator resigns as a result, public image is not positive for the President. Stepping back from specific examples, it is clear that the President of the United States has a significant impact on the operation of the federal bureaucracy. From appointments to setting policy guidelines, even within Congressional statutes, the executive power is quite massive. Congress provides the bureaucratic agencies with the mandate of what they are to do, but the President sets the tone for how such action is to be accomplished. The relationship between President and the departments of the executive branch is historically very significant to the operation of the nation as a whole.

The Poem Death Of The Hired Man English Literature Essay

The Poem Death Of The Hired Man English Literature Es diverseiateAuthors of poems use many different types of devices to help commence the theme of their poem. These devices keep range from structural or poetic devices to examples of meter. In Robert frosts poem, The Death of the Hired Man, the theme of the poem that the author is attempting to portray is the contract to exculpate and take aim pile for who they are before it is too late Frost presents this to the subscriber through structural devices, poetic devices, and metrical devices.The signifi plunderce of most of Robert Frosts bread and butter having been spent in the bare-ass England area is because for many of his poems but especially for his poem, The Death of the Hired man, the setting is in New England (Bloom 1). Also, for the poem, The Death of the Hired Man, which is based on a farm in New England and its family, Frost uses personal experience in writing the poem because he has lived, worked, and owned a farm in New England (Bouchard 3). The significance of the setting and characters in this poem is that he presents speakers who are marked by extraordinary severity and power (Blooms 1). The career hi account statement of Robert Frost is really important in helping the reader analyze and understand the poem and the theme of the poem that the author, Robert Frost, is attempting to convey in his poem The Death of the Hired Man. The basic summary of the poem is that the main characters, Warren and bloody shame, who are the owners of the farm, dupe a hired man who decides to leave them to find better paying work when the finical times approach but when work is slow, then he will return serveing for odd jobs to earn money. Warren has had enough, and he is seriously contemplating with his married woman what actions he should take with this man. Mary is a woman of an abundance more compassion than her husband, and she realizes from the beginning that Silas is a dying man and that he has re turned to the single domicil he k presentlys. Now Mary is attempting everything she can to build her husband the better parts of Silas but even she realizes how hard this is she has from the beginning already forgiven Silas for his past actions and life with wide turn over arms accepting him into her main office and attempting her best to take care of him. This is what she is attempting to accomplish all through reveal the poem with her husband so that he will feel the equivalent way about Silas that she does before the rest of Silass very short life ends. in that location are many critics that exhaust canvas and agree that the theme that Robert Frost presents in his poem The Death of the Hired Man is that people need to be forgiven and accepted before it is too late. In the critical essay by Bloom on the second page, he mentions that in the poem the main character Warren begins to focus in the enunciate home and the idea of home. This continues in the conversation between the husband and wife, Warren and Mary, as they subtly consider human responsibility, kinship, and justice (Bloom 2). Through this conversation, Frost uses the communion to examine the social and familial fabric of a place where interaction with neighbors punctuates a potentially unbearable sense of isolation (Bloom 2). This means that Warren and Mary are having a conversation in which Mary is attempting to convince her husband to see that their farm is the only home that Silas has and that in the end he wasnt such a bad guy, so then Warren needs forgive him and accept him into their home with open and loving arms. Also, Bloom notices that Mary has a positioning of compassionate identification and emotional response that contrasts Warrens more rational view of fair judgment. Frost encapsulates Marys attitude in one present tense, active sentence, I sympathize (Bloom 2). The line that Bloom quotes from the poem is situated in line eighty of the poem. This representation of Mary gi ves hint to the allusion that Robert Frost gives in the poem and that allusion is seen in Luke 15 verses 11-32 in the Bible and that is the parable of the Lost Son that Jesus presents. The attitude that Warren has toward the idea of Silas claiming their home and their farm as his one and only home even when he has a very wealthy brother who happens to live thirteen miles down the road is that he believes that Home is the place where, when you have to go there, They have to take you in, and for this reason he believes that their home should not be claimed by Silas as his home for that very reason (Bloom 3). That quote is located on lines one-hundred-twenty-three and one-hundred-twenty-four. In addition, in the critical essay by Katherine Kearns argues that Mary acquires a maternal nurturing figure with Silas and that is why she forgives and accepts him more readily than her husband because he takes on a fatherly role and sees Silas as a son that has chosen a relatively dissolute life and not learned a single lesson or moral from him through all the years that he has employed him. This also correlates with the allusion that Frost attempts to show in his poem because Mary shares the same role that the father in the parable does when he accepts his lost son with open and loving arms back into his life and his home. The evidence that critics have ready in the poem to support the theme of how there is a need for people to accept and forgive others before it is too late, Robert Frost supports this more exhaustively through structural, poetic and metrical devices that come directly from the poem and he uses them specifically to help show the theme of his poem The Death of the Hired Man.There are many different poetic devices, structural devices, and metrical devices that Robert Frost uses throughout his poem to grab the readers attention to that specific point to help show the theme of the poem these along with the allusion that is present all throughout the poem, h elp the reader understand the authors theme. The first of these is the characterization of the main character of Mary that Frost presents in the poem. This characterization presents her as a very kind, compassionate, loving, understanding, and motherly person who cares very much for the character of Silas because of the hard life that he has lived. The reader can see this in lines one-hundred-and-fifty-five to one-hundred-sixty-one when Mary says, No, but he hurt my heart the way he lay And rolled his old head on that sharp-edged chair-back. He wouldnt let me put him on the lounge. You must go in and see what you can do. I made the bed up for him there to-night. Youll be surprise at him how much hes broken. His working days are done Im sure of it. Also, the use of unrhymed iambic pentameter in the poem helps Robert Frost create a sense of the poem appearing as a conversation between two people. This metrical device helps the reader connect with Frosts theme because the dialogue tha t it creates helps the reader feel like this is more of an every day problem that helps the reader relate and it helps show how hard Mary is actually attempting to convince her husband to forgive and accept Silas before it is too late. Furthermore, in line twenty and twenty-one when Frost says, Enough at least to buy tobacco with, wont have to beg and be beholden. Frost uses alliteration here for the words beg and beholden to show how poor and desperate Silass life actually is and it helps the reader stumble the connection between Silas and that of the Lost Son in the allusion that Frost presents in the poem. In like manner, the simile that Frost presents in line seventy-five when he says, Well, those days trouble Silas like a dream. This use of a simile helps show the reader that Silas is attempting desperately to change, and he wants to make this change so that he will not disappoint his family any more and so that they will accept and forgive him and let him be a part of their l ife again. In lines eighty and eighty-one there is an example of foreshadowing that Frost uses when he says, I sympathize. I know just how it feels To think of the right thing to say too late. This foreshadowing shows that Warren will know this feeling because at the end of the poem after he discovers that Silas is already dead, he realizes that he mandatory to tell Silas that he forgives him and accepts him before he had died but now it is too late. In addition, there is another simile that is important when Robert Frost says, He takes it out in bunches like big birds nests. Frost uses this simile because it is another way to correlate the idea of a home with that of Silas, because a birds nest is a birds home so that is another hint to show the reader that the farm is Silass home since the hay that looks like the birds nests was the hay from Warrens farm. In lines one-hundred-and-four to one-hundred-and-six, there are examples of parallel bodily structure in the first two lines a nd a tricolon crescens that involves all three lines when Frost says, And nothing to look backward to with pride, And nothing to look forward to with hope, So now and never any different. Frost shows in these lines that unless something changes in Silass life he has accomplished nothing, he has nothing really positive in his life to look toward, and that this will never change so at this moment Mary is attempting to convince her husband to forgive and accept Silas because otherwise his life really isnt outlay living and because he has already lived such a hard life. The use of the parallel structure in the first two lines helps to emphasize how bad Silass life is and will be while the tricolon crescens emphasizes the fact that his life will stay like this until he dies unless something changes. The imagery that Frost creates at the end of the poem in lines one-hundred-sixty-eight to one-hundred-seventy-two not only creates an image in the readers mind, but Robert Frost also uses it to foreshadow the ending of his poem. The image describes a small cloud that looks like it whitethorn hit the bootleg, which it does, this little cloud symbolizes Silas where as the moon symbolizes Warren and the hitting symbolizes if Warren will ever forgive and accept Silas, when the cloud does strike the moon in the image it tells the reader that Warren finally does forgive and accept Silas. Finally, there is the allusion that Robert Frost shows throughout the whole poem and that he uses to help convey the theme of the poem. This allusion is a Biblical allusion that is in Luke 15 11-32, it is a parable that is called the Parable of the Lost Son, and Jesus is the one to tell it. The reason that Jesus tells this story is because it was to show that even when we as Christians stray in our faith that our Heavenly Father, God, will always forgive us and accept us back with open loving arms. The reader can take this to an even more literal level and that is where the theme of the poe m is realized because it also shows that we as people need to always forgive and accept others for who they are before it is too late. For this poem though Mary symbolizes the father, Warren the angry obedient son and Silas would be the senseless young son that wasted all of inheritance.Through the use of poetic devices, structural devices, and metrical devices, Robert Frost has been able to emphasize and show the many different parts of his theme throughout the poem. Also the readers are able to conclude that Frost is telling them that they need to forgive and accept anybody in their life and accept them before it is too late because you never know when you might not get the chance to ever attempt it again.

Wuthering Heights Essay -- Literary Analysis, Emily Bronte

Born in 1818, Emily Bronte, make loven as the Laureate of the Moors, feared that community would not read her novel because of her gender. When Bronte turned twenty-seven, she published Wuthering Heights. At approximately the same time, her two sisters, Charlotte and Anne, published their literary works. expression at Emily Brontes square-toed novel, Wuthering Heights, this literary work seems to be yet another book about a grumpy human race who tries to take revenge on everyone who hurts him throughout his life. Looking deeper into this novel, readers see that the story revolves around several complex typesetters cases who must endure indescribable pain in the neck and suffering in their quest for love. The Earnshaw family decides to make Heathcliff who is the primary character in Wuthering Heights, a family member, Mr. Eanshaws son, Hindley, starts to beat, to hurt, and to mistreat Heathcliff. However, as Heathcliff begins to spend time with Hindleys sister, Catherine, their relationship grows, Heathcliff and Catherine develop feelings for each other, and in turn, fall in love. When Catherine decides to get married Edgar Linton, this new turn-of-events devastates Heathcliff. Even though Edgar is a member of a higher social class than Heathcliff, Catherine secretly remains in love with her beloved Heathcliff. To decorate her love for Edgar and her true passion for Heathcliff, she states, Ive no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldnt have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now so he shall never know how I love him and that, not because hes handsome, Nelly, but because hes more myself than I am (63). The manner in which Catherine, Edgar, and... ...k to him. Cathy does not same him. Once Heathcliff dies she is free to marry whoever she want s and live her own life. She no longer has to be trapped anymore. Bell states that, Young Ca therine and Hareton, who are conduct to beleive, eventually come to love with patience and understanding, but only after Heathcliffs influence is removed(Bell). No one is trapped anymore.Heathcliff experiences much pain and suffering in his search for true love. Heathcliff endures derision and personal injury from Hindley, insults from Edgar, and profound rejection from his dear Catherine. All of these events contribute to the subsequent anguish that many of the second-generation characters, Cathy, Hareton, and Linton, destiny throughout the latter part of the novel. After Heathcliffs demise, Cathy and Hareton are now free from the terror and the tragedy that haunt the moors.

Death and Regeneration in Walt Whitmans Poem, When Lilacs Last In The

Death and Regeneration in Walt Whitmans Poem, When Lilacs Last In The Dooryard Bloomd Whitman in 1865 wrote an coronach for President Lincoln entitled When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomd. The Lilacs elegy is an outpouring of the deep sense of loss that Whitman felt after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. The Presidents close was a great shock to the poet it overwhelmed him in a very personal way. Whitman recognized Lincolns excellence and importance.When Whitman first heard of the assassination, it was the spring of the year and the lilacs were in bloom. The rime is heavily symbolic. In this first section, Whitman introduces two of the three central symbols used in development. The poet appears in company with the Lilac blooming and the drooping star. The lilac represents mania as well as resurrection and rebirth. The star symbolizes the slain Abraham Lincoln and comes to symbolize, also, the poets heavy grief for him. The star, or Lincoln, once celestial and shining like a impregnable guide to those beneath it, has now droopd early. Lincoln i...