Bio-Signal Acquisition and Processing Using Labview Essay Sample free essay sample

Abstraction: The increased public presentation of personal computing machines and their reduced cost has made it possible for development of Personal computer based signal processing systems. Hospitals need several measurement systems that can mensurate physiological parametric quantities of the patients. Although diagnostic medical instruments have been widely used. uniting practical instrument engineering to accomplish the intent of physiological measuring has several benefits. These systems are efficient and cost-efficient for geting and analysing biomedical signals. Using practical instrumentality to accomplish physiological measuring will mostly diminish the cost and increase the flexibleness of the instruments. This workaims at planing a practical instrument for geting and processing of Electrooculogram signal. Electrooculography ( EOG ) is a technique for mensurating the resting potency of the retina. Keywords: Data acquisition. signal processing. LabVIEW. Virtual Instrument. EOGmeasurement I. INTRODUCTION Hospitals need several measurement systems that can mensurate physiological parametric quantities of the patient. Measurement systems should be able to mensurate accurately the vital organs of patient like bosom conditions. organic structure temperature. electrical activity of the bosom. electrical activity of the encephalon etc. This information should be readily available to the physicians for diagnosing and proper intervention. PCbased signal acquisition. and analysis is an efficient and cost effectual method forbiomedical signal acquisition and monitoring. Isolation of the topic from the electronic circuitry is really of import. Besides. since the bio signal degree is really low. elaboration of signals is of import. Hence. a Personal computer based system consists of extra circuits for isolation and elaboration of the signals. Uniting practical instrumentality engineering for physiological measurings is an approaching engineering that is presently lifting up at a faster rate. The cost can be drastically brought down and the flexibleness can be increased by usage of practical instrumentality. National Instrument’s LabVIEWis a platform and development environment for a ocular scheduling. The intent of such scheduling is automatizing the use of processing and mensurating equipment in any laboratory apparatus. Controls and indexs on the front panel allow an operator to input informations into or pull out informations from a running practical instrument. A cardinal benefit of LabVIEW over other development environments is the extended support for accessing instrumentality hardware. The paper is organized as follows: Section I. gives debut to practical instrumentality and demand of the current work. Section II. explains the bio signal inside informations. Section III discusses the challenges in the design. Section IV explains the public presentation and consequences. and the last Section V concludes the paper followed by mentions used. II. BIOELECTRIC SIGNAL- . ELECTOOCULOGRAM Electric potencies are generated as a consequence of motion of the orbs within the conductive environmentof the skull. Electrodes placed on either sideof the eyes or above and below them pick up th e potencies generated by the gesture of the orb. This possible varies about in proportion to the motion of the orbs. This signal is little individually. This requires five electrodes which are placedabove and below the oculus for perpendicular motions. and on the sides of the oculus ( canthi ) for horizontal motions. A mention electrode is placed on the brow of the topic. Sing the cost and dependability makes Silver ( Ag ) -Silver Chloride ( AgCl ) electrodes ideal for EOG. An electrolytic gel based on Na chloride is applied to the tegument since the upper beds of the tegument are hapless music directors of electricity. Several methods have been proposed in literature that use Electrooculograms ( EOGs ) happening as a consequence of oculus motions [ 3 ] [ 5 ] . An electric wheelchair controlled by oculus motions utilizing EOG has been developed as a motion support device. An EOG based infirmary dismay system has been successfully tested. An oculus gazing system for observing any point where the oculus gazes on the screen has been developed for communicating aid intents [ 4 ] . [ 5 ] . III. CONSTRUCTION AND CHALLENGES The chief aim of the current work carried on is to develop a practical instrument which can get the EOG signal. execute noise riddance and elaboration. Geting the signal utilizing NI DAQ. planing the suited low cost amplifier for elaboration and designing of low base on balls and high base on balls filters was done. The acquired signal was displayed utilizing LabVIEW front panel. The front panel and block diagram have been designed. The basic block diagram is shown is fig 1. Noise DecreaseEOG signals have a scope of 0. 5Hz to 30Hz. Therefore. a low base on balls filter with 30Hz cutoff could take most of the high frequence noises. And a high base on balls filter of 0. 5 Hz is required. which together form a set base on balls of 50 Hz. Other noise artefacts are largely transients caused. for illustration. by the turning of an electrical switch on/off in the locality of the electrodes. contraction of the facial or neck musculuss. slippage of Fig. 1 System Organization filter of bandwidth 0. 5Hz to 30 Hz. Power line frequence can be easy removed. utilizing a notch filter the electrode due to sudate and oculus eye blink. However. the signals produced by oculus water chickweeds are. in fact. rather regular. They appear as sudden spikes with separating amplitudes. Hence it is possible to easy acknowledge. changedwhen the oculus is moved and the motion of theeye is translated into electrical alteration ofpotential. This possible can be noninvasively recorded by utilizing surface electrodes. provides anoninvasive method for entering full scope ofeye motions. The resting potency is A brace of electrodes is required for measuringthe resting potency of the retina. It Hz ) . Electrooculography is a technique for ( 10 to 100microV ) and has low frequences ( District of Columbia to 30 ? Fig. 1. Block diagram of EOG Amplifier electrooculography under certain conditions do non damage it. Preamplifier: The input preamplifier phase carries out the initial elaboration of the EOG. This phase should hold really high input electric resistance and a high common-mode-rej ection ratio ( CMRR ) . Isolation circuit: The circuitry of this block contains a barrier to the transition of current from the power line ( 50 Hz ) . This barrier would forestall unsafe currents from fluxing from the patient through the amplifier to the land of the recording equipment or personal computer. Driver amplifier: Circuitry in this block amplifies the EOG to a degree at which it can suitably enter the signal on the recording equipment. This phase besides carries out the bandpass filtering of the electrocardiograph to give the frequence features of the signal. Case construction: Merely one subdiagram is seeable at a clip. and the construction executes merely one instance at a clip. An input value determines which subdiagram executes. Time hold: The Wait ( MS ) map delaies until the msec counter counts to an sum equal to the input you specify. This map guarantees that the loop executing rate is at least the sum of the input you specify. Filter: The Filter Express VI processes a signal through filters and Windowss. Filters used include the undermentioned: Highpass. Lowpass. Bandpass. Bandstop. and Smoothing. Windows used include Butterworth. Chebyshev. Inverse Chebyshev. Elliptical. and Bessel. Waveform graph: The wave form graph displays one or more secret plans of equally sampled measurings. Amplitude and degree measurings: he Amplitude and Level Measurements Express VI performs electromotive force measurings on a signal. These include DC. rms. maximal extremum. minimal extremum. extremum to top out. rhythm norm. and rhythm rms measurings. Tone measurings: The Tone Measurements Express VI hunts for a individual tone with the highest frequence or highest amplitude. It besides finds the frequence and amplitude of a individual tone. Write to measurement file: The Write to Measurement File Express VI writes a file in LVM or TDM file format. Build tabular array: Converts a signal or signals into a tabular array of informations that lists the amplitude of each signal and the clip informations for each point in the signal. Result tabular array: Use the tabular array control to make a tabular array on the front panel. Each cell in a tabular array is a twine. and each cell resides in a column and a row. Therefore. a tabular array is a show for a 2D array of strings. A. Signal Acquisition and treating Data acquisition cards for multiple channels for parallel input and end products are available. Using the libraries. plans for the informations acquisition are rapidly and easy made. Extra noise is filtered utilizing the pick of filters like Butterworth. Bessel. Chebyshev I. and Chebyshev II provided in the LabVIEWsoftware. The installing of the DAQ card includes: 1. Installation of the application package 2. Installation of the DAQ card driver foremost. before piecing DAQ card into the desktopcomputer. This procedure can guarantee WINDOWS to observe the DAQ card. 3. Installing the necessary devices. accoutrements and overseas telegrams. 4. Power on the computing machine. 5. Confirm that the device is recognized. 6. Run the trial Panel. In the current work. M Series USB-6221 is used as informations acquisition interface. 5. String: A twine is a sequence of displayable or non-displayable ASCII characters. String sections provide a platformindependent format for information and information. into its frequence constituents. One of the most common manner to make this is with an FFT. In order to ease this type of analysis. LabVIEW comes with built in FFTs that make the procedure of constituent separation quick and easy. Digital filters are provided with the pick of Butterworth. Bessel. Chebyshev and digital filters. With a few accommodations these filters can be configured for about any design that is needed. While cringle: Repeats the sub-diagram inside it until the conditional terminus. an input terminus. receives a peculiar Boolean value. Merge signal: Merges two or more signals into a individual end product. Resize the map to add inputs. This map appears on the block diagram automatically when you wire a signal end product to the wire subdivision of another signal. Simulate signal: The Simulate Signal Express VI generates simulated informations such as a sine moving ridge. Numeric control A ; index: The numeral informations type can stand for Numberss of assorted types. such as whole number or existent. The two common numeral objects are the numeral control and the numeral index. ( courtesy: National Instruments. LabVIEW ) The Fast Fourier Transform ( FFT ) and the power spectrum are powerful tools for analysing and mensurating signals from plug-in informations acquisition ( DAQ ) devices. We can efficaciously get time-domain signals. step the frequence content. and change over the consequences to real-world units and shows as shown on traditional bench top spectrum and web analysers. Since the signal of involvement is continuously changing non stationary signal. Wavelet transform block has been included. The ripple transform is a mathematical tool that decomposes a signal into a representation that shows signal inside informations and tendencies as a map of clip. The chief advantages of ripple methods over traditional Fourier methods are the usage of localised footing maps and the faster calculation velocity. A. Design Considerations The work undertaken involves 4 phases which are discussed as below. The first phase is choice of the electrodes. The electrodes were chosen with the concern of protecting the eyes from risky elements. IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS The biomedical signals acquired from the human organic structure are often really little. frequently in the millivolt/microvolt scope. and each has its ain processing demands. Electrooculography signals are in the microvolt scope and have many frequence constituents. These biomedical signals require treating before they can be analyzed. LabVIEW contains the tools. from fast Fourier transforms to digital filters to recognize complex analysis. In order to make frequence analysis. a complex signal must foremost be broken down Fig. 3 Design of the block diagram B. Design Considerations The work undertaken involves 4 phases which are discussed as below. The first phase is choice of the electrodes. The electrodes were chosen with the concern of protecting the eyes from risky elements. Silver/Silver-Chloride electrodes were chosen because the half-cell potency was the closest to zero. Electrodes with the smallest sum of halfcell potency are desirable because they cause the Stages 2 and 3 encompass the sensing of horizontal and perpendicular motions of the oculus. severally. The 2nd phase ( for horizontal favoritism ) detects sidelong motions at the fringe of each oculus. The hardware in this phase consists of the EOG biopotential amplifier. Similarly. the 3rd phase ( for perpendicular favoritism ) consists of another EOG biopotential amplifier. Location of the electrodes is shown in figure 3. When the eyes look consecutive in front. a steady dipole is created between the two electrodes. When the regard is shifted to the left. the positive cornea becomes closer to the left electrode. which becomes more positive. The undermentioned public presentation least sum of beginning. By definition. the H electrode has a zero half-cell potency. but due to the gaseous nature. they can non be practicably used. Although lead electrodes have a lower half-cell potency than the Ag/Ag-Cl electrodes. lead is risky to the wellness and therefore is avoided. Thus my pick of electrodes takes into history an optimum degree of safety ordinances and preciseness ( least offset ) . LabVIEW is necessary to change over the signal obtained by the EOG into explainable informations for directional favoritism. Furthermore. a graphical show will be implemented in LabVIEW to imitate the motion of an icon on the computing machine screen. Figures 5 shows the water chickweeds. figures 6 and 7 shows the perpendicular motions and figure 8 displays the horizontal motion of the eyes captured by the designed informations acquisition system and displayed by the front panel. The figure4 shows the hardware apparatus. Therefore by puting electrodes to the left and right and above and below the oculus. horizontal and perpendicular motions can be obtained. The end product of the 2nd and 3rd phase is inputted into the concluding phase. the LabVIEW informations acquisition package tool and the personal computing machine. The choice of LabVIEW over diminishing. This has facilitated the development Personal computer based signal acquisition and analysis systems. These systems can replace dearly-won stand-alone systems that are presently in usage. Thecomponents necessary for a LabVIEW based acquisition and analysis system areinexpensive. and readily available. Here. the initial demands of a Personal computer based biosignal acquisition and treating systems have been studied and reviewed. Developing Personal computer based systems utilizing LabVIEW is an efficient option to stand entirely systems. EOG amplifier was designed. The information acquired was amplified. filtered and observed on the front panel. Both the horizontal and perpendicular motion of the eyes and oculus water chickweeds were visualized. The writers wish to reason that the system developed has certain restrictions in footings of truth and characteristics. There is batch of range for future betterment of the developed system. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The writers wish to thank the section caput. laboratory staff. Institutional LabVIEW Academy. at college Innovation Centre for allowing to carry on the experiment and besides thankful to all the topics who have cooperated in the experiment. Mentions [ 1 ] . Parten. M. ( 2003 ) . Using practical instruments in ameasurements research lab. Proceedings of the 2003 AmericanSociety for Engineering Education Annual Conference A ; Exposition. June 22-26. 2003. [ 2 ] . MrinalTrikhal. Tapan Gandhi. AyushBhandari. and Vijay Kharel. ‘Multiple Channel Electrooculogram Classification utilizing Automata’ . International Workshop on Medical Measurements and Applications. – 2007. [ 3 ] R. Barea. L. Bosquete. M. Mazo. and E. Lopez. â€Å"System for aided mobility utilizing oculus movementsbased on electrooculography. † IEEE Trans. Rehab. Eng. . vol. 10. no. 4. pp. 209-217. 2002. [ 4 ] J. Gips and P. Olivieri. â€Å"Eagle Eyess: An oculus control system for individuals with disablements. † 11th Int. Conf. Tech. Persons Disabilities. Mar. 1996. [ 5 ] Y. Kuno. T. Yagi. I. Fujii. K. Koga. and Y. Uchikawa. â€Å"Development of eye-gaze input interface usingEOG. † Trans. Inf. Processing Soc. Jap. . vol. 39. no. 5. pp. 1455-1462. May 1998. [ 6 ] T. Gandhi. M. Trikha. J. Santosh and S. Anand. â€Å"VHDL Based Electro-Oculogram Signal Classification† . 15th International Conference on Advanced Computing and Communications 2007. IEEE computing machine Society. [ 7 ] AysegulGuven. Sadik Kara. â€Å"Classification of electrooculogram signals utilizing unreal nervous network† . Adept systems with Applications. 31 ( 2006 ) 199-205. Elsevier. . [ 8 ] B. Grinstead. M. E. Parten ; Biomedical signal acquisition utilizing â€Å"Labview† . Computer-Based Medical Systems. 1998. Proceedings. 11th IEEE Symposium on ; pp: 157 – 161 ; ISSN: 1063-7125. [ 9 ] Geddes. L. A. . ‘Principles of applied biomedical instrumentation’ . Wiley. New York. 1989. [ 10 ] . J. G. Webster. ‘Medical Instrumentality: Application and Design’ . 3rd Ed. New York: John Wiley A ; Sons. Inc. . 1998. Biography Patterson is a pupil of Masterss in control systems under the section of Instrumentation and Control Engineering. His major involvements are in the field of practical instrumentality and control Engineering. Sandra D’Souza. is a module of the section of instrumentality and control Engineeringand a research bookman in the country of biomedical signal processing. Her major involvements are in the field of digital signal processing and bio signal processing.

The Concepts of Purpose and Vision free essay sample

The Concepts of Purpose and Vision Purpose Why does the company exist? Who should benefit most from all the effort that is put into the company? Why should a manager or an employee do more than the minimum required? Who owns the company? These questions are deeply philosophical and spiritual, sometimes evoking long and acrimonious debate. The debate appears to resolve itself into three broad categories that vary from the materialistic and selfish at one end of the spectrum to the more altruistic at the other. Firstly, there are those who claim that the company exists for the benefit of the owner or shareholders. Maximisation of shareholders value is a phrase often quoted by managers and academics that hold this viewpoint. (See Rappaport, 1986 ) Most managers and academics, however, have rejected this single minded approach. They do not believe that the companys only purpose is to create wealth for the owners or shareholders. We will write a custom essay sample on The Concepts of Purpose and Vision or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page They acknowledge the claims of other stakeholders such as customers, employees, suppliers and the community. The second view of the companys purpose, therefore, is that it exists to satisfy in more than a material sense all its stakeholders. (Stakeholder theory: Pearce and Robinson, 1991) The third viewpoint aims at identifying a purpose that is greater than the combined needs of the stakeholders, and something to which all the stakeholders can feel proud to contribute. They aim towards a higher ideal. At The Body Shop, a retailer of cosmetics, the managers promote products that do not hurt the environment. Matsushita maintain they only manufacture products that will enhance the quality of life of the Japanese people. It is clear that, in these companies, each stakeholder can feel that the company supports some goal at a level higher than the monetary, a goal which reaches out to a wider audience, and even to society as a whole. Vision Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus, authors of Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge, identify Vision as a concept central to their theory of leadership. To choose a direction, a leader must first develop a mental image of a possible and desirable future state of the organisation. This image, which we call vision, may be as vague as a dream or as precise as a goal statement. The critical point is that Vision articulates a credible, realistic attractive future for the organisation. (Own emphasis) Robert H. Miles, in an article entitled Corporate Transformation, states that all successful transformations are Vision led. He defines Vision in the following way: It requires projection into a dimly outlined future. It requires the creation of goals that stretch the organisation beyond its current comprehension and capabilities. (Own emphasis) Stephen R. Covey stresses the symbiotic relationship between Vision and Values in an article called Ethical Vertigo published in Executive Excellence, 1997. The Book of Proverbs warns us: Where there is no Vision, people will perish, while Martin Luther King demonstrated the power of Vision when he immortalised his Vision with the words, I have a dream, and unleashed forces that changed a nation. Quigley (1994) defines corporate values as the rules or guidelines by which a corporation exhorts its members to behaviour consistent with its order, security, and growth Values and beliefs are the most fundamental of the three elements of Vision. (Own emphasis) It is true to say that most Vision statements express an element of ambition. Whether it is to be bigger than, to go from number two to number one, or even to be the best, an element of achievement is always present. Komatsu set out to encircle Caterpillar (David vs Goliath): Canon sought to Beat Xerox: Panasonic has the quest for zero defect, while Cray Computers manufactures the best computers in the world. It is obvious from the discussion so far that a Vision is more than unfettered ambition or being future oriented. It incorporates cultures, beliefs, value systems and a myriad of force fields. To better clarify our thoughts on this, we must digress temporarily into the field of neuroscience. The following is a direct quote from Zohar (1997) Today neuroscience teaches that from the moment of conception we are born with sufficient neural connections to regulate our breathing, our body temperature and the beating of our heart, but nearly everything else is pure potentiality. What diet we will be fed, what climactic conditions and germs we will encounter, what language we will be exposed to all these and much more are uncertain at the moment of birth. So, the infant brain is genetically hard wired and activated. The interaction between the infant and the environment {stimuli} enables the brain to adapt to whatever physical and cultural conditions it finds. It allows the brain to wire itself, as it evolves, in accordance with its experience. In effect, the human operating system is operational, but no application programmes have been installed yet. Experiments on the language learning abilities of human infants, based on the recorded sounds that infants make in the first months after birth, reveal that every human infant, regardless of where on this planet it is born, utters the approximately eight hundred sound patterns found in the totality of all human languages. The infants brain has the capacity to range freely across the spectrum of all the possible linguistic sounds. Yet, within the first year of its life, the infant singles out those sound patterns relevant to the language of its own culture. It lays down neural pathways for the recognition and use of those sounds it wires its brain according to its environment and loses the ability to recognise and use those sounds not used by the surrounding culture. The infant constructs its world at a wonderfully rapid rate. The infant must grow new neural connections in its brain if it is to have a world. In Western cultures, most young people of 16 or 18 years, or, in their early twenties if they continued with higher education, have grown enough neural connections to coast for the rest of their lives. In short, they have wired in their basic lifes paradigm. Zohar (1997). If we hypothesise that the new born organisation can be equated with an infant (the analogy between biological systems, quantum physics and business systems have received increasing attention in recent years for example, in Leadership and the New Science by Margaret Wheatly, in Rewiring the Corporate Brain by Danah Zohar and in The Quark and the Jaguar by Murray Gell Mann), then it is reasonable to apply the conclusions drawn above with regard to the hard and soft wiring of the infant brain, to a business organisation. It is probable that the new born organisation similarly constructs its world at a very rapid rate in terms of the environment in which it is enmeshed. However, the institutionalisation of the paradigm must, of necessity, go through the same growth cycle, i. e. , infancy, childhood, puberty, adolescence, and maturity. The organisational life cycle can, of course, be equated with this. We postulate, from this, that the paradigm of the organisation will be embedded by the end of the embryonic or early growth phase of the organisation. In practical terms, this means that the newly formed business will rapidly create and construct a language, a culture, and a belief and value system that are a derivative of the environment. as defined by the leader or founder, the social and ethical values of the society (the business environment) and any other force fields that interface or interact with the infant organisation. Paradigm The concept paradigm entered into the previous discussion. It is a fact that although many business people are familiar with the word, few truly understand it. When we speak of our paradigm we use it in the original sense given it by American philosopher of science, Thomas Kuhn, in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. It means the whole conceptual framework embracing our most deeply held, unconscious assumptions and values. It encompasses the things we take for granted in any situation. It therefore determines our expectations, frames the questions we ask, and structures the way we do things. Thomas Kuhn points out that the paradigm becomes so embedded that new ideas that do not fit the paradigm, are not welcome, and are treated as anomalies. It is only as the anomalies, the things that will not fit the old paradigm, mount up to cause major disruption, that changes can occur and a paradigm shift take place. This is sometimes referred to as the paradigm box. We need our paradigms to make sense of the world: yet, because of these we become trapped or constrained. Kuhn (1970) The next question to ask is: Is there any difference between the concepts of vision and paradigm? The only difference would seem to be a semantic one, as: oth Vision and Paradigm are constraints on the way we do things: both have been installed over the early phases of the organisations life cycle: both are combinations of potentialities and such entities as values, ethics, social norms etc. : both can be, but are not easily, changed, and normally only after major disruption: both are the ultimate function in the measure of acceptable strategies. There are two major conclusions to be drawn from the above. )Paradigm and Vision can be seen as two sides of the same coin and 2)it is obvious, that if there is a dysfunction between the strategy and the vision/paradigm then one or the other , or both, must change. It would be prudent at this stage to refer to the concept Strategic Intent coined by Hamel and Prahalad. On the one hand, strategic intent envisions a desired leadership position and establishes the criteria the organisation will use to chart its progress, however, at the same time, according to these authors, strategic intent is more than unfettered ambition. The concept also encompasses focussing the organisations attention on the essence of winning: motivating people by communicating the value of the target: sustaining enthusiasm and using intent consistently to guide resource allocation. Campbell et al. (1990) state that strategic intent is a concept that draws from both vision and mission, but it is closer in concept to the traditional definition of mission. The major conclusion of Campbell et al. is that strategic intent is a less powerful concept. Their major criticism is that the concept fails to include values and behaviour standards. A more serious problem, from our point of view, is embedded in the phrase strategic intent. Strategic intent, in essence, means the intent of the strategy, that is, when we have formulated strategies we next ascertain the direction and intent of such strategies. This is contrary to the viewpoint of most academics and managers. You have to know where you want to go before you can decide how to get there! Further insight into the concept of Vision may be gained if we look at some real life case studies. Case Histories: Wal Mart, Hewlett Packard, Matsushita Appliances and the Body Shop. In the 1950s, Sam Walton worked, inter alia, in the retail trade for the Chicago based Ben Franklin Stores. It was during this period that he formulated his vision for a discount store. It was a deceptively simple idea: a discount store with wholesale margins on every product, a store that simultaneously offered easy shopping and friendly service. The linchpin, or critical success factor, was that these stores would be situated in small towns. Sam Walton believed that there was a lot more business in those towns than people ever thought. (Snyder et al. 994) At the heart of Waltons vision for Wal Mart were his rock solid personal values of humility, honesty, frugality and trust. Despite his $9 billion family fortune, Sam held onto his Ford truck, casual clothes, modest ranch style house and simple no frills headquarters in out of the way Bentonville. Waltons personal values were translated into three key business principles: provide the customer with value and service in a clean an d friendly shopping environment: create a partnership with associates: and maintain commitment to the community. The critical and irreplaceable ingredient of Wal Marts success were the strengths and virtues of Sam Walton himself his overriding vision and unwavering values, his courage to take action, and his uncanny ability to motivate and inspire his associates. Walton was more than a great leader, he was an astute strategist. He searched with painstaking care for every individual who made up his management team. He sought individuals who believed in the discount concept and were dedicated to working long hours to see the vision become a reality. He created an organisation that thrived on innovation and in an atmosphere where people believed in themselves. He embraced technology as a change agent for innovation and remaining competitive. The results speak for themselves. Wal Mart has succeeded in satisfying not only its customers, but its employees, suppliers, investors, and host communities. Wal Mart outshines the rest of the industry in growth, sales, earnings, margins, and employee and floor productivity. The paradigm that Sam Walton established has been a winner. The question that remains is, will this paradigm still hold in our rapidly changing world? Or will there come a time when even Wal Mart will need to break out of its paradigm box? Bill Hewlett, Konosuke Matsushita and Anita Rodick, all tell the same story. We did what we thought was right and what came naturally to us. We believe strongly in some key principles and we have worked hard to stamp these on the company. We believe the principles we have been following are the most important part of our business. Hewlett Packard, Matsushita Appliances and The Body Shop were young organisations with no entrenched views and no established culture. The neural connections they made depended on the environment as embodied in the founders, extended stakeholders, and the influence of the political, demographic, economic, social and technological forces active at birth. The paradigm was being constructed, but it would take years for it to solidify into the so called paradigm box. Conclusions as related to Purpose, Vision and Paradigm. A number of conclusions can be drawn from the above discussion. The most important is that these apparently different concepts are essentially the same, and the differences between them that do exist are at the periphery and are not significant enough to warrant being treated differently. Purpose, Vision and Paradigm are so much the same that the many arguments to differentiate between them become semantic exercises and academic jargon. Strategic Intent would seem to fall into this category and might be called an exercise in repackaging. It is possible to postulate that the concept of Vision goes beyond profits and stakeholders, although these are an inherent part of it. Vision also addresses the community and in some instances even the society as a whole (The Body Shop, Wal Mart). Ambition and the future are essential elements of any Vision. Whether this ambition should be fettered or unlimited is open to debate. Hamel and Prahalad would have it unfettered, whilst Campbell states that it should be a stretch, but achievable. The case studies reveal that Vision encapsulates culture and values and beliefs. Just as the atom contains enormous energy which, when unleashed, can be beneficial or destructive, so the paradigm box contains enormous latent power or energy which, if unleashed, can be a powerful force for achievement or disruption. We know and understand why the development and institution of the Vision takes time. There are no short cuts. More importantly, because it takes so much time to create the paradigm box, the act of breaking out of it requires tremendous energy and effort. This has serious implications for change programmes. Finally, the law of causality insists that if we are to understand the present paradigm box or Vision, we need to return to the genesis of the company and reconstruct the initial conditions. Any changes from those initial conditions must be a result of the dynamics of the various force fields and their interaction. We will revisit this important conclusion when we look at how to change the Vision of a company. Creating and Institutionalising the Vision The importance of the creation of a Vision is abundantly clear from the discussion thus far. What we need to discuss at this point is how? How do we establish a Vision for a company? There are two important aspects to this problem: establishing a Vision for a newly formed company: and changing the Vision of an old, established company. Creating a Vision for a newly formed company As indicated, the neural connections that set up the vision/ paradigm of the newly created company takes place in the formative or embryonic and early growth phase of the company. We must ensure that the force fields which nteract with our newly established company are the correct ones. The leader plays the dominant role in this regard. Witness the way in which Henry Fords paradigm for decades was the paradigm of the Ford Motor Company, ditto for Sam Walton (Wal Mart), Watson (IBM), Ray Crock (MacDonalds), Anita Rodick of The Body Shop etc. In these early stages, the vision is installed both by design and by adaptation. It is the leader who installs a vision by design, when the neural pathways or architecture are constructed. The adaptation occurs when the external fields exert pressure on the organisation to adapt and thus influence the vision/ paradigm, and this will hold as long as the paradigm accommodates the changes taking place within the force fields that envelop the organisation. Changing the Vision: Paradigm of an established company How does one change the Vision/ Paradigm of a well established company that has been around for quite some time? We have noted that the ability to change is very much restricted by the paradigm box. In the established organisation, the founder approach is obviously not possible. Management has to work within the constraints of the existing paradigm and bring about change in an orderly manner. Upon inspection, the literature seems to favour two possible approaches. The first is the Intellectual Process. This approach brings top management together, who use techniques such as brainstorming, to formulate a new vision, which they then communicate throughout the organisation. The second method is the Focussed Approach. It is a more holistic approach, insofar as due recognition is given to all the possible relationships that exist and interact with one another. For the purposes of this paper, we will give no further attention to the Intellectual Process. Most writing on the subject of vision favours this approach and so it is well described in the literature. The Focussed Approach recognises the existence of a whole range of neural networks. This recognition of the principles that make the founder approach so successful, means that leaders who turn to the Focussed Approach can likewise found a new vision, even if it involves radical change. The starting point of the Focussed Approach is to establish the initial conditions. Who was the founder of the organisation? What values, beliefs and ethics did that person hold especially important? What was the environment like? What were the driving forces? Who were the stakeholders? What was happening in the social, political, economic and technological environment? The next step is to do the same analysis for the conditions of the present in order to determine what dynamics have been active and whether the original paradigm has shifted. With this information as backdrop, we are ready to initiate the necessary change programme. Although we show the change programme as a process, it must be remembered that the steps shown are not necessarily sequential and, in all probability, will be iterative. Select an initial strategic focus point. Something that is very necessary to change in terms of the survival of the organisation. At South African Airways, the initial focus will have to be to get the aircraft off on time, to improve the service delivered by cabin crew and frontline staff, and to ensure that SAA remain competitive. At the finance division of a major South African bank, the focus was to consolidate fourteen general ledgers into one, to supply accurate and timeous financial information to the operating divisions and the Reserve Bank, and to supply the divisions with financial intelligence to improve their decision making ability. In both these cases, no formal Vision statement should be, or was drafted in the initial stages of the realignment of the corporate direction. When selecting a strategic focus point the following aspects should be borne in mind: 1) the focus point must be at the core of both the future strategy and the future value system: 2) it should be easy to translate into standards of behaviour: 3) it should have strong value associations that are attractive to large sections of management and staff: and 4) it should be non controversial and be able to elicit a wide base of support. Included in most company Vision statements is some form of slogan, for example,The quest for Zero defect. This slogan, although it might not appear so at first glance, is crucial to the establishment of the new Vision. The word slogan originates from the Gaelic, army shout, or Scottish Highland war cry: so the slogan literally becomes the rallying cry of the organisation. The redirection or new focus the company is erking upon, {the creation of new neural connections}, must be brought to the attention of the stakeholders continuously, until the paradigm shift that needs to take place is completed and institutionalised within the company. This means that the slogan becomes an instrument not only of change, but also of indoctrination. At British Airways the challenge of improving frontline service was linked to the slogan Putting People First. All communications, training etc. , conveyed the idea (the value set) that people are important. This gave a rationale for the changes in the behaviour that were demanded, and for some they became an inspiration. The new Vision grew because the new behaviour standards were underpinned by organisational values that were attractive to the staff. (Campbell et. al. 1990) Putting people first is a slogan acceptable not only to the customer, but also to employees. Note that, in this process, the slogan comes before the formalisation of the Vision per se. Have an action orientation. This approach is, by definition, action orientated. This is in distinct contrast to the intellectual process, which begins with an intellectual exercise, then the downward communication of the results until the majority have bought in, followed by the operationalisation of these ideas in terms of the actions to be taken. With the Focus Approach, management get on with the job of making the new Focus work. In practice, they get the planes off the ground on schedule (SAA), they reengineer the general ledgers so that there is only one (Bank), they supply the necessary training to carry out the reengineering etc. The message to all stakeholders is unambiguous: problems that affect customers must be resolved. Communications must be Focus oriented. The reasons for changes to be made at the operational level must be explained, as opposed to exhorting people to change, or worse, explaining some intellectual exercise that most find difficult to comprehend. In a sense this continuous focus riented communication can be equated to the concept of evangelism and indoctrinisation. Communicating the tangible changes that are being made in order to achieve certain operational goals is the transparent end of the change program. The changes that are taking place in the culture, values, ethical norms and social architecture are in most cases only apparent to a few at the time of the change. Repetitivene ss and focussed communication are some of the underlying pillars of success. Concentrate on behaviour. An acceptance of Vision comes from the link between behaviour, organisation values and personal values. Michael Beer states: Those who implement successful transformations, focus on behaviour rather than simply talk about it (p. 34). Only a change in the context structure, system, staffing patterns and management process in which employees function can stimulate and sustain new management approaches (p. 35). An often underrated mechanism to change the culture is to change the people. ( See also Corporate Recovery, Slatter, 1984) Sometimes the crisis at hand mitigates against the normal time frame of change, or it could be that the paradigm is so entrenched in the old staff , that radical surgery is required. Harold Leavitt Corporate Pathfinders). Expect it to take time. The time it takes to establish the neural connections or paradigm box and to institutionalise the initial Vision stretches well into the early growth phase of the corporate life cycle. It stands to reason that any change programme will similarly take time. The time it takes will be dependent upon the amount of change that has to take place. If it is major, as in a crisis situation, it is conceivable that the duration will be prolonged. Build and sustain trust. Building trust, says Michael Beer, is a key element in the mobilisation of energy for change. The concept of trust must be seen in its wider context. Transparency, open communications, and sharing information are all part of the trust building process. However, let us reiterate an earlier comment. The focal point of everything being implemented in the organisation must be the focus programme. Let us not get carried away in the early stages with nice sounding rhetoric and political statements. Create the Vision Statement. At some stage, the Vision statement can be formalised and hung on the wall, included in the companys financial statements and reiterated in the chairmans report. The change agent will know when the company has travelled sufficiently far down the road of change: when the new paradigm is sufficiently on track not to jump off the rails: when it has become the way we do things here: when the conversion to the new religion has been accomplished. The Concept of Mission The literature identifies three basic schools of thought that apply to the concept of Mission. Broadly speaking, one school of thought describes mission in terms of business strategy. The second school describes it in terms of philosophy, values and ethics. The third school, the military, look at mission as the ultimate function of operational effectiveness. The Strategic View The genesis of the strategic approach was an article by Theodore Levit, Marketing Myopia, which appeared in the Harvard Business Review in 1960. This was later expanded upon by Abel and Hammond in their book Strategic Market Planning (1979). According to this approach, a Mission is defined in terms of the product or service, the clients to be served and the technology used to deliver the product or service to the customer. To do it this way, they argue, avoids the problem of being too vague or generalised: being in the transport business is the oft quoted example. When the Mission is anchored to products and services, clients or customers, and to delivery technology, it gives, at the same time, a clear statement of strategic direction. The interface between strategy and Mission is very concrete. Philosophical and Ethical View By contrast, the philosophical, social values and ethical view argues that Mission is the cultural glue that enables an organisation to function as a collective unity. This cultural glue consists of strong norms and values that influence the way people behave, how they work together and how they pursue the goals of the organisation. This approach sees Mission as encapsulating some of the emotional aspects of the organisation. We see that, in this respect, this approach encompasses many of the core concepts of Vision as we have discussed it above. Military Perspective Military historians such as Little Hart, Von Clausewitz and many others, have, after studying many wars, deduced what is commonly referred to as the ten principles of war. The first and major principle is the selection and maintenance of the aim. In order to achieve the aim it is essential that strategies be formulated. The execution and achievement of these strategies are, in turn, dependent on the successful completion of one or more missions. Tactical adaptations to the execution parameters of these missions will in most cases be a distinct possibility. It will be obvious from the above that aim is synonymous with Vision, and that the military consider Mission as an operational subset of Vision. It is the do, or objective, function. The military view is closely allied to the Able and Hammond approach discussed above. The Able and Hammond approach also incorporates a do function, in that it defines products and services, customers and technology in a three dimensional, isometric spatial diagram. This spatial diagram can be related directly to the strategy of the organisation. Conclusion as related to Mission The military and strategic approaches have much in common. In both, the ultimate function of the Mission is the achievement of an objective or goal which contributes directly to successful strategy implementation. By definition, they are both very much functional in content and are therefore referred to as functional strategies. The ethical or philosophical approach, as reviewed above has three distinct drawbacks. It contains many of the elements of the Vision which could be very confusing it lacks an action orientation and the interface with the strategy of the organisation is not clear. From our perspective it(ethical and philosophical approach) does not add value or any further insight to the academic discussion on Mission and if anything, would confuse rather than clarify the situation. Summary In this paper we dissected the concepts Purpose, Vision, Paradigm and Mission. Although these have been discussed in academic as well as management circles for many years, we still find a wide variety of opinions and departure points both in content and process. It is our contention that the concepts Purpose, Vision and paradigm are very similar at the core. The differences that exist are at the periphery and do not warrant the distinction between the concepts that are being placed on it at the moment. Mission however does warrant distinction. It is very much a do function and does not include all the other attributes of values, ethics, beliefs etc. (Some authors however do include these attributes). There is a very definite action orientation in a mission statement and it should not, to our way of thinking, be contaminated by moral, social or other force fields which are best suited to the Vision statement. Apart from the discussion on the above, we have also attempted to show how organisations can change their Vision by means of a structured but flexible approach. Breaking out of an existing paradigm box requires careful execution. Forces will be unleashed that can be very destructive if left undirected, if we are able to control the energy release we can ensure constructive application of this energy. To this end issues such as strategic thrust areas, repetitive communication, behavioural norms, non controversial programs, building of trust and messianic leadership need to be addressed. Finally, creating a new Vision for a company is not something that can be undertaken lightly, nor is it something that can be achieved at a two day seminar. It needs strategic thinking, the creation of something that

Sample Student Five Paragraph Essay Cheating - Here Is How To Stop It

Sample Student Five Paragraph Essay Cheating - Here Is How To Stop ItIf you have a high school or college student who is trying to cheat on his or her essay and you are a parent looking for ways to stop sample student five paragraph essays cheating then you will need to read this article. While there are many strategies that you can use to stop the cheating you will need to make sure that you are using the right techniques. The best way to start would be to ask the student to write an essay for their college essays.By asking them to write an essay for their college they will give you the chance to monitor what they are doing in the middle of the essay. The student should be comfortable enough with the format that you do not have to think about editing the essay yourself. Once you get the completed writing for your college and the student gives you the finished piece that you want, you will want to review the essay. You will want to look at every aspect of the essay to see if it is ok ay.It is important to see how the student uses the writing process and see how they handle their first and last paragraph. Some students like to use every word they write in the first paragraph but you will want to take notice of the sentence structure as well. The point of writing a five paragraph essay is to make the reader understand what you are saying and not make them stop reading. If you find a few mistakes that you can fix at the beginning then you will want to move on to the next section of the essay.Remember to include a clear purpose for the essay. Without a clear purpose, you will find yourself having to edit the essay many times until you find something that makes sense. As a parent you should always look for an objective statement in the essay and this should be stated as an aside. Make sure that you check to see if the essay is grammar correct before you have the student submit it to the university.Although this strategy can stop sample student five paragraph essays c heating, you will still need to look over the college papers to make sure that they do not contain plagiarism. Using a plagiarism checker to make sure that the essay is not plagiarized before you have the student submit it to the college can save a lot of time and frustration. If you find any problems in the writing style you will want to have the student redo it.Keep in mind that you should never get too upset when you discover that a student has used samples in their sample student five paragraph essay and even worse, plagiarized the entire essay. The worst thing that you can do is to contact the professor and take away their degree. Remember that you will need to send the student the completed written work in order to get his or her degree so if you have to do it the hard way then do it.The only way to stop sample student five paragraph essays cheating is to watch the papers closely and see if there are any other similarities between the writing style of the student and the write r of the sample student five paragraph essay. While there are many ways to cheat on college essays, the one surefire way is to keep a close eye on the writing style. You can learn how to catch a cheating student and save a lot of time by following this strategy.

Human Resource Management Essays (2357 words) - Free Essays

Human Resource Management Essays (2357 words) - Free Essays Human Resource Management Student Name Institution Affiliation Overviews Human Resource Management can best be portrayed as the zone of an association that is in charge of motivating, retaining, and training employees. In spite of the fact that these are the principle elements of Human Resources, different capacities fall under the umbrella of Human Resource. Throughout the years Human Resources has developed and including numerous more capacities including pay, benefits, execution administration, and assessment. Never again are Hu man Resources only to hire, improvement , and training ( Bo rrego,and Johnson, 2012). As stated by Borrego and Johnson (2012) , t he most vital components of a human asset office is to be a part of the official administration group, or at any rate to have entry to the CEO to keep them educated of the happenings inside the organization and outside the organization as it identifies with HR. HR should contributes to the key measures and the organization al planning in line of the fact that staffing and procedural changes regularly happen as the key heading of the organization changes. HR needs to comprehend what the arrangements are to guarantee they have the staffing and preparing expected to suit the arrangements or on the off chance that they are not equipped for addressing those necessities. There are a few new security laws, for example, HIPPA, which Human Resources need to guarantee organization consistence. Another basic confusion of HRM is the capaci ty for contracting, passing out discipline for infringement of organization strategy, and for firing work. While these capacities are a piece of the duties of Human Resources, there is a much more extensive degree inside an organization ( Brounstein, 2014). Furthermore, human resource management is supposed to have adequate information on both social and economic issues that the company is facing. Managing Employees For Competitive Advantage For any organization to succeed in the current completive economy, human resource manager should understand all the strategies necessary in both keeping up and training his or her employees well. The HR should ensure that the company hires well trained and skilled employees and also it is important to give an existing company's workers an opportunity to natural learning , advancement of scholarly capital and upgrades center capabilities. Th is esteem is critical to company's future achievement ( Hinc hcliffe,and Kim, 2012) Second, I believe that every member of the staff whether new or old needs some kind of support amid their work. HR would likewise is supposed to be available to guide sta ff with their profession way, looking into specific courses and establishing training that is m ost appropriate to their work with the purpose of building up all the vital aptitudes to achieve high results in the working environment. Also this will results in production of high quality goods improving company's image in the market. The most important factors that all HR should apply in managing their employees is encouragement. It motivates and empower staff in their present responsibility and in advancing their profession al choices in the organization. With current adversely increase in the workforce, HR must develop to front-line fighters in providing performance guideline. lastly, HR can manage employees by offering promotion to them. He or she should set up the standard performance that employee should achieve either in order to be promoted to another job level. By doing so, all employees will work smart so that they can be promoted to another level, thus improving the performance of the company in the bu siness ( Lepak,and Gowan, 2010). HR Challenges Currently, most businesses are facing many challenges, especially in managing Organizational Demands and Environmental Influences , and Regulatory Issues because of rapid economic changes. Therefore, Human Resource Management should be very keen in solving compa ny's problem ( Hinc hcliffe,and Kim, 2012) Organizational Demands and Environmental Influences Organizational Demands are the factors affecting the decisions that HR can decides to make concerning how to control and manage company's workers while Environmental influences are the external pressure that the company may facing, especially in lying down the strategic of managing employees. First, Due to different types of workers with different religious believe, the HR encounters a lot of problems

How Are AP Exams Scored

How Are AP Exams Scored SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips If you’re studying for an AP exam right now or are thinking about taking an AP class in the future, you might be wondering: how are AP exams scored? In this post, we'll break down the scoring process, all the way from the raw scores you earn on the multiple-choice section and essays to how you get a final score on a scale of 1-5. Knowing how AP exams are scored can help you do your best on them- especially if you want a perfect 5! The AP Scoring Scale Each AP test is given a score from 1 to 5.According to the College Board (the group that administers AP tests), these numbers translate in the following ways: 5: Extremely Well Qualified 4: Well Qualified 3: Qualified 2: Possibly Qualified 1: No recommendation Any score that's 3 or higher is considered a passing score, though some colleges only accept 4s and 5s for credit. (See AP’s college database for specific policies at each university.)Getting a 5 is especially desirable because, for most exams, it puts you in the top 10-20% of scorers. See our list of AP classes for more info on passing rates. Your 1-5 score is a scaled score,converted from a composite score.Your composite score is calculated from the total number of raw points you earned from your correct multiple-choice answers and your free response. It’s a bit confusing, but we will guide you through the process! Want to get a perfect 5 on your AP exam and an A in class? We can help. PrepScholar Tutors is the world's best tutoring service. We combine world-class expert tutors with our proprietary teaching techniques. Our students have gotten A's on thousands of classes, perfect 5's on AP tests, and ludicrously high SAT Subject Test scores. Whether you need help with science, math, English, social science, or more, we've got you covered. Get better grades today with PrepScholar Tutors. How Are AP Tests Scored? The majority of AP exams consist of two sections: multiple choice and free response. On some exams each section is weighted equally, whereas on others one section is worth slightly more. You can look up the specifics for each exam on the officialAP courses pages. The multiple-choice section is graded by a computer. There are no deductions for incorrect or blank answers, so your raw multiple-choice score is simply the number of questions you get correct. The free-response section is graded during the annual AP Reading held in the first two weeks of June. The AP Reading is basically a huge convention. Tons of teachers and college professors gather to grade thousands and thousands of student-written responses for each exam. This is why you don't get your AP scores until July even though you take the test in May:the written portion of your exam isn't graded until mid-June. After that, the College Board has to calculate the composite score and final scaled score for each exam, equating the test so the scores stay even from year to year. (For example, they want to make sure a 3 on the AP US History exam means the same thing from one year to another, even if one version of the test turned out to be more difficult for students.) (Side note:There is a good chance that an AP teacher at your school goes to the AP Reading each year. It can be interesting and helpful to talk to them about what happens at the convention, how quickly free responses are scored, and the best and worse free responses they’ve seen. These are answers that will vary a lot from subject to subject but could ultimately be helpful to you!) This is a picture from the English Literature Reading from this blog post over at AP Central. It's worth taking a look at if you are curious about what the AP Reading is like! Each free response is given a "holistic" score, meaning it's evaluated for its overall effectiveness or correctness. Typically, points aren’t deducted for the occasional small error, such as a spelling or grammar mistake. Most tests grade their free responses between 1 and 9, with 1 being least effective and 9 being nearly perfect. Your raw free-response score is the total of the scores you get for each response. How to Get a Scaled AP Score Between 1 and 5 After your multiple-choice section is graded by a machine and your free response is graded by a human, your essay and multiple-choice scores are combined to give you a composite score. This score is just a way of combining the two section scores so that they are weighted correctly. For example, for AP English, multiple choice is worth 45% and free response is worth 55%. Often, composite scores are between 0 and 100, or 0 and 150. The composite score is then converted to a number on the scaled score range 1-5. This means that for each scaled score, there is a range of possible composite scores that could earn it. For example, a 5 could be any composite score between 0 and 150 on one exam. Since scaling varies year to year, there are no exact cutoff numbers for scores for AP tests, and the College Board does not release detailed scoring data. Furthermore, you will not see what your composite score was on your AP score report- you'll only get the final number between 1 and 5. However, many teachers, prep books, and websites have come up with formulas to predict the scaled score for each AP test, which can help when you are grading your practice tests and trying to come up with a target score. Scoring Example: AP English Language and Composition As we've seen, AP test scoring is not exactly straightforward. To help clarify the process, we will walk through a scoring example using the most popular test, AP English Language and Composition. Also known as the class in which you annotate every. Single. Thing. Here are the basics of the AP English exam: it has 55 multiple-choice questions, worth 45% of your score, and three essays, worth 55% of your score. Each essay is graded between 1 and 9. Before we get into the scoring example, remember that this guide is an estimation since score conversions can vary year to year based on test difficulty. While it's impossible to precisely predict an AP test score before you get your score, you can still get an idea of how the process works. Step 1: Add Up Your Correct Answers to Get Your Raw Scores There are 55 multiple-choice questions on the AP English exam. Let's say you get 40 right, get eight wrong, and leave seven blank. Your raw multiple-choice score would be an even 40 points. Out of the three essays, let's say you earn the following scores from the graders: 4, 7, and 8. This gives youa total raw essay score of 19 (4+7+8). Step 2: Convert Your Raw Scores to a Single Composite Score Now, this is the tricky part in which we will convert each of those raw scores to a single composite score between 0 and 150. The maximum converted essay score is 82.5, or 55% of 150. The maximum converted multiple-choice score is 67.5, or 45% of 150. To figure out your composite score, use this formula: (Multiple Choice Raw Score x 1.23) + (Essay Raw Score x 3.05) = Composite Score In this example, your multiple-choice composite score would be 49.2, and your essay composite score would be 57.95. Thus,your total composite score would be 107 (rounded down). Step 3: Use the Chart to Estimate Your Scaled Score The last step is easy. Use the chart below to estimate your final AP score (on a scale of 1-5): Composite Score (0-100 or 0-150) Scaled Score (1-5) 104-150 5 92-103 4 76-91 3 50-75 2 0-49 1 As you can see, your score of 107 would earn you a 5- but just barely! Again, these numbers are estimates and will shift from year to year based on test difficulty. Since 107 is just over the mark of 104, it's possible that in some years it could net you a 4 instead of a 5. What About Scoring Other AP Tests? We’ve learned how to score an AP English Language and Composition exam. However,you can’t use this exact same process for every AP test. Most AP tests have slightly different section weights and question totals, so the scoring formulas are different. For example, AP Calculus AB has fewer multiple choice questions (45), more free responses (six total), and weighs each section at 50%. Each AP subject is a unique challenge ... and has its own scoring formula. So how can you figure out how the AP tests you are taking are graded? First, if you’re taking the AP class for the test you want to take, ask your teacher if he or she has a formula for converting practice test scores to scaled scores. Most AP teachers have a formula they use with their students for practice exams. If you’re not taking the class or your teacher doesn’t have a formula, either find a prep book for your specific test or search online. Remember that all formulas are estimates. Soif you really want a 5, you shouldn’t aim for the lowest possible composite- you should aim for perfection, or very close. That’s the only way to guarantee you'll get a 5 on test day. On the other hand, if you just want to make sure you pass, try to aim for a 4 so that even if you make more mistakes than you're hoping to, you’ll still get at least a 3! Want to get a perfect 5 on your AP exam and an A in class? We can help. PrepScholar Tutors is the world's best tutoring service. We combine world-class expert tutors with our proprietary teaching techniques. Our students have gotten A's on thousands of classes, perfect 5's on AP tests, and ludicrously high SAT Subject Test scores. Whether you need help with science, math, English, social science, or more, we've got you covered. Get better grades today with PrepScholar Tutors. What’s Next? Curious about the benefits of taking an AP Exam? See our in-depth guide about what AP tests are and why you should take them. Also studying for the SAT? Get tips from our resident 1600 full scorer, and check out how to improve a low SAT Math score. Studying for the ACT instead? Get tips on the essay, read a guide to the daily ACT question, and learn how you can score a perfect 36. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

International law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

International law - Essay Example The most disputed and highly controversial examples are the Kosovo crisis, Afghanistan invasion, and the Iraq invasion. The Kosovo and Afghan Crisis The first incident that gave the idea of certain nations’ deviating from the international norms came during the Kosovo crisis. On the insistence of America, NATO undertook a bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). The action was undertaken for the claimed purpose of implementing the UN Security Council resolution but without the Security Council’s authorisation. It was claimed to be an attempt to stop human rights violations in Yugoslavia/Serbia. The unrest in Yugoslavia was the result of the Kosovars’ effort to gain independence. However, Serbia has strong emotional attachment with Kosovo as the place of the 14th century defeat by Turks. As a result, there arose reports of mass human rights violations in Kosovo as FRY president forced ethnic Albanians to leave Kosovo. Soon, there was a ne gotiation between FRY and Kosovo Liberation Army. However, the negotiation failed to reach a solution. As a result, the US forced the NATO to start air strike on FRY. Thus, the ‘Operation Allied Force’ by NATO started attack on FRY on 24 March, 1999. Up to this point everything seemed normal. However, the attack was begun without taking the matter to the United Nations Security Council as stipulated under Chapter VII of the UN Chapter (Charter of the United Nations). The strike continued for two and a half months. In the attack, as Charlesworth (2002) reports, 500 civilians were killed, including both Serbians and Kosovars; in addition, there were 6000 casualties. Later on, the attack ended with the agreement reached between FRY, Serbia, and NATO. Thus, the UN Interim Administrative Mission took charge of Kosovo (ibid). However, this aroused significant levels of controversy in the international sphere as there was blatant violation of the norms of the UN Security Counc il stipulation that any regional action only be undertaken with the permission and authorisation of the Security Council. However, this was not the only issue that arose along with the attack. Another question that came up was if it is justifiable to violate UN charter in pursuit of human rights. Also, if the violation is justified, the question arises as to what is the limit of force that can be used. Another considerable doubt casted on the sincerity of US and NATO was that if the intention of NATO was to reinstate human rights in Kosovo instantly, air strike from a height of 20,000 feet was the worst method to adopt as it naturally leads to less accuracy and more civilian deaths. In addition, the campaign could not replace President Milosevic, nor could it control the mass departure of Kosovars. Whatever the reasons of the attack may be, it helped unravel the weaknesses of international law and the institutions that are meant to impose them. One can see innumerous number of works on the Kosovo issue, and the opinions of scholars vary greatly. According to one class of thought, as cited by Charlesworth (2002), the incident calls for a principle of humanitarian intervention. This was the opinion expressed by US President Bill Clinton

Criminal Justice in the US Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Criminal Justice in the US - Essay Example Legal scholars, as well as criminologists in other developed nations, state that they are puzzled and shocked by the length and number of American prison terms. The U.S. has, for example, 2 million lawbreakers in prisons, more than any other country. This is in line with the information given out at King's College in England by the International Center for Prison Research. China follows with 1.6 million individuals in prison, but the country is four times more populous than America. That figure leaves out thousands of individuals held in administrative custody (Liptak, 2008). Most of these individuals are held up in China's extrajudicial scheme of re-education by labor. The system also isolates political activists who have not committed any offense. San Marino is at the ending of the lengthy list of 218 nations gathered by the center. The country has a population of about 30,000 people. San Marino, however, has only one inmate. The U.S. leads in the list of prison studies center. The country is ranked first in order of the imprisonment rates. America has 700 individuals in jail or prison for every 100,000 in population. If people count only grownups, then the finding would be that one in every 100 American citizens is in prison (Liptak, 2008). The only other key developed country that even comes close to America is Russia. Russia has 627 inmates for every 100,000 individuals. The other countries have much lower rates. Germany's is 70, England's rate is 140 and Japan's is 50. These rates are all out of 100,000. The median among all countries circulates at 125. 125 is roughly a fifth of the American rate. There is little inquiry that the high imprisonment rate in America has assisted to cut down crime. There is, however, the debate regarding how much the rates have eased crime. Legal experts and criminologists abroad and in the country point out certain factors to explain America's astonishing imprisonment rate. These factors are harsh sentencing regulations, hig h levels of brutal crimes, a special fervor in fighting illegal drugs, a heritage of racial disorders and the lack of a social safety net.