Thursday, November 28, 2019

Access and access to

Access and access to â€Å"Access† and â€Å"access to† â€Å"Access† and â€Å"access to† By Maeve Maddox The following excerpt is from an article on telephone fraud: The senior citizen, a man in his late 70s, is embarrassed and doesn’t want to talk about it. And, relatives are scrambling to make sure the crook doesn’t access to his bank account. When access is used as a verb, it does not require a â€Å"to† after it. access: verb. To gain access to (data, etc., held in a computer or computer-based system, or the system itself) access: noun. The state or faculty of being approached; accessibility. As a verb, access is transitive; it has a receiver. It should be followed by the noun or pronoun that is its direct object: Children can access the internet at school. In this way you can access the database. We want to make sure that the crook cannot access the old man’s bank account. When used as a noun, access is followed by a prepositional phrase beginning with â€Å"to.† The students have access to all the film databases. This ticket grants access to the flower show. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Idioms About NumbersYay, Hooray, Woo-hoo and Other AcclamationsAffect vs. Effect

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Best Character Analysis Myrtle Wilson - The Great Gatsby

Best Character Analysis Myrtle Wilson - The Great Gatsby SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips In most books and movies, the â€Å"other woman† – the woman having an affair with a married man – is often painted as a villain. But what about in The Great Gatsby, a novel in which both married women (Myrtle Wilson and Daisy Buchanan) are having affairs? Especially given that one (Daisy) ends up killing the other (Myrtle), is Myrtle just a one-note â€Å"other woman,† or is there more to her? Myrtle’s role in the story isn’t as large as Daisy’s, Gatsby’s, or Tom’s. However, she is crucial to the plot of the story, and especially to its tragic conclusion. Find out more about Myrtle’s role in Gatsby in this guide! Article Roadmap Myrtleas a character Physical description Myrtle's history before the novel begins Actions in the novel Character Analysis Myrtle quotes Common discussion topics and essay ideas Quick Note on Our Citations Our citation format in this guide is (chapter.paragraph). We're using this system since there are many editions of Gatsby, so using page numbers would only work for students with our copy of the book. To find a quotation we cite via chapter and paragraph in your book, you can either eyeball it (Paragraph 1-50: beginning of chapter; 50-100: middle of chapter; 100-on: end of chapter), or use the search function if you're using an online or eReader version of the text. Myrtle Wilson's Physical Description Then I heard footsteps on thestairs and in a moment the thickish figure of a woman blocked out the light from the office door. She was in the middle thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can. Her face, above a spotted dress of dark blue crepe-de-chine, contained no facet or gleam of beauty but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering. She smiled slowly and walking through her husband as if he were a ghost shook hands with Tom, looking him flush in the eye. (2.15) Unlike Nick’s description of Daisy, which focuses on her voice, mannerisms, and charm, and unlike his description of Jordan, which focuses on her posture and athleticism, Nick’s description of Myrtle focuses almost entirely on her body itself. Perhaps this fits with her role as Tom’s mistress, but it also indicates Nick sees little in Myrtle in terms of intellect or personality. This description also speaks to the strong physical attraction between Tom and Myrtle that undergirds their affair. This attraction serves as a foil to the more deep-seated emotional attraction between Gatsby and Daisy, the novel’s central affair. Myrtle Before the Novel Begins We don’t know a ton about Myrtle Wilson’s background except what we can gather from the passing comments from other characters. For example, we get the sense Myrtleloved her husband when they got married, but has since been disappointed by his lack of cash and social status, and now feels stifled by her twelve-year marriage: "I married him because I thought he was a gentleman," she said finally. "I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn't fit to lick my shoe." "You were crazy about him for a while," said Catherine. "Crazy about him!" cried Myrtle incredulously. "Who said I was crazy about him? I never was any more crazy about him than I was about that man there." She pointed suddenly at me, and every one looked at me accusingly. I tried to show by my expression that I had played no part in her past. "The only crazy I was was when I married him. I knew right away I made a mistake. He borrowed somebody's best suit to get married in and never even told me about it, and the man came after it one day when he was out. She looked around to see who was listening: " 'Oh, is that your suit?' I said. 'This is the first I ever heard about it.' But I gave it to him and then I lay down and cried to beat the band all afternoon." "She really ought to get away from him," resumed Catherine to me. "They've been living over that garage for eleven years. And Tom's the first sweetie she ever had." (2.2-7) She begins her affair with Tom Buchanan after he sees her on the train and later presses against her in the station: I was going up to New York to see my sister and spend the night. He had on a dress suit and patent leather shoes and I couldn't keep my eyes off him but every time he looked at me I had to pretend to be looking at the advertisement over his head. When we came into the station he was next to me and his white shirt-front pressed against my armand so I told him I'd have to call a policeman, but he knew I lied. I was so excited that when I got into a taxi with him I didn't hardly know I wasn't getting into a subway train† (2.120). Myrtledesperately wants to come off as sophisticated and wealthy despite herhumble roots. Nick finds her efforts tacky and vulgar, and he spends a lot of time commenting on her clothes, mannerisms, and conversational style. She is oblivious about upper-class life: she tells her sister at one point Tom doesn’t divorce Daisy because Daisy is Catholic. This is a small inside joke on Fitzgerald's part - since Tom and Daisy are part of the community of uber-WASPy residents of East Egg, there's almost nochance that Daisy could be Catholic. That Myrtle thinks accepts Tom's lieshows that she is not a well-schooled as she thinks she is about the life and customs of the elite class she wants to be a part of. Still, before the novel begins, Tom has gotten comfortable showing Myrtlearound in popular restaurants and doesn’t hide the affair. Perhaps this causes Myrtle to misunderstand what she means to Tom: she doesn’t seem to realize she’s just one in a string of mistresses. To see Myrtle's life events alongside those of the other characters, check out our timeline of The Great Gatsby. Want to get better grades and test scores? 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. Summary of Myrtle's Action in the Novel The idea of Myrtle Wilson is introduced in Chapter 1, when she callsthe Buchanans’ house to speak to Tom. We get our first look at Myrtle in Chapter 2, when Nick goes with Tom to George Wilson’s garage to meet her, and then to Myrtle’s apartment in Manhattan for a party.On that day, she buys a dog, has sex with Tom (with Nick in the next room), throws a party, and is fawned on by her friends, and then ends up with a broken nose when Tom punches her after she brings up Daisy. This doesn’t prevent her from continuing the affair. Later on, in Chapter 7, George starts to suspect she’s having an affair when he finds her dog’s leash in a drawer at the house. He locks her upstairs in their house, determined to move out west once he gets the money from the car sale he’s waiting on from Tom. Myrtle glimpses Tom, along with Nick and Jordan, as they drive up to Manhattan in Gatsby’s yellow car. Myrtle and George fight later that evening, and Myrtle manages to run out of the house after yelling at George to beat her and calling him a coward. Just then, she spots the yellow car heading back for Long Island. Thinking it’s Tom, she runs toward and then out in front of the car, waving her arms. But Daisy is driving the car, and she decides to run over Myrtle rather than get into a head-on collision with an oncoming car. She hits Myrtle, who dies instantly. Myrtle’s death emotionally and mentally devastates George, which prompts him to murder Gatsby (who he mistakes for both his wife’s killer and lover), and then kill himself. The death car. Key Myrtle Wilson Quotes Mrs. Wilson had changed her costume some time before and was now attired in an elaborate afternoon dress of cream colored chiffon, which gave out a continual rustle as she swept about the room. With the influence of the dress her personality had also undergone a change. The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur. Her laughter, her gestures, her assertions became more violently affected moment by moment and as she expanded the room grew smaller around her until she seemed to be revolving on a noisy, creaking pivot through the smoky air. (2.56) Here, we see Myrtle transformed from her more sensuous, physical persona into that of someone desperate to come off as richer than she actually is. Wielding power over her group of friends, she seems to revel in her own image. Unlike Gatsby, who projects an elaborately rich and worldly character, Myrtle’s persona is much more simplistic and transparent. (Notably Tom, who immediately sees Gatsby as a fake, doesn’t seem to mind Myrtle’s pretensions – perhaps because they are of no consequence to him, or any kind of a threat to his lifestyle.) "Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!" shouted Mrs. Wilson. "I'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai" Making a short deft movement Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand. (2.125-126) Here we see Myrtle pushing her limits with Tom – and realizing that he is both violent and completely unwilling to be honest about his marriage. While both characters are willful, impulsive, and driven by their desires, Tom is violently asserting here that his needs are more important than Myrtle’s. After all, to Tom, Myrtle is just another mistress, and just as disposable as all the rest. Also, this injury foreshadows Myrtle’s death at the hands of Daisy, herself. While invoking Daisy’s name here causes Tom to hurt Myrtle, Myrtle’s actual encounter with Daisy later in the novel turns out to be deadly. "Beat me!" he heard her cry. "Throw me down and beat me, you dirty little coward!" (7.314) When George confronts his wife about her affair, Myrtle is furious and needles at her husband – already insecure since he’s been cheated on – by insinuating he’s weak and less of a man than Tom. Also, their fight centers around her body and its treatment, while Tom and Daisy fought earlier in the same chapter about their feelings. In this moment, we see that despite how dangerous and damaging Myrtle’s relationship with Tom is, she seems to be asking George to treat her in the same way that Tom has been doing. Myrtle's disturbing acceptance of her role as a just a body - a piece of meat, basically - foreshadows the gruesome physicality of her death. Michaelis and this man reached her first but when they had torn open her shirtwaist still damp with perspiration, they saw that her left breast was swinging loose like a flap and there was no need to listen for the heart beneath. The mouth was wide open and ripped at the corners as though she had choked a little in giving up the tremendous vitality she had stored so long. (7.317) Even in death, Myrtle’s physicality and vitality are emphasized. In fact, the image is pretty overtly sexual – notice how it’s Myrtle’s breast that’s torn open and swinging loose, and her mouth ripped open at the corners. This echoes Nick’s view of Myrtle as a woman and mistress, nothing more – even in death she’s objectified. This moment is also much more violent than her earlier broken nose. While that moment cemented Tom as abusive in the eyes of the reader, this one truly shows the damage that Tom and Daisy leave in their wake, and shapes the tragic tone of the rest of the novel. The graphic and bloody nature of Myrtle's death really sticks with you. Common Essay Topics/ Areas of Discussion You will most likelybe asked towrite about Myrtlein relation to other characters (especially Daisy), or in prompts that ask you to compare the â€Å"strivers† in the book (including also Gatsby, George Wilson) with the old money set (Tom, Daisy, Jordan). To learn how best to approach this kind of compare and contrast essay, read our article on common character pairings and how to analyze them. It’s less likely, but not impossible, that you will be assigned a Myrtle-specific essay. In either case, Myrtle’s most important chapters are 2 and 7, so close read those carefully. When writing about her, pay close attention to Myrtle’s interactions with other characters. And if you’re writing an essay that discusses Myrtle as someone trying to live out the American Dream, make sure to address her larger influences and motivations. We’ll take a look at some of these strategies in action below. Why Do Tom and Myrtle Get Together? What Do They See in Each Other? For readers new to Gatsby, Tom and Myrtle’s relationship can seem a bit odd. There is obvious physical chemistry, but it can be hard to see why the classist, misogynist Tom puts up with Myrtle - or why Myrtle accepts Tom's mistreatment. For Tom, the affair – just one in a string he’s had since his honeymoon – is about taking and being able to get whatever he wants. Having an affair is a show of power. Especially since he’s been taking her around popular restaurants in Manhattan (2.4), it’s clear he’s not exactly hiding the relationship – instead, he’s flaunting it. He’s so assured of his place in society as a wealthy man, that he’s free to engage in some risky and socially inappropriate behavior – because he knows no one can actually touch his wealth or social position. For Myrtle, the affair (her first) is about escape from her life with George, and a taste ofa world – Manhattan, money, nice things – she wouldn’t otherwise have access to. It’s clear from how Myrtle moves and speaks that she’s confident and self-assured, and assumes that her relationship with Tom is a permanent ticket into the world of the wealthy – not just a fleeting glimpse. The fact that Tom sees Myrtle as disposable but Myrtle hopes for more in their relationship is painfully apparent at the end of Chapter 2, when she insists on bringing up Daisy, and Tom responds by breaking Myrtle’s nose. But despite this nasty encounter, the two continue their relationship, suggesting that this kind of abuse is the norm for Tom’s affairs, and Myrtle is too eager to stay in the new world she’s found – or even believes that Tom will still leave Daisy for her – that she stays as well. By the end of the novel, Myrtle doesn't seem to have been completelymistaken about Tom's affection for her. After all, Tom says he that he â€Å"cried like a baby† (9.145) when he found dog food for the dog he's bought her in Myrtle’s apartment. Of course, since it's Tom, his grief is probablyself-pitying than selfless. Either way, their relationship is indicative of both their values: Myrtle's ambition and Tom’s callousness. What Does Myrtle’s Life (and Tragic Ending) Say About the American Dream? Myrtle, like George and Gatsby, was obviously not born into money, and instead is relying on her own wits to make it in 1920s America. In a manner quite similar to Gatsby’s, she consciously adopts a different persona to try and get access to a richer circle (while George seems to be the only one relying on honest work – his shop – and honest relationships, through his loyalty to Myrtle, to improve his lot in life). But Myrtle aims too high, and ends up killed when she mistakes Gatsby’s yellow car for Tom’s, and runs out in the road assuming the car will stop for her. In the same way that Gatsby overestimates his value to Daisy, Myrtleoverestimates her value to Tom. Even if Tom had been driving the car, and even if he had stopped for her, he would never have whisked her away from George, divorced Daisy, and married her. Furthermore, the fact she assumed the garish yellow car was Tom’s shows how little she understands the stiff, old money world Tom comes from. Myrtle’s complete misunderstanding of Tom, as well as her violent death, fit the overall cynical message in the book that the American Dream is a false promise to those born outside of the wealthy class in America. As hard as anyone tries, they don’t stand a chance of competing with those in America born into the old money class. They will never understand the strange internal rules that govern the old money set, and will never stand a chance of being their equal. How Does Myrtle's Home Reflect Her Character, Attitudes, Beliefs, and Values? This is a prompt that you can obviously use for any of the characters, but it’s especially interesting in Myrtle’s case, since she has two residences: the house above the auto shop that George owns, and the apartment that Tom Buchanan rents for her in the city. Myrtle'shome with George is a dark, hopelessimage of working class life in America: it's an apartment above a baregarage, nestled in the dreadful Valley of Ashes. George is utterly mired in this home, even coated with a thin layer of ash from the factories outside. In contrast, Myrtle is vivacious and free of the ash, which gives her a layer of separation from her actual home. Myrtle’s apartment with Tom is overstuffed and gaudy, and she seems much happier and more at home there. The mix of high-brow pretension in the decor with her low-brow entertainment speaks to how Myrtle values the appearance of wealth and sophistication, but doesn’t actually understand what upper-class taste looks like the way Tom and Daisy Buchanan do. So while the Wilson’s garage is a testament to the struggle of the working class in American in the 1920s, Myrtle and Tom’s apartment is a physical representation of the airs Myrtle puts on and the appearances of wealth she values. Myrtle's taste in decor overlaps quite a bit with King Louis XIV's. Why Exactly Does Myrtle Run Into the Road? One of the novel’s most important events is also one that can be confusing for students: namely, Myrtle’s death at the end ofChapter 7. How exactly does she end up in the road? What does it have to do with her strange encounter with Tom, Nick, and Jordan in the garage earlier in the day? The incident is confusing because we come at it from many narrative angles: Setup from Nick's point of view Michaelis’s inquest testimony about the accident Nick'sdescription of the accident sceneright after Myrtle's death Gatsby's explanation of the accident to Nick after the fact Additional information from Michaelis in Chapter 8 about George’s actions both before and after Myrtle’s death A final revelatory confession from Tom about his role in George's violence in Chapter 9 Piecing together these three takes on the incident, this is what happens, in order: Before the accident, George has begun to suspect Myrtle's affair. George locks Myrtle up above the garage, saying "She’s going to stay there till the day after to-morrow, and then we’re going to move away† (7.3). Michaelis, uncomfortable, finds an excuse to leave. Tom, Jordan, and Nick driveup to the gas station in the yellow car. Tom brags that the car is his. Myrtle looks downstairs and concludes two things: first, that Jordan is Tom’s wife, and second, that Tom owns the yellow car. Later that evening, Myrtle fights with George about being locked up. We don’t see much of this fight. All we know is that she cries â€Å"throw me down and beat me!† (7.314) to George. Meanwhile, Gatsby and Daisy are driving back from Manhattan to East Egg after the Plaza Hotel showdown. Myrtle runs outside. Outside, Myrtle sees the yellow car and assumes it’s Tom on his way back to Long Island. Myrtle runs out to the car, waving her arms, likely because she thinks Tom will stop for her and rescue her from George. At the same time, another car is driving in the opposite direction towards Manhattan. When Daisy sees Myrtle in the road, she has to make a quick decision: either run over Myrtle, or swerve into the oncoming car to avoid Myrtle. Daisy first drives toward the oncoming car, but at the last second, turns back into her own lane and hits and kills Myrtle instead. What’s Next? Still a bit confused about the climax of the novel? Get a detailed recap of Chapters 7,8and 9 to understand exactly how the three deaths play out. Learn more about Myrtle’s marriage and her relationship with Tom over at our post about love and relationships. Still a bit confused about the old money/new money/working class themes? Read about social class in the novel in our post on the role of social classes in this novel. 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:

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Answers Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 5

Answers - Assignment Example In such a case, a computerized system can calculate the impact of expansion like the cost of adding employees to the business. This team is also responsible for identifying the resources by identifying the resources already available at hand then reconsidering other options available before implementing decisions. Consider the case of adding more employees when the company evaluates the experience and the skills that the current employees have then promoting them before hiring new less skilled employees who can fill up their positions (Hussain, 2004). Another role is meeting training needs. The HR can protect critical electronic employee information by consistently enforcing policies and procedures. They can also consider revising these policies and procedures to ensure that all the necessary changes and additions get the attention they deserve. Being aware of critical employee information as well as corporate data and the people who have access to such kind of information also helps in boosting the security of such information. Finally, the company should have a response plan which should come in handy in the event that such security breaches occur (Hussain, 2004). Hussain, Z., Prowse, P., & University of Bradford. (2004). Human resource information systems (HRIS) as means of fulfilling job more professionally for human resource (HR) managers. Bradford: Bradford University, School of

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Health Care Disparities in the United States Research Paper

Health Care Disparities in the United States - Research Paper Example Yes, it is possible to eliminate health disparities in the United States. Eliminating the disparities that exist in healthcare is politically sensitive and rather challenging because they are somehow intertwined with a controversial record of race relationships in the US. Â  Some of the approaches that can be applied in eliminating health care disparities include increasing the competence and number of healthcare practitioners in areas which are underserved, expanding health insurance coverage, increasing the awareness base on root and arbitration to decrease the occurrence of health care disparities and raising community and health care practitioners understanding of racial or ethnic health care disparities. These strategies combined with others by the government are bound to be successful in eliminating health care disparities in the US. Â  The similar theme is that exists in the assigned articles is that eliminating health care disparities is key to improving the general quality of health care provided in the US. Most Americans do not often receive the quality health care that they deserve or on other occasions, the health care they get causes them harm (Williams, 2007). It is such incidences that have resulted in health care disparities in America.

Monday, November 18, 2019

Desiderius Erasmus Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Desiderius Erasmus - Essay Example But â€Å"he showed discretion in his choice of tactics. If you wish to bring about peacefully true and lasting reforms, you do not, like the fanatics, indiscriminately attack not only the ideas you oppose but also the honesty, integrity, and sincerity of those who hold them. If you wish to convince a person he should change his ways, for instance, you do not hit him on the head with a bat.† (Thornton, 2005) Even though Erasmus’ reputation was somewhat diminished by his pragmatist attitudes his legacy is growing in retrospect. This is in large part due to the growing popularity and interpretive richness of some of his books. These famous books include Handbook of a Christian Knight, On Civility in Children, The Praise of Folly, Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style, On Free Will, Julius Exclusus, etc. As this partial list of his oeuvre illustrates, Erasmus was a true polymath. His body of work is informed but not limited by the spirit of Christianity. For instance, n owhere else is this best exemplified than in his Colloquies, which is full of â€Å"nonchalant erudition, eloquence and profundity. Almost nothing, from war and peace to alchemy and salt herring, falls outside his purview. It is a treasure house of theological wisdom dressed in the finest verbal ornament of the age.† (Bauman, 1999, p. 536) In this sense, he truly remains a luminous pioneer of Humanism. Although Erasmus was a contemporary of Martin Luther they disagreed on several critical issues. Despite the comprehensive and persuasive arguments that Luther presented in his Ninety-Nine Thesis, Erasmus was not easily willing to concede the moral failings of the then existing Roman Catholic order. Conservative in nature and skeptical of the emotional appeal of radical revolution, Erasmus was to remain indifferent to Lutheranism and the Protestant Reformation that was beginning to spread across Europe. Instead Erasmus preferred slow and gradual reform in the Church without dism antling its power structure. To Erasmus, religion meant â€Å"purity and justice and mercy, with the keeping of moral commandments, and to him these Graces were not the privilege of any particular creed.† (Thornton, 2005) In hindsight, some of his apprehensions about the Protestant Reformation were proved correct when several European societies fell into disorder. Some of the most glaring collapses of social cohesion was the German Peasants’ War and the Anabaptist disturbances. Soon what began as rebellions within the Church would snowball into a class conflict. Desiderius Erasmus created controversy through his refusal to discard certain primitive Christian doctrines. The idea of ‘free will’ is one which he held on to even as his contemporaries both within and without the faith was moving toward accepting the doctrine of ‘predestination’. Although the Catholic Church itself had at times viewed Erasmus with suspicion and blamed him for the gro wth of Protestant faction, he was at heart and deed a man of religious toleration. (Olin, 1979) This is best exemplified in his work De Libero Arbitrio. Though meant to be a polemic to Martin Luther’s dominant views the tone and temperament of his arguments and language were admirable. It illustrated Erasmus’s belief that even disputes of faith should be conducted in an orderly, respectful and courtly manner. Erasmus declared that "courtesy

Friday, November 15, 2019

Adaptive User Interface Framework: Android Mobile Platform

Adaptive User Interface Framework: Android Mobile Platform Mr. Tulip Das Abstract—Adapting a graphical interface (GUI) to a range of resources with completely different capabilities is exciting topic of mobile computer. The user interface created for an application ought to modification its layout and parts to the user need and changes for every user. We propose a framework for mobile applications to form the user interfaces adaptable for user. This identifies an appropriate expertise level to a user by learning his/her history of interaction. Dynamic App Shortcut is to be provided on Mobile Devices serving to user to swipe the screen many times to search out the required app. The prediction model utilizes multiple options together with recency, frequency, duration, time distribution and app sequence launch. Keywords—HCI in Mobile; AI and expert systems; Adaptive user interface framework; k-means algorithm; dynamic shortcuts; mobile app usage; personalization.) I. Introduction An adaptive user interface (also known as AUI) is a user interface (UI) which adapts, that is changes, its layout and elements to the needs of the user or context and is similarly alterable by each user. These mutually reciprocal qualities of both adapting and being adaptable are, in a true AUI, also innate to elements that comprise the interfaces components; portions of the interface might adapt to and affect other portions of the interface. The user adaptation is often a negotiated process, as an adaptive user interfaces designers ignore where user interface components ought to go while affording a means by which both the designers and the user can determine their placement, often (though not always) in a semi-automated, if not fully automated manner. An AUI is primarily created based on the features of the system, and the knowledge levels of the users that will utilize it. Figure 1: Adaptive Graphical User Interface The advantages of an adaptive user interface are found within its ability to conform to a user’s needs. The properties of an AUI allow showing only relevant information based on the current user. This creates less confusion for less experienced users and provides ease of access throughout a system. Depending on the task, we can increase the stability of a system. An adaptive user interface can be implemented in various ways. These implementations can differ between the amount of information available to certain users, or how users utilize the application. Adaptive presentation: The goal behind adaptive presentation is to display certain information based on the current user. This may mean that users with only basic knowledge of a system will only be shown minimal information. Conversely, a user with advanced knowledge will have access to more detailed information and capabilities. A way that the AUI can achieve this differentiation could be to hide information to be presented based on the users experience level. Another possibility is to control the amount of links to relevant sources on the page. Adaptive navigation: Adaptive navigation intends to guide a user to their specific goal within the system by altering the way the system is navigated based on certain factors of the user. These factors can include the user’s expertise level with the system/subject, the current goal within the system, and other relevant factors. Examples of adaptive navigation can be achieved in many ways, similar to adaptive presentation. These can include examples such as providing links to help achieve a user’s specific goal, giving reference on a page to where a user is, or altering the resources available to the user. II. MOTIVATION In the last few years, an ecosystem of devices and heterogeneous services has emerged with a huge variety of capacities and characteristics. These new devices, along with applications and services, must be used to enhance the quality of life, making the users daily activities easier, as well as increasing their personal autonomy. User interfaces in mobile applications are complex since they need to provide sufficient features to variety of users in a restricted space where a small number of components are available. When user acquires expertise in the system they expect user interfaces which satisfy their unique needs. Therefore, user interfaces in mobile applications should be adapted to different users. Since this problem exists in various applications a general solution is required to make user interfaces adaptive using user context history. Figure 2: Different Mobile Devices In this sense, there is a clear need for creating interfaces that adapt themselves taking into account characteristics of the user, context, application and device. One of the aspects to consider when adapting interfaces is the set of preferences of the user. When using different applications or devices, each user has different preferences, mainly related to their limitations. III. Problem Statement Using mobile and its application is a personalized experience. Each user has different preferences, mainly related to their limitations. Hence it is quite essential to account characteristics of the user, context, application and device while designing a Graphical User Interface for mobile platform. It is quite difficult to manage when there are many applications (apps) installed on a mobile device, the simple task of launching an app could become inconvenient, as the user may need to swipe the screen several times to and the desired app. Hence an adaptive user interface solution for mobile devices, which uses dynamic shortcuts to facilitate app launching is needed. In this context, personalization of applications, i.e. applications that adapt themselves to users capacities and limitations is essential. IV. Problem Modeling A. Overview Rather than providing adaptive user interfaces for a specific mobile application, it is more valuable if it would be a common solution to make any UI adaptive. So it is encouraged to provide a framework which can give a common solution which can be used by all developers to create applications which provide adaptive user interfaces. This framework provides Adaptive User Interfaces based on users experience level. The experience levels are classified by Inference Engine which is explained in the subsection Inference Engine. The system will learn the user experience level based on user actions performed on each component of the application with the algorithm. Figure 2: Concept of Adaptive User Interface Figure 3: Module diagram for the system with Adaptive User Interface B. Components of Solution The proposed adaptive user interface is mainly focused on hiding group of unwanted components for corresponding experience level of user on that application. The framework consists of three main phases such as 1. Data preprocessing step 2. Learning step 3. Execution and rendering step Data preprocessing step 1. Location Data: One of the factors to adapt the UI is the location of the user. This is based on the premise that the type of applications a user is expected to access when at home is different from the type of applications accessed when the user is at work. The location is determined by means of the GPS sensor on the mobile device. 2. Device Data: Output of other sensors on the device including the ambient light sensor (to infer whether the user is indoors or outdoors), accelerometer and gyroscope (to say if the user is stationary or moving) can also be used to derive additional contextual information in order to better predict the users chosen application and modify the UI appropriately. 3. App usage Data: Logs of the past application usage, the frequency at which the particular app was accessed and the user actions and interactions while using the app can act as another source of contextual information. 4. Time Data: The type of applications accessed on weekdays might be different from the applications accessed on a weekend or on holidays. Similarly, in the morning the user may access different apps than the ones they do at night. A logging service running in the device would have to log the types of apps accessed at specific times of day or day or the week, and use it to make the appropriate UI modifications. C. Learning step The main purpose of inference engine is to collect the data provided by the data-preprocessing module and provide an experience level of the user according to the current user context. To infer the experience level of the user, the inference engine should behave as an intelligent system which should be trained by data related to user experience level and user interactions between the applications. Figure 4: A High level architecture of adaptive user interface framework Execution and rendering step K-means clustering engine is capable of setting the number of clusters needed. When the number of clusters is set, the engine can cluster the dataset when the squared error becomes minimized. This will give each clusters center points as output. Once the cluster centers are found these cluster centers will be delivered to user type selector. User type selector will appoint each experience level to each center sent by K-means clustering engine. Currently we have manually appointed the experience level for identified centers using natural knowledge. As mentioned earlier who masters the system can suggest these levels for each cluster values. Current user context data will be feed into the User type selector and user type selector will infer a suitable experience level which is closest. This final output will be delivered to the execution and rendering step. D. Implementation In order to practically show the behavior of the framework a proof of concept (POC) application will be developed. A simple application which can be used as an online ticket reservation system for aircrafts will be developed as the application. This application was developed in Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) and JavaScript. Android platform has given enough features and Application Programming Interfaces (API) to create an Android application using HTML and JavaScript. Android web application can be created by converting a HTML page to an Android web application using WebView class. Currently there are many third party frameworks and plug-ins are available to convert HTML and JavaScript pages to Android application. This application will be connected to adaptive UI framework using a component called UIhooks. UIhooks are some methods which can be used by the developer during the application development. For example these methods can be used when some events are fired on UI components. When UIhooks are called they are developed in a way to measure the user actions performed on corresponding UI component and store them. For example when a UIhook method is called on a button on click event, the Uihooks is implemented to measure how many time the button was clicked and what is the recent time it was used. If UIhook method is called on a textbox on submit event the Uihook can inspect and store the value submitted and the count of submit action performed. This application is sent to a user study to collect training data. This is elaborated more in User study section. The collected data were organized and feed to inference engine as the training dataset. Inference engine learned the data as elaborated b efore and gave the suitable experience level. Once the experience level is feed to the rendering engine it finds the related rendering logics inside the UI clusters. For example if the experience level is provided as intermediate it checks for the corresponding rendering logics and UI clusters. If it is said as If user Type is intermediate render cluster2 it will build a new UI using what is mentioned in cluster2. Then it renders it to the user. When the user is provided with new adaptive UI a question will be provided to the user asking whether they are satisfied with the new UI or they want to go back to the earlier stage. This is to measure their satisfactory level and the accuracy of the algorithm predictions. V. Mathematical Modeling Let s (be a main set of) ≠¡ {SDB, LDB, C, A, S, MR, AO} where, SDB is the copy of the server database. This database is responsible for storing user information related to cloud interactions. LDB is a set of local database that a user owns. It consists of data tables having data items related to the products and their sales transactions. C is a set of all clients using the server database and mining services from the server. And (c1 , c2 , c3, cn) à Ã¢â‚¬Å¾ C. A is a set of algorithms applied on the input data to get mining results. S is the server component of the system. The server is responsible for registering, authenticating and providing associations to the end user. MR is a set of mining rules that are applied on the input dataset provided by the client from his LDB. And (mr1 , mr2 , mr3, mrn) à Ã¢â‚¬Å¾ MR AO is a set of associations that are extracted from the input and a form the output of the system. Functionalities : SDB = RegisterUser(uid, password, fullname, address, country, contact, email); password = SHA1(input_password); U = AuthenticateUser(uid, password, SDB); LDB1 = ManageProducts(pid, product name, cost); LDB2 = ManageBilling(transactions, items); LDB = LDB1 + LDB2 ED(Encoded data) = EncodeTransactions(LDB2, EncodingAlgorithm(EA)); UPLOAD(ED); AO = Apply Mining(ED); Results = Decode(Download(AO)) VI. Results Expected Figure 5: Dynamic Shortcuts Figure 6: Adaptive UI VII. Conclusion The aim of our study was to propose a high level architecture for a framework to provide adaptive user interface for mobile applications. This framework includes data preprocessing step, learning step and execution and rendering step to deliver a  suitable user interface. The learning is done by an intelligent system which is unsupervised and trained using user context data. This delivers k number of experience levels by clustering the collected data set using K-means and ANN algorithm. It will also allow dynamic shortcuts to facilitate app launching. Some other options to enhance the proposed dynamic shortcuts solution such as gesture based control will also be explored in the future. VIII. References Aztiria, A. ; Castillejo, E. ; Almeida, A. ; Lopez-de-Ipia, D.Adapting User Interfaces Based on User Preferences and Habits, Intelligent Environments (IE), 2014 International Conference on DOI: 10.1109/IE.2014.9 Publication Year: 2014 , Page(s): 9 – 15 Nivethika, M. ; Vithiya, I. ; Anntharshika, S. ; Deegalla, S.Personalized and adaptive user interface framework for mobile application, Advances in Computing, Communications and Informatics (ICACCI), 2013 International Conference on DOI: 10.1109/ICACCI.2013.6637474, Publication Year: 2013 , Page(s): 1913- 1918 Jain, R. ; Bose, J. ; Arif, T. Contextual adaptive user interface for Android devices, India Conference (INDICON), 2013 Annual IEEE DOI: 10.1109/INDCON.2013.6726014 Publication Year: 2013 , Page(s): 1- 5 Ye Xu et al. Preference, Context and Communities: A Multi-faceted approach to Predicting Smartphone App Usage Patterns, In the 17th International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC 2013). Zurich, Switzerland. Mejia-Figueroa, A. ; Juarez-Ramirez, R. Towards a User Model for the Design of Adaptive Interfaces for Autistic Users, Computer Software and Applications Conference Workshops (COMPSACW), 2014 IEEE 38th International DOI: 10.1109/COMPSACW.2014.47 Publication Year: 2014 , Page(s): 264 – 269 Leichtenstern, K. ; Andre, E. User-Centred Development of Mobile Interfaces to a Pervasive Computing Environment, Advances in Computer-Human Interaction, 2008 First International Conference on DOI: 10.1109/ACHI.2008.10 Publication Year: 2008 , Page(s): 114 – 119 Chang Tan, Qi Liu, Enhong Chen, Hui Xiong. `Prediction for Mobile Application Usage Patterns. Nokia Mobile Data Challenge Workshop 2012. Matthias Bhmer, Antonio Krger. A Study on Icon Arrangement by Smartphone Users. In Proc. ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Paris 2013, France N. Andrew, Clustering with the K-Means Algorithm, video tutorialJ.S. Augusto, transcript writter, June 2012. T. D. Bie, T. T. Maia and A. P. Braga, Machine Learning with Labeled and Unlabeled Data, European Syumposium on Arti_cial Neural Networks- Advances in Computational Intelligence and Learning, Bruges, 2009. Y. Fukazawa, M. Hara, M. Onogi, H. Ueno, Automatic mobile menu customization based on user operation history, 11th International Conference on HCI with Mobile Devices and Services. J. Brooke, SUS: a quick and dirty usability scale. In P. W. Jordan, B. Thomas, B. A. Weerdmeester, A. L. McClelland (Eds.), Usability Evaluation in Industry (S. 189 -194). London: Taylor and Francis,1996.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

The Death Penalty: Cruel and Unusual Essay -- Argumentative, Persuasiv

The death penalty is the most inhuman and crucial punishment. Even though it is not applied in every state, the death penalty is a very strong debate and argument within our own government. There are people who support it and those who are against it. The death penalty is a punishment to those who due to their actions and circumstances commit crimes. All people are all equal under the eyes of the law and those people in the end are still humans no matter the crimes they have committed. The death penalty is looked as a violation to the eighth amendment. It is an invalid form of punishment. The risks of inaccurate judgment can change the live of a human within just a few seconds. Taking away another person’s life for committing a crime is like taken an easy way out. The U.S. government should stop using immediately death penalty as a way of punishment because it is unfair, unethical and crucial. Our founding fathers wanted a government that would show the tyrants or absolute monarchs of Europe that it was possible to coexist and live free within fair justice. Even though they excluded any religion to be part of the government regulations, they used Christianity to influence them and built a strong foundation for the new type of government. In a webpage of the history of death penalty they stated that they used the bible and popular teachings to create basic laws and form basic human rights that many religions would forbid death penalty such as; Catholics, Presbyterians, Quakers, Amish’s, and Mennonites. One can easily find a statement teaching that one should not kill, which was used to make a law against murder. No matter what circumstance killing is wrong. So, why are we killing criminals? Aren’t we basically acting again... ...mistake, it is too and nothing can be done to reverse it. Therefore, people should realize that dealing with a human’s life; something so precious and valuable, no technology or currency can replace it or manipulate. When violence is committed the judge has the order to either punish a person with a lifetime of prison or sentence them to death penalty. Homicide is a power that no one should have on their hands. If someone acts against another person, there should be another way of solution discarding the act of death penalty. The death penalty is a huge argument in which many people will always have different opinions towards it. People should realize and acknowledge the fact that we are are equal under the eyes of the law and mistakes are always done. The unfairness, cruelty, and unethical behaviors of the death penalty should be taken under major consideration.