Air Pollution Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Air Pollution - Research Paper Example Air pollution emanates from air pollutants. These are substances that have adverse effects on the natural ecosystem when released into the atmosphere. The air pollutants can be liquid droplets, gases, or solid particles. The pollutants are either generated through the natural processes or by the action of human activities. One of the commonest natural sources of air pollution is the volcanic eruption. The gases emitted through volcanic activities may contain toxic pollutants such as sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide. The human activities that cause air pollution are mainly due to industrial production. Many modern factories emit sulphur dioxide through the production processes. The pollutant can also build up in the air due to the reaction of other gases such as sulphur monoxide with oxygen. In other words, the presence of oxygen in the air causes pollution after some non-polluting gases react with oxygen (Haerens 12). Sulphur may react with oxygen in a chain of processes leading to the emission of sulphur dioxide. Similarly, oxygen may react with carbon in a chain of reaction processes leading to the emission of carbon monoxide, an air pollutant. The other source of air pollution is the oxides of nitrogen. They result from human activities, especially due to motor vehicle exhausts. Some vehicles are not fitted with the required catalytic converters to convert the oxides into the non-polluting nitrogen gas. When the oxides of nitrogen combine with those of sulphur in the atmosphere, the air becomes unpalatable and unsuitable for human health (Ayres, Robert & Roy 4). The result is the outbreak of skin cancers and other infections associated with the pollutants. Likewise, the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is directly associated with global warming. The gas causes greenhouse effect that leads to the preservation of more heat in the earth’s atmosphere. Although the sources

Dior J`adore Perfume Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Dior J`adore Perfume - Essay Example As J’adore is a luxury item, it adds to the personality of women customers. The main features and attributes of the product highlighted by the company are: femininity, sophistication, and emotion. The other features are its everlasting fragrance, better quality, innovation, and its brand name. The company offers free shipment for a particular range of J’adore products. Tester facility is provided to the customers, to test the perfume as a demo. They also offer attractive sale offers on particular occasions like Christmas. During Christmas season Dior offers combination like lotion with perfume. Women, who have high income, are the main consumers of J’adore. The products come in models like J'Adore L'Absolu, J'Adore Anniversaire En Or, J'Adore L'or, J'Adore L'eau. Customers are ready to spend more time in search of the product, because once they use it they always go for the same product, and they identify themselves with the picture of feminity in the perfume. They never go for a different or substitute product, because of its unique fragrance and quality. The product has been in the market for the last ten years. Flimsy bottle caps sometimes with decorated gold ribbon, brilliant, transparent and unique crystal bottle design, and attractive letter design of the word J’adore are the distinctive features of the product packing. They also use luxurious, clean, contemporary image of celebrities on the package. Dior follows the pricing strategy of competitive pricing, ie; they set the price according to the prices set by their competitors. They also adopt premium pricing strategy for particular product range, to highlight the product’s exclusiveness. The product faces competition from Chanel, Guerlain, Cartier, Lancome, Prada, Givenchy, Calvin Klein and Angel de Thierry Mugler. The perfume industry faces tight competition. Chanel is one of the well established companies in France, which always offers high quality perfumes, at high prices. But the prices of J’adore and its competitors are almost similar. So there will not be much difference for the customers in making payment for the product. J’adore has a USP (Unique Selling Proposition), driven by emotions, which make it impossible to compare with the products of its competitors. The long lasting fragrances, the prestige that the brand name of J’adore gives when women apply it, the confidence she feels when it a dds to her personality makes the product a unique one, which is very difficult for the competitors to imitate. The targeted customers are women who earn high income. Once they like the product, they

The Virginal Conception of Christ Essay Example for Free

The Virginal Conception of Christ Essay The Virginal Conception is a vital aspects in Christian faith, this is also held by Muslims (Qur’an 3.47). Virginal conception is a miraculous, non-sexual manner. The Holy Spirit caused Mary to conceive God Incarnate without the help of a man. For some believers they believed that   Mary also gave birth to Jesus miraculously; He passed through her without wounding her or spoiling her physical virginity, But for some He passed through her in natural way- thus breaking her hymen and went thru birth pains. When talking of virgin birth, it means also, Virginal Conception (Virginitas ante partum), i.e. that Christ, one of the person in the Deity Incarnate, had no human biological father. The biblical basis of virginal conception of Jesus was prophesied in Genesis 3:15 and Isaiah 7:14. It came true in Matthew 1:18-25 and Luke 1:34-35. Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14) And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. (Luke 2:7) However, the possibility of a virgin birth is often questioned for the fact that, from a biological viewpoint, it is impossible for a human being to be born without a biological father and a mother. Also, some Christians do not believe in the Virgin Birth. Research by many groups, including Christian researchers, indicates that among both the clergy and the laity (in all branches of Christianity) a belief in central tenets of the faith such as Virgin Birth or bodily Resurrection is highly variable. Although they believe in the Virgin Birth, Muslims do not call Jesus Son of God, rather Servant of God. In the Quran, Jesus (Isa in Arabic) is consistently termed Isa ibn Maryam a matronymic- because, in Muslim belief, he had no biological father. Philosophical controversy In the wider sense, arguments for and against the Virgin Birth depend on fundamental philosophical assumptions: if one believes God does not exist, or if God exists but does not perform miracles, the Virgin Birth cannot have taken place in any traditionally accepted sense. While parthogenesis, a type of virgin birth where a female gives birth without the intervention of the male material, is known in nature, the resulting offspring must be female since the mother has no Y chromosome to pass on. Also, the process has never been observed in mammals. The Virgin Birth not only violates a naturalist philosophy, but also science based upon methodological naturalism. Alleged late appearance in the New Testament There are explicit references to the virgin birth in only two places in the New Testament: the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, which are believed by many scholars to be amongst the later written parts of the New Testament. The apparently older Gospel of Mark, on which Matthew and Luke are believed to be partly based, does not mention the virgin birth, and some scholars also argue from grammar and style that the first two chapters of Luke, describing the virgin birth, were a later addition to the Gospel, which may originally have begun at 3:1: 2:51 And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. 3:1 Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, 2 Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. At 3:1 there is an abrupt change of subject and the story begins again. Nevertheless, this is characteristic of many stories in the Gospels and the author of Luke may simply be beginning a new segment of his narrative. Arguments regarding the addition of material to a narrative (Redaction and Form criticism), especially when the material in question is present in the earliest manuscripts, have received significant criticism in the last 20 years and are now regarded as dubious by some textual critics. Double attestation The Virgin conception and birth is a tradition that fits within the criterion of multiple attestation, that is, the same event appears in two independent traditions (most scholars argue that the authors of Matthew and Luke worked independent of one another). For many historians, independent testimony is a significant evidence for the historical validity of a said event. Matthew and Luke are testifying to an event, the birth, about which there was a tradition, namely, that it resulted from a miraculous conception. That the conception itself was indeed miraculous appears to rest on a single attestation, that of the Virgin Mary. The attestation of the Angel to St. Joseph on the miraculous nature of the conception would not be accepted by many scholars as historiographically valid. Critics of the double attestation argument cite many inconsistencies between the accounts of Matthew and Luke regarding Jesus birth. According to Matthew, Joseph was forewarned of the virgin birth by an unnamed angel; in Luke it is Mary who is notified of this by the angel Gabriel. Matthew tells us that Joseph and Mary were residents of Bethlehem who moved to Nazareth after Jesus birth in order to avoid living under Archelaus: according to the better-known story in Luke the couple lived in Nazareth and only traveled to Bethlehem in order to comply with a Roman census. Luke mentions that Mary was the sister of Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, has the new-born Jesus visited by shepherds, and mentions several long hymns uttered by various characters, such as Marys Magnificat. None of this is mentioned by Matthew, who instead tells us of the visit of the Magi, the massacre of the innocents by Herod, and the flight into Egypt. There are thus two rival explanations for the double attestation of Matthew and Luke regarding the virgin birth of Jesus: The virgin birth was a historical event, and the stories of Matthew and Luke are based on different aspects and witnesses accounts of it. Matthew and Luke both wanted to make Jesus fit prophecies from Hebrew scripture. Both authors were aware of the prophecies concerning virgin birth and Bethlehem, and therefore these elements of their stories match. But each author wove these prophecies into the overall narrative in a different way. For example, both authors had to explain how Jesus was born in Bethlehem when he was known to be from Nazareth (as mentioned in Marks gospel) and each came up with a totally different explanation. The double attestation shows only that the two witnesses are independent, although, there are some inconsistencies but it does not disqualify the truth of the case. Dispute regarding Isaiah 7:14 In the past two millennia, there has been controversy among scholars about the translation and the meaning of a small section of Isaiah. For many scholars, the crux of the matter is the translation of the word  : × ¢Ã—Å"מה, `almah which has been translated as young woman and as virgin. In Isaiah the word for virgin here is almah. Some liberals1 and Orthodox Jews claim that the word really means young woman, and this is reflected in Bible translations such as the NEB, RSV, NRSV, and GNB. Such people fail to explain why a young womans bearing a son should be a sign it happens all the time. The Septuagint translates it as (parthenos), the normal word for virgin.2 Later Jews, such as Trypho,3 Justin Martyrs (c. 160) dialog opponent, and Rashi4 (11th Cent.) have claimed that the Septuagint was wrong. Trypho claimed that almah should have been translated neanis (young girl) rather than parthenos.5 However, even Rashi admitted that the word could mean virgin in Song of Sol. 1:3 and 6:8. In the KJV, the word is translated virgin in Gen. 24:43 (Rebekah before her marriage), maid in Ex. 2:8 (Miriam as a girl) and Prov. 30:19, and damsels in Ps. 68:25. These verses contain all the occurrences of almah in the OT, and in none can it be shown that a non-virgin is meant. In English, maid and maiden are often treated as synonyms for virgin (e.g. maiden voyage). Vine et al. note that the other word for virgin, betà »lah, emphasizes virility more than virginity (although it is used with both emphases, too).6 It is qualified by a statement neither had any man known her in Gn. 24:16, and is used of a widow in Joel 1:8. Further evidence comes from clay tablets found in 1929 in Ugarit in Syria. Here, in Aramaic, a word similar to `almah is used of an unmarried woman, while on certain Aramaic incantation bowls, the Aramaic counterpart of betà »lah is used of a married woman.37 The Encyclopedia Judaica, while criticising the translation of almah in Is. 7:14 as virgin, also points out that btlt was used of the goddess Anath who had frenzied sex with Baal.8 In the King James Virsion of The Bible, a traditional Protestant translation, the verses in question run like this: 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. 16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings. Some newer translations also use the word virgin: The New King James, The English Standard Version, The Contemporary English Version, Youngs Literal Translation, among others. Many modern translations concede that the word in the Hebrew does not mean virgin, including The Revised Standard Version, The New Jerusalem Bible, The Revised English Bible, The Good News Bible, The New Revised Standard Version, among others. This demonstrates that some Christian scholars, both Protestant and Catholic, prefer the traditional translation of the Hebrew in the context of Isaiah 7:14, while others do not. Skeptics argue that this is not a very clear prophecy of the birth of Jesus. In addition to the objection that Jesus was not in fact named Immanuel there are other problems: for example, (1) what does the butter and honey refer to? (One possible response to the butter and honey problem: it is a reference to one who, metaphorically, has eaten good meat his entire life in order to spit out the bad meat if it ever touched his lips. Note that the butter and honey reference is immediately followed by the comment on an ability to choose between good and evil; this may suggest that they are related.) (2) Why is Jesus, who was sinless from birth in the traditional Christian understanding, described as having to learn to refuse the evil and choose the good? and (3) This passage within the latter translations states clearly that the young woman within this prophecy is already pregnant with a child. This makes this prophecy about the coming Messiah Jesus very difficult to explain as the prophecy would have already been fulfilled during Isaiahs time. Some Christian aplogists have attempted to explain this problem of temporal context as: a) the latter translations are in error, and b) the latter translations are correct, but that the prophecy has a double-application for both Isaiahs time and the first century. Thomas Paine argued in the second part of The Age of Reason that Isaiahs prophesy (7:16) turned out to be false. He based his conclusion on the 2nd Chronicles (chapter 28) account of heavy defeat of Ahaz. Skeptics raise even greater questions about the translation of the first verse in this passage: 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, × ¢Ã—Å"מה (a `almah) shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Christian apologists respond that the passage is a double reference— a sign both to Ahaz that the alliance against him would be destroyed, and to the house of David as a whole that was threatened with extinction. This is shown by the Hebrew which uses singular you for the former and plural you for the latter. With the former, Isaiah reassures Ahaz that the alliance would be destroyed before his own son Shear Jashub, who was present (v. 3), would learn to refuse the evil and choose the good. Finally, there is archaeological evidence that Jewish speakers of Greek used the word parthenos elastically; Jewish catacombs in Rome identify married men and women as virgins, and some have suggested that in this case the word was used to call attention to the fact that the deceased was someones first spouse (although it is notable that this usage is from several centuries before the translation of the Septuagint [citation  needed]). Certainly, Jews stopped using the more explicit Septuagint translation as Christianity spread, and post-Christian Jewish translations into Greek use ÃŽ ½ÃŽ µÃŽ ±ÃŽ ½ÃŽ ¹Ãâ€š, neanis, meaning young (juvenile) woman, rather than parthenos. Possible borrowing from Paganism Some have argued that the Virgin Birth is a Christian borrowing from paganism The impregnation of mortal women by gods is common in pagan mythology. However, this is not technically virginal conception, since virginity is lost by definition when the sex act is initiated. Christian writers have noted that the obvious sex of the pagan myths is missing in the Gospels: Matthew 1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Luke 1:34 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? 35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. A pagan myth of virgin birth may also underlie the disputed verses from Isaiah: It all boils down to this: the distinctive Hebrew word for virgin is betulah, whereas `almah means a young woman who may be a virgin, but is not necessarily so. The aim of this note is rather to call attention to a source that has not yet been brought into the discussion. From Ugarit of around 1400 B.C. comes a text celebrating the marriage of the male and female lunar deities. It is there predicted that the goddess will bear a son The terminology is remarkably close to that in Isaiah 7:14. However, the Ugaritic statement that the bride will bear a son is fortunately given in parallelistic form; in 77:7 she is called by the exact etymological counterpart of Hebrew `almah young woman; in 77:5 she is called by the exact etymological counterpart of Hebrew betulah virgin. Therefore, the New Testament rendering of `almah as virgin for Isaiah 7:14 rests on the older Jewish interpretation, which in turn is now borne out for precisely this annunciation formula by a text that is not only pre-Isaianic but is pre-Mosaic in the form that we now have it on a clay tablet. (Feinberg, BibSac, July 62; the citation to Gordon is: C. H. Gordon, `Almah in Isaiah 7:14, Journal of Bible and Religion, XXI, 2 (April, 1953), p. 106.) This philological reasoning seems to raise four possibilities: virgin birth is a pagan concept that Christianity has 1) taken from contemporary paganism; 2) taken from pre-Mosaic paganism through Isaiah; 3) taken from contemporary paganism and justified from Isaiah, who took it from pre-Mosaic paganism; 4) produced independently of all forms of paganism, though sharing similar vocabulary. If pre-Mosaic paganism supports Isaiah, and Isaiah supports Matthew and Mark, paganism has anticipated Christianity, perhaps because God was preparing the way for Christianity or because, as some Church Fathers argued, the Devil was blasphemously imitating Christianity. On the other hand, if paganism does not underlie Isaiah, there are several possibilities. Perhaps virgin birth was invented separately, first in paganism, then in Christianity. Perhaps the idea of asexual conception was so different from the idea of conception through sexual intercourse with a deity that there was little or no borrowing in either direction. Or perhaps, despite the earlier date of the Ugaritic text, virgin birth existed first in Judaism, without any other instances than this one, and was borrowed by paganism. The obvious difficulty with this idea is that virgin birth was much more prominent in paganism, where it occurs in many myths in many different areas, than it was in Judaism, where it occurs (if at all) in a single verse late in the Old Testament. Nevertheless, the argument that virgin birth was a Jewish concept first borrowed by paganism and later incorporated into Christianity was first made by Justin Martyr in The First Apology of Justin, written in the second century. Justin also made this argument in his Dialog with Trypho, in which he debates with a Jew called Trypho: Be well assured, then, Trypho, I continued, that I am established in the knowledge of and faith in the Scriptures by those counterfeits which he who is called the Devil is said to have performed among the Greeks; just as some were wrought by the Magi in Egypt, and others by the false prophets in Elijahs days. For when they tell that Bacchus, son of Jupiter, was begotten by Jupiters intercourse with Semele, and that he was the discoverer of the vine; and when they relate, that being torn in pieces, and having died, he rose again, and ascended to heaven; and when they introduce wine into his mysteries, do I not perceive that the Devil has imitated the prophecy announced by the patriarch Jacob, and recorded by Moses? Justin was clearly not referring to any Ugaritic texts, as these texts were not known in his day; he was referring to Greek paganism. That the Devil is responsible for the similarities between paganism and Judaism is not generally accepted by modern scholars, partly because the Devils influence would be impossible to disprove. The Devil could not, for example, imitate Christianity or Judaism before either existed, without violating the generally accepted historical rule that a culture cannot be influenced by a culture that does not yet exist; even though in point of fact it is likely that if the patriarch Jacob existed, he was contemporary with the inscriptions at Ugarit. In a similar vein, it might also be argued that God had chosen to out-do these earlier human myths, all as part of his Plan. Christian writers point out that if in fact the writer of Isaiah intended to borrow the idea of a virgin birth from an older pagan tradition, we might expect to find Isaiah using more explicit language to indicate that a virgin was meant. However, if Isaiah had borrowed the story from pagans, he might be expected to speak in the same way as the pagans, and that is what he does, according to the scholar quoted, who notes the remarkable similarity of the Ugaritic and the Hebrew. However, Isaiah may speak the same way as the pagans simply because he came from a similar sociological and semantic context. If Isaiah received a new prophecy direct from God, on the other hand, he had no tradition to conform to, and he could have expanded the meaning to make it completely unambiguous. That he did not choose to make it unambiguous is thus an apparent difficulty for the Christian interpretation of the text, though the ambiguity could be seen as being intended, if one supposes that God had a dual purpose for the text (i.e., to serve one function in Isaiahs time and another function later). Isaiahs prophecy departs from the Ugaritic version of the virgin birth by having the female be entirely human, whereas in the Ugaritic culture, the virgin was another deity, on par with the male; but this is exactly what might be expected if the myth were borrowed from paganism, since Judaism has only one male deity; a female deity in a borrowed myth might thus conceivably become a female human. According to Origen and Tertullian, the Christian doctrine of the Virgin birth met with lively opposition and mockery from pagan groups. This testimony would seem to discount the suggestion of those modern revisionists who have posited that the pagan religions had a similar or identical tradition. The doctrine of the Virgin Birth is frequently confused with the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. The latter, taught by the Roman Catholic Church states that Mary was conceived without the stain of original sin. Mary, however, unlike many peoples views of Jesus, was conceived in the ordinary way: i.e. she had a human father as well as a human mother (whose names, according to Catholic and Orthodox tradition, were Joachim and Anna/Anne or Jehoiakim and Hannah in Hebrew). Whilst Protestant denominations adhere to the doctrine of the Virgin Birth, they do not adhere to the idea of Marys immaculate conception, nor of her perpetual virginity. References: Hagner, Donald-Matthew 2 Vols. (Biblical Commentary) Dallas; Word, 1993,1995. Luz, Ulrich. Matthew 1-7 Minneapolis; Augsburg Fortress, 1989. Green, Joel B. The Gospel of Luke. Grand Rapids; Eerdmans, 1997. Keener Craig, A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. Grand Rapids; Eerdmans, 1999. Nolland, John, The Gospel of Matthew. Grand Rapids; Eerdmans, 2005 Raymond E. Brown, The Virginal Conception and Bodily Resurrection of Jesus, New York: Paulist, 1973 (pp. 21-68) Marshall, I. Howard. Commentary on Luke, Grand Rapids; Eerdmans, 1978 Fitzmyer, Joseph. The Gospel According to Kuke I-IX (Anchor Bible) Garden City. Doubleday. 1981

Face Recognition Attendance System

Face Recognition Attendance System In the 21st century, everything around us has become depends upon technology to make our life much easier. Daily tasks are continuously becoming computerized. Nowadays more people prefer to do their work electronically. To the best of our knowledge, the process of recording students attendance at the university is still manual. Lecturers go through manual attendance sheets and signed papers to record attendance. This is slow, inefficient and time consuming. The main objective of this project is to offer system that simplify and automate the process of recording and tracking students attendance through face recognition technology. It is biometric technology to identify or verify a person from a digital image or surveillance video. Face recognition is widely used nowadays in different areas such as universities, banks, airports, and offices. We will use preprocessing techniques to detect, recognize and verify the captured faces like Eigenfaces method. We aim to provide a system that wi ll make the attendance process faster and more precisely. The core problem is identified along with solutions and project path. Furthermore, detailed system analysis and design, user interface, methods and the estimated results are presented through our documentation. Keywords: Attendance; Automate; Recording; biometric; face recognition; FRAS Face Recognition Attendance System NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology UML Unified Modeling Language IDE Integrated Development Environment MS Microsoft VS Visual Studio SQL Structured Query Language SSMS SQL Server Management Studio OO Object Oriented 1.1 Introduction Office automation refers to the collective hardware, software and processes that enable automation of the information processing and communication tasks in an organization. It involves using computers and software to digitize, store, process and communicate most routine tasks and processes in a standard office. [1] In addition, attendance considered as the biggest issues that may face lecturers in class. It takes time, effort and difficult to manage. Therefore, our project will focus on online student attendance. In another word, the aim of this project is to build a system that help lecturers take students attendance in a professional way. 1.2 Problem Definition Taking and tracking students attendance manually, losing attendance sheets, dishonesty, wasted time and high error scales are problems facing the lecturers use the existing attendance system. It is a hard process, take time and cause a lot of paper-based work. As a result, in order to solve these problems and avoid errors we suggest to computerize this process by providing a system that record and manage students attendance automatically without needing to lecturers interference. 1.3 Project Objectives Our primary goal is to help the lecturers, improve and organize the process of track and manage student attendance and absenteeism. Additionally, we seek to: Provides a valuable attendance service for both teachers and students. Reduce manual process errors by provide automated and a reliable attendance system uses face recognition technology. Increase privacy and security which student cannot presenting himself or his friend while they are not. Produce monthly reports for lecturers. Flexibility, Lectures capability of editing attendance records. Calculate absenteeism percentage and send reminder messages to students. 1.4 Project Scope Our project targets the students of different academic levels and faculty members. The main constraint we faced is distinguishing between identical twins. This situation is still a challenge to biometric systems especially facial recognition technology. According to Phillips and his co-researcher paper [2] to get the best results of the algorithms your system employed, they should run under certain conditions for taken pictures (i.e age, gender, expressions, studio environmentà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦etc.) otherwise, the problem is still ongoing. They provide application (method) to solve this problem, but in order to use this solution you have to sign a contract with the (NIST) organization and to be a researcher or developer. For us, to solve this issue we suggest to record twins attendance manually. 1.5 Contributions of This Study We have searched for a system that can take, monitor and manage students attendance and absenteeism, send reminder messages, calculate absenteeism percentage, and produce weekly, monthly, and annual reports. Based on our searches, there is no integrated system can support our idea. In this project, we are trying to develop such a system that can do all those tasks. Our project will serve students, lecturers, and the university as whole. 1.6 Project Timeline We utilized Gantt chart in figure 1.1, to show a project schedule with the start and finish dates of several tasks of a project and the deadline to submit the project. 1.7 Document Organization This project consists of six chapters. These chapters organized to reflect the scientific steps toward our main objective. A brief description about the contents of each chapter given in the following paragraphs: Chapter 1 introduces the problem definition, project objectives, the contribution of this project, the scope of the work, and the project layout. Chapter 2 provides the reader with an overview of the literature review. Chapter 3 displays the analysis of the existing system, requirements elicitation which includes (functional requirements, nonfunctional requirements, User Requirements.), requirements specification, research methodology. Chapter 4 displays the architectural design, object oriented design figure. Chapter 6 displays the conclusion that includes limitation and future work.    2.1 Introduction Over the past decade, taking down students attendance process had been developed and changed.The driven force of this development is the desire to automate, facilitate, speed up and save time and efforts. Although that the attendance systems are around us everywhere, Taibah university lecturers still use a traditional way to record students attendance either through calling out students names or through a passing attendance sheet among students to sign beside their names. Both ways are time consuming and associated with high error scales. In this project, we attempt to reduce wasted time, eliminate buddy clocking, and automate the process. Our system uses facial recognition technology to record the attendance through a high resolution digital camera that detects and recognizes faces and compare the recognize faces with students faces images stored in faces database. Once the recognized face matches a stored image, attendance is marked in attendance database for that person. The process will repeat if there are missed faces. For example, if there are 4 faces missed for a bad position while the detecting phase, then this phase will start again to detect the missed faces and recognize them and continue the attending process. By the end of the month, a monthly report is send to the lecturer contains attendance and absence rates as a chart and the names of absentees. Also, a warning message sends to the student if he passes the allowed number of absence. In this chapter, we present a brief overview of face recognition in the background section, relevant works to our project with their advantages and disadvantages, how we relate to these studies and how this project can provide some beneficial features for lecturer. 2.2 Background Most lecturers have a significant number of students and it is hard to keep taking or tracking all their absence. Facial recognition is commonly used in many institutions to take attendance of a significant number of students. There are many errors that could occur during this process, including misidentification and self-recognition [3]. Lecturer can control the errors and correct it. In the next subsection, brief overview of the usage,techniques, and methods in facial recognition. 2.2.1 Face Recognition Usage Face recognition rises from the moment that machine started to become more and more intelligent and had the advance of fill in, correct or help the lack of human abilities and senses. [4]. Common uses ofFacial recognition clarify in following points; Security; can be crime-fighting it will recognize people based on their eyes, nose and face. Searching for lost people. Games Taking student or employee attendance 2.2.2 Face Recognition Techniques and Methods Many factors influence the process of face recognition such as shape, size, pose, occlusion, and illumination. Facial recognition, have two different applications: basic and advanced . Major face recognition recognizes faces or no faces such as balls and animals. If it is a face, then the system searches for eyes, a nose, and a mouth. Advanced facial recognition manages the question on a specific face. This contains unique landmarks: the width of nose, wideness of the eyes, the depth and angle of the jaw, the height of cheekbones, and the separation between the eyes, and makes a unique numerical code. Utilizing these numerical codes, the system then matches that image with another image and distinguishes how comparable the pictures are to each other. The image provenance for face recognition include pre-existing pictures from various databases and video camera signals. [5] A facial recognition system involves the following phases: Face detection, feature extraction, and face recognition as illustrated in Figure 2.1. [5] Figure 2.1:General structure of the face recognition system. The following table compares some of the biometric technology used lately. Table ‎2.1: Comparison among some of the biometric technologies Biometric Technology Accuracy Price Tools required Facial recognition Moderate Moderate Camera Voice recognition Moderate Moderate Microphone Fingerprint High Moderate Scanner 2.3 Related Work In this section, we highlight some related works that were developed to recognize faces and takedown attendance together with the advantages and disadvantages of each system. 2.3.1 Review of Relevant Work 2.3.1.1 Auto Attendance Using Face Recognition (by Mahvish Tania) Figure 2.2: Screenshot of Main Interface (Admin Tasks Interface) Figure 2.3: Screenshot of Auto Attendance systems interface In this project, we have two users responsible for the system [6]. The instructor who takes the attendance and admin who is responsible for managing students faces in the faces database. Admin selects a camera to capture, collect and save images to database or a folder. After the collection and saving the process done the trainingSet manager start to extract faces from the image by face detection. Finally, the trainingSet manager (Admin) will add the extracted image -person- to class or trainingSet. And as you can see in the illustrated figure, 2.3 above, attendance is taken down by recognizing the faces through a web camera and automatically marked in attendance sheet with daytime. The instructor chooses the course ID and the class ID to begin the attending process. Advantages: The system stores the faces that are detected and automatically marks attendance. Provide authorized access. Ease of use. Multiple face detection. Provide methods to maximize the number of extracted faces from an image. Disadvantages: The accuracy of the system is not 100%. Face detection and loading training data processes just a little bit slow. The instructor and trainingSet manager still have to do some work manually. 2.3.1.2 Attendance System on Face Detection (By NevonProjects) The system is created for employing a simple and a secure way of recording attendance. First of all, the software takes a picture of all the authorized individuals and stores the information into the systems database. Then, the system stores pictures by mapping it into a face match structure. The system will recognize the registered person and mark his/her attendance along with the arrival time whenever he/she enters the locations again [7]. Advantages: The system stores the faces that are detected and automatically marks attendance. Ease of use. Manipulate and recognize the faces in real time using live video data. Multiple face detection. Multipurpose software. Can be used in different places. Disadvantages: The accuracy of the system is not 100%. It can only detect face from a limited distance. It cannot repeat live video to recognize missed faces. 2.3.1.3 Face Login Face Login allows you to log in to your PC by looking at your webcam. FaceLogin associates user accounts with a picture, and then, when looking at your webcam, you can login because it detects you on the webcam. [8] Advantages: Only an administrator can run FaceLogin and change its settings. More than one way to configure users. Can store more than one image for a user to maximize face detection. Disadvantages: Applications accuracy is not 100%. Adding users manually. Associated risks with stored data and images. Uses traditional way to access the application. Limited use. 2.3.1.4 Biometric Face Detection Attendance Systems Face recognition systems with time attendance provide multi-biometric and multi-authentication modes. Attached with high resolution infra-red camera works in low light, best face recognition algorithms and identification methods. Advantages Convenient. Provide many recognition ways. High accuracy. Used for secure purposes. Provide many communication models. Disadvantages Limited capacity. Detect faces from a limited distance. People stand in a queue to take their attendance. Screen size. Still uses traditional authentication PIN way. 2.3.1.5 C-400 Facial Recognition Clocking System Facial recognition timing systems will give you precise attendance information and stop employees buddy clocking when employee sing on behalf of his colleague-. [9] Advantages C-400 Face recognition timing technology reduces any likelihood of your employees signing for each other in/out. Complete suite of reports. Printable attendance register in the event of an emergency. Disadvantages There is no External Bell Attachment. Device is expensive. The face has to be in front of the device to record attendance. 2.3.1.6 Churchix Face Recognition Software Churchix presents face recognition software, which takes someones face through a picture or video and then identifies it by comparing it with those in a database of pictures. The software is becoming more common in every day interactions. [10] Advantages: Attending members in videos and photos. High quality photos. High accuracy. Disadvantages: Some people they see as a threat to privacy. Inability to capture all the faces in the video. Restart the video several times to capture all faces. Figure 2.5: Screenshot of Churchix Face Recognition Software 2.3.2 Relationship Between the Relevant Work and Our Own Work Table ‎2.2: Comparison among applications viewed in the previous section Application Auto Attendance Using Face Recognition by: MahvishTania Attendance System on Face Detection By: NevonProjects Face Login Biometric Face Detection Attendance Systems C-400 Facial Recognition Clocking System Churchix Face Recognition Software Face Recognition Attendance System Database à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ Hardware PC Webcam PC , camera Pc , webcam Camera camera PC , camera PC , camera Language C# C# unknown Unknown unknown unknown C# Scope student student anyone employees employees anyone Student light-on when-the camera starts à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ Fast Face detection à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ unlimited distance à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ High accuracy à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ From table 2.2, the main point in our project is to create a system that facilitates students attending process. The following points summarize features will be adopted in the system: The light on when the camera starts facial recognition because reduce the error There are screen next to the camera to display the result of attendees and absentees The system at the end of the class update attendance sheet 2.4 Summary An automatic attendance management system is needed tool for huge organizations. Many organizations have been used face recognition system such as train stations, airports, and companies. Overall, this chapter provided an overview of some related works that were developed with their advantages and disadvantages. Moreover, we compare between the relevant work and our own work and show the differentiation between them. The matter that has to be taken into consideration in the future is a method to guarantee users privacy. Whenever an image is stored on servers, it must be impossible for unauthorized person to get or see that image. 3.1 Introduction This chapter examines the analysis that determined the adequacy of the existing attendance system and identifies the requirements of the new system. Additionally, a specification of functional, nonfunctional and user requirements will be presented to understand how the system will work. In the term of analyzing these requirements, UML diagrams of the new system will be presented. 3.2 Analysis of Existing Systems In the school, colleges and universities attendance system are used to keep the record of a student presence and absence. It is true that the Taibah University has an electronic system but still needs a manual intervention. There are two case to attend students: First, add students attendance directly to the attendance web page. Second, write attendees names on a paper then move it to the web page. These two cases have drawbacks such as in the first case, there is a possibility to disconnect the connection and chose the wrong date. In the second case, there is a chance to loss the paper and it is a waste of resources We did a questionnaire that was targeted a lecturer in Taibah University and the number of participants nineteen. The aim of this questionnaire is to determine the satisfaction of the current system. Here are some questions and their statistics. As shown in figure 3.1, 84.2% of lecturers do not like the existing systems, we should take into consideration this percentage and develop a new attendance system. As can be seen from the Figure 3.2, 84.2% of the lecturer sees the existing system not suitable for all people like deaf. This is one of the drawbacks of the existing system, and there are more such as: There is always a chance of forgery (one person signing the presence of the other one) More manpower is required (some person to take attendance) To overcome the problems in the existing system, we will develop a face recognition attendance system. The majority of lecturer sees as in the figure 3.3, if we replace the current system with a biometric system it will be successful. Overall these statistics, the lecturer is not satisfied about the existing attendance system. 3.3 Requirements Elicitation The requirements are the descriptions of the system services and constraints. 3.3.1 Functional Requirements System functional requirement describes activities and services that must provide. Taking and tracking student attendance by facial recognition in specific time. Sending the names of the absent student directly to the lecturer Permitting the lecturer to modify the student absent or late. Showing the names of who is absent or late in the screen to avoid errors. 3.3.2 Non-Functional Requirements Nonfunctional Requirements are characteristics or attributes of the system that can judge its operation. The following points clarify them: Accuracy and Precision: the system should perform its process in accuracy and Precision to avoid problems. Modifiability: the system should be easy to modify, any wrong should be correct. Security: the system should be secure and saving students privacy. Usability: the system should be easy to deal with and simple to understand. Maintainability: the maintenance group should be able to fix any problem occur suddenly. Speed and Responsiveness: Execution of operations should be fast. 3.3.3 User Requirements or Domain requirements Tools that the user must have in order to use the system and obtain good results: Software Requirements: windows7 or higher, SQL and visual studio. Hardware Requirements: high resolution camera and screen. 3.4 Requirements Specification Use case diagram is one of Unified Modeling Language (UML) that describes the system functionality, what actors that interact with the system and any associations between use cases. As shown in figure 3.4, the FRAS has actors named Admin, Lecturer and Student which are the main users of the system. Other actor, timer which turns camera on to record attendance by detecting and recognizing faces. 3.4.1 Use Case Description (Detailed Use Cases) (1) Log in Table ‎3.1: Log-in usecase description Use Case Name: Log in Use Case Number:1 Actors: Admin, Lecturer, student Description: This use case describes how Admin, Lecturer and student log into the system. Triggering events: Lecturer, admin and student enter his username and password. Steps Performed (Main Path): 1-System requires users to enter username/password. 2-Users enter username/password. 3-System validate entered username/password. 4-The use case ends successfully. Preconditions: System installed on pc. Admin, Lecturer and student must be authorized. Post-conditions: Log in is successfully. Alternate: If the Admin, Lecturer and student is not fill correctly, the log in fails. (2) Manage student attendance. Table ‎3.2: Manage student attendance usecase description Use Case Name: Manage student attendance Use Case Number: 2 Actors: Admin, Lecturer. Description:

George Orwells Shooting an Elephant Essay -- George Orwell Shooting E

George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant" In 'Shooting an Elephant,' George Orwell finds himself in a difficult situation involving an elephant. The fate of the elephant lies in his hands. Only he can make the final decision. In the end, due to Orwell's decision, the elephant lay dying in a pool of blood. Orwell wins the sympathy of readers by expressing the pressure he feels as an Anglo-Indian in Burma, struggling with his morals, and showing a sense of compassion for the dying animal. Readers sympathize with Orwell because they can relate to his emotions in the moments before the shooting. Being the white ?leader,? he should have been able to make an independent decision, but was influenced by the ?natives? (Orwell 101). Orwell describes his feelings about being pressured to shoot the elephant: ?Here I was the white man with his gun, standing in front of the unarmed crowd - seemingly the leading actor of the piece; but in reality I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind (101). Everyone has been in a situation in which he or she has been expected to be a leader. For different reasons people are looked to as leaders, sometimes because of their race, ethnicity, or heritage. In this case, Orwell was pictured as a leader because he was British and he worked for the British Empire. Readers are able to relate to the fact that he does not want to be humiliated in front of the Burmese. He declares, ?Every white man'... George Orwell's Shooting an Elephant Essay -- George Orwell Shooting E George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant" In 'Shooting an Elephant,' George Orwell finds himself in a difficult situation involving an elephant. The fate of the elephant lies in his hands. Only he can make the final decision. In the end, due to Orwell's decision, the elephant lay dying in a pool of blood. Orwell wins the sympathy of readers by expressing the pressure he feels as an Anglo-Indian in Burma, struggling with his morals, and showing a sense of compassion for the dying animal. Readers sympathize with Orwell because they can relate to his emotions in the moments before the shooting. Being the white ?leader,? he should have been able to make an independent decision, but was influenced by the ?natives? (Orwell 101). Orwell describes his feelings about being pressured to shoot the elephant: ?Here I was the white man with his gun, standing in front of the unarmed crowd - seemingly the leading actor of the piece; but in reality I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind (101). Everyone has been in a situation in which he or she has been expected to be a leader. For different reasons people are looked to as leaders, sometimes because of their race, ethnicity, or heritage. In this case, Orwell was pictured as a leader because he was British and he worked for the British Empire. Readers are able to relate to the fact that he does not want to be humiliated in front of the Burmese. He declares, ?Every white man'...

My University Education Essay -- Education School Learning Essays

My University Education Finding a metaphor that accurately describes my university education was a challenging experience for me because it required me to thoroughly reexamine my attitude towards the whole of my educational experiences--both prior to and in college. In the end, what I discovered was the metaphor I feel describes my education at Bemidji State University is one that is universal to my entire education. My education has been a journey that started the minute I was born and will continue throughout my life. Initially, my journey began on one road which stretched before me--along this road were intersections, road signs, accidents, bumps, and mile markers. What I have learned as a student in college, has added many more "miles" to my learning odometer. Mile One O.K., so let's get back to the beginning. As I mentioned before, my education began the minute I was born and peered curiously into the world around me. Each of the elements of the environment in which I lived contributed to my growth and interest in new things. The most important part of this environment was my parents who encouraged me, through example, to value my experiences and to constantly learn from them. As a result of their support, I learned to become an independent and critical thinker. First and foremost, I learned that I could be responsible for my own learning. In essence, it was my choice to learn as much or as little as I wanted from my experiences. Mile Two How did this impact my education? In the realm of elementary and secondary education where learning often meant regurgitating the ideas our teachers "imparted" to us, it meant that I was not merely there to "absorb" what was going on around me. I was an active member of class w... ... Similarly, I have learned the importance of proceeding with caution and obeying the speed limit along the way. I now realize that sometimes I need to slow down to think things through before reacting or overreacting. The people that I have met and learned from on my journey have become the bumps and road signs on my educational highway. The bumps have sometimes hindered my progress, whereas the road signs have sent me moving onward and in the right direction. Mile Four What does all of this mean to me? It means I am adaptable. I am able to go ten miles an hour or eighty miles an hour should the situation arise. I can hit the bumps, adjust the steering, and travel onward with little loss of time. I can choose the uncharted course and find a new road to where I want to go. It means that I am ready for the adventure that lies ahead. The odometer's running...

Half-Past Two and Piano Essay

â€Å"Half past Two† is about a young child who has done something naughty. His teacher punishes him by making him stay behind until half past two. However, being cross, she forgets he has not yet learnt to tell the time. Thus, his concept of time doesn’t yet include numerals. He knows he is punished but cannot understand why. During his detention, he recalls the time modules he knows in an attempt to figure out when will he be free again. He escapes â€Å"out of reach of all the timefors† into a fantasy world. The teacher has almost forgotten about the boy owing to the triviality of the matter to her, but of great significance to the boy. At last, she scuttles in and lets him go home. In â€Å"Piano†, The persona in the poem is listening to a woman singing and playing the piano. This makes him recall when he was a child, sitting under the piano listening to his mother play and sing on Sunday evenings in winter. He is nostalgic about the warmth and happiness of his childhood days. However, he seems to berate himself on recalling his childhood and views himself as sad and less masculine for giving in to his nostalgic impulses. With his ‘manhood cast/Down in the flood of remembrance’, he weeps, an act considered inappropriate for a man. These two poems both use striking language. Firstly, they both use onomatopoeia to convey the setting of the poems. In â€Å"Half-past Two†, the onomatopoeia is used to convey the ticking sound of the clock, whereas in â€Å"Piano†, it is used to convey the musical sounds of the piano. Secondly, they also both use alliteration. In â€Å"Half-past Two†, the phrase ‘time hides tick-less’ is used to convey the sound of a clock ticking. However, in â€Å"Piano†, the repetition of the consonant /s/ is used to convey the calm and quiet singing of the woman. Thirdly, the two poets choose their words prudently. In â€Å"Half-past Two†, childish words such as â€Å"wicked† and â€Å"cross† helps us locate our imaginations within the setting of a primary school. In â€Å"Piano†, the positive word â€Å"cosy† evokes the warm and happy atmosphere when he was a child. On the other hand, negative words ‘betrays’ and ‘insidious’ convey that he is ashamed of his weakness. Fourthly, the use of senses can be found in both poems. In â€Å"Half-past Two†, in stanza 8, the senses such as â€Å"smell of old chrysanthemums† brings alive the scene in the classroom. In â€Å"Piano†, the persona hears the woman singing â€Å"Softly, in the dusk† and playing the piano, recalling his childhood memories. Lastly, the mood of both poems is nostalgic and they both have the theme of childhood. The persona in â€Å"Half-past Two† is nostalgic about the long-lost childhood which is free from time constraints. It can easily be seen in the last stanza – â€Å"He escaped †¦ to be born†. On the other hand, the persona in â€Å"Piano† is sad and crying for the time which will never come back after it is forever lost with his manhood â€Å"cast/Down in the flood of remembrance†. For â€Å"Half-past Two†, I think punishment is not a suitable way to discipline an innocent child who did ‘Something Very Wrong. He should be explained what the error is. The poet uses the teacher to criticize adults who are dismissive of children, emphasized by ‘she slotted him back’. Adults should care and attend to children more. Besides, this poem’s effect on me is so strong that it almost brings me back to my merry childhood. I crave for reliving my childhood, when I lived freely without troubles and worries and time constraints. A nostalgic mood is revealed in the last stanza. It shows that the poet is very nostalgic, reminiscing the childhood experiences when everything is not constrained by time. Moreover, the fantasy world which the child conceives in stanzas 7 & 8 is most people’s utopia, where they can temporarily forget all the stress and worries from work or studies and escape from reality. It is a dream world where all of us can dream about as a solace when we are stressed out. The poem, â€Å"Piano†, has a nostalgic and wistful tone. Hearing the powerful music and soft song, the persona recalls his pleasant childhood memories. He reminisces that he sat ‘under the piano†¦ pressing the small poised feet’ of his mother. However, in the last stanza, ‘my manhood is cast/Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past’. It appears that the persona is rather sentimental and melancholic. He is sad and crying for the time which will never come back after it is forever lost. Besides, the ‘Tingling strings’ and the ‘mastery of song’ strongly evoke the persona’s pleasant childhood memories. It also brings me back to the time when I was a child, learning how to play the piano. I regret not taking piano lessons seriously at that time and dropping it at last. We should treasure everything we possess before they slip away. In my opinion, the persona, being a man, should not cry hastily. I think it is very embarrassing for a grown man to weep. He attempted to restrain his emotions but failed. His heart ‘weeps to belong’ and eventually he bursts into tears. His weeping is uncharacteristic of his present maturity. Nevertheless, I prefer â€Å"Half-past Two†, because it can fully depict the helplessness of the innocent child being kept in until half past two – a time completely unfamiliar to him. I also like the tone of the last stanza. It can trigger my deeper thoughts. It makes me realize that the land where â€Å"time hides tick-less waiting to be born† is a utopia where many people can temporarily forget all the stress and worries and relax.