Asia Essay Example for Free

Asia Essay 1. Which internal and external factors have helped Reliance group to grow into its current position? Reliance group is an example of a well-managed company that has been able to take advantage of interior competitive advantage possibilities as well as exterior ones. On one hand, Reliance started out with Dhirubai Ambani by borrowing money from the Indian government, shifting towards textiles made out of synthetic plastic fibers and receiving benefits from government incentives and political connections at its origin and middle life cycle. Reliance responded perfectly to the world leading industries at the time and acted as a pioneer in introducing them in the Indian market. As the world’s leading industry shifted from a high demand for plastics and textiles derived from plastics to petrochemicals and fuel production, the Reliance group did likewise by building petrochemical plants in India and tried to make the maximum profit out of what India had to offer to the world and itself at the time and had not been developed to its maximum potential yet. On the other hand, government played a key role in Reliance success as it enabled the company to export worldwide and grow in domestically by reducing quotas and tariffs as well as taxes on the raw materials needed for manufacturing. 2. In which aspects has the management of Reliance group been typical for Indian management? In which aspects has it been atypical? Most of the aspects of the management of the Reliance group can be easily related to the way companies are managed in India. Reliance group is a family run company that depends gravely on the relationship between the siblings that own the company, all siblings had the father and founder as the center of the company and once he passed away the company was divided amongst the brothers and sisters. Another typical Indian attribute is the diversification of the operations of the company, Ranging from petrochemical to eatable products or telecommunications. Each brother took care of a different sector and the gender role with a tendency towards masculinity and seniority was also seen when the company was divided giving the oldest of the brothers 70% of the market share of the company, 20% to the younger brother and only 5% to each one of the sisters. What was very atypical was the monochromic way the company has been run, however it can easily be explained due to the fact that they need to replicate the way the international monochromic market works that emulates the way US firms work. 3. Do you think Reliance Group has to transform its fundamentally to remain successful in the future? Yes, I do believe that Reliance group should find of way of not having to depend on the fluctuations of the global market as much as it does, Thus preventing the company from ever being as impacted as it was by the recent global crisis. I believe they should expand domestically as a way of having a â€Å"safe space† in case there is another crisis in the future and perhaps try to grow deeper ties with other Asian countries like Japan or China that did not suffer from the crisis at the scale that western economies did and that are geographically closer from India than many other western countries.

Wong Kar Wai And Hollywood Cinema Film Studies Essay

Wong Kar Wai And Hollywood Cinema Film Studies Essay The world today is essentially a bifocal world. Filmmakers everywhere are concerned with their own national cinema, and then with Hollywood. The world today is divided into Hollywood and a serious of national cinema. As the most successful and influential Asian cinema outside Japan and India,  [1]  Hong Kong cinema as a transnational cinema, has so successfully emulated Hollywood to the extent that it has now been integrated by Hollywood. In this regard, commercialization and entertainment are what Hong Kong cinema and Hollywood cinema concentrated on. Especially Hong Kong cinema, due to it situates in a democratic and liberal society. The filmmakers have no boundary or limitation in filmmaking. Therefore, they pursue the films aesthetics and entertainment more than the fact of the society. Also, Hong Kong absorbs influences from the West and went on to localize and indigenize foreign cultures. And the community in Hong Kong has a strong link with its traditional Chinese culture, in many aspects had developed its own Hong Kong culture as well. So to speak, Hong Kong cinema has a strong sense of east-west identity. The geography, history and unique cultural identity of Hong Kong inhabitants have inevitably shaped the territorys cinema. Hong Kongs adaptability to change, cultural diversity and cosmopolitan lifestyle has led to a dynamic output of films that portray a distinct Hong Kong psyche.  [2]   The film of Wong Kar-wai attests to this tradition of filmmaking. Wong as the second New Wave of Hong Kong filmmaker who continued to develop the innovative and fresh aesthetic initiated by the original New Wave.  [3]  Since Hong Kongs 1997 handover to China, the local film industry was inclined to art-cinema wing instead of the action (Kung fu) tradition. And Wongs offbeat works got the world recognition even though he stands apart from the mainstream Hong Kong cinema. In the following paragraphs, the argument will be focused on Wong Kar-wais postmodern films in a relationship with Hollywood style. The narrational aspect of plot manipulates story time in specific ways. Jean Epstein summarized the relationship between narrative and time in the classical Hollywood film:  [4]   After dramas supposedly without endings, here is a drama which would be without exposition or opening, and which would end clearly. Events would not follow one another and especially would not correspond exactly. The fragments of many pasts come to bury themselves in a single now. The future mixed among memories. This chronology is what of the human mind. Contemporary Hollywood filmmaker like Quentin Tarantino, for example in his Pulp Fiction (1994, USA) uses the juggle story and plot time in ways that recall the complex flashback of the 1940s. Moreover, the switches in Pulp Fiction are not motivated as characters memories; the audience is forced to puzzle out the purposes served by the time shifts. In some of Wongs film, flashback has another expression. In Wong Kar-wais In the Mood for Love (2000, Hong Kong), the flashback applies to only one conceal scenario which begins with the male protagonist Chow Mo-wan (Leung Chiu-wai)  [5]  finds something is gone in his home, end with he notices there is a lip print on a cigarette. But it doesnt tell us what stuff he missed and who stole it until the coming scene of Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung Man-yuk)  [6]  comes (she comes to Chows home before), we realize the complete plotline. Unlike the flashbacks in Pulp Fiction or Reservoir dog (1992, USA) which is merely focuses on the rhetorical disposition of the narrative for the sake of suspense or surprise. Wongs flashback technique is more incline to highlight the aesthetics in actors performance relate to the important scenario. Like this scene, the two protagonists much-loved themes of loneliness, isolation, and longing rise to the surface. David Bordwell summarized the relationship between narrative and space in the classical Hollywood film:  [7]   In making narrative causality the dominant system in the films total form, the classical Hollywood cinema chooses to subordinate space. Most obviously, the classical style makes the sheerly graphic space of the film image a vehicle for narrative. We can see this principle at work negatively in the prohibitions against bad cuts. The important subjects should be in the same general area of the frame for each of the two shots which are to be cut together, but as long as the important subject is not shifted from one side of he screen to the other, no real harm is done. In describing the classical cinemas use of space we are most inclined to use the term transparent, so much does that cinema strive to efface the picture plane. The screen might be likened to a plate-glass window through which the observer looks with one eye at the actual scene. Contemporary Hollywood filmmakers have sometimes explored what has been called the web-of-life plot.  [8]  Instead of two primary lines of action, the tendency of the films pursues a large number of plotlines, often involving many characters. In the 1990s, such films as Quentin Tarantinos Pulp Fiction. The every single plotlines seem completely have nothing to do with another story, but usually they split off and converge from one and another. In Pulp Fiction, there are 3 stories, each one based upon specific characters. And the narratives are circular as well as intersected. The theme of the uncanny and destiny arises ranging from Butch (Bruce Wills) and Vincent (John Travolta), they meet each other for twice. First time they meet in a bar without a direct conversation. In the next time is concerned with Butch goes home for his watch (the only stuff his dead father left him) and comes across Vincent (implicitly come to assassinate Butch) in his toilet then kill him. In this rega rd, the sequence in the whole plotline is mysterious. Despite Vincent is already dead in the previous story, we still see him in the final part of the story in a restaurant with Jules (Samuel L. Jackson). Continue the unfinished story at the beginning. In Wong Kar-wais film, he doesnt follow this Hollywood narrative tradition. In Chungking Express (1994, Hong Kong), Wong creates a new style of narrative causality in space-time which he blends the theme of gangster and romantic-comedy together. This is the apparent feature of post-modern film. Seen from Wongs Chungking Express, it constitutes an intriguing experiment in nonclassical form. It has only about 6 major characters, but it is broken into 2 distinct stories, each organized around a different batch of characters and presented one after the other. Since both male protagonists are lovelorn men and policemen, originally we might expect them to encounter one another, but they never do. Even when the first story finish, everything related to the first story never appears again apart from one same locale. In Chungking Express, the connection between these two stories is they do share one locale: Both Officer 1 (Takeshi Kaneshiro)  [9]  and Officer 2 (Leung Chiu-wai) hang out a t the Midnight Express. Nonetheless, this doesnt connect these two parts. The characters in these two separate plots seem no intersection with each other. Merely the Officer 1 meets Faye Wong  [10]  once in the Midnight Express. Afterwards, the next story starts whereas Officer 1 never appears again in the next narrative. And the second obscure connection is while the mysterious blonde woman (the female protagonist in the first story) lounges outside a shop, Faye (whom we do not meet until part two) leaves with a stuffed toy (perhaps destined for Officer 2s apartment). Apparently, Faye is juxtaposed into these two coincidences by Wongs strategy in order to invite audience to seek the connections and unify the two parts of the film. From Chungking Express, we can see another general style in Wongs filmmaking. First of all, the notion of time is a pervading concept in all of Wongs films. In the first part of Chungking Express, officer 1 obsessively eats cans of pineapple with the expiry date of the 1st of May, for him, May 1st is his girlfriends birthday also its the end of their love. He convinces that everything has an expiry date, including love. However, for the female drug trafficker, May 1st is the end of her life if she could not find the group of Indian who stole her stuff. Indeed, Wongs films may not be directly or overtly political, however there is often an indirect relation to the political via Wongs conveying of a particularly intense experience of the period as an experience of the negative; an experience of some elusive and ambivalent cultural space that lies always just beyond our grasp.  [11]  In addition, Wong always ignores the characters identity, background and family. We just know they c all cop 223 and cop 663. Despite they have a home. We can only see the pineapple cans with expiry date and cop 223s desperation from this place. Cop 663s home is insecure. Faye often invades his home regardless of without aggressiveness. At the same time there is an escalator located beside his home, it is totally exposed in every passerbys eyes when go through it. Therefore Cop 663 lives under the unstable circumstance. Here, implicitly, once again Wong reveals peoples prospective confusion to their own identity related to the forthcoming handover in 1997. Thirdly, not only in Chungking Express, but also in most of his oeuvre, characters affection is the center of the attention. And Wong adores keeping them in the Platonic relationship. Rarely see the sexual scenes in Wongs film but the love between the two characters are aesthetic and pure. In the first part of the story, Officer 1 and the blond woman stay in a room without doing anything. Nevertheless, after Officer 1 leaves then he receives a happy birthday message from the blond woman. Obviously she still remembers May 1st is Officer 1s birthday because he told her last night, despite she gets into the trouble. Through Wongs oeuvre, Hong Kong becomes a metaphor for the characters and their varied existence. It represents an urban pastiche in which individuals struggle to come to terms with a sense of detachment and loneliness despite the territorys high-density population. Wongs endless array of possible scenarios and the navigation of his protagonists internal and external journeys in turn constitute an unravelling and reconfiguring of spatio-temporal constrictions.  [12]  Hong Kongs unique identity with its fusion of Chinese and Western culture and complex history provides opportunities for Wong to reveal and concerns with issues as varied as identity, emotion, future, etc via his frame. To some extent, we can define Wongs cinema is Hollywood in the way of expression such as the crosscutting, jump cuts and fragmented images. But as a poetic auteur, sees him delve into moments that are linked to both history and the personal in Hong Kongs community, whether directly or indirectly. Noti ons of identity and the ever-present fusion between East and West find context in the themes of love, loneliness and alienation that pervade his protagonists. Even though Wong doesnt belong to the mainstream in Hong Kong cinema, his films are never and ever being the foolproof and top grossing films. Nonetheless, we can not deny his contribution to Hong Kong film industry. Filmography Pulp Fiction- Quentin Tarantino, 1994, USA Reservoir Dog- Quentin Tarantino, 1992, USA In the Mood for Love-Wong Kar-wai, 2000, Hong Kong Chungking Express-Wong Kar-wai, 1994, Hong Kong

Prescriptive And Descriptive Grammar

Prescriptive And Descriptive Grammar A pedagogical grammar refers to the modified approach that is now adopted in linguistics to facilitate the process of teaching an extra language. In broader spectrum it can be defines as the grammar that exists to help foreign language learners. Pedagogical grammar can be categorized into two distinct but interconnected theory areas. First of which is concerned with descriptive models can be integrated with pedagogical reference along with teaching materials that makes the process of learning easy and simple for the learner. Secondly premises about second-language achievement form the other category of pedagogical grammar. It provides the fundamentals about class attitudes and tactics. It in general guides students about grammatical concepts which appear to be insightful for a native speaker while extremely complicated for a non-native speaker. An indigenous English speaker needs less attention an instruction in correcting some obvious sentence structure mistakes. For instance he would be easily able to invert the words You do know me to form an appropriate sentence as Do you know me? However for somebody who is learning English as his second language would demand a detailed explanation about making this inversion. This fact becomes more lucid when the persons native language formulates question following a different way. Guiding about this particular area of grammar might appear monotonous and pointless for first-language speakers but it is an essential aspect of pedagogical grammar. ( Ortega, 2008) Pedagogical grammar introduces rules about correcting the language usage in communications. For instance it guides about the language that a doctor uses to check his patients and write his prescriptions. Similarly pedagogical grammar also deals with descriptive grammars teaching the speakers to have a strong grip over the language to make sure they use it frequently even without considering the proper rules before speaking. Summing up pedagogical grammar forms a border between the grounds of prescriptive and descriptive language. Using both approaches is vital to serve the purpose of pedagogical grammar that is to help non-native speakers use the language fluently. In order to make a learner perfectly skilled in his desirable language, it is important to make obey the rules of prescriptive grammar to improve his utterances. On the contrary by means of descriptive language the foreign language learners comprehend the way native speakers make use of the language. However it is necessary the learners make complete sense in his communication when using slangs or some other non-standard learning ways. Lexicogrammar is a term that is often considered unusual in the systemic functional linguistics. Basically it defines the level of linguistic structure wherein expressions or vocabulary, and grammar, or sentence structure come under the same heading. The words and grammatical structure are not considered independent variables at this level. In fact the modern concept is that both of them are mutually dependent that is one has a profound influence on the other. The similar relation between lexis and grammar has been discussed in many linguistic theories and approaches. This entry in particular will focus more on the systemic functional linguistics (SFL) as well as corpus linguistics (CL), because both these hypothetical-procedural frameworks have strong relation with applied linguistics. In both the cases lexicogrammar plays a vital role. For Instance; the Lexicogrammatical learning techniques should be implemented in classrooms on daily basis. This would enable the second language learners achieve the optimum result similar to those individuals who are learning their first language. In case the students are not told about the phrases used commonly in native English, they will definitely get confused when have a conversation with somebody. It is a fact that second language learners would not be able to think of the routine conversational phrases that the native speakers frequently use. Therefore they should be taught about this to make sure they also attain a native like fluency in their language skills. It has also been deliberated that the prescriptive grammar emphasizes more about grammatical errors and cohesiveness. It guides student about the appropriate grammar rules, probable error areas in terms oral and written communication. It includes all the flexible and necessary guidelines about the language. This parti cular type of grammar describes how people converse using correct sentence structure without considering the strict rules now and then. ( Lins, 2007) Provide your position toward the following statement by using theories and research results: L1-L2 differences cause learning difficulties. For example, is it true or do you agree or disagree and why? Evaluating the relationship between mother tongue (L1) and second language (L2) has been one of the most important subjects under discussion in the arena of second language acquisition (SLA) research. I do not comply with the statement that L1-L2 differences results in learning complications because there are also many other factors that affect the learning process directly. A major part of the discussion emphasizes on the transfer phenomena which is typically referred to the incorporation characteristics of L1 into the informative systems of L2 that the learner is trying to construct. During the time frame 1950s-1960, transfer is seen to be one of the main causes of learning difficulties. Following in 1970s L2 acquisition process was denied in all the places. After all this crucial points of transfer debate has been determined which states in spite of the possession of irritating and elusive character, transfer is considered to be the major factor crafting the learners inter-languag e performance. Moreover it is also becoming evident that transfer phenomena are not just limited to learners integration of L1 elements into their L2 production. It is also believed that transfer is caused by similarities and differences between languages. It is not restricted to the impact of L1 and L2 but also encompasses the influence of L2 and L3. (Cook, Long McDonough, 1979). In spite of extensive research done in this arena, there are still a lot of issues left unresolved such as nature of transfer, situations in which it occurs and related psychological processes. For instance effect of L1 on L2 performance is most prominent in the field of phonology wherein foreign accent is possibly the best demonstration of learners mother tongue in L2 speech. However the most research done on these phonological skills of L2 previously revolved around segmented issues. Therefore all the possible pro-sody was disregarded. The relation between the languages is known to very crucial as it determines the nature of second language acquisition. The acquisition of L1 and L2 did not differ then the research would only be about sub-field of language acquisition. It is actually a maxim that defines the features of L2 acquisition as the availability of another language with the presence of the first language in the same mind. Besides the characteristic of L2 community is define d as the supplementary usage of additional languages in association with the first language. Explain the notions of attention and noticing and their roles in L2 learning. Modern researchers state that noticing, which is defined as the level of attention and concentration, is a vital necessity for learning the grammatical forms of L2. This can be distinguished by its features such as a cognitive function called detection, consciousness and awareness. Both these elements are considered to be so essential that no innovative mental representation can be made in their absence. Moreover, according to many researchers and language instructors it is part of human skills and nature that he learns first languages more easily and effortlessly as in this case attention is not required along with awareness. On the contrary people learning second languages do not show such simplicity towards the learning process. They are not able to learn with the aid of detection only. Such difficulties and complications are more evident in learning grammar and cohesiveness of L2. The practical implementations seen in classrooms are generally noticeable. Here teachers and student s endeavor to use obscure cognitive processes that supervise both the processes of learning, attention and grammar learning.( Schmitt, 2010) Schmitt was the first person to conduct an effective research on the psychology associations with Second Language Acquisition (SLA). He claimed that the things that are noticeable are vital for L2 learning. He also hypothesized that noticing is an essential condition for this. Although many researchers considered noticing a vital component for L2 learning still the thoughts and opinions of other scholars differ in sense whether it is obligatory or not. Another factor considered to be important for L2 learning is attention, intentional or spontaneous. This human skill basically refers to his capability of concentrating on one task while paying no attention to the others. Subcategories of attention encompass alertness (eagerness to deal with a challenge), orientation (pathway of attention), detection (cognitive registration of a situation) and inhibition (negligence towards stimuli). The SLA theory states that one cannot learn anything from input unless it has formed the object of atte ntion. It is true that it is necessary for L2 learning to focus on cognitive activities in regards with specific stimuli over time. The issue that is debatable in this arena is whether or not this discernment shall be conscious. Noticing refers to assigning importance to one aspect as compared to others. It is a form of awareness which determines private experience of learner linguistically. It has also been deliberated by many researchers that noticing is important for changing input to intake in case of learning L2. Schmitt (2010) also described the minimum prerequisite of noticing as the attention paid to deal with grammatical components in input. This is done with the accomplishment of reporting threshold level of subjective responsiveness and knowledge about the experience.

The Native Kalapuyan Indians, Migrant Men, and Migrant Women :: American History

The Willamette River Valley: The Native Kalapuyan Indians, Migrant Men, and Migrant Women Introduction The first true white settlers of the Willamette Valley, men, women and children who made the arduous journey from Missouri to the end of the Oregon Trail, encountered little resistance from the native populations of the Valley. Disease, spread to the native tribes by transient explorers and traders, helped make possible the settlement of the Willamette Valley by these pioneers, almost without resistance. Further, the continued wave of white settlers that poured into this fertile valley completed the collapse of the existing Indian culture. Unlike the areas that the pioneers had just traveled through (those occupied by the Rogue and Nez Perce Indian tribes) there never was a ‘Willamette Valley Indian War.’ The Kalapuyans, natives of the Valley, were peaceable people who manifested a very different character from the Indians east of the Cascade Mountains.1 The attitudes of many men and women settlers to the Willamette Valley regarding the native population are best r eflected in a statement by Leslie M. Scott in The Oregonian: â€Å"Always it will be a source of thanksgiving that the destruction of the Indians of the Pacific Northwest by diseases spared the pioneers the horror of a strong and malignant foe.† The combined efforts of men and women and the lack of resistance from the native peoples, resulted in the successful settlement of white Americans in the Willamette River Valley. The following essay represents a collection of knowledge about the Willamette River Valley during the 1830's thru 1860's, with a focus on : understanding the native populations, the white men who traveled to and laid claim to the Valley, and the women who supported these men throughout the journey to and settlement of the Willamette River Valley. Part I ~ â€Å"Those who gave so much for so little: The story of the Indians of the Willamette River Valley† The Willamette Valley, the fertile trough of land nestled between the Coast Ranges and Cascade Mountains of northwestern Oregon, marked the geographic end of the Oregon Trail for pioneer Americans and immigrants to the Pacific Northwest. We should not forget that this land Mackey, Harold, PhD. The Kalapuyans: A source book on the Indians of the Willamette Valley, Mission Mill was also the home of a native people, the Kalapuyans, who had occupied this valley for about 10,000 years before the arrival of Euro-Americans in the early 19th century.

The Ethos of John Lennon Essay -- Religion, Pilgrimage

The features and boundaries of pilgrimage have been debated by scholars (Badone and Roseman 2004a, Cohen 1992, Eade and Sallnow 1991, Morinis 1992, Reader and Walter 1993; Timothy and Olson 2006). Although this paper cannot evaluate Strawberry Fields as a place of pilgrimage in the absence of fieldwork, Kruse (2003) suggested the possibility. In light of this possibility, and the centrality of the ethos of peace activism to Lennon memorials, the definition of pilgrimage formulated by Alan Morinis (1992, 4), may be appropriate: â€Å"the pilgrimage is a journey undertaken by a person in quest of a place or a state that he or she believes to embody a valued ideal.† This definition of pilgrimage is suitable for understanding the motivation of participants to attend memorial events because, as demonstrated in this paper, many participants come to celebrate Lennon in the context of his peace activism. Further, the attributes of pilgrimage proposed by Ian Reader (1993, 7-8) provide an account of the varying motives of participants who attend the Lennon memorial: â€Å"the idea of a journey out of the normal parameters of life, the entry into a different, other, world, the search for something new, the multiple motives of participants, ranging from homage to veneration to the simple impulses of curiosity.† These definitions encompass the differing motives of individuals visiting Strawberry Fields. For some, the memorial would be a sacred space, a location where fans have the opportunity to mourn Lennon's death, offer tributes and be in the presence of his spirit: â€Å"You come here, you feel his spirit. His spirit is so alive in here,† a fan comments. Other participants may come to the memorial as one part of their visit to New York City. Badone... ...his paper and in Riddell (2008), on pilgrimage to the gravesite of Jim Morrison, I learned that people apply religious categories to â€Å"secular† phenomena, such as memorial objects, strange occurrences become supernatural phenomena, and a musician, such as Morrison, can become a â€Å"religious figure.† Erika Doss (1999, 74-75) believes that â€Å"as a profoundly religious people, Americans tend to treat things on religious terms, apply religious categories, and generally make a religion out of much of what is touched and understood.† The practice of â€Å"parrallelomaina,† as Sean McCloud (2005) characterizes it, that is, understanding religion in popular culture by analogy, may or may not be helpful. What is significant, for future study, I suggest, is the process by which dead celebrity fandom is sacralized and the ability of an ethos to be the foundation of such a community. The Ethos of John Lennon Essay -- Religion, Pilgrimage The features and boundaries of pilgrimage have been debated by scholars (Badone and Roseman 2004a, Cohen 1992, Eade and Sallnow 1991, Morinis 1992, Reader and Walter 1993; Timothy and Olson 2006). Although this paper cannot evaluate Strawberry Fields as a place of pilgrimage in the absence of fieldwork, Kruse (2003) suggested the possibility. In light of this possibility, and the centrality of the ethos of peace activism to Lennon memorials, the definition of pilgrimage formulated by Alan Morinis (1992, 4), may be appropriate: â€Å"the pilgrimage is a journey undertaken by a person in quest of a place or a state that he or she believes to embody a valued ideal.† This definition of pilgrimage is suitable for understanding the motivation of participants to attend memorial events because, as demonstrated in this paper, many participants come to celebrate Lennon in the context of his peace activism. Further, the attributes of pilgrimage proposed by Ian Reader (1993, 7-8) provide an account of the varying motives of participants who attend the Lennon memorial: â€Å"the idea of a journey out of the normal parameters of life, the entry into a different, other, world, the search for something new, the multiple motives of participants, ranging from homage to veneration to the simple impulses of curiosity.† These definitions encompass the differing motives of individuals visiting Strawberry Fields. For some, the memorial would be a sacred space, a location where fans have the opportunity to mourn Lennon's death, offer tributes and be in the presence of his spirit: â€Å"You come here, you feel his spirit. His spirit is so alive in here,† a fan comments. Other participants may come to the memorial as one part of their visit to New York City. Badone... ...his paper and in Riddell (2008), on pilgrimage to the gravesite of Jim Morrison, I learned that people apply religious categories to â€Å"secular† phenomena, such as memorial objects, strange occurrences become supernatural phenomena, and a musician, such as Morrison, can become a â€Å"religious figure.† Erika Doss (1999, 74-75) believes that â€Å"as a profoundly religious people, Americans tend to treat things on religious terms, apply religious categories, and generally make a religion out of much of what is touched and understood.† The practice of â€Å"parrallelomaina,† as Sean McCloud (2005) characterizes it, that is, understanding religion in popular culture by analogy, may or may not be helpful. What is significant, for future study, I suggest, is the process by which dead celebrity fandom is sacralized and the ability of an ethos to be the foundation of such a community.

E-R Diagram

Introduction:- In 1976 ,Chen developed the Entity-Relationship Diagrams ,a high-level data model that is useful in developing a conceptual design for database . An ER diagram is a diagram containing entities or â€Å"items†, relationships among them, and attributes of the entities . The E-R model is one of the best known tools for logical database design. Within the database community, it is considered a natural and easy-to-understand way of conceptualizing the structure of database.Claims that have been made for it include the following: it is simple and easily understood by non-specialist ,it is easily conceptualized ,the basic constructs (entities and relationships) are highly intuitive and thus provide a natural way of representing a user’s information requirements , and it is a model that describes a world in terms of entities and attributes that is most suitable for computer naive end users. In E-R diagram the emphasis is on representing the schema a rather than t he instances. This is more useful in database design because a database schema changes rarely ,whereas the contents of the entity sets changes frequently.In addition ,the schema is usually easier to display that the extension of database ,because it is much smaller Purpose:- Entity-relationship diagrams were first proposed as a means of quickly obtaining, with minimum effort, a good sense of the structure of a database. They are used to plan and design a database and to model a systems data. Key Elements Entities:- * An entity represents the principle data objects about which information is to be collected. * Collective nouns, or nouns, are usually used to name (describe) entities * For example, each person in an enterprise is an entity. An entity has a set of properties, and the values for some set of properties may uniquely identify an entity. For instance, a person may have a person_id property whose value uniquely identifies that person. Entity Set:- * An entity set is a set of entities of the same type that share the same properties, or attributes. The set of all persons who are customers at a given bank, for example, can be defined as the entity set customer. Attribute:- * An attribute is one of the various properties that describe the entity’s characteristics. These properties usually present a single fact – they are atomic. The designation of an attribute for an entity set expresses that the database stores similar information concerning each entity in the entity set; however, each entity may have its own value for each attribute. * Possible attributes of the customer entity set are customer-id, customer-name, customer-street, and customer-city. Domain (value set):- * For each attribute, there is a set of permitted values, called the domain, or value set, of that attribute. * The domain of attribute customer-name might be the set of all text strings of a certain length.Types of attribute in the E-R model:- The attributes used in the ER mo del can be categorized as 1. Simple or Composite 2. Single Valued or Multi Valued 3. Stored or Derived. 1. Simple or Composite * The attribute which are not divided into subparts are called simple attributes. * For example, an attribute customer-id is a simple attribute. * Composite attributes, on the other hand, can be divided into subparts (that is, other attributes). * For example, an attribute name could be structured as a composite attribute consisting of first-name, middle-initial, and last- name. Using composite attributes in a design schema is a good choice if a user will wish to refer to an entire attribute on some occasions and to only a component of the attribute on other occasions. Suppose we were to substitute for the customer entity-set attributes customer-street and customer-city the composite attribute address with the attributes, street, city, state, and zip-code. * Note also that a composite attribute may appear as a hierarchy. In the composite attribute address, i ts component attribute street can be further divided into street-number, street-name, and apartment-number. 2. Single Valued or Multi Valued The attributes that have a single value for a particular entity is called a single valued attribute. * For example, an attribute customer-id is a single valued attribute because for a particular entity it holds a single value. * The attribute that have multiple valued for a particular entity is called a multi valued attribute. * For example, an attribute phone-number is a multi valued attribute because for a particular customer it holds zero, one or several phone numbers. 3. Stored or Derived * Normally attributes are stored attributes, that is, their values are stored and accessed as such from the database. For example, the attributes name, address and date-of-birth of customer entity set are stored attributes. * However, sometimes attributes’ values are not stored as such, rather they are computed or derived based on some other value. This other value may be stored in the database or obtained some other way. * For example, we may store the name, father-name, address of customers, but age can be computed from date-of-birth. * The advantage of declaring age as derived attribute is that whenever we will access the age, we will get the accurate, current age of employee since it will be computed right at the time when it is being accessedFig Symbol used for different types of attributes in E-R diagram An example diagram representing all types of attributes is given below: 1. The attributes empId, empName and dateHired are simple and single valued. 2. The attribute address is a composite attributes because it can be sub divided into street and houseNo. 3. The attribute emp_Qual is a multi valued attribute because an employee has zero, one or many qualifications. 4. The attribute Experience is a derived attribute because it can be derived from the attribute dateHired. 5.The attributes other than Experience are stored at tribute because it can be stored and accessed from the database. Null value:- * An attribute takes a null value when an entity does not have a value for it. * The null value may indicate â€Å"not applicable†Ã¢â‚¬â€that is, that the value does not exist for the entity. * For example, one may have no middle name. Relationship:- * Relationship is a representation of the fact that certain entities are related to each other. * Verbs are usually used to describe relationships. * For example: Students take Courses – Students and Courses are entities, and take is the relationship.Relationship Set:- * Set of relationships of a given type. * For example: students registered in courses ,passengers booked on flight ,parents and their children. Participation: * The association between entity sets is referred to as participation; that is, the entity sets E1, E2, . . . ,En participate in relationship set R. * The participation of an entity set E in a relationship set R is said to b e total if every entity in E participates in at least one relationship in R. * If only some entities in E participate in relationships in R, the participation of entity set E in relationship R is said to be partial.Degree:- * The number of entity sets that participate in a relationship set is called the degree of the relationship set. * A binary relationship set is of degree 2; a ternary relationship set is of degree 3. Mapping Cardinalities (cardinality ratio) :- * Mapping cardinalities, or cardinality ratios, express the number of entities to which another entity can be associated via a relationship set. * Mapping cardinalities are most useful in describing binary relationship sets, although they can contribute to the description of relationship sets that involve more than two entity sets. For a binary relationship set R between entity sets A and B, the mapping cardinality must be one of the following: a) One to one. An entity in A is associated with at most one entity in B, and a n entity in B is associated with at most one entity in A. b) One to many. An entity in A is associated with any number (zero or more) of entities in B. An entity in B, however, can be associated with at most one entity in A. c) Many to one. An entity in A is associated with at most one entity in B. An entity in B, however, can be associated with any number (zero or more) of entities in A. ) Many to many. An entity in A is associated with any number (zero or more) of entities in B, and an entity in B is associated with any number (zero or more) of entities in A. Fig. one to one Fig. one to many Fig. Many to one Fig. Many to many Key :- * A key allows us to identify a set of attributes that suffice to distinguish entities from each other. * A super key is a set of one or more attributes that, taken collectively, allow us to identify uniquely an entity in the entity set.For example, the customer-id attribute of the entity set customer is sufficient to distinguish one customer entity fr om another. Thus, customer-id is a super key. Similarly, the combination of customer-name and customer-id is a super key for the entity set customer. The customer-name attribute of customer is not a super key, because several people might have the same name. * The concept of a super key is not sufficient for our purposes, since, as we saw, a super key may contain extraneous attributes. * If K is a super key, then so is any superset of K. We are often interested in super keys for which no proper subset is a super key.Such minimal super keys are called candidate keys. * It is possible that several distinct sets of attributes could serve as a candidate key. Suppose that a combination of customer- name and customer-street is sufficient to distinguish among members of the customer entity set. Then, both {customer-id} and {customer-name, customer-street} are candidate keys. Although the attributes customerid and customer-name together can distinguish customer entities, their combination d oes not form a candidate key, since the attribute customer-id alone is a candidate key. The primary key is a candidate key that is chosen by the database designer as the principal means of identifying entities within an entity set. * A key (primary, candidate, and super) is a property of the entity set, rather than of the individual entities. Any two individual entities in the set are prohibited from having the same value on the key attributes at the same time. * The designation of a key represents a constraint in the real-world enterprise being modeled. * Sometimes we may have to work with an attribute that does not have a primary key of its own .To identify its rows ,we have to use the primary attribute of related table. this is known as foreign key. * So a foreign key is a field in a relational table that matches a candidate key of another table. The foreign key can be used to cross-reference tables . For example ,say we have two tables ,a CUSTOMER table that includes all custome r data ,and an ORDERS table that include all customer orders . The intention here is that all orders must be associated with a customer that is already in the CUSTOMER table . To do this,we will place a foreign key in the ORDERS table and have it related to the primary key of the CUSTOMER table.Strong and Weak Entities:- * An entity set may not have sufficient attributes to form a primary key. Such an entity set is termed a weak entity set. An entity set that has a primary key is termed a strong entity set. * As an illustration, consider the entity set payment, which has the three attributes: payment-number, payment-date, and payment-amount. Payment numbers are typically sequential numbers, starting from 1, generated separately for each loan. Thus, although each payment entity is distinct, payments for different loans may share the same payment number.Thus, this entity set does not have a primary key; it is a weak entity set. * For a weak entity set to be meaningful, it must be asso ciated with another entity set, called the identifying or owner entity set. * Although a weak entity set does not have a primary key, we nevertheless need a means of distinguishing among all those entities in the weak entity set that depend on one particular strong entity. The discriminator of a weak entity set is a set of attributes that allows this distinction to be made. The discriminator of a weak entity set is also called the partial key of the entity set.The primary key of a weak entity set is formed by the primary key of the identifying entity set, plus the weak entity set’s discriminator. Symbols used in E-R diagram:- Steps in E-R Modeling :- Usually the following five steps are followed to generate ER models 1. Identify the entity set. 2. Identify the relevant attributes. 3. Identify the prime attribute. 4. Find relationships between entity set. 5. Draw a complete ER model. How to Prepare an ERD:- Step 1 Let us take a very simple example and we try to reach a fully o rganized database from it. Let us look at the following simple statement:A boy eats an ice cream. This is a description of a real word activity, and we may consider the above statement as a written document (very short, of course). Step 2 Now we have to prepare the ERD. Before doing that we have to process the statement a little. We can see that the sentence contains a subject (boy), an object (ice cream) and a verb (eats) that defines the relationship between the subject and the object. Consider the nouns as entities (boy and ice cream) and the verb (eats) as a relationship. To plot them in the diagram, put the nouns within rectangles and the relationship within a diamond.Also, show the relationship with a directed arrow, starting from the subject entity (boy) towards the object entity (ice ICE CREAM EATS BOY Well, fine. Up to this point the ERD shows how boy and ice cream are related. Now, every boy must have a name, address, phone number etc. and every ice cream has a manufacture r, flavor, price etc. Without these the diagram is not complete. These items which we mentioned here are known as attributes, and they must be incorporated in the ERD as connected ovals. FLAVOUR MANUFACTURER ADRESS NAME EATS ICE CREAM CREAM BOY PRICE PHONEBut can only entities have attributes? Certainly not. If we want then the relationship must have their attributes too. These attribute do not inform anything more either about the boy or the ice cream, but they provide additional information about the relationships between the boy and the ice cream. FLAVOUR MANUFACTURER NAME ADRESS TIME DATE PRICE PHONE ICE CREAM EATS BOY Step 3 We are almost complete now. If you look carefully, we now have defined structures for at least three tables like the following: BOYPHONE ADRESS NAME ICE CREAM MANUFACTURER FLAVOUR PRICE EATS TIME DATE However, this is still not a working database, because by definition, database should be â€Å"collection of related tables. † To make them connected, the tables must have some common attributes. If we chose the attribute Name of the Boy table to play the role of the common attribute, then the revised structure of the above tables become something like the following BOY PHONE ADRESS NAME ICE CREAM NAME PRICE FLAVOUR MANUFACTURER NAME TIME DATE EATS This is as complete as it can be.We now have information about the boy, about the ice cream he has eaten and about the date and time when the eating was done. Extended Features of E-R Diagram 1. Specialization †¢An entity set may include sub-groupings of entities that are distinct in some way from other entities in the set. For instance, a subset of entities within an entity set may have attributes that are not shared by all the entities in the entity set. The E-R model provides a means for representing these distinctive entity groupings. †¢ Consider an entity set person, with attributes name, street, and city.A person may be further classified as one of the following: a) cust omer b) employee Each of these person types is described by a set of attributes that includes all the attributes of entity set person plus possibly additional attributes. For example, customer entities may be described further by the attribute customer-id, whereas employee entities may be described further by the attributes employee-id and salary. The process of designating sub-groupings within an entity set is called specialization. The specialization of person allows us to distinguish among persons according to whether they are employees or customers. As another example, suppose the bank wishes to divide accounts into two categories, checking account and savings account. Savings accounts need a minimum balance, but the bank may set interest rates differently for different customers, offering better rates to favored customers. Checking accounts have a fixed interest rate, but offer an overdraft facility; the overdraft-amount on a checking account must be recorded. * In terms of an E-R diagram, specialization is depicted by a triangle component labeled ISA, as Figure shows. The label ISA stands for â€Å"is a† and represents, for example, that a customer â€Å"is a† person.The ISA relationship may also be referred to as a superclass-subclass relationship. Higher- and lower-level entity sets are depicted as regular entity sets i. e. , as rectangles containing the name of the entity set. ISA 2. Generalization * The refinement from an initial entity set into successive levels of entity subgroupings represents a top-down design process in which distinctions are made explicit. The design process may also proceed in a bottom-up manner, in which multiple entity sets are synthesized into a higher-level entity set on the basis of common features.The database designer may have first identified a customer entity set with the attributes name, street, city, and customer-id, and an employee entity set with the attributes name, street, city, employee-id, and sa lary. * There are similarities between the customer entity set and the employee entity set in the sense that they have several attributes in common. This commonality can be expressed by generalization, which is a containment relationship that exists between a higher-level entity set and one or more lower-level entity sets.In our example, person is the higher-level entity set and customer and employee are lower-level entity sets. Higher- and lower-level entity sets also may be designated by the terms superclass and subclass, respectively. The person entity set is the superclass of the customer and employee subclasses. * Specialization stems from a single entity set; it emphasizes differences among entities within the set by creating distinct lower-level entity sets. These lower-level entity sets may have attributes, or may participate in relationships, that do not apply to all the entities in the higher-level entity set.Indeed, the reason a designer applies specialization is to repre sent such distinctive features. If customer and employee neither have attributes that person entities do not have nor participate in different relationships than those in which person entities participate, there would be no need to specialize the person entity set. * Generalization proceeds from the recognition that a number of entity sets share some common features (namely, they are described by the same attributes and participate in the same relationship sets).On the basis of their commonalities, generalization synthesizes these entity sets into a single, higher-level entity set. Generalization is used to emphasize the similarities among lower-level entity sets and to hide the differences; it also permits an economy of representation in that shared attributes are not repeated. Difference between Specialization and Generalization No. | Specialization| Generalization| 1| It is a Top Down approach. | It is a Bottom Up approach. | 2| Specialization stems from a single entityset; it em phasizes differences among entities within the set by creating distinct lower-level entity sets. Generalization proceeds from therecognition that a number of entity sets share some common features (namely, they are described by the same attributes and participate in the same relationship sets). | 3| The process of designating sub-groupingswithin an entity set is calledspecialization. | The process of designating groupingsfrom various entity sets is calledgeneralization. | 4| Specialization is a result of taking a subsetof higher level entity set to form a lower- level entity set. | Generalization is a result of taking theunion of two or more disjoint (lower- level) entity sets to produce a higher- level entity set. | .

Reasons for Attending College or University Essay

Many people attend colleges and universities all over the world to study and conduct research. What are their expectations of the academic experience? In my opinion, people involved in collegiate programs have two main purposes: to gain the experiences and certificates that prepare them for future careers and to increase their knowledge about different aspects of life. Many people desire stable careers that deeply affect their lives. Therefore, good preparation for a future career is a necessity. To maintain and promote your position at a company, especially in certain kinds of jobs, you must have the knowledge and experiences that come from attending a college or university. The skills, spirit, and confidence you gain from studying help equip you for your work. Moreover, it is easier to find a good job when you have qualified certificates. Many well-educated people can carry out their tasks smoothly and methodically with more economization of time and strength than people who manage their work by learning from their failures. Another advantage of attending a college or university is the relationships you build with other people. These relationships help you improve yourself. In a collegiate environment, you learn how to work in groups and how to cooperate with your partners. You also learn to achieve mutual understanding, an essential and useful skill in your future work. The second reason for attending a college or university, increasing knowledge about many aspects of life, might seem a little impractical, but it is, in fact, very practical. Some people have the misconception that studying in college provides them only with knowledge relating directly to their major and that getting certificates is the most important purpose of attending college. With those goals in mind, they often neglect subjects that don’t seem to be applicable to their work. However, knowledge from college is not just useful for your job; it also is useful for many other things in life. For example, people with basic knowledge about literature, history, art, psychology, etc. might enjoy their lives more than unlearned people. They also might overcome difficulties and stress more easily, as well as have an acceptable and optimistic attitude toward obstacles and failures in their lives. Furthermore, cultivated people might treat others in their communities with more regard. Nothing you study in college is useless, and increasing knowledge is as important as getting certificates. The more knowledge you have, the more poetic your life is. Generally speaking, it’s always necessary to have a good education. In addition to obtaining the appropriate certificates, attending a college or university gives you a great opportunity to learn about many different things on both macroscopic and microscopic levels. While the specific reasons people attend colleges and universities might differ, the fundamental purposes are the same: they want to obtain the necessary training and education for their future careers and they want to learn about a variety of different subjects that will apply to their lives outside their future careers. Therefore, everyone who chooses to attend a college or university should always strive to reach their goals and aspirations. This section contains 509 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page)| |.