Asking for Less Homework

ASKING FOR LESS HOMEWORK There are many important things in life but one of the most important things is education. Although education is really helpful, getting extra things to do like excessive homework makes it boring. Specific studies show that excessive homework makes students and parents hate school. People say that having more homework is good for students as it helps them get higher marks and be more responsible. They also say that more homework will make students revise a lot, so you remember explanations better.They prove that by doing more homework the parents would be able to get involved more with the student's educational life and be able to help them. Elders think that by giving students extra homework they will be able to be independent thinkers and know that they can learn things outside of school. However, I found that all these above findings are untrue. More homework won't make you revise more or get good marks, it will make you tired, sleepy and exhausted and lea ve no time to revise for quizzes or tests you have on the next day.Students don't want to be responsible now, in their future life they will be responsible. Parents would make it worse if they try to help their children to understand something as they might explain it in a different way and get the child confused. Students should have less homework. They need time to be with their family. They want to have a life for themselves and want to be active e. g going to the cinema to meet friends and play sports. We would enjoy simple things like having more sleep so we can go to school fresh the next day. Read also  Homework Solutions – Chapter 3Researchers have found that students finish their homework and stay up late at night so they can have some free time. In fact some teachers have found that more homework makes the student hate the subject. The student becomes pale and bored as he has been studying his whole life. Well, teachers should ask themselves if they want us to be active and do homework together, it will never work. Ask yourself : â€Å"Do you want your child to be constantly pale, sleepy and tired? â€Å",†Do you want to see your child so fat as he eats and eats and doesn’t have time to exercise? . Think of all the questions related to this and you will find the answer to none of them. In conclusion, I would like the school to think about students rights and having less homework is one of them. All principals should remember that teens and kids want to have fun, they don’t want to be responsible now and do hard work. They will be responsi ble later and will have to do extra study to get good marks but when they want not by forcing them and punishing them if they don’t do it. Think carefully and you will eventually agree with my beliefs.

Allen Ginsberg Essay

Allen Ginsberg was born into social confusion. He was jewish, gay, and his mother was a communist. Yet outside of this, he was also birthed within a generation that wallowed in chaos, both morally and emotionally. Before them had come the Industrial Revolution, which had begun the murder of â€Å"unity or wholeness† in American society; assembly lines and the breakdown of the workplace into â€Å"distinct and separable parts† had fragmented both the individual and the family. Yet it was the bomb that truly brought the deafening crush on American psycha, minimalizing mechanical wonders and becoming â€Å"the first true â€Å"human† leap in the intelligent understanding of how to control and shape the environment (Henrikson xi). However, to Ginsberg and others, nothing was closer to the anti thesis of the concept of human. Their parents had numbed themselves in order to adapt to the depression and two world wars, forcing them to rationalize the reality of post-war America with apathy and materialism and the empty values of consumerism. Ginsberg refused to believe this was the way of the world and began to write about a new generation who had placed new definitions in place of old notions that no longer applied. He and other writers began a To Allen Ginsberg, the problem was that in society the existence of the individual in isolation was naturally â€Å"more real† than society in general, as â€Å"collective society has an awesome control over people that transcends their individual wills.† (Merril 3) The bomb then was a symbol of this control, essentially bounding people to a future under fear, under which they would strip themselves of their purely human emotions in order to cope with the day. In a world â€Å"where mainstream television told you how to be and Mcarthyism told you what not to be†, Ginsberg believed the individual’s only answer was only looking inwards oneself where they couldn’t reach through the boundaries of externals (Wooley). His age would be on a spiritual quest, but to embark on it they would need a new religion for a new day; modern religion could no longer do as â€Å"good and evil and evil seemed increasingly inadequate in a world of science fiction turned fact† (Ziegler 172). The beat therefore found their religion in Zen Buddhism for one central reason: both sides of good and evil were embraced in â€Å"oneness† for the individual in the meditation where spontaneous flashes of images and sights might come ( Merill 7). In this religion, nothing the human being was impulsed to perform could be wrong as what was right was instinctual and natural. To sustain their humanity in a world gone mad, man had to embrace every emotion he felt as â€Å"exploiting these feelings..[led them] to new levels of truth† (Merill 2). This was the concept of the ying and the yang ; taking on all forces no matter how panicked or manic in coherence with nature. It is in this particular religious ideology and other forms of explicit verbal attacks that characterize Ginsberg’s first acknowledged work, Howl. The content of the book leaves no mystery to why it became so controversial; Ginsberg refuses to deny any schema of thought, most noticeably in the sexuality department. If had he had censored these thoughts, it would have equated to admitting that sexual behavior was unhealthy and unnatural; â€Å"this expression [was] the denial of shame itself† and represented the embrace of his full humanity (Merill 2). But to truly understand the work, one has to imagine themselves in the context of the Six Gallery group of San Francisco poets it was performed before, as its recitation was the first of many performances that would eventually make Ginsberg â€Å"largely responsibible for the movement of the poet from the printed page to the reading halls (Schumaker 635). One must imagine the situation , because it is in the visual that one can get the feeling of it , of the beat of the music, of the beat of the scene, of the swelling chests and rising spirits of â€Å"culture [surviving] despite the presence of an oppressive national political environment† (Schumaker 214). The mood can only be fully set if the voice of Ginsberg is imagined in a somewhat nervous tone, unsure of the response he will garner as he exalts the individual and their inherent potential for goodness outside of the society , saying â€Å"Holy! The soul is holy! The skin is holy! The tongue and cock and hand and asshole holy! Everything is holy!† The â€Å"boos, hisses,[claps]† of the crowd must be invoked upon the introduction the deity of death known as Moloch who is a direct contrast to the pure human existence (Schumaker 217) The nervousness and dread should be present alongside his description: â€Å"Mind [of] pure machinery..whose blood is running money..whose fingers are ten armies..whose ear is a smoking tomb†¦.demonic industries!!..granite cocks!!†¦monstrous bombs!† Moloch is responsible for taking away the instincts of the people that would bring them happiness as he â€Å"bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination† (Henrikson #). Yet among this distinction of conflict, the presentation of unity and aforementioned â€Å"one-ness† of Zen can be seen in Ginsberg’s portrayal of optimistic youth and its convergence with drugs and various arrays of emotions. Words are infused with the surge of the crowd as there are â€Å"the angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the night†, similar to â€Å"a lost battalion of platonic conversationalists jumping..off windowsills off Empire State†, and equal to those â€Å"who vanished into nowhere Zen New Jersey†¦ [loning it] through the streets of Idaho seeking visionary Indian angels†. These descriptions exalt the individual who absorbs his uncertainty and doubt and lets it take him anywhere in his hunt for spirituality, in an ethereal surreal showing of human purity described in a gritty confessional style latent with acid tripped tongues between lips and roses on the ends of declarations. They also know no form, as Ginsberg says each is â€Å"a breath†, a flurry of emotion representative the human exhaling against â€Å"conventional society† and its brutal and constraining tendencies as represented through Moloch (Merill 23) Ginsberg essentially takes the amalgamation of drugs, obscenity, explicit sexual imagery and â€Å"hysterical/naked† tendencies of his people and compares them to the oblique characteristics of Moloch and the â€Å"boys sobbing in armies† by his side, massive like red revolution but subverted to a nationalistic mantra, cut like concrete on warm warring flesh wishing they could feel like the battleground if it had a heartbeat with organs cut away at three crosses to celebrate the mythic religion when Jesus the baby birthed in love consideration and carnal compassion was felt by his mother; of the two, the blatant and overt obscenities of the steel machine were much more Frankenstein-esque in offensiveness and horror than the words of the skin, of frantic nude protests laced like bluesy Saturday night agony tunes. To bring America to this reality, Ginsberg uses the painful recognition of â€Å"seeing the best minds of his time ..destroyed by madness†, emblematic of his lover Carl Solomon being institutionalized after suffering from the noxious consumerist tones of nuclear America (Schumaker 208). Taking all of madness in within himself, the poet summarizes his response to all of this with the single line â€Å"FUCK AMERICA AND ATOM BOMB†. It is symbolic of his overall explicit nature in protest, such as his later poetry which boasted of â€Å"cocksucking† in front of French cathedrals and standing out in aristocratic French scenes penning Death to Van Ghohs Ear (Campbell NUMBER). Ginsberg not only felt this came naturally but felt it was as the new necessity. America needed to be shocked in order to be allured to these works or poetry, which went deeper than blatant sexuality; emotion energy sex love mysticism were all on the same plane of internal mental thought. Avant garde display was now the means to the end of snapping sensually the industrialized human machine, over-fixated on temporary addiction to a set of materialistic values that came with carnage caved in at the ends of seventeen year old love letters where the blood started to run in the rain and the words and signatures were incomprehensible but the dog tags shined like Sunday morning breakfasts baked in sweet bread and kisses from Grandpa Cookie. It was this unconventional fragmented style of verse that caused mothers to cry when kids read about freedom and a world not burgeoning with the moral and physical suicides of a thousand possibilities in a nuclear haze. They’d imagine such lines would be a threat to a child, who might become like Dylan acid trip epics with Quinny dosing and skys opening for brief seconds where you can taste and feel â€Å"it†, the thing that makes us â€Å"mad† and â€Å"burn burn burn† with hope at the edge of tongues (Dylan)(Kerouac ). Folk heroes proclaimed that children would become â€Å"beyond their command†, the command of authority figures etched in the physical and moral apathy of the bomb. People were listening. With Howl, Ginsberg set down a formula for later protest songs from the likes of Joan Baez :the obscenities of the state should be followed by the uncontrollable and instinctual emotional reactions of the individual. Such muses from the heart and mind about the existence of the new sort of rain coming down and the boy who disappeared in it could be easily invoked in the depths of the subconscious stalled in meditation. As poet Michael Mcclure said after Howl’s first recitation, â€Å"none of us wanted to go back to the gray, chill, militaristic silence-to the land without poetry-to the spiritual drabness† (Schumaker 215). The apoclypic visions of Ginsberg’s The Fall of America and the America that â€Å"LOOKED FROM ITS GRAVE†were all that lay behind, seen in the influence of Dylan when he too speaks about the end. Blowin in the Wind used lines like â€Å"How many years can a mountain exist before it’s washed to the sea† while â€Å"The times are a changin'† versed conclusions like â€Å"Admit that the waters around you have grown and accepit it that soon you’ll be drenched to the bone.† Ginsberg and the beat were aware of this â€Å"point of no return†, a mad run from the end that could come at any time (Schumaker 215) They were asking for the desperation, for the land in front of the setting sun was the only direction they needed to go However, the land had heavy industry walls of red white and blue to block the spread of this so called disease of internal and moral freedom. These obstacles had mouths running with blood crossed with eyes of pristine clandestine censorship to protect the impressionable youth of the next generation from being swallowed by hysterics, as it needed their limbs to fight the great world wars in the bowels of death and destruction that reigned with every passing sunset in the East and in the West. This hypocrisy was essentially what brought Ginsberg into full fledged politics, while others like Kerouac drew the line at the beat representing only â€Å"self sufficiency†Ã¢â‚¬  and â€Å"freedom from moral interference† (Schumaker 180). Much of this can be due to the inherent political struggles he found in getting his work into the public sphere. When Howl was about to be released for the second time, â€Å"they arrested a counter assistant at City lights for peddling literature likely to corrupt juveniles, and also arrested Ferlinghetti for publishing it.† (Campbell193). Ginsberg therefore was one of the first writers to be constantly backed by the ACLU in â€Å"open showdowns against what was and was not obscene†, not only during Howl but later in the group publication of the drugged up Big Table # 1 (Schumaker 255 , 317). To Ginsberg, this might have been a sign of the government trying to quell the influence of writing that would inflame the masses, similar to the repression of the ideas of the Burgeois revolution through strong state centers in the aristocratic France of the 19th century. But what was more was that the prophetic frenetic man saw lunacy in the fact that the artist was releasing pure human instincts in his musing, feelings which although pure, had to be recited in bland grave like versions such as â€Å"the censored is holy!† (Schumaker 254). His work Kaddish, a trying poem about the death of his mother, was an explanation of this affront . â€Å"Listening to Ray Charles blues shout blind on the phonograph† , Ginsberg praises the ability of Charles to withstand â€Å"uncontrollable agony† by keeping â€Å"within the limits of structured rhthm†. Replacing â€Å"censored† with â€Å"skin† in Howl severely hampered the rhthm of the piece, as missing one part of a language of heartbeats and paranoia encased in syllables was like losing a leg in the moral internal marathon; such a gaping wound could lead to a loss of the entire feeling of the poem. Without the unity, the â€Å"one-ness†, the recited work could not produce the same flash of imagery and light that had occurred, similar to Kerouac’s sight of a woman that reminds him of his mother; â€Å"frozen with ecstasy on the sidewalk..a complete step across chronological time into timeless shadows† (Kerouac 172). These â€Å"estatic moments† were what made the spiritual search worthwhile and kids of the mystical mad crazed road hoped that when their moment came, all of these previous moments of light would converge. POPULUSIST ADD HERE Now forceably emersed in the political scene, Ginsberg delved further into politics with his war against the byproducts of age of hate that could not be vanquished with napalm. Particular awareness should be given to his use of blatant contrast to evoke irrepressible feeling. In â€Å"Plutonian Ode†, he draws a â€Å"parallel between the mythological Pluto and the destructive power of the element that received it’s name from the God.† (Schumaker 629). Lines such as â€Å"I dare your Reality..I turn the wheel of Mind on your three hundred tons.. My oratory advances on your vaulted mystery† are the polar anti-thesies of the beauty of the â€Å"sparrows waked whistling through marine Street’s summer green leafed trees.† Protesting such atrocities of nature by nature by meditating on train tracks bound to deliver nuclear material, the recitation of Plutonium Ode would be needed inas his defense, adding parts to it spontaneously like â€Å"breathing silent Prisoners, witnesses, Police- the stenographer yawns into her palms† Sunflower Sutra is very much the same, written he was traveling with Kerouac and viewed a sunflower which was being afflicted with the waste that came as trains passed, its wheels unaware of the â€Å"indignity† it offered the poor flower (Schumaker 632). The subsequent contrast he painted was versed in the lines â€Å"we’re not our skin of grime, we’re not a dread black dusty imageless locomotive, we’re all beautiful golden sunflowers.† In this description, Ginsberg felt like he was taking up the â€Å"whitemanesque celebration† of becoming America through telling a lucid moment which could apply to a majority of Americans. Dylan picked this up better than anyone, evident in his verses describing â€Å"a young child beside a dead pony† and the†white man who walked a black dog† in â€Å"The Times..† Even keener contrast appears when he muses â€Å"I change my no pets allowed sign to a home sweet home sign and wonder why I haven’t any friends† (Dylan) This social conscious and use of contrast gave the poet singer the â€Å"whitmanesque†¦I am America† perspective where he could speak for men who weren’t even of his own color. â€Å"Hurricaneâ €  was the epitome of this, Sunflower Sutra Voice represents the spirits, if not actual experiences, of his readers. â€Å"It occurs to me I am America† 219 even though un American â€Å"whitmanesque celebration of self â€Å" â€Å"gone to seed and suffering the indignity of the discarded refuse† â€Å"they came upon an old, battered sunflower, grimy from the passing trains we’re not our skin of grime, we’re not a dread bleak dusty imageless locomotive, we’re all beautiful golden sunflowers Ginsberg had given the ideology of protest in Howl with natural offense against the grisly gashed abuses of the state covered in gauze and dead presidents. He had experienced the machinations of the war nation as nymphetic Greek realities which varied in degrees of â€Å"apocalyptic reckoning† undergone in hazy highs under hallowed homages hallucinating of American populistic deities of Whitman-esque form invoked under the beauty of the common land . However, it was Jack Kerouac and â€Å"On The Road† who exposed suburban insanity on the edge of skinless pointless existences and the consequent worshipping of the road that took one away from those invisible developments and commuter fathers. It follows the base set by Ginsberg, as its focal character Sal Paradise set off through America as he had this â€Å"feeling that everything was dead.† (Kerouac 2) In addition, Zen and its absorption of uncertainty and an array of unexplainable feelings appear throughout the book. But like Ginsberg, Kerouac implies that these adjectives can only be positive. The â€Å"insanity† that comes from living on the road is a â€Å"saving prescence†, and the more Sal embraces it with his road mate Dean Moriarity the more the â€Å"spirit [is uplifited] with its access to the wonderment and wildness of life† (Henrikson 176). In contrast, a return to Times Square reveals a people that are â€Å"grabbing, taking,giving,sighting,dying†, reflective of the futility of American behavior during the American time, as the heart was traded over in exchange for monotonous complacency with steel hands and sultry scents of capitalism’s carnival. To react to such a scene of such pre-planned monotony, Kerouac wrote in a style known as spontaneous prose which entailed descriptions of long line. It was based on images that were observed and the subsequent recording of sounds and emotions related to that moment, all unleashed in the spirit of a honest confessional that acknowledged every thought without censor, in the vein of Ginsberg and Howl. A perfect example is seen in Dylan’s novel Tarantula, in the lines â€Å"jack of spades – vivaldi of the coin laundry – wearing a hipster’s dictionary† and â€Å"it is 5:31-the rain sounds like a pencil sharpener (Dylan).Each line epitomized the crazed memory of the sounds of be-bop and jazz like a man â€Å"blowing a phrase on his saxophone till he runs out of breath , and would be â€Å"without consciousness†, flowing with images until â€Å"final revelation of exhaustion brought an end† (Merill 45). The â€Å"energy† that is given off by each â€Å"soul-seeking line therefore seems like enough â€Å"to hold back the world’s onrushing moral and human decay (Henrikson 176). Alliteration was a staple of Kerouac, and many credit him with its creation and see it reflected in Dylan’s â€Å"A Hard Rain’s A-Gonan Fall†, although the instinct to put words together like â€Å"a black branch with blood† ,†seven sad forests† and a â€Å"dozen dead oceans† seems like a natural inherent impulse in litearature. ( However, like the nature of the verse, sustaining such a crazed personally analytical lifestyle requires the dedication to constant moving, embodied in the way Kerouac would shout â€Å"Go!† when Allen would read his poetry (Schumaker 215). With pauses in life or writing, there would be a pause in the search for spirituality of â€Å"it†, or as Dean says, the journey to the â€Å"magic land at the end of the road† (Kerouac NUMBER). This is all reflected in the last chapters at the end of the road in Mexico revealing the hauting images of â€Å"shawled Indians watching us from under hatbrims and rebozos† who â€Å"didn’t know that a bomb had come that could crack all our bridges† (Kerouac number The road had come to an end for now and therefore the reality of life was in that image stark naked Indian old mystic land, rooted in the emptiness of man’s new capabilities over the days where mystics howled at the skies dancing with red faced gods Fundamental Paradox of Buddhsm All experience is essentially emptiness; that purity and absence are one. (Foster 62). To collaborate on this political and literary endeavor, the icon of Bob Dylan entered Ginsberg’s life, a man who had already been heavily influenced by the Beat. The folk hero had the world revealed to him during Howl, but this latent influence was only spawned to action when Dylan first read Kerouac’s â€Å"Mexico City Blues.† The long line outpouring of feeling based on flashing images and spontaneous events caused Dylan to drop out of school as â€Å"it was the first poetry that really spoke to [him]† in a natural purely Earthly sense. CITATION The musician saw this same spontaneity in Ginsberg when he viewed his improvisational poetry, which was like â€Å"working without a net† and releasing the crazed random feelings he felt from the public and the atmosphere in words (Schumaker 555) . Dylan was enthralled by the process, one that he had obviously attempted in order â€Å"to assume a rough-edged, made up on the spot feeling on his albums.† (Schumaker 555) the next months Eventually, beat politics came to the same point which had threatened Aunt Molly Jackson and the coal miners; un-American ideas were associated with red. Beatnik was a play of words off of the disloyal notion of the Russian†Sputnik†, while the beat generation film by MGM boasted of a â€Å"rapist on the run† for a main character (Schumaker 6. Even worse was a ploy off of was a play Being â€Å"out there† and unloyal to America, Beatnik was a ploy off of the Russian wonder â€Å"Sputnik†. Even worse was the â€Å"false consciousness of hip† which plagued Kerouac the more he heard words like â€Å"crazy† and â€Å"wigged† in scenes as if people thought the repetition of them could bring out the â€Å"burning burning burning† (Campbell 246). Vexner said â€Å"the culture of dissent was a hot commodity†, as if the Beat were selling the idea of sex and anarchy to a world that was starving for it. CITATION Like Mike Seeger and the Lost City Ramblers, Kerouac and the beat needed to re-examine their roots and tried to analyze what and who it meant to be â€Å"beat†, ignoring all mutated concepts of the beatnik and its subverted image. However, Kerouac one day â€Å"hated them† colllectively, but switched his position come next morn, where he was confessing he â€Å"loved them† only to come to the conclusion when asked again that â€Å"he was becoming paranoid† (Campbell 250). Yet in this critique of themselves the Beat forgot to analyze a few elements that had made their image easy to exploit. The first is that when they were called â€Å"to moan for man†, few realized the energy it took to keep up such a lifestyle. The fact that they pose no answers to an incalcitrent society outside of this bewailing of emptiness and internal discovery made their journey a disjointed and dismembered one; the beat’s endless internal revolution during crazed trips in On the Road only lead back to conformist society with the realization of the death of America in the haunting mystic Indian scene Dean and Sal experience. circular. All of the hope of the convergence of all of those aforementioned estatic moment where everything rushed forward was cut off slashed at the knees like Vietnam massacres upon the lack of the realization of â€Å"it†. Depending again on these personal distortions to lead them back to estatic moments, the Beat almost relied too much on the self. Their feeling that their prose was a superior form of nature really did spark a level of narcissim that reflected poorly. Kerouac’s mantra became â€Å"you’re always genious†, proclaiming lofty phrases such as â€Å"Once God moves the hand, to move back and revise is a sin† (Schumaker 261). What he had forgotten was that PURITY YADDA, and that eventually the emphasis on him just swallowed the man in the desperation for drink in Satori and his search for â€Å"a relative (literally any relative)† demonstrated the demise of the man that constantly depended on the hysterics of the situation (Merill 77). Ginsberg on the other hand had tendencies to create poetry where everything would be â€Å"contained in the vertical figure I† which would lead to statements such as â€Å"I want to be known as the most brilliant man in America.† 261, 262 The fragmented style of poetry that â€Å"bordered on apocalyptic knowledge† was just too much for some, even too much for Ginsberg himself who was â€Å"tired of being Allen Ginsberg† (Campbell 192). Many who could not connect with this age or this feeling wondered what gave these men the right to proclaim themselves as â€Å"phrophets† or â€Å"holy maniacs† when all they did was speak in a version of English that they thought was superior in its absence of the comma. Few realized that the backlash against grammar was due to the fact that the period destroyed the delicate rhythm of works like Kaddish , which would cause one to spiral back to the boundless agony that the perfect balance of poetry embraced. Like Dylan says , some were like â€Å"D.A.R woman [who] flies off the handle. looks at jack. says â€Å"in some places you’d be arrested for obscenity† she doesn†t een hear the band..she falls down a sidewalk crack† (Dylan ) If one couldn’t embrace the beat of the scene, the crazy wigged out mantra which dictated the path of the man, then they’d never know. They’d point out the beards and the bodies spread across ma ttresses on each other and the heroin needles and the staircase of marijuana smoke that supposedly led these gloats to â€Å"higher realization.† In Dylan’s movie Renaldo and Clara, Ginsberg is representative of the father and Dylan the son. It is a relationship of giving and taking between the folk hero and the beat, a representation of what Ginsberg and Kerouac did for Americana. brought Dylan took in the outpouring of words and feeling and exposure of â€Å"the full heart† that caused him to quit school in a spontaneous moment. He acquired Kerouac’s class consciousness GO BACK and the love for the capture of â€Å"gawky awkward beauty of the individual eccentric citizen† like Dean Moriarity in words and in American travels, reflected in words such as the â€Å"the motorcycle black Madonna two-wheeled gypsy queen and her silver studded phantom lover† he writes about. The protest inherent in Howl is taken into his soul, alongside the absorbtion and reflection of various unexplainable feelings in an unexplainable time. However, he essentially adds an extension to the beat movement, removing t he aspects of the beat that confused many parts of society who were still too numbed to come to grips with these bearded men. Songs like Blowin in the Wind took Ginsberg’s art of contrast and brought it full circle; these protest songs leaned more towards the finding of the ultimate answer. Other pieces like Hurricane evoke images from NAME DO THIS SHIT TOMORROW. However, Dylan sounds more like every man in Hurricane , like the every voice of Peter Paul and Mary, because of his humbleness and reluctance to put himself above the common man, something the beat had trouble doing feeling they had divine potential to change the face of thinking in itself. In every sense Dylan is the beat, from his wild descriptions of jazz and hitch hiking in his novel Tarantula to his manic performances thriving off of the emotions of the environment to his celebration of drugs sex and wild wanderings of youth. The spot where Dylan and Kerouac left off, frenzied and genius and incomprehensible to those who could not get â€Å"it†, was the place Dylan took up. The spoken word long line tradition and ithat Ginsberg could only cross halfway across the gap was bridged by Dylan, with memories of Kerouac’s inspiring prose driving him. The Zen of it all , of all the nuclear protest, all the civil liberty, all the cries for a sympathetic America become one with the combination of these three. Their memory is like a burning mystic sign that has no form, only emotion, bright enough to reinvigprate the young masses in every generation to the crazed motion and the crazed search and the frenetic fraticness of the freedom of sensuality with the keenness and sharpness of political reality like a goddamn shard that cuts us at the arm just to prove we still bleed . As long as it burns, the land will breath even under the lack of life in the H-bomb oxygen starved skinny era. As long as it burns, the hills will rise and fall with the pure schitzophrenic sanity of the wind, an echo that just whispers search on the end of our hope stricken ears against the fear ridden nuclear wet dreams of bodies sexed and eyes hallucinating vexed and the fallout of a demoralized Patriot and its Acts of jingoistic nuclear tendencies. When Dylan said Ginsberg needed to get out on the open road of the tour â€Å"to wake up America†, he meant that he wanted his spirit to ride through the skeletal suburbs warning the kids of the inhumanity and callousness stalking the land. I hear his voice and and see their protest so well, like â€Å"Blood writ in Blood†, haunting my daytime dreams with hazy invocations of what we truly can be. Knowing that there is a generation who also feels the same burning in the center of the heart gives me strands of hope that somehow we can overcome the same inhumanity in this age of faceless terrorism that shows no distinction between Am erica and the West. With a tear off the edge of the holy cheek, emblematic of the disunity of our feelings, these men push through our insides to assure us these expressions are what will take us whole. POPULUSIST EDGE OF FOLK TATPRETTY FLOWER POETRY Works Cited Campbell, James. This Is The Beat Generation London : Secker and Warburg, 1999. Henrikson, Margot A. Dr. Strangelove’s America Los Angeles : University of California Press, 1997. Merill, Thomas F. Allen Ginsberg Boston : Twayne Publishers, 1998. Schumaker, Michael. Dharma Lion New York : St. Martin’s Press, 1992. All enamoured with some aspects of the drug culture , labeled as family haters and communist hippies and , the movement began to waver at the end parallel with a lot of the demise of rock stars when coming under controversy and assault by mainstream America. Kerouac became a drunk high off his own lines and Ginsberg moved onto relatively less successful social scenes in rock and roll and the clash.

Automatic Controls for Any Process

Chapter 5Automatic ControlsAutomation plays a really critical function in the development and promotion of any system. Automatic control refers to the control of any procedure, device or a system utilizing automatic agencies instead than manual control. Automation a system is done to better the public presentation and to increase the productiveness of the system. Automatic control has become an built-in portion in every field whether it is industry, robotics, vehicles, power workss, etc. to increase the productiveness, public presentation and efficiency of the system control systems are used to accomplish the mechanization. Control system fundamentally refers to the interconnectedness of the constituents to configure the system to bring forth the coveted end product.5.1 Types of Control SystemThere are fundamentally two types of control systems: Figure 5.1 Basic types of Control systems Closed cringle system is good than unfastened cringle system. The control system used for this undertaking is a closed cringle electronic control unit which can command the end product of the system.5.2 Components of Control systemThere are assorted constituents of control system that includes the procedure whose end product is to be controlled, informations acquisition unit, electronic control unit and end product devices.5.2.1 ProcedureIt is the basic constituent of the control system as this is the constituent whose end product is to be controlled utilizing the automatic control. So it is required to mathematically pattern the procedure to understand the behavior of the input and so bring forth the desired and controlled end product ( Mutambara Arthur 1999 ) . Top of Form Bottom of Form5.2.2 Data Acquisition UnitIt is that unit of the system that can mensurate electrical or physical measure in the signifier of electromotive force, current, temperature, sound, etc. It by and large measures the parallel signal and so treat it utilizing signal conditioning or parallel to digital convertor. The physiological information from the detectors is send to the cardinal unit to be processed. PIC16f73 microcontroller is used as the nucleus of DAU and it performs the parallel to digital transition and so sends the processed end product signal to the end product device. PIC microcontroller is chosen as it provides the necessary functionalities needed to the user. Besides it has high velocity parallel to digital transition ability. PIC microcontroller is farther connected to liquid crystal show ( LCD ) , doorbell and a motor to expose the end product. Basic constituents of DAQ unit: Figure 5.2 Components of DAQ unit ( What is data acquisition? 2014 ) Detector:Sensor is an input device used to mensurate the physiological signals like temperature, light olfactory property, etc. It is besides called transducer that converts a physical signal into measureable electrical signal. The electrical end product of the detector may be in the signifier of current, electromotive force, opposition or other electrical signal depending upon the type of detector used. In this undertaking, intoxicant detector and eye-blink detectors are used which are already discussed in the old chapter 3 and 4. DAQ Device:It is the interface between the input signal from the detector and the computing machine. It is fundamentally used to change over the linear signal coming from the detector into a digital signal which can be easy interpreted by the computing machine. Its chief map is to mensurate the parallel signal utilizing signal conditioning and so change over it into digital signifier. For this undertaking the microcontroller will move as a DAQ device and it will work on the instructions programmed in its memory. Microcontroller used in this undertaking has inbuilt parallel to digital convertor so there is no demand to link parallel to digital convertor externally. Computer System:The DAQ device is connected to the computing machine utilizing a port. The computing machine coach linking the DAQ and the computing machine system acts as a communicating nexus between the computing machine and the DAQ device for go throughing the instructions and the measured informations. In this undertaking, a plan is written in programming package ( Mikro C ) and this plan is fed into the DAQ device utilizing a microcontroller burner and a coach. This connexion between the DAQ device and computing machine is made merely for infixing the codification into it. After that there is no demand for computing machine, the device will execute its maps on its ain ( What is data acquisition? 2014 ) .5.2.3 Electronic Control unitThe electronic control unit ( ECU ) controls the fuel system, ignition system and velocity of the engine. It chiefly consists of microprocessors or microcontrollers, random entree memory ( RAM ) , read merely memory ( ROM ) and input end product devi ces. Based on the information from the input detectors, the ECU determines the end product of the electronics circuit. It is considered as the encephalon of the control system as its work is to take the signal and bring forth the automatically controlled signal required by the end product. Microcontroller serves both the intent of informations acquisition and commanding the end products of the undertaking ( Vincent T, Ciulla 2002 ) .5.2.4 Output ActuatorIt is besides known as end product device that converts the electrical signal into some physical end product. It receives the controlled signal from the electronic control unit in the signifier of electrical signal. It is the device which influences the procedure of the system physically and forces the device to bring forth the coveted end product. The actuator applicable to this undertaking is motor that is used to bespeak the end product of the system. This undertaking besides requires a control unit as the vehicle is automatically controlled in this system.5.3 Types of electronic controlThree types of electronic controls are used majorly in any system ; Figure 5.3 Types of Electronic Controls Comparison between different types of controls is given in the following tabular array based upon their characteristics and public presentation. This comparing is drawn to find the best suited type of control to be used in this undertaking. Table 5.1 Comparison between different types of controlsMicroprocessorMicrocontrollerProgrammable Logic ControlA microprocessor works as a Central Processing Unit of a general intent computing machine.It can be considered as micro computing machine as all the constituents are embedded on a individual bit.It is a specialised system designed to command the industrial procedures and machinery.I/O ports, memory, timers, interrupts, etc are non inbuilt so they are connected externally.Microcontroller has all the excess peripherals like I/O ports, memory, timers, counters, interrupts, etc are built-in inside the bit merely.It has a programmable memory to hive away specific maps like on/off control, timers, counters, arithmetic and informations handling. It has limited figure of inputs and end products.Microprocessors based systems are bulky and really much expensive as it gives really high processing velocity.These are easy available and are less bulky and much cheaper than microprocessors .PLCs are usage programmed for merely peculiar undertakings so their hardware is really dearly-won and need regular care.But its drawback is that it has really few pins that are programmable.Most of the pins of microcontroller are programmable.It is a programmable logic control and uses ladder logic for scheduling.It can merely manage a few spots of instructions as it has really less built-in memory.It has inbuilt memory so it has many spots to manage instructions.It has really small memory which can manage few instructions.It is widely used in desktop computing machines and laptop, notepads, etc due to its high processing velocity.It has moderate processing velocity so it is widely used in little control systems, contraptions like oven, telecastings, etc.It is by and large used for industrial applications for automatic control of industrial machinery, procedure etc.Slightly big size due to excess peripherals and operates above 1Ghz.Small in size and operates from really few MHzs to 30-50 Mhz.Its size varies from little, medium to really big PLC panels.Examples of microprocessors are 8085, 8086, INTEL Pentium series, etc.Examples of microcontrollers are INTEL8051, PIC16f73, PIC16F877, etc.Examples of PLC are industrial control, industrial safety applications, etc.The research worker decided to utilize the microcontroller bit for the processing of detected signals because it is little in size, cheap and consumes less power. It does non necessitate any external input/ end product ports, memory, timers or interrupts as it has all these characteristics inbuilt in its internal architecture. Higher integrating of microcontroller besides reduces the cost and size of the system which serves the basic demand of the user every bit good as the research worker. PLC based systems are really much expensive to be used for this intent ( Basics of microcontrollers 2011 ) .5.3.1 Choice of microcontroller for the undertakingAfter make up one's minding the microcontroller it is o f import to make up one's mind which microcontroller should be used in this peculiar undertaking that can outdo suit the demands of the undertaking. For this intent a comparing between different types of microcontroller is drawn in the undermentioned tabular array. Table 5.2 Comparison of Different MicrocontrollersPropertiesPIC microcontrollerMicrocontroller 8051AVRDirection SetIt is based on RISC ( Reduced direction set calculation ) . It has merely 35 set of instructions that makes its architecture easy to larn.It is based on CISC ( Complex direction set calculation ) . It has a big figure of instructions about 250 instructions.It is besides based on RISC ( Reduced direction set calculation ) but it has big direction set i.e. non-orthogonal. It has about 140 instructions.Processing SpeedIt can treat 3 million instructions per second because in 1 machine rhythm of PIC, clock frequence is divided by 4.It can treat 1 million instructions per second because in 1 machine rhythm of 8051, clock frequence is divided by 12.It can treat 12 million instructions per second because in 1 machine rhythm of AVR, clock frequence is divided by 1.ADCIts velocity of parallel to digital transition is really fast than AVR’s.It does non hold inbuilt parallel to digital convertors like PIC and AVR.Its parallel to digital transition velocity is slower than PIC.Power ingestionIt has least power ingestion.It consumes the most power out of all the three microcontrollers.It consumer higher power than PIC microcontroller.ProgramingIt is really easy programmable IC as it really easy to code.Cryptography of microcontroller 8051 is besides easy.It has really complex cryptography for novices as compared to other two microcontrollers.MemoryIt has 8k brassy memory, 368?8 byte RAM.It has 256 byte internal RAM and 4k on-chip ROM.It has 8k byte flash memory, 1k byte RAM.Cost and AvailabilityIt is easy available in market and that excessively at low cost.It is besides low lost and easy available.It is dearly-won as compared to 8051 and PIC micro accountant and handiness is besides limited.As detectors are used in this undertaking so it is better to utilize a microcontroller with built-in ADC with fast transition velocity alternatively of utilizing sepa rate ADC after every detection faculty. By maintaining this in head the research worker had studied the characteristics of assorted microcontrollers which can be used to implement the accident bar system and eventually reached to the decision of utilizing PIC ( Peripheral Interface Controller ) microcontroller. Researcher decided to utilize PIC16f73 is used in the undertaking due to its high parallel to digital transition. The pin architecture of PIC16f73 is given figure 5.4.5.4 Architecture of PIC16f73 microcontroller Figure 5.4 Architecture of microcontroller PIC16f73 ( Microchip 2002 ) It is a 28 pin IC and the coveted undertaking can be made utilizing 28 pins with 3 input end product ports. It has 192 byte RAM ( Random Access Memory ) and it is based on RISC architecture with merely 35 set of instructions. It has 8k brassy memory, 4k programmable memory and 368?8 byte RAM. It has 3 ports viz. port A, B and C. Port A consists of 5 parallel to digital channels for ADC transition. Assorted parametric quantities for choosing PIC16f73 microcontroller are listed below.Performance:PIC16f73 microcontroller which will be used in the execution of this undertaking is a 28 pin IC with 3 input-output ports. It besides has 192 bytes of RAM ( Random Access Memory ) and is based on RISC ( Reduced Instruction Set Computation ) architecture for better public presentation of the Accident Prevention System. It has much faster transition velocity of parallel to digital transition than other accountants.Power ingestion:A PIC controlled system has minimal power ingestion with good publi c presentation which is needed by the accident bar system. So this characteristic of PIC is really utile for the system being developed as the system would work on minimum power without compromising the system public presentation.Memory:The accident bar system utilizing intoxicant and oculus winking sensing can be done utilizing the built-in memory of PIC but still if the demand of memory of the system increases. PIC microcontroller besides has 4k programmable brassy memory and most of the PIC based systems are memory expandible and can spread out its memory as per use and type of application. To implement this system its built-in memory is adequate ( Bates Martin, 2011 ) .Therefore from this chapter, the control unit used for this undertaking is finalized. This chapter gives a brief overview of assorted control devices. Comparison between different control systems is drawn. The justification for taking a peculiar control unit is besides given. The short account of microcontroller u sed is besides given in this chapter. Now all the basic constituents to be used in the undertaking are decided. Therefore from the following chapter, design of circuitry and the system will be done. After that this system should be implemented and so tested.

How well is neo-functionalism still able to account for the evolution Essay

How well is neo-functionalism still able to account for the evolution of the European Union - Essay Example Studied critically, the EU policies positions Europe as a silent superpower having power that equals or supersedes the one held by US in almost all aspects expect that of deployment of military forces (Moravscik, 2005, p. 349). The European Commission receives preferential treatment and recognition in international secretariats as the powers of the European Parliament continue to increase steadily over years. From 1950s, scholars have described European Union as an institution on an upward growth path and in course of achieving ever closer ties (Moravcsik 2005, 350). He asserts that such thinking is linked to neo-functionalism, forming one of the two main theories considered in analyzing EU integration; neo-functionalism and inter-governmentalism (Moga 2009, 796). Both theories have been criticized, amended although they consist of strong theoretical arguments useful in understanding integration. The theory of neo-functionalism emerged in mid 1950s and is used to explain regional integration where countries do away with barriers to trade to enforce free trade. Neo-functionalism is heavily connected to the strategies used in integration (Rosamond 2000, 10). Jean Monnet, described by various authors as the principal architect of the European integration and a founding father of EU adopted an approach that aimed at bringing integration in similar sectors with an aim of bringing attaining spi llover effects which would further the integration process (Rosamond 2000, 11). The theory was developed by Earns Haas where he reformulated the principles of functionalist and analyzed them in the context of regional organizations. Neo-functionalist views integration as driven by creation of institutions although they were not originally aimed to do this. Neo-functionalism postulates that with the formation central supranational sate, the role of nationalism and national states declines. In addition to positive spill over, the other mechanisms seen as driving integration include technocratic automaticity and change of domestic alliances (Moga 2009, 796). An example of positive spill over is a situation in which a sector such as coal and steel under the governance of a single central institution cause so much pressure to the other associated areas of policy including taxation and wages and influences integration (Wallace 2004, 15). Change in domestic alliance happens when various st ate interest groups, elites and associations transfer their loyalty to supranational institutions and away from national institutions. This is usually fuelled by a realization that supranational institutions offer better paths for achieving the desired goals rather than national institutions (Wallace 2004, 16). This leads to grouping of individuals having pro-European ideas and persuades national leaders to shift their alliance to an integrated region (Wallace 2005, 17). Technocratic automaticity views integration as being boosted by supranational institutions which become stronger than member states. This paper will evaluate how well neo-functionalism can still be used to account for the evolution within the European Union and the discussion will be based on the various developments that have occurred during the past two decades. Inter- govermentalism looks at integration from

Parenting of adolecents Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Parenting of adolecents - Essay Example Parenting is harder in this current world because many parents do not seem to know when too much fear is too much, or when they are not displaying enough concern. Some parents fear more than they should, which often results in their adolescents being uncertain and scared of the world. Instead of growing up and exploring the world that is available to them, they prefer to remain under the protection of their parents -- something that many parents are more than happy to offer if it means not having to let go of their children. Stepping back enough to let their children grow and move on is perhaps the hardest part of parenting in general. There are parents that do not feel that they have taught their children everything they need to know about growing up and living on their own. Due to this, some parents just increase their overprotection, which can be seen as an unconscious attempt at keeping their children from leaving. Parents seldom know when they have taught their children all that they can to prepare them for the world. Unfortunately, this is when many of the unfounded fears come out. As a result, a parent can either push their child away, or they can make their children have their own unfounded fears.

Network Intrusion Detection and Forensics Dissertation

Network Intrusion Detection and Forensics - Dissertation Example The paper tells that computers have come to assume in all aspects of our lives, and the lack of reliable networks in modern computing environments in plainly inconceivable. The supremacy of information technology in running many modern systems hinges on the continued reliability of computer networks. Without stable computer network systems, many simple computing activities we have come to assume as part of our daily routines: sending emails, browsing the web, making business communications, and maintaining social contacts would be in severe jeopardy. Malicious use of computer networks would completely compromise our computing experience and the utilization of these indispensable network tools. Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS) are partly the reason behind the continued security in computer systems around the world. The NIDS systems detect illicit use of computer networks, alert network administrators, create reports in the system through their logging abilities, and try to p revent harm to the network by malevolent network users. However, many users of computer networks lack access to decent NIDS systems available commercially. Part of the reason why many computer users stave off the commercially available NIDS systems is the prohibitively costs. Another reason for the unattractiveness of several commercial network-based IDS is traceable to their complex deployment, configuration, and implementation procedures, which normally require technical assistance. Over the past decade, open source NIDS systems have come to define the NIDS landscape. Currently, the leading NIDS system in terms of user base been Snort, a lightweight open source NIDS. The purpose of this project is to make comprehensive comparison of two open source NIDS, Snort and Bro. Keywords: Snort, Bro, NIDS, Table of Contents Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 1.INTRODUCTION 4 2.BACKGROUND TO THE PROBLEM 5 3.OVERVIEW OF NETWORK INTRUSION DETECTION SYSTEMS 5 3.1 The Roles of NIDS 5 3.2 Difference of NIDS with Firewalls 7 3.3 Limitations of the Network Intrusion Detection Systems 7 3.4 Network Intrusion and Detection System Alert Terminologies 8 4.RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN INTRUSION DETECTION SYSTEMS 9 5.DIFFERENT METHODS OF INTRUSION DETECTION 10 5.1 Statistical Anomaly-Based Intrusion System 10 5.2 Signature-Based Intrusion Detection 10 6.NETWORK INTRUSION DETECTION SYSTEMS 11 6.1 Snort 11 6.2 Bro 11 6.3 PHAD 11 6.4 NetSTAT 12 6.5 EMERALD 12 6.6 Suricata 13 7.TESTING AND EVALUATION METHODOLOGY 13 8.ANALYSIS OF SNORT AND BRO 14 8.3 Common Characteristics of Snort, Bro, Suricata, and NetSTAT 16 8.4 Differences between Snort, Bro, Suricata, and NetSTAT 17 8.5 Major Strengths of Snort 19 8.6 Major strengths of Bro 21 8.7 Major strengths of Suricata 21 8.8 Major strengths of NetSTAT 22 8.9 Major Weaknesses of Snort 22 8.10 Major Weaknesses of Bro 22 8.11 Major weaknesses of Suricata 23 8.12 Major weaknesses of NetSTAT 23 9. RESULTS FOR SNORT AND BRO 23 9.1 Capabilities of Snort and Bro to Identify Security Threats and Network Violations 23 9.1.1 Bro Architecture 23 9.1.2 Bro Network Intrusion Detection Mechanism 25 9.1.3 Snort Architecture 26 9.1.4 Snort Network Intrusion Detection Mechanism 26 9.1.5 Suricata’s Network Intrusion Mechanism 27 9.1.6 NetSTAT Capabilities to detect security threats and network violations 28 9.2 Comparison of Snort’s, Bro’s, Suricata’s and NetSTAT’s Performance 28 10. RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 29 10.1 Recommendations 29 10.2 Conclusions 30 References 33 1. INTRODUCTION The essentiality of network protection is unquestionable, especially with the ever-growing relevance of computer networks in many facets of our society. Many things, ranging from trade, governance, education, communication, and research rely heavily on computer networks. The vulnerability of networks to breakdowns after attack can be expensive and disastrous.

Six Sigma Approach Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Six Sigma Approach - Essay Example After picking the low-hanging fruit, they will find themselves in need of a broader and more robust approach. Subsuming six sigma beneath the process-management umbrella addresses those challenges and allows companies to reap its substantial benefits while keeping it away from areas where it won't work. Because process management entails major changes to virtually all management systems, it demands absolute commitment from executives. IT Companies that rise to the challenge will garner extraordinary rewards: not just cost savings, but accelerated new-software introduction, major improvements in client satisfaction and sharp increases in profitability. For those not familiar with Six Sigma, it is first and foremost a philosophical approach that demands the effective use of data to analyze business issues. Key decisions about business activities now beg the question, "How does the available data support that decision" Whether the decision is a make-buy decision, a product change question, a new-model introduction question, or a manufacturing-process decision, the decision on how to proceed is dependent on the available data. Six Sigma is a measurement. ... the decision is a make-buy decision, a product change question, a new-model introduction question, or a manufacturing-process decision, the decision on how to proceed is dependent on the available data. Six Sigma is a measurement. A more illustrative explanation can be found in a 1997 letter Welch sent to GE stockholders: "The Six Sigma quality initiative, very briefly, means going from approximately 3S,000 defects per million operations, which is average for most companies, including GE, to fewer than 4 defects per million in every element in every process that this company engages in every day." (Pande, P.S., et al. 2000) GE was not the first large corporation to undertake the Six Sigma discipline. In the ten years prior to 1995, a number of companies began Six Sigma: Motorola, Texas Instruments, Eastman Kodak, and Allied Signal. Their discoveries and successes were well documented. When embarking on their own process, GE adopted many of the concepts and disciplines of Motorola's Six Sigma methodology. (Pande, P.S., et al. 2000; Harry & Schroeder 2002) Motorola's involvement with Six Sigma began in 1982, when it implemented a quality-improvement program that later became known as Six Sigma. Motorola's CEO asked corporate managers to cut quality costs in half that year. He repeated the charge in 1983. By 1984, the cost-reduction efforts were beginning to point to the need for improved analytical methods and product design for continued process improvement-and the Six Sigma discipline answered this need. (Pande, P.S., et al. 2000; Harry & Schroeder 2002) Motorola's emphasis was on designing for Six Sigma quality, and a number of advanced quality tools were used. Because effective application of these tools was essential, Motorola developed its extensive Six Sigma

The Three Strategic Business Units of the Company Essay

The Three Strategic Business Units of the Company - Essay Example Arising men Jacob, Douglas, and Abraham formed a partnership called Feingold Brothers & Company in Baltimore that offered banking and financial services to merchants, individuals, and institutions. They were conservative in their approach hence the firm remained unaffected by the 1929 depression. The company had also obtained memberships of NYSE, NASD, ASE and the CBO well after the 1929 banking debacle and therefore was largely unaffected by it. But that was when they decided to move out of general banking and concentrate on their core activity of merchant banking only. By then they had expanded and established offices in New York, and other East Coast cities. By the eighties the firm had expanded substantially through mergers and takeovers over the years, and in 1987 it changed its name to Feigngold Investments Inc., and decided to move out of their conservative mould after the stock market crash. The period 1999-2000 was spectacular for Feigngold but by then they needed to upgrade in networking to cope with increasing and expanding business in order to serve its widespread customers through highly dispersed offices in highly competitive markets. Despite there being approval from the owners for such an investment in networking as well as technology there appears to be strong resistance from managerial and supervisory staff who believe that the existing systems, that are outsourced and managed by a third party, are capable of delivering the desired information. The company had expanded on the back of a robust national economy that had become global by now. It had neglected to follow the best practices in management and had continued to rely on its traditional strength of personalized service. As a result there were structural weaknesses that showed up during periods of high stress and strain in a particularly competitive and volatile financial environment. It has major problems in three main areas that need addressing quickly.

The Young and Elder Consumers of SONY in United Kingdom Essay

The Young and Elder Consumers of SONY in United Kingdom - Essay Example at there will be an â€Å"increased intergenerational heterogeneity in total spending† – i.e., the effect of pension reforms will tend to change the intergenerational distribution of income, shifting stronger expenditure to the elderly in countries which provide more thorough coverage of retirees’ social benefits than other countries. (1) A Sony product has been designed for old people and the disabled is the BRAVIA LCD television series for the European market, that incorporates standard features such as an audio description function providing the consumer a narrative soundtrack for the visually challenged and impaired, and digital video teletext for those who have loss of hearing function. (2) Sony’s Reader digital device, another product made available in the US, Canada and Europe, stores hundred of books in one unit, but allows readers who have difficulty with their vision to adjust the size of the text on the screen. (3) All Sony TVs also come with adjustable headphone sets that may be used simultaneously with the speakers to be able to enjoy the television program with their non-hearing impaired family and friends. 2. The competition environment, (you can choose three comany) to the older people, you find some resources on what new products these companies developed targeting at older people in recent years.(150-200 words) Teh, J 2009 â€Å"Make-in-Singapore Phone, iNO Mobile, for Elderly to Debut in PC Show,† TechieLobang 11 June 2009. Accessed 18 June 2011 from http://techielobang.com/blog/2009/06/11/make-in-singapore-phone-ino-mobile-for-elderly-to-debut-in-pc-show/ Foresight Technologies of Singapore, making iNO Mobile, for elderly and young children. The phone is described as simple, with the basic features and large number key pad, which will serve the uses of the elderly and young who are not tech savvy but need to get only the fundamental functions. Called the CPO9, the mobile has a candybar design and will sell for a very reasonable

Abstract Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 26

Abstract - Essay Example In this study the researcher wanted to identify which markets have a higher predictability of the time series. The researcher even wanted to identify the relationship between the returns of Indian stock market and the R/S ratio. To conduct the study the author obtained the closing stock rates if different indices that were being trades on India’s stock exchange and this data comprises of data obtained from year 2000 to 2010. The researcher identified that all the stock indices that were employed in the study were close to 0.5 Hurst exponents who shows that the returns from the stock exchange are completely random and the market is quite efficient. The researcher even identified that when the values of R/S ratio were elevated, the returns were even increased and when the R/S ratio was low, the returns were even low. The researcher concludes that the R/S ratio can be used making trading decisions and while analyzing a particular trend in the stock

Reading response Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 10

Reading response - Assignment Example headedness† and â€Å"handedness† the author notes how contemporary scholars in psychology have come up with various categories of intelligence, which provide better insight into what aptitude constitutes. These intelligence types include logical, musical, linguistic, spatial, bodily, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. These intelligence classes are not distinctive and most often individuals possess several in tandem. The second article titled â€Å"The Narrative Construction of Reality† by Bruner (2-21) denotes how extensive the focus on the manner through which human beings achieve true knowledge has been since time immemorial. According to the author, the quest for understanding this has brought about immense development in the field of psychology attempting to explain people’s acquisition of knowledge. The article emphasizes that the traditional explanations for knowledge were unilinear, either rationalist focusing on the mind’s internal power or empiricist on the ability to learn from externalities. The principle argument supported by the article is that man’s knowledge capacity is a combination of several factors and is neither strictly unilinear not logical. For this reason, individuals must not only strive to be rational, but also embrace symbolic external factors to gain knowledge. The final article â€Å"Science and Linguistics† by Whorf (69-70), begins by providing description of what the author refers to as "natural logic". This is a concept suggesting that every person beyond infancy talks and has deeply embedded ideas regarding speech and its connection to thinking. The author’s principal assertion is that thought and language are autonomous and that thinking is the same for virtually everyone, with the only slight distinction being in language. All of the articles point towards the psychology of learning, knowledge, or overall intelligence. These scholarly works also show that human intelligence cannot be considered to be as a result of

Italian Hours Essay Example for Free

Italian Hours Essay Italian Hours, Henry James’s most acclaimed collection of travel stories written between 1882 and 1909, is a very interesting piece of travel literature. However, it does much more than a typical work in the genre would do, that is describing author’s experiences in a foreign, usually exotic, country. Instead, Italian Hours can be seen as an important document from a historical and anthropological perspective, since it catalogues living conditions, attitudes, customs and traditions of Italian people at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. There are other prominent examples of travel literature, such as Tocqueville’s Journey to America, which provide in-depth explorations of cultural idiosyncrasies and social organization of different societies; Italian Hours should be seen as one of the works in the latter category. James’s opinions on various matters are all more interesting for the reason that his perspective, as of an American writer and tourist, is â€Å"an embodiment of modernity by definition† (Manolescu-Oancea 2010, para. 1), while Italy is conventionally regarded to be a country that has entered the period of modernity later than other major European powers. In the subsequent paragraphs, a number of examples of the aforementioned will be presented. It is necessary to keep in mind that James’s work touches upon a wide variety of philosophical topics, which are all very intriguing yet unfortunately cannot be covered in this essay due to space constraints. This essay will focus primarily at James’s interpretation of social conditions, developments, and debates in Italy of the aforementioned period. The concluding section will briefly discuss the place of Italian Hours among other works of travel literature set in Italy. Along with describing natural beauties and historical sites of Italy, James devotes significant attention to analyzing people’s daily lives, which allows for a deduction about social structures that existed in Italy of those times. For instance, when describing Sienna, James (2008) talks of it as of a city that is still in the 14th century, with numerous and rich nobility that is â€Å"perfectly feudal and uplifted and separate† (p. 242). There is no middle class, or bourgeoisie; instead â€Å"immediately after the aristocracy come the poor people, who are very poor indeed† (James 2008, p. 42). A great divide between rich and poor has been very characteristic of Italy of the late 19th and early 20th century. The miserable situation of poorer Italians is exacerbated by the government that wields unreasonably high taxes. Upward social mobility is a rare phenomenon, and most Italians born outside of the upper classes were expecting a life of struggle and destitution . When recollecting his time in Venice, James writes that Italians’ â€Å"habitations are decayed; their taxes heavy; their pockets light; their opportunities few† (James 2008, p. 13). It is necessary to keep in mind that the unification of Italy occurred quite late in the 19th century. A lot of problems remained unresolved following the unification, ranging from economic deprivation to epidemics of fatal disease. Most researchers name â€Å"the huge material gulf between north and south† (p. 168) as one of the most pressing problems of the time: previously Austrian provinces of Lombardy and Venetia were more developed then southern provinces like Sicily. The following statistics give a fairly comprehensive picture of the level of economic development in the immediate aftermath of the unification: In 1870s the primary sector [agriculture, mining and forestry] accounted for 62 percent of total employment against less than 50 percent for France, Germany and the USA. For the UK the figure was only 22. 7 percent. Most of the industrial development was concentrated in very few areas, namely Lombardy, Piedmont and a few firms in the region of Naples† (Faini Venturini 1994, p. 74). Yet the disparities in life quality between different provinces of Italy are not salient in James’s writings. Keen on noticing regional differences, the author of Italian Hours speaks of Italian people as generally poor, although income gap becomes more and more extreme as one moves southwards. Poor economic conditions have resulted in mass emigration of Italians to other country, mostly to the United States, which seems particularly ironic in the context of James’s observations about Italy and America. James (2008) describes Italians as simple and unpretentious; he writes of them as of people that â€Å"have at once the good and the evil fortune to be conscious of few wants† (p. 3). However, early modernity has already associated sophistication with having a variety of needs that are hard to satisfy. In accordance with these criteria, Italians might come across as being less civilized than other peoples, although such view is definitely misguided. Enjoying simple pleasures can be a sign of wisdom and contemplative approach to life; although many of the pleasures Italian cities offer might seem to be â€Å"superficial pastimes† (James 2008, p. 14), they are no less pleasurable from it. Enjoying works by great masters of the past or magnificent nature are some of the activities Italians often indulge in. One of the issues that have been heatedly debated at the times of James’s travels was the question of whether to restore or preserve ancient ruins, and how to do it. In Italian Hours, the author presents his negative â€Å"assessment of the results of renovation in Italian cities and in his criticism of the intrusions of modernity in the cityscape† (Manolescu-Oancea 2010, para. 1). In his opinion, buildings should be seen as humans, having their own lifecycles and histories, and therefore mortal. Moreover, buildings have a unique ability to tell stories of people who have once inhabited them and sometimes even have to atone for their sins: â€Å"Houses not only look like ageing bodies, they also seem to be permeated with the life of their former inhabitants, which lends them a dark human aura, a psyche† (Manolescu-Oancea 2010, para. 6). As with cityspaces, natural landscapes for James are not â€Å"merely a picturesque backdrop for romantic adventure†¦[but are]†¦endowed with some of the richness of symbolic values inherited from great historical events† (Mariani 1964, p. 42). Since the richness of Italian history and nature are so impressive, James notes with regret that so many Italians live in poverty. On the other hand, he believes that being constantly surrounded by breathtaking beauty is a fair compensation; moreover, the peculiarly lighthearted approach to life Italians have helps them cope with daily problems. Although a lot of criticism of social reality of the late 19th century and early 20th century is present in James’s text, a comparison with his own country, America, is usually to the disadvantage of the latter. In Monte Mario outside Rome, James (2008) observes â€Å"the idle elegance and grace of Italy alone, the natural stamp of the land which has the singular privilege of making one love her unsanctified beauty all but as well as those features of one’s own country toward which nature’s small allowance doubles that of one’s own affection† (p. 166). In comparing American and Italian cuisine, the author recollects Grotta Ferrata, a rather insignificant and unkempt village, yet al fresco food for its fair â€Å"couldn’t fail to suggest romantic analogies to a pilgrim from the land of no cooks† (James 1995; cited in Collister 2004, p. 95). When James expresses dissatisfaction with new developments in the centre of Florence, he thinks of America again, fearful of the ancient city being disfigured â€Å"under the treatment of enterprising syndics, into an ungirdled organism of the type, as they viciously say, of Chicago† (James 2008, p. 257). Ev en in term of attitudes, James (2008) appreciates the fact that Italians are more down-to-earth and relaxed than his fellow men when he fears that a day may come when people â€Å"rush about Venice as furiously as people rush about New York† (p. 57). Thus, while modernity and speed become synonymous with the New World, James’s observations unmistakably point to â€Å"cultural wrong-headedness and impoverishment of the America† (Collister 2004, p. 196). At the same time, Italy is to James â€Å"literally picturesque real life composes itself into art at every turn† (Collister 2002, p. 340). Constant reminiscences of the New World serve several particular functions in James’s writing. First of all, it appears to be symbolic of his attempts to establish an emotional connection with his readers and – through his personal perspective – to help establish a connection between his readers and Italy. This device is frequently employed in travel literature: the reader can feel overwhelmed with descriptions of faraway places and strange cultures that bear no resemblance to their own; it is therefore the role of a writer to create a minimum level of comfort by recalling familiar places and phenomena. In such a way, readers can comprehend the mode of life in distant lands building on their own experience in their home countries. On the other hand, such reminiscences serve another purpose, as Manolescu-Oancea (2010) argues: James’s constant references to America and to his Americanness introduce a special kind of alienated perspective, both geographical and temporal, which is decidedly American in outlook† (para. 20). James’s fascination with Italy has been enduring, yet there were moments in his life when the writer has expressed a significant degree of dissatisfaction with living conditions there. Rome is the city that has come is for the most criticism in his private letters; in one of them he even writes the following: â€Å"I feel that I shouldnt care if I never saw the perverted place again† (James 1907; cited in Lubbock 2008, p. 2). This perhaps can be attributed to the fact that his brother, William, has contracted malaria while in Rome and had to move southwards to Florence to improve his health (Gale 1959). It is indeed interesting to observe how both James’s life and writings create a rather accurate account of what it was like to live in Italy at the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century. James’s Italian Hours is one among many other literary travelogues of Italy; Sterne’s Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768) and Dick ens’ Pictures from Italy (1845) are perhaps the most known of them. What distinguishes Italian Hours, however, is that it â€Å"follows no chronology and even the geographical ordering – much dwelling upon Venice and a movement southwards as far as Naples with a return to Tuscany – is (unlike Goethe’s Italienische Reise) arbitrary† (Collister 2004, p. 194). At the same time, the peculiarity of the narrator’s style gives a powerful and overarching sense of organization to this seemingly odd collection of stories.

Chemical Structure Of Fructooligosaccharides

Chemical Structure Of Fructooligosaccharides Introduction Modern people are increasingly interested in their personal health, and expect the foods they eat to be tasty and attractive also healthy and safe. As interest in the link between diet and health gathers pace, many people seek ways to feel well and stay healthy by eating nutritionally foods. Non-digestible carbohydrates such as oligosaccharides, dietary fibers, and resistant starch have various physiologic functions and the promotive effects of many non-digestible carbohydrates on well being, better health and reduction of the risk of diseases have been well examined. Among non-digestible carbohydrates, the functional oligosaccharides present important physicochemical and physiological properties beneficial to the health of consumers, and for this reason, their use as food ingredients has increased rapidly. The functional oligosaccharides are intermediate in nature between simple sugars and polysaccharides and are claimed to behave as dietary fibres and prebiotics. These compounds as non-absorbable food ingredients are microbial food supplements and may benefit the host by selectively stimulating salutary bacteria in the large intestine. The best known functional oligosaccharides include fructooligosaccharide, glucooligosaccharides (GOS), isomalto-oligosaccharides, soybean oligosaccharides, xylo-oligosaccharides and maltitol. Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) are non-digestible carbohydrates that represent one of the major classes of bifidogenic oligosaccharides. They are compounds of a vegetable origin and are found in varying concentrations in many foods such as asparagus, onions, artichokes, garlic, wheat, bananas, tomatoes and honey. Their chemical structure consists of a chain of fructose units with a terminal glucose unit linked by ÃŽÂ ²-(2â‚ ¬Ã‚ ¢1) glycosidic bonds, that means they cannot be hydrolysed by human digestive enzymes which are specific for ÃŽÂ ²-glycosidic bonds. The length of the chain ranges from 2- 60. There are three categories of FOS, each of which is structurally distinct: inulin, has a polymerization degree of 2 about 60 monomers of fructose, with an average of 12 units; oligofructose is produced by the enzymatic hydrolysis of inulin and is defined as a fraction of oligosaccharides with degree of polymerization lower than 20, although commercial products tend to have a mean value of 9; these FOS are produced by the enzymatic hydrolysis of inulin and consists of fructosyl chains of different lengths, with glucose and fructose terminals. Finally, scFOS (short chain fructooligosaccharides) are specifically defined as mixed chains of fructosyl with a glucose terminal unit; they have a maximum of 5 units and are derived from sugar through natural fermentation processes, producing 1-kestose (GF2), nystose (GF3) and 1-fructosylnystose (GF4) in which the fructosyl units (F) are linked at the ÃŽÂ ²-(2â‚ ¬Ã‚ ¢1) position of sucrose (Figure 1). FOS are water-soluble and their sweetness is 0.3-0.6 times that of sucrose, depending on the chemical structure and the degree of polymerization of the oligosaccharide. FOS are highly hygroscopic and their water holding capacity is greater than that of sucros. The viscosity of a FOS solution is higher than that of sucrose at the same concentration because the greater molecular weight of FOS. The enhanced viscosity of the gastrointestinal content may delay the rate of gastric emptying and the digestion and absorption of nutrients. Their thermal stability also is greater than of sucrose. FOS are highly stable in the normal range of food pH (4.0-7.0). FOS can substitute sucrose as regards many of its properties, including solubility, freezing and fusion point and crystalline properties. It has been estimated that the caloric value of FOS ranges from 1.5 to 2.0 kcal/g, which represents 40-50% of that of digestible carbohydrates such as sucrose. Fructooligosaccharides have interesting properties: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Low sweetness intensity: this property makes them useful for various kinds of foods where the use of sucrose is restricted due to its high sweetness. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Calorie free; i.e., the human body lacks the necessary enzymes to hydrolyze the beta bonds, so that they are not hydrolyzed by the digestive enzymes. Thus, since these substances can not be used as an energy source in the body, they are safe for diabetics and people on slimming diets. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Non-cariogenic, since they are not used by Streptococcus mutans to form the acids and insoluble ÃŽÂ ²-glucans that are the main causes of dental caries. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ They behave as soluble food fibre from a physiological point of view. They are non-digestible carbohydrates of a vegetable origin that reach to the large intestine, where they can be fermented by the colonic flora to promote the growth of bifidobacteria and prevent the growth of potentially pathogenic microorganisms. The bacterial degradation of FOS occurs in two stages: in the first stage, the monomers are hydrolyzed by bacterial beta-oxidases. In the second, the monomers released ferment anaerobically to produce volatile fat acids (SCFA) such as acetate, propionate and butyrate, and gases (H2, CO2, CH4). These properties, together with their other beneficial physiological effects (low carcinogenicity, prebiotic effect, improved mineral absorption, and decreased serum cholesterol, phospholipid and triacylglycerol levels) defend the addition of FOS to foods as infant formulas which, in any case, have only very low quantities of these nutrients. Experimental 1 Impact of a jelly containing short-chain fructo-oligosaccharides and Sideritis euboea extract on human faecal microbiota. (Mitsou et al., 2009) 1. Materials Methods 1.1 Subjects Sixty-four healthy adult volunteers (26 men and 38 women) aged 22-51 years (mean age: 33 years) enrolled. Elimination criteria were a history of gastrointestinal disease and chronic diseases (i.e., diabetes, hyperlipidemia, autoimmune disorders, cardiovascular diseases), a history of extreme dietary behaviors, epileptic seizures, consumption of antibiotics and other medication 2 months prior and during the investigation period. Smoking patterns were recorded prior to the study. 1.2 Feeding regime Placebo food was a commercial dessert (jelly, lemon flavored) in powder form containing 86 g sugar, 10 g gelatin, 2.20 g citric acid, 1 g sodium citrate, 0.5 g flavors and 0.3 g colors per 100 g of product. Experimental functional food (jelly) provided additionally 15 g sc-FOS and 0.9 g S. euboea extract per 100 g of product (respectively, 5 g and 0.3 g per jelly portion daily). Powder from aqueous extract of S. euboea was produced using a spray drier. The sc-FOS tested was Actilight ® 950P, a mixture of FOS comprising 37% 1-kestose (GF2), 53% nystose (GF3) and 10% 1F-ÃŽÂ ²-fructofuranosyl nystose (GF4) (Bà ©ghin Meiji Industries, Neuilly sur Seine, France). Jotis S.A. Food Industry provided both the placebo and experimental food product. The experimental and placebo food were supplied in a powder form (100-g packages) and volunteers were asked to prepare 3 portions of jelly per 100-g package according to manufacturers instructions. Subjects were free to eat one portion of the jelly at any time of day. 1.3 Experimental design Subjects were instructed to preserve their usual diet and fluid intake during the study with the exception of additional prebiotics and probiotic supplements. Volunteers were assessed for restriction of probiotic and prebiotic consumption during a period of two weeksprior to the intervention. One pre-treatment faecal sample was taken before treatment period begun (day 0). During the intervention, subjects were randomly assigned to two groups according to feeding regime (placebo group, sc-FOS+extract group) and consumed, respectively, one portion of placebo or experimental jelly daily for 30 d. Neither the subjects nor the researchers were informed about the type of jelly ingested (doubleblinded). Faecal samples were obtained after 2 weeks (day 15) and 4 weeks (day 30) of the treatment period. Stool sampling took place also at the end of the follow-up period, 2 weeks after the dietary intervention (day 45). 1.4 Gastrointestinal symptoms Gastrointestinal side effects were evaluated during the treatment period (day 1-15 and day 16-30) using a daily questionnaire in which symptoms (i.e. abdominal pain, bloating, flatulence) were marked from 0 (no symptoms) to 3 (severe symptoms). The 15-d symptom score (sum of symptom intensity during a 15-d period) was graded as 0 = no symptoms, 1-15 = mild symptoms, 16-30 = moderate symptoms and 31-45 = severe symptoms with possible range for each 15-d symptom score estimated at 0-45 and for total symptom score at 0-135. 1.5 Sample collection Faecal specimens were collected rapidly into sterile plastic containers and transferred under anaerobic conditions (GΆ¢ÃƒÅ½Ã‚ bag anaer, 45534 Biomà ©rieux ® SA, Marcy-lEtoile, France), to a laboratory for microbiological analysis. 1.6 Bacterial enumeration Approximately 1 g of the specimenwasweighed and diluted in 9-ml pre-reduced peptone physiological saline (PPS), containing 0.1% bacteriological peptone (OXOID Basingstoke, Hamshire, England) and 0.85%NaCl. After homogenization, serial 10-fold dilutions of the homogenateswere performed in PPS under anaerobic environment (BACTRONà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ 1.5 Anaerobic Environmental Chamber, SHELLAB, Cornelius, Oregon). Columbia blood agar was used for the enumeration of the total mesophilic aerobic and anaerobic microflora (incubation under aerobic and anaerobic conditions at 37  °C for 48 h). Enumeration of total coliforms and E. coli was performed on Chromocult ® Coliform agar (Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany) and bacterial counts of enterococci were performed on Slanetz and Bartley medium (LabM Limited, Lancashire, UK) after aerobic incubation at 37  °C for 24 and 48 h, respectively. Rogosa agar (Merck KGaA) and Wilkins-Chalgren anaerobe agar (OXOID), supplemented with 5% (v/v) defibrina ted horse blood and G-N anaerobe selective supplement (OXOID),were used for the enumeration of Lactobacillus spp. and Bacteroides spp. respectively, after anaerobic incubation at 37 °C for 48 h. Clostridium perfringens was enumerated on Perfringens agar (LabM Limited) supplemented with D-cycloserine (400 mg/L) (LabM Limited) after 24-h anaerobic incubation at 37 °C. Finally, Beerens agar was used for the enumeration of Bifidobacterium spp. (anaerobic incubation at 37 °C for 72 h). Bacteria were characterized on the basis of colony appearance, Grams stain, catalase reaction and cell morphology. Since Rogosa and Beerens agars are likely to support growth of non-Lactobacillus and non-Bifidobacterium species respectively one representative isolate from each colony phenotype in these media was further identified to the genus level by molecular methods as described previously. Colony counts were obtained and expressed as a log10 of the colony forming units (CFUs)/g fresh faeces. 1.7 Statistics Bacterial counts between the feeding groups at each sampling time (day 0, 15, 30 and 45) prospectively were compared using repeated measures ANOVA (RM-ANOVA) for parametric and the Friedman test for non-parametric data, after age adjustment and Bonferronis adjustment for multiplicity. Bacterial counts into each group were compared prospectively using paired-samples t test for parametric and the Wilcoxon signed ranks test for non-parametric data. Comparison of colonization levels was based on log10 transformation of viable bacterial counts. Correlations between initial bifidobacterial levels and increases in bifidobacteria counts in sc-FOS+extract group at day 15 and 30 were tested by the Spearman correlation and a linear regression analysis was performed for the best prediction of the dependent variable. Digestive symptom intensity was expressed as a 15-d score (day 1-15 and day 16-30) as well as the number of evacuations, watery stools and diarrheic days. Comparisons between study groups and intragroup analysis were performed by the Friedman test for nonparametric data, after age adjustment and Bonferronis adjustment for multiplicity. The statistical analysis of the results was performed by the software program SPSS ® for Windows Release 11.5 and the significance threshold was set at 5% (P 2. Results Fifty-two volunteers (23 men and 29 women) aged 23-50 years (mean age: 34 years) managed to complete the study. Dropoutwas due to antibiotic consumption during the investigation period. According to randomized design of the study, 23 volunteers ingested the placebo and 29 volunteers consumed the experimental jelly. No significant differences were detected between the placebo and the sc-FOS+extract groups in terms of age (mean age: 33.78 years vs. 34.28 years), sex distribution (10 men and 13 women vs. 13 men and 16 women) or smoking patterns (13 non smokers and 10 smokers vs. 20 non smokers and 9 smokers), respectively. 2.1 Bacterial populations In thewhole study population, no differences in intestinalmicroflora were observed between smokers and non smokers, while genderspecific comparisons revealed higher initial total anaerobe bacterial (9.56 ±0.46 vs. 9.26 ±0.61 log10CFU/g faeces, P = 0.047) and bifidobacterial levels (8.87 ±1.37 vs. 8.19 ±1.83 log10CFU/g faeces, P = 0.007) in females than males. Overall, no significant differences were observed in viable counts of aerobes between the two feeding groups (Table 1). A trend towards lower levels of total aerobes at day 30 (8.13 ±0.96 vs. 8.61 ±0.92 log10CFU/g faeces, P = 0.077), which turned into a significant difference at day 45 was observed in functional food group compared to the placebo. Bacterial levels of total coliforms and E. coli were statistically different between the placebo and sc-FOS+extract groups at day 30, while group-specific analysis revealed higher levels of total coliforms and E. coli only for the placebo regime at day 30 compared to the baseline and day 15. Enterococci counts were not significantly influenced by the ingestion of the functional jelly compared to placebo during the study period. In sc-FOS+extract group, enterococci were significantly decreased after 30 d of ingestion (6.77 ±1.29 vs. 6.29 ±1.24 log10CFU/g faeces, P = 0.038) compared to the baseline. No significant overall viable counts differences were detected between the study groups in the case of total anaerobe mesophilic microflora, Bacteroides spp., Lactobacillus spp. and C. perfringens (Table 1). Total anaerobes were estimated in comparable densities in the two study groups during the entire research period. Higher levels of total anaerobes were detected in the functional food group at day 15 (9.87 ±0.58 vs. 9.38 ±0.56 log10CFU/g faeces, P = 0.001) and day 45 (9.66 ±0.62 vs. 9.38 ±0.56 log10CFU/g faeces, P = 0.015) compared to pre-treatment counts. Bacteroides and lactobacilli did not demonstrate significant differences at any sampling time between the feeding groups. Increased Bacteroides population was detected in sc-FOS+ extract group after 15 d of consumption and two weeks after the end of the nutritional intervention compared to initial counts (8.71 ±0.54 vs. 8.30 ±0.81 log10CFU/g faeces, P = 0.010 and 8.80 ±0.60 vs. 8.30 ±0.81 log10CFU/g faeces, P = 0.002, respectively). Ingestion of the experimental food in comparison to placebo was related to a trend for lower levels of C. perfringens at day 15 (4.16 ±1.24 vs. 4.78 ±1.23 log10CFU/g faeces, P = 0.065). Analysis of bacterial counts demonstrated an overall significant effect of feeding regime in Bifidobacterium spp. levels (Table 1). The enumeration data presented a significant bifidogenic effect of the functional food preparation compared to the placebo after 15 and 30 d of consumption and a non-significant higher level of faecal bifidobacteria in this group 2 weeks after the end of ingestion. Furthermore,faecal bifidobacteria counts were significantly higher at 15 (9.54 ± 0.83 log10CFU/g faeces, P = 0.002) and 30 d of intervention (9.34 ±1.04 log10CFU/g faeces, P = 0.027) and two weeks after the treatmentperiod (9.33 ±0.61 log10CFU/g faeces, P = 0.015) in the sc-FOS+extract group, compared to pre-treatment levels (8.79 ±0.93 log10CFU/g faeces). During the 15 and 30 d of dietary intervention, respectively 24 and 21 cases of healthy volunteers consuming the experimental jelly gave increased bifidobacterial counts, with mean increase being estimated at 1.06 log10CFU/g faeces and 1.14 log10CFU/g faeces for two and four weeks of intervention. Figs. 2 and 3 indicate a correlation between initial levels of bifidobacteria and positive change in these bacterial populations after 15 (R2 = 0.747, P = 0.000) and 30 d (R2 = 0.712, P = 0.000) of functional food consumption. Subjects with lower baseline bifidobacterial counts gave larger increase on ingestion of experimental jelly. 2.2 Gastrointestinal symptoms No significant differences were observed for gastrointestinal symptoms and characteristics of evacuation during the 30 d of dietary intervention (Table 2). During the first two weeks of the study, a trend for greater flatulence score (6.88 ±6.94 vs. 3.57 ±4.72, P = 0.070) was observed in functional food group and five cases of moderate flatulence symptoms were reported in this group instead of none in the control group. Table 1 Faecal bacterial countsa (log10CFU/g faeces) in sc-FOS+Sideritis euboea extract group (n = 29) and placebo group (n = 23) during the 30-d dietary intervention and 2-week posttreatment period. aAll values are mean ±S.D.; CFU, colony forming units; sc-FOS, short-chain fructo-oligosaccharides. b-fSignificantly different from placebo: bP = 0.042, cP = 0.018, dP = 0.040, eP = 0.001, fP = 0.027; gSignificantly different from baseline (day 0) (P Figure 2. Correlation between the initial levels of bifidobacteria and increase in bifidobacteria after consumption of a jelly containing sc-FOS+Sideritis euboea extract for 15 d. Bacterial counts are expressed as log10CFU/g faeces; CFU, colony forming units; sc-FOS, short-chain fructo-oligosaccharides. Figure 3. Correlation between the initial levels of bifidobacteria and increase in bifidobacteria after consumption of a jelly containing sc-FOS+Sideritis euboea extract for 30 d. Bacterial counts are expressed as log10CFU/g faeces; CFU, colony forming units; sc-FOS, short-chain fructo-oligosaccharides. Table 2 Gastrointestinal symptoms and characteristics of evacuations in sc-FOS+Sideritis euboea extract group (n = 29) and placebo group (n = 23) during the study (0-15 and 16-30 d).a Symptom intensity was graded as 0 = no symptoms, 1-15 = mild symptoms, 16-30 = moderate symptoms and 31-45 = severe symptoms. The possible range for each 15-d symptom score is 0-15 and for total symptom score 0-135. a All values are mean ±S.D.; sc-FOS, short-chain fructo-oligosaccharides. 3. Discussion Results indicated a significant bifidogenic effect of the experimental jelly during the intervention. Differences in levels of total coliforms/E. coli and total aerobes were detected between the two feeding groups at day 30 and 45, respectively. Total anaerobes, lactobacilli, Bacteroides spp. C. perfringens and enterococci were not significantly influenced by the ingestion of the functional food compared to placebo during the study period. The present study demonstrated a strong and selective stimulation of bifidogenesis in healthy volunteers after 2- and 4-week consumption of an experimental jelly compared to the placebo. In our study, high levels of bifidobacteria persisted within the sc-FOS+extract group two weeks after the end of the intervention, a finding that proposes an extended prebiotic effect of sc-FOS. Another results indicated a decrease in total aerobes in sc-FOS+ extract group compared to the control group two weeks after the end of intervention and no significant differences in enterococci counts throughout the entire study period. Previous data from studies that used culture-based enumeration techniques proposed no significant effects of both inulin and oligofructose consumption on total viable counts of aerobes and an unexplained transient increase in aerobic microflora after ingestion of 4 g sc-FOS. A significant difference in enterobacterial counts between the two dietary groups was detected at the cessation of the 30-d intervention, which could be attributed rather to the significant increase of total coliforms and E. coli densities in the control group. Bacterial counts for Enterobacteriaceae were not significantly affected by the ingestion of sc-FOS, such as Actilight and Neosugar. Analysis of digestive symptoms indicated that, compared to placebo, consumption of the experimental functional jelly related only with a trend for greater flatulence during the first two weeks of dietary intervention. A 7-d ingestion of sc-FOS correlated with minor bloating at doses from 2.5-10 g/d and with excess flatus at 20 g/d In general, excess flatus and/or bloating are the most common gastrointestinal symptoms during sc-FOS ingestion, but they are usually characterized as limited and very mild. In conclusion, this study demonstrated the prebiotic potential of a jelly containing sc-FOS and S. euboea extract in healthy volunteers. The product was well-tolerated, with no severe gastrointestinal side effects. Future applications of the experimental food could be focused on people with abnormal intestinal microbiota. Experimental 2 Fructooligosaccharide fortification of selected fruit juice beverages: Effect on the quality characteristics (Renuka et al., 2009) 1. Materials Methods 1.1 Preparation of FOS syrup FOS was produced by the transfructosylation of sucrose using FTase enzyme obtained by submerged fermentation using Aspergillus oryzae MTCC 5154 1.2 Preparation of fruit juice beverages Ripe pineapple, mango and orange fruits were procured from the local fruit market. The fruits were washed, peeled, crushed and passed through pulper to obtain pulp. In case of oranges, the fruits were peeled and passed through a screw type juice extractor to obtain orange juice. Based on the initial sucrose content of each of the three fruit pulp/juice, sugar syrups were prepared by mixing 135, 35, and 195 g of sucrose in 5847, 5947, and 5947 g of water for pineapple, mango, and orange fruit juices respectively to achieve uniform sweetness. To each of the sugar syrups prepared, citric acid (18 g), FOS syrup (2000 g) and respective fruit pulp/juice (2000 g) were added. The prepared fruit juice beverages were heated to 90 and hot filled into presterilized bottles and were allowed to cool. Another set of fruit juice beverages containing only sucrose without any added FOS was prepared and used as control. 1.3 Characterization and storage studies of fruit juice beverages Fruit juice beverages were stored at ambient (25  ± 2 à  Ã‚ ¹Ã‚ C) and refrigeration (4 à  Ã‚ ¹Ã‚ C) temperature for 6 months and were analyzed for colour, changes in the FOS content, total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity, pH and sensory qualities at regular intervals of 2 months. 1.4 FOS content A known volume of fruit juice beverages fortified with FOS was centrifuged at 8000 rpm for 20 min. The supernatant was filtered through 0.45 m cellulose nitrate filter (Millipore India Pvt ltd.) and appropriately diluted with triple distilled water and analyzed by HPLC. 1.5 Sensory evaluation Sensory evaluation was carried out by hedonic scale consisting of 10 points (1-10), where 9-10 = excellent, 7-8 = very good, 5- 6 = good, 3-4 = fair, 1-2 = poor. An internal panel of seven expert members evaluated the products for colour, appearance, taste/flavour, mouth feel and overall acceptability. 2. Results and discussion 2.1. Retention of FOS in the fortified fruit juice beverages Figure. 4 presents retention of FOS in the fortified fruit juice beverages as a function of storage time. At the end of 6 months of storage, a significant amount of FOS was retained in the fruit juice beverages stored at refrigeration temperature in comparison with those stored at ambient temperatures. There was a noticeable change in the acceptable quality characteristics after 4 months storage at ambient temperature. Fruit juice beverages in general are fast moving commodity and generally do not remain unsold for more than 2-4 months. Thus, the present study clearly indicates that fruit juice beverages can successfully be fortified with FOS with existence of 4 months at ambient temperature. Figure 4. Effect of storage period on FOS content (g/100 g) of fruit juice beverages. : Pineapple, : Mango and : Orange juices fortified with FOS. 2.2. Characterization of fruit juice beverages during storage The changes in pH, TSS ( à  Ã‚ ¹Ã‚ Brix), and titratable acidity of the fruit juice beverages, when analyzed using ANOVA were not statistically significant at the 5% level between time zero (initial) and 180 days (6 months) of storage at ambient and refrigeration temperature. The pH of the fruit juice beverages fortified with FOS was in the range of 3.23-3.57 as against the control (3.30-3.82). Similar observations with respect to the changes in pH as a function of storage time and temperature have been made. TSS ( à  Ã‚ ¹Ã‚ Brix) of the fruit juice beverages varied from 15 to 16 à  Ã‚ ¹Ã‚ Brix and was stable throughout the storage period (4 à  Ã‚ ¹Ã‚ C 25  ± 2 à  Ã‚ ¹Ã‚ C). The stability of the TSS could be due to the heat treatment prior to storage. Titratable acidity of fruit juice beverages varied from 0.23 to 0.35 g citric acid/100 mL juice. The acidity was fairly constant throughout the storage. The fruit juice beverages fortified with FOS have stability over storage and the beverages kept all the good sensorial properties, as compared to control. Results also showed that there was no visible change (Pà ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥0.05) in the colour during storage. 2.3. Sensory evaluation No significant changes were detected in the overall quality of the fruit juice beverages fortified with FOS in comparison with that of control by the panelists after 4 months of storage at ambient temperature (Table 3). Sensory qualities of the fruit juice beverages stored at ambient and refrigerated temperature was studied on the basis of the consideration that a minimally acceptable product should be equivalent to rating 5 (colour, consistency, taste, flavour and overall quality) of its sensory quality. Fruit juice beverages fortified with FOS were found to be acceptable up to 4 and 6 months based on the evaluation of overall quality at ambient and refrigeration temperature respectively. 3. Conclusion The changes in the present day consumers life style have led to a vital change in the marketing trends of food sector. Todays consumer being more health conscious is seeking products with greater health benefits and there is a great demand for health foods. The present study showed that fruit juice beverages can fortified with FOS with existence of 4 months and 6 months at ambient and refrigeration temperature respectively. There were no undesirable changes in the physicochemical characteristics of the fruit juice beverages fortified with FOS. Overall quality of the fruit juice beverages fortified with FOS for 4 months of storage at ambient temperature was acceptable as indicated by sensory analysis. Constant pH, TSS, TA and viscosity of fruit juice beverages clearly indicates that there is no spoilage either due to microbial or enzymatic reaction.