Essay --

The 3G+GPS shield uses the 3G module, SIM5218E from SIMCOM, which enables the connectivity to high speed WCDMA and HSPA cellular networks. It is a single board which can handle high speed wireless communication. The 3G module has an internal GPS with the help of which it is possible to locate the device outdoors as well as indoors. It combines the standard NMEA frames with mobile cell ID triangulation for accuracy and uses both assisted-mobile (A-GPS) and mobile-based (S-GPS) modes. A video camera can be connected to the shield which enables recording photo and video in high resolution (640x480). It is also possible to connect a microphone to the module and a SD socket to save directly all the data coming from the 3G network or recorded from the video camera. Since the 3G+GPS shield supports the above mentioned features with all the hardware on board, it became the first choice for the implementation of the prototype. Described below are the important components of the 3G+GPS shield that we have used. 3.1.1 Hardware 3.1.1.1 3G Module (SIM5218E) Figure ‎3 2: SIM5218E Sim5218E is a quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and UMTS engine that works on frequencies of GSM 850 MHz, EGSM 900 MHz, DCS 1800 MHz, PCS 1900 MHz, and WCDMA 2100M/1900M/900M [28]. Sim5218E provides interfaces for Serial communication, GPS, Camera, USIM Card as well as an audio interface. These are described briefly below. Detailed information about these is present in the â€Å"Hardware Design† document of SIM5218E [29]. Serial interface Sim5218E has an asynchronous serial port. Sim5218E is designed as a Data Connection Equipment. It can be connected to any Data Terminal Equipment using standard DCE-DTE connection. Serial port can be used for sending AT commands ... ...verage problems are experienced, then two antennas are used, where the second antenna is connected to the sub-antenna connector. 3.1.1.2 Electret Microphone We have used electret microphone for the prototype. It is a small microphone useful in acoustic and audio applications. Figure ‎3 3: Electret Microphone 3.1.1.3 Camera The camera used for the prototype is a VGA Sensor Camera module. This camera is a very compact size. It uses a GC0309 CMOS sensor. It is 0.3MP (VGA) camera with a maximum resolution of 640 x 480 dpi. Figure ‎3 4: VGA Sensor Camera 3.1.1.4 Arduino Mega 2560 Figure ‎3 5: Arduino Mega 2560 Arduino Mega 2560 is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega2560. It has 4 UARTs (hardware serial ports), which will be very useful in interfacing various components. It has a 16MHz crystal oscillator with a flash memory of 256KB and SRAM of 8KB.

Far from the Madding Crowd Essay

† He admits to Bathsheba at the beginning of the novel that, â€Å"But I can’t match you, I know, in mapping out my mind upon my tongue. † He is not a man of words, unlike Troy and Boldwood, but proves that â€Å"actions can speak louder than words†. He is unable to speak the flattery that Troy can, or be as persistent and persuasive as Boldwood is, but in his devoted actions to Bathsheba, by being the hard and diligent worker that he is, he is rewarded in the end, by giving the opportunity to offer Bathsheba the love that he had talked of to her when he had first met her. In contrast to Gabriel, Francis Troy is a man who appears to understand only what he can get out of love. He does not believe in treating women fairly, and which is expressed as he says, â€Å"treat them fairly and you are a lost man,† when referring to women. Hardy also writes about his consistency when telling the truth; â€Å"He was moderately truthful towards men, but to women he lied like a cretan. † By lying to women he found it easy to get what he wanted, as Hardy describes him; â€Å"he spoke fluently and unceasingly. † At the beginning, Hardy remarks that a woman’s greatest fault is her â€Å"Vanity. † Troy, as he possesses such ease with the words he uses, has learnt that a woman’s weakness is her vanity, and knows that by flattering them he can get what he wants. This is precisely what he did with Bathsheba, and like her, he felt some sense of triumph when he saw that he had succeeded in weakening the women he flattered, as she did with the men she flirted with. However, instead of making the women he met feel confident, his flattery merely destroyed them, as they became dependent upon him to feed their vain needs. Troy did not have the emotional sense of love, but instead he felt the physical attraction to the women he met. This meant that he only got involved with beautiful women, as it was their beauty that attracted them to him. Even after having left Bathsheba for so long, when he saw her again at Greenhill Sheep Fair, it was her beauty that â€Å"found unexpected chords of feeling, to be stirred again within him†¦ † The way in which Troy judged by appearances was perhaps inevitably the cause of his failed marriage to Bathsheba, because he had not got to know Bathsheba as a person, but simply looked at her, as a symbol of beauty. In some ways it could be said that he looked at the women as trophies that he had won. Troy was also a man driven by wealth. Bathsheba, who had come into wealth after the inheritance of the lease of Weatherbury Farm, would have been even more attractive to him as she now had money. We know that he was driven by money, as he used to bet on the horses, which put considerable financial strain on Bathsheba. This was probably the reason why he did not marry Fanny, due to her financial instability. Money was also the reason why he did not return to Bathsheba initially after landing at Liverpool, as Hardy writes, â€Å"what a life such a future of poverty would be. † This, unlike the love felt by Gabriel, was a selfish form of love, because he only ever though of himself. He had a very superficial view of love, which required wealth in order to make him happy. Troy’s opinions of love did not include the idea of commitment, and another reason for the failure of his marriage could be due to his womanising and flirtatious behaviour. We learn near to the end of the novel that his opinion of marriage is negative and he sees it not as the beginning of two people’s lives together, but as he says himself, â€Å"all romances end at marriage. † He also did not believe in the idea of equality, and shared responsibilities in a relationship, as he abandons Fanny with the great burden of an unborn child to deal with alone. This is probably due to his carefree opinion of sex, which he also valued as much as he did love. Troy did not value love as anything special, and this could be put down to the fact that he had a very unstable background, and an uncertain upbringing. His profession would also have something to do with his opinion of women, and as a soldier, he probably never had to deal with women and did not understand them. This is why he tried to possess them, and this destroyed them. Hardy has some very clear opinions that he wishes to get across to the reader in this novel. He uses the characters as tools, to create a picture for the readers, expressing his personal views on love. He rewards those characters that see love as a simple but precious thing, and he shows how much he admires Gabriel Oak for his powers of endurance, by rewarding him with Bathsheba in the end. In contrast, he punishes those characters that take love too lightly. An example of this is the attitude of Troy which end is death in the end. Hardy warns us of the great power of love and how dangerous it can be. The obsession that Boldwood felt for Bathsheba, is another feeling that he condemns, and shows how life can be ruined because of obsession. This is shown by the lifelong imprisonment of Boldwood. Hardy’s opinions of love are really exposed at the end of the novel, when he describes his own thoughts about how truelove can develop. He uses Bathsheba and Gabriel as an example of how true love can develop. They were â€Å"tried friends† who enjoyed â€Å"good-fellowship and comraderie. † The main message Hardy is trying to get across to us is that love cannot hide behind a fake face. He writes that in order for a successful relationship to take place, you must know the â€Å"rougher sides† of each other’s character. This is the love Hardy describes to be â€Å"the only love which is as strong as death- that love which many waters cannot quench, nor the floods drown. â€Å"

How Far Was World War One Responsible for the Overthrow of Nicholas II, 1917 Essay

The First World War was indeed a major cause of the Tsar’s overthrow in the February Revolution. However, it was not the sole factor – rather, it was a catalyst and a focus that allowed all the other preexisting factors to boil over into revolution. The First World War caused a multitude of problems for the peasants of Russia, both at home and on the front. The vast majority of conscripts were from farming villages, meaning that less men were at home to till the soil and produce food – it also meant a general slump in food production as a whole, resulting in a shortage of grain to feed the hungry industrial workers in the cities. As the death toll of the backwards, ill-equipped Russian Army was devastatingly high, this meant that virtually everyone in Russia would lose someone they knew, regardless of social status. The lack of reliable supplies of food and basic commodities such as coal (most of it was going to the front) further crippled the economy, especially during the harsh Russian winter. This caused riots and protests to break out, ones that the once-Royalist troops were now unwilling to curb. Economic problems aside, the Tsar also made several extremely misguided decisions that further damaged his reign. While he intended to use the Great War to secure his status as Father of the People, Nicholas failed utterly in two respects. Firstly, he left directly to command the front – this meant that all the blame for every military defeat fell on his shoulders and not some scapegoat commander. He would no longer be able to divert the illwill of the people should defeats occur, and they did indeed. Secondly, he left the Tsarina in charge of running the Empire while he was away, and this was a disasterous choice on many levels. Tsarina Alexandra was a German-born princess, which naturally aroused severe animosity on the part of the people who were actually fighting the Germans. Even worse, she listened to Rasputin in everything, sacking many loyal ministers and replacing them with his incompetent cronies. This threw the already-disorganised Russia into even greater disarray, preventing supplies from getting through to the hungry workers and wrecking the economy even further. The Russians called her a spy and accused her of conducting an affair with Rasputin, whom they loathed. They could not fathom why an uncouth, dirty peasant would find so much favor in the eyes of their monarch. The status of the Royal Family was at an all-time low in the eyes of the people, and everyone began to talk about how they should be disposed of – in every class of society, no less. Further compounding the problem was the fact that the vast majority of the Russian Army was at the front. Unlike the 1905 Revolution, where the Tsar could quickly sign a peace treaty with Japan and get his soldiers’ loyalty with generous payments to crush the revolution, the First World War showed no signs of ending. The army’s morale was incredibly low. With mass desertions almost every day due to the obsolete nature of both Russian millitary tactics and equipment, many soldiers had gone back to the cities of Petrograd and Moscow to live with their families. This meant that when the tide of public sentiment finally broke out against the Tsar in another revolution, these soldiers turned in support of the revolutionary cause. Because of the poverty and chaos caused to civilians by the war, the loss of millitary support and disasterous handling of the army, and finally the Tsar’s own mistakes, the Romanov Dynasty was at an end. That being said, there were other factors that stemmed from before the Great War. After the 1905 Revolution, the Tsar had promised to make his rule more constitutional. These token promises were shown in the October Manifesto, his abolition of redemption payments and the creation of the Duma, an elected parliament who in theory would help him run the empire. However, these were merely halfhearted, hollow words. The Tsar practically ignored the Duma, dashing the hopes of the middle class and destroying their trust in him. In addition, he released the 1906 Fundamental Laws, which shrewdly reestablished his sovereign authority by stating that everything in the October Manifesto was permissible – but only in the limits of the law, which naturally the Tsar still controlled. Additionally, the Tsar had his new Chief Minister Stolypin carry out land reforms. He allowed the more capable peasants to accumulate the holdings of their neighbours, creating a prosperous class of ‘kulaks’ or wealthy peasants. It was hoped that this would both stabilise food prices and create a ‘barrier to revolution’, a lower-middle class that would be loyal to the Tsar and unwilling to upset the favorable status quo. It mostly worked. However, what Stolypin had overlooked was the fact that many peasants would be displaced by this new mini-elite. Evicted from their homes and encouraged by the government to settle on the Trans-Siberian Railway, they traveled many miles in cramped and cold conditions only to find that all the prime land had already been bought up by wealthy capitalists. Feeling cheated and betrayed by their Tsar, these peasants drifted into the city and found meager work in the factories. When the time came for a second revolution, they were ready. Stolypin himself was assassinated in 1911, leaving Russia a disorganised mess. No other statesman of his caliber would ever step up again in the Tsarist regime. The First World War was a major cause of the 1917 Revolution, but not the sole one. Rather, it was a climax that focused and pushed all previous elements over the edge.

Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) remains a pivotal figure in American culture nearly thirty-five years after his death.   In his twenties and thirties, he was one of jazz’s foremost innovators, elevating the instrumental solo to a new and important role and helping invent the jazz style of singing.   Later in life, he became a widely popular entertainer rather than an innovator, a sort of â€Å"living legend† who preserved the music of yesteryear and projected a friendly, comical, widely imitated persona by which he is still remembered. Louis Armstrong was born in a poor section of New Orleans on 4 August 1901 but was unaware of his actual birthdate throughout his life.   He always claimed to be born on 4 July 1900, and this was accepted as fact until researchers found a birth certificate long after Armstrong’s death (Wikipedia). Fatherless and virtually motherless (his mother was a part-time prostitute who left him in his older sister’s care), he received little schooling and worked a series of menial jobs from an early age, including delivering coal and working for a family of Jewish junk merchants.   Despite a harsh, impoverished childhood in one of New Orleans’ most crime-ridden neighborhoods, he developed the optimistic personality that many Americans recognize. His musical training began at New Orleans’ Colored Waifs Home, where Armstrong was sent in early 1913 for firing a pistol in the air during a New Year’s Eve celebration.   During his 17 months at the home, he received instruction on the cornet and later recalled, â€Å"The place was more like a health center or a boarding school than a boys’ jail,† though the home was known for its harsh, militaristic discipline (Bergreen 73). After his release, he joined the city’s fertile musical community by performing in local jazz bands under Fate Marable (who taught him his strong professional ethic) and Kid Ory, as well as on riverboats. After meeting Joseph â€Å"King† Oliver and joining his pioneering jazz band, Armstrong became an exceptionally skilled instrumentalist and traveled to Chicago with Oliver, where he began recording in 1922 and went on his own within a few years. After leaving King Oliver’s band, Armstrong’s career flourished.   Biographer Laurence Bergreen writes, †It was as though Louis had taken [jazz] out of its infancy and given it a powerful breath of new life and independence† (Bergreen 200).   He formed a series of bands, most notably the Hot Five, with whom he had numerous hits (the first being â€Å"Muskrat Ramble† in 1926) and displayed his improvisational and interpretive skills.   Though he began as a trumpeter, he began singing as well during this period, using his unconventional, gravelly voice to develop scat singing, which other jazz artists adopted. He attained especially high standing among other jazz musicians for his virtuosity and ability to translate jazz (formerly the music of New Orleans’ street parades and dives) to records.   Bergreen notes that Armstrong â€Å"was the first important jazz musician to anticipate that his legacy would be actual recordings, not half-forgotten memories† (Bergreen 219), showing a shrewd side of his personality because early jazz artists (like its supposed creator, Buddy Bolden) were never able to reach a wider audience simply through live performance. After World War II, Armstrong was no longer a cutting-edge innovator, since jazz had by now evolved away from its New Orleans roots and transformed into swing and bebop.   However, says Bergreen, Armstrong â€Å"carved himself a unique niche in the music world . . . as a newly minted traditionalist† (Bergreen 433).   He began performing not only the New Orleans â€Å"hot† jazz he helped create but also pop, blues, Tin Pan Alley, and show tunes, winning him great popularity with the public but critical scorn. According to music critic Gary Giddins, â€Å"he was excoriated for playing pop tunes, fronting a swing band, appearing with media starts, sticking to a standardized repertory, engaging in vaudeville routines . . . mugging, entertaining† (Giddins 4).   However, this second phase of his career is as important as the first, since he never lost stature among his peers, produced some vital work (especially his collaborations with Ella Fitzgerald), and won an even wider following late in life. Armstrong was largely apolitical but strongly supported the civil rights movement, having experienced the effects of segregation his entire life.   He harshly criticized Dwight Eisenhower’s perceived inaction during the 1957 Little Rock school integration crisis, called Arkansas’ segregationist governor Orval Faubus â€Å"ignorant,† and snubbed the federal government by refusing to participate in a government-sponsored tour of the Soviet Union in 1958 (Wikipedia).   His warm, effusive, laid-back personality and friendliness toward people regardless of race led some to incorrectly dub him an â€Å"Uncle Tom,† though he generally refused to make race a personal issue. Armstrong essentially left two legacies – as innovator and entertainer.   Before reaching middle age, Armstrong’s accomplishments included his helping define jazz in its earliest years, as well as making the solo an important element of modern music.   In addition, he helped define jazz vocals and popularize scat singing, long a key element of jazz. After age forty, his second legacy was his familiarity to the American public and abroad, and he cared little about how some critics dismissed him for joining the cultural mainstream.   According to Giddins, Armstrong played almost any kind of material because he knew â€Å"that no song could diminish him and that he could lift most songs beyond their earthy calling† (Giddins 4).   According to Bergreen, â€Å"He was not just America’s greatest musical performer, he was also a character of epic proportions† (Bergreen 1).   More than thirty years after his death, Louis Armstrong remains one of the most recognizable Americans, hailed as both a creator and performer more than thirty years after his death. REFERENCES Anonymous.   †Louis Armstrong.†Ã‚   Wikipedia.   4 November 2005.   . Bergreen, Laurence.   Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life.   New York: Broadway Books, 1997. Giddins, Gary.   Satchmo: The Genius of Louis Armstrong.   New York: Da Capo Press, 1988.      

Architectural Project

Parliamentary buildings are always meant to attract different people meaning that the grander the structure, the stronger the public and national interest and reaction to them.   These buildings normally reflect the tradition and stability showing that they portray the image or the commanding presence of the state (Daniel, 1995).The parliamentary buildings are also known to provide ideals of national identity and pride of a given state showing its strength.   Splendor and command, even majesty is always shown in the grandest of parliamentary buildings especially those in America in the nineteenth century.The Norman Foster New German parliament is a project of architecture since it has developed after destruction of many parliamentary buildings.   Attention was first devoted to German development, both in regard to the Bundestag building in Berlin (Michael, 1998).The Reichstag building is historical known for its richness in sensitive historical and political associations.  Ã‚   These buildings have raised some questions of national symbols, questions of the European traditions and democratic aspiration of the newly reunited Germany.This why there has been debates on whether the new parliament building is something to do with politics or architecture.   But in the real sense it is believed to be an architectural project following the changes that have been experienced in the field of architecture since early ages in the building and rebuilding of the parliament. (Dieter, 2003).Early architectural changes began from year 1949 – 1971 following reunification of Germany.   They started rebuilding projects and expanding the parliament in Bonn.   Architectural changes were undertaken from 1949 by a leading architect of the day by the name Haris Schwippert. He laid down a new chamber for the Bundestag which was completed for a short while.The project was made up of glass showing that they were a trademark of German post-war architectural style.   Several small developments existed to the parliament buildings site by 1969 when a large multi-storey building was erected to accommodate members and other services.   The building consisted of 30 storeys and was a notable landmark in Bonn region since it could be seen from Rhine.Towards the end of 1969 the federal cabinet ordered a stop to the adhoc building programs of the government in Bonn (Stephen, 2005).   The cabinet then formed a commission to look at a wider town planning implications of government office and parliamentary accommodation.Restructuring of the town and new buildings was an architectural concern in the country.   The parliament new building was to contain office blocks for government, child care facilities, an international conference center, new buildings for Bundestage, and the bundestrat and finally a hotel with apartment.All these led to a lot of complications and confusions.   This forced the different architectural firms to do some projects in co llaboration with other firms. This led to further development in the redesigning of the Bonn parliamentary building from 1971 – 1992. (Foster, 2000).The architectural firms made a lot of restructural challenges, arrangements and consultation with the concerned citizens.   The revised plan was then announced or declared in the December 1978.   Further architectural competitions were experienced by this time.In1983 another complication emerged when it was found out that the fabric of the main chamber (plenarsaal) was seriously impaired. This required the parliament building to be demolished as it could not be re-built a according to the architectural findings. Various experts were called for advice and in the upshot it emerged that preservation of the existing building in its framework would greatly increase expenditure because of its unsuitable nature.The decision to build new parliamentary building was finally made after along discussion that did not want the building to be demolished.   Many stakeholders wanted the only affected chamber to be rebuilt (Corola, 2004).   However the demolition of the new chamber succeeded since the state government had limited power to intervene in matters affecting the federal parliament.The rebuilding of the chamber included other ancillary facilities adjacent to it meaning that the project was expected to be wider than just the chamber it self. (Jaeger, 1999).

Mixed Methods Research Manuscript Critique Assignment

Mixed Methods Research Manuscript Critique - Assignment Example plied the communication theory on its sample students in an attempt to understand the students’ perception on the use of the substances (DeSantis, Webb & Noar, 2008). Through the communication theory, the researcher would understand the health knowledge of the students, their attitudes and even reactional behaviors towards the substance. After gathering information on the students’ perception on the use of the drugs, the researcher would then be better placed to define mechanisms that would properly educate the students on the dangers of the prescription drugs (DeSantis, Webb & Noar, 2008). The quantitative and qualitative methodologies complemented each other in the research. The two forms of methodology provided an understanding on the rising numbers on the use of ADHD stimulant use. The quantitative methodology gave the statistics on the use of the stimulants while qualitative gave results on the interviews with the students (DeSantis, Webb & Noar, 2008). Data was collected quantitatively using surveys and qualitatively using in-depth interviews. Convenience sampling was used to get the best students to give the correct data on the use of ADHD stimulant drugs (DeSantis, Webb & Noar, 2008). Data was gathered via the use of in-depth interviews through the hand-held audio tape recorders. Rigor was assured through training and supervising the researchers on interviewing process, the ethical strategies, and the transcription procedure (DeSantis, Webb & Noar, 2008). Prior to participating in the study, the students were advised that the study would be voluntary and would lead to a productive educational experience. The students then provided their consent before the survey completions. Written agreements were also obtained from the students before the interview took place (DeSantis, Webb & Noar,

Of the several blind spots in the early development of the human Essay

Of the several blind spots in the early development of the human rights regime, none is as striking as the failure to give viol - Essay Example The fact that the women have been presented as helpless and individuals who are dependent on others for support has not made the position of women in society better. As such, only several centuries past now have women been able to enjoy equal rights as men. In most countries, these women are now able to go to school alongside their male counterparts, to go to work, to support themselves, and to vote. For a long while however, women have been subjected to physical, emotional, sexual, and mental abuse from their male counterparts, including family members as well as strangers. In the past few decades however, more serious commitments on the protection of their civil and human rights have been observed1. These commitments come in the form of laws in the international and national level, ultimately affording equal right to these women and imposing punishment and penalties to those who abuse the rights of women. One of these laws is the CEDAW or the Convention on the Elimination of All Fo rms of Discrimination against Women. It is also known as the Treaty for the Rights of Women2. It was adopted by the UN in 1979, and ratified by different countries. This treaty is however not a sufficient policy in the complete protection of women’s civil and human rights. ... This article shall evaluate the statement above, highlighting instances of human rights violations for these women, gaps in the protection of their rights, including possible remedies which can be implemented in order to address the issue. Body The CEDAW is considered an encompassing international treaty covering the basic rights of women. It indicates a form of Bill of Rights for these women and is the only international instrument which completely covers specific provisions on women’s rights, including their political, economic, social, cultural, and civil life4. There are 185 ratifying countries for this treaty, with the US being a major hold out for its ratification5. The CEDAW indicates a very broad definition for discrimination against women, supporting the fact that international usually provides broad definitions when compared to local or national laws. Nevertheless, CEDAW defines the idea of equality for women beyond what is currently set by many national provisions. Under the CEDAW, discrimination against women also refers to any act which excludes, distinguishes, or restricts individuals based on sex with such discrimination often made in order to impair the enjoyment or exercise by women of their human and fundamental freedoms and rights6. The treaty secures women’s rights in different realms, including government and political life, employment, education, healthcare, as well as other elements of social and economic life. It also indicates special policies for women including special measures to support the causes of women and protect their maternity7. Aside from the CEDAW, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights has also set forth provisions seeking to protect