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Saturday, October 12, 2019

Plato: Patriot Or Dissident :: essays research papers

Plato, the Greek philosopher is considered to be one of the greatest thinkers in history and is called by one scholar â€Å"the fountainhead through which all western thought flows.† In his book The Republic he outlines what the perfect city-state would look like and how it would operate. Along his path of reason he makes no attempt to hide his disdain for other political systems. That includes democracy, a system he does not seem to agree with. In fact, from what I read, Plato obviously disagrees with democracy and its principals. Plato ranks democracy fourth out of what he considers to be the five major constitutions. Just barely ahead of tyranny! He even ranks it behind oligarchy; a constitution that he himself states in 552a of The Republic is the first kind of city to admit the greatest of all evils! Why does he believe this? Are all the freedom loving Americans with red, white, and blue bumper stickers on their gas guzzling cars wrong? If so, what are they missing? To understand Plato’s claim that democracy is nothing but a stopgap on the way to tyranny one must first understand Plato’s viewpoint. Plato is credited with developing a school of thought called Platonic Idealism. Platonic Idealism is based upon the assumption that the essence of the qualities you predicate to things is eternal. Examples of that are ideas such as justice, piety or equality. While we may not be able to readily define them we all know what they are and can identify them when seen. Plato contends that only through philosophy can we express those essences in language. Plato translates his assumption to mean there is something inside each and every person that is the same, it comes inborn, and contains those eternal principals. That inborn intellectual part of every person is what Plato calls the soul. Souls are like those ideas or essences they are eternal. However, if everybody has this greatest truth that is called a soul inside them, why do people do stupid selfish things or even make mistakes at all? Plato’s explanation is that the material part of us, the body stops the intellectual part from exercising the knowledge it has. The analogy that Plato uses is that of a clouded eye. It goes that the soul is like an eye that can see those eternal ideas and truths but the body and its desires cloud the view.

Friday, October 11, 2019

Project Feasibility Study

BREAKFAST: Brunch Egg Breakfast Recipe Ingredients: 6 eggs, beaten 6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled 2 cups unseasoned croutons 1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese 2 1/2 cups milk 1/2 teaspoon mustard 1/8 teaspoon onion powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 dash pepper Directions: 1. Place croutons and cheese in the bottom of a greased 9Ãâ€"13 pan. 2. Combine eggs, milk and seasonings; pour into baking dish. 3. Sprinkle with bacon. 4. Bake at 325 until set (55-65 min). Serve immediately. BEEF TAPA AND LONGGANISA Ingredients: Skinless Longanisa/ Longanisa Nuggets 350g ground pork tbsp soy sauce 1/2 tsp salt 5 cloves garlic, smashed and minced 1 tbsp vinegar 1 tbsp Mirin (sweet rice wine) (optional, or Worshteshire sauce) 1 tsp ground pepper 2 tbsp sugar Procedure: 1. Mix all ingredients 2. Scoop a mixture using a tbsp, put it into the wax paper/cling wrap and roll the wrap and shape it like a sausage, mini sausage. The wrap will serve as a the longanisa cover and to separate one from the other, and it should be removed before frying. OR if you want to eat it immediately, scoop a mixture, shaped it like a sausage or any shape you want, then fry them. . Store longanisa in the freezer (2 to 3 days), when you want to eat them, boil a little water (4 tbsp) and put your longanisa (unwrapped) , cover it for 5 mins, remove longanisa and fry them. serve with garlic-chili-vinegar. A little burnt on the outside won't hurt, it's more yummy.. LUNCH: CHICKEN DRUMMETS Ingredients: 10 pieces chicken drumsticks 1/2 cup garlic ranch dressing 1 1/4 cups breadcrumbs 1 (8-gram) pack Maggi Magic Sarap All-in-One Seasoning Procedure: 1 Toss and coat drumsticks with garlic ranch dressing. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. In a large bowl, mix together breadcrumbs with Maggi Magic Sarap All-in-One Seasoning. Roll each drumstick in breadcrumb-seasoning mixture until well-coated. 3 Deep-fry drumsticks in hot oil until golden and cooked through. Coco nutty Shrimps Ingredients: 1/4 kilo large shrimps (about 2 dozens) 1/2 cup dessicated coconut 3/4 cup garlic peanuts 1/3 cup flour 1 egg, lightly beaten 1 tablespoon lime juice salt and pepper to taste lime wedges for squeezing Procedure: 1 Devein and peel shrimps leaving tail intact. 2 Pat dry shrimps using a napkin. Transfer to a plate. Lightly sprinkle with salt and pepper. Using a food processor, process together coconut and peanuts until finely chopped. 4 Place flour in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. In another bowl, combine egg and lime juice. In a third bowl, place processed coconut and peanuts. 5 Dip shrimps one at a time first in flour mixture, second in egg and lime mixture, then in coconut-peanut mixture. 6 Deep-fry in hot oil until golden; about 3 minutes. Serve with lime wedges. DINNER: Ingredients: 3 lb whole chicken legs; drumsticks and thighs 3/4 cup distilled white vinegar 2 garlic cloves; crushed 1 bay leaf 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 6 tablespoons soy sauceProcedure: In a large kettle combi ne the chicken, the vinegar, the garlic, the bay leaf, the pepper and 1/2 cup water. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer it, covered, for 20 minutes. Add the soy sauce and simmer the mixture, covered, for 20 minutes. Transfer the chicken with tongs to an oven-proof platter and discard the outer skin. Place platter in oven and grill both sides for about 15 minutes until browned. Strain the broth through a sieve, return it to the kettle and boil for 10 minutes or until it is reduced to about 1/2 cup Remove chicken from the oven, pour the sauce over it and serve with rice.Bistek Filipino Style Beef Steak Ingredients________________________________________ †¢400grams of beef fillet, thinly sliced †¢75ml light soy sauce †¢75ml dark soy saucet †¢250ml water †¢juice of 1 lemon †¢2 tablespoons of vegetable oil †¢1 large onion, sliced in rings How to make it ________________________________________ †¢In a pan add the beef, along with the soy sauces, water and lemon juice. Bring to the boil and let it simmer for about 10-15 mins until the beef is tender. Taste the sauce. If it's too sour, add more soy sauce or if too salty, add more lemon juice.It should be a balance of sourness and saltiness. †¢Once tender, remove the liquid to a bowl and leave aside. Let any remaining liquid in the pan evaporate off then add the oil. Gently fry the beef for a couple of minutes then add the onions. Cook till the onions are translucent and still have a little crunch. Add back the liquid and let simmer for another 2 minutes. †¢Serve with steam rice. DESSERT Creme Brulee You can prepare and eat this as is, or make it a touch more interesting with fruits and chopped chocolates. Makes 6 to 8 cups Prep and Cooking Time 45 minutes 2 cups cream vanilla bean, split lengthwise 6 egg yolks 1/4 cup white sugar 1/4 cup confectioners' or powdered sugar 1 Preheat oven to 160? C. 2 In a heavy saucepan, bring the cream to a boil together with the van illa bean. 3 In a large bowl, beat together egg yolks and sugar until pale yellow in color. 4 Set aside vanilla bean and pour the boiling cream to the yolk-sugar mixture. Mix well. 5 With the tip of a paring knife, scrape the insides of the vanilla bean. Add scrapings to the cream and discard the pod. 6 At this point, you can add fruits or chopped chocolate to each ramekin or oven-proof cup as desired.Fill the mold with the custard mixture until half a centimeter from the rim. 7 Line the bottom of a shallow baking tray (about 2 inches high) with a dishcloth. Place ramekins on the tray and fill the tray halfway with water. 8 Bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool, then chill in the refrigerator. 9 Before serving, dust the top with a thin layer of icing sugar. Caramelize the sugar using a gas torch or an oven broiler until you achieve a crisp, dark brown coat. BAKED RECIPES Shrimp-Stuffed Zucchini Flowers (Fiori Di Zucca Ripieni Con Gamberi) Ingredients ounces (226 g) large s hrimp, preferably wild, peeled and deveined 12 grape tomatoes, finely chopped 1 teaspoon chopped thyme 2 tablespoons (30 ml) extra-virgin olive oil Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 12 zucchini flowers, washed, and trimmed Bottom of Form Directions Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C). Finely chop the shrimp and then transfer to a medium bowl. Add the tomatoes, thyme, 1 tablespoon of the oil, and a pinch of salt and pepper; mix well. Fill the zucchini flowers with 1 heaping tablespoon of the shrimp filling.Arrange on a small baking dish and then drizzle with the remaining oil and sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Bake in the oven until the flowers are lightly golden, and the shrimp is cooked through, 7 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven. Rich Chocolate Cake with Salty Dulce de Leche & Hazelnut Brittle o o1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee o1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder o3/4 cup packed light brown sugar o1/2 cup plain whole-mi lk yogurt o2 teaspoons vanilla extract o8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature o1 1/4 cups granulated sugar o1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 teaspoon baking soda o1 teaspoon table salt o2 eggs oTOPPING: o1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt o1/2 cup dulce de leche oHAZELNUT BRITTLE (makes about 2 cups): o6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter o1/2 cup sugar o1 tablespoon light corn syrup o1/8 teaspoon baking soda o1/8 teaspoon table salt o1/2 cup whole unsalted hazelnuts, skins removed Directions Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Prepare a 10-inch round cake pan by greasing it with cooking spray and then lining the bottom with parchment paper. To make the cake, pour the hot coffee into a medium bowl and stir in the cocoa powder until it dissolves.Stir in the brown sugar, followed by the yogurt and the vanilla. Stir thoroughly to ensure that all of the ingredients are incorporated. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and gra nulated sugar on medium speed until light-yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs and mix for 2 minutes, scraping down the bowl as needed. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer running on low speed, mix in a third of the flour mixture and half of the coffee mixture.Scrape down the bowl. Add another third of the flour mixture and all the remaining coffee mixture. Remove the bowl from the mixer and, using a rubber spatula, fold in the remaining flour mixture until all of the ingredients are fully incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Bake for 25 minutes. Rotate the pan in the oven and bake for 20 more minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove the pan from the oven and let the cake cool in the pan for 20 minutes.Then turn the cake out onto a clean plate, remove the parchment, and turn the cake back over onto a wire rack. Let the ca ke cool completely. In a food processor, pulse the brittle pieces 3 to 4 times until the brittle is powdery. Put the cooled cake on a serving dish. In a microwave-safe dish, heat the dulce de leche on high power for 30 seconds, or until it is just liquid. Spoon the dulce de leche over the cake, and then sprinkle the kosher salt over the dulce de leche. Sprinkle about ? cup of the ground brittle around the outer edge of the cake as a delicious decoration.

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Simulation of Personal Emotion Experience

Reeves & NAS (1996) showed that humans like to communicate with computers as they do with people. Software applications which include models of emotional processes are needed to model the social and emotional aspects of human-machine interaction. Extending classic AAA and logic by adding simulated emotions can be useful to improve the user's experience in many ways. This chapter will provide a brief overview of existing solutions and models used for artificial emotions (AWE) and present a novel model of emotion simulation (SIMPLEX).Empirical data will be reported on its performance, especially the occurrence of emotions, in a game environment. This chapter concludes with a comment on the usefulness of separating AAA and AWE engendering recent advances in cognitive neuroscience. 2. Models for artificial emotions 2. 1 Historical roots The ass saw what might have been the first debate about emotions and artificial intelligence. The main and – as we know now – most importan t point was that purely cognitive systems lacked emotions, which strongly influence human thought processes.. Two of the models that emerged at that time will be described here.Simony's interrupt system Herbert Simon was the first to propose that emotions should be part of a model of cognitive processes (Simon, 1967). His intention was to provide a theoretical inundation for a system incorporating emotions and multiple goals. Within this system, important processes could be interrupted so that more attention went into satisfying important needs (e. G. Hunger, safety). Herbert Simon imagined two parallel systems, one designed to achieve goals (cognition, planning) and one observing the environment for events that require immediate attention (emotions).Indeed, the possibility of interrupting current cognitive processes is 2 Name of the book (Header position 1,5) vital for survival, as it makes it possible to react to threats, but also to pay more attention to one's surroundings when a threat is expected. Today's Fungus Eater Another step towards a theory for the computer modeling of emotions was made by the psychologist Mason Toad (Toad, 1982) between 1961 and 1980, with a model called the Fungus Eater. This model resulted in the design of an autonomous robot system and partial implementations.At first, Toad only wanted to create a scenario for a cognitive system that would require concentrating on multiple issues at the same time. In this scenario, the task was collecting as much ore as possible with the help of a mining robot. Operating his robot required energy that could only be gained by collecting a special fungus. Additionally, different Fungus Eaters were competing for the same resources, thus making the scenario more complicated. Toad came to the conclusion that in order to survive on their own, these Fungus Eaters would need to have emotions and to be partially controlled by them.However, Toad named them â€Å"urges† instead of emotions and on c loser examination, it is apparent that some of these are actual emotions like joy or anger, while others are needs, goals or motives (e. G. Hunger). 2. 2 Theoretical approach and recent models There are roughly three areas where emotion models are applied. Artificial emotions (AWE) can be used to improve problem-solving in complex environments, as in the early approaches mentioned above. Emotion models can also be used to test psychological emotion theories in experiments using controlled scenarios.Finally, emotions are essential to make computer characters more believable. Emotion models which synthesize and express emotions are necessary to make AAA characters more human- like. These models will be the focus of the next sections as they have inspired our own emotional model. The most influential theoretical approach, COCO, will be presented in detail, as it is the basis of many computational models of emotion. Then, three interesting recent models are briefly described.COCO â€⠀œ a theoretical approach to simulate emotions The COCO model by Retort, Color and Collins is an emotion theory based on appraisal which was explicitly developed to offer a foundation for artificial emotion systems (Retort, Color, & Collins, 1988). Its authors succeeded as it inspired many modern models and approaches to artificial emotions. The basis of the model is that emotions are reactions to the attributes of objects, to vents or to actions. Note that internal events (like bodily sensations or memories) which are a part of most modern emotion theories are neglected in the COCO approach.Objects, events and actions are evaluated in an appraisal process based on specific criteria, and result in multiple emotions of different intensities. Figure 1 gives an overview of the COCO approach. Appraising the aspects of objects requires the agent to have attitudes (tastes or preferences) in order to decide whether the object is appealing or not. This appraisal process results in either lo ve or hate. Chapter Title (Header position 1,5) 3 Fig. 1. The COCO model Events, or rather consequences of events, are appraised by analyzing their impact on the agent's goals. This determines the desirability of events.The degree of desirability depends on how much closer to or further away from achieving the goal the agent will be after the event. The emotions of Joy and distress are direct results of desirable and undesirable events, considering the consequences they have for the agent himself. Some emotions, like for example pity, are triggered when processing events that have consequences for other agents. An open issue is whether this appraisal should be based upon the agent's own goals or rather the other agent's goals. How much should an agent be empathic if another one looses something that is not important to the first agent?In an attempt to solve this issue, abstract goals were introduced (such as for example, not losing property). It eventually became clear that it is ve ry important to keep the goals general and abstract, to avoid having to define too many specific goals. The emotions triggered by reacting to other agents' good or bad fortune depend on how well-liked they are. Another agent's bad fortune can trigger pity or gloating, while happy events can result in either feeling of happiness or of resentment, depending on the relationship between the agents.Appraising an event also means evaluating its prospects – hoping or fearing that something will or will not occur. Prospect-based emotions include disappointment and relief. The intensity of these emotions is usually based on the intensity of the preceding hope or fear. The criterion used to appraise the actions of agents is their praiseworthiness, which is based on the agent's standards. Generally, praiseworthy actions cause pride and blameworthy actions cause shame, if the agent himself is the one acting.When the actions of other agents are 4 appraised, the emotions triggered are admi ration or reproach. Standards can be as complex as attitudes (aspects of objects) and goals (consequences of events), and are almost as subjective and individual. Again, the problem of listing them was solved by describing actions in an abstract way. An interesting phenomenon is the ability of feeling proud or ashamed of someone else's actions. Simply put, the closer an agent feels related to the acting agent(s), the more he will identify with him in appraising is actions.Examples of this phenomenon (called the strength of the cognitive unit) can range from parents being proud of their child to soccer fans being ashamed of their team's performance. One of the many practical implementations of COCO is the model by Stapler & PETA (1999). They constructed a virtual agent which emotion architecture links discrete emotions categories to 14 action response categories, comprising a large range of individual actions. The COCO emotion model is also partly congruent with Nice Fried's renewed theory of emotions (Afraid, 1986). For more details on emotion theory, see Trace & Kessler (2003).Artificial Emotion Engine The aim of the Emotion Engine (E) is to control the behavior of an artificial agent in complex scenarios. It is made of three layers- emotions, mood and personality (Wilson, 2000). If an emotion is triggered, the actions will be based on this emotion. When emotions are not triggered, the engine bases its actions on the current mood; when no mood is activated, then personality serves as a basis for behavior. The emotion engine is based on the FEE model, which is a three-dimensional space, describing personality traits in terms of Extroversion, Fear and Aggression.Within this space, an area around the point representing an artificial agent's personality is determined and all traits located inside this area are considered to be available to the specific character. For Wilson, the FEE is congruent with the three central systems of the human brain which according to Gray (Gray & McLaughlin, 1996) determine behavior: the Approach system, the Behavior Inhibition system and the Fight/Flight system. These three basic dimensions are intuitive, which makes programming easy. Different personalities trigger some moods more frequently than others: extroversion s linked to good moods, and fear to negative moods.Aggression affects the speed of mood changes. Reward and punishment signals work as the main inputs, and this is comparable with the desirability of events in COCO. Inputs are adjusted based on personality, but also on how often this input occurred before. An agent can get used to a certain input, and this lowers the impact it will eventually have (habituation). On the contrary, a rare or unprecedented input will have more effect (novelty). Needs are organized hierarchically. Physiological needs, such as hunger, thirst, and the need for warmth and energy are the most important.Each of these needs can become a priority, as when for example a very hungry agent will consider eating as his most important goal. Safety, affiliation and esteem needs are the remaining layers. While physiological needs are the most important, the order of the other layers can vary, depending on what is more important to the agent. Memory is very limited; an agent only remembers how much he likes the other agents. In the same way, in COCO, sympathy is used to cause different emotions for liked and disliked entities. Only the six basic emotions of fear, anger, Joy, sadness, disgust and surprise can be triggered.This might appear like a limited selection compared to the 24 emotions of COCO, but given the reactive nature of emotions in this model (working without inner events and 5 triggers) and since some emotion theorists consider the broad spectrum of emotions as mixtures of these basic emotions, this is quite a sensible choice. Personality is used to adjust the intensity or the frequency of the occurrence of emotions, so that a character with person ality that is â€Å"low in Fear† will simply not experience as much fear as others.FLAME The Fuzzy Logic Adaptive Model of Emotion (FLAME) is partially based on COCO, but hat differentiates FLAME from other models is the use of fuzzy logic. This results in a relatively simple appraisal process. FLAME can integrate multiple emotions at the same time (in a process called emotional filtering), as emotions at times inhibit one another. For example, imagine an agent feeling Joy and pride because he Just obtained a new position, but who at the same time feels anger, because a relative of the boss of the company was given a higher position than himself. At this point, his anger may prevent him from feeling joy any longer.When opposite emotions occur, FLAME lets the stronger emotion inhibit the weaker one(s), giving a slightly stronger weight to negative emotions. Another way to handle conflicting emotions is through mood, which is determined by comparing the intensities of positive and negative emotions over the last few steps. If the summed up intensities of positive emotions are higher than that of the negative emotions, then the mood will be positive. If a positive and a negative emotion of comparable intensities occur at the same time, the mood determines which of these emotions will inhibit the other one.As there is little research about the decay of emotions, FLAME uses a simple constant cay, though positive emotions decay faster than negative emotions. FLAME does not make it possible to implement an agent's personality; instead, differences in behavior are created through learning. For example, an agent may learn that reacting in an angry way will enable him to reach his goals, thus enticing him to be more choleric. FLAME implements multiple types of learning, such as classical conditioning (associating expectations with objects) which occurs in many situations, triggering fear or hope.Another type of learning is learning about consequences of actions o r events. This is simple whenever an action directly causes a result. For example, learning that eating will result in feeling less hungry is rather trivial. In the case of more complex causal relations over time, FLAME is using Q-learning, a form of reinforcement learning. Another form of learning, quite similar to model learning, is the ability to recognize patterns in the behavior of a user by observing sequences of actions. For this type of learning, FLAME simply counts the occurrences of sequences.The last type of learning in FLAME, but one of the most important, is learning about the value of actions. Remember that COCO relies on the praiseworthiness of actions, which is based on the agent's standards. In FLAME, these standards are not predefined knowledge, but they are learned from the interaction between users. Using learning instead of predefined knowledge seems like a very sensible way to avoid most of the troubling issues that come with using COCO. Additionally, learning allows agents to adjust, which makes them all the more believable.ALMA The intention in designing A Layered Model of Affect (ALMA) was to control agents in conversational scenarios. In interactive game or learning environments, the artificial harassers display facial expressions of emotions and moods through their postures to 6 appear more believable. Emotions, moods and personalities are implemented and interact with each other. Events and actions are described in terms of abstract tags which are then evaluated during the appraisal process and describe things like for example the expressed emotion or gesture accompanying an action or simply if something is a good or bad event.As ALMA is aimed at conversations, an action is often a statement. Hence, there are tags to describe the kind of statement, for example if it was an insult or a compliment. In addition, ALMA requires defining personality profiles for each agent. Essentially, these profiles already contain the desirability and praiseworthiness the agent assigns to certain tags. Since our own emotion model shares some features with ALMA (see below) a key difference should be pointed out. In SIMPLEX we considered it impractical to explicitly specify this information, as this would have limited the model to a small number of agents.So instead of using tags, our model requires to specify goals and their priorities for an agent, where generic goals can be used for all agents. Events still need to be scribed in a special way, but this is reduced too relatively objective list of which agents goals are affected and in which way. All other information like praiseworthiness is automatically derived from this and the agent's personality. Although this approach is providing less control over an agent's appraisal process, it is better suited for a generic system meant to be used with minimal extra effort. 3. SIMPLEX – Simulation of Personal Emotion Experience 3. Overview SIMPLEX is a context-independent module to create emotions as a result of primary application (environment) events. Goals, emotions, mood-states, personality, memory and relationships between agents have been modeled so they could interact as in real life. Figure 2 shows an overview of the model. SIMPLEX is based on the COCO model by Retort, Color and Collins (1988) in that it creates discrete emotions by appraising events based on the desirability of their consequences and the praiseworthiness of the actions of agents. The appraisal process was modified by including the personality of virtual agents.The personality component is based on the Five Factor Model (FM) introduced by psychologists McCrae & Costa (1987), which includes extroversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, neurotics and openness. The personality module influences the emotion module on multiple levels during appraisal processes and in the development of mood-states. Other important aspects of the model are mood-states and relationships. Mood- states are represented in a three-dimensional space which dimensions are pleasure, arousal and dominance (Bradley & Lang, 1994), and they are based on active or recently experienced emotions (implemented by pull-functions).In the absence of motions, a mood state will slowly gravitate back to a default mood-state based on the agent's personality. A mood-state also functions as a threshold to determine whether an emotion is strong enough to become active at a given time. Relationships are handled as if they were mood-states towards other agents (for instance a player in a game scenario): they are based on emotions caused by other agents and they can be considered as a simplified way to store memories of experiences with these agents.They are used as thresholds as well; for example, an agent will be more likely to become angry at another agent towards when their legislation is in the range of negative valence. 7 Fig. 2. The emotion module SIMPLEX Personality (long-term), mood-state (mid-term) an d emotions (short-term) thus represent three levels of the emotion module that interact with each other in order to create believable agents. Events from the scenario serve as the model's inputs. They are appraised according to the COCO algorithm (see figure 1).This appraisal is influenced by the agent's goals, his personality and his relationships with other agents. At the end of an appraisal one or several discrete emotions are generated. These emotions and the current mood-state are represented in the same three- dimensional PAD space: on the one hand, the emotion(s) serve(s) as an attractor for the recent mood-state position (pull function). On the other hand, the closer an emotion is located to the current mood-state, the more probable it will be that the emotion will be activated.The speed at which the mood-state changes, is influenced by the agent's neurotics (a personality variable). Additionally, emotions that are caused by other agents will influence another mood-state rep resentation (stored on another PAD space) representing the relationship with that agent. Thus, every agent has specific relationships with other agents, which influences his behavior towards others. Emotions, mood-states and relationships with other agents are the outputs of the model and can be used by the AAA application.Originally, the PAD space was designed to represent emotions in a dimensional rather than a discrete way (Russell, 1978). In our model, PAD is used as a common space where three different constructs (discrete COCO emotions, continuous mood- states and personality), are represented in order to be handled together by the SIMPLEX algorithm. An agent's current mood-state is thus the result of a mathematical function which takes into account the default mood (defined by personality), the pulling behavior of COCO emotion(s) triggered by appraisals, and weighed factors influencing movement speed (see equation 1).Mood-state = f(PADDED, Paternosters, Filter) 8 3. 2 Basic c omponents Mood-state represented in the PAD-Space (Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance) Beyond discrete emotions, which are typically short-term, mood-states are a powerful way to model emotional shifts and explain affective influences over longer periods of time. To implement mood-states in our model, we chose to use Russell three-dimensional space to describe emotions (Russell, 1978) and Meridian's concept of how emotions are linked to personality traits (Meridian, 1996).The dimension of Pleasure encompasses valence ranging from very positive to very negative. Arousal is an indicator of how intensely something is perceived, or of how much it affects the organism. Dominance is a measure of experienced control over the situation. For example, a different degree of dominance can make the difference between fear and anger. Both of these emotions are states of negative valence and sigh arousal, but not feeling in control is what differentiates fear from anger. When an agent is angry, it is beca use he believes he can have a potential influence.Although emotions are triggered by COCO appraisals and are therefore discrete, they are handled in a continuous three-dimensional space by SIMPLEX. The advantage of treating emotions in this way and not Just as a fixed set of possible emotions is that it makes it possible to represent emotions that do not even have a name. It also creates the possibility to combine emotions, mood-state and personality in one space. First, a ordinate in PAD space can obviously represent an agent's mood-state. But emotions and personalities can also be described in terms of Pleasure, Arousal and Dominance values.For example, the value of arousal can be not only the degree of arousal associated with a specific emotion, but also the restorability of a person. Meridian (1996) gives specific names to the resulting different octants in PAD-space and describes the diagonally opposite octants as Exuberant/Bored, Dependent/ Disdainful, Relaxed/Anxious, Docile/ Hostile. Thus mood-states are not points but octants of the Bedspread. However, positioning a personality (based on FM) within a PAD-space could have been a rather difficult task, since there is no mathematically- correct way to make the conversion.Luckily, this transformation can be based upon empirical data. Meridian provided such a conversion table from FM to PAD after correlation analyses of questionnaires measuring both constructs in healthy subjects (Meridian, 1996). Five Factor Model of Personality (FM) The implementation of personality is a key factor when creating believable agents that differ from each other. COCO already offers a few possibilities: different goals, tankards and attitudes automatically result in differences during the appraisal process.However, since personality goes beyond preferences, it was necessary to find a model of personality that made it possible to adjust the appraisal process, to shift the agent's perception and to influence mood-states. The mod el chosen for SIMPLEX was the Five Factor Model (McCrae & Costa, 1987). After years of research, an agreement emerged that five groups of traits are sufficient to describe a personality. Using self-report questionnaires with multiple items, a personality profile can be provided for each individual scoring high or low in each of he five factors (this approach is called â€Å"dimensional†).In the case of our model, the value for each factor can be typed in when defining the artificial agent. 9 Agreeableness refers to a tendency to cooperate and to compromise, in order to interact with others in an agreeable way. High agreeableness often means having a positive outlook on human nature, assuming people to be good rather than bad. Low agreeableness is essentially selfishness, putting your own needs above the needs of others and not caring about the consequences your actions might have for others. Conscientiousness is usually high in people who plan a lot, who think everything thro ugh, and who are very tidy or achievers.Extreme cases can appear to be compulsive or pedantic. The opposite personality trait includes sloppiness or ignoring one's duties. Extroversion can be a measure of how much people experience positive emotions. An enthusiastic and active person that enjoys company and attention is extroverted, while a quiet individual who needs to spend more time alone is introverted. Neurotics is partly an opposite of Extroversion in being a tendency to experience negative emotions. However, being neurotic also means being more sensitive in general, and reacting emotionally to unimportant events that wouldn't usually trigger a response.Neurotics can be prone to mood swings and tend to be more negative in their interpretation of situations. Low neurotics means high emotional stability and describes calm people who are not easily upset. Finally, those scoring high on Openness to Experience are creative and curious individuals, interested in art and more in touc h with their own emotions than others. Those scoring low on that dimension are conservative persons with few interests, hey prefer straight and simple things rather than fancy ones, and they do not care about art or science.It is suspected that Openness can be influenced by education. 3. 3 Technical implementation The appraisal process and the generation of emotions There are three categories of inputs to the appraisal process of the emotion model: consequences of events, actions of agents and objects (see the COCO model in figure 1). The following section will describe the respective mechanisms applied when mapping each type of input to emotions. Each event handled by a character is first adjusted according to the agent's rationality.First, the consequences are adjusted based on the agent's neurotics. As neurotic people tend to see things more negatively, consequences are rated worse than what they actually are. The factor by which neurotics can reduce the desirability of events is adjustable. Note that all personality traits are in the range [-1; 1], so that negative neurotics actually makes consequences more positive. In real life, positive people could think â€Å"it could have been worse†. The desirability of events is determined by (predefined) goals during the event appraisal.A goal consists of two aspects: relevance [O; 1] and state of realization [O; 1], which means to which percentage the goal is already achieved. Afterwards, the praiseworthiness of actions is determined. Basically, the more positive consequences an action has, the more praiseworthy it is considered to be. Sympathy plays a role in this process, as it is added to positive values and subtracted from negative ones. Consequences for self are considered to be more important than consequences for others, which are currently factored in at 50% of their value. 0 After the adjusted values for all consequences have been summed up, unconsciousness is used to obtain the final result, by b eing scaled and subtracted. Thus the more conscientious an agent is, the harder it will be to commit an action positive enough to be deemed praiseworthy. This applies to both actions of other agents and actions of the agent himself. Agreeableness works the opposite way, but only for the actions of others. This is based on the psychological notion that agreeable people tend to be more forgiving in order to get along with others.Apart from having a different weight, factoring in agreeableness has the same results as active conscientiousness. The remaining factors serving as parameters for the action (responsibility, unexpectedness, publicizes) are averaged and used to scale the result of the above calculations. Finally, as cost is attempted to be derived from consequences for self, it is subtracted, before the calculated praiseworthiness is averaged over the number of consequences or rather the number of affected agents. The resulting value of praiseworthiness is used as the intensity for admiration or reproach, depending on whether it is positive or negative.If the agent is appraising his own actions, the motions are pride or shame instead of admiration and reproach. Once the praiseworthiness has been calculated, a search is conducted through the list of prospects for all the ones that are active and that match the name of the event. For each, the prospect appraisal function is called, which determines the net desirability by multiplying it with the affected goal's relevance. This value will be compared to the expected desirability for this event. The simplest situation is when a positive consequence was expected but a negative one occurs.This would obviously cause disappointment. However, this is also the case if a very high desirability was hoped for and the actual consequences are less positive, but still not negative. Having a hope fulfilled results in satisfaction. If an event has exactly the expected consequences, it results in the full intensity for the emotion. The intensity of emotions is the product of the determined quality of the event and of the intensity of the prospects. For example, if there was very little hope, there cannot be strong satisfaction. Which emotion is created depends on the kind of prospect and on the sign of the quality value.Hope and positive quality result in satisfaction, hope and negative quality in disappointment, fear and positive quality in fears-confirmed and fear and negative quality in relief. After the prospect appraisal is done, short term or one-shot prospects (only valid for one round) are removed. Appraisal concerning Joy and distress is done for each consequence affecting the agent himself, while appraisal for pity/gloating and happy-for/resentment is done for the remaining consequences.

Macbeth Analysis Scene Essay

?Macbeth Analyse- 2. a How does Shakespeare make the extract below from Act 2 Scene 2 dramatic and interesting? â€Å"Quenched them, hath given me fire. † Shakespeare’s using opposites and oxymoronic use of language (paradox) therefore making a contrast of Lady Macbeth’s phrase. He has also showed a comparison of guilt between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth because Lady Macbeth obviously shows that she is not guilty for what she has done but Macbeth does. Again, Shakespeare uses oxymoronic use of language for when Lady Macbeth is speaking; â€Å"live, or die,† and he also makes the last words dramatic, adding tension and seriousness towards what Lady Macbeth is saying. Another way to make the scene interesting and dramatic is adding conflict. Shakespeare does this when Lady Macbeth is saying how she can’t kill Duncan: â€Å"Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t. † Lady Macbeth is in conflict with herself because she wants to kill Duncan herself but she can’t because he looks too much like her father, meaning that she has a sentimental heart. Shakespeare uses changes in language in this extract because with the arrival of Macbeth and him holding the bloody daggers, the syntax breaks down suggesting confusion and panic. The theme of Macbeth is death, betrayal and things of that sort. The line â€Å"live, or die,† (what Lady Macbeth says) supports the fact that death is a theme of the story and this scene. Also when Lady Macbeth says: â€Å"that which hath made them drunk,† She orally reminds us of her association with the witches in the heath by using the homonym â€Å"which†. When Lady Macbeth says: â€Å"The fatal bellman which gives the stern’st good-night,† Shakespeare is trying to make us realise that when you are asleep you appear to be dead – you look dead – but Duncan will never wake up, because he is actually dead. Shakespeare uses objective correlative use of language when he writes, â€Å"it was the owl that shrieked,† because owls are nocturnal animals and are associated with darkness and full moons and things of that sort. And all these things suggest evil and mysteriousness. Action is also a way Shakespeare makes the scene seem interesting and dramatic. An example is: â€Å"I have done the deed. † Macbeth is telling Lady Macbeth that he has killed Duncan and Shakespeare has made his phrase mono-syllabic, making every word have an impact on what Macbeth has done. To make the scene more interesting and dramatic Shakespeare has showed Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship in different ways. For example, â€Å"Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t,† this shows that Lady Macbeth has a soft side and that she didn’t have the courage to kill Duncan because he resembled her father. So this is linking with her relationship with Duncan and Macbeth because she wanted to kill Duncan but she couldn’t because of the resemblance and it shows she is not as powerful in her relationship with Macbeth. â€Å"Hark! I laid their daggers ready; he could not miss ‘em,† also shows she carefully planned the plot showing she is in control of her relationship with Macbeth. And she also manipulated and controlled Macbeth into killing Duncan because she physically wasn’t able to; showing her power over Macbeth and their relationship. Also keep in mind that she doesn’t even have Macbeth’s best interests at heart. Shakespeare is uses pretence, â€Å"I am afraid they have awaked†¦ My husband? † meaning Lady Macbeth knows inside that she is scared but she always gives off the impression that she is evil so maybe she is not as powerful as she thinks she is concerning her relationship with Macbeth. She also shows she wants comfort from Macbeth which shows the closeness of their relationship and her vulnerability. â€Å"I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. Did you not speak,† this is an example of how Shakespeare uses questions to make the scene more interesting because Lady Macbeth sounds panicked and she uses alliteration to add more drama to what she’s saying.

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Human Resource Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Human Resource - Research Paper Example It has been noticed that, issues of sexual preferences and gender are much more sensitive because individuals who have different preferences feel discriminated in many avenues of life (Burns and Krehely, 2005). Most organizations proclaim that they do not carry out any form of discrimination, but in practice they do and violate the rights of the employees. This is exactly what happened with Oiler. Oilers contributions to the organization as well as his work record were not taken into consideration when making the decision regarding his termination. Furthermore, the disturbing fact was that the laws of the federation and the state did not have any protection for the transgendered employees. Therefore, not only were employee rights of Oiler violated, he did not receive any protection from the state or federation either. 2. What do you see as the consequences of organizations that punish employees for certain off-the-job behaviors? Explain. Punishing employees for certain off-the-job be haviors can create a negative perception among the employees as well as the public because the organization does not practice equality and non-discrimination (Weiss, 2007). Termination of the employees for such reasons would be a negative publicity as clients and employees would exercise caution in approaching the organization in the future.

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Analysing operational risk failure of Barings bank Essay

Analysing operational risk failure of Barings bank - Essay Example At the heart of the devastating scam was a person with a huge appetite for risk-taking but hardly any accountability towards the bank, Nick Leeson. Overnight, the unscrupulous futures' trader from London who was previously the poster boy for Barings' high-growth earnings from Singapore's premium monetary exchange, SIMEX (In 1993, he documented nearly 10% of the bank's profits in futures' trading), took special advantage of the bank's vulnerability in not being able to hedge the risks that come with dealing in a concern as sensitive as this. This is what happened. Nick Leeson's job as Chief Trader at SIMEX was to buy and sell the simplest kind of derivatives pegged to the Nikkei-225 stock exchange of Japan. This job entails the methodology of a skilled bookie who basically, bets on what people are likely to bet on in the future course. Despite booking profits on various occasions, some of Leeson's predictions proved incorrect. The idea to fool the bank management in covering up details of unsuccessful tradings came from devising an unaudited bank account, called error account 88888, to fix 20,000 goofed up by an inexperienced team member, which was later to serve as Leeson's personal getaway in covering up failed investment strategies. Even as the entire audit team of Barings' was kept in dark about what was the tip of the iceberg then, Leeson managed to document account losses which were initially at 2 million in 1992 to an astronomical figure of 208 million by 1994. The final blow came when Leeson pulled out a short-selling stunt by compromising derivatives at the Japanese and Singapore stock exchanges. An earthquake in Japan in Jan, 1995 upset his apple cart, the Nikkei plummeting by 7.7% overnight, the repercussions being felt across much of the Asian markets. Leeson desperately hoped for a recovery post-quake but, the trouble grew deeper as Barings' liabilities upward of 1 billion came to the fore. Before the bank authorities could take corrective action, the worst had happen, and one of the most glaring financial scams of recent history captured our imagination. Leeson later served a 4-year prison sentence in Singapore, eventually returned to the UK as a "celebrity", and ironically today, is a much sought-after speaker in guiding corporations and banks to manage risk in their financial dealings. While the Barings' episode is painfully over, the chances of another scam of this magnitude should not be ruled out. It is with this objective in mind that we must understand the mechanics of operational-risk management when applied to financial tradings. While analysing the basics of this study, we will simultaneously try to picture what happened in Barings, and what could have been done to arrest the ugly development. To understand the guidelines of

Monday, October 7, 2019

Ethical Issues when Marketing with Children Essay

Ethical Issues when Marketing with Children - Essay Example It was also revealed that children greatly affect the commodities their parents buy. Estimates done in this field show that projects tailored for children in the year 2006 totalled fifty two billion dollars. (McGee and Heubusch, 1997) Regardless of all this potential returns that children can give manufacturers and their marketers, there are key ethical issues that arise in the discussion. For example, do children have the capability of understanding some of the intricate marketing tactics Do children posses the final buying power Do marketers need to get permission from their parents And do children understand the negative effects of some of the products advertised to them These key questions will be analysed in relation to business pressures then recommendations will be made. Some companies have become notorious for the utilisation of psychologists in their advertising and marketing campaigns. Normally what such companies do is that when trying to create marketing strategy, they will involve psychologist to tell them about tactics that they can use to influence children. Since psychologists understand the way child's mind works, they can help marketers create campaigns that will be directly aimed at them and those ones that can easily influence their choices. This trend has becoming so alarming that the American Psychological Association has raised an alarm about it. They have set up a committee to estimate the effect that the involvement of psychologists in the marketing process of children's products has on them. The group has asserted that no psychological principles should be used when marketing to children. They are also recommending that there should be some sort of strategy to protect the young ones from exploitation though the use of psychologica l ploys. (Beder, 1998) The basic framework which steers marketing ethics revolves around three main issues. These are; values stakeholders processes Marketing ethics that are done on a value inclined framework are those one that involve the analysis of the kind of value that the marketing idea creates. So advertisements may instil in their target audiences positive or negative attributes. This all depends on their implementation. For example, an advertising targeting a child may become a problem if it violates the right to privacy, transparency, honesty or autonomy. By using psychologists in the process of creating advertisements for children, marketers are imposing upon children's right to autonomy and transparency. They try studying children's behavioural trends and then use this to exploit those children. This is quite unethical. The process oriented framework in marketing ethics is founded on the basis of analysing marketing ethics through the categories that marketers use. For example research, promotion and placement must be done in an ethical manner. This is something that marketers have chosen to ignore because their research is not done in an ethical manner. Their research involves using psychological experts who may use their knowledge to take advantage of children who belong to vulnerable groups (Lizabeth, 2001) Targeting children alone Marketers who create marketing campaigns that are just directed towards children only are engaging in unethical marketing practices. This is because children are naive. They are at a stage of development