In the poster, a section of members of society is seen oppressing some individuals, by threatening and even eliminating them. The strong have weapons that are used to subjugate and force the weak to obey. Some of the weak members of society are unhealthy, as can be viewed from the picture since their bones are protruding meaning that they do not have balanced diets. The rich are capable of dominating and suppressing the poor irrespective of their gender since the woman is seen carrying the flag, meaning the authority. In other words, the rich are always in possession of governmental power, which is regularly used to perpetrate crime.
The poor are forced to live under the mercy of the rich since state machinery serves the interests of the rich. In the picture, the police, who possess guns, is seen helping the rich to frustrate the poor in society. From the poster, it is evident that societies consist of tension, competition for resources, power, and prestige. In other words, social order consists of groups and individuals trying to advance their interests. The rich decided to do away with the poor to possess scarce resources.
Marxism
Marxism can indeed be used to interpret the poster since the approach emphasizes the materialistic interpretation of history. The theory criticizes the existing social arrangements and distribution of resources. As a result, life is dependent on the production and distribution of goods and services. The work that people do in society is very important, as it defines their position in society. In this regard, the means of production are the most important compared to other forms of productions in society.
There are two main parts, which are the base and the superstructure. The base may include the means of production such as tools, raw materials, and skills. On the other hand, the superstructure includes culture, ideas, politics education system, and religion. From the picture, it is clear that the main aim of the owners of the means of production is to control capital. A small minority in society controls capital while the majority languishes in poverty.
The kind of relationship that exists is unequal since the goods produced are meant for the market but not for local consumption. In the picture, the relations are characterized by exploitation since the rich use the poor to produce goods. In case the poor individuals try to demand their rights, the rich use the state machinery to disperse and frustrate them. Even the superstructure such as the education system and religion serves the interests of the rich since it pacifies the population. From the poster, the flag means that the ideas of the rich are to be obeyed always. In other words, the ideology of the bourgeoisie is the most dominant in society. In society, no one serves the interests of the poor since the learned are paid by the rich to justify, legalize, and rationalize the actions of their actions.
Conclusion
However, Marx used the idea of dialectics to explain how the change would be achieved in society. He noted that the existing social arrangement, which is the thesis, would generate its social opposite referred to as antithesis. From the struggle, a qualitative social form would be formed referred to as the synthesis. Marx noted that workers would be able to do away with injustices, like those witnessed in the poster through a revolution.
Shakopee and Valleyfair are some of the most common landscapes in Minnesota that people enjoy from time to time. Shakopee is named after a Dakota chief and provides many entertainment opportunities for its visitors. Shakopee also hosts the Canterbury park racetrack that allows visitors to enjoy horse racing, casino, and concerts. Valleyfair is popularly known for its thrill rides, roller coasters, and a waterpark. The amusement park was established with the objective to provide entertaining activities for visitors to enjoy. Valleyfair promotes a childhood theme since many of the activities in the park are designed for children. Children also do not pay to enter the park, but adults have to purchase tickets. The various entertainment activities promote a theme of happiness and togetherness since people have fun together, which is not the case in other landscapes. The essay starts with an objective description of the two landscapes that provides some background information about the region. This is then followed by a subjective interpretation that highlights some of the themes that the two landscapes enhance within the region.
Objective Description
Shakopee is one of the landscapes in Minnesota which is popularly known for Valleyfair and Canterbury park racetrack. The racetrack provides horse racing, casino action, and concerts together with other entertainment activities. Shakopee is located in the southwest corner of the area and has a river, businesses, and recreational opportunities. By 2020 Shakopee had a population of about 41,000 people which has increased significantly with time (Data USA, 1). The primary language spoken in Shakopee is English since many of the people who reside in the country are American citizens. However, the region hosts people from different racial groups even though they speak a common language.
Shakopee was named after a Dakota chief who was a popular leader in the area when it was founded. Shakopee came to exist after Thomas Holmes established a trading post in the region. Shakopee means six among the Dakota and was a name passed from one leader to the other. The landscape was named after Chief Shakopee II, who was considered to be one of the most effective orators among the Dakota people. Shakopee has developed to become an innovative and thriving community that provides entertainment while also enhancing people’s quality of life. The area has a diverse population, top schools, medical facilities, and recreational opportunities that foster a sense of community.
Another popular landscape in Minnesota is Valleyfair which is located in Shakopee along highway 101. Valleyfair has colorful signs and is big, which makes it noticeable to any person in the region. The park has been in existence for over 45 years, offering twenty rides and attraction activities. The park’s construction started in 1974 with an initial investment of about $7.5 million from two local businessmen (Valleyfair, 1). The two men had a dream to construct an amusement park that would offer entertainment activities to various family members. Cedar Point acquired Valleyfair in 1978 under the management of Cedar Fair Limited Partnership (Valleyfair, 1). The acquisition helped to promote the park’s expansion making it one of the biggest in the world. Valleyfair has invested over $96 million since 1976 by purchasing new rides and constructing new attraction activities (Valleyfair, 1). Valleyfair currently has 8 roller coasters, a Planet Scoopy, a waterpark, and 75 rides. This has enabled it to become the largest amusement park in the Midwest.
Valleyfair has thrilling rides that are designed to offer absolute fun to individuals who visit the amusement park. The thrill rides come in different shapes and sizes to allow both adults and children to enjoy themselves. Valleyfair installed a thrill ride popularly known as Delirious in the form of a high-speed train. The train completes ten revolutions within a minute, following a route that is nostalgia-themed. Parents can also have fun when they accompany their children to the amusement park. Valleyfair has the Soak City Waterpark, where visitors can cool themselves off while having fun. The waterpark offers 24 rental cabanas, a changing facility, and a food stand. The amusement park also has shade structures, enhanced lighting, seating, and gathering areas. The park also has the North Star, which is a 230-foot-tall tower that provides enjoyment by spinning riders. Planet Scoopy provides themed rides and attraction sites while also allowing visitors to meet and greet various Peanuts characters.
Interpretation
One of the themes that are related to the landscape in Minnesota is consumption and the creation of self. Shakopee and Valleyfair promote consumption by providing entertainment activities that help to attract people from the region. Consumption is likely to increase based on the entertainment opportunities offered within the region. The landscape also provides an opportunity for an individual to create themself by allowing them to explore their interests and fears. An individual is likely to consider themselves as fearful if they are not courageous enough to enjoy the thrill rides.
Another theme related to the Shakopee and Valleyfair is childhood. The landscape is related to childhood since it provides many entertainment activities for children to have fun. In this case, the amusement park is likely to serve a higher number of children compared to adults. I relate to this theme since I had the opportunity to visit Valleyfair several times during my childhood. Valleyfair promotes the theme of childhood by allowing children below five years to enter the amusement park for free. Parents accompanying their children have to pay for a ticket to get into the park. This indicates that the amusement park was designed with attention to children and not adults.
The landscape also promotes a theme of a happy place through the various entertainment activities offered in the amusement park. The main objective behind the development of the park was to provide a place for people to have fun and enjoy. Visitors to the park gain happiness from thrill rides, the Soak City Waterpark, the North Star, and a Planet Scoopy. Any person seeking to spend quality time with family members can visit the park and explore their interests.
The last theme that relates to the landscape is the feelings that people get when they drive by. One of the feelings that people get when driving in the amusement park is one of sensation seeking. This causes people to focus on enjoying various physical experiences that align with their interests in life. Visitors to the amusement park also get a sense of fulfillment since they have the chance to enjoy themed parks. The amusement park also promotes a feeling of togetherness since families have the opportunity to have fun together. Valleyfair brings people from different cultures together, ignoring the differences that exist between them.
This essay will focus on providing an analysis of multimodal text and image documents through discourse analysis. The purpose is to draw out the theoretical framework supporting compression of meaning by the document text and imager developer. Using a clean shot taken using a Nokia mobile phone, we will examine the meaning of messages being sent by the Nokia Company through the picture and text on this document. The multimodal approach by the document developer is crucial for us to decipher the diverse message he is sending through this advertisement. The document, from the discourse context and perspective, is an advertisement. As such, we have embarked on a discourse analysis wherein we focus on the structure of the language used on this document and found in this discourse as a text. The text presented as a conversation and figurative speech aims at providing insight into the unique products Nokia mobile handsets have. Text analysis in this discourse will focus on critically examining and analyzing the language structure in the document to identify the communication function of the discourse.
At the same level, we will embark on another discourse analysis. This will critically examine visual image semiotic modes. We will analyze images incorporated in the document to provide an insight into the Nokia phone applications. Typically, it’s agreeable to summate a picture that tells more than a thousand words, a reason why the amount of text on the document is less whilst the size of the picture is actually, what compromises the document. Suffice to say, this picture provides insight.
The image and text were selected for a variety of reasons. Literally, we will focus on the text and image discourse rather than stray into contentious paradigms of the science of advertising. The current boom in mobile phone services has shifted from merely providing users with an interactive handset rather dynamic and supportive application. Nokia has worked hard to make it’s brand a leader in providing executives with smart business phones. Nokia described as the ideal business handset maker manufactures some series that provide unique office support tools, instant messaging, document readers including PDF and Word, smart calendars, WLAN capability, schedulers, among other important applications useful for an executive.
In this document, Nokia embarked on a task to educate the potential consumer about unique applications that users could benefit from. At the time more handset makers had begun establishing themselves as competitive and that, they could provide applications. Nokia, which had a strong foothold in the market needed to change paradigms about handsets. The shift in paradigms required executives to focus on business applications including profiles that could provide him/her with privacy either when taking some time off the busy schedule or when having private time with board members and even intimate moments.
We will commence our analysis by examining the principal image by using the theoretical framework proposed by Kress and Van Leeuwen (1999). Our analysis of the image will then shift to the text found on the document. Our analysis of the text will discuss the genre of
the text, how the three metafunctions of systemic functional linguistics, textual interpersonal and ideational meanings have applied to align the reader viewpoint. Initially, we will discuss the genre and then analyze interpersonal or attitude graduation engagement and subsequently examine how the document creator conceived ideation and the meaning of text in the document.
Image analysis
Since this document is created largely using the image, the picture speaks volume and the creator’s intention was to inspire and elicit meaning. The mountainous background provides the reader with a view of an ideal get away. The message is taking some time off your schedule and relaxing. As such, we coerce the mind into holidaying, but taking a relaxing moment away from work and spending some quality time on our own. The man with the fishing line seems to be enjoying and thinking. It seems, for a second, he is thinking instinctively about his moments out there in the river.
On the front layer of the picture, the screen of a handset shows a Nokia phone recharging. By critically conceptualizing the context of the man inside the water fishing and the charging phone, we realize the two images are interrelated. The function of the two is to explain that recharging is regaining the energy required to become functional at work. The Nokia phone provides you with an opportunity to connect with your work even as you regain the energy you have lost while working. Conclusively, the idea of the image is to catapult our imagination of recharging our energies away from work yet still keeping in touch with the workplace effectively.
The ideation is observed from image placement/positioning. The large caption is the reality, as such, we idealize the context of taking time off to relax and recharge as real life and essential. On the same level is the charging phone image, placed on the left central area of the document. Concisely, this fishing man is recharging himself as portends the small image. Coupled, the man in the image is the consumer, mainly an executive who has been busy and needed some time away from work to free his mind and get some new synergies. The charging phone image is a message depicting the need for an effective communication platform that will help this person who is certainly away from the office (he is near the mountains, in the wild, fishing).
Using the theoretical framework provided, the charging phone image is placed somewhere atop while the live image (fishing man) is placed down. According to Ledema et al (1994) ideation and reality are contextualized by image placement. Based on this projection, we identify ideation as conveyed by image showing the charging phone while the “real,’ is the man who is inside the river fishing. The man and this charging object are apart yet the meaning of the arrangement provides the insight about getting synergies that can make you productive, but the need to communicate is superior, since you are gathering these energies solely to become productive at work.
According to Kress and Leeuwen, we can understand the meanings of discourse by examining the gaze of the picture [participants. Here we identify the man who is fishing as truly gazing at the something just ahead, but partly elevated. He seems to be looking at the photographer or the camera. However, we can deduce more if the individual/participant was not wearing those dark sunglasses. Also, Kress and Leeuwen propose that, the direction of the gaze can help in deducing the meaning of the attitudes involved. Here this man seems surprised at an interruption, a reason why he seems to be staring at something in a way suggesting disruption. His hands seem to be pulling the rod out of the water and responding to the disruption.
The context of disruption is wide ad Nokia expands the view by providing a wide view of the natural background of the picture. The man is a lone, somewhere afar and engrossed in a process of recharging himself. What Nokia is suggesting is one remaining connected to his active lifestyle even when relaxing to get back some energy. Two, recharging has a broader meaning as per Nokia, it is arguably a message denoting the need for health and peace of mind. We can suggest, disturbance as a problem that affects peace of mind. The attitude of the man shows reaction to disturbance, hence, we can assume his secretary had to come all the way to inform him of crucial development in the office. If this man had a Nokia phone, he could have been reached by his secretary. He could not be disturbed as he seems.
Based on the text slightly above the centre of this picture, we can argue credibly, that this person was enjoying his moments. These moments are what we are defining as recharging. In other words, this participant is indicative of our time off from the busy schedule. He provides an insight about how we spend our time when relaxing and trying to regain lost energies. It is paramount to note that, when one is spending tie away from the office, and rather relaxing, he doesn’t need to be interrupted by his superiors and juniors at work. Instead, he should be only updated and advised about progress and constraints faced in the office. Recharging is defined as a moment of regaining health and capacity. Interrupting such a process can only lead to poor recovery.
The size of the frame provides an insight about a broader meaning of the documents context as explained by Kress and Leeuwen (1999). The frame size allows us to feel a visual contact with the man in the picture. Intuitively, we are causing him the disruption which actually does not go down well with him. The surprised gaze explains the disruption in recharging. If you are spending some quality time out, you don’t need to be interrupted, rather should enjoy the moment optimally.
Nokia is proposing uninterrupted recharging through making use of its mobile phone handsets. By using the phone, as explained by the text below, you will enjoy the wonders of life, enjoy your quiet moments and achieve optimum happiness by the time you finish making use of your spare time. Nokia phones provide long battery life hence you may not require to recharge your phone battery if you have a Nokia handset with you during the time out.
Critical discourse, as in our case, assumes discourses can establish relations among people and provide the people with a range of communication variables. This means, the document in question is a type of discourse which provides the reader with a set of alternative meanings wherein, relations between Nokia and the consumers (the people) are established. The consumers are being provided with a wide range of options in terms of possibilities during recharging. Each statement in the discourse is a derivate of history and purpose on insight. They can only make sense if the document creator wanted them to. Here, we can conclude the product, which is a Nokia handset is the product of the discourse. And in continuum, we have sufficing evidence to declare that discourse has history, and it’s a product of a community. Whereas a community has borders, (characterized by the document margins), it’s the attitude created by the picture that provides the consumer community with what has to be thought of or alternatively, be said by the document.
Nokia exemplifies social relations as epistemic variables that provide rationality of discourse. The dialogue here revolves around an exchange order. It is a relationship revolving between buyer and seller. The context is Nokia and Consumers.
Text analysis
The genre of the text on the initial page is indicative of a contextual advert. However, we take a literally approach to decipher the propensity it projects. There are two texts on the document, the one inscribed in the phone screen on the top of the center of the image, and the summative text on the bottom of this page. The term ‘Recharging’ screams like a headline. According to Ledema et al (1994) the text that provides insight descriptively forms the nucleus of the document. Recharging is what the man fishing is doing. He is regaining energy and gathering new ideas about his work. This is clarified by the summative text below the picture. The text explains why Nokia handsets help you stay in touch even when you are away from the workstation. Nokia is advertising using descriptive communication. The document creator compressed meaning through image and descriptive text. He succeeded to deliver the message to the consumer.
Ideation
We have identified semiotic systems in this document hence, we have sufficing evidence that the document was created using metafunctions. Martin (2001) explains that select language is used to communicate the message the company is conveying. In the picture, we see a man fishing and thinking about something. He is somewhere, a river in an expansive long-grassy wild, almost like a prairie, fishing. The picture depicts this man as well built, healthy, and well dressed. This draws out his socio-economic background. He can afford to go for a holiday; hence, he is a working class person. The conclusion is, this person is an executive. According to Hood (2007) when language is used to communicate with others, it means something is being discussed or told away. The discussion or message is about something that is going on (man fishing, phone charging), something be though of or how a particular thing took place as projected by White (2005). As such, ideation means we are making meanings about something going in the world just as we see it, conceptualize it, and understand it. Ideation as such means construction of a sense of reality as Nokia reckons.
Let us discuss the context of ideation by critically examining the picture using key factors like camera angle, position of the image and background among other key factors. The background of the picture is a vast mountainous region with expansive grassy and plain land. There is a river, which is safe to wade through and resourceful when fishing. These natural nature profiles are meant to bring nature propensity and great role in providing us with energy to become consistently functional. The mountains represent a commonplace ideology when taking holidays is concerned. More people believe one takes a holiday either in the mountains where there is a forest and wildlife or in coastal areas where there is a beach and sun.
Martin and Rose (2007) argue that the simplicity of this context provides insight about Nokia’s focus on simplifying life through technology. The context of recharging is simply a direct proposal to consumers to provide Nokia with avenues of sales by taking Nokia handsets as ideal handsets. Ideation is observed through a simplified yet intricate web of events. The image is conveying dissenting messages about recharging whereas holidaying and great nature is seen as a vital part of increasing personal capacity. Recharging is, as such, an idea created to help the consumer conceptualize two things. First, the consumer should look at Nokia as a source of inspiration for providing reliable infrastructure to keep you connected with your workplace while enjoying your holiday. Two, Nokia helps you realize the need to remain undisturbed when you are on holiday or when recreating.
Interpersonal meaning
Nokia is communicating with consumers through conveying some meanings about what various contexts of life including how we understand in relation to issues affecting our lives and others. Interpersonal meaning is the dogma of principally establishing value of roles in relationship with our jobs and people we relate as Leech (1999) proposes. Nokia wants to establish a relationship between you and its applications as a means of you relating efficiently with your work place, others who you relate with, and our attitudes to these life situations, work and our partners in life.
Nokia suggests we can be in touch with others through the Nokia concept of communication. Life is a process and we need energy to keep undertaking our tasks. By prioritizing communication, Nokia wants us to remain focused on making use of opportunities to recharge ourselves and using the energy to increase productivity while identifying with its handset as a platform for keeping in touch.
By critically examining the context, we find the structure of the theory of appraisal as a construct in the discourse. The theory of appraisal proposes three dimensional approaches. These dimensions guide analysis of interpersonal meaning created in the text and image. The three dimensions used are engagement, graduation and attitude. We commence by reviewing the context of attitude as the picture portends. The attitude of the document is provided by the person pictured. He is looking at the viewer. His gaze is intuitively suggesting questions regarding a surprise visit or disruption. Attitudes are meat to provide an insight about what values are in continuum here. How are these values expressed in the document, especially in the picture? The recharging picture is permeated with deep codes that suggest reaction to disruption. The disruption portends anger and interruption which was not allowable in the current pictured situation.
The attitude invokes negative reactions from the reader. Obviously, a disturbed person will react angrily to disruption from unwanted persons. Earlier, we contextualized advertising briefly and provided a solid overview about the nature of the document, describing it as a contextual advert. The aim is to provide the reader with insight, attitude and relevant resolve to interruptions during a great moment. We can define this as two way principals, wherein, we subject taking days off from work is one and when having a conversation on your phone is another.
When you take a day off, you don’t need to be interrupted; rather you should enjoy your leave. On the other hand, when you are talking on the phone you should not be cut off or interrupted by a low battery. Nokia is ideating interruption and suggesting a resolve. As such, the document author scattered the meanings of his intended meanings so that we could use various approaches to understand either properly. Nokia on its part provides handsets which guarantee maximum battery capacity and performance and on the same level, provides handsets with features which support business capability, enough to keep you in touch with your office efficiently and effectively.
Textual meaning
During communication, we convey meaning of what we are constructing by packaging ideational meanings and interpersonal ideals through text construct; the objective it to make our core objective in the message salient than others. Nokia objectively makes the context of recharging more salient than fishing since, fishing is a pastime that can facilitate recharging, but a Nokia phone is a vital application that keeps you connected with your office staff, businesses, family, and friends.
As Martin (2001) proposes in his assertion, this textual value reflects modes of communication used to convey the intended message. Nokia has provided insight about life and its goodness. ‘We can help you feel like a new person” Nokia makes its handsets sounds like what you need when you are reviving yourself. When you take time off, Nokia smart phones is your ideal mate. The text discusses major constraints of our busy lives and proposes how we can avoid overindulging in them be taking time off to regain energy. The text ‘recharging’ is Nokia’s headline and core of their unique document.
We have established reasonably that the text ‘recharge’ is dotted with attitudes which disseminate varying detail and meaning regarding the situation depicted by the document. What is the source of the attitude observed in the reaction of the man? We have suggested interruption as core factor; however, we will embark in an analysis to quantify our supposition. The context of heteroglossic can be strongly supported since the picture background provides a very solid background that only can be provided by a gloss paper. The different voices are intertwined in the document through the picture and attitudes elicited by the document. This is application of multimodal concession in the context to deliver variant contexts. Attitude, text, reaction and strategic location support this multimodal concession. We have fewer participants in the discourse hence we are able to identify the various meanings presented differently by the author.
Recharging is the principal theme of the document and its contents. Suffice to say, the context is segmented into sizeable chunks all which are aimed at providing insight and overview about Nokia as a company and as a partner in simplifying life. Distance is not core in making the schedule confusing by using the right applications when away, and Nokia provides a solution. Nokia is careful not to monopolize this advert with its products profile, rather depends entirely on the simple watermark logo in the document background. Nokia believes it is primary in the market and that a little effort suffices to make its push successful. Nokia is relying on the recharging perspective to provide the consumer with a viewpoint about product quality, need for efficiency, and importance of remaining replenished with energy.
Reference List
Hood, S. (2007). Discourse analysis. Learning Guide, University of Technology Sydney. Units 7-12
Kress, G & Van Leeuwen, T. (1999). Representations and Interaction. Designing the Position of the Viewer, In A, Jaworski and N, Coupland (Eds) The discourse reader, Routledge, London, pp 377-404
Ledema, R,.Feez, S & White, P. (1994). Media Literacy. Sydney Disadvantaged Schools Program. NSW. Department of School Education
Leech, J. (1999). Cloning, controversy and communication. In E. Scanlon, R. Hill & K. Junker(Eds), Communicating Science. London: Routledge. p. 225)
Martin, J.R. (2001).Language, Register and Genre. In A. Burns and C. Coffin (eds)Analyzing English in a global context: A reader. pp149-166. London: Open University Press.
Martin, J.R. and D. Rose (2007) Working with Discourse: meaning beyond the clause (2nd edition). (Chapter 1). London: Continuum
White, P.R. (2005). Ways of speaking: Exploring language variability, in Book 2 English grammar units 8-11. In context – getting inside English – interpreting texts, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK, pp. 8 – 31.
The study of sociology aims at evaluating and determining the civic and domestic interrelationship of people. During my comprehensive study of this subject, I have come across quite a number of pieces of literature that have enhanced my knowledge and liberalized my notion concerning the subject in question. I have loved some facts presented in the articles especially owing to the fact that most of them are exact reflections of the present human social lives. As a matter of fact, they are images of my own personal experiences.
The article on suicide gives a comprehensive argument on the possible causes of suicide. It equates the causes of this social evil to the amount of food available in relation to food security and inflation. For instance, the reading relates the price and availability of wheat to the number of suicidal deaths.
From the figures indicated on the paper, I have noted that suicidal deaths rise with the decrease in wheat production or increase in wheat prices. This is indeed a true reflection of my personal experience. The number of suicidal deaths also increases with increased poverty; which is also a verifiable statement (Mommsen, 1992).
Some occasions in life may compel one to commit suicide. These include financial and industrial crises. As opposed to poverty, these two do not cause the deaths because they result to frustration but because they cause disturbance to normalcy. The article on suicide clearly indicates how the disruption of normalcy can result to suicidal deaths. I agree with these sentiments to some extent but they do not have my complete approval.
This is because most suicide cases attributed to disruption of either financial or industrial normalcy have other resultant factors. As a result, it would be inappropriate to imply that the deaths are caused entirely by these disruptions. However, one can say that financial and industrial crises are merely part of other causative factors in a suicidal death (Mommsen, 1992).
The article on domination and legitimacy talks extensively about authority and how it enjoys compliance to only a fraction of the populace subjected to its rule. It states that the implementation of domination requires a trusted staff that is charged with the responsibility of executing the general policies and certain commands.
This, according to me, conforms to the modern modes of exercising power. It not only happens in our government but also in many other democratic governments across the globe. This is a direct implication that the approach of ruling is universally practiced in different platforms (Mommsen, 1992).
Most of the social theories discussed in the articles are practical. For instance, young kids are taught how to feed, keep themselves clean, how to become obedient and calm and to how be mindful of their fellows. After a long time of regular practice, these actions become habits.
The article on ‘Rules of Sociological Method’ states that this is the basic format of attaining education and making the knowledge gained a practicable habit. However, there is no mention of the origin of the urge to eat, stay clean, respect and be mindful of others. For example, kids are only taught how to eat but not how to have the urge of eating (Mommsen, 1992).
In conclusion, the articles on social theory give a wide scope of understanding in the subject. They internalize and vivify the manner in which people react with others. This then makes their readers visualize and correlates the events with their personal life experiences. In some situations, however, readers are left with some confusion that needs additional clarifications.
Reference
Mommsen, W. J. (1992). The political and social theory of Max Weber: Collected essays. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Get Others to Do the Work for You, but Always Take the Credit
The world of business involves numerous pitfalls and intricate connections that can either increase one’s chances for success or eliminate them. Among such things, there is the ability to exploit other’s labor in one’s own interests. “Never do yourself what others can do for you” is Greene’s advice, and it is impossible not to agree with its reasonableness (56). Those who strive for leading positions have to perform many functions at once, and this multitasking ability is not limited to only professional duties. The skill of using somebody else’s achievements to one’s benefit has a high potential for increasing the professional growth opportunities.
My friend, Ron, used to work in an IT organization with many departments and a hierarchical form of professional relationships. That is, if one’s performance was high, it was quite easy for that person to get promoted and move to the next level of the ladder. A few months ago, a new man, Daniel, was hired to work in Ron’s division. Danny soon became Ron’s good friend, and they would spend much time together not only at work but also after it. Frequently, Danny asked Ron about the specifications of their work, and Ron gladly answered his questions and even shared his ideas on the improvement of some systems’ efficiency. Very soon, Ron heard that Danny received a promotion about which Ron had dreamt for several years. He was happy for his new friend, but he could not understand why he was not the one to get a position.
As it appeared later, Danny was not only a careful but also a sly individual. All the time that he spent communicating with Ron he kept notes of Ron’s ideas and presented them to the manager as his own. As a result, the cunning helped Danny to obtain a higher position. He used the law of taking the credit for the work done by others. As for Ron, he learned his lesson and was rather careful when exchanging ideas with strangers.
Learn to Keep People Dependent on You
Interpersonal communication is a complicated process incorporating numerous features. One of such characteristics is learning how not to become a victim of someone’s maneuvering. At the same time, learning how to pull wires to make people depend on you “for their happiness and prosperity” (Greene 82). I have an acquaintance who used to be a victim of such a trick for many years. Jeremy, my ex-neighbor, had lost his mother when he was five years old. Since then, his father solely took care of his son. Every time the man did something, from preparing breakfast to paying for holidays, he said, “All you have in this life, you have because of me. Without me, you are nothing, and you have nothing.”
Jeremy grew up an extremely introverted and self-effacing, being afraid to even ask his father for new toys or books. The boy constantly felt the fear of being not good enough to justify his father’s huge efforts. He rarely went out to play with his peers, and we used to think that he was arrogant. However, later, we realized that he was too shy to play because his father always repeated that the boy was worth nothing. Jeremy did all the work about the house when he was a teenager: he vacuumed and mopped floors, watered flowers, washed the dishes, and looked after three dogs that his father had bought. And even then, when he was doing all those chores, his father managed to control him. By then, the motto turned to “You know how to do all of these things only thanks to me, only because I taught you how to do them.”
Jeremy was convinced that he could do nothing without his father up to the moment when he met his girlfriend. She restored his faith in himself and persuaded him to enter a college far from his native town. Needless to say, he never returned to the place where his father used to torture him psychologically for many years. However, the father’s method of keeping Jeremy dependent on him proved to be rather successful.
When Asking for Help, Appeal to People’s Self-Interest, Never to Their Mercy or Gratitude
The ability to help others and sympathize with them is what makes us humans. However, it is not always easy to obtain support from someone merely by explaining the reasons for it and calling upon their benevolence or gratefulness. Frequently, in order to receive the desired and so much needed help, we need to resort to creative methods of asking. One of such approaches, which Greene considers as highly successful, is showing people that they will gain something for themselves by helping you (95). Indeed, it would be unwise to think that someone will want to help you because they like you or because they want to perform some good deed. Usually, the reason why one individual decides to be nice to another is because of looking for some profit in the cooperation.
My cousin, Kelly, lives in an urban area, but she has always loved trees and flowers that prevail in the countryside. A few years ago, she noticed that a piece of land close to her house was neglected. She came up with the idea of turning it into a small park with trees, bushes, and flowers. Upon receiving the approval of the city council, Kelly asked several male neighbors to help her with working on the land. However, each of them found some reason for refusal – most frequently, their excuse was that they did not spend much time outdoors. Then, Kelly decided to change her tactics and approached mothers of young children. She explained that they could create a small park with a playground and benches and surround them with trees to have shade in summer. The second idea was supported with much more enthusiasm, and the women made their husbands help Kelly. Mutual efforts of the neighbors led to the creation of a beautiful recreational zone, which would have never been arranged if Kelly had not followed the law on how to ask for help correctly.
Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy
When you secretly follow somebody, when you learn their secrets and can count their movements several steps forward, it gives you a priority that can turn into something highly valuable in business affairs, as well as in other spheres of human interaction. Collecting data that can let you “keep a step ahead” is undoubtedly a useful card you can play whenever necessary (Greene 101). I remember a story my friend told me about being a spy for a sports center. It was an incredibly impressive adventure that resulted in a bonus for the friend and a loss of the workplace for a gym’s employee.
My good friend, Alisha, takes care of her body by eating healthy food and working out four times a week. That is why the choice of a gym was a rather important question for her when she moved to a new location. The manager of the sports center noticed how hardworking Alisha was and offered her a deal. She was to observe the conscientiousness of one employee in another gym owned by the same person, and he would grant her a discount on their services if she helped him to catch the worker red-handed. It had been known for some time that the employee was selling sports nutrition that regular customers were to receive for free. Alisha was to join the gym as a new customer and ask for the nutrition supplement after the first five visits.
Just as the owner expected, the employee told Alisha that the duration of the free program ended, and she was to pay the full sum for the vitamins. She recorded the conversation and gave it to the owner of the gym chain. The dishonest worker got fired, and Alisha received a large discount on the gym’s services. That is how the law of posing as a friend but working as a spy worked for my friend.
Use Absence to Increase Respect and Honor
The issues of respect and honor are relevant to people operating in various spheres irrespective of age. In my life, the most prominent example of exploiting one’s power to manipulate individuals was observed at school. We had a radio station, and no one knew who was working there. It was a boy, but we did not know his name or what form he was in. He always sounded so cool that everyone assumed it was one of the senior class boys who were very handsome and athletic. Whatever tricks students tried, they never managed to catch that person, and his identity remained a mystery for several years.
Once, the radio announcer informed us that the programs would not be aired for several weeks. We were quite disappointed because we got used to the good humor and popular music that he always used to make our breaks more fun. However, since nobody knew who the person was, we could not understand what had happened and why he would be absent. At the same time, my classmate, a shy girl who was never noticed in anyone’s company, was missing from school. Our class teacher told us that Isa was seriously ill, and she had to stay at a hospital for about a month. Together with several other students, I went to call on her, cheer her up, and share the latest news.
Our visit to Isa started as it usually does with schoolchildren: we tried to make some jokes and averted our eyes from numerous tubes and monitors in the ward. However, at some point, Isa asked, “Hey, are there any news on the school radio?” We were about to reply that the announcer was absent, and then we noticed a sparkle of laughter in Isa’s eyes. We were shocked at finding out that all of that time Isa had been altering her voice with the help of a computer program to remain invisible. She gained her reputation by creating “value through scarcity” (Greene 115).
Work Cited
Greene, Robert. The 48 Laws of Power. Profile Books, 2000.
This research study applauds on subtypes of anxiety using social analytic approach. From a population of teenagers and adults, symptoms of social anxiety, social circumstances under which these symptoms occur, and the general background literature are analyzed. Under factor analysis, four components are identified as performance anxiety, tenacity, offensive fear, and inadequate social feelings. In the category of subtypes derived via cluster analysis, four components are identified as interpersonal, offensive, performance, and mild anxiety types. Many situations can trigger anxiety symptoms resulting into different response across ages.
Thus, this research paper aims at analyzing interpretation of bias in adults and teenagers.
Individuals thought to be socially anxious are more negative in interpreting ambiguous social events (Vassilopoulos, 2011). The process of social interaction may proceed with a positive, negative, or an ambiguous cue. Facial expression may determine the kind of response to expect from an individual. For instance, a frown is directly linked with threat interpretation. However, a smile is associated with a non-threat interpretation (Vassilopoulos, 2011; Huppert, Foa, Furr, Filip, & Mathews, 2003). In independent efforts to analyze social anxiety interpretation, many psychologists in the resent past have carried out research on anxiety interpretation and classification of bias in teenagers and adults. These collections of research findings suggest that socially anxious individuals tend to be more negative in their interpretation of ambiguous events happening around them( Taylor, Bomyea, Amir, & Emotion, 2011; Huppert, Foa, Furr, Filip, & Mathews, 2003; Beard & Amir, 2010; Amir, Beard & Bower, 2005). If these findings are quantifiable, it is possible to identify factors that may be the secondary agents of anxiety and biasness. Only Hofmann, Asnnani, and Hinton’s study test the hypothesis that the result of biasness may be related to depression and general anxiety as an overview (Hofmann, Asnnani, & Hinton, 2010). Little research is available on the possibility of negative bias interpretation being associated with social anxiety. Thus, there is need to establish a quantitative relationship between an individual anxiety and the possibility of being negatively biased in interpreting and responding to an ambiguous social event. Some of the above findings are questionable and may not present a clear picture of the real scenario. For instance, immature adoption of covariance methodology is inappropriate when the sample group consists of independent variables such as biasness of the researcher (Huppert, Foa, Furr, Filip, & Mathews, 2003). Thus, the hypothesis of this research project is to prove that individuals who are socially anxious are prone to negative biases interpretation of ambiguous social events than the nonanxious among the teenagers and adults of age below fifty years. This design may enable the research findings to quantify social anxiety as the agent for any observed interpretation effect and not general anxiety.
Literature Review
A relevant explanation for negative interpretation and biasness can be analyzed by studying facial expression for a number of situations and events. Reflecting on ‘nonthreat’ and ‘threat’ response research, facial expression can be linked to likelihood of expecting a positive, negative, or neutral response (Festa & Ginsburg, 2011; Amir, Beard, & Bower, 2005). During a presentation session, little concentration by the audience can be interpreted either as tedium (threat) or misunderstanding of the topic (non-threat). However, some individuals tend to display more anxiety and constant biasness than others. Generally, nonanxious individuals are more positive than their anxious counterparts and tend to interpret negative and positive feedback as beneficial towards building experience (Taylor, Bomyea, Amir, & Emotion, 2011). Interpretations are often ranked by individuals on the basis of likeliness or not to same situation depending culture of the agents of response (Hofmann, Asnnani, & Hinton, 2010; Huppert, Foa, Furr, Filip, & Mathews, 2003). In addition, covariance analysis indicates that composite score of a negative affect varies with group differences. It is higher in teenagers than in adults who seem optimistic (Wenzel & Holt, 2002). However, these research studies resonate on negative interpretation bias for a social event of ambiguous nature. These growing numbers of studies suggest that individuals who are socially anxious are negative in interpreting social ambiguous interactions. Despite this, many questions remain unanswered on how social anxiety contributes to interpretation bias. For instance, is every biased interpretation specific to a form of social anxiety, or general depression? Notwithstanding, it would be interesting to establish the basis of determining through evidence how the negative biases relate with positive and negative occurrences. In addition, it is essential to test on the applicability of the written finding on a practical and more ecological scenario such as social interactive forums. Often, social research methodology based only on written literature is limited as it restricts understanding of the components of interrelating variables of the study and may not contain relevance of the practical world (Festa & Ginsburg, 2011). Among the above resent studies, only Vassilopoulos has applied social interaction forums for participants where nonverbal and verbal cues are noted down (Vassilopoulos, 2011). The participants were paired with each asking the other a pre-written set of questions at a time interval and the answers tested for consistency. At the end, a perceived acceptance index was calculated form a combination of responses obtained. Interestingly, nonanxious participants rated the confederate as more accepting than the socially anxious counterparts. The author then inferred that “socially anxious individuals construe others’ reactions more negatively than nonanxious participants” (Vassilopoulos, 2011). However, ambiguous feedback was not presented to the participants against the obvious. Thus, this necessitates the need to prove a hypothesis that individuals who are socially anxious are prone to negative biases interpretation of ambiguous social events than the nonanxious individuals (Huppert, Foa, Furr, Filip, & Mathews, 2003).
Basically, the current study scrutinizes two explicit questions. To begin with, it attempts to highlight on how social anxiety has a role on negative interpretation bias in a group of thirty participants comprising of dysphonic and high anxious traits. By matching dysphoria and trait anxiety, it is in order to attribute emerging differences to social anxiety levels and not general distress levels. Also, the research investigates on the possibility of interpretive biases being a component and specific to social interactions ambiguity for positive and negative feedbacks and how the results can be generalized and compared with the current literature on negative interpretative bias for different ages. Thus, the research is to validate the hypothesis that individuals who are socially anxious are prone to negative biases interpretation of ambiguous social events than the nonanxious who form part of the control experiment. If the findings prove that negative biased interpretation of social ambiguous events is definite to social anxiety, then differences in experimental groups should be maintained when comparing and contrasting the influence of social anxiety on interpretative response among different age bracket.
References
Amir, N., Beard, C., & Bower, E. (2005). Interpretation Bias and Social Anxiety. Cognitive Theraphy and Research, Vol. 29, No. 4. pp. 433-443.
Beard, C., & Amir, N. (2010). Negative interpretation bias mediates the effect of social anxiety on state anxiety. Cognitive Therapy and Research, Vol 34(3). pp 292-296.
Festa, C. C., & Ginsburg, G. S. (2011). Parental and peer predictions of social anxiety in youth. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, Vol 42(3). pp. 291-306.
Hofmann, S., Asnaani, A., & Hinton, D. E. (2010). Cultural aspects in social anxiety and social anxiety disorder. Depression and Anxiety, Vol 27(12). pp. 1117-1127.
Huppert, J. D., Foa, E. B., Furr, J. M., Filip, J. C., & Mathews, A. (2003). Interpretation bias in social anxiety: A Dimensional perspective. Cognitive Therapy and Research, Vol 27(5). pp. 569-577.
Taylor, C. T., Bomyea, J. & Amir, N., Emotion. (2011). Malleability of attentional bias for positive emotional information and anxiety vulnerability. American Psychological Association Vol 11(1). pp. 127-138.
Vassilopoulos, S. P. (2011). Interpretation bias for facial expressions in high and low socially anxious individuals: Effects of stimulus duration. Hellenic Journal of Psychology, Vol 8(1). pp. 44-65.
Wenzel, A., & Holt, C. S. (2002). Memory bias against threat in social phobia. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, Vol 41(1). pp. 73-79.
Despite the fact that Richard Rodriguez’s essay “The Achievement of Desire” is being seemingly concerned with exploring socially defined difficulties, experienced by representatives of ethnic minorities on the way of attaining academic prominence, the ultimate message this essay conveys is best discussed in terms of biology and demographics, simply because it provides us with the insight onto the fact that that the process of America’s educational standards being continuously lowered cannot be thought of as “thing in itself” – that is, this process is nothing but a side-effect of American society becoming increasingly multicultural.
Even though that in his essay Rodriguez never ceases to take pride in the fact that he was able to rise above educational limitations, imposed upon him by his racial affiliation and by his low social status, it would be wrong to think of author as someone who had achieved a scholarly excellence, in traditional sense of this word. And the reason for this is simple – in “The Achievement of Desire”, Rodriguez continuously stresses out the particularities of his studies as being primarily concerned with mechanistic memorizing, rather then with exploring the actual essence of a researched subject matter.
This is why the term “scholarship boy”, which is being extensively utilized by Rodriguez, throughout the essay, carries an unmistakably negative connotation: “The scholarship boy is a very bad student. He is the great mimic; a collector of thoughts, not a thinker; the very last person in class who ever feels obliged to have an opinion of his own” (Rodriguez, p. 7). As we are all aware of, students that are being referred to as “nerds”, may posses a plenty of factual information, in regards to their studies’ specialization – yet, it does not prevent them from acting absolutely dumb, while addressing life’s even simplest challenges. This can be explained by the fact that, unlike truly educated people, “nerds” are being incapable of understanding how the things they have learnt in school/college/university relate to surrounding reality. They do “know” a lot, but “understand” very little.
In “The Achievement of Desire”, Rodriguez leaves little doubt as to the fact that “nerdism” was actually the foremost characteristic of author’s existential mode, throughout his years in school: “When my brother saw me struggling home with stacks of library books, he would laugh, shouting: “Hey, Four Eyes!” My father opened a closet one day and was startled to find me inside, reading a novel” (Rodriguez, p. 1). The reason why “nerds” are being utterly dedicated to studying can be easily explained in terms of psychology – while being perfectly aware of their physical and often mental inadequateness, these people strive to take a “revenge on society” by aiming to become highly-paid “professionals” in the future, so that they could show off the “cruel world”.
As it appears from essay’s context, Rodriguez used to suffer a lot on account of being dark-skinned Mexican. Therefore, author’s academic-mindedness appears to have been nothing but extrapolation of his deep-seated mental insecurities, which in their turn, derived out of particularities of his biological constitution. While continuing with its studies, Rodriguez was solely concerned with proving to himself and to society that his genetic makeup had no effect on his ability to attain social prominence. In other words, Rodriguez’s academic success cannot be thought of as being essentially objective, because of its metaphysical negativity – author proceeded with studies not because he wanted to explore his existential potential to even a further extent, as it is the case with Whites, but because he wanted to actively oppose the biological laws of nature, without even realizing it.
This is the reason why, despite the fact that Rodriguez’s mother used to annoy him a lot by her biologically predetermined inability to derive pleasure out of reading, he nevertheless took a great pleasure in hearing mom’s reassurances that her son was just as good as White people: “Pushing back the hair from my forehead, she whispered that I had “shown” the gringos” (Rodriguez, p. 4). Of course, such our suggestion does not imply Rodriguez’s passion for studies being less admirable – in the same way, we admire Special Olympics athletes, who despite being physically and mentally handicapped, possess plenty of courage to compete with each other in sports, while providing viewers with a good entertainment. Moreover, author has to be given a credit for remaining intellectually honest with his readers in the essay: “Books brought me academic success as I hoped that they would. But I was not a good reader. Merely bookish, I lacked a point of view when I read. Rather, I read in order to acquire a point of view” (Rodriguez, p. 7). However, we do not necessarily agree with author’s point of view on the process of him becoming educated individual as such as had been solely hampered by his parents’ low social status.
As it appears from the essay, Rodriguez himself often felt that there was something deeply unnatural about his taste for attending library, instead of doing something Hispanic young men have long ago proven themselves being “experts” on – namely, selling drugs and indulging in gang-related activities, as their full-time occupation: “In his grammar school classroom, however, the boy already makes students around him uneasy. They scorn his desire to succeed. They scorn him for constantly wanting the teacher’s attention and praise” (Rodriguez, p. 8). The reason why author’s classmates used to scorn him as “teacher’s pet” seems to be more complex then Rodriguez would ever be willing to admit – apparently, these classmates were intuitively able to recognize author’s passion for studies as being quite inconsistent with his racial affiliation. The fact that nowadays virtually ever large American city has a “Hispanic ghetto”, can be explained by Hispanics’ tendency to think of the strength of ethnic solidarity, professed by the members of their community, as such that directly corresponds to these people’s value as individuals. In the eyes of Mexican-Americans, it is of very little importance whether a particular member of their ethnic community possesses PhD in science – all they are concerned about is that such individual never goes about opposing this community’s agenda. And, the more a Hispanic youth is being educated, the less he is assumed to be capable of acting as actual “Hispanic”.
Rodriguez tells us that he did not only have to deal with his classmates’ scorn, but also with the scorn, on the part of some of his White teachers: “Later, when he (Hispanic “scholarship boy”) makes it to college, no one will mock him aloud. But he detects annoyance on the faces of some students and even some teachers who watch him” (Rodriguez, p. 8). It can be explained by the fact that mentioned teachers had a good reason to believe that Rodriguez could not have been possibly concerned with exploring the “essence” of his studies, but simply with familiarizing himself with these studies’ “appearance”, so that he would eventually be able to move into White suburbia, as an “expert on arts”, for example, and to begin acting as opponent of “White racism”, while living there.
It is well worthy noticing that in “The Achievement of Desire”, Rodriguez clearly confuses the process of attaining education with the process of reading as many books as possible: “Books were going to make me educated. That confidence enabled me, several months later, to overcome my fear of the silence. In fourth grade I embarked upon a grandiose reading program… What did I see in my books? I had the idea that they were crucial for my academic success, though I couldn’t have said exactly how or why” (Rodriguez, p. 7). The main reason why Rodriguez used to be so attracted to reading, despite his self-admitted inability to define the ideas contained in books he had read, is because he wanted to perfect his skills in English language, while simultaneously gaining a fame of a “progressive sophisticate”, just like those organic-coffee-drinking, beret-wearing and tree-hugging White Liberals, which he thought of as his role models.
And, the easiest way for Rodriguez to realize his dream of becoming just like “gringos”, was to go about studying humanitarian “sciences”, simply because in order for someone to qualify for a degree in philosophy or art, for example, he would simply need to learn how to indulge in utterly meaningless but sophistically sounding rhetoric, as opposed to learning how to solve complex mathematical equations, as it is the case with people who aim towards obtaining degree in traditionally euro-centric (White) sciences, such as physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, architecture, computer software designing, etc.: “When I traveled to London to write a dissertation on English Renaissance literature, I was finally confident of membership in a “community of scholars” (Rodriguez, p. 10). As lawyers say in situations like this – we close our case.
It goes without saying, of course, that Rodriguez must be respected for the strength of his determination to become educated individual. However, as it appears from the essay, while pursuing with such his agenda, Rodriguez had eventually grown to think of education as some sort of existential fetish, quite unrelated to his ability to contribute to America’s society well-being in any concrete manner: “I began to wonder: Who, beside my dissertation director and a few faculty members, would ever read what I wrote? And: Was my dissertation much more than an act of social withdrawal?” (Rodriguez, p. 10). All author was able to accomplish, during the course of his studies, is to become emotionally detached from the members of his family, and ultimately – from the members of Hispanic community, in exchange for acquiring an illusion of his own intellectual equality with “gringos”. Should he be congratulated for such his “achievement”? We think it might not necessarily be the case.
Bibliography
Baker, Kimberly “Gang Involvement of Hispanic Students: Discipline Policies and Dropout Rate”. 2009. Web.
Rodriguez, Richard “The Achievement of Desire”. 2009. Thinking Together. Teaching Archive. Web.
Rubenstein, Edwin “Hispanic High School Disaster – The Evidence Mounts”. 2003. VDARE. 2009. Web.
Interpretation and extraction of information from remote sensing images are fundamental concepts that define image processing and analysis approaches. Much information is required from images for effective interpretation (Liew, 2001). Consequently, various techniques and algorithms have been developed, but their usages depend on the objective of each image. Image enhancement techniques work by enhancing the quality of image to aid interpretation while feature extraction methods are vital for extracting as much information as possible from remote sensing images. In this report, a study area of Rushworth, Victoria North of Melbourne has been selected to demonstrate some techniques applied in analysing and interpreting remote sensing images. Rushworth is located 157 km north of Melbourne via the Hume Freeway and Goulburn Valley Highway.
Objective
To demonstrate the spatial information of various land covers within an image
To use image enhancing techniques and derive the NDVI to be applied in interpretation of the location and areal extent of forest and crop coverage in the region and identify vegetated and non-vegetated zones
Data source
Data for the study will be obtained from the Rapideye image of Rushworth, Victoria.
Software
Erdas Imagine software will be used for image enhancement and analysis. All results will be reported using MS Word.
Method
The study methods applied in this study were obtained and followed as described in the exercise note.
Blue – represents water
Green – shows vegetated regions
Red – represents non-vegetated areas or bare areas
The Results and Discussion of Imaging Tasks
Task 1: Band combinations
Rapideye bands and channels were used to determine the most reliable forms discrimination of various land cover types. Band 5 depicted red, band 4 highlighted Blue while band 3 captured Green (see figure 1). These Band selection and combination were appropriate for depicting bare areas or non-vegetated regions, vegetated regions and water.
Figure 1: Band selection for land cover discrimination.
Task 2: Image enhancement and Different Algorithms
The General Contrast technique and standard deviation were applied to enhance and enlarge the image. Consequently, both road and drainage patterns could be easily identified from the image. All bands were readily visible because of these techniques. A linear transformation was used to enhance slightly dark parts of the image. This adjustment was also possible with the Breakpoint Editor, which was applied to identify image changes (see figure 2).
Figure 2: Enhanced image.
Task 3: A spectral profile of a point (water, pasture, crop and forest land covers)
The Spectral Profile is applied when visualising reflectance spectrum of a single pixel through many bands (Xie, Sha, & Yu, 2008). This method is specifically relevant for hyperspectral data, which can contain multiple layers. Through Spectral Profile, one can assess the chemical elements of materials in the pixel. In addition, the technique can be applied to compare profiles from different sources (from the laboratory or field).
Further, it shows data value plots and other statistical information such as mean, minimum and maximum values, and standard deviation. These values are plotted in various colours while the graph may be stretched to enhance clarity (see figure 3).
Figure 3: Spectral Profile of features.
Water has higher absorption and lower reflectance (<.1) and bare land has lower absorption and higher reflectance (>.2) of light. On the other hand, water and irrigated lands have reflectance of approximately in between <.1 and <.2. It means they have higher reflectance compared to water and lower reflectance compared to bare land.
Reflectance values between the band 3 and band 5 for forest slowly increases from band 3 to band 4 and then increases significantly from band 4 to band 5. Reflectance values for agriculture crop increases similar to water from band 3 to band 4, but then increases significantly and higher than water from band 4 to band 5. Reflectance values for bare soil slightly decreases from band 3 to band 4 and then slowly increases from band 4 to band 5 (reflectance approx. 3.5).
Task 4: Creating a spatial profile of an area that includes various land cover types
A spatial profile viewer was applied to visualise transformation in the elevation in various parts of the image. The selected features reflected that the land type appeared relatively flat, but with small higher points (see figure 4).
A Spatial Profile Viewer can be used to visualise the reflectance spectrum of a polyline of data file values in a single band of data (one-dimensional mode) or in many bands (perspective three-dimensional mode). The Digital Elevation Model (DEM) is the most common type of single band data profile applied when generating a height cross-section profile for a given route. It aids in interpreting transformation elevated along an identified route and in locating a given part of a route that is flat or steep.
The height profile like the observer line of site can be use to analyse data. Assigned colour coding to parts of the profile, for instance, can be used locate the end of the line. Hyperspectral data require the multiple band technique to analyse several hundreds of layers. It is possible to create grayscale raster image from the profile, overlay the image or develop a thematic image on the profile. In addition, profiles could be changed to different formats for ease of embedment into other documents like reports and maps.
Statistical data and plot of data file values are also possible to view in a table format through the map, while file directs various points along the polyline.
Figure 4: Spatial profile of selected features.
NDVI creation
The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) or the Vegetation Index is used to quantify concentrations of green leaf vegetation, greenness or photosynthetic activities (Weier & Herring, 2000). This Index is common and it helps in determining greenness. Red light is absorbed during photosynthesis while infrared light may be reflected. Dead or stressed vegetation show high percentage red light reflected. On the other hand, non-vegetated areas offer much light reflectance.
NDVI figures range from -1 to +1 that depicts both vegetated and non-vegetated locations (Weier & Herring, 2000). Any negative values show that no vegetations exist while positive values highlight the presence of vegetation.
Figure 5: NDVI Image.
Conclusion
The report has explored image enhancement and feature extraction in Victoria North of Melbourne. The results demonstrated image enhancement of Rapideye image by Erdas Imagine. Bands or combinations of bands are used to extract land cover features effectively. Spectral and Spatial profiles demonstrated were used to identify spectral reflectance of various land features and any transformations in land surface. Finally, NDVI demonstrated how to measure the density of green on a patch of land (Bhandari, Kumar, & Singh, 2014).
Reference List
Bhandari, A, Kumar, K & Singh, K 2014, ‘Improved feature extraction scheme for satellite images using NDVI and NDWI technique based on DWT and SVD’, Arabian Journal of Geosciences. Web.
Interference colors are the colors that emerge when an anisotropic mineral is being illuminated with polychromatic light (Piegari and Flory 397). These colors appear as a result of the unequal transmission of slow and fast rays as well as their interference. Therefore, wavelengths of the white light rays that pass through a crystal substantially differ from their initial value. It happens because of the retardation of waves that are caused by the multitude of perpendicular planes forming a crystal structure (Piegari and Flory 397).
Moreover, interference is correlated with the retardation inside an anisotropic mineral and corresponds with the number of waves passing it. Anisotropic minerals and plastics under the influence of mechanical stress are said to be birefringent; optical properties of such materials can be described by quantifying the difference between the maximum and minimum refractive indices (Piegari and Flory 397). The interference colors are often presented with the help of the Michel-Levy chromatic scale that allows the most efficient interpretation of color groups. It was developed by a French geologist Auguste Michel-Levy in 1888 (Houck and Siegel 85).
He was concerned with studying the question of the microscopic structure of eruptive materials. Michel-Levy’s position as a director of the Geological Survey of France allowed him to conduct extensive research on the origins of minerals and other birefringent materials which has led to the development of diameter, birefringence, and retardation scale that was called after him (Houck and Siegel 85). The chart is used for calculation of an unknown parameter of a birefringent specimen if the two other measurable factors are known. The colors in the Michel-Levy chromatic chart are classified into different orders in successive multiples of landas (Piegari and Flory 397).
The first order is made up of black, gray, yellow, orange, and red according to their retardations. Violet, blue and green are grouped in the second-order and correlate with one landa retardation of colors that complement them (Piegari and Flory 397). The same is true for two lands of yellow, orange, and red. All successive orders are composed of violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red in progressive multiples of landas (Piegari and Flory 397).
Interference color chart that is sometimes referred to as the Michel-Levy Table of Birefringence is widely applied in modern analytical microscopy; therefore, the majority of microscope manufacturers provide it with their products (Piegari and Flory 400). In the past, it was mainly used by mineralogists and petrologists for the identification and classification of minerals. It should be noted that Michel-Levy was the first scientist who applied a polarizing microscope in the field of mineralogy (Piegari and Flory 400).
Gabriel Lippman was another scientist who studied interference and even was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of interference color photography in 1908; however, due to the substantial difficulties with the production of photographs, this method has not become popular (Piegari and Flory 400). Nowadays, the Michel-Levy Table of Birefringence is being used for the process of identifying synthetic fibers, food ingredients, biological agents, drugs, catalysts, ores, fertilizers, and chemicals among others (Piegari and Flory 400).
Interference colors are also being deployed for the anti-counterfeiting purposes on banknotes, credit cards, trademarks, and other documents of significant value (Piegari and Flory 400). Their use is justified by the inability of modern copying equipment such as printers and cameras to reproduce complicated geometric and line patterns created by interference-color figures printed at varying screen frequencies (Piegari and Flory 400).
Works Cited
Houck, Max, and Jay Siegel. Fundamentals of Forensic Science. Amsterdam: Academic Press, 2011. Print.
Piegari, Angela, and Francois Flory. Optical Thin Films and Coatings. Cambridge: Woodhead Publishing Ltd, 2013. Print.
Interpreting information is a rather complicated process. Statistical data are to be properly analyzed and structured to be interpreted. The same is true about historical data. To assure the proper data interpretation, the human thought have developed lots of concepts and hypothesis and means of it, and one of them is the so-called Simpson’s Paradox (Graff & Birkenstein, 2007, pp. 5 – 8).
The aim of this paper is to examine the essence of the Simpson’s Paradox and its role in the interpretation of information. Another purpose of this work is to consider the possible implementation of the Simpson’s Paradox to the events that took place at Nuclear Tests Sites in Nevada, and namely the events that happened to the cast of the film “The Conqueror” by Howard Hughes. I am going to consider Simpson’s Paradox in the context of those events so that to see its practical use.
Simpson’s Paradox
The very paradox bears the name of Edward H. Simpson who formulated it in 1951 but did not think that his theory would amount to such a worldwide known paradox. The very term “Simpson’s Paradox” was developed much later, in 1972, by Colin R. Blyth. Drawing from this, numerous scholars avoid calling it “Simpson’s Paradox” and use the term “reversal paradox” instead. But, in any case, the essence of the phenomenon remains the same independent of the term which is used to call it. The authorship of the theory also can not be doubted because it was Simpson who discovered the phenomenon, while Blyth only named it after him (Clifford, 1982, pp. 46 – 48).
Simpson’s Paradox is a statistical phenomenon according to which a result which is typical of several separate groups of people, things, phenomena, etc. acquires completely different meaning when these separate groups are combined. Thus, for example, the rate of recovery which is observed in patients that undergo treatment is higher than the rate of recovery in patients who do not undergo treatment. But, at further consideration, it may turn out that the rate of recovery of treated males is lower than in untreated ones. The same can turn out to be true about the female patients who, respectively, undergo and do not undergo treatment.
But, the above presented paradigm is mistaken in its essence because the sum of elements can not contradict their separate meanings. In other words, if female treated patients have higher rate of recovery that those who were not treated, and treated males have higher recovery rate than untreated ones as well, than the recovery rate of overall treated patients can not be lower than the one of untreated patients (Clifford, 1982, pp. 46 – 48).
Thus, the Simpson’s Paradox can be used to explain to controversial phenomena. On the one hand, it describes and explains the mistake interpretation of information based on the failing criterion. On the other hand, it considers the improper use of information and its inaccurate analysis due to which the conclusions made from the information about single whole can contradict the conclusions made from information about its parts. Use of the Simpson’s Paradox is a great chance for scientists to interpret the information in a right way and not to allow its misinterpretation (Clifford, 1982, pp. 46 – 48).
Nuclear Tests Sites in Nevada
The interesting question is the interpretation of data connected with the Nevada Nuclear Tests Sites with the help of Simpson’s Paradox. It is a rather challenging matter because one has to avoid misinterpretation of facts and statistical data. But to have a better understanding of the above mentioned phenomena, it would not be out of place to take a brief look at the history and essence of Nevada Nuclear Tests Sites. These sites were founded in 1951 for the conduct of Nuclear Weapons tests and comprised over 1, 350 square miles in the desert of Nevada close to the city of Las-Vegas (Malone, 1999, p. 116).
Numerous tests of nuclear weapons and A-bombs were carried out on the territory of the Nevada Sites during over forty years, and caused a lot of controversy and actions of public protest. The main argument of those who protested was that the fall outs of the nuclear weapons that remained in the air after the explosions caused terrible cases of cancer to a lot of people living downwind the Sites in Nevada. After the powerful activities of public organizations the nuclear tests were officially stopped in Nevada and the numerous court trials made the Government pay considerable compensations to the victims of the cancer caused by nuclear fall outs.
Nevertheless, the controversy about the causes of the cancer cases still exists, and it is an example of the Simpson’s Paradox. The essence of the paradox in this case lies in the fact that the obvious relation of the increase in cancer cases in the area close to the Nuclear Tests Sites is doubted, especially in the context of the situation of “The Conqueror” which was filmed at the Sites (Malone, 1999, p. 116).
“The Conqueror” Paradox
The movie of 1956 filmed by Howard Hughes caused a lot of dispute after the so-called “epidemic” of cancer killed one after another a great part of the cast and personnel of the film. The very motion picture was shot exactly at the Nuclear Tests Sites in Nevada. This fact caused considerable worrying among the staff and cast but the filming process nevertheless began. In some years after the film was displayed on the major screens of the country, its major stars, like for example John Wayne, Susan Hayward, etc. died of cancer (Olson, 2002, p. 32).
The use of the Simpson’s Paradox in this situation becomes necessary when the exact numbers of those who contracted cancer and died of it become available. The cast amounted to 220 among which 91 person got cancer after the filming and 46 of them died of cancer before 1980. However, numerous scientists claim that the cancer cases and nuclear fall outs at Nevada Sites are not interconnected. According to their hypothesis, if fall outs of nuclear tests were the reasons for cancer, only 30 persons could have been affected by it.
And this is the brightest example of the Simpson’s Paradox, because the numerous cancer cases among the population of Nevada were accepted as results of nuclear tests. It can not be understood why the supposed rate of actors affected by cancer should be about 13%, while the actual rate of cancer cases among ordinary people was over 40%. The reported rate of cancer cases among “The Conqueror” cast was over 40% which is more credible then the above expressed hypothesis (Olson, 2002, p. 49).
Conclusion
The Simpson’s Paradox is a rather specific way of interpreting information. It is based on the principles of reverse equality, i. e. on the illusion of the fact that the sum of the meanings of the components of a single whole is reverse to the meaning of the single whole. In this paper, I exemplified it with theoretical and actual examples and proved that the Simpson’s Paradox is a useful means of information interpretation.
In the cases with the cancer cases at the territories close to the Nuclear Tests Sites in Nevada, and especially in the case of “The Conqueror” cast, the Simpson’s Paradox was especially evident and only precise and attentive consideration of data allowed me to interpret the information in a right way and avoid data misinterpretation, based on improper analysis and wrong conclusions.
References
Clifford H. Wagner. 1982. “Simpson’s Paradox in Real Life”. The American Statistician 36 (1982) (1): 46–48.
Graff, G. & Birkenstein, C. 2007. They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Persuasive Writing. W. W. Norton.
Malone, Charles R. 1999. Integrated Weapons-Site Cleanup: The Department of Energy Is Using Ecosystem Management to Help Clean Up Our Nation’s Nuclear Weapons Sites. Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy 14, no. 2: 116+.
Olson, James. 2002. Bathsheba’s Breast: Women, Cancer and History. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press.
