The Sex Ratios Of India

The Sex Ratios Of India Indias growth story has been incredible. The stock markets are doing well. Corporate India is optimistic about India being able to sustain the current growth rate for a considerable period of time. Indian companies are making their presence felt through cross-border mergers and acquisitions. Services and manufacturing sectors are booming. Growth in agriculture may be sluggish as compared to the other sectors, it growing nonetheless. Urban India believes that India is going to surpass the United States of America in a span of fifteen years. However, fundamental problems like malnutrition and corruption still plague our country. But the urban, educated, middle class are not affected by malnutrition and have learnt to live with corruption. There is one problem besides corruption and malnutrition; which is prevalent across all sections of the society and all of them all guilty participants in making this problem a widespread one. The urban, educated, middle class; despite being educated, do not seem to realise the long term effects of their actions. This problem, if unchecked, has the potential to apply the brakes on Indias growth. The birth of a boy child is celebrated, while the birth of a girl child is, well; tolerated. And sometimes, the girl child is killed even before she is born. Sex ratio is the number females in a geographic region per 1000 males. Most developed economies of the world (except China) have healthy sex ratios, with more number of females than males 1. A sex ratio 952 females per 1000 males is considered healthy. The national average as per the 2001 census is 933. Delhi has a modest 915 according estimates in the year 2009 2. As per the 2001 census, Rajasthan averages 922, while Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh average 964 and 978 respectively. Kerala being the most literate state also has the healthiest sex ratio of 1058 per 1000 males 3. However states like Punjab has a dismal sex ratio of 795 per 1000 males, which is alarming 4. The state of Maharashtra too is a cause for concern. With more working women being visible in Maharashtra, there is a misconception that Maharashtra is better off, but facts state otherwise. The juvenile sex ratio is 869 girls to 1000 boys, as on March 2010 11. If India has to continue on the growth path, the burgeoning menace of female foeticide cannot be ignored. But is the common man on the road concerned? No. Why? For one, the common man believes that it is not his problem; but of the feminists, the NGOs, the government, and so on. For another, he believes that the problem is societal, not personal; and hence it cannot affect him. (The common man I am talking about is a reference to the numerous people I have met so far in my life. Gender imbalance is the least of their problems.) Is the problem societal? Crime against women is on the rise and the increasing imbalance between males and females will aggravate it 5. A survey conducted by Jagori, based in Delhi concluded that women face harassment in public places on a continuous basis 6. Since most of the cases of harassment go unreported, the awareness of the magnitude of the menace is abysmally low. An article written by Kalpana Sharma, No girls please, were Indian, (The Hindu, 29 August 2004) calls this problem an epidemic with huge social costs associated with it. My understanding of the articles I have referred to is that gender imbalance would lead to an increase in restlessness among men. Women would become easy targets to vent their frustration. Is the problem personal? We Indians have developed a very wrong mindset. Unless a problem affects us personally, we do not seem to bother. Should women care? Women craving for sons, who have never faced harassment should realise that even they can be vulnerable. Should men care? States like Punjab and Haryana are facing a very grave situation. Due to their heavily skewed sex ratios, there are not enough brides for the grooms within the community. A study notes that 20% men may remain unmarried 6. Another study notes that marriage has beneficial effects on health and survival, with men reaping maximum benefits. Therefore, men run the risk of shorter life expectancy 7. Why is that we do not want daughters? Daughters have always been considered as paraya dhan. Parents consider having a daughter as an expense, a luxury they cannot afford. Taking care of her, educating her, and marrying her off to a suitor, all require huge sums of money. Any property she inherits or assets that she creates go the family she marries into. Families who own large pieces of land have owned such lands for generations. Such families would always want their first child to be male for the purpose of inheritance and keeping the land within the family. Even today marrying off a daughter is considered the biggest responsibility a parent can possibly have. Fears for her sexual safety and security make parents to marry off their daughter as early as possible. Why is that we want sons? The answer is dowry. Though the practice of dowry is made illegal in 1961, it is an open secret that the practice is prevalent even in 2010. We have men in the south proudly telling each other that they have a market value in the marriage market 9. There are men among the rural folk who consider getting married simply to rake in dowry and use it to fund their businesses. Dowry in todays world has taken many convenient forms like a fully furnished apartment, high-end electronics, a four-wheeled vehicle, and huge sums of money. The trend of son preference cuts across socio-economic factors like caste and economic status 6. As a result, dowry related harassment is rising. Other than financial concerns, there are other benefits in having sons. India is a patrilineal society. Sons continue the family lineage (gotra), while daughters lose their gotra of birth and join the lineage of their husbands. This essentially means that sons are the only legitimate descendan ts in the system. Therefore, sons are a source of prestige for a family. As a consequence of these deep seated norms, girl children under the age of 5 face severe neglect in terms of nutrition, immunisation, and clothing. They also face discrimination with regard to schooling. Sometimes female infants are killed within a few days of their birth. With the advent of technology, the trend of sex selective abortion or female foeticide has risen to unprecedented levels. Thirty years ago, these methods were not known. The Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act (PNDT) Act prohibits doctors and clinics from using pre-natal diagnostic techniques, such as scans, to determine the sex of a foetus. First offenders would face a penalty of up to three years of imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 and repeat offenders would risk a five-year imprisonment and a 50,000 fine. The act also prohibits any advertising for diagnosis facilities. The act notwithstanding, the awareness of sex selective abortions were popularised with the mushrooming o f unregistered, illegal, small clinics by advertising the benefits of sex selective abortions through messages like It is better to pay a small amount today for a sex-selective abortion than a larger amount later for your daughters dowry. The government, on its own, has not been effective in enforcing the act. The government has a myopic take on the issue. Since this issue cannot be treated as a plank to garner votes, the long term after effects of sustained gender imbalances on demography are not being considered seriously 10. All hope is not lost. Many NGOs have launched sting operations, such as luring doctors into revealing the sex of a foetus. While often receiving wide publicity, these initiatives are proving somewhat less effective for legal reasons, as proof of criminal wrongdoing is often difficult to establish. But they nonetheless have had an unmistakeable impact on clinic operators in some areas, who have come to realise that the Act can be implemented by non-official entities. Other than stings, NGOs have been also been instrumental in spreading awareness through campaigns like Save our daughters, Laadli 1 million signature campaign, FADA movement by Deepalaya, Jatha campaign by Jagruti, and recently, the programme Santulan by the Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan, to name a few. Actress Gul Panag has taken up the cause in Chandigarh and has partnered with a city based NGO called Samsher Singh Foundation to fight female foeticide 8. Notwithstanding these initiatives, at a personal level, we must spread awareness of the issue. A growing India not only needs to debate on fiscal deficit and current account deficits but also on the daughter deficit. The issue needs to be talked about more often to make it relevant all the time. Changing the mindsets of a billion people will not happen overnight. The youth and newly wed couples need to be sensitised about the issue. I advocate certain fundamental changes in the way we think to bring about the change. The urban, educated, middle class can be targeted first with these ideas. After there is a considerable change in the mindset of the middle class, these ideas can be trickled down to the grassroots. The primary problems of lineage, inheritance, and girls being treated as paraya dhan need to be addressed. The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 gives women equal rights of inheritance of land and property. This empowers the women economically and treats daughters as equal financial providers. Second, sons are no more providing for the parents during their old age. Sons are moving out of their ancestral homes, are staying away from their parents and are starting families of their own. Parents of sons are also not assured of constant personal care from their sons in their old age. Now in such a context, it does not matter if the parents have sons or daughters: they are going to stay away anyway due to a variety of reasons and they will be playing roughly equal roles when their parents need them. Third, the concept of a patrilineal society needs to be done away with. The very notion that a daughter would be part of another family after marriage should be erased. Daughters, not jus t sons, can also be considered as legitimate descendants. The children of the daughter need not be thought of as children of another family. In the United States of America, a child can take the surname of either parent. Though it is not a norm here in India, the government is not stopping us from doing so. Now with respect to dowry, young men need to be sensitised about the issue. They need to be told that the fact that they are proud to have a market value is detestable. They need to be taught that it is unethical to think of dowry as an opportunity for instant money. Traditionally, parents of the girl perform her wedding and bear all the expenses. This has to change. Parents of the boy should also shoulder the burden of performing the wedding and share the expenses with the parents of the girl; it is after all the wedding of their son, what is the shame in bearing the expenses of their own sons wedding? Better still, the boy and the girl should be made accountable for the expense s incurred. It their own wedding, why make their parents shoulder the entire responsibility for the expenditure? The fundamental assumptions which would make these changes work are that the urban, educated middle class are liberal in their mindsets, love their sons and daughters roughly equally, and have inflated egos. By hitting on their egos, by enquiring about their capability to fund their own sons wedding, these changes can be driven home. It would too naive to think that by making these changes, we would quickly achieve a healthier sex ratio. These changes are easier said than done, because they are too radical. Even the urban, educated, middle class would find it difficult to digest and assimilate these changes because the existing norms have been around for centuries. Small successes should be celebrated and propagated. It would take years for these changes to provide material results. Eventually, when these changes produce results, one cannot rest because these changes will still have to trickle down among the rural and poorer sections of the society. For India to be an economic superpower, all sections of the society should have a healthy sex ratio within their communities. It is a long and arduous journey ahead. (I have quoted references for most of the facts, results of a survey or study, and certain opinions by authors like Banashri Savanoor and Kalpana Sharma stated in this article. Everything else is either a culmination of my readings on the subject or purely my personal opinion. I shared my ideas on this subject with my colleagues where I worked and they appreciated them. Their feedback was that these ideas are logical, but making it practical would be very difficult.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_sex_ratio http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Delhi-sex-ratio-takes-a-nose-dive/articleshow/6555979.cms http://www.iloveindia.com/population-of-india/sex-ratio.html http://www.e-pao.net/GP.asp?src=20..280810.aug10 http://legalserviceindia.com/article/l292-Female-Foeticide.html http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-120929-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html http://www.economist.com/node/16789152 http://www.bollywoodworld.com/bollywood-news/gul-panag-to-fight-against-female-foeticide-110519.html I have drawn such a conclusion from my personal experience. I hail from Hyderbad, and it is common knowledge that certain communities like the Reddys, and the Gouds are known for their exorbitant dowries. The talk of a market value for men started during my college days. It was one of the most discussed topics in most circles. When I graduated and started working in Mumbai, there was a small Telugu community within the workplace, and I was shocked to hear the term market value, again; among older men. The very notion of a human being, man or woman; being treated like a commodity enrages me. I have been reading up on this topic from quite a long time and has become close to my heart. That is why I have chosen this topic. My views on the bias against the girl child and the PNDT are a culmination of my readings on the subject. Facts and advertisements for the clinics have been taken from PC-PNDT Handbook for the public, http://pndt.gov.in/index2.asp?slid=6HYPERLINK http://pndt.gov.in/index2.asp?slid=6sublinkid=58HYPERLINK http://pndt.gov.in/index2.asp?slid=6sublinkid=58sublinkid=58 . The views on the government are entirely personal. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/as-law-crawls-maharashtra-sex-ratio-drops-more/649580/1

Automatic Number Pate Recognition System Information Technology Essay

Automatic Number Pate Recognition System Information Technology Essay Automatic number pate recognition system is a mass surveillance method that uses optical character recognition on images to read the license plates on vehicles. System might scan number plates at around one per second on cars traveling up to 100mph(160 km/h).they can use existing closed -circuit television or road-rule enforcement cameras, or ones specifically designed for the task. They are used by various police forces and as a method of electronic toll collection on pay-per-use roads and monitoring traffic activity, such as red light adherence in an intersection. ANPR can be used to store the images capture by the cameras as well as the text from the license plate, with some configurable to store a photograph of the driver. Systems commonly use infrared lighting to allow the camera to take the picture at any time of the day. A powerful flash is inclined in at least one version of the intersection-monitoring cameras, serving both to illuminate the picture and to make the offender aware of his or her mistake. ANPR technology tends to be region -specific, owing to pate variation from place to place. Some concerns about these systems have centered on privacy fears of government tracking citizens movements and media reports of misidentification and high error rates. However, as they have developed, the systems have become much more accurate and reliable. There is an increasing requirement to identify vehicles and track their location for a wide number of applications. These include: Congestion charging Several major cities around the world levy a charge a drive within them Car park management Using the number plate to identify the time of entry and departure of a Vehicle. Counter-terrorism Monitoring the arrival and departures of vehicles at major ports. Literature Review Our literature survey mainly focused on automatic number plate system research papers and its existing system along with its application, image processing technique and neural network recognition. These can be clearly illustrated as follows: Automatic number plate recognition system Javaanpr existing open source code in sourceforge.net Thesis describing research, image processing and neural networking technique along with its algorithm in pdf on javaanpr on sourceforge.net Image processing technique ImageJ -api based on java language for digital image processing Image editor -api based on java language made for image processing JAI api -java advance imaging for image processing from sunmicrosystem at java.sun.com. Opencv- Digital Image Processing (text book from library) Neural networking technique Introduction to java neural network second edition by jfheaton at heatonresearch.com Some ocr samples using neuralnetworking at sourcecode.com and its explanation Study on nepali ocr research conducted by madan puraskar guthi(yala Maya Kendra) Ocr sample developed by Google based for Linux available for windows on dot net (tesseract) Jooneengine-java api on neural network not so well developed and efficient at http://www.jooneworld.com Kohenen -java api on self organizing map applied to compress jpeg image. Somdemo-sample java program for illustration how self organizing map works. Program iterately train to converge with identical color from random samples Artificial neural network text book available at library (low price edition from pearson education. Neural networks systematic introduction by Raul Rojas(from lectures at free university at Berlin and later at the university of Halle) Automatic Number Pate Recognition system a)javaanpr Javaanpr open source available at sourceforge.net worked as prototype for building our Nepali automatic Nepali number plate recognition system. It also contain thesis in pdf format prescribing image processing technique and neural networking technique along with its algorithm. It works well recognizing foreign number plates contained as sample in the site. It was beautifully coded applying sophisticated and specialized algorithms for image processing and neural network technique. It also used xml files to save and retrieve neural network training data. Figure: sample javaanpr at sourceforge.net For more information-http://sourceforge.net Image processing Technique a)ImageJ 1.42 ImageJ was first developed on class files now available on GUI interface. User can just process image using various buttons and entries if prescription is required .programmers can develop own macros and plugins to achieve its intended function if required and compile there within and run the code. It is capable of processing both 2D and 3D interactive image processing. Figure. ImageJ graphical window interface For more information: http://rsb.info.nih.gov/ij/ b) Image editor Image editor was also found during search for image processing tool. It is also based on java language and available as java API, now class file are available with GUI interface easing its its manipulation. Image editor api seems inefficient and not so capable for our intended operation and not so much researched. C) JAI api the java advance imaging(JAI) API further extends the java platforms (including the java 2D API) by allowing sophisticated, high -performance image processing to be incorporated into java applets and applications.JAI is a set of classes providing imaging functionality beyond that of Java 2D and the Java Foundation classes, though it is compatible with those APIs. JAI implements a set of core image processing capabilities including image tiling, regions of interest, and deferred execution.JAI also offers a set of core image processing operators including many common point, area, and frequency-domain operators. JAI is intended to meet the needs of all imaging applications. The API is highly extensible, allowing new image processing operations to be added in such a way as to appear to be a native part of it. Thus, JAI benefits virtually all Java developers who want to incorporate imaging into their applets and applications. JAI features Cross-platform imaging Distributed Imaging Object-oriented API Flexible and Extensible Device Independent Powerful High Performance Interoperable Initially program coding was done in JAI Later it becomes little inefficient and we again go for another programming method. For further information-http://java.sun.com d) Digital Image processing (text book from library) e) Opencv The OpenCV implements a wide variety of tools for image interpretation. It is compatible with Intel ® Image Processing Library (IPL) that implements low-level operations on digital images. In spite of primitives such as binarization, filtering, image statistics, pyramids, OpenCV is mostly a high-level library implementing algorithms for calibration techniques (Camera Calibration), feature detection (Feature) and tracking (Optical Flow),shape analysis(Geometry, Contour Processing ),motion analysis (Motion Templates, Estimators ), 3D reconstruction (View Morphing),object segmentation and recognition (Histogram, Embedded Hidden Markov Models, Eigen Objects). The essential features of the library along with functionality and quality is performance. The algorithms are based on highly flexible data structures (Dynamic Data Structures) coupled with IPL data structures; more than a half of the functions have been assembler optimized taking advantage of Intel ® Architecture (Pentium ®MMXà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢,Pentium ® Pro, Pentium ®III, Pentium ®4). Why We Need OpenCV Library The OpenCV Library is a way of establishing an open source vision community that Will make better use of up-to-date opportunities to apply computer vision in the Growing PC environment. The software provides a set of image processing functions, As well as image and pattern analysis functions. The functions are optimized for Intel ® Architecture processors, and are particularly effective at taking advantage of MMX†ºÃ¢â‚¬ º Technology. The OpenCV Library has platform-independent interface and supplied with whole C Sources. OpenCV is open. Relation between Opens and Other Libraries OpenCV is designed to be used together with Intel ® Image Processing Library (IPL) And extends the latter functionality toward image and pattern analysis. Therefore, OpenCV shares the same image format (IplImage) with IPL. Also, OpenCV uses Intel ® Integrated Performance Primitives (IPP) on lower-level, if It can locate the IPP binaries on startup. IPP provides cross-platform interface to highly-optimized low-level functions that Perform domain-specific operations, particularly, image processing and computer Vision primitive operations. IPP exists on multiple platforms including IA32, IA64, And StrongARM. Source:-openCV reference manual.pdf Cmgui-wx-2(.net wrapper class) This openCV tool can be easily integrated with .net platform like c#, visual basic etc. Cmgui is an advanced 3D visualization software package with modeling capabilities.Cmgui is a part of CMISS, a mathematical modeling environment initially developed by the University of Auckland Bioengineering Institute.CMISS stands for Continuum Mechanics, Image analysis. Signal processing and System Identification. There are three major CMISS software packages. Broadly speaking the main areas each piece of software deals with are as follows: CM is used for computational modeling Unemap is used for signal acquisition and processing Cmgui is used for model visualization and manipulation For more information:-wiki/getting started with cmgui Neural Networking technique a) Introduction to java neural network by jeff heaton This book along with video lecture helped very much for us to understand neural networks and learn coding technique. It was published form Heaton research center and they have developed encog framework for neural network where programmer can build fast neural network prototype for fast testing and checking since easy and flexible. After parameters have been determined for best operation such as number of hidden layers and number of neurons in each layer coding can be done since it code will be inflexible for such modification. Book contained different chapters on various types of neural networks and also its application. Only first seven chapters are allowed to read online and rests are not. It provides all its source code on site which also helps in learning and testing. Same book is also available in c# language. For more information-http://heatonreasearch.com/ b) On the beginning of project research we also got OCR sample using neural network at sourcecode.com with explanation. It was written at c#, due to compiler problem I didnt stress here much. c) Nepali OCR For us it was good news and opportunity to study research on Nepali OCR conducted by madan puraskar guthi. Different research papers were available on the site along with image processing portion code used to fragment Nepali character Image written on java. It deals with problem issues and complexity faced on Nepali character like devnagari font. For more information -http:// d) OCR engine tessaract by Google This was used by Nepali OCR for its processing and it supports many languages like Hindi, Nepali, Urdu, arabi etc. we didnt research here much. Figure: segmented portion of Figure : Another segmented portion of For more information-make Google search for link d) joone engine joone engine as a api in hope for easy and efficient coding we consider but it seems unworthy for project work. For beginner liking to test some xor operations and similar may find at least satisfactory otherwise unworthy. For more information-http://www.jooneworld.com/docs/engine.html e)Kohenen This sample also seems beautiful in understanding self organizing map or kohenen network. Here it is used to compress jpeg image. It was programmed on seven packages. For more information-http: // f) som demo This sample tries to converge iteratively with similar colors from randomly scattered pixel colors based on Euclidean distance method. Figure: som before training Figure: som after training For more information-link available at reference http://www.ai-junkie.com/ann/som/ g) Artificial neural Network text book (library) h) Neural network systematic introduction (by Raul Rojas) This book is good for understanding neural network systematically and based on lectures at free university at Berlin and later at the University of Halle. For more introduction-reference at http://www.wikipedia.com/selforganisingmap Figure: sample kohenen neural network (3D kohenen feature map) Source: http://rfhs8012.fh-regensburg.de/~jfroehl/index.html Anpr system application around world Police enforcement Germany On 11 March 2008, the Federal Constitution Court of Germany ruled that the laws permitting the use of automated number plate recognition systems in Germany violated te right to privacy. Hungary Several Hungarian Auxiliary Police units use a system called Matrix Police in cooperation with the police. It consists of a portable computer equipped with a webcam that scans the stolen car database using automatic number plate recognition. The system is installed on the dashboard of selected patrol vehicles (PDA based handled versions exists as well) and is mainly used to control the license plate of parking cars, as the Auxiliary Police doesnt have the authority to order moving vehicles to stop. If a stolen is found, the formal police are informed. United Kingdom The UK has an extensive (ANPR) automatic number plate recognition CCTV network. Effectively, the police and security services track all car movements around the country and are able to track any car in close to real time. Vehicle movements are stored for 5 years in the National ANPR Data Centre to be analyzed for intelligence and to be used as evidence. USA In the USA, ANPR systems are more commonly referred to as LPR (License Plate Reader or License Plate Recognition) technology or ALPR (Automatic License Plate Reader/Recognition) technology. One of the biggest challenges with ALPR technology in the US is the accuracy of the Optical Character Recognition (OCR)-the actual identification of the characters on the license plate. From time to time, states will make significant changes in their license plate protocol that will affect OCR accuracy. They may add a character or add a new license plate design. ALPR systems must adapt to these changes quickly in order to be effective. In addition to the real-time processing of the license plate numbers, some ALPR systems in the US collect data at the time of each license plate capture .Data such as date and time stamps and GPS coordinates can be reviewed in relation to investigations and can help lead to critical breaks such as placing a suspect at a scene, witness identification, pattern recognition or the tracking of suspect individuals. Average Speed cameras Another use of ANPR in the UK, Italy and Dubai (UAE) is for speed cameras which work by tracking vehicles travel time between two fixed points ,and therefore calculate the average speed. These cameras are claimed to have an advantage over traditional speed cameras in maintaining steady legal speeds over extended distances, rather than encouraging heavy braking on approach to specific camera locations and subsequent acceleration back to illegal speeds. UK The longest stretch of average speed cameras in the UK is found on the A77 road in Scotland, with 30 miles (48 km) being monitored between Glasgow and Ayr. Italy In Italian highways has developed a monitoring system named Tutor covering more than 1244 km (2007). Further extensions will add 900 km before the end of 2008. The Tutor system is also able to intercept cars while changing lanes. Traffic control Many cities and district have developed traffic control systems to help the movement and flow of vehicles around the road network. This had topically involved looking at historical data, estimates, observations and statistics such as: Car park usage Pedestrian crossing usage Number of vehicles along a road Areas of low and high congestion Frequency, location and cause of road words The UK Company Traffic master has used ANPR since 1998 to estimate average traffic speeds on non-motorway roads without the results being skewed by local fluctuations caused by traffic lights and similar. The company now operates a network of over 4000 ANPR cameras ,but claims that only the four most central digits are identified , and no number plate data is retained. Electronic toll collection Ontarios 407 ETR highway uses a combination of ANPR and radio transponders to toll vehicles entering and exiting the road. Radio antennas are located at each junction and detect the transponders, logging the unique identify of each vehicle in much the same way as the ANPR system does. There are numerous other electronic toll collection networks which use combination of Radio frequency identification and ANPR. These include: Bridge pass for the Saint John Harbor Bridge in Saint John New Brunswick City link Eastlink in Melbourne, Australia Gateway Motorway and Logan Motorway, Brisbane , Australia Fast Trak in California ,United states Highway 6 in Israel Tunnels in Hong Kong etc Charge zones the London congestion charge The London congestion charge is an example of a system that charges motorists entering a payment area. Transport for London (TFL uses ANPR systems and charges motorists a daily fee of  £8 paid before 10pm if they enter, leave or move around within the congestion charge zone. Stockholm congestion tax In Stockholm, Sweden, ANPR is used for the congestion tax of cars driving into or out of the inner city must pay a charge, depending on the time of the day. Other uses ANPR systems may also be used for/by: Section control, to measure average vehicle speed over longer distances. Border crossings Fillings stations to log when a motorist drives away without paying for their fuel. A marketing tool to log patterns of use Traffic management systems, which determine traffic flow using the time it takes vehicles to pass two ANPR sites. Drive Through Customer Recognition, to automatically recognize customers based on their license plate and offer them their last selection, improving service to the customer To assist visitor management systems in recognizing guest vehicles. Circumvention Techniques (drawback) Vehicles owners have used a variety of techniques in an attempt to evade ANPR systems and road -rule enforcement cameras in general. These methods may be Increasing reflective properties of the lettering and so that system might no locate or produce high enough level of contrast to be able to read Use of plate cover or spray Use of dirt to smear their license plate or utilize covers to mask the plate ANPR imaging hardware The frontend of any Imaging hardware is image capturing device that is camera. Retroreflective camera returns the light back to the source and thus improves the contrast of the image. A camera that makes use of active infrared imaging (with a normal color filter over the lens and infrared illuminator next to it) benefits greatly from this as the infrared waves are reflected back from the plate. This is only possible on dedicated ANPR cameras, however, and so cameras used for other purposes must rely more heavily on the software capabilities. Figure: hardware components used in ANPR system Figure source-http://securityautomation.co.uk To avoid blurring it is ideal to have the shutter speed of a dedicated camera set to 1/1000th of a second. License plate capture cameras can now produce usable images from vehicles traveling at 120 mph (190 km/h).threshold angles of incidence between camera lens and license plate are also major consideration to avoid image distortion during installation. Manufacturers have developed tools to eliminate errors from the physical installation of license plate capture cameras. Research on down sampling character For neural network input character image is down sampled into matrix whose value is binary 1 or 0 according to Boolean property of character on matrix region. It showed that no of samples required is not fixed and it varies with thickness of font traced. Figure: down sampling image character o with 7*5 matrix Figure: downsampling same character image o (buffered) with 32 *35 matrix Research works on algorithms A new algorithm for character segmentation of license plate Character segmentation is an important step in License Plate Recognition (LPR) system. There are many difficulties in this step, such as the influence of image noise, plate frame, rivet, the space mark, and so on. This new algorithm presents character segmentation using Hough transformation and the prior knowledge in horizontal and vertical segmentation respectively. Furthermore, a new object enhancement technique is used for image preprocessing. The experimentation results show a good performance of this new segmentation algorithm. Algorithm (steps) Preprocessing Size normalization Determination of plate kind Object enhancement Horizontal segmentation using Hough transformation Vertical segmentation For more information:-a new algorithm for character segmentation of license plate.pdf an adaptive thresholding algorithm for the augmented reality toolkit It is well known that fixed global thresholds have adverse effects on the reliability of marker-based optical trackers under non-uniform lighting conditions. Mobile augmented reality applications, by their very nature, demand a certain level of robustness against varying external illumination from visual tracking algorithms currently AAR Toolkit depends on fixed-threshold image-binarization in order to detect candidate fiducials for further processing. In an effort to minimize tracking failure due to uniform shadows and reflections on a marker surface, a fast algorithm for selecting adaptive threshold values, based on the arithmetic mean of pixel intensities over a region-of- interest around candidate fiducials. Algorithm This works on a per-marker basis and evaluates the mean pixel luminance over a thresholding region-of -interest (ROI), which is defined as bounding rectangle around the markers axis -aligned corner vertices in screen space. If a marker has been detected in any given frame, its bounding rectangle will be used as thresholding -ROI prediction for successive frames. This method yields good thresholding level in practice, given sufficiently high video frame rates. Fig.1.reflection off a markers surface with adaptive thresholding (upper) and a global threshold (lower) For more information:-10.1.1.9.4636.pdf adaptive license plate image extraction This paper represents the automatic plate localization component of a car license plate recognition system. The approach concerns stages of preprocessing, edge detection, filtering, detection of the plates position, slope evaluation, and character segmentation and recognition. Single gray-level images are used as the only source of information. In the experiments Israeli and Bulgarian license plates were used, camera obtained at different daytime and whether conditions. Algorithm (step) preprocessing for plate candidate identification vertical edge detection rank filtering plate candidate segmentation vertical projection acquisition prime clipping of the plate plate skew evaluation horizontal segmentation plate candidate verification Cray-level distribution consistency considerations

The 1918-1919 Influenza Epidemic Essay -- The Great Influenza Pandemic

â€Å"I made money rapidly,† Charles Sligh explained, â€Å"The demands for flowers frequently were so great that all the florists in this community exhausted their supply daily, and the prices of everything were very high then.†1 Along with florists, funeral directors, and orderlies were also making a killing during World War One. â€Å"The undertaker which was half a block away from me had pine boxes on the sidewalk, pilled high. Me and two of my friends would go down there and play on those boxes; it was like playing on the pyramids.†2 Although business was booming for these professions, it was not because of the war. It was the result of an unexpected killer that swept across the world claiming victims at an unprecedented rate. The 1918-1919 influenza pandemic stretched its lethal tentacles all over the globe, even to the most remote areas of the planet, killing fifty million people or possibly even more. Influenza killed more people in a year than the Black Death of the Middle Ages killed in a century, and it killed more people in twenty-four weeks than AIDS has killed in twenty-four years.3 Influenza normally kills the elderly and infants, but this deadly and abnormal strand claimed young people, those in their twenties or thirties as its target victims. Such was the case for Jules Bergeret. Jules was a â€Å"big, strapping man† who owned a tavern during the epidemic, and on December 11 he celebrated his 32 birthday. Within two weeks Jules, his mother, his sister, and his 25 year old wife all fell victim to the flu, and on December 22 he was dead.4 The virus left victims bleeding out of their nose ears and mouth; some coughing so hard that autopsies would later show that abdominal muscles an d rib cartilage had been torn. Victims ... ...: A Survey, (1927) John. M. Barry, The Great Influenza, The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History (New York: Penguin, 2004), 179 â€Å"Gauze Masks for men on port keep Flu away,† Stars and Stripes, November, 1, 1918. Nancy K. Bristow, American Pandemic, The Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 193 John. M. Barry, The Great Influenza, The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History (New York: Penguin, 2004), 171 Nancy K. Bristow, American Pandemic, The Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 156 Anne A. Colon, â€Å"Experiences during the Epidemic,† The American Journal of Nursing (1919): 607 â€Å"Spanish Influenza†, Journal of the American Medical Association 71(8):660 Katherine Anne Porter, Pale Horse, Pale Rider (United States: The Modern Library, 1936), 255

Entrepreneurship and Need of Achievement :: Risk-Taking, Creativity

Risk-taking is one of the chief dimensions of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are found to be more risk takers than the managers and salaried employees, such that, they are willing to put their homes on mortgage, jobless and can work for years without any earning (Burns, 2011; Masters & Meier, 1988). According to (Moore & Gergen, 1985), entrepreneurs always take calculate risk and always analyse the situation. Cognitive Psychology supports that the risk taking ability is just limited to their area of expertise (Sjà ¶berg, 1978, Heath & Tversky, 1991). According to (Heath & Tversky, 1991), entrepreneurs take more risk in the area of their interest and expertise and not in those area, they have little knowledge about. But even then also, they take more risk than general population. Studies have found that there is a deep link between Entrepreneurship and Need of Achievement. According to Begley and Boyd (1987), those who have founded their own companies had a higher need for achievement than non-founders or owner managers. Also, (Stewart et al., 1998) responded that need for achievement is higher in entrepreneurs than the corporate manager and owner managers. Need for Achievement is usually high in entrepreneurs than the general population. It provides them with motivation to go ahead and achieve their next target easily. Entrepreneurs showing this tendency usually are good planners, sets their goals, always look for information and learning (Miner, 2000). They accept success and failure of their work and this need of achievement help them to overcome failure, obstacles and setbacks. Another important characteristic it measures is the locus of control. It is an ability by which an individual makes a perception about the underlying main causes of events in his life. If individual believes that he/she has control over the outcomes though their own abilities such as attributes, hard work and decision making then it is known as internal locus of control whereas, In case of external locus of control, individual believes that they don’t have any influence on the outcomes and believes in external forces such as fate and luck (Rotter 1966). According to (Rotter 1966), individual who has higher achievement motivation show more characteristics of internal rather than external locus of control. Creativity is a key part in the entrepreneurial process. It is the ability to invent something new or change something (Webster, 1976). According to (Cromie, 2000), Creative people show some particular characteristics. They find problems very interesting and are not afraid of obstacles; rather, they try to find out the solution of those problems. Entrepreneurship and Need of Achievement :: Risk-Taking, Creativity Risk-taking is one of the chief dimensions of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are found to be more risk takers than the managers and salaried employees, such that, they are willing to put their homes on mortgage, jobless and can work for years without any earning (Burns, 2011; Masters & Meier, 1988). According to (Moore & Gergen, 1985), entrepreneurs always take calculate risk and always analyse the situation. Cognitive Psychology supports that the risk taking ability is just limited to their area of expertise (Sjà ¶berg, 1978, Heath & Tversky, 1991). According to (Heath & Tversky, 1991), entrepreneurs take more risk in the area of their interest and expertise and not in those area, they have little knowledge about. But even then also, they take more risk than general population. Studies have found that there is a deep link between Entrepreneurship and Need of Achievement. According to Begley and Boyd (1987), those who have founded their own companies had a higher need for achievement than non-founders or owner managers. Also, (Stewart et al., 1998) responded that need for achievement is higher in entrepreneurs than the corporate manager and owner managers. Need for Achievement is usually high in entrepreneurs than the general population. It provides them with motivation to go ahead and achieve their next target easily. Entrepreneurs showing this tendency usually are good planners, sets their goals, always look for information and learning (Miner, 2000). They accept success and failure of their work and this need of achievement help them to overcome failure, obstacles and setbacks. Another important characteristic it measures is the locus of control. It is an ability by which an individual makes a perception about the underlying main causes of events in his life. If individual believes that he/she has control over the outcomes though their own abilities such as attributes, hard work and decision making then it is known as internal locus of control whereas, In case of external locus of control, individual believes that they don’t have any influence on the outcomes and believes in external forces such as fate and luck (Rotter 1966). According to (Rotter 1966), individual who has higher achievement motivation show more characteristics of internal rather than external locus of control. Creativity is a key part in the entrepreneurial process. It is the ability to invent something new or change something (Webster, 1976). According to (Cromie, 2000), Creative people show some particular characteristics. They find problems very interesting and are not afraid of obstacles; rather, they try to find out the solution of those problems.

Regression Analysis :: essays research papers

Introduction Gunshot wounds; bullet caliber is increasing, a look of this increase from years 1998-2003. This data is derived from the use of larger caliber firearms in accidents, homicides and suicides. Data was collected from the measurements of bullets removed from trauma patients then submitted to a surgical pathology laboratory. This data was collected from the years of 1998 to 2002 with patient medical record number and the year obtained. Approximately 78 percent of all bullets were intact and sufficient for use in the study. Bullet fragments and pellets were excluded. â€Å"Among gun deaths in the United States, a very small fraction of all crimes are attributed to firearm accidents, firearm injuries of undetermined intent and legal intervention involving firearms. These deaths amount to 4.4 percent of the total numbers of gun deaths (25,663) in the United States during the most recent year (2000) such data are available. Of the remaining 95.6 percent of gun deaths, homicide accounted for 37.7 percent and suicide for 57.9 percent. This apparent increase in suicide by gun contrasts similar data from 1985, when homicide (44.1%) more closely paralleled suicide (51.8%) by gun.† (Caruso, RP, Swan, KG, 2003)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The article in this paper suggest that †mortality does not increase and even seemingly decreases because care for the trauma victims has become so increasingly innovative, efficient, and comprehensive that the trauma victims, including patients injured by missiles from guns, who would have died from their wounds in the past are now survivors. † (Caruso, RP, Swan, KG, 2003)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Caliber is defined as the diameter of a missile or of the barrel for the weapon (bore) through which the bullet passes. Caliber is expressed in hundredths (two digits) or thousandths (three digits) of an inch. Preceding â€Å"caliber† with a decimal point is actually incorrect because the decimal point is redundant. Caliber implies hundredths or thousandths of an inch. Caliber can also be expressed in millimeters, divided by 25.4 equals the caliber. Thus, 9 mm à · 25.4 = 35 caliber. Conversely, caliber times 25.4 equals diameter of bullet in millimeters. Thus, a 45 caliber bullet will measure 11.4 mm in diameter as will the bore or internal diameter of the barrel of the gun designed to fire the round or the cartridge containing the bullet. Bullet, plus powder, primer, casing, and so forth, constitutes the cartridge or round. Bullet, strictly speaking, consists only of the missile leaving the end of the weapons’ barrel.

Hrm Interventions Essay

It is also an important and comprehensive approach to manage employees in the workplace environment. HRM needs to be integrated with the overall strategy to ensure effective use of people and provide better returns to the organizations in terms of ROI (Return on Investment) for every rupee or dollar spent on them. If the HRM continues to practice this way it will lead to the success of the organization and also the organization will start utilizing its employee capabilities completely. Human resources are the most difficult resources to manage in an organization. HRM is responsible for effective designing and implementation of various policies, programs and also about developing and managing knowledge, skills, creativity and talent. HRM focuses on managing physical and emotional capacity of employees. As a result of this the range of HRM is developing day-by-day. Hence, HRM manages harmonious relationships in an organization along with maintaining a balance between organizational goals and individual goals. There are three human resource management interventions: Performance management, Career planning and development and work force diversity. Organization’s human resource specialists perform these change processes. Performance management is an integrated process in which an organizational employees are involved either individually or within a team to achieve its goals and policies. Employee performance management includes: 1)Planning 2)Monitoring 3)Developing 4)Rating 5)Rewarding 1)Planning: It means setting performance expectations and goals for groups and individuals to use their abilities to achieve organization objectives. Employees should be involved in the planning process to understand the goals of the organization. Performance appraisal plans are developed to evaluate the performance of a team or an individual by a manager or a supervisor. Performance appraisal plans should be official working documents that are put into effect. 2) Monitoring:In this stage the performance of employees is monitored and feedback is provided to the employees about their performance. Monitoring continually will help the organization to check the standards of the employees and also help them to make changes to meet the standards of the organization. This can be done by conducting status meeting and submitting reports about their progress. Any unacceptable performance can be identified at any time with the help of continuous monitoring. 3)Developing: In this phase of the process the organization helps the employees to develop their skills by providing training. Training helps the employees to improve their performance, boost their job-related skills and to withstand the changes in the workplace such as the introduction of new technology. Lack of performance of the employees can be developed in this stage and help them to achieve more goals of the organization. )Rating:In this stage the organization evaluates the performance of the employees against the standards of the organization’s performance plan. By rating the organization will come to know about its best employees. This can be done by maintaining rating record which compares the performance of the employees from time to time . The rating of record is assigned according to procedures included in the organization’s appraisal program. It is based on wo rk performed during an entire appraisal period. 5)Rewarding: Rewarding means appreciating employeesfor their performance. It can be done in different ways such as saying simple words like thank you and rewarding employees with awards based on their performance. Rewards can either be formal or informal. Therefore, all the five components in the performance management process work and support each other for effective development of the organization. Second and most important HRM intervention is Career planning and development. Nowadays most of the organizations have adopted career planning and development to increase communication and healthy environment among the employees which will result in the effective growth of their organizations. Career development programs are required to the people irrespective of age and gender for the development of the organizations. Career is the progress and actions of a person related to occupation throughout a lifetime. Different stages are present in a person’s career. There are five stages in a person’s career-Growth, exploration, establishment, maintenance and disengagement/withdrawal. Growth (4-13 years of age) is the initial stage in a person’s career where the person thinks about his/her future. Second stage is exploration (early teens to mid-twenties) where the person becomes definite about occupational choice. They do many trial jobs before deciding on their appropriate field to work. Third stage is establishment (mid-twenties to mid-forties) where the person establishes in a long-term in their chosen field. Maintenance (mid-forties to mid-sixties) is the fourth stage in which the person achieves successes in their career. They also tend to help their subordinates as they are more experienced. They try to maintain stability in their job. Last and final stage in career is disengagement/withdrawal (mid-sixties) in which the person takes retirement and try to explore new jobs. Career development helps people to achieve their career objectives. It can be linked to career planning at different stages. It includes managing a person’s career between different organizations. Career development interventions can be used for many goals. These interventions are mainly designed for young employees rather than managers. Some of the interventions which are related to career stages are as follows: realistic job preview is related to establishment which helps the person to know the work requirements. Developmental training helps the person to gain knowledge to reach their goals. This intervention is related to establishment and maintenance stages in career planning. Performance feedback and coaching comes under establishment stage which helps the person to know about their performance. Work life balance planning helps the person to maintain balance between personal and professional life. It comes under establishment and maintenance stages . Challenging assignments keeps the person engaged with interesting and creates an enthusiasm towards work. This comes under maintenance stage. Dual-career accommodations comes nder maintenance stage and it helps the person to find satisfying work projects. Phased retirement falls under withdrawal stage of a person’s career where the person retires from the job. All these interventions will result in various desired consequences such as increases job satisfaction and commitment, monitors human resources development, strengthens organizational capability, improves quality of life, maintains member motivation, increase s productivity ,decreases stress in later stages of life and also reduce turnover and training costs for the organization. Work force diversity interventions are the third type of HRM interventions. Organizations should develop their human resources in such a way that it should maintain diversity in an efficient manner. People from various regions may work together in an organization. They may differ in various ways like age, gender, marital status, social status, disability, sexual orientation, religion, personality traits, ethnicity and culture. An organization with diverse workforce can better achieve its goals. Employees from diverse workforce can learn more and achieve more experience as they work in a mixed environment. Other than the employees of the organization, clients can also gain profit from it as the organization which encourages diverse workforce will be more open and flexible. As people come from various cultures and backgrounds in diverse work force they can learn more business practices. Employees can develop their knowledge, communication skills, problem-solving capabilities through diverse workforce. All the employees need to be trained to work either individually or as a part of a team.

Ecology and Environment Essay

1. Describe your local and surrounding ecologies and environments. Before we can describe the local and surrounding ecologies and environments, we have to know the meaning of ecology and environment. The relation among organisms and the environment that they are in is called ecology. During an organism’s lifetime, anything that affects it in any way is called an environment. Local and surrounding ecologies and environments in the local area that I reside in are trees, shrubs and vines, wildflowers and weeds, fungi (honey mushroom), lichen, fish, reptiles, amphibious animals, birds, mammals, insects, snails, and different worms. These ecologies require different habitats in the environment to survive and make their being. There are a few different habitats that exist in Northern Virginia, forest, meadows, thicket, marsh, ponds, forest streams, rivers, flower garden, and regular neighborhood streets. Habitats are very important components of an organism’s life. Organisms need the different shelters to live in. The forest can be a very big area that certain organism can live in. Some organism uses the shelter to hide in or move along so other organism want see them to eat them. The ponds and streams are important for any organism and any life form. Organism needs water to survive, without getting enough water to drink an organism will die. (Northern Virginia Ecology) The environment that we live in plays an important part in the lives of an organism. The habitat (the environment) consists of shelter, water, food, and space that an organism needs to survive. 2. List the specific factors that distinguish your local ecology and environment. The specific factors that distinguish your local ecology and environment is determined by the area that and individual, and an organism live in. Latitude, the geographic coordinate, and your elevation above sea level are important factors that distinguish your local ecology and environment. Certain organism may and may not be able to live in certain areas above or below certain sea levels, latitudes, and longitudes. Other distinguishing factors of local ecology and environment in Northern Virginia are the types of forest, river, streams, and ponds. Types of forest in Northern Virginia are the Bottomland Hardwoods, Loblolly Pine, and White Pine. 3. Discuss how human activities have affected your local ecosystems. First of all humans require so much to survive. To survive we do what ever it takes to get what we need. We are what you call greedy in some ways. We all live in different areas of the world, and our need for resources grows rapidly because there are a number of us throughout. When it comes to the ecosystem, it becomes imbalanced because of our activities, making it harder for different organism to survive. In my local area a lot of construction is being done to build new homes and buildings. A lot of trees are being cut down to make way for homes, buildings, town homes, parking lots, and other construction. Because of the construction that is being done, the soil that is being moved end up killing the organism that live in the soil and the plants that are rooted there also. A lot of the construction is being done to build roads and buildings. The land itself is being changed to a more flat land, which disrupts the way the water flows through the land when rain falls. The activities that human are conducting are consequences known as abiotic and biotic. According to Tillery, Enger, & Ross (2008), biotic factors are other living things that affect an organism, and abiotic factors are nonliving influences that affect an organism. Other human activities that affect the local ecosystem are the pollutants that we cause. Polluted run-off is from sewage treatments that are discharged into the lakes. Washing cars, watering the lawn or crops all affect the local ecosystem. All these different pollutants can cause different kind of reactions to organism. If organism consume the pollutants it may cause death and to human possible serious health problems. Some of these pollutants can start the growth of E. coli on the beachfronts that disrupt the ecosystems. 4. Describe the ways that global warming might affect your local ecosystems. The definition of global warming according to dictionary.com is an increase in the earth’s average atmospheric temperature that causes corresponding changes in climate and that may result from the greenhouse effect. Because of global warming and the increase in temperatures, some organism may not be able to survive in the local area. These organisms have to possible migrated to other cooler areas to survive. The local ecosystems change because the food supply need by some organism will decrease because of the changing environment. In the local ecosystem you will find that certain butterflies that use to reside here are moving or migrating to northern latitudes along with frogs and some birds. Over the next 20 to 30 years we will see a decrease in the mammals and bird species. I believe that global warming will have a huge affect on our local ecosystem. You have plants and animals that are use to a certain environment and when that environment change because of temperature increased, they have to adjust to the change. If they are unable to adjust to the changing seasons the plants and animals will become extinct. 5. Relative to other parts of the world, would your local ecosystems be affected more or less? Relative to the rest of the world I believe that my local ecosystem will be affected more. I agree this will happen because of a few different things. Number one, global warming, global warming will cause climate changes. In certain areas of my local area that require certain rainwater, this may decrease. If you have been observing the weather storms are becoming more violent and causing damages to areas that didn’t have that type of weather before. Second, human activity will be another cause that affects my local ecosystem. Humans today are conducting construction more a more trying to create job, build cooperation, and roads. In the construction process, trees are being destroyed, lakes and streams are being drained and moved to different places. By destroying the trees organism are left without shelter food and other habitats that secure their survival. In our everyday activity we are polluting the water with the everyday washing of cars, and the drainage of sewers that eventually drain over into the lakes and streams kills the fish and causing the build up of algae that is causing death and serious sickness to wildlife and humans. In conclusion, we have to learn more about the environment and how it affects the ecosystem. All the changes that we make in the environment will affect something or someone. To save our ecosystem and environment we have to ask is this change really worth it. Global warming is already making a big impact on our world and if we continue to make the changes we are, the health of the world will continue to decline.