Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Using GIS Profiling to Solve Serial Burglaries Research Paper

Using GIS Profiling to Solve Serial Burglaries - Research Paper Example It then elaborates on GIS tool and its appropriateness in solving serial crime using geographic profiling. More significantly, the paper relates geographic profiling to solving serial burglaries. Serial crimes are illegal acts that warrant punishment based on criminal law. They are crime defined by repetitive nature. Serial crimes include murder, rape, arson, bombing, and robbery. Serial criminals frequently develop behaviors of committing the same type of crime in a similar manner. Sequence of crimes committed by the same lawbreaker constitutes serial crimes that law enforcement agencies files. Studies relate serial criminals to immoral upbringing or environment. Advancements in technology have contributed to increased serial crimes around the globe. Criminals are highly innovative and frequently adopt emerging technology advancements before criminal agencies acquire such technologies. Such innovative criminals have also acquired similar crime tracking devices used by law enforcement agencies. For instance, innovative criminals have encrypted radio communication networks of state agencies.’ Insecurity cases have increased around the globe because of innovativeness of criminals. Criminals have devised advanced systems of committing a crime and escaping from law enforcement agencies. For instance, Serial killers and terrorists use modern communication technologies such as satellite imagery, night vision goggles and smart phones in locating their targets and enemies. Evidence also exists of terrorists who have formed operations centers for monitoring social networks, videos, and global news broadcasts. Serial killers such as the 2008 Mumbai terrorists used modern weapons such as AK-47s, hand grenades, and explosives (Goodman, 2014, p. 1). The terrorists employed use of search engines in planning the attacks and in identifying specific hostages.

Monday, October 28, 2019

Externality Definition Essay Example for Free

Externality Definition Essay 1. An externality is defined as a benefit or cost that is imposed on a third party, such as society, other than the producer or consumer of a good or service, or, more simply, an economic side effect. The more of a product that is consumed or produced, the more of an externality that results. When discussing externalities in general terms, positive externalities refer to the benefits and negative externalities refer to the costs associated with the production or consumption of a good or service. Public goods are one of the more common examples of positive externalities. Public goods are goods which are difficult to exclude people from benefiting from or from getting a free ride. Public goods, such as national defence, clean water, clean air, law enforcement, etc., are generally good for most, if not all of society. Negative externalities exist in many situations. One of the most common examples is that of pollution. In these situations, the producer and consumer finance the goods produced but society must bear the cost of pollution that is introduced into the environment as a by-product and is thus a negative externality. Using the above mentioned example of negative externality, pollution, a steel producing firm might pump pollutants into the air. While the firm has to pay for electricity, materials, etc., the individuals living around the factory will pay for the pollution since it will cause them to have higher medical expenses, poorer quality of life, reduced aesthetic appeal of the air, etc. Thus the production of steel by the firm has a negative cost to the people surrounding the factory-a cost that the steel firm doesnt have to pay. 2. Negative externalities are a property rights problem. Who owns the air that the steel mill pollutes? Ronald Coase put forth the solution which is known as the Coase Theorem: Under perfect competition, once government has assigned clearly defined property rights in contested resources and as long as transactions costs are negligible, private parties that generate or are affected by externalities will negotiate voluntary agreements that lead to the socially optimal resource allocation and output mix regardless of how the property rights are assigned (Ronald H. Coase, The Problem of Social Cost, The Journal of Law and Economics, October 1960). In other words, if there are negligible transactions costs, as long as someone owns the rights to the air around the steel mill, the efficient outcome will prevail. For example, if the steel mill owns the rights, then the individuals that live around the mill will be willing to pay the steel mill not to produceup to the cost that they are incurring from health care, reduced aesthetic appeal of the air, etc. This amount that they are willing to pay becomes an opportunity cost for the steel mill if they produce. Thus they will cut production to the optimal level. On the other hand, if the people own the air, then the steel mill would have to pay them that same amount for the right to produce. Thus the negative externality is directly added to the steel mills marginal cost. 3. Based on experience, this theorem would not apply to the steel industry case discussed above. For example, with a steel factory that trespasses on the lungs of a large number of individuals with pollution, it is difficult if not impossible for any one person to negotiate with the producer, and there are large transaction costs. Hence the most common approach may be to regulate the firm (by imposing limits on the amount of pollution considered acceptable) while paying for the regulation and enforcement with taxes. This adds to the producers marginal cost and will cause them to reduce output.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Essay on China :: essays research papers

China is a geographical region in East Asia. It holds over one-fifth of the world’s population. Most of it is now known as the People’s Republic of China, but the name of the region refers to one of the world’s longest standing civilizations, which dates back almost 5,000 years. Because the length of China’s history, it has been characterized by repeated overthrowings and reestablishments of the government, and many civil wars. China was governed as an empire until 1912, when the Republic Of China, or the ROC, was established under Sun Yat-sen. China was the world’s technological leader for centuries, credited with the invention of paper, rockets, and other things. However, by the 19th and 20th centuries, China was losing political and economical power. Japan and the Western Powers were gaining influence, which eventually led to the evolution of the PRC, or the Peoples Republic of China. China has the world’s fastest growing economy, but it’s an unstable state underneath. It has the biggest rich/poor urban/rural divide, which means that the farmers are poor, and the people who have city jobs are rich. China is also hugely overpopulated, so as a population control method families can have only one child. Because of traditional honor, everybody wants male children instead of female ones so that they can carry on the family name. This has led to an imbalance between genders in China, so the government has established a program to compensate families for having female children. China has been working to reform its economy from a centrally planned economy to a market oriented economy. A centrally planned economy is where decisions about production, consumption, and allocation of goods is managed by a central power. This basically means that the government has complete control over what’s made, where it goes, how it’s made, and how it’s used.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Language Experience

1. Write about your past formal or informal language learning experiences. Would you consider them effective or ineffective? Learning foreign languages is a real challenge to everyone and a lot of people have their own successful and unsuccessful experiences. As for me, I’d like to tell about a negative one because, unfortunately, I had it more than positive. I’ve been learning English since I was 10 years old. At first, it was at school. Those lessons left much to be desired. We had a middle-aged teacher who used to have favourite students and showed her attitude, inhibitions cast aside. We didn’t have speaking tasks at all. She gave us different texts and we read, translated and learnt them by heart. Sometimes we even didn’t understand what we were speaking about which made it more difficult to answer. She didn’t use any communicative approaches. What is more, we weren’t interested and motivated. At the age of 15 I nearly decided to give up learning it. Needless to say, it was a real shock to everyone when I announced my decision to enter Pedagogical University, the department of foreign languages. I was sure that I would learn it there. I had a private teacher to prepare for entrance exams. At that time I thought she gave me a lot knowledge, but being a teacher now I can judge those lessons as a waste of time and money. Frankly speaking, it was self-studying. I was given 5 unites of grammar to do at home. Nobody explained any rules to me and we just checked exercises. Fortunately, at university I had a lot of different teachers. Some of them tried to use communicative tasks, such as role plays. But it was still academic studying. Teachers didn’t need to motivate us as we all wanted to pass exams and get a diploma. However ridiculous it may seem, I learnt English at work, being teacher is the best way to study. If I need to know something, I try to teach my students and after preparations for lessons and loads of explanations to them I get to know a lot. So joining TESOL course is another opportunity to learn the language and ways of teaching . 2. Why do you think the CLT has gained popularity in the language classroom? Our understanding of the processes of second language learning has changed considerably in the last 30 years and CLT is partly a response to these changes in understanding. Earlier views of language learning focused primary on the mastery of grammatical competence. Language learning was viewed as a process of mechanical formation. Good habits are formed by having students produce correct sentences. Errors were to be avoided through controlled opportunities for production. In recent years language learning has been viewed from a very different perspective. Communicative teaching emphasis on â€Å"task-oriented, student-centered† language teaching practice, asked to show the life of the actual needs of the English language to simulate a variety of life contexts, emotional, and to provide students with comprehensive use of English language, for communication of opportunities, its focus is not only a language in the form, grammatical accuracy, more emphasis on the appropriateness of language use, feasibility, communication skills, as well as training students in communicative activities in the strain and problem-solving ability. There are advantages and disadvantages of this approach. The pros are: – Language is acquired through communication – CLT allows learners to use the target language in meaningful context – CLT can be adapted to any level The cons are: -Student may not see the value in learning English through group work, games, and activities. – CLT does not focus on error correction. – Students don’t feel challenged Taking everything into consideration, I should say that the good thing about the communicative approach is that it makes students speak the language even at a beginner level and they are usually enthusiastic about this. . How would you approach a class with true and false beginners? I got used to having mixed-ability classes and the mixture of false beginners (they have had some English training at some point in the past) and true beginners ( these are learners who have had no contact with English at all) is a common situation. I consider such cl asses a real advantage as it helps to avoid boring lessons and I always have some students to rely on. I try to pair a true beginner with a false one while doing some activities and it helps to create an interaction between students which means a student-centred style of teaching. There are some drawbacks, of course. The false ones are faster to do exercises so I need to provide them with extra work which means more careful preparation for the lesson. Another problem is a demotivation of both kinds of students. There are some classroom management techniques which can help to avoid it. I should say it is a widely-spread situation but it can be successfully solved by using different methods of teaching.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Oryx & Crake Summary Essay

Xenotransplantation is the transplantation of living cells, tissues or organs from one species to another such as from pigs to humans ( Medical grafting). Such cells, tissues or organs are called xenografts or xenotransplants. The term allotransplantation refers to a same-species transplant. Human xenotransplantation offers a potential treatment for end-stage organ failure, a significant health problem in parts of the industrialized world and worldwide shortage of organs for clinical implantation. It also raises many novel medical, legal and ethical issues. A continuing concern is that pigs have different lifespans than humans and their tissues age at a different rate. Disease transmission (xenozoonosis) and permanent alteration to the genetic code of animals are a cause for concern. Genetic engineering, recombinant DNA technology, genetic modification/ manipulation (GM) and gene splicing are terms that are applied to the manipulation of genes. It involves the isolation, manipulation and reintroduction of DNA into cells or model organisms, usually express a protein to reach desired effects. Cloning is the process of creating an identical copy of something. Genetic recombination is the process by which a strand of DNA is broken and then joined to the end of a different DNA molecule. A genetically modified organism (GMO) is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using the genetic engineering techniques generally known as recombinant DNA technology. Why Oryx and Crake Was Written â€Å"Every novel begins with a what if and then sets forth its axiom. The what if of Oryx and Crake is simply What if we continue down the road we’re already on? How slippery is the slope? What is our saving graces? Who’s got the will to stop us?† –Margaret Atwood Settings in Oryx and Crake Pre-Catastrophic Society: Games With Virtual Reality And Virtual Violence Society Fixated on Physical Perfection and Longevity, Virtual Elimination Of The Middle Class (produced a gap between rich and poor), Disappearance Of Safe Public Space, People Live In Either Tightly Controlled Compounds Of The Elites Or Dangerous Pleebands, Almost Everything Is For Sale, Medical Advancements, Life Is In The Hands Of Large Corporations, Private Security Forces, Scientific Advancements: Genetic Engineering & Xenotransplant, Technologically Driven, Extreme commercialization and commodification of life and the commodification of human life and sexuality in prostitution and online child pornography. Jimmy and Crake spend a lot of their free time playing online computer games such as Kwiktime Osama (a reference to Osama bin Laden) and Blood and Roses, or watching live executions, Noodie News, frog squashing, graphic surgery and child pornography. Post-Catastrophic Society: Naturalistic society Science vs. Anti-Science â€Å"Please don’t make the mistake of thinking that Oryx and Crake is anti-science. Science is a way of knowing, and a tool. Like all ways of knowing and tools, it can be turned to bad uses. And it can be bought and sold, and it often is. But it is not in itself bad. Like electricity, it’s neutral. The driving force in the world today is the human heart – that is, human emotions. (Yeats, Blake – every poet, come to think of it – has always told us that.) Our tools have become very powerful. Hate, not bombs, destroys cities. Desire, not bricks, rebuilds them.† –Margaret Atwood Plot Summary of Oryx and Crake The protagonist of Oryx and Crake is Snowman, clad only in a bed sheet and a Red Sox cap, who appears to be the last human being on Earth. He’s not entirely alone, however; strange hybrid beasts such as wolvogs, pigoons and rakunks are roaming freely. As well, a group of what he calls Crakers—strange human-like creatures—lives nearby. They bring Snowman food and consult him on matters that surpass their understanding; thus, Snowman comes across as a post-apocalyptic hermit guru. As the story develops, these assorted lifeforms are revealed to be the products of genetic engineering. In flashbacks, we learn that Snowman was once a young boy named Jimmy, who grew up in the early 21st century. His world was dominated by multinational corporations which kept their employees’ families in privileged compounds separated from a global lower moiety of pleeblands. Shortly after Jimmy’s family moved to the HelthWyzer corporate compound (where his father worked a s a genographer) Jimmy met and befriended Glenn (later known as Crake), a brilliant science student. Atwood’s satirical take on current society is presented most pointedly in the jaded activities of these two youths. Jimmy and Crake spend a lot of their free time playing online computer games such as Kwiktime Osama (a reference to Osama bin Laden) and Blood and Roses, or watching live executions, Noodie News, frog squashing, graphic surgery and child pornography. One of Glenn’s favourite pastimes is an online game called Extinctathon, a trivia game which requires immense knowledge of extinct animal and plant species. Using the codenames Thickney (Jimmy) and Crake (Glenn), they both play as teenagers. It is not until they are both in university that Jimmy discovers that Crake has worked his way up to become a Grandmaster. On another trip through the dark underbelly of the Web, they come across an Asian child pornography site, where Jimmy is struck and haunted by the eyes of a young girl. Unknown to Jimmy, Crake is similarly affected by the sig ht of this young girl. Crake eventually finds this girl (or a woman who could be her) and hires her, as both a prostitute and a teacher of the Crakers. Her name is Oryx. Jimmy identifies the haunting memory of the young girl with Oryx, though it is never made clear as to whether or not the two are the same person. Oryx eventually becomes intimately involved in the lives of Jimmy and Crake, and both fall in love with her. Oryx, however, views their relationship as strictly professional and only admires Crake as a scientist and â€Å"great man†. For fun and affection she turns to Jimmy, though her feelings for him are not as clear. The two hide their relationship from Crake, and Jimmy is often plagued with the thought of Crake finding out about his betrayal. Crake uses his prominent position at a biotech corporation to launch a project to create the Crakers. His goal is to create a peaceful society that will live harmoniously with each other and nature. These genetically engine ered humans are leaf-eating herbivores and they only have sexual intercourse during limited breeding seasons when they are polyandrous. Thus, many of the apparent conflicts in human culture are replaced with a mockery of intelligent design. At the same time, Crake creates a virulent genetic pandemic that, apparently, killed off all humans except for Jimmy. Jimmy was unknowingly vaccinated with the intention of acting as a guardian for the Crakers. Thus, Crake represents a mad scientist; he is maddened by the troubled society that he lives in. His rationale is that he is heroically saving intelligent life from an inevitably dying society. In the story’s climax, Crake’s perfected â€Å"hot bioform,† present in one of his company’s products, is activated and spreads throughout the world. When called to account for his actions by Jimmy, Crake kills Oryx by slitting her throat. In rage and panic, Jimmy shoots Crake, resulting in his being left to obsess over his vanished world and unanswered questions. Jimmy contemplates abandoning the Crakers but is constantly haunted by the voice of Oryx, and reminded of his promise to her to watch over them. Though Crake opposed and belittled human religion, Sn owman instills the Crakers with his own invented religion revolving around Crake and Oryx. Oryx becomes the guardian of the animals and Crake the creator god. Crake suffers from unremembered night terrors. During visits, Jimmy hears Crake screaming in his sleep. Crake claims to not remember them. This forms one of the book’s most profound ironies. Crake is a leader in the most advanced (and corrupt) health care system in human history, and Jimmy is unable to save humanity by simply getting Crake’s head examined. At the same time, however, Crake attends a university referred to as Asperger’s U, referring to the university’s high population of incredibly intelligent, socially awkward people, which might suggest that his idea was not the product of insanity or something ‘wrong’ with him, but rather the knowledge that everything else around him was wrong. During Snowman’s journey to scavenge supplies, he is uncomfortable wearing shoes now that his feet have become toughened without them. He cuts his foot on a tiny sliver of glass. Infected by who-knows-what descendant of transgenic experiments, his body cannot fight back, and his leg becomes inflamed.Returning to the Crakers, he learns that three ragged true humans have camped nearby. He follows the smoke from the fire and watches as they cook a rakunk. Uncertain of how he should approach them (Blast them to bits to protect the Crakers? Approach with open arms?) he checks his now unworking watch and thinks, â€Å"Time to go,† leaving the reader to speculate as to what his actions and future will be. Literay Works Coral Ann Howells argues that Oryx and Crake is in some ways a sequel to Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale in that it carries the national catastrophe in the earlier novel to global level[5]. A major reference seems to be to the â€Å"Last Man† topos in science fiction, which was inaugurated by Mary Shelley’s The Last Man, also a post-apocalyptic novel, whose main character is the only survivor of a plague that has killed off all other humans. George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) had a working title that relates it to Shelley’s book: â€Å"The Last Man in Europe†[6]. Other references, of course, include Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818/1831) as well as Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels[7] (1626/1635). Gulliver’s Travels is also the source of one of the two epigraphs and puts emphasis on the claim that the speculation about the near future in Oryx and Crake serves to make a point about the present state of the world. Swift’s speaker as quoted by Atwood says: â€Å"my principal design was to inform you, and not to amuse you† (Oryx and Crake, Epigraph). The second quotation from Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse (1927) refers to the absence of safety in the word, pointing to Snowman’s existence in the world af ter Crake’s catastrophe.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Evolving Experiment in Democracy essays

Evolving Experiment in Democracy essays Many historians have described the United States as an evolving experiment in democracy. This statement especially holds true during the time period of 1828-1844. During the time period of 1828-1844, under the rule of Jacksonian Democracy, several political, social, and economic changes occurred in the United States that clearly define the country as an evolving experiment in democracy. First of all, during the time period of 1828-1844 several political changes occurred that structured and expanded the government. Jackson set up a Spoils System, in which he gave his political supporters public office. Every man is as good as his neighbor, Jackson proclaimed. The aristocratic and bureaucratic officeholding class was eliminated. More ordinary citizens were involved in politics to give the ordinary citizen more say in the government. The Spoils System shaped the way the Democratic Party was organized. Slowly but surely the Democratic Party under the time period of 1828-1844 was organized to give more opportunities to the common person. Jacksonian ideas were incorporated in one manner by the elimination of property qualifications. By this elimination, any free white male could vote and hold office. As a result of the elimination of property qualifications came the redefining of the chosen class. Planters, urban workers, and factory laborers were included in the new cho sen class. The idea that the poorer citizen was just as important as a rich citizen came about. In addition, those united under Jacksons banner of democracy believed in more rights for the states. Eventually, a two-party system emerged, the Whigs and the Democrats. As a result of dislike for the American System and corrupt bargain under the rule of John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson united many people under a banner of democracy. The idea of public education for all citizens was promoted, which ...

Monday, October 21, 2019

Base properties of an antimicrobial agent Essays

Acid/ Base properties of an antimicrobial agent Essays Acid/ Base properties of an antimicrobial agent Essay Acid/ Base properties of an antimicrobial agent Essay Chem. 253 Lab 1: Acid/Base Properties of an Antimicrobial Agent 09/03/13 Purpose The purpose was to determine the acid and base properties of the antimicrobial agent sodium beneath. Theory Sodium has mainly been used in food processing to avoid growth of bacteria and harmful microorganisms. It is commonly used to preserve foods and beverages that have an acidic PH. Rather than benzene acid, sodium beneath is used because it is generally soluble in most aqueous solutions but benzene acid is not. Reaction Sodium beneath mixed with water, dissociates into beneath and sodium ions. Hydrogen chloride, which is a gas, will exist in unionized form when combined with water to form hydrochloric acid. Then when the two solutions are combined, HUH+ transfers electrons to beneath ions, which act as the base to form benzene acid as a solid precipitate. The overall balanced equation is as follows. Yield Calculations: Sodium Beneath: Theoretical: The theoretical yield of Benzene Acid is 1. Egg. The actual yield of Benzene Acid is 1. Egg. The percent yield of this experiment is: Methods/Procedures 1) Weigh and tare a 50 ml beaker, then place about 1. G of sodium beneath into the beaker. Record the actual mass of sodium beneath used. 2) Measure about 10 ml of distilled water with a graduated cylinder and pour it into the beaker with the sodium beneath. Use a glass-stirring rod to dissolve the sodium beneath in the water. 3) Measure about 4 ml of 3. 0 M HCI and add it slowly, with stirring, to the sodium beneath solution until the pH of the solution is 2. Use pH paper to test the solution each time by using your stirring rod to place a drop of the solution on the pH paper. Adding excess HCI to the solution will not affect yield of product. 4) To induce crystallization of product, cool the solution to 10 degrees Celsius or below. Place your 50 ml beaker in a large beaker containing cracked ice with a little water to reduce the temperature. 5) Clamp a 250 ml filtering flask to a ring stand and place the Boucher funnel on top with an appropriately sized filter paper (be sure to pre-weigh the filter paper). Moisten the filter paper in the funnel with a little distilled water, and make sure that the moist filter paper fits snugly in the bottom of the Boucher funnel with no folds or bends in the filter paper visible. Use the thick rubber tubing from your drawer to provide vacuum from the aspirator to your filter flask. Be sure you are connecting the tubing to the aspirator, not to the water or gas outlet. Turn on the water to a low volume to create a vacuum in the filter flask but not so much that you flood the sink. Transfer the crystals (quantitatively) from Step 4 to the funnel. Use about 5 ml of distilled water to rinse any solid that remains in the beaker onto the filter paper. Let the solid air-dry with the aspirator running for a few minutes. 7) Place the filter paper with solid in the oven for about 15 minutes to dry. Weigh and then dry again for 5 minutes. Weigh again. If your second weight differs from the first weight by more than 0. 5%, dry again for 10 minutes. Continue this process until successive weighing are within 0. 5%. For this lab, we must be sure to always wear our safety glasses whenever we are in the laboratory and wear gloves when we are conducting an experiment. Benzene acid and sodium beneath used in this experiment can be mild irritants to the skin. We must be careful not to get them on Observations/Results The mixture began clear but once we added the HCI the substance was white and odorless. Our precipitate was solid and white. For the numbers, sodium beneath was the limiting reagent because it had 0. 01063 moles whereas hydrochloric acid had 0. 012 moles. The theoretical yield was 1. Egg and the actual yield was 1. 51 g. With these numbers the percent yield turned out to be 96. 37%. Discussion/Conclusion Throughout the experiment I felt as though there were some errors. Also, I feel as though I may have lost amounts of the mixture and precipitate through transfers that affected our final weight. I could tell that the pH had an effect because we know that if there is a decrease in pH a pr ecipitate starts to form. Exercises 1) In a solution containing aqueous sodium beneath, a decrease in pH usually results in the formation of a precipitate. A.