The Persians things we never saw or heard Essay Example For Students

The Persians: things we never saw or heard Essay This deadly silence with its taste of acid fills our mouths, declares the Chorus in Robert Aulettas update of Aeschylus The Persians. The stage is set in the Persian court as the Chorus (Ben Halley Jr.) awaits news of his armys invasion of Athens: The muezzins song has been heard, and the Chorus, in the traditional black robes of the mullah, sits resplendent in the dead of night, recalling past glories. Although his words, intoned in a grand theatrical style, are sometimes hard to catch, a young man in vest and trousers (a second Chorus, played by Joseph Haj) lays out his prayer mat near the front of the stage and kneels toward Mecca, quietly repeating the words of the mullah into a microphone, so that they are transmitted to the audience through speakers placed in the backs of the theatre. There is a seconds disjunction between the two versions, and in that gap it seems that the public and the private come together: Our political senses are awakened as well as our intimate responses . The human and the technological meld in a new synthesis of understanding. Outline1 A first chance to grieve  2 Dreams of ill-omen  3 Contrasting textures  4 Critics notebook   A first chance to grieve   We will write a custom essay on The Persians: things we never saw or heard specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Silence and its opposite, speech, are the twin mantles on which Aulettas text and director Peter Sellarss production rest. When the news does come through of the battles endthe unforeseen and total devastation of the Persian armyit is communicated in song and an extraordinarily affecting Javanese mime dance by a masked messenger (Martinus Miroto), while the microphoned Chorus again speaks the words. The descriptions of destruction, mutilation and death are distressingly graphic; they are clearly recognizable as everything we never heard from our own leaders during the Gulf Warthat war in which we never saw the image of a single Iraqi victim transmitted on our television screens. But they are equally recognizable as what we have witnessed, and have been powerless to prevent, in Bosnia, Somalia and Vietnam. The stage images are simple, sparse and even beautiful, their gruesome detail offset by heightened, poetic language simultaneously whispered into a microphone with the fervency of a prayer. It gives the audience the first chance to grieve, collectively and publicly, for what has gone before, unmourned and unrepented. At this point in Sellarss production, some audience members noisily exited the auditorium, outraged (as indeed were some critics) that this young American director had dared to appropriate Aeschylus to his own ends. Its surprising that they were surprised, with the work coming as it does from the man who set The Marriage of Figaro in Trump Tower and Ajax in front of the Pentagon. But to see only the obvious results of Sellarss artistic transfiguration of the original (one critic described the directors work as political bandwagoning) is to be oblivious of the way in which this production, paradoxically, conveys the spirit of Aeschylus more faithfully than many versions which obey the letter of the text. To write a play set in the Persian court only eight years after the actual battle of Salamis, after all, was surely as provocative of Aeschylus as this is of Sellars. There have been several great productions of Greek tragedies in Britain in recent years: Deborah Warners searing Electra with Fiona Shaw, Adrian Nobles weighty Theban Trilogy, Clare Venables updated Medea for the Sphinx (formerly Womens Theatre Group) and Andrei Serbans Ancient Trilogy, among them. Whatever the considerable merits of these productions, however (and with the exception of Warners Electra), only perhaps in Sellarss Persians has tragedy become more than an excuse for spectacle, instead fulfilling the Greek ideal of theatre as a forum for moral and political discussion and achieving catharsis for the audience. .ud3228f7d24822635ef1cba91a497c384 , .ud3228f7d24822635ef1cba91a497c384 .postImageUrl , .ud3228f7d24822635ef1cba91a497c384 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ud3228f7d24822635ef1cba91a497c384 , .ud3228f7d24822635ef1cba91a497c384:hover , .ud3228f7d24822635ef1cba91a497c384:visited , .ud3228f7d24822635ef1cba91a497c384:active { border:0!important; } .ud3228f7d24822635ef1cba91a497c384 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ud3228f7d24822635ef1cba91a497c384 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ud3228f7d24822635ef1cba91a497c384:active , .ud3228f7d24822635ef1cba91a497c384:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ud3228f7d24822635ef1cba91a497c384 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ud3228f7d24822635ef1cba91a497c384 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ud3228f7d24822635ef1cba91a497c384 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ud3228f7d24822635ef1cba91a497c384 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ud3228f7d24822635ef1cba91a497c384:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ud3228f7d24822635ef1cba91a497c384 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ud3228f7d24822635ef1cba91a497c384 .ud3228f7d24822635ef1cba91a497c384-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ud3228f7d24822635ef1cba91a497c384:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: New tracks on Tobacco Road Essay Dreams of ill-omen   Sellars, with often stunning effect, reaches through the epic, political terrain of the play to a more immediate and human scale. Atossa (Cordelia Gonzalez), wife of the late king Darius and mother of the present king Xerxes, enters in a modern, Western-looking floral dress, saying she has been troubled by dreams of ill-omen. She cannot rest, she complains, and so has the supremely human urge to talk. When the bad news of her armys defeat comes through, fear and confusion solidify into anger against her late husband. The result is an extraordinary family conference from beyond the grave, with Darius (Howie Seago) rising up from a polythene Underworld and communicating, since he is dead, only in sign language. In spite of the comical clumsiness of the staging, Atossas passionate resentment, mixed with self-doubt and deep regret, are formidable and moving, and her relationship to her dead husband is wholly convincing. Here is an intelligent woman arguing with the man she loved over his culpability, as ruler, for the political situation in which she now finds herself, and as a father for his emotional neglect of their son Xerxes. Yet her insight and honesty are such that she cannot exonerate herself from complicity in the situation: Where did we go wrong? she asks. Where did I go wrong? In the final act of the play, Xerxes (John Ortiz) returns in faded battle fatigues bearing the manic energy of the killer he has become. His presence challenges the stately authority of his dead father, and his arrival is marked by a change of pace and rhythm and a brightening of the stage into a dawn of harsh, yellowish light. In contrast to Darius grand immobility, Xerxes dashes around the stage, leaping and careening. Atossas indulgent maternal joy at seeing again the son she feared was lost is infectious, but ambiguous. Xerxes bellicose words echo the proud opening lines of the Chorus, but he speaks of defeat, not victory; the action of the concluding moments is upbeat, but the optimism it suggests is peculiarly tainted. Contrasting textures   Throughout the production a complex soundscape gives contrasting textures to different sections of the action. Most noticeable is the inspirational music of the Nubian musician and composer Hamze El Din, which combines traditional Eastern elements with modern Western structures. In the same way that the anachronism of the two Chorusesone steeped in the traditional, the other equipped with a microphonereconciles the ancient and the modern, so the music provides a spiritual dimension and another level of understanding. Similarly, Sellarss appropriation of dance forms and mime traditions from all over the world are incorporated into the drama in a way which is not inimical to the ancient Greek traditions of theatre. And the layering of all those elementsvisual, musical, verbalcombine powerfully to make The Persians a simultaneously intellectual and emotional experience. Critics notebook   Last summer, iconoclastic director Peter Sellars returned to the non-musical stage for the first time in seven years with a new version of Aeschylus The Persians, adapted by Robert Auletta. Critics and audiences were divided when the work was seen at the Salzburg and Edinburgh international summer festivals and the Los Angeles Festival at the Mark Taper Forum, where it received its American premiere in September. Here, two critics (both of whom saw the Edinburgh production) offer opposing views of the directors radically contemporary take on the first written play in the history of Western theatre.

Argument of the Case of ¡Bonnie and Clyde¡ essays

Argument of the Case of  ¡Bonnie and Clyde ¡ essays In the case of  ¡Bonnie and Clyde, ¡ Both Bonnie and Clyde drove recklessly that they drove much faster than the posted speed limit. Basically, both of them committed the same legal law. In this incident, Clyde ¡s passenger died; however, Bonnie ¡s passenger survived due to the decision of flipping a coin by the surgeon who was the only available person to do the surgery. In my opinion, Clyde should not be punished more severely than Bonnie since Clyde had no control over his passenger ¡s life. The reason that I support this conclusion is that punishing Clyde more severely would be unjust. Since Bonnie and Clyde both were reckless driving, and therefore violated the same legal law, they should be punished equally. Moreover, Clyde should not be held responsible for his passenger ¡s death. If he were not responsible, then he should not be punished more severely. The reason that Clyde should not be held responsible is that he has no control over the passenger ¡s death. If Clyde had no control over his passenger ¡s death, then holding Clyde responsible would be unfair. Therefore, Clyde should not be held responsible for his passenger ¡s death that was out of his control. The reason that Clyde should not be held responsible for his passenger ¡s death is that Clyde had no direct control over the event that ultimately decided his passenger ¡s fate. Clearly, the ultimate fate of Clyde ¡s passenger was decided by flipping a coin, and the action of the coin flipping is down by a surgeon, not Clyde. Since Clyde was not the one who decided his passenger ¡s fate, Clyde had no direct control over the event of coin flipping that ultimately decided his passenger ¡s fate, and therefore Clyde should not be held responsible for his passenger ¡s death. Punishing Clyde for his passenger ¡s death would be unjust. Therefore, Clyde should not be punished more severely. Although Clyde violated the legal law with reckless driving, he...

German Story Sandskulpturen Is Great Language Prep

German Story 'Sandskulpturen' Is Great Language Prep One of the best ways to study German- or any foreign language for that matter- is to simply wade into a story and try to translate it. So, grab a good German dictionary, a strong Tasse Kaffee (cup of coffee) and a pencil and paper, and situate yourself in a quiet spot, such as your Kà ¼chentisch (kitchen table) or a Bibliothek (library). Then try your hand at translating this brief story. First, read this short story in German, about a trip to the beach and sandcastles, and then check your comprehension against the English translation that follows.   Sandskulpturen Story Text This brief story is from Quizlet, a student-and-teacher online learning community that provides free and fee-based learning tools and information. Es war ein super-schwà ¼ler Tag. Wir konnten die Hitze kaum ertragen und entschlossen uns deshalb zum Strand zu gehen. Wir haben den richtigen Samstag gewhlt, denn es gab ein Sandskulpturen-Wettbewerb bei dem Strand. Was fà ¼r tolle Kreationen! Das linke Foto ist eine Sandskulptur von einem Amateur und das rechte von einem Profi. Diese Skulpturen waren so unheimlich detailliert und haben zirka vier Tage gedauert zu bauen. Ich habe auch probiert etwas aus dem Sand zu schaffen, aber anstatt ein Kunstwerk, sah meine Skulptur mehr wie einen Sandberg aus. Wenn ihr wirklich Sandmeisterwerke sehen wollt, dann besucht diese Webseite, Wenn Profis Sandburgen bauen, die das grà ¶ÃƒÅ¸te Sandskulpturenfestival in Deutschland beschreibt. English Translation   Some of the translation of the above story is not literal. The phrasing has been changed where needed to enhance the flow of these passages. It was a super-sultry day. We could barely stand the heat and decided to go to the beach. We chose the right Saturday because there was a sand sculpture contest at the beach. What great creations! The photo to the left is a sand sculpture made by an amateur and to the right by a professional. These sculptures were so incredibly detailed and took around four days to build. I also tried to make something out of sand  but instead of a piece of art, but my sculpture looked like nothing more than a mountain of sand. If you really want to see sand masterpieces, visit this website, Wenn Profis Sandburgen bauen (When Professionals Build Sandcastles),  which describe the largest sand sculpture festival in Germany.

Analysis and Arguement on Britney Spears Facebook Page Research Paper

Analysis and Arguement on Britney Spears Facebook Page - Research Paper Example Within this context, Britney Spears’ image as a globally marketed cultural icon and her facebook page represent the same thing, a carefully crafted product. To be specific, Britney Spears’ facebook page does not surpass her image as a popular culture icon. Instead, her facebook page is carefully crafted to communicate with her fans/audience. Thesis statement: The analysis and argument on the statement(s) made by Britney Spears about herself to her audience and her carefully constructed facebook page proves that both the statement(s) and facebook page reinforces her public image as a popular culture icon. Most of the public figures who communicate with the audience make use of the theory put forth by Aristotle in his work ‘On Rhetoric’. To be specific, the theory of rhetoric consists of the essential qualities that a public figure should have to gain social acceptance. For instance, ethos consists of the trustworthiness of an individual (say, the speaker), p athos consists of the ability of and individual to create emotional attachment with the listeners and logos consists of the ability of the speaker (say, logical arguments) to communicate with listeners. Within this context, Britney Spears’ statements about herself to the audience is interconnected with logos, she is ready to lose her individuality to satisfy her fans. To be specific, Britney Spears’ status as a cultural icon hinders her from behaving like a mature person because she needs to present herself as a myth. So, one can see that Britney Spears’ statements on trustworthiness or loyalty towards oneself is interconnected with ethos. Besides, Britney Spears’ statements and opinions on other female singers (Madonna and Janet Jackson) prove that she is able to create her own space within the context of popular music. Britney’s commitment to music, especially singing and stage presence helped her to create emotional attachment with her audience. This emotional attachment is an important element of rhetoric, i.e., pathos. One can easily identify that Britney Spears’ emotional attachment with her audience is one of the factors behind her success as a popular culture icon. From a different angle of view, Britney Spears’ public identity as a celebrity does not hinder her personal life. Christopher R. Smit stated that â€Å"In late 2001 Britney’s image/marketing changed bearing in mind that much of her audience had grown up in the meantime† (5). To be specific, her ability to communicate (say, with logical arguments) with the public helps her to divide her public and personal domains into two distinct areas. For instance, Britney Spears is an ordinary individual in her private life. Within this context, her logical arguments/opinions on defining herself, childhood dream to become a singer, harsh media reviews, sexuality, physical limitations, inspiration etc prove that the same is interconnected with logos. B. Argument: How does the construction of her page reveal the statements? Britney Spears’ facebook page reveals her statements because she made use of unique techniques to communicate with the subscribers. For instance, Britney Spears’ facebook page layout is simple and attractive to the subscribers. Within this context, family photos, especially with her family members and friends are important. Besides, her facebook page helps the subscribers to know more about her as an individual, not as a myth. One can see that Br

Major project Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Major project - Research Paper Example The purpose of this evaluation is to determine the changes that should be made in order to reduce the expense cost and keep workers safe. The four level models of Kirkpatrick will be used to design and implement the evaluation. The different methods of data collection and analysis used in the proposed evaluation plan are also explained in the paper. Evaluation of a Successful Fire Extinguishing Training Program Background Panorama Firefighters Company is a nonprofit organization that seeks to assist the fire victims with various aid programs. The main objective of the company is to carry out various functions aimed at controlling the spread of fire and providing necessary services to the victims. The company provides various fire suppression systems that help to control the spread of fire once it occurs. The main function of the company is to respond quickly to the buildings and structures that are on fire in order to extinguish the fire before it causes severe damages. The company h as offices in twenty-five American states in order to provide services to the fire victims in these states. The occurrence of fire could not be possible to predict, and this makes it necessary to have various fire protection services cannot be accessed easily. Due to the rapid increases in the number of cases that involve fire outbreaks, the company has established many centers in various cities in order to enable them to respond quickly to the situation. The rising demand has enabled the five-year old company to grow tremendously. The company currently has 900 employees with the upper level of management, consisting of fifty people. The other employees include one-hundred and fifty supervisors, and seven hundred people who work on a daily basis. Each state has two managers who oversee the management progress of the company in order to recommend the necessary measures. The company is looking forward to improve the services it provides in order to help reduce the economic losses attr ibuted by fire outbreak. Rationale The Panorama Firefighters Company realized the need of evaluating safety training after a huge fire outbreak that led to the death of five employees who work on a daily basis. The death of the employees

Skew Detection of Devanagari Script Using Pixels

Skew Detection of Devanagari Script Using Pixels Skew Detection of Devanagari Script Using Pixels of Axes-Parallel Rectangle and Linear Regression Trupti A. Jundale Ravindra S. Hegadi Abstract—Skew detection and correction of handwritten data is one of the difficult tasks in pattern recognition area. Here we illustrate the method for skew detection and correction of Devanagari handwritten script. The proposed approach works for single skew. The input images for this research are collected from various writers and contain single/uniform skew words/lines. The proposed approach uses tangential pixels of axes parallel rectangle and linear regression method to calculate the skew of word/line. Finally rotation transformation is used for correction of skew of word/line which is calculated by linear regression. This technique achieves 89% accuracy to correct skew of word and achieves 93% accuracy to correct skew of line for handwritten Devanagari script. Index Terms—Preprocessing, Axes-parallel rectangle, Linear Regression, Skew detection, Skew correction I. Introduction The frequency of digital document extends to develop at a brisk rate in spite of the usage of paper based documents. As a result, the renovation of paper documents to its electronic version and its consequent image processing and understanding have been converted into a vital application area in computer vision and pattern recognition researches. With recent emergence and widespread application of multimedia technologies, there is an increasing demand to create a paperless environment, hence, document image processing in general and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) in particular is playing an important role in transformation of the traditional paper based environment to truly paperless electronic environment[3]. Devanagari is one of the mainly used and espouses writing system in the world. The national/official language of India (Hindi) and Nepal (Nepali) uses Devanagari Script. Many other languages like Marathi (state language of Maharashtra), Sanskrit, Kashmiri, Bhojpuri, Maithili, Bodo, Dogri etc. comes under Devanagari Script. As India’s national language uses Devanagari script, lot of official data is in written format before the era of digitization. So in the today’s world of digitization, it is needed to keep record of handwritten/printed data in digital form. To make this, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) system is carried out. The detection and correction of skew is one of the essential steps in any character recognition or document processing system. Because of the writing genre of the Devanagari script, it is difficult to detect skew as compared to any other script. The writing style of every person may vary so there is presence of multiple skew in data. Skew is t he angle which diverges from x-axis. The successful skew detection and correction turns next process like analysis of character or OCR to be accurate. The document may contain three type of skew: single/uniform skew, multiple skew and non-uniform skew. Single/uniform skew is, when all text lines in a document have same orientation. Multiple skew is, when some text lines have different orientation than other and non-uniform skew is, when orientation changes within a line. There is lot of research available for skew detection of scanned document image but less work is available for skew detection of text/word. II. Devanagari script One of the main parts of Brahmic family is a Devanagari Script, which is belonging from Indo-Aryan languages. It is written from left to right. Unlike Latin script, concept of upper/lower case is absent in Devanagari script. It consists of 33 consonants and 14 vowels. Generally every word written in most of the Devanagari Script will have a header line on group of characters, called as ‘Shirorekha’ and this is considered as one word [7]. Vowels that can be written as separate characters or by using diacritic marks on below, upper, before or after consonants are called modifiers. In Devanagari script, two or three consonants can be written as a single character, which is known as compound character. Fig.1 shows different features of Devanagari script. Fig. 1. Devanagari Script Word The main characters of word are written in middle zone. Upper zone and lower zone are for modifiers and Shirorekha is drawn at header line. In Fig.1 two characters are combined to form a new shape of single character known as compound character. III. Related Work In the literature, algorithms that estimate the angle at which a text/document image is rotated are surveyed. The broad classes of technique are identified, which include methods that calculate skew from Hough transform, horizontal projection profile, Fourier transform, nearest-neighbour or principal component analysis. The basic method used by each class of technique is presented and the contributions of individual algorithms within each class are discussed. Hough Transform: One of the best feature extraction technique used in digital image processing and computer vision is Hough Transform. It is mainly used for detection of regular curves such as lines, ellipses, circles etc. The simplest case of Hough transform is the linear transform for detecting straight lines. The line in the image space is just a single point in the parameter space. [1] uses Hough transform method for detection of document skew. A novel skew correction algorithm is proposed focusing on boundary line that optimizes speed and accuracy by using Hough transform to get the skew corrected licences plate images in [2]. Fourier Transform: In this method first 2-D Fourier transform will be applied to the image plane. Then, coefficients of the power spectrum are calculated and stored in a spectrum. A directional criterion for each angle is then calculated. The angle that maximizes the directional criterion is assumed to give the skew angle of the image. Projection Profile: Projection Profile can be a horizontal projection profile or vertical projection profile. The horizontal/vertical projection profile is a histogram of the number of black pixels along horizontal/vertical scan lines. In projection profiles, histogram is created at each possible angle and a ‘cost function’ is applied to this histogram. The skew angle is the angle at which this cost function is maximized. Mostly horizontal projection profile method is used for scanned document skew detection. [6] exploits the unique property of the writing line of Arabic script and is based on connected component analysis and projection profiles. Skew detection of fabric images scheme based on morphological method and projection profile analysis is proposed in [8]. Nearest Neighbour: In Nearest Neighbour method histogram of the direction angle is computed. [5] uses a Focused Nearest Neighbour Clustering (FNNC) of interest points and the analysis of paragraphs/lines. Chains with a largest possible number of nearest neighbour pairs are selected and their slopes are computed to give the skew angle of document image. Other than these techniques, one-step skew and orientation detection method using a well-established geometric text-line model is used in [11]. The advantage of this method is that it combines accurate skew estimation with robust, resolution-independent orientation detection. [12] proposed a Rectangular Active Contour Model (RAC Model) for content region detection and skew angle calculation by imposing a rectangular shape constraint on the zero-level set in Chain-Vese Model (C-V Model) according to the rectangular feature of content regions in document images. B. V. Dhandra et.al, [13] uses image dilation and region labelling approach for binary document skew detection. Apart from this, fast and robust skew estimation techniques like a bilinear filtering model which is used to detect edges existing in the document, COG (Centre of Gravity) method are used in the literature. IV. Proposed Methodology This section illustrates the proposed methodology for skew detection and correction. Section A describes pre-processing step. Section B describes extraction of axes parallel rectangle pixels. Skew detection using linear regression is described in C. Section D describes skew correction technique and last section E describes steps of proposed algorithm. A. Pre-processing The input to the system is a word or a line of single/uniform skew of handwritten Devanagari script which is scanned by optical scanner or captured by digital camera. Acquired input is pre-processed for removing noise. Firstly input image is converted into gray scale image and then thresholding is applied over for converting given image into binary image containing only black and white pixels. In this binarized image, white pixels represent background and black pixels represent foreground. B. Axes-Parallel Rectangle This stage calculates the area of axes-parallel rectangle. The angle with the least area of the axes-parallel rectangle represents the skew angle. Outer tangential pixels of an input word/line are used to form an axes-parallel rectangle. Figure 2 shows tangential pixels of skewed one are embedded into an axes-parallel rectangle. Fig. 2 (a) Skewed rectangle fitted in an Axes-parallel rectangle (b) Rectangle with zero skew. C. Skew Detection After getting required pixels using axes-parallel rectangle, linear regression formula is used to detect skew of word/line. Regression analysis can be used to identify the line or curve which provides the best fit through a set of data points. Linear regression analyzes the relation between two variables, X and Y. The variables X and Y are known and the problem is to fit best straight line through X and Y. In general, the goal of linear regression is to find the line that best predicts Y from X. Linear regression does this by finding the line that minimizes the sum of the squares of the vertical distances of the points from line. Linear regression does not test whether the data are linear. It assumes that the data is linear, and finds the slope and intercept that make a straight line best fit the given data. The goal of linear regression is to adjust the values of slope and intercept to find the line that best predicts Y from X. Fig. 3 (a) Plot of data without best-fit line (b) Plot of data with best-fit line. This is the simple linear regression model where à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¢0 and à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¢1 are unknown constants and à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¥ is the residual error. To fit the regression line in the equation of the data (x1, y1), (x2, y2),..,(xn, yn) by finding best match between the line and the data. The best choice of à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¢0+à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¢1 will be chosen to minimize, This is called the least square fit. The equation (2) implies à ¯Ã†â€™Ã¢â‚¬ º After little algebra, get where and (4) Equation (3) gives slope of the regression line and Equation (4) gives the intercept. The slope of the line is nothing but the skew angle of our word/line. Fig.4 shows the slope and intercept of a best fit line. Fig. 4 Slope and intercept of a best fit line After calculating slope using linear regression, skew is calculated using the formula, This gives the required skew of word. D. Skew Correction After the skew angle of the word/line has been detected, the word/line must be rotated in order to correct this skew. Various methods used for skew correction are direct method, indirect method and contour-oriented method etc. The direct method uses rotation transformation in which corresponding pixels in the input image will be transformed to new location by using equation (1) (5) Where (x, y) are the co-ordinates of pixels belonging to the word for which skew has to be detected and (x’, y’) are the co-ordinates of pixels belonging to the word after correction. For a pixel (x’, y’) in the output image, the indirect method finds corresponding pixel in the input image and assigns a value of (x’, y’) to (x, y) using Equation (2). (6) We apply direct method for skew correction which simply rotate calculated skew angle to horizontal angle. The detected angle by linear regression is corrected by applying rotation transformation. The word/line is rotated with ÃŽ ¸ angle. The word/line is corrected by rotating at positive angle if the skew detection angle is negative and corrected by rotating at negative angle if skew detection angle is positive. E. Algorithm Step 1: Accept the input image which may be word or line. Step 2: Convert the given input into binary by using thresholding method. Step 3: Calculate the axes-parallel rectangle of binary image by finding minimum row and minimum column pixels. Step 4: Apply linear regression, Equation (3), to detect the skew of axes-parallel rectangle, which is the skew of original word/line. Step 5: Using Equation (6), correct the skew angle of word/line. V. Experimental Result We tested our algorithm for input images of handwritten document for Hindi and Marathi languages. The algorithm is tested on 500 words and 300 lines of Devanagari script. The accuracy rate for skew correction of word is 89% and accuracy rate for uniform skew correction of line is 93%.Mostly the word with single character or small size length does not give accurate result because of the lack of a sufficient number of minima points. Table I shows the sample results of words with skew detection of positive and negative angle and skew correction of all these. Results of word skew Figure 5 shows skew detection and correction of uniform skew line. We tested our algorithm for document with single/uniform skew and for skewed printed document also. For these kinds of input images, algorithm runs successfully. VI. Conclusion We have proposed a methodology for skew detection and correction of word and line of handwritten Devanagari script. The slope of best line fit using linear regression algorithm is used for skew detection and it is corrected by simply rotating word/line by calculated angle. This method is tested on handwritten data of Hindi and Marathi language. The word dataset is collected from various writers for testing purpose which contains 500 words and 300 lines. The proposed approach can be modified for future work to get higher accuracy and for detection of documents contain multiple or non-uniform skew text. Fig. 5 (a) Skewed line (b) Axes-parallel rectangle of skewed line (c) Skew correction of line VII. References Deepak Kumar, Dalwinder Singh, â€Å"Modified approach of Hough transform for skew detection and correction in documented images†, International Journal of Research in Computer Science, Vol. 2, Issue 3, pp. 37-40, April 2012. Arulmozhi K., Perumal S. A., Priyadarshini C.S.T., Nallaperumal K., â€Å"Image refinement using skew angle detection and correction for Indian licences plates†, Computational Intelligence Computing Research (ICCIC), IEEE, pp. 1-4, Dec. 2012. B.V.Dhandra, H.Mallikarjun, Ravindra Hegadi, V.S.Malemath, â€Å"Word-wise Script Identification from Bilingual Documents Based on Morphological Reconstruction†, Visual Information Engineering, IEEE, pp 389-395, 2006. Kleber, Florian, Markus Diem, Robert Sablatnig, Robust Skew Estimation of Handwritten and Printed Documents Based on Grayvalue Images, International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR), pp. 3020 – 3025, Aug. 2014. Ahmad Irfan, A Technique for Skew Detection of Printed Arabic Documents, Computer Graphics, Imaging and Visualization (CGIV), IEEE, pp. 62-67, Aug. 2013. Trupti A. Jundale, Ravindra S. Hegadi, â€Å"Skew Detection and Correction of Devanagari Script Using Hough Transform†, International Conference on Advanced Computing Technologies and Applications, Procedia of Computer Science, Journal of Elsevier, March2015, in press. Liu, Zhoufeng, Jie Huang, Chunlei Li, Skew detection of fabric images based on edge detection and projection profile analysis, Foundations of Intelligent Systems, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Vol. 122, pp 483-488, 2012. H. K. Kwag, S. H. Kim, S. H. Jeony and G. S. Lee, â€Å"Efficient skew estimation and correction algorithm for document images†, Image and vision Computing, Vol. 20, pp. 25-35, Jan. 2002. van Beusekom, Joost, Faisal Shafait, and Thomas M. Breuel, Combined orientation and skew detection using geometric text-line modeling, International Journal on Document Analysis and Recognition (IJDAR), Vol. 13, Issue 2, pp 79-92, June 2010. Fan, Huijie, Linlin Zhu, and Yandong Tang, Skew detection in document images based on rectangular active contour, International Journal on Document Analysis and Recognition (IJDAR), Vol. 13.4, pp 261-269, Dec. 2010. B. V. Dhandra, V. S. Malemath, H. Mallikarjun and R. Hegadi, â€Å"Skew detection in binary image documents based on image dilation and region labelling approach† International Conference on Pattern Recognition, IEEE, Vol. 2. pp 954-957, 2006.

Land Degradation and Global Warming Essay

Our planet has experienced many changes in its climate from day 1 of creation up to the present. Today, we are faced with issues concerning global warming or the average increase of temperature of Earth’s atmosphere. What causes global warming leads researchers to identify natural conditions and manmade activities that cause this phenomenon (U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2008). Land degradation is being eyed as one of the contributing factors of global warming. By definition, it is the loss of the land productivity that could be permanently or temporarily (Stocking & Murnagham, 2000). Literature Review Land degradation has been a problem for a long time. Researches are done in order to find out the most applicable solution to the affected areas. Michael Stocking and Niamh Murnaghan, in 2000, had published â€Å"Land Degradation: Guidelines for Field Assessment. † This publication consists of 8 chapters. The authors have focus on the following areas: farmers’ perspective on land degradation, definition and causes, effects and consequences to land users, soil loss, effects to production, indicators of land degradation, and the benefits of conservation. Agencies such as the Canadian International Development Agency or CIDA, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the United Nations have promoted their awareness programs regarding land degradation and global warming. With the help of these agencies, people are gaining information about the effects of natural events and some human activities to the environment. Methodology This research is mainly based on information, researches, and readings from the Internet. I have chosen Web sites from reliable agencies such as U. S. EPA, CIDA, and the United Nations in order to acquire information about land degradation and global warming. Since the Internet is also known as the information superhighway, these agencies are successful in spreading their researches and making the public aware of the increasing effect of global warming to our environment. Data Analysis California is just one of the States that promotes rainforest conservation to lessen the effect of global warming by reducing emissions from deforestation and land degradation or REDD. REDD is an state-to-state sub-national agreement that aims to promote improved forest management practices and reforestation. The parties involved in this agreement have signed the Memorandum of Understanding on 18 November 2008. (Mongabay. com, 2008) In Canada, CIDA has led the promotion to reverse the effects of land degradation. CIDA works with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification or UNCCD. CIDA’s efforts to reverse the effects include: tree planting, sustainable irrigation, and environmental monitoring among others. (Land Degradation, CIDA, 2008) Results The effects of land degradation to Earth’s climate were not observed immediately. Now, the effects of global warming are increasingly being noticed. We have experienced El Nino and La Nina and heard news about the melting of ice in the Arctic. The processes done to counteract the effects could also take longer time before we could see the results. Discussion When the soil lost its productivity due to land degradation, trees and plants could not thrive on it. Add to this phenomenon the continuous illegal logging and deforestation activities could lead to decreased numbers of planted trees and plants. When the number of planted trees and plants continue to lessen, few trees and plants could absorb carbon dioxide, the gas that contributes to global warming due to excessive production. Carbon dioxide traps heat. Too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leads to an abnormal increase in the temperature of the atmosphere, thus the occurrence of global warming. The common causes of land degradation are overgrazing, deforestation, and pollution. There is a human factor in these causes. We are responsible to what is happening in our climate now. As we wait for the results of the present actions concerning global warming. It’s best to help in our own simple ways on how to prevent land degradation. One is to help promote the advocacies of the concerned agencies. Conclusion Global warming is a reality. The effects of it are tremendous and detrimental. Should global warming continue to worsen, Earth and all its tenants are in grave danger. Public awareness of the effects of global warming is deemed necessary. We are the ones who have triggered the ignition of global warming. We should also be the ones to trigger the solution. Works Cited â€Å"California Joins Effort to Fight Global Warming by Saving Rainforests. † Mongabay. com. 19 November 2008. 25 November 2008 â€Å"Climate Change. † Canadian International Development Agency. 24 October 2008. 27 November 2008 â€Å"Climate Change. † U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. 2008. 27 November 2008 â€Å"Land Degradation. † Canadian International Development Agency. 23 July 2008. 25 November 2008 Stocking, M. & Niamh Murnagham. â€Å"Land Degradation: Guidelines for Field Assessment. † PLEC Databases. 2000. 25 November 2008