Computer Creativity in Soccer :: Technology Artificial Intelligence Essays

Computer Creativity in Soccer Studies concerning computer creativity in art and music have been central issues in the field of Artificial Intelligence for over thirty years, and several scholars of computer science are optimistic that computers will eventually be able to create original works (Miranda, 16), but not until recently had any computer programmer pursued Artificial Intelligence in athletics. This is a particularly daunting field because our knowledge of robotics is still very primitive, but this does not merit neglecting further investigation. Robotic soccer has emerged as a new challenge in Artificial Intelligence, but the question remains of whether robots playing sports has anything to do with true â€Å"intelligence,† or the level of creativity that is necessary to produce something artistic. The study of robotic soccer is similar to that of computer-composed art in several ways, the simplest parallel being that the more intelligent a computer is, the more it excels at each of the fields. After a certain point, raw computing power will not help a computer to improve anymore at either soccer or art, but the ability to think originally will be essential in bringing out true talent in a machine. The concept for robotic soccer originated in 1994 at an AI conference when professor of computer science at University of British Columbia, Alan Mackworth, presented a team of motorized miniature Porsches with computer chips that chased a ball around, trying to knock it into a goal. The motorized cars were equipped with only a vision system and some basic programming, but much to the excitement of the crowd of European and Japanese spectators, they were completely independent of any human control. Mackworth had originally come up with the idea only a few years earlier, after learning of MIT and IBM’s joint project to build Deep Blue, the most advanced chess-playing computer program that became better than any human player after beating grandmaster Kasparov in a best out of five game match. Mackworth realized how simple it was to construct a computer that could outwit a human opponent at chess, commenting that, â€Å"chess computers sit in a room and stare at a board. I thought AI should raise the bar.† (Preville, National Post) Chess seemed to be tailored towards computers - it is a single-player, strategical game in which players have no time constraints when thinking through all possible moves, and it does not necessitate mobility.

Road Construction in the Amazon :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Road Construction in the Amazon When one thinks of the Amazonian rain forest, it is very unlikely that paved roads and highways will come to the imagination. Unfortunately, in the past 35 years road construction has been the main reason for the deforestation in Brazil's Amazon basin. In an effort to expand its frontiers and develop economically the impenetrable areas of the country, Brazil's government has launched a series of projects aimed at improving the infrastructure in the Amazon region. This included mainly the building of big transport arteries such as the Trans- Amazon highway and the subsidizing of small-scale farming along those arteries. The National Development Plans (NDP's) did not meet their initial goals since few people settled in the newly expanded areas and those who settled still suffered from low income, lack of educational opportunities and low life expectancy.1 The negative impact on the environment of the planned human expansion is tremendous. It has been estimated that 10 million hectares of the Amazon forest have been destroyed due to clear-cutting, burning, slash-and-burn agriculture and conversion to pastures. Deforestation is caused mainly by road construction since 74% of the converted areas is within 50 km of roads.1 This clearly shows that frontier expansion and colonization for economical and social reasons has a devastating effect on the environment. The Brazilian Amazon is the largest piece of undisturbed rain forest and, unfortunately, this natural treasure is being damaged very carelessly and at an extremely high rate. Despite the above grim conclusions, the Brazilian government persists in its effort to expand the infrastructure by appropriating more and more land from the heart of the Amazon basin. In 1999, the government started a new program, called Avanà §a Brazil (Forward Brazil), which intends to add 6,245 km of paved highways and 1,600 km of railroads to the existing transportation network. The highlights of the project include the construction of the Santarem-Cuiaba and Porto Velho-Manaus highways, which would traverse pristine forest areas.1 There is a heated debate about the effects on the environment of the new construction project. Researchers and environmentalists predict that "Avanà §a Brazil" will cause deforestation at a rate between 269,000 and 506,000 hectares per year. They also accuse the Brazilian government in negligence and corruption, because "Avanà §a Brazil" was approved without the necessary environmental assessment reports from the Ministry of the Environment.2 Government officials claim that measures have been taken to minimize the negative impact on the environment, but do not present facts and examples of how this is being done.

As completely as possible, sketch the supply chain for Zara from raw materials to consumer purchase Essay

Zara makes about 40% of their raw material (fabric). The remaining 60% is outsourced from within Spain, mostly from the La Curuna. Designing of clothes at Zara is done by creative teams of over 300 professionals at the headquarters in La Curuna, Spain. They act on the information fed to them from the stores managers. The first stage in Zara’s production system is cutting of fabric. The design is then sent for sewing by one of several hundred local cooperatives. After sewing, the clothes are returned to Zara’s facilities for ironing by an assembly line of workers. After this, the clothing items are wrapped in plastic and transported on conveyor belts to a group of giant warehouses. In the warehouse, the customised machines patterned after the equipment used by overnight parcel services, sorts, packs, labels, and allocates clothing items for shipment to Zara’s retail stores. For Zara’s retail stores within a 24-hour drive, goods are delivered by truck whereas goods meant for stores beyond 24-hour drive are delivered by cargo jets. Zara sells to customers at their own retail stores, each managed by a retail manager who gives feedback on fashion trends to the design team. 1. Discuss the concepts of horizontal and vertical conflict as they relate to Zara. Channel conflict is generated when one channel member’s action prevent the channel from achieving its goals. It can stem from difference between channel members goals and objectives, from disagreements over the domain of responsibility and from difference in perception of the market place. Channel conflict can be vertical or horizontal. Horizontal Conflict occurs among firms at the same level of the channel. Vertical Conflict, conflicts between different levels of the same channel, is even more common. 2. Which type of vertical marketing system does Zara employ? List all the benefits that Zra receives by having adopted this system. The type of vertical marketing system which Zara employ is the Corporate Vertical System which integrates successive stages of production and distribution under single ownership. Zara makes 40 percent of its own fabrics and produces more than half of its own clothes, rather than relying on a hodgepodge of slow-moving suppliers. New designs feed into Zara manufacturing centers, which ship finish products dirictly to 1,161 Zara stores in 68 countries, saving time, eliminating the need for warehouses, and keeping inventories low. Efective Vertical Integration makes Zara faster, more flexible, and more efficient than International competitors. 3. Does Zara experience disadvantages from its â€Å"fast-fashion† distribution system? Are these disadvantages offset by the advantages? 4. How does Zara add value for the customer through major logistic functions? Zara System One of the successful organizations that use the vertical marketing system (VMS) is Zara which have a distinctive feature of business model. With the aid of the vertical integration, the company is allowed to develop the strong merchandising strategy that continuously led the Zara to create the opportunities particularly in the fast-fashion system. Because of the lack of flexibility found in traditional retailing, the organization is obliged to produce the products in varieties, amount, and frequency of the new styles. This type of system begins in the corporate areas, wherein the leaders plan the changes that will create an impact in the organization. All the plans are administered to the stores that are mostly visited by the customers. In this way the regular customers will know that the new products are already available for merchandise (Craig, Jones, & Nieto, 2004). The quick response of Zara in the fast-fashion system places the emphasis on using the VMS to be very quick fashion follower than to achieve manufacturing efficiencies. The continuous product development in the retail environment enables the organization to facilitate the chain f competitive advantage.

Best Practices Essay

Historically, minority groups have been ardent supporters of and advocates for high-quality public education. Black efforts to gain systemic equality in educational policies and practices are well known: the battles for equal per-pupil expenditures; teachers’ salaries; length of school terms; expenditures for buildings, facilities, equipment, and books; curricular offerings; and so on. As a result of these efforts and of political and economic changes nationally and internationally, progress has been made with respect to ending legally imposed school segregation, as well as increasing minority participation in schooling for longer periods of time, that is, raising the median years of schooling completed. This paper aims to identify three best practices which assist the educational progress of minorities. Since public school desegregation began in the mid-1960s, urban school improvement is considered to be one of the most contributing factors for the progress of minorities in educational sector. Black educators and their likeminded allies have increasingly taken the lead in urban school improvement. One facet of this movement has been the study of schools that are effectively educating urban poor black children and making recommendations to other schools that want to replicate effective policies and programs. Researchers like Ronald R. Edmonds, George Weber and Daniel U. Levine began by identifying public schools that were effectively teaching black children and pinpointed their common characteristics, namely strong administrative leadership; orderly but flexible atmosphere, conducive to instruction; philosophy that acquiring basic academic skills is the first order of business; climate of high expectations, and continuous monitoring and evaluation of pupil progress with instructional strategies redesigned as needed (Mohanty, 1994). Achievements of urban school improvements were particularly evident in the middle of 1990s, for instance the data indicated significant increase in New York schools where 70 percent or more of the students â€Å"achieved reading scores at or above grade level for three years† (Iram & Wahrman, 2003:119). The second important practice contributing to educational progress of minorities is initiation and further development of various improvement projects targeting directly minority students and their teachers. In the beginning of 1990s for instance, Chicago instituted a plan for mastery learning in reading to correct the widespread problem of low reading achievement. The program provided teachers with comprehensive instructional activities, corresponding student learning activities, formative tests for instructional feedback, and corrective instructional activities for those students who failed to master objectives. A criterion referenced testing program served as the basis for instruction, promotion, and administrative monitoring (Bjork et al, 1994). The New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) in 1996 instituted a School Effectiveness Training Program designed to increase student achievement. The results from this program showed lower staff absenteeism, higher participation of staff in instructional decisions, greater involvement of staff in school activities, reduced costs for vandalism, better management, and higher staff and student morale (McNeely, 1985). The final practice, very important in terms of progress performed by minorities in education is giving a preference to private schooling than public. It must be emphasized that during the past two decades it has become increasingly apparent that larger numbers of minority adults are selecting nonpublic schools for their young. In their desire to obtain the best possible education for their young, they choose private schools, including minority independent schools. These parents say they believe private schools provide their children with better basic skills instruction, cultivate higher order thinking skills, have higher academic standards, and prepare their children for college or the work place more successfully. School improvement for them means leaving public schools. As Slaughter and Schneider points out (1986:17) black parents’ choice of private schools is â€Å"less of a rejection of public schooling, and more of an evolution of a new strategy for insuring future levels of sustained and/or upward mobility for the family. † Increased minority departure from public schools, however, may mean that the more supportive, motivated, caring, and accomplished parents and their children (regardless of income) are not involved in the public school system and that the system is the loser in the process (Henig et al. , 1999). From the critical perspective, minority individuals and communities must consider the costs and benefits of education in nonpublic schools compared with education in public schools – not only for themselves, but for the nation at large. At the same time, public schools must make more headway in school improvement if they want to retain the traditional support they have long enjoyed from black families. Many minority students can attain standards of excellence if school improvement policies and programs such as those described above are retained, consistently used, refined, and modified. Individual schools will find that their achievement levels and test scores improve, and that many of them can attain local and national norms even if their populations are poor, or black, or Hispanic, or both. These standards can be achieved without excluding any student from an equal opportunity to be educated. Our country still has a long way to go to realize equity in the schoolrooms of our nation. All students need an equal chance to learn, which means providing equity in financing schools and programs; providing competent, caring teachers; retaining proven, compensatory programs and relating curriculum subject matter to coping with real-life situations and problems. References Bjork L. et al (1994). Minorities in Higher Education, Oryx Press Henig J. , Hula R. , Orr M. , Pedescleaux D. (1999). The Color of School Reform: Race, Politics, and the Challenge of Urban Education, Princeton University Press Iram Y. & Wahrman H. (2003). Education of Minorities and Peace Education in Pluralistic Societies, Hillel; Praeger, 2003 Mohanty, C. T. (1994). On Race and Voice: Challenges for Liberal Education in the 1990s. In H. A. Giroux and P. McLaren (Eds. ), Between Borders: Pedagogy and the Politics of Cultural Studies (145-166). New York: Routledge Slaughter D. T. , & Schneider B. L. (1986). Newcomers: Blacks in private schools. Final Report to the National Institute of Education (Grant No. NIE-G-82-0040, Project No. 2- 0450). Evanston, IL: Northwestern University, School of Education

Media Manipulation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Media Manipulation - Essay Example Those people oppose to the media argue that the media has failed to play its designated role in society. Nonetheless, today, it is clear that the media as shifted from its role as a tool for information, and has become a major tool for manipulation in society. The advancement of technology has allowed for the widening of the media. Today, there is media forms include books, newspapers, television, radio, internet, and movies, among many others. Therefore, people today are exposed to a variety of information sources; hence, there is a flood of information from different media, directed to the public. Furthermore, since the media is in business, the different media forms are in a competition. This competition has contributed to the divergence of the media from its ideal role as a tool for information. Although there is an overflow of information in society, people are hungry for the truth. This is because, the media, which should ideally be a source of true information, is owned by ind ividuals, who are only interested in pursuing their interests through the media. For this reason, the media ceases to be a tool for information, and becomes a tool for manipulation. There is a high level of manipulation and bias in the media today. According to the Centre for Research on Globalization

The Artist in His Studio Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Artist in His Studio - Essay Example Rembrandt painted in the Dutch Baroque School. He was born in Leiden, Holland in 1606 and died in Amsterdam in 1669. (Broos et al.) His parents were lower class and had no artistic background. He was one of 10 children. His father was a milliner and his mother worked in a bakery. (Broos et al.) They sent Rembrandt to a school to study Latin. In his life, he painted over 600 paintings, 300 etchings and 1400 drawings. ( He reached the height of his career in 1642 with the Night Watchman.(Broos et al.) He also had the emotional shock of losing his wife and not painting as much afterwards. North of Europe was free from the Church. They did not have the patronage system and were freer to paint what they chose. The Baroque school was interested in form and lines. They did not paint religious works as other countries did. Light and realism were important. The Artist in his Studio. 1626-1628 . It is written that it is oil on wood, oil on a panel or oil on canvas depending on the sources. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is listed as canvas and on wood according to different listings. The genre is in the interior of a room which looks empty. Rembrandt painted it when he was 20 years old. ... His studio is simple and poor but his clothes and the size of the canvas show that he is rich. On the table there is a small miniature portrait of Jesus There are also one bottle and two bowls. The shapes of the bowls, the artist the painters table and the palette are round in form. The exact description of the objects have been important as to explain Rembrandts study in line and texture. His study of lines, light and perspective becomes part of the traits of the Baroque School. Â  Rembrandt was a master at linear study. (Westermann) The perspective of this work is from the top left corner wall to the right. If the viewer really looks there is a second linear perspective from the artist up to the canvas. There are multiple 90Â ° angles: the corners of the floor, the table, the easel, the door, the panels of the parquet floor, the table top which we cannot see. the canvas, the shadows of the easel, the line going from the canvas to the painter etc.. There are fewer 45Â ° angles: t he easel, the line from the corner of the room to the center of the room, the line from the back of the easel to the artist, and the canvas. In addition, one can say, it is a study of straight lines. In addition there are the lines of the parquet floor, the door, the lines going up to the ceiling. Lines and angles were part of the Baroque School. The triangles of the painting differ in size as they create the effect of the room being small. The easel is largest piece in the room as the angle of the corner of the room doesn't finish into a triangle. He is holding his painting clothe (chamois) where it shows a right angle. His clothing shows an angle in the way his scarf is around his

Public Relation Plan Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Public Relation Plan - Assignment Example By November 2005 it had 443 supermarkets and 287 convenience stores. For decades this chain of stores was number one in the UK market. It lost its position against TESCO in 1995. It reached to third position behind Wal-Mart owned ASDA in 2003. The reasons for this were better strategies adopted by the other two companies than Sainsbury, leadership and customer satisfaction. In today's scenario one's daily life is full of examples of services. When one think about service, service marketing triangle or rather pyramid comes to his mind, which has following components in it. The first part of the paper covers the situation analysis for Sainsbury. It includes competitor analysis and SWOT analysis. These two factors are important for any marketing, media or publicity decisions. This self-analysis and market analysis gives an opportunity to list all the factors important for the organisation. A good analysis throws light on various issues and topics, which can be utilised successfully for the publicity purpose. The next section deals with the target public section. This group deals with the fraternity group towards which the publicity plan will be targeted. According to this target group the publicity plan will have message, mode and timing of communication. Client strategy includes the message, objectives and other details of publicity plan. At the end the budget related to the publicity plan would be discussed. II. Situation Analysis Sainsbury has faced various marketing conditions. One time leader had reached to third position in the market. Any strategy to make a new brand is easier as compared to re-establishing any brand. The media group has not been favourable for Sainsbury till 2005. This is a strong influencer for all readers and audience. The current favourable scenario from the media group is one of the good signs for Sainsbury. Sainsbury can in cash this opportunity along with other strategies. II.i. Competitor Analysis As per the news on Guardian appeared on March 2006, the big four - TESCO, ASDA, Sainsbury's and Morrisons account for nearly 75% of the 95bn UK grocery market. The main competitors for Sainsbury are TESCO and ASDA. These two chains of stores are leading Sainsbury. TESCO TESCO has more than 30% market share of UK grocery market. It is more than double of its nearest competitor ASDA.TESCO is market leader in UK.240, 000 people are working for TESCO. "Tesco now has 100 Extra hypermarkets, 446 superstores, 160 Metro stores, 546 Express neighbourhood stores, and "over 500 other fascia-ed stores not judged worthy of the Tesco name but that still bring in