Construction of Information Engine

Construction of Information Engine Coiza Making sense of information   1. Introduction I more or less run my life directed by information from the Internet. I check the weather, check the traffic, look for places to go, look for reviews for the places, get updates from my friends and work and browse lots of information from many other sources. The information I am interested in depends on many factors including the time of the day, my location, whether it is a work day or a weekend, whether I am at home or on vacation. Indeed many times the information I am interested is prompted by information I have already discovered. For example, on a work day I might check the weather and, if it looks like rain, check the availability of trains to get me home (well I wouldnt want to get wet!). Technology like Google Now do a great job of automating information assimilation by guessing what information relevant is relevant to me. The challenge of this type of technology is that assimilation, particularly across many information sources, can be complex and not easy to guess. An alternative approach is to explicitly define the rules by which information is assimilated in a way that can then be automatically processed by what I call Information Engines. In this article I want to talk about an Information Engine that I have constructed called Coiza. Coiza is built around information channels that can be subscribed to and which display information as feeds like those used by Facebook and Twitter. Channels may display raw information, for example a news channel (like the BBC), or may display information resulting from combining information, for example location and Wikipedia summaries for that location. Channels can produce any information including context information like location and time of day. The most interesting feature of Coiza is that it allows the definition of new channels based on existing channels and rules on how the information from the existing channels gets used to produce information from a new channel. 2. Viewing Channels Channels can be subscribed to within Coiza. Depending on the channel it may be necessary to supply parameter values and/or authorisations for Coiza to access private information (e.g. Google Calendar) using the OAuth protocol. Once channels have been subscribed to then information is displayed from that channel in a feed like format where the feed is hidden if there is no information to display. 3. Creating Channels Viewing channels is where most users will spend the majority of the time, but the richness of channels available to view is enabled by ability to build new channels with relative ease. Any user within Coiza can create and publish channels by writing CoizaLang code. CoizaLang code consists of two primary constructs: Info A model of a piece of information that is either consumed or produced by a channel and can be rendered within feeds. Channel Consumes zero or more info flows, emits a single info flow, and defines rules for producing the output flow. Channels may be nested within each other. 3.1 Building Infos Here is an example of a CoizaLang info for Message illustrating the key features of infos. Firstly like all constructs, infos live within a namespace, or package, in this case coiza since it is supplied as part of the coiza platform. All infos (and for that matter channels) must live in a namespace beginning with the username of the coiza user that created it which in my case is jwillans. Infos can subtype, or extend, other infos which, as we shall see a bit later, allows the same instance of a type to play different roles depending on the channel using it. In this example Message subtypes TitledContent and, in addition to having the link and author fields defined locally, title and content fields are inherited through the sub type relationship. Fields can be typed using primitive values or other info types. A further important feature of infos is the optional render block which defines how infos are turned into html for display within a feed. When a subscribed channel is displayed (see the screenshot in Section 2) the supplied feed is a result of turning infos into html using the render block. Render blocks support a subset of html along with the ability to reference and navigate info fields using a small expression language. 3.2 Building Channels Channels are the bread and butter of coiza. A CoizaLang channel has zero or more input ports, a single output port, all of which are typed by infos. The job of a channel is to produce output infos often as a result of processing input infos. The resulting infos can then either be displayed as feeds, assuming the channel has being subscribed to, and/or used as the input to a further channel. In this way networks of channels can be created building on one another. 3.2.1 Getting the news Here is a simple example of a channel which does not do any processing directly but wraps the existing channel RSSFeedProvider to define a BBC news channel. I sometimes call these types of channels assembly channels. RSSFeedProvider is one of a number of channels that hook in to externally supplied data, in this case getting information from an RSS feed. Other example of external data channels in coiza includes Google Calendar, IMAP email, LinkedIn, current location, Wikipedia, currency converters à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ and the list is growing all the time. From a coiza point of view these behave exactly like any other (user defined) channel. Like infos, channels are named and live within a package namespace. A channel can have zero or more parameters which are declared in the parenthesis after the channel name (line 5). In the case of the BBC News channel no parameters are required. However RSSFeedProvider does have a single string parameter defining the RSS feed location, and the URL of the BBC news feed is supplied as an argument to the RSS feed (line 7). This BBC News channel has no input ports but defines a single output port (line 9) which simply takes the output of RSSFeedProvider. By the way, although it cannot be seen from the above code, RSSFeedProvider produces infos of type Message which we covered in the previous section. 3.2.2 Filtering the news Lets get more adventurous and explore some of the other features of CoizaLang. Suppose we wanted to filter the news by title, we could define a further channel as follows: FilteredTitle demonstrates a parameterised channel, requiring a filter string, with both input (+) and output (-) ports and a body that does some processing. Note how the ports are typed as Titled infoswhich is the base type Message subtypes thereby enabling this channel to filter titles on any type that extends Titled including Messages. The body of the channel iterates over all the incoming infos from feed and filters them using a pattern (line 11) which essentially says that an info must be of type Titled and the title field must contain the value of filter. Any matching infos are emitted to the output port. Now that we have a filter channel we can create a new assembly channel to filter the BBC news leveraging the two channels we have created. Most of the features of this channel has been illustrated previously, the one new feature is the wire declaration (line 14) which, as you may guess, defines how output ports are connected to input ports. In this case how the output of the BBC news channel is the input of the filter title channel. The output of this channel is then the output of the assembly channel (line 12). 3.2.3 Publishing the news During developing a channel it is possible to test the channel in order to ensure it works as designed as shown below. For a user channel to be subscribable, and used outside of testing, then it is important to guarantee that it is not going to change. To do this, a channel must be published which then prevents change. Before publication can happen, all infos or channels that are referenced by the channel must also be published and the channel must not have any type checking issues (there is no sense in publishing a channel that wont work). Unpublishing can only take place if the construct being unpublished has no dependents either in the form of other constructs or user subscriptions. If a change is required to a published channel with dependents then the only approach is to create a new version of that channel (or indeed info). We have created a couple of channels BBC News and Filtered BBC News that once published can be subscribed to by any user. Rather than the user having to search for the CoizaLang channel name (i.e. BBCNews or FilteredBBCNews) it is possible to give the channel a user friendly name along with a description which are both used as part of the search for subscribable channels mechanism. 3.2.4 Tell me in the morning Youve probably got a handle now on how coiza works and how anyone can build channels and those channels once published can either be subscribed to or used as a basis of further channels. By way of a final example, if Bob Brown publishes a channel to filter based on the time of day, then we can create another BBC News channel which filters both on the title and the time of day. 4. Summary I have talked about how Information Engines can help bring information together into a form that is more appropriate to what the users is interested in knowing, and I have walked through an example of an Information Engine I have constructed called Coiza. Hopefully Coiza looks useful and you will consider becoming a subscriber to the rich array of channels that are beginning to be defined or indeed define one or more channel for yourself. Finally in case you were wondering why is Coiza called Coiza it comes from the Portuguese word coisa meaning thing!

State of California versus Frankenstein :: Argumentative Persuasive Mary Shelley Essays

State of California versus Frankenstein Ladies and gentleman of the jury we are gathered here today to highlight the injustices, prove the innocence, and consequently save the life of a man that has been dealt the wrong hand since even before his existence. A man who with no power of his own, was put into situations that forced him to behave the way that he did. His actions were just mirror reflections of the behavior that he was taught, and seeing how he was perceived as being a monster rather than human, he soon began to fulfill the role of the monster he was seen as. Mr. Frankenstein had not the power nor was he given the ability to control his own actions. He has been made a victim of circumstance. In conclusion, I will try to prove that Frankenstein should not be held personally or morally responsible for his actions, because forces outside his control caused his criminality. < Doctor Victor Frankenstein once stated "A new species will bless me as its creator and source: many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me" (Shelley 223). Yet, Dr. Victor did not think about the consequences of his actions, he did not think about the effect it would have on his creation. He was just empowered by the vision of creating a human being. "His sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body" (Shelley 233). Dr. Victor gathered the material he needed to create Frankenstein. Yet, he never thought of the negative aspects that his creation would inherit due to its degenerate body parts. First, let's talk about the neurophysiological aspect. Frankenstein was given an abnormal brain, the brain of a criminal. To the Doctor's defense he did not know that the stolen brain was one that belonged to a criminal;however, it is very possible that the new brain recipient inherited the anti-social behavior possessed by the former. A second point worth noting is Frankensteins' genetic makeup. The massive abnormalities in which Frankenstein has had to endure reflects his behavior. For example, his unproportionate body parts his hands longer than a normal human being. This mans' unusual height, eight feet tall is proportionally larger and stronger than any other man. A figure covered by many scars that bond each piece of raw material that was used to create Frankenstein. And that face, the face of an outcast, which whenever seen, frightens any creature around, whether it be human or animal.

Brand Loyalty †Thesis Proposal Essay

The current financial crisis has spread around the world and no consumer has stayed untouched. In economic downturns, consumers are trying to better manage their expenses due to uncertainty for the future. In such cases, their brand loyalty might be shaken. Especially for UK consumers, whose purchasing power is lower than the other nations, the situation in the beginning of 2010 seems to be much more difficult. Hence, the purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of the current recession on UK consumers’ brand loyalty. A quantitative method will be employed and the empirical data will be collected through questionnaire survey with a sample of fifty UK consumers from the area of Thessaloniki. The questionnaire survey will be distributed to different people regardless of age and demographic characteristics, backgrounds and attitudes. The results of the study will aim to show that not all consumers’ brand loyalty has been shaken the same by the recession but some types of consumers were more affected compared to others. Furthermore, the research will aim to indicate that brand loyalty varies over products so some product and service categories lost a big part of their market share. The findings might be interesting and useful to several companies that would like to be aware both of the profiles of the customers that are more likely to switch to cheaper brands and the products that will easily lose a part of their market share during a recession so that can formulate the appropriate marketing strategy. In the highlighted part right the name of the area where it will be easier for to distribute fifty surveys and get them back. What Influences brand loyalty towards cigarette brands in the UK market? Brand loyalty has been a one of the biggest issues in the world of marketing over the last years. The two topics of brand loyalty and cigarette smoking have rarely been linked. A possible reason for this is that researchers might feel that it is in some way unethical to provide managerial suggestions for tobacco producers. The aim of this study is to clarify that matter and get knowledge about which product-related, psychographic, health-related and demographic factors influence the brand loyalty among smokers and to what extent. By examining brand loyalty towards cigarette brands, those factors which in fact decrease brand loyalty can be identified. In the literature review, the necessary background will be referenced to answer the research questions. The research will be conducted on a quantitative basis. The main research method used will be questionnaire survey. It is the researcher’s belief that this study will provide new and interesting perspective on the topic of brand loyalty, as well as the researcher hopes that the results will be beneficial for social marketers in their fight against cigarette smoking. What effect does sponsorship have on brand loyalty: A case study of Vodafone customers An increasingly larger marketing budget is allocated to sponsoring in companies. This has triggered the attention of the academics to research what the exact effects of sponsorship on a sponsoring brand are. This study fills a gap in the sponsorship literature by focusing on both current customers and looking at sponsorship from both negative and positive perspective. It researches what the effects of sponsorship are on brand loyalty for current customers concerning a sponsored party. Prior literature on both sponsorship and brand loyalty is explored to establish a sound theoretical reference. The review will demonstrate that negative and positive incidences as the context has a negative and positive effect respectively on attitude change toward the sponsored party, which in turn influences change in brand loyalty. The established theoretical reference is tested by means on a questionnaire survey. The sample will consist of Vodafone customers, which are tested on the change in attitudes toward the sponsored team (McLaren-Mercedes Formula 1 team for Vodafone) and on the change in attitudes and behavior toward the sponsoring brand.

Free Essays on Supercomputing

By a "superintelligence" we mean an intellect that is much smarter than the best human brains in practically every field, including scientific creativity, general wisdom and social skills. This definition leaves open how the superintelligence is implemented: it could be a digital computer, an ensemble of networked computers, cultured cortical tissue or what have you. It also leaves open whether the superintelligence is conscious and has subjective experiences. Entities such as companies or the scientific community are not superintelligences according to this definition. Although they can perform a number of tasks of which no individual human is capable, they are not intellects and there are many fields in which they perform much worse than a human brain - for example, you can't have real-time conversation with "the scientific community". Superintelligence requires software as well as hardware. There are several approaches to the software problem, varying in the amount of top-down direction they require. At the one extreme we have systems like CYC which is a very large encyclopedia-like knowledge-base and inference-engine. It has been spoon-fed facts, rules of thumb and heuristics for over a decade by a team of human knowledge enterers. While systems like CYC might be good for certain practical tasks, this hardly seems like an approach that will convince AI-skeptics that superintelligence might well happen in the foreseeable future. We have to look at paradigms that require less human input, ones that make more use of bottom-up methods. Given sufficient hardware and the right sort of programming, we could make the machines learn in the same way a child does, i.e. by interacting with human ad... Free Essays on Supercomputing Free Essays on Supercomputing By a "superintelligence" we mean an intellect that is much smarter than the best human brains in practically every field, including scientific creativity, general wisdom and social skills. This definition leaves open how the superintelligence is implemented: it could be a digital computer, an ensemble of networked computers, cultured cortical tissue or what have you. It also leaves open whether the superintelligence is conscious and has subjective experiences. Entities such as companies or the scientific community are not superintelligences according to this definition. Although they can perform a number of tasks of which no individual human is capable, they are not intellects and there are many fields in which they perform much worse than a human brain - for example, you can't have real-time conversation with "the scientific community". Superintelligence requires software as well as hardware. There are several approaches to the software problem, varying in the amount of top-down direction they require. At the one extreme we have systems like CYC which is a very large encyclopedia-like knowledge-base and inference-engine. It has been spoon-fed facts, rules of thumb and heuristics for over a decade by a team of human knowledge enterers. While systems like CYC might be good for certain practical tasks, this hardly seems like an approach that will convince AI-skeptics that superintelligence might well happen in the foreseeable future. We have to look at paradigms that require less human input, ones that make more use of bottom-up methods. Given sufficient hardware and the right sort of programming, we could make the machines learn in the same way a child does, i.e. by interacting with human ad...

The film Psycho Essays

The film Psycho Essays The film Psycho Paper The film Psycho Paper Analyse the ways in which Alfred Hitchcock builds tension and fear in the shower scene in the film Psycho Robert Bloch first released Psycho in 1957 in form of a novel, but it was better known as a film directed and edited by the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, and it was first released on big screens in 1960. The film was highly controversial at the time due to the strict morals and ethics enforced by the Motion Picture Association, but escaped the censorship laws due to numerous tricks that Hitchcock deployed, to bend the rules. Hitchcock got around Normans transvestite side, which along with homosexuality was taboo at the time, and by saying that Norman was not dressing up as a woman for sexual reasons so therefore was not a transvestite. These factors plus many more like the verity of camera angles, music and most importantly the plot helped Hitchcock to wheel in his audience to come and see Psycho. Throughout the film Psycho there are numerous techniques used that assisted Hitchcock to keep his audience in suspense and tension. One clear example, in the storyline is in the introduction. Never before on the big screens in the 1960s would the audience have ever dreamt to imagine a semi naked figure on screen, but when that is the dress status of the first two characters the audience are shocked and horrified, and this clever tactic would have kept his audience interested and poised in their seats. Hitchcock took advantage of his stunned audience and used a series of close and long moving shots to move in on Marion. This would have made his audience feel particularly uncomfortable because it would almost seem that they are spying on Marion, and her male companion. This different introduction would have lead the audience to believe the film would be about Marion and her male companions relationship. So, Hitchcock developed the story line and plots very cleverly, as the title of the film is called Psycho, the first ten to twenty minutes, the film resembled a romance story but then dramatically changed to a police enquiry, which would have lead to the Hitchcocks audience being engaged with the film as they are eager to find out more about Marion moreover the audience would be trying to figure out what the plot of the film actually was. And it is near the middle of the film the audience started to get vivid image of death, there were two stuffed birds of prey in Norman Bates office, where he offered Marion dinner when she took a pit stop at a motel called Bates Motel. One an owl and the other a crow which both represent death. This is one of the most meaningful and ironic scenes that are seen throughout the whole film. The position of the birds are very important as they are towered over Marion, which suggested perhaps that death is going to come to her soon. The room was very dark and Hitchcock had used dark coloured walls, to give a huge shadow effect on the birds, to give them a scarier and sinister look. A lot of tension was created in this particular scene but then when Marion starts the conversation she found it somehow relaxing. And without noticing Marion gave her real name when earlier she intentionally gave another. When she went into her room, Norman also went into the back of the office, and it is now when suspense in Psycho came combined with suspicion When Norman watched Marion through a peephole, Hitchcock was particularly clever at this point because the audience would brand Norman a weirdo and a pervert but would soon fell very strange, as they would be watching through his eyes, as if they were, the weirdo and not Norman. As Marion took her clothes off, the camera takes a shot of Marion standing in black underwear, which in the 1960s gives a symbol of wanting to have sex. Ironically, in the beginning of the film she was wearing white underwear which is a symbol of purity and cleanliness. This office scene was soon to be followed by an extraordinary and famous shower scene, which took Hitchcock seventy-one to seventy-eight different camera set ups to film. Which suggested that Hitchcock wanted the scene to be perfect. The shower scene took seven days to film and only lasted forty-five seconds. It opened with Marion taking off her robe for a shower. She was located in a white tile bathroom, which was brightly lit. All the natural sounds were emphasised; the toilet being flushed, soap packet being opened, movement of the shower and shower curtains. The audience could not predict a murder was about to happen because everything seemed superficially fine there are no real sign of foreboding. So when Marion took of her dressing gown and stepped into the bath, pulling the shower curtain across, normality was still sustained however the audience start to get a feeling of suspense and tension due to the lack of action. The camera angle at this scene is very important as the camera took a low angle shot and transferred to a high angle shot. The angle illustrated that characters identity was changing. This showed the audience that the character goes from being superior to powerless suggesting that something bad was about to happen. In addition, Marion having a shower suggested that she was washing away all her wrong doings to make herself to the audience as being deeply relaxed as she was smiling. Hitchcock gave tranquillity and calmness to the audience as he made them enjoy her shower. But to their sudden horror the bath room door opened and a figure appeared in the room. An over the shoulder shot was used as it prepared the audience for an attack, because they saw what Marion couldnt and this created a lot of eeriness in the atmosphere. Another over the shoulder shot was used, and suspense is further created as the figure advanced towards the shower, footsteps were not heard because of the loud sound effects of the water, and as the curtains were closed the audience couldnt see the figures face, which made the shot look like a surveillance camera. The calm and normal atmosphere was dramatically changed to being terrified as a shadow entered the bathroom with a large knife. Additionally, the frantic violin sounds added feeling of fear in the audience. And that fear effect was sustained as Marion fought and screamed for her life. Close up of Marions face allowed the audience to see and feel the pain she went through. The thriller genre is clearly identified in this particular scene. Marion soon disappeared off the screen making the audience focus and concentrate on the dark, disturbing figure. Hitchcock made the audience believe that the figure was the mother of Norman due to the shape of the hair, which is shown in silhouette. Rapid shots were shown of the killing, and several of those shots were of Marion moving form side to side and struggling to defend herself to show that she can not stop her killer. The camera swooped in with a high angled shot, which emphasised Marions blood draining away in the bath. The extreme close up of Marions hand allowed the audience to see how slowly and painfully she was dying. This aroused emotional thoughts within the audience. The audience were shocked because they knew Marions been attacked. They see the upper part of the body and her facial expressions. The high angled camera shot of Marion falling forward made Marion appear smaller which lead to her beginning to appear off the screen. This unique scene built up the tension in the audience, and image of her eyes filling the whole screen is frightening as the eye becomes lifeless and emotionless The music and the sound effects in the film Psycho also played and important role in creating tension in the audience. Hitchcock slowed down the tempo of the film, due to the fact it would have made the audience feel more shocked at the sudden death of Marion. The violin and cello in Psycho was so effective because it is used as percussion suggesting the knife strokes. Deep sounds also sound percussive, and the audience could feel them literally piercing their body. This clever method would have sent shivers to the audience. In order for Hitchcock to create fear in the minds of the audience he had to use both the fast camera angle shots and the sharp, high pitch of the music to sustain and capture the audiences fear. This in the 1960 would have made the hairs on the back of the audience stand up, but now in the new millennium the audience are prepared and have seen more horrifying films, to be frightened from Psycho. Consequently Psycho led the path in film history, and it has made horror films what they are now.

What is Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

What is Leadership - Essay Example Through this definition it is evident that leadership involves inspiring a shared vision while involving everybody in the organization in the process. Through effective leadership, employee motivation and dedication is achieved. Leadership need not be seen as a title or a position. "Leadership is everybodys business† means that everybody is empowered to think lengthily, fashion a vision, and move towards the vision for the overall success of the set objectives. â€Å"Everyone’s business’ characterizes the relationship between the two parties; the leader and the employee. This means it is everybody’s responsibility to achieve success (Northouse, 2010). Previously, leadership measures were stringent, in that the leader was responsible for every direction. Presently, employees yearn for responsibility and each of them may be considered a leader in their own manner (Kouzes and Posner, 2012). There are several desirable results that are realized if a leader lets employees be engaged in leadership. For instance, there is employee motivation and trust among colleagues. In addition, the leader can concentrate on other important projects and assign minor leadership duties to the employees . â€Å"Leadership is not an affair of the head, but rather an affair of the heart† means that leadership encompasses being in love. Leaders must treat their workforces as humans and equals. The challenges that exist in an organization should not result in unnecessary distress for the workforce. â€Å"†¦an affair of the heart† is best explained in terms of behaviour. The leader should be mindful of the emotions of the workers in an openhearted manner. Practically speaking, it is about treatment of employees as equals. When a leader takes a course of action, he/she must postulate the impact it may have on the workforce and take remedial measures (Fairholm, 2009). Through this, there is bound to be less tension in the organization and enthusiasm to work. In most cases, the workforce

Management of ankle fracture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Management of ankle fracture - Essay Example According to most epidemiologists, ankle fractures have quite an extensive occurrence and the groups at high risk include adults, especially the elderly. For instance, Egol et al (2013) imply that that broken ankles have an incidence of approximately 174 cases per 100 000 adults yearly. While Parekh, Patel and Parekh (2012) assert that, the new occurrences could amount to approximately 187 fractures per 100,000 individuals every year. Nevertheless, the approximations seem to be much closer. Generally, according to Egol et al (2013) the correct treatment and categorization normally provides a decisive significance for clinical outcome. Since the mid-1900s, the rate of ankle fractures occurrences has significantly augmented in most of the industrialized states, most probably due to the growth in the number of individuals who get involved in athletics as well as the size of the aging population. Further, Parekh, Patel and Parekh (2012) indicate that the malleolar fractures (a type ankle fracture) has a vast prevalence, whereby the percentage for unimalleolar ranges from 60% to 70%. On the other hand, other fractures like bimalleolar fractures occur at a rate of 15% to 20% while the occurrence of trimalleolar fractures range at 7% to 12%. The overall rate of occurrence of the fractures especially between the genders, according to Maxey and Magnusson (2012), has a similarity. Despite this, the rate of occurrences is much higher in men especially when they are at a younger age. While higher rates of the fractures occurrence in women happens between the age group of the 50 to 70 years. Additionally, a heightened BMI and smoking have been associated with an augmented likelihood of the occurrence of broken ankle. In contrast to the radius’ fractures and other ankle fractures widespread among postmenopausal and premenopausal females, the density of the bone has not complete ly shown evidently as a key risk