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James Wilkinson (2013) defines external audit as “a company audit which is performed by a party which is not a department or employed by a business to be audited”. External audit is also explained as an obedient or non-obedient audit realized by a 3rd party. It provides both the business and the government with a beneficial check of the company accounting. The purpose of external audit is that the company accepts an outside party as it will be more efficient at work.
Get original essayFirstly, the company will receive accurate and efficient information by using external auditor. This could happen for many reasons such as company employees are already engaged with other tasks, fraud within the company may prevent internal audit, external auditors are well trained for these purposes. In any case, the company will use external auditors to find the answer of certain questions about the accounting query. The external audit plan by specialist companies may be concerned with missing of funds or bringing another opinion.
Secondly, an external audit report may occur when a government body questions part of the financial statements of the company. In this case, an external auditor will not be obedient. The IRS (Internal Revenue Service) will mandate it. These are reasons why an external audit will occur under these situations such as the IRS questions the financial statements of the company, the IRS will detect internal frauds, the company’s statements may not according to GAAP, the court authorise the audit because they suspect that funds are being spent illegally. External audit fees are usually paid by the company being audited. The omission to this is that if auditors find illegal activity then the company may be charged with the costs of the external audit.
a) Provides credibility
The financial statements will be reliable if an external auditor assesses them and agrees that the statements are detailed. Credibility is important especially during the first few years of a business, it is when the business is trying to build positive reputation.
b) Critique internal processes
Internal auditors will not critique the internal processes of a company because they are part of the company. External auditors can detect movement from outside and determine where the company is wasting time and money. External auditors often critique accounting practices. They can justify behaviors to the company to promote greater efficiency as well as tighten accounting practices.
c) Double check internal audit
Internal auditors may be too close to the business because of their seat within the company. Some internal auditors do have enough experience to audit the company financial statements precisely. External auditors can look at the same elements as internal auditors and double-check their work. They can also train internal auditors in the accounting principles by explaining them how their scrutiny differs from the internal auditor’s one.
Designed to add value to and improve the organization deal.
An exercise to enable auditors to express an opinion on the financial statements.
Report to the board of directors and to management.
Report to the shareholders or members of a company on a true and fair view.
Work relates to the operations of the organization.
Work relates to the financial statements.
Often employees of the organization.
Independent of the company and its management. Appoints by the shareholders.
Strategic long-term planning carried out to achieve objective of the assignments, with no materiality level being set. Evidence is collected mainly from interviewing staff and inspecting documents.
-Planning carried out to achieve objective regarding truth and farness of financial statements. Materiality level is set during the planning. Evidence is collected as per ISA to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence.
Porter’s Five Forces Framework Model analyses the competitive forces within the environment in which a company operates, to assess the potential for profitability in an industry. Porter consists of the threat of new entrants, the threat of substitute, buyer power, supplier power, and rivalry among existing competitors. The change in any forces normally requires firms to observe the market and make the decision in the overall change of industry information.
Get original essayProfitable industries that have high in returns will attract new firms to take involved. New competitors may force existing firms to be more efficient and to learn how to compete on new dimensions. The threat of new entrants is high when it is easy for new competitors to enter a market ad low when there are significant entry barriers to entering a market. These entry barriers make it difficult for new firms to enter an industry and often place them at a competitive disadvantage even when they are able to enter. The domestic cars that have been produced in Malaysia are Proton and Perodua. This can seem that in the automobile industry, there have high barriers for new entrants to involve in. The potential factors that cause the high barriers of new entrants are economies of scale which is Perodua is able to produce automobiles in huge amount and gain low cost in producing company’s products and able to provide flexibility in pricing, differentiation of product which promote special products, requirements of capital refer according to cars industry which requires high capital capability to open and operate the business. Furthermore, automobiles business not only need high advanced technologies support daily manufactures activities, but also requires professional technical staff to manipulate those machines.
A substitute product is a change that makes which used a different technology to solve the same economic needs. Threats of substitute products or services are high when they are many alternatives to a product or service and low when there are few alternatives for them to choose. The substitute product’s quality and performance are equal to or greater than the existing product while the selling price is lower. The factor that confronts is the number of substitute products available in the market, the intention of buyer substitute, relative price, and quality of substitute and buyer’s switching costs. Therefore, if there have a high threat of substitute products, there is higher the possibility for Perodua to have the loss in advantage and profit of the products. So, the threat of substitute products in automobile industry is low because the substitute product of vehicles that have is motorcycle, bus, van and so on. Although there have many types of transporting vehicles, cars still hardly to substitute by other vehicles since bus and van are more consider as public transport which means the time and distance are uncontrollable by single person. For motorcycle, it will affect by the weather when driving and less safety than cars. So nowadays, most of the people will buy car as their primary transportation because of the weather which may be sunny or rainy day and capacity of passenger that can bring compared to buying motorcycle which in rainy day, need to wear raincoat in order to prevent get wet in rain and more comfortable than choosing van and bus as their transport.
The bargaining power of buyers is the ability of buyers to affect the price they must pay for an item. Firms can take measures to reduce buyer power such as given discount by helps the company to find out which is firm’s loyal customers. Buyers’ power is high if buyers have many alternatives and it is low if they have few choices given. While in automotive industry, the bargaining power of buyers is moderately strong because large parts of buyers are the small individual buyers that buy vehicles. Such buyers are in a position to bargain for lower prices while every buyer can easily switch to a new brand in the fact of buyers are sensitive towards price and would switch to another brand that offers lower price which is Proton. And for the consumers who more concern about safety or speed, they might chose Volvo or BMW as their primary car brand. Thus, the Perodua need to focus on building customer loyalty through design, quality and by offering competitive prices.
The bargaining power of suppliers is the supplier’s ability to affect the price they charged for supplies which including of raw materials, labour, and services. The supplier powers will increases when supplier’s products create high switching costs. Based on Automotive News in 2013, there have about 20 largest companies on the Automotive News list of the top 100 suppliers for 2012. So, there seem in automotive industry, there gave many suppliers that firms can choose to get the raw material. Therefore, the bargaining powers of suppliers in this industry is consider as low since Perodua could easily switch to other suppliers that provide more benefits and the switching cost might be lower than other industries.
Rivalry among existing competitors is high when competition is fierce in a market and low when competition is more complacent. For most industries, the intensity of competitive rivalry is the major decision of the competitiveness of the industry. Therefore, having an understanding of industry rivals is important to promote a product smoothly. Besides that, a business must be aware of its competitor’s marketing strategy and pricing which the reactive will occur if there have any changes made. Firms seek to differentiate their products in ways that customers value and in which the firms have a competitive advantage. Common rivalry dimensions include price, service after the sale, innovation and etc. For example, most automobile industry will promote the similar price of the car, the similar service after the sale in the reason to defeat the competitors. So, the lower the rivalry among competitors, the higher the profit that firms can gain.
Value Chain Analysis is a strategic tool used to analyze the strength and weakness of internal firm activities. There are value chain and support activities that should be analysed, while each activity should be examined through competitor’s abilities. Therefore, the firm that competes through differentiation advantage will try to perform its activities better than competitors would do. If it competes through cost advantage, it will try to perform internal activities at lower costs than competitors would do. When a company is capable of producing goods at lower costs than the market price or to provide superior products, it earns profits.
Value chain activities are the activities the firms” complete produce products and sell, distribute, and service in the ways that create value or customers. There have five primary activities which are Supply-Chain Management that handles sourcing, procurement, conversion, and logistics management that necessary for the firm to receive raw materials and convert them into the final product. For example, Perodua has a good relationship with suppliers and the company provides the Electronic Supplier Information & Management System (e-SIMS) to reach it supplier. Personnel are well trained for overseeing the transit of goods while all the process is transparency and monitoring through deployment of IT. There also have effivient storage of facilities to ease storage and retrieval. Distribution is the activity that relates the final products to customers which efficiently handling customers” orders, choosing the delivery channel and working with the financial support for customers” payments. For example, if there has a customer order cars in Perodua, employees need to efficiently handle their orders and arrange the customers to make payment. Marketing including Sales is the activities that target customer on the basis of satisfying customers” needs and locate the additional customer. For example, the Perodua has conducted various campaign and promotions activities. They also provide panel of finance and insurance for customers. Besides that, they also providing structured approach to understand the requirements of customers and the showrooms is available for nationwide including United Kingdom, Singapore, Brunei and Fuji Island. Operations are the activities that developing employees” working schedule, designing production process and determining production capacity needs in order to change the raw materials into finished products. For example, professionalism of Perodua is implemented in all operations. Besides that, Perodua Manufctuing Sdn Bhd is the company that responsible for the manufacturing of Perodua vehicles while Perodua Engine Manufacturing Sdn Bhd undertakes all assembly of the vehicle engine and also manufacturing of selected engine components parts. They also provide adequate of training to ensure stable source of skilled manpower and still continuous drive to improve efficiencies of Kanban and Kaizen system. Lastly is the Follow-up Service is the activities that taken to increase a product’s value for customers. For example, Perodua keep the product or service working effectively for the customers after it is sold and delivered. Service information and service package such as body repair and paint centres are available for nationwide for the customer. Besides that, the advantage for using Perodua Car products is easy availability to find the spare parts.
Besides that, procurement, human resource, and management information system is the support functions whose activities in the firm can create customers value through work being done to produce, sell, distribute, and service the products when firm is producing. For example in Perodua Company, the procurement support department will be finding out what resources that firm needs to operate and negotiating with vendors the best prices. In other hand, e-SIMS aims to establish smart business partnership and develop more opportunities locaaly and globally by being able to response effectively and efficiently through supply chain technology.
Besides that, human resource department will associate with managing the firm’s human capital such as employing the workers and retraining in ways that create a capability. For example, Perodua believe that efficient human resource is vital in achieving the company mission. They encourage employees to be in teamwork so that can develop ideas for greater efficiency and productivity. Besides that, Perodua has provided a conducive working environment and reward their staff by constantly reviewing their performance and upgrading the benefits of company.
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Get custom essayLastly is the management information system which obtains and manage the information and knowledge throughout the firm such as determine the ways to collect and distribute knowledge by linking relevant information and knowledge to organizational functions. For example, Perodua has invested substantially amount in manpower of IT software for its R&D activities which the main activities are localisation of car parts and components, styling and modelling of future models and facelifts of current product range.
The performance of masculinity, a theory introduced by Judith Butler, is explored through the characters in Arturo Islas’ The Rain God. Islas introduces male characters that encompass a wide range of masculine representations and roles placed upon the male gender specifically in the Mexican culture. His text constructs masculinity in his characters through the representation and image of the body. At a young age Islas battles polio and is left with a limp, this illness creates an awareness of his own body. This life event along with other parts of his life crosses over into The Rain God and the character of Miguel Chico serves as a surrogate in the fictional autobiographical novel.
Get original essayThe image of the body for each male character correlates to the level of masculinity that he holds and remains significant in identifying the existence of machismo or the lack thereof. Machismo is often seen as a negative characteristic; a trait more specifically attributed to men. Ernest Hemingway describes Américo Paredes as “the most hallowed interpreter of the macho” (Rodriguez 205). Folklorist Paredes defines machismo best in his essay “The United States,Mexico, and ‘Machismo’” as a trait that dominates men all across our world, yet observed majorly in Mexico, because it “is a whole pattern of behavior” (26). He defines it as a trait that represents the bravado in men, the honor and bravery, the “superman of the multitude” (17), yet it has become tainted with a “ ‘false’ machismo” (18) which reflects the negative qualities, such as “the outrageous boast, a distinct phallic symbolism, the identification of the man with the male animal” (17). These contrasting definitions of machismo, play a role in the confusion that exists in society and in men, when attempting to perform the role.
Gloria Anzaldúa describes the concept of “machismo” as the result of the colonizing and conquest by the Spanish. She traces constructed machismo, as a result of “hierarchical male dominance” in relation to the oppression by the Anglo man and to the history of control and dominance over the Mexican man, who due to his own feelings of inadequacy and inferiority, “displaces or transfers these feelings to the Chicano by shaming him” (105). The shame exerted on the Mexican and Mexican American man creates a “deep sense of racial shame” and their loss of pride and honor, “breeds a false machismo which leads him to put down women and even to brutalize them” (105). This cycle of violence and shaming continues and becomes a false expectation of machismo and of the performance of masculinity.
The male characters in The Rain God explore the concept of the body as a stage and masculinity as its performance. Just as in theater, the stage is necessary to reinforce the setting in which the actors perform. The same applies to the image of the body since it is the necessary setting in which gender, and in this case masculinity, performs its role.
Islas uses the recurring symbol of death throughout the novel to illustrate the tragic consequence and punishment confronted by men who fail at the performance of masculinity.
Islas uses death as the figurative representation of society’s criticism, a family haunted by death, and serving as a symbol of their inheritance, and their punishment. It is not a mark of the end, but rather punishment for a family of “sinners” (4), as described by Islas. Death acts as the critic, to those who failed to fulfill their role, their performance, their expectation. As we read about each character, death trails closely behind. Death translates as the voice of society, speaking out against the performance of masculinity. Death serves as the ultimate punishment for this sin. The manner in which death manifests itself in each character reflects their performance. In order to explore the role of death as a representation of society’s punishment for the failed masculine body, the novel represents the male images of the body through the characters of Miguel Chico, Miguel Grande, Felix and JoEl, including their performance of masculinity.
Societal views and the media support are responsible for the view of masculinity reflecting on the image of the body and its performance. Islas’ focus on outward appearance, the image of the body, lies in how each character highlights and performs their masculinity. When the image of masculinity is not performed to its fullest expectation a broken sense is experienced and the body becomes the reflection of this narrative. This is when society reacts to those who do not fit the image of masculinity with negative criticism and a lack of acceptance.
Islas explores the representations of masculinity and the construction of male identities in The Rain God. Through the characters of Miguel Grande, Miguel Chico, Felix Angel and his son JoEl, we are introduced to male representations that society has constructed, accepted and rejected. Each one of these male characters represents the voice of masculinity defining itself. Through their actions, their relationships, and their inner most thoughts we can identify the influences in their lives and the pain exhibited and felt by the male gender intrinsically. Each one of these characters is physically different from each other, yet so similar, internally. They all belong to the same family, from the same root, under the same matriarch influence, Mama Chona. Each man has faced their share of impacted life events, and each one is influenced and constructed into their own image. This image is what others use to measure their masculinity.
The image of the male body is the narrative of the masculine identity of each character. Miguel Chico represents the disabled man who lives dependent on a machine; he represents the incomplete “half” man. He is a man in search of completeness, and acceptance, yet burdened by society’s views, their rejection, and expectations of the male identity that he should hold. Miguel Grande, his father, represents the galán. He is the image of the perfect man, handsome, strong, widely accepted by society and his family. He represents the image of masculinity in the eyes of family, society, and of the Mexican culture. He falls into the most widely accepted and recognized image in Mexican culture, the “macho.” This image is a supported act of masculinity that has distinctive features that are repeatedly used in the media and by authors to reinforce the stereotype of Mexican masculinity.
Miguel Grande’s brother, Felix, represents the repressed man, the juxtaposition of the galan, and the feminine man. Felix’s denial of his homosexuality bestows death upon him, not only emotionally, but physically as well. He represents the masculine identity that represses desire and voice. JoEl, Felix’s son is the representation of the damaged man. He is tormented and damaged because of the broken relationship he had with his father, and then it worsens after Felix’s death. Though other characters face similar father-son issues, JoEl appears to represent the separation and anxiety that men face from the lack of a father’s presence. Yet his pain and loss are not expressed, allowing for further questioning into the type of relationship that JoEl and Felix really had. His damaged behavior is manifested through his precarious ways of coping and his rejection of any acceptance.
Each one of these characters embodies a stereotype constructed from the idea of the perfect “macho.” The machista is a more widely acceptable and recognized representation of masculinity by society. The “others,” such as the disabled or homosexual man are considered taboo and rejected, and viewed as a resistance against nature. The machista serves as the stereotyped male who will not allow for anyone in society to dictate or control his actions and behavior. He lives life in his own accord, and represents the ultimate image of masculinity that everyone must adhere to, because to him it is the only way and the only performance of his body.
Miguel Chico is the oldest son of Miguel Grande, the favorite and closest grandchild of Mama Chona. Islas begins with Miguel Chico’s story most likely because this character represents the author’s own voice and holds a closer tie to his personal story than the rest of the male characters in the novel. Miguel Chico’s body represents the disabled man. He attempts to perform and represent an image of masculinity instilled in him since birth, but throughout his life he is considered an inadequate man by his family and society. At a young age, he realizes that there is no avoiding death and this forms the idea that his life is rather to embrace that death will come one day. His decision to separate from his family and continue his education, stem from his idea that knowledge is power, and only through obtaining this, will he be able to prolong death from reaching him, yet straying away from the expectation he should have fulfilled, makes him a sinner, and he pays through punishment.
Society finds his father, Miguel Grande, the perfect image of masculinity; by contrast, Miguel Chico’s disabled body is a failure and is the testament of someone running away from his role of masculinity. Miguel never marries; he fails to fulfill the role of fatherhood, become a family man, or the head of household. A sense of irony lies in all of this, since the only part of his body that still remains and appears whole is his head. Yet this is not enough to create a sense of masculinity accepted by family and society. The body must be whole and work as a whole. His independence and lack of procreating serve as his punishment in the eyes of others. He finds himself ill, and the medication that he takes worsens his condition. His belief of the power in knowledge becomes an irony and his downfall, since the lack of communication and divulging of medical history cause his doctor to prescribe medication that worsens his condition. He ends up in the hospital, connected to tubes, unable to eat, facing death. This moment in his life causes him to give in to death. Knowing that he will have to live wearing a “plastic appliance at his side for the rest of his life” (Islas 7) is far worse than death. His body manifests incompleteness and lacks in performing the role of masculinity. The “appliance” that Islas refers to is the prosthesis in his own life. This “appliance” is an attachment that feels artificial and unfamiliar to him. It is the prop that hinders and impedes Islas’ “own self-perceived capacity for genuine physical (here sexual) relation” (Cutler 8). This appliance is the “impasse of prosthesis, extending and maintaining the body, artificially replacing its functions while simultaneously marking its difference from other bodies” (Cutler 8). He is marked for life as different. He does not meet the expectations of performing his masculinity to the full extent since he cannot have sexual relations. His performance of masculinity interprets as an image of dependence, as someone trapped by their own lack of body. He reflects the stereotype of a woman, trapped by her husband, unable to tear away from the dependency she has placed upon the man. He stands as the incomplete body that cannot perform sexually and appears almost feminine, and is ultimately he image of death, a surrogate to Islas, who constructs this character and uses it to exemplify animage of himself.
“You cannot escape from your body, you cannot escape from your body” (Islas 7) echoed in Miguel Chico’s head as he came in and out of consciousness after his surgery. His thoughts reflect how this novel is a representation of what happens when one suppresses the desires of the body. The novel represents those who live a life that feels the need to exemplify the image of masculinity and is predetermined by others expectations of your gender, of your family role, and of your identity. In the case of Miguel Chico he had to leave home to find his identity and acceptance. At home he was constantly in search of the approval and acceptance of a family and father that judged him and held too many expectations of him. His character reflects the thoughts of the author. According to John Alba Cutler essay, “Prosthesis, Surrogation and Relation in Arturo Islas’s The Rain God,” Miguel Chico is the surrogate of Arturo Islas. Islas was plagued by his own sexual ambiguity and his own disability. He writes that after Islas’ “childhood bout with polio” (Cutler 8) he was left with a limp, and an ulcerative colitis that left him dependent on a colostomy bag his entire life. His condition left him unable to “regard sex casually” (Cutler 8) he admits to feeling rejected and humiliated because of his limp and his bag though no one had actually done so. In Islas’ own words “I feel the constant specter of rejection “You cannot escape from your body, you cannot escape from your body” (Islas 7) echoed in Miguel Chico’s head as he came in and out of consciousness after his surgery. His thoughts reflect how this novel is a representation of what happens when one suppresses the desires of the body. The novel represents those who live a life that feels the need to exemplify the image of masculinity and is predetermined by others expectations of your gender, of your family role, and of your identity. In the case of Miguel Chico he had to leave home to find his identity and acceptance. At home he was constantly in search of the approval and acceptance of a family and father that judged him and held too many expectations of him. His character reflects the thoughts of the author. According to John Alba Cutler essay, “Prosthesis, Surrogation and Relation in Arturo Islas’s The Rain God,” Miguel Chico is the surrogate of Arturo Islas. Islas was plagued by his own sexual ambiguity and his own disability. He writes that after Islas’ “childhood bout with polio” (Cutler 8) he was left with a limp, and an ulcerative colitis that left him dependent on a colostomy bag his entire life. His condition left him unable to “regard sex casually” (Cutler 8) he admits to feeling rejected and humiliated because of his limp and his bag though no one had actually done so. In Islas’ own words “I feel the constant specter of rejection there everywhere, always worrying about the moment of explanation when I’m finally, completely naked” (Cutler 8). A similar description of vulnerability exposes that our author shares the story of the Angel family. Through the performance of Miguel Chico’s disability Islas’ conveys his own story, his own pain, and how he faced the inadequate feelings of masculinity because of his own lack of acceptance in his sexuality, and his own complications. Through Islas’ description of Miguel Chico’s disabled body he shares the image of his own body, his life and even attempts to foreshadow his death. He would later die from AIDS.
During Miguel Chico’s narration we encounter the first death in the novel. It is debated whether his own death is the first death we read about, or merely him drifting off into a sleep where he has expected death to visit him. As Miguel Chico lies on the hospital bed, the surrounding voices appear distant, calling his name, “Mee-gwell,” as if death were calling for him (Islas 8). This description makes him appear to be on his deathbed, a narration that he recollects of many of the members of his family, the “sinners,” “Felix, his great-aunt Cuca, his cousin Antony on his mother’s side” (4). According to him these are the family members who did not meet the expectations granted on them by family and society. They died possibly feeling shame, rejection, failure and most importantly as sinners. Miguel Chico lives with the belief that sin and failure is paid with death. His death acts as Islas’ way of killing his own self; the death exemplifies how society has rejected the author himself and not allowed for his own representation of masculinity to be accepted. Yet throughout the novel Miguel Chico’s point of view and narration serve as a constant a reminder that though society and his father killed and rejected his identity early on, his voice continues.
Our narrator remains an omnipresent voice throughout each story. The novel appears as a flashback of life, including the moments before Miguel Chico’s death, and the moment after surgery, drugged and drifting into a deep sleep. His last words “I’m an angel…At last, I am what you taught us to be” (Islas 8) are spoken through the pain, through the medical wires, to Mama Chona, who had been long dead. In those last moments, he speaks the truth. Even if this is not the moment of bodily death, it is the moment where his masculinity dies. The surgery creates a new life for him, and the expectations of masculinity become even more difficult to achieve. From this moment he awaits death, because only through death, he finds redemption and finally meets the expectation of masculinity. Death will make his body whole once again, and bring the ultimate redemption, forgiveness, through the eyes of his family. This would be his final act and he would achieve the masculinity he had failed to live.
According to Miguel Chico his disabled, incomplete body causes him more of an emotional pain rather than physical. He fails to identify himself as one of these sinners but does describe that he lives a life away from his family almost as a way of hiding himself. He gives no explanation as to why he never got married, and leaves much for assumption and question of his sexuality. He always says, “Well, I had this operation” as a way in which he lets others decide his identity (Islas 5). His disability makes him feel like half the man he should be. He fails to perform the role he expects of himself. As an incomplete body, he feels robbed of his masculinity. Unable to perform sexually hinders the expectation of masculinity that he desires. Cutler says, “Miguel Chico’s narrative is already familiar as narrative, he becomes the character through which Islas’s own vexingly ambiguous life story is made readable” (9). So not only is Miguel Chico’s body the narrative form of masculinity but it also represents the surrogate role he plays as Islas’ voice. Due to his disability Miguel Chico’s performance of masculinity cannot be achieved to the expectations he has created. The importance of his body as a representation of masculinity floods his thoughts and molds his identity. In this case, Miguel Chico feels a disconnection since he is unable to control his body. This lack of power and control over his body serves as a symbol of femininity, exemplified through his weak state.
His disabled body narrates the lack of masculinity that he feels. His disability conveys the image of femininity. His body is described as weighing “ninety-eight pounds and looked pregnant” (Islas 6) which strips him away from his last bits of masculinity. This comparison to the female body takes it one step further and strips away the last image of masculinity that he can perform. He does not possess the power or strength associated with a man’s body. Instead he describes himself as a female because his abdomen swelled so much that he looked pregnant. The image of a pregnant body supports the idea of him as the surrogate for Islas. His pregnant body represents him as the surrogate who births the image of masculinity and identity that Islas struggled to accept. This continues, after the surgery, when the surgeon tells his mother about how “his intestine was like tissue paper” and that he will be “forever a slave to plastic appliances” (Islas 7). By making this reference the doctor implies that Miguel Chico will forever be dependent on a medical machine to live comfortably, similar to the image of a woman who remains submissive to her husband and family, a slave, without a choice, bound to her home appliances and duties. His body now represents the image of the unhappy housewife who lives her daily life a slave to her stove, her iron, her blender, and her washing machine. This image of dependence, what Miguel Chico rejected by leaving home, follows him and eats away at his body and his portrayal of masculinity. He desires his independence from his family, especially from his father, and in the end he remains dependent on a medical appliance. Masculinity has been stripped from him through the disabled body.
He never meets the expectations that the family constructs and places upon him. He never measures up to his father according to society’s perspective. He never marries, has no children,
and never becomes close to anyone. Instead he chooses to be on his own, an educated man, whose destiny befalls him through his health. He becomes the voice of the memories and stories of the Angel family. Though he shares that Mama Chona is the matriarch of the family, he chooses to play her role by sharing “the suicide of a cousin, his father’s affair with his mother’s best friend, his uncle’s brutal murder, and the decline and death of his grandmother” (Cutler 10). His body’s condition places him into a space of uselessness, yet he manages to bounce back as the voice of the family, the stand in to Mama Chona, and through his flashback he shares family stories, secrets, and memories, ultimately becoming the surrogate for Mama Chona as well. Women are often depicted as the ones who divulge all the family secrets often labeled as “chismosas,” women who talk to too much and share too much. In this case Miguel Chico has become the feminine role, he cannot perform his gender to his expectation and so he fits the only other role he can.
He is the incomplete man, not only because of his physical deterioration but because of his incomplete spirit and lack of happiness. He lacks the approval of his family. He is envious of how his father’s sins are ignored since everyone has had to rely on him. He believes that judgment on these “sinners” is not given by God; instead it is an act done by the family itself, Mama Chona and every individual that makes up the Angel family. They are the judges who declare rejection and pass judgment upon others. Miguel Chico flees from his own sins and this judgment by leaving the family. His incomplete body becomes his punishment. He cannot run away from the judgment passed over him. It is through this that Islas shows how society deflects their passed judgment by blaming it on God. Death becomes his punishment and taunts him ashis father Miguel Grande remains unpunished.
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Get custom essayMiguel Chico’s illness becomes the disabled and frail body, the image of a weak masculinity, what he has always truly felt. Living in his father’s shadow with unattainable expectations formulated the frailness in his spirit and performance of masculinity. He secretly desires and yet feels shame for wanting attention and love from his father. He hates the man his father is, but the reality of not being able to become like his father, turns him into someone who denies the expectation and runs away from everything and everyone who could compare them. Miguel Chico is the voice of Islas; it is his way of injecting himself into the novel. For this reason there is confusion about the identity of the narrator. He is omnipresent, all knowing, and the embodiment of Death, and we ask, “Is he our Rain God?” Each story shares someone’s life and death, along with the impact that influences and creates ripples that do not seem to end. But an exception lies in all of this, one person whose sins go unpunished by death, someone who Miguel Chico is envious of, his own father, Miguel Grande.
Extremophiles are organisms that live in conditions which humans consider “extreme.” “Extreme” environments include but are not limited to extreme pressure, extreme cold, intense heat, highly acidic environments, and highly saline environments. These conditions were once believed to not have the ability to sustain life.
Get original essayThere are three domains of life: Eukarya, Bacteria, and Archaea. Each of these domains share features with the other while having their own unique set of characteristics, and none of these domains are ancestral to the others. The most notable extremophiles belong to the Archaean domain. Even though penguins are classified as extremophiles, most known extremophiles are micro-organisms; the main types of extremophiles that scientists study are from the Archaea and Bacteria domain of life.
Studying extremophiles can offer us a solid grasp of the physiochemical limitations defining life on our planet. It is hypothesized that primitive Earth environments were abundant in extreme conditions – most of these environments were extremely hot. This leads to the idea that extremophiles are vestiges of ancient organisms and may provide an understanding of how life on Earth emerged.
Extremophiles owe most of their ability to be able to sustain themselves in such harsh conditions to proteins. Protein folding is an essential part of surviving in all living organisms – they are needed to all living cells to grow, function and repair. RNA translation is a required step in the process of making proteins – without translation, organisms would have no other possible way to make proteins and thus function. There is no one fundamental set of adaptions the fits every environment. Instead, Archaea have evolved separate protein functions to survive specific environments. By understanding how protein adaptations allow organisms to survive in extreme environments, we hope to be able to understand the limitations of life not only on our planet Earth, but on other places on our Solar System.
One type of extremophiles is called Psychrophiles. These organisms are able to survive at very low temperatures. These organisms are found in areas that are perpetually cold, for example the deep sea, permafrost, glaciers, snowfields and the polar regions. Deep ocean water is a fairly stable temperature at approximately 2°C. However, the salt content of the water in colder regions of ocean water allow the water to reach temperatures as low as -12°C without freezing up. In fact, microbial activity has been detected in soils that have been frozen below -39°C.
Genomic (from study of genes), proteomic (from study of proteins), and transcriptomic (from study of the transcriptome, or gene expression at specific circumstances) studies suggest that Psychrophiles have various features that allow them to translate RNA and perform protein folding in cold conditions.
In normal conditions, proteins, namely enzymes, lose activity as temperatures drop below 20°C, which is not a good situation for a cell if it needs to grow. Enzyme activity declines at low temperatures because the average kinetic energy in the cell is low. Low kinetic energy means that conformational movements become slower and consequently, less efficient.
Psychrophilic proteins are more flexible so therefore they are better able to move and change conformation. This means that psychrophilic proteins can maintain high activity even at low temperatures. On top of that, a psychrophilic enzyme has typically 10 times more activity than a mesophilic (normal temperature) enzyme.
Thermophiles are able to grow between 50°C and 70°C, while hyperthermophiles can grow optimally up to 105°C, with a limit of 110 °C to 121 °C. These organisms can be found terrestrial geothermally-heated and marine habitats including sediment of volcanic islands, hydrothermal vent systems, shallow terrestrial hot springs, and deep sea hydrothermal vents.
All cells have an outer membrane that regulates what comes in and out of the cell. The cell membrane also serves to protects the inner contents of the cell from the environment. A universal component of the cell membrane is the lipid bilayer, which provides the barrier in the membrane. Since lipids are fats, they are insoluble in water. The most common class of lipid molecule found in the bilayer is phospholipids.
In extremely hot conditions, the cell membranes of “normal” organisms will be more flexible – when the membrane is more flexible it may lead to cell lysing – this causes the membrane to break, and the cell will not be able to protect itself and it will die. Another fate for “normal” proteins in extreme heat is that they can undergo irreversible unfolding, exposing the hydroponics cores, which causes aggregation. When proteins form aggregates, they will not function properly anymore.
In thermophiles, however, the phospholipids have some adaptations. The fatty acids of the phospholipids are longer, and have more side chains, and saturated. The increased number of large hydrophobic residues, disulphide bond, and ionic interactions promote thermostability. Better backing of thermophiles would prevent water molecules from penetrating inside and destabilising the protein core (water destabilises proteins due to its efficiency in hydrogen bonding with the macromolecule). This provides a rigid membrane, giving it a stable membrane in a hot environment.
To avoid denaturation and forming aggregates, the thermophile can form heat shock proteins. When these proteins are formed, they can protect the protein from forming aggregates, they can also refold the protein structure, which may allow the protein to function in the cell.
Halophiles are salt-loving organisms that thrive in saline environments. These organisms can be found in hypersaline environments all over the wold in underground salt mines, coastal and deep-sea locations, and artificial salterns. The Dead Sea and the Great Salt Lake, which are extremely salty environments are notable examples of where halophilic organisms can be found. Sodium chloride is capable of altering the conformation, stability, and solubility of a protein, consequently affecting the protein’s ability to function.
Some halophilic bacteria and eukaryotes are able to prevent the entry of salts into the cell and synthesise small organic molecules, known as osmolytes, to balance the osmotic pressure that is generated when you have a region of higher solute concentration compared to the other regions.
Halophilic Archaea, however, take in high concentrations of salts. For a non-halophillic organism, when the salt concentrations are high, water tends to surround the ionic lattice of the salt. Therefore, there is less water available for the proteins of the non-halophilic organism. The reduced readiness of water causes the hydrophobic amino acids in a non-halophilic protein to lose hydration and aggregate. This disrupts the normal structure of proteins that non-halophilic proteins are used to - the stability of the organism is altered.
Proteins in halophilic archaea have adaptions that allow them to take advantage of the high concentrations of inorganic salt to stabilise their native protein fold. Halophilic proteins have large increase in acid residues on the protein’s surface. There are two main possible roles that these acid residues are thought to have. The first role is to keep the protein remained within solution. The acid residues can cause the surface of the protein to be more negatively charged. Water molecules will be attracted to the negative charge, allowing the protein to compete with other ions for the water molecules. The acid residues can also bind with hydrated cation, which can maintain a shield of hydration around the protein.
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Get custom essaySome extremophiles are adapted simultaneously to multiple stresses (polyextremophile); common examples include thermoacidophiles and haloalkaliphiles. These organisms can tolerate two or more extreme environmental factors.
A well-told tale teaches us that we only get one chance to make a first impression. From personal relationships to casual encounters, we base our judgements on information gathered spontaneously from the appearance of those who stand in front of us. The focal point of this automatic process seems to be the face, deemed “the window of the soul” (Zebrowitz, 1997). Following a Gibsonian approach to object perception (Gibson, 1979), Zebrowitz & Montepare have stated in 2008 that the qualities conveyed in facial structure can accurately reveal social interaction opportunities, and guide our responses even when they should be driven by more unbiased data. For example, asymmetrical faces are perceived as less intelligent than more symmetrical ones (Rhodes, Zebrowitz et al., 2001), and men identify women with masculine-looking features as less bright, healthy and sociable (Cunningham, 1986).
Get original essayFurthermore, Secord et al. (1954) investigated whether perceived physiognomic and perceived personality characteristics are related, laying the groundwork for the modern approach to the subject. In their study, 146 college students rated 23 perceived physiognomic and 35 perceived personality traits of 24 individuals' photographs. The results showed that 93.9% of the predicted correlations between physiognomic and personality traits were in the expected direction, in addition to a wide correspondence between the similarity clusters of both judgements; for example, faces perceived as distinguished, intelligent and determined had thin lips and wrinkles around their eyes. This findings were coherent with physiognomic stereotypes, with a plausible psychological origin.
Facial appearance can therefore be held accountable for a number of behavioral responses. The next question concerns whether the forming of an impression has to be a long and thoughtful process or if it can happen in a time frame so short that it eludes the conscious mind. In 2006, Willis and Todorov created a series of five experiments to explore the minimal conditions necessary for the formation of an impression based on facial appearance, each focused on a different trait (attractiveness, likeability, competence, trustworthiness and aggressiveness), concluding that a 100 ms exposition to the stimulus is sufficient to gather an extensive amount of information in order to create the judgement. A supplementary exposition doesn’t affect the initial judgment, and it can give more confidence in the decision. However, further exposition can make the impression more negative, driven by a pronounced effect of the positivity bias in a minimal information condition (Sears, 1983).
The short time needed and the accuracy of the impressions suggests that information gathering from the face is a System 1 process: fast, intuitive, and unreflective (Todorov et al., 2005). Further research has shown that a minimal exposure of 39 ms is enough to create trait inference from a threatening face, with a significantly above chance performance, whether a 26 ms exposition is not enough to gather a useful amount of information from the stimulus.
Our impressions of others influence our behavioral response in a number of settings, even if it is based on a very limited batch of information and is created in a very short time frame; our evaluations can therefore predict important social outcomes such as profit, rank and results of political elections. Three examples will be discussed in the next paragraphs regarding the importance of impressions in three different scenarios.
Research has shown that the inferences from female Chief Executive Officers’s faces can accurately predict their success (Rule & Ambady, 2009). In this experiment, the faces of the top 1-25 and the bottom 1-25 female CEOs from the U.S. Fortune 500 list were rated by 90 participants on the basis of competence, dominance, likeabilty, facial maturity and trustworthiness on a 7-point Likert-type scale. In the second part of the study, the financial performance of the companies guided by the CEOs were obtained and compared with the trait evaluations. The results indicated that scores of competence and leadership highly correlated with company profits [r(14)=.52, p=.04; r(14)=.60, p=.01], thus confirming that leader who were perceived as more successful actually led successful companies.
Mazur et al. have inquired in their 1984 study whether the physical appearance of male cadets could affect social mobility in the military ranks, based on prior research that showed that males are perceived as either dominant or submissive individuals, focusing on particular characteristics such as facial features, tallness, and an athletic physique (usually associated with a dominant personality). Using the yearbook of the West Point Class of 1950 as a reference, they were able to obtain the facial portraits of the graduating cadets, close approximations of their height and athletic prowess, and the military ranks while at the academy. The faces were shown to 20-40 judges that rated them on a scale from 1 (very submissive) to 7 (very dominant), and a substantial correlation between the facial appearance of the cadets and their final military rank while at West Point was found, proving that dominant-looking men advance to higher ranks in the military hierarchy than submissive-looking ones.
The study was then replicated in 1996 by Mueller and Mazur, because the facial dominance of the cadets was found to be unrelated to their ranks in later career in the 1984 study. The missing information regarding the cadets' final ranks from the 1980 register were integrated with a questionnaire sent to the men in question, investigating new variables such as graduation from a war college. Final results showed that the cadets' facial dominance was again the most important variable and, while still unrelated to their ranks at the middle of their career, was related to promotions in late career, 20 or more years after the portraits were taken.
In addition to the previous examples, inferences of competence have been shown to predict the results of political elections. Eventualmente esperimento 2005 Todorov Rapid judgments of competence based solely on the facial appearance of candidates can predict the outcomes of gubernatorial elections (Ballew & Todorov, 2007). To test this hypothesis, in the first experiment the faces of the winner and the runner-up of 89 election campaign were presented to the participants, who had to decide who was more competent in three different conditions: a 100 ms exposure, 250 ms and unlimited time exposure. In addition, participants were asked to express a binary choice (choosing only which candidate was more competent), a judgement of competence on a 9-point scale, and whether or not they recognized the canditate. If the final answer was affirmative, the trial was excluded to ensure impartiality. Results showed that fast, simple and binary judgements of competence in a time frame as fast as 100 ms could accurately predict the outcome of the elections, and that additional exposure did not improve the predictions.
In the second experiment, participants were explicitly asked to deliberate and make a good judgment; this addition dramatically increased their response times and reduced the predictive accuracy of judgments, adding noise to automatic trait judgments and thus reducing the accuracy of prediction.
In a final experiment, data collected before the elections in 2006 regarding competence judgments effectively predicted 68.6% of the gubernatorial races and 72.4% of the Senate races when a Republican and a Democratic candidate were compared, further suggesting that a rapid, unreflective judgment of competence inferred from the face of a candidate can affect voting decisions and predict the election outcomes.
“We look at a person and immediately a certain impression of his character forms itself in us. A glance, a few spoken words are sufficient to tell us a story about a highly complex matter. We know that such impressions form with remarkable rapidity and with great ease. Subsequent observation may enrich or upset our first view, but we can no more prevent its rapid growth than we can avoid perceiving a given visual object or hearing a melody. We also know that this process, though often imperfect, is also at times extraordinarily.” (S.E. Asch, 1946). Solomon Asch, one of social psychology’s founding fathers, gives us an early but accurate definition of the process that creates an impression of an individual, a rapid but complex inference that guides us towards a future behavioral response.
The face is therefore our first medium to obtain information about a person’s emotional and mental state (Todorov & Oosterhof, 2011), with the consequent inclination of “reading too much into the human face”. This suggests that the social perception of faces can be modeled to further comprehend which differences in the structure of the face lead to inferences based on physical appearance. For this matter, a data-based approach was chosen to create a statistical model of face representation, utilized to extract the subtle alterations of facial characteristics that cause the changes in social perceptions. The authors used the “space face” model (Blanz, & Vetter, 1999) implemented in Facegen (www.facegen.com), highlighting 50 dimension for the shape of the face and 50 dimension for the face reflectance (brightness, color, and texture variations on the surface map of the face), represented by the correspondent vector. Five versions of every face were used for every dimension, modeled to increase or decrease its perceived value. These social dimensions can reveal the facial cues that lead to specific social judgments. In the case of trustworthiness, when its vectorial value is increased the face seems to express more positive emotions.
Further relevant information regarding the importance of trustworthiness judgements comes from the 2013 study by Todorov et al., broadening the prior research by creating 7 databases each containing 25 identities related to a single social judgement: attractiveness, competence, dominance, extroversion, likability, threat, and trustworthiness, selected because spontaneously used by people to describe unfamiliar faces. Each identity was manipulated to take on 7 different dimension values, in a range from +3 to -3 with 1 SD varying between every interval for a total of 175 stimuli in each database. The models account for at least 75% of the variance of all judgments, fitting remarkably well for each social judgement. In the case of trustworthiness, increasing the value of the SD interval results in a higher perception of its presence, so that the faces with a value of +3 SD are perceived as more reliable than the others.
Thanks to the use of validated faces to measure the variable of trustworthiness, it has been possible to run a number of studies to investigate how its value influences our life. As it will be demonstrated in later paragraphs, perceived trustworthiness from other individuals’ faces has numerous consequences on our social behavior, in fictional sceneries and in reality.
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Get custom essayThe ability to cooperate with other individuals has served as a strong foundation for our social behavior, and it’s a necessary value to sustain the growth of our society. In the stipulation of a contract, whether social or formal, the variable that can effectively predict and guide the drafting is the perception of trust. In the business world, corporate men prefer to “look a man in the eye” before the final decision (further stressing the importance of the face in social judgements as previously noted). When this is not possible, our perception of trust must come from precedents and, most importantly, reputation, as the behavior in precedent interactions is widely considered to be the best predictor of the level of reliability (King-Casas et al., 2005). To investigate the concept of trust, the appropriate approach should start with an initial evaluation based on the available information, gradually updating it with the additional details provided by subsequent interactions.
Human face recognition is a difficult problem in computer vision. Early artificial vision experiments tended to center around toy problems in which the world being observed was carefully controlled and constructed. Perhaps boxes in the shapes of regular polygons were identified, or simple objects such as a scissors were used. In most cases the background of the image was carefully controlled to provide excellent contrast between objects being analyzed and the surrounding world. Clearly face recognition does not fall into this category of problems.Face recognition is challenging because it is a real-world problem. The human face is a complex, natural object that tends not to have easily (automatically) identified edges and features. Because of this, it is difficult to develop a mathematical model of the face that can be used as prior knowledge when analyzing a particular image.
Get original essayApplications of face recognition are widespread. Perhaps the most obvious is that of human computer interaction. One could make computers easier to use if when one simply sat down at a computer terminal, the computer could identify the user by name and automatically load personal preferences. This identification could even be useful in enhancing other technologies such as speech recognition, since if the computer can identify the individual who is speaking, the voice patterns being observed can be more accurately classified against the known individual’s voice.
Human face recognition technology could also have uses in the security domain. Recognition of the face could be one of several mechanisms employed to identify an individual. Face recognition as a security measure has the advantage that it can be done quickly, perhaps even in real time, and does not require extensive equipment to implement. It also does not pose a particular inconvenience to the subject being identified, as is the case in retinal scans. It has the disadvantage, however, that it is not a foolproof method of authentication, since human face appearance is subject to various sporadic changes on a day-to-day basis (shaving, hair style, acne, etc…), as well gradual changes over time (aging). Because of this, face recognition is perhaps best used as an augmentation for other identification techniques.A final domain in which face recognition techniques could be useful is search engine technologies. In combination with face detection systems, one could enable users to search for specific people in images. This could be done by either having the user provide an image of the person to be found, or simply providing the name of the person for well-known individuals. A specific application of this technology is criminal mug shot databases. This environment is perfectly suited for automated face recognition since all poses are standardized and lighting and scale are held constant. Clearly, this type of technology could extend online searches beyond the textual clues that are typically used when indexing information.
Face recognition is one of the most relevant applications of image analysis. It’s a true challenge to build an automated system which equals human ability to recognize faces. Although humans are quite good identifying known faces, we are not very skilled when we must deal with a large amount of unknown faces. The computers, with an almost limitless memory and computational speed, should overcome humans limitations.Face recognition remains as an unsolved problem and a demanded technology. A simple search with the phrase “face recognition” in the IEEE Digital Library throws 9422 results. 1332 articles in only one year 2009.
There are many different industry areas interested in what it could offer. Some examples include video surveillance, human-machine interaction, photo cameras, virtual reality or law enforcement. This multidisciplinary interest pushes the research and attracts interest from diverse disciplines. Therefore, it’s not a problem restricted to computer vision research. Face recognition is a relevant subject in pattern recognition, neural networks, computer graphics, image processing and psychology. In fact, the earliest works on this subject were made in the 1950’s in psychology [21]. They came attached to other issues like face expression, interpretation of emotion or perception of gestures.Engineering started to show interest in face recognition in the 1960’s.
One of the first researches on this subject was Woodrow W. Bledsoe. In 1960, Bledsoe, along other researches, started Panoramic Research, Inc., in Palo Alto, California. The majority of the work done by this company involved AI-related contracts from the U.S. Department of Defense and various intelligence agencies [4]. During 1964 and 1965, Bledsoe, along with Helen Chan and Charles Bisson, worked on using computers to recognize human faces [14, 15]. Because the funding of these researches was provided by an unnamed intelligence agency, little of the work was published. He continued later his researches at Stanford Research Institute. Bledsoe designed and implemented a semi-automatic system. Some face coordinates were selected by a human operator, and then computers used this information for recognition. He described most of the problems that even 50 years later Face Recognition still suffers - variations in illumination, head rotation, facial expression, aging. Researches on this matter still continue, trying to measure subjective face features as ear size or between-eye distance. For instance, this approach was used in Bell Laboratories by A. Jay Goldstein, Leon D. Harmon and Ann B. Lesk. They described a vector, containing 21 subjective features like ear protrusion, eyebrow weight or nose length, as the basis to recognize faces using pattern classification techniques. In 1973, Fischler and Elschanger tried to measure similar features automatically [34]. Their algorithm used local template matching and a global measure of fit to find and measure facial features.
There were other approaches back on the 1970’s. Some tried to define a face as a set of geometric parameters and then perform some pattern recognition based on those parameters. But the first one that developed a fully automated face recognition system was Kenade in 1973. He designed and implemented a face recognition program. It ran in a computer system designed for this purpose. The algorithm extracted sixteen facial parameters automatically. In he’s work, Kenade compares this automated extraction to a human or manual extraction, showing only a small difference. He got a correct identification rate of 45-75%. He demonstrated that better results were obtained when irrelevant features were not used.I the 1980’s there were a diversity of approaches actively followed, most of them continuing with previous tendencies. Some works tried to improve the methods used measuring subjective features. For instance, Mark Nixon presented a geometric measurement for eye spacing [5]. The template matching approach was improved with strategies such as “deformable templates” . This decade also brought new approaches. Some researchers build face recognition algorithms using artificial neural networks [1].
The first mention to eigenfaces in image processing, a technique that would become the dominant approach in following years, was made by L. Sirovich and M. Kirby in 1986 [10]. Their methods were based on the Principal Component Analysis. Their goal was to represent an image in a lower dimension without losing much information, and then reconstructing it [6]. Their work would be later the foundation of the proposal of many new face recognition algorithms.The 1990’s saw the broad recognition of the mentioned eigenface approach as the basis for the state of the art and the first industrial applications. In 1992 Mathew Turk and Alex Pentland of the MIT presented a work which used eigenfaces for recognition [11]. Their algorithm was able to locate, track and classify a subject’s head. Since the 1990’s, face recognition area has received a lot of attention, with a noticeable increase in the number of publications. Many approaches have been taken which has lead to different algorithms. Some of the most relevant are PCA, ICA, LDA and their derivatives. Different approaches and algorithms will be discussed later in this work.
The most evident face features were used in the beginning of face recognition. It was a sensible approach to mimic human face recognition ability. There was an effort to try to measure the importance of certain intuitive features [2](mouth, eyes, cheeks) and geometric measures (between-eye distance [8], width-length ratio). Nowadays is still an relevant issue, mostly because discarding certain facial features or parts of a face can lead to a better performance [4]. In other words, it’s crucial to decide which facial features contribute to a good recognition and which ones are no better than added noise.
However, the introduction of abstract mathematical tools like eigenfaces created another approach to face recognition. It was possible to compute the similarities between faces obviating those human-relevant features. This new point of view enabled a new abstraction level, leaving the anthropocentric approach behind.There are still some human-relevant features that are being taken into account. For example, skin color [9, 3] is an important feature for face detection. The location of certain features like mouth or eyes is also used to perform a normalization prior to the feature extraction step [12].To sum up, a designer can apply to the algorithms the knowledge that psychology, neurology or simple observation provide. On the other hand, it’s essential to perform abstractions and attack the problem from a pure mathematical or computational point of view.
Face Recognition is a term that includes several sub-problems. There are different classifications of these problems in the bibliography. Some of them will be explained on this section. Finally, a general or unified classification will be proposed.
Generic Face Recognition System
The input of a face recognition system is always an image or video stream. The output is an identification or verification of the subject or subjects that appear in the image or video. Some approaches [15] define a face recognition system as a three step process - see Figure 1.1. From this point of view, the Face Detection and Feature Extraction phases could run simultaneously.Figure 1.1: A generic face recognition system.Face detection is defined as the process of extracting faces from scenes. So, the system positively identifies a certain image region as a face. This procedure has many applications like face tracking, pose estimation or compression. The next step -feature extraction- involves obtaining relevant facial features from the data. These features could be certain face regions, variations, angles or measures, which can be human relevant (e.g. eyes spacing) or not. This phase has other applications like facial feature tracking or emotion recognition. Finally, the system does recognize the face. In an identification task, the system would report an identity from a database. This phase involves a comparison method, a classification algorithm and an accuracy measure. This phase uses methods common to many other areas which also do some classification process -sound engineering, data mining et al.These phases can be merged, or new ones could be added. Therefore, we could find many different engineering approaches to a face recognition problem. Face detection and recognition could be performed in tandem, or proceed to an expression analysis before normalizing the face [10].
Face Detection Problem Structure
Face Detection is a concept that includes many sub-problems. Some systems detect and locate faces at the same time, others first perform a detection routine and then, if positive, they try to locate the face. Then, some tracking algorithms may be needed - see Figure 1.2.Figure 1.2: Face detection processes.Face detection algorithms usually share common steps. Firstly, some data dimension reduction is done, in order to achieve a admissible response time. Some preprocessing could also be done to adapt the input image to the algorithm prerequisites. Then, some algorithms analyze the image as it is, and some others try to extract certain relevant facial regions. The next phase usually involves extracting facial features or measurements. These will then be weighted, evaluated or compared to decide if there is a face and where is it. Finally, some algorithms have a learning routine and they include new data to their models.Face detection is, therefore, a two class problem where we have to decide if there is a face or not in a picture. This approach can be seen as a simplified face recognition problem. Face recognition has to classify a given face, and there are as many classes as candidates. Consequently, many face detection methods are very similar to face recognition algorithms. Or put another way, techniques used in face detection are often used in face recognition.
Feature Extraction Methods
There are many feature extraction algorithms. They will be discussed later on this paper. Most of them are used in other areas than face recognition. Researchers in face recognition have used, modified and adapted many algorithms and methods to their purpose. For example, PCA was invented by Karl Pearson in 1901 [8], but proposed for pattern recognition 64 years later [11]. Finally, it was applied to face representation and recognition in the early 90’s. See table 1.2 for a list of some feature extraction algorithms used in face recognition
Feature Selection Methods
Feature selection algorithm’s aim is to select a subset of the extracted features that cause the smallest classification error. The importance of this error is what makes feature selection dependent to the classification method used. The most straightforward approach to this problem would be to examine every possible subset and choose the one that fulfills the criterion function. However, this can become an unaffordable task in terms of computational time. Some effective approaches to this problem are based on algorithms like branch and bound algorithms. See table 1.3 for selection methods proposed in [4].
Face Classification
Once the features are extracted and selected, the next step is to classify the image. Appearance-based face recognition algorithms use a wide variety of classification methods. Sometimes two or more classifiers are combined to achieve better results. On the other hand, most model-based algorithms match the samples with the model or template. Then, a learning method is can be used to improve the algorithm. One way or another, classifiers have a big impact in face recognition. Classification methods are used in many areas like data mining, finance, signal decoding, voice recognition, natural language processing or medicine. Therefore, there is many bibliography regarding this subject. Here classifiers will be addressed from a general pattern recognition point of view.Classification algorithms usually involve some learning - supervised, unsupervised or semi-supervised. Unsupervised learning is the most difficult approach, as there are no tagged examples. However, many face recognition applications include a tagged set of subjects. Consequently, most face recognition systems implement supervised learning methods. There are also cases where the labeled data set is small. Sometimes, the acquisition of new tagged samples can be infeasible. Therefore, semi-supervised learning is required.
The problem of Face Recognition
This work has presented the face recognition area, explaining different approaches, methods, tools and algorithms used since the 60’s. Some algorithms are better, some are less accurate, some of the are more versatile and others are too computationally costly. Despite this variety, face recognition faces some issues inherent to the problem definition, environmental conditions and hardware constraints. Some specific face detection problems are explained in previous chapter. In fact, some of these issues are common to other face recognition related subjects. Nevertheless, those and some more will be de- tailed in this section.Many algorithms rely on color information to recognize faces. Features are extracted from color images, although some of them may be gray-scale. The color that we perceive from a given surface depends not only on the surface’s nature, but also on the light upon it. In fact, color derives from the perception of our light receptors of the spectrum of light -distribution of light energy versus wavelength. There can be relevant illumination variations on images taken under uncontrolled environment. That said, the chromacity is an essential factor in face recognition. The intensity of the color in a pixel can vary greatly depending on the lighting conditions.Is not only the sole value of the pixels what varies with light changes. The relation or variations between pixels may also vary. As many feature extraction methods relay on color/intensity variability measures between pixels to obtain relevant data, they show an important dependency on lighting changes. Keep in mind that, not only light sources can vary, but also light intensities may increase or decrease, new light sources added. Entire face regions be obscured or in shadow, and also feature extraction can become impossible because of solarization. The big problem is that two faces of the same subject but with illumination variations may show more differences be- tween them than compared to another subject.
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Get custom essaySumming up, illumination is one of the big challenges of automated face recognition systems. Thus, there is much literature on the subject. However, it has been demonstrated that humans can generalize representations of a face under radically different illumination conditions, although human recognition of faces is sensitive to illumination direction [10].
The information age is quickly revolutionizing the way transactions are completed. Everyday actions are increasingly being handled electronically, instead of with pencil and paper or face to face. This growth in electronic transactions has resulted in a greater demand for fast and accurate user identification and authentication. Access codes for buildings, banks accounts, and computer systems often use a PIN for identification and security clearances.
Get original essayUsing the proper PIN gains access, but the user of the PIN is not verified. When credit and ATM cards are lost or stolen, an unauthorized user can often come up with the correct personal codes. Despite the warning, many people continue to choose easily guessed PIN?s and passwords: birthdays, phone numbers and social security numbers. Recent cases of identity theft have heightened the need for methods to prove that someone is truly who he/she claims to be.
Face recognition technology may solve this problem since a face is undeniably connected to its owner expect in the case of identical twins. It's a nontransferable. The system can then compare scans to records stored in a central or local database or even on a smart card.
A biometric is a unique, measurable characteristic of a human being that can be used to automatically recognize an individual or verify an individual?s identity. Biometrics can measure both physiological and behavioral characteristics. Physiological biometrics (based on measurements and data derived from direct measurement of a part of the human body) include:
There are a number of reasons to choose face recognition. This includes the following:
The Face – unique part. For face recognition there are two types of comparisons:
All identification or authentication technologies operate using the following four stages:
Enrollment module: An automated mechanism that scans and captures a digital or an analog image of living personal characteristics. Database: Another entity which handles compression, processing, storage and compression of the captured data with stored data. Identification module: The third interfaces with the application system.
The implementation of face recognition technology includes the following three stages:
The input can be recorded video of the speaker or a still image. A sample of 1 sec duration consists of a 25 frame video sequence. More than one camera can be used to produce a 3D representation of the face and to protect against the usage of photographs to gain unauthorized access.
A pre-processing module locates the eye position and takes care of the surrounding lighting condition and color variance. First, the presence of faces or face in a scene must be detected. Once the face is detected, it must be localized. ? Some facial recognition approaches use the whole face while others concentrate on facial components and/ or regions (such as lips, eyes etc). The appearance of the face can change considerably during speech and due to facial expressions.
Face image classification and decision making
The synergetic computer is used to classify optical and audio features, respectively. A synergetic computer is a set of an algorithm that simulates synergetic phenomena. In the training phase, the BIOID creates a prototype called face print for each person. A newly recorded pattern is pre-processed and compared with each faceprint stored in the database. As comparisons are made, the system assigns a value to the comparison using a scale of one to ten. If a score is above a predetermined threshold, a match is declared.
If you look in the mirror, you can see that your face has certain distinguishable landmarks. These are the peaks and valleys that make up the different facial features. Software defines these landmarks as nodal points.
There are about “80 nodal points” on a human face.
Here are few nodal points that are measured by the software.
A Face bunch graph is created from “70 nodal points” to obtain a general representation of the face. Given an image, the face is matched to the Face bunch graph to find the same point. These nodal points are measured to create a numerical code, a string of numbers that represents a face in the database. This code is called face print.
Only 14 to 22 nodal points are needed to face it software to complete the recognition process.
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Face recognition systems can’t tell the difference between identical twins.
The natural use of face recognition technology is the replacement of PIN.
Government Use:
Commercial Use:
Face recognition technologies have been associated generally with very costly top secure applications. Today the core technologies have evolved and the cost of equipment is going down dramatically due to the integration and the increasing processing power. Certain applications of face recognition technology are now cost-effective, reliable and highly accurate. As a result, there are no technological or financial barriers to stepping from the pilot project to widespread deployment.
This is summary response essay example for “Face Time v.s Screen Time: The technological impact on Communication”. In her article, Chandra Johnson explains the current scenario of the communication between people, and how people use technology as a tool to communicate where their involvement is negligible which degrades the quality of the conversion. She also pointed out how kids these days are using a lot of technology and their effects on them. Technology can be very useful to connect two people living far away but on the other hand, it also affects the quality of the communication. she conveys that “kids who spend lots of time online on different social media’s than with other people struggles to understand emotions”. In this article author has analyzed views of many different authors, as well as sturdily depicted her views and I completely agree with her thought that nowadays people lack emotional attachment and skills because of the online conversation.
Get original essayChandra Johnson states a point about how crucial platforms like the internet, social media and texting have become in the current situation in terms of representing one's feelings and thoughts. Here she points out to a situation that people currently have the extensive influence of these platforms in their life and so they should have a prominent understanding of emotions. Through a prime example of Brackett about his life is how there were no traces of Facebook for venting emoji, and no online communication with people to present their panorama she is trying to depict how different our communication approach would have been. Johnson in this essay has characterized a lot of people’s opinions about this topic and further elaborates her view point’s about it. Johnson buttons up her essay by pointing towards research about how technology is changing the way people communicate.
I believe that because of technology, people are more likely to connect with family and friends, but the value of that interaction may become worse. Children who spend more time on a screen than other children or adults may have difficulty understanding emotion, building strong relationships, or even becoming more dependent on others. The text explains how the difference can be how we grow with it as a person and learn to live with it. Learning to live with technology instead of letting it be the way you live will help people recover what they lose in feelings and sympathy towards others so that they can experience the value of face-to-face interaction while having a real connection with people without the impediment of teaching. Chandra’s article contains interesting points on how we do communicate more through the internet but how the quality of the conversation has weakened. Realizing that kids prefer to have physical contact with people to find a social bond. Kids spending all that time on the internet can stop them from developing basic needs like communication skills.
Dr. Roberts believes that people who heavily rely on the internet to communicate are in danger. She sees people constantly on their phones instead of having face to face conversations, which she sees to be a threat to society communication system. I believe that we are losing physical interactions and what it can provide. “Right now, at Boston College, there’s a course on how to ask a person on a date. It’s like we lost the skill of courtship and the ability to make that connection.”
The way we are using technology is changing us biologically. When children are born, they have pathways that the brain relies on for information between nerves. They get it out of music, touch, and play. But when a child is alone and on the internet, for the most part, the direction eventually changes. This may prevent them from developing the sympathetic and empathetic skills they need. Not having that face to face interaction can cause personal issues. People tend not to understand the meaning of modern-day communication. It does not lead to a deeper understanding. “Because parents are not speaking digital, the dinner table talk can suddenly be like someone speaking Spanish to someone who doesn’t.” We have to find a balance.
The problem is not the technology itself but the way we are using it. We need to find a way to spend more time making these connections and personal interactions than spending all of our time on the internet. We can begin by limiting the time we spend on our technology. The internet can be a safe place for people because they feel more comfortable than they do in the real world. “Roberts claims that it is human nature to avoid things and make uncomfortable situations easier on ourselves, so we often use technology instead of direct forms of communication.” By unplugging our devices during family time and meals, we can fix this problem.
To conclude, Chandra Johnson mentions important information about how technology is changing our lives by diminishing our communication skills. We use the internet to navigate the world and all it has to offer. That's why I find that technology is going to be one of the most important resources and help us to make our lives easier, but we do need to separate ourselves from it more often in order to have and understand the real world.
In the course of the most recent a half year, the cost of oil dropped from $110 to its present cost of simply over $60 a barrel. Therefore, there were three separate petrol value cuts in South Africa, from simply over R14 per liter in August 2014 to simply over R10 per liter in February 2015. This drop is awesome news as far as funds for the two organizations and purchasers. Other than the fluctuating cost of unrefined petroleum however, a few different factors additionally impact the value we pay when we top off our autos. This is what additionally influences it.
Get original essaySince oil is exchanged Dollars, the Rand/Dollar conversion scale influences what number of Rands we have to pay for a barrel of oil. Over late months, the Rand has devalued against the Dollar, which implies that despite the fact that the petrol cost may have dropped, it quite costs more Rands to purchase a similar measure of oil. The net impact of this as of late is a drop in the petrol cost, however not as much as though the Rand had kept its equivalent esteem. Fuel demands. The National Streets Demonstration of 1971 enables the South African government to gather a fuel exact from each liter of fuel that is sold. Since 1998, the government has gathered over R240 billion along these lines. In front of the new spending plans destined to be discharged, it's normal that expenses on petrol will be expanded keeping in mind the end goal to pay for spending things, for example, the coming up short e-toll framework.
Fuel wholesalers in South Africa comprise of the seven noteworthy oil organizations notwithstanding around 600 autonomous wholesalers. The government sets the discount edge, keeping it stable at around 15%.
There are roughly 4600 administration stations in South Africa who all need to make a benefit on the petrol they offer Like the discount edge, South Africa's petrol's retail net revenue is settled by the Branch of Vitality, and is controlled by individual expenses of each administration station including things like rental, intrigue, work, overheads and innovative remuneration.
Petrol and diesel are transported to terminals and petrol stations by pipelines, rail, ocean and street, the expenses for which are then included to the petrol cost. This clarifies why fuel costs are less in seaside urban communities where there are ports adjacent, instead of inland urban areas where fuel should be transported facilitate by means of trucks. The cost of petrol is vital to comprehend in light of the fact that it influences the two people and organizations as it rises and falls. For customers, a rising petrol value implies less extra cash for different products and ventures, especially extravagances. This thusly influences the measure of cash organizations make. Particularly for organizations in the vehicle or coordinations industry, petrol costs intensely influence their operational expenses. So what's in store at the petrol cost in the coming months?
In an ongoing articulation the Automobile Association of South Africa said that the expansion in universal oil costs, together with a spike in the Rand/Dollar conversion standard, implies that the cost of petrol, diesel and lighting up paraffin are altogether liable to increment in Spring. In this way, while we may have had some break in the expense of fuel over the most recent couple of months, it's an ideal opportunity to top off your auto now before the value rises again and we as a whole need to fix our belts.
Advertisers in the contemporary business environment are given the meticulous defy of evading intertwined messaging, over-immersion of marketing activities, and consumer dithering in order to accomplish their objectives of enhancing long term brand dependability and empowering product purchases. Luxury consumption or “conspicuous consumption” is a philosophical monism, which influences consumer behaviour in relation with advertising correspondence and individual elucidation of brand and product esteem. Conspicuous consumption alludes to an individuals’ public or ostentatious utilization of exorbitant goods or services to demonstrate their riches and high economic wellbeing.
Get original essayThe democratization of luxury goods truly exists as recent research has indicated how the luxury market has encountered an impressive development in the last decade. Luxury consumption is an eccentric highlight of industrial and post-industrial private enterprise that reflects social disparities within social orders described by this arrangement of creation. Status consumption and brand personality are consumer behaviour theories that influence consumer’s decision making in the purchasing process and brand image. Luxury consumption can be a social issue as it has the impact of reaffirming societal position limits and qualifications dependent on access to wealth. At times, for example, the prominent utilization of elites in creating nations, this repetition can prompt social distress and even political viciousness.
Luxury consumption has the capacity to connect social referencing and esteemed qualities, buyers will want to claim their luxury products in broad daylight which can demonstrate as close to personal fulfilment and emblematic sign that is appreciated, perceived and acknowledged by others. The idea of social consumption was a main thrust that replicates itself in the hankering for eminence cyphers. Status consumption is the conduct inclination to esteem status and procure items that give superior status to the person. Due to the mass promoting strategies of advertisers, goods utilized as materialistic symbols have proliferated. Buyers want to expend goods and services that are seen to be grander in significance as countless products have become commodities. This is the need that incisive advertisers tap into whilst showcasing products that they brand as first-class or exclusive.
The heroines of psychological and social impacts inside cultures additionally impact luxury consumption. Brand personality is a psychological aspect that can be connected with conspicuous consumption. Brand personality is the brand of human execution and a critical piece of brand character, it has an interesting brand of customized highlights and qualities, and it can bring an incredible brand affiliation and rich meaning of the brand. The item related qualities are conceivably essential drivers of a brand personality, and the properties of the item will dependably be affected by the brand's personality. Understanding the idea of brand personality can enable a business to create and keep up relations with customers. Brand personality can even clarify how buyer brand connections affect shopper conduct. Consumers are more probable to develop faithfulness to a brand when the brand's personality shares a similarity. Mutual personalities can impact customers to have a more grounded trust in specific brands. Buyers frequently make purchases on items that may give a specific significance. The significance of a brand can be a vital factor in the purchaser decision-making. To effectively differentiate an item, brands must build up an emblematic meaning that sets up an association.
The conspicuous consumption hypothesis associates luxury goods with the negligible capacity of the pretentious show of riches to indicate status. Conversely, eminence today is carried in more progressively advanced and inconspicuous ways, creating transference from 'waste to taste'. With new luxury goods ending up progressively affordable and available to the more unobtrusive customer, these buyers are presently ready to impersonate and copy the rich and wealthy by expending similar items and administrations. The simply luxury consumer gets fulfilment from the crowd's response to the riches being shown and not from the value of the product itself. The simple idea of numerous luxury brand products signifies that these are consumed in a grandiose way, which is identified with status and conspicuous consumption.
The need to express this way of life creates wants for specific buyer products and a proportionate dimension of income. For example, there has been a surge in consumption of both applied and hedonistic goods amid prosperous South African consumers due to an increase in their income levels. The exorbitance of consumption surges as purchasers procure more wealth when contrasted with the individuals who have comparable ways of life and social standing. As South Africa turns into a more consumption grounded culture, prominent consumption will escalate. The craving for such status is a vital power that drives the market for luxury products. Status consumption can likewise be seen in how it is a technique whereby individuals are excluded socially by utilising a brand as an unequivocal signal of wealth when they do not own that explicit brand. It has additionally been contended that customers don't just purchase luxury products in order to gain status. For a few, they show an ethical reservation against buying a fake item and the impact of goals guiding a buy.
Understanding the requirements and inclinations of a purchaser in this advanced age has become a critical aspect for marketers. Adhering to brand personality likewise helps during the time spent framing a compelling brand network, and basically improving the social structure of brand personality and significance. The foundation and facilitation of brand personality on the stage of luxury consumption, empowers marketers with the opportunity to gain information about their own luxury products, and in addition the results of contending firms, through buyers purchasing practices of luxury purchases. Brand personality relates to fundamental psychological needs, which substitute as influences behind actions appropriated by individuals that are imitated in behaviour. The role of brand personality in consumer behaviour of luxury customers is vital as these shoppers will in general purchase luxury goods for the products' emblematic substance, which incorporates status and prestige, as opposed to usefulness behind actions made by people that are reflected in conduct. Buyers are becoming more sophisticated, socially motivated and have built up an aspiration for personalised items.
The market of luxury consumption in South Africa is uninterruptedly experiencing an increase in growth. One main reason for this unprecedented increase one of the primary explanations behind this has been stressed as the fact that progressively middle and lower income markets buy luxury products. South African buyers have not recently been presented to an assortment of extravagance brands as most brand houses have just entered the market, which adds to the probability of customers consuming evidently or to gain status. An extensive part of the South African market has been deprived of financial assets, because of being recently burdened inside South Africa. This custom makes shoppers open to status and conspicuous consumption as the marketplace portion presently has more access to financial assets.