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Ten Critical Steps for Risk Managers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ten Critical Steps for Risk Managers - Essay Example There are for the most part 10 significant sorts of political dangers, for example, ...

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Female Entrepreneurs in the UAE 10 years ago and in 2013

Introduction Entrepreneurs, regardless of their inherent location or gender, share similar problems in relation to properly accessing sufficient capital to start their business, being able to attract customers, developing a sufficient cash flow to sustain their venture and a variety of other nuances that are connected to the process of developing a business.Advertising We will write a custom proposal sample on Female Entrepreneurs in the UAE 10 years ago and in 2013 specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Within the study of Tlaiss (2013), it was explained that in most market economies small to medium scale enterprises (SMEs) make up the bulk of a country’s enterprises constituting 80 to 90 % of local businesses [1]. Such an orientation can also be seen in the case of the UAE wherein SMEs make up 82% of local businesses within the country and employ up to 80 % of the workforce. Despite this, it must be noted that despite the fact that SMEs constitute 82% of local businesses they are still overshadowed by the region’s oil and natural gas industry which accounts for a large percentage of the UAE government’s budget revenues [1]. This is in stark contrast to the situation found in countries such as the U.S., UK, China and other industrialized countries where local SMEs makeup more than 70 % of GDP, 60 to 70 % of local government revenue and 75 % of export earnings. While the UAE’s status as an oil exporter does entail a decidedly different economic structure, it must be noted that given the nonrenewable state of its oil reserves it is absolutely necessary to implement some measure of encouraging the development of SMEs in order to have a strong local economy in place that is not dependent on resource that will inevitably dry up [9]. With the development of new internal policies within the UAE comes an era where women have become more empowered, both in the workforce and in entrepreneurship. This is evidenced by the fact that nearly 54% of all university graduates within the UAE are women and that a growing percentage of them focus on furthering their own careers and the development of their family business rather than enter into a prospective marriage [10]. As a result, with declining marriage rates comes a distinct decline in access to sufficient capital by bachelors since it is the intermarriage between families that is the source of capital for an entrepreneur in the UAE to establish his own business [2]. This is not to imply that women themselves cannot be entrepreneurs within the country, far from it, women are actually actively encouraged to take part in business and several have become successful entrepreneurs. However, due to various types of cultural restrictions which are a part of social traditions in the UAE, this creates a low rate of female entrepreneurship with only 3 out of 10 entrepreneurial businesses being started by a woman [2]. These restrictions come in the form of:Advertising Looking for proposal on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Women needing permission from a male to start a business Separate bank accounts are necessary (i.e. male for male, female for female) Insufficient support from the government Lack of collaboration with other women In this paper what will be analyzed are the inherent difficulties experienced by female entrepreneurs within the U.AE. It is expected that through the various facts and arguments presented in this paper, a clearer picture can be developed regarding what difficulties female entrepreneurs experience within the UAE and what processes have been put in place by the government in order to address such issues. It is expected that through proper investigation and analysis, this paper will create effective suggestions as to how female entrepreneurs within the region can best respond to the financial opportunities and challenges they are currently experiencing. Objective The primary objective of this paper is to compare the situation of female entrepreneurs within the UAE 10 years ago with their current situation in 2013. Through this analysis, this paper will be able to show whether sufficiently positive developments have been enacted that would be conducive towards developing a better environment to encourage female entrepreneurship within the UAE. In this paper what will be examined is the current state of SME’s within the UAE and the situation of female entrepreneurs in 2013 as compared to how they were ten years ago. By comparing their situation in 2004 with their current situation in 2013, this paper will be able to determine whether sufficiently positive changes have been implemented resulting in a better overall situation for the growth of female entrepreneurship within the UAE. Through this section, a greater understanding will be developed regarding the various factors that rest ricted the growth of female entrepreneurship within the region and if such factors continue to take a dominating role in gender based entrepreneurial growth. So far, what this section has shown is that the problems female entrepreneurs currently face within the country come in the form of traditional cultural practices, insufficient government support and lack of proper access to financial institutions. Such processes are distinctly different from those in western countries since there is little in the way of a similar discriminatory process. When comparing the data from the article â€Å"Small Enterprises: Women Entrepreneurs in the UAE† by Hans Christian Haan with current academic articles examining the state of female entrepreneurship within the country, it was shown that the issues have remained roughly unchanged from the time that the Haan article was written. It is based on this that the primary objective of this paper is to expound on such issues and determine how they can be resolved. Problem Definition Ten years ago, female entrepreneurs within the UAE suffered from a string of limiting factors that prevented their expansive growth. This came in the form of traditional cultural practices, insufficient government support and lack of proper access to financial institutions. Since these factors were in place ten years ago, this study will thus seek to determine whether these problems continue to exist at the present, how female entrepreneurs view such problems and what solutions may be needed in order to effectively address them.Advertising We will write a custom proposal sample on Female Entrepreneurs in the UAE 10 years ago and in 2013 specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More It is based on this discovery that in the following section an investigation will be conducted regarding the current perception of female entrepreneurs involving the problems they face and what possible means of addressing them could be developed. The fact remains that the current policy system within the region suffers from significant gender specific biases. This creates barriers towards the creation of a better business environment for female entrepreneurs. What is necessary is the development of better policy initiatives in not only removing gender barriers in entrepreneurial activity but also in developing the necessary networks for female entrepreneurs to thrive. Another necessary examination is to elaborate on the current status of female entrepreneurial funding within the country and how this has affected the success/ failure rates of entrepreneurs. Another question that must be delved into is whether all the recent programs aimed at creating better conditions for female entrepreneurs have been effective or have things remained the same despite their implementation? The end result of such an analysis is to understand what methods of female entrepreneurial funding would the entrepreneurs like to see implemented so as to create a better business environment that is more conducive towards entrepreneurial activity. Literature Review Current Attitudes Regarding Business Financing Based on the article â€Å"Small Enterprises: Women Entrepreneurs in the UAE† by Hans Christian Haan, it was noted that women within the UAE rely on their own personal savings as their primary method of creating startup capital [12]. This is an incredibly laborious and time consuming process which would of course slow down the process of entrepreneurial activity within any country that utilizes such a system [11]. Such a situation is in stark contrast to the way in which the entrepreneurial sector in other countries such as China, the U.S., the UK and even in certain sectors in the Middle East work since it is often seen that investing in entrepreneurs creates numerous beneficial actions, such as: A better local economy Greater amount of bank deposits Helping out what could potentially develop int o a larger enterprise Banks generally think of entrepreneurs as â€Å"safe bets† when it comes to loans due to the attitude of entrepreneurs in paying back what they owe even if a particular business did not turn out as successful as expected [11]. Thus, startup capital in such situations often comes about through bank loans resulting in a far quicker level of business creation.Advertising Looking for proposal on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More After conducting an analysis of the Erogul (2011) article which examined the current situation of women entrepreneurs within the UAE, it was revealed that female entrepreneurs still continue to rely on their own slowly accumulated capital as compared to merely taking out a bank loan [3]. This shows that from 2004 till the present, there has been little change in the cultural attitude regarding entrepreneurial financing among women [8]. One of the potential reasons behind such a state of affairs has been connected to the currently arduous process of taking out a loan within a bank wherein a male sponsor is needed in order to sign and guarantee all aspects of the loan [13]. Since female entrepreneurs have to rely on a sponsor who may not always be there, this further impedes the process of business development which actually discourages women from relying on banks as a source of capital [4]. It was seen that in the article â€Å"Small Enterprises: Women Entrepreneurs in the UAE† by Hans Christian Haan that in the case of the UAE, family played a crucial role in the funding and development of small to medium scale business ventures for women wherein more than 25% of local businesses started by female entrepreneurs were a result of family members contributing towards the initial starting capital of the entrepreneur and actively gave advice regarding the proper management of the business [7]. In fact, it was noted by researchers such as Mostafa (2005) that it is the strong interfamily ties within the country’s culture that limits the export market of the UAE. This is due to the development of a business culture where it has become preferable to deal with family members or friends of the family when it comes to joint business ventures and business opportunities. This in effect severely curtails the ability of a business to expand beyond its current market due to the inherent hesitance in dealing with the unfamiliar [5]. While there is nothing inherentl y wrong with family based methods of capital financing, studies such as those by Mostafa (2005) stated that it often came with certain conditions related to the types of business that can be gone into by female entrepreneurs [5]. This often entailed clothing, textiles, and manufacturing that were often detailed as the â€Å"traditional domain† of female entrepreneurs within the UAE. This conditional funding through family based methods of capital development can actually be considered a limiting factor in the capacity for female entrepreneurs to establish themselves in new types of business and, as such, can be considered a detrimental feature of the current â€Å"entrepreneurial funding† system within the UAE Analysis of Government Policy Initiatives An analysis of government policy initiatives that were mentioned in the Haan article showed the presence of gender specific barriers in entrepreneurship wherein male sponsorship, male networking and overall male assistanc e was required when it came to women entering into any form of entrepreneurial activity. The problem with the implementation of male sponsorships is that it is not needed in the case of women entrepreneurs since males basically just sign their signatures on a piece of paper [6]. They are not partners in the business nor do they take an active role in it; basically the Haan article shows that men are just there to show that there is a level of biased gender supervision occurring. Through the work of Madsen (2010), it was revealed that at the present, there have been no government policy initiatives to address such issues with the same policies continuing to exist [6]. Contributing to this problem is the lack of sufficient government funding in the development of female support networks which are there to help women in connecting with each other and developing the necessary relationships to grow and expand their business. While it may be true that the UAE government states that it act ively promotes female entrepreneurship and even gives awards to prominent female entrepreneurs, the fact remains that the current policy system within the region suffers from significant gender specific biases. This creates barriers towards the creation of a better business environment for female entrepreneurs [6]. What is necessary is the development of better policy initiatives in not only removing gender barriers in entrepreneurial activity but also in developing the necessary networks for female entrepreneurs to thrive. Methodology The methodology that will be utilized within this particular study will be comprised of an evaluation of questionnaire results sent to a variety of female entrepreneurs within the UAE in order to determine the various difficulties they experience on a daily basis when it comes to entrepreneurial activities. Approaching the Candidates In order to gather the necessary data for this study, 20 female entrepreneurs will be approached by first contacting th em via email. They will be asked if they would be willing to be part of an online survey utilizing the web service www.surveymonkey.com where all their responses will be recorded. If they agree, all they would need to do is click the link on the email and they will immediately be sent to the survey page where they will fill out their personal information and fill out the questionnaire that has been developed. Questions The first set of questions that will be sent to entrepreneurs will be comprised of the following: How were you able to initially fund your business? Was it through family funds? Bank loans or through government sponsored programs? Aside from the method of funding that you utilized for the initial financing of your business, what method of funding would you want to utilize for any future expansion? Are you going to utilize the same initial source of funding or are you going to go for alternatives? Would you say that financing a business is relatively easy or simple wi thin the UAE? Have you ever utilized a bank loan as means of financing some method of your business operation? If so what were the complications that you experienced, if any. What are some of the complications you have experienced as an entrepreneur within the UAE? Please elaborate on some of your experiences when it came to finding funds for your business. Would you say that local government programs have been an effective resource for local funding? In terms of developing an entrepreneur, would you say that the local government programs aimed at educating young female entrepreneurs have been effective? When it comes to the sale and development of your current product line/service, are you looking towards expanding only within local markets or do you have any plans in expanding internationally? Please explain your reasons for doing so on whatever choice suits you the most. What would you say is the most difficult aspect of being a female entrepreneur within the UAE? Do you know of any female entrepreneurs that have been successful in developing their business to encompass foreign markets? If so what was the source of their finances? As a female entrepreneur within the UAE, please elaborate on the current status of female entrepreneurial funding within the country and how this has affected the success/ failure rates of entrepreneurs. Reference List H. Tlaiss. â€Å"Women Managers In The United Arab Emirates: Successful Careers Or What?.† Equality, Diversity Inclusion, vol. 32, no. 8, pp. 756-776, 2013 Y. Itani, S. Yusuf, and I. Baalbaki. â€Å"United Arab Emirates Female Entrepreneurs: Motivations and Frustrations.† Equality, Diversity Inclusion, vol. 30, no.5, pp. 409-424, 2011 M. Erogul.†Social Capital Impediments in the United Arab Emirates: A Case of Emirati Female Entrepreneurs.† Journal Of Enterprising Culture, vol. 19, no.3, pp. 315-339, 2011 Q. Tong. â€Å"An Analysis of Entrepreneurship across Five Major Nationality Grou ps in the United Arab Emirates.† Journal Of Developmental Entrepreneurship, vol. 17, no.2, pp. 1, 2012 M. Mostafa. â€Å"Attitudes towards Women Managers in the United Arab Emirates: The Effects of Patriarchy, Age, and Sex Differences.† Journal Of Managerial Psychology, vol. 20, no.6, pp. 522-540, 2005 S. Madsen. â€Å"Leadership Development in the United Arab Emirates: The Transformational Learning Experiences of Women.† Journal Of Leadership Organizational Studies (Sage Publications Inc.), vol. 17, no.1, pp.100-110, 2010 â€Å"Typology of Career Development for Arab Women Managers in the United Arab Emirates.† Career Development International, vol. 15, no.2, pp. 121-143, 2010 E. Harrison and S. Michailova. â€Å"Working In the Middle East: Western Female Expatriates’ Experiences in the United Arab Emirates.† International Journal Of Human Resource Management, vol. 23, no.3, pp. 625-644, 2012 N. Madichie and M. Gallant. â€Å"Broken Silenc e: A Commentary on Women’s Entrepreneurship in the United Arab Emirates.† International Journal Of Entrepreneurship Innovation, vol. 13, no.2, pp. 81-92, 2012 G. Ghazal, Vidican, and D. Samulewicz. â€Å"Assessing the Impact of Socio-Economic Inequities on College Enrolment: Emerging Differences in the United Arab Emirates.† Journal Of Higher Education Policy Management, vol.33, no.5, pp. 459-47, 20111 J. Kunnanatt. â€Å"Doing Business in the United Arab Emirates – The Strategic Business Environment.† Journal Of The Academy Of Business Economics, vol.13, no.4, pp. 145-152, 2013 H. Haan. â€Å"Small Enterprises: Women Entrepreneurs in the UAE.† Centre for Labor Market Research Information (CLMRI), vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1-52, 2004 Trident Communications. â€Å"Women Business Owners in the United Arab Emirates.†Center of Arab Women for Training and Research, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1-48, 2007 This proposal on Female Entrepreneurs in the UAE 10 years ago and in 2013 was written and submitted by user Jaydin J. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Jeremy Bentham essays

Jeremy Bentham essays Jeremy Bentham was an English philosopher who founded the principle of utilitarianism. Under utilitarianism, everything is classified by its utility or usefulness. Utility is the objects ability to produce happiness. Bentham wanted to create happiness in his society. He believed that happiness can be measured in exact quantities and that individuals only care about their own pleasure and ways of increasing it. According to these principles, a person should always act for the greater good of the community rather than themselves. As Mr. Spock put it, The needs of the many outweigh the needs the one. Jeremy Bentham was a child prodigy, at the age of three he was reading and not only that, he was reading important political manifestos. By age five, he was quite proficient at playing the violin and was studying Latin and French at age six. As if this wasnt amazing enough, he enrolled at Oxford when he was twelve and, presumably, four years later was granted admittance into the Bar. Instead of practicing and studying to be a lawyer, he spent most of his time in his room reading about the English government. His personal goal was to write fifteen pages a day, criticizing the government. In 1766, he published a book titled A Fragment on Government which criticized Blackstone, an English author who published books on law. The book was popular at first, but when the public found out who had written it, they soon lost interest. His book did gain the attention of a Lord Shelburne, who introduced him to the world of the upper class. Shelburne also inspired Bentham to criticize the constitutional laws in addition to the civil and penal laws. Bentham was a revolutionary in his time; no one would dare criticize the government and certainly not the British Constitution. Perhaps his greatest accomplishment is his second book, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legi ...

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Delta Air Lines Safety Program Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Delta Air Lines Safety Program - Case Study Example 7). The security tax imposed on ticket prices after 9/11 by the government occurred at a time when customer demand was at its lowest level. According to Mullin, post-9/11 actions by the government, though well-intended, created an estimated $6.5 billion more in costs for the airline industry overall. Mullin, in his government testimony, requested national security funding mechanisms to be utilized rather than imposing taxes and costs specifically on the airlines. In the period since 9/11, passenger traffic has made a slow recovery and returned to pre-9/11 levels by mid-2004. However, as public concern over security faded, problems involving inadequate infrastructure capacity, poor labor relations, and low customer satisfaction re-emerged. For a major airline like Delta, low-fare airlines created a serious challenge, with business travelers willing to give up amenities and unwilling to pay higher fares (Airline, 2005). Even though safety continued to be a priority for Delta, financial problems accelerated to a point where the only option for the company was bankruptcy. It was the decision of Delta, as had been the case with other major airlines, to declare bankruptcy in 2005, and the company's restructuring since then has developed a fundamental transformation. At present, Delta is one of the most popular and safest carriers in the market (Airline Industry, 2005). Safety as a Priority at Delta Air Lines A safety program at a major airline requires attention to every facet of the industry, and Delta Air Lines has developed an extensive program, from health and safety in the Delta workplace to an open-door policy for employees and the public to express safety concerns. As a licensed F.A.A. part 121 air carrier, Delta must follow the guidelines of a part 121 certificate. The certificate governs all major airline carriers such as American and Delta and is the highest-ranking certificate issued. A part 121 certificate requires extensive training for pilots and mechanics with advanced regulations for aircraft and pilot operations (Aircraft & Passenger Safety, n.d.). It should be noted that in March 1997, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) changed the definition of Part 121 operations.Prior to the change, scheduled aircraft with 30 or more seats were operated under Part 121 and those with less than 30 seats were operated under Part 135. After the change, scheduled aircraft wi th 10 or more seats were classified as Part 121 operations; therefore, since 1997, most carriers that once were popularly known as "commuters" now operate under Part 121 (NTSB, 1998, section 2, para. 2). A survey conducted over a 17-year period by the National Transportation Safety Board showed that the U.S. aviation system as a whole was maintaining a high level of safety. The NTSB examined only air carrier operation in the United States performed under Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121 because the majority of the Board's survival factor investigations are conducted in connection with Part 121 carriers. From 1983-2000, nearly 96 percent of occupants involved in a Part 121 aviation accident survived the crash (NSTB, 2001, p.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Crime Analysis in the State of NY and California Term Paper

Crime Analysis in the State of NY and California - Term Paper Example On the other hand, mayhem could be a combined assault or battery with exceedingly high deprivation of an individual to defend or fight for his or her life (Indermaur & Bennett, 1997). Therefore, these three crimes could be defined based on the following classifications: degree of physical harm, the intensity of crime committed, and the intensity of violence. Of all three of them, what is substantially less graphic is the assault. There is just an attempt to do physical harm in the assault, while in battery and mayhem; there is a remarkable and actual physical contact. On the other hand, mayhem is significantly most remarkable when it comes to the degree of physical harm because it could be combined assault or battery, however, there is an inclusion of disabling an individual to fight or defend one’s self. ...Finally, all these three crimes are considered violent, but sometimes assault cannot be significantly categorized as one due to the absence of physical evidence. Assault, however, may potentially result in psychological trauma and this could be remarkably used as evidence to recognize it as a violent crime based on the physical evidence. It is not hard to prove physical evidence from the battery because of the remarkable indication of violence. There can be actual inclusion of physical harm in battery and this evidence could be used to recognize the intensity of violence committed. Finally, mayhem may be potentially considered as highly violent due to a remarkable high level of physical evidence even to the point that it may cause the victim’s death. Classification Kidnapping False imprisonment Offense against a person’s liberty or freedom Remarkable (Bacigal, 2008) Remarkable (Bacigal, 2008) Physical movement A requirement (Bacigal, 2008) Not a requirement (Bacigal, 2008) Kidnapping and false imprisonment are all crimes committed against a person’s liberty or freedom.  

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Plight of the Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor Term Paper

Plight of the Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor - Term Paper Example Nevertheless, the events of Sunday December 7, 1941 opened up Pearl Harbor to the world. 2 The attack did not happen overnight; it was a culmination of a long-standing feud between the US and Japan. Seemingly, the attack was the only feasible way out of the tension that was developing between America and Japan day after the other. 3 This paper will focus on the ill-fated Japanese attack that occurred at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and the U.S justification for the same. It will also highlight the treatment of people of Japanese origin after the attack. It will be shown that the US did not have any material facts to necessitate internment of people of Japanese origin and this inhuman act clearly violated the principles upon which the US Constitution is build upon. In order to get some idea about the reason for the internment of the American-Japanese, it is important to understand some basic facts about the World War II. Germany and Japan were allies which fought in the same line against En gland, France, and a group of other nations during the Second World War. When the war started, America was not directly involved. However, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese carried out an attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, an American territory, although it was not yet declared as a state. Because of this action by Japan, the US automatically was drawn into the war, declaring Japan an enemy. 4 History of the Attack Before the attack, the Imperial Japanese Navy was planning to attack the British and the Dutch armies in South East Asia. Consequently, because the Japanese Navy feared the American army would get involved in protecting the Britain, they decided to attack the American Navy first before proceeding with their mission. 5 Therefore, the Japanese army embarked on intense training, which Rachael Hanel describes as training for war founded on decisive battle philosophy that sought to destroy all battleships involved, or most number at least. 6 The events that preceded the Decembe r 7 attack indicated an impending war whose time had come. According to Gail Sakurai, the relationship between Japan and America was tense and each knew war would be the ultimate result. 7 The United States of America had continually opposed Japan’s extension into Asia, and especially into China. The imminent tensions surfaced in 1940 following Japan’s invasion of Indochina, after which the US retaliated by stopping gasoline and airplane export to Japan. 8 In 1941, President Roosevelt deepened the tensions by moving the Pacific Fleet from San Diego to Hawaii coupled with the subsequent establishment of military exercises in the Philippines, a move seen as an attempt to deter Japan’s interest in the Fareast. America was increasingly becoming Japan’s obstacle in her exploits to control greater parts of Far East. Finally, Japan decided that an attack was the best defense. As a result, the Japan Navy planned to strike the US Pacific Fleet located at Pearl Har bor. Nevertheless, this was going to be a high stake gamble, which called for serious preparations. 9 The Japanese Navy therefore took their time to prepare for the attack. The preparation portion entailed detailing objectives of the attack, a subject that has drawn deep controversies in the past. 10 Nevertheless, the chief objective was to destroy, as many as possible American warships to cripple the

Friday, November 15, 2019

Skew Detection of Devanagari Script Using Pixels

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

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Zotero: a guide for librarians, researchers, and educators Essay

Zotero is an open-source and free software management used in managing bibliographic data and related researched materials (Pucket 2011). Mendeley is a web program and a desktop used in sharing and managing research paper, collaborating online and discovering research data (Banbaj 2009). RefWorks is a commercial web-based software package used for reference management (Tung 2009). The three types of citations play an important role in bibliographic data management, researching on relevant materials used in making bibliographies, share and manage the online research data, and finally ensure proper reference management (Pollack, Cruess, Sternet, Sillitoe, Perou, Jeffrey, 2009). RefWorks provides databases of stored online references that allow easy access and update of information from any computer with internet connections. The software provides a better link of RefWork user’s account to journals that are electronically edited with institution’s library subscription. Providers of bibliographic databases have implemented the ability of directly exporting references to RefWorks (Hasjim 2013:pp.742-749). Mendeley comprises of a team of graduates, researchers, and developers from different academic institutions. It has become a famous website through different awards it has won, which include â€Å"European start-up 2009†, â€Å"bets society social innovation 2009† and â€Å"100 tech top media companies† (Sledz 2009: pp.1407-1408). The name ‘Zotero’ is derived from a verb Albanian which means ‘to master’ (Rimikis 2013: p.792). Zotero has the ability of converting ens style of proprietary EndNotes int o language style of citation. Citation is an important aspect in all academic writings. Majority of academic researchers has adopted the use of the three modules in ensuring proper management of references. In all types of research and scholarly writing, it is necessary to have source works documented. These works are used to underpin particular positions, concepts arguments and propositions with citations. They serve the following purposes; assist readers in relocating and identifying the source work, gives evidence that the position was researched well, and provides credit to the author of the presented theory or an original concept (McMurray 2011: pp.647-654). References Banbaji, A., & Beersheba, I. (2009). Mendeley whasiypwr halÊ ¼wmiy. Ê ¼Wr Yhwdah: Dbiyr :. Puckett, J. (2011). Zotero: a guide for librarians, researchers, and educators. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries. Tung, K. L., & Pan, Y. (2009). EndNote & RefWorks: lun wen yu wen xian xie zuo guan li (Chu ban. ed.). Tai bei shi: Wu nan. Source document

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Hamlet Essay – Themes

Any text that is rich in technique and deals with universal concerns will be effective in communicating significant ideas to the responder regardless of the context of the audience. Shakespeare’s revenge tragedy play, Hamlet, explores concerns such as morality and the difficulty of taking action, especially when certainty is impossible. His young protagonist, Hamlet, acts as an effective vehicle as he uses powerful language to explore his moral dilemmas.What distinguishes Hamlet from other revenge tragedy plays is the amount of action expected, especially from Hamlet himself as he continuously hesitates due to him trying to be absolute certain of his actions. Hamlet handles an extremely complicated dilemma which is a combination of feelings that does not allow him to be tranquil. One of the reasons is due to the mourning of his father’s death, which he already feels distraught about. The other reason for Hamlet’s problem is his mother’s sudden remarriage o f her brother-in-law, Claudius, whom here in this play he is presented as the villain.As Hamlet says, â€Å"A little month, or ere those shoes were old†¦ a beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourned longer. † Hamlet here is showing his disgust towards Gertrude, his mother, as she is remarrying only two months after her husband’s death. Furthermore Claudius is blood related to Hamlet hence deepening his anger, turning to madness. Hamlets hatred towards Gertrude is seen in Act 1 scene 2 as Hamlet expressed in a negative tone; â€Å"seems, madam! Nay it is; I know not seems. / This not alone my inky cloak, good mother,† Also Hamlet’s first soliloquy in the play shows his distress towards Claudius and Gertrude’s marriage.His internal dilemma is explicitly shown when this ghost of Hamlet’s father appears in Act 1 scene 5 as he calls upon, â€Å"Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. † It is from this point forward th at Hamlet struggles with the dilemma of whether or not to kill Claudius, and if so, when to do it. Doubts and uncertainty arises as the ghost disappears, as suggested when he says, â€Å"Are you spirit of health or goblin damned? † This uncertainty is crucial as this is the beginning point of Hamlet’s internal struggle. My personal view of why Hamlet delays his action is because of the question, â€Å"Is this morally correct. Hamlet is a thinker a philosopher, shown clearly by his use of words and language that contains double meaning, â€Å"Ay, madam it is common† with the word â€Å"common† suggest literal meaning, it is common that â€Å"all lives must die†, and figuratively it is common to remarry straight after her husbands death. From this fact that Hamlet is a thinker, he questions himself and is amazed by the human structure, shown in one of his soliloquies he stated with exclamatory: â€Å"Oh what a piece of work is man! † The myst ery of the afterlife is what prevents himself from killing himself. This is shown in his most famous soliloquy: â€Å"To be, or not to be. In other words, â€Å"to die, or not do die†. The unknown factors of the afterlife as well as the morality of it, is what caused the delay for killing Claudius. Hamlet retains its value and textual integrity because it explores universal concerns that still remain in today’s society. Some of these concerns in today’s society are the morality and hesitation of taking action is explicitly shown in two scenes from Hamlet; Act 1 scene 2 and scene 5. The use of powerful language techniques such as soliloquies, metaphors and asides helps being out the message to the responder, hence having textual integrity.

Friday, November 8, 2019

DATABASES MEMORANUDM essays

DATABASES MEMORANUDM essays Database Applications in the company Database in my company are used for several purposes. Because my company is a small retail store, it needs several kinds of information to collect and analyze. Right now, my company uses Microsoft Access for The company needs information about its customers, its inventory of products, its suppliers, orders, prices of the items, and item availability. Until recently, this information was collected and stored in paper files and folders. Although it was easy to store this information in folders, it also caused frequent delays in accepting the customer orders as it was often difficult to tell at the time of the customer order the price of the items, the availability of the products, and when it would be Presently with the use of the Microsoft Access databases in the company, the company has been able to make many decisions quickly as it can find the status of the customers, their orders, products, and shipping date in time. Besides, by using the database, the company can find every night how much inventory is sold and how much it needs to order (Haag, Cummings, and Dawkins, 1998). Through the use of databases, it has become quite easy for the company to track its inventory use and calculate the profits. The greatest advantages of the database model is that it is easy to use as it is built on a simple concept of representing information in two dimensional tables. Most of the employees working in the company can easily be trained to identify most of the common entities such as customer, order, inventory, supplier etc. By using the database, the company has been able to avoid a lot of duplication of the paper work processes and has been able to capture data with much more accuracy and details. My company is also making extensive use of databases for the development of the predictive models on consumer data. By ...

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Letter from Birmingham Jail and Discrimination essays

Letter from Birmingham Jail and Discrimination essays Discrimination can be seen as a permanent problem, encountered in many societies. Usually it is made on the base of differences between sex, race or religion. On of these is the racial discrimination and particularly involves the black peoples society. The blacks have always suffered because of the consequences of their past, namely slavery. Even today they cant enjoy the same treatment and rights as the white people, enduring oppression from them. In Letter From Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King Jr., there are many images which describe the black peoples situation and the problems they have to face in front of the racial injustice. One of these images takes in consideration the problem of justice. Justice is the cause for which Martin Luther King Jr. fights, trying to gain respect and to restore his community in its own rights. He talks about the just and unjust laws and comes up to the fallowing difference: A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. The most concrete example on this matter, given by King regards the blacks right to vote. Every citizen has the right to vote, but in some stats, such as Alabama, the black community is considered a minority, and they are prevented from being registered as voters. King sadly confesses that this kind of treatment doesnt agree with the democratic structure and also gives a wrong example to the citizens. They know that they commit injustice but they dont admit it, considering that this is the right thing to do. He would appreciate if a person accepted the cons equences of his acts. Every person has his own responsibilities and if he breaks a law he must accept the penalty. And there is always the moral law, which must move a persons mind and prevent him from breaking other persons right just beca...

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Medical Torture Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Medical Torture - Research Paper Example This was essentially the same debate that existed in Britain during the nineteenth century on vivisections (Miller 334). If the prisoner dies from taking the herb medicine, then that herb plant or its active ingredients can be eliminated from the list of possible medicinal drugs from the list kept by the imperial doctors. If the prisoner gets well, then that herbal concoction gets examined for its other healing properties and included in that precious list. Ancient Chinese medicine could be cited here as an example of medical practices that may have bordered on the unethical if it is considered within today’s stricter context in bio-ethics. Acupuncturists could not gain much knowledge about the human body without using live humans as experimental subjects. There are obvious advantages to using live human subjects in medical experiments. A need to examine the effects of certain drugs or surgical procedures on live subjects gives the immediate feedback that has great importance on the search for medical knowledge. The field of medical science did not cringe from using live animals for experiments, such as monkeys and rats, until these practices were banned only recently for humanitarian reasons. Discussion China was not alone in the ancient world in its search for cures of human ailments. Other ancient civilizations such as those in Iraq, Egypt and Persia also contributed to the accumulation of human medical knowledge. The search for a cure can be considered as the corollary to a much deeper search – the search for the fountain of youth and immortality. In ancient Chinese traditional medicine, emperors constantly consulted with their sage doctors or physicians regarding such topics as pathology, diagnostics, acupuncture and moxibution. The ancient priests of Egypt succeeded in developing the lost medical art of mummification in their quest for immortality and in building the pyramids to house their mummies. In ancient China, these sage physicians an d erudite teachers discussed medicine in the wider context of the overall Chinese culture to encompass other areas of knowledge such as cosmology, astronomy, geography, military science, philosophy and divination (Galambos 1). It can be said that the search for medical answers to some of the most baffling diseases like cancer continues today. Although medical professionals are expected to adhere to the ancient oath of Hippocrates, there are a few rogue elements that will resort to shortcuts and unethical methods to obtain their research. This is especially tempting to people who have illusions of grandeur, such as being the first to discover the cure for cancer, as an example. A more recent experience with medical experimentation was that of Nazi Germany in which prisoners were used in experiments, sometimes without the use of anesthesia, to test the limits of human endurance and tolerance for pain. Their use of live humans was founded on the false science of eugenics based on hered ity and Darwin’s theory of evolution. Famous people were captivated by an allure of eugenics (literally, good genes) like Winston Churchill and John Maynard Keynes among others, to include US presidents Roosevelt and Wilson. It was a by-product of the Progressive Movement to attain social progress (Winfield 59). Eugenics apparently lost favor because of those inhuman and unauthorized series of experiments which even some medical scientists found to be revolting. The practice of the false

Friday, November 1, 2019

Federal Estate Tax Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Federal Estate Tax - Essay Example Through the history of mankind, there have been several social issues which fail to attain the justified attention in sociological research, despite the fact that nobody gravely questions their implication for society, and the inheritance of private wealth from one generation to the following forms one such crucial sociological issue in the modern time. An awareness of the fact that about 550 billion dollars, which is more than 4% of the American GNP, are transferred per annum in the United States also suggests why the bequest of wealth and the Federal Estate Tax forms some central topics of sociological scholarship. "Estate taxation, one of the crucial areas of conflict in the regulation of the transfer of property, has become a topic of substantial political debate in the United States in recent years, and this has also prompted scholarly interest in the issue... One of the more interesting questions about the estate tax is why it is such a controversial tax..." (Beckert, 522) In f act, a sociological analysis of the Federal Estate Tax provides the most effective conclusion on why the arguments against the death tax have a superior point against those in favor of it in the essential controversial debate of the day, and there are important research evidences suggesting that the death tax has several limitations from the sociological point of view. Commendable researches on the topic of the Federal Estate Tax have concluded on the various arguments for and against the law which ultimately point out that it creates several issues to the taxpayers and that the limitations of the law concerning the economy and the environment far surpass the latent advantages of the law. The strong protest against the death tax in the current circumstances has been the result of several economic, sociological, and political considerations which prove significant to the entire system of the society. The economic perspective on the question argues that the Federal Estate Tax holds back the accumulation of capital and the growth of the economy. Important economic assessments on the topic conclude that the estate tax proves to be most detrimental to the economic growth of the federation. The taxes on the transference of property reduce the capital value of the property and diminish the finds intended for the preservation of labor. Taxes such as the Fe deral Estate Tax are unthrifty taxes which may enhance the revenue of the government, but rarely contribute to the good of the people affected, and they prevent the distribution of the national capital in the way most beneficial to the community. "For the general prosperity there cannot be too much facility given to the conveyance and exchange of all kinds of property, as it is by such means that capital of every species is likely to find its way into the hands of those who will best employ it in increasing the productions of the country." (Ricardo, 108) Therefore, the economic arguments against the Federal Estate Tax substantiate the sociological arguments against the same. The fact that there have been significant moves in the Congress to permanently repeal the federal estate tax also point to the limitations of the tax. Though there are ongoing debates on the repeal of the death tax, it is often assessed at a higher rate on the accumulated savings of deceased persons