Friday, October 15, 2010

TCO 2010 Finals Hard

With no better idea of spending some time on the Las Vegas - New York plane, I've decided to try coding the hard problem from the TCO 2010 finals (statement linked). This took me 26 minutes and I got 618 points in the practice room — knowing the solution in advance and using IDEA instead of a simple text editor (rng_58's time in the finals was 48 minutes, for 463 points).

I hope the code with the below explanations can serve as a semi-editorial while we're waiting for the official editorial.

What is TopCoder Mod Dash?

At this year's TopCoder Open, I've naturally enjoyed watching the algorithm and marathon competitions. However, there was one more which I enjoyed and found very watchable and intense: the Mod Dash competition. So here's a small educational video about what this competition is about:

There's also another video that I've made at the TCO, which is the usual overview of the arena. It is a bit boring, but just in case, here it goes:

TopCoder Open 2010 Algorithm Final Round

13:25 - the introduction has started.

13:29 - 1 minute before the start.

13:44 - a submit on easy from Klinck.

14:00 - rng_58 submits the medium, too.

14:04 - dzhulgakov submits.

14:51 - and he submits!

15:01 - ACRush successfully challenges Louty's solution!

15:02 - and there goes dzhulgakov's easy.

15:10 - let's wait for the systests...

Thursday, October 14, 2010

TopCoder Open 2010 Algorithm Wildcard Round

Here will go the comments for Algorithm Wildcard Round of TopCoder Open 2010.

18:22 - it's very quiet in the arena, since most people who are not competing went to enjoy the fabulous Las Vegas (or just went to their rooms to get some sleep?). Most of algorithm competitors are here, though, even the ones who're not competing.

18:27 - I'm sitting in front of dzhulgakov's and syg96's screens. Hope that those two won't disappoint us, as rng_58 did in the semifinal.

18:30 - go!

18:30 - the easy problem: you start with N distinct numbers, and then can swap two adjacent numbers M times. How many different sequences can you get?

18:31 - N and M are up to 2000.

18:32 - so if a sequence X has Y inversions (pairs of indices such that the numbers at these indices are not in the same order in the original sequence), then we can get it using Y, Y+2, Y+4, ... swaps. The problem is thus reduced to counting sequences which have at most M inversions, and have the same amount of inversions modulo 2. I think this is done via quite simple DP - if you know the first number, you know how many inversions it creates, and then continue with the rest. This should work in O(2000^2).

18:35 - everybody is doing the easy problem, no variability from the contestants this time.

18:37 - PaulJefferys has submitted and then found out that his code TLs on (2000, 2000) :( Thanks Rustyoldman for the pointer!

18:40 - oh, AS1_PML30 has pointed out that my above solutions works in O(2000^3).

18:40 - dzhulgakov submits! And the DP is not so difficult to code in O(2000^2) by noticing that we can use accumulated sums to process each state in O(1).

18:42 - the medium problem: you're given at most 50 cards of form "+2", "*3". You shuffle then randomly, and then lay them down next to "0" to get an expression like "0+1-2*3", which is equal to -5. What is the expected value of this expression?

18:44 - first, we can notice that the order of "+" and "-" cards is not important. We can imagine the problem as starting with one "0" card and several "+X" and "-Y" cards, and then we need to place all "*Z" cards next to one of the starting cards, and the order of doing so for each starting card matters.

18:47 - maybe one can just do DP on the number of remaining cards of each type ("*1", "*2", ..., "*9", "*0")? That should be at most 5^10 states, which is about 10 million, but the transition will be quite slow.

18:54 - or maybe we can rely on the fact that we only need to find the expected value somehow? People seem to be at a loss around here.

18:54 - it turns out it's just me who's at a loss. Let rng_58 explain.

19:00 - still discussing the solution...

19:09 - so we need to calculate the expected value for each additive term, then sum those up. That means we should calculate just one number that depends on the multipliers: the expected multiplier for each additive term. At the simplest, we could iterate over all possible at most 5^10 compositions of a multiplier and average those with appropriate weights (some factorials multiplied and divided :)).

19:11 - bmerry suggests we can do it even faster: let's add multipliers one by one, and keep track of the expected value of the product if we have exactly k multipliers for each k, and the number of ways to get exactly k multipliers. Then this will be just something like O(50^2).

19:13 - another spectator reminder from Rustyoldman: everybody had submitted the easy and everyone is doing the medium... Not anymore! grotmol has opened the hard!

19:15 - here's the hard problem: how many ways are there to select some cells in a H times W rectangle such that no cells in one row are closer than K from each other?

19:16 - and the juicy part is that H, W and K are up to 1 billion!

19:19 - one simple part of solution by Onufry: we can forget about H and just take the answer to the power of H and subtract 1 in the end.

19:21 - another idea is that we need to calculate the number modulo 100003 which is a relatively small prime number.

19:25 - people are thinking about the hard problem. Most contestants are working on the medium, still no submissions. Two have opened the hard.

19:26 - dzulgakov submits the medium! I'm not sure what exactly his solution does, but it separates the additive and multipliers, and does some factorials afterwards :) He passed all examples.

19:32 - four people have submitted the medium now. The communal wisdom suggests that if we fix the number r of rooks in one row, then the number of ways is (W-K*(r-1)) choose r. Where do we go from here?

19:34 - and that's where the small prime number calls into play! In order to calculate a choose b modulo p, we can write both a and b in p-ary system, calculate digit-by-digit "choose" numbers, and multiply them. And to calculate those, we can pre-calculate all factorials modulo p and their inverses.

19:39 - so if the number r is relatively small, say, up to 10 million, we can do this. And when it's more than that, it means K is not more than 100 and thus we can do the usual matrix multiplication to find the number of ways (using recurrence f(n)=f(n-1)+f(n-K)).

19:41 - this solution was brought to you by ploh, Onufry, bmerry and jdmetz :)

19:44 - bmerry suggests we can avoid the matrix multiplication by grouping the r's which are the same modulo p and applying the above theorem about the number of combinations to each of those sums.

19:47 - nobody is writing anything that resembles a solution for the hard. Paul has calculated inverses modulo p, gmark has found the answers for small parameters and is staring at them. Unless we're missing a really simple solution, no hard will be solved in this round.

19:50 - izulin and grotmol are still working on their mediums, all others either do nothing or recheck their solutions.

19:52 - I believe there were no submissions in the past 30 minutes. dzhulgakov, Vasyl, syg96 and PaulJefferys have two problems (in this order), tomek, izulin, gmark and grotmol have one problem (in this order). Each of the groups of four is separated by less than 50 points, so any challenge in the first group brings the challenger to the top (and probably to the finals :)).

19:55 - The coding is over. I wonder what is the best strategy for the challenge phase. The medium has expected values so I bet it's pretty hard to fail the systests if you pass examples. Maybe when all numbers are multipliers, or when there are no multipliers at all? For the easy I can only imagine the tricky case when M is more than N*(N-1)/2.

20:01 - tomek tried the maxtest against gmark.

20:03 - the challenge phase is pretty calm, most people take a long time to read one solution.

20:05 - but just one challenge from syg96 or PaulJefferys can change who goes to the finals!

20:10 - a desperate last second challenge by gmark, and that's it. Waiting for the systests!

20:18 - most people agree that probably no solution will fail. More interestingly, Ivan Metelsky has confirmed that our solution for the hard is the expected one!

20:23 - Vasyl's and syg96's mediums have failed. dzhulgakov and Paul go to the finals! Stay tuned tomorrow for the coverage of the finals.

20:27 - here's the reason for the failure of the mediums: if you add up all additive terms in advance, you pass. But if you first multiply them and then add up many numbers, and when the expected answer is ZERO, but the multipliers are big - you're doomed, since small error relative to the product of the multiplier becomes big absolute error. That's a cool bug to fail to :)

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

TCO 2010 Algorithm Semifinal 2

Here will go the comments for Algorithm Semifinal 2 of TopCoder Open 2010.

12:56 - announcement complete, 3 minutes before the start. Will be looking at rng_58's screen during the first minutes.

13:00 - Into the fray!

13:01 - the easy problem: given several points on the plane, what is the maximal possible f(X) over strings X of the given length L consisting of "LRUD" characters. f(X) is defined as the probability of a robot starting at (0,0) will end at one of the given points if it performs each command with probability 1/2.

13:02 - L is up to 50, the number of locations is also up to 50. Thinking...

13:07 - rng_58 has started coding. It seems that the solution is quite straightforward: iterate over the number of "L", "R", "U" moves - the number of "D" moves is the rest. Then we need add up the probabilities of hitting each cell, which can be calculated using pre-calculated arrays of "what is the probability to get number x if we sum a (-1)'s and b (1)'s, each with probability 1/2". We need O(50^3) for calculating these arrays, and then O(50^3) possible strings will take just O(50) time each, which should be fast enough.

13:09 - rng_58 seems to have coded exactly this, probably has an off-by-one error somewhere.

13:11 - found the bug, submitted! ACRush and PaulJefferys have submitted as well. rng_58 is testing the maxtest and verifying the code, not moving on to the next problem yet.

13:12 - here goes another problem (not sure if it's medium or hard): given an even amount (up to 50) of boxes with given amount of gold and cost for each, you need to split them into two halves such that each half has the same (n/2) amount of boxes, and the sum of average costs per gram for the two halves is the minimum possible.

13:14 - the amounts and costs are up to 500.

13:27 - Suppose we fix the total weight of all boxes in one half. Then we sum two fractions where the sum of numerators is constant, and the denominators are given. It's obvious that to minimize this sum, we need to minimize the numerator of the fraction with the lower denominator. That leads us to the following DP: out of first a boxes, we took b boxes with total weight w - what is the lowest total cost to achieve that (we can get the highest by looking at the complement)? This should have running time of 50*50*50*500 which seems too big. rng_58 seems to have coded and submitted this. He hasn't tested it on maxtest yet.

13:28 - he's ran the maxtest, and the solution is very fast. Why?

13:29 - probably since 50 should actually be 25 in the above formula.

13:29 - rng_58 still doesn't feel confident enough to go to the hard. Let's take a look at the hard ourselves.

13:30 - the problem statement of the hard is amazingly simple. Given three arrays A, B and C of at most 34 elements each, find the number of ways to choose at least k indices such that if we sum the values of A, B and C for the chosen indices, the A's sum is the largest.

13:32 - as dzhulgakov correctly suggests, 34 suggests this will be meet-in-the-middle :)

13:33 - rng_58 is still thinking about this, and so are we.

13:35 - there's a cool constraint that k isn't more than 7, so all sufficiently large sets are allowed. Inclusion-exclusion? We're at a crossroads :)

13:36 - the numbers are up to a billion, so no help here. Let's forget about k first and solve the problem about the total number of ways.

13:43 - together with Dmytro, we seem to have solved the one with no k: if we build a vector (A[i]-B[i], A[i]-C[i]) for each i, we need to calculate the number of sets of vectors such that their sum is in the 1st quadrant (has both coordinates positive). Suppose we split all vectors in two halves, and calculated all possible sums for each half. Then we iterate over the sums of the first half in the order of increasing x-coordinate, and build a range-sum tree by y-coordinate of the vectors from the second half that add up to a positive x-coordinate with the ones we've chosen from the first set. Then we need one range-sum query to find the number of elements in the second half that will pair with the given element from the first half.

13:50 - and now let's remember about k. Since k is small, we can instead find the number of sets with less than k elements, and subtract it from the overall count. And in order to do that, we can modify the above meet-in-the-middle algorithm so that splits the sums for each half into buckets with the given amount of indices, and... Wait! Since 34*33*32*31*30*29/1*2*3*4*5*6=1344904, we can just iterate over all subsets of at most k-1 elements and verify the condition for them. So this part of the problem is very easy :)

13:53 - now that we're done with the problems, let's take a walk to other people's monitors and discuss the submitted solutions.

13:54 - ACRush was struggling with TL in his hard solution, and now he's getting WA on one of the examples.

13:55 - People have pointed out that the range-sum tree is tricky here since the values are pretty huge, so you need to "compress" the indices and be very careful.

13:56 - there's a Studio competitors announcement during the round over the loudspeakers. That should be extremely annoying to the contestants.

13:57 - ACRush has fixed the bug and submitted! (or maybe it was not a bug but just some debugging run?)

13:59 - RAD seems to be getting memory limit in the medium. No wonder, since it seems to be a requirement to do the DP remembering only 2 outermost rows instead of all of them :)

14:00 - liympanda is also debugging his hard problem, but he has a binary search inside his solution for some reason. Maybe it's just for compressing the coordinates?

14:01 - no, he's using it to calculate the answer. That looks strange.

14:03 - griffon is still struggling with the easy. That strategy doesn't work, as I've rigorously proven in the first round :)

14:04 - PaulJefferys seems to be generating all sums, so that should be the part of meet-in-the-middle. He still has a long way to go.

14:05 - ACRush seems to be debugging his hard on a testcase of his own. I'm not sure if he's just testing it or if he's found some issue.

14:08 - Onufry submits the hard! His solution has very funny 6 nested loops in the end to iterate over all combinations to take the k parameter into account.

14:10 - going back to rng_58 - he seems to have got the solution ready, was testing it for some time, and finally submits!

14:12 - rng_58 prepares a large testcase and tests his solution...

14:13 - works in 0.229s!

14:14 - tomekkulczynski seems to have the correct idea in the hard as well, and he's also splitting the sums into buckets as we've suggested above before we saw the easier approach for the k part.

14:15 - 9 minutes to go in the round. ACRush and rng_58 have three, tomek, Paul and gmark have the first two, Onufry had only the hard, griffon has nothing, all others have only the easy.

14:17 - wata is doing the hard, and seems to work on some kind of meet-in-the-middle. However, the past 24-hour marathon seems to have taken its toll and he's writing code quite slowly. Somehow ACRush doesn't seem affected :)

14:19 - it's a bit sad that we can't view the competitors' code now, as we could endlessly speculate about possible bugs. Well, we'll have to watch them during the challenge phase and do our best!

14:21 - meanwhile, liympanda submits the hard.

14:22 - PaulJefferys is reading up some STL docs. I'm guessing he ran into problems with the range-sum tree. He seems to have given up.

14:24 - most people seem to be debugging frantically in the last minute. Onufry still can't get his easy to pass the examples. izulin submits the medium. A good challenge target?

14:27 - the problems all seem to be more difficult on the time limit side and not on the correctness side; so I'd expect all challenges, if any, happen because of time limits.

14:31 - izulin's medium is downed by RAD. ACRush has looked at it before that but decided not to challenge.

14:32 - rng_58 seems to be reading the chat history to verify if izulin's easy has already been challenged (I'd guess for time limit?). Hey, you can use right click --> history for that!

14:33 - another good shot by RAD! Onufry goes down. Let's look at RAD's screen :)

14:34 - a point for RAD - he first checks the history to make sure the problem hasn't already been challenged, as in that cases chances are probably much lower. That's what I should be doing!

14:35 - unsuccessful challenge on liympanda. RAD's challenge for the hard seems to be just large and random. So there's high chance liympanda will pass the systest.

14:36 - judging by RAD's successes, we'll see quite a few solutions failing systests as well.

14:37 - ACRush is looking at tomek's 500 very carefully.

14:39 - another two unsuccessful challenges for RAD. That probably makes sense since he's (almost?) the lowest scorer on the easy.

14:39 - tomek brings Paul's easy down! Yes, I expect the systests to be quite eventful.

14:44 - Paul says his easy has failed because the coordinates in the input can be up to 100, even though the length of the string is at most 50, so he only had a small array and probably died because of strange out-of-bounds access results.

14:46 - RAD told that his goal was at least +125, so he just challenged almost blindly. Worked out for +100, but not anymore :(

14:49 - everybody waiting for the results. It seems that ACRush and rng_58 are pretty solid, and will get into the finals even with one problem failing.

14:50 - actually that's not true. rng_58 can be fourth if his hard fails.

14:51 - so the systests only brought w_'s easy down. The finalists are ACRush, rng_58 and liympanda. tomekkulczynski, gmark, PaulJefferys and izulin go to the wildcard.

15:00 - Ivan Metelsky the Algorithm Coordinator told that the results for the second semifinal are as expected, while they wanted much more people to solve the medium in the first semifinal. Stupid me for not opening it :(

15:02 - speaking about the hard problem of the first semifinal - people have rightly pointed out that the inner DP actually runs in O(25*25), for the total running time of 1000*25^3, which is fast enough. The author of the problem can solve the problem in 1000*25^2 - so here's some homework for you :)

15:03 - that's about it for the semifinals! Stay tuned later today for the coverage of the Wildcard round that starts in 3 hours 30 minutes.

TCO 2010

The bad news (for me :)) is that I've crashed out of TopCoder Open 2010. Somehow got stuck in the easy problem for most of the contest, then somehow decided to open the hard instead of the medium and didn't manage to solve it in time.

Here's the solution for the hard that I had in mind at the end of the contest:
  • First, iterate over all possible cutoff scores between 0 and 1000, and over lastCutoff (last person to score exactly cutoff points), between 1 and 25.
  • For each such pair, calculate two arrays using DP:
    • What is the probability that out of first x persons, exactly k will advance (that means, score above cutoff, or equal to cutoff if their number is less than or equal to lastCutoff).
    • The same for last x persons.
  • In calculating those arrays, we make use of the fact that all scores are independent, so the DP is quite straightforward; we need to remember that we've already fixed the score of person lastCutoff to cutoff (but this still has probability of 1/n, not 1).
  • After we've got those arrays, let's calculate the probability of each person a advancing, and being b-th highest ranked person in the finals. This is quite easy now: we need to multiply the probabilities of:
    • b-1 people to advance from the first a-1 persons
    • k-b-1 people to advance from the last totalPersons-a persons
    • a-th person advancing. Here we need to keep in mind that if a is equal to lastCutoff, this should be the fixed 1/n probability since we're only interested in the case where he scores cutoff points.
  • And finally we accumulate the above probabilities by semifinal number, to get the answer for the problem.
This has complexity of O(1000*25*(25*25+timeOfInnerDP)). The obvious implementation of the inner DP runs in O(25*25*25), processing each state in O(25) operations. 1000*25^4=400M, so this will probably already run in time (since the number of states is not 25*25 but 25*25/2, and so on), but I have the feeling that since the inner DPs are very similar, we can try to run all of them in such a way that each takes just O(25*25). Ideas?. The inner DP actually runs in O(25*25) since each state is processed in O(1), so the total runtime is good enough. I was so close during the round!

The good news is that I'll now have a lot of free time at the TCO and will do live commentary on all 3 remaining Algorithm rounds: Semifinal 2, Wildcard and Finals. I will post the commentary both here and on the TopCoder blog. Stay tuned :)


01 February 2006

Penniless Pampering Stocks - RDEN

Blog Hog Jonathan Last started me down this perfumed path with a passing thought on our generation's futile struggle to financially surpass our parents. So in that quest to make some cash, I eventually found myself at Yahoo! Finance's small cap growth screen. There I found Elizabeth Arden (RDEN). I then moseyed over to the usual places (Morningstar and SmartMoney) for some sweet smelling insight. I found that RDEN is a dog, the runt of the litter. Here are some fundamentals and grades:

Ticker - 5-yr Sales Growth - Net Profit Margin - PEG - Price/Cash Flow - ROE/ROA - On-Balance Volume Index - Morningstar Grades (Growth, Profitability, Financial Health)

RDEN - 1.08 - 3.6 - 1.34 - 10.4 - 13.1/4.5 - 91 - (B, C-, C-)
EL - 7.37 - 4.9 - 1.53 - 13.9 - 22.6/9.9 - 476 - (B, A, A)
ACV - 8.71 - 6 - 1.55 - na - 14.4/9.5 - 215 - (B, A, A+)
IPAR - 22.74 - 5.5 - 1.74 - 20.3 - 11.8/6.3 - 133 - (A, A-, C+)
PARL - 10.33 - 11.3 - na - 16 - 19.9/15.5 - 142 - (A, B, B)

RDEN has the weakest fundamentals and growth. Even its volume indes shows that the Street is ignoring this stock in favor of some more attractive offerings.

Speaking of dogs, here are some flattering picks of two of the faces of RDEN:

Blog Hog John Coumarianos pointed me to Estee Lauder (EL). EL's brands are not tied to individuals who can age less-than-gracefully, or quickly revert to their natural Cinderella-after-midnight trailer trash state upon marrying a Cletus. EL's brands include Beautiful, White Linen, and Pleasures--all timeless, pristing, evocative names.

Parlux (PARL) and Inter Parfums (IPAR) have classy brands as well. PARL has the licenses for Todd Oldham and Perry Ellis scents. IPAR manufactures and distributes Burberry, Paul Smith, and, um, Celine (but they looove her in Vegas...and in Quebec).

Alberto-Culver (ACV) owns TRESemme, a sponsored product featured on the Best Reality Show, Project Runway. Why is it the Best? Because if I'm compelled to tune in every week to a show about fashion designers, AND Heidi Klum is shaped like an over-inflated kickball, then the show is doing many things right.

EL and ACV are the established players getting tremendous notice by the Street, at least according to their trading volumes. PARL and IPAR are smaller growth plays that are getting also getting some notice. To me, they are the difference between floral and musk scents; just depends on your nose and personal taste. They all seem fine.

Any thoughts from my seven or eight readers?

Anonymous said...

Can we talk about what Citi Trends has been doing? It hit 48 this week. We need some more of those my man!

PJP said...

Yes, yes, yes...it is a realistic outcome for many and if we don't watch out then we might have abd credit as well. Fortunately, you folks can go here to fix those problems...

bad credit mortgage loan late credit repair fix free


What is Wheelchair Basketball

Basketball does not just have to be strictly regulated by the rules of the game of indoor wooden court. There are actually many different versions of the game that bring basketball to a whole new level.

Variety is one of the things that makes basketball so popular sport. With all the ways to play this game, it is not surprising that people around the world play the game. This is true no matter who they are, how old they are or in what limitations they may be physically.

Wheelchair basketball, as the name suggests, is played in wheelchairs. The chairs are designed in such a way that they move in the court quickly and easily. In addition, they are made so that the players can be flexible, as well as traditional basketball players. Wheelchair basketball is a major sport that is regulated by the International Federation of Wheelchair Basketball (IWBF).

Basketball images gallery

Related News:


The ÖSD is a central language testing and assessment system with unified standards, which is not linked to any specific language courses. ÖSD exams correspond to the levels of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and “Profile deutsch”.
The ÖSD sees itself as a communicative-oriented examination system which aims to assess foreign language competence in real-life situations.
The ÖSD supports a pluricentric view of languages: all standard varieties of German as spoken in Austria, Germany and Switzerland are considered equal. The ÖSD tries to take account of the many varieties of German in its exams, so that candidates can cope in all German-speaking countries. This means that the receptive tasks in particular (reading and listening skills) are based on texts from all three German-speaking countries.

ÖSD exams are based on the following basic principles:

1. Close contact with reality:

  • If possible, texts and tasks are authentic and adapted to real-life situations. The situations in which speaking take place are chosen for their relevance and representativeness. This not only includes the authenticity of texts and tasks but also their situational context.

2. Test formats:

  • The tasks should reflect the abilities of the candidates as closely as possible, i.e. when testing listening skills, the results should not be distorted by a task that also asks for excellent writing skills, a good memory or successful oral production. Conversely, no valid conclusions as regards productive skills such as writing and speaking can be drawn from multiple-choice tests. In these cases, more open tasks are preferred.

3. Skills :

  • To obtain a comprehensive and balanced picture of a person’s language competence, ÖSD exams are divided into different parts. The ÖSD differentiates between individual communicative skills (reading comprehension, listening comprehension, writing skills, speaking) and combined communicative skills (for example listening and speaking: conversation; reading and writing: correspondence).

    Grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling are regarded as secondary aspects of communicative competence and are, thus, only implicitly checked and assessed.

4. Assessment:

  • The more open and direct a language exam is, the higher the demands placed on examiners and assessors.
    We do not only provide precise assessment guidelines and criteria but also run intensive courses for examiners in which assessment training is carried out in order to ensure reliable evaluation and assessment.


131 terms

answers from test 1 and 2. definitions, terms, etc for final exam review
the academic discipline of criminology uses scientific methods to study the nature, extent, cause, and control of criminal behavior
Caesar Beccaria. 1700's, one of the first scholars to develop a systematic understanding of why people commit crime.
-the idea that people want to achieve pleasure and avoid pain
Classical Criminology
let the punishment fit the crime
-theoretical perspective suggesting that people have free will to choose criminal or conventional behaviors
-people choose to commit crime for reasons of greed or personal need
-crime can be controlled by the fear of criminal sanctions
father of criminology
-man that referred to offenders as "born criminals"
individuals interact with various people, organizations, institutions, and social norms as they mature and develop
Critical Criminology
the writings of Karl Marx have had a great impact on critica crim
-faults the economic system for producing the conditions that lead to high crime rates
deviant act becomes a crime
a deviant act becomes a crime when it is deemed socially harmful or dangerous and is defined, prohibited, and punished under criminal law
Consensus view of crime
implies that crimes are behaviors that all members of society consider to be repugnant, be they rich and powerful or poor and powerless
conflict view of crime
sees society as a collection of diverse groups who are in a constant and continuing struggle to gain political power in order to advance their economic or social situation
encouraging revenge
not a legitimate social goal of the criminal law
american legal system
direct descendent of british common law
Code of Hammurabi
the most famous set of written laws of the ancient world was a code based on punishment via physical retaliation 'an eye for an eye'
under common law, it a royal judge successfully applied a ruling in a number of different cases and published that ruling in order that other judges cold apply the ruling in their subsequent decisions, the ruling would become a precedent
serious crimes
minor crimes
primary source of crime data collected by the FBI
nonreporting issue
rates per 100,000 total U.S. population
youth crime
The reporting accuracy of self-report studies is impacted by
the "missing cases" phenomenon.
Today's violent crime rate as decreased by nearly 40%.
Between 1991 and 2008, homicide rates dropped 40%.
on July 1st with a temperature of 80 degrees
the level of hormone activity in the brain
proliferation of handguns
Franklin Zimring and Gordon HAwkins believe this to be the single most significant factor seperating the crime problem in the US from that of the rest of the developed world
law enforcement practices
UCR data associates social class with crime, indicating higher crime rates in inner-city, high poverty areas. an alternative explanation for the association between social class and crime is this
% of female chronic offenders
persistence and desistence
50% lower
Women are more likely to be victimized by someone they know.
the cycle of violence.
target vulnerability
research on males and females indicates a strong association between victimization and ___.
Routines Activity Theory
the view that victimization results from the interaction of three everyday factors: the availability of suitable targets, the absences of capable guardians, and the presences of motivated offenders
Victim risk diminishes rapidly after age
guardians decreased as a result of increased female participation in the workforce
Crisis Intervention Programs
programs that assist victims who feel isolated and vulnerable and who are in need of immediate or emergency services
victim precipitation theory
Victim-Offender reconciliation programs
mediated face to face encoutners between victims and their attackers that are designed to produce restitution agreements are called:
a neighborhood with educational and residential properties
Target anagonism
victim advocates.
at the end of the 19th century, the popularity of the classical approach began to decline as ____ criminologists focused their attentions on internal and external factors, such as poverty, IQ, and education, rather than personal choice and decision making
cost-benefit analysis
Gary Becker
-criminals engage in cost benefit analysis of crime
edge work
the high or excitement of successfully executing illegal activities in dangerous situations
crime discouragers
mechanical forms. cameras, lighting, etc
general deterrence
concept of general deterrence holds that the decision to commit crime can be controlled by the threat of criminal punishment
perception of punishment
people who believe that they will be caught if hey commit crime are the ones most likely to be deterred from committing criminal acts
Research on the immediate impact of well-publicized executions:
certainty of punishment
seductions of crime
social classes
culture of poverty
Trait theory
the most abundant androgen, has been linked to criminality
locations with the highest conc. of lead also report highest levels of
brain scanning techniques using electronic images suggest which of he following statements is true
both violent criminals and substance abusers have impairment in the pre-frontal lobe
Cultural deviance theory combines elements of _____ and social disorganization theories.
in adoption studies, which of the following strongly predicted a childs criminal behavior
a criminal biological father
contagion effect
Strain theory holds that crime is a function of
conflict between people's goals and means.
Shaw and McKay explained crime and delinquency within the context of
the changing urban environment and ecological development of the city.
genetic theory holds that criminality-producing traits are
according to the psychoanalytical perspective, the _____ develops as a result of incorporating within the personality the moral standards and values of parents, community, and significant others
Freud developed ______ psychology that has remained a prominent segment of psychological theory ever since
social learning theory holds that
people learn to be aggressive through their life experiences
psychopaths and crime
psychopaths tend to continue their criminal careers long after other offenders age out of crime
social classes
segments of he population whose members have a relatively similar portion of desirable belongings, and who share attitudes, values and norms
Oscar Lewis argues that the crushing lifestyle of lower-class areas produces _____ that is passed on from one generation to the next
culture of poverty
according to Shaw and McKay a ____ neighborhood is an area wracked by extreme poverty and suffering high rates of population turnover
community deterioration
as working middle-class families flee inner-city poverty areas, the most disadvantaged population is consolidated in urban ghettos. the phenomenon results in a poverty:
concentration effect
when members of he lower-class are unable to achieve symbols of success via conventional means they feel anger, frustration, and resentment, referred to as :
Merton's social adaptation most closely associated with criminal behavior
culturally defined goals and socially approved means for obtaining them
Walter Miller identified the unique conduct norms that define the lower-class culture and that often clash with conventional values -> not one of these norms
Cohen's theory of delinquent sulbcultures focuses on social conditions that prevent lower-class youths from achieving success legitimately. Cohen labesls this form of culture conflict as:
status frustration
social process theories share one basic concept:
social control theory suggests that
relative deprivation
General Strain Theory
cultural transmission
Social reaction theory suggests that
parental efficacy
Troubled kids do so out of necessity rather than desire.
Adolescents who do not receive affection from their parents during childhood are
attend religious services
not one of the major principles of differential association
differential associations may vary in meaning, reliability, and intention
Edward Sutherland's differential association theory states that :
criminal behavior is learned like any other behavior
Crime appears to be intergenerational.
Neutralization theory points out that
Attacking someone who is arguing with a friend.
Criminals sometimes neutralize wrongdoings by maintaining that the crime victim "had it coming". example of which technique of neutralization
denial of responsibility
What does Topalli's research on street criminals indicate?
street criminals do not experience guilt that requires neutralization
Travis Hirschi states that the social bonds a person maintains with society are divided into four main elements. not one of these elements
Hirschi tested the principal hypothesis of social control theory. While evidence was strong and supportive, what is the most controversial aspect of his conclusions
any form of social attachment is beneficial , even to deviant peers and parents
Delinquency may lead to weakened social bonds, not vice versa.
the boyhood friend of a convicted murderer is interviewed by the media and reports that the offender was withdrawn, suspicious, and negativistic as a youth. this is an example of
retrospective reading
deviance amplification
crime control agencies
According to conflict theorists, societal conflict promotes crime by
creating a social atmosphere in which the law is a mechanism for controlling have-not members of society.
According to critical theorists, crime is a
political concept designed to protect the power and position of the upper classes.
surplus value
Supranational criminology is a specialization of critical theory that focuses on which type of crimes?
war crimes
state (organized) crime
Some government experts use the "ticking Bomb scenario," to justify which type of state crime?
While mainstream criminologists criticize critical criminologists, what do critical criminologists accuse mainstream criminologists of doing?
selling out their ideals for the chance to receive government funding
According to Messerschmidt's views in Capitalism, Patriarchy, and Crime what factor explains why females in society commit fewer crimes than males?
double marginality
John Lea and Jock Young, leaders of the leftist realism movement, contend that
the poor are doubly abused, first by the capitalist system and then by members of their own class.
Girls growing up in ______ are socialized to fear legal sanctions more than males; consequently, boys in these families exhibit more delinquent behavior than their sisters.
paternalistic families
Which of the following is true regarding restorative justice programs?
Restoration programs have been part of peacekeeping in Asian, Native American and Native Canadian communities for centuries.
A number of restorative justice experts, including Gordon Bazemore, have suggested that restorative justice should be organized around the principle of
the integrative methodology in the early research of _____ formed the basics of todays developmental approach
Eleanor Glueck and Sheldon Glueck
Latent trait theorists believe human development is controlled by a master trait present at birth or soon after that results in
an increased propensity to commit crime.
the authority conflict pathway
Why is early onset an important factor in crime?
Because early onset of antisocial behavior predicts later and more serious criminality.
One of the key principles of life course theory is that
the seeds of a criminal career are planted early in life.
because it assumes that human character is selfish, self-serving and hedonistic, the general theory of crime is criticized for
misreading human nature
Which empirical evidence supports the general theory of crime?
Low self-control is significantly related to antisocial behavior and the association can be seen regardless of culture or national setting.
Which of the following statements regarding gender differences and the general theory of crime is accurate?
There is little evidence that males are more impulsive than females.
According to latent trait theory, when does a latent trait appear?
at birth or soon after


Ups and downs: More challenges for autonomous car development

The automotive world will continue developing in 2016, especially with news that one of its defining trends is still in a state of flux.

The pursuit of safer and more fuel efficient vehicles is a challenge for automotive manufacturers.

The pursuit of safer and more fuel efficient vehicles is a challenge that's involving more than just established automotive brands, especially as self-driving cars appear to be the answer to many of the industry's current problems.

However, it remains difficult for fleet managers to get a concrete idea of how these trends will affect their roles in the coming years. While the technology is making progress, and elements of it have already surfaced in new cars, the complicated web of rigorous testing procedures and regulatory pressures could be holding these systems back.

Ford ramps up autonomous development

While pared down versions of self-driving cars are already available in some vehicles through systems such as autonomous emergency braking, fully fledged examples are unlikely to be in the hands of consumers for a few more years.

The technology is rapidly coming together, however. Google doubled its fleet of these vehicles over 2015 and, more recently, Ford expanded its testing regime.

Ford will launch its first major autonomous testing program on public roads, with the company announcing that a fleet of its vehicles will hit Californian streets. Not only are these vehicles self-driving, they're green cars too, as Ford Fusion Hybrids will lead the charge.

Ford president and CEO Mark Fields stated the company is reaching beyond its usual resources to achieve these goals, noting the initiative will bridge the gap between the tech world and the automotive one.

Californian streets are the scene for autonomous testing. Californian streets are the scene for autonomous testing.

Possible roadblock for autonomous vehicles

Overcoming the technological boundaries is not the only challenge for manufacturers investing the development of self-driving cars. In most places around the world, transport and vehicle regulations aren't prepared for self-driving vehicles, a fact which could prompt a rapid revision of the road rules as the technology develops.

The state of California set a notable precedent for these cars recently, with draft legislation stating that autonomous vehicles must have a driver behind the wheel. As many of the leading developers of these cars test on these streets, the decision is likely to have a significant impact on their future evolution.


Lean Pharma

The continuous pricing pressure on drugs means that the pharmaceutical industry does not only need to deliver a patient-safe quality product, they must also produce it at the lowest possible cost. Therefore most pharmaceutical companies have (extensive) improvement programs deployed in their manufacturing area. Lean concepts such as TPM, SMED, 5S and visual management are in place to ensure a drug can be formulated, filled or packed within the smallest timeframe and at the lowest cost possible.

  • Jan Van Loon
  • January 12, 2017

But how many improvement projects are conducted on production-supporting processes? How lean or defect-proof are they? Many of these processes are established to ensure product quality and although they might, by definition, not directly add value to the product, they may add a significant cost if not executed in an efficient and effective manner.

An example of these production supporting processes is the deviation handling process. Unfortunately not every manufacturing (or laboratory) activity goes according to plan and deviations from standardized procedures occur. These deviations must be documented and their impact on quality and compliance must be assessed. The cause should be determined and corrective and preventive actions must be defined and approved by the responsible parties. As the process lies on the critical path to product release, and deviations with quality impact might be subject to regulatory notification timelines, it’s essential that this process runs efficiently, without compromising on the quality of the outcome. Bearing in mind that the most ‘lean’ way of deviation handling is to have no deviations at all, it is of major importance to identify the true root cause of a deviation and prevent it from reoccurring.

But it’s not only the deviation handling process that impacts the product release. Laboratory testing and batch record review increase lead times as well. While pharmaceutical laboratories often have continuous improvement initiatives such as Lean Laboratory, it is noticed that they are hard to maintain when the workload is rising. The batch record review process is a very administrative and time-consuming process, and often forgotten when it comes to continuous improvement efforts. What must be reviewed, when and by whom? Often parameters are systematically reviewed due to a one-time deviation, but this is hardly ever the best solution. The more different products a company has, the more challenging it becomes to define a standard way of working and implement a lean approach.

Today, most continuous improvement programs focus on manufacturing processes. However, once manufactured, the product’s critical path to release is determined by laboratory and quality assurance processes. As a result, today’s challenge is to make these processes time- and cost-efficient so their impact on the supply chain stays as low as possible. Therefore they should be part of an improvement program that emphasizes on waste elimination (to ensure an effective process), standard work (to ensure a repetitive process) and visual management (to ensure a controlled process). Continuous improvement can be enforced by assigning resources that become available by conducting improvement projects to the further analysis and improvement of the standard.

Do you need some advice on how to tackle these challenges? Ordina’s Quality and Compliance team has the knowledge and experience to assist you in doing this.


History of Algebra

By the time of Plato, Greek mathematics had undergone a drastic change. The Greeks created a geometric algebra where terms were represented by sides of geometric objects, usually lines, that had letters associated with them. Diophantus (3rd century AD), sometimes called "the father of algebra", was an Alexandrian Greek mathematician and the author of a series of books called Arithmetica. These texts deal with solving algebraic equations.

The word algebra comes from the Arabic language (الجبر al-jabr "restoration") and much of its methods from Arabic/Islamic mathematics. Earlier traditions discussed above had a direct influence on Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī (c. 780–850). He later wrote The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing, which established algebra as a mathematical discipline that is independent of geometry and arithmetic.

The Hellenistic mathematicians Hero of Alexandria and Diophantus as well as Indian mathematicians such as Brahmagupta continued the traditions of Egypt and Babylon, though Diophantus' Arithmetica and Brahmagupta's Brahmasphutasiddhanta are on a higher level. For example, the first complete arithmetic solution (including zero and negative solutions) to quadratic equations was described by Brahmagupta in his book Brahmasphutasiddhanta. Later, Arabic and Muslim mathematicians developed algebraic methods to a much higher degree of sophistication. Although Diophantus and the Babylonians used mostly special ad hoc methods to solve equations, Al-Khwarizmi was the first to solve equations using general methods. He solved the linear indeterminate equations, quadratic equations, second order indeterminate equations and equations with multiple variables.

The Greek mathematician Diophantus has traditionally been known as the "father of algebra" but in more recent times there is much debate over whether al-Khwarizmi, who founded the discipline of al-jabr, deserves that title instead. Those who support Diophantus point to the fact that the algebra found in Al-Jabr is slightly more elementary than the algebra found in Arithmetica and that Arithmetica is syncopated while Al-Jabr is fully rhetorical. Those who support Al-Khwarizmi point to the fact that he introduced the methods of "reduction" and "balancing" (the transposition of subtracted terms to the other side of an equation, that is, the cancellation of like terms on opposite sides of the equation) which the term al-jabr originally referred to, and that he gave an exhaustive explanation of solving quadratic equations, supported by geometric proofs, while treating algebra as an independent discipline in its own right. His algebra was also no longer concerned "with a series of problems to be resolved, but an exposition which starts with primitive terms in which the combinations must give all possible prototypes for equations, which henceforward explicitly constitute the true object of study". He also studied an equation for its own sake and "in a generic manner, insofar as it does not simply emerge in the course of solving a problem, but is specifically called on to define an infinite class of problems".

The Persian mathematician Omar Khayyam is credited with identifying the foundations of algebraic geometry and found the general geometric solution of the cubic equation. Another Persian mathematician, Sharaf al-Dīn al-Tūsī, found algebraic and numerical solutions to various cases of cubic equations. He also developed the concept of a function. The Indian mathematicians Mahavira and Bhaskara II, the Persian mathematician Al-Karaji, and the Chinese mathematician Zhu Shijie, solved various cases of cubic, quartic, quintic and higher-order polynomial equations using numerical methods. In the 13th century, the solution of a cubic equation by Fibonacci is representative of the beginning of a revival in European algebra. As the Islamic world was declining, the European world was ascending. And it is here that algebra was further developed.

François Viète’s work at the close of the 16th century marks the start of the classical discipline of algebra. In 1637, René Descartes published La Géométrie, inventing analytic geometry and introducing modern algebraic notation. Another key event in the further development of algebra was the general algebraic solution of the cubic and quartic equations, developed in the mid-16th century. The idea of a determinant was developed by Japanese mathematician Kowa Seki in the 17th century, followed independently by Gottfried Leibniz ten years later, for the purpose of solving systems of simultaneous linear equations using matrices. Gabriel Cramer also did some work on matrices and determinants in the 18th century. Permutations were studied by Joseph Lagrange in his 1770 paperRéflexions sur la résolution algébrique des équations devoted to solutions of algebraic equations, in which he introduced Lagrange resolvents. Paolo Ruffini was the first person to develop the theory of permutation groups, and like his predecessors, also in the context of solving algebraic equations.

Abstract algebra was developed in the 19th century, initially focusing on what is now called Galois theory, and on construc tibility issues. The "modern algebra" has deep nineteenth-century roots in the work, for example, of Richard Dedekind and Leopold Kronecker and profound interconnections with other branches of mathematics such as algebraic number theory and algebraic geometry. George Peacock was the founder of axiomatic thinking in arithmetic and algebra. Augustus De Morgan discovered relation algebra in his Syllabus of a Proposed System of Logic. Josiah Willard Gibbs developed an algebra of vectors in three-dimensional space, and Arthur Cayley developed an algebra of matrices (this is a noncommutative algebra).

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lunes, 28 de enero de 2013

Verifying Listeria killing via an innocuous indicator in foods

Verifying Listeria killing via an innocuous indicator in foods.has the same rate of degradation when subjected to heat as Listeria.
The industry uses heat treatment as an additional safeguard to kill off pathogens in products such as ready-to-eat foods, which involve minimal cooking after processing. Amylase has the same rate of degradation when subjected to heat as Listeria and is harmless if ingested.

A Norwegian food researcher devised the method as one of two ways to test the reliability of heat treatment methods in eliminating Listeria monocytogenes in food. The other procedure involved examining the effect of heat treatments on actual Listeria cells encapsulated in alginate beads. However, because this involves the use of a pathogen, food safety rules dictate that it can’t be used on production lines.

By contrast, the simulation method could be and consequently provided a more trustworthy picture of Listeria control under plant conditions. The organization partnered a fish cake manufacturer on the research.

Burgers and fish cakes were often fried or grilled on both sides, but this was still not sufficient to completely kill all Listeria pathogens. It is known that manufacturers validate their own lines in an incomplete way. Many measure the core temperature at the end of the line, but that may not be enough, you need to see if there are cold spots in some of the burgers.

Researchers had also been testing the survival rate of Listeria monocytogenes encapsulated in alginate beads after microwave heat treatment in a lab context through this method you  can introduce Listeria directly in line. It is easier to use a harmless enzyme when conducting research in real production lines, as this avoids contamination of the processing equipment and foods.

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Men's health issues are an area that Echo Pharmacy can help with. When we compound, we listen so that your medication is customized and you get the most benefits from it.

Some concerns that we can help with are:

- Erectile dysfunction
- Low libido
- Loss of zest for life
- Prostrate and bladder health
- Aches and Pains
- Fungal Infections, athletes foot, jock itch
- Hair loss
- Excessive sweating
- Chronic Bad Breath
- Aging Skin

In addition, the compounding pharmacist may be able to include nutritional support to help maintain your health.
One of the many benefits of using a compounding pharmacy, such as Echo Pharmacy, is that we have the ability to alter the dosage form of a drug, from a tablet or capsule to a topical form.

Topical forms can include creams, lotions, ointments or gels that are applied directly to the skin. The topical preparation allows the drug to be absorbed through the skin and enter the bloodstream, bypassing the intestinal tract and reducing
the risk of side effects.

We work along with your physician and you, to improve the quality of your life. In this way, you get the most from your medication with the least amount of side effects. Most of our compounded medications contain no dyes or
artificial ingredients.

- Decreased Libido –muscle mass
- Impotence
- Osteoporosis
- Heart Disease
- Sleep Disorders
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Strength and Stamina

As men age and some of these symptoms appear it could be due to male menopause also known as andropause. These symptoms are usually due to decreasing levels of testosterone or increasing levels of estrogen.

The answer may be as simple as a compounded cream applied daily to bring your levels back into balance and restore your vitality.

At Echo Pharmacy, we can help you along with your doctor, address your individual symptoms or concerns to formulate a compounded prescription solution to fit your unique body.

Men's Health Compounding

Men's Health Compounding

Men's Health Compounding


Over the years, we have encountered many situations where compounding has been an effective solution.

Swallowing issues:
Many times, we hear that a child can’t take pills, but we can compound a medication into a different dosage form, for example:

- liquids that can be flavored
- lollipops

- lozenges

- topical gels & more

What happens when a child is sick with nausea and vomiting?
We can compound a medication into a suppository or dosage form that would be tolerable. We work closely with you, your physician and child to find an effective solution for many conditions including:

- Pain relief
- Malabsorption
- Thrush
- Skin conditions
- Cold sores
- Diaper rash

Many children with special needs can be helped when we make medications  SUGAR FREE,  DYE FREE, GLUTEN FREE and PRESERVATIVE FREE

Pediatric Compounding

Pediatric Compounding


Gunite Start-Up Procedures

Pool Start Up Services

No one should be allowed in the pool until it is completely filled, water chemistry has been adjusted, and we have started up the pool pump.

Once the pool is built, we will begin filling it with water. Please keep a close eye on your pool and turn off the water once it reaches the middle of you skimmer. You do not want the pool to overfill or flood.

We will start up the pool equipment to filter the water and begin the curing process of the pool finish. We will want the pump to run for about 30 days, 24-7 and then you can adjust the pump time depending on the time of year. March-November 10-12 hours a day, December-February 4 hours a day.

Water Chemistry

We will start up your brand new pool and adjust the water chemistry.

If you have a salt water pool, we will leave the correct amount of salt for you to add after 30 days. Adding the salt earlier can damage the pool finish.

Once you have added the salt and the water temperature is over 60 degrees, your system will produce chlorine. During the fall or winter when the water temperature is below 60, you may need to keep a small amount of chlorine in your pool. Once the water temperature reaches about 60 degrees in the spring, the system will start producing your chlorine again.

Here are some of the steps that we will go over with your water chemistry.

For the first 30 days, test your water every 3 days with the simple test strips we provide.

It is extremely important to keep the PH and Alkalinity in check during the cure phase. PH will increase as the pool cures. You will need to reduce this by adding Muriatic acid so that the PH reading is in the low range of 7 – 7.2 Acid should carefully be added to the deep area of your pool. Do not pour directly over steps or shallow areas.

If your pool has a plaster or quartz finish, you will need to vigorously brush all surfaces with the steel brush we provide for the first 30 days. This helps in the curing process. Your pool surface is very delicate during the cure phase. Do not allow any lawn fertilizers or foreign material in the pool.

If your pool has a Pebble Tec or Pebble Sheen finish, you will only need to brush the pool a few times. This is done simply to knock loose any of the small pebbles that did not attach.

Make adjustments to your water per the directions on each container of chemicals.

Always dilute the chemicals in a bucket with water (water first) and never mix them together, before adding to the pool.

Pool chemicals are added directly to the pool except UV Block . This is added to the skimmer.

After 30 days, start testing your water once a week and make adjustments as necessary.

If you have a salt water pool, you will be making adjustments to your chlorine output a few times a year to dial in the proper range that is recommended.

Remember a crystal clear pool does not mean that the chemistry is correct. Testing and balancing the water each week will prevent corrosive water conditions that can damage your pool.

If you have a pool heater, do not turn it on for the first 30 days to allow the finish to cure properly.

Add water or drain water so that it is at the middle of the skimmer for proper surface cleaning.

Remove toys and floats after swimming so that the skimmers will not be blocked.


Wednesday, February 28, 2007

A gripefest about language use

People have always complained about others’ use of the English language, and have looked back to previous generations as golden ages of English while bemoaning the language of the youth of today. Julie Blake covered the history and background to such complaints about language change in her Bilious Pigeon lecture at the last SFX Language Conference, and it’s now an article in the February emag (in the LRC).

A recent discussion in class about the conversion of the noun text to the verb to text and younger people’s use of the past tense form “I text you yesterday” rather than what I thought was the “right” past tense form “I texted you yesterday”, is maybe a case in point. To me, as a 30-something English teacher, it seems normal to say “text” in the present tense and then add the –ed inflection in the past tense. But for (I think) everyone in the two A2 classes that was strange, abnormal, weird, just…extra. Even Gbemi’s dad thinks it’s weird and he’s probably older than me. So, who’s right? Well, we all are to some extent, but if the usage of text as a past tense continues to spread, then you’ll be standard in your use and I’ll be just a bit old-fashioned and non-standard in mine. Then I'll start to moan about the youth of today having no respect.

Likewise, the trend towards missing out prepositions like “to” in utterances like “I’m going Peckham”, or “You going library” seems to growing beyond casual, colloquial use into more formal settings. Maybe that too will spread to become the standard form among a whole generation. There’s probably someone researching it now.

But in wider society (i.e. away from SFX and Sarf LDN) many, many people have their own linguistic bugbears, and two websites have called for their readers to add their own.The response has been huge. According to
The Language Log blog, “at the New York Times, Dick Cavett's inaugural blog post "It's only language" now has 761 comments. And across the Atlantic, on the Telegraph's web site, readers have devoted more than 1,270 comments”

Old favourites like like being “over-used” in speech (“And I was like “yeah?” and she was like “whatever”) and doubling-up of prepositions (“He’s Damon out of Blur” or “She’s inside of the house”) all appear, but there are many others too, like complaints about the verb to rob being used to describe thefts from houses as well as people. “The house was robbed” is seen as wrong by some of the contributors; they argue it should be “The house was burgled” as only people can be robbed. Have a look for yourselves.

But, as The Language Log points out, lots of these so-called wrong usages have actually been around for hundreds of years and the more recent ones are just matters of personal taste. Like so many prescriptive attitudes to language change, there are deeper social factors at work, and these are not just complaints about language but about a changing society.

Underneath it all, lies something a bit more psychological too: the need for people to get together into communities – either real or virtual – and hold gripefests about language. As
this article discusses, the unease that the gripers feel about abuses of their language, is probably more to do with social and psychological issues than it is to do with language itself. And the article goes on to ask where this will lead us.

The recent Lynne Truss and John Humphrys phenomenon - and David Crystal’s excellent response to both of them
here and in his book The Fight For English - show us that many people feel insecure about “correct” usage and how they will be judged by others if they speak incorrectly, while others are quick to correct us on our errors. But, equally, there are many people who go around blissfully unaware that they are being judged, looked down upon and condescended towards, by “correct” speakers. What the study of language at GCSE, A Level and beyond should be able to do is make all speakers of language aware that one person’s “incorrect” usage is another’s code-switching, and that so long as we all have some grasp of Standard English, we shouldn’t write off others’ language as inferior.

Useful for:
ENA5 - Attitudes to Language Change

Sunday, February 25, 2007

The lexical patterns of liars

If you’re emailing a teacher with excuses for not being at a lesson, not giving in coursework or being late, and you’re telling porkies, beware; new software has been developed which can – according to this article in The Sunday Times - spot lies through your lexis.

The software has been designed by a team at Cornell University led by Jeff Hancock, and scans messages to discover a number of lexical patterns and trends, which might indicate that the writer is lying, with a 70% success rate so far.

One of the main giveaways is the length of a message. E-mails that mask a lie have, on average, 28% more words than truthful messages. “When you’re lying, you are trying to give a credible story so you provide more detail, you are in persuasive mode,” said Hancock.

Liars are also more likely to use third-person pronouns, such as “they” and “he”, in a bid to distance themselves from a lie because of the guilt associated with it.

“People also tend to use negative emotional terms because they feel uncomfortable when they are lying,” said Hancock. “So they tend to use terms like ‘sad’, ‘angry’, ‘unhappy’ and ‘stressed out’.”

Another telltale sign of a fib is the overuse of “sense terms”, such as “see”, “feel” and “touch”, which Hancock believes are employed to build up an elaborate and evocative account of a scenario that may never have happened.

Finally, liars tend to use fewer “causal phrases” to minimise the chances of being caught out. So, for example, a person conducting an illicit affair is less likely to say they were unable to get home early last night because they were with someone else. “They will just say, ‘Sorry, I couldn’t meet you’ and be deliberately vague,” said Hancock.

Email is often described as a blunt tool, which doesn’t convey the nuances and tones of real face to face conversation, and it’s often blamed for misunderstandings between people. So, can a computer programme really reveal lies in people’s email style? There are skeptics, including psychologist, Peter Collett who says “The thing about lying is that a lot of it can be picked up from body language when you talk, it’s got something to do with the timing, the pacing and the actual utterances,” he said. “How can you get software to spot all this? With e-mails you are just left with lexical patterns”.

But with so much communication now carried out by email, maybe we’ve all developed our own styles – our own email idiolects - and the technology can work to reveal our little white lies. Or the big fat ones, like when my children try to get sweets and biscuits out of me by saying that I’m not bald. So, don’t try that one at college…

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Dying dialects

"It's been dying for some time and it will just die a natural death. I was brought up in the fishing industry, which has died out, and the dialect has gone as the place changes." So says Bobby Hogg, 87 years old and one of possibly two or three surviving speakers of a particular fisherman's dialect from Cromarty in the Highlands of Scotland.

In an article in The Scotsman newspaper this week, linguists and cultural historians had a look at the looming disappearance of another local dialect - not just a regional dialect but an occupational one too - and the significance of it to the rest of us.

And it's not only in sleepy fishing villages that local dialects appear to be dying out, but in the urban heart of Scotland too. In a linked article, Miriam Meyerhoff, a professor of sociolinguistics at Edinburgh University looks at the ways in which the influence of southern English, American and Australian has changed the lexis and phonology of Scottish English.

So are we seeing the death of regional varieties of English, smothered under a blanket of mass media-driven metropolitan mumbling? Well, yes and no; as lots of recent research by linguists like Dave Britain at Essex University, Sue Fox at Queen Mary's University and Paul Kerswill at Lancaster University (among others) has shown, while dialect levelling is clearly taking place - local differences gradually blurring as wider and regional ones take hold - new dialects are also being created.

Have a search under multi ethnic youth dialect or multi cultural london english in the search bar at the top of this page, to find a host of articles about new varieties of English, or better still, post your own examples here as comments.

Useful for:
ENA5 - Language Varieties

Friday, February 09, 2007

Faggots swimming in gravy

Useful for:
ENA1 - Language & Representation

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

The Importance of Context (and Prepositional phrases!)

This post is quite a technical but interesting one. It talks about clause structure and hopes to show how prepositional phrases help us identify ambiguity and in doing so show us the importance of context.
(Yes I did get it from a supervisor but where's the harm in sharing the fun?)

Let's analyse the following sentence on a phrasal level:

I saw a man with a telescope in the park

Most noticeably, there are four noun phrases
(noun phrases tell us what exactly we are talking about in terms of entities/things):
-'I' (remember phrases can in fact be one word when dealing with clause structure),
-'a man',
-'a telescope', and
-'the park'.

There are also two prepositional phrases
(I have recently been enlightened that these tell us not only about spatial relationships- 'on', 'above', 'underneath', etc- but also relationships regarding general awareness of things i.e. 'with', and 'between'):
-'with a telescope', and
-'in the park.'

(I tried to argue that 'saw a man' was a verb phrase but I was told that was pushing it, so we'll disregard those but post if you agree with me that it so could be identified as one! Moving on Charissa..)

Prepositional phrases (pps) are meant to tell us something about how these nouns and entities are related to each other right? Like what they are doing and who has them and stuff.
Now, bearing this is mind-
where is the man? I looked at my supervisor like duh- the man is in the park stupid.
Where are you if you are referring to yourself as 'I'? 'I'm watching the man in the park with me.'
Where is the park? 'Around me'
Where's the telescope? My response: 'it belongs to the man, so it's in the park also?' (by this time I'm not even sure myself now- there is a term for this which I really need to revise. Anyhow..) The argument goes thus:

Is it not possible, that the pps have decieved you? You cannot possibly know where the man is and the park is etc simply by looking at the sentence- that is if we assume this is a complete sentence, as we have been given no punctuation to signal this is so.
-What if the park was one of those parks with telescopes fitted in? you could be watching the man with the park's telescope but the man may not be in the park himself.
-What if the telescope was by your bedroom window? You could be looking into the park through the telescope at the man, the man doesn't necessarily have to have the telescope.

Didn't really enjoy the insinuations that I'd be the one watching men through telescopes (I don't for the record), nevertheless the point is clear. With literature, and indeed the texts we get in textual analysis papers, this ambiguity is removed and we wouldn't even be considering what the circumstances of these entities were. Literature builds up characters and tells us more about what we need to know, so that language becomes revealing of situations and places and events. Literature, in a way, makes pps safe and reassuring to us because it serves an adverbial or adjectival function. But, if we get one of those texts that begin with clauses such as the one given above, then these prepositional phrases become important for us to analyse as it'd be a major part as to how we're recieving the text and why we're making the technical judgements we are about the text at work.

Of course this is just one example of how language complicates literature in an interesting way.
Honestly, I'm not sure can't tell you how to directly apply this complication to a question, but perhaps if we consider what doesn't add up about the text given, pps would be a way in. What do you think?

Farewell for now..


Golden pastels

 vintage kimono
zara shoes

Ah here we go, a little bit of anticipated beach-posing.. how could I not? I revived this beautiful belt on a cold winter day and frankly felt a bit confused how to make it work with all the clothing that had to be worn to survive. But I did the right decision bringing it with me to Thailand, most of my skirts look weirdly naked with out it now. Truly one of those things you don't know how much you really need until it's there, sitting securely on your waist.