Artificial Intelligence and Learning Computers

Artificial Intelligence & Learning Computers Presented by: S. DEEPAKKUMAR Abstract The term artificial intelligence is used to describe a property of machines or programs: the intelligence that the system demonstrates. Among the traits that researchers hope machines will exhibit are reasoning, knowledge, planning, learning, communication, perception and the ability to move and manipulate objects. Constructing robots that perform intelligent tasks has always been a highly motivating factor for the science and technology of information processing.Unlike philosophy and psychology, which are also concerned with intelligence, AI strives to build intelligent entities such as robots as well as understand them. Although no one can predict the future in detail, it is clear that computers with human-level intelligence (or better) would have a huge impact on our everyday lives and on the future course of civilization Neural Networks have been proposed as an alternative to Symbolic Artificial In telligence in constructing intelligent systems. They are motivated by computation in the brain.Small Threshold computing elements when put together produce powerful information processing machines. In this paper, we put forth the foundational ideas in artificial intelligence and important concepts in Search Techniques, Knowledge Representation, Language Understanding, Machine Learning, Neural Computing and such other disciplines. Artificial Intelligence Starting from a modest but an over ambitious effort in the late 50’s, AI has grown through its share of joys, disappointments and self-realizations. AI deals in science, which deals with creation of machines, which can think like humans and behave rationally.AI has a goal to automate every machine. AI is a very vast field, which spans:  ·Many application domains like Language Processing, Image Processing, Resource Scheduling, Prediction, Diagnosis etc.  ·Many types of technologies like Heuristic Search, Neural Networks, an d Fuzzy Logic etc.  ·Perspectives like solving complex problems and understanding human cognitive processes.  ·Disciplines like Computer Science, Statistics, Psychology, etc. DEFINITION OF INTELLIGENCE & TURING TEST The Turing Test, proposed by Alan Turing (1950), was designed to provide a satisfactory definition of intelligence.Turing defined intelligent behavior as the ability to achieve human-level performance in all cognitive tasks, sufficient to fool an interrogator. Roughly speaking, the test he proposed is that the computer should be interrogated by a human via a teletype, and passes the test if the interrogator cannot tell if there is a computer or a human at the other end. His theorem (the Church-Turing thesis) states that â€Å"Any effective procedure (or algorithm) can be implemented through a Turing machine. â€Å" Turing machines are abstract mathematical entities that are composed of a tape, a read-write head, and a finite-state machine.The head can either read o r write symbols onto the tape, basically an input-output device. The head can change its position, by either moving left or right. The finite state machine is a memory/central processor that keeps track of which of finitely many states it is currently in. By knowing which state it is currently in, the finite state machine can determine which state to change to next, what symbol to write onto the tape, and which direction the head should move. Requirement of an Artificial Intelligence system No AI system can be called intelligent unless it learns & reasons like a human.Reasoning derives new information from given ones. Areas of Artificial Intelligence Knowledge Representation Importance of knowledge representation was realized during machine translation effort in early 1950’s. Dictionary look up and word replacement was a tedious job. There was ambiguity and ellipsis problem i. e. many words have different meanings. Therefore having a dictionary used for translation was not en ough. One of the major challenges in this field is that a word can have more than one meaning and this can result in ambiguity. E. g. : Consider the following sentence Spirit is strong but flesh is weak.When an AI system was made to convert this sentence into Russian & then back to English, following output was observed. Wine is strong but meat is rotten. Thus we come across two main obstacles. First, it is not easy to take informal knowledge and state it in the formal terms required by logical notation, particularly when the knowledge is less than 100% certain. Second, there is a big difference between being able to solve a problem â€Å"in principle† and doing so in practice. Even problems with just a few dozen facts can exhaust the computational resources of any computer unless it has some guidance as to which reasoning steps to try first.A problem may or may not have a solution. This is why debugging is one of the most challenging jobs faced by programmers today. As the r ule goes, it is impossible to create a program which can predict whether a given program is going to terminate ultimately or not. Development in this part was that algorithms were written using foundational development of vocabulary and dictionary entries. Limitations of the algorithm were found out. Later Formal Systems were developed which contained axioms, rules, theorems and an orderly form of representation was developed. For example, Chess is a formal system.We use rules in our everyday lives and these rules accompany facts. Rules are used to construct an efficient expert system having artificial intelligence. Important components of a Formal System are – Backward Chaining i. e. trying to figure out the content by reading the sentence backward and link each word to another, Explanation Generation i. e. generating an explanation of whatever the system has understood, Inference Engine i. e. submitting an inference or replying to the problem. Reasoning It is to use the sto red information to answer questions and to draw new conclusions.Reasoning means, drawing of conclusion from observations. Reasoning in AI systems work on three principles namely: DEDUCTION: Given 2 events ‘P’ & ‘Q’, if ‘P’ is true then ‘Q’ is also true. E. g. : If it rains, we can’t go for a picnic. INDUCTION: Induction is a process where in , after studying certain facts , we reach to a conclusion. E. g. : Socrates is a man; all men are mortal; therefore Socrates is mortal. ABDUCTION: ‘P’ implies ‘Q’, but ‘Q’ may not always depend on ‘P’. E. g. : If it rains , we can’t go for a picnic. The fact that we are not in a position to go for a picnic does not mean that it is training.There can be other reasons as well. Learning The most important requirement for an AI system is that it should learn from its mistakes. The best way of teaching an AI system is by training & te sting. Training involves teaching of basic principles involved in doing a job. Testing process is the real test of the knowledge acquired by the system wherein we give certain examples & test the intelligence of the system. Examples can be positive or negative. Negative examples are those which are ‘near miss’ of the positive examples. Natural Language Processing (NLP) NLP can be defined as: ? Processing of data in the form of natural language on the computer. I. e. making the computer understand the language a normal human being speaks.  ·It deals with under structured / semi structured data formats and converting them into complete understandable data form. The reasons to process natural language are; Generally – because it is exciting and interesting, Commercially – because of sheer volume of data available online, Technically – because it eases out Computer-Human interaction. NLP helps us in  ·Searching for information in a vast NL (natural language) database. Analysis i. e. extracting structural data from natural language.  ·Generation of structured data.  ·Translation of text from one natural language to other. Example: English to Hindi. Application Spectrum of NLP  ·It provides writing and translational aids.  ·Helps humans to generate Natural Language with proper spelling, grammar, style etc.  ·It allows text mining i. e. information retrieval, search engines text categorization, information extraction.  ·NL interface to database, web software system, and question answer explanation in an expert system.There are four procuring levels in NLP: 1. Lexical – at word level it involves pronunciation errors. 2. Syntactical – at the structure level acquiring knowledge about the grammar and structure of words and sentences. Effective representation and implementation of this allows effective manipulation of language in respect to grammar. This is usually implemented through a parser. 3. Semantic â €“ at the meaning level. 4. Pragmatic – at the context level. Hurdles There are various hurdles in the field of NLP, especially speech processing which result in increase in complexity of the system.We know that, no two people on earth can have similar accent and pronunciations. This difference in style of communicating results in ambiguity. Another major problem in speech processing understands of speech due to word boundary. This can be clearly understood from the following example: I got a plate. / I got up late. Universal Networking Language This is a part of natural language processing. The key feature of a machine having artificial intelligence is its ability to communicate and interact with a human. The only means for communication and interaction is through language.The language being used by the machine should be understood by all humans. Example of such a language is ENGLISH. UNL is an artificially developed language consisting universal word library, universal concepts, universal rules and universal attributes. Necessity of UNL is that a computer needs capability to process knowledge and content recognition. Thus UNL becomes a platform for the computer to communicate and interact. Vision (Visibility Based Robot Path Planning) Consider a moving robot. There are two things, robots have to think and perform while moving from one place to another: . Avoid collision with stationary and moving objects. 2. Find the shortest distance from source to destination. One of the major problems is to find a collision free path amidst obstacles for a robot from its starting position to its destination. To avoid collision two things can be done viz 1) Reduce the object to be moved to a point form. 2) Give the obstacles some extra space. This method is called Mikownski method of path planning. Recognizing the object and matching it with the contents of the image library is another method.It included corresponding matching and depth understanding, edge detec tion using idea of zero crossing and stereo matching for distance estimation. For analysis, it also considers robot as a point body. Second major problem of path planning is to find the shortest path. The robot has to calculate the Euclidean distance between the starting and the ending points. Then it has to form algorithms for computing visibility graphs. These algorithms have certain rules associated with. OJoin lesser number of vertices to reduce complexity. ODivide each object into triangles.OPut a node in each triangle and join all of them. OReduce the unnecessary areas because they might not contribute to the shortest path. OCompute minimum link path and proceed. This problem of deciding shortest path prevails. Robot might be a bulky and a huge object so can’t be realized as a point. Secondly a robot is a mechanical body which can’t turn instantly so it has to follow the procedure of wait-walk-wait-turn-wait-walk—- which is very time-consuming and so not f easible. Therefore shortest distance should have minimum number of turns associated with it.For path planning the robot has to take a snap shot of the area it is going to cover. This snap shot is processed in the above mentioned ways and then the robot moves. But then the view changes with every step taken. So it has to do the calculation at every step it takes which is very time consuming and tedious. Experts decided to make the robot take the snap shot of the viewable distance and decide the path. But this again becomes a problem because the device used for viewing will have certain limitation of distance. Then these experts came to a conclusion that the robot be given a fixed parameter i. . take to take the snap shot of a fixed distance say 10 meters, analyze it and decide the shortest path. Neural-networks Neural networks are computational consisting of simple nodes, called units or processing elements which are linked by weighted connections. A neural network maps input to outp ut data in terms of its own internal connectivity. The term neural network derives from the obvious nervous system analogy of the human brain with processing elements serving as neurons and connection weights equivalent to the variable synaptic strengths.Synapses are connections between neurons – they are not physical connections, but miniscule gaps that allow electric signals to jump across from neuron to neuron. Dendrites carry the signals out to the various synapses, and the cycle repeats. Let us take an example of a neuron: It uses a simple computational technique which can be defined as follows y= 0 if ? Wi Xi ? Where ? is threshold value Wi is weight Xi is input Now this neuron can be trained to perform a particular logical operation like AND. The equivalent neural network simulation for AND function is given on the left and its equation format on the right.Perceptron training convergence theorem Whatever be the initial choice of the weights, the PTA will eventually con verge by finding the correct weight values provided the function being trained is linearly separable. This implies Perceptron Training Algorithm will absorb the threshold with negative weight. ? Wi Xi + (-1) ? ? 0 A B Y 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 W1 + 0 W2 =0 (< ? ) 0 W1 +1 W2 =0 (< ? ) 1 W1 +0 W2 =0 (< ? ) 1 W1 +1 W2 =1 (>? ) 0 W1 + 0 W2 =0 < ? 0 W1 +1 W2 =1 > ? 1 W1 +0 W2 =1 > ? 1 W1 +1 W2 =0 < ?Conclusion AI combined with various techniques in neural networks, fuzzy logic and natural language processing will be able to revolutionize the future of machines and it will transform the mechanical devices helping humans into intelligent rational robots having emotions. Expert systems like Mycin can help doctors in diagnosing patients. AI systems can also help us in making airline enquiries and bookings using speech rather than menus. Unmanned cars moving about in the city would be reality with further advancements in AI systems.Also with the advent of VLSI techniques, FPGA chips are bei ng used in neural networks. The future of AI in making intelligent machines looks incredible but some kind of spiritual understanding will have to be inculcated into the machines so that their decision making is governed by some principles and boundaries. References 1. Department of Computer Science & Engineering – Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay 2. AI – Rich & Knight 3. Principles of AI – N J Nelson 4. Neural Systems for Robotics – Omid Omidvar 5. http://www. elsevier. nl/locate/artint 6. http://library. thinkquest. org/18242/essays. shtml

Introduction to Robotics and Industrial Automation

Adama University of Science and EngineeringSchool of Engineering and Information TechnologyDepartment of Electrical Engineering| Course Number | ECEG-5506| Course Title| Introduction to Robotics and Industrial Automation| Lecturer| N. N. | Credits| 3| Course Objectives & Competences to be Acquired| * Understand the elements of an industrial robot, mechanisms, sensors, actuators and end effectors. Program robotic manipulators * Acquaintance with artificial intelligence applications in robotics * Introduce industrial control circuits and applications of PLCs in modern industrial control| Course Description/Course Contents| * Robotic FundamentalsIntroduction, Robot kinematics; rigid body motion; transformation of coordinates * Mechanisms and Actuators * Sensors and DetectorsPosition, Velocity, Acceleration, Force torque; Touch and Tactile Sensors; Proximity and Range Detectors, Machine Vision * Modeling and Control of ManipulatorsNewton’s equations; Euler Lagrange method; motion control; manipulator control; trajectory generation; computer control * Robot Applications and ProgrammingPick and place; spot and arc welding; surface coating; assembly * Introduction to Computer Control Role of computers in the control of Industrial processes (plants). Elements of Computer Controlled Process / Plant. Classification – Batch, Continuous, Supervisory and Direct Digital Controls.Architecture – Centralized, Distributed and Hierarchical Systems. Man Machine or Human Computer Interface (HCI). * Basic Ladder Logic and ControlProgrammable Logic Controllers and Applications | Lab Exercises:| Motion control; manipulator control; machine learning using MATLAB and relevant tools; PLC Programming| Pre-requisites| ECEG-3206: Introduction to Control Engineering| Teaching & Learning Methods| Lecture supported by tutorial, assignment and laboratory exercises. | Assessment/Evaluation & Grading System| Assignment (20%), Mid-semester Examination (30%), Final examination (50%)| Attendance Requirements| 75% lecture attendance and 100% lab attendance| Literature| Textbook: Von Mark W.Spong , Seth Hutchinson , Mathukumalli Vidyasagar: Robot Modeling and Control, Wiley & Sons; Auflage: 1st edition Nov 30, 2005). John J. Craig: Introduction to Robotics, Mechanics and Control, Prentice-Hall; Auflage: 3rd edition July 27,2004. References: 1. P. J. McKerrow, Introduction to Robotics, Addison-Wesley, 1991. 2. Sciavicco, L. , and Siciliano, B. : Advanced Textbooks in Control and Signal Processing Series, Springer-Verlag, London, UK, 2000. 3. Canudas de Wit, Siciliano and Bastin: Modeling and Control of Robot Manipulators, 2nd Ed. , Springer-Verlag London Limited, 1996. 4. Asada, H. and Slotine, J. -J. E. , J: Theory of Robot Control, Wiley and Sons, 1986 5. Murray, R. , Li, Z. and Sastry, S. : Robot Analysis and Control CRC Press, 1994. |

The Winged Victory of Samothrace, aka Nike Essay

The Winged Victory of Samothrace, aka Nike - Essay Example â€Å"The Winged Victory of Samothraceâ€Å", or the Nike, represents the aesthetics of the ancients while engaging the artistic sensibilities of the modern man. One of the ways that the statue, The Winged Victory of Samothrace, reflects the aesthetics of the culture from which it came is through the androgyny of the figure. While the figure is decidedly female, it has a thick body and firm stance that is often associated with androgynous figural sculpture of Ancient Greece. The figure is actively engaged, its dynamic stance showing action and intensity as it also reflects victory through its sense of triumph. The pose is captured, as if the figure that it represents as stopped still in a moment, its thrust forward coming to an abrupt, but meaningful stop as it expresses the theme of triumph. The sculpture has an emotional context that evokes passions within the viewer. Even without its full form, it is a powerful piece of work, its smallish, but well constructed wings suggesting t he heights of victory as it is coupled with the dynamism. The Greeks were partially to the flowing fabrics, the beauty of the details creating the feminine side of the androgynous ideal. Often the faces were the primary defining element to the androgyny, but because the face is missing, the masculine is someone less apparent in the duality of gender. Macleod writes â€Å"If the androgynous male youth is characterized by openness, the moment of perfect beauty in the realm of female deities is not that of a free-floating adolescence but rather the static self-sufficiency, the containment of mature Juno† (51). The female tilt of the androgynous balance is found to have beauty when the determination of self-sufficiency can be observed in the stance of the figure. Even though the face is not available to provide deeper clues to context, the emotions of the piece and the way in which the duality is expressed is clearly available to the viewer through the details of the expressive n ature of the body. The work does not near appear the way that it was seen by the public that it was intended to engage. The piece is fractured, the arms and the head missing, although there is some evidence that the Romans have duplicated the head on some of their work as they copied the Greeks. The work was painted, originally, an aspect that a modern audience would more than likely find garish. The sculptures of the period were painted with a waxy type of paint that was rubbed onto the marble (Langley 23). The statue more than likely did not show the beauty of the stone that currently is visible in looking at the work. The balance of how the piece was represented in to its audience in comparison to the way in which modern audiences see the piece is startlingly different. A modern audience sees only the emotions of the body, where the ancient audience would have had the expression of the face from which to first understand the meaning of the work. The nature of Greek and Roman art is that in the modern context it is seen as representative of artistic expressions, but for those in the Ancient world, they were forms of public communication, representing some cultural aspect that needed to be within the social discourse. The pieces that modern man treasure most were definitions of public issues for religion or politics. Through the visual imagery

Kaiser Wilhelm II Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Kaiser Wilhelm II - Essay Example The period between 1888 and 1914 saw rapid growth of Germany as an economic and military dominance. On the other hand, Europe was largely divided into different opposing camps due to the suspicion arising from allies that were formed during this period. The mistrust culminated into the World War 1, where Germany experienced the worst defeat in the century. Consequently, there was the abolishment of German monarchical rule, and all this was blamed on Wilhelm’s actions and character (Imperial War Museums 1). Additionally, the miscalculated judgments by Wilhelm led to the dismissal of Bismarck in 1890. Moreover, Wilhelm II disrupted the political system that had existed in Europe (Imperial War Museums 1). This was largely seen through strained relationship that existed between Germany and Britain. In addition, as Germany engaged in supporting the Boers against Britain, this hastened the development of strong ties between France and Britain to the detriment of Germany (Imperial Wa r Museums 1). This also increased isolation of Germany to the rest of Europe. The other essential thing to note is Wilhelm’s support of Austria-Hungary against Serbia. This opened doors for strenuous relations between various allies in Europe. This was detrimental to Germany and Europe and was utterly opposite of the situation in the last quarter of 19th century. ... He adopted different form of governing for over two decades before the beginning of the First World War. The form of governance was different as compared to the one practiced by Bismarck. The governance was more liberal and compared to the conservative nature adopted by Bismarck. He engaged in aggressive and expansionist political course entirely in the name of maintaining Germany position in Europe. All these far-reaching policies acted as a recipe to war in 1914. This was because the policies adopted by Wilhelm II destabilized the relative peace that Bismarck had managed to restore. However, the foreign policy remained the same throughout this period as what was envisioned in the unification of Germany. Moreover, there was the adoption of a German constitution in this period that envisaged the militaristic foundation of the new empire. The constitution gave all sections of the government real political power. The sections included the Bundesrat, the Reichstag, Prussian cabinet and the military establishment. The election of the Reichstag was by all males over the age of 24 (Imperial War Museums 1). This gave Germany a law making body that had similar democratic principles to the rest of Europe. However, all the different factions of the government were under Wilhelm II. As a result, Wilhelm had enormous political power and this was instrumental to the institutionalization of ‘personal rule’ as envisioned in his dreams (Imperial War Museums 1). Secondly, Wilhelm made a political decision that was not expected by many in Germany at this period. He forced Bismarck to resign in 1890. This was seen as resulting from variation in political ideologies. This was because Bismarck was conservative as compared to Wilhelm 11 liberal approach. This provided

Explore Peter Hollindale's claim that Peter Pan 'retains its magical Essay

Explore Peter Hollindale's claim that Peter Pan 'retains its magical elasticity and its ongoing modernity' (Reader 2, p. 1 - Essay Example This fantasy world is well suited to the need which parents and children have for storytelling and imagination. Another reason for the success of the play when it first came out was the depiction of characters who could fly: a technical feat that added to the entertainment value of the play, and inspired stagecraft like the use of a lightbulb to depict Tinkerbell. Because of the limitations of the stage quite a lot was left to the audience’s imagination. By all accounts J.M. Barrie himself was unsure about the play when it was being written and rehearsed, and he frequently changed the text, including names of characters, and details of the plot. (Carpenter and Prichard, p. 405) Some of the characters were drawn from real people, or indeed animals, in the author’s own life, for example his older brother who died in a skating accident and his pet dog who was the inspiration for Nana. The persona of Peter Pan, however, made Barrie immediately famous and captured the imagin ation of the literary world. Just as Barrie had reworked elements from his own life history the play, so he later reworked elements of the play into a novel, and others created films, cartoons, and even ballets and musicals out of this initial play. Peter Hollindale remarks that the play â€Å"retains its magical elasticity and its on-going modernity (Reader 2, p. 159) and describes how the character of Peter Pan himself contains endless sources of fascination. There are elements of innocence and childishness, like the fairy dust that makes people fly, and a lot of childish boasting but also some deeper psychological undercurrents that suggest more serious messages for an adult audience: â€Å"this is a play about the boundaries between childhood and adulthood.† (Reader 2, p. 161) There is something tragic about a boy fighting against his destiny to grow up and become an adult, a point not lost on Michael Jackson who named his home â€Å"Neverland† after the Peter Pan ’s fantasy world. In the play Peter Pan steadfastly resists any hint of growing older, the human children all gradually give in to their fate, even to the point where Wendy no longer has any need for Peter and his childish world. The story operates on two levels: the childish insistence on unrealistic and impossible things, and the adult realisation that there is no way to stop the passage of time and the loss of innocence. As Hollindale says: â€Å"The play provides a shared arena for children and grown-ups, playfully living forward and living back.† (Reader 2, p. 161.) The children get a taste of what lies ahead for them, while adults can indulge in some nostalgia for their childhood. There is a dark side to the play, and this can be seen in some of the far-fetched explanations that Peter Pan gives regarding the world he inhabits: â€Å"Wendy Where do you live now? Peter With the lost boys. Wendy Who are they? Peter They are the children who fall out of their prams when the nurse is looking the other way. If they are not claimed in seven days they are sent far away to Never Land. I’m captain.† (Peter Pan: 1:1, lines 441-443) This is an indication, perhaps, that death is the ultimate way of resisting adulthood, and that Peter Pan in some respects represents the author’s way of working through the loss of his dead older brother,

Legal Abortion is a Fundamental Right Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 46

Legal Abortion is a Fundamental Right - Essay Example Abortion happened to become one of the most controversial and debated issues of the last decades. It is easy to observe that its advocates and opponents cannot even define this term. Abortion opponents consider the embryo to be a human being, which by no means may be killed. Abortion equals the murder. On the other hand, abortion rights advocates insist that a woman should never be forced to carry an embryo at the expense of her health. The essence of reproductive choice lies in the principle of private autonomy concerning sexuality and fertility. It presupposes conscious and responsible attitude towards these issues. Reproductive rights are expected to provide appropriate social conditions to maintain reproductive health. They became an integral part of many international human rights documents and national legislation. The right to maintain reproductive health is one of the most important reproductive rights. This right becomes exercisable only in case if all the people are provide d with all the modern  methods of family planning. Artificial abortion is certainly one of them. Unfortunately, abortion is an inevitable evil of modern society. Reproductive rights may be considered fundamental, especially for women. According to Angela Devis, one of the first activists of abortion-rights movement, modern women may possess various rights like the right to vote in an election, right to education, and many others, but none of them is worthy unless women possess the right to control their own bodies. The fact that a woman’s life may be inconvertibly changed without her consent cannot be tolerated, especially in case if pregnancy occurs because of deception or sexual violence. The experts of PPFA (Planned Parenthood Federation of America) assure that reproductive choice should by no means be constrained. It should be promoted instead.

Mercedes-Benz Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Mercedes-Benz - Essay Example Later on, Emil Jellenik made a deal with the Daimler manufacturers in Germany, to sell him the cars and then he honored his daughter by naming the fleeting of the bought cars after her-Mercedes. The reason which made the Mercedes cars to stand out is the high performance engines which had a relatively higher horse power than any other vehicle at that time. Secondly, the Mercedes Benz had custom made leather seats which introduced comfort of another level. This was particularly prominent in the US where the customers had a taste of class and luxury or ostentation. Over the years, the brand of Mercedez Benz has grown to be known as a car of luxury and ostentation (Jenkins, 2010). This is to imply that the price was relatively higher to denote the class that Mercedes Benz was postulated to be in. Thus, the people who drove or bought Mercedes Benz were assumed to belong to a certain class, like in Singapore, where few elites could afford it. In the same line of thought and respect, the technical and technological ability of Mercedes Benz was more agile and superior giving the owner or drive some natural technical abilities to maneuver the car as compared to other models of cars . The production center in China ensured that the Mercedes brand was technically alright to as to appeal to the mechanically savvy population of China. It is important to note that the vehicles were designed with proper engines which were powerful and superior in terms of engine use and fuel consumption. Thus, if person bought the Mercedes Benz, he or she would be assured of spending lesser in terms of gas and fuel consumption (Sandalow, 2006). Culturally, it is important to note and mention that the people who drove the Mercedes Benz were considered to be of a superior cultural dispensation or class. The performance of the Mercedes Benz as a company relied on business environment that would be

The various economic concepts linked with the public policies and Essay

The various economic concepts linked with the public policies and income taxes - Essay Example This paper discusses that in U.S., the usage of local property taxes in financing school education has been criticized as unconstitutional, which generates inequalities in public education expenditures across states. The reason for this is as those districts that have larger property tax bases per pupil, can generate any amount of revenue from lower tax rates as compared to those districts having smaller tax bases. Therefore, it is easier for rich jurisdictions to raise revenue for public education than the poor jurisdictions. The State of Virginia finances the public schools through a combination of federal, state and local funds. Also, there is contribution of private sector through partnerships with schools and their divisions. State’s General Assembly is responsible for apportionment of state’s funds for public education, through Appropriations Act. The sources of funds are retail sales, state lottery proceeds, tax revenues and other sources. The Constitution of Vir ginia requires the Board of Education (BOE) to prepare SOQ (Standards of Quality) for public schools. SOQ is the minimum school educational program, the divisions must provide. The General Assembly revises SOQ, determines SOQ costs and apportions these costs between localities and state. Funding on a per pupil basis is provided through the accounts of basic aid, career and technical education, special education, English as a second language, remedial summer school, fringe benefits for funded positions and sales tax of 1.125% for public education... Funding on a per pupil basis is provided through the accounts of basic aid, career and technical education, special education, English as a second language, remedial summer school, fringe benefits for funded positions and sales tax of 1.125% for public education (Virginia DOE, 2011). Answer 2: Population & Per Capita Taxes The annual average cost per police officer is $30,000 for a small town. The population of the town is 1,000. The per capita cost of employing a police officer is $30. $30,000 ? 1,000 = $30 Table 1 shows the declining per capita cost of one police officer and increasing per capita taxes. The reason of such phenomenon can be understood as the population increases (column 1) and the costs per police officer remains stable the per capita costs will decline as the same costs can be assigned to increased number of people (column 3). Also, with the increase in population, the total tax collection will increase, although the per capita taxes will remain the same (column 7) if the tax rate is constant (column 6). The assumed tax rate is 30%. The costs of police officers are assumed to be financed by the revenues from taxes. Therefore, the remaining per capita taxes have increased with declining costs of per capita costs of police officer (column 8). Figure 1 shows the graphical presentation of these results. Table 1: Per Capita Taxes & Costs of Police Officer Figure 1 Answer 3: Valuation of Land Table 2: Market Price Calculation Rent Annuity $10,000.00 Market Rate of Interest 10% Market Price of Land $100,000.00 Â   Â   Property Tax 5% Annual Tax Value $5,000.00 After-Tax Market Value of Land $50,000.00 The market price of the land is calculated as ratio of the annual rent in perpetuity and the market interest rate. The market price

PMAN Communication plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

PMAN Communication plan - Essay Example This project communication plan will offer us an appropriate way for managing and controlling the flow of the communication and information inside and outside the corporation. In addition, by creating an efficient communication strategy we can enhance the project’s working efficiency. The basic aim of this communication plan is to run the project efficiently since it will offer a much better working and collaborative environment. The basic need is to establish a better inter and intra communication platform for the communication between project sponsor and project staff. The manager of the new ZolastinexÂÂ ® project desires to establish a communication structure that is less expensive and more effective in handling, controlling and managing the project. The communication is desired to control useful resources handling, mentoring progress, running project tasks, resources deployment, staff management and management decision making. The basic strategy is to establish a secure communication environment that is capable to transfer the entire business data and information all through the desired areas of corporation and project management staff. In this project we need to establish an efficient communication method for all the project stakeholders and handlers. In this scenario we need to take following actions to effectively handle the communication among all the project stakeholders. In this project we will use the following communication/ dissemination