According to Collis and Hussey Essay Example for Free

According to Collis and Hussey Essay Interviews â€Å"are a method of collecting data in which selected participants are asked questions in order to find out what they do, think or feel†. Saunders et al. (2003) propose the idea that this method is an efficient way of collecting reliable and valid information, because the data gathered comes directly from the source in study, which certainly helps to achieve the research question and objectives of this project. Therefore, choosing interviews was based on its suitability in finding what is happening and seeking new sights when exploring career obstacles for Hong Kong women managers. Interviews are classified based on the degree of flexibility as well as formality and structure that the researcher would like to apply. Therefore, there are three types of interviews, structured, semi-structured and unstructured interviews (Kumar, 1999; Saunders et al. , 2000; Ghauri and Gronhaug, 2002). In the structured interview â€Å"the investigator asks a pre-determined set of questions, using the same wording and order of questions as specified in the interview schedule† (Kumar, 1999, p.109); in semi-structured interview, the questions are also prepared beforehand, but in contrast, they offer more flexibility in facilitating the interviewee to modify the questions to investigate new ideas that might come up during the interview; and the unstructured interviews are based on a general topic of interest, but the questions are spontaneously posed to the respondent (Kumar, 1999; Guillham, 2000; Saunders et al. , 2000; Ghauri and Gronhaug, 2002). See more: Foot Binding In China essay It has been suggested that for phenomenological approaches and exploratory researches, a semi-structure interview is the most suitable type since the interviewer can explore in-depth a specific area that might be of interest (Jankowicz, 1999). The interviews carried out for this research were semi-structured. One of the reasons of choosing this type of interview is because they are more conductible and easier to control in order to establish and maintain empathy with respondents, so make the respondents be more comfortable and express their opinions more freely. It also gives the interviewer the opportunity to discover and understand the respondents’ points of view and beliefs about a specific situation (Zikmund, 2000). Saunders et al. (2000) mention that semi-structured are qualitative research interviews and are classified as non-standardized, where questions might vary from one interview to another since it depends on the course that the conversation takes, hence it would required of additional questions. In addition, Healey and Rawlinson (1994 cited Saunders et al., 2000) point out that more than one type can be used within an interview, where one section may ask factual closed questions, such as personal details, and the next sections could explore more qualitative issues. In this case, a combination of styles was adopted within the interviews held. The first section consisted of a set of factual questions in order to find out the interviewee’s work position and background. The following sections were based on qualitative responses where relevant topics were taking under consideration accordingly to the literature review developed in Chapter II as well as aim and objectives of the research. For instance, in the second section, Hong Kong women managers were asked to shed light on their marriage and family aspects; their nature of job, obstacles in their career pathways; and their plans to grow in their organizations in future. Furthermore, the semi-structured interviews allowed a free-flowing discussion, which in turn produced a better understanding of the way of thinking, opinions, and behavior of women manager in relation to their experiences towards working in an environment that supports male managers and the career obstacles they face. 3. 7. 3. Data Quality Issues There are a number of data quality issues to be aware and consider when conducting an interview, otherwise it would put at risk the findings of the investigation. In this case information supplied to the interviewee, confidentiality, listening skills and recording of interviews is going to be considered for this section (Kvale, 1996; Saunders et al. , 2000). 3. 7. 3. 1. Information Supplied to the Interviewee An important issue to promote credibility to the investigation is the supply of relevant information to the participants prior the interviews. In this way, the interviewee considered the information under study and was prepare to discuss their experiences and opinions, which helped to develop the research credibility. This was reached through a letter sent to the participants, which can be seen in Appendix A. It was also mentioned the duration of the interviews, in order to let them organize their time and provide an approximately one hour to one hour and a half to the interview with no interruptions. 3. 7. 3. 2. Confidentiality According to Kvale (1996, p.114) â€Å"confidentiality in research implies that private data identifying the subjects will not be reported†. The author also highlight that the change of names to protect the privacy of the participants is of an important issue, since encourages people to reveal experiences, feelings and facts which enrich the information given by the interviewee, facilitating the development of the research (Kvale, 1996; Guillham, 2000). Hence, it was explained to the interviewee the purpose of the research and the use that it is going to have in order to gain their trust and confidence. 3. 7. 3. 3. Listening Skills For this quality issue, it is important to have attentive listening skills in order to understand the interviewee’s opinions and explanations, especially to identify comments that are relevant to the research and that might imply of develop new ideas and questions in order to keep the conversation going in the same track which is the basic characteristic of a semi-structured interview (Saunders et al. , 2000). In this case, commentaries were kept to a minimum, which allowed the interviewees to answer freely and avoid bias to the questions asked. 3. 7. 3. 4. Recording of Interviews There have been issues in relation to the recording of information gathered from the data collection methods, and the most acceptable one is the tape-recording, which its record has to be immediately after it was taken in order to obtain a reliable data for its analysis. This issue leads to what have been mentioned above in relation to the confidentiality that the researcher gives to the study per se. In addition, authors suggest making notes as well in order to make the most of the interview, that is, not to miss any relevant information that the interviewee provides (Guillham, 2000; Saunders et al. , 2000; Ghauri and Gronhaug, 2002). In this case, interviews were recorded with the permission of the respondents in order to retain as much data for the transcription and facilitate the analysis procedures, which is going to be conveyed into the next chapter. However, according to Saunders et al. (2000) and Ghauri and Gronhaug (2002), there are some disadvantages that tape-recording an interview can bring, such as the interviewee’s hesitation in responding some question or even not to answer them, which will reduce the reliability of the interview; as well as the transcription is time consuming. In the former, the participants did not have any inconvenient for the interview be recorded; and for the latter time furthermore was reserved for the interviews’ transcription. 3. 8. RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF THE RESEARCH. As stated by Collis and Hussey (2003) and Saunders et al. (2003), there are two aspects related to the credibility of the findings, thus it is important to consider the significance of the reliability and validity of the research outcome. In this case, reliability is concern with how well it has been carried out the research project (Blaxter et al. , 2001), which refers to the possibility of obtaining the same exact results if repeating the study (Collis and Hussey, 2003), in other words, the consistency of the methods of data collection, thus the results (Denscombe, 2002). On the other hand, validity concerns with whether the data, approaches and techniques in study actually relate to the issues that have been explored and the results relate to what is really happening in the situation (Blaxter et al. , 2001; Collis and Hussey, 2003; Saunders et al. 2003). There are some discussions which claim that qualitative research often provide valid findings, while quantitative research offers more reliable findings (Berg, 2004). This has been critiqued by Saunders et al. (2000) who state that it is possible for qualitative and quantitative research to provide both valid and reliable findings. Therefore, it can be said that considering the present research, which adopts a phenomenological approach, it is important to highlight that the reliability and validity of the questions in the interviews were maximized by the careful design of the individual questions and the clear explanation of the purpose of the interviews. Moreover, the reliability and validity of the research and the obtained information gathered from the interviews is directly linked to the applied strategy and purpose of the research, as well as to the aim and objectives of the investigation. Besides, validity is ensured by the transcriptions and further analysis of the interviewee’s experiences and opinions by direct quotations. 3. 9. ETHICAL ISSUES Researchers like Creswell (1994), Kumar (1996), Saunders et al. (2000), Collis Hussey (2003) and Jankowicz (2005) have placed emphasis on the importance of ethical considerations when doing a research. For business and management researchers, ethical issues of vital importance are confidentiality, informed consent, and honest representation of findings. Therefore, considering these ethical issues, this research requested the consent of the participants prior to the data collection, guaranteeing them of the confidentially of the information they would provide. In addition, the data collected was analyzed in a logical and scientific manner, allowing the proper representation of findings. CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4. 1 COPING STRATEGIES TO COMBAT SEX DISCRIMINATION Two of the participants responded that they have not felt any kind of sex discrimination at their workplace. None of the participants felt that women need to use their feminism in order to progress in their careers. Anna responded that the gap of academic, promotional and employment opportunities for women has almost filled and men and women are getting almost equal opportunities. Anna and Emmy felt that women can do what they have decided to do in their minds and they consider themselves as an example of that kind of women. Maggie, in contrast, does not feel the same because she has an experience of workplace sex discrimination against women. She has also been discouraged to join the old-boy network and she has also experienced sexual harassment in her organization. She informed the researcher that the only way to cope up with the workplace discrimination is to get ready to move to a new job. She agreed with Emmy and Anna by saying that women who want to excel in their career can do it on their own merits. Maggie informed the researcher that she does not believe in confronting her seniors about the elimination of sex discrimination from the workplace. She also does not have any expectations from her seniors that they will try to eliminate sex discrimination from the workplace by implementing strategies to promote anti sex –discrimination policies. Thus the present study confirms the finding of study by Venter (2002) that there is no or little sex discrimination at today’s workplaces in Hong Kong. Venter (2002) found out that 66 % of the women managers interviewed in Hong Kong had responded that they did not find any sex discrimination at their workplace and 83% of them had felt that the attitude towards female managers are same as towards male managers. Westwood Leung (1999) found out that Hong Kong women managers are very less aware of the sex discrimination at workplace. Ng Pine (2003) had reported very interesting information that several Hong Kong women managers believe that sex discrimination is a prominent feature at Hong Kong organizations but when they were asked to describe their experience of sex discrimination then only a small number of the women managers were able to describe their own experience. The rest of the respondents informed that they haven’t experienced sex discrimination personally. Studies have clearly proved that Hong Kong women managers do not have any intention to confront their superiors and fight for the anti sex discrimination policies. Researches have also shown that when Hong Kong women managers are sexually harassed then they even do not confront the harasser and report to superiors and they instead use coping strategies such as they avoid or ignore the harasser, they prefer to quit or get transferred if the problem is not resolved (Chan et al. 1999; Ng 1995b). High attitude towards opportunities is found among Hong Kong women managers. They have great ability to deal any kind of discrimination at their work place. They keep their eyes and ears open and keep themselves in search of a suitable job incase they are fired or they quit. Their general and overall aim is to progress in their careers to get the higher positions in the organizations and thus they use their flexible nature to get the maximum number of opportunities to be succeeded (Venter 2002). Ng Pine (2003) reported that female hotel managers believe in using personal strategies to cope up with the discriminatory issue at their workplace. They believe in developing by looking more presentable, tend to dress up like a professional and rely on working hard to be proved as highly professional. Ng Pine (2003) found that majority of Hong Kong women managers have a high ‘can-do’ attitude and thus they believe in doing their job the best ways irrespective of the discriminatory issues against them at their workplace. Ng Chiu (1997) explained the reason of few organizations with family friendly policies is the low expectations behaviors of Hong Kong women managers who do not confront their superiors for the elimination of sex discrimination from the organization and they instead depends on their personalized strategies. Babcock Laschever (2003) found out the reason of Hong Kong women managers’ less success is due to their less skilful negotiating attitudes. However, it can not be said whether they have less skilful negotiating attitudes but it is clear from the evidences that negotiation is not prominent in the attitude of the women managers. Venter (2002) found out that as Hong Kong women managers do not have the habit to confront their superiors to get their equal rights at the workplace, they simply get less tensed as compared to other female managers who belong to Britain. Thus Hong Kong Chinese women managers are more successful in their careers and reach to the higher positions as compared to British women managers in Hong Kong. Javidan House (2001) explained that high achievement is a part of Hong Kong culture and this culture has changed the attitudes of employed women and has made them enthusiastic to grow in their careers. Hong Kong Women managers who fly high in their careers are seen as highly respected due to their ability to achieve their goal on their own without any support of society and workplace. But the women who do not reach the higher positions are blamed to be a failure due to their lack of sense of professionalism. They are considered as ‘non professional’ when they do not reach to the manager’s position. It is reflected among the society and organizations that a form of sex discrimination is evident due to the stereotyping of sex and power relations based on genders. There are very few structural changes through which the sex stereotyping and gendered roles at organizations can be changed. 4. 2 COPING STRATEGIES TO COMBAT GENDER ROLES The researcher asked all the three interviewees about their perception of single women. All of them have different perceptions on single women. Emmy feels that women stay single when they are not beautiful and thus no men attract towards such ugly women. Maggie sighed that she dreams of being a single but she also feels that being single it would have been very difficult for her to grow in her career and she has not been as successful as she is now. She also said that her roots in careers would have been very weak being a single woman. Anna feels that being a single woman is the best thing in the world. All her single friends are living happily and they do not want to get married because they believe that marriage brings a lot of problems with it. As diversity is more profound among the community of single women, the three interviewees seem influenced by the reflection of such diversity. Maggie, Anna and Emmy, all of them, love their husbands and children very much and they feel that they are the most important part of their lives. Though they consider family as the most important thing in their lives, they also believe that they cannot be stay-at-home women because they feel that they get the sense of achievement when they work and thus they get a balanced life. The nature of job of Emmy is quite flexible so she is allowed to work in flexible hours, and this way she gets a lot of time to spend with her family. She feels that her work has not affected her role as a mother as she takes plenty of time out to spend with her children. Maggie and Anna feel in contrast. They feel that they have been sandwiched between their wish to grow in their careers and their wish to spend more time with their children to ensure that the children’s education is not getting affected. This shows that both of them have both a high sense of achievement and a high sense of parenting. They feel guilty of not fulfilling their wish to be a good parent though both of them have hired foreign domestic helper. All the three interviewees believe that bringing up children is the primary duty of a woman and if a woman is employed then this duty should be handed over to other members of the extended family. All the three interviewees consider their families more important than their careers as compared to their husbands. These women do not have the habit of negotiation so they do not confront with their husbands and superiors to give them equal status. Researches have shown that Hong Kong women managers use personalized strategies to deal with work-family stress by taking help from relative, foreign domestic helpers and tutors (Lo et al. 2003; Ng 1999). Hakim (2003) also supported these positions that Hong Kong employed women are more family-centered as compared to their husbands and thus these women tend to less successful in their careers as compared to their husbands. The coping strategies that Hong Kong employed women used to reduce their work-family stress have a strong relation to the social culture of Hong Kong. Majority of Hong Kong employed women believe that they will not get any help from the government in terms of a caretaker because the social culture promotes the caretaker role of mothers and wives. If these women need help of a caretaker then they have to do it on their own because this is considered as a personal problem instead of a societal problem. All the three interviewees believe that though they are working at higher positions but their husbands should be respected as they are the breadwinners. Wives should help their husbands to be more successful in their careers. This shows that the traditional values of Hong Kong have set the mind of the women regarding their roles as a wife and a mother. The present study confirms the results of the previous studies (EOC 1997; Hong Kong Government 2003a) that the traditional ideology of a Chinese family for a man to be in charge of the work outside the house and for a woman to be in charge of the work inside the house is still present in Hong Kong culture. Due to the impact of this culture, even when both the parents are equally working and are equally concerned about the academic achievements and social well-being of their children, husbands have the liberty to be more career oriented by leaving behind their family without any sense of guilt. Thus, the culture of Hong Kong does not appreciate the growth of women as career women. This is impossible until and unless structural changes are made to understand these cultural contexts. The power structure can be changed only when the society and organizations believe in equal opportunities by dividing the power equally among women and men managers as the career success of a woman on her own basis is of no use. 2. 1. 1 FUTURE OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT OF WOMEN AS MANAGERS IN HONG KONG It is commonly believed in Hong Kong that women can achieve their goals by their enthusiasm and hard work. For this reason, Hong Kong women working at senior managerial positions tend to believe in personally designed strategies to cope up with the requirements of their workplace, homes and kids. Moreover, they believe in handling the situation of sex discrimination personally rather by confronting their superiors for the implementation of anti sex discrimination policies. They are no or little aware of a political agenda that can change their lives by bringing positive changes in institutionalization of their family status, by changing the organizational culture and state policies. Maggie, Emmy and Anna informed the researcher that they do not get time for socialization. Anna informed that in Chinese culture, home is considered as a private place so majority of Chinese do not believe in inviting friends at home unless they are very close to them because they think that it will ruin their privacy. Majority of Hong Kong women trust extended family members to take care of their children but this scenario may result in increased problems for them in future. Mobility of labor force has increased due to globalization. Two of the three interviewees are not originally Hong Kong based. A steady rise has been observed in the number of women managers on the mainland. Due to intensification of globalization, less stability is expected in support from the extended family members in Hong Kong. The traditional heterosexual family system in Hong Kong has been changed and different forms of family structure have appeared. The concept of extended family members was possible in a heterosexual family only. So, this concept does not seem to be valid with the new family structure as single-parent families are becoming common. As the concept of extended family is diminishing, women who prefer to grow in their career would seem to have no children. if primary importance will continue to be given to husband’s career, and wife’s role will be continued as a support to her husband than her husband has been to her, then there are great chances for a large number of career oriented women to remain single. When women will have to work hard and design personalized strategies to cope up with the work-family stress then a large number of women will stop marrying. Thus, number of never-married women will increase in Hong Kong. CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION Push and pull tensions are found among Hong Kong women managers. At one side, the traditional Chinese culture is still dominated in Hong Kong that makes women responsible primarily for their housework and men are considered as bread-winners. Women are expected to bring up and take care of children and other family members. So this traditional Chinese culture does not seem supportive for a woman to dream of getting success in organizations besides performing her domestic duties. At another side, women in Hong Kong that have earned higher degrees are attracted towards handsomely paid jobs due to the realistic approach of capitalism in Hong Kong. Successful women managers in Hong Kong are rewarded. Organizations search for never-married women who are ready to work on the pre-decided terms of men. So it is a common belief in Hong Kong that if women are good they can get success in organizations. If women are very good at setting personalized agenda to balance their work-family stress then they would be successful. But the researcher is not happy with these conditions. The researcher suggests that women should be encouraged and supported by society and organizations. They should be given support to get a balanced life. Organizations should implement strategies to promote anti discrimination policies. Women and family friendly policies should be encouraged in organizations. This means that there is a need to redefine the role of women at home and in organizations. They should be given equal opportunities like men and be promoted to higher positions as per their skills. Appendix A. Letter sent to the Participants of the Interviews Dear Participants, Thank you for agreeing to do this interview and participate in my Masters investigation. This letter is to inform you all related to the interview, to establish your ethical rights and my responsibilities, as well as to provide some information prior to the interview. My intention is to do an investigation to explore whether a bamboo-ceiling exists in the career pathway of Hong Kong women managers. I am currently interviewing women managers that are working in a male dominating environment to find out whether these women managers face any obstacles in order to achieve the purpose of my study. The data will be collected via interviews, which will last one hour and one hour and a half. During the interview you have the right to refuse to answer a question or a set of questions. The participant’s identities will be remained as confidential at all stages, during and after the research. Expected benefits of participation will be the opportunity to contribute knowledge to a largely under researched area and the obtained findings will be used for academic purposes only, so the access to the collected data will be permitted for university lectures and library use only. Thank you once again for your cooperation. Yours sincerely, [Your name] [Your degree] [Your university] Table 1: Ratio of Women Managers in Hong Kong, % Year Proportion, % 1994 17. 5 1995 19. 4 1996 19. 6 1997 19. 9 1998 21. 5 1999 21. 9 2000 24. 2 2001 25. 4 2002 25. 7 Source: Hong Kong Government, 2003b: 57. Table 2: Distribution of Managers by Industry and Gender Table 3: No. of Males and Females Never-Married Aged 15 and Over Source: Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong Government. Table 4: No. of Never-Married Employed Males and Females by Occupation, 2001. Source: Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong Government. Table 5: Main Employment, Female-Male Ratio, Median Monthly Income, Marital Status, Age Source: Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong Government. References Babcock, L. Laschever, S. 2003. Women Don’t Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press). Berg, B. , 2004. Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences. International Student Edition. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. Blaxter, L. , Hughes, C. and Tight, M. , 2001. How to research. 2nd ed. Buckingham: Open University Press. Bryman, A. , 2004. Social Research Methods. 2nd ed. Oxford: Prentice-Hall. Chan, D. K. S. , Tang, K. S. -K. Chan, W. 1999. Sexual harassment: a preliminary analysis of its effects on Hong Kong Chinese women in the workplace and academia, Psychology of Women Quarterly, 23(4), pp. 661–672. Chow, I. H. 1995. Career aspirations, attitudes and experiences of female managers in Hong Kong, Women in Management Review, 10(1), pp. 28–32. Collinson, D. L. , Knights, D. Collinson, M. 1990. Managing to Discriminate (London: Routledge). Collis, J. , and Hussey, R. , 2003. Business Research: A practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students. 2nd Ed. New York: Palgrave McMillan. Creswell, J. , 1994. Research Design: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches. 1st ed. London: Sage Publications. Crystal, G. 2003. Cracks appear in glass ceiling numbers, South China Morning Post, 17 October, p. B22. Denscombe, M. , 2002. Ground Rules for Good Research. A 10 point guide for social researchers. 1st ed. Buckingham: Open University Press. EOC. 1997. A Baseline Survey of Equal Opportunities on the Basis of Gender in Hong Kong 1996–1997 (Hong Kong: Equal Opportunities Commission). Fosh, P. , Ng, C. , Snape, E. Westwood, R. 1999. Hong Kong at the end of the twentieth century: management and labour trends, in: P. Fosh, A. W. Chan, W. W. S. Chow, E. Snape R. Westwood (Eds) Hong Kong Management and Labour: Change and Continuity, pp. 3–24 (London: Routledge). Ghauri, P. and Gronhaug, K. , 2002. Research Methods in Business Studies. A practical guide. 2nd ed. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. Ghauri, P. N. , Gronhaugh, K. and Kristianslund, I. , 1995. Research methods in business studies: a practical guide. 1st ed. London: Prentice-Hall. Gillham, B. , 2000. The Research Interview. 1st ed. London: Continuum. Hakim, C. 2003. Models of the Family in Modern Societies: Ideals and Realities (Aldershot: Ashgate). Hochschild, R. A. 1989. The Second Shift: Working Parents and the Revolution at Home (New York: Viking Penguin). Hong Kong Government 2004. Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women: Second Report on Hong Kong Special Administration Region (Hong Kong: Health, Food and Welfare Bureau). Hong Kong Government. 2001. 2001 Population Census: Main Report 1 (Hong Kong: Census and Statistics Department). Hong Kong Government. 2002. Women and Men in Hong Kong: Key Statistics (Hong Kong: Census and Statistics Department). Hong Kong Government. 2003a. Thematic Household Survey: Report No. 14 (Hong Kong: Census and Statistics Department). Hong Kong Government. 2003b. Women and Men in Hong Kong: Key Statistics (Hong Kong: Census and Statistics Department). Jankowicz, A. , 2005. Business research projects. 4th ed. London: International Thomson Press. Javidan, M. House, R. J. 2001. Cultural acumen for the global manager: lessons from project GLOBE, Organizational Dynamics, 29(4), pp. 289–305. Kanter, R. M. 1977. Men and Women of the Corporation (New York: Basic Books). Kumar, R. , 1999. Research Methodology. A step-by-step guide for beginners. 1st ed. London: Sage Publications. Kvale, S. , 1996. Interviews, an Introduction to Qualitative Research Interviewing. 1st ed. London: Sage Publications. Law, N. 2003. HK women socially aware, but traditional at heart, South China Morning Post, 23 January, p. 6 Lee, H. 2004. Arming women with knowledge, South China Morning Post, 9 February, p. C4. Lee, K. 2003. Picture forms of cross-border workers, South China Morning Post, 9 May, p.A5. Lo, S. , Stone, R. Ng, C. W. 2003. Work–family conflict and coping strategies adopted by female married professionals in Hong Kong, Women in Management Review, 18(4), pp. 182–190. Mak, G. C. L. Chung, Y. -p. 1997. Education and labour force participation of women in Hong Kong, in: F. M. Cheung (Ed. ) Engendering Hong Kong Society: A Gender Perspective of Women’s Status, pp. 13–39 (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press). Mak, G. C. L. 1992. The schooling of girls in Hong Kong: progress and contradictions in the transition, in: G. A. Postiglione (Ed.). Education and Society in Hong Kong, pp. 167–180 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press). Morrison, A. M. , White, R. P. Van Velsor, E. The Center for Creative Leadership. 1987. Breaking the Glass Ceiling (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley). Ng, C. W. Chiu, W. C. K. 2001. Managing equal opportunities for women: sorting the friends from the foes, Human Resource Management Journal, 11(1), pp. 75–88. Ng, C. W. Ng, E. G. H. 2002. The concept of state feminism and the case for Hong Kong, Asian Journal of Women’s Studies, 8(1), pp. 7–37. Ng, C. W. Pine, R. 2003. Women and men

Fine Arts Education Issues Essay -- essays papers

Fine Arts Education Issues According to the National Art Education Association’s goals for schools, â€Å"all elementary schools shall require students to complete a sequential program of art instruction that integrates the study of art production, aesthetics, art criticism, and art history,† (Clark, 1987). Elementary schools are having difficulty because they are cutting back on the fine arts programming and many non-specialist classroom teachers are expected to integrate the fine arts into their daily curriculum. Most of these teachers feel inadequate and uncomfortable when teaching these subjects. The children are receiving inadequate lessons in art education. All elementary schools should expand their curriculum to include the fine arts as subjects, and licensed specialists should teach these subjects. More or less, it isn’t the fact that there is a lack of fine arts education; there is a lack of specialists teaching fine arts in elementary schools. One reason for the lack of art specialists in the elementary schools is the fact that the fine arts aren’t considered core curriculum. The fine arts are thought of as expendable and not as important as mathematics, sciences, language, and literacy, when in fact Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences explains that there are several different ways of learning. â€Å"Gardner has identified eight "accepted" modes of learning: Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Linguistic, Mathematical, Musical, Naturalist, and Spatial. Traditional education emphasizes Linguistic and Mathematical Intelligences,† (Martin, 2000). Certain intelligences are enhanced through participation in the fine arts. This is why fine arts are actually equally as important as other core curriculum. ... .... Miller, M. and Hart, C. (1998). Bridging the gap. Thrust for Educational Leadership, Vol. 28 Issue 1, p22. Missouri Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education. (1996). Missouri's framework for curriculum development in fine arts, K-12. Jefferson City, Mo: The Dept. National Education Association. (1999). The 1999-2000 Resolutions of the National Education Association. NEA Today, Vol. 18 Issue 1, p51. http://search.epnet.com/direct.asp?an=2214068&db=aph Online Educator Network: Music Center Education Division. [Online]. Available: http://www.musiccenter.org/educators/ Reardon, C. (1995). A Jazzy Introduction to Music. Christian Science Monitor, Vol. 87 Issue 229, p14. Tunks, J. (1997). Integrating community arts programming into the curriculum: A case study in Texas. Arts Education Policy Review, Vol. 98 Issue 3, p21, 6p. Fine Arts Education Issues Essay -- essays papers Fine Arts Education Issues According to the National Art Education Association’s goals for schools, â€Å"all elementary schools shall require students to complete a sequential program of art instruction that integrates the study of art production, aesthetics, art criticism, and art history,† (Clark, 1987). Elementary schools are having difficulty because they are cutting back on the fine arts programming and many non-specialist classroom teachers are expected to integrate the fine arts into their daily curriculum. Most of these teachers feel inadequate and uncomfortable when teaching these subjects. The children are receiving inadequate lessons in art education. All elementary schools should expand their curriculum to include the fine arts as subjects, and licensed specialists should teach these subjects. More or less, it isn’t the fact that there is a lack of fine arts education; there is a lack of specialists teaching fine arts in elementary schools. One reason for the lack of art specialists in the elementary schools is the fact that the fine arts aren’t considered core curriculum. The fine arts are thought of as expendable and not as important as mathematics, sciences, language, and literacy, when in fact Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences explains that there are several different ways of learning. â€Å"Gardner has identified eight "accepted" modes of learning: Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Linguistic, Mathematical, Musical, Naturalist, and Spatial. Traditional education emphasizes Linguistic and Mathematical Intelligences,† (Martin, 2000). Certain intelligences are enhanced through participation in the fine arts. This is why fine arts are actually equally as important as other core curriculum. ... .... Miller, M. and Hart, C. (1998). Bridging the gap. Thrust for Educational Leadership, Vol. 28 Issue 1, p22. Missouri Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education. (1996). Missouri's framework for curriculum development in fine arts, K-12. Jefferson City, Mo: The Dept. National Education Association. (1999). The 1999-2000 Resolutions of the National Education Association. NEA Today, Vol. 18 Issue 1, p51. http://search.epnet.com/direct.asp?an=2214068&db=aph Online Educator Network: Music Center Education Division. [Online]. Available: http://www.musiccenter.org/educators/ Reardon, C. (1995). A Jazzy Introduction to Music. Christian Science Monitor, Vol. 87 Issue 229, p14. Tunks, J. (1997). Integrating community arts programming into the curriculum: A case study in Texas. Arts Education Policy Review, Vol. 98 Issue 3, p21, 6p.

Water Quality Parameter Prediction In Stream Flow Environmental Sciences Essay

In This paper, the truth public presentation of preparation, proof and anticipation of monthly H2O quality parametric quantities is discussed when using Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System ( ANFIS ) . This theoretical account analyze historical informations were generated through uninterrupted monitoring Stationss of H2O quality parametric quantities ( dependent variables ) of Johor River in order to copy their secondary property ( independent variables ) . However, the informations originating from supervising Stationss and experiment may be polluted by noise signals owing to systematic mistakes and random mistakes. This noisy informations frequently makes the predict undertaking comparatively hard. In order to counterbalance for this augmented noise the primary aim of this manuscript is to develop technique that can heighten the truth of H2O quality anticipation ( WQP ) . Therefore, this survey suggests an augmented Wavelet – Neuro-Fuzzy ( WDT-ANFIS ) based informations me rger faculty for WQP. The efficiency of the faculties was examined to foretell critical parametric quantities that affected due to the urbanisation around the rivers. The parametric quantities have been studied ; electrical CONDuctivity ( COND ) , entire dissolved solids ( T.D.S ) and TURBidity ( TURB ) . Results showed that the optimal degree of truth was achieved by doing the length of the cross-validation equal to one fifth of the information record. Furthermore, WDT-ANFIS faculty outperformed the ANFIS faculty with important betterment in anticipation truth. This consequence indicates that the proposed attack is fundamentally an attractive option, offering a comparatively fast algorithm with good theoretical belongingss to de-noise and predict the H2O quality parametric quantities. This new technique will be valuable to help determination shapers in describing the position of H2O quality, probe of spacial and temporal alterations.IntroductionWater quality mold is the footing of H2O pollution control undertaking. It predicts the inclination of H2O quality assortment harmonizing to the current H2O environment quality status, transportation and transmutation regulation of the pollutants in the river basin. In H2O quality mold, [ 1 ] reported that the turbidness was related closely to both its respiration rate and the H2O temperature. Model users will see sunlight strength fluctuation within the H2O column when imitating the eutrophication phenomenon [ 2 ] .These illustrations reflect that human intelligence uses bing cognition to cut down the figure of picks in order to raise the effectivity of theoretical account use. Each clip, they tend to change simply one or two parametric quantities. This is because if they modify many parametric quantities at the same clip, they may easy acquire lost in the use way. However, due to the size and heterogeneousness of the set possible input variables, and because of the nonlinear nature of the job, conventional methods are non assuring. To this terminal, unreal intelligence techniques ( AI ) techniques are capable to mime this behaviour every bit good as to complement the lack. Recently, AI has been accepted as an efficient alternate tool for mold of complex non-linear systems. The theoretical accounts normally do n't see the internal mechanism but build theoretical accounts to foretell H2O quality via the relationship between inputs and end products. At present, unreal intelligence techniques ( AI ) have been used intensively for anticipation in a figure of water-related countries, including H2O resource survey [ 3 ] , oceanology [ 4 ] , and air pollution [ 5 ] . The above survey attempts were usually based on an premise that the informations to be used should be dependable and accurate. However, the informations originating from probe and experiment may be polluted by noise signals due to the subjective and/or nonsubjective mistakes [ 6 ] . For illustration, the experiment mistakes may be resulted from measuring, reading, recording, and external conditions. Since these noisy signals are likely to falsify the consequences of theoretical accounts, it is a must to take them ( that is, signal denoising ) before utilizing any original informations. Signals can be denoised through the application of a set of additive filters [ 7 ] . However, one job of these filters is that they are more appropriate in additive systems than nonlinear systems. In add-on, Fourier analysis technique ( FAT ) is a classical tool for cut downing noises, but it is merely suited for denoising data/signals incorporating steady noises. Due to the noises that are unsteady in real-world instances, its application is still limited. To get the better of the jobs of traditional denoising techniques, more sophisticated techniques such as wavelet de-noising technique ( WDT ) has been proposed. WDT is utile for denoising multi-dimensional spatial/ temporal signals incorporating steady/unsteady noises. It has been widely applied to technology systems for patterns acknowledgment and cognition find [ 8 ] and [ 9 ] . However, few of these surveies were applied to H2O quality direction systems, where the H2O quality monitoring informations demands to be used for parametric quantity anticipation [ 10 ] . In this survey a WDT is proposed for cut downing noises induced by complex uncertainness. As mentioned before, there are many different types of AIs techniques among them unreal nervous webs ( ANN ) and adaptative neuro-fuzzy illation systems ( ANFIS ) have late gained attending in literature. Although ANN is rather powerful for patterning assorted existent universe jobs, it besides has its defects. If the input informations are less accurate or equivocal, ANN would be fighting to manage them and a fuzzed system such as ANFIS might be a better option. ANFIS theoretical account shows significantly higher truth and dependable in term of anticipation than ANN [ 11 ] . In this article, ANFIS faculty is proposed to foretell WQP at Johor River Basin. Furthermore, an augmented WDT-ANFIS based informations merger faculty for WQPP will present. In add-on, comprehensive comparing analysis is carried out between ANFIS and DWT-ANFIS to measure the public presentation that achieved after take the noising from the informations.MethodologySTUDY AREA Johor is the 2nd largest province in Peninsula Malaysia with an country of 18,941 km2. Johor River considers the chief river in Johor. The river flows in a approximately north-south way and empties into the Johor. The H2O quality of Johor River has been deteriorated with increasing degrees of assorted pollutants. Besides, it persists to be silted and chocked by rubbish and wastes as a effect of storage of enforcement by local-authorities. These contaminations finally flow into Johor River Estuaries, which are rich wonts that provide engendering and feeding countries for fish and domestic fowl. In this research, a survey of ANN patterning to foretell entire dissolved solids, electrical conduction and turbidness in Johor River basin is presented. These H2O quality parametric quantities were measured 60 samples within continuance 1998-2007 at chief watercourse as shown in Fig. 1. WATER QUALITY PARAMETERS In this survey, the H2O quality parametric quantities of involvements are entire dissolved solids ( T.D.Solids ) , electrical conduction and turbidness due to their importance in the Johor River and its feeder. The information appears that conduction is extremely affected due to cumulative consequence of urban land usage from upstream in the survey country. While, high concentration of dissolved solids were found in the survey country and caused H2O balance jobs for aquatic beings. Furthermore, the turbidness values exceed 300A NTU ( Nephelometric Turbidity Units ) . This poses serious jobs for the H2O intervention station located near the river. There are many parametric quantities more of import than what we selected in our survey such as COD, BOD and DO. But the scope of BOD harmonizing to the DOE monitoring station in the survey country was found between ( 1-2 ) which indicate there is non much organic waste nowadays in the H2O. Same scenario was observed in COD information which is ranged ( 10-15 ) . Therefore, this manuscript focuses on critical parametric quantities that affected due to the urbanisation around the rivers. ADAPTIVE NEURO-FUZZY INFERENCE SYSTEM ANFIS Adaptive neuro-fuzzy illation system ( ANFIS ) , foremost was proposed by Jang in 1993 [ 12 ] , can accomplish a extremely nonlinear function and it is superior to common additive methods in bring forthing nonlinear clip series [ 13 ] . Throughout this research, it was considered the ANFIS architecture for the first order Sugeno fuzzy theoretical account [ 14 ] . The ANFIS is a multilayer provender forward web which uses nervous web larning algorithms and fuzzed logical thinking to map an input infinite to an end product infinite [ 15 ] . Assuming the fuzzy illation system under consideration has two inputs, ten and Y, and one end product, degree Fahrenheit for a first-order Sugeno fuzzy theoretical account, a common regulation set with two fuzzy if.then regulations can be expressed as: Rule 1: If x is A1and Y is B1 so f1=p1 x+q1 y+r1 ( 1 ) Rule 2: If x is A2 and Y is B2 so f2=p2 x+q2 y+r2 ( 2 ) Where A1, A2 and B1, B2 are the rank maps ( medium frequency ) for inputs x and y, severally ; pi, chi and Rhode Island ( one = 1 or 2 ) are additive parametric quantities in the attendant portion of the first-order Sugeno fuzzy theoretical account. The corresponding tantamount ANFIS architecture is showed in Fig. 2, where nodes of the same bed have similar maps. ANFIS consists of five beds as follow: Optimization Scheme of ANFIS Module Parameters For each of WQP we used same architectures that presented in Fig. 2.Where, three inputs ( suspended solids, pH and temperature ) were used to foretell the TURB. One input ( T.D.S ) was used to foretell the COND, while same faculty used to foretell the T.D.S after utilized the COND as input. It is to be noted that there is no analytical method to find the optimum figure of MFs. The optimum figure of MFs is normally determined heuristically and verified by experimentation. Hence, the figure of MFs is selected in test and mistake footing. In the interim, it is noted that we have tried four types of rank map: ( a ) triangular, ( B ) trapezoidal, ( degree Celsius ) gaussian, and ( vitamin D ) bell-shaped to build the fuzzed Numberss. After a big figure of tests, as a consequence bell-shaped distributed rank map compared with the others have obtained the minimal comparative mistake. Table 1 illustrates the figure and the types of MFs that adopted in this survey to make faculties.The ANFIS faculty is trained until making certain minimal mistake or after finishing certain figure of developing era. In this survey, the less no. of loop was introduced in order to devour the clip Fig 3 depicts the alteration in Root Mean Square Error ( RMSE ) for the ANFIS faculty during preparatio n and cross- proof. It is obvious from the figure that the faculty reaches the end 300 era. WAVELET DE-NOISING Wavelet analysis represents the following logical measure after short-time Fourier transforms ( STFT ) . It is based on a windowing technique with variable-sized parts. Wavelet transform ( WT ) allows the usage of long clip intervals where we want more precise low frequence information, and shorter parts where we want high frequence information [ 16 ] . In general, the major advantage offered by ripples is the ability to execute local analysis ; that is to analyse a localised country of a larger signal. The discrete-time WT of a clip domain signal is given as [ 10 ] : ( 3 ) Where, is the female parent ripple while and are, severally, the grading and switching indices. The grading gives the DWT logarithmic frequence coverage in contrast to the unvarying frequence coverage of the STFT. This analysis method so consists of break uping a signal into constituents at several frequence degrees, which are related by powers of two ( a dyadic graduated table ) [ 16 ] . The filtrating attack to multi-resolution WT is to organize a series of half-band filters that divide a spectrum into a high frequence set and a low frequence set. It is formulated on a grading map or low-pass filter ( LP ) and a ripple map or high-pass filter ( UP ) [ 17 ] . Wavelet Multi-resolution analysis ( WMRA ) builds a pyramidic construction that requires an iterative application of grading and ripple maps to low-pass and high base on balls filters, severally. These filters ab initio act on the full signal set at the high frequence ( small-scale values ) foremost and bit by bit cut down the signal set at each phase. As in Fig.4, the high-frequency set end products are represented by the item coefficients ( Dl, D2, D3 ) , and the low-frequency set end products are represented by the estimate coefficients ( Al, A2, A3 ) . Optimum parametric quantity choice for wavelet de-noising of WQP informations When utilizing ripples to de-noise WQP information, there are many factors that must be considered. Examples of these picks are which ripple, degree of decomposition, and thresholding methods to utilize. MATLAB provides several households of ripples including the Morlet, Mexican chapeau, Meyer, Haar, Daubechies, Symlets, Coiflets and Spline biorthogonal ripples and provides farther certification about these ripple households [ 18 ] . In order to obtain perfect Reconstruction consequences, merely extraneous ripples will be considered. The extraneous ripple transform has certain benefits. It is comparatively concise, allows for perfect Reconstruction of the original signal and is non comparatively hard to cipher. The two common methods of thresholding a signal are soft thresholding and difficult thresholding which are used in the MATLAB ripple tool chest [ 9. M. Misiti, Y. Misiti, G. Oppenheim and J.-M. Poggi. Wavelet Toolbox: For Use With, The Math Works Inc ( 1996 ) .18 ] . Although difficult thresholding is the simplest method, soft thresholding can bring forth better consequences than difficult thresholding. Therefore, the soft thresholding was adopted in this survey. There are four threshold choice regulations that are available to utilize with the ripple tool chest [ 9. M. Misiti, Y. Misiti, G. Oppenheim and J.-M. Poggi. Wavelet Toolbox: For Use With, The Math Works Inc ( 1996 ) .18 ] are shown in table 2. These threshold choice regulations use statistical arrested development of the noisy coefficients over clip to obtain a non-parametric appraisal of the reconstructed signal without noise. Merely the Sqtwolog was investigated in this survey which this method uses a fixed signifier threshold, which consequences in minimax public presentation multiplied by a factor proportional to logarithm of the length of the signal. Sing to the degree of decomposition, in this manuscript we reached the decision that a decomposition degree of 4 produced sensible consequenc es after utilised test and mistake method for all faculties. CROSS VALIDATION PROCEDURE FOR ANFIS MODULE Cross proof is a exemplary rating method that provides an indicant of how good the scholar will make when it is asked to do new anticipations for information it has non already seen. One manner to get the better of this job is to non utilize the full informations set when developing a scholar. Some of the information is removed before preparation Begins. Then when preparation is done, the informations that was removed can be used to prove the public presentation of the erudite theoretical account on â€Å" new † information. This is the basic thought for a whole category of theoretical account rating methods called cross proof. The training/validation informations split can hold a important impact on the consequences of the theoretical accounts [ 19 ] . Several methods for implementing the cross-validation theory were proposed in the literature ; nevertheless, the kernel of all these methods is similar. Among these different techniques the hold-out method is adopted in this survey due to its simpleness. Most of other methods ( like k-fold and Leave-one-out ) are computationally expensive. The hold-out method is the simplest sort of cross-validation. The information set is partitioned into two sets, called the preparation set and the testing set, without any peculiar pick of the divider. As shown in Fig. 5, the map approximator is trained to suit a map utilizing the preparation set merely. Then the map approximator is used to foretell the end product values for the information in the testing set. Elect optimal length of informations for Cross Validation The job with using the cross-validation attack in our survey is choosing the length of the information set utilised. It is of import for this choice to be representatives for characteristics of both developing informations set and the expected information set in the anticipation procedure. Different length of the cross-validation informations set of one ten percent, one fifth and one tierce of the information records has been examined Fig. 6.RESULT AND DISCUSSIONSince the H2O parametric quantities were truthfully monitored over these ten old ages, the public presentation of the proposed faculties can be examined and evaluated. The public presentations of the faculties are evaluated harmonizing to Mean Absolute Error MAE. ( 4 ) Where m is the figure of proving sample, pi ( trial ) is the theoretical account end product for each parametric quantity, Ti is the existent value for each parametric quantity, I is the parametric quantity index. In this survey, for a given set of ANFIS parametric quantities, three web architectures were developed for each parametric quantity in order to obtain the optimum length of cross-validation informations set that provides the high degree of anticipation truth. The table 3 verifies that, taking one tierce of the information records was non sufficient.The chief ground for this is there was non adequate information record for the preparation procedure, which made it hard to make the mistake end. On the other manus, when one ten percent of the information was used for the cross proof procedure, the high degrees of mistake were observed. Choosing one ten percent of informations records lead to failing in observing the characteristics of the expected information set in anticipatio n procedure. It appears from the tabular array that the MAE was lessening to the about half for the ANFIS faculty that adopted to foretell the T.D.S. after using the one fifth of the information record comparing with cross-validation length equal to tierce. Furthermore, the MAE for the ANFIS that used to foretell the TURB equal to 36.54 when cross-validation equal to one ten percent, while truth ANFIS reduces this mistake to 20.52 after cross proofs equal to one fifth of information record was introduced. Same scenario was obtained in the faculty that used to foretell the COND. As complete, the optimal degree of truth was achieved by choosing the length of the cross-validation equal to one fifth of the information record. After select the optimum length of cross-validation, a comparing between the ANFIS faculties and WDT-ANFIS faculties will present in order to analyze the effectivity of the proposed faculties to foretell WQP. Fig.7 demonstrates the public presentation of the WDT-ANFIS during preparation and cross-validation procedure. It ‘s obvious in Fig. 7 that the public presentation end of was achieved in less than 100 eras, while the same end could non be achieved in Fig. 3. This consequence depicts that the WDT-ANFIS capable to devour the clip. Apparently from Fig. 8 that the WDT-ANFIS based faculty outperformed the ANFIS and was able to supply betterment in anticipation truth of TURB with MAE equal to 0.1. While, inefficient public presentation was observed harmonizing to ANFIS faculty when the MAE was exceed 20. It is apparent with the addition of noise strength ; the WQP will hold more accurate anticipation value through the informations de-noised by WDT than those without de-noising. This indicates the high quality of WDT in cleaning the information. Apparently, the ANFIS faculty that used to foretell the T.D.S was able to accomplish acceptable consequence after using natural information. This consequence figures out that the ANFIS faculty can efficaciously capture nonlinearity in input/output function. More sweetenings in anticipation of T.D.S were achieved after using WDT-ANFIS. Where the truth was betterment eight times comparing with the ANFIS faculty. Albeit the mistake while proving is consider comparatively high comparing with preparation and cross- proof stage, achieve a MAE do n't transcend 3.4 which is consider best consequence in predict the T.D.S. This consequence showed that the WDT-ANFIS faculty could be considered as the appropriate mold technique for anticipation such WQP. It can besides be observed that the WDT-ANFIS faculty outperformed the ANFIS faculty and was able to supply betterment in anticipation truth for COND. It can be noticed that the WDT-ANFIS was capable of accomplishing high degree of truth in anticipation phase equal to 2.2, while inefficient public presentation was observed harmonizing to the ANFIS faculty when the per centum of MAE exceed 25. Over all, in this research, the WDT-ANFIS can hence be declared as the best web architecture because it outperforms ANFIS. These consequences show that the WDT-ANFIS theoretical account was non merely capable of bettering the truth of WQPP but the theoretical account besides was capable of capturing the temporal forms of the H2O quality which allowed it to supply important sweetening in anticipation. As a consequence, ANFIS module become more capable to capture the moral force and the complex processes that hidden in the informations itself for WQP after augmented it with WDT. The above observation is farther illustrated in Fig.9 demoing the public presentation of WDT-ANFIS faculties while preparation, cross-validation and anticipation procedure for the WQP. It is obvious from the Fig. 9 ( a ) that the proposed faculty that adopted to foretell the COND was capable to placing the complex non-linear relationship between input and end product informations where merely one fifth of records were used during anticipation. It is clear from the figure that the maximal per centum mistake for all the trained and cross-validation records is merely 1.85 % and 1.2 % severally. While, the maximal per centum mistake for all the predicted records is merely 3.9 % . This consequence reveals that the proposed faculty able to imitating the existent behaviour of the COND in the H2O organic structure. In order to salvage clip and avoid making independent faculty to each parametric quantity, old faculty that utilized to foretell the COND will follow and examined to foretell the T.D.S. it can be noticed from Fig. 9 ( B ) that using one parametric quantity as input does non let the WDT-ANFIS faculty to hold the exposure to enough input kineticss and the chance to be suitably evaluated during cross-validation procedure. Consequently, the mistake degrees during the anticipation procedure may get down to be larger than those obtained during transverse proof. As a consequence, the system may non be able to keep the same degrees of truth for both the cross proof and anticipation procedure. Even though the degree of mistakes in the anticipation phase is comparatively high, moderately good consequence was obtained for the anticipation of T.D.S where maximal per centum mistakes during anticipation procedure did non transcend 10 % Ali et at. [ 20 ] adopted RBF-NN to foretell the TURB at Johor River Basin. High degree of mistake was obtained due to one parametric quantity was used as input to the faculty. In this portion of this paper, three parametric quantities were introduced as input to the faculty after investigated the correlativity between the inputs and end product. Fig.9 ( degree Celsius ) shows the faculty public presentation while preparation, cross proof and anticipation for TURB. It can detect that the maximal mistake in preparation procedure is falling within 0.05 % which indicates that the theoretical account able gaining control the relationships between input/output. Although the mistake of anticipation phase equal to four times the mistake in cross-validation, the faculty provides high degree of truth comparing with the other faculties that used to foretell the COND and T.D.S where the maximal per centum mistake for all the predicted records is merely 0.21 % .DecisionAdaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Infer ence System ( ANFIS ) can cover with extremely variable, lingual, obscure and unsure informations or cognition. Therefore, this manuscript employs ANFIS theoretical account as a feasible agencies to foretell three H2O quality parametric quantities ; Electrical CONDuctivity ( COND ) , Total Dissolved Solids ( T.D.S ) and TURBidity ( TURB ) at Johor River basin, Malaysia. However, legion incompatibilities in information records are observed in the informations that mensurating by Department of Environment ( DOE ) monitoring Stationss owing to systematic mistakes, random mistakes and mistakes associated with informations entry. This blunt mismatch generate noise corrupted the records of the existent value of the parametric quantities. Therefore, the truth of the ANFIS is significantly affected by such mistakes nature and forms of the monitored informations. In order to predominate over these insufficiencies, ANFIS theoretical account is augmented with Wavelet De-noising Technique ( WDT ) to better the truth. The consequence shown that the WDT can be applied successfully and lend to heighten the truth of H2O quality anticipation by synthesis it with ANFIS algorithm.RecognitionsThe writers wish to thank Department Of Environment for supplying the needed informations for developing this research and to Dr. Sundarambal Palani for her penetration and counsel throughout this research. This research was supported by the research grant for the 2nd and 3rd writers from University Kebangsaan Malaysia UKM-GUP-PLW-08-13-308.

Ancient Egypt The Greatest Civilization Of The Past

Believed to have begun around 3100 BCE; the stories of ancient Egypt still live on today. Built along the Nile River; Egypt was once the greatest civilization of the past. Egypt built several groundbreaking architectural structures from the world’s first dams, to the first super structures predating the Ziggurat of Ur. Ancient Egypt survived three millennia before falling to the roman’s control. Egypt is most known for its pyramids, mummies, pharaohs, and its’ polytheistic religion. The Egyptians answer to the terrible question â€Å"Why are we here?† The Egyptians believed that they were to spend their lives preparing for their afterlife as seen through their literature, architecture, and burial rituals. Furthermore, The Egyptians most famous preparation for the afterlife is easiest seen through their architecture. The early kings of Egypt would spend their lives building their Mastaba’s, bench shaped mound tombs, to rest their physical bodies in there afterlife. 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