Discuss the relationship between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance Essay

Discuss the relationship between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance - Essay Example 476 - 1453). In form and style, medieval art had normally been confined to subjects of chiefly religious worth, especially as Christianity struggled to cope during the Dark Ages due to barbarian invasions and the fall of the Roman Empire. At the time, the western civilization merely hoped for salvation from havoc and crises through the Roman Catholic Church and this event serves to justify how and why the advent of medieval art, which is Christian art by nature, owed most of its substance to the themes that speak of religious influence (Medieval Art). As Roman Catholic Church portrayed a principal role in addressing the issues of hostility and brutality of men, the art history of the Middle Ages was inevitably led to depict the essence of Christianity in attempting to resolve the outcome of turmoil thereof. Faith and objects of Scripture, thus, became central to the core content of the medieval art which includes illuminated manuscripts, fresco and panel paintings, embroidery and tap estry art, mosaic, and tessera. Bronze art, ceramic art, as well as metalwork by silversmiths and goldsmiths account for the significant part of the identity and shape of the medieval art whose artists were highly disposed to create pietistic structures such as those inspired by biblical images. The period further consisted of schemes which brought about models of scriptural beings that were designed via architectures of Romanesque and of Gothic fashion. ‘Renaissance Art’, on the other hand, emerged the time when people of Europe were enlightened by the principle of humanism after all the unfortunate occurrences in the Middle Ages. It blossomed to embody the later historical art period which is characterized by new technique and invention toward a form or style meant to express ample departure from medieval art. Based on the world history, in general, Renaissance (14th – 17th century) pertains to the era of Enlightenment otherwise understood as the Golden Age or the great span in which European nations gradually learned to leave behind brutish human ways and engage in higher order of intellect as human beings capable of developing a moral society. Human endeavors in the West brought in a number of very indispensable discoveries that sustained the foundation and richness of knowledge in literature, philosophy, and science though religion took on paths toward reform and under these circumstances was the later historical art period given birth. With Renaissance art, Greco-Roman paintings and sculptures resurfaced to exhibit an artistic evolution that defied former conventions. While the medieval art focused on the symbolist approach of painting and sculpting animal and mythological figures in muted color, the Renaissance art replaced the idea of symbolism with the realization that a human subject of art in three dimensions would promote the value of man in the realm of intelligent existence and journey of change. Artists of the Renaissance add ed volume to the work and refined details which the artists of the Middle Ages overlooked especially in the aspect of designating visual elements appropriately so as to convey more of nature, sentiment, and thought through the art piece. Apparently, the humanist perspective of art in the Renaissance was adapted to in the course of enlightening men about the power of the

New Orleans Jazz Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

New Orleans Jazz - Assignment Example Further societal differences like the class difference present in the society between these two communities is also attributed to result in the rise of Jazz music (Custodero). It is from these societal differences that the drum beats and horn blowing sounds were taken by the whites and blended with the music they heard from the churches and barrooms to give birth to this new genre of music now known as Jazz music. In line with the social factor that led to the rise of Jazz music in New Orleans, an ethnic group known as the Creoles were also credited for the rise of this new genre of music. These were French and Spanish speaking blacks who majority originated from the West Indies before settling in Louisiana. After the purchase of American state of Louisiana, these individuals out rightly became American citizens, therefore, the Geographical aspect of both Louisiana and New Orleans are contributor to the rise of Jazz music (Jazz In The International Sphere: Glocal Jazz Dialects And Po ly-Idiomatic Creative Music). The Creole musicians made some of the best society bands in New Orleans due to their delicate tone, precise technique and authentic flow of music. It is the blend of this music from the blacks living in New Orleans that gave birth to jazz music.

Quantization process

Quantization process Quantization is a process of mapping an infinite set of scalar or vector quantities by a finite set of scalar or vector quantities. Quantization has applications in the areas of signal processing, speech processing and Image processing. In speech coding, quantization is required to reduce the number of bits used for representing a sample of speech signal there by the bit-rate, complexity and memory requirement can be reduced. Quantization results in the loss in the quality of a speech signal, which is undesirable. So a compromise must be made between the reduction in bit-rate and the quality of speech signal. Two types of quantization techniques exist they are: scalar quantization and vector quantization. Scalar quantization deals with the quantization of samples on a sample by sample basis, while vector quantization deals with quantizing the samples in groups called vectors. Vector quantization increases the optimality of a quantizer at the cost of increased computational complexity and memory requirements. Shannon theory states that quantizing a vector will be more effective than quantizing individual scalar values in terms of spectral distortion. According to Shannon the dimension of a vector chosen greatly affects the performance of quantization. Vectors of larger dimension produce better quality when compared to vectors of smaller dimension and in vectors of smaller dimension the transparency in the quantization is not good at a particular bit-rate chosen [8]. This is because in vectors of smaller dimension the correlation that exists between the samples will be lost and the scalar quantization itself destroys the correlation that exists between successive samples so the quality of the quantized speech signal will be lost. Therefore, quantizing correlated data requires techniques that preserve the correlation between the samples, such a technique is the vector quantization technique (VQ). Vector quantization is the simplification of scalar quantization. Vectors of larger dimension produce transparency in quantization at a particular bit-rate chosen. In Vector quantization the data is quantized in the form of contiguous blocks called vectors rather than individual samples. But later with the development of better coding techniques, it is made possible that transparency in quantization can also be achieved even for vectors of smaller dimension. In this thesis quantization is performed on vectors of full length and on vectors of smaller dimensions for a given bit-rate [4, 50]. An example of 2-dimensional vector quantizer is shown in Fig 4.1. The 2-dimensional region shown in Fig 4.1 is called as the voronoi region, which in turn contains several numbers of small hexagonal regions. The hexagonal regions defined by the blue borders are called as the encoding regions. The green dots represent the vectors to be quantized which fall in different hexagonal regions and the red dots represent the codewords (centroids). The vectors (green dots) falling in a particular hexagonal region can be best represented by the codeword (red dot) falling in that hexagonal region [51-54]. Vector quantization technique has become a great tool with the development of non variational design algorithms like the Linde, Buzo, Gray (LBG) algorithm. On the other hand besides spectral distortion the vector quantizer is having its own limitations like the computational complexity and memory requirements required for the searching and storing of the codebooks. For applications requiring higher bit-rates the computational complexity and memory requirements increases exponentially. The block diagram of a vector quantizer is shown in Fig 4.2. Let be an N dimensional vector with real valued samples in the range. The superscript T in the vector denotes the transpose of the vector. In vector quantization, a real valued N dimensional input vector is matched with the real valued N dimensional codewords of the codebook Ci , the codeword that best matches the input vector with lowest distortion is taken and the input vector is replaced by it. The codebook consists of a finite set of codewords C=Ci,, where , where C is the codebook, L is the length of the codebook and Ci denote the ith codeword in a codebook. In LPC coding the high bit-rate input vectors are replaced by the low bit-rate codewords of the codebook. The parameters used for quantization are the line spectral frequencies (LSF). The parameters used in the analysis and synthesis of the speech signals are the LPC coefficients. In speech coding the quantization is not performed directly on the LPC coefficients, the quantization is performed by transforming the LPC coefficients to other forms which ensure filter stability after quantization. Another reason for not using LPC coefficients is that, LPC coefficients have a wide dynamic range and so the LPC filter easily becomes unstable after quantization. So LPC coefficients are not used for quantization. The alternative to LPC coefficients is the use of line spectral frequency (LSF) parameters which ensure filter stability after quantization. The filter stability can be checked easily just by observing the order of the LSF samples in an LSF vector after quantization. If the LSF samples in a vector are in the ascending or descending order the filter stability can be ensured otherwise the filter stability cannot be ensured [54-58]. The angular positions of the roots of and gives us the line spectral frequencies and occurs in complex conjugate pairs. The line spectral frequencies range from. The line spectral frequencies have the following properties: Ø All the roots of and must lie on the unit circle which is the required condition for stability. Ø The roots of and are arranged in an alternate manner on the unit circle i.e., The roots of equation (4.6) can be obtained using the real root method [31] and is The coefficients of equations (4.6) and (4.7) are symmetrical and so the order p of equations (4.6) and (4.7) get reduces to p/2. Vector quantization of speech signals requires the generation of codebooks. The codebooks are designed using an iterative algorithm called Linde, Buzo and Gray (LBG) algorithm. The input to the LBG algorithm is a training sequence. The training sequence is the concatenation of a set LSF vectors obtained from people of different groups and of different ages. The speech signals used to obtain training sequence must be free of background noise. The speech signals used for this purpose can be recorded in sound proof booths, computer rooms and open environments. In this work the speech signals are recorded in computer rooms. In practice speech data bases like TIMIT database, YAHOO data base are available for use in speech coding and speech recognition. The codebook generation using LBG algorithm requires the generation of an initial codebook, which is the centroid or mean obtained from the training sequence. The centroid, so obtained is then splitted into two centroids or codewords using the splitting method. The iterative LBG algorithm splits these two codewords into four, four into eight and the process will be continued till the required numbers of codewords in the codebook are obtained [59-61]. The flow chart of LBG algorithm is shown in Fig 4.3. The LBG algorithm is properly implemented by a recursive procedure given below: 1. Initially the codebook generation requires a training sequence of LSF parameters which will be the input to LBG algorithm. The training sequence is obtained from a set of speech samples recorded from different groups of people in a computer room. 2. Let R be the region of the training sequence. 3. Obtain an initial codebook from the training sequence, which is the centroid or mean of the training sequence and let the initial codebook be C. 4. Split the initial codebook C into a set of codewords and where is the minimum error to be obtained between old and new codewords. 5. Compute the difference between the training sequence and each of the codewords and and let the difference be D. 6. Split the training sequence into two regions R1 and R2 depending on the difference D between the training sequence and the codewords and. The training vectors closer to falls in the region R1 and the training vectors closer to falls in the region R2. 7. Let the training vectors falling in the region R1 be TV1 and the training sequence vectors falling in the region R2 be TV2. 8. Obtain the new centroid or mean for TV1 and TV2. Let the new centroids be CR1 and CR2. 9. Replace the old centroids and by the new centroids CR1 and CR2. 10. Compute the difference between the training sequence and the new centroids CR1 and CR2 and Let the difference be . 11. Repeat steps 5 to 10 until . 12. Repeat steps 4 to 11 till the required number of codewords in the codebook are obtained. Where N=2b represents the number of codewords in the codebook and b represents the number of bits used for codebook generation. represents the difference between the training sequence and the old codewords, represents the difference between the training sequence and the new codewords. The quality of the speech signal is an important parameter in speech coders and is measured in terms of spectral distortion measured in decibels (dB). The spectral distortion is measured between the LPC power spectra of the quantized and unquantized speech signals. The spectral distortion is measured frame wise and the average or mean of the spectral distortion calculated over all frames will be taken as the final value of the spectral distortion. For a quantizer to be transparent the mean of the spectral distortion must be less than 1 dB without any audible distortion in the reconstructed speech. But the mean of the spectral distortion is not a sufficient measure to find the performance of a quantizer, this is because the human ear is sensitive to large quantization errors that occur occasionally. So in addition to measuring the mean of the spectral distortion it is also necessary to have another measure of quality which is the percentage number of frames having a spectral distorti on greater than 2dB and less than 4dB and the percentage number of frames having a spectral distortion greater than 4dB. The frames having spectral distortion between 2 to 4dB and greater than 4dB are called as outlier frames [54]. In order to measure objectively the distortion between the quantized and unquantized outputs, a method called the spectral distortion is often used in narrowband speech coding. For an ith frame the spectral distortion (in dB), is given by equation (4.19). (4.19) Where and are the LPC power spectra of the unquantized and quantized ith frame respectively. The frequency f is in Hz and the frequency range is given by f1 and f2. The frequency range used in practice for narrowband speech coding is 0-4000 Hz [12, 33]. The conditions for transparent speech coding are: Ø The average or mean of the spectral distortion (SD) must be less than or equal to 1dB. Ø There must be no outlier frames having a spectral distortion greater than 4dB. Ø The number of outlier frames between 2 to 4dB must be less than 2%. These three conditions are required to evaluate the performance of a quantizer. At a given bit-rate, an optimization process has to be carried out so as to obtain better performance i.e., accepting a large average spectral distortion for a few outliers. In the design of a vector quantizer instead of using the mean squared error (MSE) distance measure the weighted LSF distance measurement is used. This is done to place emphasis on the low frequency LSFs and on the LSFs with higher power spectrum. The weights used can be of two types they are: static or dynamic [54]. Ø Fixed or Static weights : These are used to place emphasis on the low frequency LSFs in order to account for the sensitivity of human ear for low and high frequency LSFs. Ø Varying or Dynamic weights : These are used to place emphasis on the LSFs with high power spectrum. There exist a number of vector quantization techniques each one is having its own advantages and disadvantages. Each technique is developed to decrease the parameters like spectral distortion, computational complexity and memory requirements. The vector quantization techniques that exist are the Split Vector Quantization (SVQ) technique, Multistage Vector Quantization (MSVQ) technique, Split-Multistage Vector Quantization (S-MSVQ) technique and Switched Split Vector Quantization (SSVQ) technique. As marketability and cost of a product depends on the complexity and memory requirements, the performance of the vector quantization techniques is measured in terms of spectral distortion in decibels, computational complexity in kilo flops per frame and memory requirements in floats. The performance of a vector quantization technique mainly depends on how efficiently the codebook is generated. The codebook can be generated efficiently using a large training set and using more number of bits for codebook generation. The goal involved in the design of each vector quantization technique is to make the technique to use more number of training vectors and less number of bits for codebook generation there by the spectral distortion, computational complexity and memory requirements can be reduced. It has been observed that as the number of bits used for codebook generation decreases the computational complexity and memory requirements decreases but the spectral distortion increases, this increase in spectral distortion can be reduced by increasing the number of training vectors used for codebook generation [62-71]. The block diagram of an Unconstrained Vector Quantizer (UVQ) is shown in Fig 4.4. Unconstrained Vector Quantization technique is the most awful vector quantization technique used for achieving lowest distortion at a given bit-rate and dimension. In LPC-10 the order of the filter chosen is 10 and so the length of each LSF vector will be 10. In Unconstrained Vector Quantization technique the quantization is done on vectors of full length i.e., using 10 samples of an LSF vector. From Fig 4.4 S1, S2, S3Sn are the input LSF vectors to be quantized using the Unconstrained Vector Quantizer. The main advantage of this vector quantization technique is that it is expected to give lowest quantization distortion at a given bit-rate as the correlation that exists between the samples of a vector is preserved. But the disadvantage with this quantization technique is that as vectors of full length are used, at higher bit-rates the computational complexity and memory requirements increases in an exponential manner making it impractical for applications requiring higher bit-rates. Another problem with this quantization technique is that at higher bit-rates the size of the codebook will be large and the generation of the codebook for this type of quantization technique will be difficult on general purpose computers as the memory available with them is limited. So the number of training vectors used for codebook generation must be limited in number or the length of each vector must be reduced. In practice on general purpose computers the codebook cannot be generated even with train ing vectors less than the number of codewords in a codebook at higher bit-rates. But the number of training vectors required to generate the codebook must be large than the number of codewords in a codebook otherwise there will be too much over fitting of the training set [54]. The computational complexity and memory requirements of a b bit, n dimensional vector quantizer are calculated as follows [54]: Ø To calculate the mean square error (MSE) between two vectors of n dimension, n subtractions, n multiplications and n-1 additions are required. So a total of 3n-1 flops are required. Ø To search a codebook of 2b code vectors, (3n-1)2b flops are required in addition to the minimum distortion search requiring 2b-1 flops. Ø So the number of computations made by a b bit, n dimensional vector quantizer is Total complexity = (3n-1)2b + 2b-1 = 3n2b-1 flops per vector. (4.24) In the computing the complexity each addition, multiplication and comparison is considered as one floating point operation. So a b bit n dimensional vector quantizer requires a codebook of 2b code vectors, it needs to store n2b floating point values, it computes 3n2b 1 flops per vector. Instead of the mean square error distance measure if weighted distance measure is used in the design of a vector quantizer the complexity increases from 3n2b 1 to 4n2b 1 flops per vector. The computational complexity of an Unconstrained Vector Quantizer is given by equation (4.25) Where n is the dimension of the vector b is the number of bits allocated to the vector quantizer. The Memory requirements of an Unconstrained Vector Quantizer is given by equation (4.26) Exhaustive search vector quantizers achieve lowest distortion at the expense of complexity and memory requirements at higher bit- rates. So to make the vector quantizers more practical for vectors of larger dimension and higher bit-rates structural constraints are imposed on the design of a vector quantizer or codebook. One way of achieving this is to decompose the codebook into a Cartesian product of smaller codebooks i.e., C = C1 * C2 * C3 . ..*Cm. The advantage with smaller codebooks is that the computational complexity and memory requirements can be reduced to a very great extent. This is because the number of bits used for codebook generation will be divided among the sets of the decomposed codebook [12, 18]. Examples of product code vector quantization techniques are Split Vector Quantization (SVQ), Multistage Vector Quantization (MSVQ), Split-Multistage Vector Quantization (S-MSVQ), Switched Split Vector Quantization (SSVQ). In this thesis two product code vector quantization techniques are proposed they are: Switched Multistage Vector Quantization (SWMSVQ) and Multi Switched Split Vector Quantization (MSSVQ) techniques [54, 72]. The main disadvantage of Unconstrained Vector Quantizer is that the complexity, memory requirements are very high and the generation of codebook is a very difficult task as vectors of full length are used for quantization without any structural constraint. As a result more number of training vectors and bits cannot be used for codebook generation. With these constraints the quantizer cannot produce better quality quantized outputs. So to improve the performance of Unconstrained Vector Quantization technique a well known technique called Split Vector Quantization has been developed. The concept behind Split Vector Quantization is that, in it vectors of larger dimensions are splitted into vectors of smaller dimensions and the bits allocated to the quantizer are divided among the splits (parts). Due to splitting the dimension of a vector gets decreased hence more number of training vectors and bits are used for codebook generation. As a result the performance of quantization is increas ed, the complexity and memory requirements are reduced. But the main disadvantage with this technique is that, due to splitting the linear and non linear dependencies that exist between the samples of a vector will be lost and the shape of the quantizer cells will be affected. As a result the spectral distortion increases slightly. This increase in spectral distortion can be compensated by increasing the number of training vectors and using more number of bits for codebook generation. The number of splits in this type of quantizer must be limited in number otherwise the vector quantizer will act as a scalar quantizer. In Split Vector Quantization the training sequence used for codebook generation will also be splitted into vectors of smaller dimension and each split of the training sequence is used to generate separate sub codebooks, there by independent vector quantizers exist and the bits must be allocated to each of them. As a result less number of bits will be available at each quantizer, the computational complexity and memory requirements gets reduced as they depend on the number of bits allocated to the quantizer and on the dimension of the vector to be quantized. The block diagram of a three part Split vector quantizer is shown in Fig 4.5. From Fig 4.5 it can be observed that a vector S1 of dimension n is quantized by splitting it into sub-vectors S11, S12, S13 of smaller dimensions. Each of these sub-vectors are quantized using their respective codebooks. In this work the order of the filter is taken as 10 and so the LSF vector contain 10 samples and these 10 samples are splitted into three parts of 3, 3, 4 samples [54, 73-75]. From results of Split Vector Quantization technique it is proved that the computational complexity and memory requirements gets decreased when compared to Unconstrained Vector Quantization technique. So Split Vector Quantization technique is superior to Unconstrained Vector Quantization technique in terms of the computational complexity and memory requirements. In a Split Vector Quantizer of n dimension, SP splits, operating at b bits per vector. The vector space Rn will be splitted into SP subspaces or splits or parts of lower dimension then the dimension of each subspace will be and . The number of independent quantizers will be equal to the number of splits and the bits used for quantization are divided among the splits and is . Where is the number of bits allocated to each vector quantizer. The computational complexity of a Split Vector Quantizer is given by equation (4.27) Where ni is the dimension of a sub-vector in ith split bi is the number of bits allocated to the ith split of a quantizer sp is the number of splits. The Memory requirements of a Split Vector Quantizer is given by equation (4.28) Multistage Vector Quantization is a modification of Unconstrained Vector Quantization technique. It is also called as Multistep, Residual or Cascaded Vector Quantization. Multistage Vector Quantization (MSVQ) technique preserves all the features of Unconstrained Vector Quantization technique and decreases the computational complexity, memory requirements and spectral distortion when compared to it. When compared to Split Vector Quantization technique, Multistage Vector Quantization technique shows significant improvement in the quality of the speech signal, by decreasing the spectral distortion, but at the expense of increased computational complexity and memory requirements. This is because Split Vector Quantization technique deals with vectors of lower dimensions while Unconstrained and Multistage Vector Quantization techniques deal with vectors of larger dimensions. So the complexity and memory requirements are less for Split Vector Quantization technique. Multistage Vector Quantizer is a cascaded connection of several vector quantizers, where the output of one stage is given as an input to the next stage and the bits used for quantization are divided among the stages connected in cascade [12, 14]. As a result the computational complexity and memory requirements get reduced when compared to Unconstrained Vector Quantizer. The generation of codebooks at different stages of a three stage MSVQ is shown in Fig 4.6. From Fig 4.6 it can be observed that the codebook at the first stage is generated by taking the training sequence as an input. At the second stage the codebook is generated using the quantization errors of the first stage, likewise the codebook at the third stage is generated using the quantization errors of the second stage. This process is continued for the required number of stages [76-80]. The block diagram of a three stage Multistage Vector Quantizer is shown in Fig 4.7. Its implementation requires the design of vector quantizers at each stage. In Multistage Vector Quantization the input vector s to be quantized is passed through the first stage of the vector quantizer so as to obtain the quantized version of the input vector i.e., . The quantization error or residual error at the first stage will be computed which is the difference of the input vector and the quantized version of the input vector. The quantization error at the first stage is given as an input to the vector quantizer of the second stage so as to obtain the quantized version of the error vector at the first stage i.e., . Likewise the quantization error at the second stage will be given as an input to the vector quantizer of the third stage so as to obtain the quantized version of the error vector at the second stage i.e., and this process can be continued for the required number of stages. Finally the decoder takes the indices Ii from each quantizer stage and adds the corresponding c odewords to obtain the quantized version of the input vector i.e., [54]. In a Multistage Vector Quantizer each stage acts as an independent vector quantizer and the total bits available for vector quantization will be divided among the stages. Then the complexity of a particular stage becomes, where bj is the number of bits allocated to the jth stage. This is less than the complexity of Unconstrained Vector Quantizer. Likewise the memory requirements at each stage are , which is less than the memory requirements of Unconstrained Vector Quantizer. The computational complexity of a Multistage Vector Quantizer is given by equation (4.29) Where n is the dimension of the vector bj is the number of bits allocated to the jth stage P is the number of stages The Memory requirements of a Multistage Vector Quantizer is given by equation (4.30) In order to improve the performance of Multistage Vector Quantization and Split Vector Quantization techniques a hybrid product code vector quantization technique called Split-Multistage Vector Quantization technique has been developed. Split-Multistage Vector Quantization technique is a hybrid of Multistage Vector Quantization and Split Vector Quantization techniques. At reasonable improvement in the quality of the output speech signal, Split-Multistage Vector Quantization technique provides the lowest spectral distortion, computational complexity and memory requirements when compared to Unconstrained Vector Quantization, Multistage Vector Quantization and Split Vector Quantization techniques [73-80]. The decrease in spectral distortion is due to summing of the quantized errors at each stage. In Split-Multistage Vector Quantization the dimension of the vectors to be quantized has been reduced by means of splitting. Likewise the bits used for quantization are also divided among the stages and among the splits of each stage. As a result the computational complexity and memory requirements get decreased when compared to Unconstrained Vector Quantization, Multistage Vector Quantization and Split Vector Quantization techniques. This is due to the decrease in the dimension of vectors, number of bits used for quantization at each stage and at each split of the vector quantizer. The generation of the codebooks at each stage of the Split-Multistage Vector Quantizer is similar to the codebooks generation at each stage of the Multistage Vector Quantizer. But the difference is that each stage of the Split-Multistage Vector Quantizer involves the generation of several sub codebooks. The number of sub codebooks generated at each stage is equal to the number of splits at that stage. In this work, Split-Multistage Vector Quantizer with three parts (splits) and three stages have been developed. The performance of quantization depends on the number of stages and on the number of splits at each stage. As the number of stages increases the quality of the quantized output can be increased, but there must be a limit on the number of stages and on the number of splits at each stage as the number of bits at each stage is limited. The allocation of the bits at each stage is shown in Table 4.1 and the allocation of bits to each split of a stage is shown in Table 4.2. From Ta bles 4.1 and 4.2 it can be observed that the minimum number of bits at each stage with three parts must be at least three. So with three parts (splits) and three stages, in Split-Multistage Vector Quantizer the number of bits at a frame cannot be reduced below 9 bits. The block diagram of a Split-Multistage Vector Quantizer with three parts and three stages is shown in Fig 4.8. The block diagram is similar to three stage Multistage Vector Quantizer except for the splits at each stage. In Split-Multistage Vector Quantizer each split is treated as a separate vector quantizer and the vectors at each split are quantized independently. The quantization mechanism involved in Split-Multistage Vector Quantizer is similar to the quantization mechanism involved in Multistage Vector Quantizer, except that in Split-Multistage Vector Quantizer at each stage the sub-vectors are quantized independently. Split-Multistage Vector Quantizer is a hybrid of Split Vector Quantizer and Multistage Vector Quantizer. The equations for computational complexity and memory requirements are derived from the complexity and memory requirement equations of a Split Vector Quantizer and Multistage Vector Quantizer. Equations (4.31) and (4.32) below are obtained from the equations (4.29) and (4.30) by including the splits (SP) at each stage with a summation term having limits from 1 to SP. The computational complexity of a Split-Multistage Vector Quantizer is given by equation (4.31) Where nji is the dimension of a sub-vector in jth stage ith split bji is the number of bits allocated to the jth stage and ith split of a quantizer P is the number of stages sp is the number of splits. The Memory requirements of a Split-Multistage Vector Quantizer is given by equation (4.32) Switched Split Vector Quantization (SSVQ) is one of the latest vector quantization techniques and is developed to improve the performance of Split Vector Quantization technique. Switched Split Vector Quantization technique is a hybrid of Switch Vector Quantization and Split Vector Quantization techniques and is used to exploit the linear and non linear dependencies that exist between the splits of a Split Vector Quantizer. In Switched Split Vector Quantizer initially the Switch Vector Quantizer partitions the entire vector space into voronoi regions and exploits the dependencies that exist across all dimensions of the vector space. Then a Split Vector Quantizer is designed for each of the voronoi regions. As a Split Vector Quantizer is adapted to the local statistics of the Voronoi region the sub optimalitys of the Split Vector Quantizer will be localized. In a Switched Split Vector Quantizer a number of vector quantizers are connected in parallel and it can be implemented in two wa ys: hard decision scheme and soft decision scheme. In hard decision scheme each vector to be quantized is quantized in only one of the codebooks connected in parallel, the selection of a codebook for quantization depends on the nearest codeword selected in the initial codebook. An initial codebook is one which is designed for the selection of a switch. The initial codebook is generated by the training vectors used for the generation of the codebooks at the vector quantizers connected in parallel. The number of codewords or centroids in the initial codebook is equal to the number of switches chosen or number of codebooks connected in parallel and these centroids are used to form the Switch Vector Quantizer. In soft decision sc

The Players in the Cocaine Game: An investigative look at the dealers,

The Players in the Cocaine Game: An investigative look at the dealers, suppliers, and enforcers From the third world of many South American countries, to the third street projects in the inner-city, to the third floor of a downtown luxury loft, cocaine is prevalent and being used. The business of the coca leaf is a billion dollar a year industry, if not more. Our foreign counterparts are profiting in full off of the drug. Mexico, Peru, and Colombia are some of the countries in Central and South America that are profiting and manufacturing cocaine. â€Å"Today's wholesale cocaine industry operated by Mexico's cartel is a $30 billion per year business -- a figure that easily outstrips revenues reported by giants like Ford, General Motors, Wal-Mart, Exxon, and General Electric. (Millar, 2000)† This is Mexico’s figure that doesn’t include the other manufactures, including Colombia, which is the world largest supplier. With such a revenue market, the control of the drug and drug trafficking is not as simple as making it illegal and enforcing it by law. With that, there is no doubt that America has itself entrenched in this industry one way or another. The United States has a history of being the enforcer on the international level with hidden agendas. We are like the gossip queen in High School that needs to have his or her nose in everyone’s business. On the one hand we have a strong anti-drug policy both here in the United States and for the international suppliers of cocaine and other drugs. On the other hand, America is one of the largest purchasers of cocaine with government involvement and aid. â€Å"United States chemical manufacturers aren’t too offended by the drug trade either. A congressional committee found that 90 p... ...ce. 4. Milar, Kathy. â€Å"Partnerships bring reinvention to the war on drugs†. http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/npr/rego/security/drugwar.htm 5. Balsamo, William, George Jr. Carpozi. Crime Incorporated. New Horizon Press, 1991 6. Rock, Paul ed., Manning, Peter K. and Lawrence John Redlinger. â€Å"Invitational Edges of Corruption: Some Consequences of Narcotic Law Enforcement†. Drugs and Politics. New Jersey; Transaction Inc. 1977 7. Menzel, Sewall, Fire in the Andes- US Foreign Policy and Cocaine Politics in Bolivia and Peru. Maryland; University Press of America, 1996 8. Borucke, Michael, â€Å"Seeing double in Colombia†. 28, April 2000. http://www.tech.mit.edu/V120/N23/col23boruc.23.html 9. Scarface. Dir. Brian de Palma. Perf. Al Pacino. Universal Studios, 1983.

Employee Attitude as a Function of Job Satisfaction

EMPLOYEE ATTITUDE AS A FUNCTION OF JOB SATISFACTION Introduction There is confusion and debate among practitioners on the topic of employee attitudes and job satisfaction even at a time when employees are increasingly important for organizational success and competitiveness. â€Å"Happy employees are productive employees. †Ã¢â‚¬Å"Happy employees are not productive employees. † We hear these conflicting statements made by HR professionals and managers in organizations.This research aims at establishing job satisfaction as a basis for employee attitude; whether good or bad and we will do this by answering three questions: â€Å"What are the causes of employee attitudes? †, â€Å"What are the results of positive and negative job reaction? †and â€Å"How can we measure and influence employee attitudes? † Before we begin a description of what we mean by employee attitudes and job satisfaction will suffice. What is job satisfaction? Job satisfaction is how content an individual is with his/her job.In other words, a contentment (or lack of it arising out of interplay of the employees positive or negative feelings towards his/her job. However, there is a distinction between affective job satisfaction and cognitive job satisfaction. Affective job satisfaction is the extent of pleasurable emotional feelings an individual has about his job overall while the cognitive job satisfaction has to do with the extent to which the individual is satisfied with particular facets o his job. The most-used research definition of job satisfaction is by Locke (1976), who defined it as â€Å". . a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences† (p. 1304). Implicit in Locke’s definition is the importance of both affect, or feeling, and cognition, or thinking. When we think, we have feelings about what we think. Conversely, when we have feelings, we think about what we feel. Cognitio n and affect are thus inextricably linked, in our psychology and even in our biology. Thus, when evaluating our jobs, as when we assess most anything important to us, both thinking and feeling are involved.What is employee attitude? In other to have a panoramic understanding of this terminology, a conceptual clarification would suffice. What is an attitude? An attitude can be described as an expression of favor or disfavor towards a person, place, thing or event which is as a result of either a negative or positive evaluation of the object of affect. Employees have viewpoints about many aspect of their job, career, Organization. The above explanation gives us the idea that attitude can either be positive or negative.Thus employee attitude can be described as an employee’s expression either positive or negative towards his/her job, career or organization. How then do we make a distinction between positive and negative employee attitudes? Generally, It is in their promotion of organizational goals. Therefore, positive employee attitudes can be said to be in agreement with organizational goals thereby promoting it while negative employees can be said to be against organizational goals thereby suppressing organizational goals. This explains why employee attitude is easily cited as the number one performance related issue of companies.From the perspective of research and practice, the most focal employee attitude is job satisfaction. Thus, we often refer to employee attitudes broadly in this article, although much of our specific focus will concern job satisfaction. In the midst of all this, one little question crosses the mind; what are the causes of employee attitudes? What are the causes of employee attitudes? In general, HR Practitioners understand the importance of work situation as a cause of work attitude and it is an area that HR can help influence through organizational programs and management practices.However, in the past decades there has been ga inful research in understanding dispositional and cultural influences on job satisfaction which is not yet well understood by HR practitioners. In addition, the work itself is also an area that influences job satisfaction and this is often overlooked by HR practitioners when addressing job satisfaction. Dispositional influences Several innovative studies have shown the influence of a person’s disposition on job satisfaction. Disposition can be described as a tendency to act in a specified way.There are some factors that affect our disposition and they are called dispositional variables. These variables are often viewed as part of the individual’s makeup, character or personality. Personality is defined as a combination of characteristic patterns of thought, feelings and behaviors peculiar to a person. It is said to be both physiological and psychological. On the other hand, character is a combination of mental and ethical traits marking a person. Dispositional variable s are relatively stable across time and difficult to change.They are often used to explain consistency in individual behaviors across time and situations. The theory of dispositional influences is a very general theory that innate dispositions cause people to have tendencies towards a certain level of satisfaction regardless of the job. In 1997, Timothy A. Judge, Edwin A. locke and Cathy C. Durham argued that there are four core self-evaluations that determines ones disposition towards job satisfaction; self esteem, general self efficacy, locus of control and neuroticism.

The Development of International Relations

INTRODUCTION This paper begins by outlining the definitions and what exactly is meant by international relations. Secondly, it tells the story of how and why the study of international relations emerged when it did, during the course of modern history.Even though, the history and the origins of this discipline alone does not reveal everything we need to know about how international relations functions in this day and age, it certainly would help us to understand the legacy left behind by this study’s original purpose, international gains and calamities, and by its traditional schools of thought; explanations starting from the time of the Great Powers, to the French Revolution, the first of the alliances, the Industrial revolution, the two World Wars along with the consequent Cold War, the formed international organizations such as the League of Nations and the United Nations, and finally, to where international relations stands today.The final outcome of this paper is to creat e a detailed understanding on the readers mind on how international relations developed into what it at present is – a science, or rather a field of study – during the course of the modern history, starting from the 16th century. WHAT IS INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS? International relations is a field of study that seeks to understand a variety of global issues, foreign affairs and the interactions of nations and states within the international system. International relations draw upon its expertise from a variety of other fields such as social science, including geography, history, sociology, political science, economics, law, etc†¦It is therefore a challenging field to master due to its both diverse and complex nature. Strictly defined, the field of International Relations (IR) concerns the relationships among the world’s governments. However, these so called world’s governments or in other words nation states, alone cannot regulate the events taking pl ace in international arena. They in fact are connected or rather influenced by other actors, namely, inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and multinational corporations (MNCs) along with other social structures such as economics, cultural differences and ideology. Furthermore, the study of nternational relations has always been heavily influenced by normative considerations, such as the goal of reducing armed conflict and increasing international cooperation. International relations are an exceptionally important aspect of citizenship in a global society. As our world becomes smaller and smaller through communication technology, speedy air transportation and a complex international economy and interactions, the value of peaceful and cooperative relationships between nations is increasingly important. HISTORY The concept of international relations on some level is probably quite old, given that humans have been establishing governments and communicating with each other for thousands of years.Aspects of international relations have been studied for thousands of years, since the time of Thucydides, but IR became a separate and definable discipline in the early 20th century. However, many people agree that international relations truly began to emerge around the 15th century – the dawn of the modern era – when people started exploring the world and interacting with other governments and cultures. THE TREATY OF WESTPHALIA (1648) The modern international system is often dated from the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, which established the principles of independent, sovereign stated that continue to shape the international system today. Many even consider this treaty, also knows as the Peace of Westphalia as the birth of international relations as a field of study.The Treaty of Westphalia was a series of peace treaties signed between May and October 1648 in Osnab ruck and Munster, Germany. These treaties ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) between Spain and the Dutch Republic, with Spain formally recognizing the independence of the Dutch Republic. These treaties resulted from a big diplomatic assembly, thus initiating a new system of political order in central Europe, between the Hapsburg alliance (Austria-Hungury and Spain) and the Protestant countries (France, Britain, Sweden). Later it was called by many parties as the Westphalian sovereignty. The key factor to this ystem was the ability of one state to balance the power of another state so that it could not obtain power of smaller units and create a universal empire, thereby forming a relationship between the many nations within the European terrain. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1789 – 1799) The French Revolution (1789–1799), was a period of drastic social and political turmoil in France and one tha t had a major impact not only on France but also throughout the rest of Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed within a mere three year period. However, 5 directors established control of the French state in 1795 and held power until 1799, when it was replaced by the Consulate under Napoleon Bonaparte. Meanwhile, by the nearing end of the 18th century Britain’s power multiplied due to industrialization along with its rival at the time, France.What was once the great powers in Europe and the adjacent terrain were by this era beginning to decline, namely Sweden, Netherlands and the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, nations such as Russia and then followed by Prussia (the forerunner of modern-day Germany) also developed in to major players or rather great powers. THE NAPOLEANIC WARS (1803 – 1815) The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions. The underlying cau ses for these Napoleonic Wars took place due to many reasons. For one thing, the French Revolution inspired a desire among the French to export the ideals of freedom, equality and union. As a result, neighboring monarchs, especially the British Empire, found this very threatening.Napoleon happened to be both brilliant and energetic in defending the state from its enemies. Eventually, the dynamics of war and the changes in revolutionary spirit made Napoleon King of France and the territories he had conquered. Now he became a different kind of threat as he wanted to maintain his popularity and control in France through conquest of neighboring states. Thereby France, a single, very powerful European state was regarded as a threat to world stability and had to be put down. One way or the other France was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo by an alliance of Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, Austria-Hungary, Russia and Prussia.Nevertheless, Europe’s’ supreme, the British empi re realizing the threat that another challenging nation (the Napoleon’s empire) could bring upon, and therefore established an alliance with fellow European nations in 1815 named as the Congress of Vienna. THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA (1814 – 1815) The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by the Austrian statesman and held in Vienna from November 1814 to June 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars, and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. This is to date considered as one of the first the most prominent alliances, or a series of relations between nations in the history of international relations. THE CONCERT OF EUROPE (1815 – 1914)The Convert of Europe was the balance of power that existed in Europe from the end of the Napoleonic Wars (1815) to the outbreak of World War I (1914). Its founding powers were Austria, Prussia, the Russian Empire and the United Kingdom, the members of the Quadruple Alliance which was responsible for the downfall of the First French Empire. However, in time France was established as a fifth member of the concert. The Concert of Europe, however, is closely connected to the congress of Vienna. It was the balance of power that existed in Europe from the fall of Napoleon in 1815 to the beginning of the First World War. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (1760 – 1830) The term Industrial Revolution is normally reserved for a set of events that took place in Britain roughly from 1760 to 1830.The historical events in question consisted of a set of technological, economic, and social changes that in the long run revolutionized not just the British economy but that of the rest of Western Europe, North America, and eventually much of the rest of the world. For Instance, The industrial Revolution sparked in Britain with the invention of the steam engine in 1769. Wooden sailing ships were discontin ued in production. Instead, the manufacturing of larger and faster coal powered iron steamships took its place. These accomplishments put Britain as the leading role in world’s economy along with two other competitors; USA from the west ; Japan from East.These developments in the fields of marine, road going and rail roads not only increased the world production and trade but also tied distant locations more closely together more faster and more economically. Furthermore, Britain dominated world trade in this period due to its advancement in technology was way above par at the time. Thus, it products met massive competition and as a result British Policy tend to favor free trade. The United Stated nevertheless overtook the British in terms of economy by the end of the 19th century, despite the fact that they suffered greatly during the great depression. However the United States government’s role in the economy intensified during World War II.By the dawn of the 20th ce ntury not only the British but also the United States and Japan were in the process of selling their merchandise in foreign land, and this to economically, industrially and socially influenced the field of international relations immensely. THE TWO WORLD WARS (1900 – 1950) The twentieth century saw the lights of two unfortunate World Wars. World War I took place during 1914 to 1918 and World War II, during the period of 1939 to 1945, together occupying a decade of the 21st century. Unlike a conventional war between two nations these two world wars were global or hegemonic wars in which almost all major states participated in an all out struggle over the future of the international system. WORLD WAR I (1914 – 1918)World War I was a global war centered in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. This war is one which symbolizes the tragic irrationality of war. It was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until the start of World War II in 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter. It involved all the world's great powers. It involves the almost all the worlds great powers, which were assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (based on the Triple Entente of the United Kingdom, France and Russia) and the Central Powers (originally centered around the Triple Alliance of Germany,Austria-Hungary and Italy; but, as Austria–Hungary had taken the offensive against the agreement, Italy did not enter into the war). Although the participating great powers made plans for a quick, offensive and rapid victory – what has been called the cult of offensive, the war was neither short nor decisive. In fact scholars indicate it was a catastrophic war that was unnecessary and perhaps even accidental. Russia happened to be the first nation state to crumble as Revolution at home made it retreat from war in 1917. The revolution eventually let to the founding of the Soviet Union . Further, the entry of the United States on to the war turned the tables upside down for Germany.The Triple Alliance was consequently defeated by the United Kingdom, France and Russia which saw the end of the 1st World War. THE TREATY OF VERSALLIES (1919) The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. The treaty was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (which was a reason for the occurrence of the world war). At the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was forced to give up territory, pay reparations, limit its future armaments and most importantly admit to guilt of the war, while the other Central Powers on the German side of World War I were dealt with in separate treaties.Even thought the treaty was agreed upon, the German resentment against the harsh terms of the Versaillian treaty would contribute to the German aggression in the mid 1930’s and later on, during the course of World War II. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS (1920 – 1946) Witnessing the painful experience in World War I, at the time US president, Woodrow Wilson, along with other idealistic mindsets placed their hopes for peace in the newly formed League of Nations. The League of Nations (abbreviated as LN in English, and SDN in its other official languages), was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first international organization whose primary and principal mission was to maintain world peace.Its primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament, and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members. Yet, the League lacked its own armed force and depended on the Great Powers to enforce its resolutions, keep to its economic sanctions, or provide an army when needed. However, the Great Powers were often reluctant to do so. After a number of notable successes and some early failures in the 1920s, the League ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Axis powers in the 1930s.Germany withdrew from the League, as did Japan, Italy, Spain and others. The onset of World War II showed that the League had failed its primary purpose, which was to prevent any future world war. The United Nations or the UN (which would be discussed later on) replaced it after the end of the war and inherited a number of agencies and organizations founded by the League. WORLD WAR II (1939 – 1945) World War II, or the Second World War was a global war that was underway by 1939 and ended in 1945. It involved a vast majority of the world's nations – including all of the great powers – eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies (U. S. Britain, Fr ance, Soviet Union, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Yugoslavia) and the Axis (Germany, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria). It was the most widespread war in history, with more than 100 million people serving in military units. In a state of â€Å"total war†, the major participants placed their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by significant events involving the mass death of civilians, including the Holocaust and the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare, it resulted in 50 million to over 70 million fatalities. These deaths make World War II by far the deadliest conflict in all of human history.Even though, the Empire of Japan was already at war with the Republic of China in 1937, the world war is generally said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the in vasion of Poland by Germany, and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and most of the countries of the British Empire. Germany therefore set out to establish a large empire in Europe. From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or subdued much of continental Europe. Later on however, the nominally neutral Soviet Union fully or partially invaded, occupied and annexed territories of its six European neighbors, including Poland. As a result the United Kingdom remained the only major force continuing the fight against the Axis, with battles taking place in North Africa as well as the long-running Battle of the Atlantic.In June 1941, the European Axis launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, giving a start to the largest land theatre of war in history, which tied down the major part of the Axis' military forces for the rest of the war. In December 1941, the Empire of Japan, which aimed to dominate East Asia and Indochina, joined the Axis, attacked the United States and European territories in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the West Pacific. The advancement of the Axis nations were stopped in 1942, after Japan lost a series of marine battles and German troops were defeated in North Africa and followed by, at Stalingrad. In 1943, with a series of German defeats in Eastern Europe, the Allied invasion of Fascist Italy, and American victories in the Pacific, the Axis lost the initiative and undertook strategic retreat on all fronts.Meanwhile in 1944, the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. The war in Europe ended with the capture of Berlin by Soviet and Polish troops and subsequently the Germans fell into surrender on 8 May 1945. After two devastating nuclear bombing n Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the war in Asia ended on 15 August 1945 when the Empire of Japan agreed to surrender. Thereby, victory of the Ally nations over the Axis in 1945 ended th e conflict. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world. THE UNITED NATIONS (1945 – Present) The United Nations was established to encourage international cooperation and prevent future conflicts.The great powers that were the know as victors in the war – nations such as the United States, Soviet Union, China, United Kingdom & France – became the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The United Nations is in fact an international organization whose original aims were regard to facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace. Founded in 1945 after World War II it went to replace the League of Nations, in hopes to stop wars between countries, and to provide a platform for dialogue. So far the United Nations has been successful in preventing a third World War, which otherwise would probably mean nuclear wa rfare & consequent destruction of the world.Furthermore, the United Nations proclaims to consist of 193 member states, which includes every sovereign state in the world with the exception of Vatican City. Nevertheless, this forming of this organization is known to be the biggest and the most successful alliance between nations in the history of International Relations. THE COLD WAR (1945 – 1889) The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, creating a bipolar world and setting the stage for the Cold War. The cold war lasted for the next 46 years and each of them had its own ideology, its collection of alliances, third world consumers and a deadly armory of nuclear weapons.Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers started to decline, while the decolonization of Asia and Africa began. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to stabilize post war relations between fellow nations. In addition, the United States forged NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), a military alliance using suppression of communism and encouraging capitalism as a main strategy in 1949, while the Soviet Union formed the Warsaw Pact in 1955. Some countries aligned with either of these 2 superpowers, whilst others chose to remain as Non-Aligned Movement.The Cold War was named likewise as it never featured direct military action, since both sides possessed nuclear weapons, and its use would result in mass destruction. However these two parties’ third world allies fell victim to s streak of devastating wars, namely, the Korean War (1950–1953), the Suez Crisis (1956), the Berlin Crisis of 1961, the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), the Vietnam War (1959–1975), the Yom Kippur War (1973), the Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979–1989), the Soviet downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (1983), and the â€Å"Able Archer† NATO m ilitary exercises (1983). However, by 1991 the cold war came to an end as the Soviet Union collapsed and reformed in to 12 different states.In the 1980s, the United States increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures on the Soviet Union, at a time when the communist state was already suffering from economic stagnation. In 1991 occurred the collapse of the Soviet Union, leaving the United States as the dominant military power, and leaving behind a resulting uni-polar world. Nevertheless, the Cold War and its events have left a significant legacy, a huge impact and a rather solid attitude towards the functions of International Relations. The aftermath of Cold War conflict, however, is not always easily erased, as many of the economic and social tensions that were exploited to energize Cold War competition in parts of the Third World remain sensitive.In Eastern Europe, the end of the Cold War has ushered in an era of economic growth while in other parts of the world, such as Afghanistan, independence was accompanied by state failure. SCOPE OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS TODAY The scope of international relations has greatly expanded in modern times. Initially international relations concerned only upon the study of contemporary foreign affairs with a view to draw certain lessons. Later on emphasis began to be laid on the study of both foreign affairs and international law and international relations began to be studied within the framework of international law. The field of the study of international relations was further widened with the establishment of the League of Nations after the First World War and the study of international organizations and institutions.The scope of international relations in the post World War II period got further widened due to significant changes which took place, with the emergence of USA and USSR as two superpowers; the entry of a large number of non-European states into the society of nations; the threat and danger of nucle ar warfare; increasing interdependence of states and rising expectations of the people in the under developed third world, etc†¦ CONCLUTION It is in this way quite evident that world history, especially modern world history plays a major role in the development of International Relations as a field of study. Although initial events indicate that war held prominence in international affairs, things were prone to change with the spark of the industrial era and the rapid globalization of the world economy.It is also evident that greater importance began to be placed on scientific study of international relations, which led to development of new methodologies and introduction of new theories in the study of international relations. It is therefore in this way quite clear that all in the recent past, the present and in the future, the scope of International Relations will be thoroughly important for the functions carried out in the international arena. ———â€⠀Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€œ [ 2 ]. Goldstein, Joshua S. International Relations, Sixth Edition. Pearson Education Inc. and Dorling Kindersley Publishing Inc. 2005: 29 [ 3 ]. Columbia Encyclopedia: international relations [ 4 ]. Goldstein, Joshua S. International Relations, Sixth Edition.Pearson Education Inc. and Dorling Kindersley Publishing Inc. 2005: 53 [ 5 ]. â€Å"Principles of the State System†. Faculty. unlv. edu. Retrieved 2012-09-11. [ 6 ]. Bloy, Marjie. The Congress of Vienna, 1 November 1814 – 8 June 1815. The Victorian Web. 2009 [ 7 ]. Dockrill, Michael. Atlas of the Twentieth Century World History. NY: Harper Collins, 1991. Ferguson, Niall. The pity of war: Explaining World War I. NY Basic, 1999 [ 8 ]. Willmott, H. P. World War I, New York: Dorling Kindersley Inc. 2003: 27 [ 9 ]. The Triple Entente was the name given to the alliance between France, Britain, and Russia after the signing of the A nglo-Russian Entente on August 31, 1907.The alliance of the three powers, supplemented by agreements with Portugal and Japan, constituted a powerful counterweight to the Triple Alliance. [ 10 ]. Bade, Klaus J; Brown, Allison (tr. ) (2003), Migration in European History, The making of Europe, Oxford: Blackwell (translated from the German). [ 11 ]. Goldstein, Joshua S. International Relations, Sixth Edition. Pearson Education Inc. and Dorling Kindersley Publishing Inc. 2005: 53 [ 12 ]. â€Å"Covenant of the League of Nations†. The Avalon Project. Retrieved 30 August 2011. [ 13 ]. Jahanpour, Farhang. â€Å"The Elusiveness of Trust: the experience of Security Council and Iran† (PDF). Transnational Foundation of Peace and Future Research. p. 2. Retrieved 27 June 2008. [ 14 ].Barrett, David P; Shyu, Lawrence N (2001). China in the anti-Japanese War, 1937–1945: politics, culture and society. Volume 1 of Studies in modern Chinese history. New York: Peter Lang. [ 15 ]. à ¢â‚¬Å"General Assembly of the United Nations – Rules of Procedure†. UN Department for General Assembly. Retrieved 15 December 2010. [ 16 ]. â€Å"Milestones in United Nations History†. Department of Public Information, United Nations. Retrieved 17 July 2008. [ 17 ]. Goldstein, Joshua S. International Relations, Sixth Edition. Dorling Kindersley Publishing Inc. 2005: 67 [ 18 ]. Cold War, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Cold_War