Thursday, January 30, 2020

The Adventure of the Speckled Band Essay Example for Free

The Adventure of the Speckled Band Essay When we first meet Helen Stoner, her personality describes her as a kind and pious woman. She lived with her step-father, the only relative alive. She has no persona because she is an honest person and she shares her feelings with everyone. Her motivation is to find out how her sister has been murdered. In that time and place, womens status were low therefore, they were not considered as important as men: â€Å"It is not cold that makes me shiver† This leads to the theme of lonliness because she feels that she is alone and haso one to go to but Holmes. This whole quote is a powerful symbol which tells the reader that she is in a terrible condition. Also, it puts an image in the readers mind of the structures and features of the body that must have worn out due to a long period of time of stress. This is typical of women when they loose a relative that they be in deep depression. When we first meet Dr. Roylott, his background personality has already been revealed by his step daughter. His motivation is to keep Helen under control. Dr. Roylott has no persona because his personality reveals himself as an angry and aggressive man. In that time and place, England were at the centre of the world therefore Dr. Roylott incredibly thinks he is a powerful master. Also, he has a pet cheetah which symbolises that he is forgein and by keeping this pet, Dr. Roylott imitates himself as this powerful preditor. As later text in films such as Blade, in which he is half human . half vampire? In this case, British people will be afraid of him because of his tan which give him the air of not being from the Brtitish Isles. â€Å"A large face, seared with a thousand wrinkles. † This leads to the theme of stress because he has spent his life in prison because he killed someone in Calcutta. Also, it leads to the theme of power because of him having a medical degree and that he is a doctor – thoses were high classed jobs. The word â€Å"thousand wrinkles† symbolises that a person has been living a miserable life. The word â€Å"seared† also puts an image in the readers mind that in prison he must have lived a tourtourous life. Also, â€Å"seared† means burned so it reminds the reader that he is forgien. When we first meet Sherlock Holmes, his personality reveals himself as a kind but stern person. His motivation is to solve the mystery of Helen’s sisters death. He has no persona because he is an honest person and as part of a scientific dectective their job is not to be biased but to take everything into account. In that time and place, detectives didn’t consider women as important unless their came with their husbands, fathers or other male relatives. To grab the dectectives attention, unlike Holmes, he treats women and men as equals. His place in society is high because firstly he is a scientific detective and because he loves investigating the real cause of murders for no financial gain, this shows that people have more respect for them as he understand the needs of humanity. A later text, this sort of dectective comes in the film ‘The Fugitive’ because the dectective in the film describes himself a lot like Holmes. â€Å"Dark enough and sinister enough. † This leads to the theme of cunning and cleaverness because as soon as Helencame in, he spotted all the signs on her body that had a link to Dr. Roylott. Also, it leads to the theme of magic and witch craft because usually, witchcraft is more of a major sin than committing a murder but Sherlock Holmes is expressing his thoughts clearly believes that killing someone is a grave sin. This whole quote is a powerful symbol because when he says â€Å"Dark enough† it means that this case is full of obstacles and the words â€Å"sinister enough† means that this kind of case cannot get more evil. Also, if you put the quote together, it makes the reader feel that as if the sin that has been committed there is no forgiveness.

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

History of the city of Florence Essays -- Italy European History Essay

History of the city of Florence In the entire scope of history there are few civilizations that have left their own unique imprint upon the rest of the world as well as influencing future generations like the city of Florence. Only a handful of nations can claim the cultural, financial, social, and artistic accomplishments that this city can. Throughout the history of approximately three thousand years Florence has proven to be an impressively resilient civilization that takes pride in itself and has been a leader in Italy and worldwide. From the founding Etruscan people, to Dante and Boccaccio, to the Medici family the Florentine people have proven themselves to be remarkable in many areas of life. This paper will trace the different stages of the Florentine civilization from its foundations, to its emergence from the Middle Ages, to the period of the Renaissance, and finally to its transition to become part of the nation of Italy. Early Florence The first people to settle the area that was to become Florence were the Etruscans who probably arrived around 1,000 B.C. by sea from Asia Minor.[i]? Current day archeologists and historians think fighting was common to the area because the Etruscans settled in walled cities built on high, unapproachable hills which would be hard to attack. Fiesole was one such city which was conquerored by the Romans around 300 B.C. along with the surrounding areas. As is turned out, this defeat was beneficial to the native people because it provided secure trade routes protected by the Roman military. The ability to travel and trade more freely prompted these people to move their civilization to the banks of the Arno River not far from the site of modern day Florence.[ii]... ...ucker, p. 58. [xxi] Lweis, p. 140. [xxii] Levey, p. 180. [xxiii] Levey, p. 236. [xxiv]? Colonel G.F. Young, The Medici (New York; Modern Library, 1933), p. 286. [xxv] Levey, p. 254. [xxvi] Levey, p. 256. [xxvii] Young, p. 332. [xxviii] Young, p. 364. [xxix] Levey, p. 321. [xxx] J. Lucas-Dubreton, Daily Life in Florence In the Time of the Medici (New York; MacMillan, 1961), p.? 287. [xxxi] Levey, p. 332. [xxxii]? George Holmes ed., The Oxford History of Italy (Oxford; Oxford Univ Press, 1997), p. 115. [xxxiii] Holmes, p. 115. [xxxiv] Holmes, p. 116. [xxxv] Holmes, p. 126. [xxxvi] Levey, p. 432. [xxxvii] Levey, p. 440. [xxxviii] Levey, p. 432. [xxxix] Levey, p. 456. [xl] Lewis, p. 182. [xli] Lewis, p. 183. [xlii] Levey, p. 456. [xliii] Lewis, p. 189. [xliv] Holmes, p. 229. [xlv] Holmes, p. 215.

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Building Construction

The collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River had done major damages in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Many assumptions and speculations about the causes of the collapse of the bridge system had appeared in the public. The public was seemingly confused about the real cause of the incidents and it is their right to be informed about the state of the investigation. The closest and very logical of the causes indicated in some of the investigations are stress or fatigue failure and lack of redundancy.Environment, Design, and Description of the I-35W bridge The I-35W bridge supports a total of eight lanes (four lanes on each direction). The average daily traffic (ADT) is given as 15,000 in each direction , with ten percent trucks. Constructed in 1967, the 581 meter long bridge has 14 spans. The main span is consist of a steel deck truss. The south approach spans are steel multi-beam. The north approach spans include both steel multieam and concrete slab span. There are two steel deck trusses. Builtup plates mostly composed the truss members.Rolled I-beams comprised the diagonal and vertical members. The truss members undergo poor welding details with the connections as mainly riveted and bolted. According to recent evaluation and inspection before the collapse of the bridge, corrosion at the floorbeam exists and rust are forming between connection plates. The two main trussses have an 11. 6-meter cantilever at the north and south ends. Twenty-seven floor trusses spaced at 11. 6 meters are also present. These floor trusses were framed into the vertical members of the main truss.The floor trusses consist of WF-shape members and have a 4. 97- meter cantilever at each end. The design specifications used in the bridge was the 1961 American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHTO) Specifications. During that time, most of the design uses unconservative fatigue design provisions. According to the fatigue evaluation report provided by the University o f Minnesota's Center for Transportation Studies in 2001, the approach spans had exhibited several fatigue problems promarily due to the distortion of the girders.The bridge truss and the floor truss system also exhibited poor fatigue details. Lack of redundancy in the main truss system was also present in the design. It is stated in the evaluation report of the University of Minnesota that cracking due to fatigue cause by a future increase in loading will first appear on the floor truss. According to them this future cracks is detectable since the floor truss are easy to inspect. In the incidence that cracks are not detected, the bridge could still hold the bridge system without the entire collapse of the system.In the report, the failure of the two main trusses of the bridge will definitely take much effect to the bridge system. Fatigue Resistance The Standard Specification and the Load and Resistance Factor Design provided by the American Association of State Highway Officials (AA SHTO) contain similar provisions for the fatigue design of welded details on steel ridges. These details are designed ased on the nominal stress which can be calculated using standard design equations and does not include the effects of welds and attachments.Since fatigue is usually present during sevice load application, the design parameters is only applied during service load conditions. Cracks due to fatigue have insignificant effect on the structures in compression but have tremendous effect on structures that experience tension. With this idea, the assessment on the cracks that propagate on such a bridge as the I-35W should only be consider to elements in tension. Structural Redundancy In all the design criteria of any structural system, loads existed in variety of paths should be significantly consider.The strength and reliability of the system can be ensure by the existence of the redundant paths or elements. Without the existence of this redundant system of elements, the fa ilure of the entire system is much possible. Past survey of the Committee on Redundancy of Flexural System on steel highway ad railroad bridges. The report summarized that a total of 96 structures were suffering some distress. It was also take into account that most of the failures were related to connections which were mainly welded.The report had also collected data which indicates that few steel bridges collapse if redundancy is present. Bridge systems with no redundancy was reported to have large number. In another research conducted by Ressler and Daniels, they found that the number of fatiguesensitive details present in the structure significantly affected the bridges with no redundant elements. Theoritical and Actual Bridge Response Many studies have shown that the simplified calculations used to predict the stresses provide a much higher value compare to the actual service stresses.Though the design calculations and load models provide appropriate results, it has great uncer tainty in the maximum life of a bridge system. However, it is still beneficial to have an accurate estimate of the typical everyday stress ranges. In a large bridge, 20 Mpa is the typical value of the service live-load stress ranges. The stress ranges are typically governed by dead loads and strength design specifications. This is the reason why the stress ranges are small. Since the strength design must account for a single case loading scenario over the life of the bridge, conservative load models are used.In addition to load conservative models, the assumptions provided in the analysis of the design can also be the cause of the large difference of the predicted stress and actual stress. A great example of the effect of the assumptions is the case of the US Highway 69 in Oklahoma. Fatigue damage was said to be present upon the welding that had been used in the widening of the bridge. The design computations of the bridge illustrated that the allowable stress ranges could be exceed ed at over 100 locations on the bridge.However, when the bridge was inspected, it appeared that the measure stress ranges was only 27 percent of the allowable stress ranges. This only shows the great effect of the assumptions used in the design of a certain structural system. Moreover, another study that indicates fatigue failure to be caused by the considerable amount of corrosion takes into account. This is the case of the Bridge 4654 in Minnesota where measured stress ranges ranged from 65 to 85 percent of the calculated analysis.These differences are to be point out to the fact that analytical methods provide assumptions that neglect ways in which the structure resists loads. For example, the study conducted y Brudette et al. , more than 50 years of bridge test data were collected and examined to determine specific load-resisiting mechanisms that are ignored in the design of the system. The study concluded that lower stress ranges in a structure can be due to unintended composit e action, contribution from non-structural elements, unintended partial fixity at abutments and direct transfer of load through the slab to the supports.In another study of the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario, they conducted a program of bridge testing that included more than 225 bridges over a period of 15 years. The study noted that much of the bridges can sustain much larger loads than their estimated capacities. Observations were also made regarding the behavior of the steel truss bridge. The observations are as follows: 1) the stringer of the floor system share a large tensile force thus reducing the strains experienced by the chord in contact with the floor system and 2) Composite action in non-composite system was shown to exist.

Sunday, January 5, 2020

Essay on Stereotypes of Hispanic Women in Cinema - 2507 Words

The Latina women, even throughout the era resistance cinema, have not been able to make much progress in overcoming the degrading stereotypes that Hollywood has created for them. Despite the many advances that minorities have made in the cinema in recent years, Latina actresses still take on the roles of the dark skinned lady and other such stereotypes with strong sexual connotations. It is often debatable whether or not the role of the Latina has undergone dramatic changes since the days of Dolores Del Rio and Carmen Miranda dancing with the fruit baskets on top of their heads. However, in recent years there has been an emphasis by various Latinas in the film industry to combat such stereotypical roles and redefine themselves†¦show more content†¦This character began to appear in the 1930’s, at the same time that an audio component was introduced into cinema. The audience was not however interested in the voice of the vamp but rather for her appearance and sex appeal . She was often depicted as exotic and sensual. As Tara Osorio writes, In early cinema, Hollywood represented Latinas as ignorant, and valued their striking appearance and figure rather than their intelligence, character, and personalities. (Tara Osorio) With the introduction of musicals into cinema, there were many opportunities for vamp roles. There were three particular women in early cinema who were infamous for portraying the vamp character. Carmen Miranda, Dolores Del Rio, and Lupe Velez were typecast in such roles and were seen in the majority of films produced in these decades. This character represented an image that was offensive and insulting to many. The character did not have many diverse elements and was a rather one-dimensional figure. It was even more damaging when you take into account that the same role was repeated, often by the same actress in a myriad of films. As one actress Rita Moreno describes after she had played a similar spitfire character fourteen times in eleven years. It’s really demeaning after you’ve won the Oscar to be offered the same role over and over again. They only wanted me to drag out my accent-and-dance show over and over again. (pg.174, Hadley-Garcia) The filmmakersShow MoreRelatedThe Minorities Vs. Entertainment War868 Words   |  4 Pagescrowds that had brought overwhelming emotions and relaxation. Today, the entertainment industry has been amplified due to cinema emerging through the combination of new advancements in technology and has broaden the media and film industries horizons, the entertainment business has opened up the â€Å"opportunity gates† and has taken a turn for many minorities (African Americans, Hispanics, Asian, etc.) to live the dream and be a part of the uncontrollable whirlwind of entertainment. 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From this racist precedent, producers and directors