Blog

how the ways that we communicate through social media, texting, blogging (both locally and globally) influence the ways that we perceive the world.

Sociology
“The message of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs. The railway did not introduce movement or transpotatio or wheel or road into human society, but it accelerated and enlarged the scale of previous han functions, creating totally new kinds of cities and new kinds of work and leisure.” (McLuhan, 1964, p. 8)

McLuhan’s insight suggests that we need to look beyond the simple message to the social influence of the medium. As your textbook states, “…the manner in which people communicate shapes not only the society in which they live but how they interact within it (p. 461). Discuss how the ways that we communicate through social media, texting, blogging (both locally and globally) influence the ways that we perceive the world. Find a video (some interesting ones on TED.com) or a news article that provides support for your discussion.

Your submission should be approximately 500 words and include sociological concepts from your text as well as some of your own ideas as well as information from your selected video or article. (please include the link to your article or video.)

Retirement Plan Selection

Retirement Plan Selection
A new employee joins your company at age 24 making $40,000 per year. Currently, banks are paying 5% interest on saving accounts, and the rate of return on the company stock is 4% per year. During benefits enrollment, the employee stated that she would like to retire at age 60 with 3 million dollars in her retirement account.
Compare the following retirement options for this particular employee in 1,050 to 1,400 words:
403B
401K
Pension
Annuities
IRA
Estate planning
Determine which retirement option(s) you would choose if you were this employee.
Assess the factors that this employee should consider when selecting a retirement plan.
Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.

Modern Computer Architecture – Memory and I/O Systems

Modern Computer Architecture – Memory and I/O Systems

See attached document and rewrite the whole document.

APA Format and add aditional information based in the attached document. The full attached document must be rewrite and different.

Must maintain the same number of words or add more, but not less.Must elaborate on the topics within the paper.

Introduction
In this assignment, IP, we will execute the implementation of Direct Memory Access (DMA) module. Direct Memory Access allows the peripheral devices to move information from or to memory without having the processor handling each byte. Thus, DMA enables more efficient use of interrupts, increases data throughput, and potentially reduces hardware costs by eliminating the need for peripheral-specific FIFO buffers. This makes DMA an important module for any System-on-a-Chip as it can increase performance by a large factor. In this project, we will implement a DMA controller and interface it with the ARM processor. We will then evaluate the gain in performance of our complete SOC system with the DMA. We will do this by running a very data intensive test program which has a high frequency of memory accesses.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF A DMA
Direct Memory Access (DMA) is a well know technique, whereby an I/O device gets
access to memory directly without having the microprocessor in between. By this direct
path, a word input through a device, can be stored in memory, or a word from memory
can be output through a device, on the device’s request. It is possible for a word in
memory to be moved to another place in memory using direct memory access.
DMA is one of the fastest ways to input data to a buffer. This technique requires
considerably more hardware and is considerably faster than if it were done through
software. A DMA channel is the additional logic needed to move data to or from an I/O
device.
FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICATIONS
The following is a description of how our DMA controller works [2]:
1) The CPU initiates the transfer by supplying the following data to the DMA controller: the memory address of the source and destination of the data to be transferred, and the number of bytes to transfer. The CPU does so by writing this data to the DMA internal registers (shown later).
2) The DMA controller starts the operation on the device and requests the bus. Once the bus is granted to DMA, it then waits on the Source Device to provide data. When the data is available, it transfers the data to the destination. The DMA controller supplies the memory address for reads and writes. If the request requires more than one transfer on the bus, the DMA unit generates the next memory address and initiates the next transfer.
3) Once the transfer is complete, the DMA controller interrupts the processor and notifies it if there were any failures during the transfer. Note that the processor has to wait for the DMA to finish the transfer before it can supply it with the next transfer. Therefore, the processor has to keep track of transfer requests and transfer acknowledgments. This is accomplished using a dedicated control port connecting the DMA to the AMBA Bus and thus to the processor.
IMPLEMENTATION
Hardware
In this project, we used the tools we learned in this class to complete this project. First, we
used The Platform Creator from Coware to draw a system level diagram (Figure 2). We
developed the following two hardware modules in SystemC.
1. A DMA controller (block level diagram shown later as Figure 3)
2. A disk

ARM Core Software
Another important task in this project was to develop a program that can be used as a test
program. We wanted this program to be a realistic application of the DMA. We provide a
description of this program in the next section.
Interface
We used the AMBA API to interface the modules with the existing system. There were
two master ports and one slave port that we added to the AMBA bus as a part of the
DMA controller. Similarly, a Slave port was also added to the AMBA bus for the disk.
The interfacing was done using memory-mapped I/O. The following table shows the
memory map table of the system. The DMA port shown here is a slave that is used by the
processor as the control port to program the DMA controller for transfers.

Another important portion of the interfacing involved the arbitration of the bus between
the 4 AHB initiators. (two from processor and two from the DMA). We used a fixed
priority arbiter from the AMBA library to handle this issue. The fixed priorities were
assigned by us as the program specifications. The following table shows the priorities
assigned to each AMBA initiator in the system.

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
To evaluate the performance gains of the DMA module we developed a data intensive
test program with a high frequency of memory accesses. The test program is basically a
small Kernel that computes the dot product of two vectors A and B. Both vectors are
stored in the disk and the processor first has to retrieve them and put hem into the RAM
before it can start performing the computation. Since both vectors are very large, the
processor brings them into the RAM one part at a time. Each part is referred to as a page.
This is basically to mimic the working of a complete operating system with the Virtual
memory translation enabled. The pages are brought into the RAM on-demand. This
demand driven process allows the processor to work in the foreground while the DMA
can transfer the page in the background.
We first run this program without the DMA and count the total number of cycles the
program takes to execute. We then repeat the experiment with the DMA. In this version
the processor instructs the DMA to load the subsequent pages of the vectors while it
works on the current page. The processor keeps track of which pages have been moved
into memory using a score boarding technique to ensure that it only computes valid data.
That is, it makes sure the page has been transferred before it tries to use its’ values. Each
time the DMA interrupts the processor signaling that a transfer has been complete; the
processor requests it to fetch the following page. This way the processor works on the
data that has already been transferred into the memory while the DMA fetches the rest of
the data.
We performed this experiment several times while varying the disk latency. We wanted
to see how the disk latency affects the performance boost of the DMA. Finally, we
measured the number of cycles the processor sits in an idle state waiting for the data. This
analysis was done for a latency of zero cycles.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, we successfully implemented a DMA module in SystemC. We successfully
demonstrated the gains in both processor utilization and total number cycles with the use
of a DMA controller. It is important to note that these gains can only be realized if the
application is data intensive and has very high frequency of memory accesses. An
important result that we found was that the DMA’s effectiveness diminishes as the Disk
Latency increases.
REFERANCES
http://www.embedded.com/showarticle.jhtml?articleid=15300200, April 2005.
John L. Hennessy and David A. Patterson. Computer organization and design (2nd ed.): the
hardware/software interface. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, USA, 1998.
G. Jack Lipovski, Embedded Microcontroller Interfacing for M. CORE Systems. Academic Press, 2000
AMBA Bus manual provided at coware1.ece.utexas.edu:/usr/local/packages/coware/convergencesc/documentation/AMBA_BL
ARM926EJS manual provided with the coware documentation at: coware1.ece.utexas.edu:/usr/local/packages/coware/convergencesc/documentation/ARM926EJS_AHB_PSP.pdf
ARM DMA specifications provided in the ARM Coware library documentation

Linear Dependence and Coplanarity

Vectors

Linear Dependence and Coplanarity

GO TO: THE DROPBOX AND UPLOAD YOUR WORK.
MCV4U d1+ B – Linear Dependence and Coplanarity Assignment
Answer all questions with full solutions. Make sure your work is legible, even after you have
scanned it, and submit it as a single file.
1. Write an example of each of the following (assuming it is in 3-dimensional space).
a. A point lying on the x-axis.
b. A point lying on the yz plane.
c. A point lying on both the xy and xz planes.
d. A point lying on all three planes.
e. A point lying on none of the three planes, but equidistant from the xz and yz planes.
2. Triangle ABC has vertices A (-1, 1, 3), B (-1, 3, 5) and C (-3, 3, 3). What kind of triangle is ?ABC?
Justify your answer.
3. The points (1, -2, 4), (3, 5, 7) and (4, 6, 8) are three of four vertices of parallelogram ABCD.
Explain why there are three possibilities for the location of the fourth vertex, and find the three
points.
4. The points A (3, -1, z) B (1, 2, 6) and C (x, 8, 14) are collinear. Find the values of x and z.
5. Explain the meaning of direction angles and their relation to direction vectors.
a. What are the direction angles of the vector [2, 4, -3]?
b. If a point P lies on the x-axis, what are the direction angles of the position vector
OP
?
c. Prove that
? ? ? ? ? ?
2 2 2 cos cos cos 1 ? ? ? ? ? ?
d. A vector has direction angles a = 75° and ß= 55°
i. Find the value of ?
ii. Find a vector that has those direction angles
e. Explain why it is not possible for two of a vector’s direction angles to be less than 45°
f. What is the value of
? ? ? ? ? ?
2 2 2 sin sin sin ? ? ? ? ?
? Why?
6. Explain the meanings of the terms linearly dependent and coplanar. Make sure you demonstrate
that you understand the difference between the terms, and the situation in which linear
dependency implies coplanarity.
7. Determine if the vectors [1, -3, 4], [4, 2, -2] and [3, -2, 3] are coplanar.
8. Give examples of sets of three vectors that are
a. Collinear
b. Coplanar
c. Not coplanar
GO TO: THE DROPBOX AND UPLOAD YOUR WORK.
9. Explain how you would prove if four given points are coplanar. Use your method to determine if
A (3, 1, 4), B (7, -2, 9), C (0, 8, 2) and D (8, 2, 12) are coplanar.
10. Determine if the following vectors are coplanar. Assume that
1
v ,
2
v
and
3
v
are not coplanar.
a.
1 1 2 w v v ? ? 2 7
b.
2 2 3 w v v ? ? 2
c.
3 1 3 w v v ? ? – 7

Importance of public budgeting

Create a ten to twelve (10-12) slide presentation in which you:

1. Create a title slide and references section (as indicated in the format requirements below).
2. Narrate each slide, using a microphone, indicating what you would say if you were actually presenting in front of an audience. Note: If you do not have access to a microphone, then you should provide detailed speaker notes with your presentation.
3. Summarize the history of public administration.
4. Evaluate the importance of public budgeting within the federal government.
5. Analyze the role of policy analysis within the state government.
6. Evaluate the significance of the role that public leadership and public personnel play as they relate to all levels of government.
7. Compare the significance of both constitutional and administrative law for the government and for non-profit agencies.
8. Give your opinion on how each of these areas plays a significant role as a public administrator.
9. Include at least five (5) academic references (no more than five [5] years old) from material outside the textbook. Note: Appropriate academic resources include academic and governmental Websites, scholarly texts, and peer-reviewed articles. Wikipedia, other wikis, and any other Websites ending in anything other than “.gov” do not qualify as academic resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Include a title slide containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The title slide is not included in the required slide length.
• Include a reference slide containing the sources that were consulted while completing research on the selected topic, listed in APA format. The reference slide is not included in the required slide length.
• Format the PowerPoint presentation with headings on each slide, two to three (2-3) colors, two to three (2-3) fonts, and two to three (2-3) relevant graphics (photographs, graphs, clip art, etc.), ensuring that the presentation is visually appealing and readable from 18 feet away. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Slides should abbreviate the information in no more than five or six (5 or 6) bullet points each.
• Slide titles should be based on the criteria being summarized (e.g., “Four Key Attributes,” “Responses to Budget Issues,” etc.).

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Format the PowerPoint presentation with headings on each slide and three to four (3-4) relevant graphics (photographs, graphs, clip art, etc.), ensuring that the presentation is visually appealing and readable from 18 feet away.
• Include a title slide containing the title of the assignment. The title slide is not included in the required slide length.

In a certain X-ray diffraction pattern, 9.50 1011 X-rays per s are absorbed by a detector at a point in the pattern where the intensity of the X-rays is 101 W/m2. How many X-rays per s would the detector absorb at a point in the pattern where the X-ray intensity is 330 W/m2?

In a certain X-ray diffraction pattern, 9.50 1011 X-rays per s are absorbed by a detector at a point in the pattern where the intensity of the X-rays is 101 W/m2. How many X-rays per s would the detector absorb at a point in the pattern where the X-ray intensity is 330 W/m2?

Describe a foot-in-the-door or door-in-the-face strategy

Create and describe a foot-in-the-door or door-in-the-face strategy that can facilitate a positive behavior toward a disliked group. After you identify the group and the target behavior, explain whom you would try to change and what steps would be necessary to initiate commitment or reciprocity processes. Do you think this would lead to long-term change? Why or why not?

Use cognitive dissonance to change negative attitudes towards a stigmatized group. First identify and briefly describe the stigmatized group and the negative attitudes that your audience holds toward them. Then, using either an induced compliance or justification of effort procedure, explain how you would get your target audience to commit a discrepant act that would cause dissonance. Then explain how you would provide the means to reduce dissonance by changing their attitudes toward the stigmatized group.

Create and describe a persuasive message designed to promote the appreciation of multicultural diversity. Identify the audience and, in order to use the central route to persuasion, explain how you would motivate them and provide the ability to process your message. Identify three strong arguments you would use to persuade them to appreciate multicultural diversity. Finally, assuming some people in the audience may not be motivated or have the ability to process the arguments, describe a positive source cue that you would include to influence these audience members through the peripheral route.

Assessing Addiction and Models of Addiction Treatment

Assessing Addiction and Models of Addiction Treatment
SoCW-6202-WK3-Responses

Response 1: Assessing Addiction and Models of Addiction Treatment

Respond to a colleague who selected a model different than yours and provide feedback about potential limitations of the assessment and treatment models selected.
Use at least 2 references
Needs to be 1/2 page in length

Colleague 1: Bernice

Assessing Addiction and Models of Addiction Treatment
The Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST) is one assessment approach used for assessing in the field of addiction. This test screens alcohol use disorders only. According to Doweiko (2016), MAST is specific to screening “alcohol dependency” measurements gives general results. The test is subject to the “concealment of one’s true feelings” (Doweiko, 2016, p. 405). MAST is excellent screening for “sever alcohol use disorder” (p. 405). Doweiko (2015), explains that the Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST) is another assessment approach used to test an individual’s addiction. DAST targets substance abuse only screening for “illicit drugs”. (p. 406). The screening is conducted within 5 minutes and serve adults and adolescent. This test is also subject the individual conceal the substance abuse. The Minnesota Model of Substance Abuse Treatment is one model of addiction treatment used effective in treating addiction. Since 2000, this model has been utilized effectively in providing therapeutic treatment in…both inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation programs (Foote, 2006, Ringwald, 2002). The model has a solid foundation relative to…all rehabilitation programs (Vaillant, 2000). Doweiko (2015) stated that the treatment plan is multi-modal by meeting four criteria in rehabilitation programs which “1) compulsory supervision, 2) changing behavior to replace SUD, 3) commitment to recovery versus substance use, and 4) development in spirituality” (p.441).

References

Doweiko, H. E., (2015). Concepts of chemical dependency. Ninth Edition. Cengage Learning.

Foote, J. (2006). Evidence-based treatments meat reality: Misunderstandings, compromises,
and promises. Symposium presented by the Department of Psychiatry at the Cambridge
Hospital, Boston, MA.

Vaillant, G. E. (2000). Alcoholic anonymous: Cult or magic bullet? Symposium presented to the
Department of psychiatry at the Cambridge hospital. Boston, MA.
SoCW-6202-WK3-Responses

Response 1: Assessing Addiction and Models of Addiction Treatment

Respond to a colleague who selected a model different than yours and provide feedback about potential limitations of the assessment and treatment models selected.
Use at least 2 references
Needs to be 1/2 page in length

Colleague 1: Bernice

Assessing Addiction and Models of Addiction Treatment
The Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST) is one assessment approach used for assessing in the field of addiction. This test screens alcohol use disorders only. According to Doweiko (2016), MAST is specific to screening “alcohol dependency” measurements gives general results. The test is subject to the “concealment of one’s true feelings” (Doweiko, 2016, p. 405). MAST is excellent screening for “sever alcohol use disorder” (p. 405). Doweiko (2015), explains that the Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST) is another assessment approach used to test an individual’s addiction. DAST targets substance abuse only screening for “illicit drugs”. (p. 406). The screening is conducted within 5 minutes and serve adults and adolescent. This test is also subject the individual conceal the substance abuse. The Minnesota Model of Substance Abuse Treatment is one model of addiction treatment used effective in treating addiction. Since 2000, this model has been utilized effectively in providing therapeutic treatment in…both inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation programs (Foote, 2006, Ringwald, 2002). The model has a solid foundation relative to…all rehabilitation programs (Vaillant, 2000). Doweiko (2015) stated that the treatment plan is multi-modal by meeting four criteria in rehabilitation programs which “1) compulsory supervision, 2) changing behavior to replace SUD, 3) commitment to recovery versus substance use, and 4) development in spirituality” (p.441).

References

Doweiko, H. E., (2015). Concepts of chemical dependency. Ninth Edition. Cengage Learning.

Foote, J. (2006). Evidence-based treatments meat reality: Misunderstandings, compromises,
and promises. Symposium presented by the Department of Psychiatry at the Cambridge
Hospital, Boston, MA.

Vaillant, G. E. (2000). Alcoholic anonymous: Cult or magic bullet? Symposium presented to the
Department of psychiatry at the Cambridge hospital. Boston, MA.

Why a neuroscientist would study meditation

II. Watch “Why a neuroscientist would study meditation” by Willoughby Britton at TEDx

Exercise for TEDxBrownUniversity – Willoughby Britton – Why A Neuroscientist Would Study Meditation

Answer the following questions:

If we get rid of what we don’t want and get everything we want, will we be happy?
How does she use the “rich” and the “poor” to answer this question?

From the perspective of psychiatry, if we get rid of desperate unhappiness—or if we get rid of disease—will we be happy?
How does she use the World Health Organization and the definition that it uses for happiness to answer this question?

How is happiness linked to the faculty of attention – or the habit of “not paying attention”?
How does she use Matt Killingsworth’s iphone attention app to answer this question?
How does she use the wandering mind to answer this question?

What did the app find that people had a habit of doing with their mind? For how much of their lives?

Neuroscience found a connection between attention and happiness:
The frontal prefrontal cortex is related to attention and is underactive in clinical syndromes like depression, anxiety, ADD, eating disorders, and more.

This is important because the frontal cortex modulates the limbic system, or, in other words, the attention system regulates the emotional system. If you have a weak attention system (or a weak prefrontal cortex,) your emotions will be very reactive.

How does she use adolescence to describe this?

What does experience-dependent neuroplasticity say about our brain, experience and what we practice?

Why does she use physical exercises (building a muscle) to explain how the brain works in relation to what is effortless and automatic?

What is the most powerful way to change your brain?
What does she say about mental habits in relation to this question?

How does she test the audience to see if they have a strong neural network (mental habit) of self-criticism?

How did the audience get this strong neural network of self-criticism?

What syndrome happens when a neural network of self-criticism becomes very strong?

Why does she use the example that asks people to look inside themselves and see how much of a quality of their mentor they admire they find in themselves?

Qualities like kindness, generosity and warmth are not innate qualities that you have but rather __________ that you can cultivate through practice and training.

The neural networks that subserve these qualities can be modified through this training
Her ending summary:

Happiness is not about getting what you want, it is about the mental habits that you practice from moment to moment

We can become the people that we admire and become “the change that we want to see in the world”