Womens Suffrage Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Womens Suffrage - Research Paper Example A series of activities followed the enlightening, which had been presented by the publication of this book. People began advocating for the equal rights among women and men The origin of the women suffrage movements could be traced in France during the French revolution, where Olympe de Gouges and Nicolas de Condorcet were involved in advocating for women suffrage during the national elections. This movement began spreading across continents and regions and almost all societies experienced such movements advocating for equality. These movements continued to become popular among different regions and they were increasingly utilised to advocate for other rights. Various debates arose within the regions focusing of the need to provide women with the right to vote. During the early 19th century, there was an increasing debate on women suffrage which resulted in a convention calling for women suffrage. The convention was conducted in 1848 in America, and it challenged America to revolutionise the social system in all aspects of life. Proponents of women suffrage believed that, suffrage was the most effective approach for changing the unjust system which failed to offer women the right to vote (Nardo, 2014). Since the movement began, some progress was made and women were accorded many freedoms which they lacked. These included education opportunities, property rights, and many other social freedoms. Although these were achieved through advocating for equal rights, the right to vote still remained elusive to the supporters of suffrage. The granting of the rights to vote remained limited to certain states within the United States of America. By the turn of the 19th century only four states had granted women the right to vote. The organizations which were advocating to equal rights remains focused on other forms of freedoms including the broad economic and political freedoms for social change (Buhle & Buhle, 2005). The

Reviews Kind of Blue Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Reviews Kind of Blue - Assignment Example The loudness of the music however, is not eardrum-breaking rather, makes a harmonious effect with the soft and lazy notes. The sound sets a luxurious tone color which is appealing to the ears. Weather Report’s â€Å"Heavy Weather† has a dynamic mood attached to the music. The drums play a vital part in this feature, keeping a fast and cheerful beat. The songs in the album often start with a normal pace, having weak beats which eventually increase in speed and volume. They are polyphonic, with the drums creating the distinct banging sounds, the saxophone and piano with the high pitches and the bass guitar taking on the low. The pitch is alternately set to the high and low notes. Obviously, the piano is widely used to create various pitches complementary to the tones of the bass guitar and saxophones. What probably set this music as a jazz fusion is the element of jazz music, reflecting the African-American kind of music and incorporating modern music which is not only upbeat but experimental in nature. As the name of the genre suggests, the music is a combination of the popular blues element of jazz and the dynamic mood of modern music. Despite this, the melo dies are in perfect harmony, the music is simply wonderful to listen

Navel Model to Image Separation in Scanning Tinny Letter

Navel Model to Image Separation in Scanning Tinny Letter Somayeh Komeylian Department of Tel-Communication Engineering, Islamic Azad University South Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran Armin Mehrabian Department of Medical, Mashhad Medical Science University, Mashhad, Iran Saeed Komeylian Factory of graduated students, Department of Tel-Communication Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran In this paper, a navel model has been introduced to image separation in scanning tinny letter. The proposed model is based on Almeida et al. (2006) model. First, the basic image separation method has been explained, and then the proposed pre-processing methods have been presented. In addition, separation method presents based on two sampled wavelet and contour transform which has adaptive structure. The result showed that proposed model has a good quality with a little runtime. On the other hand, this model which use directional filter bank has better effect in separation with approximately two level of decomposition. Finally, the two mainly proposed algorithms (NSWT and Improved NSCT) shows that, we achieve to really good results which our separated images have absolutely good quality by using preprocessing and these methods simultaneously. Keywords: Image separation; contour let; non-subsample wavelet. When we scan or photograph a paper document, especially if the paper is thin or transparent, the image from the backside often appears on the image from the front page. This is a routine problem which is usually occurs, when the electronic version of an old document or a book is needed. Extracting sources from mixture images is a problem of blind source separation. Independent Component Analysis (ICA) is one of the good solutions for this problem, which is done with linear and nonlinear ICA in [3] and [4], respectively. The results show that the nonlinear solution is better, because images are mixed through a nonlinear procedure. In [3] authors use a nonlinear method, which is named MISEP that is based on multilayer perception used in neural network. In the most of ICA methods the result are achieved from adaptive or iterative algorithms, which are time-consuming procedures. Another work was based on the nonlinear de-noising source separation (DSS) method [6]. This method is supposed when two images have independent sources and have different frequency components in the same locations. These conditions are the same as those exist when a source is contaminated by noise. Therefore, nonlinear de-noising might be used for source separation. The separation method used here is similar to that implemented in [6]. However, we believe that human visual perception uses different edge directions in the mixed subjects to separate them. Therefore, we improved the method in [6] which based on exact high frequency separation. As well known, wavelet analysis offers limited directional information in representing image edges when separable one-dimensional transforms are used for images. Minh N. Do and Martin Vetterli developed a true two dimensional representation, called contour let [7], which can capture the intrinsic geometrical structure that is key in visual information. Compare to the recent image representations this construction results in a flexible multi-resolution, l ocal and directional image expansion using contour segments. Moreover, sub sampling process in the wavelet transform change the geometric information of image details like edges. So, non-subsample wavelets are introduced for decomposing the image frequency components with better saving its geometric information. For comparing the results with [6], here we use the images that Mr. B. Luis. Almeidamade in his laboratory. He dealt with a difficult version of image mixture problem, corresponding to the use of onionskin paper, which causes a strong nonlinear mixture. The source and mixture images are shown in figures 1 and 2. More information about images is available in [1] and [2]. This paper is organized as follows: Section 2 explains the basic image separation method which is used in this paper. Section 3 introduces the proposed pre-processing methods. Section 4 presents separation method based on non-sub sampled wavelet and non-sub sampled contour let transform which has adaptive str ucture. Section 5 explains the experimental result. Section 6 has some discussions about the results. Section 7 gives the concluding remarks. The nonlinear image separation procedure based on de noising source separation [1] is based on wavelet transform, and uses very basic information about the sources and the mixture procedure. This information is based on two observations: First; the high frequency components (details) of common images are sparse. As a consequence, the wavelet coefficients from two different source images will seldom both have significant values in the same image location. Fig. 1 :Five source image pairs [1]. Second: Each source is more strongly represented in the image acquired from that side of the paper in which that source is printed than in the image acquired from the opposite side. The schematic representation of the separation method is shown in Figure 3. In this figure, the mixed images are first pre-processed by the following relation: where elements of Q matrix is the auto covariance of mixture matrix. This equation applies a linear transformation to the mixed sources. The nonlinear process is based on wavelet analysis which iteratively decomposes the approximation coefficients Aj(the low frequency component) at level j to four components (the approximation at level j+1, and the details in three orientations; horizontal, vertical, diagonal). Fig. 2: Five mixture image pairs after scanning [1]. components (the approximation at level j + 1, and the detail sin three orientations; horizontal, vertical, diagonal). After performing wavelet decomposition on mixed images for a certain number of levels, a competition is performed between the corresponding high frequency components from the two mixture images in each side of paper, according to following equation: are the wavelet coefficients of a given type (for example vertical coefficients at the first decomposition level) of the decomposition of the i th mixture image, x3à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢i are the corresponding coefficients from the other mixture image, and a is a parameter that controls the strength of the competition. Fig.3: Schematic representation of wavelet-based separation method[1] This competition was applied to all horizontal, vertical and diagonal wavelet coefficients at all decomposition levels. The competition computes mask mi through a soft winner take all function [1], and then applies this mask to the wavelet high frequency coefficients of the mixture images, so that the coefficients are intensified in the image in which they originally were stronger and weakened in the image in which they were weaker. The separated images then will be synthesized using the wavelet coefficients compute competition in high frequency. In [1], one-dimensional discrete wavelet basis are separately used in horizontal and vertical directions. In the first step we assume the mixing procedure is a linear process and try to estimate the mixing matrix and implement the inverse matrix for separation. Although, we know the linear assumption is not completely right, however, it can be used as a pre-processing step to separate the mixed images. Since the source images are not available, the mixing matrix should be estimated through a statistical approach. The following approach is written for this purpose. If we show the source signals as S, mixture signals X and the mixing matrix as A, then we have: X= AS (4) In equation (5) we assume that the variables are zero-mean. This means we deal with the mean subtracted source and mixture images. From Eq (5) the autocorrelation matrix of mixed images is: From Equation (6) and (7) we could write: (8) (9) Since b>a, then only the plus sign is correct and from equation 6 we have : X1 + X2 = (a2 + b2) (S1 + S2)(11) A. First Pre-processing Method We assume that total energy of pictures before mixing and after that are equal. We use equation 11 and have some manipulation from these simple equations for a and b. a2 + b2 = 1 (12) (13) (14) B. Second Pre-processing Method We assume that when a packet of light emitting from scanner laser, b is the amount of light which went through the paper and a is the amount of light which reflect from first side of paper. In this method, we assume that, the amount of light which go through the paper and the amount of light which reflect back, together are constant. We have: a + b = 1(15) (16) But in this case, when we extract images, the contrast of images is high. For this effect we use modified form of this equation as below: a+b = 1.4(17) (18) C. Third Pre-processing Method We know from equation 5 that: (19) This equation has four undefined parameter and from equation 8 we have three equations. Assume that for normal deviation of mixture images and primary image we have: (20) This is the other equation to solve four undefined parameters. By solving(19),we can determine a and b. : (21) Where s1 and s2 are separated sources through a linear process. Fig.4: Result of implementing the proposed pre-processing method Since, we estimated the mixing matrix through non-exact assumptions it should be examined to show how it can separate the mixed images. Therefore we applied these three pre-processing method.We see that these three equation which derive from previous assumption has approximately the same extraction Figure (4-a) shows the mixed and processed images. From Fig4 b) we can see the proposed linear process 3 could approximately separate the mixed images. Although, s1 and s2 are not completely separated, we use the linear process as pre-processing step and those may be used for final separation through the nonlinear process that will be explained in the next section. The results of applying our pre-processing method to one pair of mixed images are shown in Fig. 4. The results show that the proposed method has partly separated the mixed images. The most important goal of this separation method is to obtain a sparse edge and contours of images that are placedin high frequency component of images. Wavelets for decomposition is not good [9] because when we use wavelets, in each level of decomposition, a down sampler shrink the size of the remainder and competition in high frequency is not exact and when we reconstruct image from that, blocking effect appear. Because assume the size of image is odd. In down sampling we have not an exact decomposition and in reconstruction, images dont have a good quality and appear some block. In first method we use NSWT which approve those blocking effect. This method has very short runtime and is acceptable for approximately all application. The other method is based on NSCT. This method is composed of pyramid decomposition and directional filter bank. Pyramid decomposition is shown in figure5 and directional filter bank is shown in figure 6. When we use these two decomposition at the same time we have a composed method which is shown in figure 7. Fig.5: Pyramid Decomposition Fig.6: Directional filter bank Directional filter bank have a good property that can describe diagonal line in pictures and if we use it for separation we have a better result. For each decomposed frequency based part, we use our well-known mask which is described before. We present an adaptive form of NSCT which is announced below. Fig.7: Combining two methods We first decompose in first level and apply separation mask. Then we reconstruct images and use correlation factor among them. If it is too low for example 0.01, extraction is good. If it is higher than some threshold we decompose image in further level and use separation mask. In this method, it is not necessary that we define decomposition level at first. NSCT has other good performance which is shift invariant. This property has no blocking effect. In this section we present experimental result from our method which are NSWT and improved NSCT. These two methods have an approximately complete separation result. First method has low runtime but in order to compare it with NSCT, the last one has a better separation result because we use directional filter bank and it could better separate high frequency in two images in every direction which we want. In NWST we use 6 and 7 level decomposition and since it has fast algorithm to decompose picture in wavelet form. In improved NSCT we use an adaptive form which it has little runtime and can separate in each direction we want. In figure 8 we show the experimental result for NSWT and in figure 9 we show the other one for NSCT. Fig.8: The result with NSWT Fig.9: The result with improved NSCT We see from the results that, our separation methods have better results in compare with the proposed methods in references. In our case, we derive very simple equations that can separate two mixture images linearly, which leads to a from the results that, our separation methods have better results in compare with the proposed methods in references. In our case, we derive very simple equations that can separate two mixture images linearly, which leads to a time-efficient algorithm. The two mainly proposed algorithms (NSWT and Improved NSCT) shows that by using preprocessing and these methods simultaneously, we achieve to really good results and our separated images, have absolutely good quality. In this paper we present a new preprocessing method which has a simple function and high precision in separating mixture images with linear form. Also we use two other separation rule that approximately separate images completely. NSWT has a good quality with a little runtime. On the other hand, NSWT which use directional filter bank has better effect in separation with approximately two level of decomposition. References [1] Mariana S.C. Almeida and Luis B. Almeida, Wavelet Based Nonlinear Separation Of images, Instituto de Telecommuincacoes, Lisboa, Portugal, 1-4244-0657 -9/06, 2006 IEEE. [2] Luis.B.Almeida,http://www.lx.it.pt/~lbameida/ica/seethrough/index.html. [3] L.B. Almeida, MISEP-Linear and Nonlinear ICA Based On Mutual Information, Journal of Machine Learning Research, vol. 4, pp. 1297-1318, 2003 [4] L.B. Almeida, Separating a Real-life Nonlinear Image Mixture, Journal Of Machine Learning Research, vol.6, pp. 1199-1229, July 2005. [5] Mariana S.C Almeida and Luis B Almeida, Wavelet Based Separation of Show-through and Bleed-through Image Mixtures, Instituto de Telecommuincacoes, Lisboa, Portugal, November 2007. [6] M.S.C.Almeida, H.Valpola and j. Sarela, Separation Of Nonlinear Image Mixtures By Denoisind Source Separation in Independent Component Analysis and Blind Signal Separation, J. Rsca, D. Erdogus, J.principe and S.Haykin, Eds.,Belin,Germany,2006 [7] Duncan D., Y. Po and Minh N. Do, Directional Multi-scale Modeling of Images Using the Contourlet Transform, IEEE Transactions on image processing, vol. 15, Issue 6, Jun 2006, p.p.1610-1620 [8] AzadehBamdadMoghadam, NSCT based for image extraction, Master of science Thesis in Iran University of Science and Technology,Spring2008. [9] Gonzalez and Woods, Digital Image Processing 3rd Edition 2008.

Theories Of Visual Search :: essays research papers

Theories of Visual Search A standard theory of visual search tasks assumes that when a person searches for a target in an array of other items, memory is used in locating the target. The following analysis of three articles shows that there is both strong support for this highly respected theory and evidence that this theory may have some flaws in reasoning. In the article "Features and Objects in Visual Processing," Anne Treisman states that there are two theoretical levels of visual processing. In the first level of visual processing, certain components of visual information are processed instantly and unconsciously. A person does not have to concentrate on individual parts of the scene. This stage of processing is called the preattentive stage. During the preattentive stage, the light received by the visual receptors is translated in to the lines, curves, colors and textures of the objects. Within the brain, there are two distinct visual areas that specialize in different areas of processing. The first area processes lines, curves, color, and texture and other areas deal with movement. After this initial processing occurs, another area of the brain processes the more complex and distinct qualities of a scene. Then, all of the components of the objects in the scene are recombined into whole objects. In order to support the pr eattentive stage of visual processing, Treisman devises that parts of objects that belong to the same object share similar attributes. Attributes such as color, continuity of lines and curves that define the boundaries between objects. She uses an experiment to determine which properties of a visual stimulus make its boundaries stand out from other similar objects. The properties of an object that make it stand out are used by the visual processing system in distinguishing the object from ground. In actuality, boundaries are conspicuous between components that are distinctive in basic properties such as color, brightness and line orientation but not in the way their properties are connected or grouped. In an experiment showing evidence of this principle, subjects are shown a picture in which a region of T’s easily distinguishes itself from an area of slanted T’s but not from a region of backwards L’s that are constructed of the same geons as the T’s. This illustrates that line orientations are important features in the preattentive stage of visual processing and that the specific configurations or conjunctions of lines are not.

Discuss How the Concepts of ‘Race’ and ‘Ethnicity’ Essay

Australia is known for its multicultural society, but race and ethnicity are a huge factor of persistent racism and inequality in this country. The driving force behind this is the strong belief that some of the population still hold against people who appear different to themselves. To gain a clear understanding of this sensitive topic one must look at the origins, forms and effects of racism. This essay will look at how the concepts of ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’ perpetuate inequality in our society, a brief history of Australia in relation to racism and how people experience these inequalities today in a society that we call multicultural. Modern Australia was established as a ‘region of recent settlement’ in 1788 which was a small part of a larger process of European colonisation (Bessant & Watts, 2002, p. 219). They had a set of ideas, values and beliefs and assumed that aborigines had no system of land ownership, agriculture, animal husbandry. Indigenous people have been in Australia for more than 100,000 years (Bessant & Watts, 2002, p. 222). The White Australia Policy in the 20th century encouraged immigration only from Britain, but didn’t allow ‘Asians’ and ‘Non-whites (Economou N, 1998, p.363). By 1950’s people from all countries were allowed to migrate into Australia to help post war reconstruction. The colonial immigration saw a mass migration of European people mostly from Britain to Australia. It is said that between 1788 and 1852 approximately 170,000 people moved to Australia, and the gold rush era after 1851 made it a highly desirable country for migrating (Bessant & Watts, 2002, p. 231). By end of World War two, as war forced Australia to get closer to other countries, which resulted in the first significant weakening of the policy in 1951. Later in the 1950s and 1960s other parts of the White Australia Policy were gradually dismantled. By the 1970s the federal government had removed all racial restrictions from its immigration law (Bessant & Watts, 2002). Various writers have contradictory approaches and ways of looking at racism, making it a complex topic. It takes many different forms, ranging from physical violence to derogatory language. A person or group’s belief that their race is superior or inferior, or their moral and social traits are predetermined, based on biological differences can be termed ’racism’. A group of people sharing the same skin colour, same values, coming from the similar backgrounds may constitute as ’race’. One of the most common forms of racism found today is Institutional Racism, which stems from established corporations, and other powerful forces in society, thus making it hard to question and faces less public condemnation. Examples include housing, employment, businesses, education, religion and media (Healey, 2002). Typically, the basis of this type of discrimination is from irrational fear of people at the receiving end who belong to a different culture or ‘race’. Although, there have been ongoing debates about racism all around us for centuries, it is an assault on human rights as it methodically refuses people of different caste, colour, race, sex or their country of origin basic values underlined by Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which states that human rights are everyone’s birthright and apply to all without difference (Healey, 2002). Common perception of shared origins, culture, lifestyle and traditions amongst a group of people or society is the universal definition of ethnicity (Bessant & Watts, 2002). People can share the same nationality but have different ethnicities. A few writers have put forward fascinating explanations of ethnicity. Edward Shils in his ‘primordial approach’ argues that he believes everyone has a primordial attachment to their motherland, people and religion which brings out strong emotional ties by socialising, which further gives rise to the need to have a separate identity and belonging. Then the ‘Mobilisationist Approach’ suggests that nothing is predictable or normal about ethnicity. Rather, ethnic identities come into sight and are toughened in political contexts where groups struggle to get access to inadequate and valued resources (Van Krieken et al, 2000, p. 519). The basis of ethnocentrism is a conscious or unconscious belief that one’s ethnic group, culture, religion, custom or behaviour is superior to another ethnic group. Politicians boast that Australia is a multicultural, open and classless society. Despite the well known image of Australia’s everyone have â€Å"a fair go†, the country is still full of both institutional and popular racism. Education has always been very important when it comes to moving up in class and has been very liberating in Australian society. However, indigenous and ethnic groups have been somewhat disadvantaged in opportunities to acquire education. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics only five Indigenous Australians per 1,000 obtain tertiary qualification, compared to 70-80 per 1,000 for Anglo Australians. In the 1990s welfare, health care and education support for Aborigines accounted only to 2% of total budget outlay (ABS 2000:21). In order to receive an education a person requires an income, but to get an income one needs a job, and a job is challenging to find without an appropriate level of education. Therefore an individual’s chance of education is influenced by the socio-economic status of one’s parents which is a cyclic social inequality hard to break. Migrants and their children often find it challenging to adjust to the Australian school system as they often come from countries that have a poor education system, and even if they have tertiary qualifications they mostly are not recognised, resulting in them taking lower paid and lower status jobs. Working class children often attend schools in working class suburbs where pupils are directed into working-class jobs. A high number of students leave school early and the expectation that they will attend university is low. In comparison, upper-class children attend private schools, and the expectation that they will attend university is high. Migrants and ethnic groups are often at a lower end of the socioeconomic scale (Aspin, 1996, p. 87) Migrants arrive with little money and few skills. Already at a disadvantage with language barriers, migrants and ethnic groups are also faced with racism and discrimination in their search for employment. In 1996, One Nation political party leader Pauline Hanson made a speech that claimed that Australia was being overwhelmed by ‘Asians’ and feared that Asians were taking over jobs. The fact is that Asians at the time only accounted for 5% of total population and ‘there is little evidence to support the claim that high rates of immigration ‘cause’ unemployment or ‘cause’ Australians to lose their jobs’ (Bessant, 2002, p. 219). Indigenous people had a 24. 3% unemployment rate according to 1996 census (ABS 2000:23). Indigenous people are usually poorer than most non-indigenous Australians and receive a lower income on average than the total population. The household income for Aborigines in 1994 was $158 compared to $310 for white Australians (ABS 2000C:23) This also reflects the fact the there is a higher reliance by the Aboriginal population on social security payments (ABS 1996b: 122-4) Socioeconomic status is a major determinant of inequality as it influences access an individual has to the economic resources of a society. L. J. Aspin (1996) explains that white Australian-born males have a better chance of obtaining access to the resources of society. Inequality is also reflected in the differential access to housing and health services. For people who are paying rent and on a low income, it is almost impossible to save for a deposit on a house at the same time. Aborigines and migrants suffer discrimination in rental accommodation, where landlords preferring a two-parent, white, Anglo-Saxon families. Only 10% of Aborigines own housing compared to 70% of white Australia population (Aspin, 1996, p. 87). Most Aborigines live in rural and provincial Australia (Bessant, 2002, p. 226) far from big cities where there are more jobs, higher paid jobs, better education, better housing, good water and sanitation services, hospital medical services and other community amenities. Some ethnic backgrounds are still not accepted in our society and are treated differently and unequally. We see and hear about them on a day to day basis. In recent months the Indian community in Australia, especially students have become a vulnerable target for attacks, whether racist or not. On 31 May 2009 in Melbourne, about 5000 students marched through the streets of Melbourne protesting against these attacks on Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi students. 25-year-old Sravan Kumar Theerthala was in a serious condition in intensive care after being stabbed in the head with a screwdriver one week earlier (Bolton & Peterson, 2009). In an article in The Age newspaper on February 19 Victorian police claimed that these attacks are not racially motivated, but opportunistic where Indian students are â€Å"over representing themselves as victims† and can be looked upon as soft targets. The police also advised them â€Å"not to speak in their native language loudly† or display signs of wealth. Attacks on Indians aren’t the only allegation Australia has faced over the years. It seems that anyone in power, including police, politicians or the media has had the tendency to somehow flare these attacks. In the Herald Sun on 11 June 2009, 3AW’s Neil Mitchell said: â€Å"Australians are also bashed and die in India, which does not provoke parades of chanting ocker backpackers in the streets of Mumbai†. In 2007, the then immigration minister Kevin Andrews referred to the Sudanese community when he said â€Å"Some groups don’t seem to be settling and adjusting into the Australian way of life as quickly as we would hope. † A spate of violent attacks were then unleashed against Sudanese migrants, and one was bashed to death by a group of white men (Bolton & Peterson, 2009). As Australia continues to argue that it is a just, tolerant, open and classless society, there is still evidence of race and inequality among us and affecting the many lives of migrants and Indigenous people. It is interesting to note that the very determinants of class – power, money, education, family background, occupation, health and general way of life are also the same factors where others experience inequalities. Race and ethnicity perpetuate inequality, and in any country including Australia, one would find that there are always some people with very strong values of racism, and media outlets which help in manipulating the views of general public. There still needs to be a massive drive by communities and governments on racism and inequality and it will be long before we will be a â€Å"happy multicultural Australia†. Bibliography Aspin, L J 1996, ‘Social stratification and inequality’, Focus on Australian society, 2nd edn, Longman, Melbourne. Australian Bureau of Statistics 2009, Australian Bureau of Statistics, viewed 28 November 2009, < http://www. abs. gov. au/ >. Bessant, J & Watts, R 2002, ‘Neighbours and nations: ethnic identity and multiculturalism’, Sociology Australia, 2nd edn, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, NSW. Bolton, S & Peterson, C 2009, Indian students speak: Stop the racist attacks! , viewed 28 November 2009, < http://www.greenleft. org. au/2009/798/41083>. Economou, N 1998, ‘The Politics of Citizenship: identity, ethnicity and race’, in Alan Fenna, Introduction to Australian Public Policy, Vol 1, Addison Wesley Longman, Melbourne. Healey, J 2002, ‘Racism: Beyond Tolerance, A Fair Go’, Racism in Australia, Vol 180, The Spinney Press, Rozelle, NSW. Van Krieken, R, Smith, P, Hobbis, D & McDonald, K 2000, ‘Migration, ethnicity and Australian Aboriginality’, Sociology: themes and perspectives, 2nd edn, Pearson Education, Frenchs Forest, NSW.

Halal and Haram Issues in Food and Beverages Essay

Halal and Haram Issues in Food and Beverages In food industry, modern science and technology lead to creation of variety foods and beverages. The evolution comes together with booming of additives and ingredients to match with demands and perfections in food production. Different types of beverages as well as variety of foods offered in the market often confuse the consumers especially Muslims and most of them are unaware of what they have consumed. Generally Halal means clean and healthy food which has also being proven scientifically. In Islam, the consumption of Halal food and beverage and using Halal consumer products are obligatory in serving Allah, the Creator and the Almighty. Therefore, Muslims communities are very mindful of food ingredients, handling process and packaging of food products. The foods and beverages are only Halal if the raw materials and ingredients used are Halal and it is fully compatible to the Islamic guidelines. Nowadays, â€Å"Halal† oriented foods and beverages get food industry attention in all over the country as is expected to become a significant contributor to economic growth. It must be understood that the production of Halal food and beverage are not only beneficial to Muslims, but also to food producers, by means of increased market acceptance of their products. In food production, sugars are widely used as it could make the food and beverage taste sweet and delicious. There are many types of sugars such as glucose, fructose, lactose and maltose. A problem occurs as those sugars might transform to an alcohol named ethanol (or ethyl alcohol) by natural fermentation process which is not performed by enzymes. According to scientific review, both natural and manufactured products contain small amount of alcohol; for example, fruits, juices, vegetables, breads, cheeses, beef, and honey. Those food and beverage usually contain not more than 0. 5% of alcohol. Therefore, anything containing sugar is fermentable into alcohol. Other manufactured products such as Coca Cola, Pepsi, and Mirinda contain alcohol at percentage range of 0. 2% – 0. 3% as Beta Carotene (the colouring used) is melted by using the alcohol method. In addition, according to Eastern Standard Time on July 8, 1999 (4:00 pm); â€Å"The oils that they use to make Pepsi have minute trace of alcohol which combined make up a percentage of alcohol. † The problem of alcohol that might contain in food or beverage has been debated by Mujamma’ Al-Fiqhi Al-Islami as certain types of alcohol are beneficial in food production. According to the Islam guidelines, Muslims are allow consuming ethanol as it is not harmful but only can be taken at small amount which is not more than the specified percentage.