Technology - Voice Recognition Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Technology - Voice Recognition - Essay Example The historical development of speech recognition technology spans at least 50 years. These years can be divided into decades, which most researchers would identify as generations. The 1950s and the 1960s was the period of first generation speech recognition technologies. The market condition for the technology during and immediately preceding periods was not favorable because it was only during the latter part of the 1990s when the technology became cheap and made available to many consumer markets. The late 1960s through the 1970s saw the second-generation technology; the late 1970s through 1980s were for the third generation and so forth. One of the earliest speech recognition technologies include the system for isolated digit recognition developed by the American company Bell Laboratories as well as the technology developed by RCA Laboratories that recognized distinct syllables spoken by a speaker. (Chen and Jokinen, 2010, p. 2) These technologies, including the succeeding attempts of various laboratories were classified as Automatic Speech Recognition or ASR systems, which are primarily based on acoustic phonetic systems. The second generation technologies entailed several breakthroughs. Most of the systems developed used dynamic programming methods such as the Viterbi algorithm, which became indispensable technique in ASR. (Chen and Jokinen, p. 3) Many companies began developing their own speech recognition technologies such as IBM and others companies overseas such as Japan and the then Soviet Union. By 1980s, the third generation has already perfected technologies that that could recognize a fluently spoken stri ng of connected word in addition to the development of various other models such as the statistical modeling and the continuous speech recognition concept developed by DARPA. (p. 4) From the 1990s to the present the development became robust as other technologies that

Education level vs. GDP per capital (Analysis) Essay

Education level vs. GDP per capital (Analysis) - Essay Example From the table above, there is less than 5 years of elementary school and the GDP are perfectly negatively correlated. There is a relatively strong correlation between 4 or more years of college and GDP per capita than there is between high school completion or higher and the GDP per capita. This means that those who have less than 5 years elementary education contribute less to the country’s GDP per capita as compared to high school completion and 4 or more years of college. The longer one takes in learning, the higher they contribute to the GDP per capita. From the regression analysis output above, the equation of the model is y = -1129498.874 +583.606*Year. This is to show that there is a significant relationship between the GDP and the education level as years spent in school is part of the model formula. Based on the four years moving average of the country’s gdp above, it is healthy to assume that the country’s GDP is improving exponentially over the years with the forecasted GDP almost meeting the actual GDP (Corder, &, Foreman, 35) Even though the data provides that there is a strong correlation between education level and the gdp, IT is imperative to note that the GDP as it is, is a wide econometric term used to refer to a number of variables. Therefore, the relationship between the educational levels and the GDP may be assumed correct in the light of the data but not in real life scenarios. One is likely to realize that the GDP alone to be strongly correlated to the other macroeconomic factors than just educational level. It is therefore important to conduct anon parametric analysis on the other variable before making a concrete conclusion (Spearman,

The Fugitive Light Essay Example for Free

The Fugitive Light Essay Fugitive Light by Mohamed Berrada is a narration of life of an old, aging painter named Al Ayshuni. Set in Tangier, the novel opens in the house of the said painter who was caught with artistic paralysis—not able to produce what he thinks into an artistic work. He could not paint or even sketch what were on his mind. In the middle of this paralysis, Al Ayshuni would be disturbed by the presence of another character: the divorced Fatima. A young, beautiful, and highly-spirited woman, Fatima would introduce herself to Al Ayshuni, admitting that she is an avid admirer of the artist and his works. Later in the story, Fatima will play a vital part to Al Ayshuni’s life. She will bring memories to the painter as the author will try to slowly reveal the woman’s character and her connection to Al Ayshuni’s past. It would then be revealed that Fatima is the daughter of Al Ayshuni’s past lover, Ghaylana. Not only through that case could Al Ayshuni find a connection to Fatima. Their relationship would deepen as the story progresses. The divorced young lady would eventually serve as the artist’s model for his works, muse for social gatherings, and finally, lover. Al Ayshuni would struggle between his feelings for Fatima and his unfinished business with her mother Ghaylana. Most importantly, he would try to turn back time just to find again the fugitive of his life his youth. Towards the end of the story, Al Ayshuni would finally proclaim his defeat not only in the aspect of love but in the aspect of life itself. Fatima returned to Menton, a town in the Italian border, with his new husband Matthias. The old artist has failed to regain his fugitive light that he once had. Berrada has described the artist’s feeling through using his paintings as a metaphor: Who among us does not run away from something? I return to my lines and colors: I run away from the words of these memoirs and renounce the illusion of recording through them the experiences I lived. I am content to repeat: Whats gone is gone, light and color remain for me as well as space, of which I dream through them. . . . Everything else is prattle and sermonizing blown by the winds. The Novel’s Characters Al Ayshuni, as the protagonist of the novel, has showed a variety of his character while the story progresses. Those progressions in his character, nevertheless, were evidently portrayed by Berrada. Al Ayshuni was an adopted child of a rich mentor who fostered his artistic talents by providing him his financial needs and bringing him up as man of wit and intellect. He chose to further his artistic craft instead of committing his life to Ghaylana, his first love When he met Ghaylana, though, he missed the opportunity of being with her as he chose to follow his dreams and go to Spain. Ghaylana, who is much younger than Al Ayshuni, was left heartbroken; her family has able to find her a husband. Fatima, on the one hand, was described by Berrada as â€Å"†¦friendly, her words flowed with spontaneity and affection† (Berrada 2). No wonder that Al Ayshuni easily got closed to and fell in love with her eventually. She, nevertheless, was beautiful as her mother. She has â€Å"†¦ honey-colored eyes shone with an equivocal look and her chestnut hair was cut short a la garconne. Her gown hung down her body, showing its graceful form at the lines of her bosom and waist. † Young and with intellectual maturity, Fatima has easily hooked the heart of the middle-aged artist whose life is haunted by the things he did in the past. The Novel’s Themes Two struggling set of themes can be clearly seen while analyzing the novel. First is the struggle between the ideas of the past and the present, and second, the struggle between the ideas of sexual and intellectual pleasures. Berrada has included in his novel the fight between the idea of the past and the idea of the present. The main character, Al Ayshuni, was portrayed as a man who was nostalgic of his past, desiring to regain his youth. He behaved this way since the start of his romantic relationship with Fatima. While he was living with the woman, he could not control himself to be so reminiscent. He kept thinking about the possibilities he should have encountered if ever she did not leave Fatima’s mother. Moreover, one question always bothers him: If he and Ghaylana ended up together, would he also become a father and raise his own children, probably the same ages as that of Fatima’s? Unable to change the things he did in the past, Al Ayshuni just content himself with his present life—lonely, miserable, and chained to his past life. However, he still acknowledged his mistakes and accepted his faith, saying that â€Å"running after the fugitive light is an act full of torment but it exudes pleasure and the enticements of mirage . . . It can never be compared to the sterile act of searching for words to capture shreds of stored feelings. † The second set of struggling themes that can be found in the story is the issue concerning pleasure, specifically the grapple between sexual pleasure and intellectual pleasure. In the novel, Al Ayshuni left Ghaylana to cater his urge for intellectual pleasure. When finally he has fed this urge, he loss Ghaylana who caters, on one hand, his sexual desires. It was very ironic that when Al Ayshuni gained the other one, he loss the other one. This set-up was challenged though when Fatima entered the scene. Fatima embodied both pleasures. She can cater Al Ayshuni’s sexual as well as intellectual needs. In the novel, Al Ayshuni had written in one of his papers, â€Å"During Fatima’s stay with me, I was perplexed about her; she had invaded my life as my sweetheart’s daughter, she acted with attractive maturity and sensitivity she gave me to taste various kinds of physical pleasure†¦then she refused to tell me about her life. † (Berrada 88). Mohamed Berrada: The Author Mohamed Berrada is a Moroccan writer of fiction. He also critiques works of literature and translates Arabic writings. An instructor of Arabic literature himself, Berrada is being acknowledged as one of Morocco’s finest and relevant modern writers. Berrada believes in a literary movement called attajrib, which translates to English as experimentation. In this kind of movement, the writers are experimenting new techniques in their craft. They give more emphasis on fragmented and individual thoughts, narration, images, and scenes. Underlying Issues The novel tries to tackle the issues of marital relationship, social class, and nationalism. On the first few pages of the novel, Berrada has included a dialogue between Al Ayshuni and Fatima concerning about marriage and divorce. They were watching the television about an investigative report on the situation of cohabitation of men and women in France. According to the report, the number of couples who are actually living together has reached over two million. When asked about her own opinion regarding the issue, Fatima answered that she is in favor of couples living together. For her, this arrangement could be better than marriage because the couples could find time to make sure of their feelings for each other. This stand of Fatima regarding marital relationship was seen through her actions in the story. She agreed living with Al Ayshuni in one roof until she was not sure of her feelings. Towards the end of the novel, she left Al Ayshuni for another man. The issue about marriage and divorce has been subjects of debate even long ago. The underlying themes that could also be connected to this issue are love and commitment. In the novel, Al Ayshuni did not marry Ghaylana because he is still not ready for commitment. It is very much different with Fatima’s case who opted to live with Al Ayshuni instead of marrying him. Both of them were not ready for commitment, although they were in love with each other. The issue of social class was also perceived in the story through the presentation of a clear demarcation between the rich and poor during the time when the novel took place. Al Ayshuni, for example, would never fully develop his talents if without the help of the wealthy man who adopted him. The novel evidently says that education is only for those who have the money and the power. Thus, only those who had the access to education will more or less succeed in life. In line with this, the author has also included the issue of nationalism in presenting his story. In one of the book’s passages, Al Ayshuni has observed the plurality of his place, saying that â€Å"†¦it has been a gift to all races and people. A city in common? A woman gone to perdition? Space that can’t bear constraints and boundaries? † The novel is trying to critique the idea of multinationalism and endorsing the importance of having one national identity. The author may unknowingly included in the novel his actual stand about the issue through the words from Al Ayshuni: â€Å"Isn’t all this plurality of fashions, histories, and languages of its residents what brings it close to the soul that always yearns for more than one costume and one mask, for more than one love and one body, for more than one language and one space? † (Berrada 148) Finally, Berrada’s Fugitive Light is a combination of talent and experience of the author. He was able to incorporate somehow his culture and points-of-views through the characters he created. Knowing that he himself is a literary artist, the character of Al Ayshuni is no less similar to his. It could be concluded that everything he presented about this specific character is a reflection of himself and his own stands and opinions towards the same issues that he presented in his novel. In reading the novel, I could not help to question some of the things around me that I am accustomed to believe and to do. For example, I now frequently think about the issues of marriage, divorce, and living in together. Conservative as it may seems, I still believe in the power of marriage. For me, it is not only a social act, but more of an internal practice. Here, you would be able to know and learn more about yourself. I would also like to agree with the author’s own stand about nationalism. For me, the problem now with nations is the blurring of their boundaries and limitations. In the world of globalization, it seems that everything is being globalized; everything serves for specific international purposes. There is nothing wrong with that, I must say. Maybe those kinds of changes are really inevitable. What I propose is that people of all races should still have a firm grasp of their own identity—own culture, own language, own space. It does not matter whether you belong to Third World Countries or First World Nations. The idea is that all of us should still cling to who and what we are. To end, Fugitive Light by Mohamed Berrada is a novel that truly depicts the problems within third world countries: class struggles, nationalism, and even gender roles and perceptions. I would definitely recommend this book for the very mere fact that it is honest. The story does not cater to a specific class only, or for selfish intentions of the less people. It is simply true. Works Cited Berrada, Mohamed. Fugitive Light. New York: Syracuse Un

Chronemics and Proxemics

Chronemics and Proxemics We are living in an era where communication is crucial. We are communicating in order to achieve something, to express our feelings or to sort out some problems; we communicate to get someone to do something, to behave in a certain way. We can do all these things saying nothing at all. Our body does all the talking. At this conclusion got Albert Mehrabian whose research material showed that the verbal messages without tone or inflection of the voice have only 7 % impact. The remaining 93% consists of tone of voice and other sounds occurring during the speech act and non-verbal cues, 38% and 55% respectively. Non-verbal communication falls into seven categories: Paralanguage, Proxemics, Haptics, Chronemics, Artifacts, Kinesics, Environment, Paralanguage is the science of vocal qualities that usually accompany speech. It includes the rhythm, pitch and the tempo of our voice, also our crying, snoring or laughing. Through paralanguage we can say what it is the emotional state f a person if he is sad, happy nervous or even if he is sincere. Some cultures rely on paralanguage especially on the tone of voice, to tell the meaning of the words. These languages are Thai, Vietnamese or Chinese. Proxemics refers to how near people are to something or to other people. E. T. Hall coined the term of proxemics from the Latin root prox- and the suffix -emic as in proximity and systemic. He defined it as the science that studies how people usually organize their space, their houses and the places where they work. Proxemics has three fundamental areas: space, distance and territory. According to proxemics spatial extension, Hall proposed a classification of this behavior. His theory states that the proxemic behavior covers up three dimensions: micro-, meso-, and macrospace. Microspace deals with the immediate surroundings (Proxemics:The Semiotics of Space p411) of a person, this space is considered more private, mesospace is the further proximate environment within the persons reach (Proxemics:The Semiotics of Space p411) and macrospace is the space that extends over vast territories ending by covering up cities. In what concerns the distance area of the interaction, Hall identifies four levels of distances: Intimate distance is up to 45 cm from the body, the individual does not allow everyone in this space, since it requires extensive contact. The personal distance is the invisible barrier that someone builds in order to separate him from the other people. It extends from 45 to 120 cm. The social distance ranges from 120 to 360 cm; this type of distance we often meet in classrooms and in different kinds of meetings. From 360 cm further we talk about the public distance, where the person it is outside his circle of activities, events, interests. This is the perfect distance desired by strangers. Haptics, or the tactile communication, sometimes is used to replace the speech act even if it is considered the most primitive way of communication. Edward Hall showed in his studies that there are cultures that tend to encourage touching and some cultures that do not. Contact cultures are many Central American cultures as well as many south European countries. In Thailand, Sri Lanka touching the head is restricted because the head is considered to be sacred. The nature of haptics is influenced not only by the culture but also by the relationship between the interacting people, by their age, by the situation, and the duration of the touching act, as well as by its location, if it is done in private or publicly; it is also influenced by the relative pressure of the touch and by its intentional or accidental nature. Chronemics refers to the non-verbal channel of time, especially how people perceive the notion and the value of time. It is a powerful tool to know how to organize your time and how to react in time. People agendas, their lifestyle, their patience to wait and listen are affected by the correct use of time. Time is perceived differently in every corner of the world. For people in the United States, time is something concrete, perceptible. To them it can be bought, saved, wasted and measured; they plan what they want to do and to happen. For Arabs instead, an individual who wants to know his future is seen as irreligious or insane, because in their culture only God can say what will or will not take place. Artifacts, though as irrelevant as it seems at first, are important factors of our non-verbal behavior. Our belongings show who we really are, they help us to reveal our true identity and separate us from the group. Sometimes you can recognize a persons culture by what he or she wears. You will presume clearly that a man dressed in a kimono is from Japan and a woman who wears a veil belongs to a Muslim country. The environment like all the artifacts contains information too. People only have to decode this information. The things we surround ourselves with, provide non-verbal cues which tells lots of things about us. The way, in which we decorate our house, factors such as furniture, colors, temperature, noise, and even music may have a direct effect on people. Many supermarkets strategically use the environmental factors to place products. Childrens products are placed on lower shelves so they could be easy to see and all the products that can be bought impulsively are placed near exit areas where they are more easily to grab. Kinesics is the category of non-verbal communication that includes facial expressions, eye gaze, gestures and posture. Any part of the body that can be moved also can be used to send non-verbal messages. The basic channels of kinesics are the face, hands and arms. Unlike other body parts these ones, are highly expressive. 1.2. Body Language as a Science (Kinesics) We act and react to one another through more ways than we can imagine; these ways does not always involve words. Most of the messages we send to other people are nonverbal; they include our facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, and posture. Throughout years, many scholars and anthropologists like Ray Birdwhistell were concerned with the study of this type of communication that is called kinesics, with its evolution, development and its distinctions among the cultures. A useful scheme of non-verbal behavior was suggested in 1969 by Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen. They proposed five categories of non-verbal movement which are: emblems, regulators, illustrators, affect displays, and adaptors. Emblems are direct communication signals that indicate certain words; they are used especially when verbal communication is problematic. These signs made by our hands, shoulders, or facial movements may also replace a word and can stand for a reply without any verbal messages. Regulators unlike the three movements mentioned above, interact with the actions and the movements of another person. These movements form stimulants for other individual to speak quickly or to slow down while talking. We can use these regulators in a positive manner, to encourage someone to speak, or in a negative way by making him loose his interest in talking. Illustrations accompany verbal messages; they are made by our hands, head or even feet. Usually they back up the verbal message, helping us to get through a difficult idea. The term affect display stands for emotional expressions, those movements of the face or of the body that have a hide emotional content like anger, happiness, disappointment, rage. The signals are involuntary and may happen whenever something provokes an emotion even if these things are environmental factors like beautiful landscapes, thunders or sunrises. Manipulators initially were called adaptors; they represent daily behaviors that are used to make a person feel comfortable in a social interaction. These are actions that include our hands pressing something, fingers scratching the palm or playing with a pencil or a piece of clothing. The phenomenon of Kinesics has known an outstanding increase in the last decade, the ability to understand and to use nonverbal cues, body signals being a powerful tool that can help us connect with others, navigate in challenging situations, express what we really mean and thus building better relationships. 1.3. The Functions of Non-Verbal Communication The overall functions of body language as well as of the non-verbal communication are: Accenting When we interact, we pay attention to the meaning of the message. For example, when someone is angry and he verbally expresses this anger, he will accent this feeling further more by shaking his fist while talking. Moderating Moderating is the opposite part of accenting; it seeks to reduce attention on the message; you attenuate a part of the message you send, in different ways and you transform it by making it difficult to understand. Moderating happens when you talk faster than usual. Complementing Complementing is considered similar to accenting, but covers a wider part of the message. It goes hand in hand with verbal messages; when we are talking about sad things we lower our head and we use a sad tone in order to accent those sad things we are talking about. Substituting Sometimes non-verbal language is simply the best way in which you can communicate. Whenever there are things that are better left unsaid, we use the substituting function. We replace the words with non-verbal language. People are used to these non-verbal signals; they learn to identify gestures, facial expressions as corresponding with certain feelings and intentions. Contradicting Contradicting means sending non-verbal messages that disagree with what is being said. These non-verbal cues are done either intentionally, to confuse a person by changing the message or it may happen at the subconscious level when somebody tells a lie. Regulating Regulating consists of those non-verbal signals, regulators, which we use to send signals to another person. Usually these are signals related to the speech of the other individual. It is used around starting and ending speech you send some signals that will make him either speak faster or stop talking. Repeating Repeating with non-verbal cues happens like in complementing or accenting, but with a certain interval between the verbal and non-verbal communication. After you say something and there was no reaction, a gesture or a facial expression will reinforce the verbal message you sent earlier. Deceiving Non-verbal signals can be used to lie. It is not easy to send this kind of messages; you must be in perfect control of your all facial muscles in order to deceive someone. Saying you did not do it, while sounding insulted at the accusation, or rubbing your nose are only some of the signs that show the fact that you are lying.

Essay --

In this novel the presentation of the father is portrayed as a father protecting his son’s innocence. It’s almost as if the man is placed on this planet for one major purpose to protect and keep his son alive. The burnt man passage gives the reader an insight into a world that has absence of culture and civilization in the post-apocalyptic world that both the boy and man inhabit, the role of the boy and the father are further established for the reader and many of the techniques that become typical of McCarthy’s style in the novel. Structurally the burned man scene is one of the horrific episodes that occur in the novel and it is the first to take place, foreshadowing, future horrific episodes that will take place later on in the novel. This essay will be exploring these ideas in more depth looking closely at how the father and boy are portrayed in this part of the extract. The passage begins with a typical series of simple sentences describing the boy and the man. †they went on the boy was crying. He kept looking back† McCarthy’s style of writing mainly consist of short, clear an...

E.E. Cummings: The Birth of Modern Poetry Essay -- Poetry Analysis

â€Å"The greatest poets are those with memories so great that they extend beyond their strongest experiences to their minutest observations of people and things far outside their own self-centeredness.† This quote said by Stephen Spender depicts a great poet as someone who utilizes their past observations to increase their knowledge about people, nature, love, and life. Like a great poet, E.E. Cummings employed his past experiences in his poetry and life. Known as one of the preeminent poets of the 20th century, E.E. Cummings poetry has received an array of both positive and negative criticism. Nonetheless, Cummings’s poetry has inspired many poets and authors with his liberal views on love, nature, and religion along with his modern writing style. Although many criticized his contemporary style, E.E. Cummings modernized the traditional views of love, nature, and religion in poetry by emphasizing his contemporary beliefs, while incorporating a uniquely modern w riting style. As a strong advocate of individualism, E.E. Cummings ignored biased critics throughout his career and developed a contemporary writing style. From the beginning of his career, Cummings emphasized imagination and individuality in his poetry. He believed that humans had the ability to think for themselves and imagine beyond what was rational (Kidder 7). In believing so, E.E. Cummings refused to take advice or criticism on his lifestyle and poetry. Cummings also disliked organization, but rather believed in allowing the mind to imagine (Thompson 4). He saw imagination as the greatest tool for writing and rarely threw out bad poems because he did not see the waste basket as his ally (Webster 4). He firmly believed that with imagination anything was possible.... ...ury Poetry. New York: Wiley-Blackwel, 2003. Thompson, William E. "Intensity: An Essential Element in e. e. cummings' Aesthetic Theory and Practice." University of Windsor Review. 16.2 (Spring-Summer 1982): 18-33. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec. Vol. 137. Detroit: Gale, 2003. 18-33. Literature Resource Center. Gale. OLD TAPPAN HIGH SCHOOL. 16 Mar. 2015. . Webster, Michael. "E. E. Cummings: Romantic Ideology and Technique." Reading Visual Poetry After Futurism: Marinetti, Apollinaire, Schwitters, Cummings. New York: Peter Lang, 1995. 111-140. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec. Vol. 137. Detroit: Gale, 2003. 111-140. Literature Resource Center. Gale. OLD TAPPAN HIGH SCHOOL. 16 Mar. 2015. .

Critique an Article

Introduction In order to benefit and fully understand what exactly a certain article is researching or auguring it needs to be analysed and critiqued to the point of understanding so to demonstrate this, the author of this material is going to analyse and critique the article, Factors influencing the food choices of Irish children and adolescents: a qualitative investigation. To achieve this in a well structured, well laid out piece of literature the author will use a checklist devised to critique a qualitative research study, in which it will be clear to recognise under appropriate headings.To conclude this assignment the author will mention any difficulties or problems that occurred through out the assignment. Title The title is very short but clearly states what the article is about. Parahoo (2006) mentions that the title should indicate the exact area of study and mention the population from who the information was collected. The title also is very informative with regards to the research method used as it's clearly stated. Author As indicated on the article, the authors have well recognisable qualifications.Amanda Fitzgerald is from School of Psychology, national University of Ireland, Galway, and is also corresponding author. Caroline Heary is also form School of Psychology, National University of Ireland, Galway. Elizabeth Nixon is from School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland and Collete Kelly is from the School Of Health Sciences, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland. Abstract There is an abstract as such but titled summary which acts as the same purpose, as Parahoo (2006) states that an abstract is a short summary of a study.The research problem being that there is relatively little research done to explore the factors that influence the food choices of children and adolescents form their point of view is mentioned in this summary. The methodology of this study uses focus group discussions of 29 young people, in different age g roups, ages ranging from 9-10, 13-14 and 16-18 years. From these discussions an inductive thematic analysis identified three key factors influencing food choices.Parahoo (2006) suggests that the abstract should mention the main findings which are referred to in this summary as, that their were developmental differences between children’s and adolescents perceptions of factors influencing food choice. Statement of the Phenomenon of Interest The phenomenon of interest is stated in the introduction as the author clearly mentions that this study was to understand the processes used to make food choices from the participants perspective.The researcher has mentioned that few studies have set out to qualitatively examine young people's own views so this is an indication that the researcher wants to explore the participants own experiences through a qualitative method i. e. Focus groups. The philosophical underpinnings are clearly that the author has identified that few qualitatively studies have been carried out to examine the factors influencing the food choices of Irish children and adolescents from their own perspective. Also the researcher wants to access how they interact with others in the environment about food choices.Purpose The purpose of this study was evident from the title and clearly explained in-depth through out the article. The purpose of this study was to explore differences between children’s and adolescents’ views regarding influences on their food choices. The researcher doesn't go too much into detail about how this research helps nurses but does mention that this study has useful implications for clinicians. Overall the use of the information obtained in this research would be of use to nursing in nutrional education for similar each groups in hospital.Method The researcher obtained the information from the participants using semi-structured interviews to guide focus group discussions. The use of focus groups is very suitab le in this qualitative study. Parahoo (2006) mentions that choosing focus groups as apposed to individual interviews helps to get more in-depth information from the participants' experience about a certain topic, it aids the researcher to get a wider view from all different experiences and leads participants to freely discuss and share their ideas.The use of focus groups enabled all the participants to share their own experiences and opinions about the phenomenon. Sampling The researcher mentions the participants selected and states the ratio of males and females and gives the age groups. The location or venue isn't mentioned at all. Purposive sampling is indeed used and as Parahoo (2006) points out that researchers use this type of sampling as they select the most appropriate candidates to be able to answer the questions being asked.The questions being asked were aimed at children and adolescents so the aged group selected was between 9-18 years, so they were suitable. Data Collect ion The data collected is focused on human experiences as the researcher mentions the use of focus groups which were semi-structured to guide the participants to share their own ideas. The focus group discussions were tape recorded, transcribed and double- checked for accuracy. Ethical approval was obtained from the research ethics committee and parents had to provide written consent as well as consent from the participants themselves.The researcher didn’t mention if data saturation had occurred but did mention that following the inductive analysis procedure, categories emerged following repeated readings of the transcripts which identified key concepts. The researcher explains how the data was obtained using an inductive analysis procedure that were transcribed resulting in emerging categories. Data Analysis The focus group discussions were analysed separately and the researcher explains that an inductive thematic analysis was used and explains what this method does.The rese archer has remained true to data by using semi-structured interviews which are used in qualitative research and also by using direct quotes which in-riches the data. The researcher does not give direct headings and emphasis to the creditability, audibility and fittingness in the article but they are evident from reading the article. Credibility According to Parahoo (2006), credibility is when a study carried out shows the participants ideas from their perpespectives about the research.The participants do recognise the experience as their own as they explain their answers using scenarios. Audibility Audibility refers to the data produced in a certain study that enables readers to understand the original methods and conclusions used in previous research ( Parahoo, 2006). The reader can follow the way the researcher has carried out the research as the researcher sticks to the qualitative method used to collect information from the participants, through semi-structured interviews.The re searcher does mention that the research process used is that of a qualitative process. Fittingness The findings can be applied to people outside the study as the researcher mentions that this study gives a detailed account of young people's food choices from their view points so this information can be used to help other people in understanding. The results can benefit parents along with health care workers, working with that age group, towards building nutrition among children and adolescents.The researcher clearly states that the data in this research piece does support the compatible use of an integrated theoretical framework as its based on the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) and ecological theory so young people's food choices can be explained, as the researcher wanted to understand how the participants engaged with others in their environment about food choices. Findings The reader can gather that the findings are broken down into three different categories, intra-individual fac tors, intra-familial factors and extra-familial factors. The researchers use of semi-structured interviews long with direct quotes containing scenarios made the data more rich. In the introduction great amount of detail is given to mention about other research and interventions. The researcher highlights that the results from this study helps in previous research. Also mentioned was that other research had found similar ideas among young people. Conclusions, Implications and Recommendations It provides a clear conclusion from the in-depth data received from young people about their perceptions of factors influencing their food choices and gives us an understanding of differences between the age groups preferences.The researcher does state that the findings are useful in passing on information to nutrition education providers with regards to the factors that do effect children and adolescents food choices. As mentioned previously, its not out rightly stated in this study that the fin dings are made explicit to nurses but one could argue that the findings can be used by a registered nurse in providing nutritional care to this age group. Conclusion This article was very informative and the researcher did make clear from the very beginning, the research method used.This research study was made more rich and descriptive through the use of direct quotes to describe scenarios. This research study had many strengths as well as limitations. The format in which the summary was presented wasn't very appropriate as its font size and style made it hard to read. Also the researcher failed to mention the exact location and venue where the focus groups took place, along with that, the ratio of girls to boys wasn’t equal, 13 boys to 16 girls.No opt out option was mentioned to the participants. The researcher did use explanations very well as certain terms were defined but too much detail was given in the introduction and discussion. Also too much referencing was used in one paragraph in the introduction. Overall this assignment made me aware of the procedure and method involved in critiquing an article and helped me understand the research process in general.