Human Gait Analysis and Recognition

Human Gait Analysis and Recognition Gait, as a promising unintrusive biometric, has attracted several researchers in recent years. In intelligent surveillance, the advantage of accessibility at a distance makes gait a promising behavior characteristic for recognition. Human identification from arbitrary views may be a terribly very drawback, particularly once one is walking at a distance. Over the previous couple of years, recognizing identity from gait patterns has become a well-liked space of analysis in life science and pc vision, and one among the foremost made applications of image analysis and understanding. Also, gait recognition is being thought of as a next-generation recognition identification technology , with pertinence to several civilian and high security environments like airports, banks, military bases, car parks, railway stations etc. For these application situations, its unimaginable to capture the frontal face, and is of low resolution. therefore most of ancient approaches used for face recognition fail; but, many studies have shown that its doable to spot human notwithstanding frontal face isnt visible, and its doable to ascertain the identity of the person victimization bound static and dynamic cues from face, ear, walking vog ue, hand motion throughout walking etc. If automatic identification systems may be engineered supported victimization these identity specific cues, itll be a good contribution to police work and security space. And our aim is to ascertain identity by victimization long vary gait biometric in conelike read points. Gait may be a behavioural biometric thats superior in person’s authentication. The attractiveness of gait as a biometric arises from the very fact that its nonintrusive and might be detected and measured even in low resolution video. Gait as a biometric technique has some blessings like being troublesome to cover, steal, or fake. what is more, gait may be recognizable from distance. However, most alternative life science may be captured solely by physical contact or at an in depth distance from the recording probe. Moreover, users dont ought to unveil extra info concerning them apart from already obtainable. Despite the benefits enjoyed by gait, it faces several chal lenges that the present gait identification strategies ar sensitive to such as: variety of garments, illumination changes, persons speed and directions. we tend to use human gait skeleton recognition system the peak of someone as another modality Windows 7 or Windows 8 (32 or 64 bit) Processor: 2.5 GHz (1.8 GHz recommended) 4 GB RAM (2 GB RAM recommended) High-speed USB 3.0 recommended Kinect XBOX 360 Sensor Camera Features: The Kinect works as a 3D camera by capturing a stream of colored pixels with data concerning the depth of every pixel. every component within the image contains a value that represents the space from the sensing element to an object therein direction. This hardware feature offer developers the means that for making a touch-less and immersive user expertise through voice, movement and gesture management though it doesnt inherently perform any chase or recognition operations, feat all such process to package. Skeleton chase is usually handled by the SDK with gesture recognition left to the developer, although multiple libraries exist to help in recognition of gestures. additionally, speech recognition is finished by external SDKs like the Microsoft Speech Platform. The Kinect sensor as shown in Figure 6.1 has the following properties and functions: An RGB Camera that stores three channel data in a 1280960 resolution at 30Hz. The camera.s field of view as specified by Microsoft is 43 ¢X vertical by 57 ¢X horizontal. The system can measure distance from a 500mm to 3500mm. An infrared (IR) emitter and an IR depth sensor used for capturing depth image. An array of four microphones to capture positioned sounds. A tilt motor which allows the camera angle to be changed without physical interaction and a three-axis accelerometer which can be used to determine the current orientation of the Kinect. Hardware Interface The sensor interface with the PC via a standard USB 2.0 port; however an additional power supply is needed because the USB port cannot directly support the sensors power consumption. Hardware and Software Requirements According to Microsoft, the PC that is to be used with the Kinect sensor must have the following minimum capabilities: (a) 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processors,(b) Dual-core, 2.66-GHz or faster processor,(c) USB 2.0 bus dedicated to the Kinect, and (d) 2 GB of RAM. To access Kinectà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸s capabilities, the following software is also required to be installed on the developerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸s PC: Microsoft Visual Studio 2010/2012 Express or other Visual Studio edition. The development programming languages that can be used include C++, C# (C-Sharp), and Visual Basic. Software Requirements Operating System: Windows 7 or Windows 8 Programming Tool: Mat lab MATLAB MATLAB may be a superior language for technical computing. It integrates computation, visual image, associate degreed programming in an easy-to-use surroundings wherever issues and solutions area unit expressed in acquainted notation. Typical uses include: Math and computation Algorithm development Data acquisition Modeling, simulation, and prototyping Data analysis, exploration, and visual image Scientific and engineering graphics Application development, together with graphical program building MATLAB is associate degree interactive system whose basic information component is associate degree array that doesnt need orientating. this enables you to unravel several technical computing issues, particularly those with matrix and vector formulations, during a fraction of the time it might desire write a program during a scalar no interactive language like C or algebraic language. The name MATLAB stands for matrix laboratory. MATLAB was originally written to supply easy accessibility to matrix computer code developed by the LINPACK and EISPACK comes. Today, MATLAB engines incorporate the LAPACK and BLAS libraries, embedding the state of the art in computer code for matrix computation. MATLAB has evolved over a amount of years with input from several users. In university environments, its the quality educational tool for introductory and advanced courses in arithmetic, engineering, and science. In trade, MATLAB is that the tool of selection for high-productivity analysis, development, and analysis. Image Acquisition Toolbox Acquire images and video from industry-standard hardware Image Acquisition Toolboxâ„ ¢ permits us to accumulate pictures and video from cameras and frame grabbers directly into MATLAB ® and Simulink ®. youll notice hardware mechanically and piece hardware properties. Advanced workflows allow you to trigger acquisition whereas process in-the-loop, perform background acquisition, and synchronize sampling across many multimodal devices. With support for multiple hardware vendors and business standards, youll be able to use imaging devices starting from cheap net cameras to high-end scientific and industrial devices that meet low-light, high-speed, and alternative difficult necessities. Together, MATLAB, Image Acquisition toolbox, and Image process Toolboxâ„ ¢ (and, optionally, Video and Image process Block setâ„ ¢) offer an entire atmosphere for developing custom-made imaging solutions. will acquire pictures and video, visualize information, develop process algorithms and analysis techniques, and build GUIs. Key Features Support for common OS interfaces for webcams, as well as Direct Show, QuickTime, and video4linux2. Support for a variety of business and scientific hardware vendors. Multiple acquisition modes and buffer management choices. Synchronization of multimodal acquisition devices with hardware triggering. Interactive tool for fast hardware configuration, image acquisition, and live video previewing. Support for C code generation in Simulink. Graphical Interface for Image and Video Acquisition The Image Acquisition Tool could be a graphical interface for operating with image and video acquisition devices and is similar temperament for interactive configuration of cameras. youll browse all hardware devices out there on your laptop, amendment device settings, choose an Region Of Interest (ROI), preview a buying deal, acquire pictures and video, and record knowledge. A preview window helps verify and optimize your acquisition parameters by mechanically reflective any changes created to camera properties within the video stream. The Image Acquisition Tool is a place to begin within the development of automatic and custom image acquisition and process systems. Image Acquisition in MATLAB Image Acquisition toolbox provides graphical tools and a programmatic interface to assist to figure with image acquisition hardware in MATLAB. youll modify repetitive tasks, produce workflows combined with tasks like image process, and build standalone feasible that acquire pictures and video with MATLAB Compilerâ„ ¢. The toolbox allows you to customize the acquisition method to incorporate integration image process practicality to spot objects, enhance imagination, or construct mosaics and birds-eye views because the information is acquired. Connecting to Hardware Image Acquisition toolbox mechanically detects compatible image and video acquisition devices. every device affiliation is encapsulated as associate object, providing associate interface for configuration and acquisition. youll be able to produce multiple affiliation objects for coinciding acquisition from as several devices as your laptop and imaging hardware support. Image Acquisition tool chest are often used on Windows ®, Linux ®, and Macintosh ® systems, sanctioning you to recycle code once connecting to an equivalent camera in several operational systems. Acquiring Image Data Image Acquisition toolbox supports many modes, together with background acquisition and continuous acquisition, whereas process the noninheritable information. The chest mechanically buffers information into memory, handles memory and buffer management, and allows acquisition from an ROI. The image acquisition engine is meant to accumulate imagination as quick as your camera and laptop will support, sanctioning analysis and process of high-speed imaging applications. Data are often noninheritable during a wide selection of information sorts, together with signed or unsigned 8-, 16-bit and 32-bit integers and single- or double-precision floating purpose. The chest supports any color area provided by the image acquisition device together with RGB, YUV, or grayscale. Raw sensing element information during a pain pill pattern are often mechanically born-again into RGB information. Performing Image Acquisition in Simulink Simulink could be a block-diagram based mostly setting unremarkably used for video system style and multi domain simulations. Image Acquisition tool case provides a Simulink block that allows you to capture pictures and video knowledge directly from any device supported by the tool case to be used in imaging system styles. Combined with Video and Image process Block set, the tool case helps you to perform simulation and verification of image or video process system styles with live image or video knowledge. Code Generation Image Acquisition toolbox enables you to generate a C code interface to a deployable library for the Simulink block. this permits you to style a video system and integrate acquisition practicality into your own applications while not having to perform low-level writing with hardware drivers. Code generation conjointly permits Simulink speedy Accelerator modes, that speed up simulations by providing higher performance and frame rates for image and video process simulations. Triggering and Acquisition Customizations Image Acquisition toolbox supports multiple trigger varieties to customise the acquisition process: immediate, manual, and hardware. Initiating a sale with a manual trigger offers in depth management over once to start acquisition. In some applications, youll need to record at a high frame rate, perform acquisition only Associate in Nursing object is detected, or once a proximity warning is issued as a trigger. In these things, youll write MATLAB code to form the logic to activate a manual trigger that may be controlled by the tool chest. Hardware triggers, that ar device-specific, allow you to synchronize your acquisition among many multimodal devices to an external signal. this allows you to record imagery together with alternative analog and digital input sources.

Turnover Rate in Corrections

The Nation Wide Dilemma in Corrections CJ 2500: CORRECTIONS Professor November 04, 2012 Running Head: Turnover Rate in Corrections Abstract Throughout the years, there has been one major dilemma that continues to hassle the administration whose sole purpose is to provide institutional sanctions, treatment programs, and services for managing criminal offenders. This dilemma is the high turnover rate of the Corrections Officers, whom agencies nation wide are losing at an extremely high rate.Recent statistics indicate that nearly half of all Corrections Academy graduates will have left their agency within a two-year period (â€Å"State questions high, â€Å"2004). This high turnover rate is causing a staff shortage, which is forcing agencies to put new officers on the job immediately while being untrained. Though the amount of Corrections Officers departing from their agencies continues to rise, the amount of inmates entering prisons remains the same.This of course can become a seriou s safety issue for the departments employing these new hires that are inadequately trained. Throughout this paper I will explore the numerous possibilities of what’s causing Corrections Officers to depart from their agencies at such a high rate. Whether it’s the demanding hours associated with shift work, the high stress and burnout, or the inadequate pay and benefits, all possibilities will be discussed in an attempt to understand why the retention rate of Corrections Officers is lower compared to various other careers across the nation.The Department of Corrections (DOC), privately owned jails, parish jails, and local city jails not only face the hardship of maintaining inmate property, specific calorie counts from meals provided, medicine dispensing, doctor visits, and numerous other tasks required that Corrections Officers tend to on a typical day of work, but these facilities also face the hardship of retaining these Officers for extended lengths of employment. As stated in the Abstract of this paper, â€Å"Recent statistics indicate that nearly half of all Corrections Academy graduates will have left their agency within a two-year period† (â€Å"State questions high, â€Å"2004).This has become a major problem for agencies that have a continuous increase in the number of inmates entering these facilities each year, while becoming almost impossible to keep enough manpower to operate shifts in a safe and secure manner. It is stated that in 1999, the turnover rate of Officers and Corporals within an agency was 29. 6 percent, while the average tenure of Officers was 3 years (â€Å"Department of corrections,†). The turnover rates in 2000 ranged from a low of 3. percent in New York, to a high of 41 percent in Louisiana (Lommel, 2004). Typically, once an Officer has been hired and accepted the job, they are to be trained in some type of Corrections Academy. The department hiring the Officer may host this Academy, or the Officer may have to travel to receive their training. Either way, prior to an Officer actually beginning their job monitoring the walkways of a prison or jail, the Officer should first be well trained to ensure theirs, the inmates, and other Officers safety.However, due to the high number of vacancies within Corrections, Officers are being hired without any experience, while hoping to receive this training academy shortly after becoming employed. Some agencies have established a policy that once the Officer has completed their training at an Academy, they are to sign a contract stating that they will remain with the department for a set amount of years. This is due to the high costs that an agency incurs by having these Officers sent to an accredited Academy to receive their training.The dollar amount that an agency may spend on an Officers training may range anywhere between a few hundred dollars, to a few thousand dollars. To elaborate on the amount of vacancies within Corrections, this coul d very well be a contributing factor to the increased amount of Officers who resign due to stress and burnout. Officers are being ordered in on their off days or holidays, forced to work mandatory overtime, a higher inmate to Correctional Officer ratio, as well as experienced Officers having to work with an extensive amount of â€Å"rookie† or inexperienced Correctional Officers.This combining of experienced officers with new hires, who have not received any type of prior training, raises the stress level during dangerous interactions with inmates, as well lowering the morale of the Officers who remain and attempt to complete their careers with a specific agency. This may be due to long term employees realizing that many of the new hires are using their time as a Correctional Officer to gain experience, or as a stepping-stone to eventually become a road or patrol Officer, which may involve more experienced Officers not spending the time necessary to assist, or provide â€Å" On the job training† to the new hires.Additional causes of stress may include the threat of inmate violence, actual inmate violence, inmate demands and manipulations, problems with co-workers, as well as having a poor public image. For example, â€Å"Between 1990 and 1995, the number of attacks on correctional officers in State and Federal prisons jumped by nearly one third, from 10,731 to 14,165 (Lommel, 2004). An additional stress added to a Correctional Officers life is being able to balance and separate work from their personal relationships.Workdays at a correctional facility often involve long hours of uneventful and routine procedures. This â€Å"routine† may quickly be disrupted by a brief period of crisis. Some Officers have issues with being able to return to a calm state once a crisis occurs, often times bringing their problems home to their families. This may lead Officers to substance abuse, or alcoholism. Law Enforcement careers can be an extremely diffic ult, stressful, yet rewarding career, even when referring to Corrections Officers.However, due to the long work hours associated with shift work, combined with the stressful and strenuous workdays officers are exposed to, it seems as if all Law Enforcement, to include Corrections officers do not receive the pay and benefits that they are entitled to. A large number of Corrections Officers are leaving this career field due to struggling with raising families while trying to balance and survive on the annual salary of a Corrections Officer. It seems as if economically speaking, the value of everyday necessities ontinues to rise in value, except for the officers’ paychecks. This dilemma, combined with the additional stress an Officer encounters on the job, could possibly explain why many Officers leave their jobs due to stress and burnout. The benefits that an Officer, or Corrections Officer receives is usually the highlight of their employment contract. Officers usually do rece ive good insurance and retirement plans. Not just for them, but for their families as well. However, the type of insurance that an Officer receives depends on the plan that the agency has purchased.Some agencies will have top of the line benefits, while others may have insurance carriers with extremely high deductibles and rates, due to tight budget restraints and cutbacks within the department. In addition to the stress, burnout, long hours, and low pay, many officers are never set on retiring within corrections. As previously stated, numerous officers, such as myself, use corrections as a stepping-stone, or training prior to being hired for a patrol position.Numerous agencies such as Sheriff’s Offices of various Parishes within the state, require that an individual hired first serve one to two years within the parish jail prior to being sent to a Police Academy and ultimately landing a position on patrol. Many agencies have come to realize this, which is why they may not sp end the time, effort, and funds to train the individual to become a more efficient Corrections Officer. By reflecting on the issues presented in this paper, it is determined that turnover rate in Corrections Officers will likely continue to be a rising problem for agencies.Administrators seeking seminars on retention strategies, which may depend on additional funding, can combat some of these issues. Agencies can improve their policies, improve management, increase criteria of the screening process, as well as address the wage and benefit issue. However, no matter what an agency decides in attempting to retain there officers, there will always be the Officers that slip through the cracks and ultimately cost the department more funding in training the individual, only to have them leave the agency before reaching their desired and previously stated commitment.WORKS CITED Department of corrections background and statistics. (n. d. ). Retrieved from http://legisweb. state. wy. us/proge val/reports/2000/turnovr/Chapter4. htm High turnover of corrections staff, excessive priosoner head counts attract media attention. (2006, Sep 06). Retrieved from http://www. bcgeu. ca/node/1314 Lommel, J. (2004, August). Turning around turnover. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com. ezproxy. liberty. edu:2048/docview/215699356 State questions high turnover among prison officers. (2004, 04 05). Retrieved from http://www. corrections. com/articles/1862

Choosing Good Good Persuasive Essay College Topics

Choosing Good Good Persuasive Essay College Topics An argumentative paper is part of the persuasion. Quite simply, you've got to persuade your strong idea is more legitimate than all other relevant thoughts. On the opposite side, acquiring a list of good persuasive essay topics is insufficient. To compose a persuasive paper, you will want to use evidence and excellent reasons to convince other people to agree with your point of view on a certain subject. Finding the Best Good Persuasive Essay College Topics Then you're interested in figuring out how to compose persuasive paper. A seasoned professional will make an error-free assignment right away and can help you boost your grades. While attempting to know how to compose a persuasive essay step-by-step, students forget about another crucial activity. While trying to understand how to create a paper step by step, they can miss another critical activity. Don't neglect to bring a strong hook at the beginning (introduction p aragraph) and wind up with an impressive conclusion to create the reader want to go over the interesting persuasive essay topics of your pick. Use the term counter to make sure your essay meets all of the college requirements. The major element which produces a persuasive essay in English stand out from the remainder of assignments is the use of reasoning. Where to Find Good Persuasive Essay College Topics When you revise your essay, you've got to make sure its organization is totally appropriate to your intended audience, the paper context, and the goal. The primary purpose of persuasive essays is to earn reader do or believe something. The body should contain all of the information or argument you mean to convey to your readers. The purpose of this kind of essay is to encourage readers to accept a specific viewpoint or act in a certain way. Essay writing is an essential portion of your academic education or a writing career if you decide to go like that. You might also se e literacy essay. When most students regard essay writing as a dull and hard assignment, it isn't necessarily accurate. Childcare is also quite a marketable skill. Being a real college or university student, you're find how important it's to be a fantastic orator and understand your intended reader. Whether you're interested in how to compose a crystal clear paper for middle school or college, you've got to begin with the topic. Being a real college or university student, you'll realize how important it's to understand your reader. Unlike topics for middle school or higher school, fantastic college topics are somewhat more challenging to discover. You're able to locate a lot of persuasive essays in the world of politics. Our life is about words. Most people don't stop to introspect about what reality actually is. Though they believe education is a right and will make society, on the whole, a better place for everyone, others feel there is no true way to offer a free coll ege education as colleges would still need to be funded (likely through tax dollars). Type of Good Persuasive Essay College Topics All of the primary points ought to be concisely mentioned in the preview. In your introduction paragraph, it is sufficient to introduce the topic and supply meaningful background data. When you're choosing an essay topic, it's important to pick one which has a lot of information and statistics to strengthen your viewpoint, and don't exaggerate any info which you've chosen to write about. Take note of those points. What Is So Fascinating About Good Persuasive Essay College Topics? There are several good persuasive essay topics to select from. It's important to define this kind of academic essay correctly to learn how to compose a persuasive essay. You could also see scholarship essay. You might also see synthesis essay. Importantly, you ought to think about how to compose argumentative essay introduction and help it become effective. You might also see essay writings. You might also see essay examples. There are distinct methods of structuring different kinds of essays. One of the most usual varieties of writing is essay writing. As tempting as it might appear to skip past the extra info and go straight to the list of persuasive essay topics, don't do it. The multiple topics might be found, for instance, in the dissertation abstracts international database. Don't forget that any argumentative essay sample you'll discover on the internet will require a whole persuasive to be able to skip plagiarism. Before writing any form of academic paper, it is crucial to choose the subject, and the persuasive essay isn't the exception. Writing an excellent persuasive essay is not a simple job, however, it's achievable. The finest persuasive short essays often concentrate on controversial problems. Using Good Persuasive Essay College Topics In order to strengthen your arguments, you should supply your readers with the persuasive evidence. If you can select the matter all on your own, it's possible to think of the issue of interest! To choose which subject you're likely to discuss, it's crucial to see the complete collection of good persuasive speech topics from the specific area of study. Furthermore, the persuasive essay topics ought to be connected with some modern issue to provide the impression of freshness and actual info.

Definitions and Discussions of Medieval Rhetoric

The expression medieval rhetoric refers to the  study and practice of rhetoric from approximately A.D. 400 (with the publication of St. Augustines On Christian Doctrine) to 1400. During the Middle Ages, two of the most influential works from the classical period were Ciceros De Inventione (On Invention) and the anonymous Rhetorica ad Herennium (the oldest complete Latin textbook on rhetoric). Aristotles Rhetoric and Ciceros De Oratore werent rediscovered by scholars until late in the medieval period. Nonetheless, says Thomas Conley, medieval rhetoric was  far more than a mere transmission of mummified traditions that were poorly understood by those who transmitted them. The Middle Ages are often represented as stagnant and backward . . ., [but] such a representation fails dismally to do justice to the intellectual complexity and sophistication of medieval rhetorics (Rhetoric in the European Tradition, 1990). Periods of Western Rhetoric Classical RhetoricMedieval RhetoricRenaissance RhetoricEnlightenment RhetoricNineteenth-Century RhetoricNew Rhetoric(s) Examples and Observations It was Ciceros youthful, schematic (and incomplete) treatise De inventione, and not any one of his mature and synthetic theoretical works (or the even fuller account in Quintilians Institutio oratoria) that became the shaping influence on so much medieval rhetorical teaching. . . . Both the De inventione and the Ad Herennium proved to be excellent, coherent teaching texts. Between them they conveyed complete and concise information about the parts of rhetoric, topical invention, status theory (the issues upon which the case rests), attributes of the person and the act, the parts of a speech, the genres of rhetoric, and stylistic ornamentation. . . . Oratory, as Cicero had known and defined it, had declined steadily during the years of the [Roman] empire under political conditions that did not encourage the forensic and judicial oratory of earlier periods. But rhetorical teaching survived through late antiquity and into the Middle Ages because of its intellectual and cultural prestige , and in the course of its survival it took on other forms and found many other purposes.(Rita Copeland, Medieval Rhetoric. Encyclopedia of Rhetoric, ed. by Thomas O. Sloane. Oxford University Press, 2001) Applications of Rhetoric in the Middle Ages In application, the art of rhetoric contributed during the period from the fourth to the fourteenth century not only to the methods of speaking and writing well, of composing letters and petitions, sermons and prayers, legal documents and briefs, poetry and prose, but to the canons of interpreting laws and scripture, to the dialectical devices of discovery and proof, to the establishment of the scholastic method which was to come into universal use in philosophy and theology, and finally to the formulation of scientific inquiry which was to separate philosophy from theology.(Richard McKeon, Rhetoric in the Middle Ages. Speculum, January 1942) The Decline of Classical Rhetoric and the Emergence of Medieval Rhetoric There is no single point when classical civilization ends and the Middle Ages begins, nor when the history of classical rhetoric ends. Beginning in the fifth century after Christ in the West and in the sixth century in the East, there was a deterioration of the conditions of civic life that had created and sustained the study and uses of rhetoric throughout antiquity in courts of law and deliberative assemblies. Schools of rhetoric continued to exist, more in the East than in the West, but they were fewer and were only partially replaced by study of rhetoric in some monasteries. The acceptance of classical rhetoric by such influential Christians as Gregory of Nazianzus and Augustine in the fourth century significantly contributed to continuation of the tradition, though the functions of the study of rhetoric in the Church were transferred from preparation for public address in law courts and assemblies to knowledge useful in interpreting the Bible, in preaching, and in ecclesiastical disputation. (George A. Kennedy, A New History of Classical Rhetoric. Princeton University Press, 1994) A Diverse History [A]s the history of medieval rhetoric and grammar reveal with special clarity, all the significant original works on discourse which appear in Europe after Rabanus Maurus [c. 780-856] are merely highly selective adaptations of the old bodies of doctrine. The classical texts continue to be copied, but new treatises tend to appropriate for their purposes only those parts of the old lore which are of use to the one art. Thus it is that the medieval arts of discourse have a diverse rather than a unified history. The writers of letters select certain rhetorical doctrines, the preachers of sermons still others . . .. As one modern scholar [Richard McKeon] has said in relation to rhetoric, in terms of a single subject matter--such as style, literature, discourse--it has no history during the middle ages. (James J. Murphy, Rhetoric in the Middle Ages: A History of Rhetorical Theory from St. Augustine to the Renaissance. University of California Press, 1974) Three Rhetorical Genres [James J.] Murphy [see above] outlined the development of three unique rhetorical genres: ars praedicandi, ars dictaminis, and ars poetriae. Each addressed a specific concern of the era; each applied rhetorical precepts to a situational need. Ars praedicandi provided a method for developing sermons. Ars dictaminis developed precepts for letter writing. Ars poetriae suggested guidelines for composing prose and poetry. Murphys important work provided the context for smaller, more focused studies of medieval rhetoric.(William M. Purcell, Ars Poetriae: Rhetorical and Grammatical Invention at the Margin of Literacy. University of South Carolina Press, 1996) The Ciceronian Tradition Conventional medieval rhetoric promotes highly formalized, formulaic, and ceremoniously institutionalized forms of discourse. The major source of this static richness is Cicero, the magister eloquentiae, known primarily through the many translations of De inventione. Because medieval rhetoric is so extensively committed to Ciceronian patterns of amplification (dilatio) through the flowers, or colores, of figured speaking that decorate (ornare) the composition, it often appears to be a ponderous extension of the sophistic tradition in a moralistic framework. (Peter Auski, Christian Plain Style: The Evolution of a Spiritual Ideal. McGill-Queens Press, 1995) A Rhetoric of Forms and Formats Medieval rhetoric . . . became, in at least some of its manifestations, a rhetoric of forms and formats. . . . Medieval rhetoric added to ancient systems its own generic rules, which were necessary because documents themselves had come to stand in for the people as well as for the Word that they meant to convey. By following articulated patterns for greeting, informing, and taking leave of the now-distant and temporarily removed audience, the letter, sermon, or saints life acquired typical (typological) forms.(Susan Miller, Rescuing the Subject: A Critical Introduction to Rhetoric and the Writer. Southern Illinois University Press, 1989) Christian Adaptations of Roman Rhetoric Rhetorical studies traveled with the Romans, but educational practices were not enough to keep rhetoric flourishing. Christianity served to validate and invigorate pagan rhetoric by adapting it to religious ends. Around AD 400, St. Augustine of Hippo wrote De doctrina Christiana (On Christian Doctrine), perhaps the most influential book of its time, for he demonstrated how to take the gold out of Egypt to fortify what would become the Christian rhetorical practices of teaching, preaching, and moving (2.40.60). The medieval rhetorical tradition, then, evolved within the dual influences of Greco-Roman and Christian belief systems and cultures. Rhetoric was also, of course, informed by the gendered dynamics of medieval English society that isolated nearly everyone from intellectual and rhetorical activities. Medieval culture was wholly and decidedly masculine, yet most men, just like all women, were condemned to class-bound silence. The written word was controlled by clergy, the men of the cloth and the Church, who controlled the flow of knowledge for all men and women. (Cheryl Glenn, Rhetoric Retold: Regendering the Tradition from Antiquity Through the Renaissance. Southern Illinois University Press, 1997)