Middle Class Wars Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Middle Class Wars - Essay Example The implications of objectives of American foreign policy is that they have assisted American middle class people understand the important truths about the present world. Those objectives have enabled middle class people to realize what they should try to accomplish when they are abroad. The objectives enhance and safeguard the liberty, prosperity and security of middle class people when they travel to stay overseas. The objectives of the American foreign policy promote global politics by encouraging an international order which is based on human rights, democracy along with free enterprise. The policy continues to extend the degree of prosperity and peace the United States established sometime back that American middle class people living in Europe and other areas of the world enjoy. In other words, the United States had integrated what the rest of the world did not have into a globalized market. Pursuing such a goal is not easy. Creating an international

Carmen Marinache Essay Example for Free

Carmen Marinache Essay Assuming complex businesses in which company is part of: organising logistics operations ( railway transportation from station of departure to station of destination, reception of wagons at final station of destination, unloading the cargo from wagons and loading it into trucks / handling, delivery up to the client’s terminal); organising special transports such as munitions transportation in transit via Romania; organising cargo exports from Romania with guard protection on route; organising oversized transportation, export from Romania to different countries, which implies: obtaining loading drawing from an authorised company, obtaining approval for transportation from the railways and infrastructure, issuing CIM railway bills, coordinating the transport with foreign railways on traffic and obtaining all necessary traffic permission by keeping in touch with all our external partners, solving problems that might occur while transportation is performed; organising exports from Romania to different countries from exCIS in special SZD wagons (wagons from CIS countries), obtaining all traffic permissions, keeping in contact with clients and partners for a prompt solving of all difficult situations; organising transportation of wagons on their own wheels as well as of locomotives; participating to organisation of multimodal traffic Ex: cargo coming by vessel, unloading directly or indirectly to wagons and customs clearance through a sister company specialised in port in such kind of operations), railway trans portation up to one station in Europe, unloading of cargo and delivery by trucks to consignee, etc. ? Keeping in contact with Accounting and Financial Dept. in order to mutually solve problems related to the financial part of the business; ? Based on the information received from the Controlling Dept. , analysing and proposing to the Executive Manager personal evaluation for personnel; ? Monthly analysing the activity of the Railway Dept. calculating estimated operational profit, calculating the total tonnage, presenting the situations to Executive Director; ? Contacting and visiting potential clients; ? Taking part to set up of transport and freight forwarding contracts with Romanian and foreign clients/partners ; ? Representing the company within international exhibitions and fairs, in Romania and abroad, to Express Interfracht Holding own stand, and within conferences having as topic the improvement of railway transportation; ? Issuing the documentation of company presentation and representing the company within different tenders opened by big production companies in Romania, in o rder to choose logistic supplier.

Civic Education in Pakistan :: Educational School Governmental Essays

Civic Education in Pakistan Pakistan is a post-colonial nation-state. Since 1947 this large Muslim nation has not been able to introduce a liberal democratic model of civic education in its schools that could have promoted democratic values, tolerance, gender equality and civic participation skills. Several factors are responsible for impeding the progress in civic education: a garrison culture, the Cold War exigencies, religious extremism, and feudalism. Introduction Like most post-colonial nation-states Pakistan also recognized the central role of civic education in creating a patriotic citizenry. Paradoxically, as the civic education curriculum in government schools emphasized the construction of a distinct Muslim citizen identity, it eschewed the transmission of universal democratic values such as individual liberty, gender equality, critical thinking, and respect for religious and cultural diversity. By failing to recognize the utility and advantages of the basic principles of liberal democratic model of civic education, Pakistan suffered irreparable losses: it disintegrated into two countries, lost national unity and receded into the past (Jahan, 1972; Oldenburg, 1980). What may be responsible for thwarting the liberal democratic model of civic education in Pakistan is a question that warrants a careful examination. This paper argues that four independent variables kept the liberal democratic model of civic education curriculum at bay: the p rimacy of a garrison nation-state, the Cold War exigencies, religious extremism, and feudalism. The following is a discussion on the role of these four variables. A Garrison State First, Pakistan is a garrison state in that since its independence in 1947, it has been pre-occupied with national security (Jalal, 1991). Hence the main objective of civic education curriculum in schools has been the preparation of a warrior citizen (Binder, 1963). A warrior citizen or Mujahid is a person who is willing and prepared to participate in war or jihad against the infidels. To this end the social studies textbooks glorified the past Muslim warriors including Saladin Ayubi, an Arab warrior who fought the Crusaders in Jerusalem, Tipu Sultan who fought the British imperialists in India, and contemporary Pakistani military heroes who died in three wars against India. Moreover, because for most of its history the military ruled the country, the dominant social class in Pakistan has been the military (Cohen, 1984). The military is considered a privileged class and, therefore, military values of conformity, regimentation, and masculinity are underscored in society in general and in the educational institutions in particular.

Air India †the Virgin Airways Saga Essay

In December 1999, India’s national carrier, Air India (A-I) signed an agreement with Virgin Atlantic Airways1 (VA) by which VA would fly three flights on the Delhi-London route on a code-sharing2 basis with A-I. This was hailed as a significant development for the ailing A-I. The code sharing arrangement was expected to trigger off a price war in the Delhi-London route where British Airways (BA) was a dominant player. According to the agreement, VA would fly three more flights a week on this route by 2001. In July 2000, VA started off with two flights a week on Thursdays and Saturdays from Delhi. It planned to have a third flight by October 2000. However, till late 2001, VA was still flying two flights. A-I did not seem ready to allow VA fly the third flight because A-I too had a flight from Delhi on Monday, the day VA wanted to fly from Delhi. Meanwhile, the Government of India (GoI) granted rights to BA to fly three more flights per week from Kolkata to London. This was in violation of the bilateral pact signed between Britain and India according to which BA and A-I were allowed to fly 16 flights a week to each other’s country. BA was already flying 16 flights a week-seven from Delhi, seven from Mumbai and two from Chennai. In late 2001, VA was severely affected by the downturn in the global aviation industry. VA was finding it difficult to sustain its operations in India with only two flights a week. VA had made it clear that unless it was allowed to increase the frequency to three, its exit from India would be a distinct possibility. Background Note A-I was registered as Air India International in 1948. Later in 1962, the word ‘International’ was dropped and from March 1994, the airline began functioning as Air-India Limited. In 2000, A-I’s network covered 44 destinations (Refer Exhibit I). In addition, A-I had a code sharing arrangement with a number of foreign airlines. These included Air France, Swiss Air, Bellview Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Asiana Airlines, Scandinavian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Aeroflot, Air Mauritius, Kuwait Airways and Emirates. In the late 1990s, as part of its disinvestment rogramme, the GoI decided to divest 40% stake in A-I and began looking for a strategic partner. The strategic partner would take up 40% stake with only a 26% cap to foreign airlines. Ever since it began operations in 1984, VA focused on international routes. After the airlines maiden flight, from London’s Gatwick airport to Newark on the outskirts of New York, Richard Branson3 added several lucrative routes to his kitty. Till 1999, VA’s route network in the Asian region included Heathrow-Tokyo-Heathrow, Heathrow-Hong Kong-Heathrow and Heathrow-Shanghai-Heathrow. The airline had code-share agreements with Continental Airlines, Malaysian Airlines, and British Midland. In |the late 1990s, Branson was targeting the lucrative Delhi-London route. Every year an estimated 0. 3 million passengers traveled from Delhi to London, which was nearly 40 per cent of the total outbound traffic from India. The only available direct route codes were held by BA and A-I. As a result passengers were forced to take circuitous routes |offered by airlines like Emirates and Royal Jordanian which made them wait for hours at distant airports. Branson’s efforts to woo A-I started in 1997. He said, â€Å"Air-India was once famous for its service and I’d like to think that as well as competing with Air-India we can share with it our experience of making Virgin Atlantic the success it is today. † Analysts felt that A-I would learn from VA’s innovation in hospitality. VA was the first airline to offer a TV monitor with every seat (in every class). It offered in-flight beauty therapy including the services of masseurs, ice-cream cones during in-flight movies and a chauffeured motorcycle service to airports. Also in the offing were email and Internet services. Upper class passengers were provided laptop power leads with every seat, and headsets to reduce noise in the cabin. Besides commercial cooperation on cargo services, yield management, and product development, the arrangement with Branson would give AI’s staffers access to cabin crew training. However, analysts felt that once VA started its operations, it would be an all-out fight to lure passengers and AI would be the worst sufferer. As VA promised to offer tickets at 15 per cent less than BA, a Delhi-London VA ticket would be cheaper than A-I’s. The Deal In 1999, the ministry of civil aviation said that it was willing to consider an agreement between VA and A-I that would benefit both carriers. The agreement was to include a code-sharing arrangement or sharing of A-I flight quotas. The entry of VA on the London-India routes was likely to bring down the fares on the sector. In December 1999, VA signed an agreement with A-I to fly three services a week on a code share basis between Delhi and London from July 2000. The arrangement with A-I was for five years and apart from the initial three flights a week, frequencies, it had agreed to give away the remaining three to V-I by 2001. VA and A-I would share seats on each other’s routes and VA would operate flights to the UK on routes not covered by A-I. VA would also fly on days that were not flown by A-I. Under the terms of the agreement, flights would carry both VA and A-I flight numbers, and both airlines would sell seats on those services in competition with one another. Said Branson, â€Å"Launching flights between the UK and India has always been an ambition of mine. It is a very potent route and currently I see a lack of capacity on this route, which has decreased tourist flow between the two countries. I think between the two airlines – Air-India and Virgin – we will be able to improve the route. † According to some analysts, the GoI was interested in forging an alliance with VA because of the group’s interests in entertainment, music telecom, insurance and financial services. Branson had raised hopes of further investments in publishing, holiday homes and telecom. He said, â€Å"This is just the beginning. We will study the Indian market and see what business is best suited for the market and for us and proceed accordingly. We will see where we can make a difference. A-I had been in the red for a long time and was hoping that the VA venture would improve its bottomline. Said Branson, â€Å"We are paying a significant amount to A-I under the code-sharing agreement, though I would not like to reveal the amount. Let me assure you: Air-India can make a few millions. † However, Air India officials felt that more than the financial gains, it was the pa rtnership that mattered and the move would bring in fresh traffic to the country. Besides traffic, VA’s arrival could also mean reductio in airfares. Said Branson, â€Å"Our upper class and premium class as we call them are as competitively priced as the first class and business class fares of other airlines respectively. Except, of course, we give more services such as limousines, manicure, beauty treatment, etc, to every passenger on board. As for our economy class, our priority is to fly it houseful and hence the pricing is whatever it takes to get the customer. Hence, since we will be competing with Air-India too despite this agreement, the pricing and services will be competitive. † VA’s arrival was also expected to improve A-I’s services and even bring about a reduction in the fares depending on the market conditions. Said M. P. Mascarenhas, the then Managing Director of A-I, â€Å"We will have to compete and hence we will have to perform, even if it means fare reduction. † Analysts felt that a possible fare reduction would have an adverse effect on the bottomline of A-I. Responded Mascarenhas, â€Å"I don’t think it would because it would increase traffic and improve the overall situation. You see, now, between the two airlines, there will be services all days of the week. Analysts felt that with the AI-VA code sharing agreement, other carriers such as Thai Airways and Cathay-Pacific, which were asking for more flights, would pressurize the GoI for code-share arrangements with AI in lieu of more flights. Who will Rule the Delhi-London Skies? Analysts felt that with the entry of VA, the Indian skies would see some fierce price wars between VA and BA. Branson said that VA’s first class fares would be equivalent to the business class fares of BA and that the economy fare would be 30-50% cheaper than BA’s. If BA brought down ticket prices as it had done in May 2000, VA would fly for less, Branson said. Since BA had proposed a fare of about Rs 27,000 on the Delhi-London sector, Branson said VA would file an application with the GoI for a lower fare. At the same time, VA would respect the Government’s sentiments on fares, since it was a regulated market, Branson said. In June 2000, VA announced that it would start its operations in India in July with a bi-weekly service-Wednesdays and Fridays from London and Thursdays and Saturdays from Delhi. VA planned to launch a third weekly flight around October. The airline would offer low introductory fares. Mackenzie Grant, VA’s general manager for India said the initial fare was still being worked out and that it would be difficult to give a comparison with competing airlines. Analysts felt that VA would give BA some stiff competition, not only in terms of fares, but also with its array of services such as sleeper seats, massage services and lounge facilities. Said one, â€Å"Virgin’s entry will certainly be a boost to services between India and Europe. The airline has a high quality product. † Branson promised VA fare would be extremely competitive. Analysts felt that competitive pricing would mean that VA would price its Delhi-London flight for less than Rs 25,000, which was approximately the A-I fare. A-I feared there would be an exodus of its already dwindling passenger list. Meanwhile, BA was bracing itself to meet the VA challenge on the Delhi-London sector. The airline announced direct daily services between London and Delhi from October 30, thereby increasing capacity by 25 per cent on this sector. For this, the airline suspended its twice weekly service to Calcutta and terminated its five times-a- week service from Delhi to Dhaka from October 30. The changes were made as part of a renewed bilateral agreement between UK and India signed in February 2000. On July 5, 2000, VA dropped a bombshell. It slashed its introductory airfare from the normal Rs 42,598 to Rs 31,000 for a return ticket on the busy London-Delhi route. But just before VA’s entry into Indian airspace, BA also announced a special economy-class fare: a Rs 27,635 round trip ticket. According to analysts, consumers were at last getting the benefits of a liberalised competitive sector. In July 2000, BA won the right to three more flights per week between India and Britain, drawing an immediate protest from VA. According to BA’s South Asia manager Alan Briggs, under a special arrangement outside a bilateral aviation agreement, the GoI had given BA permission to fly three times a week to the eastern city of Calcutta. Under the bilateral pact, which was renewed in February 2000, BA and A-I were each allowed to fly 16 times a week to each other’s home country. A-I used 10 of its 16 weekly flight entitlements on the route. BA used all 16 of its flight entitlements, with seven flights a week to Delhi, seven to Mumbai and two to Madras. BA had been lobbying since 1993 to increase the number of its flights to India. The End of the Honeymoon? By October 2000, VA was to start its third code share flight as per the agreement with A-I. In addition to the Rs 100 million per flight per annum that A-I got from VA, the third flight would fetch A-I Rs 300 million per annum. However, till late 2001, VA was flying only two flights a week. Also, there was no progress on the remaining three flights that VA was entitled to fly from 2001. This seemed to the bone of contention between VA and A-I. VA officials were particularly unhappy that BA was granted rights to fly three additional flights per week from Kolkata to London against the prevailing norms. What seemed particularly strange was that there was no commercial agreement or code share for any of these additional frequencies. Commenting on the GoI’s interest in BA, a leading business magazine in India wrote, â€Å"The needle of suspicion automatically points to vested interests in the ministry and their sudden penchant for BA. â€Å"5 By December 2000, it became clear that VA would have to wait a bit longer for final clearance from A-I to commence the third code-share |flight on the India-London sector. While VA officials claimed that they would start the third code-share flight within a reasonable period of time following clearances from Indian authorities, A-I officials said that nothing was in the offing as yet. Said a VA official, â€Å"The ball is in the court of A-I and the Indian Government. The day we get the permission, we will start the service in a reasonable time period, which will allow us to relocate aircraft and crew to commence the third flight. Further, the airline will be only too happy to serve other destinations in India. † Some analysts said that while VA was keen to operate the third flight on Sundays from London with a Monday departure from Delhi, A-I was opposed to as the Indian carrier also had a Delhi to London flight on Monday morning. VA was willing to schedule its flight at 2 p. m. in the afternoon, ensuring a gap of more than 6 hours between its flight and A-I’s London flight. But this was not acceptable to A-I, which pointed out that according to the agreement signed between VA, and A-I, VA was to operate flights only on those days when A-I did not operate services to London. A VA official said that the delay in granting permission to VA to operate the third flight on the sector was proving to be financially disastrous for A-I. However, despite these problems, VA said it was interested in code sharing with A-I to other cities such as Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. In late 2001, VA was in some trouble because of the downturn in the transatlantic aviation business and shrinking revenues. VA announced 20 per cent reduction in operations, grounded five of its aircraft and pruned the workforce by 1200 to tide over one of the worst crises for the international aviation business in the aftermath of the US attacks6. Having already announced 20 per cent reduction of activities, the airline seemed unable to sustain its operations in India with just two |flights a week. Said Paul Smitton, general manager-India, VA, â€Å"Two flights each from Delhi is not a viable proposition in the long run. At least three or more flights makes the business viable as it would enable us to get more traffic and meet economies of scale from our operations here. † He added, â€Å"No airline can sustain loss making regions for long. And this time round, we will wait for just months and not |years before taking a decision. † Analysts felt that VA was likely to review its strategy for its fledgling unprofitable Indian operations. |During its short stay in India, VA had already notched up losses on the Delhi-London sector and industry sources ruled out the chances of VA breaking even unless the frequency increased from the current level. VA officials have indicated to the GoI that VA may have to pull out of India if the frequency of operations was not increased. VA informed the GoI that it had agreed to provide A-I with income worth Rs 100 million per annum for each flight on the basis of the understanding that a third frequency would be allowed on schedule. VA also said that it had hired Indian crew for three flights and spent on publicity, as it was confident its frequency would be increased. It informed the GoI that it would have to pull out of India if the third flight was not cleared. In October 2001, the GoI ordered a full review of the code-sharing pact. What remained to be seen was whether the much-hyped I-A-VA alliance would be sustainable in the long run

Kuhnian Model

KUHNIAN MODEL According to many science is a steady progression of accrual of new ideas but to Kuhn science was as a result of occasional revolutionary explosions of new knowledge whereby each revolution was triggered by introduction of new ways of thought that were so large that he called them paradigms. These paradigms according to Kuhn were supposed to generally recognize scientific achievements, present model problems and solutions for group of researchers. A paradigm is supposed to describe; * How the outcome of most scientific investigations should be interpreted. * What is to be observed and scrutinized? The kind of questions that are supposed to be asked and probed for answers in relation to this subject. The Kuhnian model consists of five main steps which include: * Prescience- it has no workable paradigm to guide its work successfully. * Normal science- it is a normal step where the field has a scientifically based model of understanding a paradigm that works * Model drift- here the model of understanding starts to drift. This is due to accumulation of anomalies and events the model cannot explain. * Model crisis- the previous step becomes so excessive the model is broken.It can therefore no longer serve as a reliable guide to problem solving. Any attempts to patch the model up to work will fail hence the field is in anguish. * Model revolution-it immediately becomes considerable when serious candidates for a new model emerge; it is referred as a revolution because the new model is so drastically poles apart from the previous one. * Paradigm change-here the field changes from the old to the new paradigm because a new one emerges. This new paradigm then becomes the normal science and the khunian model is complete. HOW IT WORKSThe new fields normally begin in prescience where they have begun to focus on a problem area but are not yet capable of making major advances. Working techniques that later provide a model of understanding eventually works hence t his will put the field in normal science step. In this step it takes longer. As time passes by new questions arise but the current model of understanding cannot answer this puts it in the model drift step. The model crisis step is reached later if the anomalies appear and the model cannot be patched up to explain them unfortunately it tends to fail due to guesswork and intuition.At long last the model revolution begins. It is a revolution because the new model is a new paradigm. It’s radically different from the old paradigm. This makes the believers in both paradigms not to communicate well. The paradigm change step begins when the new paradigm is settled on by a few influential supporters. After field transitions from the old to the new paradigm occur the old paradigm is sufficiently replaced and becomes the field’s new normal science. Guess what happens next? The cycle begins again because our knowledge about the world is never complete. References The structure of Scientific Revolutions- Thomas. S. Kuhn

Mold essays

Mold essays In my science experiment, it will be discussing, if mold grows faster in dark, wet or warm climate. I will be testing it with cheese. In my experiment I will be using the space in my house to test this. I will be putting some cheese in the basement. For the wet it will be put in a plastic bag with water in it. For the warm the cheese will be put in my garage for the experiment. Mold is a type of fungus that often grows on food. Like mushrooms, mildews, and other fungi, molds have no chlorophyll- the green coloring matter that plants use to make food. Molds live on food made by plants or animals, or on decaying matter. Some molds live as parasite on animals, plants, or other fungi. Many common molds can grow on bread, fruit, and other food. The black bread mold often forms a cottony, soft, white growth on damp bread. The mold gets its name from the dark-colored spores (tiny reproductive bodies) that it soon reproduces. A group molds known as the blue molds also may grow in bread. A green mold often grows on various types of cheeses. Other molds, called water molds, are found in water and soil. Molds develop from spores. When a spore of the black bread mold settles on damp food, it swells and begins to grow by producing tiny hyphae. Hypha means threads. The hyphae form a tangled mass called a mycelium, which turn produces aerial hypae called stolons. Root like structures known as rhizoids anchor the stolons in the food. As the black bread mold matures, many upright fruiting bodies form above the rhizoids. Each fruiting body has a spore case called a sporangium, at its end. A sporangium looks like a miniature pinhead and contains thousands of spores. When the spore case matures and breaks open, the spores are carried away by air currents. These spores may settle on damp foods and grow, starting the reproduction cycle over again. Some molds, such as Penicillium, produce chains of spores at the tips of certain hyphae, called con ...

List of French Homophones and Meanings

List of French Homophones and Meanings Homophones are words that have the same pronunciation but different meanings and, sometimes, spellings. Therefore, French homophones can cause difficulties in oral comprehension and spelling. These pages should help you to understand the difference between the most common French homophones. French Homophones: O o, oh - see auon (indefinite subject pronoun) - one, we, they  Ã‚  Ã‚  On y va ? - Are we going?ont - third person plural conjugation of avoir (to have)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ils ont des questions - They have some questionsorange - (invariable adjective) orange  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jai trois chemises orange - I have three orange shirtsune orange - orange (fruit)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jai achetà © trois oranges - I bought three orangesou, oà ¹ - see aoà »t French Homophones: P la paie - payla paix - peacele pet - (familiar) fartle pain - bread  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je dois acheter du pain - I need to buy some breadle pin - pine  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je crois que cest un pin - I think its a pine (tree)pair (adjective) - even  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cest un nombre pair - Its an even numberle pair - peer  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il est acceptà © par ses pairs - He is accepted by his peersla paire - pair  Ã‚  Ã‚  une paire de ciseaux - a pair of scissorsle pà ¨re - father  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cest mon pà ¨re - Its my fatherpar (preposition) - by/with  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cette histoire a à ©tà © à ©crite par un enfant - This story was written by a childpars - first and second person singular conjugation of partir (to leave)  Ã‚  Ã‚   quelle heure pars-tu ? - What time do you leave?part - third person singular conjugation of partirune part - part, portion  Ã‚  Ã‚  la part du lion - the lions shareparce que (conjunctive phrase) - because  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je lai fait parce que javais peur - I did it because I was scaredpar c e que - preposition par indefinite relative pronoun ce que  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je suis surpris par ce que vous dites - Im surprised by what you are sayingparti - past participle of partir (to leave)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il est dà ©j parti - He already left. un parti - (political) party; option, course of actionune partie - part, amount  Ã‚  Ã‚  Divisez-le en quatre parties - Divide it into four parts.la pà ¢te - pastry, dough, pasteles pà ¢tes - pastala patte - pawla peau - skin  Ã‚  Ã‚  Les soins de la peau sont trà ¨s importants - Skin care is very importantle pot - jar, pot, can  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jai achetà © un pot de confiture - I bought a jar of jam(un) peu - (a) little  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jai un peu dargent - I have a little moneypeux - first and second person singular conjugation of pouvoir (can, to be able)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je peux le faire - I can do itpeut - third person singular conjugation of pouvoirphare - see fardphiltre - see filtreplus tà ´t - sooner, earlier  Ã‚  Ã‚  On doit commencer une heure plus tà ´t - We need to start an hour earlierplutà ´t - (adverb) rather, instead  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je prà ©fà ¨re plutà ´t la chemise rouge - Id rather have the red shirtle poids - weightle pois - pea, dotla poix - tar, pitchle poing - fistà ‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il ma montrà © le poing ! - He shook his fist at me!le point - point, place; stitch  Ã‚  Ã‚  Quel est son point de congà ©lation ? - What is its freezing point?le porc - pig, pork  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je ne mange pas le porc - I dont eat porkle port - port, harbor  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il est sorti du port - He left portle pouce - thumbla pousse - sproutprà ¨s (adverb) - near, nearby  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jhabite tout prà ¨s - I live nearbyprà ªt (adjective) - ready  Ã‚  Ã‚  Es-tu prà ªt ? - Are you ready?pu - past participle of the French verb pouvoir (to be able)pue(s) - singular conjugations of the French verb puer (to stink)puent - third person plural conjugation of puerla pub (apocope of publicità ©) - ad, advert, advertising  Ã‚  Ã‚  As-tu vu leur nouvelle pub ? - Have you seen their new ad?le pub - bar, pub  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cest mon pub prà ©fà ©rà © - Its my favorite bar French Homophones: Q q  - see  culquand  - when  Ã‚  Ã‚  Quand vas-tu partir ?  - When are you going to leave?quant  - as for  Ã‚  Ã‚  Quant tes idà ©es†¦Ã‚  - As for your ideas†¦quen  -  contraction  of  que  Ã‚  en  (adverbial pronoun)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Quen pensez-vous ?  - What do you think about it?le  camp  - camp, side  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il a changà © de camp  - He changed sidesquart  - see  carque  (interrogative pronoun) - what  Ã‚  Ã‚  Que veux-tu ?  - What do you want?que  (relative pronoun) - than, that  Ã‚  Ã‚  Voici le livre que jai à ©crit  - Here is the book that I wrotela  queue  - line, tail  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il faut faire la queue  - We have to stand in linequeux  -  contraction  of  que  Ã‚  eux  (stressed pronoun)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jai plus didà ©es queux  - I have more ideas than they doNote:  The vowel sound in  que  is slightly different than in the other two, but for non-native speakers these are likely to sound like h omophonesquel(le)(s)  - (interrogative adjective) which  Ã‚  Ã‚  Quel livre vas-tu acheter ?  - Which book are you going to buy?quelle  -  contraction of  que  Ã‚  elle  Ã‚  Ã‚  Tu es plus jolie quelle  - You are prettier than she isquelque(s)  - some  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il y a quelques problà ¨mes  - There are some problemsquel(le)(s) que  -  whatever  Ã‚  Ã‚  Quels que soient les problà ¨mes†¦Ã‚  - Whatever the problems may be†¦quelquefois  - sometimes (adverb)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ãƒâ€¡a marche quelquefois  - It works sometimesquelques fois  -  a few times  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jy suis allà © quelques fois  - Ive gone there a few timesquil  - contraction of  que  Ã‚  il  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je pense quil est l  - I think hes therequils  - contraction of  que  Ã‚  ils  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je pense quils sont l  - I think they are therequoique  (subordinating conjunction) - although  Ã‚  Ã‚  Quoique je suis malade†¦Ã‚  - Although I am sick†¦quoi que  (conjunctive phrase) - whatever  Ã‚  Ã‚  Quoi que tu penses†¦Ã‚  - Whatever you may think†¦ French Homophones: R r  - letter of the  French alphabetair  - (masculine noun) air; appearance  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il a lair malade  - He looks sickune  aire  - area, zone, eyrie  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je cherche une aire de jeux  - Im looking for a playgroundune  Ãƒ ¨re  - era  Ã‚  Ã‚  En lan 1999 de notre à ¨re  - In 1900 ADla  reine  - queenle  renne  - reindeerla  rose  - rose  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jaime bien les roses  - I really like rosesle  rose  -  pink  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je prà ©fà ¨re la chemise rose  - I prefer the pink shirtla  roue  - wheel  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je sais changer une roue  - I know how to change a tirele  roux  -  red(-head), roux  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il a les cheveux roux  - He has red hairFor the difference in pronunciation between  roue/roux  and  rue, see my lesson on  OU vs U French Homophones: S s  - letter of the  French alphabetà ¨s  - in (a certain subject)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il a une licence à ¨s ingà ©nierie  - He has a BS in engineeringsa  - see  Ãƒ §asain  - healthy, sound, wholesome  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il est sain et sauf chez lui  - Hes safe and sound at homesaint  - holy, saintly  Ã‚  Ã‚  le vendredi saint  - Good Fridayun  saint  - saintun  sein  - breastsais,  sait  - see  csang,  sans,  sen  - see  cenun  saut  - jump, leap  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il sest levà © dun saut  - He jumped to his feetun  sceau  - seal, stamp, mark  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cest marquà © dun sceau  - Its marked with a sealun  seau  - bucket, pailsot  - silly, foolish, stupidscie  - see  cise  - see  cele  sel  - saltla  selle  - saddlecelle  (demonstrative pronoun) - this/that one  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je prà ©fà ¨re celle-ci  - I prefer this onesen,  sens,  sent  - see  censensà ©Ã‚  - see  censà ©sept,  sest vowel,  Sà ¨te  - see  cest vowelses,  sest  - see  csà ©tait,  sà ©taient  - see  cà ©taitsi,  six  - see  cisigne  - see  cygnesoi  - oneself  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il faut avoir confiance en soi  - One must be self-confidentle  soi  - self, id  Ã‚  Ã‚  Le soi, le moi et le sur-moi  - The id, the ego, and the superegosois  - first and second person singular  subjunctive  of  Ãƒ ªtre  (to be)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il faut que tu sois l  - You have to be therela  soie  - silk  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cest un chemisier en soie  - Its a silk blousesoient  - third person plural subjunctive of  Ãƒ ªtresoit  - third person singular subjunctive of  Ãƒ ªtrele  sol  - ground, floor, siltla  sole  - sole (fish)la  somme  - sum, amountle  somme  - snooze, napson  (possessive adjective) - his, her, its  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cà ©tait son idà ©e  - It was his ideale  son  - sound, bran  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cest un ingà ©nieur de son et il naime pas la farine de son  - Hes a sound e ngineer and he doesnt like bran floursont  - third person plural conjugation of  Ãƒ ªtre  (to be)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ils sont en retard  - They are lateun  sou  - centsous  - undersur  - sour (adjective)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cest un peu sur  - Its a little soursur  (preposition) - on  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il ny a rien sur la table  - Theres nothing on the tablesà »r  - sure, certain  Ã‚  Ã‚  Oui, jen suis sà »r  - Yes, Im suresy  - see  ci French Homophones: T t  - letter of the  French alphabetle  thà ©Ã‚  - tea  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je prà ©fà ¨re le thà © vert  - I prefer green teata  (possessive adjective) - your  Ã‚  Ã‚  Voici ta valise  - Heres your suitcaseta  -  contraction  of  te  (object pronoun) third person singular conjugation of  avoir  (to have)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il ta dà ©j dit  - He already told youtant  - so (many/much)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il travaille tant !  - He works so much!le  temps  - weather, time  Ã‚  Ã‚  Quel temps fait-il ?  - Hows the weather?ten  -  contraction  of  te  Ã‚  en  (adverbial pronoun)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je ten donne deux  - Im giving you two of themtend(s)  - singular conjugations of the French verb  tendre  (to strain, tighten)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Tend la main et je te le donnera  - Hold out your hand and Ill give it to youtes  (possessive adjective) - your  Ã‚  Ã‚  Oà ¹ sont tes stylos ?  - Where are your pens?tes  -  contraction  of  te  (reflexive p ronoun) second person singular conjugation of  Ãƒ ªtre  (to be) [in the  passà © composà ©Ã‚  of a  pronominal verb]  Ã‚  Ã‚   quelle heure tes-tu rà ©veillà © ?  - What time did you get up?test  - contraction of  te  (object pronoun) third person singular of  Ãƒ ªtre  Ã‚  Ã‚  Quest-ce qui test arrivà © ?   - What happened to you?le  thon  - tuna (fish)ton  (second person singular  possessive adjective) - your  Ã‚  Ã‚  Oà ¹ est ton sac ?  - Wheres your bag?un  ton  - tone, pitch  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il parle sur un ton grave  - He speaks in a serious tonetond(s)  - singular conjugations of the French verb  tondre  (to shear, mow)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je tonds le gazon le samedi  - I mow the lawn on Saturdaytont  -  contraction  of  te   third person plural conjugation of  avoir  (to have)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ils tont menti  - They lied to youle  tic  - tic, twitch  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il a un tic nerveux  - He has a nervous ticla  tique  - tick  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mon chien a des tiques  - My dog has ticksla  tour  - towerle  tour  - tour, turntout  - all, everythingle  toux  - coughtu  - youtu  - past participle of the French verb  se taire  (to be quiet)tue(s)  - singular conjugations of  tuer  (to kill)tuent  - third person plural conjugation of  tuer French Homophones: U u  - see  eu French Homophones: V vain  - empty, superficial  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ce sont de vains mots  - Those are empty wordsle  vin  - winevingt  - twentyvins  - first and second person  passà © simple  of  venir  (to come)vint  - third person singular passà © simple of  venirvend  - third person singular conjugation of  vendre  (to sell)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il vend sa maison  - Hes selling his housevends  - first and second person singular conjugation of  vendrele  vent  - wind  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il y a du vent  - Its windyun  ver  - wormun  verre  - glassvers  (preposition) - towardun  vers  - versevert  - greenvoie  - first and third person singular  subjunctive  of  voir  (to see)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il faut quelle voie son frà ¨re  - She has to see her brotherla  voie  - way, route  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cest une voie privà ©e  - Its a private roadvoient  - third person plural indicative and subjunctive of  voirvoies  - second person singular subjunctive of  voirvois  - first and second person singular indicative of  voir  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je ne le vois pas  - I dont see itvoit  - third person singular indicative of  voirla  voix  - voice  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ils parlent voix basse  - They are speaking in low voicesvoir  - to see  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je ne peux pas voir là ©cran  - I cant see the screenvoire  - indeed, or even, if not  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cest une bonne idà ©e, voire excellente  - Its a good, or even excellent, ideavu  - past participle of  voir  (to see)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je lai vu hier  - I saw him yesterdayvu  (presentative) - given, considering  Ã‚  Ã‚  Vu notre situation†¦Ã‚  - Given our situation†¦la  vue  - sight  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il perd la vue  - Hes losing his sight French Homophones: Y y  - see  i

How To Use Marketing Performance Metrics To Improve

How To Use Marketing Performance Metrics To Improve Peter Drucker once said, â€Å"What gets measured gets managed.† And he was right. When you  have numbers and data, you  study them; you  wonder how you can make them better, especially if they involve sales. And in the world of content marketing, measuring blogging productivity has become a critical piece of any strategy that results in visits, return visits, lead generation, and, ultimately, conversion. The marketing performance metrics- or tools you  use to measure the value of the content you  write- have become quite sophisticated. And you  can use  them to inform all of the decisions you  make about the content on your blog. This is exciting stuff to help you reach your goals and improve  the content youre already publishing. Lets take a look! How To Crush Your Goals With Marketing Performance Metrics via @AndyPreislerBonus! Get your free Google Analytics dashboard  custom-built to complement this post to help you quickly spot many of these marketing performance metrics at a glance. It's complete with tons of links to related reports to explore your data even more in-depth to help you understand how your marketing is performing today and how you can improve your blog. Begin With Your Marketing Goals You users are publishing content because you have big goals to reach.  Figure out  your general marketing goals first, something like: Grow your trafficGrow your leadsGrow your customer base Once you have your foundation- the understanding of what you want to achieve with your marketing- you can then look into the  marketing performance metrics that will guide you toward actual data you will use to measure those goals. A super effective and easy way to define your goals is with the SMART goal setting process: Specific: What, when, and why.Measurable: This is where your marketing performance metrics come in to help you know when you accomplish your goal.Attainable: Requirements necessary to achieve your goal.Realistic: Acknowledge the road blocks that would prevent you from reaching the goal.Time-sensitive: Start and (most importantly) end dates. So, a format like this is what you're looking for: Beginning, January 1, 2016, we will increase our blog and website traffic to 1 million monthly page views by December 1, 2016, to help marketers plan better content while establishing ourselves as  an authority in our niche. The rest of this guide will walk you through choosing the marketing performance metrics you’ll use to measure your progress toward your goals. Recommended Reading:  How To Leverage Your Best Content To Meet Your Marketing Goals Understand The Basic Marketing Performance Metrics Your content creator should be an expert in two things: Creative and engaging writing.Using  analytics tools to measure the effectiveness of content that is created and published on your blog that will help you reach your goals. The basic metrics are all available through Google Analytics, a free tool that will provide huge amounts of data and deep insight into how your  content is really doing. Pro Tip: Setting up Google Analytics is pretty easy. Just follow this handy guide brought to you by the search engine itself. These are all about quantity and can be used to tell a big story in the following ways: Users: This number is a total of how many separate visitors come to your blog over a set period of time. The same visitor is not counted twice. This is the first step in a longer process of analyzing what you are doing right and wrong- the more, the better.Number of pageviews: Once a visitor lands on your blog, are they accessing other pages of your site from your blog? This is important information to have because it demonstrates that a visitor is impressed enough with a post to then check out your site as well.Bounce rate: When someone visits your blog and opens a post, do they stay or do they bounce out within the first 10 seconds? If the number is high, at least the first part of that post content is  not what they expected to see- an opportunity for you to improve.Inbound links: How many visitors are coming in from outside places via an external link? This means people think your content is important enough that they have provided a link to it in something they have written. All of these metrics give you important data that should tell you if your posts are doing the job or not. And Google Analytics does a great job of generating this kind of data for you, although some content marketers use other tools that may go a bit deeper, such as Whoopra or Clicky. The data should tell you specific things.  Low traffic and low â€Å"staying power†- as seen through pageviews and bounce rate- means that your content may need  a major facelift. Either you are not capturing visitors with your titles and first 100 words, or the content in the remainder of the post is not engaging them enough to stay, read, and, ultimately, share. On the other side, if traffic is good and there is high â€Å"staying power† and movement from a post to other pages, you have a winner. The content is good and is well suited to be  repurposed and recycled. Recommended Reading: 3 Hidden Google Analytics Reports To Help You Understand Your AudienceHow To Unlock Quality Content From Your Low-Performing Posts Create Better Content With Audience Performance Metrics These metrics are often called the â€Å"feel good† or â€Å"vanity† measurements. It’s nice to see good numbers of views and comments, because you feel like  other awesome folks appreciate your content. Yay for us! Numbers of views within a set period of time:  Track the number of views (usually in a month), along with the amount of time spent once a post is opened. You could also combine the number of comments a post receives or the decline of views as a post ages.Comments per views:  If, for example, you are getting a comment for every 50 views of a post, you have a winner. That content should be used again, in a different way.Views vs. users: You will also want to know who among your visitors are unique repeat visitors. The repeat visitor number is an important one, because research shows that conversions often come from visitors who view between 5–9 times. These people are highly active- the visitors you have managed to engage well. It's a solid goal to increase the numbers of your  highly engaged audience. You can determine the type of content they enjoy and plan for more of it by analyzing the posts that your highly engaged visitors view.Number of shares per article:  When you get the data on share numbers from each post, and even better, to which social media sites those shares are going, you have some pretty valuable information. Now you can choose the networks where you may want to expand your presence because your audience is clearly using certain networks more than others. It also gives you  an understanding of what content is the most popular  so you can replicate your success. Your marketing calendar shows you which blog posts are getting the most shares right in your top posts page. shows the social shares for every blog post you publish. Find ways to build upon the popular  blog posts you publish that  generate tons of long views and comments, and engage your visitors. You could possibly: Publish  new posts covering related ideas.Repurpose the blog posts  into different media.Optimize that existing content with better graphics  to increase time on page.Add  downloads  into your posts to convert that traffic  into email subscribers. Google Analytics does a fine job of generating vanity data, although some marketers prefer to use Mint, a tool that can also tell you from where your viewers are coming. A Word Of Caution: There is a growing group of content marketing experts who believe that bloggers spend too much time (and money) and give too much importance to vanity metrics analysis. Jason Amunwa is the director of products at Filament, who warns: Vanity metrics do nothing for your actual website objectives, but make your marketing efforts look good. This is problematic, because oftentimes they siphon effort and focus away from the things that could really move the needle for you. Engagement metrics tell you what content is truly performing for you, what’s just â€Å"meh†, and what’s ripe for enrichment and optimization;  in short, engagement metrics tell you where the real opportunities are for growth. Consider  your vanity audience metrics as a learning tool to understand what is popular to create better content. That said, if your main goal is to grow your customer base, let conversions be the metric that influences your content creation process the most. Recommended Reading:  What Really Is Your Social Media ROI? Optimize For Conversion With  Content Performance Metrics This is the truly actionable part of your marketing performance metrics, because you will get invaluable information about how your blog is doing and what you specifically need to do to improve your blogging productivity. Check out three types of marketing performance metrics for your content- content life, content engagement, and content conversions. Content Life (Longevity) Every post has a shelf life. You need to track this so you know how long each post continues to receive views. How many views do you get the first 6 hours, the first day, the first week, and the first month? And what times and days are are you getting the most views?  With the right analytics, you can understand  the longevity of individual posts and an average longevity of all of your posts combined. This kind of information can drive your decisions about what content ideas work well and how to flesh out your blog schedule and social media promotion: Which posts are the most popular? The style and content is obviously right, so you will want to mimic that as much as possible.Which posts are the least popular? You know what style and content not to post again.Which posts have the greatest longevity? Is there a particular common aspect of those? Do you have embedded videos, infographics, etc. on those with a longer shelf life? Again, this tells you what to mimic in future posts.What is your average longevity number?  Your average longevity number is the number of days your posts typically have a lot of interaction before fading. If  your posts  are getting the most views within the first three days, and then viewership is dropping off, you know you need to post every three  days to keep your  blog filled with fresh content. Alternatively, you could use  a tool like to share your content more on social media to extend the life of your content. You can use these Google Analytics reports to understand when you are getting the most pageviews, visits, and leads to help you publish  and share content at the best times when your audience is most engaged. Do you look at content longevity? The metric can help you plan  a better #blogschedule.Recommended Reading: When Is The Best Time To Publish A Blog Post?What 10 Studies Say About The Best Times To Post On Social Media Content Engagement Part of evaluating engagement, of course, includes some of the vanity metrics you just learned about. How many comments and shares are you getting? High numbers indicate that your viewers are actually taking the time to check out  your entire post and are so  engaged that they want to comment or to share that content with others. Which  types of media  complement your posts the best?  So you're blogging, but you're probably including different types of content into your posts. When you share that advanced media like infographics and videos to your social networks, what is performing better for your audience?  This kind of information will tell you which types of posts you want to link to which social media.Measure the time spent on each post by each visitor. If a visitor stays 3 minutes or more, that visitor will most likely return, and studies show that you need to capture a visitor within the first 10 seconds if they're going to stay. If you're getting lots of bounces within that first 10 seconds, you need to do something about your headlines  and your blog post introductions.  You can also get data on whether a visitor is actively engaged with your content or whether the page is open by sitting on a background tab right in Google Analytics.Are viewers scrolling through other posts  after they spend time reading one? This is clearly engagement, and the longer they spend doing this, the more likely they are to come back again. And if you really want to dig deeper, you can track the specific posts a visitor views and collect data on that, so that you know which posts of the past are still piquing interest- review that content and see how you can repurpose it. Personalized content is trending now, so this is a great way to prepare for it!Viewer Loyalty: Google Analytics calls this â€Å"frequency† or â€Å"recency.† How often does the same viewer come and how many days before they come back? Chartbeat  conducted a loyalty study and found that anyone who comes 5 times in a month will keep returning regularly after that.Recommended Reading: 4 Lessons From Psychology That Will Help You Grow Your Blog Content Conversions Conversions are any action  you want a viewer to take, whether that is a sale or an action that may funnel that conversion to an eventual sale. You need to know the percentage of visitors that take some action after having been on your blog- giving an email address signing up for a newsletter, taking a free trial, etc. Lead generation metrics: Are they converting before they read your content or afterward? This will tell you if your posts are productive or not. If conversions are occurring after your content is read, your inbound blog posts are doing their job.Sales generation metrics: If specific content is generating purchases on the part of viewers, you will know that you want to get that type of content into as many posts as possible. Google Goal Analytics can give you great data through conversion reports, and these are pretty critical, because, after all, marketing exists for one purpose- to sell. Create your goals in Google Analytics now: Create, edit, and share goalsCreate and customize dashboards You can request conversion rates per page on your entire site, which will include your blog, and then compare the percent  of conversions for each page. And, if you dig deeper, you can get a report that shows the page that was the original view of that conversion. If you find that a healthy percentage of conversions begin with a view of a blog post, then these posts are paying off well. If you have lots of views, comments, and shares but not a good conversion rate, then all you have are vanity views. Analytics tools are sophisticated, rather amazing, and can really help you make some big  decisions about  your blog content. Turning your marketing performance  metrics into actionable ways to improve your blog will help you create better content and focus that content on achieving your goals.

The Electoral Systems of Russia, France, USA and China and How the Essay

The Electoral Systems of Russia, France, USA and China and How the Future Results Might Affect Each Country - Essay Example China is expected to change its leaders during a communist party congress that will take place this October. Major political leaders have been preoccupied with internal politics for the greater part of the year. They will not be positioned to concentrate on international issues. This need to score points within the domestic electorate, will lead these leaders to take nationalist stands on matters that require global cooperation. The United States voters will decide whether to keep president Barrack Obama as their president. Obama, who is a democrat, stands a chance of been re-elected to the office because he has less than aspiring republican challengers do. He is expected to push a policy that re-engages East Asia after a decade of pre-occupation with Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. is likely to take a harder stance toward China, if a Republican candidate, probably former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, wins the presidency by exploiting voters’ discontent with a stagnant economy. Romney has vowed that, as a president, he would strengthen tariff barriers to Chinese goods, if China refuses to let its currency float. This is due to increased pressure from the united states matched with tough and nationalist talk from china, whose new leadership will not afford to show any appearance of been compromised or flexible during the initial period of power. 70 percent of China’s top leadership stands to be changed during the part’s congress being held this October, which will see the generational handover of power being completed, next year, when Xi and the vice premier Li Keqiang take the posts of president and prime minister from Hu and Wen Jiabao. In Russia, Putin is expected to push for a bigger voice over Northeast Asia. He is trying to push for a gas project, which will see the laying of a gas pipeline from Siberia to South Korea through North Korea. This project may pave the way for the president to serve for another 12 years as president. In France president, Nicolas Sarkozy, is facing a huge battle against his challenger, socialist candidate Francois Hollande in his bid for reelection. Many voters are disenchanted with his frivolous behavior, Sarkozy wilol have to highlight his competence, in order to gain the upper hand over his less experienced contender. The election set for sixth of May is expected to be close. Sarkozy’s possible leaning towards the theme o f protecting the country’s interests may affect the international efforts to solve the euro zone crisis. The choice of an electoral system is one of the most important choices that a country has to make. It refers to the way citizens choose public servants of the state. In the United States, the system of government is a representative democracy. Here people do not make governmental decisions. The country’s citizens elect officials, who govern on their behalf (Kleppner 32). When the constitution of the U.S. was written in the year 1787, it left the decision for each state, as who could vote in the elections. In 1971, the 26th amendment was passed that allowed anyone, who is over 18, to vote. On the average approximately 60 percent of the voting age Americans take part in the presidential elections. 10 years after the Constitution was written, the U.S. had two major political parties--the Federalist Party that was a proponent of a strong central government, and the Demo cratic -

Battle of Waterloo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Battle of Waterloo - Essay Example France has found a charismatic and ambitious leader in the person of Napoleon Bonaparte. His string of victories in the battlefields of Europe all the more contributed to his steady rise and prominence among the French people. Consequently, France's rise to power brought unease among other European nations. Assured of his prominent status and support among the people, Napoleon launched a coup in 1799 that overthrew the Bourbon king and established himself as ruler and First Consul. Later on, he would declare himself emperor for life ("The Battle of Waterloo"). Napoleon had wanted to make France the most powerful country in Europe and to achieve this; he waged a campaign of annexation and colonization of lands which resulted in many victories for his army. The wars were later called the Napoleonic Wars. A coalition of major powers in Europe, notably the Great Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria mobilized an army to meet the threat posed by Napoleon's army. After a series of wars, the Allied army finally defeated Napoleon in 1814 thereby effectively checking his ambition of establishing France as the dominant power in Europe. Napoleon was subsequently deposed and exiled to the island of Elba along with some 600 of his loyal guards in accordance with the Treaty of Fontainbleau. The bourbon king, Louis XVIII was made ruler of France by the victorious European powers ("Battle of Waterloo"). The Congress of Vienna was convened by the nations of Europe that defeated Napoleon to discuss the problems that arose after the fall of France. The Congress also wanted to re-establish the territorial balance in Europe wherein the future and status of the nations conquered and annexed by Napoleon's campaign in Europe were to be discussed. The unpopularity and ineptness of Louis XVIII resulting in economic and social unrest left many veterans who fought with Napoleon and many citizens as well clamoring for change. The men who had fought alongside Napoleon remained a potent force and many felt that their past efforts were wasted because of the government's corruption and insensitiveness to the needs of the people. Many were hoping that their deposed emperor would return and liberate them. Napoleon, believing that many in France would allow his return while others would not dare oppose it, decided to risk a return and put forth plans to establish himself again as the ruler of France ("Waterloo"). On Feb. 26, 1815, Napoleon together with less than a thousand of his men, left Elba and landed on an unpopulated beach near Antibes. Napoleon is determined to return to Paris and early on the next day, he marched toward Grenoble with his men. Soldiers who were stationed in outposts outside Paris initially barred his advance but after offering the guards to shoot him because he has no intention of turning back, instead joined him. Everywhere Napoleon marched, veteran soldiers and those soldiers serving the government joined his ranks. At Auxerre, Marshal Ney, Napoleon's old comrade whom he once called the "bravest of the brave," was overwhelmed by the presence of his former emperor. He embraced him and turned over to Napoleon the command of his 6,000 troops. Because of

Impact of the French Revolution on Women Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Impact of the French Revolution on Women - Essay Example Demographically, mortality rate was higher than the fertility rate which was a result of the agricultural production that was at high demand but low on manufacturing. Economically, the French Revolution started the organization process of the production and distribution of goods to improve on the efficiency of business activities. In the area of agriculture, this was a time where a lot of people had to leave their lands mandatorily to provide more labor opportunities that would encourage urban industrialization. Industrially, new machinery and the making of new roads were introduced to make transportation easier and faster. Lastly, ideological revolution took place as total freedom of thought, speech, and at the same time reliance on scientific method were embraced to improve education that was believed to be the key to a successful society (History 1C: The French Revolution and Women's Rights, n.d.). With the French Revolution being summed up into a list of ideals and movements that would seek to improve society as a whole, it was able to solve the inequality that existed between men and women. Before, the French embraced the mindset that women’s primary role would be to support and nurture their families while intellectual and political matters belonged to the authority of men. However, the French Revolution became the bridge that started empowering women’s natural and moral rights. Because of Mary Wollenstonecraft, who challenged French leaders to rethink the unequal educational opportunities for men and women where the latter were only allowed to get access to them in the confines of their own homes that limit learning, women are now able to enjoy freedom in education (Women and the Revolution, n.d.). She was able to convince the French leaders to believe in women’s capacity at par with that of men’s by asking them to prove first that women lack reason as compared to men. Another impact of the French Revolution on women would be earning them to be seen as fit as men to be involved in juridical proceedings. Women started being able to voice out what they think and feel in as simple as forming groups to protest against the high bread prices or the shortage of food (Women and the French Revolution, n.d.). A perfect example of which would be the case of Marie-Rose Barre, a twenty year old lace worker who was one of the hundred women who went to Versailles to ask for bread from the king because there was a limited resource of food made available to them. Though there were guards who watch the palace, they allowed the women to express their distress directly to the king which only the men were able to do before the French Revolution. Also, in this occasion, these women were also able to voice out what they think would be able to solve this worsening situation when they suggested that the king would arrange companions during flour transports in Paris to speed up the process and make sure the delivery intended for Paris are exactly provided as only a few wagons make it to the delivery at the bridge of Sevres (Levy, D.G., Applewhite, H.B., & Johnson, M.D., 1979). This single incident led to the opportunity of examining the relations between men and women. Men, who were seen as higher or of more value than women were now being seen to have certain attributes that are considered as their strength yet at the same time recognizes some of their weak points in which women are strong at. One of which would be in dealing with management of the house. However, the French Revolution did not only earn women’s rights to form groups and perpetrate a riot to fight for their grievances but they started to be seen as significant in political undertakings. A concrete example where the relations bet

ALL SAINTS BRAND Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

ALL SAINTS BRAND - Essay Example All of the All Saints stores bear a unique interior design which differentiated from each other. This reflects the brands image of uniqueness and non corporate culture. All Saints have associated itself with the music industry quite intimately. The company made strategic business collaboration with brands like U2, Kelis, Robbie Williams, etc. in order to enhance its brand equity. The company endorsed clothing for several music videos, thereby creating a brand culture associated with youth culture and casual lifestyle (Allsaints, 2015). According to Kotler and Keller (2011) the brand is defined as the perception of the customers regarding a particular product or individual or any other marketable entity. It is a mental image that a company wants its customers to have regarding its products. All Saints brand is best known for its uniqueness and focus on the gothic culture. The products’ design, the promotional activities and the aesthetics of the store are based on culture of matured and rough life style while wearing black, grey and white. The signature interiors of the store is characterized metal, worn off wood and exposed bricks, which indicates a rough and weathered lifestyle. The design of the clothes has been carefully selected that complements the gothic and dark nature of the brand. Thus it can be stated that the brand has been positioned to be youth centric thereby targeting the age group of 18 to 35 (Ferla, 2010). Apart from the uniquely mundane and muted appearance of the brand, the company has al so tried to blend fashion with rock music. Currently, All Saints is associated with a sense of decaying decadence and distress outlook with a taste of vintage lifestyle. It is one of those very few brands that barely follow market trend and try to initiate a trend in the industry. The company has successfully engaged the customers by building a close relationship with them, thereby creating a

Personality Description Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Personality Description Paper - Essay Example Personality, hence, has an impact on future success in the school and the workplace. This student is conscientious and analytical, but sensitive to the emotions and needs of others, and he works best with people who are creative, logical, and empathic, which has implications for being a transformational leader with contingency framework values. Some of the defining traits of this student are conscientiousness and analytical thinking. As a non-native speaker, it is important to work extra hard in completing assignments and doing school work. According to the temperament graph and feedback from others, the student is dedicated in self-improvement. He shows conscientiousness in enhancing the skills and knowledge needed to complete academic tasks. Furthermore, this student shows persistence in going beyond mediocrity. The Johari window information reveals a strong similarity between what people see and the hidden area of this student, especially regarding determination. This student believes that hard work pays, and his friends and classmates see that he is a hard working student and team member. The blind self shows that these friends think that sometimes, this student is underestimating his growth. They say that he is pushing himself too hard at times and being too critical of his achievements. These sentiments give an idea to this student that he must be a perfectionist to some extent because of high expectations of his own skills. The hidden area in the Johari window is believed to be extroversion. His classmates think that he is an extrovert because of his efforts in socializing with others and being sensitive to their emotions. In reality, this student sees himself as more of an introvert. The MBTI or Myers-Briggs Type Indicator supports this personal assessment, where this student finds solitude in thinking and working alone. Nevertheless, when needed to work in groups, he is willing to adapt and to become a leader or

Leaning an operational delivery process Research Paper

Leaning an operational delivery process - Research Paper Example Inventory management practices are essential aspects of any organisation. Many organisations have changed from the traditional settings to production and inventory management. The role of inventory management is to ensure faster inventory turnover. Artisanal Burger Company (ABC) Restaurant is a joint that is famous for its burgers, homemade bread and delicious omelets. The restaurant is located at 1436 Pleasant Valley Road, Manchester, CT 06042 (www.yelp.com). According to the reviews by customers, the services have not been ideal for maximising profits and reduction of waste. The management needs to rethink and introduce new techniques of managing assets and inventories. An investigation of processes in this restaurant indicates that there is need to introduce Lean thinking in ABC Restaurant. Improvements can bring significant savings for the restaurant owners, which would, in turn, be passed on to the customers, both quantitatively and qualitatively. One customer says, â€Å"the burgers are hit and miss†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..ABC lacks consistency (www.yelp.com). One of the problems identified was that it takes too much time to deliver food to the table. Secondly, there is no accuracy of orders. Finally, the time it takes a customer to pay the bill is too long. Problems were identified in the dining area, kitchen area, and billing area. The issues that were identified are summarised in Table 1. ABC’s delivery process does not match with its performance objectives. Markovic, Raspor and Segaric (2010, p. 181) state that a restaurant business is a demanding business, and it, therefore, stresses on the provision of high-level customer service and continuous quality improvement. There is constant change of peoples’ lifestyles. Thus, customers desire new flavours, comfortable ambience and pleasant memories. Restaurants that provide high-quality service gain stronger competitive advantage in the current dynamic marketplace. The issues outlined in Table 1 indicate the

Personality Description Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Personality Description Paper - Essay Example Personality, hence, has an impact on future success in the school and the workplace. This student is conscientious and analytical, but sensitive to the emotions and needs of others, and he works best with people who are creative, logical, and empathic, which has implications for being a transformational leader with contingency framework values. Some of the defining traits of this student are conscientiousness and analytical thinking. As a non-native speaker, it is important to work extra hard in completing assignments and doing school work. According to the temperament graph and feedback from others, the student is dedicated in self-improvement. He shows conscientiousness in enhancing the skills and knowledge needed to complete academic tasks. Furthermore, this student shows persistence in going beyond mediocrity. The Johari window information reveals a strong similarity between what people see and the hidden area of this student, especially regarding determination. This student believes that hard work pays, and his friends and classmates see that he is a hard working student and team member. The blind self shows that these friends think that sometimes, this student is underestimating his growth. They say that he is pushing himself too hard at times and being too critical of his achievements. These sentiments give an idea to this student that he must be a perfectionist to some extent because of high expectations of his own skills. The hidden area in the Johari window is believed to be extroversion. His classmates think that he is an extrovert because of his efforts in socializing with others and being sensitive to their emotions. In reality, this student sees himself as more of an introvert. The MBTI or Myers-Briggs Type Indicator supports this personal assessment, where this student finds solitude in thinking and working alone. Nevertheless, when needed to work in groups, he is willing to adapt and to become a leader or

Song Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Song - Essay Example nnot incorporate imaginative lyrics into their songs that seek to engage the listener with innovative and interesting ways to tackle a very limited subject matter; a subject matter that is almost invariably dealing with love and/or loss. As a means of understanding one current highly successful song that is currently experiencing a great deal of radio airtime, this particular analysis will consider Rihanna’s single â€Å"Diamonds† within the context of its use of simile, metaphor, and symbolism. As a function of understanding the ways in which these literary devices are utilized within the given song, it is the hope of this author that a new level of appreciation for the means by which songwriters seek to engage the listener with new and exciting means of describing something that has been relayed an infinite number of times before will be realized. With regards to simile within the given song in question, the very first lines of the song state: â€Å"Shine bright like a diamond† (Rihanna 1). In this way, the immediate use of simile is utilized as a way to engage the listener with the powerful imagery of a glistening diamond as reflective of the way that new love glistens and seems as something wholly and entirely unique within the realm of human experience (Gabrielsson 15). Of course the simile in this particular instance acts as more than just as simile, it provides a degree of symbolism in helping to represent the embodiment of love within the song as something akin to a rare and precious stone that radiantly proclaims itself wherever it exists. Further examples of simile in the song exist within the repeated lines â€Å"We’re like diamonds in the sky† (Rihanna 1). Such a use of simile reinforces the idea of comparison to the richness of the love that the songwriter attempts to convey to the listener (Pa lmer 39). In much the same manner metaphor is used as well within the line â€Å"You’re a shooting star I see† (Rihanna 1). Naturally, such an

Organisational structure Essay Example for Free

Organisational structure Essay Various Structures Practical Illustration organizational structure: It refers to a formal system of tasks and reporting relationships that coordinates and motivates employees to work together to achieve the organizational goals. Formal system of task and reporting relationships showing how workers use resources. It Involves the following structures: 1) Functional Structure It refers to the organizational structure composed of all the departments that an organization requires to produce Its goods or services. tOf3 2) Dlvlslonal structures It refers to the organizational structure composed of a series of business units to produce a specific kind of product for a specific kind of customer. It is used by most large corporations. It involves 3 main types: a) Product Structure, where divisions are created according to the type of product and service. b) Geographic Structure, where divisions are based on the area of a country or world served. c) Market Structure, where divisions are based on the types of customers served. 3) Matrix Structure It refers to the organizational structure that groups people by function and product teams simultaneously. It results in complex relationships. The structure is very flexible. Each employee has two bosses (functional manager and product manager) 4) Product Team Structure It refers to the organizational structure where members are permanently assigned to a team empowered to bring a product to market. It involves no two-way (dual) reporting. It involves forming cross-functional teams composed of a group of managers from different departments working together to perform organizational tasks. Existing AFC Organizational Structure: It is very clear that Abu Qir Fertilizers Company extremely represents applying the unctional very steep highly centralized extensively rigid structure.

Fuzzy Logic Technique for Image Enhancement

Fuzzy Logic Technique for Image Enhancement Abstract Now days applications should be require various types of images and pictures as sources of information for interpretation and analysis. Whenever an image is changed from one to another form such as, digitizing, scanning, transmitting and storing, some of the degradation always occurs at the output end. Hence, the output image has to go in a process called image enhancement which consists of a collection of techniques that need to improve the quality of an image. Image enhancement is basically improving image and its interpretation and perception of the information in digital images and providing good input for different other automated image processing techniques. The fuzzy set theory is always uncertainties (like it comes from the information available from situation such as darkness may result from incomplete, imprecise, and not fully reliable). The fuzzy logic gives a mathematical model for the representation and processing of good knowledge. The concept is depends upon i f-then rules in approximation of the variables likes threshold point. Also the Uncertainties within image processing tasks often due to vagueness and ambiguity. A fuzzy technique works as to manage these problems effectively. IndexTerms Fuzzy Logic, Image Processing, Image Enhancement, Image Fuzzification, Image Defuzzification Whenever an image is changed from one to another form such as, digitizing, scanning, transmitting and storing, some degradation is always occurs at the output stage. Hence, the output image has to go in a process called image enhancement. Image enhancement consists of a collection of techniques that need to improve the overall quality of an image. Fuzzy image processing is the approaches that understand, represent and process the images and their pixels with its values as fuzzy sets. The representation and processing is depending upon the selected fuzzy techniques and the problem to be solved. The idea of fuzzy sets is very simple and natural. For instance, if someone want to define a set of gray levels, one has to define a threshold for gray level from 0 to 100. Here 0 to 100 are element of this fuzzy set; the others do not belong to that set. The basis logic behind fuzzy technique is the basis for human communication. This observation depends upon many of the other statements about fuzzy logic. As fuzzy logic is built on the logics of qualitative description used in everyday language, fuzzy logic is very easy to use. A filtering system needs to be capable of reasoning with values and uncertain information; this suggests the use of fuzzy logic. II. FUZZY IMAGE PROCESSING OVERVIEW Fuzzy image processing techniques is not unique theory. It is a collection of different fuzzy approaches to image processing techniques. The following definition is to be regarded to determine the boundaries of fuzzy digital image processing: Fuzzy image processing is the approaches that understand, represent and process the digital images and their segments and also features as fuzzy sets. The representation of it and processing is always depending on the selected fuzzy techniques and on the problem which need to be solved [9]. Below a list of general observations is defined about fuzzy logic: Fuzzy logic is conceptually very easy to understand. The mathematical concepts behind fuzzy logic reasoning are simple. Fuzzy logic is important approach without the far-reaching complexity. Fuzzy logic is flexible. Everything is indefinite if you look closely enough, but more than that, most things are indefinite. Fuzzy reasoning prepared this understanding into the process rather than just theory. Fuzzy logic can model the nonlinear functions of mathematically complexity. One can create a fuzzy logic system to compare any sets of input and output data. This process is very easy by some of the adaptive techniques such as Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference Systems, which is already available in Fuzzy Logic Toolbox. Fuzzy logic can be design on the top of experience of experts. In case of neural networks, it must need training data and generate the outputs. But fuzzy logic will explain you about the experience of people who already understand the whole systems. Fuzzy logic can be mixed with any conventional control techniques. Fuzzy systems dont replace conventional control methods necessarily. Sometimes fuzzy systems increase them and simplify its implementation. Fuzzy logic is based on natural language communications. The basis for fuzzy logic is the basis for human communication and this observation explain many of the other statements about fuzzy logic as well. Actually Fuzzy logic is built on the structures of quality description used in everyday languages used for communications. Fuzzy logic is very easy to use. Natural language, which people used on a daily basis, has been comes by thousands of years of human history to be efficient. Sentences that are written in ordinary language always represent a triumph of efficient communication [3]. Fuzzy image processing has three stages: 1) Image Fuzzification 2) Modification of membership values 3) Image Defuzzification. Figure 1. Basic Fuzzy Image processing [5] The fuzzification and defuzzification steps are that in which we do not own fuzzy hardware. So, the coding of image data often called as fuzzification and decoding of the results called as defuzzification are the steps to process images with fuzzy techniques. The main thing of fuzzy image processing is in the intermediate stage that is modification of membership values (See Figure 1). After the image data are transformed from grey-level to the membership plane that is known as fuzzification is appropriate fuzzy techniques which modify the membership values which can be a fuzzy clustering and a fuzzy rule based approach and also it can be a fuzzy integration approach. The Fuzzy set theory Fuzzy set theory is the extension of crisp set theory. It works on the concept of partial truth (between 0 1). Completely true is 1 and completely false is 0. It was introduced by Prof. Lotfi A. Zadeh in 1965 as a mean to model the vagueness and ambiguity in complex systems [3]. Definition Fuzzy set A fuzzy set is a pair (A, m) where A is a set and m: A-> [0, 1]. For each, x A m(x) is called the grade of membership of x in (A, m). For a finite set A = {x1,,xn}, the fuzzy set (A, m) is denoted by {m(x1) / x1,,m(xn) / xn}. Let xà ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ½ A Then x is called not included in the fuzzy set (A, m) if m(x) = 0, x is called fully included if m(x) = 1, and x is called fuzzy member if 0 m(x) x à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ½A |= m(x)>0} is called the support of (A, m) and the set {x A | m(x)=1} is called its kernel. Fuzzy sets is very easy and natural to understand. If one want to define a set of gray levels one have to determine a threshold, say the gray level from 0 to 100. All gray levels from 0 to 100 are element of this set; the others do not belong to the set (See Figure 2). But the darkness is a matter. A fuzzy set can be model this property in better way. For defining this set, it needs two different thresholds 50 and 150. All the gray levels which are less than 50 are the full member of this set and all the gray levels which are greater than 150 are not the member of this set at all. The gray levels that are between 50 and 150 have a partial membership in the set. Figure 2. Representation of dark gray-levels with a fuzzy and crisp set. Fuzzy Hyperbolization An image I of size MxNand L gray levels can be considered as anarray of fuzzy singletons and out of which each are having a value of membership denoted its brightness relative to its brightness levels Iwith I=0 to L-1. For an image I, we can write in the notation of fuzzy sets: Where g, is the intensity of (m, n)th pixel and  µmn its membership value. The membership function characterizes a suitable property of image (e.g. edginess, darkness, textural property) and it can be defined globally for the whole image or locally. The main principles of fuzzy image enhancement is illustrated in Figure. Figure 3. Fuzzy histogram hyperbolization image enhancements [2] Image Fuzzification The image fuzzification transforms the gray level of an image into values of membership function [0à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦1]. 2 types of transformation functions are used, the triangle membership function, and Gaussian membership functions. A triangular membership functions is shown in Figure 4 and its equation is written as, Figure 4. Triangular membership functions The Gaussian membership function is shown in the Figure 5 and is characterized by two parameters {c, à Ã†â€™}. The equation for the Gaussian membership function is written as, Figure 5. Gaussian membership function Modification of Membership Function This process needs to change the values of the membership functions resulted from fuzzification process. In this algorithm, the shape of the membership function is set to triangular to characterize the hedges and value of the fuzzifier ÃŽÂ ². The fuzzifier ÃŽÂ ² is a linguistic hedge such that ÃŽÂ ² = -0.75 + ÃŽÂ ¼ 1.5, so that ÃŽÂ ² has a range of 0.5 2. The modification is carried out to the membership values by a hedges operator. The operation is called dilatation if the hedge operator ÃŽÂ ² is equal to 0.5 and it is called concentration if ÃŽÂ ² is equal to 2. If A is a fuzzy set and its represented as a set of ordered pairs of element x and its membership value is defined as ÃŽÂ ¼, then AÃŽÂ ² is the modified version of A and is indicated by below equation The hedge operator operates on the value of membership function as fuzzy linguistic hedges. Carrying hedge operator can be result in reducing image contrast or increasing image contrast, depending on the value of the ÃŽÂ ². The hedge operators may use to change the overall quality of the contrast of an image. Image Defuzzification After the values of fuzzy membership function has been modified, the next step is to generate the new gray level values. This process uses the fuzzy histogram hyperbolization. And this is due to the nonlinearity of human brightness perception. This algorithm modifies the membership values of gray levels by a logarithmic function: Where, ÃŽÂ ¼mn (gmn) is the gray level in the fuzzy membership values, ÃŽÂ ² is hedge operator, and gmn is the new gray level values. Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) Figure 6. Fuzzy Inference Systems Fuzzy inference is the process of mapping from the input-output using fuzzy logic. Mapping provides a basis from which it is possible to make the decisions. Process of fuzzy inference are mainly, the Membership Functions, the Logical Operations, and If-Then Rules. There are basically 2 types of fuzzy inference systems that is possible to implement in Fuzzy Logic Toolbox. 1) Mamdanitype and 2) Sugeno-type. These 2 types of inference systems vary in the way outputs are determined. Fuzzy inference systems has been successfully applied in fields such as data classification, decision analysis, automatic control and computer vision. As fuzzy is multidisciplinary, it can be used in fuzzy inference systems such as fuzzy-rule-based systems, fuzzy associative memory, fuzzy expert systems, fuzzy modeling, and fuzzy logic controllers, and simply fuzzy systems. Mamdanis fuzzy inference method is the most commonly used fuzzy method. Mamdanis method was the first control systems designed using fuzzy set theory. It was firstly proposed in 1975 by Ebrahim Mamdani [7] to control a steam engine and boiler combination by synthesizing a set of some linguistic control rules which can be obtained from experienced human operators. Mamdanis model was based on Lotfi Sades 1973 on fuzzy algorithms or complex systems and decision processes [8]. Mamdani-type inference, which defined for Fuzzy Logic Toolbox expects the output membership functions needs to be fuzzy sets. After the aggregation process, there is a fuzzy set for all the output variable that needs defuzzification. In many cases a single spike as an output membership functions are used. This type of output is usually known as a singleton output membership function. It always enhances the efficiency of the defuzzification process as it simplifies the computation required by the more simple Mamdani method, which finds the centroid of a 2D functions. Instead of integrating across the 2D function to find the centroid, one can use the weighted average of some of the data points. Sugeno-type system support this type of model. Sugeno-type systems can be used to design mathematical model of any inference system in which output membership functions are linear or constant. Fuzzy rule based system One other approach to infrared image contrast enhancement using fuzzy logic is a Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy rule based system. Takagi-Sugeno rules have consequents which are numeric functions of the input values. This approach is used to enhance the contrast of a gray-scale digital image which proposes the following rules: IF a pixel is dark, THEN make it darker IF a pixel is gray, THEN make it mid-gray IF a pixel is bright, THEN make it brighter Membership functions in a fuzzy set map all the elements of a set into some real numbers in the range [0, 1]. When the value of membership is higher, the truth that the set element belongs to that particular member function is higher as vice versa. The input membership functions for an image contrast enhancement system is shown in Figure 7. The set of all input image pixel values is mapped to 3 different linguistic terms: Dark, Gray Bright. The values ÃŽÂ ¼i(z) quantify the degree of membership of a particular input pixel intensity value to the each of the 3 member functions; denoted by the subscript (i). Thus, ÃŽÂ ¼dark(z) assigns value from 0 to 1 and in between to how truly dark an input pixel intensity value (z) is. Same way, ÃŽÂ ¼gray(z) and ÃŽÂ ¼bright(z) characterize how truly Gray or Bright a pixel value z is. The Dark and Bright input membership functions can be implemented by using a sigmoid functions and the Gray input membership function can be implemented by the Gaussian function. The sigmoid function, also known as the logistic function that is continuous and non-linear. This can be defined mathematically as follows: Where x is input and g(x) is gain. The Gaussian function is defined as below: Figure 7. Input Membership Functions for the Fuzzy Rule-Based Contrast Enhancement Three linguistic terms can be defined for the output member functions; and these are referred to as Darker, Mid-gray and Brighter. Because it is common in some of the implementations of Takagi-Sugeno systems, the output fuzzy sets are usually defined as fuzzy singleton that says the output membership functions are single-valued constants. Here the output membership function values can be selected as follows: Darker = 0 (ÃŽÂ ½d) Mid-gray = 127 (ÃŽÂ ½g) Brighter = 255 (ÃŽÂ ½b) These are shown below: Figure 8. Output Membership Functions for the Fuzzy Rule-Based Contrast Enhancement For a Takagi-Sugeno system design, the fuzzy logic rules which determine the outputs of system have been used the following linear combination of input and output membership function value. As the output membership functions are constants, the output ÃŽÂ ½o to any input zo, is given by: Where, ÃŽÂ ¼dark(z), ÃŽÂ ¼gray(z) and ÃŽÂ ¼bright(z) = the input pixel intensity values and (vd, vg and vb) = the output pixel intensity values. This relationship accomplishes the processes of implication, aggregation and defuzzification together with a numeric computation. In case of image processing, fuzzy logic is computationally intensive, as it requires the fuzzification, processing of all rules, implication, aggregation and the defuzzification on every pixel in the input digital image. Using a Takagi-Sugeno design which uses singleton output membership functions can reduce computational complexity Figure 9 is the block diagram of the process developed for the fuzzy logic technique implemented for this work. Figure 9. Flow chart for the implemented fuzzy logic process Contrast enhancement using an INT-Operator from fuzzy theory Many researchers have applied the fuzzy set theory to develop new techniques for contrast improvement. A basic fuzzy algorithm for image enhancement, using a global threshold, has been briefly recalled. Let us consider a gray level digital image, represented by the gray level values of the pixels with the range [0;1] and Let l be any gray level of a pixel in this digital image, l [0;1] . Contrast improvement is a basic point processing operation which mainly used to maximize the dynamic range of the image. A higher contrast in an image can be achieved by darkening the gray level in the lower luminance range and brightening the ones in the upper luminance range. This processing generally implies the use of a non-linear function; Form of such a function could be the one presented in Figure 10. Mathematical expression of such a nonlinear function, Int (l) is as below: The expression represents operator in the fuzzy set theory, namely the intensification (INT) operator. When it is applied on digital images, it has the effect of contrast enhancement. Figure 10. Fuzzy intensification Let us denote the resulting gray levels in the contrast enhanced image by g given by: Thus, the contrast enhanced image have gray levels of its pixels given by the nonlinear point-wise transformation in Figure 10, applied to the original gray level image. Implementation on Matlab The following are the steps which are carried out for the implementation to get the output: Read the original image. >> I = imread(Input image) Convert it into Gray Scale image if it is RGB image. >> I = rgb2gray(I) Add the noise to the image. >> Z = imnoise(I,gaussian,0.2); Calculate size of original image. >> [row col] = size(Z); Perform morphological operation on image. To find Maximum pixel value of image >> mx = max(max(Z)); To find Minimun pixel value of image >> mn = min(min(d)); To find Mid point of image >> mid = (mx+mn)/2; Apply fuzzy algorithm. Show the output. >> figure,imshow(output),title (output enhanced image) Conclusion Four different fuzzy approaches has been implemented to enhancement the high voltage images. Compared to the basic approaches, one can notice that fuzzy methods offer a powerful mathematical model for developing new enhancement algorithms. The global fuzzy approaches not gives satisfactory results. But here a locally adaptive procedure for fuzzy enhancement has been proposed. The contrast enhancement of high voltage images is also not satisfactory sometimes. The reason behind that is the physics of EPIDs which produces images with poor dynamics qualities and that is why sometimes there is no information in MVI to be improved. The fuzzy logic algorithms offer many different possibilities to optimize its performance, like parameters of membership functions, due to that it can certainly be expected that fuzzy image enhancement techniques can be applied in many areas of medical imaging in future. References [1]Farzam Farbiz, Mohammad Bager Menhaj, Seyed A. Motamedi, and Martin T. Hagan, A new Fuzzy Logic Filter for image Enhancement IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, And Cybernetics-Part B: Cybernetics, Vol. 30, No. 1, February 2000. [2]Om Parkas Verma, Madasu Hanmandlu, Anil Singh Pariah and Vamp Krishna Madasu Fuzzy Filter for Noise Reduction in Color Images, ICGST-GVIP Journal, Vol. 9, No. 5, September 2009, pp.29-43. [3]Rafael C.Gonzalez and Richard, E. Woods Digital Image Processing, New Jersey, Pearson Prentice Hall, Third Edition 2008. [4]Aboul Ella Hassanien and Amr Bader, A comparative study on digital mammography Enhancement algorithms based on Fuzzy Theory, International Journal of Studies in Informatics and Control, SIC Volume 12 Number 1, March 2003, pp. 21-31. [5]Alper Pasha Morphological image processing with fuzzy logic, Aerospace and space technology magazines, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2006, pp.27-34. [6]Tamalika Chaira, Ajoy Kumar Ray, Fuzzy Image Processing and Applications with MATLAB, CRC Press, vol. 1, 2010,pp. 47-55. [7]Mamdani, E.H. and S. Assilian, An experiment in linguistic synthesis with a fuzzy logic controller, International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, Elsevier, Vol. 7, No. 1, 1975, pp. 1-13. [8]Zadeh, L.A., Outline of a new approach to the analysis of complex systems and decision processes, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Vol. 3, No. 1, Jan. 1973, pp. 28-44. [9]H. R. Tizhoosh, G. Krell and B. Michaelis, On Fuzzy Enhancement of Megavoitage Images in Radiation Therapy, Proceedings of the 6th IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems, July 1997. [10]Stefan Schulte, Valerie De Witte, and Etienn, E.Kerre, A Fuzzy Noise Reduction Method for Color Images, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, Vol. 16, Issue 5, May 2007, pp. 1425-1436. [11]C.Castiello, G.Castellano, L.Caponetti and A.M.Fanelli, Fuzzy Classification of Image Pixels, IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Signal Processing, 2003