Free

Free Space Optical Communication Essay Free space optical communication is the most growing communication because it is easy to install and has a high speed because the signal is transmitted in the air. So that will introduce the atmospheric affect in the optical wave propagation. Atmospheric turbulence causes fluctuations in both the intensity and the phase of the received signal. So we need to study the effect and the limitation if we introduce a free space optical communication system with dual wavelength (980 nm, 1550 nm). Also studying the effect of turbulence when using two different wavelengths. Introduction Free space optical communication is a kind of communication that use light propagation to send data between two points. Free Space Optics are capable of up to 2.5 Gbps of data, voice and video communications through the air, allowing optical connectivity without requiring fiber-optic cable or securing spectrum licenses. So we can use LED’s or Laser for transmission data. Free Space Optics (FSO) technology is relatively simple. Its built on a laser transmitter and a receiver to provide full duplex capability. Each FSO unit uses a high-power optical source, a lens that transmits light through the atmosphere to another lens receiving the information. The receiving lens connects to a high-sensitivity receiver via optical fiber. Because the transmission in occurred in air it is easily upgradable. FSO send a light beam from one point to another using low power lasers in the teraHertz spectrum. This beam is transmitted by laser light focused on photon detector receivers. These receivers collect the photon stream and transmit digital data. If there is a clear line between the two point FSO can operate on a distance of several kilometers as long we have a powerful transmitter. Features of the laser communications system Information usually in the form of digital data, data is entered to be regulated by the laser source transmitting electronics. Coding techniques can be used directly or indirectly depending on the type of laser used. Output source passes through the optical system in the channel. The visual system usually involves the transfer, beam shaping, and the telescope optics. Beam receiver comes in through the optical system and passed to the detection and signal processing electronics. There is also a terminal control electronics that must manage gimbals guidelines and other mechanisms, and machinery, to maintain and track the acquisition of the operating system designed in the mass of the process. In order to communicate, you must have received enough energy by the detector to distinguish signal from noise. Laser power, optical transmission system losses, pointing out shortcomings of the system, transmitter and receiver antenna gains and losses, receiver, receiver and loss tracking, are all factors that force in the establishment of the receiver power. The required optical power is determined by data rate, detector sensitivity, configuration modes, noise, and detection methods. When the receiver is to detect the signals, it is in fact the decision-making regarding the nature of the signal (digital signal is sent when the distinction between the ones and zeros). There are two types of distributions: one when the signal present (including the amount of photocurrent due to the background and the current detector in the dark), and one when there is no signal present (including sources of no signal current only). A threshold must be developed to increase the success rate and reduces the error rate. Even when there is no signal present, the fluctuation sources of no signal lead periodically to the threshold to be exceeded. This is an error stating that the signal exists when there is no signal present. Distribution of signal may also fall on the other side of the threshold, so any errors stating that the signal is going to happen even when the signal is present. Security FSO systems work in the near infrared wavelength range slightly above the visible spectrum. So, the human eye cannot clearly see the transmission beam. The wavelength range is around 1 micrometer that is used in FSO transmission. The interception of FSO operating systems with narrow beam in the infrared spectral wavelength is by far the more difficult. Small diameter of the beam is usually only a few meters in diameter in the target site are one of the reasons that make it extremely difficult to intercept the communications of the FSO. Intruder must know the exact origin or target of the infrared beam and intercept only within a very narrow angle of beam propagation. Intercept packets directly from the FSO networks between remote locations is impossible mainly because the beam passes through the air usually at a higher altitude than at ground level. Due to the fact that the transmission beam is not visible, and that any attempts to block the beam can occur near the FSO point of acces s and the process of transition poses another obstacle. Capture the signal from the location that does not fall directly within the path of light with photons of light scattered from aerosols, fog, rain, or molecules that may be present in the atmosphere is almost impossible because of the energy levels are very low use infrared through FSO process transmission. The main reason for the exclusion of this possibility of intrusion is the fact that light is an ally and statistically isotropic in different directions from the path of the original propagation. This specific mechanism keeps the total number of photons or the amount of radiation that can potentially be collected on the detector that is not placed directly in the beam path beyond the detection level of noise. Atmospheric turbulence Atmospheric turbulence can destroy the performance of FSO systems. The changes in temperature and pressure in the atmosphere lead to changes of the refractive index along the transmission path. These changes can make the quality of received signal fade and causes fluctuations in the intensity and the phase of the received signal. These fluctuations can limit the performance of the system. The atmosphere is a viscous fluid and it has two state motions: 1) laminar (there is no mixing in the air molecules) 2) turbulent: (there is mixing that creates eddies). Atmospheric turbulence can be physically described by Kolmogorov theory. The energy of large eddies is redistributed without loss to eddies of decreasing size until finally dissipated by viscosity. The size of turbulence eddies normally ranges from a few millimeters to a few meters, denoted as the inner scale and the outer scale, respectively. So the index of refraction n is very sensitive to small scale temperature fluctuations (te mperature fluctuations are combined with turbulent mixing). So, the index of refraction is the most important in optical wave propagation. Because it behaves like a passive additive. So the spectrum of index of refraction can be described by Kolmogorove spectrum ÃŽ ¦n (ÃŽ º) = 0.033 Cn 2 ÃŽ º-11/3 , 1/L0 ÃŽ º 1/l0 Here in this model the variations in humidity and pressure are neglected. This model is the most model used in theoretical analyses but it is right only over wave number within the inertial subrange. To take into account the inner and outer scale effects, there is various models have been developed. Like Tatarskii and van Karman models. So all these models are useful for theoretical calculations but only inside the inertial range. They are not based on rigorous calculations outside the inertial range, but more on mathematical convenience and tractability. The modified atmospheric spectrum is the only model that features the high wave number rise prior to the dissipation range. ÃŽ ¦n (ÃŽ º) = 0.033 Cn 2 [1+1.802(ÃŽ º/ÃŽ ºl)-.254(ÃŽ º/ÃŽ ºl)7/6] x exp(-ÃŽ º2/ÃŽ º2 l)/(ÃŽ º2 + ÃŽ º20)11/6 , 0= ÃŽ º ∞ , ÃŽ ºl=3.3/l0 Experiment The experiment that we need to do is to use two laser sources with different wavelength (980 , 1550) and set the receivers about 2-4 km from the transmitter and start sending the signals. We will use the same signals in both transmitters. Then we will study the performance of the system and see if that help to receive the signal in more accurate way than using one transmitter. That will help us to see the effect of optical turbulence and atmospheric effects. So we will calculate the performance of the system and measure the atmospheric turbulence. So we need to ask some questions: What is the effect of optical turbulence? Is losing a part of one signal will be recovered by the other signal? Is that going to help the performance of the system? Is the pdf that we used in the transmitter side will be the same as the pdf in the receiver side? Light wave Light wave Receiver Receiver Transmitter Transmitter Transmitter Transmitter Receiver Receiver Read phonetically Dictionary Reference 1. Laser beam propagation through random media by Larry C. Andrews, Ronald L. Phillips. 2. Free space optical communications class notes. 3. http://www.seminarprojects.com/Thread-freespace-optics-full-report#ixzz1KfUtl5xP 4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-space_optical_communication

Toni Morison Analysis | Feminist Postcolonial Approach

Toni Morison Analysis | Feminist Postcolonial Approach Although Toni Morrison is known for her epic themes, vivid dialogue and richly detailed characters but this essay focuses on her approach towards feminist post colonialism. At first I will give a brief overview of the term feminist post colonialism and demonstrate how feminist discourses and post colonialism shared many similarities. Further this essay examines the construction of radicalized and gendered identities in Morrisons fictional work. I will also explore how these identities are constructed and created in fiction by using a feminist postcolonial approach. Morrisons text by addressing historical issues critically and in so doing attempting to heal historical wounds; it may also seek to change it. She focuses on the damage that the black women characters suffer through the construction of femininity in a radicalized society. I will extensively focus on Morrisons novel Jazz, Beloved, and The Bluest Eyes and elaborate how by using different narrative techniques such as characte rs, plot, setting and imagery to mirror the atrocities done to the Afro American women. Key words: Post colonialism, feminism, slavery, African American women, Harlem renaissance, Beloved. Nobel Prize laureate, Toni Morrison is considered to be one of the most popular and most important authors of the 20th Century. Much of her literary work has actively challenged the stereotypes that have been imposed on African American women throughout history. The characters in her novels are beautifully portrayed in order to allow the reader to explore their journeys and the way in which they are presented. The expression of the black female voice is characteristic of Toni Morrisons novels. Morrison, through her black female characters portrays the collective experience of black women in America which are shaped by the past experience of slavery and by the patriarchal capitalist American society. Patriarchy in America dates back to the colonial period when male authority and female submission was essential to the subsistence economy and to the social set-up. This society marginalized woman and gave them meager and indirect access to power in the community. Before going into the de ep analysis of Morison works from the feminist postcolonial perspective we must consider how both feminism and postcolonial interlinked. Feminist discourse and post-colonial theory shares many similarities. Firstly, both discourses are political and concern themselves with the struggle against oppression and injustice. Moreover, both reject the established patriarchal system, which is dominated by the hegemonic white male, and also deny the supposed supremacy of masculine power and authority. There are a significant number of literary texts that are written from both a feminist and post-colonial standpoint. Feminism, in its various forms, is a popular and powerful vantage point for postcolonial thought, and each of these texts presents a number of ways that colonization-and the consequences which last well into postcolonial eras. These texts often share views on the individuality and disparity of the subject, as well as agreeing on shared strategies of resistance against dictatorial external forces. These texts deal with the double colonization of women by both their male counterparts and the dominant colonial powers .Specially, it becomes clear that the female body becomes a thing of commodity, an item to be owned, controlled, or abused for sexual gratification by those in power. Ultimately, as one move both with and through feminist perspectives, it reveals that colonization works by creating a system of interlocking oppressions such as race, gender, sexuality, class, etc. The writings of Toni Morrison are identified with formerly colonized peoples and shaped this web of interlocking oppression in her own way. She wrote with postcolonial perspective and we find the traces such as magical realism, oppression of women, search for home and self-identity, homelessness, rootlessness, language, gender stereotype, classism, racial differences etc. throughout her writing. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality this statement by the Swedish academy is an appropriate description of Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison. Her novel Jazz which was first published in 1992 is set in Harlem of the 1920. It reestablishes an essential aspect of African American history_ the Harlem renaissance. Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual movement that was significant to the emancipation of African American at the beginning of 20th century. Setting her novel at the backdrop of this movement, she regenerates a black historical past and has given life to it. Morrisons Jazz looks back upon the Harlem Renaissance from a late 20th century perspective and revolves around the stories of African American characters Violet, Joe and Dorcas. In Jazz, Toni Morrison wants to create a novel that explores the essence of jazz. In her introduction to Jazz, Morrison writes, I wanted the work to be a manifestation of the musics intellect, sensuality, anarchy; its history, its range and its modernity. Due to this Morrisons novel not only reflects the evolution of Jazz music but also captures the soul of the jazz movement. Morrison molds the settings, plot lines, characters, and structure of her novel to recreate the rich history, revolutionary spirit, and progressive style of jazz. Morrison uses the settings in Jazz to reflect the history of the jazz movement. It also addresses its influence on the Harlem Renaissance. In addition, Morrison uses flashbacks to addresses significance settings associated with the Great Migration. Moreover, she uses the settings in the novel to reflect the connection between jazz and African American culture and history. Morrison addresses the spirit of anarchy that was embodied in both the jazz movement and Harlem life. Morrison structures the plot lines, narratives, and characters of Jazz to reflect the elements of musical anarchy, as well as to reflect the violent and anarchical spirit of the jazz moment and life in Harlem during the Renaissance. The chaotic and violent aspect of the lives of African American woman living in Harlem during the Renaissance is reflected in the actions of Violet. The lawlessness in Jazz is shown when we are confronted with the horrible action of Violet attacking the corpse of her husbands lover. Further we find out that Joe Trace is the girls murderer and are drawn deeper into the chaotic, violent world of Harlem. The actions of both Joe and Violet Trace result from their inability to accept the changing views regarding gender. Likewise, Joe Trace illustrates the possessiveness of African American males and the refusal to accept the new views to gender power. Joe kills Dorcas because she attempts to leave him. Joe is actually tied to old views of sexuality. He links sex with possession. When Dorcas rejects him and seeks sexual fulfillment in another, Joe Trace speaks out against her use of gender power. The domestic violence that spread through Harlem during this period resulted from the violent rejection of changing sexual and gender norms. In addition, it reflected the chaotic and anarchical spirit of the jazz age time when both violence a nd sensuality were at the forefront of the musical, intellectual, and cultural lives of African American life. The importance of sexual expression cannot be denied when discussing the Harlem Renaissance and Jazz Age. Sexual expression became a landmark of jazz music, dance, and culture. Morrison points out the sensuality of jazz music through the sensual relationship between Joe Trace and Dorcas. The relationship between Joe and Dorcas is passionate kind of love. Their relationship revolves around secret sexual encounters and passionate emotions. When Morrison writes playful fingers examine and caress, we picture lovers caressing each other and jazz musicians playing their instruments. Morrison uses sensual characters, plot lines, and language to mirror the sensuality of jazz and the boldness of sexual expression associated with the Jazz Age. In Jazz, Morrison reflects the structure of jazz through her modernist composition. Morrison mimics jazz composition in her creation of the novel. She uses numerous voices, structured plot lines, disconnected sections, bold and poetical language, and sensual plot lines and imagery to elaborate her ideas about that age and the situation prevailing in Harlem at that time. Through her use of various elements of modern fiction styles and structures, Morrison brings to life the boldness, sensuality, tension, and history of jazz. In Jazz, Morrison addresses the importance of African American culture and musical forms on the ideas of the Jazz Age through her characters, settings, plot lines, and modernist structure, in order to mirror the jazz history, spirit, and structure of African America art and thought. Toni Morrisons Beloved, offers significant insight into power relations through her female protagonists. The most critical type of colonial oppression experienced by the women of Beloved is physical that is concerned with controlling and taking benefit of the bodies it subjects. Sethe and her family have the direct experience of being owned by white slave holders. Women in this novel often suffer violent and controlling sexual abuse that is either not present or in much less drastic forms for the colonized men. In Beloved, a particularly disturbing form of this oppression happens when Schoolteacher and his boys restrain and violate Sethe. Morrisons novel, however, not only shows the female body oppressed, but also struggle for individuality and self-ownership. Denver, when thinking about her family considers the situation a slaves body is in both materially and under colonial ideology: Grandma Baby said people look down on her because she had eight children with different men. Colored people and white people both look down on her for that. Slaves not supposed to have pleasurable feelings of their own; their bodies not supposed to be like that, but they have to have as many children as they can to please whoever owned them (Morrison 246-7). Even in the cruel reality of sexual slavery, women like Baby Suggs are able to reclaim their humanity by simply enjoying sex. One of the glaring ironies, or hypocrisies, of colonialism is that it condemns the colonized for the very things it forces them to do. It condemns the enslaved woman for being sexually assorted, yet at the same time forcers her to have as many children as pos sible. In Beloved, colonial power over the sexual life of the female body is a horrific reality, but freedom is as close as ones own physical selfhood. Slaverys destruction of identity is another postcolonial theme from feministic point of view in the novel under discussion. Beloved explores the physical, emotional, and spiritual devastation done by slavery. The most dangerous effects of slavery are its negative impact on the former slaves senses of self, and the novel contains multiple examples of self-alienation. Paul D, for example, is so alienated from himself that at one point he cannot tell whether the screaming he hears is his own or someone elses. Slaves were traded as subhuman or as commodities whose worth could be expressed in dollars. Sethe was also treated as a subhuman. She once walked in on schoolteacher giving his pupils a lesson on her animal characteristics. She seems to be isolated from herself and filled with self-loathing. Yet her children also have volatile and unstable identities. Denver conflates her identity with Beloveds, and Beloved feels herself actually beginning to physically disintegrate. There is a sense of complete loss of self and existence among most of the characters in the novel. Due to the inability to believe in their own existences, both Baby Suggs and Paul D become depressed and tired. Baby Suggss fatigue is spiritual, while Paul Ds is emotional. Other slaves-Jackson Till, Aunt Phyllis, and Halle went insane and thus suffered a complete loss of self. Yet Sethes act of infanticide illuminates the perverse forces of the institution of slavery. Under slavery, a mother best expresses her love for her children by murdering them and thus protecting them from the more gradual destruction wrought by slavery. Where slavery exists, everyone suffers a loss of humanity and compassion. For this reason, Morrison suggests that our nations identity, like the novels characters, must be healed. Crucially, in Beloved, we learn about the history and legacy of slavery not from schoolteachers point of view but rather from Sethes, Paul Ds, Stamp Paids, and Baby Suggss. Morrison writes history with the voices of a people historically denied the power of language, and Beloved recaptures a history that had been lost-either due to willed forgetfulness or to forced silence. Magical realism as a dominant literary mode in Toni Morrisons Beloved can be considered as a decolonizing agent in a postcolonial context. Morrisons narrative in Beloved, takes the advantage of both realism and magic to challenge the authoritative colonialist attitude and so can be alleged as a powerful and efficient method to project the postcolonial experience of African-American ex-slaves in the Unites States. It also provides an alternate point of view to Eurocentric accounts of reality and history to attack the solidity of Eurocentric definitions. It is also a consequence to mirror the hidden and silenced voices of numerous enslaved generations of African-Americans in the history of United States. Beloved is written from the marginal point of view of African-Americans who do not have social and political power. It is the story of Sethe, an ex-slave, who grieves the fact that she murdered her baby girl in order to save her from a life of slavery. She mourns so much that her grief becomes manifest into a body of a young woman named Beloved, a ghost in the beginning, the same age that Sethes dead baby would have been had she lived. The presence of two opposing discursive systems of magic and real in Beloved can reflect the tensions between the colonized and colonizer discourses in a postcolonial context. Applying postcolonial terminology, realism represents the hegemonic discourse of the colonizer while magic refers to the strategy of opposition and resistance used by the colonized. Magical realism can also provide a way to fill in the gaps of cultural representation in a postcolonial context by recovering the fragments and voices of forgotten histories from the colonized point o f view. In other words, magical realism may serve as the transformative decolonizing project of imaging alternative histories. The magical realism of Morrisons text by addressing historical issues critically and in so doing attempting to heal historical wounds, not only can reflect history, it may also seek to change it. Thus, Beloved can be read as a postcolonial historiographic intervention, a strategic re-centering of American history in the lives of the African- Americans who are historically dispossessed. Toni Morrisons novel, The Bluest Eye examines the construction of radicalized and gendered identities in fictional texts, specifically in Afro-American writings. In the novel, Morrison challenges Western standards of beauty and elaborate that the concept of beauty is socially constructed. Morrison also recognizes that if whiteness is used as a standard of beauty or anything else, then the value of blackness is diminished and this novel works to subvert that tendency. In demonstrating pride in being black, this writer does not simply portray positive images of blackness. Instead, she focuses on the damage that the black women characters suffer through the construction of femininity in a racialised society. As Paul C. Taylor argues, a white dominated culture has racialised beauty, [in] that it has defined beauty per se in terms of white beauty, in terms of the physical features that the people we consider white [people] are more likely to have (Taylor, 1999, 17, emphasis in original). Therefore, in the process of trying to achieve beauty, as Taylor further argues, the experience of a black woman à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ differs from the experiences of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Jewish and Irish women (Taylor, 1999, 20). This can clearly be seen in the ways that the black women characters in Morrisons novel suffer in trying to conform to Western standards of beauty. The Bluest Eye tells the story of an eleven year old black girl, Pecola Breedlove, who wants to have blue eyes, because she sees herself, and is regarded by most of the characters in the novel, as ugly. The standard of beauty that her peers subscribe to is represented by the white child actress, Shirley Temple, who has the desired blue eyes. The novel starts with the description of an ideal white family but in the near-parodic style of a school reading primer, where we meet Dick and Jane and their lovely parents living in a nice and comfortable house with a lovely dog and a cat. The Dick and Jane text functions as the hegemonizing force of an ideology ([focused by] the supremacy of the bluest eye) by which a dominant culture reproduces its hierarchical power structure (Grewal, 1998, 24). As Donald B. Gibson also demonstrates, the Dick and Jane text implies one of the primary and most insidious ways that the dominant culture exercises its hegemony, through the educational system. It reveals the role of education in both oppressing the victim and more to the point teaching the victim how to oppress her own black self by internalising the values that dictate standards of beauty (Gibson, 1989, 20). In contrast to this hegemonic identity, the main black characters are depicted as various and very different characters located in three hierarchical families: first Geraldines, then the MacTeers and at the bottom, the Breedloves. The novel shows how these black characters respond to the dominant culture differently and this refutes easy binary social distinctions. Pauline Breedlove, Geraldine, Maureen Peal, and Pecola are black characters who try to conform to an imposed ideal of femininity. They are absorbed and marginalized by the cultural icons portraying physical beauty: movies, billboards, magazines, books, newspapers, window signs, dolls, and drinking cups (Gibson, 1989, 20). Pauline Breedlove, for example, learns about physical beauty from the movies. In Morrisons words, along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion (Morrison, 1970, 1999, 95). Consequently, in trying to conform to the ideal of white femininity, the black women characters despise their blackness which in turn leads to self-hatred. They see themselves through the eyes of white people and their worship of white beauty also has disastrous effects on their own community. Geraldine, for example, represses her black characteristics which are not fitted to white femininity as she strives to get rid of the funkiness (Morrison, 1970, 1999, 64). Being well educated and having adopted Western ways of life, Geraldine draws the line between coloured and black. She deliberately teaches her son the differences between coloured and black: Coloured people were neat and quiet; niggers were dirty and loud (Morrison, 1970, 1999, 67). However, not all the black characters admire or are in awe of Western standards of beauty. The novel also shows black people who are aware of the danger of adopting Western standards of beauty. Claudia, the young girl narrator, at the very beginning of the novel, describes herself as indifferent to both white dolls and Shirley Temple. She also realizes that she does not really hate light-skinned Maureen but hates the thing that makes Maureen beautiful. As children, Claudia and her sister Frieda are happy with their difference, their blackness: We felt comfortable in our skins, enjoyed the news that our senses released to us, admired our dirt, cultivated our scars, and could not comprehend this unworthiness (Morrison, 1970, 1999, 57). This may suggest that Claudia resists the pressure to conform to a white vision of beauty. Therefore, Claudias consciousness can also be read as decolonising her mind from colonial oppression as she frees herself from white standards imposed on black people. As Grewal argues, individuals collude in their own oppression by internalizing [the] dominant cultures values in the face of great material contradictions (Grewal, 1998, 21). Quoting Terry Eagleton she also argues that the most difficult thing in emancipation is to free ourselves from ourselves (Grewal, 1998, 21). Through Claudia, however, the novel suggests that some are capable of challenging this, but for the victims of such oppression this awareness may come too late. Conclusion: There are many literary texts and writers who have written from feminist postcolonial view but Toni Morison stand head and shoulder above due to her fictional writing about Afro American community in general and for black women in specific. There are many works of Morrison which make her distinguish among others. We find several post-colonial themes in her novels like slavery, homeliness, rootlessness, cultural clash, mimcry, question of identity, language, magic realism, marginlizatin etc. but these all themes has been presented through a female point of view that how these things add suffering in the woman life. The postcolonial vision of black identity and specifically black woman identity is that Morrison attempted to shape in her novels. These novels have primarily focused on how black people have been spiritually and physically victimized throughout the oppressive black history in the United States. She presented the question of identity of black community, that how they were n eglected even as a human being. In her novels we see complexity of colonial relations between blacks and whites. When we analyse these fictions it reminds us the work of postcolonial theorists like Frantz Fanon and Homi Bhabha, which particularly integrates the concepts of mimicry, ambivalence, and hybridity. Morrisons fiction in the frame of postcolonial theory very aptly presents postcolonial black identity.

Kosovo Crisis :: essays research papers

There has been a conflict for quite some time now between the people of once Serbia now Yugoslavia and the Islamic countries bordering them. The grudge can be traced back over 600 years to the first battle. The hatred between the two sides is still endures.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  No one knows exactly when the repugnance started, but the situation was understood. During the time of the Ottoman Empire the Turks were terrorizing most of Europe, ferociously converting people into Islam. The other option was death. The Serbs at that tie were always known for their strong faith in Christianity. So backing down was not an option. The Serbs, until this day have not invaded other countries, only defend what is rightfully theirs. There were other countries that agreed with the Serb’s standpoint so they had forces that joined too. The Serb’s allies include Hungarians, Croats, Bulgarians, Czechs, and Franks. The actual battle of Kosovo took place on June 28 1389. The Serbian’s of who were mostly comprised of peasants armed with whatever they had, and outnumbered, were led by Prince Lazar. Their manpower was about ?. They went into a full on brawl with the Ottoman Turks who were led by Sultan Murad I. their troops reached to above 30,000. Because the Serbs were defending they had the upper hand. Yet, by one strategic flaw the Serbs lost the battle. An unanticipated flank divided the mass of the Serb army and the Turks rolled over them. A very significant part of the outcome was that both Sultan Murad and Prince Lazar perished in battle. The Sultan’s killer became a hero in Serbian folklore; his name was Milos Obilivic. The battle itself took such a toll on the Turk’s forces, that it stopped there quest for conquering all of Europe. As an intimidation, a man known as â€Å"Vlad the Impaler† would put the heads of Turkish soldeirs on pikes along the border of Kosovo. The story says that Vlad was bloodthirsty because of such acts, thereby starting the whole legend of vampires. Vlad the Impaler is also more commonly known as, â€Å"Count Dracula†.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In reality by numbers the battle was definitely a Turkish victory. But the Serb’s point of view was that even though they lost the battle, they had perpetrated their cause. Because of this one fact, there has always been a dispute, and things never get a chance to resolve.

Wallace Group Strategic analysis Essay -- essays research papers

The Wallace Group is a company that manufactures and develops technical products and systems. It has three primary operational groups consisting of electronics, plastics, and chemicals. By far the largest asset of the Group is the electronics. This asset is approximately the size of both the plastics and chemical groups of the corporation. It also contributes the most to the net income at approximately 70%. The plastics and chemical divisions were acquired for the purpose of diversifying the income of the corporation from the original electronics group.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Wallace Group currently faces some problems with it company in relation to improper management. To begin with, the company seems to have difficulty in the hiring process. It seems that the company is focused on cutting cost rather than looking for effective employment solutions. For example, instead of creating a management developing program to train and recruit managers, the company relies on promoting technical staff. The cost cutting approach is also impeding the hiring of qualified engineers. The company focuses on hiring employees at the least possible salary as an alternative to paying the required amount for qualified expertise. Another issue that arises is un-standardized methods of collecting data and presenting information. For example both the vice president of marketing and the director of advanced systems collect and utilize data for marketing purposes. Their problem lies in the fact that both managers are using different data and formats for ess entially the same purpose, and therefore they create redundancy and higher workloads. By far, the most crucial problem facing the group is the lack of vision and direction from the president, Mr. Wallace himself. His diversification program that resulted in the acquisition of the chemical and plastics divisions lacked forward looking vision. He simply required the companies to maintain a profitable operation without any direction to improve.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In terms of priority, I would first recommend that the Wallace Group implement a corporate governance policy familiar to a business of its size. This would require that the company adopt a board of directors. A board of directors has five responsibilities: 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Setting corporate strategy, overall direction, mission, or visio... ... management techniques from them. This is particularly solid approach since the methods employed have already been tested and the results can be predicted. The other theory I would use to educate Mr. Wallace is the organizational learning theory. It states that â€Å"†¦organizations adjust defensively to a changing environment and use knowledge offensively to improve the fit between the organization and its environment.† (Wheelen, pg8) To utilize this theory the company must respond to the changes to reduce negative impacts and position itself to take action. This allows for the company to essentially learn from its environment and lead to its own innovations in strategic management. References Wheelen T.L., Hunger J.D., Strategic Management and Business Policy Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ (2004) Bay Area Industrial Education Council, Employee turnover cost table retrieved Jun 10, 2005 http://www.baiec.org/Employee%20Turnover%20Costs.PDF#search='employee%20turnover%20costs' Information Week Issue 1041 Wal-Mart to Suppliers: Clean Up Your Data retrieved Jun 10, 2005 http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsh&an=17226667&loginpage=Login.asp

Essay --

SOLAR ENERGY IN THE PHILIPPINES Nowadays, our environment has been experiencing several challenges that leads to it slight decline towards being damaged. Many things have occurred that has caused harm because of the effects of damage towards the environment. And as of now, we are seeing nature slowly depleting and getting destroyed due to the activities man engage to that consume our surroundings. These problems are now accepted as global problems since this issue affects the planet all throughout and not contained in only certain areas. Currently, we are facing issues that damage our planet slowly and yet despite finding ways on how to alleviate the problems, nothing seems to work since our planet still continuously shows signs of not improving. According to the World Population Review (2013), the Philippines is ranked as the 12th most populated country in the world. With less than 100 million in population, there is no doubt that the country’s energy consumption and production has been increasing over time. The Department of Energy states the Philippines’ main sources of energy come from natural gases, coal and petroleum. While all of these sources provide power and energy for the country, at the same time they also cause negative effects to the Philippine environment. Because of these sources, the country has been experiencing some issues regarding environmental problems such as large emissions of CO2 or commonly known as carbon dioxide that is one of the root causes of one of the biggest known factors of global warming, the Greenhouse Effect. These greenhouse gases come from burning millions of tons of CO2 that eventually harm the environment just by making contact with air, along with this it is also produced after having ... ...from the sun, energy consumption will be at its lowest and cheapest. In conclusion, solar energy should be utilized as the country’s primary source of electricity due to the fact that it has many benefits that would be good for several factors and do good not only for the environment but to the economy and the people of the country as well. As our country’s energy consumption increase rapidly annually, the government must find alternatives and be aware of the options that could save the country’s situation in terms of energy consumption and environment issues, which is why it is much more preferable to opt to use solar power because it is less costly, it is harmless to the environment, it is versatile and it will always remain as an abundant source of energy. All in all, solar energy must be our main source of power in order to improve the situation of the nation.

Panera Bread Essay

In this paper I will be discussing the company Panera Bread, its history, and how they decided on the business strategy that the company uses. I will also give a description of Panera’s strategic vision and how its stakeholders enable the success of Panera. Panera was built by Ron Shaich and originally started out in 1980 with a little store that used to be called the Cookie Jar. After three decades, a merger, and an acquisition later, Shaich’s empire turned into what we now know and love as Panera Bread. (Kowitt, 2012). Shaich started this bread empire when he was attending Clark University and was kicked out of a convenience store that didn’t cater to college students. So Shaich, who was the treasurer of the student body, decided that the college should make their own store, and that is exactly what they did. After running this store for the college, Shaich loved it so much that he decided to open his own store called the Cookie Jar, and in an effort to expand his offerings he became a licensee of the French bakery company, Au Bon Pain, whom later on merged with his company. Kowitt, 2012). Later Shaich stated that â€Å"[he] was worried because the French baked goods we sold at our half-a-dozen stores were becoming pedestrianized. We decided to use the croissant and bread as a platform to sell soups, salads, and sandwiches† (Kowitt, 2012). This is where they started becoming the store we are familiar with, however they had one more change to go through before they evolved into their current format. In 1993 Shaich purchased a small lunchtime soup, salad, and sandwich chain called St. Louis Bread Co. Shaich soon realized that this is where the gem of his business was located, so he changed the name to Panera, changed the environment to encourage people to gather, and sold off the other portions of his company such as Au Bon Pain. (Kowitt, 2012). This was the turning point for the company where Shaich decided to make the full business strategy for Panera to be that of the bakery cafe set up. With a vision of providing good quality breads and foods, with excellent customer service, this is key for while other companies have cut back due to the economy. Panera has continued their game plan to ensure the greatest experience for their customers. If you walk into other companies restaurants you will see longer lines, waits, and dirty tables due to those companies cutting back, whereas Panera continues to invest in labor in their cafes and the quality of their workers, as well as in the quality of their food. (â€Å"How panera bread,† 2010). This is their long term strategy and what I believe is the key to their success and the most important part of their strategy. They put emphasis on the quality of their food and the dining experience; this has really won over the customers that want a fast, clean, and healthy dining experience. This business plan of taking care of the customer first is due to the fact that the stockholders, and Shaich, who is the largest stockholder, allow Panera to remember that they started the company to provide quality service to customers, not to make money. Realizing that the stock price is a byproduct of them ensuring the customers are happy, and not the whole point of the company. A lot of companies think only of profits and hitting the bottom line, whereas Panera views their role as delivering a valued service to their customers. (Shaich, 2011). Shaich states that â€Å"We have to spend less time figuring out how to extract economic value from our stakeholders and more time creating what is valuable to them. Doing so is what ultimately creates long-term value† (Shaich, 2011). Arguing the fact that if you make sure the service you are providing is great then the customers will come, and your stock value will rise. Just like the old adage â€Å"if you build it they will come† this is the same thing, if you build a clean friendly restaurant with quality food, then the customers will come and spend money, and this is exactly what Panera has done and why they are so successful. My recommendation to Panera is to continue doing what they are doing, ensuring that the food and service quality at their restaurants stays at the high level that they already are. Never forgetting that this is what brings them long term profits, and to always keep that goal in view, instead of stripping down their services to create vast short term profits, but hurting customer loyalty and future sells. In conclusion we can see that Panera was able to start from a small little cookie store and transform into the huge restaurant chain it is today by focusing on taking care of their customers and not just looking at the bottom line of a balance sheet.

Critical Analysis: Martial Stability and Premarital Cohabitation Essay

The union of marriage has held a specific ideal in the minds of people since it was first instituted hundreds of years ago. However, over the decades, new ideas about the union have become changed, and the cohabitation of two people has become almost acceptable in the walk toward marital bliss. Most Western countries do not have issues with people living together as a couple without being married, and this has led to the concept becoming main stream for future generations (Budinski & Trovato, 2005). However, there is a dark side to co-habitation. Ronald Budinski and Frank Trovato conducted a study in 2005 on the assumption that premarital cohabitation would more likely end up in the dissolution of the marriage than those who did not cohabitate prior to marriage. They published their findings in the article, â€Å"The Effects of Premarital Cohabitation on Marital Stability over the Duration of Marriage. † It can be found in the 32nd volume, issue 1 of the Canadian Studies in Population journal. The results and findings create a new way of considering the stability of marriage in relation to cohabitation and non-cohabitation. The legitimization of cohabitation and the redefining of the term to be a â€Å"substitute for marriage† (Budinski & Trovato, 2005, pg 70) is seen in many Western countries and is the basis for a new brand of research into this new type of union on the fundamental union of marriage. The purpose of the study conducted by Budinski and Trovato (2005) was to find out if the â€Å"marital duration-dependent† existed in relation to cohabitation (pg 70). Their focus was on two main factors: the explanations for any fluctuation of the duration-dependent affect, and to find other factors that would influence the duration-dependency between those who cohabitate and those who do not cohabitate (Budinski & Trovato, 2005). The two researchers decided on two questions they needed to answer that took the main factors into consideration. The first part of the hypothesis is the belief that premarital cohabitation is more likely produce the dissolution of the marital union. The second phase of the hypothesis tests the theory that the risk of marital dissolution is reduced between the two groups the longer the couple is married. They noted five separate outcomes that could occur in regard to the stability of the marriage and cohabitation, but their real focus was on the event and causes of marital dissolution (Budinski & Trovato, 2005). Many believe that cohabitation is a short-term commitment. Researchers have created two theories in which to explain the phenomena of cohabitation. The first is the â€Å"selective thesis† (Budinski & Trovato, 2005, pg 72) which defines those people who prefer cohabitation as individuals that have a problem with staying or dealing with a stable relationship. The second theory is the â€Å"experience theory† (Budinski & Trovato, 2005, pg 72) that cohabitation can create negative views of marriage and positive views of divorce. Most of the previous research conducted supported one or both of these theories. However, in more recent studies, the convergence of equality in marital dissolution seems to be more of the norm than in previous years. This area is still quite new and still being scrutinized by researchers unable to acknowledge without proof that cohabitation is not a major factor in marital dissolution (Budinski & Trovato, 2005). Budinski& Trovato (2005) used a previously compile source of data in the 1995 Canadian General Social Survey: Cycle 10: The Family (GSS-95). The sample included all people ages fifteen and up in 10 Canadian provinces, excluding the Yukon and Northwestern territories. The response rate was 81% or 10,749 individuals. Once those respondents that did not have the necessary data were removed the total number of subjects included in the study numbered 7, 187 individuals that had the required data to conduct the study on premarital cohabitation and marital dissolution (Budinski & Trovato, 2005, pg 75). The study used a multivariate model analysis founded on the Proportional Hazards (PH) Model (Budinski & Trovato, 2005, pg 75). The first aspect of this model was the hazard function that valued the probability of the dissolution of the marital union in relation to time and other controlled variables. They used this function as the baseline to estimate the durations of time prior to marital dissolution. In essence, the dependent variable was the length of time a couple stayed married prior to separation or divorce, with covariates including age, religiousness, education, contraceptive use, region, as well as several other variables. It was assumed that each working in the equation to correlate with cohabitation and marital dissolution since each of the covariates had been previously associated with instability in the marriage union (Budinski & Trovato, 2005). The overall result of this study by Budinski & Trovato (2005) was the fact that there was not a significant difference in the dissolution of the marital union in relation to those how did not cohabitate and those who cohabitated prior to marriage. Because of this result, they focused on the covariates to see which created a significant relation between dissolution of marriage and cohabitation. The covariant of age has a definite relation to cohabitation and the dissolution of the marital union. In fact, women who were 5 years or older than their spouse were more likely to have a marriage end in divorce. This correlation tended to be 4 and ? times greater a risk than couples who were the same age. Education or lack of education was a predictor of dissolution as well. Eighty percent of men that had only a small amount of post-secondary education were likely to have a marriage end in divorce whether they cohabitated or not. Religion also proved to be a factor with 83-100% of those individuals that did not attend religious services on a weekly basis were likely to have a marriage end. The only time that cohabitation proved to correlate to the dissolution of a marriage was when the age and contraceptive use were excluded from the analysis. Only then was there a small but relatively significant relation (Budinski & Trovato, 2005). This study showed that there were only basic correlations between the concept of cohabitation and the dissolution of marriage. The fact that to gain any significant relevance requires the exclusion of two main covariates says much about how cohabitation and divorce or separation related to one another. There were five covariates that did show some relation. These include one or both of the individuals having experienced parental marital dissolution, living within certain territories, religion, spouse being in a cohabitational relationship prior to current relationship, and the use of contraceptive. However, cohabitation alone did not significantly influence the divorce and separation rates in Canada’s 10 territories that were part of this study (Budinski & Trovato, 2005). One factor that was discovered and not added to this or any study was the concept of â€Å"serial cohabitation† (Budinski & Trovato, 2005, pg 87) which is when an individual has more than one cohabitating relationship during adult life. This is a relatively new type of relationship and future studies will have to take this type of cohabitating relationship into account when looking at the union of marriage in relation to cohabitation and non-cohabitation (Budinski & Trovato, 2005). As the world changes and the societal values change, the old institutions of marriage and family will change as well. Life and society are not static, but they are predictable in some fashion. The emergence of cohabitation as a viable step in marriage started in force in the 1970’s. Today this concept is accepted and acknowledged as a legitimate union even prior to marriage. Not all cohabitational relationships will end in marriage, but many will and the chances of their remaining married in relation to those individuals who did not cohabitate is changing as well. The fact is that marriage and cohabitation are not really separate or relational. There are other factors that are more influential on the dissolution of the marriage and it are these variables that need to be considered in closer examination to have a better understanding of the factors of cohabitation, marriage, and the dissolution of a relationship. Bibliography Budinski, R. A. , & Trovato, F. (2005). The effects of premarital cohabitation on marital stability of the duration of marriage. [Electronic version]. Canadian Studies in Population , 32, 69-95.