Lafarge Tarmac Essay

Task One 1.1 Strategic context of Lafarge Tarmac Introduction When it comes to the construction business there are two main things that come in mind noise and risks along with the high costs and professional skills. However there are some construction companies in the world that are committed to their work so much that they have found a way to do the construction in a sustainable and environmental friendly way. United Kingdom is one of finest constructed countries in the world on a macro level, and the construction companies of the UK are also very good at their work. Lafarge Tarmac is one of those names in the United Kingdom which are not for their dedication for the construction business (Lafarge, 2014). Lafarge Tarmac follows a very simple strategy make a goal and follow the direction as per the strategy in order to achieve it and remove any difficulty that comes in that way. The company is well known in the entire United Kingdom for their role in construction business. The company joined forces in the year 2013 to be an Ultimate Solution co mpany for the entire construction sector (lafargetarmac.com, 2014). Basic vision of the company is very simple and dedicated to the sustainability, along with the great dedication to the safety on the construction sites. The values of the company are very diverse but united under a common set (lafargetarmac.com, 2014). Role of strategy is very important part of the business cycle. As per the annual report of the Lafarge tarmac for the year 2013 the company stated very clearly that safety is their uttermost priority and they will focus on the safety before anything even before profits and revenue. The commitment of the company is to improve the health in the construction sector continuously by doing right things in a right way at right time. Along with the health the company is also involved with the improvement of the construction company’s performance towards the environment. Lafarge Tarmac is registered under various acts and it is their duty to maintain the standards of those acts and to make sure that all the companies they work with also follow their respective standards (Lafarge, 2014). Visions, Objectives and Goals of the company As per the marketing of the Lafarge Tarmac the company has very simple vision  that is to understand the needs of the customers and make sure that the customers get the same goods and services as they require, in order to achieve the target as per the vision of the company, the employees at the company works at their highest level, however there are some other visions of the company as well. One vision of Lafarge Tarmac is dedicated to the safety of the people at the construction sites, as per the health and safety of the company the goal of the company is to operate in such a way that it becomes a zero harm business (lafargetarmac.com, 2014). If under any case the harmful situation arises the workforce of the company is always willing to tackle it and do not walk by under any circumstances. The other objective of the company is to protect the environment, the basic vision of the companies for this is to operate in such a way that the environment get least affected due to the opera tions of the company. The company tries to prevent pollution during the construction activities and improvement in the field by any means. In case the company needs to be defined in one word Lafarge Tarmac will be known as the sustainable and sustainability is what they operate for as per the objectives of the company (lafargetarmac.com, 2014). 1.2 Issues in Strategic Planning at Lafarge Tarmac Planning is the basic duty of the manager as no activity can be done without doing a proper planning. However there are some issues for the managers during the planning processes and setting up the targets of the organization (James, n.d.). The targets for the Lafarge Tarmac are very different from any other construction company in the United Kingdom as unlike Lafarge Tarmac almost 80 percent of the construction companies just do their tasks and do not take the safety and environment as their responsibility at all. During the strategic planning of the Lafarge Tarmac the environment of the operative area is analyzed very thoroughly and plans are made according to the results. Being a construction solution provider it is also a responsibility for the company to be updated about any new technology that can improve the construction in an eco friendly manner (lafargetarmac.com, 2014). The Thinking of the company’s managers is also very important as the needs of the customers of the company are different the company will also have to make the strategy in such a way so that it can keep the advantage point to itself in the market. In order to formulate the strategic plan the  Matrix given by the Ansoff is a great tool. According to the matrix the strategy can be made by performing four activities (James, n.d.). Market penetration is done for understanding the needs of the customers and tries to grow its existing roots in the market. Lafarge tarmac has used this technique as they have tried over and over to give the best product and services by improving their products. Market Development on the other hand is done in order to enter the new markets and expand the business. Lafarge Tarmac is one of the largest construction solution providers in the United Kingdom and they have tried to reach the customers by opening up the branches in almost every part of the UK. Product Development is done for growing in the existing markets by introducing the new products and services or by re-launching the existing products and services with increased performance. One of the best example for the Lafarge Tarmac is instead of a long and lengthy process at the construction site they came up with readymade concretes th at are buy ready to be used in construction. Diversification is done to introduce in the new offers in the market. It is very important and risky stage for any company as in order to do this all three activities of the matrix needs to be done properly in order to perform the diversification. Lafarge Tarmac was started by making a deal among the American Anglo and Lafarge for the construction material supplier but now the company has made the deal with the other companies as well and soon it will be the largest producer of the cement in the world. Portfolio analysis is also an issue for the manager while making strategies for the organizations as the growth rate of the construction market is constantly changing in the market and the rate for the Lafarge Tarmac is very constant. One other major issue for the company is to decide as what kind of plan needs to be made by the organizations as there are different kind of plans like upside down plan, top down plan, bottom up plan, informal plan and every other plan in the book. However the mangers of the Lafarge Tarmac came up with something new which was a combination of every aforesaid plan. 1.3 Planning Techniques in context with Lafarge Tarmac There are many techniques that can be used by the Lafarge Tarmac in order to develop their strategic plan the following are few tools that can be used by the organization. Directional Policy Matrix According to this tool of strategy formulation there are two elements that are important for the strategy formulation, first is the position of the business in the market, which is also known as the capability of the market, broadly the company can be defined as weak, average or strong in the market (McDermott, 2014). The other element is the position of the sector under which the business is involved which can be categorized as Unattractive, average or attractive and the strategy can be formulated by using the given Matrix. For Lafarge Tarmac which is a strong competitor in the market and has the range of average and attractive products for the customers being a leader and growing in the market is a great strategy as per the directional policy matrix. Source: http://strategycapstone.ning.com/page/directional-matrix Space Matrix It is one of the best methods for reverse engineering. There are four quadrants of this strategy that defines the nature of the strategy that needs to be made, the strategies can be Aggressive, Competitive, Defensive and Conservative, it depends on the customer of the organization that what kind of strategy the company should opt for (maxi-pedia.com, n.d.). An example of the matrix for the Lafarge Tarmac is given below. As said already that Lafarge Tarmac is a leading construction solution provider and that is why it is a dominating company and being aggressive is the finest option for the company. Source: http://www.maxi-pedia.com/SPACE+matrix+model+strategic+management+method Task 2 2.1 Organizational Audit for Lafarge Tarmac Benchmarking Audit Benchmarking is the process under which the business performance and processes of an organization is compared with the best practices in the industry or market used by the other companies (Doucet, 2010). Usually the  elements of the operations like time costs and quality of the organization is measured by this kind of auditing. Under the benchmarking auditing the comparison of the company’s processes is made with the best processes which exist in the market creating a high level of opportunity for the organization to grow up. For Lafarge Tarmac the benchmark auditing is a great auditing tool as they can learn about the new ways to give the solutions to the construction sector. However it must also be noticed that Lafarge Tarmac is already a leading company as a construction solution provider so there are not many things that are better than that of what is practiced in the company. SWOT Analysis SWOT is an abbreviation for four key factors of the organizations Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Strengths of Lafarge Tarmac are their products serving as the key solutions for the construction sector in United Kingdom, cement and ready concrete cement is best examples of the products of Lafarge Tarmac. Weaknesses of the company comes forward when it comes to the new technologies and variety in products as the company is serving one of the best quality products in the country but sometimes the demand and requirement of the consumers is completely different from others. Opportunities for the Lafarge Tarmac are countless as under the construction sector there is constant improvement in the technology so as develop the construction sector and make work easier and safer. Threats for the Lafarge Tarmac are not very much as the company already has an advantage and a very strong position in the market. The only threat that the company faces is regarding the safety on the construction and competition from the other companies. Value Chain Analysis Value chain analysis model is a very useful tool to evaluate the maximum value for the customers. I order to do the value chain analysis first of all the activities of the Lafarge Tarmac needs to be analyzed and then the value for every step in the production should be evaluated as if it is at its maximum potential, and lastly when the managers gets sure of the fact that changes can be made it needs to be identified that whether these changes would be beneficial or not. The model of the Value Chain for Lafarge Tarmac  is given following, under which the primary functions and secondary functions for Lafarge Tarmac are given and after summing up all the values in Lafarge Tarmac the margin is added for the company and the final value is given to the customers. Inbound Logistics are the raw material for the Lafarge Tarmac which is tons of Limestone for cement production in addition to this many dozens of trucks are also required for transportation. The main operation of Lafarge Tarmac is production of cement which is made by following the production plan of the company. Outbound product of Lafarge Tarmac is cement which is very high in volume but at the same time the product is very sensitive too so the warehousing is done very efficiently by Lafarge Tarmac. Marketing and sales techniques of Lafarge Tarmac facilitates the transfer of the products produced in the company to the consumers. Service is the process in which the values of the product increases as Lafarge Tarmac makes products like cement and other construction material as per the specification of the customer and what matter is that the product is delivered in the same form and quality as required by the customer. Scenario Planning Scenario planning or scenario analysis is used by the organizations in order to make the long term plans for the business, it is a very difficult kind of auditing to be done for Lafarge tarmac as the construction sector in UK is changing rapidly and new technologies are being introduced and plans cannot be made for long run on the basis of the existing technology and materials. Strategic Positioning of Lafarge Tarmac There are many tools that can be used by the organization in order to evaluate the position of the existing strategy of the company, Ansoff matrix is one of the key tools for this purpose and that can be used very effectively in case of Lafarge Tarmac. As per the Ansoff Matrix there are four tasks that are to be carried out in the market (Reeves, 2014). First is Market Penetration which is done in order to increase the share of the company in the existing markets with the existing products, it has been done very effectively by Lafarge Tarmac as it has signed the deals with Holcim  Ltd a gigantic company in cement industry so as to be the largest cement producer of the world. Second part of the matrix is market development which is done in order to expand in the new markets with the existing products and services this has been done by Lafarge Tarmac since the beginning as the company was formed by Lafarge and American Anglo so as to be the construction solution provider in UK (lafar getarmac.com, 2014). Third part of the matrix consist of Product development which means the development of existing products by launching new products in the existing markets or by re-launching the product after making improvements Making of the readymade concrete and cement was a evolution of Lafarge Tarmac as a product development. The fourth and last quarter of the matrix is diversification which in simple terms can be defined as the combination of all the other three parts of Ansoff Matrix, as of Lafarge Tarmac no bigger diversification can be expected from a company which was formed in 2013 and which becomes the largest cement producer in 2014. 2.2 Environmental Audit for Lafarge Tarmac A business has to be maintained under many environments every part of the environment is important for the business in order to make sure that the business will run smoothly. PESTLE The term PESTLE is used to define the group of environments that makes impact on every business, the given is the pestle analysis of Lafarge Tarmac. Political Environment creates a very adequate impact as any new policy for the construction sector made by the government will make impact on the business of Lafarge Tarmac for example in case the government makes some new policy of taxation for the construction sector it will make a significant impact on the company (Doucet, 2010). Economic environment is also a very crucial part of the business as the economic condition of the UK will decide how much construction work is to be done and that will decide how much business UK can generate for the Lafarge Tarmac, for example during the period of recession not much work of construction is done but at the time of boom the construction demand reaches the heights of the sky. Social environment also plays a very important role in the business as the society is the factor for which the business operates there will not be any customer for the Lafarge Tarmac if they do not consider the social environment of UK. Society is the ultimate consumer for Lafarge Tarmac and the company has understood this fact very well that is why they have set up the issue of safety at their utmost priority. Technological environment is yet another important factor for the Lafarge Tarmac as the rapid change in technology in the construction sector makes it difficult for the organization to cope up however still the company has to manage in one way or another. Any new machine for the construction sector which can reduce the costs at the construction sites can prove out to be a game changer for Lafarge Tarmac. Legal environment is a very strict environment under which all the rules and regulations are given which needs to be followed by Lafarge Tarmac. In UK there are many rules and regulations as per the Acts which are necessary to be followed by Lafarge Tarmac for example rules of taxation and rules for the Accounting records. Environment is the last factor that affects business as being the part of the environment it is the responsibility of Lafarge Tarmac to save the environment and over the time the company has been doing this brilliantly. Lafarge Tarmac has a separate policy for the environment under which the company tries extremely hard to use the resources in such a manner that it doesn’t affect the environmen (OGC, 2007)t. Porter’s Five Forces Model As per the porter’s five forces model there are five forces that affect the business, same logic applies for the Lafarge Tarmac. First force is the threat of the competition by the new entrants, being the leader by example Lafarge Tarmac turned the construction sector in its favor so as to be the leading construction solution provider. The second force is the threat of competition from the existing companies; Lafarge Tarmac has achieved so much in so little time which is why the existing companies try to take advantage over company. Third force is the bargaining power of the customer under democracy customer is the king of the market and Lafarge Tarmac has constantly tried to keep up to the expectations of the customers (Mind Tools, n.d.). Fourth force is the bargaining power of the suppliers as it has already been discussed that Lafarge Tarmac is the ultimate solution provider which means that they needs regular supply of the materials in order to make their products which is possible only when they can maintain a healthy communication with the suppliers. Last and fifth force is rivalry,  Lafarge Tarmac was started in the year 2013 and in 2014 it become the leader as construction solution providers this has created the feeling of rivalry among those companies who are in the business for years and always wanted to be in the place where Lafarge Tarmac is today. 2.3 Stakeholders Analysis Stakeholders are the people who have the keen interest in the organizational activities. Broadly stakeholders are divided into four groups which also known as the Stake holder’s significance grid, same is shown below for Lafarge Tarmac (Mind Tools, n.d.). The name of the group and the standard strategies to be opted for them are given in the above matrix strategies (Schmeer, n.d.). Stakeholders mapping is yet another technique in order to manage the stakeholders under which the stakeholders are divided into groups and then the strategies are made for them it is similar to the Stakeholders significance grid as shown above. The given is the example of Stakeholder’s Mapping (Stakeholdermap.com, n.d.). Source: http://knowhownonprofit.org/campaigns/communications/effective-communications-1/stakeholdermap.jpg/image_preview Task 3 Growth is one important factor for the organizational survival, it is important for the organization to grow in one way or another whenever possible. Broadly there are many ways under which the organization can grow in the market. In this part of the assignment various limited and Substantive growth strategies for Lafarge Tarmac has been discussed which can be tried by the company as an alternative for its current strategy (Lafarge, 2014). In the final section of this part of assignment the very best strategy out of the discussed strategies will be suggested for Lafarge Tarmac to be adopted in future. 3.1 Alternate Strategies for limited growth, Substantive Growth or retrenchment for Lafarge Tarmac Cement is the basic necessity for the growth as every time a new building or other construction sites. Growth in the cement industry has also been constant in the past few years. However for the Lafarge Tarmac the growth is not only an opportunity  it is also a form of strategy. Some of the strategies for Lafarge tarmac are based on the limited growth some are for substantive growth while at the same time some are based on the retrenchment of the growth. Strategy for Limited Growth Growth is one of the key factors in evaluations of In a rapid changing environment of construction business instant growth can turn out to be a huge risk for the Lafarge Tarmac hence it is beneficial for the company to grow as per a limit and do not take high risks instantly. Lafarge Tarmac is a new company which came in the existence in 2013 and it is a huge success for the company that in 2014 it has signed a deal with a gigantic cement company in Switzerland to be the largest cement producer of the world (Sherman, 2014). However as an alternate strategy for the company it can try to be growing as per limit so that no financial burden comes on the organization. In case the company grows by limit it will also not be a problem of costs for the organization but what is more important than the costs is that after the five or six years the organization will have more money to grow instantly than their competitive organizations. As said already Lafarge Tarmac is a new company and do not have the enough experience to handle things on a large scale so it can be very complex for them to handle the business on a large scale however it will not be a problem for the company if they opt for the Limited growth Strategy (Dransfield et al., 2004). One plus point of the current strategy of growth adopted by the Lafarge Tarmac is that it has signed to be in ventures with the two giant companies in cement industry. Joint ventures are also a technique of the limited growth as under the joint ventures different organizations share their powers. The share of the company in the venture is decided on the basis of the mutual agreement of organizations (Reader, n.d.). Strategy for Substantive Growth Substantive growth is also a very successful way to grow in the market. Substantive growth can prove out to be very beneficial for Lafarge Tarmac as it can cover up many deficiencies of the company. If Lafarge Tarmac takes on the strategy for the substantive organization the company will be having more growth opportunities as compared to the other organizations in the  future. Lafarge Tarmac is a new company it is not beneficial for it at all to stand against the giant companies of the construction sector (Reader, n.d.). Rather it is beneficial for Lafarge Tarmac to grow substantively for few years and when the organization has enough experience to tackle any other name in the construction sector they can even try to go for the instant growth. Merging and acquiring the other companies are the most commonly practiced techniques of the substantive growth. Till now the company has not acquired any other company but the decision of the company to merge with the Holcim Ltd. has been the best growth for the company as Holcim is a giant in the cement industry and after forming Lafarge Holcim it will be completely in favor of Lafarge to gain the market advantage as Holcim is already on the heights of the success. But when these two organizations will merge a new and biggest producer of the cement will emerge. Retrenchment Strategy/ Disinvestment strategy Retrenchment generally means cutting up the processes in the organizations so that the organizations can become more stable financially but for the Lafarge Tarmac costs has never been the issue, however there is one more fact that can prove out to be interest worthy for Lafarge Tarmac as the company is currently involved in every product for the construction site like concrete, cement, bricks and all (WebFinance, Inc. , 2014). However if the company will cut loose some of its products it can focus more on the cement. Merging with Holcim will make the organization more focused on the cement than any other product produced by the organization. Alternative Strategies Expansion can be made for the growth of Lafarge Tarmac; Ansoff matrix provides the best model for the growth. Diversification is the key part of the matrix as when diversification is done the organization grows automatically. Integration is yet another strategy that can be used by Lafarge Tarmac as the organization already is producing multiple products for the construction sector it can add some more products or services to their existing list of products (OGC, 2007). For example Lafarge Tarmac is a producer of cement for which limestone is a key ingredient hence the company can also start to sell the limestone to the other companies who produce  cement. Strategic Alliance is the most advantageous strategy which is based on the mutual understanding of different organizations in sharing the resources. Licensing or franchising for the branches of the organization can also prove out to be a very effective growth strategy for Lafarge Tarmac. 3.2 Appropriate Future Strategy for Lafarge Strategy Lafarge Tarmac already is under a joint venture and it has signed up to be merged with the Holcim Ltd. hence the best option for the organization will be to diversify in the countries other than UK. Hence diversification would be the best option of growth for Lafarge Tarmac. By diversification Lafarge will not only grow but at the same time the company will also gain the competitive advantage over its competitors. Diversification strategy is best suitable option for Lafarge Tarmac as under this strategy the company will be able to continue with their existing decisions and not much will be required to be changed. The strategy of diversification is highly acceptable for company like Lafarge Tarmac which has been formed under JV of two big companies, who can take high risks (Turner, 2008). Resources has not been an issue for Lafarge Tarmac so far hence it s expected that addition resources after diversification can also be available easily, which means this strategy is highly feasible for the organization (Carttar, 2014). Task 4 4.1 Roles and responsibilities for Strategic Implementations Meaning of Strategy Implementations to the Business Operations Overall there are three basic influencers of the business operations in Lafarge Tarmac, i.e. Culture, System and Structure of Lafarge Tarmac. While implementing the strategy so as to achieve the desired objectives the values of organization can change completely. The impact of the strategy on business operations has been described using the table below. Strategy Implementation Business Operations (The impact on Strategy Implementation on the operations of Business) Culture Rather than the strategy the culture of the business make more impact on the strategies of Lafarge Tarmac. By implementing the strategy the goals of the company will become more unified and oriented on one common objective. Structure There are three factors that are affected by the strategic implementation, i.e. communication, decision making and coordination among the different teams in Lafarge Tarmac. The behavior of the employees in Lafarge Tarmac is also expected to be changed in a positive way for the organization which will increase the productivity of the company. Systems Different kind of systems can be made in Lafarge Tarmac using the new strategy. This will create the impact on the output of the organization, the behavior of the employees and integrating system of the company. The Strategy Practice Model Strategists Who? Activities What? Methodologies Which? Management Committee Process Determination Evaluation for the improvements during the controlling function of management Board of Directors Defining mission Statements After taking consideration of the market position of the organization and the overall performance of market Marketing Managers Environmental Analysis Using different methods of analysis like surveys and interviews Strategic Managers Evaluation of competitive Advantage Analyzing the market on the basis of the financial reports and comparing the same with that of the organization’s Any Volunteer from the management or the manager of the team who will be affected most due to the strategy Communicating the Strategic Plan Communication in a confident level with deep understanding of the concept of the strategy. 4.2 Resource requirement in order to implement the new strategy in Lafarge Tarmac Type of Resources required Access to/ Availability of Resources Constraints to the implementation Finance Availability of finance has never been the issue of problem for Lafarge Tarmac as it is formed under the venture of two big companies, further the own assets of the organization are double the value of its liabilities During the days of recession the finance do becomes problem for the organization. IN other case where if one organization incurs losses the other company do not wish to contribute the entire share for the company with only half share in profits. Human Resources Human Resources are appointed in Lafarge Tarmac from many different ways, like through the educational institutes or from the other job offers to the experienced people The lack of interest in the new generation for the construction sector. Physical Resources Infrastructure of the organization is a highly valuable asset for Lafarge tarmac, further the raw material for the products of the company is also available to the company easily. Variety of technologies creates confusion as what to be chosen for the company, further different quality of the raw material is also a constraint as sometime the desired quality of the limestone or other raw material is unavailable with the suppliers. Time for the reaction in the organization Lafarge Tarmac tries a lot of things with its management team so it might take some time for the final results to emerge up. Sometimes the organization keeps on waiting for a positive response but as so much is  going on in the organization the loss is not even noticed by the managers and time keeps on increasing. 4.3 Targets for achievements to monitor the strategy of Lafarge Tarmac Tools of Evaluation Theoretical Standpoint Targets to be evaluated Benchmarking Compare the performance of the organization with the performance of entire construction solution providers in the industry Whether there is any company performing better in the area of evaluation and if yes then finding out how? SWOT Analysis Analyzing the strengths, opportunities and weaknesses, threats for the Lafarge Tarmac. A strategy which increases the strengths of the company is said to be a good strategy while on the other hand if it increases the weaknesses or threats then it is not working well for the company Balanced Scorecard Evaluating the starting and ending position of the organization from the plan to the till date of evaluation and comparing the same with the targets. Whether the improvements has been satisfactory due to the new strategy and if not finding out the reasons for the same. Key Performance Indicators Evaluation of every process involved in the operations of Lafarge Tarmac Finding out the key process for the organization and improving the processes which are not working well for the company. Conclusion Lafarge Tarmac is one of the most successful organizations among the construction solution providers today. The company was formed in 2013 and within one year the company is on the edge of becoming the largest cement producer of the world. Under this assignment the strategic evaluation for Lafarge Tarmac has been done, including the strategic analysis of the company using various models, the current strategy has been evaluated and  alternate strategies has also been advised for the company. In the last segment of the assignment, different affects of the strategies are shown with the help of tables and the roles of the stakeholders are made clear, in the end the tools for evaluation of the strategy has also been discussed. Bibliography Carttar, P., 2014. Strategic Planning and Evaluation: Tools for Realizing Results. [Online] Available at: http://www.ssireview.org/blog/entry/strategic_planning_and_evaluation_tools_for_realizing_results [Accessed 14 November 2014]. Doucet, G., 2010. TOOLS FOR STRATEGIC EVALUATION: TOOLS AND METHODS THE COHERENCY ARCHITECT SHOULD APPLY. [Online] Available at: http://coherencyarchitect.com/2010/03/15/tools-for-strategic-evaluation-tools-and-methods-the-coherency-architect-should-apply/ [Accessed 14 November 2014]. Dransfield, R. et al., 2004. Business for Foundation Degrees and Higher Awards. Jordan Hill, OX: Harcourt Education Limited. James, R., n.d. How to do Strategic Planning: A Guide for Small and Diaspora NGOs. PEER LEARNING PROGRAMME. Lafarge, 2014. Strategy. [Online] Available at: http://www.lafarge.com/wps/portal/4_3_2-Strategie [Accessed 10 November 2014]. lafargetarmac.com, 2014. OUR COMPANY. [Online] Available at: http://www.lafargetarmac.com/about-us/ [Accessed 12 Novemb er 2014]. maxi-pedia.com, n.d. SPACE Matrix Strategic Management Method. [Online] Available at: http://www.maxi-pedia.com/SPACE+matrix+model+strategic+management+method [Accessed 14 November 2014]. McDermott, M., 2014. Directional Policy Matrix. [Online] Available at: http://strategycapstone.ning.com/page/directional-matrix [Accessed 15 November 2014]. Mind Tools, n.d. Porter’s Value Chain: Understanding How Value is Created Within Organizations. [Online] Available at: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_66.htm [Accessed 12 November 2014]. Mind Tools, n.d. Stakeholder Analysis: Winning Support for Your Projects. [Online] Available at: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_07.htm [Accessed 11 November 2014]. OGC, 2007. Managing Successful Programmes. TSO.

My favourite book «Pride and prejudice» Jane Austen Essay

I like reading very much. Books are the history and tastes of each era. Some of them hopelessly lost its charm, others – are relevant and are read with interest today. Every writer wanted to write for ages, but could he or no; it turns out in subsequent generations. I can say that I love all kinds of books. I have a lot of them, they are different, some imaginative, other fantastic.  «Pride of woman, beggar and completely free – in its poverty, in its irony, in the strength of her character †¦ Is there something equal to such pride? Prejudice of woman, almost incapable to kick, to believe in the sincerity of men’s feel and stop thinking about it. This novel â€Å"Pride and Prejudice† by Jane Austen. Book, without which there wouldn’t be â€Å"psychological† novel or â€Å"feminist† literature or – simply – â€Å"elite† prose as such!  »  «Pride and Prejudice » is a novel of manners by Jane Austen, firs t published in 1813. The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education, and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England. Elizabeth is the second of five daughters of a country gentleman. In the small town of Meryton that in the county of Hertfordshire, comes the sensational news: one of the richest estates in the county Netherfield Park will not be empty : it was rented by rich young man , aristocrat Mr. Bingley . To all of his accomplishments was adding another one, the most significant , truly priceless : Mr. Bingley was a bachelor . And minds of young ladies were darkened and confused by this news for a long time, Mrs. Bennet (mother) in particular. However, Mr. Bingley arrives not alone; he is accompanied by sisters and inseparable friend Mr. Darcy. Bingley is naive, trusting, opened for communication, without snobbery and ready to love everyone. Darcy – completely opposite of him: proud, arrogant, closed, full of exclusiveness of belonging to a select society. Relationship developing between Bingley – Jane and Darcy – Elizabeth is quite appropriate to their nature. Bingley and Jane. They are riddled with clarity and directness, and both are guileless and trustful (which will be the basis on which arises a mutual feeling , then the cause of their separation , and then it will  bring them together again .) Elizabeth and Darcy would be quite different: the attraction – repulsion, sympathy and equally obvious mutual dislike, those  «Pride and Prejudice » that will bring them a lot of suffering and mental anguish, through which they will painfully seek each other approval. Their first meetings immediately designated mutual interest, curiosity. Both are equally outstanding: Elizabeth is very different from other ladies – the acuity of mind, independence and judgments, and Darcy – education, manners, restrained arrogance. Originally, the arrogance of Darcy, his snobbery that underlines his behavior, which are Elizabeth and dislikes, and even reave. Their pride draws them together, but the prejudice of Darcy can only repel Elizabeth. Their rare meetings on the balls and in the living rooms – it’s always a verbal duel. Duel of equal opponents – always courteous, never going beyond the bounds of decency and social conventions. Darcy’s soul encompasses the feeling of love, with which he opposes. But unable to resist, he declared his love Elizabeth. The scene of his explanation is one of the strongest scenes in the novel. His confession mixed with bitterness, declaring love, he says, that he was not supposed to love. Surprising that Darcy gets refusal, moreover, Elizabeth accuses him of wrongful deeds. Reading this book, I wondered what attracted proud aristocrat a country girl? Naturalness, harmony of her soul. Maybe he hasn’t met such good ladies. And Elizabeth overcome her prejudice, when she met Darcy in his estate of Pemberley . There she found a new Darcy, about whom servants spoke like he is the best man in the world. Because of the society, he put on a mask of a proud aristocrat, and only the love to Elizabeth helped him to take it off. This novel belongs to my favorite works. For me, it became a kind of standard. Purity and elegance of style, brightness and liveliness features, understanding of psychic life, personality, clarity of composition, especially the language of each character, all this combination creates an unusually coherent harmonious picture. Reading this amazing novel, I look inside myself and learn  «to read the hearts » and check the sense by mind.

Evaluation of Sources Essay

Published in 2010, Dick Weissman’s book Talkin’ ‘bout a Revolution: Music and Social Change in America focuses on music in America that dates back to the early 1900’s, but incorporating key facts about the music of the 1960s. Weissman goes in depth about the different musicians that had an impact during the 1960s, and also talks about how the history of America and music were interrelated. Weissman states specifically how and why historical events such as the Civil Rights Movement, the assassination of President Kennedy, and the rock and roll/hippie movement were all related to the changing music of the time. He paints a vivid picture with words that allow the reader to understand the underlying themes of the music, as well as showing the view of the people of the time. The only limitation of this source is that Weissman does not include actual accounts of people; he provides his own assumption of the change in musical trends of the time. David Shapiro, a rock journalist and drug counselor, wrote a book about the relation of drugs and music, Waiting For the Man: The Story of Drugs and Popular Music, which was published in 1988, and contained an overview of specific drugs and the bands that used them. David Shapiro was alive during the 1960s which allows him to portray his view and to show the mentality of the bands and people of the time. Shapiro’s writing with the use of public opinion includes a first-hand account of people and events during the 1960s. Even though the book lacks to incorporate the details of history were taking place, there is detailed description of the types of music that were evolving due to their association with narcotics.

Discussion Question Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Discussion Question - Assignment Example Thus, value of the customer information determines the value of the company (Blattberg, Kim and Neslin 32). With time, database management helps companies understand their customers better and offer them products and services which match their perceptions, likes and requirements more closely. Customer loyalty is the measure of happiness and satisfaction of customers in which they buy the product or avail the services of a company time and again. From an organization’s point of view, it is a strategic management tool wherein right customers are attracted and stimulated to buy and bring in more customers. Lucky Larry made use of databases and valuable customer information to identify frequent and heavy gamblers. It initiated a casino publication to keep them abreast of the latest happenings, news and programs at Lucky Larry’s. There were tournaments arranged for the identified key players to encourage their playing enthusiasm and entice them to come back time and again to the casino. Players who played the biggest and the largest were entitled to prestigious ‘A-Club’ and were also given silver coins as commemoratives from Lucky Larry’s (Kotler, Bowen and Makens 642). Kay Palace, the manager of the database program constantly measured the impact of programs designed with the help of information extracted from databases to improve the results and bring about necessary changes as and when needed. Lucky Larry’s database marketing is definitely a part of integrated marketing program as it is an attempt to attract and contact the customers directly. Database marketing falls under direct marketing when it fulfills two conditions- the results of the list are analyzed and secondly, the list is updated; both of which are true in the case of Lucky Larry’s. Percy (164) asserts that database marketing, as a part of direct marketing can serve as a strategic marketing tool and

Global Warming and how it effects he world in a negative way and how Essay

Global Warming and how it effects he world in a negative way and how it must be stopped - Essay Example The outcomes are very severe like those of glacier’s melting as the internal environment of the globe heats up, which can cause an increase in sea level which would eventually be disastrous for coastal cities round the globe. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Third Assessment Report projected various emission outcomes, under which North America, over the next century could warm at 1-3˚C in under low emissions, or 3.5-7.5˚C in a high emissions scenario (Gupta 41). Every other country is suffering from the effects of global warming and it has become a big environment opponent. But a big issue in stopping global warming is that the emission of carbon dioxide guaranty increased economic activity and hence, it cannot be slowed down or diminished completely. A wise solution is that ethanol must be used in automobiles as a fuel since it is renewable and does not cause as much green house effect as caused by burning of other fossil fuels. No doubt the concep t of global warming swallowing the whole earth has greatly mobilized the people and they are trying any possible means to reduce its effect like performing recycling and using alternative fuels (ethanol fuel

Marketing research - social media audit Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Marketing research - social media audit - Essay Example Additional products and services include Safaricom Mail and Safaricom shops. In March 2007, Safaricom Company, in collaboration with Vodafone Group Services Limited, via Vodafone Marketing S.A.R.L., launched the M-PESA services (Mobile Money Transfer Services). Based on its advancements in terms of growth and service provision, the Company has signed agreements with other companies i.e., Vodafone International Holdings B.V. it is worth noting that one of its major achievements was realized in 2009 (two years after its establishment), when it realized a100 percent interest in Packet stream Data Networks (http://www.safaricom.co.ke/about-us/about-safaricom/our-history-heritage). WHAT: Safaricom begun as a department of the Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporation based on an analogue ETACS networks and later upgraded to GSM in 1996. On 3 April 1997, Safaricom Limited was integrated as prescribed in the Companies Act under the category of private limited liability company, and alt ered into a public company on 16 May 2002, with limited liability. WHO: Safaricom Company is faced with a stiff competition for Airtel, Essar-yu, and Orange companied. Although they apply different strategies, their targeted market is one. WHY: Following its good reception by the market and effective management, Safaricom Company has come up with a range of services and products such as financial aid initiatives, charity foundation, communication support, customer care services, advisory services, flashback services, ‘kipokezi’ services, mobile internet connectivity, e.t.c. KEY WORDS Safaricom limited (Current name of the company since the year 2002) Safaricom Kenya (Fundamental name of the company) Safaricom Foundation (Its branch that is tasked by major charitable activities to the communities) ‘M-Pesa’ (Safaricom being the sole provider of this service where subscribers can send and receive money via their mobile phones as long as they are within the pro ximity of the service coverage, i.e., East Africa). ‘M-Shwari’ (Safaricom being the sole provider of this service aimed at promoting local business operators i.e. SMEs). ‘Okoa Jahazi’ (Safaricom being the sole provider of this service. ‘Okoa jahazi’ is a Kiswahili term that means advance acquisition of airtime that is paid upon toping up the line). Bob Collymore (Safaricom CEO) Mobile application providers (these applications are mentioned in the executive summary covered above) Mobile Money Transfer Services provider (in addition to the ‘M-Pesa’ services covered above, pay bill services, and buy airtime/top up services are also provided). COMPANY ANALYSIS AND COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS Competition intensity within any industries is not an issue that is based on luck. Competition has its foundation on the underlying industries’ economics and proceeds well beyond any other established competitors within a defined market. Not all in dustries have equal potential while competing for market coverage. Companies differ basically in their definitive profit potentials as the collective strength of the forces of competition differs; the forces range from intense in industries like paper, tires and steel, where no firms earn spectacular returns, to relatively mild in industries where high returns are common. Initiating

American Government Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

American Government - Essay Example The so called representatives of the peoples that are chosen only serve to represent themselves and their interests. Their aims are to make themselves popular in the world over and to create fear among nations (Roger, 2004). The people have no power to make decisions of national governance as it would be in true democracy. The system ensures important decisions to be made by few people who create inefficiency in the whole process of decision making and execution. There concentration of power on top level has seen stagnation of economy among other bad decisions that have continued to plague the tax payer. This form of the government represents their wealthy clients at best often ignoring the have-nots who are the people who have elected it. Therefore the party in power is not the problem facing American but the social contract structure whereby decision making process is left for the wealthy few instead of being distributed to the people. The only solution would be to redesign the Ame rican government and that would be through constitutional amendment to restore the power to run the country back to the people to ensure the system get efficient since the elected representatives will become directly responsible to their actions and answerable to the people. Furthermore, decision making will be decentralized. Social contract comprises the philosophical therories describing agreements between the ruled and the rulers among the members of an organized society and the philosophies defined the duties of each party, limitations, and rights (Stuart, 2007). A contract in normal cases comes with specific obligations and therefore in political scenario a contract between the citizens and the sovereign power grounds the nature of obligation on each party. Under the social contract the legitimate authority is drawn from the consent of the people. Members of the society are bound by the social contract to respect the ruling government

Strategies for Management Improvement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Strategies for Management Improvement - Essay Example These are what to sell and whom to sell (Stone, 2001). It is entirely related to the markets and products. In this matrix, there are four quadrants that represent four courses of action that could be considered while making any strategic decisions regarding the growth of the organization. The matrix is shown below. In this growth strategy, existing products of the organization are sold in the existing markets. There are four major objectives that could be achieved by adopting market penetration strategy. These are increasing or maintaining the current market share of the existing products, securing dominance in the growth markets, restructuring a grown-up market and finally increasing the usage of the existing products by the existing customers. Increasing or maintaining the current market share of the existing products: this objective could be attained by adopting more competitive strategies regarding pricing, advertising. Putting in more resources into personal selling might also be helpful in achieving this objective. Restructuring a grown-up market: Any mature or grown up market could be restructured by driving out the competitors. Innovative pricing strategies need to be designed so that the competitors consider the market as an unattractive one. Again extensive promotional campaign would work as a catalyst in the process. In the ‘market development’ growth strategy existing products are sold into new markets. Implementation of this strategy would include selling products in new geographical locations, establishing or finding new distribution channels and designing innovative pricing policies. One of the most effective growth strategies is introducing new products in the existing markets where the organization already has its presence. New competencies are required to develop in order to adopt this strategy. Organizations can either develop entirely new products or simply modify the existing products in order to get the attention of the customers in the existing markets.

Banned tv ads Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Banned tv ads - Essay Example In this paper we discuss the issues that have led to the banning of two condom adverts in the United States and also describe their intended meanings. The first advert informs and persuades consumers to use Dulex condoms, this advert is aimed at encouraging people to use Dulex condoms, the advert shows a male meeting a woman across the street but he is accompanied by some creatures at the back and this are intended to be signify sperms, however this creatures are trapped in the condom. In the second advert we have a man and male child where the child wants a product but the adult refuses to purchase the product, this shows that parents or adults should not restrict children to purchase products in the market including condoms, the other meaning is that adults should use condoms to avoid unwanted pregnancies that may lead to financial instability where one cannot afford products for their children. The adverts are created in such a way that they are appealing to the general public, they are supposed to pass the message to a lot of people and the more appealing an advert is then the more effective it becomes in the market, for this reason therefore adverts will use humor and other appealing features to encourage viewing and therefore achieve its intended purpose. The first reason why the adverts were banned is due to the fact that US advert regulation is very strict on adverts that are related to food and health, condoms are no exception in that they help in reducing sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies, however these adverts may encourage individuals to engage in sexual activities, the adverts may encourage young children to have sex and this will have a negative impact in the society, this is because the advert is aimed at informing the consumers about an existing product and this advert is aimed at explaining its market size through encouraging people to have sex using

Natural Hazards Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Natural Hazards - Essay Example The natural hazards highlight how man has been able to study the different technological inventions which have been done and how it has fallen short of the remaining expectations which are needed to correct things within the discussion of natural hazards. This means that natural hazards are something that has to be properly forecasted before they could be studied and hence research basis is being drafted all over the world. The role of the meteorological department is of importance here because it points out how these natural hazards are going to be tackled and what efforts need to be made in order to make sure that the people living in close proximity of a natural hazard are dealt with, the sooner the better. This paper discusses natural hazards and the solutions to these problems. It is important to define what a natural hazard is. This is one event or activity which has a very negative effect on the people or the environment under which these people live. Research has proven that many natural hazards are related with one another, and occur on a frequent basis, one after the other. Earthquakes can lead to tsunamis and drought can produce famines. The difference between a natural hazard and a disaster is that a natural hazard is a calamity that is caused due to nature while a disaster is because of the changes that man has brought about on the face of the earth upon which natural hazard has been struck, and which has led to a lot of destruction. What is most important to know is the fact that natural hazards usually produce deaths, loss of property, migration of the people from the place where the natural hazard has struck, and a number of other consequences. Before moving ahead further, it is significant to understand what natural hazards really are (Wisner 2003). The avalanches are natural hazards which come under the geophysical hazards. These avalanches consist of a slide of a large snow rock down from a mountainside which is caused due to a buildup of sno w when it released from a slope. This usually happens within winters when mountains become very dangerous for the inhabitants living on them as well as the climbers who are trekking on them. On the other hand, an earthquake is a natural hazard which is a phenomenon that comes about due to quick release of stored energy and which radiates seismic waves. Earthquakes shake and thus displace grounds which lead into tsunamis. Most of these earthquakes happen every day, where only few of them are big enough to cause serious damage. Lahars are natural hazards which are very closely tied in with volcanic eruptions and result in the emission of mud, rock, ash and other materials to slide down the volcano at a swift speed. These lahars can destroy entire cities and kill thousands of people within a matter of seconds. The sinkholes are localized depressions within the surface topography which happen due to the collapse of a subterranean structure which might include a cave (Smith 2004). Sinkho les are rare though the large sinkholes can develop at a fast pace in areas where there is a lot of population and can result in the collapse of buildings as well as structures which are strongly built. Volcanic eruptions do arise when a volcano is active and is able to release its power. This is apparent through the different forms of eruptions which can come about in the form of lava

HW 6 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

HW 6 - Assignment Example Off-the-job training involves employees being trained at an institution that is independent from the organization that they are working with and requires more costs due to more travelling and tuition. On the other hand, on-the-job training is done within the organization implying that it does not require travelling costs or tuition fees. Weighting the aspects incorporated in each method, the best method is on-the-job training because it would not only bring convenience and eliminate additional costs but also encourage mentorship and coaching as employees learn when working. In addition, time is not wasted. In the implementation step, the organization arranged on when to begin the training and the time to be devoted to the training after which the employees began their training. The effectiveness of the decision was weighted by assessing the performance of the employees after the training and comparing it with their pre-training performance. For this particular organization, the outco mes were as anticipated because the employees improved their performance

Management Functions and Roles Essay Example for Free

Management Functions and Roles Essay This week I interviewed Mr. Bradford, the health care administrator of Willis Knight Health Center. Mr. Bradford has been in the health care field for 17 years. He has been the coordinator and director at the Willis Knight Health Center for 11 years. Human Resources and leadership are two most pressing functions according to Mr. Bradford for his organization. Human resources is the organizational function that deals with issues related to people such as compensation, hiring, performance management, organization development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication, administration, and training. humanresources. about. com). Human Resource is also a strategic and comprehensive approach to managing people and the workplace culture and environment. Effective human resource management enables employees to contribute effectively and productively to the overall company direction and the accomplishment of the organization’s goals and objectives. (humanresources. about. com) Leadership plays an important role as well. As a leader you should be able to create more leaders, you must be able to have the people following you stand up and get noticed so they in turn have other people following them while a chain of responsibility and cohesiveness forms so you create a well-oiled machine. Working with different individual on daily basics there is no way that you can satisfy each and every one. Creating a safe, healthy and happy workplace will ensure that your employees feel homely and stay with your organization for a very long time. Paying out bonuses or having any kind of variable compensation plan can be both incentive and disillusionment, based on how it’s administered and communicated. Adopt a systematic approach to ensure that knowledge in databases to provide greater access to information posted either by the company or the employees on the knowledge portals of the company. Have open house discussions and feedback mechanism as a leader you should be able to take constructive criticism. (empxtrack. com) There are five key challenges or areas, some strategic and some operational. Leadership, pay and reward, equality and diversity, talent management and service transformation and efficiency. Placing and shaping community leadership and delivering services to empowered and engaged citizens requires a new order of leadership skill and capacity from public sector leaders, both political and managerial. Pay and reward remains the immediate battleground for HR in the short term. National negotiating machinery is increasingly out of touch with the needs of local employers, politically directed by ministers and, as a consequence, is more focused on managing cost managing cost pressures and the broader economic position. Increasingly, the need to ensure organizational approaches to diversity has a true focus upon communities and community cohesion has meant that the role of HR in shaping, supporting and embedding good approaches to equality and diversity. Supply and demand: talent spotting and development and, most importantly, the ability to deploy talent effectively for the future means that HR needs to provide resourcing and development solutions that are faster, more flexible and technology enabled to reduce the bureaucracy and paper-based approaches that many still protect and love. Finally service transformation and efficiency the big challenge, in the future get involved with service transformation and modernisation. (personltoday. com) In conclusion to better services the people we serve is to continue to educate the staff, make winners out of your staff, always make individuals better as you become better and have a great relationship with your staff and patients. Additions to training life experiences can help alone the way, best lessons learned are the ones we learn on our own.

Facial Emotion Recognition Systems

Facial Emotion Recognition Systems CHAPTER-1 INTRODUCTION 1.1: Introduction Face plays important role in social communication. This is a window to human character, reactions and ideas. the psychological research shown that nonverbal part is the most enlightening channel in social communication. Verbal part offers about 7% of the message, vocal 34% and facial expression about 55%. Due to that, face is a theme of study in many areas of science such as psychology, behavioral science, medicine and finally computer science. In the field of computer science much effort is put to discover the ways of automation the process of face detection and segmentation. Several methods addressing the problem of facial feature extraction have been proposed. The key problem is to provide suitable face representation, which leftovers robust with respect to diversity of facial appearances. The method of face recognition plays an important role in peoples life ranging from commercial to law enforcement applications, such as real time surveillance, biometric personal identification and information security. It is one of the most challenging topics in the interface of computer vision and cognitive science. Over past years, extensive research on face recognition has been conducted by many psychophysicists, neuroscientists and engineers. In general views, the definition of face recognition can be formulated as follows Different faces in a static image can be identified using a database of stored faces. Available collateral information like facial expression may enhance the recognition rate. Generally speaking, if the face images are sufficiently provided, the quality of face recognition will be mainly related to feature extraction and recognition modeling. Facial emotion recognition in uncontrolled environments is a very challenging task due to large intra-class variations caused by factors such as illumination and pose changes, occlusion, and head movement. The accuracy of a facial emotion recognition system generally depends on two critical factors: (i) extraction of facial features that are robust under intra-class variations (e.g. pose changes), but are distinctive for various emotions, and (ii) design of a classifier that is capable of distinguishing different facial emotions based on noisy and imperfect data (e.g., illumination changes and occlusion). For recognition modeling, lots of researchers usually evaluate the performance of model by recognition rate instead of computational cost. Recently, Wright and Mare ported their work called the sparse representation based classification (SRC). To be more specific, it can represent the testing image sparsely using training samples via norm minimization which can be solved by balancing the minimum reconstructed error and the sparse coefficients. The recognition rate of SRC is much higher than that of classical algorithms such as Nearest Neighbor, Nearest Subspace and Linear Support Vector Machine (SVM). However, there are three drawbacks behind the SRC. First, SRC is based on the holistic features, which cannot exactly capture the partial deformation of the face images. Second, regularized SRC usually runs slowly for high dimensional face images. Third in the presence of occluded face images, Wright et al introduce an occlusion dictionary to sparsely code the occluded components in face images. However, the computational cost of SRC increase drastically because of large number of elements in the occlusion dictionary. Therefore, the computational cost of SRC limits it s application in real time area, which increasingly attracts researchers attention to solve this issue. 1.2: Psychological Background In 1978, Ekman et al. [2] introduced the system for measuring facial expressions called FACS Facial Action Coding System. FACS was developed by analysis of the relations between muscle(s) contraction and changes in the face appearance caused by them. Contractions of muscles responsible for the same action are marked as an Action Unit (AU). The task of expression analysis with use of FACS is based on decomposing observed expression into the set of Action Units. There are 46 AUs that represent changes in facial expression and 12 AUs connected with eye gaze direction and head orientation. Action Units are highly descriptive in terms of facial movements, however, they do not provide any information about the message they represent. AUs are labeled with the description of the action (Fig.1). Fig. 1: Examples of Action Units Facial expression described by Action Units can be then analyzed on the semantic level in order to find the meaning of particular actions. According to the Ekmans theory [2], there are six basic emotion expressions that are universal for people of different nations and cultures. Those basic emotions are joy, sadness, anger, fear, disgust and surprise (Fig. 2). Fig. 2: Six universal emotions The Facial Action Coding System was developed to help psychologists with face behavior analysis. Facial image was studied to detect the Action Units occurrences and then AU combinations were translated into emotion categories. This procedure required much effort, not only because the analysis was done manually, but also because about 100 hours of training were needed to become a FACS coder. That is why; FACS was quickly automated and replaced by different types of computer software solutions. 1.3: Facial emotion recognition systems The aim of FERS is to replicate the human visual system in the most analogous way. This is very thought-provoking job in the area of computer vision because not only it needs effective image/video analysis methods but also well-matched feature vector used in machine learning process. The primary principle of FER system is that it would be easy and effective. That relates to full automation, so that no extra manual effort is obligatory. It is also chosen for such system to be real-time which is particularly significant in both: human-computer interaction and human-robot interaction applications. Besides, the theme of study should be permitted to act impulsively while data is being captured for examination. System should be intended to evade limitations on body and head movements which could also be an important source of data about shown emotion. The limitations about facial hair, glasses or extra make-up should be reduced to lowest. Furthermore, handling the occlusions problem looks to be a test for a system and it should be also considered. Other significant features that are wanted in FER system are user and environment independence. The prior means that, any user should be permissible to work with the system, regardless of of skin color, oldness, gender or state. The latter relates to conduct the complex background and diversity in lightning conditions. Further advantage could be the view independence in FERS, which is likely in systems based on 3D vision. Face Detection As it was stated earlier, FER system comprises of 3 steps. In the first step, system takes input image and does some image processing methods on it, to detect the face region. System can function on static images, where this process is called face localization or videos where we are working with face tracking. Main problems which can be come across at this step are different scales and orientations of face. They are generally produced by subject movements or changes in remoteness from camera. Substantial body actions can also reason for severe changes in position of face in successive frames what makes tracking tougher. What is more, difficulty of background and variety of lightning circumstances can be also quite puzzling in tracking. For example, when there is more than one face in the image, system should be able to differentiate which one is being tracked. Finally, obstructions which usually give the impression in impulsive reactions need to be handled as well. Problems stated overhead were a challenge to hunt for methods which would crack them. Among the methods for face detection, we can differentiate two groups: holistic where face is treated as a whole unit and analytic where co-occurrence of characteristic facial elements is considered. 1.3.2. Feature Extraction Afterward the face has been situated in the image or video frame, it can be examined in terms of facial action occurrence. There are two types of features that are frequently used to define facial expression: geometric features and appearance features. Geometric features quantity the displacements of certain parts of the face such as brows or mouth corners, while appearance features define the variation in face texture when specific action is done. Apart from feature type, FER systems can be separated by the input which could be static images or image sequences. The job of geometric feature measurement is generally connected with face region analysis, exclusively finding and tracking vital points in the face region. Possible problems that arise in face decomposition job could be obstructions and incidences of facial hair or glasses. Besides, defining the feature set is tough, because features should be expressive and possibly not interrelated. Recognition of Expression The latter part of the FER system is based on machine learning theory; exactly it is the classification job. The input to the classifier is a set of features which were recovered from face region in the previous stage. The set of features is designed to describe the facial expression. Classification needs supervised training, so the training set should consist of labeled data. Once the classifier is trained, it can distinguish input images by assigning them a specific class label. The most usually used facial expressions classification is finished both in terms of Action Units, proposed in Facial Action Coding System and in terms of common emotions: happiness, unhappiness, fury, surprise, disgust and fear. There are a lot of different machine learning methods for classification job, viz.: K-Nearest Neighbors, Artificial Neural Networks, Support Vector Machines, Hidden Markov Models, Expert Systems with rule based classifier, Bayesian Networks or Boosting Techniques (Adaboost, Gentleboost). Three major problems in classification job are: picking good feature set, effective machine learning method and diverse database for training. Feature set should be composed of features that are discriminative and characteristic for expression. Machine learning method is chosen usually by the sort of a feature set. In conclusion, database used as a training set should be adequate and contain various data. Methods described in the literature are presented by categories of classification output. 1.4: Applications Enormous amount of different information is encoded in facial movements. Perceiving someones face we can absorb about his/her: †¢ Affective state, connected with emotions like fear, anger and joy and moods such as euphoria or irritation †¢ Cognitive activity (brain activity), which can be seeming as attentiveness or boredom †¢ Personality features like sociability, nervousness or unfriendliness †¢ Honesty using analysis of micro-expressions to disclose hidden emotions †¢ Psychological state giving information about illnesses helpful with diagnosis of depression, mania or schizophrenia. Due to the variety of information visible on human face, facial expression analysis has applications in various fields of science and life. Primarily, teachers use facial expression investigation to correct the struggle of the exercise and learning pace on a base of reaction visible on students faces. Virtual tutor in e-learning planned by Amelsvoort and Krahmer [26] offers student with suitable content and alters the complexity of courses or tasks by the information attained from students face. Additional application of FERS is in the field of business where the measurement of peoples fulfilment or disappointment is very important. Usage of this application can be found in many marketing methods where information is collected from customers by surveys. The great chance to conduct the surveys in the automatic way could be able by using customers facial expressions as a level of their satisfaction or dissatisfaction . Furthermore, prototype of Computerized Sales Assistant, proposed by Shergill et al.   chooses the appropriate marketing and sales methods by the response taken from customers facial expressions. Facial behavior is also studied in medicine not only for psychological disorder diagnosis but also to help people with some disabilities. Example of it could be the system proposed by Pioggial et al.   that aids autistic children to progress their social skills by learning how to recognize emotions. Facial expressions could be also used for surveillance purposes like in prototype developed by Hazel hoff et al.. Suggested system automatically perceives uneasiness of newborn babies by recognition of 3 behavioral states: sleep, awake and cry. Furthermore, facial expression recognition is broadly used in human robot and human computer interaction Smart Robotic Assistant for people with disabilities based on multimodal HCI. Another example of human computer interaction systems could be system developed for automatic update of avatar in multiplayer online games. 1.5: Thesis Organization The thesis is organized as follows: The thesis is opened with an introduction i.e., Chapter 1, in which it is discussed about the introduction, physiological background and facial emotion recognition systems along with the Thesis organization and the Tools used for the whole project. Chapter 2 discussed about the literature survey in which the brief explanation of previous works is given and explained. Chapter 3 discussed about the proposed system in which the each part of the face was detected and the emotion of the person is detected based on extreme sparse learning. Here we use the spatial-temporal descriptor and optimal flow method to recognize the emotion. Chapter 4 plays key role in this project which gives the information of software that used for the project i.e. MATLAB. The results and discussions are presented in Chapter 5. This chapter describes the results that are obtained for the proposed system. Chapter 6 discussed about the advantages of the proposed system and disadvantages of the existing systems. Hence the conclusion and future work, references are presented in chapter 7. Then the references are mentioned in the chapter8. 1.6: Tools Used Image processing toolbox MATLAB R2013a(version 8)

The grief over a lost pet

The grief over a lost pet This grief may be so difficult that the person may feel more upset over a pet than a human loved one; there are many feelings, and stages that are involved in losing a pet. Five stages that are included in losing a pet are denial, bargaining, anger, depression, and resolution. Pam Brown once said, If there is a heaven, its certain our animals are to be there. Their lives become so interwoven with our own, it would take more than an archangel to detangle them (Brown, n.d.). I awoke to a fresh spring breeze gusting through my window, the sounds of newly born birds chirping, and the smell of blooming flowers. Yet, for some reason something inside me begged and pleaded for me not get out of bed. Something shouted inside me, shouted inside this little twelve-year-old girl that this world was full of anger, hate, and unconscious drones moving around like people, people that were not living but just existing. Against my bodies, wishes and my horrible thoughts I heaved myself up and began to start my morning. I remember it was about 9:00 AM and I had a chiropractor appointment at about noon. I wandered around the house as if I had never been there before, feeling lost, in an unfamiliar body but with no reason for this feeling just pushed myself on. Assuming the feeling would go away eventually, I stumbled into the kitchen in my pajamas. Only to be greeted by the only thing in the world that filled the void inside me, my dog Shiloh. A flash of memory came to me and I lived in that memory standing in my kitchen remember the memory of the struggles it took me to convince my mom that getting a dog was the best possible therapy and telling her that it would heal everything. I began to chuckle to myself, I was not sure if I was laughing because she believed me and let me get him or because I had strung a line of BS to her in hopes of a yes answer and here it turned out that my BS was right. I got Shiloh from our local pet store. Every Saturday this pet store would have one cat and one dog up for adoption. Once I had convinced my mom this was the answer to everything, we got ready and went to look for my psychologist in a dogs body. The drive to the pet store was exhausting I could hardly contain myself. I remember watching the lines on the side of the road stream by the car; I thought that maybe if I concentrated on something, that it might put me in some sort of hypnosis and before I knew it that, we would be there. That did not work, actually it made me quite ill and when I looked up, we had driven maybe about a mile so much for that brilliant idea. I began to imagine what my dog would look like black, white, or spotted. Maybe with long hair and those enticing puppy eyes every dog owner knows. I thought up thousands of names, only stressing myself out more, what collar I would pick, would I get a boy or a girl dog. The most overplayed question in my head was if my lin e of BS was going to come true, would it fill that feeling of hatred, loneliness, and worthlessness. Then I found myself asking would he or she like me? That to me was one of the most apparent reason I needed help, I was worried if a dog was going to like me. We pulled into the parking lot of the pet store, the sounds of the tires rolling across the pavement and the screeching halt awoke me from my hypnosis. There was that last question ringing in my ear, would he or she like me? I realized we were there and felt this tension in my chest, hands, and me as a whole. This is what I had been waiting for and all of a sudden I felt scared what if I picked the wrong dog what if that feeling that everyone talks about, the feeling of knowing its the right choice is not there. I gathered my thoughts and pushed my stomach from my throat back to where it belonged and left what I hoped would be the last of those feelings in the car. As my hand grasped the handle and opened the door the sound of the one dog reverberated in my ear. At that moment nothing else mattered, I was for once in my life numb to those awful feelings. The nervousness, fear, and anxiety must have latched on to someone else that was in close range. There was a line in front of the two cages all of a sudden a thought came into my head what if someone in front of me adopts the dog first. I quickly tried to grab the thought and throw it away I did this so vividly that I thought perhaps I had acted it out in the middle of the store, luckily, I was not that crazy. That is when I heard the little boy in front of me say EW, mommy, I dont want this dog. A sense of relief flew threw me. As the people in front of me moved aside I saw him, sitting in the cage alone completely aware of his feeling of being unwanted not feeling good enough to go home with a little boy. His dark brown eyes glazed over almost like tears, his color almost like the grainy sand , and little spots almost like God had peppered him just on his feet before he sent him on his way. My attention focused on why in the world this little boy did not want him. That is when I noticed his back right leg was limp. The woman informed us that he did not utilize this leg he was born with it but had more want of love and loyalty then I had ever felt. I realized he was just like me but just did not have the capability to say it. I imagined him screaming out as I had done multiple times to my father I am here! Love me, want me, and give me the chance to show you how wonderful I am. I needed him, I wanted him, and there was without a doubt in my mind that I wanted to be that person to give him what I so longed for. In that instance, I looked at my mom and said, He is the only thing I want in life right now, and he is mine. We brought Shiloh home, the whole ride home I glared into his walnut eyes and noticed that that glaze was gone. In my eyes, I had given him what I longed for and for that moment, I felt peace of mind, a feeling that everything was going to be okay. That day he became my everything, my world. I signed on to a silent pact that day, a pact of friendship, loyalty and love that would be unmatched by anyone. A dog that loves unconditionally, without judging and does not need anything explained or asked he just knows. I loved him and he loved me, my question was answered he did love me. There was nothing in the world that would take him away from me, we were invincible together, or so I thought. A year had passed by and it was the best year of my life, he was perfect. He amazed me his leg never bothered him it was as if his hardest struggle in life had floated away. He ran on three legs and pounced around in the yard as if he were a gazelle roaming the plains of Africa. I recall thinking to myself that a person who has never owned a dog has missed a wonderful part of life. I came back to my senses standing in my kitchen the morning of my chiropractic appointment wondering why this day is so different from any other day, Why I thought about all of this so in depth. I stared at those same walnut eyes thanking God for letting me own such a courageous, loyal dog. I went into the bathroom only to notice I still was not dressed, my hair was disheveled, pointing in all directions, much like roadways on a map. I decided that since it was only 9:00 in the morning that I had time to take Shiloh outside and play for awhile, knowing that he would not judge me on how I looked I stayed in my pajamas. Opening the door I felt the crisp breeze glide over my face, my bare feet on the sun bathed porch, noticing the great warmth under my toes. I stretched as far as I could reach, staring at the sun as if I were grasping it in my hands, Shiloh did the same. As I opened my eyes, I realized the cows across the street were intently focusing on us as if they wanted to engage i n a staring match. We sat in the front for awhile, just listening to the rustling leaves, the crackling of pine trees branches as if they were all stretching in unison enjoying the same things we were. I sat there, admiring how simple life could be when you had what you needed right by your side. The smell of freshly baled hay filled the air and the sound of the baby calves across the street calling to each other to play. A day like any other day, the smells and sounds of a normal day, but something was still lingering, something that was unknown, which I think, is why I was so sensitive to this incognito feeling. I walked through the dampened dew grass, reached down, grabbed the felt covered toy, and began to toss it around for Shiloh. My mom had woken up and come outside to look for me. She stood on the porch and told me that I should probably start to get ready for my appointment seeing as to how I was still in my pajamas and frankly a mess. My mom turned and went inside to get ready. Little did I know that the feeling I had been having all morning would soon show itself in true form. It was almost as if the next seven minutes were stuck in a time warp. As I turned around for Shiloh I noticed he had went across the road to the barn. Worried and frantic I did the first thing I thought of and last thing that he would consciously hear, I called his name, SHILOH come here! He then did what he did best, listened to me. Shiloh came running across the pavement of the road; I remember hearing his toenails clipping on the pavement. A sudden sense of relief came over me, followed by complete and utter trauma. I could smell the diesel, hear the sound of the roaring engine, I ran for my life and let out a horror-filled shrie k that took a part of me with it. I saw I was too late, I saw my everything, my world take the impact that I raced so hard to take for him. I fell to my knees, feeling the cold mud mush around my knees. I felt nothing, not a heartbeat. I heard nothing, no birds, no wind, the trees that were just stretching in the wind had stopped as if they knew the severity of the situation. A part of me died that day that I have never gotten back. My mom rushed outside, I had not moved, not blinked, not conscious. I came back to reality, and I came back with such anger, anger I had never experienced. I cursed every word that seeped through my body and directed it at the driver. As quick as the cursing began, it stopped I went into the house in silence and stared at my reflection telling myself it was a dream, to wake up damn it! I closed my eyes and counted to ten, nothing changed. This was reality. I sat in the house, in silence. My mom ran in the house told me she was going to the vet, I said nothing. My sister stayed with me while my mom did what I was not able to do, and I blame myself every day. I sat there for hours while my mom was gone and repeated please let him be okay God, please let him be okay. I received a phone call from my mom that he needed to be euthanized, and asked what I wanted to happen with his body. I said, He needs to come home, bring him back to me. A little while passed by and then I heard the crunching of the gravel, the squeaks of the brakes, and the car door shut. A sense of relief came over me he was home, but not home with me, home in heaven. I told myself I would not look at him. I found myself busting through the door like a horse on the racetrack. My baby, my Shiloh was in a sky blue bag tied shut, and alone. The day we got him came to my mind and I realized I could not save him from his loneliness again. The unbearable anger came over me, I briskly opened the bag as if maybe they made a mistake and he was alive or maybe if I opened it quickly enou gh he would breathe again, just for me. I ever so slightly touched his face, and quickly pulled back he was cold. I grabbed him from the bag and immediately cradled him, rocking him back and forth. I do not know how long I sat there holding him, but I do know that at twelve years old I learned what it felt like to lose a child. The sound of the shovel hitting the dirt was deafening. I wondered how I was going to be able to put him in this hole, my hand began to tighten around the bag like a vice grip. It dawned on me that someone was going to have to break both my hands before I would toss him away. The sick feeling came to me that if I could just keep him maybe it would not be so hard. The thought of letting go became harder to do than anything. I was angry at Mother Nature, the birds were still chirping, people laughing, cars zooming by. I expected the earth to stop turning and everyone to grieve with me. Shiloh was not just a dog he was my world, I wanted to die with him, lay next to him for eternity. The shovel stopped, it was time I had to let him go. As my fingers started to release from the bag the crackling of the bag unstuck itself from my hands as if Shiloh himself were clinging to me, begging me not to let him go. I sat in the cold dirt next to the hole, the grass creeping up my knees; I lowered my arms, hesitantly, not to let him go to quick in fear that I might hurt him. He was dead, he felt nothing, not the whistling wind, the warmth in my hands, or my pounding drum beat that my heart was letting out. So loud that the angels that were watching could hear it, perhaps it made some angelic sound that drew them to me. As I let go, I felt like I was letting go of everything I knew about myself, all the esteem, every fiber of my being was being buried in the hole with him. I stood there the guilt overwhelming me I should have went to the vets office with him, that cold sterile place, without his mom, how could I abandon him in his most precious time of need. If I could have been there maybe they would have saved him, maybe my need for him to live would have been enough if I had been there. That day will forever be a part of me. If you have a dog, you will most likely outlive it; to get a dog is to open yourself to profound joy and, prospectively, to equally profound sadness (Garber, 2011). After the death of Shiloh I became extremely depressed and cried daily, I could not get over it. I waited for a year and hoped it would get better and now almost ten years later I have for the most part had resolution. It was not until I took the course Vet 123 that I learned why it was so difficult. There are different stages in what we call the grieving process. These stages are not linear, meaning that a grieving person can move in and out of stages in any order. These stages include: Denial, Bargaining, Anger, Depression, and resolution (Mccurnin, 2010). The denial stage is a defense mechanism that helps to ease the humans from any unbearable news or reality. This is shown in the way that the client will act; they will often want the veterinary staff to repeat diagnoses, prognoses, and treatment plans (Mccurnin, 2010). The stage of bargaining is when the grieving person acts out helpless attempts to control and change the reality of the situation. They will often try and find miracle cures or even attempt to treat it at home with home remedies. The client may also get second opinions and even replace a pet too soon. In hopes that this new dog will ease the pain and suffering they may get a dog that is the exact same breed, color, and even name the dog the same name (Mccurnin, 2010). The sad thing is that most will try this and then when the new dog does not fill that position, the owners will often become mad. The next stage is Anger. Anger is very difficult to work through and work with. This is when they will feel overwhelmingly guilty. Guilt is the hardest for people to relinquish. This stage is usually directed at the veterinary staff, they feel that perhaps it was the clinics fault that their pet did not survive. Once they are able to let go of the guilt and anger the process continues (Mccurnin, 2010). The Depression stage consists of feelings of extreme sadness, worthlessness, and the grieving person may not function normally. You become irritable, sleep depravated, and very restless. This stage must be worked through and should not be avoided (Mccurnin, 2010). The final stage of the grieving process is resolution or acceptance. Once the grieving person reaches this stage things balanced themselves out, they feel okay, and are able to function no rmally. The pet has not been forgotten and new attachments can be made without hesitation or guilt. (Mcurnin, 2010). Usually the grieving process is easier for children than it is for adults. There are some factors that change how a person grieves such as: multiple losses, a loss that was associated with a special person or event, traumatic death of a pet, loss on an important day, inability to be able to afford treatment, and guilt about the death (Mccurnin,2010). Many people deal with grief very differently, for a lot of people their pets are their children. 50% of people consider their relationship with their pets as extremely strong (Mcurnin, 2010). So in knowing this people may react and act in very odd or even absurd ways sometimes due to how they grieve. Some other instances that make the grief process more difficult is a disappearance of a pet, witness a violent and unnecessary death of a pet, sudden illness or trauma, and not being present when the pet dies or not being able to say goodbye. The loss of a pet is difficult for everyone involved, including the veterinary staff. Euthanasia of a pet is the number one cause for burnout in the clinic (Mccurnin, 2010). Some reasons that the death may be more difficult for the veterinary staff is that the pet could not fight the disease and died after much time and medical effort. The staff also becomes attached to these pets. Often in euthanasia the client may be present during the euthanasia which makes the situation more stressful. Due to problems arising during the procedure and the clients witness this (Mccurnin, 2010). It is never uncommon for a veterinary technician or any member of the staff to cry with the clients, this can often help in some situations. However over time in the practice you will acquire the skill to read situations and now how to respond (Mccurnin, 2010). Dogs dont know about beginnings, and they dont speculate on matters that occurred before their time. Dogs also dont know or at least dont accept the concept of death. With no concept of beginnings or endings dogs probably dont know that for people having a dog as a life companion provides a streak of light between two eternities of darkness .For those who love dogs, it would be the worst form of a lie to call any place where dogs were banned Paradise. Certainly no loving God would separate people from their canine friends for eternity (Coren, n.d.). In conclusion the death of a pet is one of the hardest things you could face. The feelings that you get when losing a pet can come in many forms, and may take a few weeks to months to years. It all depends on how you grieve. The day I lost Shiloh I remember wondering if I was ever to get over it or if I would ever be able to own another animal knowing the unavoidable reality in the end. I pondered if it was really worth it in the end worth the pain, unhappiness, and the worthlessness. The same things I had wished away with getting Shiloh in the first place. It was all worth it in the end for it is better to have loved and lost then to have never loved in the first place. I have learned so much from this tragedy, because I feel that that was a turning point in my life and that is one of the reasons I am where I am today. I want to help and save animals to the best of my ability to be able to send that dog back home to his or her little girl. Until one has loved an animal, a part of ones soul remains un awakened (France, n.d.).

The Great Gatsby: The Integrity of Nick Carraway :: essays research papers

The Great Gatsby: The Question of Nick Carraway's Integrity In pursuing relationships, we come to know people only step by step. Unfortunately, as our knowledge of others' deepens, we often move from enchantment to disenchantment. Initially we overlook flaws or wish them away; only later do we realize peril of this course. In the novel "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the journey from delight to disappointment may be seen in the narrator, Nick Carraway. Moving from initial interest to romantic allure to moral repugnance, Nick's relationship with Jordan Baker traces a painfully familiar, all-to-human arc. Nick's initial interest in Jordan is mainly for her looks and charm. Upon first sight of her at the Buchanan's mansion, he is at once drawn to her appearance. He Notes her body "extended full length" on the divan, her fluttering lips, and her quaintly tipped chin. He observes the lamp light that "glinted along the paper as she turned a page with a flutter of slender muscles in her arms." He is willing to overlook her gossipy chatter about Tom's extra- marital affair, and is instead beguiled by her dry witticisms and her apparent simple sunniness: "Time for this good girl to go to bed," she says. When Daisy begins her matchmaking of Nick and Jordan, we sense that she is only leading where Nick's interest is already taking him. It is Jordan, then, who makes Nick feel comfortable at Gatsby's party, as we sense what Nick senses: they're becoming a romantic couple. As they drive home a summer house-party, Nick notes her dishonesty but forgives it, attributing it to her understandable need to get by in a man's world. She praises his lack of carelessness, tells him directly "I like you"--and he is smitten, After Jordan tells him the tale of Gatsby and Daisy's past, Nick feels a "heady excitement" because she has taken him into her confidence. Attracted by her "universal skepticism" and under the influence of his own loneliness, Nick-- overlooking this time her "wan, scornful mouth"--seals their romance by planted a kiss on Jordan's lips. But the attraction can't last and is, by summer's end, replaced by repugnance. The smallest of details, at first, heralds this falling-apart: "Jordan's fingers, powdered with white over their tan, rested for a moment in mine." Here Fitzgerald has dropped a subtle hint that their liaison is to be the matter of only a moment, and that Jordan's "integrity" may be a matter of mere cosmetics. But it is Jordan's failure to feel the gravity of the real falling- apart--among Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby--that most rankles Nick, and he reacts with

Analysis of A Description of New England by John Smith Essay -- John S

Analysis of A Description of New England by John Smith The author John Smith, a pilgrim who arrived to the Americas, wrote a description of the new land in his book â€Å" A Description of New England †. In this book Smith shows a wonderful world of vast food and pleasure. Also, William Bradford another pilgrim who arrived to Plymouth on the coast of Massachusetts, wrote a book called â€Å" Of Plymouth Plantation † in which he describes what really happened, how the pilgrims actually lived. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast both authors and their books. John Smith wrote about the wonderful place the New World was, on the other hand, William Bradford wrote about the realities and difficulties of the New World. In â€Å" A Description of New England †, Smith starts by describing the pleasure and content that risking your life for getting your own piece of land brings to men. On the other hand, Bradford reminds us how harsh and difficult the trip to the New World was for the p...