WELLS FARGO Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

WELLS FARGO - Essay Example It will be important to carry out a situational analysis of the Wells Fargo (2011), as well as the market and specific issues that will be the part of address of the Wells Fargo (2011)’s campaign. The company will create PPR by including different imperative messages that will represent the Wells Fargo (2011)’s positioning strategy in detail in its marketing plan. The publics will include customers, consumers, employees, suppliers, investors, auditors, press, print media, businesses, and financial analysts in the campaign that will do more than only marketing. It is very significant that PR campaign should have a prioritized list of abovementioned publics of the Wells Fargo (2011) It is very important for every PR campaign to influence company’s authorities to accept, trust, and belief, and to spread this quality and values of Wells Fargo (2011), it will be efficient to come up with a list of spokespersons on different issues. This will allow Wells Fargo (2011) to relate effectively with its publics, such as corporate culture, and different services that have been causing hurdles for the company along with expression of objectives and values of the Wells Fargo (2011) that will provide awareness to the publics, and at the same time, ensure alteration of negative exposure into a positive

Exercise Plan for Football Players Essay Example for Free

Exercise Plan for Football Players Essay Football, being a very energetic sport, means the players should stay fit and healthy. To do this they have a specific exercise plan, this will ensure that the players will not get tired throughout the ninety minute game. In this assignment I am going to devise a possible exercise and fitness plan for this sport. In it I will include, gentle exercise, low level stretch, curl ups for abdominal muscles and mobilising exercises for shoulders and hips. I will include plans for exercises with and without the use of weights. I will add an exercise regime table. I will then evaluate my work. At first the players will have to do a Gentle exercise to warm up. This will help to try and prevent any injuries that may occur, whilst completing the rest of the exercise plan. At first the players will have to stretch their muscles, starting from the top of their bodies. Head and Neck Rotation. * Begin by tilting head back slightly. * Draw chin forwards and level the head. * Keeping head level, return to upright. * Tilt chin forwards, towards the chest. * Ease head backwards, leaving chin downwards * Finish by slowly raising the chin and head back to the upright position. The deep stretch Stand upright with feet hip width apart. Lock fingers together behind back. Gently ease the elbows up and away from the body, until the stretch is felt. Hold this for 20 to 30 seconds. Press-ups Start with your hands flat on the floor, underneath shoulders. Support body on toes, keeping legs straight. Pull in stomach; bend elbows out 90 and lower chest towards the floor. Inhaling at the same time. Press back up to the starting position whilst exhaling. Keep head level. Do not lift it too high as this places a strain on the neck and can result in injury. Repeat this for 2 sets of 10. Latissimus Dorsi Stretch Stand with feet hip width apart pulling in the abdomen muscles. Hold one arm straight over the head, lean sideways from the hip joint, ensuring you keep the hips level. Extend arm until a stretch is felt. Hold for 10 to 20 seconds breathing easily throughout. Repeat this stretch on the other side. Repeat for 2 sets of 10 on each side. Triceps Stretch With abdominal contracted and back straight, place the fingers of one hand in between the shoulder blades. Support this arm by placing the other hand on the elbow. Apply gentle pressure by pushing the elbow down the spine with the supporting hand. Feel the stretch in the back of the arm. Breathe evenly throughout. Hold this for 10 to 20 seconds. Repeat on the other side. Basic Crunch Lie on back with knees up. Feet hip width apart, abdominal sucked in and hands at side of head (Not at Back of head). Exhale, squeeze up raising shoulders a little way off the ground. Hold for a moment then slowly ease down inhaling. For a more advanced stretch, lift legs off the floor whilst raising shoulders. Repeat this for 2 sets of 10. Oblique curl Lie flat on back with knees up, feet hip width apart, keep right shoulder and lower back pressed tightly into the floor. Whilst exhaling contract the abdominal and with left arm reach over to the right knee, until a stretch is felt, in the midsection whilst lifting the left shoulder slightly off the floor. Hold for a moment, then whilst inhaling lower back to floor. For a more advances stretch raise feet off floor and reach for toes. Repeat this for 2 sets of 10. Calf Stretch Standing with feet facing forwards, hip width apart, take a step forward with the right leg, keeping the knee slightly bent. Press the heel of right leg into the floor until the stretch is felt in the rear calf muscle of this leg. Hold this for 20 to 30 seconds, keeping weight centred over the hips, step backwards with the right leg to return to start position. Repeat using the other leg. Squats (Quads, Hamstrings and Gluteals.) Stand with abdominal contracted and feet hip width apart, arms should be stretched in front. Bend at knees lowering the body and inhaling while doing so. Thighs should remain parallel to the floor and head should be kept in line with the spine. Do not lean too far forward as this places stress on the lower back and makes the exercise less effective. Hold momentarily at the bottom position then whilst exhaling return to the starting position. Repeat this 10 times. This completes the warm up exercise. For the aerobic workout, the players should jog for a minimum of thirty minutes. In this jog they should include side stepping and also skipping. After thirty minutes the pace should be reduced to a brisk walk, this should be done for five minutes. Following the brisk walk, the pace should again be reduced to a relaxed walk; this should also be done for five minutes. When the players have completed their aerobic work out a warm down should take place. In the warm down, some stretches that were used in the warm up, should be used again. Warming down is very important. If warming down does not take place, it will make the muscles feel sore and tender. It could also lead to injury. When using weight machines for exercise, you must always check that it is on the correct weight for you. Flat Dumbbell Press (Chest) This exercise can be performed on a flat of inclined bench, keep abdominal contracted and lower back flat onto the bench, take a 5kg dumbbell in each hand and hold tem in a 90 angle to your body. Lift the dumbbells in an arc above the chest until they almost touch. Return to start position. Repeat this 10 times. Seated Row (Back) Take an elastic band and sit on the floor with legs extended in front. Make sure back is straight and abdominal are contracted. Pull elastic with arms until there Is a slight tension in the band. Squeeze elbows slowly backwards increasing the tension in the band. Exhale as you do this. Return to start position, inhaling while doing so. Lateral Pull down (Back) Before starting this exercise; check the weights are at 5kgs and adjust the seat level. Sit with feet flat on the floor. Abdominal contracted and back straight. Lower body is stabilised by the leg pad which rests on your thighs. Use a wide over hand grip, pull down bar, to level with upper chest, exhaling. Squeeze back muscles at bottom position. Slowly return bar to the starting position, inhaling while doing so. Repeat this 10 to 20 times. Timing: 4 seconds up. 4 seconds down. Biceps Curl Take a 3kg Dumbbell, in your right hand, stand with feet, hip width apart and abdominal contracted. Straighten arm holding the dumbbell towards the floor. Squeeze the dumbbell upwards until level with the shoulder, exhaling while doing so. Momentarily squeeze your bicep at top position. In a slow controlled movement lower the arm to starting position. Repeat this 10 times and then swap arms. Leg Press Again check weights are at 5kgs and adjust the seat. Start with the hips and knees at 90 to your trunk with your feet flat on the foot support. Keep lower back and head in contact with the back support and grip the bars. Push your lower body up and away from the foot support slowly breathing out, make sure feet stay flat on the floor support and a stretch should be felt in the whole of the upper leg. Hold this momentarily in the top position before slowly returning to start position, inhaling as you do so. Repeat this 20 times. This completes the warm up exercise for the exercises using weights. For this aerobic Exercise, the players should spend 15 minutes jogging of Hill walking on a treadmill followed by 15 minutes on a cross trainer. After this they should then spend 10 minutes on a rowing machine, gently rowing to ease the pace. When the players have finished their aerobic workout, a warm down should take place. Again in this warm down some stretches from the warm up will be used, this will help prevent muscle soreness or any injuries.

Leadership Style Adaptability

Leadership Style Adaptability Overview of Leadership theories in Consideration   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Situational leadership theory (SLT) is developed by Hersey and Blanchard (1968) and is based on the leaders task behaviour, relationships and the maturity or ability of the employees. Task behaviour is based on how the leaders define role, how and what to do .Relationships are based on how leaders maintain relations with followers by supporting them. Maturity shows the followers experience, willingness and ability to do the task. Based on this, 4 types of leadership styles s1, s2, s3, s4 are identified by Hersey and Blanchard (1996). SLT is useful in understanding the relationship between leadership style, level of maturity of follower and importance of leadership style adaptability. Several other researchers worked further to develop the model for application on various platforms.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Transformational theory is the latest theory which developed in the last two decades and is of high relevance and practice. The idea was first developed by Burns (1978) through Transformational leadership theory. Bass (1985) further developed the theory. The Transformational leaders put passion and energy into the work atmosphere. They develop a vision for their followers and the followers try to achieve the goal via the energy from the excitation. Leaders have to constantly convey or sell the vision to their followers. They will be always with the followers in charge of the task and have solution to most problems. Bass (1985) suggested that transformational leaders try to increase the task awareness, motivates followers to work for the team and organisation and makes the followers to aspire for needs. He proposed 5 factors or transformational leadership factors, Charismatic leadership, idealized influence, inspirational motivation, Intellectual stimulation an d individualized consideration. Based on these factors large number of researcher has studies the relevance of transformational leadership in various fields and have tried to develop the model further. Objective of the review   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The review tries to relate the various studies that have happened in the current decade on situational leadership and transformational leadership. Various authors who have studied the relevance of situational leadership theory and Transformational leadership theories are considered and their findings are taken into account for the development of the theories. The review checks the adaptability of both the theories in various work environment which helps to find the areas which require further studies on the models. Situational Leadership Theory Situational Leadership Theory-Supporting Views   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Several studies by various researchers were conducted on the application of the SLT in organisational contexts. (Arvidsson et al.2007) contend that leadership style adaptability vary according to group and individual situations and situations where success and hardship is present for the employees. The author further asserts that the leadership was relationship oriented and supportive in success and group situations and task oriented in hardship and group situations. This requires variability of leadership styles of the leader according to the situation, task and ability of the followers. Silverthorne Wang (2001) further supported this finding by asserting that leadership adaptability by managers requires better task behaviour and relationships and this increases productivity. They asserts that this require different leadership styles which vary according to situations. This requires managers to exhibit different leadership styles according to the task and ab ility of the followers. Arvidsson et al (2007) further contend and support this showing the importance of varying leadership style according to the ability of the followers. They should be able to guide on the task, and have successful and influencing relations with the followers. As far as my experience, this view holds in many sales environments where the influencing leadership styles give the focus and motivation to the followers. These leaders also understand the maturity or ability level of the followers and support them in various situations and thereby creating a strong rapport. My managers are seen to be exhibiting task behaviour more towards junior managers whom are new to the job. They guide them and tell them how to perform the task and thereby create a strong rapport with the followers. All this shows light to the ability of the leader to adapt to the situation according to the various needs and motives of the followers and situation which supports the SLT by Hersey and Blanchard (1996). Successful leaders thus vary their leadership styles and ability of the leaders to be adaptive to the environment leads to the success of organisation Silverthorne Wang (2001). (Silverthorne Wang (2001): Arvidsson et al.(2007)) state that leadership adaptability and exhibiting of different leadership styles depending on task, relations and ability of followers are important and thereby supports the SLT. My personal work experience as a leader supports this finding and thereby supports SLT.I have experienced the importance of task detailing, relationships and the ability of followers to execute the task as an important factor for success. Situational Leadership Theory -Against   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There was also some finding s which goes against the SLT. Papworth et al (2009) questions the applicability of SLT of Hersey and Blanchard (1996).They contend that their findings and research gave little support to the SLT model. They argue that the level of supervisor behaviour was independent of the supervisee experience. Support to SLT was only found when the supervisee is highly experienced and skilled and the supervisor have to do less task behaviours which were supported by Silverthorne Wang (2001). Butler Rees (1991) was also against the SLT model. They argue that the leadership style adaptability had little relations with the performance of the employees in a highly competitive sales environment (Insurance). They asserts that there are more factors that may affect the performance and readiness of the salesperson like followers perception of managerial style ,the difficulty of task involved in the sale process and difference in follower readiness. Sil verthorne Wang (2001) argues and supports SLT by asserting that leadership styles should vary according to situations and depending on follower readiness. The finding of Butler Rees (1991) are quite relevant because from my own experience in the Insurance industry over 2 years, I do understand that the varying perception of managerial style and difficulty of the task in hand do have an impact on the performance. Even though the managers vary their style according to situations of task and ability, the factors proposed by Butler Rees (1991) do contribute to the performance of employees. I would like to add that leadership adaptability is only one among many factors that determine performance in competitive sales environment. The objectivity and the provenance of the finding of Papworth et al (2009) are really questionable based on the type of the research and the area of research they conducted. They used clinical sessions and tapes from a very low sample and made all the assessme nt about the situational leadership theory. The relationships and tasks In these sessions were compared to leadership and task of SLT. This causes wide criticism and questions the relevance of their finding on SLT. Moreover Papworth et al (2009) gives only some theoretical evidence instead of an actual research result. All this studies point to the fact that SLT may not be widely accepted in all fields of study and industries. This also points that SLT may be suited to certain industries and may not be fitted into some other .There are external and internal factors which are to be considered depending on the type of industry and environment, like task involved and external factors. Situational Leadership Theory-Alternate Views Johnson (1998) proposes an alternate or modified model of SLT. The author combines SLT model which uses directing and supporting styles of leadership. He also takes stage theory of group development by Tuckman Jensen (1977) and the stages of development of the followers by Blanchard (1985) along with the SLT. This model varies from SLT by considering each of the four leadership styles may be appropriate some of the time, the most broadly applicable style combines structure and empathy Johnson (1998).The author further asserts that the model can be applied to individuals and only to the groups which are performing at the same level. VanderVen (1998) further supported this modified situational leadership model. The model tries to overcome some of the short falls of SLT. But my management experience shows that managers do tend to show situational approach based on the varying levels of their follower performance. It is not likely that in real world you will get a team of followers (gr oups) who perform In the same level. Discussion of Situational Leadership   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The findings of Arvidsson et al. (2007) and Silverthorne Wang (2001) favouring the SLT was across different cultures (Swedish Taiwanese) .They also researched in different industries of Information technologies and air craft. Butler Rees, (1991) and Papworth et al (2009) found no support to the leadership style adaptability and SLT in their respective studies. All these findings makes and echo to the fact that situational leadership varies according to industries and cultures. This calls for further studies on the modification and application of the SLT across various environments. The efforts put forward by Johnson (1998) is commendable and more research work should be done on further rectifying the limitations of the SLT model .One of the key areas which require research is the heterogeneity of the levels of subordinates and the behaviour of leaders accordingly.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Transformational Leadership Theory   Ã‚  Ã‚  Transformational Leadership Theory-Favourable factors   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Purvanova et al. (2006) conducted further studies on the impact of Transformational Leadership Theory (TLT) on job perception of the employees. Transformational leaders irrespective of the type of different jobs they were involved in exerted a positive influence on the employees perception of jobs. Employees with transformational managers found their job as, meaningful, challenging and inspiring .The studies further supported Bass (1985) views that transformational leaders inspire followers to see their jobs as important and seeks them to perform beyond expectations which they does. Chan Chan (2005) asserts that leaders with high usage of transformational leadership factors have more positive influence of job perception and performance. He further contend and support that, all the transformational leadership factors in the Bass (1985) TLT has direct impact on the leader effectiveness, performance of employees , their perception of job and its satisfaction. Sc hyns Sanders (2006) contend that solidarity of follower with colleagues and leader is related highly to Transformational leadership style of the leader. Higher the transformational style perception of the employees , better solidarity to the leader and the team was found. Panagopoulos Dimitriadis (2009) contend that a positive TL behaviour of managers will cause increase the performance of the sales person, high satisfaction due to their supervisor and creates or increases commitment to the organisation. This was predicted in a behaviour based control sales environment rather than an outcome based sales environment.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The works by these authors are related and focuses on the impact of TL styles on the followers and their behaviour in work .These works support that a high TL style surely increases the behaviour, focus, job satisfaction, and performance and commitment levels of the followers. Purvanova et al. (2006) and Chan Chan (2005) argue that exhibition of TL causes higher positive job perception of the employees. . Chen Baron (2006) further supports this by highlighting the impact of one of the TL style which causes higher job perception to the followers. I personally have experienced transformational leadership styles (factors) from my manager during my work as a junior sales manager. This caused an increase in motivation and commitment towards the organisation and manager resulting in high performance and achievements. ( Purvanova et al. (2006); Panagopoulos, Dimitriadis (2009)).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  All these findings (Purvanova et al. (2006); Chan Chan (2005);Panagopoulos Dimitriadis (2009)) shows that transformational leadership styles of leaders do have an impact on the employees perceptions of their own jobs. TL style increases the responsiveness, satisfaction, performance, inspiration, meaning and a vision for the followers jobs. TL motivates followers to perform beyond expectation of the employer and thereby creating more successful persons and organisations. Further TL creates a commitment and focus in the followers for the job and leader. TL generates a feel for team work and solidarity to colleagues among the followers. Thus TL as a whole helps in creating a focussed and motivated atmosphere were people work enthusiastically. My view is that, the application of TL in an organisation will lead to a motivated and successful organisation subjected to other factors. These calls for the ability of managers and leaders to adapt learn and implement TL style for a better and successful work environment. Transformational Leadership Theory Limited favourability.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Although the majority of studies showed support to the TLT model, there were some findings that offered limited support to the model and questioned the universality of the TLT model. Mannheim Halamish (2008) tested the TL model in the context of army training camps. They conclude that the only in the beginners learning culture the TL style is related to group result. The authors found little support for the leadership styles, group outcome and cohesion in other higher levels. This lead to the moderation of TLT in various contexts and also this may be due to many other factors which require further research. Barnett et al. (2001) supported this view by suggesting that the TL behaviour have a negative association with student learning culture. Kelloway et al. (2000) argued that leadership training and feedback together will have little effect on the TL style perception, where in the mean time both individually can have an impact on the TL perception. Chen Baron (2006) ech o a similar but slightly variant view. They argue that the leaders do tend to show high transformational leadership skills. But only the idealised influence style of TL increases the job satisfaction of the followers and if the leader don show this aspect of TL style, the level of satisfaction may be low. These findings do questions the variability of TL styles and the impact of each style over different situations, work environment and cultures. The findings of Mannheim Halamish (2008) and Barnett et al. (2001) questions the usage of TL style in the learning and training culture. Both of them conducted their studies in an environment where training has an important role to play.   Ã‚  Ã‚  The arguments of Mannheim Halamish (2008) and Barnett et al. (2001) clearly indicates that the TLT applicability in the learning and training culture is questionable as they found little evidence in favour of that in higher experienced levels. My personal experience supports this finding as experienced followers find it difficult to adapt to TL model due to their exposure to other styles of leaderships, whereas beginner can be trained and moulded to the desired form initially as they are fresh in mind. Chen Baron (2006) asserts that only one type of TL style have an impact over job satisfaction of followers. All these views calls for further research for the application of TLT in these areas and the factors which causes this effect on TL should be found and due consideration must be given for this. Transformational Leadership Theory -Alternative views   Ã‚  Ã‚  Mitchell Boyle (2009) developed a model based on TL for mitigating against destructive emotional barriers to group effectiveness Mitchell Boyle (2009 ).Their model was based on TL impact on knowledge creation in diverse groups and how TL will help in doing this. The model tries to explain the variation of diverse team performances through the impact TL has on knowledge creation. Dunn (2007) developed a modified leadership model which was different from the TL model. They found a difference in leadership style changes according to the gender of the leaders. Author argues that this moderated model will be advantageous to the organisation. Both Mitchell Boyle (2009) and Dunn (2007) tried to develop a model in order to adapt TL to the varying environments and to develop the model to a new level. Discussion of Transformational Leadership   Ã‚  Ã‚  To conclude, Most of the researchers do found favourable factors for TL even though there are limited support findings for the TL. Purvanova et al. (2006), Chan Chan (2005), Schyns Sanders (2006) and Panagopoulos Dimitriadis (2009) underline the fact that TL increases job perception, satisfaction and performance among employees. Mannheim Halamish (2008) and Barnett et al. (2001) contend that TL have impact on learning culture in beginners level only and TL dont have much impact in higher experience employee learning culture. Chen Baron (2006) highlights the impact of one TL style higher than other styles. Mitchell Boyle (2009) developed TLT further for applicability for diverse team performance. TL has found to have a high impact on the job perception of employee and their applicability in the learning and training culture requires further research. Also the impact of TL on cultures and team diversity requires further research. Conclusion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Arvidsson et al. (2007) and Silverthorne Wang (2001) studied and supported the SLT. Their studies in these fields are commentable and is of high relevance. They together assert the need for adaptability of leadership and variation of leadership style. I would also like to view up on Butler Rees (1991) who drew on the leadership adaptability of competitive environment. There are many factors apart from leadership adaptability and styles which need consideration in such an environment. Johnson (1998) tried to study in the aspect of groups and the idea of SLT requires further research and studies on factors from external environment which effect the followers and environment. Purvanova et al. (2006), Chan Chan (2005) and Panagopoulos Dimitriadis (2009) finding on TL supported and is of high significance in the industry. They show the effect of TL on job perceptions of followers. It also shows the significance of TL style in organizations. Their finding shows the relevanc e of TL in the business world. Mannheim Halamish (2008) and Barnett et al. (2001 question the adaptability of TL in training culture of highly experienced employees leading to limitations in applicability of TLT in all work environments. Mitchell Boyle (2009) modified the TL model and tried to study and implement the impact of TL on knowledge creation and thereby impacting the diversity in team performance. Further research is recommended on TLT for application on learning cultures and its variance over cultures. All the above studies are of high relevance to the leadership studies and helps in the development of situational and transformational leadership theories. In general situational and transformational leadership styles have high impact on the employees and work environment and requires further studies for application in various work environments. References: Arvidsson, M., Johansson, C .R., Ek,A. and Akselsson,R. (2007) SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP IN AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL, Journal of Air Transportation, Vol. 12, No. 1. Barnett,K., McCormick,J., and Conners,R.(2001) Transformational leadership in schools Panacea, placebo or problem?, Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 39, No. 1, 2001, pp. 24-46. Butler, J. K. and Reese, R.M. (1991) Leadership Style and sales performance: A test of Situational leadership model, Journal of persona l selling and sales management, Volume XI, Number 3, Chan, A.T. S. and Chan, E. H. W. (2005) Impact of Perceived Leadership Styles on Work Outcomes: Case of Building Professionals, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Vol. 131, No. 4, pp 413-422 Chen, H. And Baron, M. (2006) Nursing Directors Leadership Styles and Faculty Members Job Satisfaction in Taiwan, Journal of Nursing Education, Vol. 45, No. 10, 404-411 Dunn, M. (2007) British army leadership: is it gendered?, Women in Management Review, Vol. 22 No. 6, pp. 468-481. Johnson, M.M (1998) Applying a Modified Situational Leadership Model to Residential Group Care Settings, Child Youth Care Forum, 27(6). Kelloway, E.K., Barling, J. and Helleur, J.(2000) Enhancing Transformational leadership: the roles of training and feedback. Leadership and organisational Development Journal, 21/3, pp 145-149. Mannheim,B. and Halamish,H. (2008) Transformational leadership as related to team outcomes and contextual moderation , Leadership Organization Development Journal ,Vol. 29, No. 7, pp. 617-630 Mitchell, R. J. and Boyle,B (2009) A theoretical model of transformational leaderships role in diverse teams, Leadership Organization Development Journal ,Vol. 30, No. 5, pp. 455-474 Papworth, M.A., Milne, D. and Boak, G. (2009) An exploratory content analysis of situational leadership . Journal of Management Development, Vol. 28, No. 7, pp. 593-606 Purvanova, R.K., Bono, J, E., and Dzieweczynski.J (2006) Transformational Leadership, Job Characteristics, and Organizational Citizenship Performance, Human Performance, 19(1), 1-22. Sanders, K and Schyns,B (2006) Leadership and solidarity behaviour Consensus in perception of employees within teams, Personnel Review, Vol. 35 ,No. 5, pp. 538-556 Silverthorne, C. and Wang, T. (2001) Situational Leadership Style as a Predictor of Success and Productivity among Taiwanese Business Organizations, The Journal of Psychology, pp 399-412 VanderVen,K . (1998) Modelling and Modified Situational Leadership: Some Comments on Johnson, Child Youth Care Forum, 27(6) London Metropolitan University, MBAPage 5

Case Study on Coke versus Pepsi Essay -- Business, Marketing

The case study "Cola Wars Continue: Coke and Pepsi in the Twenty-First Century" focuses on describing Coke and Pepsi within the CSD industry by providing detailed statements about the companies’ accounts and strategies to increase their market share. Furthermore, the case also focuses on the Coke vs. Pepsi goods which target similar groups of costumers, and how these companies have had and still have great reputation and continue to take risks due to their high capital. This analysis of the Cola Wars Continue case study will focus mainly on the profitability of the industry by carefully considering and analyzing the below questions: Why is the soft drink industry so profitable? Compare the economics of the concentrate business to the bottling business: Why is the profitability so different? How has the competition between Coke and Pepsi affected the industry’s profits? Can Coke and Pepsi sustain their profits in the wake of flattening demand and the growing popularity of non-carbonated drinks? The soft drink industry is a highly profitable industry and its success is due to the large consumption of non-alcoholic beverages through which both concentrate producers and bottlers are profitable. Given the U.S. Industry consumption Statistics, Exhibit 1, it is clear that, after deducting beer and wine, soft drinks account for about 90 % of the total liquid consumption, while Coke and Pepsi account for about 75 % of the soft drink industry. The high consumption of CSDs is related to the soft drink industry selling to consumers through five principal channels: food stores, convenience stores, vending, fountain and other. Out of the five channels the case describes vending as the most profitable channel for the soft drink... ...e and Pepsi’s already established image as producers of premium product is key to discouraging other companies from entering the soft drink industry. However, as the market in the U.S has leveled off, they should continue to invest globally in marketing and advertising for further profit growth, which will in turn positively influence their well established brands to further increase soft drink sales and profits. The marketing campaigns must be tailored to meet the foreign markets’ demands, by respecting the consumers’ culture and flavor preferences. Furthermore, in the foreign markets the local brands must not be underestimated as these present high competition for Coke and Pepsi, therefore in order for the kings of the soft drink industry to expand their reign globally they must partner with the local soft drink firms and customize soft drinks with local tastes.

Effect and suspense Essay

At the beginning of act 2 it begins in the house of John and Elizabeth Proctor. John walks into the kitchen and adds some salt to the pot and sits down. Elizabeth walks in and serves Proctor some food. Proctor compliments her â€Å"It is well seasoned† This shows Proctor is metaphorically trying to make his relationship better with his wife. Both characters engage in idle conversation about the weather and the crops. Audiences would have felt that there may be something beneath the surface they both are avoiding talking about something. The conversation changes to witchcraft. Elizabeth mentions Abigail being accused and how she thought she was innocent. John then says â€Å"If the girl’s a saint now, I think it is not easy to prove she’s a fraud, and the town gone so silly. She told it to me in a room alone – I have no proof of it.† Elizabeth then replies â€Å"You were alone with her?† this shows Elizabeth is still caught up with the affair and still can’t forget it. When Mary Warren enters, he grabs her and shakes her; He says â€Å"How do you go to Salem when I forbid it? Do you mock me? I’ll whip you if you dare leave this house again!† audiences would get the impression Proctor is not a very good person if he would talk to someone like that, and also a sinner who had an affair. When Reverend John Hale visits to tell them Elizabeth has been mentioned in court. He asks both of them questions like why only two out of three of their children have been baptized. Elizabeth explains that she does not think of Parris to be holy so does not want her child to be baptized by him. Hale asks Elizabeth if she knows all Ten Commandments, she says she does, Hale asks Proctor and he says, â€Å"I- I am sure I do, sir.† Hale asks him to repeat them all Proctor does and names 9. Elizabeth says you forgot adultery John. This shows Elizabeth still resents John for the affair. Audiences would have seen John as a sinner, and an aggressive man up to this point of the play. When Abigail charges Elizabeth, we see a more desperate side to John Proctor’s character. When Ezekiel Cheever comes to the Proctor house hold with a warrant to arrest Elizabeth, he finds a poppet of Mary Warrens. There is a needle in the middle, where Abigail stabbed herself. Proctor, in desperation pleads that it was not Elizabeth; â€Å"Why, she has done it herself! I hope you not taking this for proof, mister!† Proctor pleads with Herrick and Cheever; audiences may feel that he is saying these things to prove to Elizabeth how much he loves her. â€Å"I will fall like an ocean on that court! Fear nothing, Elizabeth.† In court, Proctor attempts to defend his wife and says that Abigail has been pretending witchcraft. Many people have now been arrested, some even sentenced to death. Mary changes her testimony and confirms Proctor’s evidence. In act three Proctor is defending his wife, saying that Elizabeth dismissed Abigail from their household, was because Proctor and Abigail had an affair. Abigail denies this but Proctor asks Judge Hawthorne to fetch his wife and ask her, because she never lies. Elizabeth is then summoned to court to say if Proctor is telling the truth. Danforth asks her why she dismissed Abigail and she lies for Proctor, this means that Proctor is arrested.  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Danforth: Your husband- did he indeed turn from you?  Elizabeth: My husband is a goodly man, sir.  Danforth: Then he did not turn form you.  Elizabeth: He-  Danforth: Look at me! To your knowledge, has John Proctor ever committed the crime of lechery?  Elizabeth: No, sir†Ã‚  Ã‚  Proctor is made to confess, or risk loosing his life. He decides to make a false confession to save his life, but however when he is made to sign his confession he refuses, he argues that his name is with him his whole life. The audience would have the impression that John Proctor is a good, self- respecting, brave man. John Proctor then went on to be hanged for a crime he didn’t commit. My conclusion is that in the beginning of the play, John Proctor has the impression that he is a sinner with a past, who is trying to change into a better person but still with a violent and aggressive temper, However by the end of the play we see a different side to him. He changes into a man with dignity and pride, who is willing to die for his sins of lechery. I think he is trying to prove something to his wife, that he regrets his sins and is sorry. Arthur Miller uses long sentences in a dramatic way to add depth to The Crucible, to gives effect and suspense.

Conscience – personal creative writing

He was dressed in a sluggish grey-green coat with dull checks. It reflected his character like a murky pond and the story he was feeding me smelt the same. I didn't like his attitude. The way he leered at me with his nicotine yellow teeth and thin sharp lips. It made me feel really uncomfortable. Like I shouldn't be there. I'd forgotten, as usual that I wasn't invited. I noticed that as he repeated himself his gnarled fingers were ever whitening at the knuckles. His hair was greased back off his face as if he'd put a vat full of chip fat on it. It made him look slimy and manipulating. If he'd been a well dressed man with a polite attitude I would not have given a second thought to his wife's suicide. The man in front of me was showing no sign of remorse, not even the slightest bit of sadness. The emotions that float in the air catching normal people unawares must either bounce off his highly polished forehead or slide down the nape of his neck. The flat was quite large with a private elevator at the back. A desk sat in the middle of the room. It was an old solid oak desk with two top draws and ink stains on the blotting paper. The worn out typewriter had the last written words of Mrs. Harrison stuck in it and sat there like a smug omen. People from forensics were buzzing about dusting this and bagging up that. They made the place look like an ant colony. It is very distracting to have someone spying for the minutest thing out of the corner of your eye. I went to have a look round myself. All the furniture, as far as I could see was dating back to the late 1930's yet it was all in impeccable condition. Scattered on the shelves were objects and ornaments the couple had gathered from their short married life. China dogs, vulgar things, cluttered up the iron fire surround. On the mantelpiece slept two speakers, dusty with neglect. Something caught my eye. Two brass bookends. Neither of them particularly aesthetic yet that wasn't what drew me to them. One was brown with dirt and grime, however the other was clean as the day it as bought. I called over Pete, a friend of mine in the forensics team. We were at college together until I went ‘over to the dark side' as he would say. Pete is the type of guy you could quite easily fall in love with, if you allow yourself. His hair is tight and curly. The colour of midnight. Granted, his nose may be slightly out of proportion but the ocean blue colour of his eyes! Deep, full with care yet not deep enough to hide his soul. He told me he would take the bookends off for dusting and get back to me. I couldn't help but stare as he swaggered away in his own original style. The swagger that leaves all girls stranded†¦ Waking my self up I walked back to the beetle red settee where Mr Harrison was lounging. I was sitting on the arm of the chair, trying to spot an intelligent comment from the ones reflected in his mirror forehead. I persuaded him to tell me a bit about his wife appearance. According to him she was of medium height, hourglass figure and full it the face. He got out a photo of her. She was really pretty. Her hair was sandy and fly away with dark brown eyes and full lips. The complete opposite of her husband. That then began to arouse my suspicions of her playing away. I didn't address this issue straight away; I felt it wasn't wise but I did ask what the professional relationship was between he and his wife. At this comment his attitude got blacker once more. He spoke bitterly of how she was clever and outgoing. She had been working as his accountant when they met and ‘slowly weaved her way up to the executive managers position'. It was the way he said it that made your blood chill like an ice cube had just been shoved down your back on a freezing winter day. There was certainly some jealousy going on. I could not fathom why a pretty intelligent girl could want to end her life so suddenly and tragically. Couldn't she have just settled for divorce? Was he threatening her? One thing was for sure; this was no ordinary suicide. I had to find out what really happened earlier that night. I bid good day to Mr Harrison and went to the front elevator. As I waited I tried to heave the sense out of this scene like the heavy contraption heaving itself up to the 18th floor. With the bing of the lift the cold air hit my face once more. The streets of LA are awesome. Especially at night. The rain pattered down as it had been threatening to do all day making the pavement shine like liquid silver. The starlight filled the roadside trees with a magical light like a thousand faeries having a party. A newspaper tickled my feet then went on its way to the next obstacle. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a crumpled heap, slumped in the doorway of a closed down chemists. It was partly illuminated by the street light. The other part shadowy and ghost like yet remarkably there. It churns my heart to see these things. From somewhere in amongst the churning it became clear that this fellow might know something. I strolled over as casually as I could muster in the below zero temperature and crouched down beside him. His face was like a canvas of war; his eyes hollow and lifeless. This guy didn't have a single dream or hope left to hang on to in the great pendulum of life. He'd let go just waiting for it to hit him on its inevitable return swing. He showed an utter disgust towards me once I'd told him I was a detective. It made my job really hard. I had started off with a gentle motherly tone but I soon lost it to the wind. What is the point in trying to give these people respect if they judge you on face value and smell of dustbins and public toilets. He assured me that he was awake at the time I quoted and heard no scream. I hurried away as quickly as I could leaving him to mutter under his breath.

Proverbial Expressions Essay Example

Proverbial Expressions Essay Example Proverbial Expressions Paper Proverbial Expressions Paper Honesty is regarded as the best quality in a person. It always praised and admired . Without honesty we can not command respect from the people. No Pains No Gains This proverb has a very opt place in life of students because a student has to achieve his goal by hard work. Mans life is full of ups and downs. Life is not a bed of roses. People have to take pain in order to have gain in their life. It is proved by experience that the lazy people go down and hardworking people come up in life. A student who studies hard gets success in examination and also in life. If he is careless and neglect the work he ruins his life. A business man or a industrialist gets more profits if he works hard sincerely in his business. A farmer who works hard in his field has a very good cultivation. So people moving any path of life must sincerely work hard and take pains to get success in their life. Pain is necessary to enable us to enjoy pleasure. One cannot achieve success without getting hurt nor can one achieve anything unless one has experienced the bitterness of defeat. A Friend in need is a friend indeed All of us have friends but the truest friend is the one who is with us during the mime of adversities. Friendship is essence of life one can live without wealth. But he cant live without friends. A True friendship is gods gift A friend who helps us in the time of necessity is a real sincere friend. A friend who leaves us when we are in trouble is not a true friend. Many people seem to be dear to us they talk to us in sweet words to get money and help from us. They are just like frogs that come to the pond or tank when there is water. When we have no money they desert us. Such friends are bad friends and they lead us in bad ways of our life. A true friend who supports us in all our joys and sorrows . He is like afire who provides warmth and supports during the time of difficulties. A True friend remains with us through thick and thin of our life. It is rightly said any ship can be drowned but not friendship in the sea of life. All that glitters is not gold Gold is a very costly and shining metal. It attracts many people because it is considered to be the most valuable metal the idea of the proverb is that a dazzling showy article need not to be valuable. Every thing that shines is not gold like wise everything that appears attractive should not be taken as gold. It is also true in the case of many people who appear to be pious and noble smiles sweetly to you may not be a genuine person. They are very shy and cunning one must be very careful while judging people and in choosing friends. Physical beauty is temporary just like the beauty of the rolled gold. Therefore we should not make a judgments on external appearances. In other words we can say that dont judge a book by its cover. Failure is the stepping stone to success The literary meaning of the proverb is that there is no success without defeat. One cannot become a hero without getting hurt nor one can achieve anything unless one has experienced the bitterness of defeat. Life is not a bed of roses. It is full of both pain and pleasure. The first attempt does not always lead to success. Man has to face failures. But one should not get disheartened . History shows several examples Mohammed Gain has to struggle and he struggled many times to conquer kingdoms . Mahatma Gandhi has faced many difficulties to achieve independence so failure is always a step to success , sometimes we try our best and work hard but still something may go wrong and our hard work is not rewarded but still we just try again and again until we succeed. Remember our attempts may fail but never fail to attempt Knowledge is power Or Pen is mightier than sword Knowledge gives everyone unlimited powers. Life is limited but knowledge is unlimited man has to make use of his limited time attaining maximum knowledge. It gives him great capacity to solve anything. People with knowledge rules the world and not the people with physical strength. A man of knowledge will be more respected than the man of wealth. People wrongly argue that money makes many things. But it cannot make a man without knowledge. So knowledge is power and it has been proved well in the modern days. The more time one spends in enhancing ones knowledge the more it produces greater results in all walks of life it gives a man confidence to face any situation in life. A man of knowledge worshipped throughout his life. Pride comes before a fall This is the modern version of an old proverb from the bible. Pride here means rash consent not justifiable self respect The meaning of this saying is that if you are too confident of your achievements and feel arrogant with no regards for others you are sure to face misfortune or fall into disgrace soon. It is peculiar that man becomes proud and behaves recklessly his fall has started one may be proud because of his riches and another may be of his power. They have to maintain throughout their life. There are many examples of rich people or powerful people or kings in the past who have fallen from their position because of their pride. In epics like Inhabitant and Ramadan Turnaround and Raven are the classic examples and their downfall was due to their pride. Pride goes before and shame follows after Time and tide wait for no man This proverb warns us that time will not wait for anyone. It keeps moving on ND there is no looking back. So we should make the most of our opportunities while they come. If we waste time and the opportunities we would regret it later. But by then it would be too late to do. Any opportunity only knocks once. The tides of sea goes on rising high and falling down according to the movements of the sun and the moon they do not wait for the orders for anyone. If we go on waiting for the proper tide, the movement may not arise at all. We must catch the time by fare lock. When opportunities knock our door we should utilize. An inch of gold will not buy a second of time Opportunities rarely comes and when hey come we should not leave them the value of time is very precious. Where there is a will there is a way This is a famous proverb if a man has a desire or intention the path is always open for him. Without a determined will we cannot solve anything. Will power is a strong force that can make even seemingly impossible things happen. The interest of the people alone will bring half of success of anything. So people can do anything well if there is a will to do it. The students also must have a strong will to get success in their examination in proper way.

comparative report essays

comparative report essays Scene eleven from the play Mother Courage and her Children and act one scene four from Summer of the Aliens are scenes which are performed very differently, according to their theatrical styles and using conventions relating to those styles. The context in each scene diverses too, however there are some similarities. Mother Courages scene, written in 1940s by Bertolt Brecht, is a work of epic theatre, created by the writer. It is totally opposite to realistic theatre style of the scene from Summer of the Aliens written by Louis Nowra in 1968. According to this realistic style, invented by Constantin Stanislavsky, the perforance of the scene has to be very real and believable. The actors have to re-enact the circumstances as realistically as possible through life like characters with the right use of voice and movements, realistic costumes, the overall stage resembling photographic detail of the period in the scene and the main aim for audience to empathy with characters. Along with Stanislavsky, Bertolt Brechts Epic Theatre is the very essence of non-realism with the main aim to avoid the typical theatrical conventions of realism. Through this, avoiding an illusion of realistic theatre. The acting and staging techniques such as use of a narrator, simple or fragmentary costumes, basic open wh ite stage lighting, fragmentary props and scenery, actors swapping characters mid-scene, actors playing multiple roles and occasionally speaking directly to the audience are all used in performance of Brecht's scene from Mother Courage. These theatrical conventions, according to Brecht, can portray social truths in a way audiences could not ignore. They are didactic in nature with audience alienating purposes. The purpose of performance is to teach or instruct the audience about the issue in the scene. As well as in the performance of Summ ...

California Dreaming

California is a famous celebrity such as sunny, luxurious restaurants, expensive closet apartments, and a fascinating city with enchanting masters. In addition, there are many trendy communities struggling to try more new ways. The vibrancy of Californians includes musicians, actors, performers and other notorious fame admired for fifteen minutes of fame. When I first came to California, going to California has never meant to try dreaming through California, or self improvement, or any other cliche. I do not know what California  · dream is at the moment and I can not care about self-reform. I do not know much about California (there is no special psychological image). The genuine Californians are surprised and even seems to be offended. At least California must be the center of the psychological world of everyone. It is said that there are big cities called beaches, smoke, cars, Disneyland, and Los Angeles. I knew that the state capital was a Sacramento since high school, but I do not know where Sacramento is and I do not know the state's geography and culture at all. Why should I do this? In California, everything including dreams and tasks is big. One of the most innovative, busy and expensive places in the United States, how do you imagine California's new dream? Due to US financial pressure, housing, employment, education, and a rapidly changing future are formed. CatchLight is a California focused photographer and introduces works that are widely reflected in the life of California today. The explanation includes, but is not limited to race, environment, health, democracy, immigration, gender and identity Rolling Stones has just interviewed California Governor Jerry Brown. Jerry Brown's California Dream: Is this a more progressive blueprint for the United States? But the same week, CALMatters opened a very different column. The latest academic performance test highlighted California's educational crisis. The California state K - 12 Education is a highly focused $ 90 billion state - owned enterprise managed by the Governor - General and Congress. Regional school districts have little power on the key elements of the success of K - 12 education, such as term of office and faculty dismissal rules, or affordable pension payment levels, unless the state governor and state council consent. There are 6 million children in public schools in California. Some people think that Rolling Stones will ask the provincial governor to take charge of school guidance. California Dreaming California is a famous celebrity such as sunny, luxurious restaurants, expensive closet apartments, and a fascinating city with enchanting masters. In addition, there are many trendy communities struggling to try more new ways. The vibrancy of Californians includes musicians, actors, performers and other notorious fame admired for fifteen minutes of fame. When I first came to California, going to California has never meant to try dreaming through California, or self improvement, or any other cliche. I do not know what California  · dream is at the moment and I can not care about self-reform. I do not know much about California (there is no special psychological image). The genuine Californians are surprised and even seems to be offended. At least California must be the center of the psychological world of everyone. It is said that there are big cities called beaches, smoke, cars, Disneyland, and Los Angeles. I knew that the state capital was a Sacramento since high school, but I do not know where Sacramento is and I do not know the state's geography and culture at all. Why should I do this? In California, everything including dreams and tasks is big. One of the most innovative, busy and expensive places in the United States, how do you imagine California's new dream? Due to US financial pressure, housing, employment, education, and a rapidly changing future are formed. CatchLight is a California focused photographer and introduces works that are widely reflected in the life of California today. The explanation includes, but is not limited to race, environment, health, democracy, immigration, gender and identity Rolling Stones has just interviewed California Governor Jerry Brown. Jerry Brown's California Dream: Is this a more progressive blueprint for the United States? But the same week, CALMatters opened a very different column. The latest academic performance test highlighted California's educational crisis. The California state K - 12 Education is a highly focused $ 90 billion state - owned enterprise managed by the Governor - General and Congress. Regional school districts have little power on the key elements of the success of K - 12 education, such as term of office and faculty dismissal rules, or affordable pension payment levels, unless the state governor and state council consent. There are 6 million children in public schools in California. Some people think that Rolling Stones will ask the provincial governor to take charge of school guidance.

WHAT IS ART Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

WHAT IS ART - Essay Example We have creative art, conceptual art, abstract art, virtual art, representation, and other diverse forms of art. Conceptual Art is where the idea or concept is more important than the image. On the other hand, abstract art  is a form of art that represents nothing. Most significantly, visual arts  are a form of art where an artist uses MEDIA and the available technology to communicate about the self to the entire world or audience. It is the most diverse form of art as it reflects the society. As such, art has a number of purposes that include communication, entertainment, healing purposes, expression of imagination, propaganda among others. Art has various elements some of which are visual (Canley Davinci Group Web). There are numerous virtual elements of art that include color, form, line, texture, motion and time, shape, mass, volume, light, space, and value. Color  as a visual element of art has three properties that include the name of the color, intensity or  the purity and strength of the color, value, or the lightness or darkness of the color.  Form on the other hand is a three-dimensional and encloses volume. In addition, time and motion are also visual elements of art. Motion subdivides to actual motion that is live movement, which displays actual motion when we see it in person and implied motion and time is a non-moving image that shows movement through the attributes present in the image. Consequently, the illusion of motion is what we experience when we see a movie or series of shapes that note a passage of time (Larmann Web).  A line  is an element of art, which refers to the continuous mark made on some surface by a moving point. A line has measure, which is the length, and width of a line and expressive qualities of line  that define the individual character of a line. A line can be two dimensional, three dimensional, or implied. Shape, Volume and Mass

Diversity Action Plan Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Diversity Action Plan - Research Paper Example This is important because a diverse workforce without discrimination can influence substantially on the effectiveness and efficiency of a healthy and safe working environment along with that of multicultural interaction and communication directing the organization eventually to achieve higher competitive advantage. This paper briefly addresses the initiatives of the diversity action plan of Starbucks organization and tries to explain important issues regarding the challenges and opportunities caused by diversity. One of the most significant concerns for the organization is the current trends in population growth, which can impose direct impact on the organizational workforce while creating various advantages as well as challenges. The paper also looks into the consequences of population growth on workforce diversity. Starbucks Corporation is the largest coffeehouse company in the world with its retail stores all over the world. Starbucks provides its retail stores over 50 states in the United States alone and over 43 countries across the globe along with a long chain of company-operated and licensed stores (Starbucks Coffee). The Seattle-based organization envisions a diverse workforce that provides quality business services while maintaining a healthy working environment. As a global company, Starbucks believes in the concept of inclusion embracing differences and celebrating cultures. Diversity is a significant issue at Starbucks. The diversity action plan for the company emphasizes on all the relevant aspects of workplace diversity in order to meet and set new goals for an inclusive business. With higher value products and services, the organization is committed to providing environment-friendly working conditions, developing innovative and flexible solutions, and bringing up environmental leadership in all facets of business. Principles followed by the diversity plan of Starbucks are: Starbucks is a

Branded Spaces Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Branded Spaces - Essay Example ispensable tool for real estate firms and property owners who are now prospecting to let their property for a short period in the wake of an economy down town pending its recovery (Vacant.com, 2011). A pop-up shop is a temporary venue. For instance, the space can be used for merchandise activities while on the following day hold a cocktail party. The tendency entails popping-up one day or week, then vanishing the same duration later. These shops, although they are small and temporary, have the capacity to build up interest through consumer exposure. Pop-up shops enable a firm to create a unique environment that involves its consumers, and develops a sense of significance and interactivity (Smith, 2009). The retail environment of pop-up stores in most cases is highly experiential, transporting emotions in an event-oriented type of atmosphere. While pop-up stores can also serve as retail events to sell special offers, they often serve as retail avenues to present and introduce product innovations or even conduct market tests. As such, locations are usually in city centres, or the trendy neighbourhoods of big cities (Townsend, 2010). With the strategy of pop-up stores being the creation of a climate of scarcity, retailers try to build a higher willingness to pay among their customer because there no option for price comparison and offers are only available for short periods of time, which can increase desirability. In particular, temporary stores that sell special offers are consumption events for customers and their main objective is to get discounts. In some cases, pop-up stores of this type are used to give special offers to long-term, high value customers. In these events, the scarcity effect is reinforced as there is not only a temporary limitation of the offers but... Center of discussion in this paper is Vacant of Los Angeles as the first company that developed the idea of pop-up retail. This was after the company had toured Tokyo on a business trip. The company was puzzled by the manner in which customers would literally line up to buy limited edition products from place retailers. When the products were all sold out, an exercise that took place in a matter of hours, the store closed down until its owner had brought in another stock, and then reopen it. This concept fascinated Vacant, who though to closing the store permanently after the stock had been sold. The company also thought of moving to another targeted destination because customers used to travel for long distances in order to buy products from niche retailers. Vacant picked up this idea and even today, the company still provides retailing alongside marketing for businesses. The company opened its second shop in NYC2003 through the sponsorship of Dr. Martens. Later in the same year, So ng Airlines opened their pop-up shop in the same city. In 2004, Comme Des Garcons opened up a pop-up shop known as the Guerrilla Shop, which lasts for a one-year term. Since then, the trend of pop-up shops has grown to become an indispensable tool for real estate firms and property owners who are now prospecting to let their property for a short period in the wake of an economy down town pending its recovery. Although pop-ups began as a way of artists to make use of disused space in urban areas, this has since changed modern entrepreneurial activity.

Assessment in science(Schools in England) Essay

Assessment in science(Schools in England) - Essay Example For one, NC has increased the number of students learning science. A key intention of the NC was to have students aged 5-16 learning science in primary and secondary education, as outlined in the Science 5-16 DES policy statement which was outlined in March 1985. Secondly, the NC has inculcated more effectiveness in teaching and learning of sciences. This is because the DES policy statement emphasised that teaching science was to include both the acquisition of knowledge and comprehension of facts and principles of science (which was to be done in a broad and balanced manner) and the methods of science. In this respect, science became a core subject alongside mathematics and English (Great Britain Parliament, House of Commons, Children, Schools and Families Committee, 2009, 17 and the Great Britain Dept. for Education and Employment, 1999, 34). The NC also lifted up performance in science subjects. This follows the outlining of the form that the policy would take, by the Education Re form Act 1988. ... Studying the science and arts subjects alike, under the programme is to culminate into sitting for the GCSE, when one finishes the Key Stage 4. This ensures that those who proceed to a higher level of learning are fully equipped, cognitively and academically. Thus, students are able to perform academically in higher levels of learning. Again, the same students’ ability to perform and comprehend concepts in higher standards of learning inculcates confidence and a positive attitude among them and extirpates chances for dropouts (Pollard and Bourne, 1994, 22). The teaching of biology, chemistry and physics has also become more standardised, following the changes that the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority for 2006 amendments made. This measure was to help ensure that those issuing guidance and information top science learners in years 9-11 of their studies have a single document that contains accurate and updated information on the opportunities, support and qualifications t hat are available. It is by this virtue that many students have gained increased awareness on sciences and the opportunities that accost studying science (Daugherty, 1995, 17 and Kelly, 1990, 14). According to Watts (1991, 12), the NC also helped further synchronise scientific disciplines and learning of sciences at the national level. This happened especially as changes were made in the 2006 national curriculum. The main changes included information regarding planning timetables, deciding between specifications and understanding the implications for teaching sciences and knowing where to obtain necessary resources from (Daugherty, Phillips and Rees, 2000, 17). The content of the science subjects being taught has also expanded, following the introduction of key stages. Particularly, one of

Decline in Trade Unionism and Strike Activity Coursework

Decline in Trade Unionism and Strike Activity - Coursework Example For decades, trade unions have played an important role in Europe as organizations that work to provide common goals for workers, offering traditional functions to its members such as collective bargaining, organized strikes, and support for unfair dismissal. In the UK, for example, the â€Å"Trade Union Congress† (TUC), which is an organization of British trade unions, was founded in 1868, and has since then, become a powerful institution in industrial relations.Trade unions have been commonly associated with strike-related activities since the 11900s but the instances of trade unions and strikes has evolved and changed dramatically since this period (Aligisakis, 1997). Participation in trade unions and strike activity are considered to be two important aspects of industrial relations in any country.   In the majority of European countries, trade unionism and the level of strike activities has experienced a continuous decline since the 1980s. Over the last three decades, a series of global changes have weakened the power of trade unions. These changes are responsible for the decline in trade unionism and fall in strikes, and the reasons for these changes will be explored in this paper. Attempts will also be made to examine whether any relation exists between the decline in trade union membership and strikes. Before embarking on discussing the issues mentioned above, one should look at the trend in trade unionism as well as strikes in European countries, particularly in Germany, France, Great Britain, and Sweden, as this is essential in finding out the relationship between the decline in trade union membership and strikes. These countries have been chosen as they represent the widest spectrum of industrial relations.

Branded Spaces Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Branded Spaces - Essay Example ispensable tool for real estate firms and property owners who are now prospecting to let their property for a short period in the wake of an economy down town pending its recovery (Vacant.com, 2011). A pop-up shop is a temporary venue. For instance, the space can be used for merchandise activities while on the following day hold a cocktail party. The tendency entails popping-up one day or week, then vanishing the same duration later. These shops, although they are small and temporary, have the capacity to build up interest through consumer exposure. Pop-up shops enable a firm to create a unique environment that involves its consumers, and develops a sense of significance and interactivity (Smith, 2009). The retail environment of pop-up stores in most cases is highly experiential, transporting emotions in an event-oriented type of atmosphere. While pop-up stores can also serve as retail events to sell special offers, they often serve as retail avenues to present and introduce product innovations or even conduct market tests. As such, locations are usually in city centres, or the trendy neighbourhoods of big cities (Townsend, 2010). With the strategy of pop-up stores being the creation of a climate of scarcity, retailers try to build a higher willingness to pay among their customer because there no option for price comparison and offers are only available for short periods of time, which can increase desirability. In particular, temporary stores that sell special offers are consumption events for customers and their main objective is to get discounts. In some cases, pop-up stores of this type are used to give special offers to long-term, high value customers. In these events, the scarcity effect is reinforced as there is not only a temporary limitation of the offers but... Center of discussion in this paper is Vacant of Los Angeles as the first company that developed the idea of pop-up retail. This was after the company had toured Tokyo on a business trip. The company was puzzled by the manner in which customers would literally line up to buy limited edition products from place retailers. When the products were all sold out, an exercise that took place in a matter of hours, the store closed down until its owner had brought in another stock, and then reopen it. This concept fascinated Vacant, who though to closing the store permanently after the stock had been sold. The company also thought of moving to another targeted destination because customers used to travel for long distances in order to buy products from niche retailers. Vacant picked up this idea and even today, the company still provides retailing alongside marketing for businesses. The company opened its second shop in NYC2003 through the sponsorship of Dr. Martens. Later in the same year, So ng Airlines opened their pop-up shop in the same city. In 2004, Comme Des Garcons opened up a pop-up shop known as the Guerrilla Shop, which lasts for a one-year term. Since then, the trend of pop-up shops has grown to become an indispensable tool for real estate firms and property owners who are now prospecting to let their property for a short period in the wake of an economy down town pending its recovery. Although pop-ups began as a way of artists to make use of disused space in urban areas, this has since changed modern entrepreneurial activity.

Decline in Trade Unionism and Strike Activity Coursework

Decline in Trade Unionism and Strike Activity - Coursework Example For decades, trade unions have played an important role in Europe as organizations that work to provide common goals for workers, offering traditional functions to its members such as collective bargaining, organized strikes, and support for unfair dismissal. In the UK, for example, the â€Å"Trade Union Congress† (TUC), which is an organization of British trade unions, was founded in 1868, and has since then, become a powerful institution in industrial relations.Trade unions have been commonly associated with strike-related activities since the 11900s but the instances of trade unions and strikes has evolved and changed dramatically since this period (Aligisakis, 1997). Participation in trade unions and strike activity are considered to be two important aspects of industrial relations in any country.   In the majority of European countries, trade unionism and the level of strike activities has experienced a continuous decline since the 1980s. Over the last three decades, a series of global changes have weakened the power of trade unions. These changes are responsible for the decline in trade unionism and fall in strikes, and the reasons for these changes will be explored in this paper. Attempts will also be made to examine whether any relation exists between the decline in trade union membership and strikes. Before embarking on discussing the issues mentioned above, one should look at the trend in trade unionism as well as strikes in European countries, particularly in Germany, France, Great Britain, and Sweden, as this is essential in finding out the relationship between the decline in trade union membership and strikes. These countries have been chosen as they represent the widest spectrum of industrial relations.

Views of Barack obama vs. Hillary Clintons. Essay Example for Free

Views of Barack obama vs. Hillary Clintons. Essay Barack Obama and John Edwards, Mrs. Clinton’s are two main rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination. They are both running outsiders/ agents of change. Both Clinton and Obama say they would change a number of things if elected as presidents. They argue that tax, health, gun control and war in Iraq are their key issues to be looked at. Mrs. Clinton argues that change can only be a word without strength and experience to make it happen. There are various similarities and differences in the way they view change if they are to be presidents of the USA. We will view the following key issues that are more important for the people of the USA. Issue on The Economy. Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama and challenger, Hillary Clinton are both zipping on the economy as the campaign moves to big industrial states full of losses and foreclosures . Since the economy in the USA seems to be declining it’s important that this question in seriously looked at by all the democratic parties. They are both saying they want to bring a complete transformation to the US economy that almost the whole world depends on. Clinton says the economy is not serving the middle class urging that for the past four years productivity has risen and wages have declined she said I quote â€Å"America did not build greatest economy in the world because we had rich people; we built the greatest economy in the world because we built the America middle class†. Both of them want to repeal President George W. Bushs tax cuts, provide economic liberation to the middle class and increase regime spending on health care and education. Both embrace free trade to an incomplete extent, and say of helping those who lose out because of globalization. Clinton presents herself as a problem-solver, stressing cooperation between business and government, calling to diminish sponsorship in especially Washington. She attacks obama claiming that she has action not words and that she has policies and experience to rebuild the manufacturing base in the US and look at mutual interests, she will crack down on unfair trade with countries like china by reviewing all existing trade liberalization bargain. She is seemed wanting to resolve issues on energy, infrastructure investment, health care and values that built the U. S. economy. She wants to bring United States challenges globally back to its fundamentals. Barack Obama says they should invest in infrastructure projects like roads, bridges and airports and also plan to create green-energy jobs he says that he wants to major focus going forward, that from Obama’s economic adviser, saying he speaks about the brake of the economy in the short run, and what investments in terms of occupations, technology and workforce dexterities needed for the future. Since Obama received major votes from the lower income voters he is really looking forward to see that the economy favors them in terms of creating better jobs for them and improving their lifestyles. They are repeatedly conflicting over the economy which is becoming the central point of debates ahead. As for the differences Clinton is offering targeted tax cuts while Obama wider middle-class tax relief. Issue on Health care. Both Obama and Clinton are looking forward for means and ways and ways that we improve the health standards for the Americans especially the low-income people. They are suggesting ways of seeing that public health care is improved. Democratic presidential candidate senator Hilary Rodham Clinton (NY) has explained he widespread monetary enclose than has a proposal to broaden health insurance to all U. S. residents she was telling insurance companies not to distinguish of any sick person. (Washington Post reports (weisman/Kornbult, Washington Post, 2/15). She was warning against drug companies and insurance. Finally she was for diminution in health costs make them more affordable and try craft more jobs for the Americans that will have a strong built-up base in America. She is recommending ways of helping workers in their late fifties and early sixties to buy Medicare and also wants to promote medical information machinery sponsored Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist(R-Tenn). With Senator Barack Obama 76% of people with health concerns about health costs and 72% have concerns about prescription drug exposure and the safety and eminence of care. He says that most of the health insurance companies are doing well so he does not encourage on more people taking insurance covers but rather improve in their services to people. There are great controversies between the two candidates on health issues. Obama criticizes Clinton’s health care plan for requiring everyone to purchase an insurance cover saying his plan. While Clinton mandates health-care coverage Obamas plan doesnt have a mandate on any of the health care issues. Issue on America at war. There are no differences when it comes to the war because of the candidates seem t o be against this war especially the Iraq war, though Obama seems to be the more outstanding candidate who is more against this form of war. According to Washington times politicians like Clinton and McCain voted for the Iraq war that should have never been authorized and remunerated. In Barack Obama’s interviews and speeches oppose the war from the start even now. He really wants peace between the two countries because it has really taken too many resources especially precious lives and billions of dollars a week than would have been used for other development projects like building collapsed schools and bridges; roads and buildings; that would have invested in child job guidance and care; or even making health care affordable. He has taken clear and unswerving antiwar position on the Iraq war He has emerged as the antiwar candidate constantly lashing home his point. Obama says the cause of the war is due to Bush’s mismanagement, poor administration and because he did not want to be disappointed. Obama’s stand is stable and definite against the war. He says the problem can be solved by dialogue with Iraq. (Bbc. co. uk) Hillary ways she was against starting the war she does not have a strong position on the war in Iraq. First she has never voted against the war nor does she give any suggestions to end the war. Issue on tax reform Both Barrack Obama and Hillary have similar thought on wounding down or reducing costs of taxes for the residents of U. S. , but Obama does not seem to have better stratagems to accompany his in realizing his goals like Hillary Clinton has. Hillary has a plan of cutting down taxes for the middle class people. Another ample plan to end the housing catastrophe with a moratorium of foreclosures and a freeze in finance rates for at-risk homeowners. She plans on redirecting millions of dollars to oil company proceeds to alternative energy research to find solutions to the energy crisis and create about 5 million jobs. Contrary Barack Obama has no plans of putting a suspension on home foreclosures, he is for the Dick Cheney’s energy bill that will give huge tax breaks to oil companies and to raise Social Security taxes y billions and billions of dollars. Issue on guns Control On this final issue both Barrack Obama and Hillary have similar opinions on the use and control of guns. Obama proposes these principles on the issue of guns. He says there should be a ban in the sale or transfer of all varieties of semi-habitual weapons; there should be an increase in the state of curbs on the attainment and tenure of firearms; and makers are required to provide child safety locks with firearms. Hillary says there should be entirety bun of all guns in America. She further continues to say that they need to stand compact on behalf of gun control legislation, laws that will keep guns off children’s hands, scandalous and mentally unstable people. Finally she says that she has a strong believe that all Americans as a nation should fight to keep off guns off people not authorized to have guns. To conclude the Democratic candidates have similar views but different interpretations so as to be better presidents for the United States’ most powerful country. They are both challenging one another positively with their ideas and innovations that they are better than the other all for the betterment of the nation and themselves. All of them want U. S. to be the best place for the world that the rest of the world may learn by example for them.

Free Space Optical (FSO) Communication

Free Space Optical (FSO) Communication INTRODUCTION Free Space Optical (FSO) communication involves the transmission of data through a wireless medium using modulated near infrared light beam (with wavelength between 800 nm-1700 nm) [1] as carrier wave. FSO communication links can be used for satellite-to-satellite cross links [2] [3], up-and-down links between space platforms- aircraft, ships, and other ground platforms, and among mobile and stationary terminals within the atmosphere [3]. Light as a medium of communication is not a recent innovation as it was used in the Roman era, where polished metal plates where used as mirrors to reflect sunlight for long-range signaling. A similar sunlight-powered device was used by the U.S. military to send telegraph information between mountain tops in the early 1800s [4]. Additional optical communication developments occurred during the World War II, and the post-war era experienced further developments in this field fueled by electronic innovations such as the transistors, vacuum tubes and i ntegrated circuits, and most especially the invention of the laser in the early 1960s [1]. The unique characteristics of laser such as its powerful coherent light beam, the possibility of modulating it at high frequency and the low beam divergence has made it the preferred light source for enhanced FSO applications. FSO communication is considered to be one of the key technologies for realizing very-high-speed multi-gigabit-per-second large-capacity communications when fibre optic cable is neither practical nor feasible [4]. FSO communication can be of crucial advantage particularly because of its wireless nature and several applications, making it a viable alternative to the laying of fiber cable underground which is expensive and has environmental consequences. Unlike radio and microwave systems, FSO has higher data rate due to its high carrier frequency, low power requirements, no frequency license required and much smaller packaging [4]. In FSO links, atmospheric turbulence is capable of degrading the wave-front quality of a signal-carrying laser beam, resulting in signal loss at the receiver and thereby impairing the link performance [4],[5]. In addition, fog, snow, rain, dust, smoke and other aerosol particles contribute to the attenuation of the signal-carrying beam and eventual degradation of the FSO link. Several studies have been done on the atmospheric turbulence channels of a FSO system [3], [5]. The real performance measure of an FSO communication system is provided by the binary error probability also referred to as Bit Error Rate (BER).FSO communication involve the use of optical amplifiers either as an optical booster or optical preamplification. Amplification is achieved by stimulated emission of photons from dopant ions in the dopant fibre by using a pump laser as used in Erbium Doped Fibre Amplifiers (EDFA) or electrically as used in semiconductor lasers, due to the excitation of ions from a higher ene rgy state to a lower energy state. The excited ions can also decay spontaneously (spontaneous emission) or even through non-radioactive processes involving interactions with phonons of the glass matrix. These last two decay mechanisms compete with stimulated emission reducing the efficiency of light amplification introducing what is known as the Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ASE) noise. Digital Pulse Position Modulation (DPPM) with direct-detection is the preferred modulation technique for FSO communication systems because of the lack of dispersion over the free space channel [2] , none requirement of threshold for detection [3] and the complexity associated with phase or frequency modulation [5]. At the moment, the benefits of FSO communications have not been fully exploited, hence more applied researches are needed at the laboratory to help transfer the performance of FSO optical systems into real life applications. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 FSO – PRINCIPLES AND CLASSIFICATION A FSO system consists basically of a transmitter, usually a modulated laser or light emitting diode (LED) which produces light for conveying data through space, and a receiver such as a photodetector which receives close to collimated radiation independent of the transmitter pointing concentrated lens [1]. Other components include beam control optics, collection lens, optical amplifier, solar radiation filters and other electronics [6]. In general, FSO systems can be classified into indoor and outdoor FSO communication [4], [7] based on the distance covered for communication and the absence of environmental effects in the indoor FSO link. The basic operating principles of indoor point to point systems are not different from outdoor communication links but the designs are very different to accommodate various requirements. Some research on transmitter and receiver designs for long-range FSO communication systems, [8] like satellite and atmospheric optical communications, have already been reported, which might be beneficial to short-range systems. Recently, many indoor communication systems employ laser diode as light sources [8]. 2.1.1 INDOOR FSO COMMUNICATION The indoor FSO communication link can be further classified as point and shoot links which are subdivided into infrared data association (IRDA) and retro-reflect links; and networks which have two types namely the diffuse networks and line of sight networks [4],[7]. Indoor FSO applications are confined to short distances; hence it is appropriate to optical FSO systems that use wide divergence beams rather than narrow beams which are suitable for point to point systems. Such systems are sometimes referred to as optical telepoint systems [7]. Due to the fact that indoor FSO systems are not affected by atmospheric effects, the power budget depends solely on the transmitter launch power, free space loss, and receiver sensitivity. As reported in Mahdiraji and Zahedi [9], the use of infrared frequencies for short-range wireless communications has received extensive interest over the decade, and many potential applications of this technology have been suggested. Some of the applications inc lude portable device such as laptop computers, personal digital assistants, and portable telephones. Many indoor communication systems employing infrared LED wireless links have been reported in [7], [9]. Using pure diffuse link, a high speed and power efficient indoor wireless infrared communication using code combining was reported in Majumdar and Ricklin [4], where a multiple transmitter link design was used with a narrow field of view direction diversity receiver. The design goal was to eliminate the effect of inter symbol interference (ISI) so that power efficient signalling schemes such as DPPM can be employed at a very high data rate. A portable transceiver for indoor FSO link was reported by Jiang et al [8] .The system employs a transmitter of eye safe infrared LEDs and a receiver of photodiode arrays with multi channel trans-impedance-summer architecture. The received signal achieved a BER of 10-4 at a plane of 2 m away from the transmitter, even at a point 50 degree off the transmitters vertical axis. The bit rate of the transceiver was up to 40 Mbit/sec in an indoor non-directed infrared FSO link to be extended to 100 Mbit/s using LEDs with higher cut frequency. 2.2.2 OUTDOOR FSO COMMUNICATION Unlike the indoor FSO communication link, the outdoor link covers a long distance over 500 m [7] using the atmosphere as its natural medium of communication. It is unlikely that long distance point-to-point systems will exceed the 4-5 km range due to atmospheric channel degradation. Outdoor point-to-point systems use high power lasers that operate in the Class 3B eye safety band to achieve optimum power link budget, particularly if high bit rate (e.g., 155 Mb/s) is required [7]. In order to achieve an improved power budget, an experiment was carried out by Heatley et al [8] to achieve a trial 155 Mb/s link that cover a 4 km distance between Imperial College and University College London. The aim of the experiment was to minimize the overall propagation loss focussing on the free space loss and the receiver sensitivity as little could be done to reduce the atmospheric losses. A low power laser coupled to an erbium doped fibre amplifier (EDFA) was used as the source; two astronomical t elescopes (Schmidt-Cassegrain, 20 cm aperture) were used at both the source and receiver ends, and an Avalanche photodiode (APD) was used as receiver. The result of the experiment was that the diameter at the receiver was reduced to 0.5 m which corresponds to 8 dB free space loss from a beam diameter of 2 m (20 dB free space loss). The major problem encountered was maintaining the beam alignment which depends on temperature changes. Although the APD receiver is relatively costly, it helped to improve the receiver sensitivity and they are generally used for long distance systems. FSO is well established for intersatellite and deep-space communications [3] but it can also be used in ground-to-space link, Unmanned-Aerial-Vehicle (UAV) to ground link, and among mobile and stationary terminals within the atmosphere [10]. New areas of application include quantum key, traffic and telematics [6]. It has been predicted that FSO can be fruitfully utilized as alternative for last-mile problem [3], [10], [11]. According to Majumdar and Ricklin [4], a group of researchers reported the design and development of acquisition, tracking and pointing subsystem for UAV to ground free space optical communications link. The communication link was developed from a UAV to stationary ground stations located at Wrightwood, California and Maui, Hawaii. The range of the UAV was 50 km. the downlink laser transmitter wavelength was 1550 nm and had power of 200 mW for developing a 2.5 Gbps data rate communication for a BER of 10-9. Furthermore researchers have presented results from exper imental demonstrations using a very lightweight optical wavelength communication without laser in space (LOWCAL) [4] between ground based telescope and a space shuttle. The uplink/downlink established at 852 nm wavelength and 852 nm signal beam. Some of the specifications for the experiment were: range of 640 km, data rate of 10 kbps, telescope diameter of 0.6 m, modular weight of 2-4 kg and retro-reflector area of 70-180 cm2. For the downlink, differential circular polarization keying (DCPK) format was used while Frequency Shift keying was used for the uplink. Both the downlink and uplink achieved a BER 2.2 FSO- TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANTAGES AND CHALLENGES Theoretically, the wavelength range of the near infrared electromagnetic spectrum (800 nm and 1700 nm [1]) used in optical communication implies it offers extremely high bandwidth, hereby providing higher data rates compared to other communication media such as the radio (1 mm-100 Mm ) and microwave (1 mm-1 m) systems [1]. Further, this technology requires no spectrum licensing requirements i.e. traffic free bands, no mutual interference between the FSO systems (high spatial selectivity of the beam), no Fresnel Zone requirement and difficult to eavesdrop on transmitted data [4], [6], [10]. The integration of the optical wireless and fibre is a research area been worked on by my many researchers [4]. This integration is possible because the two optical technologies offer high—speed optical bandwidth to meet market needs. They both use the same optical transmission wavelength (800 nm – 1700 nm) [1]. In addition the two optical technologies both share the same system compo nents and can transmit digital information using a range of protocols. The business advantages of FSO communications for network extensions include the reduction of cost incurred on fibre-optic cable and other associated costs, as well as time for deployments [4]. Despite its potentials, FSO communication link is affected by atmospheric attenuation owing to aerosol particles such as fog, haze, rain and snow which causes fluctuations in both the intensity and the phase of the received light signal hereby limiting the availability of FSO for a given transmission range and increasing the systems bit error rate [5]. These includes the fine mode with diameter, less than 2.5  µm, the accumulation mode with particle diameters 0.1  µm  µm and the coarse mode with diameter > 2.5  µm [12]. These particles can grow in size in regions of high humidity, and shrink by evaporation as humidity decreases. The effect of atmospheric aerosols in the channel on laser beam propagation can be determined using the Mie theory which depends critically on wavelength and particle size [13]. The dimensionless size parameter illustrates the nature of the Mie calculation as it gives the relationship between the particle size and radiation wavelength. This is given m athematically in equation 2.1[13] as where is wave number, is particle radius and is particle wavelength. Table 2.1 adapted from Ricklin et al [13] show some sources of aerosol in the atmosphere. Aerosol particles can be classified into three modes based on the diameter of the particles. Table 2.2 adapted from OBrien et al [6] shows the attenuations caused by rain, snow and fog. Table 2.1 Estimates of particles smaller than 20 micron radius emitted into or formed in the atmosphere (106 metric tons/year) (adapted from [13]) *Includes unknown amounts of indirect man-made contributions. Table 2.2 Attenuations caused by rain, snow and fog (adapted from [6]) Extinction is a term which describes the attenuation of a laser beam as it passes through a medium containing atoms, molecules, and particles. As reported in Ricklin et al [13], Goody and Yung defined the fundamental law of extinction as that of Lambert, which states that â€Å"the extinction is linear in both intensity of radiation and in the amount of matter, provided that the physical state (i.e., temperature, pressure, composition) is held constant†. Intensive researches [3], [4], [5], [13] have been conducted on the effects of atmospheric losses, most especially atmospheric scintillation, on FSO communication and some solutions have been proffered to reduce these effects. 2.2.1 PROPAGATION LOSS This atmospheric loss is associated with the distance covered by the laser beam. According to Prokes [12], free space propagation loss can be expressed as shown in equation 2.2 [dB] (2.2) where L is the link path distance, is the beam divergence full angle and is the diameter of transmitting circular aperture. For the Gaussian beam and a sufficiently long link distance ( >>) the additional gain is = 3.7 dB. In Heatley et al [7], it was reported that for a point-to-point system that operate with a slightly diverging beam, the free space propagation loss would be 20 dB whereas in an indoor system using wide angle beam, the free space loss would be 40 dB or more. At very short link distances, the total transmitted power is detected at the receiver because the beam spot diameter at the receiver position is lower than the diameter of the receiver lens [12]. 2.2.2 PHYSICAL OBSTACLES Physical obstructions such as birds, insects, tree limbs, buildings or other factors can temporarily or permanently block the laser line-of-sight [6], [13]. Platform/building motion due to wind, differential heating and cooling, or ground motion over time can result in serious misalignment of fixed-position laser communication systems [13]. Proper planning and site measurements are ways of avoiding this effect [6]. 2.2.3 ABSORPTION AND SCATTERING Molecular absorption process which is wavelength dependent is a major factor in beam attenuation. At wavelengths greater than 1 µm, the effect of molecular extinction can be negligible as atoms couple weakly with electromagnetic field [4]. Furthermore, molecular absorptions at these wavelengths are due to absorption of incident radiation with only minor scattering contributions [4]. Aerosol scattering effect is caused by rain, fog, mist and snow. This effect accounts for the degradation in quality of service experienced during snow, rain, fog and mist as reported in a detailed measurement take by [7] over a period of one year in both rural and urban areas. The results also reported in Heatley et al [7], showed a similar trend but with rather less variability between seasons and higher average attenuations. For many molecules, the absorption spectra have been measured experimentally in the laboratory and the respective extinction ratios of specific molecules have been made available for evaluation [4]. Molecular absorption can be minimized by appropriate selection of the optical wavelength [4]. It has also been suggested in [7] that the attenuation effects due to scattering can be minimized by reducing the link range and/or reducing the optical power budget. The attenuation caused by scattering in decibel scale A10, scat is given by the product of the atmospheric attenuation coefficient ÃŽ ±10, scat and the link distance in kilometres. The mathematical expressions are shown in equations (2.3), (2.4) and (2.5) [12]. [dB/km] (2.3) Where is the particle size distribution coefficient defined as: [dB] (2.5) 2.2.4 ATMOSPHERIC SCINTILLATION Scintillation is caused by solar energy heating up small air pockets inhomogenously, thereby creating varying refractive index along the FSO link [7]. This results in the scattering of laser beams at various angles along the propagation path and a resultant fluctuation in both the intensity and phase of the received light [5], [7].Atmospheric scintillation is less significant at distances less than 500 m [7], [12], but degrades performance of a FSO link at ranges of the order of 1km or longer [5]. The intensity I of an optical wave propagating through turbulent atmosphere is a random variable. The normalized variance of optical wave intensity, referred to as the scintillation index, is defined by equation (2.6) [12] where the angular brackets denote an ensemble average. The scintillation index indicates the strength of intensity fluctuations. For weak fluctuations, it is proportional and, for strong fluctuations, it is inversely proportional to the Rytov variance for a plane which is shown in equation (2.7) [12] where is the refractive-index structure parameter. This parameter is dependent on temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, altitude and wind strength [12]. Beam wander is another occurrence in an atmospheric channel which causes similar effects as atmospheric scintillation. This is characterized by the deflection of the entire laser beam by optical tubules of larger diameter than the beam, resulting in a random movement of the light beam about the target point. Atmospheric scintillation is a major impairment of FSO communications systems, as it can produce large transient dips in the optical signal. It has been studied extensively with various theoretical models already proposed to describe the signal fading [3], [5], [11]. In addition, several communication techniques have been described to mitigate the signal fading effect [5], [6], [12], [13]. In [3], the error performance of terrestrial FSO links were modelled as PPM/Poisson channels in turbulent atmosphere. The scintillation effects were modelled as lognormal for weak turbulence and as exponential for heavy turbulence. In Kiasaleh [11], the performance of a direct-detection, APD-based PPM FSO communication system in atmospheric turbulence was characterized. Here the weak turbulence link was investigated by modelling the received signal as a log-normal random process and also as a negative exponentially distributed received signal intensity. The binary PPM was used as the modulation sch eme for the system. It was assumed that the receiver thermal noise is non-negligible and the average signal intensity was large enough to justify as Gaussian approximation. It was concluded that the performance of the APD-based PPM FSO system was severely affected by turbulence and that the optimum APD gain must be used to avoid excessive APD noise at the receiver. It was also concluded that the negative exponential channel scintillation affected the systems performance with only large signal power capable of influencing the performance. Zhu and Kahn [5] employed the statistical properties of signal fading, as a function of both temporal and spatial coordinates as an approach of mitigating turbulence-induced intensity fluctuation. In spatial domain technique, at least two receivers are used to collect the signal light at different angles. In temporal domain techniques, only one receiver is used. Here signal-by-signal maximum likelihood detector (ML) is used to optimize performance w hen the receiver knows only the marginal statistics of the fading while maximum-likelihood sequence detection (MLSD) is used when the receiver knows the temporal correlation of the fading. The investigation showed that BER has greater degradation when the standard deviation of the turbulence induced fading is large. Furthermore, the diversity reception with the two receivers can improve the performance than a single receiver. According to Prokes [12], the receiver lens area causes an integration of various intensities incident on particular parts of the lens. It was reported in [12] that optical scintillations can be reduced by increasing the collection area of the receiver lens. This phenomenon is known as aperture averaging and the aperture averaging factor for a spherical wave is shown in equation (2.8) [12] where is the power scintillation index and is the Rytov variance for the spherical wave. An experiment was carried out by Prokes [12] to investigate the effect of the aperture averaging factor on the power scintillation index using two different refractive index structure parameters for the calculation. The result showed that the influence of both the lens diameter and refractive-index structure parameter on the scintillation level was relatively large. The power link budget of a FSO communication link was given in [12] based on statistical analysis of the atmospheric attenuation. Figure 2.1 shows a power level diagram of FSO deployed at a distance of about 1 km. According to figure 1, the total received optical power, was given by Prokes [12] in equation (2.9) as where is the mean optical power of a laser diode, includes the coupling loss between the laser and the transmitter lens and the attenuation loss in the lens, is the beam attenuation due to propagation loss, includes random losses caused by atmospheric phenomena (scattering and turbulence), and represents the coupling lens between the receiver lens and photodiode and the attenuation and reflection at the lens. 2.2.5 AMPLIFIED SPONTANEOUS EMISSION (ASE) Optical amplifiers are important components in communication links, as they are used to boost output power levels in the order of one Watt and higher. Due to the atmosphere medium used in FSO, only optical booster and pre-amplification schemes can be used [14]. Apart from the desired optical signal amplification, the optical booster amplifier constitutes a source of background radiation that can exceed the background radiation from the sun. This radiation is called amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). The ASE power spectral density is represented in equation (2.10) [14] as where is one photon energy, denotes the optical amplifier gain, and is the amplifiers noise figure which ideally should be 3 dB. Equation (2.10) is valid for a single spatial mode (including polarization modes); in multimode applications has to be multiplied by the number of emitted modes to arrive at the total ASE power spectral density [14]. The effect of ASE radiation in optical booster and preamplification in FSO communication link was investigated by [14] using on/off keying (OOK) as the modulation technique. In the case of the booster amplifier, considering the fact that the maximum on-axis gain of a central unobscured optical transmit antenna with respect to an isolator radiator equals where is the diameter of the telescope optics and is the optical transmit wavelength .The value 0.81 is the optimum value of the fraction of incident power that can be coupled to an optical fibre from an incident plane wave. On inserting into equation (2.10), the ASE power spectral density generated by the booster amplifier and coupled to the receiver is given in equation (2.11) [14] as [W/Hz] (2.11) where is the transmitter gain, is the transmitter noise figure and and are the transmitter and receiver telescope diameter respectively. Also the signal power coupled to the receiver was given in equation (2.12) [14] as [W] (2.12) where is the transmit optical power at the output of the booster amplifier. Figure 2.2 [14] shows the general setup of an optically boosted FSO system. Modulated TX data Optical Receiver Optical booster amplifier GTX, FTX Telescope optics DTX Amplified data signal transmit booster ASE DRX R Using Erbium-doped booster amplifiers with specifications, telescope diameters, and a communication distance of , Winzer et al [14] arrived at which is of the order of the magnitude of the background radiation per mode produced by the sun. It also was reported that the booster ASE constitutes the dominating background radiation term up to communication distances of 600 000 km. In the optically preamplified FSO communication system, (see Figure 2.3) the received signal passes through polarization filter and optical bandpass which reduces the detected preamplifier ASE power. The preamplification introduces additional noise terms such as the shot noise, ASE-shot beat noise, signal-background beat noise, signal-ASE beat noise, background-preamplifier ASE beat noise, background-background beat noise and the ASE-ASE beat noise. It was reported by Winzer et al [14] that up to a link distance of 1000 km the beating of the signal and the transmit booster ASE dominates all other noise terms, c ausing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) to become independent of R. The communication quality does not in this case increase with decreasing communication distance. It was thus concluded that the optical booster ASE has significant impact on the performance of a FSO communication link, especially at short link distances [14]. Optical preamplifier POL- filter (optional) Optical bandpass Decision logic RX data In Winzer et al [14], the use of the pointing, acquisition and tracking (PAT) system (see figure 2.4) to reduce the optical booster ASE at the receiver was presented. The proposed patent-pending PAT system eliminates the need for the using separate power or hardware for beacon lasers, taking care of alignment procedures between the beacon-laser and the transmit or receive telescopes, and splitting off a certain fraction of the information carrying data signal for PAT purposes [14].The booster ASE is applicable to the PAT system because the ASE spectrum exceeds that of the data signal by orders of magnitude and also the ASE has the same spatial modes as the data signal. Figure 2.4 The PAT system retrieving pointing/tracking information from ASE emitted by the booster amplifier at the transmitter [14] Phillips et al[2] carried out an analysis of the optically preamplified intersatellite pulse position modulation (PPM) receiver employing maximum likelihood detection (MLD) using Gaussian approximation (GA) and Chernoff bound (CB) techniques. The results from the calculations carried out at a wavelength of and bit rate of 25 Mb/s showed that this mentioned receiver configuration is approximately 1.5 dB more sensitive than the optically preamplified OOK non-return-to zero (NRZ) signalling. This method is proposed to have future implementation in future laser intersatellite communication systems. This paper has been reviewed in my report, with special interest in the BER evaluation. 2.2.6 EYE SAFETY FSO systems involve the emission of high power optical power which can be unsafe, especially if operated incorrectly [7]. As a result of this, laser safety standards have been established and classified based on the amount of power emitted by the transmitter source. Table 2.3 (adapted from [7]) summarizes the principal classifications. Table 2.3 Laser safety classifications for point-to-source emitter (adapted from [7]) 650 nm (visible) 880 nm (infrared) 1310 nm (infrared) 1550 nm (infrared)