Commission in the European Union

As a staff member of the Directorate-General of the European Commission I have been appointed to describe to you the composition and the powers of the Commission in the European Union. In the following paragraph I will describe the body of the Commission divided in three pillars: First you have the College of the Commissioners, then the Directorate-General (DGs) and lastly the cabinets. In the Third paragraph I will briefly describe the powers of the Commission and in the last paragraph I will conclude with an opinion on the question, as to how far I consider the European Commission to have â€Å"a vocation to further the interests of the community as a whole†. The Commission consists of twenty-seven Commissioners, one for each Member State including the President of the Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security. The Commissioners are responsible for the work of the commission stated in Art. 17 of the TEU, and are therefore not allowed to have any other duties during their period of office that could bring about any conflict of interest. If a Commissioner fails to do so, the Court of Justice may retire the member concerned on application of the Commission or the Council acting on a simple majority. The exception to this rule is, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy who is a member of the Commission responsible for the conduct of the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy and its security and defense policy but also takes part in the work of the EC, presides over the Foreign affairs Council and carries out mandates of the Council. The High representative is appointed by QMV with agreement of the President of the Commission, and may be dismissed the same way. The president of the Commission is proposed to the European Parliament by the European Council acting by a qualified majority, and is elected in the European Parliament. The president is the most powerful Commissioner and has several important roles: he/she adopts the list of the persons whom it proposes to appoint as members of the Commission, lays the guidelines in which the Commission is to work, decides the internal organization of the commission making sure it works as a body, appoints the Vice-Presidents from among the members of the Commission (other than the High Representative), he can resign Commissioners since they are individually responsible to him. Finally the President has an important role as representative. He represents the Commission at meetings involving the heads of Government and must account to other institutions when there is questioning of the general conduct of the institution or a particular issue raises broader questions. In the current Commission, there are forty Directorates-General (DGs) divided into four groups: policies, external relations, general services and internal services. The majority of the Commission employees work for the DGs. DGs in the Commission are compared to Ministers in a national government. Even though DGs’ work for Commissioners their responsibilities are to the Commission. The work inside the DG focuses on the development of programmes, administration of Community funding and bringing different public and private actors together. You can see the Cabinet as being between the College of Commissioners, representing the political part of the Commission, and the DGs representing the administrative part of the Commission. A Cabinet is composed of seven to eight officials and is appointed by the President. Each Cabinet is the office of a Commissioner and is a line between Commissioners and DGs allowing cooperation between them and helping Commissioner with formulating priorities and policies. They keep Commissioners informed of other happenings in the Commission and help prepare weekly meetings for the College of Commissioners in combination with other Cabinets The powers of the Commission can be broadly explained and interpreted, but the main points can be narrowed down to four specific points: legislative powers, agenda and budget planning, executive powers and supervisory powers. Legislative power as to making sure that the rules in Treaties are being complied with and determining how EU nationals may stay in other States after they have worked there. The Commission is also responsible the budget planning for each year and the making of the agenda. The Commission has executive powers responsible for collecting the revenue for the EU, coordinating the spending of the EU and administering the EU aid to third countries. The Commission has supervisory powers to monitor the compliance of the Member States to the rules of the Union. Does the Commission have â€Å"a vocation to further the interest of the Community as a whole? † I believe it does, by looking at its responsibilities in the Union itself proves this. And if you look at the statement made by the Court of Justice where it says that â€Å"Commissioners are required to ensure that the general interest of the European Union precedes at all times over national and personal interest†. In which I understand that a Commissions’ work should be emphasized on the whole Community (EU) instead of just one State Member.

Justus Case

Just Us! Case Just Us! is a corporation that imports, roasts and sells primarily organic coffee from fair traded certified coffee producers. Their vision is: â€Å"to be a leading Fair Trade business that builds on quality, professionalism and innovation for the benefit of all our stake holders. Since its inception, Just Us! had experienced healthy growth in the maritime provinces of Canada, mainly supported by its corporate values: social and environmental responsibility, sustainability, ethical practices in all the areas of the business and in all stakeholders, and product differentiation.They even opened a fair trade museum to help educate the public on the social impact and benefits of fair trade. Once roasted and packed, the coffee and other products are shipped to retail outlets, supermarket chains, health food stores, coffee shops and churches. A substantial portion of Just Us! revenues came from wholesaling to large retail stores such as supermarket chains. Their coffee is a lso offered in the Just Us cafes, which were meant to be a place where customers could enjoy a cup of premium fair trade coffee and gather information about fair trade. The locations were not standardized as a typical chain.A major competitor in the retail organic fair trade coffee market is Kicking Horse which also offers products that are certified organic and fair traded. Its main channels are: coffee shops, gourmet food stores, grocery chains and restaurants. The growth of fair trade product sales had prompted several major food brands to offer fair trade products, such as: Kraft Foods, Procter & Gamble and Nestle. Also, in Canada, large super market chains such as Loblaws were offering also fair traded private labeled products which was concerning for Just Us, since supermarkets is one of its most important channels.In the coffee shop area, there was a lot of competition since some independent coffee shops and well-known chains (Ex. Starbucks) were trying to tap into the  "fair trade trend†. Due to the original management team lack of marketing experience a new Marketing Director was hired and part of the initial issues she found was that Just Us! did not spend much on advertising. 2009 had been set at $20,000. There was a massive growth opportunity in the fair trade market in Canada but the economy was on recession, therefore, the expansion needed to be planned carefully.The marketing director had several specific questions to answer to help develop a marketing plan to bolster the growth of Just Us! First off, how was Just Us! going to target new buyers given the current competition and what segment would those buyers belong to? College students were clearly a growing customer base and Just Us! already had a strong presence in three college universities. Therefore, marketing should be directed at the young, educated demographic that are willing to pay a premium for products.Furthermore, the majority of their sales are business to business and their marketing needs to emphasize the benefits of fair trade to the end user. The case stated that the internet was a great tool for increasing awareness of fair trade products, along with initiatives that enhance word of mouth (p. 3). In order to reach new customers they should consider expanding their internet marketing, such as using search engine optimization/ search engine marketing. They can also utilize co-op advertising with other organizations that emphasize fair trade, organic, and environmentally friendly practices.The fair trade museum should also be utilized to educate potential customers and will be discussed in more detail below. All Just Us! advertising needs to emphasize the story behind the products in order to educate new customers. Educating customers on the benefits of fair trade is the key to growth and will set Just Us! apart from competitors with brand recognition. In order for Just Us! to enhance the cafe’s performance they need to improve the custom er experience and become customers’ first choice of â€Å"place outside the home to enjoy coffee. Surveys and focus groups should be used to find out what customers like to do in their cafes as well as what customers like about the competitors cafes (Starbucks and Trident) and incorporate those into Just Us! ’ cafes. Additionally, the current Just Us! cafes are stand-alone destination shops. Just Us! should open up new stores in large commercial shopping centers in densely populated cities with multiple Universities. This would allow Just Us to still market to the young educated demographic that have long customer lifetime values that they have had success with and reach new customers via foot traffic in the shopping center.By keeping the overall educational theme about fair trade and brand awareness the same across all of the cafes should be able to convert new customers into loyal customers. Another questions the Marketing Director had to consider was how Just Us! c an expand their loyal customer base? This could be achieved through improving the customer experience mentioned above. However, offering opportunities for the customers to get involved would create a concept of community among their customers and which could develop into a core competency and set them apart from their competitors. Just Us! ould achieve this by having guest speakers or workshops on fair trade in the stores or even get involved with community organizations to help educate people about fair trade. Customers could sign up to receive emails for upcoming events, new products, new services, and new social initiatives. These actions would all help expand their loyal customer base. The Marketing Director also needed to make several changes to the marketing program in order to benefit the cafes. The marketing budget should be increased to reflect the company sales and growth potentials. A larger budget will allow Just Us! o compete with similar fair trade coffee companies suc h as Java Factory and threatening new mainstream entrants such as Starbucks who can capture the market share quickly. The existing market media plan (Case exhibit 8) should be updated to focus on product differentiation and increase channel diversity. Just Us! should advertise in multiple newspapers, magazines, and outdoor locations to increase customer reach. Furthermore, Just Us! should promote more direct communication to events around colleges and young professionals emphasizing their fair trade and environment responsibility concept in order to foster community involvement.A major customer segment for Just Us is students and young professionals who are mostly tech-savvy. Therefore, internet should be a main advertising vehicle to reach mass marketing. Just Us should use internet marketing tools including emerging social media (e. g. Facebook, Tweeter, blogs), mobile advertisement (e. g. Groupon), search engine marketing, and co-op advertising on sites offering similar fair trad e concepts. Finally, the Marketing Director needs to utilize the fair trade Museum as a way to spread awareness as well as promote brand awareness just like they should in the new locations but take it one step further.Just Us! could hold free concerts or guest speakers at the museum to attract potential new customers. They could also charge for the concert and allow free admission if you bring a reciept from a recent purchase at the Grand Pre store. Just Us! could sponsor a local race or work with local University fundraisers in the community. Once again, Just Us! needs to be involved with the community to educate people about fair trade and get their customers involved to create a sense of community that can lead to new customers and extend the lifetime customer value of existing customers.

P4 P5 D1 – Unit 21

P4: Describe the meaning of terms in a standard form contract P5: Explain the effect of terms in a contract D1: evaluate the effectiveness of terms in a given contract In this assignment I will be†¦ Describing the meaning of terms in a standard form contract. Explaining the effect of terms in a contract I will also be evaluating the effectiveness of terms in a given contract. A standard form contract is a contract made between 2 or more parities using their standard set of terms. A contract is a set of mutually agreed promises made between 2 or more parties with the intention of creating a legally binding agreement. It is important that the people involved in signing the contract know exactly what they are agreeing to. Types of terms The statements made by the parties under negotiation that are not meant to form part of the contract are called representations. The thing that the parties perform under the contract is called the terms of the contract. For example the co-operative UK breakdown cover has parts in the contract that will benefit both the customer and the insurer. These benefits have been made between the customer and the insurer under negotiation and will have to proceed with the terms of the contract. There are two types of terms which can be found in a contract, these are†¦ * The express term – Clauses in the agreement that are agreed to by both parties. * The implied term – Part of the contract not necessarily included by the parties but automatically included by the law to protect all parties. Express terms are statements made between the parties. These statements can either be made by word of mouth or in writing and the parties intend that these terms will create the fundamental part of the contract. For example, when a customer talks to the insurer of the co-operative UK breakdown cover the agreements of the statements that are going to be made can be made by talking about the agreement or writing the agreements down on paper and then signing it. It is more reliable if both the insurer and the customer write down the agreements because at least there is some sort of proof that these contractual terms have been made. Whereas, when talking about the terms and not having any form of evidence that these agreements have been made there will be no reliability in the contract. Express terms can either be conditions or warranties. Conditions A condition is an essential part of any contract, especially in standard form contracts. A condition is a fundamental part of the agreement and is something which forms the root of the contract. For example, when the co-operative UK breakdown cover is going through the contractual terms the condition of the contract would be the insurer selling themselves to the customer and gaining trust so the customer is more likely the sign the contract and both sides of the contractors are equally happy. If the insurer has sign the contract and the contract states ‘ when the vehicle breaks down, the co-operative UK breakdown cover will be there as soon as possible to help them get back on the road’ and then does not do their duties of the contract this is a clear breach of contract. A breach of contract will entitle the injured party to repudiate and claim damages. To repudiate means to treat the contract as if it is over and invalid. Warranties A warranty is a less important term that does not go to the root of the contract. A warranty will only give the injured part in a breach of contract the right to claim back the damages that have been made. The contract itself cannot be rejected. For example, when the insurer of the co-operative UK breakdown cover has promised to offer 24 hour bed and breakfast if and when their vehicle breaks down, so it gives the insurance company a chance to fix the vehicle in need, and then when the vehicle comes back to the owners and they notice extra faults that have been made in the vehicle this is not a vital part of the contract and will be seen as a warranty. This failure although it is annoying for the customer paying monthly for the insurance company will not mean the contract can be automatically voided. It is very common in business contracts to not only have express terms relating to conditions and warranties but also have a common express key terms included in the contract. For example, these may include†¦ * Exclusion clauses limiting the parties’ responsibilities under the contract * Terms relating to the amount of damages that the parties might receive if things go wrong. Terms allowing parties to vary the contract price known as a price variation clause. Implied Implied terms are not general stated in a contract. Implied terms are introduced into the contract by statute, custom and common law. Terms implied by statute To protect both parties in the Co-operative UK breakdown cover contractual agreements, terms are implied into the contract by virtue of legislation. The best example for the fault is the sale of goods ac t 1979. This sale of goods act has certain terms that have to be followed, such as†¦ * Every seller has the right to sell goods. Where there is a sale of goods by description there is an implied condition that the goods will correspond with that description. * Goods sold are of satisfactory condition and that they are fit for the particular purpose stated. * The sample sales have an implied term condition that the bulk order must correspond with the sample. For example, if the Co-operative UK breakdown cover have stated something in their contract and promised their customers this certain service when they are in need or in general, the exact promise will have to be made otherwise the law can then get involved and the situation will then be takes to the courts. Terms applied by custom An agreement may be subject to customary terms; these terms are not specified by the parties. These could be historical; for example, when a customer signs up to the Co-operative UK breakdown cover must find out if the terms in the contract actually exist. A customer can do this by asking other people who have also joined the insurance company. These should be noted. However, that such a custom will be overruled by any express clause to the contrary. Terms implied by the common law The courts dealing with the situation will be prepared to imply a term into the contract in order to validate the obvious intentions of the parties. For example, if a customer takes the co-operative UK breakdown cover to the courts, the courts will look at all angles. There may be a point that has been overlooked or may not have been clearly stated therefore, the courts will also look at the ‘business fairness’ so that the contract makes commercial common sense. The distinction between express and implied terms Express terms in a contract are those terms that the parties have negotiated between themselves. If any side of the parties have any problems with these negotiations these terms can then be cut out and re-negotiated until both sides of the party feel equal and they can both can come up with an agreement. For example when the UK breakdown insurer and customer do not like what they have agreed to they can then meet each other half way and come up with an alternative in the agreement. This way all the parties are happy with what they are signing up for. On the other hand, implied terms are those terms that the law insists are included in the contract. This way all the parties have no say in the contract. And if they wish to do business with each other they have to follow the implied terms precisely. Impact of contractual terms When the parties in the UK breakdown cover create a contract, the terms are expected to be followed by both sides. The most important part of any contract especially the UK breakdown covers insurance company are for the terms relating to what services that are going to be delivered to the customers. These terms must be delivered if it is stated in the contract. Other important terms would be the quality of the services; the services must be set to a professional level. Time for good performance and rejection of goods Usually in businesses that are delivering goods there would be a time and date set for this. But because the UK breakdown cover provides services, they have to be present for whenever they are needed and called by their customers. if the UK breakdown cover service fail to give the services they have promises to their customers, the customer can then sue for breach of contract. Price variation Many businesses including the Co-operative UK breakdown cover will include in their contracts a term which is known as a price variation this is included into the contract so both parties can feel secure from uncontrollable variations. The prices that were first agreed when the parties negotiated may have changed due to unforeseen rises, this may due to†¦ * Inflation * Fuel costs * Production costs Any business would not want to lose out on their profit and will do what they can to keep their business up and running but in moderation. Payment terms The payment for goods and services to be delivered by the seller is a very important but of the contract. Although for the UK breakdown cover, their services have to be delivered on the g. if a customer has a fault with their vehicle and calls up the UK breakdown cover service, they have to then drive to where their customers are and then deal with the situation in hand. The insurer has to do this because it is part of the terms in the contract. The payment of this will have been negotiated in the contract and will be expected to pay on the day. Quality and quantity of the services delivered When the UK breakdown cover brings forward their services it is expected that what was agreed in the contract will be delivered. The quality of the service will have to be at a professional standard and the insurer helping the customer will have to do anything they can to make the customer/s feel comfortable and happy with the service that has been delivered to them. The law implies into contracts, that the quality of the good and services that are being delivered to the customers are fit for purpose that they were intended. Customers should be free from minor defects in terms to finish and appearance and that they should be safe and lasting. The buyer will have time to examine the vehicle after it has been fixed and if any faults have been made they are allowed to reject the vehicle until the right approach has been made. If the wrong customer service has been delivered the customer has several options available regardless of what was agreed between the parties. if the person helping fix the vehicle produced an extra/larger service then was expected the customer can then†¦ * Accept the quantity expected and reject the rest. Reject the entire delivery/service * Accept the entire delivery at a new contract price. These three points are negotiable and have to be discussed between the insurer and the customer. Reservation of title Reservation of title is when parties retain ownership of the goods until the contract has been completed. It is not unusual for a seller, wishing to protect themselves, to in sert a clause into the contract that ownership of the goods is not to pass to the buyer until the seller has been paid. This is known as a reservation of title clause. For example, customers who have signed up for the UK breakdown cover service will not receive their services until each month or week they have paid what they need to, to be able to claim this. The insurer is allowed to reject them until the payment/s have been made. Exclusion clauses An exclusion clause is a term in a contract that tries to exempt or limit the liability of a party who is in breach of the agreement. ‘The Unfair contract erms act 1977’ came into effect as a parliamentary control over the law relating to exclusions clauses. For example if the customer does not pay for his/her insurance breakdown cover, then the insurer and the business can them restrict the customers right to this service until he/she decides to make payments. These terms are very effective to all the parties involved in a contract. The co-operative UK breakdown cover has terms in their contracts because it holds benefits for both sides of th e parties. Those benefits are†¦ * Terms in a contract give a UK breakdown cover a background and when customers research the business they will see that the business has a record of previous ruling. * If the contract is not genuine this is beneficial for the customer because these faults can be easily noticed and then will be disregarded of not being a ‘live contract’. The terms will then give the customer the right to take action to the breach of contract that has taken place. * All the parties have some sort of control over the contract. This is effective because all the parties get what they want in moderation and agreement.

Martin Luther King, Jr Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Martin Luther King, Jr - Essay Example In order to persuade the audience he used the persuasion technique of emotional appeal. He tapped into the emotions of the African American population by making them feel that they were not being treated fairly and the current government practices were discriminatory. For this purpose he uses various terms such as crippled in order to make the African Americans feel that they are being crushed due to the corrupt practices of the government and they need to protest for their rights (Americanrhetoric.com, 2015). Secondly, he even uses his own credibility as a tool to influence the African American population. During his speech he refers to Abraham Lincoln to prove that the founding fathers considered the African American race as equal to other races of America. The use of this reference makes that audience feels that King was a person credible enough to deliver the speech because he has enough information about the background of the position of African Americans in the history of

Supply Chain Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Supply Chain Management - Essay Example -21 Security Limited with a view to recommending changes to supply chain strategies to resolve current problems. It will begin with an evaluation of the environment and the potential impact of this on the business, then present an analysis of the current supply chain, identifying problems requiring resolution in both the immediate and longer term. The problems will then be assessed against the key challenges facing the business to determine what direction the business needs to take to avoid future problems as well as resolve existing ones. Following a brief conclusion, a series of recommendations will be made relating to the supply chain that will reduce and/or remove the current problems and put the business in a better position to deal with the future. Environmental Analysis Worthington and Britton (2009, p.6) define the macro environment as â€Å"those ... factors ...which affect a wide variety of businesses and which can emanate not only from local and national sources but also from international and supranational developments†. Johnson et al (2011, p.50) identify the PESTEL framework as a means of analysing the environment. Following corporate scandals and the global 2007-2008 economic crisis, several commentators have added ethics to the analytical list. This approach will be used to analyse the macro-environment of Q-So!-21. The STEEPLE framework considers the Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal and Ethical factors that affect business and over which business has no control. Figure 1: Macro Environmental Analysis This brief analysis provides an indication of some key factors that will affect Q-So!-21. Many of them stem from the current UK (and world) economic situation. With the focus on austerity, the most recent figures indicate the UK either did not grow or contracted last quarter (Wintour 2011). As the government have stated their intention to continue with current economic policies, there is the real possi bility of another UK recession, with very little available for industry and individuals to cut, as most cuts were made following the 2007-2008 global economic crisis. As such, many businesses may find a second recession occurring so soon after the last one, with a higher tax burden this time (increases in VAT and both income tax and national insurance) results in their ceasing trading, exacerbating the effects of the cuts being made and intensifying the impact of the recession. Even without recession, the higher tax burden and public sector cuts being made are likely to cause many businesses to cease trading, either voluntarily or through insolvency. The market for all goods and services will become increasingly tight, with both business and personal consumers keeping purchases to the absolute essentials as everyone focuses on keeping their heads above water. The Bank of England may be forced to raise interest rates, which have been at an historically low 0.5% for some time, allowin g both businesses and individuals to mitigate to a certain extent, the lack of price/wage rises (although the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is well above the 2% target set by the government). The impact of any rise will depend on the amount of the rise. If rates rise to, say, 1.5%, then it is likely most people will be able to adjust their outgoings to compensate.

Business Environment for IKEA UK Research Paper

Business Environment for IKEA UK - Research Paper Example The product is packed flat for easy assembly at home by the customer. IKEA began in 1943 in a small farming village in Sweden. Ingvar Kamprad started the business at age 17 and used his own initials plus the first letters of Elmtyrid and Agunnaryd, the farm and village where he grew up, to create the name IKEA. Although it didn't start out as a furniture company, furniture became the focus of the business in the 1950s when IKEA turned its problems into opportunities (About IKEA: Timeline) by: The IKEA group has 90,000 co-workers and operates in 44 countries, and the unique focus of IKEA UK continues to be on its customers, offering eye-appealing furniture design and keeping prices low by finding ways to shorten the route from manufacture to customer without detriment to the quality and ease of assembly for the buyer (About IKEA: in the world). A SWOT analysis of the organisation shows internal and external factors which affect its overall identity in the global marketplace. According to Wikipedia, Albert Humphrey developed the SWOT analysis in a research project for Stanford University in the 1960s and 1970s. It evaluates strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in an organisation-the first two internal, the second two external. IKEA's major strengths are brand recognition, customer communication and staff satisfaction. One of the most difStrengths: Brand Recognition One of the most difficult selling points to establish in an organisation is positive brand recognition. Over time, IKEA UK has managed to do this by not compromising on its promise to its customers to maintain brand quality, easy construction and low prices. In addition, the packaging of the various components is personalised by simplifying instructions (the need for the customer to buy an electrical cord for a lighting product is shown by a simple sketch of the cord on the package) and creating a connection between the customer and the company by giving the product a unique name and printing the designer's name on the package. The personal touch establishes the brand and makes the customer feel a special bond. An additional benefit for the customer is the ability to design a complete room and to be given a copy of the plan if the purchase will be made at a later time. Strengths: Customer Communication Good leadership creates good business practices. Never has this been more evident than with the IKEA group. The organisation started its first store in the United Kingdom in 1987, and as it expanded, customer satisfaction was key. Convenient IKEA distribution centres in different sections of the UK offer customers the opportunity to go directly to the warehouse and centre and pick up materials after utilising the IKEA OnlineWeb site to design and order whole rooms of furniture (Investor). By encouraging the "IKEA Way," the company has established its unique methods-according to CEO Peter Hogsted, "we do 50-you do 50" (Lewis, par. 20). Another area of customer relations is recognizing concern for the environment, and IKEA was the first to suggest reuseable

Legal and Ethical Issues in Columbus Hospital Corporation Essay

Legal and Ethical Issues in Columbus Hospital Corporation - Essay Example There are several federal laws that protect the rights of individuals who are interviewing for a job. Being federal, of course, means that they apply across all the states. The first law to be discussed is the Civil Rights act 1991 and the Age Discrimination in Employment act of 1967. Both of these are crucial to the secure the individual rights of the interviewees. The Civil Rights Act, 1991 prohibits employment discrimination on the grounds of race, color, religion, sex or nationality. The United States is a melting pot and so this law is crucial. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act, on the other hand, seeks to protect individuals who are 40 years old and above. Employers must give them an equal opportunity just like their younger colleagues. Passing the NCLEX exams is the launching pad to a successful career as a registered nurse or RN. The most important practices that lead to malpractice lawsuits are not strictly adhering to standards of care and failure to communicate (Guido, 2001). Failure to follow standards of care ranges from routine tasks like wearing antithrombotic stockings to more serious ones like using medical equipment for a purpose other than that it is intended for. Either way, if misuse or negligence harms the patient, the nurse is in legal jeopardy. Failure to communicate or poor communication is also important. This might be between a nurse and a physician, a nurse and other caregivers to whom she has delegated responsibilities e.t.c This can be difficult to trace in the case of injury and so it should be followed to the letter (Guido, 2001). Several ethical principles are key in nursing. However, non-maleficence is top of this pile. It states that nurses take a medical oath. The import of that oath is that they do everything in the best interests of the patient (Guido, 2001). Many important lessons have been acquired that shall be an influence on me as a PN.  

Today's Architecture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Today's Architecture - Essay Example The working thesis for the research is that ethics and social responsibility are important for architects. The angle of the research will be finding the benefits and reasons for ethical and social responsibility for architects and the development of strategies that will be effective in meeting the ethical needs of student architects. A study of the ethical and social responsibility of architects is an important undertaking because of the influence of the design choices made by architects on communities, individuals, and the global community. Architecture as a profession spans a lot of issues and the choices made in the course of design has direct and indirect impacts on the air quality, land use, design of public spaces, functions of the buildings, allocation of resources, security and safety of the buildings designed to the current and future generations, and aesthetic delight, among other issues. Being an architecture study, I believe I will be in a good position to capture the main issues to be dealt with in the research. The primary audience includes architects, critics of the architecture profession, and readers of architecture journals, including the Architect’s Newspaper and Architect’s Journal, aimed at dealing with responsible architecture, and the general public (Shobow, March 12, 2014). The secondary audience includes fellow students and professor. The audience believes in the importance of having ethics and social responsibility by architects. Ethical guidelines are present for architects but not followed too much owing to the client requirements that take more precedence. From the research I have noted on the high insistence on having ethical guidelines and following them in the course of architecture to ensure the needs of the client, as well as those of the society, are represented in design (Chan, 2013). I need to

Teaching Methods Mathematics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Teaching Methods Mathematics - Essay Example In this principle of one to one correspondence it is a necessary for a full understanding of numbers and emphasized by counting with the child's actions like counting her fingers or counting her crayons. They also learn this principle when they count while playing like jumping and swinging. They can participate in this activity while counting out loud. A rule can make like counting 1 to 20, then another person's turn. At an early age they are now able to detect that counting was wrong if counting of numbers is reversed in order or skipping two numbers it is a violation to stable order principle. They may said that there's a counting mistake. If counting violated the cardinality principle with the use of the same medium - a toy, states that the number was one more or less than had been counted, They usually said that the answer is wrong. Therefore, toddlers are learning the counting principles, even though they may continue to make counting mistakes when counting larger numbers. Larger number like counting 1 to 15 have a difficult time to understanding. The teacher can help them and learn about numbers providing a concrete demonstration of number.

PUBLIC RELATIONS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

PUBLIC RELATIONS - Essay Example It has five branches, namely IWM London, IWM Duxford, IWM North, HNS Belfest and Churchhill War Rooms (IWM 2012 p.1). The organization’s target is to elaborate factors and consequences of war and conflict in an attempt to influence positive change in the world. Four main principles guide the organization. Courage enables them to challenge the current knowledge in the world. It allows them to champion discussions concerning war and conflict. Authoritativeness allows them to question certain fields and establish standards of operations. Relevance ensures the content they portray targets the right persons. The fourth principle is empathy that enables the organization to document experiences and historical facts accurately while respecting opinions and views of participants (IWM 2012 p.1). The ultimate goal of IWP is to become the overall authority in conflicts. Imperial War Museum relies on several sources of funding that include government funding, donations, sponsorship and com mercial ventures. Admissions for audience are free in London and Manchester branch. However the other branches have limited capacity. Therefore, they charge tickets for visitors (IWM 2012 p.1) Analysis of the Museum strategy PESTLE analysis Political evaluation The political environment favors the activities and targets of Imperial War Museum. The museum originated in UK following the First World War that instigated this war. The UK government is on the frontline campaigning alongside IWM. It funds the Museum and supports its activities. There is minimal negative political influence in the Museum because the government supports the museum and participates actively in its plans. However, the museum’s schedule for the 2014 centenary coincides with general elections. In this period, grants are expected to reduce. IWM will feel the impact through 2014-2015(IWM 2012 p.1) Economic influence The Museum requires many funds to run and implement its plans. However, this is not a concer n because the government constantly funds the institution. IMP has projects due for completion in 2014 that require ?35 million. Funds for these projects come from a Heritage Lottery Grant, donations and its commercial operations. In addition, the government offers ? 5 Million for these projects and another ? 50 million for hundred years commemorations since First World War that is due next year, 2014. The government further allocates ? 5.3 million to be distributed among schools to enable students visit the museums and attend the commemorations. Lastly, the museum generates income to fund its activities from its commercial entities. Reports in 2011-2012 indicate that it generates at least 50 per cent of the total funds it needs for operating. According to IWM (2013) however, on the part of visitors, the increasingly difficult economic times will influence household financial decisions eventually undermining attendance to the museum events and commemorations. Social influence Social factors can strengthen an organization or weaken it (Northumbria University, 2008). IWM has sparked interest in the global society. Currently, it records 700 member organizations for the 2014 World War I centenary. According to the museums past records, it has had 1.9 million guests visit their five branches. Upon interviewing the guests, most said they would come attend certain events if

Brahms Requiem Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Brahms Requiem - Assignment Example Brahms was highly influenced and affected by his mother and friend’s death and he thought that there was need to perform a requiem mass to console those who were grieving and also to let the dead lie peacefully. As a matter of fact this German artist felt that he had to pay tribute to his benefactor Robert Schumann (Musgrave 5) so that he could always feel him around and have his musical memories as well as the memories of his mother. Franco-Prussian war ended in 1866. This war is believed to have influenced Brahms to compose his requiem to fare well the war’s victims and console the affected souls. There are also several events that happened believed to have influence his composition without any one of them being the exact or main reason behind the requiem but they are said to be the forces behind Brahms requiem. Comparison of Brahms Requiem in line with classical music Brahms requiem was believed to be lengthy and full of empty passages but compared to other performances by different artists, it is so classical and of good quality (Musgrave 8). The slow piano playing makes the message being conveyed to be received as intended and this also makes it perfect for such performances to take place at Ellen Eccles.

Enable Windows Active Directory and User Access Controls Essay Example for Free

Enable Windows Active Directory and User Access Controls Essay This lab provides students with the hands-on skills needed to create a new Active Directory domain in Windows Server 2003 and demonstrates how to configure a centralized authentication and policy definition for access controls. The Active Directory users and workstation plug-ins will be used to create users, groups, and configure role-based access permissions and controls on objects and folders in a Windows Server 2003 Active Directory system. Lab Assessment Questions Answers 1. What two access controls can be set up for Windows Server 2003 folders and authentication? The two access controls that can be set up for Windows Server 2003 folders and authentication User or Group access to the folder and the ability to modify contents of the folder. 2. you can browse a file on a Windows network share, but are not able to copy it or modify it, what type of If access controls and permissions are probably configured? The type of access controls and permissions that are probably configured are Modify , Read or Full control. 3. What is the Windows tool that allows you to administer granular policies and permissions on a Windows  ­ network using role-based access? The Windows tool that allows you to administer granular policies and permissions on a Windows network using role-based access is the Group Policy Object Editor 38351_LB03_Pass2. indd 50 26/02/13 11:54 PM Assessment Worksheet 51 4. Relate how Windows Server 2008 R2 Active Directory and the configuration of access controls achieve CIA for departmental LANs, departmental folders, and data. Windows Server 2008 R2 Active Directory and the configuration of access controls achieve CIA for departmental LANs and departmental folders and data by using user authentication (logon/password) to access the network. It also give users or groups permissions or deny them access to files or folders. 5. Would it be a good practice to include the account or user name in the password? Why or why not? No because then hackers will have an easier time hacking the password 6. Can a user who is defined in the Active Directory access a shared drive if that user is not part of the domain? No a user cannot access a shared drive if that user is not part of that domain. Windows Server 2003 require a users logon/password credentials prior to accessing shared drives 38351_LB03_Pass2. indd 51

Intellectual Traditions In Islam Religion Essay

Intellectual Traditions In Islam Religion Essay Islam after the death of Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) spread far and wide and was accepted by different people of different languages, culture and lands. Hence it became enriched by the intellectual contribution of many individuals and communities in various diverse fields of learning such as philosophy, literature, law, theology, arts, mysticism and natural science. Thus, Islam was elaborated in a multitude of forms and interpretations and by the 1oth century, it completely flourished as a civilization To discuss the significance of these issues, a seminar entitled INTELLECTUAL TRADITIONS IN ISLAM was organized by the institute of Ismaili studies at the Mellor centre, Churchill College, university of Cambridge during 14-20 august 1994. This book contains the edited and reviewed versions of the papers presented at the seminar excluding Professors M. Mahdi, M. Arkoun and A Sachedinas contributions. The report is an overview of all the essays presented in this book excluding the essay Some Observations on the Religious Intellectual Milieu of Safawid Iran by John Cooper and Present Day Islam Between its Tradition and Globalization by Mohammed Arkoun. It discusses all the key points and topics addressed by different authors in their respective essays. ABOUT THE BOOK (SUMMARY) The concepts and the key points described in the book are discussed below with respect to each chapter: 1. Introduction The introduction is the key note address which was presented at the seminar by Dr. Aziz Esmail. He in his essay explores the key concepts of Intellectual Life, Tradition and Islam. He raises many questions about concept of an intellectual life. He asks about the designation and position of an intellectual in the society. He asks whether the intellectual thoughts and the intellectual themselves are very distantly placed from the society. He further confronts the readers by asking questions such as what is the place of intellect in ones persona. What is the relationship of intellect with feelings, character and most importantly with the faith of a person? He further explores the role of intellectual life in the development of personality and character and in the making of identity of a person. He asks what is the relation of intellect in our daily lives. What is its relation to ones relationship with God? How does it effect the relation of an individual with its society? Does the intellect enable any participation in the society or does it retards it? He confronts the readers with such questions and enables them to think, to review and to divulge in his thoughts. Furthermore, he deals with the concept of tradition and traditionalism. He defines the relationship of old age and youth with tradition. He says that the old age identifies with the past whereas the youth has a relationship of dependence of defiance with the past. He identifies the different models of schooling which provide the basis of relationship of an individual with his traditions. The author explains that the tradition becomes an object of anxiety and attention when it ceases to work not when it is actually at work. He says that you cant find the idea of traditionalism or tradition in traditional societies. He explains that the main confronting question facing the people today is that in this world which is characterized by a pluralism of tradition which tradition one should uphold? The other question is what is the future of any traditions in such a rapidly changing world? When the author talks about Islam he asks the meaning of Islam. He also asks what is the relationship of past and present in Islam. The author describes the challenge of relativism in todays world. Relativism says that all doctrines, ideas and values can be explained by reference to time and place. But if all ideas and values are thus explained, ones confidence in upholding a single culture or tradition is shattered. The author says that today the culture is becoming a supermarket of ideas, values and doctrines where one chooses according to taste not according to objective essence. It the past, community came first and the individuals second, today, the scenario is opposite. Today, in such a pluralistic world, there is a need of a genuine mutual appreciation between faiths. The author says that engagement with other faiths doesnt mean to surrender, for criticism too is a form of engagement. How Islamic theology may engage with the modern world without becoming a prisoner of the mode rn understanding of modernity is one of the major challenges facing Islamic thought today? 2. Intellectual Life in the First Four Centuries of Islam by Hugh Kennedy: The author in his essay surveys the intellectual life of the Muslims in the first four centuries of Islam. He also describes the development of the intellectual life in this era. He explains that the first main issue that confronted the Muslims after the death of Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) was that of the leadership of the community. People raised many questions such as who should lead the community. How they should be chosen and what powers they should enjoy? There were two different groups of people who had two different view points. One group believed that the leadership should be inherited by the Ahl al-Bayt (family of the Prophet). The other idea that found favor was that of a tribal Sheikh. The early Islamic intellectuals faced a very important issue that how they were going to preserve and record the utterances and deeds of the Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H) and his companions, secondly, they faced the issue of explanation of Quran Sunna to the new Muslims who were Non-Arabs. Consequently, a whole series of sciences developed in order to solve these problems. These sciences include grammar, genealogy, poetry and history and were known as the Islamic sciences. Grammar was a part of such sciences. It became the essential constituent of all the intellectual activities as it was vital to understand the basis of religion. Science of genealogy also found its way in the minds of the Muslims intellectuals. It was used to establish relations between different tribes and people. To understand the Quran completely, it was equally important to learn the language and thoughts of the Prophets contemporaries. So, poetry of pre-Islamic Arab and the early days of Islam became a very important part of the Muslim Intellectual life. History was another aspect of systematization of learning. Historical writing came into form just due to the need to record the life of the Prophet (P.B.U.H) and the events of the Islamic conquests. The non-Islamic sciences that Muslims were concerned with were medicine, philosophy, astrology and astronomy. All these sciences were brought into the Islamic tradition by translations made from Greek language in the 9th century. The Muslims in the early era of Islam pursued only those sciences that they thought were practically useful for them. Philosophy was studied by Muslims because it was required for analysis of arguments and logic study of medicine was required for obvious reasons. Astronomy and astrology were regarded as practical sciences by Muslims because many of them believed in the influence of planets on peoples lives. The author highlights that in the early intellectual life of Islam certain subjects were studied because they were perceived to be useful and there was no structure of intellectual life for there did not exists any academic profession. Thus, in the first four centuries of Islam, there was no institutional frame work for intellectual life; people who were engaged in such activities lived on their private income. Overall, the Muslims in the four centuries of Islam were pre-occupied by Islamic sciences which developed from just being recordings of the early days of Islam to becoming immensely rich intellectual work. 3. Scientific and Philosophical Enquiry Achievements and reactions in Muslims history by Oliver Leaman: The author in his essay describes the development of scientific philosophical enquiry in the Muslim history. The author says that after the death of Prophet Mohammad (P.B.U.H), the Islamic empire expanded and extended to the various parts of Middle East where a variety of civilization were established for a very long time. The new Muslim rulers came into contact with people who had very sophisticated ideas about theology, medicine, astronomy and mathematics. Now they had to decide whether to reject this kind of learning or to study it. They chose to study it and learn from it and as a result a pluralistic society of different cultures and religious was formed There were basically two reasons for using the discoveries and theories which were present in the Middle East at that time. One was the need to argue and debate with the people of other religions and to persuade them to become Muslims. It was necessary to use the methodologies of the older religious to defend Islam and to prove to people what improvements Islam has brought. The other rational for using science and philosophy of existing cultures was a practical one. When the Muslims came to Syria, Iraq and later on Persia, they found out that those people had a high standard of living. They were relatively more educated and healthy. They had better management skills. The Muslims wanted to learn how they achieved this state of affairs. This resulted in a great deal of interest in early Islamic world for philosophical, scientific and medical discoveries which were all around them. The author further explains that these new communities had a bulk of philosophical works especially those of Aristotle and Plato. Philosophy is all about the ability to debate, to argue. There was a great demand by the people for philosophical material with which they could persuade others about the validity of their point of views. The philosophical literature was widely read in the first few centuries of Islam and great evidence of scientific work is also found. The author further explains that to the positive approach of the philosophers, thinkers and intellectuals towards ancient philosophy and science, the ulama had a different approach. They thought that if the Muslim intellectuals were forming a philosophy based on the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle then they were developing a philosophy based on pagan thought. They thought that Islam in itself contains the solutions of all the problems faced by the people. They argued that we need not approach ancient Greek philosophy for solutions of our problems. But the philosophers thought that if something is good or true there is no harm in incorporating it in our daily lives. The author says that the questions that arose as a result of all this debate were: how much is it acceptable for one to borrow from a culture that is not ones own? How far could Muslims incorporate secular knowledge in their own culture and still maintain their culture? The above mentioned debate was a dispute about who would sort out the theoretical problems of the Islamic world. Would it be the philosophers inspired by the Greek science and philosophy, or would it be the ulama and the fuqaha, the traditional Islamic scholars and jurists? 4. The Rational Tradition in Islam by Muhsin Mahdi: I would like to focus on the historical perspectives of the rational tradition in Islam. The author points out in the start of his essay that whenever in history Muslims including scientists, philosophers and mystics tried to express themselves, they had to use reason. The author traces back the history of rationalism from the age of enlightenment and the French revolution in European culture and history in the 17th and 18th centuries. It happened that some learned encyclopaedists started destructive rationalism by trying to get rid of religion and religious ideas, thoughts and prejudices. They wanted to establish a society that is purely based on reason. The author asks a question: how the rational tradition arose in Islam in the first place? He replies by saying that it arose after the death of the Prophet (P.B.U.H.) when Islam and Muslims faced the crisis of leadership. The question: who has the claim to rule Muslim religious community after the Prophet (P.B.U.H.)? Is it by the prophets designation of an imam or is it by election? The origin of Islamic religious thought and theology is based on this question. And, thus, begins the whole process of rationalism in Islam. Within the tradition and knowledge that came in from other cultures and societies to Muslims, the concept or idea of Neoplatonism also found its way. Neoplatonism is the theory that speaks of god as something that is hard to understand, that is above and beyond reason. Thus, Neoplatonism provided the revealed religions with a support. It taught them that the divinity is active; its not just a mind it is something that acts and causes things to be. Now as the rationalist ideas began to develop, the contradictions between the rationalists and the fundamentalists began. One illustration of rationalism in Islam was Abu Bakr Muhammad al-Razi, the physician who opposed all forms of human authority in matters of religious knowledge, even that of the prophet. He completely opposed prophecy and criticized religion. He proposed that organized religion was a device used by the evil men to establish their rule over mankind and that it leads to violence, conflicts and wars. The whole idea of extreme rationalism is to get rid of all religions and to form a society based purely on reason. But no tradition ever thought of a society completely based on reason. One can make justifications about prophecy, revelations and religious transactions. The author here states his point of view that the only way that a society can be held together and the only way that people can be encouraged to pursue virtues and avoid vices which may not always be in their rational interests is by a divine law and through a doctrine of reward and punishment hereafter. In Islam two kinds of rationalist traditions are found. One is that of Averroes (Ibn Rushd) who believed in acquiring rational knowledge to find a way to the divine. He believed that as one perfects it to its limits, then he has a vision of what is beyond it. The other tradition is that of Ibn al-Arabi who believed in practicing and learning from people and experiences to find the way to the divine. 5. The Limits of Islamic Orthodoxy by Norman Calder: Norman Calder in his essay firstly explains that in this essay he wants to discover the outside limits of Islamic Orthodoxy with respect to the Sunni Islam. The author defines the terms Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy. Orthodoxy means the right teachings whereas Orthopraxy means the right practice. According to the author, the Sunni Islam is a religion of Orthodoxy. The author describes that one of the places where the right teachings of Islam can be found are those books which are called Aqida or Aqaid in Arabic meaning creed. These books set out the agenda of beliefs that represent being a Muslim. The author gives the example of Christianity, that in the first five centuries of Christianity, they faced a debate about what it was you had to believe to be a Christian and they decided a creed under the authority of a council and the pope. But there is no such source of authority in Islam. There is no such council and there is no such creed that is found in which all the Muslims believe. According to the author one thing found common in all the creeds is the components of the Shahadat i.e. the belief that God is one and Muhammad (P.B.U.H) is the messenger of God. The author further explains that there are five possible forms of religions beliefs including scripture, community, gnosis, reasons and charisma. Some people claim that the way towards the knowledge of God is through scripture i.e. Gods revelation others claim that Gods self-revelation to man is through a community that has been chosen by God and in which correct belief is preserved. A third group claims that way towards knowledge of God is through gnosis i.e. mystic knowledge, experience or just mysticism. A fourth group claims that way towards understanding God is by using reason or by being rational. Finally, there are communities that believe that God has appointed throughout the generations one particular person to express His message, they are also claim that this particular person has the knowledge of God. All great religious traditions of the world including Hinduism, Islam Christianity have all fine elements described above. The author classifies different groups of believers according to the above mentioned forms. Within Islam, the Twelve Shia the Ismaili Shia are the communities which lay stress on charisma as the most important form of achieving knowledge of God. There are two sets of people in Islam which lay great stress on reason as the means of achieving knowledge of God. One group is represented by philosophers like Al-Farabi and Avicenna i.e. Ibn Sina. The other group is the Mutazila which are rejected by the Sunnis because they claim that they overstress the role of reason. The group representing gnosis or mysticism in Islam is the Sufis. According to the author, the Sunnis are the group that lie somewhere between scripture and community. The author further explains that the Sunnis have formed intellectual writing traditions, there literature to which they refer as the expression to their understanding of their relationship to God and His Prophet (P.B.U.H). This list of literary genres is as follows: Qisas Al Anbiya, Sirat Al-Nabi, Quran, Hadith, fiqh, Kalam, Tafsir and Sharh Al Hadith. At intellectual level, the limits of orthodoxy are represented by the contents of the set of books defined above. 6. Intellectual Life Among the Ismaili: An Overview by Farhad Daftary: The author firstly explains the history and beliefs of Ismailis. He says that the Ismailis maintain that the Prophet Mohammad (P.B.U.H) has appointed his cousin and son-in-law- Ali b. Abi Talib as his successor and that this designation or nass has been made divine command. They also believe that there is a permanent need of a spiritual leader with a particular Kind of knowledge (ILM) for guidance of mankind. They believe that after the death of Prophet, only Ali and succeeding imams possessed the required ILM and religious authority which enables them to act as the sole authority for interpreting the Islamic revelation. Thus, this doctrine of imamate forms the foundation of all the teachings and literary works of the Ismaili Shi is. The early Ismailis developed a cyclical history of revelation and a cosmological doctrine. These two concepts became the main components of theology. These two doctrines also explain the great appeal and popular success of the early Ismailis Dawa (the guiding mission led by teachers known as dais or missionaries. The establishment of the Fatimid state in 909 in North Africa proved to be a mile stone for the success of dawa. The Fatimid period is often known as the Golden Era of Ismailism. After the acquisition of the Fatimid state, the Fatimid Caliph-Imams didnt abandon their dawa activities aiming to extend their rule over the entire Muslim Umma, they retained their dawa and network of dais, operating both within and outside Fatimid states. Special institution was setup for the training of dais and instruction of ordinary Ismailis. The dais who were educated as theologians, themselves were the scholars and authors of Ismaili community. They produced great literary works on theology, law, philosophy and exoteric and esoteric subjects. In Egypt, the Fatimids created major libraries in Cairo, which grew into a centre of art, culture, Islamic and natural science. The Dais themselves were trained in jurisprudence and were acquired with knowledge of Hadith and other religious sciences as well as the languages and cultures of regions in which they operated despite being the sole representative of the Ismaili Dawa it Seems that very little is written by Ismaili authors on Dais who acted as missionaries, teachers and judges for the Ismailis of their community outside the Fatimid dominion. The high yearn for learning in Ismailis led them to conduct Majalis i.e. Lectures or teaching sessions for public. In 1005 Fatimid Caliph-Imam Al-Hakim (996-1021) formed an institution of learning known as Dar al-ilm, the house of knowledge or Dar al-Hikma in a section of Fatimid palace in Cairo. A multitude of religious and non- religious sciences were taught at Dar al-ilm which was equipped with a major library. Many Dais received training in Dar al-ilm. In the Fatimid period, the Ismaili law was codified by Al-Qadi Al-Numan under the guidance of the Fatimid Caliph-Imam Al-Muizz. His compilation the Daaim-al-Islam (The Pillars of Islam) served as the official legal code of the Fatimid state, Al-Qadi Al-Numan, on Fridays after the mid-day prayers conducted public sessions in Cairo at the mosques of Al-Azhar, Amr Al-Hakim, to explain the legal doctrines of the Ismailis jurisprudence to Ismailis. Much of the literary work and chronicles of Ismailis perished as a result of the Ayyubids harassment of Ismailis. These libraries were also destroyed and hence much of the literary work was also perished. After the persecution of Ismailis by Ayyubids in the Fatimid states, Hassan Sabbah founded the Nizari state in the fortress of Alamut in northern Persia. Hassan Sabbah was a learned theologian and he established an impress library at Alamut. Other major Nizari Fortresses in Persia Syria were also equipped with a signification collection of books, documents and scientific instruments. The Nizari Ismailis of the Alamut period used to compile chronicles in which events of the Nizari states were recorded accordingly. But most of these official chronicles preserved at Alamut and other Nizari fortresses perished in the Mongol attacks of 1256 or later on. After the invasion of Mongols in 1256, the Nizaris how began to observe taqiyya for extended period. Until the end of the 17th century, the Nizari Dawa met with particular success in Central Asia India. In the Central Asian tradition, the authentic works of Nasir Khusraw occupy a prominent role. Central Asian Nizaris have also preserved a bulk of Persian Nizari literature produced during the Alamut period in later times. The Syrian Nizaris have also formed another literary tradition based on Arabic, in which local ideas as well as Fatimid Ismaili thought found expression. The Nizari Khojas of the Indian sub-continent developed a distinctive tradition known as Satpanth or true path which is expressed in their hymn like Ginans written in different South Asian languages and later on recorded in the Khojki Script in Sindh by the Khoja community. These Ginans were written by Pirs or Dais to increase their appeal of message. The author acknowledges Ismailis as a community with the doctrine of Imamate as their central teaching. He successfully traces back the Ismaili literary traditions in his work. 7. Nasir Khusraw: Fatimid Intellectual by Alice C. Hansberger: The author Alice C Hunsberger in her essay focuses on the great Fatimid thinker and intellectual Nasir Khusraw. Nasir Khusraw who lived primarily in Khurasan in the 11th Century was an eminent Persian philosopher, writer and poet. He was a successful preacher of the Ismaili faith in Central Asia renown for his poetic teachings. He was so successful in preaching among people that those of other Islamic school turned viciously against him and he had to spend his last 15 or 20 year in exile in Yumgan in Badakhshan under the protection of a local Ismaili Prince. The author in her remarkable essay sheds light on his personality and his teachings. She narrates the story of an eagle from one of his poems. The essence of the story is that human beings have it all in them that carries them to the sky and brings them to the dust. The author is found to be saying that Nasir khusraw is far away from being a mystic and neither he is an ascetic rather he preaches his readers to become the best human beings they can by being fully in this world and using it for achieving self-perfection. Nasir Khusraw is the only philosophical writer of his era to have written all his writings in Persian language. He leaves us with three different genres of writing: a prose memoir of his travels, the safarnama, and his poetry gathered in his diwan and a no. of philosophical works in which he lays out the doctrines of Ismailism. His famous edited and published books include: Gushayish wa Rahayish, Jamial-Hikmatayn, Khwan al-Ikhwan, Shish Fasl, RawshanaI-nama, Wajh-i-din and Zad al-Musafirin. Nasir Khusraw earned his title Hakim through his broad training in philosophy and other sciences including finance and mathematics. In his writing, Nasir Khusraw shows a certain honesty and directness. He talks his hopes. His prose and poetry is so admired by people because it is plain and complex. Around his fortieth birthday Nasir Khusraw underwent a spiritual reawakening and left his privileged life in the royal Saljuq court and set out for a journey which was much esoteric rather than exoteric. The authors sheds light on a very important concept from Nasir Khusraws teachings that one must be in this world in order to achieve the higher world. He explains in his teachings the need of physical world for a life of faith because according to him it is the physical world that holds the tools for learning true wisdom, namely reason (or intellect and knowledge i.e. aql and ilm). Nasir Khusraw gets irritated by people who are ignorant. He compares them to all sorts of animals including donkeys, asses and noisy birds. In his book Wajh-i-Din Nasir Khusraw explains that animals act without knowledge, while angels know without acting. But it is human beings who must combine both action and knowledge. For Nasir Khusraw, intellect leads a believer to proper faith and strengthens his faith. The other concept that Nasir stresses in his teachings is the observance of the sharia. He criticizes people that they must observe sharia. He compares the observance of sharia with taking medicine when we are sick. Although we may not like the medicine but we have to do in order to heal our body. Similarly, the Prophet (P.B.U.H) is the physician and the medicine he brings to heal our souls is the sharia. Nasir Khusraw stresses that it is through the body that ones soul can be perfected by carrying out sharia. Since man is responsible for his actions, the effects of his actions are transferred to his soul leading ultimately to the purification or perfection of mans soul by observing the sharia. The author gives a great overview of the teachings of Nasir Khusraw in her essay. 8. Reason and Mystical Experience in Sufism by Annemarie Schimmel: The author in her essay sheds light on the concept of love, intellect, reason and experience in mysticism and in religion. She sheds light on different concepts by using references of Maulana Rumi and Iqbal. She starts her essay with some verses by Maulana Rumi and Iqbal in which they both in their own words point out the difference between intellect and love. According to them, intellect first ponders over things whereas love just jumps into the hearts of the matter without thinking of the consequences. Intellect is necessary to give us information i.e. Khabar whereas love gives us the direct vision i.e. nazar, The author quotes the story of a moth and a burning candle which Al-Hallaj has written in his Arabic book, Kitab al-Tawasin in which the moth is not satisfied with the sight and feeling, it want to burn itself and led to a new higher life. The Sufis present the idea of die before you die. The Sufis desire for Nazar i.e. the true experience that comes from love. The author also describes in the analysis of intellect and love, two other modes of perception, dhikr and fikr. Fikr literally meaning thought is necessary to understand the creations of this world. And dhikr literally meaning the constant remembrance of god is supposed to polish human heart and make it shine like a mirror. These two modes of thinking of fikr, intellectual thinking and of dhikr remembering god with love are always used together. Iqbal presents another idea about the intellect that as it makes to think and ponder over things it creates new idols every moment. But again in his poetry he tells us that these idols of intellect bow to love. The author highlights another aspect of mysticism that is expressing the love in words. She quotes Rumi as saying that when the pen comes to write the word love, its break into pieces. The pen breaks when it comes to write about love but the same pen has written a bulk of books and poetry about this very love. It is a paradox in literature that the mystics who stressed that ones who wrote numerous books. The mystics have been found to say that whatever they write is not by their intellectual powers it is all waridat things that come to the mystics. These literary works are produced even by illiterate people and when you read them if it looks as if it has been crafted with much intellectual effort. We have the examples of such writers such as Ibn al-Arabi and khwaja Mir Dard who claim that they didnt even think of it. These mystical writings have been opposed by Ulama and many scholars as dangerous and poison for untutored minds. The traditional saying finds its way here that: think about the work of god and the qualities of god, but do not think of gods essence. Again Iqbal quotes in his works that Quran also invites to seek signs in the horizons of this world and in ourselves. Thus, the author concludes by saying that intellectual activities are not to be excluded from the way of Sufis or the Muslims. The idea of looking at signs and pondering over them may be of great help to understand religion in a better context. At the end she quotes a verse by Rumi that I quote here: when you make a house for your chicken, a camel does not fit into it. And she concludes that intellect is a chicken and love is a camel- a great, proud and beautiful camel. 10. Woman, Half-the-Man? The Crisis of Male Epistemology in Islamic Jurisprudence by Abdulaziz Sachedina: The author introduces the readers to the sharia, the Islamic sacred law and the two spheres of human activity: those actions that relate humanity to god categorizaed as Ibadat (literally acts of honouring god, technically god-human relationships), and those actions that relate humans to fellow humans categorized as Muamalat (literally transactions, technically inter-human relationships ). According to the author the area of inter-human relationships demands rethinking and reinterpretation of the normative sources like the Quran and the sunna, under changed social conditions. One area particularly in inter-human relationships which is retarded in progress by interpretation by Muslim jurists is the personal status of muslim women. The madrasa tradition of learning in Islam has disregarded female voices in emerging issues of women and human rights. The redefinition of status of a muslim woman is a major issue that confronts the Muslim jurists in todays modern world. Muslim womens participation in legal-ethical matters where situational aspects can be best determined by women themselves only, is very essential. Without their participation in such discussions, womens rights will always depend on the patriarchal society. The author further discusses the male jurists and their female related rulings. He narrates his exp

Mosquito Species Detection using Smart Phone

Mosquito Species Detection using Smart Phone Abstract-According to WHO(World Health Organization) re-ports, among all disease transmitting insects mosquito is the most hazardous insect. In 2015 alone, 214 million cases of malaria were registered worldwide. Zika virus is another deadly disease transmitted from mosquitoes. According to CDC report, in 2016 62,500 suspected case of Zika were reported to the Puerto Rico Department of Health (PRDH) out of which 29,345 cases were found positive. There are 3500 different species of mosquitoes present in the world out of which 175 types is found in United States. But only few of them are responsible for these above mentioned fatal disease. Therefore classification between hazardous and regular mosquitoes are very important. For regular person with no expertise in this field would be almost impossible to identify the difference. Even for the mosquito-expert, identifying different species is a very tedious and time consuming job. Hence in this paper, we have tried to classify 7 different species of dead mosquitoes with total 60 samples collected from Hillsborough County Mosquito and Aquatic Weed Control Unit,Tampa Florida by capturing image from smart phone cameras. With our approach we want to enable non-expert population to early identify the risk and act pro-actively. We pre-processed the image for removing noise and applied random forest classification algorithm to distinguish different species. Achieved good precision,recall,F1 measure and aggregate 83:3% accuracy. We are also planning to develop a smart-phone application which will leverage this learning model and help in empowering population to identify mosquito species without any knowledge in this field. INTRODUCTION Of all animals, mosquitoes are amongst the most deadly in spreading diseases. Mosquito borne diseases like Malaria, Dengue, West Nile Fever, and most recently Zika Fever have extracted devastatic tolls on humanity [1]. Combating the spread of mosquitoes is an important health-care agenda across the globe, and several organizations across the globe serve this purpose. For instance, one such organization is the American Mosquito Control Association (AMCA) is spread over 50 countries and conducts numerous programs to educate citizens of the dangers posed by mosquitoes and how to control them. According to CDC report, there are about 3500 different species of mosquitoes in the world, out of which about 175 different species are found in the USA. Among programs designed to combat mosquitoes spread, identification of the type and number of species in any par-ticular area is very important. Across the world, numerous mosquito control organizations have dedicated personnel that lay traps to catch mosquitoes in specific areas, and dedicated personnel visually look at each captured sample (via a mag-nifying glass) to identify the type of mosquito. It takes upto a minute to identify each sample, and with more samples, the time taken to identify each sample can take hours, and naturally significant manual effort. Contributions of this Paper: In this paper, we aim to de-sign a system that combines images from smart-phone cameras with machine learning algorithms for automatic detection of the type of mosquito species from their images. Towards this extent, our specific contributions are: a). Building a database of mosquito images: We visited the Hillsborough County Mosquito and Aquatic Weed Control in Tampa in Fall 2016 to collect numerous samples of mosquitoes that were captured in traps set up the county personnel. Subsequently, the personnel helped us visually identify the type of each sample. As a result, we collected 60 samples, that belonged to seven different species.Table I presents our database. Subsequently, each sample was imaged via a Sam-sung Galaxy S5 phone via multiple angles (at the same indoor light conditions) for a total of 200 images. This served as our database for subsequent classification. b). Designing Pre-processing Techniques: Generally, images are vulnerable to the different type of noises due to different environment condition and user expertise. Therefore, images need to be pre-processed for any noise removal and also for smoothening. In the process of noise removal, we need to make sure that edges and boundary of images are preserved otherwise images will lose the key information. We used median filter as it works very effectively when edges need to be preserved. This filter is widely used in image processing technique [2]. c). Designing Random Forest Based Classifiers: Random Forest is an ensembled supervised machine learning algorithm. It is a collection of decision trees, where each trees has been grown using subset of training dataset selected randomly. In most of the cases, it has shown significant improvement in accuracy as compare to other classification algorithm. Apart from that, it works very well on outliers and noise. It handles larger dataset efficiently and quickly without over-fitting the model as only a subset of training set is selected for each split.[3] [4] We conducted an extensive performance evaluation for our proposed techniques.We evaluated our experiment on 60 image samples of seven different species. 10-fold cross validation technique has been used and achieved 83:3% accuracy using RGB features. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In section II, related works are discussed. Followed by section III where experimental set up and data collection process are described. Section IV contains the detail about preprocessing of image data, extracting and selecting features, building the learning model using classification method and different metrics lever-aged for showing the results. We talked about experimental evaluation and validation in detail in section V. Finally, dis-cussion and conclusion sections are VI and VII respectively. RELATED WORK There are many studies which are dedicated to leverage the use of smart phone camera for image recognition. In this section we have emphasized few of the related and important works done. A. Related Work on Image Recognition In [5] system was developed for determining the effec-tiveness of soil treatment on plant stress using smart-phone cameras.In this paper, 34 images of plant leaves are captured using smart phone in two soils that is biosolids and unamended tailings. Then each images was preprocessed using mean, me-dian filter followed by segmentation into pixels.They extracted RGB,R,G,B,HSV and YCbCr features from the segmented pixels. Random Forest which is a supervised classification algorithm was designed to detect the stress of leaves and achieved 91.24% accuracy. A [6] survey has been done on Pixel-Based skin color detection techniques. They have applied various color spaces like RGB, Normalized RGB, HSV and YCrCb for recognizing skin. RGB is the most widely used color spaces for processing and storing digital images. Wen et.al [7] has proposed image-based automated insect iden-tification and classification method. In this paper eight insect species have been selected for experiment. These insects were frozen to retreive a non damaging kill of the insect and then they were placed on a white balance panel under the reflectance light base of a Nikon stereoscopic zoom microscope SMZ1000 (Nikon, Tokyo) with Plan Apochromat 0.5 objective. Images of these were taken by a DS-Fi1 color digital camera which was placed on the microscope. Features which had been taken in these are color, texture, invariants, contour and geometric. In color features, HSV color space features were considered. T Many classification algorithm i.e. minimum least square linear classifier (MLSLC), normal densities based linear classifier (NDLC), K nearest neighbor classifier (KNNC), nearest mean classifier (NMC), and decision tree (DT) were used for testing and training the model. Among these NDLC classification algorithm outperfor ms other classifier. 1) Comparing our Work w.r.t. Related Work: Our work is focused on capturing mosquitoes images from smart phone camera and using the captured image for training and testing the learning model. In [7], authors have identified insect species but it needs lab set up with microscope and high resolution digital camera which is not available in house generally. We have extracted RGB features for classification which is most widely used color spaces [6]. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AND DATA COLLECTION In this section, we have discussed data collection process our experiment. A. Data Collection We collected dead mosquito species samples from Hillsbor-ough County Mosquito and Aquatic Weed Control Unit,Tampa Table I: Mosquito Species and Number of Samples Specie Name Number of Samples Cx Nigrip 10 An Quadrim 6 Ma Titillans 7 Ps Columpi 10 An Crucians 10 Ps Ferox 7 Cq Perturbans 10 Table II: Camera Specification Camera Specification Value Sensor Resolution 16 MP Focus Adjustment automatic Special Effect HDR Camera Light Source Daylight Florida. We carefully identified seven species, mentioned in Table I for our study. Since, dead mosquito physical properties like color, del-icateness etc changes as time passes. So, images of dead mosquitoes were taken in a single day to make sure envi-ronmental conditional are same while taking these images. A Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone was used for capturing images in regular day light. Each sample image was taken based on the knowledge aware fusion described on the mosquito and aquatic control weed control unit web site. A total of 60 images were captured for our study, having following camera configuration, mentioned in Table II. OUR APPROACH We have implemented two steps in our approach. First, pre processing of image has been done for noise removal and feature selection using filter like median,mean. Second, building a learning model using a classification algorithm based on random forest. Here our main aim is to build a learning model for identi-fying each mosquitoes species. The challenge here we faced is the image size. Images which were captured from smart phone is of 2988 X 5322 pixels. We reduced their size to 256 X 256 pixels to decrease its data dimensionality. To remove the noise from each sample we applied median filter technique.This has been elaborated in the next subsection. Since, our images were already in dark color.It is mandatory to keep background and foreground in contrast for building the model reasonably well. So, we did not use any segmentation technique as it converts the background into black. Here,we are using Random Forest, a supervised learning algorithm and used 10-fold cross validation technique for learning and testing. The process flow of our algorithm is described in Figure 2. For proceeding further, we need labeled image data for training the model. All images were tagged manually under the guidance of mosquito experts. Noise Removal Generally, digital images are susceptible to different type of noise. It can occur by several ways like capture, transmission etc. Accuracy of the result are affected badly by the same. There are many filters used to remove and reduce noise from image. Sharpening Filter: It refers as a enhancing technique which highlights edges and line details in the image. In this procedure, original image is passed through high pass filter which extracts its high frequency components and then the scaled output of high pass filter is added to original image which results in sharpened image. [8] Mean Filter: This filtering technique refers to replacing each pixel value in an image with the mean of pixel values of its neighbors which falls in the sliding window of n*n size. This technique removes noise more effectively if large window size is considered.This is also called average filter. [8] Median Filter: It is a nonlinear filtering technique. The approach behind this filtering technique is to replace each pixel value in the window of n * n size pixel by the median of all pixel values in that particular window.It is very used in digital image processing and it preserves edges while removing noise. We have used this filtering technique with 3*3 pixels window size for removing the noise from our digital images. The output with median filter and without this is shown in Figure 1. [2] Feature Selection Feature extraction and selection is very critical part of any supervised learning algorithm. Extraction is about reducing the data dimensionality as the size of data grows and its dimension increases and becomes very difficult to handle it manually . And then the need of automation comes into the picture. Feature Selection is a process of selecting those features which are most relevant for our problem and eliminating unnecessary, irrelevant and redundant features of data that do not contribute to the accuracy of learning model. In our proposed model, we are identifying different species of mosquitoes. Each species have contrastive color. As we can see in Figure 3, each mosquitoes have similar shapes but differ-ent body and wings color.So,the correct color channels or the combination of channel is important to take into consideration for the features. Few of the color channels are RGB, HSV etc. RGB has Red, Green and Blue channels. In RGB, each component supports a range of intensity levels from 0 to 255 (integer valued)[9] . Here, we extracted RGB feature from the mosquito image data. Then for feature selection, we applied Information-Gain attribute selection algorithm which is a good measure for deciding the relevance of an attribute. This feature selection technique generally helps in achieving high accuracy and using this we got 1000 features which serve as an input vector x into Random Forest Classification Algorithm for species detection. We calculated its precision, recall and F1-measure which is mentioned in Table III Table III: Combination of color channels accuracy comparison Combination Precision Recall F1-measure RGB 0.845 0.833 0.834 C. Classification Method Random Forest Algorithm: Random Forests(RF) is an ensemble supervised machine learning algorithm. It consists of a set of decision trees; h(x,i) i = 1, 2,, where x is a feature vector extracted from the smartphone image data and i consists of K integers which are independent identically distributed random vectors. Each decision tree predicts a class independently. A voting is performed on the results from each decision tree and finally the class which gets majority vote will be the final predicted class. The same has been explained in Figure 4 . Given a dataset set that contains N feature vectors, each consisting of M features, the RF algorithm builds the trained model using following steps: N samples are selected at random with replacement from the data set, for training the model of a particular tree. K features are randomly selected from the set of available features, where K M. Among the values for each of the K features drawn, choose the best split according to the Information gain IG(T; a) of the attribute. Information gain is measure of decrease in entropy which is caused by splitting the samples on an attribute. T denote a set of training sample for a single tree. ((x),y) = (x1, x2,.., xk,y) where (x) consist is a single sample and y is its class label. The information gain for an attribute a is as follow: The information gain for an attribute a is as follows: IG (T; a) = H (T ) v val(a) j(x T jTa = v) j :H (x T jxa = v) X x j j (1) [10] Here, xa vals(a) is the value of the ath attribute of example x. The randomization is present in two ways: Random selection of data for bootstrap samples as it is done in bagging Random selection of input features for creating individual base decision trees. Each tree will grow to its maximum size until the stopping criterion has not been fulfilled and there will be no tree pruning. Once the forest has been ensembled, testing data sample will be labeled mosquito species class based on a majority vote among all classes from all decision trees in the forest. Once the forest has been ensembled, testing data sample is labeled with one of the classes (species1; species2::::species7) by taking the majority vote: i.e., it is labeled with the class which has been selected by maximum number of trees. In the RF approach, given a feature sample x to be classified, the conditional probabilities for each class are computed by taking the average of the conditional probabilities given by the trees constructing 4 Figure 1: a) Original Image b) Image after applying sharpening median filterFigure 2: Process description of our experiment a). Cruciansb). Columpic). Feroxd). Nigrip e). Peturbansf). Quadrimg). Titillans Figure 3: Mosquito Color Images the ensemble. These conditional probabilities are computed as follows. Given a decision tree T, and an input feature sample x to be classified, let us denote by v(x) the leaf node where x falls when it is classified by T. The probability P (mjx; T ) that the sample x belongs to the class m, where m 2 fspecies1; species2; :::; species7g (for 7 species of interest to this paper), is estimated by the following equation: P (mjx; T ) = nm (2) n where nm is the number of training samples falling into v(x) after learning and n is the total number of training samples assigned to v(x) by the training procedure. Given a forest consisting of L trees and an unknown feature sample x to be classified, the probability estimate P (mjx) that x belongs to the species m is computed as follows: 1 L (3) P (mjx) = P (mjx; Ti) L =1 Xi P (m x; T ) by where th j i is the conditional probability provided the i tree and is computed according to Eq.(1). As a consequence, for the sample x to be classified, the RF algorithm gives as output the vector: = fP (species1jx) ; P (species2jx) : : : : : : P (species7jx)g The class(species) with the highest probability in the set(4)is chosen as classified class for the ith tree. The final class of our RF algorithm is the one which gets the majority vote among all activities from all decision trees in the forest [11]. The work flow of the RF algorithm with pre-processing, training and testing phase is formally shown in Algorithm 1.[3] [12] D. Metrics The results of Mosquito-Species detection are shown in terms of precision, recall, F1-measure and Confusion Matrix. Each metric is a function of the of the true positives (T P ), false positives (F P ) and false negatives (F N). The precision is the ratio of correctly classified classes to the total number of classes predicted as positive: P recision = T P (5) T P + F P Recall is the ratio of total number of classes predicted as positive to the total number of positive classes: Recall = T P (6) T P + F N 5 Figure 4: Work flow of the Random Forest Algorithm The F1-measure is the weighted average of precision and recall: P recisionRecall F1 = 2 P recision + Recall (7) The Confusion Matrix (CM) is a table that allows the visu-alization used to describe the performance of a classification model. Each column of the matrix represents the instances in a predicted class while each row represents the instance in an actual class (or vice-versa) [13]. Precision indicates the number of samples classified as a particular species actually belonged to that species. Recall gives us the number of species which are correctly classified. The F1-measure denotes the classification models accuracy.It is calculated as the harmonic mean of precision and recall. Confusion matrix makes the system easy to see how much predicted model is getting confused between different species. For example if a species is predicted correctly only 80% of the time, then this matrix will show how the algorithm confused its prediction with the other (wrongly classified) species the remaining 20% of the time. RESULTS Overview of Evaluation Methods: In this paper, we evaluated the performance of our system using 10-fold cross validation that are standard for our problem scope. Cross-validation is a model validation technique for assess-ing how the results of a classification model will generalize to an independent dataset 10-fold cross-validation divides the dataset into 10 subsets, and evaluates them 10 times. Each time, one of the 10 subsets is used as the test set and the other 9 subsets are put together to form a training set. Then, the average error across all 10 trials is computed for final result. It limits problems like over-fitting in the classification model. Results and Interpretations: We used RGB feature men-tioned earlier to train our classification model. To evaluate its accuracy we used 10-fold cross validation technique and calculated precision, recall and F1 measure of each species independently. The evaluation measures of RGB feature are shown in IV have also shown it graphically in Figure 5. Confusion Matrix of the same is shown in Figure 6. Algorithm 1: RF-based Algorithm for Mosquito-Species detection Training Image dataset = Id; Testing Image dataset= Ited; RGB Features extracted from Training Image dataset = F tRGB; RGB Features extracted from Testing Image dataset = F teRGB; Classified Species from Images= M S; Probability that feature F belongs to Species M S = P (M SjF ); No. of trees in Random Forest = 121; Step 1 Pre-Processing: Median filters are applied to remove accidental spikes from Id and Ited. Features F tRGB and F teRGB are extracted from processed data Id and Ited obtained from (1). Step 2 Training: Input: Training data set F tRGB Output: Random Forest model to classify different species of mosquitoes. Select a bootstrap sample of size N from the training data. Grow a decision tree T using following steps. Select K features at random from the set of M features. Choose the best feature/split-point among the K. Split the node into two daughter nodes. Grow the tree to its maximum size that is 6 and let the tree unpruned Step 3 Prediction: Input: Testing data set Ited Output: Final Mosquito Species prediction M Ss. Select the same attributes used for training the model from testing feature set F teRGB. Predict the species from the model using features selected in the above step. 6 Table IV: RGB Features accuracy of each species indepen-dently Species Precision Recall F1-measure An Crucians 0.889 0.8 0.842 An Quadrim 0.571 0.667 0.615 Cd Peturbans 0.727 0.8 0.762 Cx Nigrip 0.889 0.8 0.842 Ma Titillans