Fleet Risk Management and Nigerias Transport System Dissertation

Fleet Risk Management and Nigerias Transport System - Dissertation Example The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of this country, along with recommendations for which the firm Risk Frisk Ltd. can introduce its software, the FleetRiskProfiler, which can help in the effective management of the transport system. Risk Frisk aimed to help organisations solve management problems and provide avenues for normal self-management. Before it makes its entry, the firm has to conduct a detailed study of the country that will touch on the risks, the causes of failures, possible costs, and find solutions for the problems. There are a number of transport firms operating in Nigeria in which Risk Frisk can conduct a joint venture in the implementation of the software FleetRiskProfiler. This paper used secondary research in acquiring data and information about Nigeria, ABC Transport, the local firm in which Risk Frisk Ltd. can conduct joint venture and other aspects of internationalisation and small-and-medium enterprises. Nigeria has many problems with its trans port system. Analyses of some lo

Import and Export Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Import and Export - Coursework Example (Maxwell, 2014) In China, under the Hygienic Standard for Cosmetics (2007 edition), cosmetics cover all kinds of industrial chemicals for daily use which are spread on the outer surface of the human body (e.g. skin, hairs, nails, lips etc) for the purposes of cleaning, deodorizing, skin care, beauty and make-up. The approval of imported cosmetic products is usually going through at the national level in Beijing, while the registration of domestic products is performed at the regional level. (Và ©rot, 2013) For a brand, the whole registration process would require one year in average for new products with a new formula, in particular due to the toxicology tests that must be performed in China. Such a delay may lead to tricky situations, in particular for products that must be marketed quickly, especially on some special occasions such as Chinese New Year or the upcoming Singles Day on the next November 11th. (Và ©rot, 2013) The EU is committed to open trading relations with China. However, the EU wants to ensure that China  trades fairly, respects intellectual property rights and meets its WTO obligations. China Company looks for materials that are in the middle range, based on the marketing analysis and the price range that our prospective customers can pay. At the 16th EU-China Summit held on 21 November 2013 both sides announced the launch of negotiations of a comprehensive EU-China investment agreement. The Agreement provides for progressive liberalization of investment and the elimination of restrictions for investors to each others market. (Anonymous, 2013) All cosmetics imported into China are required to obtain pre-market approval or notification from the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA). The approval is referred to as either the Administrative Approval or Administrative Notification. (Matthew, 2012) III. Hygiene license or record-keeping certificate; for cosmetics

Graduate Study Challenges and Strategies for Success Paper Essay Example for Free

Graduate Study Challenges and Strategies for Success Paper Essay My decision to go back to school did not happen overnight. It was a discussion after another with my husband, because we both know, this is a serious matter that needs planning and teamwork with the whole family. Going back to school after 20 years with three children plus working full time will be very challenging. It was more of a personal decision, wanting to advance and achieve more in my chosen field. I’m aware this entails hard work and dedication on my part. My mother even asked me, â€Å"Why bother? You’re already a Director of Nursing†. But deep inside me, I don’t want to stop there. After all these years, I feel rusty, mentally and skills wise. I crave for a mental challenge and hone my communication and written skills to be more effective. â€Å"Great leaders reinvent continuously on a personal level. They are always interested in ways to enhance their own knowledge and skills† (Blanchard Miller, 2007, p. 72). In this essay, I was asked what would be the three challenges I will face in pursuing my study and its corresponding strategies for achieving success. The first challenge is financial. When I called the University and spoke with the financial counselor, I almost choked when I heard the cost. I have an idea beforehand, that going or pursuing graduate school is very costly but I did not realize to be that much. Having two teenagers in a catholic school and a paid help 8-10 hours a day for my special girl, made me think twice again and discuss the matter seriously with my husband. Second challenge for me to study again, is my lack of computer skills, knowledge with APA writing guidelines or writing skills, per se. A friend of mine, who is going to graduate school, mentioned that it demands a lot of writing and research work. This aspect scares me because I don’t have a great background in these areas. During my student days, I don’t have even the basic computer skills and using APA format for my writings. I was doing my presentation using Manila papers, not in the power point back then, and used to the traditional way of learning through reading from textbooks. All of these things, such as navigating the student’s web, looking for on-line resources are all new to me, that is why I am a bit overwhelmed. The third challenge is time management. Balancing my schedule between my family, work and school will definitely be a challenge. My other friend was actually shocked when I mentioned that I’m going for my graduate study. She said, â€Å"What are you doing? Killing yourself by stressing you more? You have a special baby to tend and two teenagers to drive around wherever they have to go, work full time and school? Where will you find time to study? † I know, this will be a tough journey but I’m in for a challenge. To overcome my first challenge, the best strategy is to do proper budgeting. â€Å"A budget plan shows you the flow of money in your everyday life. By making slight adjustments to your budget, you may have the ability to save more† ( â€Å" Informative articles on how to budget,†2009, p. 1). This is something that I will take seriously because I am an impulsive buyer and loves shopping a lot. I have a tendency to shop for the entire family, and spoil them with fancy or beautiful things and not looking at the price. I will be a smart shopper from now on and list things that are only necessary when I do my grocery. I will also cut back some expenses in entertainment such as movies, dining out and personal care such as going to beauty salon and massage parlors. For my second challenge, an open mind and positive attitude towards continued learning will be the best approach. It has been 20 years since I last attended school, but I believe it is not too late to learn and acquire new skills again. I will stick with my goal and will try to overcome any obstacles that will come along the way. Another attitude that I need here is discipline. According to Covey (2004), â€Å"Discipline is just as important as vision. It’s the executing, the making it happen, the sacrifice entailed in doing whatever it takes to realize that vision† (p. 73). Since I’m well aware of all my shortcomings, I’m taking advantage of those free workshops being offered on-line such as Microsoft Office to improve my computer skills. I’ve started reading books also to exercise my brain rather than just watching TV with my kids to improve my critical thinking and writing skills. As for the third challenge of time management, a good strategy here is being organized. Allen (2001) stated, â€Å"Organizing allows your mind to let go of lower-level thinking and graduate to intuitive focusing, undistracted by matters that haven’t been dealt with appropriately† (p. 138). I just bought a planner, and now, I’m writing all my schedules for the month such as my doctor’s appointment, children’s activities, parties to attend, staff meetings and assignments deadline. By looking at my planner every day, it gives me a feeling of control over my life. Planning ahead of time lessen my anxiety and by crossing out each task that has been accomplished, makes me more motivated to finish another one and stay focused to my goal. My journey to finish my study will not be an easy one. I know there will be a lot of obstacles or struggles along the way. But having identified my challenges so far, and effectively applying the strategies to overcome these obstacles will make it easier and worthwhile. Staying focus to my goal, maintaining discipline and having a positive attitude will ultimately lead me to a successful journey. References Allen, D. (2001). Getting things done: The art of stress-free productivity. New York, New York: Penguin Group. Informative articles on how to budget. (2009). 2010 American Consumer Credit Counseling, Inc. , (), 1. Blanchard, K. , Miller, M. (2007). The secret What great leaders know-and do. San Francisco, California: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.. Covey, S. R. (2004). The 8th habit From effectiveness to greatness. New York, New York: Free Press.

Image Quality Assessment Techniques Using Gabor Filters

Image Quality Assessment Techniques Using Gabor Filters A SURVEY ON IMAGE QUALITY ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES USING GABOR FILTERS Deepa Maria Thomas, S. John Livingson (DEEPA MARIA THOMAS, ROOM NO 303, DMR RESIDENCE, KARUNYA LADIES HOSTEL, KARUNYA UNIVERSITY, COIMBATORE-641114) Abstract-Image quality assessment has a very important role, especially because the impact that the quality of images have on a viewer is significant. This makes it important that visual information is assessed for quality every now and then. Images can be distorted with different types of irregularities like noise, blur etc. No- reference image quality assessment methods does not need a reference image for assessment, this is particularly helpful when there is no reference image available. Gabor filters are efficient is assessing image quality because their frequency and orientation representations is very similar to the human visual system. This is why Gabor filters are used in feature extraction , target detection as well as texture segmentation. This paper is a survey of some of the no- reference image quality assessment methods that make use of Gabor filters in their quality assessment methodology wither for feature extraction or texture analysis. Key wordsimage quality assessment, Gabor filter, no reference quality assessment. INTRODUCTION Images of good quality have come to be of great importance in our day to day life. Statistics suggest that an average person comes across 400 to 600 advertisements in a day. Pictures form a major portion of advertisements. Advertisement is just one area that makes use of images. There are a lot of image quality assessment techniques available today. No-reference image quality assessment (NR-IQA) is one of the types in which the quality is estimated without the use of any reference image, whereas full reference image quality assessment (FR-IQA) make use of a reference image for quality assessment. Gabor filter is generally used for edge detection and it has the advantage that the frequency and orientation representations are very similar to the human visual system. Or in other words, the image analysis by Gabor functions is similar to the human perception. A set of Gabor filters with different frequencies and orientations are also useful for extracting useful features from an image. GABOR FILTERS IN FEATURE EXTRACTION Use of Gabor filter is motivated by the fact that they are optimal in time and frequency. In addition these filters can approximate the visual cortex of some mammals as described in [1]. This is why Gabor filters are used in many applications like target detection, image segmentation etc.. Figure 1: Two dimensional Gabor filter Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabor_filter NR-IQA USING GABOR FILTERS No-reference image quality assessment is one of the types in which the quality is estimated without the use of any reference image, whereas full- reference techniques make use of a reference image for quality assessment. Described below are two no- reference image quality assessment techniques using Gabor filters. NR-IQA USING VISUAL CODEBOOK (CBIQ) The first step of this method [2] is codebook construction. It is built by dividing an image into BxB patches. All the constant patches are removed, for the rest of the patches Gabor feature vectors are computed. This is repeated for all the training images. Using this set, with a clustering algorithm the codebook is created. The input image is represented by the distribution of codewords from the codebook. The number of times the codeword is found and each time a nearest neighbor is found, the count is increased by one. If the distance between the vector of the feature and the nearest neighbor is larger than a predefined threshold, then it is considered as an outlier. In a case where a large number of outliers are encountered, then there might be some type of distortion which was not encountered in the training set. This image quality assessment technique is represented as CBIQ (Codebook Image Quality).The quality metric is Qm(I) and is given by, Qm(I)= where, H1(i) is the probability of the occurrence of the code words DMOS(C(i)) is the Differential Mean Opinion Scores of the codewords. NR-IQA BASED ON VISUAL SALIENCY GUIDED SAMPLING (IQVG) This method [3] is a no-reference image quality assessment method based on visual saliency. Visual saliency is what grabs our attention and it makes some parts of the image stand out from the rest. In this method firstly, a sufficient number of patches are sampled for which the mean saliency is greater than the threshold. Next, feature extraction is done by convolving each patch with Gabor filters. Using histograms the features are encoded, this gives an image representation. Using regression methods such as SVR the model can be trained. Finally, the quality of the test image is predicted automatically with a trained model. FR-IQA USING GABOR FILTERS The full reference method of image quality assessment is different from the no reference methods in that it does not make use of a reference image for quality assessment. Described below are two full reference image quality assessment techniques using Gabor filters. FR-IQA USING FEATURE SIMILARITY INDEX (FSIM) In this method [4] firstly, two image extractions are made namely, phase congruence (PC) and gradient magnitude (GM). PC is contrast invariant, this implies that the variations in quality due to contrast differences are not identified by PC. As a result of this, the GM needs to be extracted using gradient operators like Prewitt operator, Sobel operator and Scharr operator. Once the PC and GM are extracted for the reference image and the distorted image, FSIM can be computed to measure the similarity between the two images. The FSM can be calculated by combining similarity measure between images for both PC and GM given by where, is the similarity measurement of PC is the similarity measurement of GM and are positive real numbers The combined similarity is given by = . where, ÃŽ ± and ÃŽ ² are parameters to adjust their relative weightage or importance. Finally, the FSIM measure is given as below FSIM= where, FR-IQA USING PERCEPTUAL METHOD (MIGF) One of the features necessary for good IQA is that it should be consistent with the subjective judgment of humans on the image. In this method [5] first, the features are extracted using a two dimensional Gabor filter which acts as a local band-pass filter with optimal localization properties. Next, divisive normalization transform (DNTF) is performed where the linear transform coefficient is normalized by the energy of a cluster of neighboring coefficients. This reduces the higher order dependencies in the extracted Gabor features. Next, the visual energy information (VEI) for each scale and orientation is given by where, ÃŽ » is the scale, ÃŽ ¸ is the orientation is real part of DNTF is the imaginary part of DNTF Once the VEI is calculated, the mutual information (MI) can be calculated as the difference between the VEI obtained from the reference image and distorted image. MI can be calculated using marginal probability distribution and joint probability distribution. The quality score is as described below Score= where, and denote the VEI of the reference image and distorted image respectively at scale i and orientation ÃŽ ¸. COMPARISON OF IQA TECHNIQUES: The table below shows a comparison between the four techniques described above. It describes the merits and demerits of the four IQA methods. TABLE – 1 COMPARISON TABLE CONCLUSIONS This work provides the comparative study of some of the IQA methods in image processing. The algorithms that were considered were both no – reference and full reference algorithms. All the IQA methods discussed here make use of Gabor filters in one way or another. This paper highlights importance of Gabor Filters in image quality assessment. REFERENCES: [1] Anjali G. (2012), â€Å"For image enhancement and segmentation by using evaluation of Gabor filter parameters.† IJATER, 2, 46-56. [2] Peng Y. and David D. (2014), â€Å"No- reference image quality assessment based on visual codebook.† Feature Similarity Index for Image Quality Assessment.† IEEE Trans. IP, 21, 3129-3138. [3] Zhongyi G., Lin Z. and Hongyu L., (2013),â€Å"Learning a bling image quality index based on visual saliency guided sampling and Gabor filtering.† ICIP, 186-190. [4] Lin Z. and Xuanqin M., (2011), â€Å"FSIM: Feature Similarity Index for Image Quality Assessment .† IEEE Trans. IP, 20, 2378-2386 [5] Ding Y., Zhang Y., Wang X., Yan X. and Krylov A.S. (2014), â€Å"Perceptual image quality metric using mutual information of Gabor features.† Science China Information Sciences, 57,032111:1-032111:9.

Privatizing the Public Sphere Essay -- Industrialization Fragmentation

Privatizing the Public Sphere The privatization and fragmentation of space in post-industrial urban America is a widespread social problem. As society becomes even more globalized as a result of technological advances, the rampant spread of a privatized public realm is ever-increasing. Public space is needed as a center in which to bring people together to share a common place. It is within public spaces that public life unfolds and without public spaces such as parks, streets, and buildings, the mixing of classes will become increasingly uncommon. Society is made up of two sectors: the private and public, and it is essential that both remain separate entities. However, through the use of fear tactics especially the threat of violent crimes, privatized settings are spreading throughout the public sphere. In this analysis, it is my intent to explore the various tactics being used to impede upon the public sphere. In doing so, I will explore the causal factors that contribute to the increased privatization of urban public life. Historically, the city was an all-encompassing entity. At the dawn of industrialization, large masses of people flocked to the city in hopes of a better economic life for themselves and their families. It was within the city limits, particularly closest to the areas of commerce and exchange that people took up residence, worked, and pursued various social activities. The city served the needs of all its citizens. However, as industrialization moved further along, there was a major shift in urban economics. While many businesses flourished, so did wealth and as this increased, society faced an evolving class system. Three notable classes emerged: the lower/working class, the middle class, and the upper/elite class. While these class divisions grew, a large amount of money was being invested in the creation of public venues. Public institutions were designed to bring education, culture, and in many ways, a sense of community to modern city life. A public park or library was a plac e that people of various classes could come together and share space. However, by the end of the Twentieth century and into the Twenty-First, true public space is becoming almost extinct, as is the middle class. Privatized public space has become the new trend across many American cities. There are many interrelated factors that contribut... ...for the poor into the public realm. The decline of a middle class is affecting the structure of society because cities and public venues were once designed to serve the middle class. However, without such a class, cities are now being designed to service an elite class and it is this class that has the power and control over public life. With the widening division between classes, services to the non-elite members of society will continue to diminish. The importance of public space and life is an important aspect of any given society. Without such spaces, society will continue to be dived among class lines. When a certain group of people hold power and it’s all about power and control, there will always be those that are excluded and denied access to the public sphere. As long as imaginary and irrational fears are instilled into the private lives of the public, society will continue to build fortress around its buildings and to use surveillance cameras outside the doors. Public space is a right to all citizens and due to fear of the unknown; it is diminishing right before our eyes. In this day and age, to be an American means to always be under the watchful eye of another. Privatizing the Public Sphere Essay -- Industrialization Fragmentation Privatizing the Public Sphere The privatization and fragmentation of space in post-industrial urban America is a widespread social problem. As society becomes even more globalized as a result of technological advances, the rampant spread of a privatized public realm is ever-increasing. Public space is needed as a center in which to bring people together to share a common place. It is within public spaces that public life unfolds and without public spaces such as parks, streets, and buildings, the mixing of classes will become increasingly uncommon. Society is made up of two sectors: the private and public, and it is essential that both remain separate entities. However, through the use of fear tactics especially the threat of violent crimes, privatized settings are spreading throughout the public sphere. In this analysis, it is my intent to explore the various tactics being used to impede upon the public sphere. In doing so, I will explore the causal factors that contribute to the increased privatization of urban public life. Historically, the city was an all-encompassing entity. At the dawn of industrialization, large masses of people flocked to the city in hopes of a better economic life for themselves and their families. It was within the city limits, particularly closest to the areas of commerce and exchange that people took up residence, worked, and pursued various social activities. The city served the needs of all its citizens. However, as industrialization moved further along, there was a major shift in urban economics. While many businesses flourished, so did wealth and as this increased, society faced an evolving class system. Three notable classes emerged: the lower/working class, the middle class, and the upper/elite class. While these class divisions grew, a large amount of money was being invested in the creation of public venues. Public institutions were designed to bring education, culture, and in many ways, a sense of community to modern city life. A public park or library was a plac e that people of various classes could come together and share space. However, by the end of the Twentieth century and into the Twenty-First, true public space is becoming almost extinct, as is the middle class. Privatized public space has become the new trend across many American cities. There are many interrelated factors that contribut... ...for the poor into the public realm. The decline of a middle class is affecting the structure of society because cities and public venues were once designed to serve the middle class. However, without such a class, cities are now being designed to service an elite class and it is this class that has the power and control over public life. With the widening division between classes, services to the non-elite members of society will continue to diminish. The importance of public space and life is an important aspect of any given society. Without such spaces, society will continue to be dived among class lines. When a certain group of people hold power and it’s all about power and control, there will always be those that are excluded and denied access to the public sphere. As long as imaginary and irrational fears are instilled into the private lives of the public, society will continue to build fortress around its buildings and to use surveillance cameras outside the doors. Public space is a right to all citizens and due to fear of the unknown; it is diminishing right before our eyes. In this day and age, to be an American means to always be under the watchful eye of another.

At first the whole class went into the drama studio and sat down. :: Drama

At first the whole class went into the drama studio and sat down. Inside the room there was a projector and a video camera filming the exam. Task One All things in bold and underlined are the explorative strategies we used during the exam. At first the whole class went into the drama studio and sat down. Inside the room there was a projector and a video camera filming the exam. I was told to relax and then told to stand up and act like a character that depsised everyone else around myself. We all did this at the same time, whilst walking around the drama studio. At one point we were told to act scared of everyone around ourselves I noticed that not many people varied their pace as they changed their roles. We were then told to play a range of other characters. I did not realise how others were performing as I was concentrating on my own performance. All of this was mimed. We were then told to look at the picture on the projector. The whole class got into pairs and discussed the picture on the screen. It was a picture produced by an artist named George Grosz. His style is stated as "Caricature" the picture we were shown was in this style. In pairs we discussed what we thought was happening in this picture. I was working with Victoria and we decided that the men at the front were obviously separated from the other characters in the picture, by having huge charateristics (e.g Nose and body shape). The poor were slightly crouched to give the effect they were lower than the 3 men at the front of the picture. Which was non-naturlistic. We then were told to re-create the picture by ourselves in the studio. Half of the group used physical theatre to create the buildings in the background of the picture. The other half of the group had to act as the people that were in the picture. The students that were acting as people used body language to create different standards of living of the characters. The picture had 3 different types of people. They were rich, poor, or soldiers. Men played all the rich people which I found slightly sexist. However, they used body language to create an essence of how important and rich they were. They tried to look tough and heavy by crouching their shoulders up and keeping their hands away from their faces, which shows that they are not unhealthy (no coughing from illness) Their faces showed a bossy and un-sympathetic attitude towards the old people.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Mobile Phones 2

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Mobile Phones It is for a fact that having a mobile phone now a days is a sort of a necessity and it is an inevitable truth that mobile industry is taking everyone by a storm. From the very basic thing of making a call to texting, and now internet access for just a touch of your finger tips. Do you have one of these? or do you know somebody who enjoys having such stuff? I do have one of those too and I wont deny the fact that I enjoys using them. So as one of the million subscriber of this technology I will share you some of the advantages and disadvantages I found, out of having a mobile phone. First here are some advantages of having it: †¢ It keeps you in constant contact with people you consider important. †¢ It also can help you seek help immediately during emergency cases. †¢ Furthermore, its a sense of being financially uplifted. †¢ Through mobile phones you can lessen your boredom,example listen to your favorite music and as well as watching movies through downloading. †¢ Besides this, mobile phones can take photos. †¢ Moreover, mobile phones also gives us easier access on the internet. †¢ You can also carry it anywhere. Finally, it has a lot of useful function like calendar, making notes, alarm clock, timer and calculator. No doubt, our mobile phones makes our life more convenient, but as the saying goes every technology has it's equal negative side and mobile phones are not so especial to be exempted. Here are some disadvantages of having it: †¢ First and foremost, mobile phones are expensive! Nowadays ,we can’t find a mobile phone with a cheaper price. †¢ Additionally, people spend less time bonding with there family and friends. †¢ Next,people just contact through phone and became too lazy meeting outside. Mobile phones also disturb us on our works and studies. †¢ Other than that, people spend lots and lots of money buying the latest model. †¢ Furthermore, it effects our body because of radiation it produces. †¢ Apart from that, mobile phones are easily broken. †¢ Last but not least,mobile phone makes it easier to invade privacy. In the end, I hope you can weigh the advantages and the disadvantages I have mentioned to help you use your mobile phone in a responsible manner. We humans created mobile phones and it is all up to our control whether to used more carefully and properly or not.