2000 U.S. Presidential election

The recap of the United States presidential elections of 2000 reveals it was one the most controversial election ever. The Democratic Party candidate Al Gore lost narrowly to the, Republican George W.Bush with a controversial small number of votes. Although the election was based on real issues that ranged from the international affairs, foreign policy, ethics and morality, they were overshadowed by the results at the count of the final vote. Al Gore enjoyed the popular vote but lost to George Bush because he lacked in the electoral votes. To the run up of the elections, opinion polls had predicted a closely run presidential race and it was not clear who would win the day[1].Al Gore had been nominated in the Democratic Party ticket and was groomed to succeed the outgoing democratic elect president bill Clinton. He defeated Senator Bill Bradley from New Jersey. From the start, Al Gore was receiving major endorsements from economic and political heavy weights in the party.Opinion polls used to show him as a front runner as majority of the people thought him of being tested and armed with necessary experience to propel America to greater heights, having been a vice president to Bill Clinton.In the Republican Party, George Bush was the party’s favorite. Potential aspirants in the party could not stand against him. To the traditional republican standards, George Bush was the right candidate. He was the son of a former President, Bush Senior, and the outgoing governor in one of the most populous state in America.Bush won the nomination by a large margin with his major competitor dogged with scandals that saw his support in the party plummet before the nominations. Bush’s running mate was Dick Cheney.The run up campaigns to elections were as heated as the elections themselves. The Republican themselves could be seen running advertisements that were favoring Ralph Nader, an independent candidate.This was an open bid to split the Democrats or the leftwing vote. Al Gore and Ralph Nader drew their support from the same people as they were espousing to tackle similar issues. The Republican had recognized a real threat from Al Gore and knew that if they drew on the obvious similarities, they could split the vote into two and secure a Republican win.The main differences that were propelling both parties were drawn from the issue of morality. Republicans traditionally have all along been at the fore front in safeguarding the morals in the society. Bush could also be heard making a scathing attack on the Democrats because of the Clintons scandal, vowing to restore morality in the nation and especially in the White House. However, despite the differences, both candidates were locked in a tight race as would be reflected in the elections that ensued.The preliminary reports on the elections on November 7 indicated that they were unexceptionally close. As expected, Bush had won decisively in the southern states and also in the rural states. Al Gore had recorded an early lead in the north eastern states.There were a number of states that were recording closely contested race but it became clear that it was in the state of Florida that the next president of the United States was to be announced. It is this state that remained the centre of focus as it held the key to deadlock. All the worlds’ eyes were glued on the outcome of the vote counting, for a period of close to one month.Initial reports by the media based on exit polls had indicated that Al Gore had taken the lead after clocking 25 electoral votes. A recap of the votes indicated that indeed Bush was ahead of Gore.After the media retracted the misleading news they were to place and declare that Bush was leading in Florida with a close but a decisive win. These reports too were misleading as the three Democrats rich counties had not completed their vote count and there were indications that Gore was closing in the gap.The media was to again retract the news on Bush’s lead and win. By the close of the day, Gore had closed in and the difference lay at 500 votes and he ordered a mandatory recount in a number of counties and also sought legal intervention.The United States Supreme Court quashed the complaints and gave a go ahead to the Florida state to announce the results. George Bush was announced the winner in the Florida state.[1]Wardle, Claire and Kate Kinks and Dan Orr, August 2001

My Son the Fanatic

My son the fanatic The generation gap is a dilemma which frequently occurs among immigrants, and in his short story My son the fanatic, Hanif Kureishi brings up the issue concerned. Kureishi introduces us to a father, who’s alarmed and puzzled by his sons’ strange behavior, which proves out to be against his own values. During this, Kureishi touches on the topics fanaticism and religion, and how these can change ones behavior towards ones family. Kureishi also focuses on how people relate to their roots.The main character in the story is Parvez, who’s a good example of an immigrant being well-integrated. He emigrated from Pakistan, where he was taught the Koran. He underwent indignity during this, and subsequently he avoided all religion; he even prefers jokes to rules. Even though he has a wife and a son, he spends most of his time â€Å"living a boy’s life† with his fellow taxi drivers; playing card and avoiding their wives. The narration of the s tory is 3rd person narrative and is therefore limited, but we see the conflict from Parvez’s point of view, which engenders surprises. Parvez sprang across the hall and set his ear at Ali’s door. A muttering sound came from within (†¦) The boy was praying. †(l. 130-134) Besides eating bacon and playing cards, another example of Parvez not being very Muslim is that he knows a prostitute, Bettina. Together they have deep talks; something Parvez wasn’t able to have with his own wife. It is also Bettina who helps Parvez figuring out what’s going on with his son, f. ex. â€Å"He knew what to look for: Bettina had drawn pictures†(l. 103-104) and â€Å"Reluctantly he and Bettina had abandoned their only explanation†(l. 18-119) â€Å"Surreptitiously, the father began going into his son’s bedroom†(l. 1). As early as the first line, the story pictures a father (Parvez) who struggles with something. Ali, the son of Parvez, acts differently and queerly, and his new tidy conduct scares Parvez who â€Å"was aware that he had become slightly afraid of his son, who, between his silences was developing a sharp tongue† (l. 15-17) Ali has also become very obscure and mystical, and an example of a cryptic remark of Ali is â€Å"There are more important things to be done† (l. 9) The teenage son Ali is going through a huge change. Formerly, he was well-integrated like his father, and they understood each other. As Parvez said: â€Å"we were brothers! † (l. 56) But at some point Ali decided to distance himself from the British/western world; he threw out his material goods and dissociate himself from his old friends and girlfriend. Among other things, computer disks and videotape are mentioned as Alis discarded things, and this indicates that the story takes place in our time.Furthermore, the setting is placed among the lower part of the middle-class, since Parvez is a taxi-driver, and they are i mmigrants. Furthermore, the relationship between Parvez and his son is slightly crumbling, especially when Parvez finds out that his son has chosen the opposite view of life than himself; Ali has become very religious, and Parvez is puzzled and concerned and doesn’t know how to deal with this. â€Å"But he’s growing a beard†(l. 115) is the first sign Parvez intercepts and exclaims to Bettina.Henceforth, the conflict whether it's wrong or right to blame ones son for becoming religious blossoms. Additionally, the relationship between the two of them worsens; Ali returns his fathers long and curious looks with â€Å"a hint of criticism, of reproach† (l. 111-112) and Ali acts â€Å"as if he hated his father† (l. 194) â€Å"’Don’t you know it’s wrong to drink alcohol? ’ Ali said† (l. 177). One of the most important passages is the restaurant scene with Parvez and Ali, because until this scene, we have only been followi ng Parvezs angle of the matter.Ali have been very introvert, but at this point we have Ali’s interior thoughts revealed; Ali blames his father for being â€Å"too implicated in Western civilization†(l. 218) and for having broken the rules of the Koran, which he means should be followed to the letter, for â€Å"the reward will be in Paradise†(l. 238). To this statement, Parvez feels puzzled and exasperated. But when Ali announces that he’s giving up his study, and especially after Ali have shown disrespect towards Bettina (which you can interpret as Ali insulting Parvezs lifestyle), Parvez can’t handle the problem anymore.Thus the short story ends up in a climax; Parvez beats Ali up while he’s praying, whereupon Ali says: â€Å"So who’s the fanatic now†(l. 392) â€Å"Parvez had been telling Bettina that he thought people in the West sometimes felt inwardly empty and needed a philosophy to live by†(l. 310). This could be o ne of reasons why the emerging problem between Parvez and Ali arises. The struggle is basically caused by the generation gap, which leads us to the central conflict; the two of them simply don’t understand each other.Especially Parvez doesn’t get his son’s sudden change in values, and doesn’t understand why Ali rejects the Western world, simply because it’s not compatible with the Muslim way of life. The development of the relationship between Ali and Parvez is the main focus, and with integration as a theme, Kureishi deliberates and construes â€Å"the gap generation†. Where the older generation has lived out their dream of freedom, the younger generation grows up with much wider opportunities in life and all this freedom makes them search for guidelines.They might have experienced the more unpleasant and cruel side of the Western culture, seeing that they have been different to their surroundings, growing up. That is why some of them find that religion binds 2nd generation immigrants together. Touching on this, Kureishs sets forth his view on religion as a selected/rejected thing, which in cases can lead to the stage of fanaticism; both for the religious ones, who we are easy to claim fanatic. But Kureish also portrays the more neglected ones; those, who so hardly fight against religion and refuse their background. Because they have a special opinion on how life should be lived, too. My Son the Fanatic My Son the Fanatic My Son the Fanatic is a short story about a worried dad, Parvez. From his perspective we get to read how his son, Ali, is suddenly changing his view on life and with that, also turning upside down his father’s life. A theme of the story could be: ‘teenager creating his own identity’. That is what Ali is doing by breaking out of the world in which he was raised by his parents. Ali wants to take the opposite direction of his dad, to avoid ending up like him; this could be an important reason for Ali suddenly becoming a Muslim.Another possible theme would be: ‘rebelling against parents’. The story is told in third person singular by an implicit teller who is aware of Parvez’ thoughts and how he is feeling. There are only three relevant characters in the story: Parvez the father, Ali the son and Bettina, who is a street prostitute and a friend of Parvez. Parvez is a taxi driver living in England with his family. Even though he wa s raised in Lahore and taught to be a Muslim, he tries to fit in with society as good as possible.As a child, Parvez had bad experiences learning the Koran, which is probably what causes his anti-religious behaviour (p. 197 l. 21 and 197 l. 38-40). That is also why Parvez has difficulties trying to understand his son, when he finds him praying five times a day. He feels he has lost his son (p. 199 l. 22), and gets so angry that he can’t control himself in some situations. However, throughout the story we get the impression that he is a good father, really trying to live with the way his son has changed.For instance, on page 196 lines 23 – 27, Parvez takes a night off to go out with his son and tell him about his family in Pakistan. Parvez’ good intentions aside; him having a drinking problem combined with the sharp tongue Ali has developed are two things that are not making it easy for Parvez to keep his temper. Throughout the story, Parvez talks to Bettina abou t the problem, sounding very insecure and worried. E. g. on page 194 lines 13 – 16: â€Å"I can’t understand it! ’ †¦ We were not father and son – we were brothers!Where has he gone? Why is he torturing me! † This makes the reader feel sympathetic towards him until page 202 lines 1-4, where he kicks and beats his son several times. We know very little about how Ali was as a person before he changed. We know from his dad that he was messy, playing guitar, had English friends and an English girlfriend. Despite Ali being raised in a regular English way and being a teenager, because of his religious change, he has become more responsible, quiet and serious.Living by the rules of the Koran, Ali is now behaving as a missionary towards his father. One reason for Ali’s sudden religious behaviour could be that he seeks his spiritual side. Maybe he wants some answers about life and death that science can't give him. Ali could also be so afraid an d disgusted by the idea of ending up like his father, a taxi driver with a drinking-problem, that he now does everything he can to prevent that from happening. The ending makes the reader uncertain of where his or her sympathy lies.I was on Parvez’ side throughout the story, disliking how Ali didn’t involve his family in his sudden new life-style. But, on page 202 lines 1-4, Parvez beats his son, and Ali says on page 202 line 6: â€Å"So who’s the fanatic now? †. Ali saying this makes the reader realise that Parvez actually has been very obsessed with his son’s religious behaviour, thinking about it constantly. This is a turning point in the story, since it becomes clear that Parvez is the one becoming fanatically angry time after time, while Ali is the more reasonable one, after his change of beliefs.To conclude, this story is about a worried father whose teenage son is suddenly turning religiously active. The teenager is able to identify himself with neither his father nor the society he is living in. Therefore he seeks answers to fill a hole inside of him. Answers, that science cannot provide. The father is having a hard time accepting that, not realising that with his aggressive response to his son’s changes, he actually turns into a fanatic himself, constantly watching his son and obsessing about his behaviour. Savanna K2 My Son the Fanatic My son the fanatic The generation gap is a dilemma which frequently occurs among immigrants, and in his short story My son the fanatic, Hanif Kureishi brings up the issue concerned. Kureishi introduces us to a father, who’s alarmed and puzzled by his sons’ strange behavior, which proves out to be against his own values. During this, Kureishi touches on the topics fanaticism and religion, and how these can change ones behavior towards ones family. Kureishi also focuses on how people relate to their roots.The main character in the story is Parvez, who’s a good example of an immigrant being well-integrated. He emigrated from Pakistan, where he was taught the Koran. He underwent indignity during this, and subsequently he avoided all religion; he even prefers jokes to rules. Even though he has a wife and a son, he spends most of his time â€Å"living a boy’s life† with his fellow taxi drivers; playing card and avoiding their wives. The narration of the s tory is 3rd person narrative and is therefore limited, but we see the conflict from Parvez’s point of view, which engenders surprises. Parvez sprang across the hall and set his ear at Ali’s door. A muttering sound came from within (†¦) The boy was praying. †(l. 130-134) Besides eating bacon and playing cards, another example of Parvez not being very Muslim is that he knows a prostitute, Bettina. Together they have deep talks; something Parvez wasn’t able to have with his own wife. It is also Bettina who helps Parvez figuring out what’s going on with his son, f. ex. â€Å"He knew what to look for: Bettina had drawn pictures†(l. 103-104) and â€Å"Reluctantly he and Bettina had abandoned their only explanation†(l. 18-119) â€Å"Surreptitiously, the father began going into his son’s bedroom†(l. 1). As early as the first line, the story pictures a father (Parvez) who struggles with something. Ali, the son of Parvez, acts differently and queerly, and his new tidy conduct scares Parvez who â€Å"was aware that he had become slightly afraid of his son, who, between his silences was developing a sharp tongue† (l. 15-17) Ali has also become very obscure and mystical, and an example of a cryptic remark of Ali is â€Å"There are more important things to be done† (l. 9) The teenage son Ali is going through a huge change. Formerly, he was well-integrated like his father, and they understood each other. As Parvez said: â€Å"we were brothers! † (l. 56) But at some point Ali decided to distance himself from the British/western world; he threw out his material goods and dissociate himself from his old friends and girlfriend. Among other things, computer disks and videotape are mentioned as Alis discarded things, and this indicates that the story takes place in our time.Furthermore, the setting is placed among the lower part of the middle-class, since Parvez is a taxi-driver, and they are i mmigrants. Furthermore, the relationship between Parvez and his son is slightly crumbling, especially when Parvez finds out that his son has chosen the opposite view of life than himself; Ali has become very religious, and Parvez is puzzled and concerned and doesn’t know how to deal with this. â€Å"But he’s growing a beard†(l. 115) is the first sign Parvez intercepts and exclaims to Bettina.Henceforth, the conflict whether it's wrong or right to blame ones son for becoming religious blossoms. Additionally, the relationship between the two of them worsens; Ali returns his fathers long and curious looks with â€Å"a hint of criticism, of reproach† (l. 111-112) and Ali acts â€Å"as if he hated his father† (l. 194) â€Å"’Don’t you know it’s wrong to drink alcohol? ’ Ali said† (l. 177). One of the most important passages is the restaurant scene with Parvez and Ali, because until this scene, we have only been followi ng Parvezs angle of the matter.Ali have been very introvert, but at this point we have Ali’s interior thoughts revealed; Ali blames his father for being â€Å"too implicated in Western civilization†(l. 218) and for having broken the rules of the Koran, which he means should be followed to the letter, for â€Å"the reward will be in Paradise†(l. 238). To this statement, Parvez feels puzzled and exasperated. But when Ali announces that he’s giving up his study, and especially after Ali have shown disrespect towards Bettina (which you can interpret as Ali insulting Parvezs lifestyle), Parvez can’t handle the problem anymore.Thus the short story ends up in a climax; Parvez beats Ali up while he’s praying, whereupon Ali says: â€Å"So who’s the fanatic now†(l. 392) â€Å"Parvez had been telling Bettina that he thought people in the West sometimes felt inwardly empty and needed a philosophy to live by†(l. 310). This could be o ne of reasons why the emerging problem between Parvez and Ali arises. The struggle is basically caused by the generation gap, which leads us to the central conflict; the two of them simply don’t understand each other.Especially Parvez doesn’t get his son’s sudden change in values, and doesn’t understand why Ali rejects the Western world, simply because it’s not compatible with the Muslim way of life. The development of the relationship between Ali and Parvez is the main focus, and with integration as a theme, Kureishi deliberates and construes â€Å"the gap generation†. Where the older generation has lived out their dream of freedom, the younger generation grows up with much wider opportunities in life and all this freedom makes them search for guidelines.They might have experienced the more unpleasant and cruel side of the Western culture, seeing that they have been different to their surroundings, growing up. That is why some of them find that religion binds 2nd generation immigrants together. Touching on this, Kureishs sets forth his view on religion as a selected/rejected thing, which in cases can lead to the stage of fanaticism; both for the religious ones, who we are easy to claim fanatic. But Kureish also portrays the more neglected ones; those, who so hardly fight against religion and refuse their background. Because they have a special opinion on how life should be lived, too.

Outline and Evaluate One Theory of Attachment

Outline and evaluate one theory of attachment (12 marks) Bowlby’s theory is an evolutionary theory because, in his view attachment is a behavioural system that has evolved because of its survival value and, ultimately, its reproductive value. According to Bowlby, children have an innate drive to become attached to a caregiver because attachment has long-term benefits. Both attachment and imprinting ensure that a young animal stays close to a caregiver who will feed and protect the young animal.Thus attachment and imprinting are adaptive behaviours. Infants who do not become attached are less likely to survive and reproduce. Attachment ‘genes’ are perpetuated, and infants are born with an innate drive to become attached. Since attachment is innate, there is likely to be a limited window for its development i. e. a critical or sensitive period. Development of all biological systems takes place most rapidly and easily during a critical period. Bowlby applied the conc ept of a sensitive period to attachment.He suggested that the second quarter of the first year is when infants are most sensitive to the development of attachments. The drive to provide caregiving is also innate because it is adaptive (i. e. enhances survival of one’s offspring). Infants are born with certain characteristics, called social releasers, which elicit caregiving. The social releasers include smiling and crying. Another social releaser is a baby’s face. Attachment is the innate behavioural system in babies; caregiving is the response in adults. Both provide protection and thereby enhance survival.The formation of attachments depends on the interaction of these systems. Attachment is important for protection, and thus acts as a secure base from which a child can explore the world and a safe haven to return to when threatened. Thus attachment fosters independence. Bowlby also believed that infants form a number of attachments but one of these has special impor tance. The bias towards on individual, the primary attachment, is called monotropy. Infants also have other secondary attachment figures that form a hierarchy of attachments.The one special attachment is most usually an infant’s mother. Bowlby believe that sensitive responsiveness was the key – an infant become most strongly attached to the person who responds most sensitively to the infant’s social releasers (the ‘sensitivity’ hypothesis). This person become the infants primary attachment figure, providing the main foundation for emotional development, self-esteem and later relationships with peers, lovers and one’s own children. Attachment starts as the relationship between a caregiver and infant.This relationship may be one of trust or of uncertainty and inconsistency, and creates expectations about what all relationships will be like. Gradually the infant develops a model about emotional relationships: Bowlby called this an internal worki ng model. This model is a cluster of concepts about relationships and what to expect from others – about whether relationships involve consistent or inconsistent love, whether others make you feel good or anxious, and so on. The internal working model means there is consistency between early emotional experiences and later relationships.This leads to the continuity hypothesis – the view that there is a link between the early attachment relationship and later emotional behaviour; individuals who are securely attached in infancy continue to be socially and emotionally competent, whereas insecurely attached children have more social and emotional difficulties late in childhood and adulthood. The research by Lorenz supports the view that imprinting is innate because the goslings imprinted on the first moving object they saw. A similar process is likely to have evolved in many species as a mechanism to protect young animals and enhance the likelihood of their survival.If at tachments fail to develop, the conclusion from research appears to be that once the sensitive period has passed it is difficult to form attachments. For example, Hodges and Tizard found that children who had formed no attachments had later difficulties with peers. If attachment did evolve, as Bowlby suggests, to provide an important biological function, then we would expect attachment and care giving behaviours to be universal i. e. found in all cultures. Tronick et al. (1992) studied an African tribe, the Efe, from Zaire, who live in extended family groups.The infants are looked after and even breastfed by different women but usually sleep with their own mother at night. Despite such differences in childrearing practices the infants, at six months, still showed one primary attachment. This supports the view that attachment and caregiving are universal and not influenced by different cultural practices. Many psychologists have criticised Bowlby’s ideas regarding montropy and argued that the babies’ attachment to the first attachment figure is not necessarily special or unique.Schaffer and Emerson’s longitudinal study of 60 Glasgow babies found that multiple attachments seemed to be the norm for babies rather than the exception – at the age of 18 months 87% of babies had multiple attachments. Schaffer and Emerson also found that the strongest bond was not necessarily to the mother as Bowlby had implied. At 18 moths, only half of the samples were strongly attached to their mothers and about a third were strongly attached to their fathers.Bowlby’s ideas about the importance of attachments have produced substantial amount of research. Most evidence suggests that early attachment experiences can have an influenced on later adult relationships. However, it is important not to overestimate this influence and to consider other factors such as later life events, which influence adult relationships. Bowlby’s idea regarding monot ropy has been challenged and evidence supports the view that multiple attachments may be the rule rather than single and unique attachments.

SAB 361 UNIT 9 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

SAB 361 UNIT 9 - Essay Example Active participation in sports and other leisure activities contribute positively to the total educational process through the development of skills essential for everyday life† (University of Memphis par. 4). has time and again demonstrated a strong and positive correlation between high school sports participation and academic achievement† (3). Hartmann (2008) likewise cited other research studies that supported the contention that involvement in high school or college sports contribute positively to the educational process, to wit: â€Å"developmental theorists have long talked about the character-building and socializing impacts of sport, based upon a correlation between skills and habits required for success in the classroom, sports arena, and daily life†¦ Even more recently, sociologists have begun to explore the role that sports participation plays in community involvement and the cultivation of social capital more generally† (8). These validates that sports contribute positively to the educational process of the institution, as a whole. Hartmann, Douglas. "High School Sports Participation and Educational Attainment: Recognizing, Assessing and Utilizing the Relationship." 2008. LA84 Foundation. 8 April 2012

Analysis of qualitative design part 2 Research Paper

Analysis of qualitative design part 2 - Research Paper Example Qualitative design is always accredited with the ability to seek and gain insight, this is often by exploring the depth, richness and complexity that is rooted in a particular phenomenon. In conducting this research study, the research relied upon an ethnographic research design, in this case, the researchers main aim was to study the prevailing characteristics of people in relation to adult literacy and gender equity empowerment among the people of rural Elsalvador (Prins 2005). The methods of study applied in ethnographic research designs identify a people’s prevailing culture, variables of the study and makes a comprehensive review of literature. In terms of data collection methods, the research design employs those that give it access to culture patterns and attributes, informants as well as ability to collect first-hand data. The researchers use of ethnographic design in this research was aimed at gaining an in-depth analysis of the effect of literacy education, gender and equity empowerment among the people of rural El Salvador. First, the research design was essential in gaining first-hand data from respondents, through this research design, it was easy to interact with people that provided particular services on the ground and get their views on the particular influence the subjects of study were having on people. Secondly, this research design was essential in enabling the researcher to move and record his observations about the characteristics of the people of rural El Salvador in the wake of literacy education and gender equity empowerment. Thirdly, the nature if this study was too complex to be answered by simple yes or no answers, the respondents were needed to provide an in-depth analysis of what they found as being the impact of gender equity empowerment initiatives and literacy education. The rationale for this study was to

European Competition Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

European Competition Law - Essay Example d in which the conditions of competition are sufficiently homogeneous†. (Europa, 2007) The SSNIP test (Small but Significant and Non-transitory Increase in Price) is an important criterion in relation to abuse of dominance and mergers. The commission formally adopted SSNIP in 1997 EU Commission Notice on Market Definition. Camesasca et al state that the notice refers to theoretical insights gained in industrial economics and mentions a range of econometric techniques helpful in delineating the relevant market.   Therefore, primarily it is important to decide whether the undertaking is dominant or not. The question of dominance hinges on several factors and the interpretation of the facts available under the specific circumstances. It was held in United Brands Company and United Brands Continental BV v Commission of the European Communities, â€Å"The dominant position referred to in Article 86 relates to a position of economic strength enjoyed by an undertaking which enables to prevent effective competition†¦In general a dominant position derives from a combination of several factors, which taken separately, are not necessarily determinative† (Eur-Lex, 1978), and thus it connotes wide meaning and interpretation. Vatiero states that â€Å"In competition law the dominant position is accepted, that is, an undertaking having a dominant position is not itself a recrimination†. The policy underlining the law is with reference to the power to behave independent of its competitors to an appreciable extent. For instance, an undertaking cannot stop supplying a long standing customer under some pretext or other as this conduct is inconsistent with Article 3(F) of the treaty and paragraph B and C of Article 86 with in respect prejudicial or discriminatory treatment. Chamberlin (1962, p.61) states that both patents and trade-marks may be conceived of as monopoly elements of the goods to which they are attached. It is also necessary to consider the shift in policy towards conflicting interests arising out of the rights over patents or trade-marks and competition. Entry barriers constitute as major stumbling block in promoting competition, which may result into monopoly. Papasava (2004) states, â€Å"The Chicago school perceives†¦that a true barrier to entry is a cost to new entrants which was not applicable to the existing market operators when they entered the market† The monopoly with reference to the pricing depends upon the elasticity of the demand for the product as well as the substitutes available. â€Å" †¦ Monopoly may not equate to an economic monopoly if the relevant market is wider than the protected market. However, the fact that access to a market is protected by intellectual property rights may be relevant as a factor

Question answer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Question answer - Essay Example The details mentioned in the data require that the long run rate of return must be calculated using the formula of present value of dividend using Dividend Discount Model. . PV GROWING PERPETUITY (DIVIDEND DISCOUNT MODEL) Data: Present Value of Share PV O USD.150 Dividend for the First Year D1 USD. 7 Growth g 0.04 Rate of return r ? FORMULA REARRANGED In the above provided case since the value of price was already provided, the formula for such payments has been manipulated and rate of return has been evaluated. The formula for DDM for the current price of shares is rearranged for the calculation of rate of the return. Applying this arrangement, the long term rate of return for the company is as follows: r 0.086667 r 8.67% Hence, the expected long run rate of return is 8.67%.This refers that when company is paying 60 percent of the earning as dividend to shareholders and investors are pricing the share at USD.150, the required rate of return in the long terms is 6.67%. This percentag e assumes that price is based on incorporating all information about the company. The formula can be summarized as the ratio of the cash flows of dividends received in the future periods by the net difference of the discount rate and the growth rate. This formula is developed on the concept that current price of stocks are a series of payments which grows as dividend perpetually at a constant rate. . The formula assumes that the payments of dividends are received for an infinite period at constant growth rate. For the calculation of Present value it is very important that the discount rate used for the calculation is higher than the growth rate.. PART B Dividend discount model assumes that the price of stocks follows constant growth indefinitely across the life of the company (McLaney, 2009). However, on actual grounds the growth of the company varies from time to time. For instance, in the above case, The Company aims to expand and therefore, therefore, has changed the dividend pol icy across for five years (Ross, Westerfield, and Jordan, 2009). In such case, two stage dividend discount model is used to evaluate the price of the stock in current year. In such a system of two staged growth, the price of stocks are measured by calculating the present value of dividend streams by discounting it with required rate of return. For the second staged growth, the price of a stock is calculated for the year in which growth has changed and is then discounted to current year (Gitman, 2003). In the final stage, the present values of two staged dividend growth are combined. The following formula is used for such cases: Following this, procedure the price of stock in second case is USD. 74.99. Given below is the calculation for the case: PART B DIVIDEND CALCULATION STAGE ONE STAGE 2 YEAR 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Dividend MENTIONED IN CASE ONE 7 Â   Â   Â   Â   Â   Â   earning (calculated using Dividend Information of Case (1) and then growth applied $ 11.67 $ 12.13 $ 12.62 $ 13.1 2 $ 13.65 $ 14.19 $ 14.76 Reinvested $ 10.50 $ 10.92 $ 11.36 $ 11.81 $ 12.28 $ 4.26 Â   Â   Â   Â   Â   Â   Â   DIVIDEND WITH NEW % OF GROWTH Dividend $ 1.17 $ 1.21 $ 1.26 $ 1.31 $ 1.36 $ 9.94 $ 10.33 Â   Â   Â   Â   Â   Â   Â   Â   The above table determines that to get base year information, it is assumed that the earning of company for year one remains same as it is provided in the case. Hence, price is as follows: PRICE Â   Â   Â   Â   Â   Â   Â   Â   Â   PV: dividend 1 / (1-R)^t PV: dividend 7 / (r-g)

Public relations (report) More info in the attachment Essay

Public relations (report) More info in the attachment - Essay Example The role of the proposed PR department would be more than merely creating images, and more than â€Å"just learning the labels that identify the parts of the disciplines within arts†. The department can be set the vision of transforming a passive consumption of art into a more engaging activity for the general public. This need not only apply to esoteric and exclusivist art forms identified as such. Even quotidian encounters with popular cultural artefacts can be illuminated through knowledge of the history and aesthetics behind dominant art forms. (Blewett, 2004) The Public Relations department will strive to replicate the successes met by similar institutions in the USA and Britain. A notable example is the formation of West End Community Council in 1965, which â€Å"sponsored a series of arts festivals as a way to bring whites and blacks together in a creative and social atmosphere. Likewise, in 1966 a group of young black artists, frustrated with their inability to crack into the local gallery scene, invited white and Asian American friends to help them start their own, calling it the Louisville Art Workshop.† (K'Meyer, 2001) The envisioned PR department can be an instrument of social integration and progress in the Australian context, by conceiving, promoting and organizing similar arts campaigns in the state. The applicability of American examples emerge from Australia’s own history of Aboriginal disenfranchisement and other forms of racial prejudice. (K'Meyer, 2001) The effectiveness of the Arts Council in the UK is in significant measure related to the well-thought out, aptly targeted public relations campaigns that it executed. (Sheehy, 2002) The proposed PR department will take the lead from the Arts Council and project cinema as a legitimate art form, as opposed to its current status as a means to entertainment. A sizeable portion of the PR department’s budget will be devoted to developing a strong patronage for cinema, es pecially of the art-house and independent streams, as it is here that critical engagement with public issues tend to occur. This way, it would align with the broader objectives of the State Government Department of Youth Arts. The PR department will act as a liaison between the government and the youth in the state by also promoting contemporary/emerging art forms. In this era of rapid technological advancement, fields like Web Design have evolved their own unique craftsmanship and aesthetics. The Web Design is a key part of the IT industry and employs thousands of youth – â€Å"non-tech businesses will always have a need for talented graphic artists†. ("The Arts Communications, 2002) Thus, integrating this field into the youth arts ambit will fulfil a key goal of the Australian state and national governments, namely that of job creation. For example, â€Å"companies are looking for creative people who understand a visual medium and are capable of keeping eyes glued t o the screen with dazzling graphics and good design. Many companies are eager to hire qualified people with art, art history, and design backgrounds.† (The Arts Communications, 2002) The added advantage here is the consolidation of commercial opportunity with the growth of arts. The proposed PR department will play a vital role in communicating this message to all

Which of Hitler's key Mistakes Had the Greatest Effect on His Defeat Research Paper

Which of Hitler's key Mistakes Had the Greatest Effect on His Defeat in World War II - Research Paper Example Most of the reasons discussed are researched from books and publications that put their focus on the matters surrounding the Second World War, especially those that pay keen attention to the fatal decisions made by Hitler leading to his defeat. The fact that Germany through their leader Hitler lost the war after having played a significant impact in the First World War makes the discussion of its failures interesting. B-Summary of evidence The German Navy’s principal mission at war was to cut the life of Britain’s maritime by means of a blockade. The blockade was arrived at because Britain was an island and the barricade would result in it losing out on metals, fuel, and other elements, which were imported by the merchant ships. It was expected Britain’s forces were to be crippled to the ground by the move and consequently they were to be hit by a consistent air bombardment movement that was anticipated would make Britain surrender (Bevin, pg102). This strategy a gainst Britain would indeed work for the Germans, as in the World War I, the submarines owned by the Germans had succeeded in cutting the amount of British owned merchant ships which were sunk. Regardless of this fact, the German Navy constructed for the World War II was the same to the previous one. Germany’s failure to invest in additional submarines, instead choosing to undermine the British maritime strength hampered the success of Hitler’s force (Carolin, pg56). The German submarines were the greatest risk to the British, but were consequently extremely few, and the slow development of other submarines did give Britain ample time to adapt to the risk and survive with massive endeavor and terrible losses. By the time the German naval force had grouped itself better, the challenge posed by the British was enormous as the latter had a wholly developed antisubmarine force which overwhelmed Hitler’s men. Hitler may have won the war, supposing his strategists foc used on constructing numerous submarines instead of the inconsequential battleships. The war could have been won in Hitler’s favor prior to the US and Russia joining in the war. There were numerous cases of murder by the regime, and the fear of severe punishment created fear in the criticism or even yet provides advices that were not favorable, or even to wake up the dictator late in the night whenever an emergency case presented itself. In such establishments, an individual formulates all the significant decisions and too numerous fewer decisions, and it is almost not possible to transform whatever is on the individual mind, such as Hitler prior to or after the individual formulates a foremost mistake. Deciding on Hitler’s failure or mistakes during the war is centered in the context of whatever his focal purpose and intentions were. Hitler’s original short term military aspiration was to overcome the regime of Stalin in the Soviet Union, by means of a highly c oncentrated but short war, and the lasting annexation of the Eastern European region land (Samuel, pg48). That included the Eastern side of Russia of the Urals for the objective of increasing the economic authority preferably by means of agriculture. The aspiration well articulated in the invasion of Poland, was Hitler’s primary propelling objective in the short term. However, Hitler decided on defeating France prior to taking on Stalin and his men. Hitler’s desire was to acquire a free hand to combat in the East. However, that did prove to be Hitler’s mistake. Stalin was at that time detested all throughout the Eastern and Western Europe. Therefore, Hitler would be able to mount warfare with Stalin, the only factor being Poland getting on the way due to its geographical positioning. However, the

Shakespeare - Authorship Essay Example for Free

Shakespeare Authorship Essay In 1564, a man was born by the name of William Shakespeare. He was born to a poor family, was given little education, and had no interaction with sophisticated society. Thirty-eight plays and over 150 sonnets are not attributed to this ignorant man. Those who believe that Shakespeare was the author have no definitive proof but instead point to Hamlets declaration: The plays the thing(Satchell 71). The true author, however, lies hidden behind he name of Shakespeare. Edward de Vere the premier Earl of Oxford is not only considered a great poet in history, but he may also be the great playwright who concocted the sonnets and plays which are now attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford, England. Edward de Vere was the Lord Great Chamberlain and the seventeenth Earl of Oxford. He was raised as a Royal Ward and from a very young age was educated in the sports and arts of nobility. Although disgraceful for a nobleman to waste time writing frivolous plays, Oxford as a young man wrote and staged the entertainment for the court. As an adult, he became engrossed in theatrical performances and frittered away his fortunes in support of several writers and actors (Friedman 13). During this time, De Vere also began writing several poems and plays. Much like Samuel Clemens, who wrote under the name of Mark Twain, Oxford adopted the pseudonym Shakespeare. Soon after plays appeared under the name of Shakespeare, poems by de Vere ceased (Russell 5). Coincidently, the coat of arms of Lord Bulbeck, a third title of Edward de Vere, is a lion shaking a spear (Ogburn 10). De Vere was also known by the people as the spear-shaker because of excellence at the tilts and at jousting (Russell 5). Many believe this pen name was for protection. Many of the plays said to have been written by Shakespeare explicitly describe the corruption in court politics and contain thinly veiled satires and parodies of politicians and courtiers. In addition, public theatres such as the Globe were laced with prostitutes, drunkards and criminals and because of the scoundrel audiences, playwrights were held in low esteem. Moreover, many scholars believe de Veres reasons for his pseudonym may be linked to the homoerotic threads in many of the Shakespearean sonnets and de Veres possible homosexual affair with his son-in-law. Using his identity would have been a dangerous game when such affairs were a high crime (Satchell 71). There are many allusions in Shakespeares plays which de Vere would have been particularly familiar with. As a child, de Vere was tutored by Arthur Golding, the translator of Metamorphoses. This literary work was alluded to several times in Shakespearean plays. De Vere also studied law and traveled across the continent, spending a great deal of time in Italy (Tweedale 12). Many references to Italian art and architecture are also alluded to in Shakespeares plays. William Shakespeare of Stratford, however, never left England (Friedman 10). The author of the Shakespearean plays had to possess a rare knowledge in several disciplines including physical sciences, medicine, he law, astronomy, and the Bible. Shakes of Stratford received no formal education with the exception of grammar school through the equivalent of third grade. De Vere, however, was taught by only the best tutors (Satchell 71). The Shakespearean plays were also written by one who has had interaction with the aristocracy and understood the workings of royalty from the inside out (Friedman 10). Although there is no evidence that Shakespeare moved freely about this society, de Vere was regarded as a brilliant ornament of Elizabeths court (Sachmartino 13) and as such would have understood what it as like to live in the aristocracy. De Veres very life is in many ways represented in the plays attributed to Shakespeare of Stratford. For example, in the play Hamlet, de Vere describes many of the details of his life. Like the main character Hamlet, de Vere is virtually a prince and also of Danish decent. De Veres cousins, Horance and Francis are strikingly similar in name and action to Hamlets two friends, Horatio and Francisco. The anguish Hamlet felt due to his mothers hasty remarriage after the murder of her husband was also similar to the distress De Vere felt over his mothers swift remarriage after the murder of his father. One of the greatest scenes in Hamlet is when Hamlet stabbed Polonius through the arras and killed him. This is again remarkably comparable to de Vere, who in a fit of rage stabbed an undercook through a curtain for spying on the young nobleman (Ogburn 173) Hamlet is not the only literary work in which de Vere describes his life. De Veres love affair with Anne de Vavasour is portrayed in Measure for Measure, and his own childhood is directly correspondent with Macbeth and Orthelo (Ogburn 11). Oxford died in 1604. This year is also the same year that William Shakespeare retired from writing his alleged plays. It has been said, The mouthpiece had to withdraw when the voice was gone (Friedman 11). In other word, after de Vere died, his writing stopped, and therefore William Shakespeares career was complete and he thereupon retired. There are also many verbal parallels in the works accredited to Shakespeare and the poetry of Edward de Vere. Contemporary authors will obviously have some phrases and images in common. When hundreds of these similarities are present, however, it tends to show that the authors either corroborated with each other, or that the authors are one in the same. This is precisely the case with Edward de Vere and William Shakespeare. Because we have only a small number of Oxfords acknowledged poetry, it is impossible to trace each metaphor or image of Shakespeares works to de Veres poetry. According to Joseph Sobran, an author for the Oxford Society, forty or so comparisons would be considered a coincidence. Much more, which is present in the comparisons of Shakespeare and Oxfords works, is far beyond the possibility of coincidence (Sobran 1). In both Shakespeare and de Veres poetry, there are similar images and phrases. For example, fertility, harvest, and the lazy drones robbing honey were used by both authors. To capture pity, images such as weeping lovers or floods of tears were also used (Sobran 2). Similar phrases can also be found in the poetry of Oxford and the sonnets of Shakespeare. In Love They Choice, Oxford writes, Who taught thee first to sigh alas my heart, Who filled your eyes with tears of bitter smart, and Colours pale they face. These three phrases were also used in Shakespeares plays and sonnets. For example, Who taught thee how to make me love thee more? is found in sonnet 150 written under the alias of Shakespeare. Also written under the alias of Shakespeare is Titus Andronicus and The Rape of Lucrece which states, And for these bitter tears, which no you see? and The colours of thy face, that even for anger, makes the lily pale respectively (Sobran 3). Common allusions used by both authors include Caesar, Hannibal and Pompey, Venus beauty, blind Cupid with his bow, and countless more from Greek mythology, wish cupid often being referred to as blind boy or wanton (Sobran 1). Certain factors for comparison are also used often in the writings of both Shakespeare and de Vere. For instance, the use of sweet versus sour, joy versus woe, ebb versus flow, flowers versus weeds, and heaven versus hell are all commonly found in the works of both authors. As Oxford writes He pulls a flower, he plucks but weeds, in Labour and its Rewards, Shakespeare echoes this metaphor and similarly writes, They bid thee crop a week, thou pluckst a flower (Sobran 3). What is more revealing is that both authors have similar rhythm and sentence structure (Sobran 2). In a couplet, Oxford writes: Evn as the wax both melt, or dew consume away Before the sun, I behold, careful thoughts decay. Shakespeare also uses the same image with comparable sentence structure and rhythm. The mornings silver melding do as soon as done And decayed, against the golden splendor of the sun (Sobran 3). The similar syntax, images, and comparisons of the writings of these two authors show that de Vere not only was a great writer in history, but he was also the author of the works attributed to William Shakespeare. Perhaps the greatest evidence for the true authorship of the Shakespearean sonnets and plays is the ciphered messages which can be found in the text of the sonnets and plays. Ciphers are codes of uniform length which bear a uniform relationship to the units of the plain text (Friedman, 15). In several of Shakespeares sonnets, de Veres signature can be found. For instance: The order of the dumme shewes E D And Musickes before every Acte E V E R E These signatures can be found various places in the sonnets and plays attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford. There are also several signatures of the object of his love affair, Mary Pembroke, and also one I love you Mary Pembroke (Huston 132) There are also several examples of acoustic patterns found in Shakespeares sonnets. For example, in the sonnets 37 through 42, there are twenty-one signatures spelling out de Vere. These signatures are arranged to form six letters: O X F O R D, in consecutive order (Huston 161). Considering each sonnet is fourteen lines long, and there are six sonnets, and assuming there are 43 characters per line, the probability that these signatures would spell Oxford is nearly 55,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 to one (Huston 162). In Sonnets 25 through 46, de Vere also spelled out in 22 letter patterns W SHAKESPEARE-OXFORD-VERE (Huston 170). The odds of this happening are even greater than that of the aforementioned probability. Using poetic license, de Vere of Oxford utilized codes and ciphers to spell out his name and other such messages. Edward de Vere of Oxford lived from 1550 to 1604. In the duration of that time, he was a young nobleman, a poet, and a lover of the theatre, but was also probably a great playwright who has yet to receive full credit for the plays he composed. De Vere witnessed first hand the inner workings of nobility. He traveled throughout Europe, completed his education at Cambridge University, studied the law at Grays Inn, and had abundant knowledge of historical occurrences and literary works (Russell 4). These are not only elements in the works attributed to William Shakespeare, but also are things which William Shakespeare of Stratford England knew nothing of. Who wrote the Shakespearean sonnets and plays? There is only one answer to this pivotal question ? Edward de Vere of Oxford England.

Concentric Circle Approach To Defence And Foreign Policy Politics Essay

Concentric Circle Approach To Defence And Foreign Policy Politics Essay Security perspective after Cold War has changed tremendously. Not only that state has to deal with external military aggression, it also has to go through overwhelming challenges of non-traditional security issues. Among the issues are terrorism, ethnic conflict, sea piracy, smuggling of illegal weapon and drug trafficking  [1]  . In this case, Indonesia is not an exceptional. Although Indonesia has been cautious to any action taken by any states within its geostrategic area since 1945 (after independent today), the concentration given by Indonesia government since mid-1990s is more on the non-traditional issues that impede states domestic political stability, unity, territorial integrity and thus to its sovereignty. This is partly due to the region where it is located, that is (to a certain extent) stable and less prone to the state-to-state conflict. In this case, the traditional threat of aggression from other countries is very unlikely to happen in this region  [2]  , its military preparedness has to be intact to overcome all mentioned non-traditional security issues that it is currently confront with  [3]  . For Indonesia, the dynamic shift of threat from non-taditional to traditional security may manifest themselves in the form of invasion or aggression from other countries  [4]  especially when considering the case of 9/11 terrorist attack and the reaction taken by United States and its allies in their mission on the global war on terror in Afghanistan as an instance. Concious with the challenges that impede Indonesia lately particularly when we look at terrorist Bali bombing in 2002 and J.W. Marriott bombings in 2003  [5]  , the twin-suicide bombing at the J.W Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in 2009, as well as its unresolve issues of armed separatist movement imposed by Free Papua Movement (OPM)  [6]  , has made Indonesia aware that if the government did not overcome such non-traditional security issues effectively, it would cause more political, economic and social instability than what Indonesia is currently facing with. Thus, in order to overcome such situations, Indonesia through its defence and foreign policy has been used as a guideline to maintain states order as well as its national interest or national security. The question is what is Indonesias defence and foreign policy? How does Indonesia utilise its resources to overcome the traditional and the non-traditional security threat considering the challenges that it has to face especially when domestic instability is eminent. Apart from that, how does Indonesia synergise its defence and foreign policy to overcome the problem? What kind of approach that Indonesia use to preserve its own national interest? And what exactly is Indonesia national interest? By considering its security threats this paper argues that i) on one hand, Indonesia mobilises or use its armed forces to tackle the problems that occur, in which the preservation of states sovereignty and territorial integrity is its primary goal. ii) Indonesia, on the other hand utilises its foreign policy as a synergy in maintaining and achieving states national interest through different type of strategies. iii) This paper will conclude that, as in the case of Indonesia; foreign and defence policy cannot be separated especially when discussing states security perceptions and the strategy that it use to overcome it. In this case, state (Indonesia) uses its two statecrafts (state strategies) through the use of force as well as diplomacy as its major instrument in preserving and maitaining its national interest. Therefore, this paper will highlight, first, Indonesia internal and external security threats. Second, Indonesia defence policy in addition to its strategic national interest and third, this paper will focus on its foreign policy and approach taken by Indonesia in synergising its defence and foreign policy as a method of preserving and maintaing its national interest. 2.0 INDONESIA INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL SECURITY THREAT As the Republic of Indonesia enters the year of 2010, and celebrates its 65th Independence Day in August of the same year, it is evident that the security concern of the state will continue to be dominated by the same issues that it faced a decade ago. In fact the major concern of Indonesian government is unlikely from external threat of aggression rather their internal or domestic political instability. It was stated in the white paper issued in 2003 when Indonesian government acknowledged for the first time on the persistence of non-traditional security issues that occurs in the country  [7]  . A glance at Indonesias security perceptions, internally; despite a relative improvement in the economic development as well as its political situation, Indonesia faces tremendous difficulty in overcoming at least three [3] key security issues or challenges: i) the threat of terrorism, ii) protracted secessionist movements, and iii) the return of communal violence. Externally, the war on terrorism both at the regional and global levels continues to place Indonesia at the centre of regional and global attention. In this case, the nature of Indonesian government responses to the problem of terrorism, in which the government is constrained with its domestics capabilities in pertaining to the communication network level and its locals sensitivity to curb terrorism within the country, is putting the Indonesian government in a state of strain particularly on its relations with the outside world; regionally ASEAN as the whole, its close neighbour Australia as well the United States. The security environment of Indonesia remains volatile since it retains independent status in 1945. In this case, the most security challenges faced by the government of Indonesia now remain the threat of terrorism  [8]  910. Being the world largest archipelago with the biggest Muslim and multicultural population in the world, Indonesia certainly has a multi-diverse complexity in maintaining order and security. In this particular context, terrorism has become the threat to the safety of the nation, even a threat to democracy and civil society  [11]  . Despite the successes of arresting and prosecuting hundreds of terrorism suspects, radical groups were still active in recruiting new members. Since the bombing of Toserba Ramayana, Jakarta on January 2nd 1999 until the twin-suicide bombing at the J.W Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in 2009, terrorism threat in Indonesia has increased tremendously  [12]  . Ten years of receiving consistence terrorisation from the terrorist group, there has been a serious doubt, if not pessimism, in the country whether the government has the ability to find and deal with the impact in a swift and firm manner. The government faced a difficult task of balancing the need to crack down terrorist networks and the imperative of taking into account terrorist group activities  [13]  . Apart from terrorism, Indonesia at the same time faces major threats from armed separatist movement  [14]  . In fact, the armed separatist movements were not new to Indonesian government. As early as 1950s (during the tenure of Sukarno until today; President Bambang Yudhoyono), the primary objective given by Indonesia government are still the same which is maintaining order at the domestic level especially to the case that derived from armed separatist movements which happened in East Timor  [15]  (now Timor Leste), West Papua  [16]  (still happening), and even in Aceh  [17]  province  [18]  19. In other words, its main task is safeguarding Indonesias territorial integrity. Aside from territorial integrity comes national economic strategic interest and states sovereignty. All these interest embedded in the Preamble of the 1945 Constitution. Among others, State has to safeguard and protect the sovereignty of the state, territorial integrity of the Republic of Indon esia, the nations safety and pride, and at the same time involve actively in efforts to create world peace  [20]  . Communal conflicts that happened in Maluku, South Sulawesi (Poso), in Kalimantan (Sanggau Ledo, Sampit, Sambas) was also considered as one of the major security threat facing by Indonesia from within  [21]  . So much so, it requires serious attention from the central government. Indonesia is a heterogeneous state. With a vast number of ethnic residing in a country as well as the geographical characteristic as an island nation; makes it easy for communal conflicts to occur. The issue that triggered the conflict was mainly due to a religious (Maluku and Poso, Sulawesi) and racial (West Kalimantan) background  [22]  . In fact, to some extent it was also triggered by an intergroup exclusivity and the socio-economic gap. According to Jones  [23]  , in her report says, one of the things we see is how changing population balances among different ethnic and religious groups has led to certain kinds of tensions, often with one group feeling that it is under siege by another. The l oss caused by communal conflict is enormous; it causes waves of evacuation, tremendous suffering of people, casualties and large material loss. In fact, the biggest communal conflict is ruined national solidarity and the bond of unity as a nation. Indonesias external threat perceptions on the other hand remain shaped primarily by internal sources of instability and conflict and suspicious of involvement of foreign actors in those internal conflicts. Indonesias elite, both civilian and military, continue to express concern over the possible involvement of foreign countries not only in the regional rebellions such as Aceh and Irian Jaya (Papua) but also in the spate of terrorist attacks across in the country, especially the Bali bombings. Some Indonesians believe that there is an international conspiracy (especially by the West) to undermine Indonesias stability and security through the issue of terrorism  [24]  . Many also recent the fact the international community, especially the United States, has come to see Indonesia as a hotbed of terrorism. These sensitivities among government officials, political, community leaders, and the public at large have in turn brought about a degree of uneasiness for Indonesia in both its r elationship with neighbouring countries in the regional war on terrorism and its relations with the United States  [25]  . 3.0 INDONESIA DEFENCE POLICY AND ITS STRATEGIC NATIONAL INTEREST In analysing Indonesias defence policy and its strategic interest, this paper will highlight few important things. First, this paper will look at its defence policy, the nature of its national interest as well as its strategic interest in overcoming states security challenges. The map of Indonesia. Source: http://www.electricscotland.com/thomson/reflections10.htm. Date of Accessed: 1 October 2010. The primary legal documents bearing on defence policy are the 1945 Constitution and the Defence Act (Law No.20) of 1982  [26]  . Constituted under article 30 of the Constitution, it is stated clearly that the duty of the state government is to protect all Indonesians (citizens) in every aspect from any threat. The notion to protect Indonesias citizens, however, is part and parcel of Indonesias national interest that is; to safeguard and to protect the sovereignty of the state, the territorial integrity, the nations safety as well as its pride  [27]  . The foci of Indonesias defence and security are thus, represented in conventional term as a series of concentric cirle emanating from Jakarta. In providing a clear picture of this defence and security strategy, the main area that covers the most or hot area of Indonesias security is its land and maritime borders (strecting up to its Zone Economy Exclusive, ZEE). The second circle, on the other hand covers the area of its neighbouring countries as well as the region where it is located. In this particular context, what ever happens in the region will directly or indirectly gives impact on the security aspect of Indonesia especially when it is located at one of the most important trade sea-lane that connect the West and the East; streching from Indian Ocean to the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea. Thus, on account of its strategic position, it is important for Indonesian Armed Forces to maintain its national jurusdiction especially when almost all countries in the world rely heavily on Indonesias stability and security as well as its self-defence capacity for its own national resilience  [28]  . In other words, the development of a strong and flexible state apparatus, political and social cohesion and a ruboust economic infrastructure which enables Indonesia to defend itself and contribute to the defence of the region. Defence Act 1982, on the other hand provides a basic provisions of the defence and security of the Republic of Indonesia. It is a notable document that mentioned the social and political functions of Indonesian Armed Forces. Lowry  [29]  stated that; The act states that national defence and security includes defence against both external and internal threats amd that these threats may be directed against national freedom, sovereignty, national unity and solidarity, the integrity of the nation and national jurisdiction, and the values of the national idealogy; Pancasila as well as the constitution. The Act also explained that the threat can be overcome by total peoples resistance within a system of total peoples defence (Sishankamrata). It was designed to marshal and mobilise the nations physical, moral and material resources. In order to attain the desired goals, Indonesia has highlghted few startegies. Among them are permanent strategic interest, urgent strategic interest and the international cooperation in defence which underlies in future strategic interest. All of these embedded in Indonesias Strategic Defence Interest  [30]  . The permanent strategic defence interest of Indonesia is the administration of defence to guard and protect the countrys sovereignty and the unityof Indonesia and the countrys honour from every threat, either from outside or from inside of the country. In order to protect all these interests, it is important to be prepared to defend the country without regard for the argument as to whether or not a concrete threat exists. In carrying out permanent defence interest, Indonesia will always maintain a love for peace, independence and sovereignty. Thus, in resolving every conflicts and dispute, Indonesias will always first put forward diplomatic efforts and the use of force wil l be mobilised if the diplomatic means fail. Therefore, the Indonesia chooses an active defensive strategy in its defences. Indonesias urgent strategic interest on the other hand is directed to overcome actual security issues, which action could undermine and distrupt indonesias sovereignty and unity. In line with this, there are few security threats that Indonesia has to overcome with. The security issues, nonetheless, are heavily concentrated on the non-traditional security issues that emerge within the country. This includes fighting and overcoming the international threat at home and abroad, overcome the disturbances of armed separatist movements, counter radicalism and solve communal conflicts, overcome international crime as well assisting the government in handling natural disaster or any humanitarian activity  [31]  . As part of the international community, Indonesias pursue its third form of direct defence strategy based on international cooperation interest. In this case, Indonesia realise that other than the use of force as part of its statecraft strategy, Indonesia is committed to create a peace and good relations with other countries especially with its neighbour, the regional context and the world based on trust and cooperation. In fact, it cannot release itself from any connection with the world in the effort to achieve its desired goals. For Indonesia, this is the best strategy that could protect the nation from any external aggression especially in a form of state-to-state war. It is ecapstulated as part of Indonesias regional resilience. As a former secretary general of the Department of Defence and Security put it: we must defend further forward by befriending our neighbours and even by possesing the same threat perceptions (Quoted in Lowry  [32]  ). Recognising the limitations of i ts resources, Indonesia thus seeks a balance of interest rather than a balance of power  [33]  . In order to fulfil the requirement in upholding states national interest, Indonesia defence policy has come out with a strategic defence in which it should ensure the accomplishment of its national interest and its international cooperation. 4.0 INDONESIA FOREIGN POLICY AND THE LINGKAGES TO ITS DEFENCE POLICY IN PRESERVING ITS NATIONAL INTEREST Although Indonesian government recognises and stressing oftenly on the need to maintain internal order or domestic political stability as well as territorial integrity as a primary objective for its defence strategy, this does not mean that other form of strategy is neglected. Indonesia, like other country in the world, pursue diplomatic statecraft as its first agenda especially at the international level. In this case, Indonesia apply active defensive approach or as what Lowry  [34]  coined as forward defence. As its defence policy, Indonesias foreign policy is also uniquely influenced by its domestic events. Indonesias foreign and defence policy has always been a reflection of the beliefs and the actions of policymakers who are influenced, in varying degrees and ways by the society and the international system in which it operates. Although Indonesia has withnessed different kind of leadership and approach that has been taken on its foreign policy, there has been no major changes being made by the Indonesian leaders except for some concentrations at the substantial issues like, the issuence of stabilising political order and combating terrorism by President Megawati and diliberating and extending economic resilience during the tenure of Abdul Rahman Awahid and B.J. Habibie. All of these could be said as the extraneous variables that has influnced Indonesias foreign policy. Over all, the domestic imperatives such as commitment on the need to stabilise domestic politics, to preserve states territorial integrity and sovereignty as well to maintain states economic development has dominantly influence Indonesia foreign policy until today. What kind of approach that has been taken is rather different from one leader to another. As mentioned ealier, Indonesia foreign policy is a synergy to Indonesias defence policy. In this case, it requires extensive participation at the regional level as well as at the global level. For instance, under the tenure of President Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia is currently focusing on a new foreign policy outlook claimed as securing Thousand friends and Zero Enemies  [35]  . Under this policy Indonesia is moving towards attaining and trying to emerge as a responsible power (Middle Power) in the Southeast Asia region. It is carefully articulated as to improve relations with every nation in the region through bilateral and multilateral means. This includes promoting justice and order at the international arena, better investment policy for economic development, democracy and consolidation in regional integration as well as maintaining national unity. All of these strategies are important for Indonesia as one of the method that could improve Indonesias image at the internatioal fora esecially against all allegations of human rights abuses conducted against armed separatist movements in Aceh and Papua. For that, Indonesia is pursuing an active and independent approach  [36]  37 The necessity in conducting its foreign policy in constructivist approach is to denotes the ability to turn adversary into friend and to turn friend into partner. All of these are important as to provide a conducive environement in the region for the better future development based on thrust, confidence building  [38]  . With such sitiation, all disputes and conflicts could be settle at the table of discussion through a diplomatic approach rather than aggressiveness. In this case, Indonesia will therefore not to use its forces as a method of finding solution. To prove this kind of things as important as it is, Indonesia, as of to this date, has not engaged in any military alliance with a foreign policy especially in securing its own capacity to influence world order or international relations. For that, Indonesia advocates that all Southeast Asian states develop their full economic, political and social potential while cooperating extensively with each other. This is the hope tha t could boster external aggression or challenges. At one level, this could be a security buffer for Indonesia if the region could be persuaded to act in unison to twart the incursion of hegemonic influence. However, no other nations are enthusiastic to serve as security buffer for Indonesia  [39]  . Indonesias contributions to international security remain limited and focused on the regional level, especially in the war against terrorism. Indonesia has signed a number of antiterrorism agreements with some regional states. The Bali bombings and the Marriott bombing have not persuaded Jakarta to publicly-support the involvement of external powers in regional problems in which Indonesia continues to prefer regional solutions to regional problems. Apart from that, Indonesias foreign policy goal is to emerge as a responsible power in the Southeast Asian region. It is a unique amalgamation of the two schools of thought and policy of adaptation to the changing geopolitical and geostrategic compulsions. Being the world largest archipelago with the biggest Muslim population is again trying to gain leadership position in the region through a constructive and cooperative gestures and balanced bargaining between major powers. In fact, Indonesias foreign policy is based upon a number of cherished principles that reflect the countrys sense of national identity, how it wishes to protect and pursue its national interests vis-à  -vis other countries, and the shape of the desirable world order. On 19 September 1999, President B.J. Habibie signed Act no. 37 of 1999 on Foreign Relations, which was actually the first such Act on foreign policy, signed since trigger Indonesias independence. This Act formally stipulates key principles of Indone sias foreign policy that had been practiced for most of the countrys existence. In that context, Indonesia consistently expresses the hope that the ASEAN will continue to serve as the main vehicle for regional countries to cope with security challenges in the region, especially non-traditional threats such as terrorism. During the 2003, ASEAN Summit in Bali, Indonesia obtained agreement from other ASEAN members to transform the organisation into a security community by 2020. Indonesia has also called for an increase in intra-ASEAN maritime cooperation to provide more and more security aspect of the region as well as to its own country. 5.0 CONCLUSION Being the world largest archipelago with the biggest Muslim and multicultural population, Indonesia is trying it best to play a leadership role and at the same time struggling to maintain order mainly from its domestic instability as well as external security threats. Overseeing its defence, security as well as its foreign relations has proven complex in sense considering its size, location, economic underdevelopment, geographical fragmentation and ethnic and religious diversity. However, since its Independence, Indonesian leaders have managed to manoeuvre the state and provide cohesion and national identity under a unitary state. Looking at its foreign affairs, Indonesia has become a major political force in Southeast Asia. With its power resources mainly from its population, huge area of territory, vast number of natural resources and its potential market makes it important at the international arena especially in the region of rapid economic growth. Indonesia has taken a traditional-middle power role or approach in encouraging continued US engagement in the region as a stabilising force during the current period of transition (referring to Indonesias domestic politics from guided democracy with vast amount of military involvement in the administration to civilian control). Moreover, the encouragement is also due to the fact of uncertainty especially with the rising of Chinas power in the future regional order. Nonetheless, it also need China to participate into the regional community is some form of cooperative or common security arrangement to prevent the formation of competing power blocs. Indonesia sought to change the pattern of its external relations. The pattern usually occurred in terms of partnership as well the type of activity that it involves. At home, Indonesias traditional defence strategy has been one of national self-reliance based on total peoples defence with the armed force as the core of the nations arms. However, there are some challenges that it has to overcome with. Indonesia in this case acknowledged that their major difficulties are to cope with the vast number of islands as well as with the vast number of ethnic residing in the country. All of these could be tackled through an active participation from the population to help maintain order. However, globalisation is somehow another and big challenge to Indonesia as more and more population becoming more political democratic, appreciate interdependence economic development based on open market, there is no way that it could avoid for the population to become more individualistic than ever. It has somehow deteriorating the nationalism of the population. ENDNOTES

Fuzzy Logic Technique for Image Enhancement

Fuzzy Logic Technique for Image Enhancement Abstract Now days applications should be require various types of images and pictures as sources of information for interpretation and analysis. Whenever an image is changed from one to another form such as, digitizing, scanning, transmitting and storing, some of the degradation always occurs at the output end. Hence, the output image has to go in a process called image enhancement which consists of a collection of techniques that need to improve the quality of an image. Image enhancement is basically improving image and its interpretation and perception of the information in digital images and providing good input for different other automated image processing techniques. The fuzzy set theory is always uncertainties (like it comes from the information available from situation such as darkness may result from incomplete, imprecise, and not fully reliable). The fuzzy logic gives a mathematical model for the representation and processing of good knowledge. The concept is depends upon i f-then rules in approximation of the variables likes threshold point. Also the Uncertainties within image processing tasks often due to vagueness and ambiguity. A fuzzy technique works as to manage these problems effectively. IndexTerms Fuzzy Logic, Image Processing, Image Enhancement, Image Fuzzification, Image Defuzzification Whenever an image is changed from one to another form such as, digitizing, scanning, transmitting and storing, some degradation is always occurs at the output stage. Hence, the output image has to go in a process called image enhancement. Image enhancement consists of a collection of techniques that need to improve the overall quality of an image. Fuzzy image processing is the approaches that understand, represent and process the images and their pixels with its values as fuzzy sets. The representation and processing is depending upon the selected fuzzy techniques and the problem to be solved. The idea of fuzzy sets is very simple and natural. For instance, if someone want to define a set of gray levels, one has to define a threshold for gray level from 0 to 100. Here 0 to 100 are element of this fuzzy set; the others do not belong to that set. The basis logic behind fuzzy technique is the basis for human communication. This observation depends upon many of the other statements about fuzzy logic. As fuzzy logic is built on the logics of qualitative description used in everyday language, fuzzy logic is very easy to use. A filtering system needs to be capable of reasoning with values and uncertain information; this suggests the use of fuzzy logic. II. FUZZY IMAGE PROCESSING OVERVIEW Fuzzy image processing techniques is not unique theory. It is a collection of different fuzzy approaches to image processing techniques. The following definition is to be regarded to determine the boundaries of fuzzy digital image processing: Fuzzy image processing is the approaches that understand, represent and process the digital images and their segments and also features as fuzzy sets. The representation of it and processing is always depending on the selected fuzzy techniques and on the problem which need to be solved [9]. Below a list of general observations is defined about fuzzy logic: Fuzzy logic is conceptually very easy to understand. The mathematical concepts behind fuzzy logic reasoning are simple. Fuzzy logic is important approach without the far-reaching complexity. Fuzzy logic is flexible. Everything is indefinite if you look closely enough, but more than that, most things are indefinite. Fuzzy reasoning prepared this understanding into the process rather than just theory. Fuzzy logic can model the nonlinear functions of mathematically complexity. One can create a fuzzy logic system to compare any sets of input and output data. This process is very easy by some of the adaptive techniques such as Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference Systems, which is already available in Fuzzy Logic Toolbox. Fuzzy logic can be design on the top of experience of experts. In case of neural networks, it must need training data and generate the outputs. But fuzzy logic will explain you about the experience of people who already understand the whole systems. Fuzzy logic can be mixed with any conventional control techniques. Fuzzy systems dont replace conventional control methods necessarily. Sometimes fuzzy systems increase them and simplify its implementation. Fuzzy logic is based on natural language communications. The basis for fuzzy logic is the basis for human communication and this observation explain many of the other statements about fuzzy logic as well. Actually Fuzzy logic is built on the structures of quality description used in everyday languages used for communications. Fuzzy logic is very easy to use. Natural language, which people used on a daily basis, has been comes by thousands of years of human history to be efficient. Sentences that are written in ordinary language always represent a triumph of efficient communication [3]. Fuzzy image processing has three stages: 1) Image Fuzzification 2) Modification of membership values 3) Image Defuzzification. Figure 1. Basic Fuzzy Image processing [5] The fuzzification and defuzzification steps are that in which we do not own fuzzy hardware. So, the coding of image data often called as fuzzification and decoding of the results called as defuzzification are the steps to process images with fuzzy techniques. The main thing of fuzzy image processing is in the intermediate stage that is modification of membership values (See Figure 1). After the image data are transformed from grey-level to the membership plane that is known as fuzzification is appropriate fuzzy techniques which modify the membership values which can be a fuzzy clustering and a fuzzy rule based approach and also it can be a fuzzy integration approach. The Fuzzy set theory Fuzzy set theory is the extension of crisp set theory. It works on the concept of partial truth (between 0 1). Completely true is 1 and completely false is 0. It was introduced by Prof. Lotfi A. Zadeh in 1965 as a mean to model the vagueness and ambiguity in complex systems [3]. Definition Fuzzy set A fuzzy set is a pair (A, m) where A is a set and m: A-> [0, 1]. For each, x A m(x) is called the grade of membership of x in (A, m). For a finite set A = {x1,,xn}, the fuzzy set (A, m) is denoted by {m(x1) / x1,,m(xn) / xn}. Let xà ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ½ A Then x is called not included in the fuzzy set (A, m) if m(x) = 0, x is called fully included if m(x) = 1, and x is called fuzzy member if 0 m(x) x à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ½A |= m(x)>0} is called the support of (A, m) and the set {x A | m(x)=1} is called its kernel. Fuzzy sets is very easy and natural to understand. If one want to define a set of gray levels one have to determine a threshold, say the gray level from 0 to 100. All gray levels from 0 to 100 are element of this set; the others do not belong to the set (See Figure 2). But the darkness is a matter. A fuzzy set can be model this property in better way. For defining this set, it needs two different thresholds 50 and 150. All the gray levels which are less than 50 are the full member of this set and all the gray levels which are greater than 150 are not the member of this set at all. The gray levels that are between 50 and 150 have a partial membership in the set. Figure 2. Representation of dark gray-levels with a fuzzy and crisp set. Fuzzy Hyperbolization An image I of size MxNand L gray levels can be considered as anarray of fuzzy singletons and out of which each are having a value of membership denoted its brightness relative to its brightness levels Iwith I=0 to L-1. For an image I, we can write in the notation of fuzzy sets: Where g, is the intensity of (m, n)th pixel and  µmn its membership value. The membership function characterizes a suitable property of image (e.g. edginess, darkness, textural property) and it can be defined globally for the whole image or locally. The main principles of fuzzy image enhancement is illustrated in Figure. Figure 3. Fuzzy histogram hyperbolization image enhancements [2] Image Fuzzification The image fuzzification transforms the gray level of an image into values of membership function [0à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦1]. 2 types of transformation functions are used, the triangle membership function, and Gaussian membership functions. A triangular membership functions is shown in Figure 4 and its equation is written as, Figure 4. Triangular membership functions The Gaussian membership function is shown in the Figure 5 and is characterized by two parameters {c, à Ã†â€™}. The equation for the Gaussian membership function is written as, Figure 5. Gaussian membership function Modification of Membership Function This process needs to change the values of the membership functions resulted from fuzzification process. In this algorithm, the shape of the membership function is set to triangular to characterize the hedges and value of the fuzzifier ÃŽÂ ². The fuzzifier ÃŽÂ ² is a linguistic hedge such that ÃŽÂ ² = -0.75 + ÃŽÂ ¼ 1.5, so that ÃŽÂ ² has a range of 0.5 2. The modification is carried out to the membership values by a hedges operator. The operation is called dilatation if the hedge operator ÃŽÂ ² is equal to 0.5 and it is called concentration if ÃŽÂ ² is equal to 2. If A is a fuzzy set and its represented as a set of ordered pairs of element x and its membership value is defined as ÃŽÂ ¼, then AÃŽÂ ² is the modified version of A and is indicated by below equation The hedge operator operates on the value of membership function as fuzzy linguistic hedges. Carrying hedge operator can be result in reducing image contrast or increasing image contrast, depending on the value of the ÃŽÂ ². The hedge operators may use to change the overall quality of the contrast of an image. Image Defuzzification After the values of fuzzy membership function has been modified, the next step is to generate the new gray level values. This process uses the fuzzy histogram hyperbolization. And this is due to the nonlinearity of human brightness perception. This algorithm modifies the membership values of gray levels by a logarithmic function: Where, ÃŽÂ ¼mn (gmn) is the gray level in the fuzzy membership values, ÃŽÂ ² is hedge operator, and gmn is the new gray level values. Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) Figure 6. Fuzzy Inference Systems Fuzzy inference is the process of mapping from the input-output using fuzzy logic. Mapping provides a basis from which it is possible to make the decisions. Process of fuzzy inference are mainly, the Membership Functions, the Logical Operations, and If-Then Rules. There are basically 2 types of fuzzy inference systems that is possible to implement in Fuzzy Logic Toolbox. 1) Mamdanitype and 2) Sugeno-type. These 2 types of inference systems vary in the way outputs are determined. Fuzzy inference systems has been successfully applied in fields such as data classification, decision analysis, automatic control and computer vision. As fuzzy is multidisciplinary, it can be used in fuzzy inference systems such as fuzzy-rule-based systems, fuzzy associative memory, fuzzy expert systems, fuzzy modeling, and fuzzy logic controllers, and simply fuzzy systems. Mamdanis fuzzy inference method is the most commonly used fuzzy method. Mamdanis method was the first control systems designed using fuzzy set theory. It was firstly proposed in 1975 by Ebrahim Mamdani [7] to control a steam engine and boiler combination by synthesizing a set of some linguistic control rules which can be obtained from experienced human operators. Mamdanis model was based on Lotfi Sades 1973 on fuzzy algorithms or complex systems and decision processes [8]. Mamdani-type inference, which defined for Fuzzy Logic Toolbox expects the output membership functions needs to be fuzzy sets. After the aggregation process, there is a fuzzy set for all the output variable that needs defuzzification. In many cases a single spike as an output membership functions are used. This type of output is usually known as a singleton output membership function. It always enhances the efficiency of the defuzzification process as it simplifies the computation required by the more simple Mamdani method, which finds the centroid of a 2D functions. Instead of integrating across the 2D function to find the centroid, one can use the weighted average of some of the data points. Sugeno-type system support this type of model. Sugeno-type systems can be used to design mathematical model of any inference system in which output membership functions are linear or constant. Fuzzy rule based system One other approach to infrared image contrast enhancement using fuzzy logic is a Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy rule based system. Takagi-Sugeno rules have consequents which are numeric functions of the input values. This approach is used to enhance the contrast of a gray-scale digital image which proposes the following rules: IF a pixel is dark, THEN make it darker IF a pixel is gray, THEN make it mid-gray IF a pixel is bright, THEN make it brighter Membership functions in a fuzzy set map all the elements of a set into some real numbers in the range [0, 1]. When the value of membership is higher, the truth that the set element belongs to that particular member function is higher as vice versa. The input membership functions for an image contrast enhancement system is shown in Figure 7. The set of all input image pixel values is mapped to 3 different linguistic terms: Dark, Gray Bright. The values ÃŽÂ ¼i(z) quantify the degree of membership of a particular input pixel intensity value to the each of the 3 member functions; denoted by the subscript (i). Thus, ÃŽÂ ¼dark(z) assigns value from 0 to 1 and in between to how truly dark an input pixel intensity value (z) is. Same way, ÃŽÂ ¼gray(z) and ÃŽÂ ¼bright(z) characterize how truly Gray or Bright a pixel value z is. The Dark and Bright input membership functions can be implemented by using a sigmoid functions and the Gray input membership function can be implemented by the Gaussian function. The sigmoid function, also known as the logistic function that is continuous and non-linear. This can be defined mathematically as follows: Where x is input and g(x) is gain. The Gaussian function is defined as below: Figure 7. Input Membership Functions for the Fuzzy Rule-Based Contrast Enhancement Three linguistic terms can be defined for the output member functions; and these are referred to as Darker, Mid-gray and Brighter. Because it is common in some of the implementations of Takagi-Sugeno systems, the output fuzzy sets are usually defined as fuzzy singleton that says the output membership functions are single-valued constants. Here the output membership function values can be selected as follows: Darker = 0 (ÃŽÂ ½d) Mid-gray = 127 (ÃŽÂ ½g) Brighter = 255 (ÃŽÂ ½b) These are shown below: Figure 8. Output Membership Functions for the Fuzzy Rule-Based Contrast Enhancement For a Takagi-Sugeno system design, the fuzzy logic rules which determine the outputs of system have been used the following linear combination of input and output membership function value. As the output membership functions are constants, the output ÃŽÂ ½o to any input zo, is given by: Where, ÃŽÂ ¼dark(z), ÃŽÂ ¼gray(z) and ÃŽÂ ¼bright(z) = the input pixel intensity values and (vd, vg and vb) = the output pixel intensity values. This relationship accomplishes the processes of implication, aggregation and defuzzification together with a numeric computation. In case of image processing, fuzzy logic is computationally intensive, as it requires the fuzzification, processing of all rules, implication, aggregation and the defuzzification on every pixel in the input digital image. Using a Takagi-Sugeno design which uses singleton output membership functions can reduce computational complexity Figure 9 is the block diagram of the process developed for the fuzzy logic technique implemented for this work. Figure 9. Flow chart for the implemented fuzzy logic process Contrast enhancement using an INT-Operator from fuzzy theory Many researchers have applied the fuzzy set theory to develop new techniques for contrast improvement. A basic fuzzy algorithm for image enhancement, using a global threshold, has been briefly recalled. Let us consider a gray level digital image, represented by the gray level values of the pixels with the range [0;1] and Let l be any gray level of a pixel in this digital image, l [0;1] . Contrast improvement is a basic point processing operation which mainly used to maximize the dynamic range of the image. A higher contrast in an image can be achieved by darkening the gray level in the lower luminance range and brightening the ones in the upper luminance range. This processing generally implies the use of a non-linear function; Form of such a function could be the one presented in Figure 10. Mathematical expression of such a nonlinear function, Int (l) is as below: The expression represents operator in the fuzzy set theory, namely the intensification (INT) operator. When it is applied on digital images, it has the effect of contrast enhancement. Figure 10. Fuzzy intensification Let us denote the resulting gray levels in the contrast enhanced image by g given by: Thus, the contrast enhanced image have gray levels of its pixels given by the nonlinear point-wise transformation in Figure 10, applied to the original gray level image. Implementation on Matlab The following are the steps which are carried out for the implementation to get the output: Read the original image. >> I = imread(Input image) Convert it into Gray Scale image if it is RGB image. >> I = rgb2gray(I) Add the noise to the image. >> Z = imnoise(I,gaussian,0.2); Calculate size of original image. >> [row col] = size(Z); Perform morphological operation on image. To find Maximum pixel value of image >> mx = max(max(Z)); To find Minimun pixel value of image >> mn = min(min(d)); To find Mid point of image >> mid = (mx+mn)/2; Apply fuzzy algorithm. Show the output. >> figure,imshow(output),title (output enhanced image) Conclusion Four different fuzzy approaches has been implemented to enhancement the high voltage images. Compared to the basic approaches, one can notice that fuzzy methods offer a powerful mathematical model for developing new enhancement algorithms. The global fuzzy approaches not gives satisfactory results. But here a locally adaptive procedure for fuzzy enhancement has been proposed. The contrast enhancement of high voltage images is also not satisfactory sometimes. The reason behind that is the physics of EPIDs which produces images with poor dynamics qualities and that is why sometimes there is no information in MVI to be improved. The fuzzy logic algorithms offer many different possibilities to optimize its performance, like parameters of membership functions, due to that it can certainly be expected that fuzzy image enhancement techniques can be applied in many areas of medical imaging in future. References [1]Farzam Farbiz, Mohammad Bager Menhaj, Seyed A. Motamedi, and Martin T. Hagan, A new Fuzzy Logic Filter for image Enhancement IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, And Cybernetics-Part B: Cybernetics, Vol. 30, No. 1, February 2000. [2]Om Parkas Verma, Madasu Hanmandlu, Anil Singh Pariah and Vamp Krishna Madasu Fuzzy Filter for Noise Reduction in Color Images, ICGST-GVIP Journal, Vol. 9, No. 5, September 2009, pp.29-43. [3]Rafael C.Gonzalez and Richard, E. Woods Digital Image Processing, New Jersey, Pearson Prentice Hall, Third Edition 2008. [4]Aboul Ella Hassanien and Amr Bader, A comparative study on digital mammography Enhancement algorithms based on Fuzzy Theory, International Journal of Studies in Informatics and Control, SIC Volume 12 Number 1, March 2003, pp. 21-31. [5]Alper Pasha Morphological image processing with fuzzy logic, Aerospace and space technology magazines, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2006, pp.27-34. [6]Tamalika Chaira, Ajoy Kumar Ray, Fuzzy Image Processing and Applications with MATLAB, CRC Press, vol. 1, 2010,pp. 47-55. [7]Mamdani, E.H. and S. Assilian, An experiment in linguistic synthesis with a fuzzy logic controller, International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, Elsevier, Vol. 7, No. 1, 1975, pp. 1-13. [8]Zadeh, L.A., Outline of a new approach to the analysis of complex systems and decision processes, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Vol. 3, No. 1, Jan. 1973, pp. 28-44. [9]H. R. Tizhoosh, G. Krell and B. Michaelis, On Fuzzy Enhancement of Megavoitage Images in Radiation Therapy, Proceedings of the 6th IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems, July 1997. [10]Stefan Schulte, Valerie De Witte, and Etienn, E.Kerre, A Fuzzy Noise Reduction Method for Color Images, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, Vol. 16, Issue 5, May 2007, pp. 1425-1436. [11]C.Castiello, G.Castellano, L.Caponetti and A.M.Fanelli, Fuzzy Classification of Image Pixels, IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Signal Processing, 2003