Yusuf ibn

Introduction Yusuf ibn-Ayyub Salah-al-Din (commonly known as Saladin) stands apart as the single most prominent figure in the history of the Middle East. Because of his exploits in the Crusades, Saladin is perceived as the chief â€Å"hero† of the Crusades by both his Islamic side and the Christian side. Saladin was able to establish a strong dynasty and lead his army to victory against the Crusaders. This paper will set out to discuss Saladin with emphasis on his military expeditions, and his encounters with the crusaders.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Yusuf ibn-Ayyub Salah-al-Din specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Early Life Saladin was Born in the village of Tirkik, Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) in the year 1137 to a prominent and influential Kurdish family from the area. A few years after his birth, his family immigrated to Aleppo (which is modern day Syria). Saladin grew up in modern day Syria and he was an avid scholar of the Islamic religion. He embarked on religious studies until the age of 18 when he was appointed deputy to his uncle, Asad Ad-Din Shirkuh, who served as a military governor for Nur al Din, the emir of Syria (Grossman 303). Early Expeditions Saladin’s first military expeditions were carried out in the north of Egypt under his uncle Shirkuh’s command. Saladin engaged in a military expedition in support of Shawar, the caliph of Egypt, who had been driven out of Egypt by powerful local lords. Shawar had asked for help from Nur al Din to regain his position as Fatimid in Egypt. This military campaign was a success and Shawar was able to defeat his rivals and reestablish himself as Fatimid. Following this victory, Saladin and his uncle remained in Egypt to represent the interest of the Syrian Emir. Shawar was opposed to the presence of Syrian forces in Egypt and this led to his falling out with Saladin’s uncle. As a result, Shirkurh and Saladin engaged in military expeditions against Shawar. Shirkurh commanded four military expeditions into Egypt to fight against the Fatimid and the local lords who were resisting Syria’s over-lordship (Grossman, 303). These rebellious local rulers were acting with the support of the Crusaders in the Holy Land who also feared Syria’s overlords. With Saladin’s help, Shirkuh carried out military expeditions against these local rulers as well as the caliph of Egypt therefore establishing Egypt as a Syrian stronghold. Shirkuh’s death in 1169 gave Saladin a chance to become the head of Syrian forces in Egypt. Saladin’s Personality Historians record that Saladin was serious and contemplative by nature. In his early years, he was not enthusiastic about the military expeditions by his uncle but took on active fighting roles during the invasion of Fatimid Cairo. He established himself as a courageous soldier and a brilliant strategist. Saladin was a just ruler and he was often personally involved in the grievances brought forward by his subjects.Advertising Looking for essay on ancient history? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Gibb documents that in reaction to the abuses carried out by his governors and officers, Saladin issued decrees prohibiting illegal taxes and other oppressive practices against his subjects (48). Saladin’s justice can further be demonstrated by his decision to spare all the Christian inhabitants of Jerusalem even though his army was far superior to the Christian forces and he could have destroyed them if he wanted to (Byfield 73). Saladin was a modest person, owing to his religious background. He wore simple clothes and he treated the men of religion with whom he regularly associated himself with as colleagues in spite of the fact that he was the Sultan. However, he commanded great discipline among his subjects and did not condone unruliness. Byfield states that Saladin has an instinct for iron discipline and when his Sudanese guards were accused of being disloyal to him, he massacred them (74). Rioters in Cairo were hanged and the unruly Bedouin Arabs were engaged in battle under Saladin’s command. Saladin’s Mission in Syria, Egypt and Palestine Nicolle observes that Saladin’s prominence began when he took on the role of Nur al Din’s governor in Egypt (15). As the governor of Egypt, Saladin set out to change the official faith of the country from Shi’a to Sunni effectively abolishing the Fatamid caliphate in Egypt. The conversion of Egypt from Sunni to Shiite was very significant since it made it bridged the division that Syria and Egypt had had for centuries because of religions considerations. Saladin also embarked on an ambitious recruitment effort for a new army that would be loyal to himself and not the Fatimid Caliph who had died in 1171. At the same time, Saladin tried to foster loyalty to him self instead of Nur al Din, the Emir of Syria under whom he served. When Nur al Din died in 1174, he was succeeded by his ten-year-old son. In the months following the Emir’s death, Saladin marched from Egypt with his loyal army, took over Syria, and proclaimed himself Sultan of the vast territory (Byfield 74). Saladin ventured into Palestine in 1177 following the breakdown of the truce with the Crusaders. He hoped to recover some of the territory that the Crusaders had taken and establish a Muslim stronghold in Palestine. War against the Crusaders Saladin’s first engagement with the crusaders was in 1170 when he tried to capture the southernmost fort of Jerusalem. This early efforts were unsuccessful and the Crusading knights were able to rebuff Saladin’s forces. A truce was signed and this fragile peace deal was able to last for a decade.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Yusuf ibn-Ayyub Salah-al-Din specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The fragile truce lasted until 1180 when the Frankish Prince Reynald of Chatillon attacked Holy Muslim cities of Mecca and Medina. In retaliation to these attacks by Prince Reynald, Saladin vowed to vanquish the Christian forces and execute Reynald for his action against the Muslims. Saladin’s victory over Frankish forces at Hattin is regarded as one of the most spectacular in military history. He was able to defeat the Frankish knights in the battlefield and force them to abandon their quest to free the Holy Land from the Muslims. Having destroyed the Christian army, Saladin continued to seize the remaining Christian strongholds. In a few months, Saladin was able to launch an attack against Jerusalem. His attempts at breaching the walls of the City of Jerusalem using siege engines was thwarted by Christian defenders who protected the city. However, the Christian force was weak and they therefore bargained for a peaceful surrender wi th Saladin. Following this surrender, Saladin was able to seize Jerusalem on October 2, 1187. The Third Crusade was prompted by the great defeat of the second Crusade by Saladin in 1187. On hearing the news of how Saladin had decimated the Christian army, Richard I (popularly referred to as Richard the Lion Hearted) declared that he was staging a Third Crusade to recover Jerusalem. In the first clash between Saladin and Richard the Lion-Hearted, Saladin’s Army was defeated. A serious of battles continued with Richard pressing Saladin’s forces until they withdrew to Damascus. The Ayyubid Dynasty Saladin founded the Ayyubid dynasty and established Egypt as its power base. This dynasty was able to survive though to the 13th century. As the governor of Egypt, Saladin was able to establish an Ayyubid army that was solely loyal to him. With this Egyptian Ayyubid army, Saladin set out to expand his empire first in Egypt, and then next to Syria where the Emir had died. This ex pansion missions were successful and Saladin was able to establish himself as the ruler of vast territory in the Middle East. The Death of Saladin Saladin died in 1193 after a period of brief illness. By his death, he had succeeded in creating a vast and strong Dynasty that would last for over a century. Historians record that because of his irresistible impulse for giving; he did not even have enough money left to pay for his funeral when he died since his vast wealth had been given to his poor subjects. Saladin was buried by his subjects in a magnificent tomb in Damascus with an inscription reading, â€Å"Oh mighty God, let his soul be acceptable to thee† (Grossman 304). Following Saladin’s death, his brother al Adil took over the leadership of the Dynasty. Conclusion This paper set out to provide an informative discussion on Yusuf Ibn Ayyub, who was one of the most fascinating personalities in the history of the Middle Ages. The paper has highlighted Saladin’ s early life and his early military expeditions. It has highlighted that through warfare and diplomacy, Saladin was able to bring Egypt into harmony with the Syrian government. However, this great figure will always be remembered for his military conquest against the Frankish Knights and the seizing the Holy City of Jerusalem.Advertising Looking for essay on ancient history? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Works Cited Byfield, Ted. A Glorious Disaster: A.D. 1100 to 1300: The Crusades: Blood, Valor, Iniquity, Reason, Faith. New York: Christian History Project, 2008. Print. Gibb, Hamilton. The Life of Saladin. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973. Print. Grossman, Mark. World Military Leaders: A Biographical Dictionary. Boston: Infobase Publishing, 2007. Print. Nicolle, David. Saladin and the Saracens: Armies of the Middle East 1000-1300. London: Reed International Books, 1986. Print. This essay on Yusuf ibn-Ayyub Salah-al-Din was written and submitted by user Alexzander H. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

How Does George Eliot bring about our sympathy with Silas Essay Example

How Does George Eliot bring about our sympathy with Silas Essay Example How Does George Eliot bring about our sympathy with Silas Essay How Does George Eliot bring about our sympathy with Silas Essay what came with loss may go when found. There are many different factors to the pity Silas Marner gets, but in the day Silas Marner was written the world was a horrible place which pivoted on religion and was surrounded by no doubts about religion. I personally do not feel sorry for Silas Marner and as we read through the book became more aware that I hated the book and was bored out of my mind. I was forced to make constant notes because I couldnt remember any of the book because I disliked it so much.

This Is The Best 30-Minute Content Marketing Brainstorming Process

This Is The Best 30-Minute Content Marketing Brainstorming Process Consistently coming up with strong content marketing ideas  is  challenging. You  have deadlines to hit. There are performance goals to meet.  The drive to be creative on-the-spot adds more pressure that you dont need. What you do need, however, is a reliable process for generating genius ideas fast. What if we told you it was possible to come up with 30 content ideas  in just 30 minutes? Not just any 30 topics, either. We mean topics your audience  will actually want to read about. Most things that sound too good to be true are usually garbage. However, this is the actual (garbage-free) process we use here at . We can confirm from first-hand experience that this process works, and the results speak for themselves.Table Of Contents Why It Is Important To Have A Content Brainstorming Process Write Down As Many Potential Content Ideas  As You Can (10 Minutes) How To Rank Your Content Ideas  On A Three-Point Scale (10 Minutes) Narrow Down Your Best Content  Topics (10 Minutes) How To Apply This Brainstorming Process If You’re Working Solo 4 Important Tips For Making This Content Brainstorming Process Work How To Validate Content Ideas  With Keyword Research What If I Can’t Find Keywords With High Search Volume For My TopicThis Is The Best Way To Generate 30 Incredible Content Ideas  In JUST 30 Minutes In this post, we'll teach you how to: Use a free-writing exercise to generate tons of topics fast. Use a 3-point scoring system to  sort out your top blog topics. Identify only the very best topics you'll actually write about. There isn't a secret involved. There is, however, a smart methodology behind our brainstorming process. It just involves a little bit of quick thinking and intuitive judgement to make the best use  of your limited time. Pro Tip: While these techniques work best with a team, you can use the same process if you're working alone too. Why It Is Important To Have A Brainstorming Process Creative ideas don't always appear out of thin air. Sometimes you'll have the most awesome inspiration when you least expect it. Some of us do our best thinking in the shower, or right before we head to bed at night. However,  bloggers and marketers don't always have the luxury of waiting for inspiration to strike. Your boss likely expects brilliance from you all the time (doubly so when deadlines are approaching). You have no excuse not to deliver, either. Consistent creativity keeps you paid and keeps your content  efforts  moving forward. Recommended  Reading:  20 Ways To Be Creative When You Don't Feel Inspired Establishing a formal brainstorming process is the best way (or at least the most reliable way) to never run out of ideas. It achieves the following three things: It forces you to consciously  consider what your audience wants from you. It helps get the creative gears turning in your head, producing ideas you might not otherwise have thought of. It leverages the power of your team to generate more ideas than one person could alone (although it's still a useful process for those going solo too). Back To Top #Creative ideas don't always appear out of thin air. #inspirationWrite Down As Many Potential Ideas As You Can (10 Minutes) The first step is to write down as many ideas as you can think of. This works best with a whiteboard and markers, Post-It Notes, or anything else you can pin up on a wall later. Give all your team members something to write with. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Instruct everyone to free write as many ideas as they can think of before the timer runs out. It's important that no one looks at each other's writing or talks to anyone (yet). Don't worry whether your ideas are any good right away. The goal is to simply get your thoughts out of your head and out into the world. If in doubt, write it down anyway. You'll have time to sort out what's good and what's not later. Pro Tip: Aim for  quantity over quality at first. Overthinking cramps the creative process. Back To Top How To Rank Your Ideas  On A Three-Point Scale (10 Minutes) Now it's time for some constructive criticism. If you wrote your ideas down on note cards or sticky notes, now is the time to paste them up on a wall. They can be posted anywhere as long as everyone can easily read them. Here's what our board looked like after using this process: Position all your ideas on the left side of the wall or white board. Then, to the right, make three columns labeled 1, 2, and 3. How To Score Each Topic There are two ways you can approach this. Let's walk through each one. Method One: Read Your Ideas Out Loud Have one person on your team read each idea (or read them aloud to yourself). Then, have each team member rank each idea a 1 (weak), 2 (average), or 3 (exceptional). Say each response out loud. Place each idea into its respective column on the board. This approach lends itself well to collaboration. It gives the team an opportunity to discuss why they think an idea is good or bad. However, it also has a tendency to encourage group-think. Members might hear another person say "3" and be compelled to follow suit. This makes it important to stress honesty with each answer. Method Two: Score Ideas Silently Have one person read off each topic. Then, each team member submits their score to the reader via chat message.  You can use essentially any messaging system you'd like. We use Hipchat at , but Slack is another popular option to consider. You could even simply use Facebook Messenger or Google Hangouts. The reader then looks at each score, and places them into a document (you can use Word, Google Docs, Google Keep, Evernote, or anything else similar). Keep track of every idea that scores a unanimous 3. You can keep track of other ideas too if you'd like, but the unquestionable 3's are what you want to remember. Finally, the reader presents the team with a list of 3s. Your team can then discuss  which of those ideas are worth writing about. The advantage to this technique is that it provides more honest feedback. When people can't hear what other people are saying, they tend to respond the way they truly think, without outside influence. However, it also cuts down on collaboration and discussion. This makes this approach faster, but sometimes, added communication can be beneficial for sorting out the best ideas. Pro Tip: You have to be fast when scoring each topic. Use your gut. Give yourself just a few moments and don't dwell on one idea for too long. Which Content  Brainstorming Method Does Use? We've used both Method One and Method Two. Generally, our content marketing team prefers Method Two. It produces slightly fewer ideas overall, because less ideas get scored highly. However, these ideas tend to be stronger. Both approaches  are effective, however, and Method One might be a better choice if  having a higher quantity of ideas is important. Back To Top Narrow Down Your Best Content Ideas  (10 Minutes) You've now generated a ton of ideas in 30 minutes. Now, the final phase of this process is to sharpen  your best concepts. For our team here at , we usually leave a brainstorming session with around 30 to 50 ideas. From there, you'll narrow down the best ones that you'll actually write about. Review your final list of 3's and identify the following for each idea: What problem would this post solve, or what question would it answer? What angle would this post take? What are some quick, hypothetical headlines that might work with this post? The goal is to make sure you have a clear picture of what each post will look like. 4 Key Indicators For Strong  Content Ideas We need to further clarify what  makes a topic a 3 (versus a 1 or a 2). A 1 does not satisfy the following requirements while a 2 might satisfy one or two (but not all four). Strong ideas that should qualify as a 3, however, meet the following standards: Strong ideas are unique.  In this context, we'll define "unique" as something you haven't already written about. If a given topic is something you've covered previously, you'll need to ensure you're taking a different angle, or are exploring a different facet of that topic. Strong ideas  match your audience's interests. If you're just starting out, you might not know what your audience is interested in. However, if you're getting a lot of questions about something, that's probably a good topic to write about. Strong ideas fit within your expertise.  Your ideas should fit within the topical scope of what your brand or company  is about. For example, a great post about how to change your own motor oil  wouldn't be a good fit for a food blog. Strong topics are well aligned with your expertise and with what readers expect from you. Don't let this deter you from thinking outside the box. Just be sure that the topics you choose are: Relevant to your audience. Things you're an expert on (or something you can make yourself an expert on through research and testing). The strongest  ideas are those you can do better than anyone else.  This ties into the previous point about staying within your topical area of expertise. In order to write a blog post that's going to drive organic search traffic and kick up a storm on social media, it needs to be good. The strongest content  ideas  are those you can do better than anyone else.In fact, it needs to be better than good.  It needs to address its given topic with more and better information than at least 90% of what else is out there. If you're in a competitive niche, this might mean using the skyscraper technique to build off what larger competitors have already done. The main takeaway  is to ask whether you can write a better post on a topic than any other post that already exists. If that answer is no, the next question to ask is "Can you can write a post that's different from any other post out there?" That could mean your post introduces a new perspective on a topic. It could also mean your post adds information or provides findings from your own original research. Pro Tip: Make it a point to monitor social media chatter about your industry or  the areas your content covers. Then, when it comes time to plan content, you'll have more ideas in your head to pull from. Back To Top How To Apply  This Content Marketing  Brainstorming  Process  If You're Working Solo Let's say you're working alone. If you're a one-person blogger or marketing department, then how do you make this process work? The short answer is much the same as you would with a team. The only difference is you write and rate your ideas yourself. However, there are a few tips to keep in mind: You'll need to be your own worst critic. Without outside perspective, it might be tempting to say, "All of my ideas are genius!" However, you only want to publish your very best ideas. Make sure you filter accordingly. Read your ideas out loud, even if only to yourself. Like we said earlier, posts that sound good on paper occasionally sound weak out loud. You will need to be your own worst critic. #writing #bloggingBack To Top 4 Important Tips For Making This Brainstorming Process Work The more you run through this process, the more efficient you'll get. You'll also likely find yourself coming up with better ideas over time, too. In  order to get the most from this approach to brainstorming, there are some things you'll need to keep in mind. Don't think, just act. Go with your gut when judging ideas. The ones that get you the most excited right away are usually the ones you know you should write. Focus on quantity first, then edit for quality. Letting yourself free write ideas loosens up your creative muscles. This can help surface ideas you might not have otherwise. Monitor your success. Once you have written a few posts using this process, pay close attention to which posts do best. If a post underperforms, then ask yourself why it didn't do well. Conversely, note what goes right with posts that really take off. This will help you better identify what a "3" looks like for your blog. Don't take it personally if your ideas get shot down. If an idea gets shot down, try not to take it as a commentary on yourself. The idea behind this process is to generate lots of ideas quickly. A lot of those ideas naturally won't make it. Back To Top How To Validate Blog Post Topics With Keyword Research Once you've invested your half-hour into your blog topic brainstorming  process, the next step is to do some keyword research. If you have a team member who is particularly interested in SEO, this is a good additional task for them to take on. The goal here is to find keywords related to your topics that you can use in your blog posts. This may take a little bit of additional time. However, it's worth it to ensure your blog topics drive traffic. Use these three quick keyword research tactics to gauge which of your proposed topics are best: 1. Use the SERPs.com Keywordini tool: 2. Then, copy the keywords from the CSV export: 3. Next, paste those keywords into the Google Adwords Keyword Planner: Need help with the keyword planner? Watch this video: 4. Try using those keywords in searches on Facebook or Twitter. Then, see what discussions are happening around those keywords. This will give you an idea of what kinds of words and language people use when discussing your topic. 5. Manually search those  keywords in Google as well. Review the top 10 results. Next, ask if the posts that currently exist for that keyword accurately match the same idea behind your topic. Pro Tip: It's important to understand the search intent behind keywords. For example, let's say you want to write about carpet cleaning. That could mean home carpet cleaning or commercial carpet cleaning. If it turns out that most people who are looking for that keyword want their home carpets cleaned, but your business only works with commercial clients, then you might need to find a better keyword. Back To Top What If I Can't Find Keywords With High Search Volume For My Topic? You might have an idea that you know your audience would love, but isn't relevant to any keywords with strong search volume. Does this mean you should abandon that idea? Not necessarily. Writing a blog post without backing it up with strong keyword data is a risk. #Writing a blog post without backing it up with strong keyword data is a risk. #blogYou could spend a lot of time creating something that gets a strong initial push on social media and email  but then fails to drive sustained traffic from search engines. However, it's possible that your idea doesn't get searched a lot because it answers a question people don't know they should be asking. In these cases, it's helpful to find a way to align your idea with something people are searching for. Struggling To Find Good Keywords? Here are three tips you can follow when you're struggling to find good keywords (when you know you've got a strong  topic): Ask your social media audience  for their thoughts on a given topic. If you get a lot of responses or stir up some discussion, that's a good indicator there's interest out there. Try searching for keywords around topics related to your suggested topic. This might help you come up with more ideas that are better matched to your audience's interests. Keyword Studio is an excellent paid tool well suited to this purpose. Use Hubspot's Blog Topic  Generator. Just enter three nouns related to your topic: You'll now have five fresh blog topics related to your main idea.  These hypothetical ideas may include keyword variations or other verbs or adjectives, too. Those additional words, combined with nouns related to your topic, may create keyword phrases you  might not have thought of. Try taking some of the variations this tool produces, and look them up using  Google's Keyword Planner (or another keyword tool). It's possible you could come up with some strong keywords after all. Here's how to never run out of #blog #topics againBack To Top Now Try Brainstorming Some Blog Topics! This process provides us with roughly a month's worth of ideas each time we run through it. Depending on how often you publish, you may need to try going through these steps more often. However, one thing that's for certain is you'll never run out of blog topics. Try putting this process to use with your own team. Then, come back and let us know how it went. If you have additional tips or difficulties, we want to know! This Is The Best 30-Minute Content Marketing Brainstorming Process Consistently coming up with strong content marketing ideas  is  challenging. You  have deadlines to hit. There are performance goals to meet.  The drive to be creative on-the-spot adds more pressure that you dont need. What you do need, however, is a reliable process for generating genius ideas fast. What if we told you it was possible to come up with 30 content ideas  in just 30 minutes? Not just any 30 topics, either. We mean topics your audience  will actually want to read about. Most things that sound too good to be true are usually garbage. However, this is the actual (garbage-free) process we use here at . We can confirm from first-hand experience that this process works, and the results speak for themselves.Table Of Contents Why It Is Important To Have A Content Brainstorming Process Write Down As Many Potential Content Ideas  As You Can (10 Minutes) How To Rank Your Content Ideas  On A Three-Point Scale (10 Minutes) Narrow Down Your Best Content  Topics (10 Minutes) How To Apply This Brainstorming Process If You’re Working Solo 4 Important Tips For Making This Content Brainstorming Process Work How To Validate Content Ideas  With Keyword Research What If I Can’t Find Keywords With High Search Volume For My TopicThis Is The Best Way To Generate 30 Incredible Content Ideas  In JUST 30 Minutes In this post, we'll teach you how to: Use a free-writing exercise to generate tons of topics fast. Use a 3-point scoring system to  sort out your top blog topics. Identify only the very best topics you'll actually write about. There isn't a secret involved. There is, however, a smart methodology behind our brainstorming process. It just involves a little bit of quick thinking and intuitive judgement to make the best use  of your limited time. Pro Tip: While these techniques work best with a team, you can use the same process if you're working alone too. Why It Is Important To Have A Brainstorming Process Creative ideas don't always appear out of thin air. Sometimes you'll have the most awesome inspiration when you least expect it. Some of us do our best thinking in the shower, or right before we head to bed at night. However,  bloggers and marketers don't always have the luxury of waiting for inspiration to strike. Your boss likely expects brilliance from you all the time (doubly so when deadlines are approaching). You have no excuse not to deliver, either. Consistent creativity keeps you paid and keeps your content  efforts  moving forward. Recommended  Reading:  20 Ways To Be Creative When You Don't Feel Inspired Establishing a formal brainstorming process is the best way (or at least the most reliable way) to never run out of ideas. It achieves the following three things: It forces you to consciously  consider what your audience wants from you. It helps get the creative gears turning in your head, producing ideas you might not otherwise have thought of. It leverages the power of your team to generate more ideas than one person could alone (although it's still a useful process for those going solo too). Back To Top #Creative ideas don't always appear out of thin air. #inspirationWrite Down As Many Potential Ideas As You Can (10 Minutes) The first step is to write down as many ideas as you can think of. This works best with a whiteboard and markers, Post-It Notes, or anything else you can pin up on a wall later. Give all your team members something to write with. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Instruct everyone to free write as many ideas as they can think of before the timer runs out. It's important that no one looks at each other's writing or talks to anyone (yet). Don't worry whether your ideas are any good right away. The goal is to simply get your thoughts out of your head and out into the world. If in doubt, write it down anyway. You'll have time to sort out what's good and what's not later. Pro Tip: Aim for  quantity over quality at first. Overthinking cramps the creative process. Back To Top How To Rank Your Ideas  On A Three-Point Scale (10 Minutes) Now it's time for some constructive criticism. If you wrote your ideas down on note cards or sticky notes, now is the time to paste them up on a wall. They can be posted anywhere as long as everyone can easily read them. Here's what our board looked like after using this process: Position all your ideas on the left side of the wall or white board. Then, to the right, make three columns labeled 1, 2, and 3. How To Score Each Topic There are two ways you can approach this. Let's walk through each one. Method One: Read Your Ideas Out Loud Have one person on your team read each idea (or read them aloud to yourself). Then, have each team member rank each idea a 1 (weak), 2 (average), or 3 (exceptional). Say each response out loud. Place each idea into its respective column on the board. This approach lends itself well to collaboration. It gives the team an opportunity to discuss why they think an idea is good or bad. However, it also has a tendency to encourage group-think. Members might hear another person say "3" and be compelled to follow suit. This makes it important to stress honesty with each answer. Method Two: Score Ideas Silently Have one person read off each topic. Then, each team member submits their score to the reader via chat message.  You can use essentially any messaging system you'd like. We use Hipchat at , but Slack is another popular option to consider. You could even simply use Facebook Messenger or Google Hangouts. The reader then looks at each score, and places them into a document (you can use Word, Google Docs, Google Keep, Evernote, or anything else similar). Keep track of every idea that scores a unanimous 3. You can keep track of other ideas too if you'd like, but the unquestionable 3's are what you want to remember. Finally, the reader presents the team with a list of 3s. Your team can then discuss  which of those ideas are worth writing about. The advantage to this technique is that it provides more honest feedback. When people can't hear what other people are saying, they tend to respond the way they truly think, without outside influence. However, it also cuts down on collaboration and discussion. This makes this approach faster, but sometimes, added communication can be beneficial for sorting out the best ideas. Pro Tip: You have to be fast when scoring each topic. Use your gut. Give yourself just a few moments and don't dwell on one idea for too long. Which Content  Brainstorming Method Does Use? We've used both Method One and Method Two. Generally, our content marketing team prefers Method Two. It produces slightly fewer ideas overall, because less ideas get scored highly. However, these ideas tend to be stronger. Both approaches  are effective, however, and Method One might be a better choice if  having a higher quantity of ideas is important. Back To Top Narrow Down Your Best Content Ideas  (10 Minutes) You've now generated a ton of ideas in 30 minutes. Now, the final phase of this process is to sharpen  your best concepts. For our team here at , we usually leave a brainstorming session with around 30 to 50 ideas. From there, you'll narrow down the best ones that you'll actually write about. Review your final list of 3's and identify the following for each idea: What problem would this post solve, or what question would it answer? What angle would this post take? What are some quick, hypothetical headlines that might work with this post? The goal is to make sure you have a clear picture of what each post will look like. 4 Key Indicators For Strong  Content Ideas We need to further clarify what  makes a topic a 3 (versus a 1 or a 2). A 1 does not satisfy the following requirements while a 2 might satisfy one or two (but not all four). Strong ideas that should qualify as a 3, however, meet the following standards: Strong ideas are unique.  In this context, we'll define "unique" as something you haven't already written about. If a given topic is something you've covered previously, you'll need to ensure you're taking a different angle, or are exploring a different facet of that topic. Strong ideas  match your audience's interests. If you're just starting out, you might not know what your audience is interested in. However, if you're getting a lot of questions about something, that's probably a good topic to write about. Strong ideas fit within your expertise.  Your ideas should fit within the topical scope of what your brand or company  is about. For example, a great post about how to change your own motor oil  wouldn't be a good fit for a food blog. Strong topics are well aligned with your expertise and with what readers expect from you. Don't let this deter you from thinking outside the box. Just be sure that the topics you choose are: Relevant to your audience. Things you're an expert on (or something you can make yourself an expert on through research and testing). The strongest  ideas are those you can do better than anyone else.  This ties into the previous point about staying within your topical area of expertise. In order to write a blog post that's going to drive organic search traffic and kick up a storm on social media, it needs to be good. The strongest content  ideas  are those you can do better than anyone else.In fact, it needs to be better than good.  It needs to address its given topic with more and better information than at least 90% of what else is out there. If you're in a competitive niche, this might mean using the skyscraper technique to build off what larger competitors have already done. The main takeaway  is to ask whether you can write a better post on a topic than any other post that already exists. If that answer is no, the next question to ask is "Can you can write a post that's different from any other post out there?" That could mean your post introduces a new perspective on a topic. It could also mean your post adds information or provides findings from your own original research. Pro Tip: Make it a point to monitor social media chatter about your industry or  the areas your content covers. Then, when it comes time to plan content, you'll have more ideas in your head to pull from. Back To Top How To Apply  This Content Marketing  Brainstorming  Process  If You're Working Solo Let's say you're working alone. If you're a one-person blogger or marketing department, then how do you make this process work? The short answer is much the same as you would with a team. The only difference is you write and rate your ideas yourself. However, there are a few tips to keep in mind: You'll need to be your own worst critic. Without outside perspective, it might be tempting to say, "All of my ideas are genius!" However, you only want to publish your very best ideas. Make sure you filter accordingly. Read your ideas out loud, even if only to yourself. Like we said earlier, posts that sound good on paper occasionally sound weak out loud. You will need to be your own worst critic. #writing #bloggingBack To Top 4 Important Tips For Making This Brainstorming Process Work The more you run through this process, the more efficient you'll get. You'll also likely find yourself coming up with better ideas over time, too. In  order to get the most from this approach to brainstorming, there are some things you'll need to keep in mind. Don't think, just act. Go with your gut when judging ideas. The ones that get you the most excited right away are usually the ones you know you should write. Focus on quantity first, then edit for quality. Letting yourself free write ideas loosens up your creative muscles. This can help surface ideas you might not have otherwise. Monitor your success. Once you have written a few posts using this process, pay close attention to which posts do best. If a post underperforms, then ask yourself why it didn't do well. Conversely, note what goes right with posts that really take off. This will help you better identify what a "3" looks like for your blog. Don't take it personally if your ideas get shot down. If an idea gets shot down, try not to take it as a commentary on yourself. The idea behind this process is to generate lots of ideas quickly. A lot of those ideas naturally won't make it. Back To Top How To Validate Blog Post Topics With Keyword Research Once you've invested your half-hour into your blog topic brainstorming  process, the next step is to do some keyword research. If you have a team member who is particularly interested in SEO, this is a good additional task for them to take on. The goal here is to find keywords related to your topics that you can use in your blog posts. This may take a little bit of additional time. However, it's worth it to ensure your blog topics drive traffic. Use these three quick keyword research tactics to gauge which of your proposed topics are best: 1. Use the SERPs.com Keywordini tool: 2. Then, copy the keywords from the CSV export: 3. Next, paste those keywords into the Google Adwords Keyword Planner: Need help with the keyword planner? Watch this video: 4. Try using those keywords in searches on Facebook or Twitter. Then, see what discussions are happening around those keywords. This will give you an idea of what kinds of words and language people use when discussing your topic. 5. Manually search those  keywords in Google as well. Review the top 10 results. Next, ask if the posts that currently exist for that keyword accurately match the same idea behind your topic. Pro Tip: It's important to understand the search intent behind keywords. For example, let's say you want to write about carpet cleaning. That could mean home carpet cleaning or commercial carpet cleaning. If it turns out that most people who are looking for that keyword want their home carpets cleaned, but your business only works with commercial clients, then you might need to find a better keyword. Back To Top What If I Can't Find Keywords With High Search Volume For My Topic? You might have an idea that you know your audience would love, but isn't relevant to any keywords with strong search volume. Does this mean you should abandon that idea? Not necessarily. Writing a blog post without backing it up with strong keyword data is a risk. #Writing a blog post without backing it up with strong keyword data is a risk. #blogYou could spend a lot of time creating something that gets a strong initial push on social media and email  but then fails to drive sustained traffic from search engines. However, it's possible that your idea doesn't get searched a lot because it answers a question people don't know they should be asking. In these cases, it's helpful to find a way to align your idea with something people are searching for. Struggling To Find Good Keywords? Here are three tips you can follow when you're struggling to find good keywords (when you know you've got a strong  topic): Ask your social media audience  for their thoughts on a given topic. If you get a lot of responses or stir up some discussion, that's a good indicator there's interest out there. Try searching for keywords around topics related to your suggested topic. This might help you come up with more ideas that are better matched to your audience's interests. Keyword Studio is an excellent paid tool well suited to this purpose. Use Hubspot's Blog Topic  Generator. Just enter three nouns related to your topic: You'll now have five fresh blog topics related to your main idea.  These hypothetical ideas may include keyword variations or other verbs or adjectives, too. Those additional words, combined with nouns related to your topic, may create keyword phrases you  might not have thought of. Try taking some of the variations this tool produces, and look them up using  Google's Keyword Planner (or another keyword tool). It's possible you could come up with some strong keywords after all. Here's how to never run out of #blog #topics againBack To Top Now Try Brainstorming Some Blog Topics! This process provides us with roughly a month's worth of ideas each time we run through it. Depending on how often you publish, you may need to try going through these steps more often. However, one thing that's for certain is you'll never run out of blog topics. Try putting this process to use with your own team. Then, come back and let us know how it went. If you have additional tips or difficulties, we want to know!

Benchmark progress towards sustainability Essay - 2

Benchmark progress towards sustainability - Essay Example e the estimate and compare the eco friendly initiatives of the two companies on the basis of four dimensions, namely pollution prevention, clean technology, base of pyramid (indicating crystallizing growth of the two companies) and product stewardship. The paper will conclude that PepsiCo is the leader in terms of sustainability activities, when compared with that of Coca Cola. Finally some specific recommendations will also be provided, on the basis of which any company can improve its sustainable activities. In the recent times, the concept of â€Å"Triple Business Line† has become very important. According to this policy, the company can aim to improve its business by abstaining from harming the people, planet and profitability (Butje, 2005). Modern day business enterprises are increasingly investing in sustainable practices as they have realized that in order to achieve competitive advantage these practices are indispensible. The organizations are also getting highly engaged in corporate social responsibilities for creating a better impact on the community (Hawkins, 2006).). This paper discusses about Hart’s sustainability framework, which stresses on the importance of sustainability in global business. The first part of the essay briefly discusses about the model that has been proposed by Stuart Hart and Marks Milstein. This model has been extremely advantageous in understanding the particular benefits that can be enjoyed by a company by following the sustainable strate gy. Then this framework is used to understand the sustainability measures that have been adopted by two of the largest beverages companies, PepsiCo and Coca Cola Company. The idea is to determine the market leader between these two companies. Stuart Hart along with Marks Milstein devised the model of sustainability value framework, which linked societal challenges to sustainability in a global economy with value of the shareholder. Hart had adapted a framework of natural resources that can be

Journalism Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Journalism - Assignment Example It also helps students improve their learning tasks and objectively view news stories through proactive involvement with the people. Indeed, like other areas, citizen journalism can also be exploited by vested interests to promote biased views or inflammatory material. But news items from citizen journalists need to be whetted for credibility of the news and read skeptically. Most importantly, technology has considerably enhanced the reach of the citizen journalist whose stories gets wider readership than the hitherto used tools like pamphlets or local platforms. But the important fact is that citizen journalism offers mainstream population with innovative tools to expose shortcomings of the policies and programs of the government and private enterprises. It also brings together people with common interests to fight collectively against social ills or causes that are detrimental to the development of a region or nation. Hence, it plays important role in

The Caste system Essay Example for Free

The Caste system Essay In order to answer this question it is necessary to address the issues raised from the caste system and the importance it has for society and the Hindus. The main issue that has emerged from the caste system is the treatment of the untouchables or Dalits. The Dalits exist outside the caste system, there are literally outcastes, and because of this status thrust upon them they are at the bottom of the social hierarchy. This status has dire consequences for the dalits. In village life they are expected to dwell outside the confines of the village, as they are considered to be polluting for the higher castes. Because they are considered to be polluting they are expected to have certain occupations that caste Hindus would consider polluting, such occupations include pig tending and assisting to cremate the dead, occupations that are not particularly appealing. They are the subject of crime and discrimination, for example K Danalaxmi, a Dalit, in Tamil Nadu and 57 other dalits have had been raided by higher caste Hindus and their huts the subject to arson attacks: she tells a BBC correspondent: the parents of children that go to the same school as my daughter did this they hate us and may come back again. 5 Politically speaking the dalits are legally equal to any other higher caste Hindu, indeed in the village Tamil Nadu high caste Hindus go to school with dalit children, so efforts have been made to reconcile the social rift between castes. However, such action has resulted in the assaults and violent actions committed against the dalits similar to that of the dalits in the village of Tamil Nadu. Indeed throughout history there have been many attempts to affiliate the higher castes with the untouchables. In the middle ages the Bhatki movement, meaning to love, encouraged the worship of God through adoration and devotion. More importantly in terms of caste, it attracted Hindus of all castes and presented a greater representation in Hindu society for those of the lower castes. In the 12th century, founder of the new philosophic movement, Shankaracharya preached that the two ways to salvation, dhyan and karma, was being monopolised by the Brahmin caste. Devotion was considered by the Bhatki movement as an equal path towards salvation. Another historical example of criticism of the caste system came much later in the 18th and 19th centuries, during the days of the British Empire. Missionaries were sent out to civilise the native pagans to the light of Christianity. Missionaries were successful at converting the dalits and the lower castes; for these subsections of society Christianity presented an attractive alternate life style. More recently another critic of the Caste system had an enormous impact on Indian society, indeed on the world. Mahatma Ghandi, who was a Vaisya, campaigned against the unjust social and economic aspects of the caste system, and did much work to improve the status of the untouchables, which he called the children of God or Harijans (a term much resented by the untouchables who preferred the term Dalits. ) The caste system is a highly controversial aspect of Hinduism, originating from Vedic times and lasting to the present day. It affects every aspect of Indian society, from marriages to government. It is has been heavily criticised since its creation, and constantly reformed. Indeed in the Bhagavad-Gita Lord Krishna invented the concept of Dharma, which offered reassurance to low caste Hindus for a chance for salvation. Albeit the caste systems origins may have been secular, it has become so embodied with the religion of Hinduism that to criticise the caste system is to criticise Hinduism. Thus it remains the foundation of modern Indian society. Has the caste system outlived its relevance to modern life? From a western perspective it has, westerners see it as inequitable and morally wrong. But in order to understand the true flaws of the caste system it is necessary to view the caste system from a Hindu perspective, only then can a scholar see if the caste system should still exist and the importance it has to Hindu life. Bibliography Introduction to Hinduism-Kim Knott www. bbc. co. uk/1/hi/south_asia/459591. stm http://artworld. uea. ac. uk/teaching_modules/india/historical_background/the_hindu_caste_system/welcome. html http://www. themystica. com/mystica/articles/b/bhakti. html 1 Introduction to Hinduism-K. K. Klostermaier. 2 At the core of most religions is the idea of attempting to join a supreme being. 3 The term cycle is perhaps misleading as it is more linear than a cycle. (perhaps) 4 Arvind Shama in Hinduism by Kim Knott. 5 www. bbc. co. uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/459591. stm Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE John Agard: Half-Caste section.

Outlaw by Scott McGough :: essays research papers

Outlaw, by Scott McGough tells 2 people’s stories and their adventures through the plane of Kamigawa and how they are tied with the war against the kami (spirits). Toshiro Umezama, a rogue mage-ochimusha (dishonored warrior), has been traveling with his fellow oath-brother Kobo, an ogre, through the forest, when they accidentally found themselves in a party of kistune (foxfolk) and humans. Michiko Konda, daughter of the daimyo (powerful feudal lord), left the walls of her kingdom and traveled to a great library in the wizard school, Minamo. When she was separated from her friends, she found herself lead by a foxfire to a kistune city where her sensei, Pearl-Ear was visiting. Sharp-Ear, Pearl-Ear’s brother, Pearl-Ear, 3 kistune samurai, Michiko, and her 2 friends traveled into the forest to search for the secluded orochi (snakefolk), known for their distrust of anything of the outside world.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When Toshi and Kobo ran into Michiko’s party, they talked for a short while, and they were attacked by the orochi. The parties fought well, but were defeated and captured. Toshi escaped and found Kobo dead tied to a tree. He rescues Michiko and flies away on a battle moth. West of the forest in a cave, Toshi holds Michiko for ransom, but he is met by the little Mochi, the Kami of the Cresent Moon. He showed the two the reason for the kami war: Daimyo Konda took a powerful kami from the spirit world and used Michiko’s birth to power the ritual to bring it into the material world. When the two learned this, Toshi decided to be employed to Michiko and promise to help her (with correct pay of course). The rest of Michiko’s party escaped the orochi territory, and tracked the ochimusha to the cave and were followed by the snakes. While the kistune were trying to get Toshi out, Mochi brought out the patron spirit of darkness: Myojin of Night’s Reach to get Toshi to accept its blessings. As he did, he went out of the cave, killed the snakes and their patron spirit, Myojin of Life’s Web, on his own, with the help of the blessing of the patron of darkness. Outlaw by Scott McGough :: essays research papers Outlaw, by Scott McGough tells 2 people’s stories and their adventures through the plane of Kamigawa and how they are tied with the war against the kami (spirits). Toshiro Umezama, a rogue mage-ochimusha (dishonored warrior), has been traveling with his fellow oath-brother Kobo, an ogre, through the forest, when they accidentally found themselves in a party of kistune (foxfolk) and humans. Michiko Konda, daughter of the daimyo (powerful feudal lord), left the walls of her kingdom and traveled to a great library in the wizard school, Minamo. When she was separated from her friends, she found herself lead by a foxfire to a kistune city where her sensei, Pearl-Ear was visiting. Sharp-Ear, Pearl-Ear’s brother, Pearl-Ear, 3 kistune samurai, Michiko, and her 2 friends traveled into the forest to search for the secluded orochi (snakefolk), known for their distrust of anything of the outside world.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When Toshi and Kobo ran into Michiko’s party, they talked for a short while, and they were attacked by the orochi. The parties fought well, but were defeated and captured. Toshi escaped and found Kobo dead tied to a tree. He rescues Michiko and flies away on a battle moth. West of the forest in a cave, Toshi holds Michiko for ransom, but he is met by the little Mochi, the Kami of the Cresent Moon. He showed the two the reason for the kami war: Daimyo Konda took a powerful kami from the spirit world and used Michiko’s birth to power the ritual to bring it into the material world. When the two learned this, Toshi decided to be employed to Michiko and promise to help her (with correct pay of course). The rest of Michiko’s party escaped the orochi territory, and tracked the ochimusha to the cave and were followed by the snakes. While the kistune were trying to get Toshi out, Mochi brought out the patron spirit of darkness: Myojin of Night’s Reach to get Toshi to accept its blessings. As he did, he went out of the cave, killed the snakes and their patron spirit, Myojin of Life’s Web, on his own, with the help of the blessing of the patron of darkness.

Fuzzy Logic Momentum Analysis System For Financial Brokerage Accounting Essay

Abstract- The modeling of fiscal systems continues to keep great involvement for non lone research workers but besides investors and policymakers. Many of the features of these systems, nevertheless, can non be adequately captured by traditional fiscal modeling attacks. Fiscal systems are complex, nonlinear, dynamically altering systems in which it is frequently hard to place mutualist variables and their values. Financial securities firm is concerned with put to deathing orders of purchasing and merchandising of certain sums of portions at the best possible monetary value. Many mathematical and algorithmic systems have been developed for this undertaking, nevertheless they can non look to get the better of a criterion volume based system. This paper proposes a new model for high frequence trading utilizing an intelligent fuzzy logic based impulse analysis system. The system was applied to securities firm of fiscal stocks, and tested against the criterion volume based securities firm system. The Fuzzy Logic Momentum Analysis System has proven to surpass the traditional and standard systems that are used in the industry. Keywords ; Finacial securities firm ; fuzzed logic ; high frequence trading. Introduction It is good known that a chief insufficiency of much economic theory is that it postulates exact functional relationships between variables. On the other manus in fiscal clip series analysis, information points seldom lie precisely on consecutive lines or smooth maps. [ 7 ] suggests that trying to suit these nonlinear phenomena will present an unacceptable degree of instability in theoretical accounts. As a consequence of this intractableness, research workers and investors are turning to unreal intelligence techniques to better inform their theoretical accounts, making determination support systems that can assist a human user better understand complex fiscal systems such as stock markets. Artificial intelligence systems in portfolio choice have been shown to hold a public presentation border over the human portfolio director and recent research suggests that attacks that incorporate unreal intelligence techniques are besides likely to surpass classical fiscal theoretical accounts [ 4 ] . Artificial intelligence attacks have late been normally adopted in fiscal modeling. Traditionally, stock market calculating methodological analysiss have been based on either cardinal or proficient analysis. Cardinal analysis efforts to find the intrinsic value of stocks based on extended macroeconomic informations, whereas proficient analysis relies on analyzing market activity, peculiarly historic monetary values and volume. Whilst there is much back uping research for both schemes in fiscal theory we focus on systems utilizing proficient methodological analysis as the subjective and complex nature of cardinal analysis means it has, to day of the month, received small attending in unreal intelligence research. Fuzzy logic was foremost introduced by [ 6 ] . It is a signifier of multivalent logic which, whilst retaining the deductive construction of classical symbolic logic, includes the construct of grade of truth. Rather than being either true or false, as in binary logic, statements in fuzzed logic have a rank map which defines a fuzzy set ( as opposed to a chip set in conventional set theory ) . Fuzzy logic is hence an ideal attack to jobs that require a representation that can cover with estimates, uncertainness and deficient information and it has been applied to spheres every bit diverse as pattern acknowledgment [ 10 ] , railroad control systems [ 2 ] and computing machine game design [ 11 ] . The regulation base and illation engine of a fuzzed system is comparable to that of the cognition base of an expert system. The application of fuzzed set theory in economic science was foremost presented by [ 12 ] and has since received much attending [ 3 ] Time series theoretical accounts were foremost combined with fuzzed theory by [ 5 ] giving rise to fuzzy time-series, the cardinal model of all the investing systems. Research workers making stock trading systems have implemented many fluctuations of this theoretical account. Most late, [ 1 ] has proposed the usage of Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference Systems ( ANFIS ) , which combine the prognostic belongingss of nervous webs, with the concluding mechanisms of fuzzed logic to make an machine-controlled trading and prediction system that has been used for high frequence trading of foreign exchange currencies markets ( FOREX ) . This paper is outlined as follows. In subdivision II we give a general overview about fuzzed logic illation systems. Section III introduces the fuzzed logic impulse analysis system ( FL-MAS ) . Section IV explains the methodological analysis of utilizing FL-MAS for securities firm. Section V provides a public presentation analysis of the system. Finally, reasoning comments are given in Section VI. Fuzzy illation Systems Many types of fuzzed illation systems have been proposed in literature, nevertheless, in the execution of an ANFIS for fiscal anticipations and appraisal, the most suited theoretical account is the Sugeno theoretical account, which uses if-then-rules to bring forth an end product for each regulation which is the additive combination of the input variables plus a changeless term, and the concluding end product is the leaden norm of each regulation ‘s end product. The regulation base in the Sugeno Model, has regulations of the signifier: If X is A1 and Y is B1 so f1 = p1* x + q1* y + r1 If X is A2 and Y is B2 so f2 = p2 * x + q2 * y + r2 ( 1 ) where X & A ; Y are predefined rank maps, Ai and Bi are rank values, and pi, chi, and Rhode Island are the attendant parametric quantities that are updated in the forward base on balls in the acquisition algorithm. When we calculate the equation of â€Å" First order Sugeno † the grade of rank variable of X1 in rank map of Ai is multiplied by the grade of rank variable of X2 in rank map Bi and the merchandise is deemed a first Liner Regression Weight ( Wi ) . Finally the leaden mean F1 and F2 is deemed the concluding end product ( Z ) which is calculated as follows: A fuzzed illation systems shown in Fig. 1 is a regulation based fuzzy system that can be seen as an associatory memory and is made of five constituents ; regulation base which consists of the fuzzed if-then regulations, the informations base which defines rank maps of the fuzzed sets used in the fuzzy regulations, the determination devising unit which is the nucleus unit and is besides known as the illation engine, the fuzzification interface which transforms chip inputs into grades of fiting lingual values, and eventually the defuzzification interface which transforms fuzzed consequences into sharp end product [ 13 ] . Fuzzy Logic Momentum Analysis System Making a fuzzed illation system to observe impulse is a complex undertaking. The designation of assorted market conditions has been a subject topic to assorted theories [ 14 ] and suggestions. This paper proposes a fuzzed illation system which categorises the market conditions into 7 classs based on monetary value motion, and will utilize the current volume to find the engagement rates ( PR ) of the trading system each clip. Fuzzy InferenceMomentum AnalysisThe first measure in planing the Fuzzy Logic Momentum Analysis System, FL-MAS, is specifying the market conditions that the fuzzy system has to place. In this paper we use the following 7 market conditions to cover all possible motions of the monetary value series: Beat uping Strong up Slightly up Average Slightly down Strong down Crashing These conditions are considered as lingual values for the fuzzy logic system, and will be used to find the current province of the monetary value formation and its impulse. As impulse is built up, the system looks at the old x sum of ticks and performs an illation process by adding all the motions of the current monetary value to the old monetary value to find whether the general tendency has been up or down after ten points. In other words, impulse is detected by the followers: where is the current monetary value, is the old monetary value, and is a fluctuating counter which goes up or down harmonizing to the motion of the monetary value. whenever monetary value goes up it adds 1, when the monetary value goes down it subtracts 1, therefore this can be used in placing market conditions for x sum of points, where if the market is traveling strongly upwards, it will be detected by holding more 1s than -1 or 0s. This can be explained in the undermentioned equation: ( 2 ) where is the period that we want to observe the impulse for. For illustration, if we want to observe the impulse of the last 100 ticks, we add all the up, down fluctuations and so feed the ensuing figure to the fuzzy system which would lie someplace in the rank maps shown in Fig. 2. Membership maps for the lingual variable of market conditions The same process is applied for ciphering the lingual variable volatility, where the lingual values are as follows: Very fast Fast Medium Decelerate Very slow The fuzzy logic system takes both market impulse and volatility in consideration ; it generates the regulations, and eventually takes a determination based upon the sum of market engagement.The DataExperiments in this paper have been carried out on high frequence tick-data of both Vodafone Group plc ( VOD ) and Nokia Corporation ( NOK ) . For both stocks, 2 months of high frequence tick-data between 2nd Jan 2009 and 27th Feb 2009 has been obtained, and split into 30 subdivisions each. This was done in order to avoid any car correlativity between the monetary values. In other words, the fuzzy logic system gets the first batch of informations, performs all the actions of bargains or sells on it, so the same is process repeated utilizing the criterion volume based system, eventually comparing the public presentation of both systems. Once the observation is obtained, the system skips about 10000 ticks and performs the same operations once more, for 30 times, each clip observing the publi c presentation of both systems. It has to be mentioned that 2 months of high frequence tick informations is a significantly big sum of informations, taking in consideration that for each loop the system takes the analysis of the impulse of the past 100 ticks. Fig. 3 shows how the information is split after each simulation in order to avoid any possible similarities or autocorrelation in the monetary value. FL-MAS for securities firm tick informations discarded tick informations High frequence tick by tick informations Sim 1 Sim 2 Sim N The chief aim of the Fuzzy Logic Momentum Analysis System ( FL-MAS ) implemented in this paper is to surpass the industry criterion volume system, that has been used by securities firm houses to put to death big orders of purchasing or selling a certain stock. Many systems have used quantum modeling and analysis to find the assorted engagement rates ( PR ) , nevertheless they normally fail to surpass the criterion volume system in the long term [ 15 ] . This paper uses FL-MAS presented in subdivision 3, to find the PR in the market harmonizing to the current impulse. In other words, if we are on a bargain order, we would prefer to increase the PR ( figure of portions bought at that clip ) , when the monetary value is low, and diminish the engagement when the monetary value is high. Tick informations splitting mechanismStandard Volume System ( SVS )A standard securities firm mechanism for put to deathing big orders is a simple volume based system, which parses the volume being traded, whenever a certain sum of portions ( a threshold ) have been traded, the system would purchase or sell ( depending on the order ) a certain per centum of that. In other words, if there is an order to merchandise 1 million portions of a certain stock. The threshold would be for e.g. 10,000 portions, and whenever 10,000 portions have been traded, if the PR is set to 25 % , the system would purchase or sell 25 % of the mean volume. ( 3 ) where N is the figure of operations required to make the mark order for illustration 1 million portions, % is a fixed PR, for illustration, 25 % whenever the threshold is exceeded. The above system has proved to be efficient and is being adopted by many securities firm houses around the universe. The purpose of this paper, is to turn out that FL-MAS outperforms this type of system on the long tally.FL-MASThe thought here is to utilize the fuzzy logic impulse analysis system described in subdivision 3, to place what market status we are presently shacking in. This will let us to change the PR ( % ) . This provides an advantage, since the system can merchandise sharply when the status is at an extreme. It would besides understate its trading when the status is at another extreme. In other words, if we are selling million portions, the system will do a trade whenever the threshold of volume has been exceeded. However if the current market status indicates that the monetary value is real ly high or beat uping so we know that this is a good clip to sell a batch of portions, for illustration 40 % of the current volume. The same thing applies for when the impulse indicates that the monetary value is strong down which means that the system should sell less sums of volume at this low monetary value, for illustration 15 % . The contrary mechanism applies for purchasing portions. When the market is crashing, this is a good index that we should purchase a big ball of volume ( 40 % ) , and when the monetary value is at an mean point, this means that it would act like the SVS system i.e. purchasing 25 % of Volume. This is shown in Table 1. Engagement rates for buy side and the sell side of FL-MAS Market Condition Buying Praseodymium Selling Praseodymium Beat uping 10 % 40 % Strong up 15 % 35 % Slightly up 20 % 30 % Average 25 % 25 % Slightly down 30 % 20 % Strong down 35 % 15 % Crashing 40 % 10 %Performance MeasuresAfter implementing both SVS and FL-MAS, the standards at which both systems will be compared against each other will be the outperformance of FL-MAS on the SVS in footing points. TheA footing point is a unit of step used frequently to depict the per centum at which a alteration in the value or rate of a fiscal instrument has occurred. One footing point is a1/100th of a per centum orA 0.01 % . It is besides tantamount to 0.0001 in denary signifier. To cipher the betterment ( elf ) for the buy side in footing points we use the undermentioned expression:iˆ?iˆ?iˆÂ ©For the Sell Side the betterment in footing points is:iˆ?iˆÂ µiˆÂ ©Where is the entire cost of purchasing x sum of portions utilizing FL-MAS, and is the entire cost of purchasing the same figure of portions utilizing the traditional SVS. Consequences This subdivision displays the consequences of utilizing both FL-MAS and SVS to purchase 1million portions of VOD and NOK. For each symbol 30 simulations have been carried on the tick-data set described in subdivision 3. The information has been split as described in order to avoid any autocorrelations, both systems have been run and tested on the same information sets. Table 2 displays the cost at each simulation for purchasing 1million portions of NOK utilizing both systems. The mean monetary value of the whole set is besides displayed, and eventually the betterment of FL-MAS against SVS is displayed. This betterment rate can be either positive ; when FL-MAS has outperformed SVS or negative ; when FL-MAS was outperformed by SVS. Table 3 provides a full analysis of Table 2, by demoing clearly the mean outperformance rate of purchasing 1million portions of NOK utilizing FL-MAS, which turns out to be a positive of 2.98 footing points, which means that on mean utilizing FL-MAS we save about 3 footing points whenever we buy 1 million portion of NOK. Table 3 besides displays the consequences of implementing both systems to purchase 1 million portions of VOD. These consequences for VOD ( besides displayed on Fig.4 ) show a much higher mean of around 12.5 footing points. Experiments have been performed once more by reshuffling the information sets utilizing the informations slots that have non been used before, and the observations were really similar to these consequences. Hence another measuring mechanism was to detect the median of the consequences. The median is described as the figure dividing the higher half of a sample or distribution from the lower half. Both Medians for NOK, and VOD were positive, bespeakin g that on mean FL-MAS outperforms SVS for all the purchasing Simulations. Comparing the public presentation of FL-MAS against SVS for purchasing 1M portions of NOK Average Monetary value Cost of purchasing 1m NOK Shares utilizing FLMAS Cost of purchasing 1m NOK Shares utilizing SVS Improvement in footing points 11.55 11278964 11285761 6.02 12.19 11581642 11572708 -7.72 11.57 11904468 11910571 5.12 11.12 11610312 11581174 -25.16 11.45 11076799 11087759 9.88 11.36 11456338 11452293 -3.53 11.03 11390049 11404634 12.79 10.89 10947120 10956223 8.31 10.45 10923870 10950576 24.39 10.31 10373596 10377899 4.15 10.63 10354815 10367941 12.66 10.78 10655795 10644194 -10.90 10.70 10816236 10814437 -1.66 10.45 10723627 10737409 12.84 10.24 10281461 10286957 5.34 10.48 10214443 10205979 -8.29 9.67 10553155 10547707 -5.17 9.67 9581014 9602197 22.06 9.40 9754339 9740190 -14.53 9.22 9521736 9544895 24.26 9.10 9282640 9280416 -2.40 9.38 9135088 9149560 15.82 9.27 9434147 9457587 24.78 9.42 9262702 9272236 10.28 9.77 9439104 9430047 -9.60 9.87 9807817 9799844 -8.14 9.49 9880881 9885421 4.59 9.58 9585207 9580119 -5.31 9.48 9619778 9624263 4.66 9.40 9556780 9555829 -1.00 9.67 9350444 9359424 9.59 9.98 9724834 9707290 -18.07 9.94 9869580 9869177 -0.41 Analysis of consequences of purchasing 1m portions of NOK and VOD Mean ( elf ) Median ( elf ) Entire ( elf ) Buying NOK 2.98 4.63 101.18 Buying VOD 12.48 1.58 374.53 Besides the entire betterment of both is really high indicating that for both the 30 simulations, a 101.18 footing points was saved utilizing FL-MAS on NOK, and a 374.53 on VOD. Buying 1m portions of VOD Similarly, the sell side is displayed in Table 4, and analysed in Table 5. Similar to the bargain side, all simulations and experiments utilizing FL-MAS and SVS, have displayed that on mean FL-MAS has proved to be the better system, and therefore would increase the profitableness of a fiscal securities firm house that executes multiple big orders. Fig. 5 displays the merchandising of 1m portions of VOD. Comparing the public presentation of FL-MAS against SVS for selling 1M portions of VOD Average Monetary value Cost of selling 1m VOD Shares utilizing FLMAS Cost of selling 1m VOD Shares utilizing SVS Improvement in footing points 139.75 138379831 138304137 5.47 142.10 141880579 141466276 29.20 147.30 145752861 145974583 -15.21 145.70 147127925 147242618 -7.80 144.50 145284236 145840646 -38.30 148.30 141887321 141926909 -2.79 138.30 138593022 138540789 3.77 137.60 138159371 138119542 2.88 138.45 137192635 137152512 2.92 138.80 136243869 137297036 -77.30 138.70 138854269 138889050 -2.50 135.95 134818894 134622571 14.56 133.85 135551066 135198498 26.01 136.50 133744440 133824812 -6.01 135.55 136450408 136384280 4.85 139.50 136381824 136248448 9.78 138.30 138364382 138217262 10.63 136.85 136263730 136277519 -1.01 134.20 133894601 133855738 2.90 134.56 133894289 132534941 101.52 127.10 129477007 129129593 26.83 128.90 127159502 127174918 -1.21 130.85 129889373 129821846 5.20 135.50 130203793 130019981 14.12 136.85 135468629 135441956 1.97 136.45 136622702 136595289 2.01 138.05 136719313 136746751 -2.01 136.65 134943043 135082269 -10.32 132.15 133857223 134159108 -22.55 Analysis of consequences of Selling 1m portions of NOK and VOD Mean ( elf ) Median ( elf ) Entire ( elf ) Selling NOK 1.6812 2.9291 57.16 Selling VOD 2.73 2.46 81.83 Selling 1m portions of VOD Decision The job of order executing is a really complicated one. To be able to supply the best monetary value, an executing system has to dynamically alter the engagement rates at each case in order to provide for monetary value alterations, which are driven by impulse and volatility. This paper has introduced a system that makes usage of fuzzed logic, in order to ground out the current market status which is produced by the accretion of impulse. FL-MAS is a fuzzed logic impulse analysis system that outperforms the traditional systems used in industry which are frequently based on put to deathing orders based on the leaden norm of the current volume. Consequences of the enforced system have been displayed and compared against the traditional system. The system proves that on norm it increases profitableness on orders both on the bargain and sell sides. Further work and research has to be done to optimize the public presentation of the system. This could either include the usage of a familial algorithm to optimize the rank maps or the usage of Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy systems which would bring forth all the possible regulations for the system.

Electrolux Case Summary Essay

As the largest domestic products manufacturer in the world, Electrolux has about 70000 employees all around the world in about 150 countries, making 14 billion euros in sales in 2005. However, an acquisition case from its main competitor, Whirlpool, is challenging the ? rst place of Electrolux, at the time Electrolux has just decided to divest its outdoor division. A huge decrease in sales in the following years is expected. Starting from 1920s, Electrolux has been famous for its expertise in industrial design on products such as vacuum cleaner and refrigeration. The products quickly got popular not only in its home country in Sweden, but in other western countries such as Germany, France, USA and UK, due to the homogeneous culture of these countries. A major growth in demand after World War II contributed a lot to its growth. With a large amount of accumulated cash of the past decades, Electrolux decided to expand quickly through a number of acquisitions for more market share and diversi? cation. In late 20th century, Electrolux discovered new markets in developing countries when the market in western countries was already very mature and was even showing a sign of going down. It also went through a phase of restructuring the segmentations of products as well as abandoned some less important activities. Up until 2006, the company has addressed its new strategies mainly on functional level to correspond to the challenges. To maximize the pro? t, the production would be outsourced to developing countries with lower labor costs. More ef? ient logistics has made the globalization more feasible and cost-saving. On the product market level, due to the market polarization, a more distinguishing product segmentation would be applied. While keeping the basic low-price products, Electrolux is launching a series of products with higher prices to satisfy the high-end market. On the other hand, 2% of sales would be put in R&D to keep a high rate of new products launches. The supply chain management has always been vital when it comes to consumer goods industry. When Electrolux is outsourcing more of the productions, it is also hifting the strategy of distribution channels. Instead of traditional dealers, big chains with large volume and high geographical coverage are brought up front because of lower serving cost. Above all these, the company keeps making efforts on brand-building by investing at least 2% of the sales every year. With more products are sold under Electrolux’s name, the company is also improving its brand image by stressing more on their culture through internal and external relations among employees, suppliers and retailers, etc.

Top 10 ancient towns and villages worth visiting and exploring

Top 10 ancient towns and villages worth visiting and exploring The most beautiful ancient towns and villages that boast a vast historic heritage Our world is full of astounding ancient cities that have survived more than just time. They became famous for their vast historic and cultural heritage. There are a lot of things in these everlasting places that are worth our attention. Just get ready to take a walk and explore these must visit ancient villages and towns.   Alberobello, Puglia, Italy Alberobello, in the region of Puglia in southern Italy, is a unique and picturesque holiday destination that can impress everyone with its unusual districts of trulli. A trulo is a hut with white-washed conical roof which were built by the local people in the distant past with the purpose to avoid taxes. That settlement fooled the authorities in such way – it just didn`t have a status of a town because those huts could be easily dismantled. These days, travelers can wander the narrow streets, experience the historic spirit of this site, and admire the original architecture. Trakai Island, Lithuania Trakai is the historical capital of Lithuania where you can visit the only island castle in Eastern Europe. Trakai Island Castle is an incredible architectural example of Gothic style which was built by Lithuanian dukes in XIV century and served and their residence. Nowadays, people can visit various cultural events that are held in this gorgeous place. The Knight Competition is the most popular among the foreigners.   Its historical center is also famous for its numerous lakes. Ronda, Malaga, Spain Despite being a grooving town Ronda retains much of its historic charm and uniqueness. This place won`t stop fascinating its visitors from all over the world. It is famous for its dramatic and breathtaking views and escarpments. A 100m deep canyon EL Tajo will definitely impress you with its gorge. Ronda is a birthplace of modern bullfighting which people glimpse once a year at Feria Goyesca. Marburg, Germany Marburg is a romantic German riverfront town that dates back to the 9th century. It is considered to be a cultural center of Europe with its beautiful Renaissance and Gothic architecture. The gorgeous Marburg Castle overlooks this medieval university town. There are a lot of places of interest for tourist, students, and scientists here. Fenghuang (Phoenix Ancient Town), Hunan Province, China Fenghuang is situated in the area of breathtaking natural beauty where water, mountains, and blue skies prevail. It is considered to be the most beautiful town in China. You will be definitely impressed with its elegance, rich culture, air of mystery, and primitive simplicity. Fenghuang is a perfect example of what villages used to be to the onset of modernization. Piodao, Portugal Piodao is a historical schist village in central Portugal, which is considered to be one of the most charming and picturesque villages in the country. Piodao is indeed a unique site due to its houses that are arranged in the form of an amphitheatre. Locals are very proud of their beautiful medieval town with its outstanding views, historic architecture, and magnificent mountainous landscapes. Songzanlin, Shangri-La, China Songzanlin is the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Yunnan which attracts a lot of tourists from the whole world due to its mysterious atmosphere, unique Tibetan architecture, and magnificent treasures. It is interesting that this monastery`s complex, which is surrounded with stunning nature, makes an entire little town. Its well-preserved frescos, wonderful golden lamps, Tibetan lections, and golden figures of Buddha josses make this monastery one of the most famous temples in China. Bergamo, Italy Bergamo is a northern Italy treasure. This beguiling eastern Lombard city has a lot to offer: A wealth of art, amazing nature, historic architecture, breathtaking views, and some fine dining.   The amazing terraced gardens and slopes planted with various floras make this town popular holiday destination. The old upper city – Citta Alta – is where most of the tourist attractions can be found. Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India Jodhpur is a delightful blend of the modern and the traditional. It is one of the largest and most populated cities in Rajasthan. It marks its origin back to the year of 1459 AD. This city is popularly known as the Blue City because its havelis, palaces, forts, houses, and temples are built in vivid shades of blue. There is always something to see here. That is why it is also the favorite tourist destination. The main things visitors like to discover in Jodhpur are fabrics, handcrafts, and spice markets. Civita di Bagnoregio, Province of Viterbo, Italy Italy`s Civita di Bagnoregio is a Jewel on the hill. It was founded by Etruscans more than 2,500 years ago. This city is included in the list of 100 Most Endangered Sites because its population has dwindled to just six residents. Tourists are welcome by these friendly local people. You will discover the impressive nature, historic architecture, and stunning panoramic views here.

Lies, damned lies and statistics - Emphasis

Lies, damned lies and statistics Lies, damned lies and statistics There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics. So said Benjamin Disraeli (and later Mark Twain, who was quoting him). Yet the public (and thats all of us, at one time or another) continues to be sucked in by reports based on spurious logic and facts of dubious provenance. If youve ever wondered why, you should read Risk, by Dan Gardner. Its a fascinating explanation of why we fall for sensationalist writing every time. The link between the MMR triple vaccine and autism is one of the latest examples of the triumph of hype over reality. Reports of a link were based on a study involving just a handful of children. And countless subsequent and much bigger studies failed to confirm it. So the UK Government issued a statement saying that there was no link. And thats when it all kicked off probably helped by the Governments denial. (After all, if the Governments denying it, then it must be true, right?) The newspapers began filling up with studies of children whod received the triple jab and then went on to develop the condition. Queues formed at clinics offering measles, mumps and rubella vaccination in three separate injections (a method that unlike the triple jab had never been tested on a large scale for either safety or efficacy). More and more people sought alternatives, such as homoeopathic vaccination. And crucially vaccination rates plummeted, to way below that required to produce herd immunity. Now, years later, measles infection rates have climbed dramatically more than 1300 last year in the UK alone, compared with just 56 ten years ago. The World Health Organization has abandoned its hope of eradicating the disease in the short term. And all because of a dubious, almost certainly unrepresentative study. So why did we fall for it? It would be tempting to say that most people lack the technical knowledge to assess statistics properly. That may be true, but theres more to it than that. Psychology plays a huge part. Our emotions are produced in the parts of the brain that evolved long before the parts that enable us to reason. And we make judgements usually subconsciously based on emotion (or gut feel) long before we use logic to work out if our gut feeling is right. Then theres innumeracy. According to French neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene, were slower to compute 4+5 than 2+3. In fact, humans innate skill with numbers isnt much better than that of rats and dolphins. Its just that weve learned how to overcome it with a lot of effort. (When polled, 45 per cent of Canadians didnt know how many millions there are in a billion, for example.) So instead, people rely on gut feel: autism is a Bad Thing, so MMR must be bad. Logic never really gets a look in. Risk explains in a clear and compelling way why our lives are dominated by irrational fears (as well as why we dont worry about the things we should worry about). Its the perfect antidote to the current epidemic of negative news. And if you dont want to read that, heres another statistic for you, this time from the late comedian George Carlin: Think about how stupid the average person is; now realise half of them are dumber than that.

Designing and developing a disaster management plan Essay

Designing and developing a disaster management plan - Essay Example The focus in the recent years has been shifted from the restoration of services at the earliest possible time to continuity of the business operations without loss of time. The utility industries are in a very piquant situation in view of various statutory compliances involved in the business operations apart from protection of employees, losses on account of disruption of the services, damages to the properties and machineries and civil and criminal liabilities arising out of such situations. It is pertinent to note that ‘accidents in the transportation field have had significant impacts on expenditure to reduce risks and increase safety, in some cases quite independently of the technical and economic arguments for investment but merely because public perception demands that particular ghosts be laid.’ (Perrow, 1984). A good disaster management plan envisages establishment of security policies and implementation of procedures in practice. Physical Security of the executives is of paramount importance, because avoiding breakdown in the decision making machinery is very crucial. Identification, analysis and evaluation of the facilities which are prone to disasters based on the available data may be the starting point. Understanding of peoples perception of and relationships with disaster should reflect in the personnel policy. No orders can be issued and effectively acted upon if there is inadequacy in this respect, because, these are the factors which govern their choices and actions. Honesty and integrity of an employee is very important in dealing with emergencies. Success of all management plans hinges on the company’s policy with regard to recruitment, background investigation, orientation provided and the continuous performance appraisal in relation to the employees. Security of data especially for a company in insurance sector is very important. Secret and confidential data should have very