OPAC Evaluation Between University of Arizona & University of BALAMAN Research Paper

OPAC Evaluation Between University of Arizona & University of BALAMAN - Research Paper Example These features include the general representation of these libraries their database characteristics, how operations occur and managed. Moreover, it also looks at the means that these libraries provide to search for information. Other vital features include operations on Boolean, aids for searching under the subjects, options for displaying on the screen and means to display output. In addition, functionalities that will offer end user support are notably inevitable. The University of Arizona has an unusual layout of the home page clearly showing the menus just below the header page. The integration of sky blue, brown, white and deep blue colors brings out an excellent look ( Lebanese American University, 1997-2015). The selection of the font schemes has differentiated the headings, subheadings, and the body thus making the information easier to read. The spacing is ok. Further, the images in place are informative and not just thrown anyhow. On the other hand, the page on Lebanese American University is simple with links to services easily accessible from the home page. The color contrast of green for the heading and a variation of brown for the body is excellent. The slight color red strip in use under the title LAU Libraries is lovely. The change of the menu coloring clearly distinguishes what is in the selection and what is not. Arizona did not have that, however, it uses color shading to identify what has been highlighted and what is not. The photos in use are standard in the way they convey meaning, for example, the one on how to locate the books. The spacing is alright with the distinction of sections. However, despite the difference between the headings and bodies subheadings, it should have been more distinct. The preceding has been brought out more clearly on the Arizona website. What is common to the two sites is the simplicity in their pages with outright links to

Students Persistent Failure in English Language Examinations in Nigeria Essay Example for Free

Students Persistent Failure in English Language Examinations in Nigeria Essay Abstract Education is now a global product with institutions worldwide competing for students and finding ever more creative ways to satisfy student needs and preferences. The optimism and belief in educational progress has gingered the new wake of marketing approaches that boarder on how to properly deal with the intricate issues of qualitative educational service, value as well as customer satisfaction. With the continuing rise in the preference for flexible distance learning, educational institutions are finding that when students and faculty have significantly different cultural backgrounds and learning styles that the expectations of the learning experience can be unfulfilled. Today in Nigeria, education is the responsibility of government, religious organizations as well as private individuals, although in recent years, the private sector has entered the market providing educational services at all levels. There are over 90 universities in Nigeria with more than 2.000.000 students enrolled in these universities. Of these students, less than 100,000 are registered in the National Open University of Nigeria which is the largest of the universities that provide distance education in the country. With such large student numbers, competition between the public and private universities for students has intensified particularly over the last decade. As a consequence, the need to develop strategies for attracting students has become more important. The contribution of technologies to education processes has been immense with students and faculty each learning to adapt to an environment of continuous change and opportunities. This paper therefore, seeks to explore the marketing approaches that could galvanise the growth of the Open and Distance learning institutions, and is subsequently predicated on the view that a competitive advantage in marketing of the Open and Distance learning programmes can be attained by customizing learning experiences for students in a pro-active and constructive way. INTRODUCTION The fast competition that is taking place in the current global market has affected the educational sector. In Nigeria for instance, it has been observed that when education is taken for granted not only the state institutions providing conventional education are prevailed. Starting from the early 1990’s higher education has been provided by either public or private universities either conventionally or extensively. The increase in the products and services that are provided by different parties has affected the educational institutions and the power of marketing communications is utilized in order to pull more customers both by private and state institutions. The marketing of education is a controversial issue. Although the opinions on the signification of the educational institution as a product and the students as the customers still remains arguable the transformation of the instruction process as a student-based model requires the utilization of the marketing opportunitie s are used. Teaching has been increasingly developed as a learner-centered model, shaping the process as a life-long learners experience to match their existing knowledge and skills is crucial. At the open and distance education institution level, being market oriented means adapting a client-centered perspective and managing the institution in a way that matches the needs of primary and secondary clients. This student-based model is not much different than the client-based utilization of marketing strategy. In the marketing approach, the needs and desires of the customers are given a primary and major importance so they are treated as â€Å"kings†. When this strategy is employed in the open and distance education, the course programmes and materials are observed to be shaped in accordance with the needs and desires of the students. The multimedia used is also observed to be very common with those that are presented within the most appropriate channels to the students. The customer â€Å"king† then transforms into the student â€Å"king†. Marketing is about achieving organizational goals, and these are determined by the values of the organization (its culture) and shape its decision-making. Good marketing techniques will definitely help the Open and Distance learning institutions achieve set goals that will help them identify with those clients for whom they offer an appropriate range of learning opportunities. The objective of this study therefore, is to discuss the notions like advertisement, public relations, personal sales and fairs that make effecting marketing communication strategies possible in a nationwide manner and compare the Open and Distance learning educational institutions in Nigeria and other nations of the world to concentrate on the marketing of effective educational programmes, quality educational service and the appropriate pricing of the educational programmes because these are some of the major approaches that can satisfy the wishes of the consumers of their educational services. WHAT IS OPEN DISTANCE LEARNING (ODL)? Open and Distance Learning is the combination of on-line learning (e-learning) and other distance education delivery methods. It is the introduction, utilisation and application of ICT to enhance open and distance education thus implementing open and distance learning policies in order to make learning activities more flexible and enable these learning activities to be distributed among many learning venues. It is an amalgam of two approaches to different forms of education that focus on expanding access to learning. It is a sort of blended and distributed learning, which incorporate elements of tutor mediated and self-directed and resource-based learning process. The pedagogical shifts from face-to-face traditional way of teaching or even the traditional distance education (called correspondence education) to on-line education is what Open and Distance Learning is all about. It represents significant changes in the assumptions on which teachers, learners and support staff go about their business and to the technological infrastructure and skill base that support the moves. According to Reju S. A. (2007), this type of education is characterised by two factors: its PHILOSOPHY and its use of TECHNOLOGY. The Open and Distance Learning Philosophy aims at removing barriers to education allowing students to study what they want, when they want and where they want. In summing up the Open and Distance Learning Philosophy, it aims at increasing educational ACCESS and increasing educational CHOICE of students. As for the TECHNOLOGY, in order to achieve a complete migration from the post-box and hard text delivery of conventional distance education to on-line education, operators must satisfy at least three preconditions: First, the technical infrastructure needs to be transparent to users. Second, its operational framework must address teaching and learning decisions when it describes its functions. Third, systematic and local professional development in online teaching and learning using a just-in-time and just-for-me approach must be available to academics (Nunan, Reid, Mc Causland 2002 :10) BASIC OPERATING SYSTEM OF ODL INSTITUTIONS CHARACTERISTICS AND ADVANTAGES OF ODL The nature and characteristics of Open and Distance Learning gave it wider opportunities as advantages over the classical and conventional system of Education: †¢ Accessibility – overcoming barriers related to: – Prior academic credentials – Time – Physical location – Financial constraints – Personal characteristics – Social responsibility †¢ Flexibility and easy access to instruction in order to ensure broad availability of educational opportunities to all characterized by: – Frequent admission periods – Self-pacing – Optional support services (tutoring, counselling, advising) †¢ Learner control over content and structure †¢ Choice of delivery systems: Instruction delivered through a variety of media including print and other information communication technologies to learners, Learners have control over the course delivery system(s) that suits their purpose †¢ Accreditation – characterised by: †¢ Recognition of courses accredited by other institutions for transfer of credit. †¢ Opportunities for learners to â€Å"challenge† courses for credit. †¢ Provision for â€Å"experiential learning†. †¢ Instruction by a mode other than the conventional face-to-face method †¢ Physical separation between the teacher and the learner †¢ Openness disregard age, previous level of academic achievement, and other factors, creating artificial barriers to education as a life-long pursuit in a democratic environment †¢ Cost-effective system of instruction independent of time, location, pace and space †¢ Used for a variety of learning situations: primary, secondary, tertiary, vocational and non-formal education †¢ It allows for wider Range Extension †¢ Thrives on economy of scale †¢ It is weapon of mass instruction †¢ ODL is more suited to Adult Learners †¢ It democratises and liberalises education †¢ It is more of learner centred and learner friendly programme which includes all in its planning and execution †¢ Focused on QA, well designed instructional packages, student support: It gives learners Qualitative Education and Course Range. VISIBLE PROBLEMS THAT COULD RESULT TO FALL OF SALES AND PATRONAGE IN ODL SYSTEM A good marketing strategy has two parts. The first includes an overview of your industry and how your company fits within it. It identifies who your marketing should be targeted at and what challenges you may face when trying to read your target audience. This part also helps you hone in on your specific marketing goals (i.e. increase client base by %). The second part is all about what you will do to reach to overcome the challenges identified in part one and how you will reach your goals (i.e. develop brochure/ website, etc.) The following issues can create a fall of patronage in the Open and Distance learning system. †¢ Poor quality educational service, poor value and customer dissatisfaction. †¢ Poor and inadequate designing of educational programmes. †¢ Unnecessary overpricing of educational programmes †¢ De-emphasising quality, especially service quality †¢ Regular students frustration in learning how to get on-line (especially for novices). †¢ Time lapse between student input and feedback -Time lapse between need for learner support and resolution †¢ Occasional internet provider downtime (server usually inaccessible to students) †¢ Student become less active and less self-directed in the learning environment which depends largely on individual motivation and initiative. †¢ Occasional feelings of isolation- Potentially less group support for learners leading to isolation and possible non-completion of programme †¢ Instructional design for group activities and group interaction more demanding on the instructor †¢ Demands large effort and cost to develop appropriate materials †¢ Demands large effort to create and maintain the technological infrastructure When these problems persist, the message becomes very clear; ‘Distance Education is not for everyone’. – Unfortunately, the problems becloud the fact that Open and Distance learning is not for undisciplined learners nor inflexible instructors. QUALITY ASSURANCE AND GOOD MARKETING STRATEGY AS PANACEA TO ADDRESS PROBLEMS OF FALL OF SALES AND PATRONAGE IN ODL SYSTEM What is Quality assurance? According to Wiley (2009), Quality assurance, or QA for short, refers to a programme for the systematic monitoring and evaluation of the various aspects of a project, service, or facility to ensure that standards of quality are being met. It is important to realize also that quality is determined by the program sponsor. QA cannot absolutely guarantee the production of quality products, unfortunately, but makes this more likely. Two key principles characterise QA: fit for purpose (the product should be suitable for the intended purpose) and right first time (mistakes should be eliminated). QA includes regulation of the quality of raw materials, assemblies, products and components; services related to production; and management, production and inspection processes. It is important to realize also that quality is determined by the intended users, clients or customers, not by society in general: it is not the same as expensive or high quality. Even goods with low prices can be considered quality items if they meet a market need. QA is more than just testing the quality of aspects of a product, service or facility, it analyzes the quality to make sure it conforms to specific requirements and comply with established plans. Accuracy of Quality Assurance There is an extensive process of trial and error in order to ensure quality assurance. By the end of the trials you arrive at an acceptable process that helps you decide the reliability and efficiency of the sample. The process involves meeting specifications such as performance measures and depends on environment operation. The cost of resulting in failure is very high which result in the process of Quality Assurance to be extensive and it is acceptable to delay production until all tests are done and double-checked. Steps for Quality Assurance Process †¢ Test previous article †¢ Plan to improve †¢ Design to include improvements and requirements †¢ Manufacture with improvements †¢ Review new item and improvements †¢ Test new item The process for Quality Assurance is very rigorous and requires a lot of testing and planning. The team or firm has to comply with previous requirements, implement new requirements and improve the old item. Other than following requirements, the team or firm has to comply with consumers needs. WHAT IS MARKETING? Marketing is defined by the American Marketing Association as the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large Simply stated, marketing is everything you do to place your product or service in the hands of potential customers. It includes diverse disciplines like sales, public relations, pricing, packaging, and distribution. In order to distinguish marketing from other related professional services, S.H. Simmons, author and humorist, relates this anecdote. If a young man tells his date shes intelligent, looks lovely, and is a great conversationalist, hes saying the right things to the right person and thats marketing. If the young man tells his date how handsome, smart and successful he is thats advertising. If someone else tells the young woman how handsome, smart and successful her date is thats public relations. You might think of marketing this way. If business is all about people and money and the art of persuading one to part from the other, then marketing is all about finding the right people to persuade. Marketing is your strategy for allocating resources (time and money) in order to achieve your objectives (a fair profit for supplying a good product or service). Yet the most brilliant strategy wont help you earn a profit or achieve your wildest dreams if it isnt built around your potential customers. A strategy that isnt based on customers is rather like a man who knows a thousand ways to make love to a woman, but doesnt know any women. Great in theory but unrewarding in practice. If you fit the classic definition of an entrepreneur (someone with a great idea whos under-capitalized), you may think marketing is something you do later after the product is developed, manufactured, or ready to sell. Though it may feel counter-intuitive, marketing doesnt begin with a great idea or a unique product. It begins with customers those people who want or need your product and will actually buy it. Entrepreneurs are in love with their ideas, and they should be. After all, why would anyone commit their energy, life savings, and no small part of their sanity to anything less than a consuming passion. Because entrepreneurs are passionate about their idea, product, or service, they innocently assume other people will feel the same. Heres the bad news it just doesnt work that way! People have their own unique perceptions of the world based on their belief system. The most innovative ideas, the greatest products, or a superior service succeed only when you market within the context of peoples perceptions. Context can be many things, singly or simultaneously. To name a few, you may market to your customers within the context of their wants, needs, problems solved, or situation improved. Entrepreneurs need to be aware of many other contexts, such as social and economic trends or governmental regulations, which well discuss another time. People dont just buy a product. They buy the concept of what that product will do for them, or help them do for themselves. People who are overweight dont join a franchise diet center to eat pre-packaged micro-meals. They buy the concept of a new, thin, happy and successful self. Before you become consumed with entrepreneurial zeal and invest your life savings in a new venture, become a smart marketer. Take time at the beginning to discover who your potential customers are, and how to effectively reach them. Without a plan, your entrepreneurial dream is really wishful thinking. While a marketing plan can be a map for success, remember that the map is not the territory. A strategy that ignores the customer isnt an accurate reflection of the landscape. A good marketing plan can help you focus your energy and resources. But a plan created in a vacuum, based solely on your perceptions, does not advance the agenda. Thats why market research, however simple or sophisticated, is important. Just keep in mind that research attempts to predict the future by studying the past. It reveals what people have done, and extrapolates what people might do not what people will do. Planning is imperative, research is important, but theres no substitute for entrepreneurial insight. After all, as Mark Twain wrote, You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. Marketing strategy’ Wikipedia dictionary defines ‘Marketing strategy’ is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. A marketing strategy should be centered on the key concept that customer satisfaction is the main goal. Services marketing Services marketing, as the label suggests, relates to the marketing of services, as opposed to tangible products (in standard economic terminology, a tangible product is called a good). A typical definition of a service (as opposed to a good) is thus: †¢ The use of it is inseparable from its purchase (,i.e. a service is used and consumed simultaneously) †¢ It does not possess material form, and thus cannot be smelt, heard, tasted, or felt. †¢ The use of a service is inherently subjective, in that due to the human condition, all persons experiencing a service would experience it uniquely. As examples of the above points, a train ride can be deemed as a service. If one buys a train ticket, the use of the train is typically experienced concurrently with the purchase of the ticket. Moreover, a train ride cannot be smelt, heard, tasted or felt as such. Granted, a seat can be felt, and the train can be evidently heard, nonetheless one is not paying for the permanent ownership of the tangible components of the train. Services (by comparison with goods) can also be viewed as a spectrum. Not all products are pure goods, nor are all pure services. The aforementioned example of a train ride can be deemed a pure service, whilst a packet of potato chips can be deemed a pure good. An intermediary example may be a restaurant (as the waiter service is intangible, and the food evidently is tangible in form). VARIOUS STRATEGIES AND APPROACHES OF GOOD MARKETING THAT COULD HELP IN GROWTH OF SALES AND PATRONAGE OF ODL PROGRAMMES It is the explicit recognition of the tensions between old and new learning styles which our paper seeks to highlight as the basis for attaining a marketing advantage. To allow students to learn in styles that commence with recognition of diverse foundations provides an environment where students are given greater opportunity for academic success. The view that all students can be blended into one learning environment as though one stylized type of pedagogy would be suitable for all students in a mixed cohort, presumes that a standardized approach to learning is indeed appropriate. The concept of ‘one size fits all’ education may have been appropriate in old economies where students represented a homogenous group from the same cultural group with a known entry level skill set. Where students do not fit this form of stereotyping it makes sense to approach the task of designing an appropriate learning environment which suits the majority of learners. Eisner also claims that communication and multiple intelligence literature suggest that effective teaching involves reaching students, and that reaching students involves taking their frames of reference into account. Knowing where our students are coming from and meeting them there may increase the chance that students will absorb the information we seek to teach (Eisner 2003, 34-5). Indeed, the arrival of technologies to supplement, enable, enrich and mediate learning experiences challenges traditional education pedagogies. To actively respond to such pressures in a way that is positive can contribute to academic outcomes. Businesses and governments have called into question the relevance of quality of the education that has been provided by post-secondary institutions as well as their continued ability to deliver education in a manner that the new forces of the globalizing marketplace would deem efficient (Montgomery, L., M. Canaan, J., E.) (2004). Nagy (2007) demonstrated via a case study that student outcomes could be dramatically improved by specifically recognizing the needs of the cohort and tailoring assessment tasks to suit the cohort. This style of customization is a reaction to market needs in a proactive way to ensure that student success is achieved without variation in the quality or content of course design. To take this analysis one step further, for a chosen unit of study where it is known that the student population incorporates variable educational foundations within the student population, a university could recognize this variation and provide 2 streams of learning for the same material using alternative pedagogies to achieve outcomes. One alternative could embrace student centered learning and the other teacher centered learning. Each of the alternatives may then employ the best practice pedagogies appropriate to the identified style of learning, and utilize different assessment strategies. Students are then free to choose which alternative learning environment best suits their learning foundations and preferences, at the commencement of the subject. This approach has the potential to promote a more confident attitude to learning with less alienation from the learning environment, greater student self esteem and improved learning outcomes. The term learning styles is used as a description of the attitudes and behaviors which determine an individual’s preferred way of learning. Some students tend to focus on facts. Some respond strongly to visual forms of information; others are able to learn more from verbal forms written and spoken explanations. Some prefer to learn actively and interactively; others function more introspectively and individually. No one learning style is better than another; it is simply that people learn in different ways. The best learning style is the one that works for an individual in a particular situation. Those universities with sufficiently large and diverse student cohorts may be able to further refine a process of variable pedagogies. Costs would not be significantly different and yet the provision of alternative learning experience can be employed for both on campus and distance education institutions representing a way of marketing subjects that may entice particular students to particular universities. Our suggestion places the emphasis back on the student; with the student selecting the mode of learning best suited to their personal learning style. These choices made available to students can thus be regarded as part of a suite of marketing tools that universities can make use of. Generally, action must be taken to develop a complete marketing program to reach consumers (life-long learners) by using a combination of factors which can be referred to as the 4P’s. The 4 P approach to marketing includes product, price, place and promotion are illustrated as follows: Product: It is a good, service or idea that the consumers need for satisfying their wants. Physical product can be described in terms of its physical characteristics and is what most people actually think of as the product Sussane and Chris(2010) suggest that education is a product, and see distance education as a product instead of a tool for distributing education. They say that in order to most efficiently use our resources, the needs of the student/consumer should be assessed. By doing so, we can learn from the students and then apply that knowledge to attract future students while meeting the needs and improving upon the services offered to the current students. The products have a different name, logo, color and physical attributes. We can say that Distance Education institution is a brand and a brand is a way of differentiating one product from another; the greater the perceived similarity of products, the more important the brand in establishing the differences. Some schools will clearly feel that they are different from others, or that the market perceives differences, which makes it less important for them to establish their corporate identity (Galbraith, K. 2003). Price: This concept embodies more than a value that someone will pay for it. The meaning associated with price changes is contextual. Institutions have different pricing policies and all institutions compete against each other to increase their application and enrollment rates. Pricing policies will impact student choice between institutions. Place: It is a means of getting the product into the consumer’s hands. The personality of the place sends messages to the target audience. The vehicle which is used to reach the students can be a physical location or a virtual space where the connection speed of internet used, e-mail, can serve as a differentiating mechanism. Promotion: Promotion is a means of communication between the seller and buyer. It includes advertising, public relations, personal selling, publicity, and sales promotions. If one higher education institution wants to enroll more students than other, it will need to use corporate advertising or engage in activities that create a liaison between the students and the institutions. Publicity provides media coverage to the institutions and visibility can create confidence about an institutions reputation and quality perceptions. Marketing initiatives include print based products and internet-based advertisements, brochures, and word-of-mouth (WOM) communication. According to Buttle (1998: p. 242) WOM has been shown to influence a variety of conditions: awareness, expectations, perceptions, attitudes, behavioral intentions and behaviour. Because of these factors positive WOM may affect the awareness of the open and distance university and this awareness can turn the behavioral intentions of students. Fairs are also benefited to communicate with the students. Every year education fairs should be organized and all universities that run distance learning programmes should be represented. Where the cost of registration is same between universities, the image of the university plays an important role in the process of selecting that university. The image consists of two criteria. One of it is tangible criteria like, academic staff, profile of the graduated, facility of the university, curriculum, and opportunity for internship etc. Intangible criteria are good or bad experiences about university, negative or positive WOM. Internally developed strategy Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and/or video signals which transmit programs to an audience. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of the whole, such as children or young adults. Here, the FM station of NOUN becomes important. In his essay, John Durham Peters wrote that communication is a tool used for dissemination. Durham stated, â€Å"Dissemination is a lens- sometimes a usefully distorting one- that helps us tackle basic issues such as interaction, presence, and space and time†¦on the agenda of any future communication theory in general† (Durham, 211). Dissemination focuses on the message being relayed from one main source to one large audience without the exchange of dialogue in between. There’s chance for the message to be tweaked or corrupted once the main source releases it. There is really no way to predetermine how the larger population or audience will absorb the message. They can choose to listen, analyze, or simply ignore it. Dissemination in communication is widely used in the world of broadcasting. Broadcasting focuses on getting one message out and it is up to the general public to do what they wish with it. Durham also states that broadcasting is used to address an open ended destination (Durham, 212). There are many forms of broadcast, but they all aim to distribute a signal that will reach the target audience. Broadcasting can arrange audiences into entire assemblies (Durham, 213). Effective use of the University website According to Ms.Bindu Rathore, CEO WebTotal Marketing, Many Educational Institutions have a website, but they don’t know how to combine offline and online marketing to increase their profits and reduce their advertising costs. She therefore recommended that the concept WebTotal Marketing is now available to help such Educational institutions to have a complete web marketing system so they can enhance their brand and attract more prospect students at an affordable cost.† This postulation is basically predicated on the fact that students have become very Internet savvy these days and are cautious in their selection of institutions of higher learning. They actively participate in forums and group discussions along with feedbacks from past students to analyze a particular college or university before they make their decision. University Publications The word publication means the act of publishing. To publish is to make content available to the public. While specific use of the term may vary between country, it is usually applied to text, images, or other audio-visual content on any medium, including paper or Electronic publishing forms such as websites, E-books, Compact Discs and MP3s. THE ROLE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS, GIFT ITEMS/SOUVENIRS, EVALUATION (of process, input and products) AND AFTER-SALES-SERVICES IN GOOD MARKETING Promotional merchandise, promotional items, promotional products, promotional gifts, or advertising gifts are articles of merchandise that are branded with a logo and used in marketing and communication programs. They are given away to promote a company, corporate image, brand, or event. These items are usually imprinted with a companys name, logo or slogans, and given away at trade shows, conferences, and as part of guerrilla marketing campaigns. The giving of gifts goes back throughout the hostory of man. Gifts would be, and still are, given for various reasons including: to welcome, for appreciation, and for celebration. In the late 20th century a new industry evolved around the concept of giving gifts. Industry and commerce recognised the benefits that could be gained by a company and corporate organisation in giving gifts to existing and prospective customers. Promotional merchandise is now used globally to promote brands, products and corporate identity. They are also used as giveaways at events like exhibitions and product launches. Almost anything can be branded with a company’s name or logo and used for promotion. Common items include t-shirts, caps, key chains, posters, bumper-stickers, pens, mugs, or mouse pads. The largest product category for promotional products is wearable items, which make up more than 30% of the total. Most promotional items are relatively small and inexpensive, but can range to higher-end items; for example celebrities at film festivals and award shows are often given expensive promotional items such as expensive perfumes, leather goods, and electronics items. Companies that provide expensive gifts for celebrity attendees often ask that the celebrities allow a photo to be taken of them with the gift item, which can be used by the company for promotional purposes. Other companies provide luxury gifts such as handbags or scarves to celebrity attendees in the hopes that the celebrities will wear these items in public, thus garnering publicity for the companys brand name and product. Brand awareness is the most common use for promotional items at 12.59%. Other objectives that marketers use promotional items to facilitate include employee relations and events, tradeshow traffic-building, public relations, new customer generation, dealer and distributor programs, new product introductions, employee service awards, not-for-profit programs, internal incentive programs, safety education, customer referrals, and marketing research. Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase. According to Galbraith, K. (2003). â€Å"Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation. Its importance varies by product, industry and customer; defective or broken merchandise can be exchanged, often only with a receipt and within a specified time frame. Customer service may be provided by a person (e.g., sales and service representative), or by automated means called self-service. Examples of self service are Internet sites. However, In the Internet era, a challenge has been to maintain and/or enhance the personal experience while making use of the efficiencies of online commerce. Writing in Fast Company, entrepreneur and customer systems innovator Wiley, J. made the point that Online customers are literally invisible to you (and you to them), so its easy to shortchange them emotionally. But this lack of visual and tactile presence makes it even more crucial to create a sense of personal, human-to-human connection in the online arena. From the point of view of an overall sales process engineering effort, customer service plays an important role in an organizations ability to generate income and revenue. From that perspective, customer service should be included as part of an overall approach to systematic improvement. CONCLUSION In many countries, open and distance learning methods have become an effective and equitable means of providing learning for people in all situations and of all ages. Our postulation in this paper is that the effective marketing of the operational infrastructure for the delivery of an Open and Distance Learning programme is critical to its success. Yet all too often this element is overlooked or seen as incidental to the design and quality of the distance learning materials and programmes themselves. We then went ahead to address very salient issues that can help the Open and Distance Learning institutions adopt new approaches as regards the rapid strategic marketing of ODL systems that will ultimately lead to increased success in the operation of the system worldwide. These issues include †¢ coming to grips with the socio-cultural drivers of education in the 21st century †¢ anticipating the future and activating the potential of innovation as a prerequisite for outstanding success and †¢ interpreting latent educational needs and effectively creating a demand for the ODL system worldwide. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES Buttle, F. (2005). Word of Mouth: Understanding And Managing Referral Marketing, Journal of Strategic Marketing, (6) 241–254. Eisner, S. P. (2004). The Class Talk Show: A Pedagogical Tool, SAM Advanced Management Journal, Winter 2003, 34 49. Galbraith, K. (2003). Towards Quality Private Education in Central and Eastern Europe, Higher Education in Europe, XXVIII, (4) pp. 539-558. Garrison, D. R. Anderson, T. (2003). E-Learning in the 21st Century, Routledge- Falmer, London. Wiley, J (2009) The Quality Assurance Journal http://www.interscience.wiley.com/journal/15634/home Durham, J. P. (2006) Communication as Dissemination. Communication as†¦Perspectives on Theory. Thousand Oakes, CA: Sage,. 211-22. Montomery, L., M. Canaan, J., E. (2004). Conceptualizing higher education students as social actors in a globalizing world: a special issue, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 17 (6), 739-748. Nagy, J. (2007). Market forces in higher education: cheating and the student-centred learning paradigm, book chapter in â€Å"Ethical Practices and Implications in Distance Learning† Indira Gandhi National Open University, Simonetta C. Christian V. (2009) Path to a new Prosperity; A new Approach to Marketing. London, Keegan Paul. Suzanne .A. Chris. P. (2010) Managing expectations: effective support systems for distance learning the experience of the Warwick MBA by distance learning. www.effectivemarketing.com

Rankin And Richard Avedon Comparison

Rankin And Richard Avedon Comparison Richard Avedon and John Rankin Waddell (more commonly known as Rankin) have many similarities in their work and have also done many of the same things during their careers; this is not to say that there are no differences though. During this essay I am going to try to compare and contrast both the photographic work and the careers of two photographers. To do this I have researched both photographers, I have researched their lives and careers and also their images. I have looked at similarities and differences in the photographers work, in style, composition, elements and equipment. For my research I have used a mixture of books and the internet (using websites, online interviews, biographies and news articles) which are all secondary sources of information. A brief background of the chosen photographers Avedon was born in New York City, America in 1923. In 1942 after a short time at University Avedon dropped out to join the U.S Merchant Marine to study photography, he left in 1944 and began working as a professional photographer in a department store. Within a year Avedon had been spotted by an art director and was working as a staff photographer for Harper ¿Ã‚ ½s bazaar magazine. This was the start of a very busy and fulfilled photography career for Avedon which went on until his death in 2004 at the age of 81. Rankin was born in 1966 in Paisley, Scotland but was brought up in Hertfordshire, England. After being expelled from school Rankin tried studying Accountancy for a short while, realising this is not what he wanted to do he went on to study photography at London College of Printing. In 1991 he left college to go on and form Dazed Confused magazine with his friend Jefferson Hack. This was the beginning of Rankins career. Fashion Avedon always had an interest in Fashion and this was no surprise given that his Father owned a department store in Manhattan and he regularly had magazines such as Harpers Bazaar, Vogue and Vanity Fair delivered to their family home. Reading through magazines such as these gave Avedon the desire to try to recreate these images which were taken by photographers such as Steichen, Man Ray and Munkasci. Avedon started producing his own photos by the use of a Kodak Box Brownie camera and using his younger sister as a model. When Avedon became a professional fashion photographer, fashion models were not public celebrities, their work had no prestige, and their names were not generally known (Avedon and Hollander: 2005 : p238) This is a big difference between Avedon and Rankin. When shooting fashion it has always been common for Rankin to use famous models, this is not only due to choice but also due to a change in times. Fashion photography in the 1940s, when Avedon started out his photography career was different in many more ways than the fame or popularity of the models. Avedon created a name for himself within the industry by injecting life and colour into fashion photography that hadnt really been done before. His portraits contained smiles, laughter and action which completely went against the norm in photography for this period. This is something that obviously influenced Rankin and can still be seen in his work today. Images by both are usually very minimalist and clean looking. The first image is by Avedon and was used by Vogue for the front cover and the second is by Rankin. Portraits Avedon had always had an interest in portraiture and also a unique way of doing it. When taking portraits of people Avedon used to talk about uncomfortable subjects and asked them very probing questions. This caused reactions that gave Avedon a raw view of people that wasn ¿Ã‚ ½t very often caught by others. His style was very detectable from the subject posing in front of a plain white background and looking directly into the camera. All the pictures were very minimalistic and almost clinical looking. In 1985 he held an exhibition called American West; the exhibition consisted of 125 photos that he had taken between 1979 and 1984, he had photographed drifters, miners, cowboys and many other from the western United States. Avedon was attracted to working people and teenagers growing up in the west. This went on to be published as a book and even though it was criticised at the time from people saying it was giving a bad impression of America it is still seen today as a hugely important hallmark of 20th Century portrait photography. Most of Rankins portraits are done with the same look of plain white background and the subject looking squarely into the camera. Rankin also has a way of bring something very personal to his portraits and has a skill of really reflecting the models personality in the image but done in a different way to which Avedon did, usually by applying a quirky prop or pose. Examples of their portraits are below; the first is by Avedon and the second by Rankin. Documentary Avedons portraits from the American West exhibition are of a documentary style, the pictures are documenting the west of the United States the years of 1979 and 1981. Avedon was interested in showing the real people of this area and time, he chose to photograph workers such as oil field workers and miners in their dirty work gear. He also photographed unemployed travellers and teenagers that were growing up here. In 2008 Rankin, with Oxfam, did his own documentary photography exhibition entitled Cheka Kidogo. For this exhibition, travelling to the Democratic Republic of Congo in June 2008, Rankin took photos of people that were now living in refugee camps due to fleeing conflict in area. The exhibition was to show the reality and draw attention back to the forgotten conflict of the country. Rankin then donated all of the profits from his Rankin Live exhibition to Oxfam. Even though there arent many visual similarities between the two sets of photos, there is a big likeness in the reason behind both and what the photographers wanted to show with them. The main reason for both exhibitions is to show the reality of living in a certain place and time and then the life that this then creates for people. Both tried to capture and show the lives of their subjects through the people in their portraits. Erotica Both Avedon and Rankin have shot an Erotica collection. Even though Rankins seems to be a lot more extensive, you can still the similarities and influences from Avedons work. In the pictures below you can see that the similarities are that of composition, colour, contrast and style. On the below image you can see that Rankin has also added his own style to the picture with the way he has lit the shot and the addition of the snake. Avedons image is also very flat compared to Rankins image. The first is by Avedon, 1992, and the second by Rankin, 2007 A large amount of Rankins recent work falls into the Erotica category. He has published a book that is predominantly of this nature featuring Tuuli Shipster, who was previously his muse but is now his wife. The book is a collection of erotic images of her that he has entitled A Photographic Love Letter. Rankin has also published other books that contain more of his erotic images, probably his most famous one being called Cheeky, in 2002 he has released a book called Sofa Sexy which is slightly more adventurous and daring than his other erotica work . Colour Due to the time a lot of Avedons photos are black and white but even as time went on and colour photography became much more desirable and available, Avedon still shot much of his personal work in black and white. This doesnt mean that he never used colour though, quite the opposite, when shooting for fashion magazines during the 60s and 70s Avedon experimented a lot with colour photography. Avedons long relationship with fashion magazine Harpers Bazaar allowed him to try out color as much as or more than any experimental photographer of the period. His palette derived from trendy colors of the time, including hot pink, which helped spread the colours through the clothing and cosmetics industry.(Marien : 2006: p354) Rankin does occasionally produce black and white pictures but as a whole most of his work tends to be in quite vivid colour. Both photographers produced a lot of portraits on white backgrounds. Even though one uses mainly colour photography and the other black and white both generally produce very high contrast, high key pictures. Rankin 7 photographs that changed fashion For a BBC documentary Rankin tried to recreate what he thought were the  ¿Ã‚ ½7 photographs that changed fashion ¿Ã‚ ½. The photos were originally taken by photographers that had influenced and inspired him such as, Herb Ritts, Cecil Beaton, Guy Bourdin, David Bailey, Erwin Blumenfeld, Helmut Newton and Richard Avedon. During the program Rankin ¿Ã‚ ½s goal is to  ¿Ã‚ ½expose the ways in which fashion photography uses fantasy and beauty to communicate something about reality. ¿Ã‚ ½ (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00gq75c) For one of the seven photographs Rankin recreated Avedon ¿Ã‚ ½s 1955  ¿Ã‚ ½Dovima With Elephants ¿Ã‚ ½ for this he used model Erin O ¿Ã‚ ½Connor. He said he chose her for her  ¿Ã‚ ½tall frame and demeanour ¿Ã‚ ½; this obviously matched that of model Dovima that Avedon had used for his image. Rankin produced the image in colour unlike Avedon ¿Ã‚ ½s original that was black and white. Even though Rankin produced a very good image I don ¿Ã‚ ½t think he managed to capture the atmosphere that Avedon did in his image. During the BBC documentary Rankin said about Avedon, Classic styling with energy and creative spirit. Daring, stylish and ambitious, his pictures reflected the optimism of 50s America and turned him into the first celebrity fashion photographer. ¿Ã‚ ½ (BBC : 2009 : The seven Photographs That Changed Fashion) Avedon 1955 Rankin 2008 Books and Magazines Both photographers have produced many books of their photography and many of Avedon ¿Ã‚ ½s have been produced after his death: Avedon:  ¿Ã‚ ½ Nothing Personal. Photographs by Richard Avedon and text by James Baldwin 1964  ¿Ã‚ ½ An Autobiography: The Photographs of Richard Avedon 1993  ¿Ã‚ ½ Evidence: 1944-1994 1994  ¿Ã‚ ½ In the American West: Richard Avedon Photographs 1979 1984 1996  ¿Ã‚ ½ The Sixties 1999  ¿Ã‚ ½ Richard Avedon Portraits 2002  ¿Ã‚ ½ Woman in the Mirror: 1945-2004 2005  ¿Ã‚ ½ Richard Avedon: Photographs 1946-2004 2007  ¿Ã‚ ½ Richard Avedon: The Kennedys: Portrait of a Family 2007  ¿Ã‚ ½ Performance 2008  ¿Ã‚ ½ Avedon Fashion 1944-2000 2009 Rankin  ¿Ã‚ ½ Snog 2000  ¿Ã‚ ½ Celebration 2000  ¿Ã‚ ½ Rankinworks 2000  ¿Ã‚ ½ Rankin Male Nudes 2001  ¿Ã‚ ½ Sofasexy turning a cheap sofa into an object of desire 2002  ¿Ã‚ ½ Breeding: a study of sexual ambiguity 2004  ¿Ã‚ ½ Visually Hungry 2007  ¿Ã‚ ½ Beautyfull 2007  ¿Ã‚ ½ Tuulitastic A Photographic Love Letter 2007  ¿Ã‚ ½ Heidilicious 2009  ¿Ã‚ ½ Alex Box 2009  ¿Ã‚ ½ Cheeky 2009 Both photographers were heavily involved in magazines during their careers and both predominantly about fashion, whether it be working for one or publishing their own. At the very beginning of his career Rankin, in 1991, with his friend Jefferson Hack started magazine  ¿Ã‚ ½Dazed and Confused ¿Ã‚ ½ this is still very popular and widely sold throughout the world. This was only the start for Rankin and he has gone on to produce magazines such as,  ¿Ã‚ ½RANK ¿Ã‚ ½,  ¿Ã‚ ½Another Magazine ¿Ã‚ ½ and  ¿Ã‚ ½Another Man ¿Ã‚ ½. Avedon was Art Director for  ¿Ã‚ ½Harper ¿Ã‚ ½s Bazaar ¿Ã‚ ½ at the beginning of his career and also worked for Vogue, Egoiste, The New Yorker and LIFE magazine.

In this essay I will be discussing the playwrights ideas of :: English Literature

In this essay I will be discussing the playwright's ideas of Manliness, Hostility and Aggression in A View from the Bridge. 'A View from the Bridge' is a play set in Brooklyn in the 1940s. The protagonist is Eddie, an Italian immigrant and longshoreman living in Brooklyn. Eddie lives with his wife and niece, and the play starts with them waiting for the arrival of Beatrice's two cousins, Marco and Rodolpho. They are illegal immigrants looking for work in order to fund their families at home in Italy. Rodolpho and Catherine seem to like each other, which upsets Eddie, as he seems to love Catherine for more than just a daughter or niece. This ultimately leads to the downfall of Eddie. The ideas of manliness, hostility and aggression create conflict in the play as Eddie and Marco are both battling to be the man of the house. These ideas also create conflict between Eddie and Rodolpho because, in Eddie's eyes, Rodolpho does not live up to the expectations of what a man should be. Eddie is also jealous of him, because of Rodolpho's relationship with Catherine. "A view from the Bridge" deals with the 'American Dream'; this is that immigrants came from countries, such as Italy, in order to make a better life for themselves. Arthur Miller was concerned with this living through the Depression, which bankrupted his father, and he saw the effects on the ordinary people. The play can be described as a Greek tragedy set in America. The play is set in the 1940's and so reflects the attitudes and feelings of the time, this is why it may be a little difficult for a modern day audience to relate to. America was seen as the land of opportunity for many people, to start a new life, escape their past or just for a change .People believed America held the key. However, this was not the case, as immigrants often lived in the most run down parts of town and found themselves out of work and with little money to live on or send to their families at home. The qualities that Eddie considers to be manly are the stereotypical, traditional views of manly qualities. One of these qualities is to be strong. Eddie tries to intimidate Rodolpho by getting him to box with him. Eddie is a good boxer and has had many years practise, however Rodolpho has never boxed. He is reluctant to box with Eddie 'I don't want to hit you, Eddie'. Another quality that Eddie considers to be 'manly' is for a man to provide for his family.

Does repositioning a patient every two hours prevent pressure ulcers?

Pressure ulcers are a common problem in all health care settings. Risk factors associated with increased pressure ulcer incidence have been identified. Activity or mobility limitation, incontinence, abnormalities in nutritional status, and altered consciousness are the most consistently reported risk factors for pressure ulcers. While evidence based protocols are in place are we doing enough to prevent pressure Ulcers?In the first Article I read, Developing a Protocol for Intensive Care Patients at High Risk for Pressure Ulcers it states That â€Å"National Database of Nursing Quality indicators report that facility acquired pressure ulcer rates for critical care units range between 7.14% and 14.5%† (Critical Care Nurse June 2012 Vol 30 no.3 77-80). The article goes on to say this number is still too high of an incidence. Before any protocol will be effective all personnel involved in direct patient care need to be trained to ensure continuity of care.The second article I read , Does Regular Repositioning Prevent Pressure Ulcers, states that â€Å"Despite gaps in our knowledge of optimal positions for specific patient groups, the ideal frequency of repositioning, and the complex relationships among support surfaces, repositioning practices and tissue interface pressures, contemporary clinicians and scholars continue to assert that repositioning is an essential component of a pressure ulcer prevention†.(Journal of Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nursing Nov 2008 Vo1 35 Number 6) The article goes on to say that repositioning every 4 hours along with alternating air mattresses are just as effective in preventing pressure  ulcers.The third article I read Preventing Pressure Ulcers in Hospitals: A systemic Review Of Nurse-Focused Quality Improvement Interventions stated that â€Å"pressure Ulcer prevention may reduce overall incidence of hospital-acquired pressure ulcers†. (The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety June 2011 Vol 3 7 Number 6) The article goes on to talk about the gaps in research and the need for more studies as well as the need for documenting details (where the ulcer is, what unit the pt is in, how long they have been in the hosp., pt’s co morbidities).Pain, infectious complications, prolonged and expensive hospitalizations, persistent open ulcers, and increased risk of death are all associated with the development of pressure ulcers. The tremendous variability in pressure ulcer prevalence and incidence in health care settings suggests that opportunities exist to improve outcomes for persons at risk for and with pressure ulcers. In doing this research I learned that even though we have made a lot of progress towards preventing pressure ulcers we still have a long way to go. I will be using the protocol of turning my patients every two hours and when they are at a higher risk I will initiate the alternating air mattress for them.

Tundra Biome - The Habitat Encyclopedia

Tundra Biome - The Habitat Encyclopedia The tundra is a terrestrial biome that is characterized by extreme cold, low biological diversity, long winters, brief growing seasons, and limited drainage. The harsh climate of the tundra imposes such formidable conditions on life that only the hardiest plants and animals can survive in this environment. The vegetation that grows on the tundra is restricted to a low diversity of small, ground-hugging plants that are well-adapted to survive in nutrient-poor soils. The animals that inhabit the tundra are, in most cases, migratory- they visit the tundra during the growing season to breed but then retreat to warmer, more southern latitudes or lower elevations when temperatures drop. Tundra habitat occurs in regions of the world that are both very cold and very dry. In the Northern Hemisphere, the Arctic lies between the North Pole and the boreal forest. In the Southern Hemisphere, the Antarctic tundra occurs on the Antarctic peninsula and on the remote islands that lie off  the coast of Antarctica (such as the South Shetland Islands and the South Orkney Islands). Outside of the polar regions, there is another type of tundra- alpine tundra- which occurs at at high altitudes on mountains, above the treeline. The soils that blanket the tundra are mineral-deprived and nutrient-poor. Animal droppings and dead organic matter provide the bulk of what nourishment is present in tundra soil. The growing season is so brief that only the topmost layer of soil thaws during the warm months. Any soils below a few inches deep remain permanently frozen, creating a layer of earth known as permafrost. This permafrost layer forms a water-barrier that prevents drainage of meltwater. During the summer, any water that thaws in the upper layers of the soil is trapped, forming a patchwork of lakes and marshes across the tundra. Tundra habitats are vulnerable to the effects of climate change and scientists fear that as global temperatures rise, tundra habitats might play a role in accelerating the rise in atmospheric carbon. Tundra habitats are traditionally carbon sinks- places that store more carbon than they release. As global temperatures rise, tundra habitats  may shift from storing carbon to releasing it in massive volumes. During the summer growing season, tundra plants grow quickly and, in doing so, they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The carbon remains trapped because when the growing season ends, the plant material freezes before it can decay and release the carbon back into the environment. As temperatures rise and areas of permafrost thaw, the tundra releases  the carbon it has stored for millennia back into the atmosphere. Key Characteristics The following are the key characteristics of tundra habitats: extreme coldlow biological diversitylong wintersbrief growing seasonlimited precipitationpoor drainagenutrient-poor soilspermafrost Classification The tundra biome is classified within the following habitat hierarchy: Biomes of the World Tundra Biome The tundra biome is divided into the following habitats: Arctic and Antarctic tundra - Arctic tundra is located in the Northern Hemisphere between the North Pole and the boreal forest. Antarctic tundra is located in the Southern Hemisphere on remote islands off the coast of Antarctica- such as the South Shetland Islands and the South Orkney Islands- and on the Antarctic peninsula. Arctic and Antarctic tundra supports about 1,700 species of plants including mosses, lichens, sedges, shrubs, and grasses.Alpine tundra - Alpine tundra is a high-altitude habitat that occurs on mountains around the world. Alpine tundra occurs at elevations that lie above the tree line. Alpine tundra soils differ from the tundra soils in polar regions in that they are usually well-drained. Alpine tundra supports tussock grasses, heaths, small shrubs, and dwarf trees. Animals of the Tundra Biome Some of the animals that inhabit the tundra biome include: Northern bog lemming (Synaptomys borealis) - The northern bog lemming is a small rodent that inhabits the tundra, bogs, and boreal forests of northern Canada and Alaska. Northern bog lemmings eat a variety of plants including grasses, mosses, and sedges. They also feed on some invertebrates such as snails and slugs. Northern bog lemmings are prey for owls, hawks, and mustelids.Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) - The arctic fox is a carnivore that inhabits the Arctic tundra. Arctic foxes feed on a variety of prey animals that includes lemmings, voles, birds, and fish. Arctic foxes have a number of adaptations to deal with the cold temperatures they must endure- including long, thick fur and an insulating layer of body fat.Wolverine (Gulo golo) - The wolverine is a large mustelid that lives in boreal forest, alpine tundra, and Arctic tundra habitats throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Wolverines are powerful predators that feed on many different mammal prey including rabbits, voles, lemmings , caribou, deer, moose, and elk. Polar bear (Ursus maritimus) - The polar bear inhabits the icecaps and Arctic tundra habitats in the Northern Hemisphere including areas of Russia, Alaska, Canada, Greenland and the Svalbard Archipelago. Polar bears are large carnivores that feed primarily on ringed seas and bearded seals. Muskox (Ovibos moschatus) - The muskox is large hoofed mammals that live in the Arctic tundra. Muskoxen have a sturdy, bison-like appearance, short legs and long, thick fur. Muskoxen are herbivores that feed on grasses, shrubs and woody vegetation. They also eat moss and lichens.Snow buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis) - The snow bunting is a perching bird that breeds in the Arctic tundra and in some areas of alpine tundra such as the Cairngorms in Scotland and the Cape Breton Highlands in Nova Scotia. Snow buntings migrate south during the winter months to escape the tundras coldest temperatures.Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) - The Arctic tern is a shorebird that breeds in the Arctic tundra and mig rates 12,000 miles to over-winter along the coast of Antarctica. Arctic terns feed on fish and invertebrates such as crabs, krill, mollusks, and marine worms.

Review of Transformation of War by Martin Van Creveld

Review of Transformation of War by Martin Van Creveld Free Online Research Papers For around 200 years conventional armies and military professionals have been basing their doctrine of warfighting on the theories and writings of von Clausewitz in his book On War. In The Transformation of War, Van Creveld goes to great lengths, citing many historical events, to prove that doctrine based on what he calls the â€Å"Clausewitzian Universe† is incorrect and obsolete, especially when used to deal with the realm of Low Intensity Conflict prevalent in the world today. Van Creveld’s purpose is â€Å"to address some of the most fundamental problems presented by war in all ages: by whom it is fought, what is all about, how it is fought, what it is fought for, and why it is fought.† Martin van Creveld (born 1946) is an Israeli military historian and theorist. He was born in the Netherlands but has lived in Israel for most of his life. He holds degrees from the London School of Economics and The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he has been on the faculty since 1971. He is the author of fifteen books on military history and strategy, of which Command in War (1985), Supplying War (1977, 2nd edition 2004), and The Sword and the Olive (1998) are among the best known. He has lectured or taught at virtually every strategic institute, military or civilian, in the Western world, including the U.S. Naval War College, most recently in December, 1999 and January, 2000 (Wikipedia, 2006). Van Creveld begins The Transformation of War by roughly defining contemporary war and the uselessness of deterrence policies, based on nuclear and high-tech weapons, aimed at states (countries) that don’t have such capabilities. Written in 1991, he continues by illustrating the prevailing trend toward Low Intensity Conflicts, opposed to conventional wars, since World War II with exception of the limited conflict during the Gulf War. Van Creveld’s view is that with the propensity toward Low Intensity Conflict, Clausewitz’s theories being inadequate to cope, and conventional armies being inflexible to adapt, completely new strategies need to be implemented toward the Clausewitz Trinity (Army, State, and People). He goes so far to suggest that all Conventional Standing Armies be dissolved and reorganized as unconventional forces to deal with the prevailing type of conflict. Van Creveld’s position that doctrine, based on Clausewitz, is outdated is absolutely accurate although; current should not be totally discounted but drastically modified and adapted to meet the ever changing dynamic of Low Intensity Conflict. The notion that standing conventional armies be completely dissolved is flawed; there is still a great need for these armies, for example Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban regime and the recent invasion of Iraq. After the initial phases of these two operations conventional standing armies were needed to establish security around the remaining infrastructure in the midst of the power vacuums that materialized. Standing armies still play an important role in national defense and with a little molding may fit into new doctrine developed for Low Intensity Conflict. Another possible course of action, using van Creveld’s theories, would be to bifurcate the military. One branch developed to deal with conventional conflicts and one to deal with low intensity conflicts. Any military professional desiring to explore alternative views of modern doctrine that are based on Clausewitz and those stagnated in a conventional mindset, namely leaders at operational and strategic levels, will greatly benefit from reading Martin van Creveld’s The Transformation of War. Research Papers on Review of "Transformation of War" by Martin Van CreveldUnreasonable Searches and SeizuresRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andOpen Architechture a white paperQuebec and CanadaEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenThe Project Managment Office SystemAppeasement Policy Towards the Outbreak of World War 2Canaanite Influence on the Early Israelite ReligionMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductTrailblazing by Eric Anderson

The Citizen Genêt Affair of 1793

The Citizen Genà ªt Affair of 1793 The new United States federal government had largely managed to avoid serious diplomatic incidents until 1793. And then along came Citizen Genà ªt. Now more infamously known as â€Å"Citizen Genà ªt,† Edmond Charles Genà ªt served as France’s foreign minister to the United States from 1793 to 1794. Rather than maintaining friendly relationships between the two nations, Genà ªt’s activities entangled France and the United States in a diplomatic crisis that endangered the United States government’s attempts to remain neutral in the conflict between Great Britain and Revolutionary France. While France ultimately resolved the dispute by removing Genà ªt from his position, the events of the Citizen Genà ªt affair forced the United States to create its first set of procedures governing international neutrality. Citizen Genà ªt Edmond Charles Genà ªt was virtually raised to be a government diplomat. Born in Versailles in 1763, he was the ninth son of a lifelong French civil servant, Edmond Jacques Genà ªt, a head clerk in the ministry of foreign affairs. The elder Genà ªt analyzed British naval strength during the Seven Years War and monitored the progress of the American Revolutionary War. By the age of 12, the young Edmond Genà ªt was considered a prodigy due to his ability to read French, English, Italian, Latin, Swedish, Greek, and German. In 1781, at age 18, Genà ªt was appointed court translator and in 1788 was assigned to the French embassy in Saint Petersburg, Russia to serve as ambassador. Genà ªt eventually came to despise all monarchical systems of government, including not only the French monarchy but the Tsarist Russian regime under Catherine the Great, as well. Needless to say, Catherine was offended and in 1792, declared Genà ªt persona non grata, calling his presence â€Å"not only superfluous but even intolerable.† The same year, the anti-monarchist Girondist group rose to power in France and appointed Genà ªt to his post of minister to the United States. Diplomatic Setting of the Citizen Genà ªt Affair During the 1790s, American foreign policy was dominated by the multi-national fallout being generated by the French Revolution. After the violent overthrow of the French monarchy in 1792, the French revolutionary government faced an often-violent colonial power struggle with the monarchies of Great Britain and Spain. In 1793, President George Washington had just appointed former U.S. ambassador to France Thomas Jefferson as America’s first Secretary of State. When the French Revolution led to war between America’s top trade partner Britain and American Revolution ally France, President Washington urged Jefferson, along with the rest of his Cabinet, to maintain a policy of neutrality. However, Jefferson, as leader of the anti-federalist Democratic-Republican Party, sympathized with the French revolutionaries. Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, leader of the Federalist Party, favored maintaining existing alliances- and treaties- with Great Britain. Convinced that supporting either Great Britain or France in a war would place the still comparatively weak United States in imminent danger of invasion by foreign armies, Washington issued a proclamation of neutrality on April 22, 1793. It was this setting that the French government sent Genà ªt – one of its most experienced diplomats- to America to seek the U.S. government’s help in protecting its colonies in the Caribbean. As far as the French government was concerned, America could help them as either an active military ally or as a neutral supplier of arms and materials. Genà ªt was also assigned to: Obtain advance payments on debts owed to France by the United States;Negotiate a commercial agreement between the United States and France; andImplement provisions of the 1778 Franco-American treaty allowing France to attack British merchant ships using French ships stationed in American ports. Unfortunately, Genà ªt’s actions in trying to carry out his mission would bring him – and potentially his government- into direct conflict with the U.S. government. Hello, America. I’m Citizen Genà ªt and I’m Here to Help As soon as he stepped off the ship in Charleston, South Carolina on April 8, 1793, Genà ªt introduced himself as â€Å"Citizen Genà ªt† in an effort to emphasize his pro-revolutionary stance. Genà ªt hoped his affection for French revolutionaries would help him win the hearts and minds of Americans who had recently fought their own revolution, with the help of France, of course. The first American heart and mind Genà ªt apparently won belonged to South Carolina governor William Moultrie. Genà ªt convinced Gov. Moultrie to issue privateering commissions that authorized the bearers, regardless of their country of origin, to board and seize British merchant ships and their cargo for their own profit, with the approval and protection of the French government. In May 1793, Genà ªt arrived in Philadelphia, then the U.S. capital. However, when he presented his diplomatic credentials, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson told him that President Washington’s Cabinet considered his agreement with Gov. Moultrie sanctioning the operations of foreign privateers in American seaports to be a violation of the U.S. policy of neutrality. Taking more wind from Genà ªt’s sails, the U.S. Government, already holding favorable trade privileges in French ports, refused to negotiate a new trade treaty. Washington’s Cabinet also refused Genà ªt’s request for advance payments on U.S. debts to the French government. Genà ªt Defies Washington Not to be deterred by the U.S. government’s warnings, Genà ªt began outfitting another French pirate ship in Charleston Harbor named the Little Democrat. Defying further warnings from U.S. officials to not allow the ship to leave port, Genà ªt continued to prepare the Little Democrat to sail. Further fanning the flames, Genà ªt threatened to bypass the U.S. government by taking his case for French piracy of British ships to the American people, who he believed would back his cause. However, Genà ªt failed to realize that President Washington- and his international neutrality policy- enjoyed great public popularity. Even as President Washington’s Cabinet was discussing how to convince the French government to recall him, Citizen Genà ªt allowed the Little Democrat to sail and begin attacking British merchant ships. Upon learning of this direct violation of the U.S. government’s neutrality policy, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton asked Secretary of State Jefferson to immediately expel Genà ªt from the United States. Jefferson, however, decided to take the more diplomatic tact of sending a request Genà ªt’s recall to the French government. By the time Jefferson’s request for Genà ªt’s recall reached France, political power within the French government shifted. The radical Jacobins group had replaced the slightly less radical Girondins, who had originally sent Genà ªt to the United States. The foreign policy of the Jacobins favored maintaining friendlier relations with neutral countries that could provide France with crucially needed food. Already unhappy with his failure to fulfill his diplomatic mission and suspecting him of remaining loyal to the Girondins, the French government stripped Genà ªt of his position and demanded that the U.S. government hand him over to French officials sent to replace him. Aware that Genà ªt’s return to France would almost certainly result in his execution, President Washington and Attorney General Edmund Randolph allowed him to remain in the United States. The Citizen Genà ªt affair came to a peaceful end, with Genà ªt himself continuing to reside in the United States until his death in 1834. The Citizen Genà ªt Affair Solidified  US Neutrality Policy In response to the Citizen Genà ªt affair, the United States immediately established a formal policy regarding international neutrality. On August 3, 1793, President Washington’s Cabinet unanimously signed a set of regulations regarding neutrality. Less than a year later, on June 4, 1794, Congress formalized those regulations with its passage of the Neutrality Act of 1794. As the basis for U.S. neutrality policy, the Neutrality Act of 1794 makes it illegal for any American to wage war against any country currently at peace with the United States. In part, the Act declares: â€Å"If any person shall within the territory or jurisdiction of the United States begin or set on foot or provide or prepare the means for any military expedition or enterprise ... against the territory or dominions of any foreign prince or state of whom the United States was at peace that person would be guilty of a misdemeanor.† Although amended several times over the years, the Neutrality Act of 1794 remains in force today.

Ratio Analysis Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ratio Analysis - Coursework Example Through the use of accounting analysis using ratios, financial analysts are able to assess and compare the present performance with the previous and even with other similar firms under the same industry. This is through either vertical or horizontal analysis. For instance, general through the above analysis, it is generally appearing that Apple and Inc is operating under favorable conditions compared to Hewlett-Packard. For instance, there many stakeholders who have interest in knowing how the business is performing through analysis of the financial reports and statements (Stickney, 2007). Additionally, creditors, shareholders, staff, and the government among others are usually investigating the state of affairs of the company to assess the leverage, profitability, efficiency and the liquidity position of a corporation. Sometimes accounting ratios are used as a basis of controls by business entities. All the stakeholders in a company are given objectives and goals set which they are required to achieve and at the end of financial year, their performance is assessed to note any problem that might have occurred. Firstly, the Liquidity ratios are used in measuring the capability of a business in meeting its short run maturity obligations and assess its credit position and the level it can use debt capital as a source of finance (Stickney, 2007). For instance, the current ratio determines the liquidity position of an enterprise. Furthermore, the company creditors need to know this to determine the credit worthiness of a firm. From our ratios, it is evident that Apple Inc. ltd is at a better liquidity position in comparison to Hewlett-Packard which has a lower ratio. The lower ratio portrays that the company is at greater liquidity risk. Apple Inc. Ltd is, therefore, exposed to more cash position and it in a position of meeting its short-term obligation compared to Hewlett Packard. Secondly, the gearing (leverage) ratio usually

Budget Management Analysis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Budget Management Analysis - Research Paper Example Thirdly, the research paper will state the primary stakeholders of the hospital and their views towards redesigning of the facility and its associated budget. In the last section, the research paper will state the risks involved in pursuing the redesigning of the facility and the risks of not redesigning the hospital. Facility redesign According to the studies conducted by Sawyer (2009), facility is the space whereby employees of an organization carry out their respective duties while design refers to the layout or the architecture of the mentioned space. Sawyer (2009) further stated that facility’s design is an integral component of the operations of an organization because it determines the results of the production process and it goes a long way in meeting employees’ needs. Designing of a facility is usually aimed at ensuring that there is smooth flow of information, and work material within an organization’s space to enable operations to proceed smoothly. Saw yer (2009) stated that a good design of a facility is usually able to integrate employees’ needs, work materials, as well as machinery in a single and effective system. The designing and redesigning of a hospital facility usually takes into consideration various factors such as safety within the facility, the ease of movement and communication, space utilization, material handling, and the impact on employees’ satisfaction and morale. ... he estimated budget for redesigning the facility is presented in the table below: Item Estimated cost($) Architecture’s fee 1500 Constructor’s fee 2000 Construction materials 3000 Purchase of new items 4000 Total 10,500 It is assumed that the facility to be redesigned is the general ward that holds patients with less severe medical cases and therefore the facility does not entail numerous complexities. Moreover, the nurses’ lounge is also located in this general ward. The construction fee is only $2000 and it includes the cost of labor. The amount is considerable small because the work involved will be less, as it will just involve a makeover. The hospital will separately purchase the construction materials listed by the constructor in order to avoid an excess or exaggerated budget arising from the inflated prices by the constructor. The materials will include things such as paints, timber, nails, pipes, cables, and cement, among others. Redesigning the facility will also involve putting in place new items that support the new design, and hence the $4000 budget, which will cover for items such as curtains, beddings that match with the new wall paintings. Other items that will be purchased include new computers, furniture, and communication systems that will be installed at the nurses’ lounge. The total budget for the entire project will be $10,500, which is a considerable amount but it is likely to give the hospital good returns on their investment. Management goals that will be supported by the expenditure It is of essence to note that the redesigning of the facility was implemented because of a management decision that was earlier made. Therefore, redesigning of the facility supports certain management goals that also have an impact of the financial

English class Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

English class - Essay Example Thus, the article finds that a general apprehension exists that video games cause violent behavior in children. However, the article challenges this contention as it does not seem tenable, though it concedes to the notion that to a certain extent, video games may impact children’s behavior. The article focuses on the premise that video games contain a lot of violence, bloodshed, objectification of females and sexual content. However, it emphasizes a more significant concern that viewing experience in the media, in terms of audio visual components, are â€Å"extraordinarily life like, and these effects can be particularly striking in violent games† (Video Games and Violence 1). It also concedes to the fact that despite the existence of rating systems by the ESRB, children disregard the classification and even those below 13 years watch the content that is permissible to those in the age group of 17. The article also refers to research studies that â€Å"lend credence to concerns about the impact of violent video games† (Video Games and Violence 3). However, this does not prove that games such as GTA cause violent behavior in children. The article, further, challenges this concept by arguing that there is â€Å"little or no evidence to support any of these theories† which purport that violence in the video games such as GTA can provoke violent behavior in children (Video Games and Violence 2). I believe that exposure to violent media or video games alone cannot make children to indulge in violent behavior. My research premise is based on the concept that many factors such as genetic framework, social circumstances, psychological reasons etc cause violent behaviors in humans. Therefore, children who possess any such specific traits or who remain exposed to any of the causative elements, stand the chance of displaying violent behavior. I do not agree with the evidence based on a study among 1254 students, which indicates that violent games cause aggression in

Adult Aging & Development Media Log Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Adult Aging & Development Media Log - Article Example The article has covered pretty much all the points on nutrition and gives a good information oh healthy eating. The authors have PhD qualification and have done justice to the article in providing needed information about different nutritional requirements.Although it would have made the writing more better if it explained how these foods helped different parts of body in their maintenance. The introductory paragraph of the article could have been more attractive and detailing in order to catch the attention of the readers. The writer has given a wide view on stress but it would have been better if the effect of stress on mental health was mentioned more. stress but if vitamin supplements were suggested it would have been more beneficial. Care givers can be also advised in the article to know the elderly people more intimately which would allow them to take better care of them. One thing which was attractive about the article was that the author has given some reference where the caregivers can resort for assistance. The article could have been more elaborative as it seems to be a bit short with information. The writing should also suggest how counseling will benefit them in overall performance of their profession. The article could have suggested to the readers how elderly people can avoid dementia .The age group of people if provided would have given information about the people who are more prone to this disease. The writer should have mentioned whether diet and lifestyle has any affect on developing dementia. The information on the disease could have been more detailed as people have less knowledge about such illnesses. The article can explain the experience of people suffering from this illness and how they are coping up with life. The various treatments available for the same could have been mentioned in the article. An

Effective Public Speaking Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Effective Public Speaking - Research Paper Example Public speaking has been misunderstood to mean to present an official speech before a broad audience. Having such a notion makes us fail to perfect on our daily conversations that will reflect on a bigger audience and fret when we are requested to carry out a presentation. The expectations we have on people as they present their speech makes us criticize every simple mistake they make. The reason we have such expectations is that of the positions they hold and the influence they have on us. Having the information on such expectations, most known public speakers engage in some form of training and mentorship. They have experts who advise them on how to present a flawless speech. The experts are always available when they are giving the speech and analyze it for the purpose of perfecting their skills (OHair, Friedrich & Dixon, 2007). Most people believe that they will only have to go to such mentorship programs when they are preparing for a major speech, or when their social status has risen and required them to speak frequently to people. However, public speaking is something that we can personally build on and perfect, as we engage in our daily conversations. The fact is, the call to speak to the public may come when least expected and the kind of presentation we make will determine how many more doors will be opened to us. Irrespective of how small or irrelevant the audience may appear to be, a person should always desire to be the best or above others (Grice & Skinner, 2000). On the other hand, it is necessary for a person not to focus on the audience at the expense of what they are presenting it is easier to speak to people comfortably if one understands what they are presenting, rather than when they know whom they are talking to. Surprisingly, people appear comfortable when they are speaking to a particular group and lose themselves when the audience changes.  

History of Art 101 Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

History of Art 101 - Movie Review Example The most evident elements include the Baths of Caracalla and the matching of soldiers led by the eagle ‘king of the sky’ curved or molded from metal The town setting built and developed with aspects of the Trajans Column, Circus Maximus and Curia Hostilia (Senate House) was always utilized to pass laws and decision to the military activities. The ancient assembly bell is featured as an art and architectural piece, which sermons people to Verona Arena an architectural element, where announcements were made (Veronus). Winding stairs in ancient Rome was common especially in Villas and Domus. The series uses Alyscamps in its development of the war activities between Rome and France. Daily activities are full of ancient civilization approaches and feature the Roman watermill, Antonine Wall in Scotland and Limes Germanicus in the military soldier activities of the day. The Rome series opens with soldier going out to defend the kingdom with their eagle mess always before them. In the film, the soldiers; Titus Pullo and Lucius Veronus spend time in the Domus that winds up with stairs and small window openings light the rooms (Veronus). The Titus Pullo and Lucius Veronus appear in one scene being in Egypt when in an incident of war, their fellow soldiers were killed and decided to escape. Art and architecture brought out in scenes in the right mix of the ancient setting of the movie. Together with clothing and the color, mixes specifically red for the soldiers, brown for the protagonists, white for inhabitants of the empire leadership

Adult Aging & Development Media Log Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Adult Aging & Development Media Log - Article Example The article has covered pretty much all the points on nutrition and gives a good information oh healthy eating. The authors have PhD qualification and have done justice to the article in providing needed information about different nutritional requirements.Although it would have made the writing more better if it explained how these foods helped different parts of body in their maintenance. The introductory paragraph of the article could have been more attractive and detailing in order to catch the attention of the readers. The writer has given a wide view on stress but it would have been better if the effect of stress on mental health was mentioned more. stress but if vitamin supplements were suggested it would have been more beneficial. Care givers can be also advised in the article to know the elderly people more intimately which would allow them to take better care of them. One thing which was attractive about the article was that the author has given some reference where the caregivers can resort for assistance. The article could have been more elaborative as it seems to be a bit short with information. The writing should also suggest how counseling will benefit them in overall performance of their profession. The article could have suggested to the readers how elderly people can avoid dementia .The age group of people if provided would have given information about the people who are more prone to this disease. The writer should have mentioned whether diet and lifestyle has any affect on developing dementia. The information on the disease could have been more detailed as people have less knowledge about such illnesses. The article can explain the experience of people suffering from this illness and how they are coping up with life. The various treatments available for the same could have been mentioned in the article. An

History of Art 101 Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

History of Art 101 - Movie Review Example The most evident elements include the Baths of Caracalla and the matching of soldiers led by the eagle ‘king of the sky’ curved or molded from metal The town setting built and developed with aspects of the Trajans Column, Circus Maximus and Curia Hostilia (Senate House) was always utilized to pass laws and decision to the military activities. The ancient assembly bell is featured as an art and architectural piece, which sermons people to Verona Arena an architectural element, where announcements were made (Veronus). Winding stairs in ancient Rome was common especially in Villas and Domus. The series uses Alyscamps in its development of the war activities between Rome and France. Daily activities are full of ancient civilization approaches and feature the Roman watermill, Antonine Wall in Scotland and Limes Germanicus in the military soldier activities of the day. The Rome series opens with soldier going out to defend the kingdom with their eagle mess always before them. In the film, the soldiers; Titus Pullo and Lucius Veronus spend time in the Domus that winds up with stairs and small window openings light the rooms (Veronus). The Titus Pullo and Lucius Veronus appear in one scene being in Egypt when in an incident of war, their fellow soldiers were killed and decided to escape. Art and architecture brought out in scenes in the right mix of the ancient setting of the movie. Together with clothing and the color, mixes specifically red for the soldiers, brown for the protagonists, white for inhabitants of the empire leadership

Bahlawane discussion Essay Example for Free

Bahlawane discussion Essay Conclusion Taking in account the scheme of galactoglucan synthesis regulation (Fig. 4. 1) and the scheme of motility regulation (Fig. 4. 2) proposed in this study, we may try to follow the effect of such regulation paths in the life styles of the bacteria. The last one is named as free – living microorganism or as symbiont in the plant root. In the first case, the bacteria are exposed to dryness and nutrients starvation. At this stage, the biofilm production is a pre-requisite for survival. Therefore, the EPS’s biosynthesis has to be switched ON. As it is quite improbable that the cell density is high enough to activate the quorum sensing system, we can speculate that MucR plays a key role in activating the succinoglycan biosynthesis. Since the soil exhibits very low level of Pi, galactoglucan is, at this point produced through the activation via phoB and WggR. Upon biofilm formation, the cell density probably increases and could activate the quorum sensing system, allowing the bacteria to produce more galactoglucan and swarm towards better conditions. In such conformation, the cells present within the centre of the swarming population are non motile and synthesized EPS; thus the cells present at the migration front are highly motile but do not synthesized EPS. It would be interesting to clarify whether a cell differentiation, as proposed by Soto (Soto et al. , 2002), takes place at this stage. Finally, if the host is present in the next neighbourhood the chemotactic compounds, as well as the nutrients found in the rood exudates, will attract the bacteria. When approaching the root, the moisture increases, along with the nutrients availability; so that swarming motility will be replaced by swimming motility that decline progressively. Indeed, the bacteria attached to the root, increasing the cell density that may lead to the inhibition of flagella production via ExpR / QS. Instead, EPS are produced, allowing recognition between the plant and the microbe as well as the invasion of the new synthesized infection thread. Once within the root, the bacteria will differentiate to bacteroid and start fixing nitrogen. We tried to highlight in this thesis the relevance of exopolysaccharides and motility for an efficient symbiosis. Great advances have been made the last years, leading to the identification of the quorum sensing interaction with motility. We participate in inclusion of MucR, as new regulator of motility and ExpR as requisite for swarming. However, the full understanding of the influence of motility in symbiosis establishment will require finding out which signals are inducing mucR and exoR/ exoS. Moreover, some tests have to be implemented to investigate the symbiosis establishment in more realistic conditions. Indeed, the bacteria are usually directly inoculated to the root, so that motility, via swarming or swimming is not required. Acknowledgments First and foremost, I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Alfred Puhler, Chair of the Genetics department, for allowing me use the very good infrastructure that promotes a very pleasant and conducive atmosphere during my research using performant techniques. I am especially grateful to Prof. Dr. Anke Becker, my supervisor, for giving me the chance to come back to research. Without her advices, ideas and resources, this work would not be possible and achieved. Thus, I thank her too for the freedom she gave me, as well as her support to test new ideas and her great help by conceiving and writing the manuscripts that become the pillars of this manuscript. Within the laboratory members, I would like to thank first Dr. Birgit Baumgarth who introduced me to the lab and to the investigated organism. Then, special thanks to Dr.Matthew McIntosh for the quorum sensing – related work and his help for preparing the derived publication. Furthermore, I would like to deeply thank Dr. Natasha Pobigaylo for her friendship, her helpful discussions and for giving me courage when I am about to lose it. I thank Manuela Mayer, too, for the assistance in microarray hybridizations as well as Dr. Lisa Krol, Javier Serrania and Thomas Montfort for the everyday help in the lab. Finally, I would like to thank all Exopol group members for the support and advices. Least, I would like to thank my family for their unending and heartwarming support in many ways. Special thanks to Rachida Bendaou, my mother-in-law, for her support in caring my children during my research. I would like to thank my children, Ines, Soraya and Jasmine, for filling up my life with love and happiness. I would like to apologize for the bad mood and stress situations that are unfortunately connected with such a thesis. My heartfelt gratitude to my understanding and loving husband, Naoufal, for his moral and financial support, for believing in me and for sharing the passion for science with me. Resume In order to enter symbiosis with its legume partner, Sinorhizobium meliloti has to face continual changing conditions. It has more ability to adapt quickly to the situation than the ability to face it efficiently that makes the difference in term of symbiosis efficiency. For the first interactions with its host, motility is required by S. meliloti to move towards the chemotactic compounds released by its host when exopolysaccharides (EPSs) are required later on, for the attachment to the root as well as for the invasion of the infection thread, leading to the formation of the root nodule. We focused in this study the regulatory networks leading to the coordination of motility and EPS’s production in the strain Rm2011. Depending on the phosphate concentration encountered in the environment Rm2011 synthesizes two different exopolysaccharides (EPS). Galactoglucan (EPS II) is produced under phosphate starvation but also in the presence of extra copies of the transcriptional regulator WggR (ExpG) or as a consequence of a mutation in mucR. The galactoglucan biosynthesis gene cluster contains the operons wga (expA), wge (expE), wgd (expD), and wggR (expG). Two promoters, differentially controlled by WggR, PhoB, and MucR, were identified upstream of each of these operons. The proximal promoters of the wga, wge, and wgd transcription units were constitutively active when separated from the upstream regulatory sequences. Promoter activity studies and the positions of predicted PhoB and WggR binding sites suggested that the proximal promoters are cooperatively induced by PhoB and WggR. MucR was shown to strongly inhibit the distal promoters and bound to the DNA in the vicinity of the distal transcription start sites. An additional inhibitory effect on the distal promoter of the structural galactoglucan biosynthesis genes was identified as a new feature of WggR in a mucR mutant. Motility is organized in S. meliloti in a hierarchical cascade, with Class Ia genes, encoding the major regulator of motility VisNR; controlling the expression of the class Ib gene, rem, which encodes a central regulator, activating the expression of the downstream Class II and class III genes. We could demonstrate that MucR binds a DNA sequence upstream of rem, following a different mechanism as previously observed upon binding upstream of the wg genes. By this way, MucR inhibits rem expression as well as the expression of the Rem-regulated genes such as flaF and flgG. Furthermore, we addressed a balance of the swimming and swarming abilities of several S. meliloti strains derivatives of Rm2011. We could show that all strains, able to build flagella, were swimming on low viscosity agar plates. However, swarming over high viscosity agar plates required all a functional expR / sin locus, the ability to build flagellum and the production of exopolysaccharides. Finally, we propose a model for the coordination of motility and EPSs synthesis in S. meliloti.