Term Paper (Climate Change) Essay Example for Free

Term Paper ( clime Change) EssayAcknowledgementIt is a great chance for me to write round subject like mode Change. At the time of preparing this destination paper I am g one and only(a) through antithetic books and websites which helps me to get acquired with new topics. I after part usually focusing on the topics which be important for us to understand about thus subject easily.I acknowledge my deepest gratitude to our de arest English teacher Sir Benedict Geropn who is always sincere and helpful in making us understand the different system in making a research paper. IntroductionClimate Change is changing our economy, health and community in diverse ways. Scientists warn that if we do not sharply curb humor change now, the result bequeath likely be disastrous. There are many questions that is need to be answer. So that we, humans will make about moves in these problem. Carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutions are collecting in the atmosphere like a thicken ing blanket, living accommodations the fair weathers awake and causing the planet to warm up.Climate change is a complex phenomenon, and its profuse-scale impacts are hard to prefigure far in advance. But each year scientists learn more about how climate change is touch oning the planet and our communities, and most agree that speed of light consequences are likely to occur if current trends continue. In addition to impacting our water resources, energy supply, transportation, agriculture and ecosystems, the United States global change research program concludes that climate change also poses unique challenges to human health such as* Signifi jakest increases in the risk of illness and death related to extreme heat and heat waves are very likely.* Some diseases transmitted by food, water and insects are likely to increase.* Certain groups, including children, the elderly and the poor are most endangered to a range of climate related health effects. Climate Change affects ou r environment and natural resources, and impacts our way of life in many ways these are the examples* Rising sea levels threaten coastal communities and ecosystems.* Changes in the patterns and amount of rainfall, as well as changes in the timing and amount of stream flow, can affect water supplies and water quality and the production of hydroelectricity changing ecosystems influence geographic ranges of many plants and animal species and the timing of their lifecycle events, such as migration and reproduction. We can prepare for some of the likely change impacts to reduce their effects on ecosystem and human well-being. Making such preparations is known as adaptation. Examples of adaptation include strengthening water preservation programs, upgrading storm water systems, developing early warning systems for extreme heat events and preparing for stronger storms through better emergency preparation and response strategies.We can each lead an important role in stopping climate change . It is not too late to postulate a significant impact on future climate change and its effects on us. With appropriate actions by g everyplacenments, communities, individuals and businesses, we can reduce the amount of greenhouse gas pollution we release and lower the risk of practically greater warming and severe consequences. Many of the actions that we can take to address climate change will have other benefits, such as cleaner, healthy dividing line. In addition, communities can take action to prepare for the changes we know are coming.I. IntroductionThe worlds climate is changing and the changes will have an howling(a) impact on our planets pack, ecosystems, cities and energy use. Average global air temperatures are already 1.4 degrees laster than they were at the start of the 20th degree centigrade and have risen about 1.1 degree F over just the last 30 years. What is the difference between weather and climate? Climate get a line the average or typical conditions of temperature, relation humid(prenominal)ity, cloudiness, precipitation, wind speed and direction and other meteorological factors that prevail globally or regionally for extended periods. withstand describes the hourly or daily conditions that people experience each day. Which is why its often said that Climate is what you await weather is what you get.People expect the weather to change, but have a harder time agreeing exactly how climate is changing. This is because climate change manifests itself differently in different places because people tend to toy with extreme events- such as very hot or cold days of hurricanes and droughts more than subtle changes in trends and because in that location have been disagreements between scientists about the magnitude, causes and effects of climate change. What are the solutions for climate change? The outset step is admitting that you have a problem. Some of these solutions are Energy conservation, Renewable energy and sequestration. In this research you will know how these things helps in solving climate change.II. What is Weather?Weather is what is going on in the sky and air. Different places can have different kinds of weather at the same time. In one place, there maybe a thunderstorm, in another place there may be snow. In yet another place the weather may ba sunny and warm. Temperature- how hot or cold it is always a part of weather.rainy Weather when drops of water fall from clouds, the weather is rainy. Sometimes, lots of rain falls, which is collect heavy rain. Other times, only a little rain falls, which is called light rain. showery, Light Rain and Heavy Rain all describe the weather.Weather is violent storms, rains, sleet, rail, snow, temperature, wind and much more. It is basically whatever is happening in the air around us. Is the state of atmosphere, to the degree that it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or starry, clear or cloudy. Most weather phenomena occur in the troposphere, just below the str atosphere. Weather generally refers to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity, whereas climate is the term for the average atmospheric conditions over longer periods of time. When used with our qualifications, weather is tacit to be the weather of earth.Weather is driven by air pressure differences between one place and another these pressure and temperature differences can occur collectable to the sun angle at any particular spot, which varies by latitude from the tropics. The strong temperatures contrast between polar and tropical air gives rise to the commons stream. Weather systems in the mid-latitudes, such as extra tropical cyclones, are caused by instabilities of the jet stream flow. Because the Earths axis tilted relative to its orbital plane, sunlight is incident a different angles at different times of the year.Surface temperature differences in turn cause pressure differences higher statures are cooler than lower altitude due to differences in compression ne ating. Studying how the weather works on another planet has been helpful in arrangement how weather works on earth.On Earth, common weather phenomena include wind, cloud, rain, snow, fog and dust storms. Less common events include natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons and ice storms. Almost all familiar weather phenomena occur in the troposphere. Weather does occur in the stratosphere and can affect weather lower down feather in the troposphere, but the exact mechanisms are pearly understood. Weather occurs primarily due to air pressure differences between one place to another these differences can occur due to the sun angle at any particular spot, which varies by latitude from the tropics. In other words, the farther from the tropics you lay, the lower the sun angle is, which causes those locations to be cooler due to the indirect sunlight. The strong temperature contrast between polar and tropical air gives rise to the jet stream. Weather Systems in the tropic s, such as monsoons or organized thunderstorms systems, are caused by different processes.III. What is Climate?Is weather the same a climate? No, because weather is what happens in one place on a single day, or over a few days or weeks. When it rains or snows, people say, The weather is wet. When it is warm impertinent people say the weather is hot. Climate on the other hand, is the type of weather a place has over 30 or more years. For example, people say Death valley has a desert climate. Climate is the weather that a place usually has year after year. Scientists study temperature and precipitation records over 30 or more years to determine an areas climate such record show, for example, that Death Valley in California has a desert climate.Climate encompasses that statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, precipitation, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods. Climate can be contrasted t o weather, which is the present condition of these elements and their variations over shorter periods.The climate of a location is affected by its latitude, terrain and altitude, as well as nearby water bodies and their currents. Climate can be classified according ti the average and the typical ranges of different variables, most commonly temperature and precipitation. The most commonly used classification strategy was originally developed by Wladimir Koppen. A regions climate is generated by the Climate System which has five components Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Cryospher, Land Surface and Biosphere.A. Four master(prenominal) factors that determine climate arei. AltitudeAltitude refers to the vertical distance between the lowest point and the highest point of an area. People generally compare a lands altitude by measuring the distance from sea level to the highest point. The koppen climate classification uses altitude to divide the climate regions in to the categories for low, mid and high altitudes.Altitude or height is defined based on the linguistic context in which it is used- aviation, geometry, geographical survey, sports and more- As a general definition position is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or up direction, between a acknowledgement datum and a point or object. The prolongation datum also often varies according to the context. Although the term altitude is commonly used to mean the height above the sea level of a location, in geography the term elevation is often preferred for this usage.Vertical distance measurements in the down direction are commonly referred to us depth. In aviation, the term altitude can have several meanings, and is always qualified by either explicitly adding a modifier or implicitly through the context of the communication. Parties exchanging information must be clear which definition is being used aviation altitude is measured using either Mean Sea take aim (MSL) or Local Ground Level (LGL) as the re ference datum.The earths atmosphere is divided into several altitude regions. The troposphere- surface to 8000 criterions (5.0 mi) at the poles- 18000 meter (11 mi) at the equator, ending at the tropo-pause. The stratosphere- troposphere to 50 kilometers (31 mi) The Mesosphere-Stratosphere to 85 kilometers (53 mi). Thermosphere- Mesosphere to 675 kilometers (419 mi) and the exosphere which is from the thermosphere to 1000 kilometers (6200 mi).Relation between the temperature and altitude in Earths atmosphere. The Environmental Lapse tread (ELR), is the rate of decrease of temperature with altitude in the stationary atmosphere of a given time and location. As an average, the external Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) defines an International Standard Atmosphere (ISA) with a temperature lapse rate of 6.49 K (oC)/ 1000 m (3.56oF or 1.98 K(o()/1000 Ft) from sea levels to 11 kilometers (36 000 ft)Effects of high altitude in humans. Medicine recognizes that altitudes above 1 500 meters (4900 ft) start to affect human, and extreme altitude above 5 500- 6 000 meters (18 000- 20 000 ft0 cannot be for good tolerated by humans by reducing the partial pressure of oxygen. The higher the altitude, the more likely are serious effects. The human body can take over to high altitude by breathing faster, having a higher heart rate, and adjusting its blood chemistry. It can take two days or weeks to adapt to high altitude.ii. LatitudeLatitude the distance of a region is from the equator, to the north or south. A regions latitude determines how much solar energy it receives from the sun, which in turn factors in to the regions over all temperature.In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinated that specifies the north-south position of a point on the Earths surface. Lines of constant latitude, or parallels, run equator to 90o at the poles. Latitude is used together with longitude to specify the precise location of features in the surface of the Earth. Since the actual s ensual surface at the Earth is too complex for mathematical analysis, two levels of abstraction are employed in the definition of these coordinates. In the first step the physical surface is sculpted by the geoid, a surface which approximates the mean sea level over the oceans and its continuation under the land masses, the twinkling step is to approximate the geoid by a mathematically simple reference surface.The simplest choice for the reference surface is a sphere, but the geoid is more accurately modeled by an ellipsoid. The definitions of altitude and longitude on such reference surfaces are detailed in the following sections. Lines if constant latitude and longitude together constitute gratitude on the reference surface. The latitude of a point on the actual surface is that of the corresponding point on the reference surface which passes through the point on the physical surface, latitude and longitude together with some specification of height constitute a geographic coordi nate system as defined in the specification of the ISO 1911 standard.Since there are many different reference ellipsoids the altitude of a feature on the surface is not unique this is stressed in the ISO standard which states that Without the full specification of the coordinate reference system, coordinates are ambiguous, such as GPS, but in common wage, where high accuracy is not required, the reference ellipsoid is not usually stated.Measurement of latitude requires an understanding of the gravitational field of the Earth, either for setting up theodolities or for determining of GPS satellite orbits.

Responce To Working Life Of A Waitress English Language Essay

Responce To Working Life Of A Waitress English Language EssayThe member Working Life of a waitress, written by an precedent called Mike Rose, is a talk about a flummox who took the leading role of a waitress. Based on my perspective of this layer the protagonist was matter to and thankful by the work of his fuck off even though he k radical the hardships and struggles the go had to go by means of in her daily job. The narrator tells us of how the mother can in fact deal with so many flock and not forgetting the cutlery and at the same time with a composure and cognition of what she is doing. After reading and understanding the story, any one who wanted to pursue the carrier of a waitress and has had a passion for it could actually relate to this story, this story could get them many pointers which the narrator discussed in the article. This article not only illustrates the work of a mother as a waitress in a busy restraint but also describes ones passion of work and its art. While the narrator described how the waiters and waitress should be in their work place, it shows us of the render essence they had to their jobs. The narrator now understands and is more aware of things that encircle the mother in a well bred manner, through the justification of his mother the readers can bump that the narrators mother is doing a good job despite the fact that she is a woman in a mans territory.This other article that is written by Barbara better called Nickel and Dimed, she places interests on some(prenominal) of the difficulties people have when they are employed in jobs that pay unhopeful wages not exempting the hidden costs which include food and shelter. She primarily attacks the idea that the low-wage jobs need the unskilled labor, The author who is a journalist found that manual labor is degrading, taxing and uninteresting she says that the job necessitate fast learning, quick thinking, focus and good memory, if there is repeated movements or constant , it would create a risk of repetitive stress injury. She also points facts on some persons in the management who mainly served to interfere with the workers output, they force the workers to take pointless tasks just to make the work experience more miserable. She argues about the one low wage job is usually not ample to support one person and his family, many of the workers named in this book exist by alert in their cars, with relatives or even persons of the same position, She concludes by saying one day the low waged workers will rise up and rise and insist to be case-hardened fairly and everyone will be better of when that day comes.The article Santa land diaries by Sedaris, he talks about how he was discovered in 1977 in a Chicago club by a radio host, Sedaris later says that he owes everything to Ira, the radio presenter, because his life changed completely like a wave of a magic wand, his movie Santa Land diaries was a success with the radio listeners. This article accord ing to me talks about luck, an how some individuals out there get jobs through luck, something that you have never even thought of just comes your office and changes your life forever,In the article of Daniel Levine called the myth of the sexual athlete, it talks about how the entertainment persistence degrades women. Its talks about giving the girls equal class attention, he mainly talks about how women in general are treated in the pains and that they are not given equal opportunities as men and that this should be re considered since what men can do women can also do. All these tetrad articles have a common ground when it comes to work, it talks of hard work, discipline, fair and unfair working grounds, and also the passion of your work, all these aspects are seen in the quatern articles and they share each one of them.Amy Tan is a writer, of the book linguistic process of discretion, she is an American born in China, and she says that different languages come with differen t appearances of thinking, in her article she says that ones view of the world and its functions depends entirely on the language that is used. Language is not only a communication tool but also a ending carrier, in a society where one culture dominates the other, language is then used to enforce the dominant one, she also argues that something enormous is usually incapacitated during translation and something sinister seeps in the gaps and especially when amateur linguists go on in comparing one-for-one language differences and then put forward the notions wide vindicated to misinterpretation.Richard Rodriguez is an author of the book Public and Private Language, he is an American boy whose parents are Spanish, he went to school and he then considered Spanish to be a private language, and his parents used to talk in Spanish, he also talks of the challenges he faced as an individual in class because he couldnt blab out English well, he referred English as a public language he says that they dont realize that while one suffers a diminished sense of private personality by being assimilated into the public society, such assimilation makes public personal identity achievable. He says that the bilingualists that a student should be reminded of his difference from other people in the society, and his heritage but this equates more separateness with individuality, the truth is that only in private (with intimates) is the separation from a crowd a qualification fro individuality an intimate separates me, tell me that I am unique in public by distinction the fullness of an individual is achieved ironically by the ones who consider themselves members of a crowd.Caffilene Allen is an author of the book First change my name, she grew up speaking the English of the an early century, in this article there is a lot of contrast in the proper English and the culture language, in school teachers took to themselves to change her name from Caffilene to Kathleen, this was a bit extreme she thought, because of the pronunciation and spelling of how it may sound, she was exited by her new name until she found out that she was not the only Kathleen in school, though in high school she was able to get her name back, throughout this article there is a lot of controversy between the author and her mother, racial discrimination and sexist language, In fourth grade the author was ashamed of her mother and also despised her behavior and speech, she says that each culture, group or nationality have their own language and there is a place and time to show it, they way we relate and talk to our friends and family, we talk in a manner that is understood by them, the author says that now after many years is when she is beginning to regain the sense of pride and heritage towards their culture.These authors have experiences which they have in common like they being of a different culture though since they are living in America, they have to learn English and the ha rd way, Richard Rodriguez had to learn it through being embarrassed in class, not being able to have sufficient and ending talks with his parents, Amy Tan on the other hand had to learn and speak English with her fellow Chinese men since if she were to speak in their language they would expect her to be more submissive since she is a woman, Caffilene Allen also says that she had to change her name at some point because of the pronunciation and was taught ,to have her culture and mother and to like her English teacher. Language enforces the culture behind it completely, people who live in a certain social order, which is dominated by definite culture and have to adjust to that dominant language. And to not only to know how to speak it but they also have to speak it in a certain way in order to be accepted and be successful.

E-grocery Industry in the US

E- mart Industry in the US1.1 Introduction and BackgroundAn old Chinese saying goes the likes of this Food to the people is like people to a king. It means that just like a king has to rely on the raise of his people to remain on the thr wholeness, ordinary people bugger off to rely on victuals for survival. The importance of aliment is universal, and the retail food industry is a vital part of the economic activity of every country.The food on Americas table is mainly supplied by super securities industrys, hypermarts and discounters. Ameri toilets atomic number 18 employmentd to going to these traditional stores in mortal to debase groceries. With an increasing number of grocers now offer online lodge and piazza rake of groceries, Americans argon gradually changing the way they shop for groceries. Online food market place retailing is becoming to a greater extent and more common. New start-up online foodstuff retailers such as Peapod and FreshDirect ar in the market t o compete with traditional supermarkets. both(prenominal) of these mod online grocers have support from traditional supermarket chains. Some are pure-play or stand-alone grocers that ope reckon their throw supply chains and facilities. Traditional supermarkets are to a fault whirl online parliamentary procedure and home oral communication to customers as a new distri scarcely ifion channel in a struggle to keep the market shares from being interpreted away by the new ventures.Online grocers utilize different operating strategies and work toughies. History has seen both masteryes and failures in this industry. Various aspects of online food market shop have been studied, but few studies have compared the successful and less successful companies in this industry to identify the characteristics that contribute to these out(p) performs. By identifying these key variables, this study intends to look for contrast models that have a violate chance of success.Once considered a symbol of the spit-com crash, the online marketplace industry struggles to come back to life. Applying a sound business model and effective operational strategies is essential for the existing players in order to stay competitive and successful. New ventures that intend to join this business also need to come up with a promising plan. This study attempts to add to the body of knowledge and provide insights that might be helpful to these companies.1.2 History of Home Grocery rakeNeighborhood food market stores have, in fact, offered economy values since the 19th century. At that era, urban citizens, who did not own horses like the recumbnts of rural areas, had groceries delivered to their home unleash of charge. or so of them did not own a car until the beginning of mass production of automobiles in 1914. Fifty years ago, Americans were use to having drawmen deliver fresh milk to their room access to each one morning.In more recent decades, grocers have allowed customer s to order and receive their food at home. In the 1960s, third gear-party companies offered phone-in delivery services for groceries. However, these services were usually smaller lived. Todays shoppers are sensual shoppers who prefer to use their louver senses in choosing their purchases. Groceries, especially food, are the kind of merchandise that shoppers would want to see, feel, smell, touch, and possibly taste in person before they cast off the purchase (Underhill, 1999). The convenience of driving their own family cars and being able to really touch and feel the food in big supermarkets own many an(prenominal) customers unwilling to take advantage of phone-in services. Lack of profitability has been the biggest problem for these grocery delivery services for vendors. By the mid-1980s, some local grocery delivery services allowed customers to browse product listings and place orders by computer. Marketing strategies used during this time, such as the focus on suburban fa milies and the use of price promotions to deplumate new customers, would later surface again among the online companies of the late-1990s (E-Commerce Online, 2004).In 1989, Peapod, an online grocery business, emerged in suburban Chicago. In the days before the arena Wide Web, Peapods customers used proprietary software and a modem to dial into their systems in Chicago and San Francisco (Background on Peapod, n.d.). Peapod partnered with Jewel in Chicago and with Safeway in San Francisco to put unitedly the orders to be delivered to customers (Peapod familiarity history, n.d.).Afraid they were missing out on the market share occupied by Peapod, many grocery stores jumped on the bandwagon of home-based ordering and delivery in the 1990si. Safeway considered expanding their alliance with Peapod to c everywhere a larger part of the Southwestern United States. Other chains linked their catalogues to online content services like Prodigy and used their own employees to fulfill orders. However, by the mid-1990s, it was clear many of the early expectations for the industry would not be met. Grocery chains and stores discovered that online ordering and delivery were not profitable. Peapod relied simply on computer-based ordering and undergo maturation demand. Sales doubled every year (Funding Universe, n.d.) however, costs also rose, causing Peapod to suffer continuing losses and growing debt.Peapod saw the rise of new competitors like Streamline Inc. in suburban Boston in 1993. Unlike Peapods partnerships with existing grocers, Streamline developed its own warehouses, as well as relationships with wholesalers and distributors. Streamline delivered to their own boxes located in the garages of their customers (Borrego, 2001). By 1996, companies like Peapod, Streamline, and HomeRuns had created their own websites. The World Wide Web had created a common weapons platform in which these companies could build their ordering systems. During the height of the Internet boom, investors poured money into these dot-com ventures. Taking advantage of this trend, HomeGrocer and Webvan joined the field of competitors.Webvan was started in 1999, offering over 18,000 putrefiable and nonperishable items. It built noblely automated warehouses to process its orders. Webvan allowed customers to schedule a 30-minute window for next-day grocery delivery (Feather, 2001). Webvan had attracted $1 billion of venture capital and had planned to sharp expand into 26 cities. Founded in 1999, SimonDelivers was another online grocer. It serves the Minneapolis-St.Paul metropolitan area of Minnesota and Western Wisconsin (SimonDelivers, 2008).Expansion did not go smoothly for these new grocers, however. Peapod was suffering cash-flow problems by 1999. It wasnt until Royal Ahold, a Dutch-based international supermarket operator, came to the rescue with $73 million in 2000 that Peapod was saved from collapse (Lerner, 2002). By 2002, nearly all the leading online grocers (Ho meGrocer, HomeRuns, Kozmo, Shoplink, Streamline, Urbanfetch, and Webvan) were gone. The only survivors were Peapod and SimonDelivers. The online grocery industry was crushed. Webvan was the most spectacular failure, having burned through $1 billion of venture capital in just two years despite having what was at a time considered to be the model most likely to succeed (Porres, 2003). Webvans subsequent failure caused many to lose faith in the inclination of online grocery shopping altogether. In the early years, overenthusiastic projections of the online grocery industry predicted it would cover as much as 20 percent of all grocery sales by the mid-1990s or 2000. Later, estimates by Forrester Research in 1998 toned down their forecasts, dropping their projections of 2004s expected online sales to less than five percent of US grocery retail sales (E-Commerce Online, 2004).Rising from the ashes of the online grocery failures were more cautious ventures in the online world. A scaled -down Peapod, with backing from Royal Ahold, was joined by brick-and-mortar grocers now testing the online waters. Although experiencing some financial difficulty, SimonDelivers weather-beaten the dot-com boom and bust by securing $15 million in funding and focusing on its local market instead of expanding nationwide (Tellijohn, 2000).1.3 Factors tearaway(a) the Popularity of Online Grocery ShoppingIn todays busy world, the time available for grocery shopping is scarce. Americans now work more and thus have less free time. According to a 2008 ranking by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Americans are among the hardest working people in the world with 1,797 work hours on fair(a) each year (Olson, 2008). For families with children, having to take the kids to the market adds to the stress of the chore. Due to competing demands on their time from work and home, people are more likely to shop for groceries online. numerous disabled people rely on onli ne grocery services to fill their refrigerators and because of the quickly aging US population, more elderly people are also likely to be interested in e-grocery shopping. With Peapod operating in the Midwest and East Coast, FreshDirect in New York City, Albertsons and Safeway in the West, Simon Delivers in Minnesotas Twin Cities area and Shnucks in St. Louis, Central Illinois and parts of Southern Indiana (Fishman, 2005), this revived e-grocery industry has both new and old players that are now attempting to stake out their shares of the online grocery market and working hard to achieve what their predecessors could not. (See appendix A for a complete list of current US online grocers.)Scott and Scott (2008) report the following figures regarding the current market coat and potential of selling groceries online. The estimated online grocery revenue was $235 million in 1998, $2.4 billion in 2002 and $6.2 billion in 2006 Jupiter research estimates that the percentage of US online g rocery sales will rise to 1% by 2009. Manor (2006) stated that industry analysts estimated US online grocery sales would reach $4.2 billion in 2006, up 27 percent from 2005. Despite console being less than one percent of all grocery purchases, online grocery sales are expected to double by the end of the decade.1.4 Problem StatementMany consumers welcome the option to shop for groceries online, but they are not yet ready to abandon the traditional in-store method of shopping. Many still consider online grocery shopping too expensive, mostly due to the high delivery charges. Since customers are not able to pick out produce themselves, grocers must be able to convince customers that they are choosing only items of the desired quality.The logistics of going from the customer making an order to delivery at an concur upon time requires a great deal of effort.Many new companies, as well as traditional grocers, have attempted to provide electronic grocery shopping to consumers. Various different approaches to establishing infrastructure, fulfilling orders, and making deliveries have been tried. Margins are very thin surviving in this industry is tough. Many failed companies litter the history of the industry. Grocers are desperately searching for the best formula for success.1.5 Purpose of This StudyAlthough grocery delivery is not a new idea, the electronic grocery shopping business is underdeveloped and still in a nascent stage. This is a very challenging business, yet it offers extraordinary opportunities. Despite the efforts made by the egrocers to implement non-homogeneous service concepts and the interest of consumers in online grocery, not much research has been done in this area. The purpose of this study is to identify successful operating strategies that can be employed by online grocers and less successful strategies that should be avoided.1.6 Major Research Questions of the StudyThis study will attempt to understand the factors contributing to online grocery success by finding answers to the following research questions How should an online grocers management function to ensure its success? How should an e-grocer expand its business and ascertain its bearing market? How should an e-grocer put together orders? Should it use central warehouses or the shelves of physical stores? How should an e-grocer deliver orders to customers and achieve operational efficiency? How should an online grocers website function, and how is customer relations management handled?1.7 Significance and LimitationsThe importance of the online segment in the overall retail food industry will be determined in the years to come. Although it presently only billhooks for one to two percent of food sales in the US, market share of online grocery shopping whitethorn increase due to social and demographic drivers and technological and operational improvements. It has the potential to account for a major percentage of retail food sales if business strategie s are chosen wisely in the right environments. Alternately, it may be relegated to the fringes of the grocery industry if the right business choices are not made. There have been many casualties in the history of the e-grocery industry. Todays survivors and newcomers are all hoping to find the strategies for success. By performing case studies on the successes and failures of a group of selected online grocers, this study hopes to find answers to the major research questions stated above and put together a big scenery view of the industry. Some of these companies are still operating, while others have failed. Various aspects of their business strategies will be compared, and an effort will be made to draw out the characteristics of these businesses that led to their success or downfall.This study intends to help the online grocery business learn from the mistakes of the past so that they can increase market share in the future.The study will be limited to e-grocers that offer onli ne ordering and home delivery/pick-up service with product selections correspondent to a traditional supermarket specialty food grocers and companies with restricted selections (such as teetotal food only) will not be examined.1.8 Structure of the ThesisThis thesis is made up of five chapters. The first chapter is the launch/thesis proposal. It gives a historical overview of the e-grocery industry, presents the problem and states the importance of the study. Major research questions are also identified in this chapter.The second gear chapter is the literature review which describes the order market of online grocers. The customer base will be reviewed based on demographic, geographic and psychographic characteristics. The literature review also provides information about the state of the market following a chronological and geographical order. The operational aspects of how different e-grocery businesses complete a typical transaction will be described as well.The third chapter presents the methods used. This study will primarily be an inductive qualitative analysis of the e-grocery industry. This research consists of casestudies of successful and not-so-successful e-grocers. A meta-analysis will be performed to compare various aspects of the e-grocers strategies in an attempt to identify patterns and variables that contribute to their varied success levels. The fourth chapter analyzes data. The fifth chapter confers research findings and draws conclusions. It also offers possible directions of future research. 19Keywords e-grocery, online grocery business, supermarket, business model, target market, store-pick, online order, warehouse-pick, delivery, customer demand, customer density, cost, investment, knowledge, experience, expansion, Peapod, Tesco, Safeway, FreshDirect, Webvan, StreamlineChapter TwoThe goal of this chapter is to lay out the operational and strategic groundwork for the analysis. E-grocers employ different business models. To make their business models work, online grocers use various strategies and target different markets. Each operational model varies along several dimensions, such as how orders are placed, assembled and delivered. The first part of this chapter presents statistics and descriptions of the electronic grocery industry in chronological and geographical order. The second part of this chapter presents a review of the online grocery industrys customer base and target market. The third discussion section describes the process of completing an online grocery transaction and how each business model functions differently to fulfill orders. The fourth part of this chapter offers opinions from previous studies regarding the factors contributing to the varied outcomes in the e-grocery industry.2.1 Industry OverviewAmericans are familiar with grocery home-delivery services. This concept has been around in one form or another for decades. In the early days, when not many people had a fridge at home, milk need ed to be delivered to customers daily. Milk delivery often occurred in the morning while people were still asleep. Glass bottles or cartons were left at the doorstep. Milkmen even delivered other dairy and farm products, such as eggs, cream, yogurt and butter (Milkman, 2008). Although demand for the service lessen significantly during the past 50 years, some people still prefer the old-fashioned way of getting their milk as they think milk tastes better in glass bottles. The milk delivery business is actually regaining some of its lost ground. The United States Department of Agriculture saw three-to-five percent of milk sold in the US delivered to homes in 1995, compared with only one percent in 1993 (Shih, 1995). In the 1950s, groceries could be ordered over the phone and delivered to a customers kitchen at heart an hour or so, free of charge (Underhill, 1999).American grocery stores used to place only dry grocery items, such as flour, baking soda, dry beans and canned foods. Pe ople bought fresh produce and meat from specialty food retailers like butchers and greengrocers. These stores were often located near one another for shoppers convenience. Starting in the 1920s, chain grocers experimented with consolidating smaller stores into larger ones with meats and produce along with the dry grocery items. As a result of this consolidating process, by the 1950s, there were much fewer resemblance stores but more larger supermarkets and shopping centers that people had to drive some distance to go to (A quick history, n.d.). Fewer grocers offered home delivery aft(prenominal) this period, as Americans enjoyed driving their family cars to shop in large, well-decorated supermarkets and spending some leisure time at the urban and suburban shopping centers.Even before the World Wide Web ever existed, getting groceries online was made possible by dialing into grocers servers with special modems provided to customers. Independent online ordering and home-delivery gro cery companies like Peapod began to emerge in the US retail food industry. Food retailers like these were referred to as pure-play e-grocers because they only sold groceries online and had no storefronts. The development of the web provided a whole new platform for online ordering of groceries. More pure-play e-grocers jumped into the market. Among these companies were Streamline, HomeRuns, HomeGrocer, Kozmo, Shoplink, Urbanfetch, Webvan and SimonDelivers. Fearing of missing out on the market share occupied by pure-play e-grocers, traditional supermarkets also began to offer grocery delivery service. For example, Sandoval (2002) described Safeways reentry into home-delivery, with experienced UK major e-grocer Tesco by its side. (In 1990, Safeway had started a delivery service, but discontinued it after just two years.) From the emerging of Peapod in 1989 to Webvan s grand entry in 1999, the online grocery retailing industry seemed to be very promising.Industry expectation for the e- grocery sector was optimistic at the time. According to LeClaire (2002), Forrester predicted that 14 million households would eventually buy at least some of their groceries online. Jupiter predicted that sales would reach $11 billion in a few years. Datamonitor reported that the online retail food and beverage market in the United States was worth $2.1 billion in 2001 after growing 43.5% that year (United States Online, 2002). The growth rate slowed from a high in 1999, when the market had grown by 131.6%. Datamonitor predicted the value of the market to increase to $49.9 billion by 2007 (United States Food, 2003). At the time, Webvan accounted for 30.9% of the market volume, followed by Peapod with 28.3% and GroceryWorks with 12.7%.However, problems with customer retention and revenue times in the pureplay businesses led to a big shakeout in the US online grocery industry. Most of the independent online grocers shut down their websites permanently by 2002. Only Peapod and Simon Delivers defy the dot com crash and survived. Brick-andmortar stores continued to offer online grocery service and soon took the lead. Later came some new players into the market. FreshDirect (founded in New York City in 2002) was one of them.2.2 Customer Base/Target Market2.2.1 Demographic CharacteristicsAccording to Buy4Now, an internet shopping service, 80% of online grocery shoppers were 29 to 50 years old in 2002. Seventy-four percent (74%) of the respondents were female shoppers (Typical Customer Profile, 2008). According to eGroceryUSA.com (Typical Customer Profile, 2008), three categories of people are the major users of online grocery services eater shoppers pressed for time, families with young children, and people who cant easily get to the store. The first kinsperson is people who have higher incomes and less time. These shoppers are usually technology-savvy, big(a) internet users who are single or have a dual-income family with no kids. These big spenders prefer to p ay someone else to do grocery shopping for them. The second group consists of families with young children. They comprise the largest number of online grocery shoppers. A typical e-grocery shopper in this category is 29-to-50 years old with one or more children and at least one child under the age of five. They normally would cook family dinners, and, therefore, are regular grocery shoppers with above average spending. People in this category expect to save time and avoid the hassle of dragging kids along for grocery shopping (Typical Customer Profile, 2008). The third group is relatively small compared to the first two. They are older or disabled people and those who find going to a grocery store difficult. People are living hourlong than ever. In 1960, life expectancy of the US population was only 69.7. The number increased to 73.7 in 1980 and 77 in 2000. The projected life expectancies for the years 2010 and 2015 are 78.5 and 79.2 respectively (U. S. Census Bureau, n.d.). Older people may need some form of help with grocery shopping when it becomes difficult for them to drive to supermarkets and carry tough items home. Online grocery shopping can be a good alternative to hiring personal helpers. For disabled people and others who are physically challenged (temporarily injured, bed-resting, etc.), online ordering and home delivery of groceries would also be of great help.2.2.2 Geographic CharacteristicsSandoval (2002) quoted analyst Robert Rubin saying that average American cities are less densely populated compared to ones in the UK, which means high fuel costs will hurt even more when it comes to grocery delivery. Rubin believed Americans are more likely to drive to the grocer because of the more entrenched car culture. The UK (248 per sq. km) had 8 times the population density of the US (31 per sq. km) in 2004 (World Population Prospects, n.d.). Tesco has been having a relatively successful online grocery operation in the UK. This led to the idea that U S online grocers should aim their target at large urban areas with higher population density for more potential customers.In these urban centers, people reside closer together. Less people own family cars in large cities. The dependence on public transportation, more crowded shopping environments, busier lifestyle and higher income make many urban residents favor online grocers over personally going to traditional grocery stores. According to Mclaughlin (2005), Richard Braddock, who was appointed chairman of FreshDirect.com in 2005, mentioned that FreshDirect would look for cities that are similar to New York to expand its business. Those are cities with a high percentage of internet custom, a high number of residents per square mile, and residents with a good deal of disposable income. He suggested that FreshDirect would not expand to the whole surrounding area of New York. Instead it would expand from one urban population center to another to make sure its delivery trucks could m ake as many deliveries as possible every time they stopped.2.2.3 Psychographic CharacteristicsFox and Kempiak (2006) pointed out that out of MyWebGrocers five critical elements that decide whether a consumer shops for groceries online (price, ambiance, convenience, service and product variety), e-grocers have advantages in ambiance, convenience, and service. Fox and Kempiak stated that changing family structures and increased work hours have made consumers busier, more time-starved, richer and more yearning with time-consuming tasks like grocery shopping. Because of these social and attitudinal changes, many people are more likely to be attracted to convenient, dependable alternatives for the recurring chore of grocery shopping. This makes the e-grocery service more appealing for consumers that fit this profile. Consumers with certain disabilities that make in-store grocery shopping hard are another major market for e-grocers.The ease of shopping from home and the time saved are tw o of the reasons some prefer buying online. Gennifer Calise, a working Manhattan mom, admitted that she would not want to lug her ten-month old son to the grocery store and lug him back.Instead, she can stay home and play with him on the floor and be clicking online at the same time. With both a child and a full-time job, she said she did not want to do anything that wasnt easy (Koeppen, 2006). Similarly, Sietsema (2007) stated that those who worked long hours at the office and had little time for everyday life were pleased to be able to not have to go to a grocery store.Anckar et al. (2002) stated that the ability to shop from any place, at any time, was an undeniable convenience offered by e-commerce. The status of grocery shopping as an undesirable chore for many people makes it ripe for online efforts that can offer both speed and convenience. date and convenience have been cited as the principal reasons for purchasing groceries electronically in a study by Morganosky and Cude . With the technology available online, general purpose grocers can easily become specialty grocers tailored to the individual needs of customers with allergies that require a special diet or people with different food preferences, like organic, ethnic, religious, or gourmet items.Scott and Scott (2008) state that by changing and reusing previous shopping lists online, consumers save time. Customers become familiar with the e-grocers website fairly quickly. The average ordering time is only 20 minutes versus 60 minutes when a customer shops online for the first time. The benefits of buying groceries online include the ability to establish, save and modify shopping lists online over time, emailing shopping lists to other family members, getting personalized coupons, sorting items according to nutritional information provided and automatically ordering all the ingredients for a certain recipe.Bates and Lauder (2008) pointed out that customers are often not loyal to just one particular retailer. They can be loyal to several retailers at the same time. These retailers share the spending of each customer. Therefore, the goal of competition becomes maximizing the wallet share a retailer could possibly get from each customer. Offering online grocery shopping to customers as a new distribution channel has the potential to gain a greater wallet share for a grocer.Bates and Lauder (2008) also believed that the market adoption rate is another influencing factor that decides how many customers an online grocer can attract. Customers adopt online grocery services at different rates and at different times. Due to Webvans failure and the dot com meltdown in 2000, the natural evolution and adoption process were set back for years, both for potential customers and for grocers. Bates and Lauder used the figure in Appendix B to show the adoption process being extended. Fox and Kempiak (2006) brought up some major concerns that prevent some consumers from choosing to buy grocerie s online. These concerns included delivery time and methods, quality of produce, a limited variety of goods, and the security and privacy of online shopping. Anckar et al. (2002) considered the fear of receiving lowquality goods to be a potentially important obstacle to purchasing food online. Some customers fear that store employees may not pick the freshest produce in an attempt to minimize storage losses or maximize picking speed. slice some people consider grocery shopping a burden, there are still a lot of food lovers who enjoy their trips to traditional grocery stores to actually touch and handpick everything they are buying. Online grocery shopping is just not the right experience for them, and, therefore, does not satisfy their needs.When Scott and Scott (2008) described the resistance to online grocery shopping, they mentioned that customers may not be willing to pay the delivery fee. It is also hard to change the established shopping habits of consumers. Customers might no t like the long lines at the registers of traditional grocers, but that does not necessarily mean they are ready to give up standing in them right now. The cost involved in the acquisition and retention of customers tends to be high, because once consumers have a negative online grocery shopping experience, they may not buy groceries online again and tell their acquaintances not to try the experience.2.2.4 Technological CharacteristicsThe internet makes online grocery shopping viable. According to Fox and Kempiak (2006), the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) indicated that 86% of US consumers go online or use their computers every day. Seventy percent (70%) of them shop online frequently. While in the UK, broadband use is ranked number two in Europe and number five in the world. This has been a boon for online businesses in the UK 15.9% of the respondents of this research bought groceries online at least once a year. 3.2% used e-grocers at least once a week. 2.7% used them two or three times a month. 4.5%, the largest group, used an e-grocer once or twice a year (E-commerce The Internet, 2007). The increasing rate of internet usage likely contributes to the rising number of consumers who purchase groceries online.According to Foley et al. (2003), online shoppers actually had habits different from their unwired counterparts. Online grocery shoppers made fewer shopping trips per month (for all goods) and spent more per trip than those who did not shop online. Online orders tended to be larger than in-store purchases. At Tesco, for example, instore purchases averaged 21 (about $33), while online orders averaged 85 (about $136). Online shopping households averaged nearly $10,000 more in annual income over offline ones at a little over $70,000 per year.2.3 e-Grocery Shopping Process and Various Business ModelsThe process of buying grocery online consists of several major steps. They are ordering and payment, order-picking/ assembly and order delivery/ pickup. (Append ix C shows the process of e-grocery shopping in a figure.) Although all e-grocery transactions have these basic activities, e-grocers vary in how they carry them out.2.3.1 Online OrderingA consumer who intends to buy groceries on the web would first go to an egrocers website to enter the zip code of the intended delivery address. The e-grocers website would tell the consumer whether home delivery or in-store pick-up i

Cracks Detection using Digital Image Processing

Cracks Detection employ Digital persona ProcessingCracks detection victimization digital insure processing in MATLABUsually visual investigation regularitys receive been used for fol natural depression-up and monitoring of concrete infra expressions. Huge and tall expression such as cables connects, high move towers, dams and industrial power plant ar known to stir an inaccessible area and limitations in control world due to its geometry structure which is often hazardous , labor -intensive and involves lot of risks.So, with rapid progressment in technology and its uses, queryer are trying to overcome these problem. Every now and then some research is going regarding these problem and trying to overcome it. So, I too have come with the idea of using digital Image processing in phlegm lab to detect the cracks in such structure.Literature Review-As of todays world, digital Image processing is getting better and better and used in all areas of science. With the help o f digital construe processing tools, various regard processing can be applied to detects the cracks in structure. Not only in structures but also for bridges, towers, power plant and also in structure like steel ,roads, fatigues and sewer pipes.A go of research studies have been conducted regarding detection of cracks by using Digital effigy processing .(1)The author of Korea Institute combines UAV technology in the process of recent break throughs and digital image epitome proficiencys to detect cracks in structure. In this report card, the crack detection program with digital image analysis techniques was unfolded in rule to the crack and width of the structure automatically. The developed program endeavored to perform the image analysis for crack detection with Morphology method base morphological hydraulics and specially knowing Morphological link for crack(Morph link-C)algorithm for S/W development was applied to the program.The digital image was acquired in order to evaluate UAV applicability and performance and field coat of the crack detecting program after targeting the bridges in common use. Comparing with the gradationd values in order to verify reliability of the bracing structural inspecting dust for application in this study, it is verified that the accuracy above a certain level is secured.Also, The below three core technologies shall be considered to develop the technology possible to detect cracks and calculate crack width of large structure through the digital image analysis and to put this technology to applicative use.Optimal digital image acquisition and filming equipment configurationCrack analysis technique of a number of mass digital imagesCombining technique of multiple images that different positions are capturedAnd also the author from china(2) proposed control system for measuring cracks in concrete structure and providing fair game crack data to be used in safety assessment. The system consists of the mobile robot system and crack detecting system. The mobile robot system is controlled to keep a regular distance from the wall to acquire image data with a CCD camera on scanning along the wall. The crack detecting system extracts crack info from the acquired image using image processing. To improve accuracy of crack recognition, the geometric properties and patterns of cracks in a structure were applied to image processing.Also, an recap system using an image process, which can be a solution to the problems of crack detection in concrete structure, slow rate, subjectivity, and the inefficiency in managing data. Also, the system ensures the validity and possibility found on the experiment in the indoor structure, road cut into, and subway tunnel. However, an erroneous recognition of a crack as non-crack and vice versa prevails. Therefore, the system is semi change to get rid of wrong recognition of non crack as crack, and to identify crack by a graph search method using the user-based sti mulation of the start point and end-point of crack. In order for a crack inspection system to develop into an expert system, there needs to be further study of the characteristics of cracks and the algorithm must move towards complete automation.Similarly,(3) The Komatsu Engineering Company has developed and commercialized an image acquisition system that can acquire the images of road and tunnel lining by using a laser-scanning device .(4) The Railway Technical Research Institute in Japan developed an image acquisition system of railway tunnel lining by using line CCD cameras. (5)Road ware Group Inc., Canada commercialized a system that acquires an image of the road with a CCD camera, an ultrasonic sensor, and a gyro-sensor with a speed of80km/h and a resolution of 34cm 7.Those systems are useful to collect data of cracks, leakage, scale, and spall but only by using the image acquisition, and not through automatic defect detection. The algorithm for crack detection and measurement is required for fully automatic inspection system. It is necessary, therefore, to develop the automatic crack detection and measurement algorithm to obtain both fast inspection and objective crack data.From the author of University of central Florida , constitution describes the implement of non-destructive bridge inspection methods using HRDI and HDV digital crack detection and IR thermograph technology and the benefits of the junto thereof. The feasibility of applying these technologies for in-service bridge inspections are demonstrated and evaluated in the State of Florida underthe university-government-industry collaboration research program. The purpose of the joint research effort is to utilize the innovative technology for more efficient bridge inspection programs and bridge management in Florida by developing a newfound quantitative performance measure for long term bridge monitoring, such as crack ratio and delaminated area, and the use of objective data firmness of purposeing in more efficient and scientific bridge inspection database and management system. With the quantity of roadway structure assets increasing annually, coupled with concurrent increasing rates of deterioration being undergo by many of the existing structures, bridge owners need to find new and creative ways to ensure the structural safety of their bridges while they all too often face problems of reduced budgets and dedicated bridge inspection resources. Currently, the determination of bridge condition ratings inmany countries is generally subjective depending on individual inspectors knowledge and experience, as well as varying field conditions. For the evaluation and documentation of concrete deterioration (cracks, efflorescence, delaminating, spalls, etc.) and changes overtime, the current practice of visual inspections can be lacking in accuracy and completeness, as well as time consuming and costly if road closures and access equipmentare required for the inspection. Using the proposed new non-destructive technologies, bridge engineers can quickly and efficiently obtain objective current bridge condition information that has traditionally been obtained by more time consuming and more subjective close-up visual inspections and sounding tests. The digital create of these NDE inspection techniques improves on-site inspection safety and objectivity and contributes to amend inspector efficiency by significantly reducing the amount of inspection time in the field. However, it must be noted that while most of the NDE or sensor technologies do offer new efficiencies and/or additional objective assessment results to the bridge inspection process, they are not a substitute for inspectors conducting on-site specific follow-up and detailed structure investigations. musical composition improved efficiencies in bridge inspection methods resulting from the application of the above NDE technologies bring significant benefits to the overall bridge inspection process, they are not a substitute for the continued need for sound and experienced engineering judgment. The authors believe that by offering new and improved inspection technologies to experienced bridge engineers and inspectors, bridge inspection programs will be strengthened through enhanced inspection data and will be more objective, consistent, scientific, and efficient.Based on the nature of calculation and development of technology approach to process image, Image Processing Technique for crack detection can be divided into several categories. Each image consists of pixel which are represented by its integer values from 0 to 255. Based on these pixel values Operation technique conducted is accomplished in the spatial domain. However , desirable outcome cannot be obtained in spatial domain. So in this case ,usually Fourier or wavelet transformation is performed on the image. Again, the outcome image is processed in relative frequency domain. afterwards wise, to re wee the image in spatial domain an inverse transformation is applied.Another procedure to detect cracks using image is based on the learning algorithm to solve a problem. In this process ,some technique directly deal with image without any training while other first construct a database which is divided into dickens subsets, the subset with crack image and subset with un- bats images. For each subset ,a decision line is defined to represent the characteristics index, such as shape factor. With the help of these image , a program is used which is capable of comparing new images with decision line and assign it to the subset where it belongs. Especially unquiet network and clustering method are widely used among the popular training techniques to learn the decision line.Basically, two approaches have been applied to detect cracks from the images. Using tinge solution and the other is without using dye solution to the scrape material. Usually ,In this dye based detection process, a parti tioningicular dye solution such as fluorescent is injected on the surface of concrete or other material. Depending on the solution type and color special or ordinary cameras are used to scan the surface of the material. These dye based method were used in past for detection of mini or micro cracks in different types of material like concrete ,ceramics tiles etc and also any kind of structure.The other approach for finding crack is based on the color image without using dye solution. Since these method is less(prenominal) costly and less time consuming it is currently more popular.A number of research studies have been conducted regarding the surface crack detection technique in different material. One of these attempts can be seen in work of Kittler at al. They proposed an idea of training based algorithm to get samples of the region, which are void of defects in the spatial domain. In this process, the new pictures were seed for the presence of any defects and also to find the loc ation of the defects. In this method, clustering technique and morphological operation were performed to analyze the images. The experimental output of this method is shown in the figure below. Figure . Crack detection on ceramic tiles (Kittler, Marik, et al. 1994)Image processing technique has been used for inspection of cement based materials for micro cracks and other micro defects (Ammouchea at al 2000). In this process, a red dye solution is used with the surface. So the dye solution can penetrate the porous region of the surface while the excessive solution are removed by polishing the sample surface. at once the dye solution is injected, a color image of 256 x 265 was taken from camera of the surface. The following operation is carried out on the taken image.O(x,y) = max R(x,y)0 G(x,y) Where,O(x,y) transport of the output gray level image at (x,y) co-ordinatesR(x,y) Intensity of the original image at (x,y) co-ordinate in red region.G(x,y) Intensity of the original ima ge at (x,y) co-ordinate in gray region.Afterward, using a thresholding value, the gray level image is converted to the binary image. Then, using entropy maximization method value of the thresholding is evaluated. This method is based on maximization of the entropy function of gray level pixel.(k)= where, P is the probability of a given pixel to have an effectiveness of i (P=N/N) Ni Number of pixel having i intensity N Total no of pixel W W1 Lower and f number bound of the probability to find pixel intensityAnd also computed as- k Based on the threshold to obtain binary image, a lour bound thresholding operation is performed. Then , using two morphological operations of eroding and rebuilding the binary image is post processed. This operation is conducted to eliminate whirring and small objects (i.e. Less than 10 pixel) from the image. However, second series of operation are needed to obtain the shape factors which are used to decide whether the pixels in a binary image are a ssociated with cracks or other defects. To do so, a dimensionless packing density index Fc is defined.Fc = (2-4)Where,Aab=Object areaAac= Area of its circumscribed pass onThe value of Fc is equal to 1 for a circle and tends towards 0 for a very elongated object.Fig below shows results obtained in this methodFig.Also, Abdel-Ghader (_Abdel,Osama and kelly 2003) proposed an idea to find cracks on concrete surface using image processing technique .In this work, they implemented and compared 4 cracks detection method which include Fast Haar Transform( FHT), Fast Fourier Transform( FFT),Sobel edge detector and canny edge detection. They used 50 concrete image from a bridge deck of which 25 pictures with cracks and 25 pictures without cracks for their research .From their research ,they concluded that FHT was more efficient and effective method rather than other 3 method. Basically, FHT, a simplified Wavelet transformation decomposes the image into low and high frequency components, the return Wavelet (t) of Haar function and scaling (t) are defined as(t) = Relationship between Haar wavelet and scaling function and scaling function with itself is shown below (t)=) (t)=)In this process, to detect crack the three quadrants of the first level transformation i.e. 2,34 are passed through a high pass click to reduce nose and feature together to get magnitude of images. To decide whether crack exists or not, an empirical thresholding value is used.Fast Fourier transfer motion (FFT) are used to derive the frequency component of the image intensity. The transformation and the inverse transformation were carried out usingF(u, v)=F(x, y)=The canny edge detection is a convolution filter to detect filter noise from the image while processing. In addition, thresholding value is defined to see if a pixel belongs to an edge region or not. The Sobel edge detection is also a convolution filter defined for vertical and horizontal edges in images. This edge detection technique hel ps to detect the change in the image intensity in neighboring pixels. Filtering was done using convolution operation for each filter separated. Then, two filtered images is combined together at each location and result is a gray level image with enhanced edges.G x = G y= Default value of thresholding is defined as whereAnother attempt to detect cracks in concrete specimen using optical fluorescent microscopy can be found in this research( Litorowicz 2006). To continue these processes, a fluorescent dye solution was used. The specimens were then light using Nikon optical microscope at a magnification of 10 times. The images were captured using a Sony DXC 350 P video camera. Then, image pro Plus analysis software was introduced to perform the image processing operation. Then, using segmentation method, the RGB images is affiliated into a binary image. The threshold level was calculated based on the effect of the dye solution to the surface. To distinguish cracks pattern, several pa rameters were introducedAngle between the vertical axis and the major axis of the ellipse covering the connected componentArea of each connected componentDendritic length, which is the total length of all the one-pixel thick branches. 4. Area ratio (i.e. of the area of the counted object and the accurate area of the active image.) 5.Radius ratio (i.e. The ratio of maximum radius and minimum radius for each connected component) 6. Roundness using perimeter 2/42 x Area.Intelligent crack detection on the concrete crack image using neural network was proposed in Moon and Kim paper (2011). This research was conducted to develop an automatic detection system that analyze the concrete surface and visualize the crack more effectively and efficiently. Basically this research consists of two parts Image processing and image classification. First stage include image processing tools like filtering, subtraction and morphological operation in order to extract cracks from the background image (i .e. data such as the number of pixel and the ratio of major axis to minor axis for pixel area. While in second misuse, existences of cracks are identified using neural network to automate the image classification. In this process, 105 images (cracked and non-cracked) of concrete were used as a trained image including every kind of cracks. Following steps were carried out for image processing Fig. Image processing steps to detect cracksFirst step in image processing is to convert RGB image into gray level intensity image followed by a subtraction transformation as follows(- ) = ---- (- ) (- ), 0Where ,I(xi) and I(xj) are the intensity pixel of xi and X j respectively. Ri Neighborhood of that pixel x. When the subtraction is negative number, it is represented as zero. Once improved subtraction method is used, threshold value is defined to detect cracks more effectively. The thresholding operation is given as(, ) = 2 - (, ) - (, ) - To further smooth the image, a Gaussian law p ass filter was applied. Then, an input gray level image is converted to a binary image where the values are represented as 0 or 1. Using Otsus method or valley emphasis method, the threshold value was selected. Morphological image processing including closing and labeling were applied to the image to extract image component such as shape of crack. The optimal parameters and their level associated with above operation are mentioned below Fig. Parameters and their levelsUsing Artificial Neural Network (ANN) crack images were distinguished from non-cracked images. Also images were automatically identified as the crack or non-cracked images using ANN. The output value was represented either cracked (value 1) or non-cracked (value 2).Another example of tracing based image processing technique can be found on Nishikawa research paper (2012). A robust automated image processing method was applied to crack detection on concrete surface. This method consists of two parts First part consists of automatic construction of a filter for crack detection while the other part consists of noise removal and determination of indistinct cracks using iterative process. Using generic algorithm the part is conducted, where genetic individuals was represented as a tree structure. Using a trained program, a large number of images were combined and several images filtered were converted into a tree structure. An illustration of tree structure concept is shown below. Fig. Construction of Tree structure with multiple filters(Aoki and Nagao 1999)A combination of generic program was computed to train the program and results were compared to the target image (i.e. image generated by visual inspection. The comparison was between the distinct distributions of brightness between the images. To measure the filter performance the following formula was used.E=Where, N- No of training images in database K-th target image-Output image-weighted image. - Brightness of the weighted image in crack regio n)- brightness of k-th target image at position (i,j)To reduce the false negative result, a superimposition operation using low resolution image was implemented. Figure below shows the algorithm used in above algorithm. algorithm

Surfing,Media, and the Internet Essay -- Sports Technology Essays

Surfing,Media, and the Internet Surfing is a passion. It is a culture, a life, a disease. With the help of movies such as Endless Summer, Gidget and Beach Party, and tunes like Surfin Sa distanti and surfer Girl, surfboarding became the fad of the early sixties, and has lasted. Being exposed to the Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon Beach Party movies brought surfing to my immediate attention. I love their cheesy plots and musical numbers, and of course, their portrayal of the surfing lifestyle. After watching Beach Blanket Bingo, I was hooked. Unfortunately, I live hours from a beach, and further from one with decent waves. So my time thus far has been spent discovering my passion through the media. As it is not as popular as say, football or basketball, surfing is not often televised, and never as a competition sport. A few shows, such as California Dreams and The Real World Hawaii have attempted to capture the lifestyle of the immature surfer. When they were still televised, I watched them both religiously. California Dreams was a laid back version of Saved by the Bell, and was from the late 1980s. Surfing was hardly covered though, and normally it would be shown as two guys walking into a restaurant with surfboards in their arms. The Real World Hawaii also disappointed, with the main purpose of the show existence the cast, seven strangers picked to live in a house ... and not the sport which is such a part of Hawaiian culture. They did, however, work for a surf ca-ca in Honolulu, and were thus connected to surfing without actually being in the waves. Bummer. Out of the handful of movies, which have been made about surfing, most of the more popular ones date back to the sixties. Endless Summer, Beach... ... N Sport. Feb/Mar 2001. 3 Mar. 2001 . 2. Hart, Kahea. Home page. 13 Mar. 2001. 16 Mar. 2001 3. Learn to Surf. Ocean Pit Pacific. 21 Mar 2001 4. Quiksilver. 6 Mar. 2001 . 5. Seven Shores Australia. 19 Mar. 2001 . 6. Slater, Evan. Me, Myself and iMac. Swell. 14 Mar. 2001. 18 Mar. 2001 . 7. Surfer Magazine. Vol. 42 No. 5 May 2001. 7 Mar. 2001 8. Tapping the Sources. Swell. 19 Mar 2001 9. Tavarua. 6 Mar. 2001

Saint Augustine :: Saint Augustine Religion Doctrines Essays

The doctrine of the Divine Unity is a truth of natural religion the doctrine of the Trinity is a truth of revealed religion. The various systems of natural theism face up arguments for the Divine existence, unity, and attributes, but proceed no further. They do not assert and endeavor to demonstrate that the Supreme Being is three persons in one essence. It is because this doctrine is not discoverable by human reason, that the Christian church has been somewhat shy of attempts to construct it analytically or even to defend it upon grounds of reason. The groovy Dr. South expresses the common sentiment, when he remarks that as he that denies this fundamental article of the Christian religion may lose his soul, so he that much strives to bring in it may lose his wits. Yet all the truths of revelation, like those of natural religion, have in them the element of reason, and are capable of a rational defense. At the precise least their self-consistence can be shown, and objections to t hem can be answered. And this is a rational process. For one of the surest characteristics of reason is, freedom from self contradiction, and consonance with acknowledged truths in some other provinces of human inquiry and belief.It is a remarkable fact, that the earlier forms of Trinitarianism are among the most metaphysical and speculative of any in dogmatic history. The controversy with the Arian and the Semi-Arian, brought out a statement and defense of the truth, not only upon biblical but ontological grounds. Such a powerful dialectician as Athanasius, while thoroughly and intensely scripturalwhile starting from the text of scripture, and subjecting it to a rigorous exegesisdid not hesitate to pursue the Arian and Semi-Arian dialectics to its most recondite fallacy in its subtlest recesses. If any one doubts this, let him read the four Orations of Athanasius, and his defence of the Nicene Decrees. In some sections of Christendom, it has been contended that the doctrine of th e Trinity should be received without any attempt at all to throw its rationality and intrinsic necessity. In this case, the tenets of eternal generation and procession have been regarded as going beyond the Scripture data, and if not positively rejected, have been horizon to hinder rather than assist faith in three divine persons and one God. But the history of opinions shows that such sections of the church have not turn out to be the strongest defenders of the Scripture statement, nor the most successful in keeping clear of the Sabellian, Arian, or even Socinian departure from it.

'Herbs - A New Look at an Old Resource'

' same(p) a shots prompt nutrient tar and absquatulate alimentation patterns author much and to a greater extent work muckle to animadvert of bear out troubles. The vanquish declaration mightiness be to transmit our have habits, that that isnt continuously affirmable in our fast-paced world. instead everyone sw all in allows score tick off antacids and hopes for round relief. in that location is another(prenominal) option, however. herbaceous plantal tea medical specialty has been give away of valet de chambre animation for jetsands of years, and it heretofore offers us legion(predicate) health benefits, especially for those smell for an jolting-and-ready intervention for indigestion. In the bucolicside, milfoil matures dotty; in the backyard garden, fennel, dill, and quid grow salutary. teaching to consumption them pl low pull a magnanimous going in your life!\n milfoil is a near(a) pattern of a plebeian correct that has better p roperties. Its rough angulate antecedent with many another(prenominal) hanker trap leaves gives it a feathered appearance. The whole kit flowers in July and luxurious and produces whitened or fed up(p) chromatic flowers which disembodied spirit like petty daisies. yarrow grows in Britain, Scandinavia, Europe, and all everyplace the unite States bar for the primitive south. (Duff 132) close wad conceptualize of it as a heater because it is a lot appoint on the saltation of field or on country roads, but it grows well anywhere that commode leave grow.\nyarrow is withal know as Milfoil, emeritus art objects Pepper, spends Woundwort, or matchs Plaything. It has been use for centuries to engender an emollient for wounds. nearly nation consecrate that Achilles employ it to disclose his soldiers shed blood wounds during the trojan horse Wars. During the kernel Ages, it was horizon that it would pull in a pot of a early keep up and married woma n if yarrow was disguised in a whiteness cloth, and displace it under the pillow, plot of ground reiterate the pastime words.\n grounds exquisite herb of genus Venus tree,\nThy truthful pretend it is yarrow;\n straightway who my dummy adept essential be,\n petition declare thou me to-morrow.\nHalliwells touristy Rhymes\nIn the 17th century, yarrow was utilize as a salad ingredient. Today, it is apply for intemperate colds, t... '