The Safavid Empire of Persia

The Safavid Empire of Persia The Safavid Empire, based in Persia (Iran), ruled over much of southwestern Asia from 1501 to 1736. Members of the Safavid Dynasty likely were of Kurdish Persian descent and belonged to a unique order of Sufi -infused Shia Islam called Safaviyya. In fact, it was the founder of the Safavid Empire, Shah Ismail I, who forcibly converted Iran from Sunni to Shia Islam and established Shiism as the state religion. Its Massive Reach At its height, the Safavid Dynasty controlled not only the entirety of what is now Iran, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, but also most of Afghanistan, Iraq, Georgia, and the Caucasus, and parts of Turkey, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, and Tajikistan. As one of the powerful gunpowder empires of the age, the Safavids re-established Persias place as a key player in economics and geopolitics at the intersection of the eastern and western worlds. It ruled over the western reaches of the late Silk Road, although the overland trade routes were quickly being supplanted by ocean-going trading vessels. Sovereignty The greatest Safavid ruler was Shah Abbas I (r. 1587 - 1629), who modernized the Persian military, adding musketeers and artillery-men; moved the capital city deeper into the Persian heartland; and established a policy of tolerance towards Christians in the empire. However, Shah Abbas was fearful to the point of paranoia about the assassination and executed or blinded all of his sons to prevent them from replacing him. As a result, the empire began a long, slow slide into obscurity after his death in 1629.

To what extent does inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) alleviate Dissertation

To what extent does inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) alleviate poverty in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) - Findings and Analysis - Dissertation Example The countries with maximum GDP growth have been identified from the literature review. I have picked out six countries that have the highest GDP growth from among the fifty-two countries in the Sub-Saharan region. Existing literature shows that these six countries have made consistent level of economic activities since the 1960s. This has been validated later on in this research with the help of quantitative analysis made on the data collected. GDP growth rates for Angola, Ethiopia and Uganda cannot be evaluated for the years before 1980s due to lack of availability of data. A significant similarity between Angola, Algeria and Cameroon is that GDP growth for these countries has been very low (Algeria) or negative (Angola and Cameroon) in 1992. HDI for Cameroon has been studied only for the years 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010 since data for other years are not available. However, for Egypt, Ethiopia and Uganda the GDP growth in 1992 has been positive. Among these countries, Cameroon shows the lowest level of GDP growth. Figure: GDP growth of Cameroon and its level of Human Development Index Yet, to one’s surprise, it is found that the HDI for the country shot up after 2000 and has remained high since then. In fact the HDI has improved for all these countries in the beginning of the twenty first century. ... These factors also help in correlating the drivers of human development, and thus poverty alleviation in these countries. The data shows that the GDP of Egypt shows declining trend after 1998 and that of Uganda falls consistently after 2006. Although, in Egypt, GDP growth reached a local high in 2007, it has been decreasing consistently since then. Figure: GDP growth of Egypt and Uganda This shows that there are certain factors that have affected the overall productivity in these countries. However, surprisingly level of HDI growth has improved in both countries after 2003. Sufficient information for HDI for both Egypt and Uganda has not been available for the years before 1999. Therefore, HDI in the countries during these years could not be compared. Figure: HDI growth of Egypt and Uganda This is a sharp increase and HDI has remained high since then without fluctuating. This reveals that although GDP is commonly considered the measure of growth, for many developing countries it does not reflect the true level of development of the economy. Hence, human development index should be considered while studying the level of economic development for these countries. In the analysis section, I have studied the level of openness to trade of the countries that display the most contrasting features. The contrasting characteristics of the two countries, Uganda and Cameroon, make it important to make an in depth study of the factors affecting the economic activities of these countries. According to the data, level of economic growth in Algeria, as depicted by the GDP growth of the country, has been high since the beginning of the 1960s. Data for HDI is not available for all consecutive years; information regarding HDI

Strategic Banking Issues Regulations and Profitability Essay

Strategic Banking Issues Regulations and Profitability - Essay Example There is a host of ideas about the probable cause of the financial crisis. The classical explanation is very clear. Financial crisis are the result of monetary excesses. Monetary excesses first create boom and then there is a bust. In the crisis of 2008, we had a housing boom and bust, and these in turn led to financial turmoil in the United States and rest of the world.The monetary policy was strategically loose. The interest rate setting based on macroeconomic variables had shifted significantly from the rates prescribed by the policy makers. The Federal Reserve said that the interest rates would be low for a considerable period and then would rise at a measured pace. These actions were irregular government interventions to reduce the fear of deflation that Japan had faced in the 1990s.There are a few competing explanations for the crisis. One of the arguments is called ‘Global Savings Glut.’ Proponents of this concept argue that the low interest rates in 2002-2004 wer e caused by global factors and thus monetary authorities have nothing to do. This alternative explanation focuses on global saving. It argues that there was an excess of world saving or a ‘global saving glut’ as they say and it pushed interest rates down in the United States and other countries. But the numbers from the International Monetary Fund says a different story. The numbers tells that the global savings rate as a percentage of world’s GDP in 2002-04 was very low compared to the 1970s and 1980s.... The Federal Reserve said that the interest rates would be low for a considerable period and then would rise at a measured pace. These actions were irregular government interventions to reduce the fear of deflation that Japan had faced in the 1990s (Taylor, 2009, pp. 3-4). There are a few competing explanations for the crisis. One of the arguments is called ‘Global Savings Glut.’ Proponents of this concept argue that the low interest rates in 2002-2004 were caused by global factors and thus monetary authorities have nothing to do. This alternative explanation focuses on global saving. It argues that there was an excess of world saving or a ‘global saving glut’ as they say and it pushed interest rates down in the United States and other countries. But the numbers from the International Monetary Fund says a different story. The numbers tells that the global savings rate as a percentage of world’s GDP in 2002-04 was very low compared to the 1970s and 1980 s (Taylor, 2009, pp. 5-6). The crisis started as the fall of subprime lending market. Here the monetary interaction with the subprime mortgage problem needs to be understood. In the summer of 2007, the United States first experienced a striking contraction in wealth. The risk spread increased, and the credit market deteriorated. The 2007 United States sub-prime crisis has its roots in falling housing prices and this led to higher default levels particularly among less credit-worthy borrowers. The impact of these defaults on the financial sector has been largely exaggerated due to the complex bundling of obligations that was thought to spread risk efficiently. Unfortunately, the ensuing tools were extremely

Bridge Discuss the complex relationship between Eddie and Catherine Essay Example for Free

Bridge Discuss the complex relationship between Eddie and Catherine Essay The play is set in a slum area in Brooklyn.Between 1861 and 1920, 30 million people immigrated into America. Many people settled by the ports as there was a steady supply of work from the ships and Eddie Carbone is one of these longshoremen.  Eddie is the forceful, irrational protagonist with many complex emotions while his niece (by marriage only) is rather naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve and open. As they live in the same house, they spend most of their time with each other and get on well together as family.   Eddie and Beatrice (his wife) took Catherine in when her mother died and therefore, Eddie feels a great sense of responsibility; I promised your mother on her deathbed. Im responsible for you.  To Catherine, he is like a paternal figure, and she does love and respect him that way. At first, I also believe that is how Eddie thinks of her.  He provides a good home for her, puts food on the table and sees her through education, I think truly wanting the best for her- to go up in the world. His aspirations are high;  I broke my back payin her stenography lessons so she could go out and meet a better class of people.  His social aspirations for her are obviously higher than his own community- but does that mean he is snobbish of his own class? I think, perhaps slightly.  Eddies protectiveness of Catherine can be just like a normal fathers, as he says about her new skirt;  I think it too short, aint it? But often, this protectiveness can turn into dominance and possessiveness over his niece and his attitude towards her becomes unnatural. Eddie is never completely at ease. He tells her shes walkin wavy, but this is because he is subconsciously sexually attracted to her. He criticises her appearance and behaviour because she is attractive to other men and he does not like that. I think, in a way, he believes she is his and he wants her all to himself- i.e. if he cannot have her, no one can. I think to aid this, he tries to keep her a little girl, when actually, she is becoming a woman;  Youre a baby.. when you stand here by the window waving outside.  The word baby is mentioned constantly as if it will eventually persuade Catherine that she is one. This environment would be suffocating for her.  However, Beatrice isnt blind to all this;  You gonna keep her in the house all your life?  Eddie (insulted); What kinda remark is that?  She has not had sex with Eddie for quite a while and I think she knows it is because of his desire for Catherine. When Alfieri makes a joke about Catherine not being able to marry Eddie, he doesnt laugh, as he starts to realise his sexual feelings for Catherine are becoming more apparent. When Beatrice finally says;  You want somethin else, Eddie, and you can never have her!  He is stunned with silence, but I think deep down, he knows it is the truth.  Eddies positive and negative elements are often intertwined, but I think his intentions for Catherine were good; however the feelings he acquired for her should have been dealt with differently. Catherines attitude to Eddie is entirely different though. Eddie who lays down the laws heavily influences her, but she seems totally unaware of her sexual appeal generally, but especially to Eddie. Beatrice actually has to tell her about it;  but youre a grown woman and youre in the same house as a grown man. So youll act different now, heh?  Although Catherine is rather innocent, but I think that is because she is overprotected, so, in effect, there is a viscous circle. Catherines attitude to Eddie is, totally non-sexual, but after Beatrices talk, she does start to become aware of what could be going on, perhaps a little.  It didnt even cross her mind that she was a potential rival to Beatrice;  He said you was jealous?  When Catherine falls in love with Rodolfo, Eddie cannot stand this, and does everything in his power to stop it, as his subconscious desires tear him apart slowly. He even calls the immigration bureau and risks his respect (which means so much to him) for her.  I feel that both Eddie and Catherine were partly to blame for the tragic end of their relationship and in general. However, Catherine gained her confidence and independence a little more toward the end of the play. Eddies possessiveness and dominance over Catherine suffocated her into staying a baby, but I feel she could/should have been more self- aware, especially of the situation around her.

Computers in Surgery :: Informative

Computers in Surgery Implementing Computers into surgery is a new and exciting area of study. It has only been in the past 20 years that computers have started to be incorporated with surgery. In 1989, abstracts of the surgical literature were being distributed on 5.25-inch floppy disks. These abstracts were then used in medical operations and evaluations. Doctors could travel though menus in the abstracts and eventually targeting a solution, procedure, or cause of illnesses. This made the time it takes to flip through pages and pages of medical journals and textbooks less expansive and cumbersome. Doctors have now gotten to the point where laptops are brought into surgery and are used to aid doctors and nurses. Instead of saying â€Å"Nurse, scalpel,† surgeons ask their nurses to find information on the laptops. Besides holding information, Computers can also be used to manipulate tools and other things in the operating room. Mechanical arms are often used to perform procedures. Sometimes a computer is used to navigate cameras inside of the human body in order to locate tumors and blockages. Computers are also used to analyze images taken before surgery. Dr. Ninian Peckitt uses software to analyze a CAT scan images in order to understand his patient’s skull. The program in the computer actually directions for making full size replicas of patients heads. In conclusion, there is a huge advancement being made as far as computer aided surgeries go. From holding information, analyzing problems, delivering solutions, to performing operations, computers are the next step in medical tools.

Jose’s Authentic Mexican Restaurant Essay

Problem Statement: Jose’s Mexican restaurant is a small yet popular spot. Lately they have been losing customers and profits due to service issues. In order to improve the restaurant, Jose’s Mexican Restaurant must provide service that is top-notch, in other words fast, efficient, great testing, convenient and heartwarming. What must the restaurant do in order to improve service? Areas for consideration: Quality at Jose’s restaurant should be defined by service, value, reliability of the experience and overall customers’ satisfaction. The quality of a product is defined as whether it fulfills its stated specifications. Customer satisfaction should be at the top priority for the restaurant. Customer satisfaction is the measurement of a product or service that meets or exceeds customer’s expectations. Therefore, the restaurant should focus on its customers’ needs and requirements, and strive to exceed their expectations. ` The factors that affect the quality of the service are conformance to specification, value, fitness for use, support and even psychological standard impression. Food should be delivered and served as to be what is promised on the menu. Also, the food should be cooked and prepared properly, to be fresh, clean, and to have exactly the ingredients and flavors that are ordered. Service staff should be neatly dressed and greet customers with a smile; personnel should be experienced and trained to accommodate the customer. Atmosphere is another important area of quality. At Jose’s, keeping with the Mexican themed decor creates the atmosphere for the Mexican prepared dishes. The overall establishment should maintain a level of cleanliness. Waiting areas for customers should be clean and comfortable during the peak times when a waiting to be seated is necessary. The service and meals should be dependable and consistent. Food should be prepared with the best available ingredients, and served quickly and correctly. Wait staff should provide prompt service, serving in the time promised, and make the customers feel unique and special. What are the restaurant’s costs of process failures? – Because of the lack of a waiting area and reservations Jose’s is losing customers that could have been accommodated better. According to the survey conducted an average of 20% of the customers are unsatisfied. Also due to the wait time for the food to be prepared over 30% of the customers are not satisfied. Even a whopping 14% of customers are not happy with how the food tastes, this is maybe due to the ingredients the cook was complaining about. Even the servers have problems a large 12% complained about their servers. When it all comes down to it a whopping 20% of these customers say that the dining experience was not worth the cost. What does this mean? It means that 20% of the customers are not coming back. So as we can see Jose’s Authentic Mexican Restaurant really needs an overhaul. When a process fails to satisfy a customer, the failure is considered a defect. The more servers the easier it becomes to serve the customers. The more space, the less need for waiting to be seated in fact we may place a cozy waiting area for our guests. Renovations also mean you get to have the media evaluate your place again, meaning you’ll get on the paper, which means free advertising. Also a renovation will spark interest in your regular customers and the general public. People will talk about it. They will want to experience the new place. Disadvantages (Weaknesses and Threats) The expansion of space will take a long time, first a space has to be purchased. We are not even sure if the establishments around Jose’s will want to sell space. Then there comes the finances. Is Jose’s Authentic Mexican Restaurant capable of shelling out large enough capital. New employees may be hard to train and not always needed thus accumulating more cost than what is desired. Also what if the renovation and space expansion takes too long and a new Mexican restaurant owned by someone else opens up? Will Jose’s customers remember it, or will they be satisfied with the new-one’s service? All these things must be put into consideration for even an assumed small weaknesses or threat maybe underestimated and can result or turn into a fatal error. Alternative 2 Use a Six Sigma Improvement Model (DMAIC) Six sigma, which relies heavily on the principles of TQM is comprehensive and flexible system for achieving, sustaining, and maximizing business success by minimizing defects and variability in processes. Although Six Sigma Improvement Model is a five step procedure that leads to improvement in process performance, the model can be applied to projects involving incremental improvement to process or to project requiring major changes including redesigning an existence process. The following steps comprise the model: The DMAIC project methodology has five phases: * Define  the problem, the voice of the customer, and the project goals, specifically. * Measure  key aspects of the current process and collect relevant data. * Analyze  the data to investigate and verify cause-and-effect relationships. Determine what the relationships are, and attempt to ensure that all factors have been considered. Seek out root cause of the defect under investigation. * Improve  or optimize the current process based upon data analysis using techniques such as  design of experiments,  poka yoke  or mistake proofing, and standard work to create a new, future state process. Set up pilot runs to establish  process capability. * Control  the future state process to ensure that any deviations from target are corrected before they result in defects. Implement  control systems  such as  statistical process control,  production boards, and  visual workplaces, and continuously monitor the process. Let us use the Six Sigma Approach: 1- Define. Determine the characteristic of the process output that are critical to customer satisfaction and identify and gaps between these characteristics and the process’s capabilities. Get a picture of the current process by documenting it using flowcharts and process charts. At Jose’s, some of the concern are stated at the survey about customer satisfaction from the service they receive at Jose’s. The survey shows that 20% of the customers were not happy, and don’t consider the service they receive worth the money they pay. Look into the problem thoroughly and see if there are cracks in the system, for example we noticed that Jose’s does not take reservations. 2- Measure. Quantify the work the process does that affects the gap. Select what to measure, identify data sources, and prepare a data collection plan. In Jose’s case, the survey covers all the major issues that could have direct effect on the business performance. 3- Analyze. Use he data on measures to perform process analysis, applying tools such as Pareto charts, scatter diagrams, and cause-and-effect diagrams, and statistical process control (SPC) tools to determine where improvements are necessary. Jose’s should analyze the data from the survey in order to address the problem. 4- Improve. Modify or redesign existing methods to meet the new performance objectives. Implement the change. The Jose’s team should observe the positive achievement in the operation, and should stop the process if there were mismatching. 5- Control. Monitor the process to make sure that high performance level are maintain. Once again, data analysis tools such as pareto charts , bar charts scatter diagram, as well as statistical process control tools can be used to control the process. The selected operational procedure should be revised, and needs to be documented and this process must be firmly held by Jose’s operational team. In the operation processes, continuous improvement need to be find out for the more better performance from Jose’s in general and over all catering services. Advantages (Strengths and Opportunities) The Six Sigma Image Model is a thorough study of the problem. Through using this Jose’s will get down to the roots of the problem and maintain the system functioning well. It takes less time and resources to accomplish. It can be started immediately and the results are effective. This approach is not only cost effective but keeps the guessing-game out of the picture. Since this approach is cost-effective the money saved may then be invested in other things such as equipment, advertising or a totally new business depending on the owners judgment. Disadvantages (Weaknesses and Threats) I don’t really see any major flaws here except that it may be too tedious for the less-active folk. A threat can be that another restaurant may be able to use this system better and come out with better results than Jose’s Authentic Mexican Restaurant. Conclusion and recommendation: Alternative 1 – may indeed spark interest and increase sales for an unknown period of time after the restaurant re-opens. However, this method is not cost-effective and will take too much time, effort and capital to set in motion and complete. And it does not take an in-depth look at the problem but only gives a superficial or shallow solution to the problem. With the information collected by Jose’s Authentic Mexican Restaurant it is possible the restaurant is ready to take the Six Sigma Image Model approach. I therefore conclude that Alternative 2 which is to take an in-depth search of the problem through the Six Sigma approach originally developed and made popular by Motorola, USA can be most helpful to solving the problem with service at the said restaurant. This alternative takes a deep meaningful search of the problems, solves it and maintains it. This approach meets the objective of the study, which is to solve the service problem of Jose’s Authentic Restaurant. The importance of investing in a Six Sigma approach are the in-depth research, answers, information and system maintenance that will be available after this approach is completed. After all, it is a proven system that has been used by countless successful businesses. Aside from the research valuability, educating your employees with this approach may increase their self-esteem by providing them with information and a tool for success in life. Happy and confident employees result in a better work-ethic, which will then dramatically improve the service performance of Jose’s Authentic Mexican Restaurant.

The Meaning of the French Word Le Dodo

Definition:Â  (baby talk) - sleepy time, beddy-bye Je vais faire dodo - Im going beddy-bye (Im going to sleep)Au dodo ! - Sleepy time! More baby talk Pronunciation: [doh doh]