Although the events of September 2001 marked the United States' employment of solid forces in its direct comprehensive strategy to counter terrorist organizations and any other challenges to US national security, the United States did not lose sight of the importance of the cultural variable. The cultural variable is the United States' most important instrument of soft power in ensuring its dominance of the international system and promoting its global project. France viewed US soft power as a threat to its own civilizational pattern. Therefore, France considers culture to be an inherent component of its national personality and a cornerstone of its international standing as a major force. Additionally, the US-French political and economic rivalry in Africa, regarded by France as its most important region of national security, has escalated. The developments have contributed to years-long historical rivalry and tension between France and the United States since the 1960s over many contentious issues, including the US position on the political rights of the French-controlled Indochinese and African peoples.As Charles de Gaulle assumed power in France in the early 1950s, France moved to take steps against NATO. De Gaulle demanded in 1958 that France be given more autonomy and freedom than the other members, especially in nuclear armament, and powers similar to those of the UK and the US with regard to NATO-managing strategies. These claims and invitations prompted the US reservation in the late 1950s. Therefore, this study aims to define comprehensive strategy and soft power, identify the manifestations of US soft power towards France, investigate the US practices on the French perception of soft power and cultural variables, and examine the effects of the said US strategies and powers on France's international interests and its strategic action in the world order and NATO.
An experimental study was carried out to improve the surface roughness quality of the stainless steel 420 using magnetic abrasive finishing method (MAF). Four independent operation parameters were studied (working gap, coil current, feed rate, and table stroke), and their effects on the MAF process were introduced. A rotating coil electromagnet was designed and implemented to use with plane surfaces. The magnetic abrasive powder used was formed from 33%Fe and 67% Quartz of (250µm mesh size). The lubricant type SAE 20W was used as a binder for the powder contents. Taguchi method was used for designing the experiments and the optimal values of the selected parameters were found. An empirical equation representing the r
... Show MoreTHE Schiff base reaction played an important role of the condensation reaction between 2-aminophenol and Glyoxylic acid in the presence of calculated amounts of KOH as a catalyst. The reaction has been carried out in ethanol under reflux and stirring condition for 3.5 hrs. All syntheses were carried out under hydrogen gas forming a new potassium (E)-1-hydroxy-2-(2-hydroxyphenylimino)ethanolate ligand type [NO2]. The ligand of the general formula K2[Mn(L2)] type and its Mnп complex K2[Mn(N2O4)] type, has been characterized by spectroscopic methods (F.T-I.R. and U.V-Vis.), elemental analysis (C.H.N) metal content, magnetic susceptibility measurement, Thin-layer chromatography (T.L.C), X-RD powder diffraction, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR molar conductanc
... Show MoreIn every country in the world, there are a number of amputees who have been exposed to some accidents that led to the loss of their upper limbs. The aim of this study is to suggest a system for real-time classification of five classes of shoulder girdle motions for high-level upper limb amputees using a pattern recognition system. In the suggested system, the wavelet transform was utilized for feature extraction, and the extreme learning machine was used as a classifier. The system was tested on four intact-limbed subjects and one amputee, with eight channels involving five electromyography channels and three-axis accelerometer sensor. The study shows that the suggested pattern recognition system has the ability to classify the sho
... Show MoreA low speed open circuit wind tunnel has been designed, manufactured and constructed at the Mechanical Engineering Department at Baghdad University - College of Engineering. The work is one of the pioneer projects adapted by the R & D Office at the Iraqi MOHESR. The present paper describes the first part of the work; that is the design calculations, simulation and construction. It will be followed by a second part that describes testing and calibration of the tunnel. The proposed wind tunnel has a test section with cross sectional area of (0.7 x 0.7 m2) and length of (1.5 m). The maximum speed is about (70 m/s) with empty test section. The contraction ratio is (8.16). Three screens are used to minimize flow disturbances in the test section.
... Show MoreIn this paper, variable gain nonlinear PD and PI fuzzy logic controllers are designed and the effect of the variable gain characteristic of these controllers is analyzed to show its contribution in enhancing the performance of the closed loop system over a conventional linear PID controller. Simulation results and time domain performance characteristics show how these fuzzy controllers outperform the conventional PID controller when used to control a nonlinear plant and a plant that has time delay.
In this study, a packed bed was used to remove pathogenic bacteria from synthetic contaminated water. Two types of packing material substrates, sand and zeolite, were used. These substrates were coated with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), which were prepared by decomposition of Ag ions from AgNO3 solution. The prepared coated packings were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The packed column consisted of a PVC cylinder of 2 cm diameter and 20 cm in length. The column was packed with silver nanoparticlecoated substrates (sand or zeolite) at a depth of 10 cm. Four types of bacteria were studied: Escherichia coli, Shigella dysenteriae, Pseudomonas aerugi
... Show MoreIn this study, condensation polymerization was used to synthesize a number of novel liquid crystal polymers with 1,3,4-oxadiazole rings based on melamine. The new synthesized polymers were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1HNMR) spectroscopy. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and optical polarization microscopy (OPM) were used to investigate their liquid crystalline properties. The results demonstrated that throughout a wide temperature range, most of the polymers exhibited columnar (CohX) and nematic (N) liquid crystalline phases.
Electronic remote identification (ER-ID) is a new radio frequency (RF) technology that is initiated by the Federal Aviation Authorities (FAA). For security reasons, traffic control, and so on, ER-ID has been applied for drones by the FAA to enable them to transmit their unique identification and location so that unauthorized drones can be identified. The current limitation of the existing ER-ID algorithms is that the application is limited to the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless controllers, which results in a maximum range of 10–20 m for Bluetooth and 50–100 m for Wi-Fi. In this study, a mathematical computing technique based on finite state automaton (FSA) is introduced to expand the range of the ER-ID RF system and reduce the ene
... Show MoreThe degradation of Toluidine Blue dye in aqueous solution under UV irradiation is investigated by using photo-Fenton oxidation (UV/H2O2/Fe+). The effect of initial dye concentration, initial ferrous ion concentration, pH, initial hydrogen peroxide dosage, and irradiation time are studied. It is found put that the removal rate increases as the initial concentration of H2O2 and ferrous ion increase to optimum value ,where in we get more than 99% removal efficiency of dye at pH = 4 when the [H2O2] = 500mg / L, [Fe + 2 = 150mg / L]. Complete degradation was achieved in the relatively short time of 75 minutes. Faster decolonization is achieved at low pH, with the optimal value at pH 4 .The concentrations of degradation dye are detected by spectr
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