1.
S.A. (corporation)
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S. A. designates a type of corporation in countries that mostly employ civil law. Depending on language, it means anonymous company, anonymous partnership, or share company and it is different from partnerships and private limited companies. Originally, shareholders could be anonymous and collect dividends by surrendering coupons attached to their share certificates. Dividends were therefore paid to whoever held the certificate, share certificates could be transferred privately, and therefore the management of the company would not necessarily know who owned its shares. Nowadays, shareholders of S. A. s are not anonymous, though shares can still be held by holding companies, S. A. شركة مساهة عامة ذات مسؤولية محدودة (ش. ذ. م. شركة مساهمة مصرية (ش. م
2.
Ticker symbol
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A ticker symbol or stock symbol is an abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a particular stock market. A stock symbol may consist of letters, numbers or a combination of both, ticker symbol refers to the symbols that were printed on the ticker tape of a ticker tape machine. Stock symbols are unique identifiers assigned to each security traded on a particular market, for example, AAPL is for Apple Inc. OODH is for Orion DHC, Inc. and HD is for Home Depot, a stock symbol can consist of letters, numbers, or a combination of both, and is a way to uniquely identify that stock. The symbols were kept as short as possible to reduce the number of characters that had to be printed on the ticker tape, the allocation of symbols and formatting convention is specific to each stock exchange. In the US, for example, stock tickers are typically between 1 and 4 letters and represent the name where possible. In Europe, most exchanges use three-letter codes, for example Dutch consumer goods company Unilever traded on the Amsterdam Euronext exchange has the symbol UNA, while in Asia, numbers are often used as stock tickers to avoid issues for international investors when using non-Latin scripts. For example, the bank HSBCs stock traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has the ticker symbol 0005, symbols sometimes change to reflect mergers. Prior to the 1999 merger with Mobil Oil, Exxon used a spelling of the company XON as its ticker symbol. The symbol of the firm after the merger was XOM, symbols are sometimes reused, in the US the single-letter symbols are particularly sought after as vanity symbols. For example, since Mar 2008 Visa Inc. has used the symbol V that had previously used by Vivendi which had delisted. To fully qualify a stock, both the ticker and the exchange or country of listing needs to be known, on many systems both must be specified to uniquely identify the security. This is often done by appending the location or exchange code to the ticker, although stock tickers identify a security, they are exchange dependent, generally limited to stocks and can change. These limitations have led to the development of other codes in financial markets to identify securities for settlement purposes, the most prevalent of these is the International Securities Identifying Number. An ISIN uniquely identifies a security and its structure is defined in ISO6166, Securities for which ISINs are issued include bonds, commercial paper, stocks, and warrants. The ISIN identifies the security, not the exchange on which it trades, for instance, Daimler AG stock trades on twenty-two different stock exchanges worldwide, and is priced in five different currencies, it has the same ISIN on each, though not the same ticker symbol. ISIN cannot specify a particular trade in this case, and another identifier, following the introduction of the Sequence trading platform in 1996, EPICs were renamed Tradable Instrument Display Mnemonics, but they are still widely referred to as EPICs. Stocks can also be identified using their SEDOL number or their ISIN, in the United States, modern letter-only ticker symbols were developed by Standard & Poors to bring a national standard to investing
3.
Euronext
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Euronext NV is a European stock exchange seated in Amsterdam, Brussels, London, Lisbon and Paris. In addition to cash and derivatives markets, the Euronext group provides listing market data, market solutions, custody and its total product offering includes equities, exchange-traded funds, warrants and certificates, bonds, derivatives, commodities and indices. As of 2017, Euronext was the largest in continental Europe with 1,300 issuers representing a €3 trillion market capitalization, Euronext merged with NYSE Group, Inc. on April 4,2007 to form NYSE Euronext. On November 13,2013 Intercontinental Exchange, completed acquisition of NYSE Euronext, in June 2014 Euronext completed an initial public offering making it a standalone company again. In December 2001, Euronext acquired the shares of the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange, in 2002 the group merged with the Portuguese stock exchange Bolsa de Valores de Lisboa e Porto, renamed Euronext Lisbon. In 2001, Euronext became a company itself after completing its Initial Public Offering. Despite this, NYSE Group and Euronext penned an agreement, subject to shareholder vote. The initial regulatory response by SEC chief Christopher Cox was positive, the new firm, tentatively dubbed NYSE Euronext, would be headquartered in New York City, with European operations and its trading platform run out of Paris. In addition, the two hoped to add Borsa Italiana into the grouping. Deutsche Börse dropped out of the bidding for Euronext on 15 November 2006, a run-up of NYSE Groups stock price in late 2006 made the offering far more attractive to Euronexts shareholders. On 19 December 2006, Euronext shareholders approved the transaction with 98. 2% of the vote, only 1. 8% voted in favour of the Deutsche Börse offer. Jean-François Théodore, the Chief Executive Officer of Euronext, stated that expected the transaction to close within three or four months. Some of the agencies with jurisdiction over the merger had already given approval. NYSE Group shareholders gave their approval on 20 December 2006, the merger was completed on 4 April 2007, forming NYSE Euronext. In 2008 and 2009 Deutsche Börse made two attempts to merge with NYSE Euronext. Both attempts did not enter into advanced steps of merger, in 2011, Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext confirmed that they were in advanced merger talks. Such a merger would create the largest exchange in history, the deal was approved by shareholders of NYSE Euronext on July 7,2011, and Deutsche Börse on July 15,2011 and won the antitrust approved by the US regulators on December 22,2011. Deutsche Börse unsuccessfully appealed this decision, in 2012, Euronext announced the creation of Euronext London to offer listing facilities in the UK
4.
Aerospace
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Aerospace is the human effort in science, engineering and business to fly in the atmosphere of Earth and surrounding space. Aerospace organisations research, design, manufacture, operate, or maintain aircraft and/or spacecraft, Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial and military applications. Aerospace is not the same as airspace, which is the air space directly above a location on the ground. In most industrial countries, the industry is a cooperation of public. Along with these public space programs, many companies produce technical tools and components such as spaceships, some known companies involved in space programs include Boeing, Airbus Group, SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, MacDonald Dettwiler and Northrop Grumman. These companies are involved in other areas of aerospace such as the construction of aircraft. Modern aerospace began with George Cayley in 1799, Cayley proposed an aircraft with a fixed wing and a horizontal and vertical tail, defining characteristics of the modern airplane. Airmen like Otto Lilienthal, who introduced cambered airfoils in 1891, the Wright brothers were interested in Lilienthals work and read several of his publications. They also found inspiration in Octave Chanute, an airman and the author of Progress in Flying Machines, war and science fiction inspired great minds like Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Wernher von Braun to achieve flight beyond the atmosphere. The launch of Sputnik 1 in October 1957 started the Space Age, in April 1981, the Space Shuttle Columbia launched, the start of regular manned access to orbital space. A sustained human presence in space started with Mir in 1986 and is continued by the International Space Station. Space commercialization and space tourism are more recent focuses in aerospace, Aerospace manufacturing is a high-technology industry that produces aircraft, guided missiles, space vehicles, aircraft engines, propulsion units, and related parts. Most of the industry is geared toward governmental work, for each original equipment manufacturer, the US government has assigned a Commercial and Government Entity code. These codes help to each manufacturer, repair facilities. In the United States, the Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics, others include the very large airline industry. The aerospace industry employed 472,000 wage and salary workers in 2006, most of those jobs were in Washington state and in California, with Missouri, New York and Texas also being important. The leading aerospace manufacturers in the U. S. are Boeing, United Technologies Corporation, SpaceX, Northrop Grumman and these manufacturers are facing an increasing labor shortage as skilled U. S. workers age and retire. In India, Bangalore is a center of the aerospace industry, where Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, the National Aerospace Laboratories
5.
Arms industry
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The arms industry, also known as the defense industry or the arms trade, is a global industry responsible for the manufacturing and sales of weapons and military technology. It consists of a commercial industry involved in the research and development, engineering, production, and servicing of military material, equipment, and facilities. Arms-producing companies, also referred to as arms dealers, defense contractors, or as the industry, produce arms for the armed forces of states. Departments of government also operate in the industry, buying and selling weapons, munitions. An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, the arms industry also provides other logistical and operational support. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimated in 2012 that 2012 military expenditures were roughly 1.8 trillion United States dollars and this represents a relative decline from 1990 when military expenditures made up 4% of world GDP. Part of the money goes to the procurement of military hardware, the combined arms sales of the top 100 largest arms-producing companies amounted to an estimated $395 billion in 2012 according to SIPRI. In 2004 over $30 billion were spent in the arms trade. According to SIPRI, the volume of transfers of major weapons in 2010–14 was 16 per cent higher than in 2005–2009. The five biggest exporters in 2010–2014 were the United States, Russia, China, Germany and France, and the five biggest importers were India, Saudi Arabia, China, many industrialized countries have a domestic arms-industry to supply their own military forces. Some countries also have a legal or illegal domestic trade in weapons for use by its citizens, primarily for self-defense. Illegal trade in small arms occurs in countries and regions affected by political instability. The Small Arms Survey estimates that 875 million small arms circulate worldwide, contracts to supply a given countrys military are awarded by governments, making arms contracts of substantial political importance. Various corporations, some publicly held, others private, bid for these contracts, other times, no bidding or competition takes place. The modern arms industry emerged in the half of the nineteenth century as a product of the creation and expansion of the first large military-industrial companies. In 1854, the British government awarded a contract to the Elswick Ordnance Company of industrialist William Armstrong for the supply of his latest breech loading rifled artillery pieces and this galvanised the private sector into weapons production, with the surplus being increasingly exported to foreign countries. Armstrong became one of the first international arms dealers, selling his weapon systems to governments across the world from Brazil to Japan. In 1884, he opened a shipyard at Elswick to specialise in warship production—at the time, it was the factory in the world that could build a battleship
6.
Transport
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Transport or transportation is the movement of people, animals and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, the field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles and operations. Transport is important because it enables trade between people, which is essential for the development of civilizations, terminals may be used both for interchange of passengers and cargo and for maintenance. Vehicles traveling on these networks may include automobiles, bicycles, buses, trains, trucks, people, helicopters, operations deal with the way the vehicles are operated, and the procedures set for this purpose including financing, legalities and policies. In the transport industry, operations and ownership of infrastructure can be public or private, depending on the country. Passenger transport may be public, where operators provide scheduled services, freight transport has become focused on containerization, although bulk transport is used for large volumes of durable items. Transport plays an important part in growth and globalization, but most types cause air pollution. While it is subsidized by governments, good planning of transport is essential to make traffic flow. A mode of transport is a solution that makes use of a type of vehicle, infrastructure. The transport of a person or of cargo may involve one mode or several of the modes, each mode has its own advantages and disadvantages, and will be chosen for a trip on the basis of cost, capability, and route. Human powered transport, a form of transportation, is the transport of people and/or goods using human muscle-power. Modern technology has allowed machines to enhance human power, human-powered vehicles have also been developed for difficult environments, such as snow and water, by watercraft rowing and skiing, even the air can be entered with human-powered aircraft. Animal-powered transport is the use of working animals for the movement of people, humans may ride some of the animals directly, use them as pack animals for carrying goods, or harness them, alone or in teams, to pull sleds or wheeled vehicles. A fixed-wing aircraft, commonly called airplane, is a craft where movement of the air in relation to the wings is used to generate lift. The term is used to distinguish this from rotary-wing aircraft, where the movement of the lift surfaces relative to the air generates lift, a gyroplane is both fixed-wing and rotary-wing. Fixed-wing aircraft range from small trainers and recreational aircraft to large airliners, two things necessary for aircraft are air flow over the wings for lift and an area for landing. The majority of aircraft also need an airport with the infrastructure to receive maintenance, restocking, refueling and for the loading and unloading of crew, cargo and passengers. While the vast majority of land and take off on land, some are capable of take off and landing on ice, snow
7.
Security
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Security is the degree of resistance to, or protection from, harm. It applies to any vulnerable and/or valuable asset, such as a person, dwelling, community, item, nation, or organization. As noted by the Institute for Security and Open Methodologies in the OSSTMM3 and these separations are generically called controls, and sometimes include changes to the asset or the threat. Security is said to have two dialogues, negative dialogue is about danger, risk, threat, etc. Positive dialogue is about opportunities, interests, profits, etc, negative dialogue needs military equipment, armies, or police. Positive dialogue needs social capital, education, or social interaction, perception of security may be poorly mapped to measurable objective security. For example, the fear of earthquakes has been reported to be more common than the fear of slipping on the floor although the latter kills many more people than the former. Similarly, the effectiveness of security measures is sometimes different from the actual security provided by those measures. The presence of security protections may even be taken for the safety itself, for example, two computer security programs could be interfering with each other and even canceling each others effect, while the owner believes they are getting double the protection. Security theater is a term for deployment of measures primarily aimed at raising subjective security without a genuine or commensurate concern for the effects of that action on real safety. Since some intruders will decide not to attempt to break into such areas or vehicles, without such advertisement, an intruder might, for example, approach a car, break the window, and then flee in response to an alarm being triggered. Either way, perhaps the car itself and the objects inside arent stolen, there is an immense literature on the analysis and categorization of security. Part of the reason for this is that, in most security systems, the situation is asymmetric since the defender must cover all points of attack while the attacker need only identify a single weak point upon which to concentrate. It includes physical security to prevent theft of equipment and information security to protect the data on that equipment, today there is a greater recognition of the interconnected nature of security requirements, an approach variously known as holistic security, all hazards management, and other terms. Inciting factors in the convergence of security include the development of digital video surveillance technologies. In 2007 the International Organisation for Standardization released ISO28000 - Security Management Systems for the supply chain, ISO28000 is the foremost risk based security system and is suitable for managing both public and private regulatory security, customs and industry based security schemes and requirements
8.
Thomson-CSF
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Thomson-CSF was a major electronics and defence contractor. In December 2000 it was renamed Thales Group, in 1879 Elihu Thomson and Edwin Houston formed the Thomson-Houston Electric Company in the United States. On 15 April 1892 Thomson-Houston and the Edison General Electric Company merged to form General Electric, also in 1892 the company formed a French subsidiary, Thomson Houston International. In 1893 Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston was set up as a partner to GE and it is from this company that the modern Thomson companies would evolve. In 1966 CFTH merged with Hotchkiss-Brandt to form Thomson-Houston-Hotchkiss-Brandt, in 1968 the electronics business of Thomson-Brandt merged with Compagnie Générale de Télégraphie Sans Fil to form Thomson-CSF. Thomson Brandt maintained a significant shareholding in this company, in 1982 both Thomson-Brandt and Thomson-CSF were nationalized by François Mitterrand. Thomson-Brandt was renamed Thomson SA and merged with Thomson-CSF, from 1983 to 1987 a major reorganisation of Thomson-CSF was undertaken, with divestitures to refocus the group on its core activities. Thomson-CSF Téléphone and the division were sold to Alcatel and GE respectively. The semiconductor businesses of Thomson CSF was merged with Finmeccanica, Thomson acquired General Electric’s RCA and GE consumer electronics business in 1987. In 1988 Thomson Consumer Electronics was formed, renamed Thomson Multimedia in 1995, the French government split the consumer electronics and defence businesses prior to privatisation in 1999, those companies being Thomson Multimedia and Thomson-CSF. In 2000 Thomson-CSF went through a series of transactions, including with Marconi plc, the major acquisition at this time was the £1.3 billion purchase of the British defence electronics firm, Racal. This made Thomson-CSF the second largest participant in the UK defence industry after BAE, Racal was renamed Thomson-CSF Racal plc. On 6 December 2000 the group was renamed Thales, taïwan Connection, Scandales et meurtres au cœur de la République. Une pratique différente des relations sociales, lexpérience Thomson-CSF, Robert Thomas, Paris, Maxima-Laurent du Mesnil Ed.1999
9.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
10.
Radar
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Radar is an object-detection system that uses radio waves to determine the range, angle, or velocity of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, Radio waves from the transmitter reflect off the object and return to the receiver, giving information about the objects location and speed. Radar was developed secretly for military use by several nations in the period before, the term RADAR was coined in 1940 by the United States Navy as an acronym for RAdio Detection And Ranging or RAdio Direction And Ranging. The term radar has since entered English and other languages as a common noun, high tech radar systems are associated with digital signal processing, machine learning and are capable of extracting useful information from very high noise levels. Other systems similar to make use of other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. One example is lidar, which uses ultraviolet, visible, or near infrared light from lasers rather than radio waves, as early as 1886, German physicist Heinrich Hertz showed that radio waves could be reflected from solid objects. In 1895, Alexander Popov, an instructor at the Imperial Russian Navy school in Kronstadt. The next year, he added a spark-gap transmitter, in 1897, while testing this equipment for communicating between two ships in the Baltic Sea, he took note of an interference beat caused by the passage of a third vessel. In his report, Popov wrote that this phenomenon might be used for detecting objects, the German inventor Christian Hülsmeyer was the first to use radio waves to detect the presence of distant metallic objects. In 1904, he demonstrated the feasibility of detecting a ship in dense fog and he obtained a patent for his detection device in April 1904 and later a patent for a related amendment for estimating the distance to the ship. He also got a British patent on September 23,1904 for a radar system. It operated on a 50 cm wavelength and the radar signal was created via a spark-gap. In 1915, Robert Watson-Watt used radio technology to advance warning to airmen. Watson-Watt became an expert on the use of direction finding as part of his lightning experiments. As part of ongoing experiments, he asked the new boy, Arnold Frederic Wilkins, Wilkins made an extensive study of available units before selecting a receiver model from the General Post Office. Its instruction manual noted that there was fading when aircraft flew by, in 1922, A. Hoyt Taylor and Leo C. Taylor submitted a report, suggesting that this might be used to detect the presence of ships in low visibility, eight years later, Lawrence A. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa followed prewar Great Britain, and Hungary had similar developments during the war. Hugon, began developing a radio apparatus, a part of which was installed on the liner Normandie in 1935
11.
Infantry mobility vehicle
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An infantry mobility vehicle is a wheeled armored personnel carrier serving as a military patrol, reconnaissance or security vehicle. Examples include the ATF Dingo, Oshkosh, Iveco LMV, M-ATV, AMZ Dzik, AMZ Tur, Mungo ESK and this term also applies to those vehicles fielded as part of the MRAP program. IMVs were developed in response to the threats of warfare, with an emphasis on crew protection. Similar vehicles existed long before the term IMV was coined, such as the French VAB, the term is coming more into use to differentiate light 4x4 wheeled APCs from the traditional 8x8 wheeled APCs. It is a neologism for what might have been classified in the past as a scout car, such as the BRDM. The up-armored M1114 Humvee variant can be seen as an adaptation of the unarmored Humvee to serve in the IMV role, iMVs generally feature a v-hull shaped underbelly with additional crew protection features such as four- point seat belts and seats suspended from the roof or sides of the vehicle. Most feature a remote system in place of a crew-served weapon system
12.
Euro
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Outside of Europe, a number of overseas territories of EU members also use the euro as their currency. Additionally,210 million people worldwide as of 2013 use currencies pegged to the euro, the euro is the second largest reserve currency as well as the second most traded currency in the world after the United States dollar. The name euro was adopted on 16 December 1995 in Madrid. The euro was introduced to world markets as an accounting currency on 1 January 1999. While the euro dropped subsequently to US$0.8252 within two years, it has traded above the U. S. dollar since the end of 2002, peaking at US$1.6038 on 18 July 2008. In July 2012, the euro fell below US$1.21 for the first time in two years, following concerns raised over Greek debt and Spains troubled banking sector, as of 26 March 2017, the euro–dollar exchange rate stands at ~ US$1.07. The euro is managed and administered by the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank, as an independent central bank, the ECB has sole authority to set monetary policy. The Eurosystem participates in the printing, minting and distribution of notes and coins in all states. The 1992 Maastricht Treaty obliges most EU member states to adopt the euro upon meeting certain monetary and budgetary convergence criteria, all nations that have joined the EU since 1993 have pledged to adopt the euro in due course. Since 5 January 2002, the central banks and the ECB have issued euro banknotes on a joint basis. Euro banknotes do not show which central bank issued them, Eurosystem NCBs are required to accept euro banknotes put into circulation by other Eurosystem members and these banknotes are not repatriated. The ECB issues 8% of the value of banknotes issued by the Eurosystem. In practice, the ECBs banknotes are put into circulation by the NCBs and these liabilities carry interest at the main refinancing rate of the ECB. The euro is divided into 100 cents, in Community legislative acts the plural forms of euro and cent are spelled without the s, notwithstanding normal English usage. Otherwise, normal English plurals are used, with many local variations such as centime in France. All circulating coins have a side showing the denomination or value. Due to the plurality in the European Union, the Latin alphabet version of euro is used. For the denominations except the 1-, 2- and 5-cent coins, beginning in 2007 or 2008 the old map is being replaced by a map of Europe also showing countries outside the Union like Norway
13.
Earnings before interest and taxes
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In accounting and finance, earnings before interest and taxes, is a measure of a firms profit that includes all expenses except interest and income tax expenses. It is the difference between operating revenues and operating expenses, when a firm does not have non-operating income, then operating income is sometimes used as a synonym for EBIT and operating profit. To calculate EBIT, expenses are subtracted from revenues, net income is later obtained by subtracting interest and taxes from the result
14.
Net income
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In business, net income is an entitys income minus cost of goods sold, expenses and taxes for an accounting period. In the context of the presentation of financial statements, the IFRS Foundation defines net income as synonymous with profit, net income is a distinct accounting concept from profit but the same as net profit. Net income can also be calculated by adding a companys operating income to non-operating income, net income can be distributed among holders of common stock as a dividend or held by the firm as an addition to retained earnings. As profit and earnings are used synonymously for income, net earnings, often, the term income is substituted for net income, yet this is not preferred due to the possible ambiguity. Net income is called the bottom line because it is typically found on the last line of a companys income statement. The items deducted will typically include tax expense, financing expense, likewise, preferred stock dividends will be subtracted too, though they are not an expense. For a merchandising company, subtracted costs may be the cost of goods sold, sales discounts, for a product company advertising, manufacturing, and design and development costs are included
15.
Thales Optronics
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Thales Optronics is a multinational optronics manufacturer and a division of Thales Group. In 1991 Thomson-CSF acquired 50% of Pilkington Optronics, in 1995 Pilkington Optronics acquired Thorn EMI Electro Optics which was renamed Pilkington Thorn Optronics. Three years later, Thomson-CSF purchased another 40% of Pilkington Optronics from Pilkington, in 2000 Thomson-CSF was renamed Thales and Pilkington Optronics Ltd. became Thales Optronics Ltd. Soon after, Thomson-CSF acquired W Vinten Ltd, a British reconnaissance equipment manufacturer, including the Joint Reconnaissance Pod, in November 2006 Thales Optronics Limited announced the closure of its manufacturing facility in Taunton, Somerset, with the loss of 180 jobs. In June 2007 Thales sold the beryllium mirrors and structures business of Thales Optronics Limited to GSI Group Inc. for an undislosed amount, Thales Optronics Limited was awarded the Queens Award for Enterprise in June 2011. Thales Optronics Limited has its headquarters and main facility in Glasgow. In 2011 Thales Optronics Limited generated total revenues of £229 million, electro-optic aircraft reconnaissance pods and image exploitation stations AFV Fire Control and Navigation systems Aerospace industry in the United Kingdom
16.
Thales Air Defence
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Thales Air Defence Limited, formerly Shorts Missile Systems, is a defence contractor based in Belfast, Northern Ireland producing short-range or close air defence missiles. The company has a turnover of approximately £70m and pre-tax profits of £7m, Shorts Missile Systems was established as a joint venture between Shorts owners Bombardier and Thomson-CSF in 1993. In 2000 Thomson-CSF bought Bombardiers 50% share to become the sole owner, in the same year Thomson-CSF went through a series of mergers and acquisitions to become the Thales Group, consequently in 2001 Shorts Missile Systems was renamed Thales Air Defence Limited. The then Shorts Missile Systems was a partner in Raytheons Future Medium Range Air-Air Missile project, in May 2000 the UK selected the MBDA Meteor to fulfil the requirement. TADL products have been deployed by 56 armed forces around the world, the company employs around 510 people based in Belfast and Paris. The company also operates a facility in rural County Down. Blowpipe Javelin Javelin is a man-portable surface-to-air missile and is being replaced by Starstreak, starburst Starstreak A High Velocity Missile used in the air defence role. Used in many roles with man-portable, attack helicopter and vehicle mounted variants, hellfire Built by Thales under licence from the United States for the Ministry of Defence. Hellfire is designed to defeat tanks and other individual targets while minimizing the exposure of the vehicle to enemy fire. Lightweight Multirole Missile - Ordered by the MoD as the FASGW missile on 5 April 2011 to be operated by the Royal Navys new Lynx Wildcat helicopter. Aerospace industry in the United Kingdom Thales Air Defence BBC News, Missile maker in French sights Greens blast missile site Down Democrat, Thales security fears
17.
Thales Nederland
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Thales Nederland B. V. is a subsidiary of Thales Group involved primarily in naval defence systems. Other areas of business include air defence, communications, optronics, cryogenic cooling systems, the company was founded in 1922 in Hengelo as NV Hazemeyers Fabriek van Signaalapparaten by Hazemeyer and Siemens & Halske for the development of naval fire-control systems. It was way to get around the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles which did not allow German companies to manufacture military equipment, in 1940 the companys factory was captured by the invading German Army. After the war the company was nationalised as N. V. Hollandse Signaalapparaten, in 1956 the majority of Signaal shares were purchased by Philips, a Netherlands-based electronics company. Between 1956 and the end of the Cold War Signaals business expanded to the point where it had customers in 35 countries, in 1990 Philips decided defence was not a core activity and sold Signaal to Thomson-CSF, a French electronics and defence contractor. With the renaming of Thomson to Thales in 2000 Thomson-CSF Signaal became Thales Nederland. V
18.
Thales Australia
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Thales Australia is a defence contractor for the Australian Defence Force, based in Australia. ADI manufactured the Steyr AUG based, F88 Austeyr assault rifle at Lithgow Small Arms Factory, in previous years, ADI was the sole defence contractor in Australia, although this changed with the creation of the Tenix Group company, Tenix Defence. ADI was based on Garden Island Naval Base in Sydney, though they maintained a R&D/Custom production facility in Brisbane. In 2004 they applied to the Australian Equal Opportunities Commission to exclude workers of certain nationalities for security reasons, all ADI operations have been taken over by the company, which is now known as Thales Australia. Thales Australia Website ADI/Thales Smokeless Powder Handloaders Guide Official RAN Anzac Frigate listing Thales Australia Bushmaster page
19.
Thales Training & Simulation
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It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Thales Group. The origins of the date back to the incorporation of Redifon in the United Kingdom in 1946. In 1948, the moved to the then new town of Crawley in West Sussex. In 1981, the parent company British Electric Traction changed the name to Rediffusion Simulation Limited to take advantage of the then familiar Rediffusion brand name. In 1988, the company was bought by Hughes Aircraft and renamed Hughes Rediffusion Simulation, in 1994, the company was taken over by Thomson-CSF, who merged it with Link Miles and renamed the company Thomson Training & Simulation. The merged companies were based at the Manor Royal site at Crawley, in 1998, the simulation business of Wormald Technology of Australia was bought and renamed Thales Training & Simulation Pty Ltd. In the United States, Burtek, bought in 1979 by Thomson-CSF, was renamed Thomson Training & Simulation Inc, at the end of 2000, the company was renamed Thales Training & Simulation when the parent company re-branded using the Thales name. Thales sold its civilian fixed-wing simulation business to L-3 Link Simulation & Training UK in August 2012, the purchase included part of the TTS Crawley plant, but not Thales military rotary-wing simulation business. Thales Training & Simulation has four manufacturing plants, United Kingdom producing military aircraft simulators and provides training. In addition, the company has joint ventures and/or customer support hubs in the United States, Saudi Arabia, China, etc. Thales have built and now operate numerous types of simulators, including, Fixed based — No motion platform, normally housed in a dome. Full flight simulators can also be fixed based, these are generally basic training devices that have no visual and are control trainers only, full flight simulators — A fully immersed simulation that has a motion platform, can be either hydraulic or electric. Military simulators — These can simulate parts of aircraft, water based vehicles or ground systems, the range of services offered in support of military simulators now extends to both PFI and PPP contracts. Thales Training & Simulation provides the Synthetic training service for Tornado GR4 Royal Air Force Pilots, a similar service is provided to train Army Air Corps Lynx Mk 7 & Mk 9 Pilots. As the PFI model has been adopted outside the UK, Thales is also part of a consortium to supply NH90 helicopter synthetic training to the German airforce under a PFI framework, Thales Training & Simulation has a joint venture with Eurocopter running a synthetic helicopter training facility, Helisim. Thales also manufactures driver simulators for trucks, busses and military vehicles including tanks, the range of simulators extends to nuclear power plant simulators and small arms simulators for training army, police, etc. page on the Thales website
20.
Thales Alenia Space
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The company is Europes largest satellite manufacturer. Alcatel Alenia Space was established on June 1,2005 by the merger of Alcatel Space and Alenia Spazio and was owned by Alcatel-Lucent, the creation of the company was concurrent with the creation of Telespazio Holding. This too was a merger of Finmeccanica and Alcatel businesses, on April 5,2006 Alcatel agreed to sell its share of Alcatel Alenia Space to Thales Group. The European Union agreed in this operation on April 10,2007. The company built the Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules, which was used to transport cargo inside the Space Shuttle orbiters and they also built several modules for the International Space Station, those modules are Cupola, Columbus, Harmony, Tranquility and Leonardo. They currently build the vessels for the Automated Transfer Vehicle. In the mid-1990s, the United States stopped issuing licenses to companies to allow them to launch on Chinese launch vehicles out of fear that this would help Chinas military. In the face of this, Thales Alenia Space built the Chinasat-6B satellite with no components from the United States whatsoever and this allowed it to be launched on a Chinese launch vehicle without violating U. S. ITAR restrictions. The launch, on a Long March 3B rocket, was conducted on July 5,2007. Cannes Mandelieu Space Center Official website
21.
Electricity
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Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence of electric charge. Although initially considered a separate to magnetism, since the development of Maxwells Equations both are recognized as part of a single phenomenon, electromagnetism. Various common phenomena are related to electricity, including lightning, static electricity, electric heating, electric discharges, in addition, electricity is at the heart of many modern technologies. The presence of a charge, which can be either positive or negative. On the other hand, the movement of charges, which is known as electric current. When a charge is placed in a location with non-zero electric field, the magnitude of this force is given by Coulombs Law. Thus, if that charge were to move, the field would be doing work on the electric charge. Electrical phenomena have been studied since antiquity, though progress in theoretical understanding remained slow until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Even then, practical applications for electricity were few, and it would not be until the nineteenth century that engineers were able to put it to industrial and residential use. The rapid expansion in electrical technology at this time transformed industry, electricitys extraordinary versatility means it can be put to an almost limitless set of applications which include transport, heating, lighting, communications, and computation. Electrical power is now the backbone of modern industrial society, long before any knowledge of electricity existed, people were aware of shocks from electric fish. Ancient Egyptian texts dating from 2750 BCE referred to these fish as the Thunderer of the Nile, Electric fish were again reported millennia later by ancient Greek, Roman and Arabic naturalists and physicians. Patients suffering from such as gout or headache were directed to touch electric fish in the hope that the powerful jolt might cure them. Ancient cultures around the Mediterranean knew that certain objects, such as rods of amber, Thales was incorrect in believing the attraction was due to a magnetic effect, but later science would prove a link between magnetism and electricity. He coined the New Latin word electricus to refer to the property of attracting small objects after being rubbed and this association gave rise to the English words electric and electricity, which made their first appearance in print in Thomas Brownes Pseudodoxia Epidemica of 1646. Further work was conducted by Otto von Guericke, Robert Boyle, Stephen Gray, in the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin conducted extensive research in electricity, selling his possessions to fund his work. In June 1752 he is reputed to have attached a key to the bottom of a dampened kite string. A succession of jumping from the key to the back of his hand showed that lightning was indeed electrical in nature
22.
Military
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The armed forces of a country are its government-sponsored defense, fighting forces, and organizations. They exist to further the foreign and domestic policies of their body and to defend that body. Armed force is the use of armed forces to achieve political objectives, the study of the use of armed forces is called military science. Broadly speaking, this involves considering offense and defense at three levels, strategy, operational art, and tactics, all three levels study the application of the use of force in order to achieve a desired objective. In most countries the basis of the forces is the military. However, armed forces can include other paramilitary structures, the obvious benefit to a country in maintaining armed forces is in providing protection from foreign threats and from internal conflict. In recent decades armed forces personnel have also used as emergency civil support roles in post-disaster situations. On the other hand, they may harm a society by engaging in counter-productive warfare. Expenditure on science and technology to develop weapons and systems sometimes produces side benefits, although some claim that greater benefits could come from targeting the money directly
23.
Headquarters
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Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top of a corporation taking full responsibility for managing all business activities, in the UK, the term head office is most commonly used for the HQs of large corporations. The term is also used regarding military organizations, a headquarters is the entity at the top of a corporation that takes full responsibility for the overall success of the corporation, and ensures corporate governance. Many companies have an office at a different address to their corporate office. A headquarters normally includes the leader of business unit and his or her staff as well as all functions to manage the business unit, the head of the business unit is responsible for overall result of the business unit. Military headquarters take many forms depending on the size and nature of the unit or formation they command, typically, they are split into the forward, main and rear components, both within NATO nations, and those following the organization and doctrine of the former Soviet Union. The forward or tactical HQs is a group of staff. The main HQs is less mobile and is involved in both the planning and execution of operations, there are a number of staff assembled here from various staff branches to advise the commander, and to control the various aspects of planning and the conduct of discrete operations. A main HQ for a large formation will have a chief of staff who coordinates the staff effort, the rear or logistic HQs is some distance from the battle or front line in conventional operations. The headquarters of the Catholic Church is Vatican City, the headquarters of the Russian Orthodox Church is in Danilov Monastery, Moscow. The World Council of Churches, including Orthodox Churches, has its headquarters in Geneva, the headquarters of Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is located in Istanbul, Turkey. The headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is located in Salt Lake City, Utah, the Anglican Communion Office is in London. In Japanese budō martial arts such as karate, judo, aikido, kendo, there is usually a headquarters for each organization or region. The Japanese word honbu is generally used for that, also outside Japan, sometimes they refer to this headquarters as honbu dojo in which dojo is a facility provided for practicing discipline, the training ground. Sometimes honbu is written as hombu, the way it is pronounced, but according to the Hepburn transcription, weapons and Tactics of the Soviet Army Janes, London,516 pp. Wanner, Herbert Global and regional corporate headquarters in, Kählin, Christian, H. Switzerland Business & Investment Handbook, Orell Füssli and Wiley, Wanner, Herbert, LeClef, Xavier, & Shimizu, Hiroshi Global Headquarters on the Move, From Administrators to Facilitators Prims Second Semester 2004, Arthur D. Little
24.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
25.
Euronext Paris
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It operates the MATIF futures exchange, which trades futures and options on interest rate products and commodities, and MONEP, equity and index futures and options. All products are traded electronically on the NSC system adopted by all of the Euronext members, trading hours are 9 am to 5,30 pm CET, Monday to Friday. The French equities market is divided into three sections, the Premier Marché, formerly called the Official List, includes large French and foreign companies, and most Bond issues. The Second Marché, lists medium-sized companies, while nouveau marché lists fast-growing start up companies seeking capital to finance expansion, linked to Euro. nm, the European equity growth market. A fourth market, Marché Libre, is nonregulated, administered by Euronext Paris for transactions in securities not listed on the three markets. Euronext Paris calculates a family of indices, the CAC40 is the exchanges benchmark, desseminated in real time. Its components are included in the broader SBF120 Index, a benchmark for investment funds, the SBF250 index, a benchmark for the long-term performance of equity portfolios, includes all of the SBF120, it is structured by sector. Both indices are benchmarks for funds, the Nouveau Marché Index represents stocks in the growth market. The SBF-FCI index is based on a selection of bonds that represent at least 70% of the total capitalization of this market. For derivatives, MONEP trades short-term and long-term stock options and futures, for the fiscal year ending December 2004, Euronext Paris recorded sales of US $522 million, a −12. 9% decrease in sales from 2003. Euronext Paris has a US $2.9 trillion total market capitalization of listed companies, List of French companies CAC40 CAC Next 20 French Society of Financial Analysts Euronext Paris website MONEP website
26.
Thales of Miletus
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Thales of Miletus was a pre-Socratic Greek/Phoenician philosopher, mathematician and astronomer from Miletus in Asia Minor. He was one of the Seven Sages of Greece, Thales is recognized for breaking from the use of mythology to explain the world and the universe, and instead explaining natural objects and phenomena by theories and hypothesis, i. e. science. Aristotle reported Thales hypothesis that the principle of nature and the nature of matter was a single material substance. In mathematics, Thales used geometry to calculate the heights of pyramids and he is the first known individual to use deductive reasoning applied to geometry, by deriving four corollaries to Thales theorem. He is the first known individual to whom a mathematical discovery has been attributed, the ancient source, Apollodorus of Athens, writing during the 2nd century BCE, thought Thales was born about the year 625 BCE. The dates of Thales life are not exactly known, but are roughly established by a few events mentioned in the sources. According to Herodotus Thales predicted the eclipse of May 28,585 BC. Diogenes Laërtius quotes the chronicle of Apollodorus of Athens as saying that Thales died at the age of 78 during the 58th Olympiad and attributes his death to heat stroke while watching the games. Plutarch had earlier told this version, Solon visited Thales and asked him why he remained single, nevertheless, several years later, anxious for family, he adopted his nephew Cybisthus. Thales involved himself in many activities, taking the role of an innovator, some say that he left no writings, others say that he wrote On the Solstice and On the Equinox. Diogenes Laërtius quotes two letters from Thales, one to Pherecydes of Syros, offering to review his book on religion, Thales identifies the Milesians as Athenian colonists. He was aware of the existence of the lodestone, and was the first to be connected to knowledge of this in history, according to Aristotle, Thales thought lodestones had souls, because iron is attracted to them. According to Hieronymus, historically quoted by Diogenes Laertius, Thales found the height of pyramids by comparison between the lengths of the shadows cast by a person and by the pyramids, several anecdotes suggest Thales was not just a philosopher, but also a businessman. A story, with different versions, recounts how Thales achieved riches from an olive harvest by prediction of the weather, in one version, he bought all the olive presses in Miletus after predicting the weather and a good harvest for a particular year. Thales’ political life had mainly to do with the involvement of the Ionians in the defense of Anatolia against the power of the Persians. In neighbouring Lydia, a king had come to power, Croesus and he had conquered most of the states of coastal Anatolia, including the cities of the Ionians. The story is told in Herodotus, the war endured for five years, but in the sixth an eclipse of the Sun spontaneously halted a battle in progress. It seems that Thales had predicted this solar eclipse, the Seven Sages were most likely already in existence, as Croesus was also heavily influenced by Solon of Athens, another sage
27.
French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
28.
Racal
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Racal Electronics plc was once the third largest British electronics firm. At its height, it operated throughout 110 countries worldwide and employed over 30,000 people and it was the parent company of Vodafone, before the mobile telephony provider was sold in 1991. Racal was purchased by Thomson-CSF in 2000, thereby giving the French firm access to the lucrative UK defence, Racal was created in 1950 as Racal Ltd, the name being derived from the partners RAymond Brown and George CALder Cunningham. Ernest Harrison joined the company as employee number 13 as an accountant, the first factory was located in Isleworth, west London. On outgrowing this site it moved to Bracknell, Berkshire in 1954, enticed by a 99-year lease at four shillings and sixpence per square foot - and no rent reviews. Although Racal had won a Royal Navy contract to build and supply a variant of the American Collins Model 51-J Radio Receiver and this meant that Racal had to design and build a radio receiver from scratch. Harrison joined the board in 1958, and as deputy managing director from 1961 helped Racal to obtain a Stock Market listing. Harrison received an estimated £25 million from the sale of Racal in 2000, in 1979, Racal bought Decca Radar forming Racal-Decca. Racal-Datacom conducted business in the United States, in 1980, Harrison agreed a deal with Lord Weinstock of General Electric Company plc to allow Racal to access some of GECs tactical battlefield radio technology. Briefing the head of Racals military radio division Gerry Whent to drive the company into commercial radio, Whent visited GEs factory in Virginia. Vodafone was launched on January 1,1985, Racal Strategic Radio was renamed Racal Telecommunications Group Limited in 1985. On December 29,1986, Racal Electronics bought out the minority shareholders of Vodafone for GB£110 million, in 1988, 20% of Racal Telecom was floated on the London Stock Exchange. This would lead to the situation where Racal Electronics was valued at less than its shareholding in Racal Telecom, Harrison demerged Racal Telecom in October 1991, forcing a positive valuation on the rest of Racal. Vodafone would later become the largest mobile network in the world, immediately following the demerger, Williams Holdings launched a takeover bid for Racal. The bid, valued at £740m, failed, in 1984, Racal bought Chubb, a security company that manufactured safes and locks. In 1992, Chubb was demerged from Racal and was taken over by Willams Holdings in 1997 for £1. 3bn. Racal re-established a telecoms division with a government contract in 1988. This division of the former nationalised industry owned telecoms infrastructure laid across the rail network, consisted of Racal Recorders and Racal Instruments
29.
Government of France
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The Government of the French Republic exercises executive power. It is composed of a minister, who is the head of government. Senior ministers are titled as Ministers, whereas junior ministers are titled as Secretaries of State, a smaller and more powerful executive body, called the Council of Ministers, is composed only of the senior ministers, though some Secretaries of State may attend Council meetings. By comparison, the Government of France is equivalent to Her Majestys Government in the United Kingdom, all members of the French government are nominated by the President of the Republic on the advice of the Prime Minister. Members of the government are ranked in an order, which is established at the time of government formation. In this hierarchy, the Prime Minister is the head of government and he is nominated by the President of the Republic. After being nominated to lead a government, the Prime Minister nominee must propose a list of ministers to the President, the President can either accept or reject these proposed ministers. Ministers are ranked by importance, Ministers of State are senior ministers and it is an honorary rank, granted to some Ministers as a sign of prestige. Ministers are senior ministers, and are members of the Council of Ministers, Secretaries of State are junior ministers. This is the lowest rank in the French ministerial hierarchy, Secretaries work directly under a Minister, or sometimes directly under the Prime Minister. While the Council of Ministers does not include Secretaries of State as members, according to the Constitution of the French Fifth Republic, the government directs and decides the policy of the nation. In practice, the government writes bills to be introduced to parliament, all political decisions made by the government must be registered in the government gazette. All bills and some decrees must be approved by the Council of Ministers, furthermore, it is the Council of Ministers that defines the collective political and policy direction of the government, and takes practical steps to implement that direction. In addition to writing and implementing policy, the government is responsible for national defence, the workings of the government of France are based on the principle of collegiality. Meetings of the Council of Ministers take place every Wednesday morning at the Élysée Palace and they are presided over by the President of the Republic, who promotes solidarity and collegiality amongst government ministers. These meetings follow a set format, in the first part of a meeting, the Council deliberates over general interest bills, ordinances, and decrees. In the second part, the Council discusses individual decisions by each Minister regarding the appointment of civil servants. In addition, the Minister of Foreign Affairs provides the Council with weekly updates on important international issues, most government work, however, is done elsewhere
30.
Paris-Saclay
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Paris-Saclay is a research-intensive and business cluster currently under construction south of Paris, France. It encompasses research facilities, universities, French higher education institutions, in 2013, the Technology Review put Paris-Saclay in the top 8 world research clusters. In 2014, it comprised almost 15% of French scientific research capacity, the earliest settlements are from the 1950s, and this area was subsequently extended several times during the 1970s and 2000s. Several projects are underway to continue the development of the campus and this project started in 2006 and is likely to end in 2020. The main part is the construction of the campus du plateau de Saclay, several French national institutions settled on the plateau after the end of World War II. The CNRS is the first to settle there, headed by Frédéric Joliot-Curie, the following year, the newly created CEA to purchase land. The same year, ONERA settles on the plateau in Palaiseau, the Saclay center was inaugurated in 1952. At the same time, higher education institutions settled nearby, the University of Paris is also up in the region in 1955 with the purchase of 50 hectares in the communes of Orsay and Bures. This Orsay campus brings laboratories of the Paris Faculty of Sciences, other institutions followed with the installation of HEC in 1964 with its move to the town of Jouy-en-Josas, then with the arrival of the École supérieure doptique in 1965 on the Orsay campus. Research centers related to private companies settled at that time in 1968 with the arrival of the Central Research Laboratory of Thomson-CSF. In the 1970s, the École polytechnique and Supélec settled on the plateau, the first in 1976 in the Palaiseau area, the project had a scheduled time to install other schools soon after. The Moulon farm which houses the genetics and plant breeding was restored in 1978. Institutions on the plateau at this time begin to join together in an association d’établissements scientifiques to reflect future developments of the area, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, research centers of private companies settled on the campus. Other projects removal were also studied, including a center of EDF. Two thematic advanced research are also on the campus, with the creation of Digiteo, SOLEIL, which creation was decided in 2000 after three years of opposition of Claude Allègre, was inaugurated the same year, built with a budget of 313 million euros. The project of neuroimaging center NeuroSpin is launched in 2006 also on the plateau, the first building constructed specifically for the campus is the Pôle commun de recherche en informatique, which was inaugurated in November 2011. The proposed new construction and renovation of campus was launched by President Nicolas Sarkozy who wants to create a French Silicon Valley, the entire project is estimated to three billion euros funding. The different steps to set up the campus are part of government operations
31.
Technicolor SA
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Technicolor SA, formerly Thomson SARL and Thomson Multimedia, is a French multinational corporation that provides services and products for the communication, media and entertainment industries. Technicolors headquarters are located in Issy-les-Moulineaux – France, other main office locations include Rennes, Los Angeles, Edegem, London, Bangalore, Chennai, and Indianapolis. On January 27,2010, the changed its name to Technicolor SA. Thomsons US subsidiary became Technicolor USA, Inc, Technicolor began as Thomson, named after the electrical engineer Elihu Thomson, who was born in Manchester, England, on March 26,1853. Thomson moved to Philadelphia, USA, at the age of 5, Thomson formed the Thomson-Houston Electric Company in 1879 with Edwin Houston. The company merged with the Edison General Electric Company to become the General Electric Company in 1892, in 1893, the Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston was formed in Paris, a sister company to GE in the United States. It was from this company, that the modern Thomson Group would evolve, in 1966, CFTH merged with Hotchkiss-Brandt to form Thomson-Houston-Hotchkiss-Brandt. In 1968 the electronics business of Thomson-Brandt merged with Compagnie Générale de Télégraphie Sans Fil to form Thomson-CSF, Thomson Brandt maintained a significant shareholding in this company. In 1982, both Thomson-Brandt and Thomson-CSF saw nationalization due to the efforts of François Mitterrand, Thomson-Brandt was subsequently renamed Thomson SA, and soon thereafter merged with Thomson-CSF. In 1988, Thomson Consumer Electronics was formed, and then renamed Thomson SA, in 1995, the French government split the consumer electronics from the defense businesses of Thomson Multimedia and Thomson-CSF prior to privatization in 1999. The company then went through a series of transactions, including with Marconi plc, in 2005, Thomson bought Cirpack and Inventel. In 2004, Thomson set up a joint venture with Chinas TCL, giving to TCL all manufacturing of RCA and Thomson television and DVD products, at the time, TCL was hailed as the first Chinese company to compete on the international stage with large international corporations. Thomson initially retained all marketing of TTEs products, but transferred that to TTE in 2005, in June 2005, the Videocon Group of India announced, that it would acquire the color picture tube manufacturing business from Thomson SA for €240 million. In early 2010, Thomson sold TV brand RCA to ON corporation, in December 2007, Thomson SA agreed to sell off its Audio/Video and Accessories businesses to Audiovox. On October 2007, Thomson SA agreed to sell its consumer electronics audio video business outside Europe including the rights to the RCA brand. Thomson then purchased the Moving Picture Company from ITV and the internet startup Singingfish, in 2004, Thomson increased its stake in the Bangalore, India based company Celstream Technologies, which specializes in product engineering. Cirpack, a manufacturer, was incorporated and acquired in April 2005. In July 2005, Thomson agreed to purchase PRN Corporation for $285 million, in December 2005, Thomson re-purchased the Broadcast & Multimedia part of Thales Group
32.
Raytheon
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The Raytheon Company is a major U. S. defense contractor and industrial corporation with core manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. It was previously involved in corporate and special-mission aircraft until early 2007, Raytheon is the worlds largest producer of guided missiles. Established in 1922, the company reincorporated in 1928 and adopted its present name in 1959, the company has around 63,000 employees worldwide and annual revenues of approximately US$25 billion. More than 90% of Raytheons revenues were obtained from military contracts and, as of 2012, as of 2015, it is the third largest defense contractor in the United States by defense revenue. Raytheons headquarters moved from Lexington, Massachusetts, to Waltham, Massachusetts and its focus, which was originally on new refrigeration technology, soon shifted to electronics. The companys first product was a rectifier that was based on Charles Smiths earlier astronomical research of the star Zeta Puppis. The electron tube was christened with the name Raytheon and was used in a battery eliminator and this made it possible to convert household alternating current to direct current for radios and thus eliminate the need for expensive, short-lived batteries. In 1925, the changed its name to Raytheon Manufacturing Company and began marketing its rectifier, under the Raytheon brand name. In 1928 Raytheon merged with Q. R. S, Company, an American manufacturer of electron tubes and switches, to form the successor of the same name, Raytheon Manufacturing Company. In 1933 it diversified by acquiring Acme-Delta Company, a producer of transformers, power equipment, by the 1930s, it had already grown to become one of the worlds largest vacuum tube manufacturing companies. Within a few months of being awarded the contract, Raytheon had already begun to mass manufacture magnetron tubes for use in radar sets, at wars end in 1945 the company was responsible for about 80 percent of all magnetrons manufactured. During the war Raytheon also pioneered the production of radar systems. Raytheon ranked 71st among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts, Raytheons research on the magnetron tube revealed the potential of microwaves to cook food. In 1945, Raytheons Percy Spencer invented the microwave oven by discovering that the magnetron could rapidly heat food, in 1947, the company demonstrated the Radarange microwave oven for commercial use. In 1945, the company expanded its electronics capability through acquisitions that included the Submarine Signal Company, with its broadened capabilities, Raytheon developed the first guidance system for a missile that could intercept a flying target. In 1948, Raytheon began to manufacture guided missiles, in 1950, its Lark missile became the first such weapon to destroy a target aircraft in flight. Raytheon then received military contracts to develop the air-to-air Sparrow and ground-to-air Hawk missiles—projects that received impetus from the Korean War, in later decades, it remained a major producer of missiles, among them the Patriot antimissile missile and the air-to-air Phoenix missile. In the same year, it changed its name to Raytheon Company, in the 1950s, Raytheon began manufacturing transistors, including the CK722, priced and marketed to hobbyists
33.
Naval Group
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DCNS is a French industrial group specialised in naval defence and energy. The Group employs more than 13,000 people in 10 countries, DCNS has a heritage of 380 years. Major shipyards were built in France in Ruelle, Nantes-Indret, Lorient and, subsequently, as early as 1926, what we know as DCNS today already had all the facilities now owned by the Group in mainland France. The policy was continued by Colbert, Louis XIV’s Navy Minister and he extended the dockyards in Toulon, ordered the excavation of the docks in Brest and founded the Rochefort dockyards. His son, Seignelay, who succeeded him in 1683, followed in his footsteps, the French Royal Navy’s network of dockyards was further strengthened in the 18th century. In 1750, the Marquis de Montalembert converted a former paper mill into a forge producing cannons at Ruelle-sur-Touvre, in 1777, Antoine de Sartine, Louis XVI’s Navy Minister, opened a cannon foundry near the naval shipyards in Indret. In the same year, work started on the development of the port in Cherbourg, in 1778, the Lorient naval dockyards succeeded “La Compagnie des Indes du port de L’Orient”. The naval dockyards in Rochefort were closed in 1926, in 1937, the establishment in Saint-Tropez was opened on the former site of the company Schneider, which specialised in torpedoes. By this time, most of the DCNS’ French sites already existed, during the 19th century, the naval dockyards underwent a transformation as the fleet of sailing ships was replaced by motorised vessels. The sites were industrialised and gradually specialised, in 1865, the naval dockyards in Brest became exclusively military, with the closure of the Penfeld port to commercial vessels. In 1898, after specialising in the building of vessels with propellers rather than sails, in 1858, Gloire, the first ocean-going battleship in the world sailed out of the dockyards in Toulon. The 1860s saw the arrival of the first torpedo boats and military submarines, the technical problems experienced by this first-ever motorised submarine meant that it remained a prototype rather than an operational war vessel. But it did open the way for the construction of Gymnote in 1886 and Le Narval in 1899, the production of heavy surface vessels was also stepped up in the 1910s. Several battleships were built before the start of the First World War, in 1946, a review of the French naval dockyards completed the attributions of the various sites announced in the 1927 decree. Brest was tasked with the production and repair of vessels, Lorient with the construction of medium-sized vessels, Cherbourg with submarines. Five sites are located overseas, Mers el-Kébir, Bizerte, Dakar, Diego-Suarez, until 1961, the French navy maintained and repaired its fleet itself, through the “Directions des Constructions et Armes Navales” in the naval dockyards. The engineers working in the DCANs were officers in the French navy’s engineering division, at this time, the dockyards broke away from the Navy, creating the opportunity for the diversification of their activities in the 1970s. A single DCAN covered all the mainland and overseas naval dockyards, in turn, the DTCN was answerable to the “Délégation Ministérielle pour l’Armement”, set up by Michel Debré
34.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
35.
Shortwave radio
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Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave frequencies, generally 1. 6–30 MHz, just above the medium wave AM broadcast band. Radio waves in this band can be reflected or refracted from a layer of charged atoms in the atmosphere called the ionosphere. Therefore, short waves directed at an angle into the sky can be reflected back to Earth at great distances and this is called skywave or skip propagation. Shortwave radio is used for broadcasting of voice and music to listeners over very large areas. It is also used for military radar, diplomatic communication. The widest popular definition of the frequency interval is the ITU Region 1 definition, and is the span 1. 6–30 MHz, just above the medium wave band. In reality, the definition of the frequency band is a mess. The broadcast medium wave band now extends above the 200 m/1500 kHz limit, early radio telegraphy had used long wave transmissions. The drawbacks to this included a very limited spectrum available for long distance communication. It was also difficult to beam the radio wave directionally with long wave, prior to the 1920s, the shortwave frequencies above 1.5 MHz were regarded as useless for long distance communication and were designated in many countries for amateur use. Franklin rigged up an antenna at Poldhu Wireless Station, Cornwall. In June and July 1923, wireless transmissions were completed during nights on 97 meters from Poldhu to Marconis yacht Elettra in the Cape Verde Islands, in September 1924, Marconi transmitted daytime and nighttime on 32 meters from Poldhu to his yacht in Beirut. Franklin went on to refine the directional transmission, by inventing the curtain array aerial system, the UK-to-Canada shortwave Beam Wireless Service went into commercial operation on 25 October 1926. Beam Wireless Services from the UK to Australia, South Africa, Shortwave communications began to grow rapidly in the 1920s, similar to the internet in the late 20th century. Shortwave also ended the need for investments in massive longwave wireless stations. The cable companies began to lose large sums of money in 1927, the British government convened the Imperial Wireless and Cable Conference in 1928 to examine the situation that had arisen as a result of the competition of Beam Wireless with the Cable Services. The name of the company was changed to Cable and Wireless Ltd. in 1934, long-distance cables had a resurgence beginning in 1956 with the laying of TAT-1 across the Atlantic Ocean, the first voice frequency cable on this route. This provided 36 high quality telephone channels and was followed by even higher capacity cables all around the world
€14.885 billion (2016)[1]
