作為行銷的主要推廣工具之一，優惠券可同時使商家和消費者獲益，可謂是一個雙贏的行銷手法。然而在實務上，優惠券的總體發放數量巨大，但整體兌換率卻極低，如何提昇優惠券的兌換率成為企業的重要課題。為了吸引消費者，市面上林林總總的優惠券層出不窮，例如「好友分享券」與「買一送一券」；使用效期的表述亦有多種方式，例如「僅限1月1日可使用」與「1月1日任何時間可使用」。本文由此思考，優惠券上這些看似可隨意混用的文字訊息，也許在不知不覺中影響著消費者的思維模式，並對消費者的優惠券評價、兌換意願及兌換行爲產生作用。 本文結合解釋水平理論與框架效應理論，意圖釐清看似相同的優惠券文字訊息對消費者思維模式解釋水平的影響（實驗一），接著探討思維模式解釋水平與效期框架之適配對優惠券吸引力與兌換意願（實驗二子實驗a、b）及兌換行為（實驗三）的影響，並試圖以處理流暢性解釋此影響過程的心理機制（實驗二子實驗a、b）。 研究主要有兩點發現：（一）「好友分享券」與「買一送一券」文字訊息在影響消費者思維模式解釋水平上具有顯著差異，「好友分享券」文字訊息影響消費者處於高水平解釋思維模式；「買一送一券」文字訊息影響消費者處於低水平解釋思維模式。（二）「好友分享券」（高水平解釋）與「僅限」（限制性效期框架）、「買一送一券」（低水平解釋）與「任何時間」（開闊性效期框架）分別存在適配效果，比不適配的思維模式解釋水平與效期框架更能提升優惠券吸引力及增加消費者兌換意願。最後，本研究探討研究發現的意涵，並對未來研究方向提出建議。 / As one of the major promotional tools for marketing, coupons can benefit both consumers and retailers. Therefore, coupon marketing is considered to be a so-called win-win marketing approach. However, in practice, despite the massive number of coupons distributed, overall redemption rates remain extremely low. The question of how to raise redemption rates has become an important issue for corporations. In order to attract consumers, various coupons keep emerging in the market, such as “share with friends” coupons and “buy one, get one free” coupons. Moreover, the same redemption window can be expressed in different ways, for example, “the coupon can be used only on January 1” and “the coupon can be used anytime on January 1”. This research is interested in whether the seemingly interchangeable coupon messages exert an influence without people's realizing it on consumers’ mind-sets, coupon attractiveness, redemption intention and behavior. By combining Construal Level Theory with Framing Effect, this research attempts to explore the impact of the seemingly equivalent coupon messages on the construal level of consumers’ mind-sets (Study 1), and examine the effect of the congruency between the construal level of mind-sets and redemption window frames on coupon attractiveness, redemption intention (Study 2a & 2b) and behavior (Study 3). In addition, this research tries to draw on processing fluency to explain the mechanism underlying the effect (Study 2a & 2b). The main findings are as follows. First, “share with friends” and “buy one, get one free” influence consumers to construe their mind-sets at a high and low level, respectively. Second, the congruency between “share with friends” coupon (high-level construal) and the restrictive frame “only”, “buy one, get one free” coupon (low-level construal) and the expansive frame “anytime”, enhances coupon attractiveness and consumers’ intention to redeem. The research concludes with the implications of the findings and suggestions for future research.

近年台灣行銷市場中，網路口碑之於消費者的重要性不言而喻，其應用成為行銷顯學之一。不過觀察目前網路口碑相關研究，多數仍聚焦在傳播者評論口碑對象（產品、服務、品牌等）的傳播過程、網路口碑影響消費者購買意圖或品牌忠誠的程度，或是正負面口碑差異等面向，較少從口碑傳播者、產品及接收者本身屬性（類型、來源國等）一致的角度，探討是否會影響說服效果，而「性別」正是一項鮮少被觸及的重要屬性。事實上，性別一致產生的效果，在早期的廣告行銷研究中，即不斷被證實存在，能有效帶來消費者態度行為的正向影響（Caballero & Solomon, 1984）。然而網路作為傳播媒介的研究中卻缺乏相關的討論，因此能否複製「性別具有一致性時，就會具有正相關效果」的結論猶未可知。 　　而「性別一致性效果」產生的機制亦分屬「一致性效果」、「自我一致性」的兩種不同心理狀態類別，本研究除了歸納原先定義不清的一致性效果涵義，更希望進一步探討何種機制對於消費者的影響較為重要。另一方面，「一致」情況亦存在「主觀」感知與「客觀」存在的差異，亦有區分之必要性。同時，亦不可忽略口碑中推薦產品本身具備的屬性特質，可能是會導致消費者在意性別線索的關鍵，在相關理論基礎下，推論消費者會依賴推薦者的形象來協助判斷（Zeithaml, 1988）。換句話說，欲瞭解產品屬性，也就是體驗性/搜尋性的產品將直接導致消費者對於性別一致的感知產生不同的交互作用，進而影響到整體口碑說服效果。 　　故本研究計有三個主要的操弄變項，分別是傳播者性別（男/女）、產品性別（男/女）與產品屬性（搜尋屬性/體驗屬性），在研究設計上乃是採用2 × 2 × 2的三因子實驗設計（factorial experiment design），應變項則為受試者的口碑訊息診斷性、產品態度及購買意圖。 　　研究結果發現，客觀性別一致並不會影響消費者口碑說服效果，而不同產品屬性的交互作用下，客觀性別一致的重要性會在消費者選購體驗性產品時浮現，進一步正向影響消費者對於產品的態度，而且在性別一致性的兩種機制中，「自我一致性」（如傳播者/代言人與自身一致、產品與自身一致）比起「一致性效果」（外界的傳播者/產品一致）的機制，更能顯著影響消費者的商品態度。不過，一旦消費者主觀感知到性別一致的情形存在，無論是何種機制、何種產品屬性，皆能有效影響消費者的口碑說服效果。 　　上述的研究結果可以提供給未來欲透過口碑工具，邀請特定口碑寫手或消費者於試用產品後討論引起注意的廠商，在策略擬定之參考。建議行銷人員規劃行銷手法時多考慮「性別一致」引發之影響，讓消費者提升對於產品的態度與行為。

This research examines the discourses that impact the teachers of ELL teachers within their instructional practices, their school environment, and a wider educational system. Interviews, observations, and focus groups of twelve teachers at two elementary schools in the Pacific Northwest provide the data for this grounded theory approach that uncovers eleven themes using the tools of situational analysis and discourse analysis. The discourses of congruency, collaboration, trust and awareness are a few that emerged from this study. Although presented as separate, the nature of discourse is that they are interconnected and dependent on each other, highlighting the complexity of teachersʼ worlds. The impact of these discourses impacted both teacher agency and school collaboration for teachers, administrators, and teacher educators. / Graduation date: 2012

The aim of the current study was to investigate the roles of meta-mood experience on the mood congruency effect in recognizing emotions from neutral facial expressions. For this aim, three scales were translated and adapted to Turkish, namely Brief Mood Introspection Scale (BMIS), State Meta-Mood Scale (SMMS), and Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS). The reliability and validity analyses came out to be satisfactory. For the main analyses, an experimental study was conducted. The experimental design consisted of the administration of the Brief Symptom Inventory, Pre- induction Brief Mood Introspection Scale, Trait Meta-MoodScale, and Basic Personality Traits Inventory in the first step, followed by a sad mood induction procedure and the administration of Post- Brief Symptom Inventory, and State Meta-Mood Scale in the second step. The last step consisted of the administration of the NimStim Set of Facial Expressions. For the main analyses regarding mood congruency only the v mislabelings of neutral faces as sad or happy were considered. The results revealed that among personality traits Agreeableness was negatively associated with perceiving fast displayed neutral faces as sad. After controlling for personality traits / however, unpleasant mood measured before the mood induction procedure was positively associated with perceiving neutral faces as sad. When perceiving slow displayed neutral faces as happy were examined, it was found that anxiety was positively associated with such a bias. After controlling for symptomatology, among personality traits, extraversion and conscientiousness were found to be negatively associated with mislabelling slow displayed neutral faces as happy. Among the evaluative domain of the SMMS, typicality was found to be negatively associated with such a bias / and lastly, among the regulatory domain of the SMMS, emotional repair was found to be negatively associated with mislabelling slow displayed neutral faces as happy.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:51:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 61070100597.pdf.jpg: 19266 bytes, checksum: 1d3f9e813af6bc0a7ec8cf00e073c609 (MD5) 61070100597.pdf: 1041296 bytes, checksum: 32a266369153c9c2be9cdba4298c0595 (MD5) 61070100597.pdf.txt: 310668 bytes, checksum: 1dff7ca4751406c160d7f11ec56c0598 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-02-17T00:00:00Z / Nos mercados de varejo altamente competitivos a busca de aspectos de diferenciação e lealdade dos consumidores fez da gestão de marcas um assunto altamente relevante para a academia e para as empresas. Contudo, a compreensão de como os conceitos de imagem de loja, imagem de marca, identidade de marca e sua congruência com a imagem de marca funcionam é uma questão de suma importância para o varejo que ainda necessita aprofundamento. É nesse contexto dinâmico do varejo que o presente trabalho de pesquisa foi desenvolvido, tendo como objetivo principal entender a congruência entre a identidade de marca e a imagem de marca e seus efeitos no varejo. Outros objetivos complementares deste trabalho são: (1) verificar a congruência da identidade da marca entre área a estratégica e a área operacional; (2) verificar a congruência entre a identidade e a imagem de marca; (3) verificar a influência da congruência interna da identidade na congruência entre identidade e imagem da marca; (4) relacionar os achados empíricos com as propostas conceituais encontradas na revisão do conhecimento. Para esse fim, adotou-se a metodologia de estudo de casos múltiplos com o uso da análise quali-quantitativa que foi desenvolvida com o apoio do método estatístico que proporciona a aplicação do Teste T. O procedimento metodológico adotado levou em consideração a definição e escolha de uma amostra de 25 empresas no ramo de moda de vestuário feminino no Brasil, ano de 2008. Diante da resposta e da concordância das empresas, o trabalho foi realizado com apenas três redes varejistas brasileiras que concordaram em participar, oportunidade em que se fez a coleta de dados por meio de entrevistas com os diretores e proprietários dessas empresas - aqui denominadas de Empresa A, Empresa B e Empresa C - e com os gerentes e funcionários e com os consumidores selecionados. O instrumento utilizado para a captação de dados foi a aplicação de questionários abordando principalmente dois fatores da identidade de marca: aspectos físicos e a personalidade. Os resultados encontrados revelam que de maneira geral a área estratégica tende a avaliar melhor os fatores de identidade do que a área operacional os consumidores. A congruência entre a identidade de marca e a imagem de marca é influenciada pelo modo como a empresa é estruturada, pela sua cultura e história gerencial, bem como pelo ‘modus operandis’ de como é desenvolvida e implementada sua estratégia. Uma melhor gestão de marcas tende estatisticamente a gerar maior grau de congruência e consequentemente estar mais propícia a reter consumidores com altos níveis de satisfação. A identidade de marca é um assunto chave para os negócios, devendo os gestores de varejo e os pesquisadores de marketing aprofundarem o conhecimento nesta área, principalmente quanto aos efeitos gerados no valor da marca e no processo de gestão das marcas. / In competitive retailing markets, the search for differentiation assets and loyalty customers has made branding an important subject in both academic and managerial prospective. Therefore, understanding how store image, brand image, brand identity and its congruency works in retail is an important issue that needs explaining. It’s in this dinamic retail context that the present research paper was developed. The main purpose of this paper is to understand congruency between brand identity and brand image. Other objectives are: (1) verify congruency between companies’ strategic area and operational departments; (2) verify existence of congruency between brand identity and brand image; (3) verify if internal congruency (strategic area versus operational area) affects congruency between brand identity and brand image and; (4) relate theoretical findings with empirical research findings. To achieve such purposes, a multiple study case methodology was adopted. With both qualitative and quantitative analysis, T tests were used as statistical support for all findings. As part of the chosen methodological procedure, 25 companies of the Brazilian fashion retail industry were contacted, but only three of those accepted to participate in this research project. Therefore, dada collecting was made throughout interviews with directors and owners of these three Brazilian retail companies – here denominated Company A, Company B and Company C – and also throughout questionnaire application to managers and consumers. The results reveal that, in general, the strategic area trends to over evaluate brand identity factors compare to customers’ and operational perceptions. Also, congruency between brand identity and brand image is affected by how the company is structured and by its managerial culture and branding history. Better branding management has the tendency to generate better congruency between brand identity and brand image, and therefore, is more likely to retain customers and maintain its high satisfaction levels. Brand identity is a key issue in marketing, but retail managers and researchers need more explanation of how this process is conceived and its effects on retail branding and brand equity.

No description available.

Contexte: L’importance écologique des fourmis dans les écosystèmes terrestres justifie qu’elles soient considérées comme groupe cible pour des actions de conservation. De plus, de par leur abondance, leur facilité de récolte et leur réponse à des perturbations, elles présentent un potentiel intéressant comme groupe indicateur précoce de l’état de santé des écosystèmes. Par contre, pour le choix d’aires à protéger, leur utilité comme intégrateur des conditions de milieu par rapport à des indicateurs classiques tels que les assemblages de plantes n’est pas clairement établie. En d’autres termes, répondent-elles plus finement que les plantes à différentes conditions de milieu et dans ce cas doit-on s’attendre à trouver au sein de formations végétales comparables plusieurs types d’assemblages de foumis? Si tel est le cas, la méthode utilisant les assemblages de végétaux pour sélectionner les sites à protéger peut ne pas permettre une conservation efficace de la diversité des fourmis. Ce type de problématique s’aborde bien le long de gradients environnementaux. Pour faciliter l’interprétation des résultats en terme de réponse aux facteurs abiotiques il est préférable de limiter le nombre de facteurs qui varient en même temps. Dans ce sens, le Chaco sec paraguayen représente un système très favorable: faible déclivité, faibles variations de températures moyennes mais gamme très étendue de conditions de pluviométrie (350mm à 1000mm de précipitations moyennes annuelles) et des sols variables (texture limoneuse à sableuse). L’aridité est l’un des principaux facteurs pouvant limiter la diversité des fourmis soit directement en exerçant un stress physiologique sur les espèces, soit indirectement en limitant la productivité primaire de l’habitat. Les conditions édaphiques peuvent également avoir une influence en affectant par exemple la survie des colonies qui nidifient dans le sol. Objectifs: Les principaux buts de la thèse sont (1) de déterminer l’influence de l’aridité et des conditions édaphiques sur la distribution et la structure des assemblages de fourmis terricoles du sol en forêts tropicales sèches, (2) mettre en évidence les mécanismes qui facilitent la coexistence des espèces de fourmis à l’échelle locale, (3) déterminer si à l’échelle régionale les fourmis et les plantes répondent de façon similaire aux conditions du milieu. Méthode: Onze localités ont été échantillonnées le long d’un transect régional long de 400km. Au niveau de chaque localité, trois transects élémentaires longs de 200m et séparés les uns des autres par 200m ont été effectués. La myrmécofaune a été échantillonnée à l’aide de 20 pièges à fosse et de 20 Winkler par transect élémentaire. La végétation de chaque site a été caractérisée sur base de l’abondance de 45 espèces d’arbres ou d’arbustes caractéristiques de la flore chaquéenne. Les propriétés physico-chimiques du sol ont également été mesurées. A fine échelle, l’organisation spatio-temporelle d’un assemblage a été étudié dans une localité de référence. Résultats: Au total, plus de 50.000 spécimens correspondant à 206 espèces de fourmis ont été collectés avec en moyenne (± SD) 62 ± 10 espèces par localité. Pour un même effort d’échantillonnage, le nombre d’espèces de fourmis récoltées à l’aide des pièges à fosse augmente avec l’aridité et une tendance inverse est observée pour les Winkler. Puisque les Winkler peuvent entraîner une sévère sous-estimation de la diversité des fourmis d’un habitat, seules les données des pièges à fosse sont utilisées pour la suite des analyses. La diversité locale  des assemblages de fourmis n’apparaît corrélée ni à l’aridité, ni aux conditions édaphiques. En revanche, ces facteurs, et spécialement la texture du sol, influencent la composition des assemblages. Trois complexes myrmécofauniques sont mis en évidence: le premier dans la localité la plus sèche (350mm) et la plus sableuse (>90% de sable dans la fraction minérale du sol), le second dans la localité la plus humide (1000mm, sol argilo-limoneux) et le dernier dans des localités présentant de larges conditions de pluviométrie (350-850mm) et de sol (limoneux à sablo-limoneux). Les plantes répondent encore plus finement à ces facteurs abiotiques. A l’échelle locale, l’établissement d’une ségrégation spatio-temporelle fine des espèces de fourmis lors de l’exploitation des ressources alimentaires facilite la coexistence interspécifique. Cette ségrégation est engendrée par l’existence de deux compromis: l’un entre les capacités des espèces à dominer et à découvrir les ressources et l’autre entre la capacité de dominance et la tolérance aux températures élevées. Conclusions: Nos résultats contredisent l’hypothèse selon laquelle les fourmis répondent plus finement que les plantes aux conditions du milieu. A l’échelle du gradient étudié, une augmentation de l’aridité n’affecte pas la diversité des fourmis. La productivité de l’habitat ne semble pas déterminer la richesse des assemblages et la tolérance à l’aridité semble répandue au sein des Formicidae. La texture du sol apparaît être le facteur le plus déterminant des distributions spatiales observées. Dans le Chaco sec paraguayen, une sélection des sites à protéger sur base des assemblages végétaux est susceptible de maximiser la conservation de la diversité biologique des fourmis. Notre étude de la distribution de la myrmécofaune, basée sur la plus large gamme de pluviométrie envisagée à ce jour, pourra constituer le point de départ d'un suivi des assemblages de fourmis dominantes du Chaco sec paraguayen dans le but d'investiguer l'impact des changements climatiques globaux sur ces organismes.

本研究從日本品牌與日本形象廣告手法在台灣氾濫的社會現實出發，透過對品牌來源國、日本文化認同程度與一致性三個變項的學術理論爬梳，以「表現形式」操弄廣告中呈現的國家印象，而變項間交互作用的分析結果如下： 一、產品的品牌來源國對品牌態度與購買意願有顯著影響；日本品牌較台灣品牌有更好的評價。 二、日本文化認同程度對品牌來源國具有調節作用；日本文化認同程度高的消費者傾向對日本品牌有更多的偏好，對台灣品牌有更負面的態度；而對日本文化認同程度低的消費者，日本品牌與台灣品牌之間的差異則不是那麼明顯。 三、一致性的廣告將導致較正面的品牌態度。 四、日本品牌採用日本形象廣告或台灣形象廣告，都不會對品牌本身有太大的影響；然而，台灣品牌採用一致的台灣形象廣告將使消費者有較正面的品牌態度，不一致的日本形象廣告不但沒有為台灣品牌加分，反而讓消費者產生反感。 本研究的實務意涵則有幾個重點，一是日本品牌不一定是台灣消費市場的萬靈丹，從個人特質來看，日本文化認同程度較低的消費者並不會因為日本品牌的來源國印象改變其產品評估，因此其他的產品或行銷因素可能才是決定消費者意向的關鍵。二是台灣品牌的消費者不一定對日本形象廣告的手法有所偏好，這可以視為對許多台灣品牌以及廣告行銷人員的警訊，因為一般台灣廠商似乎認為若能透過廣告把台灣品牌打造得很日本，就能將廣告中日本的正面形象轉移至消費者對台灣品牌的態度上，因此，近年來浮濫使用日本形象廣告手法的台灣品牌屢見不鮮。但本研究由基模不一致可能導致的負面態度效果切入，研究結果也證實了某些情況之下，台灣品牌若採用了日本形象廣告反而會引起消費者不良的情感評估反應。故實務應用上，日本品牌的定位策略有較多操作空間；台灣品牌則需加強形象管理，不適合採用太過跳躍或多變的形象路線。 / This study is inspired by the social fact that Japanese brands and Japanese image advertising are overflowing in Taiwan. After going through the literature on the three variables of brand country-of-origin, Japanese cultural identity and congruency, this study manipulates country image in advertising with “expression form”, and results of the interactions among variables are as follows: 1.Brand country-of-origin has a significant impact on brand attitude and purchase intention; the evaluation of Japanese brand is better than Taiwanese brand. 2.The degree of Japanese cultural identity has a moderating effect on brand country-of -origin; consumers of high Japanese cultural identity are tend to prefer Japanese brand; however, to consumers of low Japanese cultural identity, the difference between Japanese brand and Taiwanese brand is not obvious. 3.Congruent Advertising leads to a better brand attitude. 4.Whether Japanese brand adopts Japanese image advertising or Taiwanese image advertising, there is no special impact on the brand itself. However, if Taiwanese brand adopts congruent Taiwanese image advertising, it will make consumers have a better brand attitude; incongruent Japanese image advertising won’t bring good to Taiwanese brand but incur consumers’ disfavor of it. Executive implications are also suggested. First, Japanese brands are not always overwhelmingly favored in the market of Taiwan. From the point of personal characteristics, consumers of low Japanese cultural identity won’t change their product evaluations due to the brand country-of-origin image of Japan. Thus, other product or marketing factors might be the keys to consumers’ intentions. Second, consumers of Taiwanese brands do not necessarily prefer Japanese image advertising, and this could be regarded as a warning to Taiwanese brands and practitioners in advertising and marketing, because generally the manufacturers in Taiwan seem to consider that as long as they can build Taiwanese brands Japan-like, the positive image of Japan in advertising would be transferred to consumers’ attitudes on Taiwanese brands. Consequently, Taiwanese brands abusing Japanese image advertising have been prevalent in recent years. The study is based on the negative effects of schema-incongruency on attitude, and the results also prove that under certain circumstances, it would cause consumers’ unfavorable affective responses instead that Taiwanese brand adopts Japanese image advertising. Therefore, in application for practice, positioning strategies of Japanese brands are more flexible to manipulate. Taiwanese brands have to put emphasis on image management and prevent changeful or varied image tactics.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:27:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcos Destefenni.pdf: 1932562 bytes, checksum: e4b2e9d119fec7041674d38e1f1bcd82 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-06-19 / The present study focuses on the principle of demand stability, attempting to reflect upon its incidence in the individual and collective civil suits. After concluding that it is about a fundamental integrant principle of the legal process, the singularities of its incidence in the collective civil suit are analyzed. We seek to demonstrate that the effectiveness principle of collective custody, that is established in the art. 83 in the Brazilian Code of Consumer Defense, requires the adoption of a processual model that is able to suit the principle of demand consistency with a certain flexibility with the collective custody. The final conclusion is that the adoption of a more flexible processual system is compatible with the singularities of the collective jurisdiction and fundamental to obtain the desired effectiveness on the collective custody / O presente estudo dirige-se ao princípio da estabilidade da demanda, procurando refletir sobre sua incidência no processo civil individual e no processo civil coletivo. Após concluir que se trata de princípio fundamental integrante do devido processo legal, são analisadas as peculiaridades da sua incidência no processo coletivo. Procura-se demonstrar que o princípio da efetividade da tutela coletiva, que está consagrado no art. 83 do Código Brasileiro de Defesa do Consumidor, exige a adoção de um modelo processual que compatibilize o princípio da estabilidade da demanda com certa flexibilização da tutela coletiva. A conclusão final é que a adoção de um sistema processual mais flexível é compatível com as peculiaridades da jurisdição coletiva e fundamental para se obter a desejada efetividade da tutela coletiva

Image segmentation is one of the most difficult tasks in image processing. Segmentation algorithms are generally based on searching a region where pixels share similar gray level intensity and satisfy a set of defined criteria. However, the segmented region cannot be used directly for partial image retrieval. In this dissertation, a Contour Based Image Structure (CBIS) model is introduced. In this model, images are divided into several objects defined by their bounding contours. The bounding contour structure allows individual object extraction, and partial object matching and retrieval from a standard CBIS image structure. The CBIS model allows the representation of 3D objects by their bounding contours which is suitable for parallel implementation particularly when extracting contour features and matching them for 3D images require heavy computations. This computational burden becomes worse for images with high resolution and large contour density. In this essence we designed two parallel algorithms; Contour Parallelization Algorithm (CPA) and Partial Retrieval Parallelization Algorithm (PRPA). Both algorithms have considerably improved the performance of CBIS for both contour shape matching as well as partial image retrieval. To improve the effectiveness of CBIS in segmenting images with inhomogeneous backgrounds we used the phase congruency invariant features of Fourier transform components to highlight boundaries of objects prior to extracting their contours. The contour matching process has also been improved by constructing a fuzzy contour matching system that allows unbiased matching decisions. Further improvements have been achieved through the use of a contour tailored Fourier descriptor to make translation and rotation invariance. It is proved to be suitable for general contour shape matching where translation, rotation, and scaling invariance are required. For those images which are hard to be classified by object contours such as bacterial images, we define a multi-level cosine transform to extract their texture features for image classification. The low frequency Discrete Cosine Transform coefficients and Zenike moments derived from images are trained by Support Vector Machine (SVM) to generate multiple classifiers.