Infancy

Essay Topics for Writing About Yourself

Essay Topics for Writing About YourselfEveryone in high school learns how to write a thesis. Why then is it such a controversial subject for those of us who graduate from college or university?A thesis is one of the most fundamental documents in the undergraduate syllabus. In most classes students write a thesis about something they have read, researched, or otherwise experience. And, because it's such a strong topic it's typically the first topic they get taught in an introductory course.Unfortunately, when writing an essay about yourself it can feel like an overwhelming task. On one hand you want to be able to let the facts speak for themselves; however, this is not always the case. You may not necessarily have all the facts, and as a result, don't have much to go on to write about.Of course you have your main pieces of information at hand, such as your personal experience. But you also have background information that is also important. For example, you may have experienced the ev ent at some point but haven't thought of it as a reason to write about it yet. When you have gathered the necessary information to write about yourself, it's a good idea to present your thesis without referring to personal experiences.There are ways to bypass personal experiences and still have a solid argument based upon facts. This is especially true in cases where you are just presenting your facts in relation to your thesis topic.In fact, if you are presenting your thesis about anything at all, you should always refer to personal experiences. You may be able to incorporate things from other people's experiences, but there is a very big difference between including a few facts and including everything you've ever experienced as a personal matter. For example, in the data used to support my thesis about my specific profession, I included the names of several friends and relatives who have worked for me. These people, in turn, included their own experience and the experiences of th eir colleagues.In addition, what people remember best is the personal details that they relate to others. This means that if you have included some of your personal details in your thesis about yourself, these will be reflected in your essay and will be remembered as personal experiences by those reading it.As an example, in the course about my thesis, I included a number of personal stories. However, I could have included several facts that were never a part of my own personal life.

Pros and Cons of International Medical Schools

Pros and Cons of International Medical Schools Student Resources Print Deciding to Attend an International Medical School By Andrea Clement Santiago facebook twitter linkedin Andrea Clement Santiago is a medical staffing expert and communications executive. Shes a writer with a background in healthcare recruiting. Learn about our editorial policy Andrea Clement Santiago Updated on January 02, 2020 Cultura Science / Matt Lincoln / Riser / Getty Images More in Student Resources APA Style and Writing Study Guides and Tips Careers When its time to choose a medical school, the process and options can be overwhelming, from selecting the right program, applying, and interviewing to managing loans and passing board exams. It can be expensive, time-consuming, not to mention the competitive process, but there are ways to navigate the system. International medical schoolsâ€"such as Ross University in Barbados and other accredited schools in the Caribbean, as well as Mexico, Asia, and Australiaâ€"offer a way to pursue your passion for medicine without having to wait for spots in domestic schools to open. In fact, one quarter of physicians in the U.S. have graduated from international medical schools. Going to a medical school abroad may sound appealing, but there are pros and cons any candidate must consider.  Heres a look at the opportunities and potential obstacles. Pros of International Medical Schools Less restrictive requirements, lower tuition costs, and possible U.S. residency opportunities are all favorable aspects of applying to foreign medical schools, particularly in the Caribbean. Consider these factors when figuring out if medical school abroad is the right fit for you. Higher acceptance rates: Many medical schools in the Caribbean accept a much higher percentage of applicants than schools in the U.S. in part due to less restrictive entrance requirements.  For schools outside the Caribbean, acceptance rates vary.Broader entrance requirements: GPAs and MCAT scores are typically lower than average among international medical school applicants, making these programs a realistic option to consider for those with lower scores.Less expensive than domestic counterparts: Tuition for international schools is usually cheaper than medical schools in America, which can lessen the burden of student loans and financial stress that many medical students face.U.S. clinical rotation opportunities: In many of the Caribbean schools, the first two years of basic science is done on their campuses overseas, while clinical rotations are done in U.S. hospitals. Though your home school is still overseas, you have the advantage of the same clinical exposure and opportunities as the hospitals home medical students. Many past students cite this as an advantage in applying to U.S. residencies. Other overseas medical schools allow students U.S. clinical rotation opportunities, though usually on a more case-by-case basis. Cons of International Medical Schools While the early stages of going to medical school abroadâ€"like applications and tuition feesâ€"may be favorable, there are differences and potential challenges, particularly after youve graduated. Grading systems: While many U.S. medical schools use an Honors/Pass/Fail grading system, many medical schools overseas use a traditional Aâ€"F system. You might feel that such precise grading systems can add additional stress to an already competitive atmosphere and post-graduate job market and industry.New environment: This can be either a pro or a con, depending on your perspective. Keep in mind that politics, social norms, and weather usually differ, too.Match challenges with U.S. residency: Though many international medical graduates successfully match into residency programs across the U.S., they do so at significantly lower rates than their U.S. graduate counterparts: approximately 48% of international graduates compared to 94% of U.S. graduates. Many schools in the Caribbean, however, state that a significant percentage of their graduates find positions outside the match.Additional certifications: After graduating from an international medical school, youll be required to take an additional exam, the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG), that isnt required for domestic graduates. Additionally, each time you apply for a state license or any certification, the process may be slower, since the documentation must be obtained from overseas.Less favorable perception: Patients and employers typically have a less positive opinion of  international medical schools.  Some employers prefer to hire doctors who have graduated from a U.S.  medical school. A Word From Verywell Your choice of medical school can impact your future career prospects, so if youre considering applying to an international medical school, these pros and cons could help make your decision a little easier. Keep in mind that there are other avenues to practice medicine as well. For example, if youre interested in primary care and want to stay and practice in the U.S., you might consider applying to an osteopathic medical program. Whatever you decide, its important to research your options carefully so your path is fulfilling, tailored to your goals and capabilities, and falls within your budget.

Should College Athletes Be Paid - 1591 Words

A Free Education Is Already Enough For College Athletes More and more it’s discussed daily on whether if college athletes should finally be paid, or remain unpaid, this topic is very important because college sports are very popular in the United States. College athletes should remain unpaid because it wouldn’t be fair to the other less watch sports that don’t bring in a lot of revenue, it wouldn’t be fair to the female athletes they wouldn’t be paid equally, college athletes already have advantages and receive benefits, and paying the athletes would only benefit the big named universities and not the smaller schools. College athletes were all recruited out of high school to play a sport for a university of their choosing, if the athletes were good enough they would receive a scholarship, that comes with a free education, free housing, and a free meal plan. A discussed topic is should college athletes be paid because of all the hard work and revenue that they bring towards their universities, or should they remain unpaid because they are already receiving enough. In the article â€Å"Pay to play: should college athletes be paid?† Many get scholarships, which help pay for their tuition, supplies, housing, and sporting equipment. According to the NCAA, college athletes often receive grants worth more than $100,000†. (Birkenses Bagaria Par. 8) A free education is already enough, college athletes get to go to school for free just because of their athletic abilities, which alsoShow MoreRelatedShould College Athletes Be Paid?1578 Words   |  7 PagesAshay Mehta Nou Per 8 Should College Athletes Be Paid? One of the hottest debates in the sports industry is if college athletes should be paid. If you want to pay these athletes, how would the college determine the dollar amount that should be paid? Should the basketball team make more than the football team? Should the the soccer team be paid as well? Cheerleading? Chess team? Should everyone on the team get a salary? What if your college is good at football and your basketball team is awfulRead MoreShould College Athletes Be Paid?1398 Words   |  6 Pagesbelieve that college athletes at the highest performing schools are better treated than others. Although they do not get paid, they do receive some benefits for being athletes that other students would not get. One advantage for playing a sport is access to scholarships that some schools reserve for their athletes. Depending on the school and the athlete’s performance, money towards tuition is often given. Only some schools are willing to grant â€Å"full-ride† scholar ships for certain athletes. AccordingRead MoreShould College Athletes Be Paid?1289 Words   |  6 PagesThroughout the years college sports have been about the love of the game, filled with adrenaline moments. However, the following question still remains: Should college athletes get paid to play sports in college? Seemingly, this debate has been endless, yet the questions have gone unanswered. The National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) plays a vital role in this debate. The NCAA is a billion dollar industry, but yet sees that the athlete should get paid for their hard work and dedicationRead MoreShould College Athletes Be Paid?1334 Words   |  6 Pagesrising to the surface is â€Å"Should college athletes be paid?†. This has become a burning question. The NCAA is a multibillion-dollar industry, that makes millions, if not billions, in revenue. Yet it’s still maintains the non-profit status meaning that the industry is not set on making a profit and none of the revenue that is made is distributed to its members, managers, or officers. While most players who play in college sports are under a scholarship, that pays for the college tuition, books, and housingRead MoreShould College Athletes Be Paid?1364 Words   |  6 PagesHave you paid attention to all of the news that has been surfacing about collegiate sports lately? It is a big topic now days in the world of sports on weather college athletes should be getting paid to play sports. College athletics have gained great popularity of the past few decades, and have brought schools lots of revenue. A lot of college athletes think they should be getting paid for their services they do for their school. College sports like basketball and football generate over six billionRead MoreShould College Athletes Be Paid?1130 Words   |  5 PagesWhat college athlete would not want to be paid to play the sport that he or she loves? The real question is, though, should college athletes be paid fo r their roles in a college’s athletics? They are many points to each side of this recent controversial topic, which is why this has been made into such a hot debate in the past couple of years. As of right now, these athletes are not getting paid, but many of them truly believe that they should. Others believe that they already are being paid throughRead MoreShould College Athletes Be Paid?986 Words   |  4 PagesPaying the College Athlete The college athlete has steadily grown in popularity in the United States over the span of the past decades. Monetarily speaking, this increased publicity has been extremely beneficial for National Athletic Association (NCAA) and all the colleges involved in athletics which has sparked the dispute of whether or not the athlete should be paid for their hard work and dedication on the field and to their school or if the athletic scholarship is more than enough. College athletesRead MoreShould College Athletes Be Paid?1239 Words   |  5 PagesLindsey Simmerman Speech 102 T/Th 1:00-2:15 October 25, 2016 Should college athletes be paid to play? Specific Purpose: To persuade the class to agree with my stance on paying college athletes to play sports Thesis: College football is the hours players spend practicing and performing, the number of injuries the players face, and the persona these athletes must portray every day all the while watching their schools, coaches, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) get all the compensationRead MoreCollege Athletes Should Be Paid1254 Words   |  6 PagesSome college athletic departments are as wealthy as professional sports teams. The NCAA has an average annual revenue of $10.6 billion dollars. College athletes should be paid because of the amount of revenue that they bring to their college. Each individual college should pay its athletes based on how much revenue they bring to the college in which they attend. The colleges that win their Division title, their Conference title, or the National championship, give bonuses to the Head coach of thatRead MoreCollege Athletes Should Not Be Paid1558 Words   |  7 Pagesstudent-athletes participate in a variety of different s ports, and currently they do not receive paychecks for their performances. College athletics have attained an extensive popularity increase among Americans over the past few decades. This has resulted into increased revenues for the National Collegiate Athletic Association [NCAA] and the participating colleges, which has fuelled the debate of whether or not college athletes should collect an income. College athletes should not be paid to play

Analysis Of The Novel Lolita And The Sound Tells A...

Reader! Novel and Film’s Sound Tells a Story We can go through Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita and find a plethora of passages with beautiful, descriptive, and meaningful writing. Nabokov’s 309 pages of art gives the world of literature something worth discussing, analyzing, loving, and adapting. The art of Lolita has been adapted into film by director Adrian Lyne with his filmed titled â€Å"Lolita†, released in 1997. In Lyne’s adaptation of Lolita we specifically see an important passage come to life; the passage shows us Humbert’s realization of Lolita’s â€Å"absence of her voice† (Nabokov 308). The importance reveals itself through the words Nabokov writes in his novel. In the film adaptation of the novel, we also find importance through cinematic elements like narration, cinematography, sound, editing, and Mise-en-scene. With both the passage and adaptation, we can study the meaning of the character Humbert and his love for Lolita. The first word of the passage gives us an example of Nabokov’s ways of writing Lolita; the first word appears to be â€Å"Reader!† (308). Nabokov addresses the reader to get the attention of us. Usage of addressing becomes obvious throughout the novel. Changing the direction of who he tells the story helps me better understand Nabokov’s difficult and dense writing. These addresses, which change from us and the jury of the court, give me the opportunity to pay more special attention to what the passage says and what Nabokov hides in these words.Show MoreRelatedEssay on Stanley Kubrick: Artist, Explorer and Pioneer3777 Words   |  16 PagesKubrick uses the medium of film to convey an understanding of the world around him. I see his work as art rather than entertainment and I propose his inclusion in Howard Gardner’s model of Multiple Intelligences. The basis of my argument lies in analysis of his work ethic, complexities, innovations and communication ski lls. Background Stanley Kubrick was born on July 26th, 1928. The Bronx New York was both his birthplace and childhood home. While there he had a relatively uneventful adolescence

Recognizing and Engaging Employees For Dummies †MyAssignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about the Recognizing and Engaging Employees For Dummies. Answer: Introduction: This paper discovered the vast information on high performance work practices and their influence on the functions of the organization. It aim to explain when the best practices becomes not best practices and the concept of high-performance work practices which are one of the best-way of confirming productivity of employees in the organization. Though, there is unanimity among different definition of high performance work practices that it has major influence on the performance of the organization however, the precise mixture of practices varies in different definition. The more productive workforce can be achieved when the practitioners and management scholars will provide their maximum attention towards employees. It is being said because encouraged, motivated and trained employees will normally desire to perform excellently in the same manner a well-organized machine operates in a function of the business. Management of Personnel includes the people management at the workplace. However, the function of the personnel is very serious and universal during the course of the organization as not a single subdivision or department can exist without the presence of people but, the individual concern of dealing with the issues related to employees rests on the department of personnel. Management of individuals is a tough job mainly in the period of extreme competition in the market and rise in the global market share. It states that the HR Manager (Human Resource) of the 21st century of a multinational company is expected to be challenged with the problem of handling and filling the unoccupied or vacant positions with skilled and right people (Haas, 2017). Organizations require those personnel who can operate in various cultural situations; it is considered as a criterion for chasing global policies. Globalizing is essential to disabling the burdens from the current financial crisis that is quivering the basics of the most powerful economies of the world (Hossain, Campbell, Harrison, McKinley and Shah, 2011). HPWPs (High-performance work practices) are a technique of confirming that personnel is managed excellently in order to become extremely productive and dynamic in the workplace (Sparham and Sung, 2017). Best Practices- Not Best practices Best Practices indicates that there is only single way or method but this is not always possible, i.e. everyone cannot fit in single size. If there will be only one best possible way to perform some task or job then every company will be following the same way or method in a similar way. The company's success is dependent on bringing something new to the market or performing a similar task in a different manner. However, it should be noted that performing something different always makes sense if it is adding value and can help in sustaining for the long term in the market but being different in itself does not provide any benefit (Quantech Solutions, 2014). Only one best practice overlooks both the external and internal features of the companies. In the internal premises, companies perform differently; they have diverse teams of management and culture. It can be seen from the companys history and people. In the outer boundary companies perform in various countries, regulations, and climates (Anthony, 2008). Therefore, to assume or expect that there is one best practice which is accepted universally is wrong. On the other hand, it is very much beneficial to have a look at what our company is performing in comparison to a competitor (benchmarking), and putting efforts to have an accurate "Best Practice" assessment that our company should implement. Moreover, it is very important to consider the limitations that arise while using the concept of best practices in the company such as the strategic differentiation of an organization can be diluted due to best practices, the industry model can become limited due to best practices, best practic es can uncover the original worldviews, and best practices can reserve practical area power (Eilertsen, 2017). An overview of High-Performance Work Practices High-Performance Work practice is not a fresh model or method is the HRM (human resources management) as the thought of handling people efficiently is present long ago. But still, the detailed description of high-performance work practice is not present, and the exact mechanisms that create the practices rest in the form of a question (Ebejer, 2010). This results in a conclusion which was drawn by the academics that the exact meaning of HPWPs is the matter to nonstop debate. (Sung and Ashton, 2011). Besides these broadly believed opinions, the HPWPs has the similar meanings that were presented by several authors such as Patel and Conklin, Ramsay, and Huselid and Rau, as a high-performance work systems, others like Purcell state it as a high commitment management (HCM) whereas, Huselid and Delaney use advanced practices of HRM (PHRMP) (Ramsay, Scholarios and Harley, 2000). Many of the scholars also make use of the word high-performance work organizations (HPWOs). Besides this huge confusion, the fundamental purposes and values of these terms are identical. Hence, high-performance work practices can be stated as the practices which the HR Manager accepts to enhance the performance of the employees in the organizations (Sung and Ashton, 2011). HPWPs can be defined as those dignified processes which are utilized to check the effectiveness of human resources on the performance of the firm. Whereas, it is also considered as a group of balancing work practices layering three comprehensive classes which comprise; high involvement practices of the employee, commitment and reward practices, and human resource practices in an organization (Patel and Conklin, 2012). The implication of these descriptions proposes that HPWPs are one of those group of HR practices that are capable in filtering the abilities of the workers or inspiring them to be more creative (Huselid, 2014). Types of High-Performance Work Practices Various types of HPWPs are recognized by some of the professors from a Universalist, Contingency and the configurational viewpoint. The Universalist perception proposes that few of the HR practices are possible to provide maximum outcomes when accepted regardless of nature, people, and type of organizations. Whereas the supporters of Contingency consider that a mixture of the practices of the HR will only give results if it is applied in the definite organizational set or in a particular workers group (Wood, 2018). Universalist Supporters consider that HPWPs can be executed to enhance the performance of the personnel in the organization across the world. While this can be conceivable if corporations are capable to classify the packages of best fit and capable to diffuse these packages successfully during the course of the organization. The Contingency theorist thinks that it is not a mixture of correct packages that create the desired result but somewhat, the degree to which the practices operates with each other and the framework in which they are implemented. At the same time, the configurational opinion defines those boundaries, associations, and structures by which a business works (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). Whether from a Configurational, Contingency, or Universalist viewpoints, the simple high-performance work practices as acknowledged by academics are narrowly connected and inclined to address exact zones in employment associations. HPWPs is categorized by Huselid in 2 dimensions; workers motivation and workers skills whereas Delery and Doty recognized 7 HPWPs from the study that are; career opportunities, job description, profit sharing, appraisals, job security, employee participation, and training. Youndt categorized High-performance work practices into 2 sets i.e. the administrative behavior human res ource system and human capital enhancing system (Jery and Soua, 2014). Phil and MacDuffie acknowledged analyzing simple HR practices i.e. the behaviour problem-solving skills, decentralization of effort, employee involvement practices, online teamwork, suggestion programs and job rotation. While, Pfeffer recognized behavior key HPWPs i.e. distributing performance and economic information, employing selectively, comparatively high rewards and wide-ranging training, employment security, self-managed team, extensive training, and minimal status distinction (Dickson, 2018). Ashton and Sung characterized HPWPs into 4 sets that are; employee's involvement in decision making, rewards, practices that help in employees performance, and knowledge and information sharing (Sung and Ashton, 2011). Whereas, Chow recognized 30 HPWPs and characterized them into 7 sets that are; training and development, compensation/ benefits, employee relations/participation, promotion and career development, dignified HR system, reimbursement/benefits, recruitment and selection, and planned orientation of HRM. Zhang and Li acknowledged a package of six HPWPs involving promotion, sharing of profits, training, performance appraisal, well-defined jobs, and participation. However, Champion divided its best practices into 3 relevant parts i.e. evaluating proficiency information, unifying the information and consuming the capability information (Timiyo, 2014). Therefore, it can be perceived that HPWPs are the practices that determine the relationship between employer and personnel and the strategies of the HR are guiding such relationships (Cognitive Performance Group, 2013). This covers the 3 wide-ranging areas such as practices of human resource, high involvement of employee, and commitment and reward. These 3 areas are presented below: High Involvement of Employee - Employee involvement is said to be creating an environment through which employees get involved in the process of decision making of the organization. It is not considered as a goal or even as a practice in various organizations. Rather, it is a philosophy of leadership and management about how employees are empowered to contribute to the constant development and the continuing achievement of their work organization (Heathfield, 2018). Employee involvement can be very significant to effectiveness in the present environment of the business. The Gallop Organization, that learned employee involvement in 36 companies `of approx. 7939 business units, identified that involvement of the employee was effectively linked with the performance in a variety of parts, comprising increased satisfaction of the customers, reduced employee turnover, productivity, and profitability. The range of employee involvement was considerable. Practices of Human Resource HRM (Human Resource Management) is a prearranged method to handle individuals well for excellent performance. Its purpose is to create a more open, easy and kind management style such that employees will be inspired, advanced and controlled in a method that they can provide their best performance in order to help in the missions of the department (CSB, 2018). The HRM process is a chain of links which involves planned or intended HR practices results in, definite HR practices, which results in perceived HR practices, and then to responses of the employees, and lastly to the performance of the organization. The HRM Performance Casual chain The above figure stresses on two significant truths about the relations among HRM and performance. First, it highlights that there is frequently a variance between what is said by the management about their doings and what actually the management of the company does with their employees. Line managers, along with group leaders and supervisors, are answerable for changing much of the administrations purposes for HRM into definite HR practice, with the help of the resources provided to them. It is valuable to take HR practice as a broad series of real administrative behaviour. The second fact that the above figure reflects is if the administration wants to bring valued organizational results, it has to influence the attitude, behaviour, and beliefs of the employees. The behavior of the employees is important for analysing whether the anticipated organizational results will be attained, and is inclined by the perception of the employee, and their reasoning and actual answers to, HR prac tices. Main gaps between management purposes and apparent management activities frequently weaken employee loyalty and trust and therefore affect performance results (Boxall and Macky, 2007). Effective practices of HRM are contributory as they assist in attaining the objectives of the department and increase productivity. Some of the practices of HR are: HR is the first impression of potential employees Department of the Human resource must try to not only be well-organized and prepared with new employs but must actually think of themselves as the initial ones to welcome a newly hired personnel and create an optimistic impression on them (Gerber, 2018). They should take care of the needs of the newly hired employees as it is their responsibility which must be performed carefully. Put it in writing and set open expectations It should not be assumed by the human resource management and the organization that the newly hired employee knows about their expectations. The thing which looks to be simple but it is very difficult for another person. A straightforward handbook must be developed for the employees that can address the essentials comprising etiquette related to email, job descriptions, payment methods, attendance expectations. Screen for Culture fit All the organizations follow some type of culture. It is up to the entrepreneur to select to describe and shape it or let it cultivate on its own. Selecting an applicant as per the culture of the organization is very difficult. Understand Motivation A HR manager should have knowledge about the aspects that help in motivating employees. Money and financial rewards are not always the appropriate methods to provide the employees a drive. Every department of HR should plan some programs of non-financial rewards such as highlighting special employees, mentoring lunches, or better parking. Money is not considered always the best driver of strong employees (Technology Marketing, 2013). Be transparent Generation Y deeply highlights culture at workplace, transparency, and benefits. Occasionally these matters even undermine salary considerations. Hence, the most vital practice of HR is that each business must implement culture and emphasize the business transparent culture during the interviews (Martin and Whiting, 2016). Be Consistent After setting the suitable measures and strategies, it is important to ensure that all these set rules and strategies that are being enforced should be followed regularly across all staff members. Nothing weakens your respect for the view of playing favourites. Even if staff members do not like some strategies and are being imposed regularly it makes much more challenging to be questioned. Involve personally At the time company develops or grow, the owner should select their own battle properly and hiring people is very critical as it the heart of the company. Ultimately the owner has to hire the HR manager, but by involving in every activity of the company sets a standard which reflects how the company operates and who is the head. Reward and Commitment Practices Nowadays companies are reflecting a high commitment towards strengthening of reward practices that are associated with other various practices of HR and the organization objectives for motivating, retaining, and attracting employees (Management Study Guide, 2018). Operative reward practices support in inviting result focused expert who can flourish and thrive in the environment which is performance-based. Therefore, it is a motivator and may add something to the development of the employees productivity if executed properly. An operative reward system should be of administrative behaviour along with the system of performance development, which emphases on the payment based on performance and provide plenty of learning opportunities with a strong work environment. Inconstant pay plays a vital part in refining the performance of the employee mostly the top performers instead of the stable pay packages. An effective reward system management might have a valuable result on the performance in numerous ways such as inspiring a feeling of ownership between the employees, may enable long-term emphasis with nonstop development, decreases service operating costs, endorses teamwork, reduces employee disappointment and improved interest of the employees in the companys financial performance. Some of the companies such as General Mills provide a reward to their employees for achieving new skills that can add extra value to the performance of the organization and thus enable cross training, self-managed work teams, and job rotation. Some of the organizations also identify excellent performance by offering lump-sum merit awards and recognition awards for achieving long-term beneficial outcomes and winning employee commitment. For instance, TISCO follows on the spot reward scheme i.e. Shabashi Scheme, in which they provide annual and monthly rewards to the employees. Impact of High-Performance Work Practices High-performance Work practices are a combination of Human Resource practices which have a major influence on the employees performance and positively affect the performance of the organization. Bigger firms essentially own high market power and more resources to strive in the market by exploiting their resources to achieve a competitive advantage that can be improved by the High-Performance Work Practices. Industries differ in the context of their opportunities and pressures that in return disturb the performance of the firm. Big firms have the extra advantage of their resources in order to compete with their competitors and performing different strategies that have an effect on the Human Resource practices (Ismail, 2012). Business with diverse ownership varies in the matter of availability to capital and market exposure declares that the factors of the external environment in which the company function have an influence on the performance of the company. Globalization sets a pressu re on the companies to possess best HR practices in order to survive in the competitive market. In order to implement high involvement the management of the company should practically plan every main feature of the organization in a different way. Ledford and Mohrman established the self-design method in 1993. The self-design change strategy needs supervisors to improve a vision of the organization and define it in wide terms. Self-design is operative as the program to a high-involvement system needs a very high level of learning between front-line employees and managers. By engaging in the growth and investigating process of system changes, managers and employees get the opportunity to receive the required information in order to make the variation and develop the skills and knowledge anticipated to change successfully. In self-design, changes are recognized and applied iteratively as units of business recognize a proper beginning point for the change, plan and test the new system, and make corrections. Over time, members in the procedure re-design extra systems and form their change management and skills of system design. This policy for change is suitable in managing changes in large-scale where all possibilities and dealings cannot be identified in advance, and where companies and their employees are necessary to absorb considerably new conduct patterns to provision the anticipated change to the high involvement work system. There are various reasons why a process of participatory change is higher for executing high-involvement management. Beyond the information, skills, and knowledge, employees gain by the process of participation; it creates engagement at every level by affecting opinions, approaches, and behaviours. Participation also creates positive approaches in the direction of the change to high involvement. At the time people involve in the new system designing, they become individually devoted in creating the system prosper. Lastly, participation in the process of design creates the behaviours suggestive of extremely engaged employees. By in volving in the process of design, employees start acting in different ways that go outside of their contracted job descriptions to add something to the organizational efficiency. They start applying broader range of skill, information and proficiency to the problems of the organization. Therefore, employees gain knowledge by providing their effort, time, and information to the organization. Over time, the process of self-design regularizes these conducts, making an environment of high employee engagement. High involvement practices offer the power of decision making to the employees, training to increase their skills and knowledge to make and execute decisions successfully, information about the performance of the unit, and rewards for the efforts. This leads to a win-win situation for managers and employees. Employees always enjoy performing at the workplace with high employee involvement, and manager gains improved performance from this approach (Konrad, 2006). Human Resource Practices The time strategies of HR have been established, the idea should be implemented. Many times, companies spend money and time while making plans that are stored in the database and never used. By making a feasible HR strategy, companies can avoid this drawback and cultivate a plan that can assist them in improving the performance of their business (Schmidt, 2014). The HR strategy, though a motivating force of the company, required to be flexible to fulfil the companys altering needs. Executing a new strategy can be puzzling and exhausting. Executives of the company may be unwilling to follow with new methods or strategies of human resource planning. It must be noted, however, that the companys leadership sets the standard for the employees of how to respond to the new systems. If the executives of the company hold the new plan and determine a willingness to apply the HR strategy, then it is applied that the rest of the employees in the company will definitely follow it. A slow execution of the policy or scheme might be used, aiming at adding the single feature at a time to let existing employees become familiar with the new principles or standards. This may be revealed in the assessment and rearrangement of the packages of compensation. In place of presenting a new pay scale, new job responsibilities and a fresh process of hiring in the single meeting, it might be more sensible to present the fresh pay scale on one week, and the process of new employee hiring after some weeks (Martin, 2014). For a strategy of HR to be operative, it should be assessable. Defining measurable and specific purposes are essential to confirm that the policy is functioning and that it is valuable. These purposes should provide a clear sign of how the achievement of a policy will be measured. Once the company has got their operative system for assessing and estimating the performance of the employee, they have to properly provide a reward to the employees who regularly perform well. As per the situation, the performance reward of an individual can involve one or more of the following: Compensation Compensation means the recompense provided to an employee in return for the services provided by them. The offered compensations level is based on various factors, comprising salaries offered by similar companies for same parts, the skill set of the employee and efficiency and the present and projected financial strength of the company. Executive compensation is a slighter term that talks about the financial payment offered to senior executives, mostly the CEO of the company. At this level, the compensation mostly consists of a variety of options like bonuses and stocks of the company. Compensation management is said to be a function of business that permits business to invite and retain important talent, keep existing employees happy and allow the behavior to perform beneficially (HR Zone, 2018). Benefits and Perks Benefits of the employee are said to be non-salary compensation that differs from one company to another. Benefits are non-cash payments and indirect in a package of compensation. They are offered by the companies besides salary to make a competitive package for the prospective employee (Cascio, 2018). Other benefits can differ between businesses and industries and are occasionally referred to as a fringe benefits. These perks, also called as benefits in kind can include medical, use of company car, bonuses, pensions, life insurance, profit sharing, free meals, childcare, disability, paid vacations, stock options, personal days, gratuity, company holidays, sick leave, retirement and , other time off from work, etc. (Doyle, 2018) Recognition Recognition is an acknowledgment of the person who has done something valued. A leader makes his/her employees feel vital by identifying or recognizing them and building an environment that is helpful towards others activities (Nelson, 2015). Appreciation Employee appreciation means efforts made by the companys management to praise, acknowledge, and recognize employees for their offerings to the goals of the company. This appreciation can be stated in various ways, from verbal interaction to offering rewards. Few of the companies arrange periodic meetings where they announce and acknowledge the person who has performed excellently however other companies will form a specific day to display their appreciation (Nelson, 2017). Rewards must be ascended to the accomplishments and regularly executed in the whole organization. A company will not provide anyone a 10% increase just showing up on time. However, an excellent performer who brings a new way to 10% production cost of the company might get a bonus and noticeable recognition in front of his/her peers. The key goal of rewards is to provide employees concrete reasons to regularly enhance their performance and support company to grow and develop (Ferguson, 2018). In the conclusion, it can be said that there is not always a best possible way to solve the problems or achieve success in the business world. If there is one best practice to solve one problem it doesn't mean that it will solve the problems of the different organization because the circumstances, climate, culture, and functions change according to time. Along with this, the above essay has also highlighted the concept of high-performance work practices which states that the practices which are accepted by the HR Manager of the company and provide best results are considered as the high-performance work practices. Along with this, these are the practices that determine the relationship between employer and employees and the policies of the HR are guiding such relationships. The practices involve three wide-ranging areas like High involvement of Employee, Practices of Human, and Commitment and Reward Practices. From the above analysis, it can be said that the organization who involve their employees in the decision-making process are considered to be successful in the market and make a good image in the eyes of the customers. Human Resource Management is a pre-planned activity which is very important for every organization to perform effectively in the market. Well-organized practices of Human Resource Management are very helpful because they support in achieving the departments goals or objectives and enhance productivity. There are various Human Resource Practices which are used in an organization and are discussed above. Nowadays organizations are getting committed towards rewards system and trying to strengthen the practices of reward in order to achieve organizations goals by attracting, motivating, and retaining the employees. This reflects that the high-performance work practices have a major influence on the performance of the organization and supports in retaining employees and customers. Further, the above essay has provided the execution of high-perfo rmance work practices. References Timiyo, A.J. (2014) High Performance Work Practices: One best-way or no best-way. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 16(6), 8-14. Sung, J. and Ashton, D. (2011) High Performance Work Practices: linking strategy and skills to performance outcomes [online]. Available from https://www.longwoods.com/articles/images/High%20Performance%20Work%20Practices_UKReport2011.pdf [Accessed 4 April 2018] Ramsay, H., Scholarios, D. and Harley, B. (2000) Employees and High-PerformanceWork Systems:Testing inside the Black Box. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 38(4), 501-531. Hossain, N., Campbell, B., Harrison, E., McKinley, B., and Shah, P. (2011) The impact of the global economic downturn on communities and poverty in the UK [online]. Available from https://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/default/files/jrf/migrated/files/experiences-of-economic-downturn-full.pdf [Accessed 4 April 2018] Patel, P.C., and Conklin, B. (2012) Perceived Labor Productivity in Small FirmsThe Effects of High-Performance Work Systems and Group Culture Through Employee Retention. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 36(4), 205-235. Huselid, M.A. (2014) The Impact Of Human Resourcemanagement Practices On Turnover,Productivity, And Corporatefinancial Performance. Academy of Mangement Journal, 38(3), 638-872. Wood, S. (2018) The four pillars of talent management systems: A solid HR foundation [online]. Available from https://searchhrsoftware.techtarget.com/essentialguide/The-four-pillars-of-talent-management-systems-A-solid-HR-foundation [Accessed 4 April 2018] Armstrong, M., and Taylor, S. (2014) Human Resource Management Practice. 13th edn. UK: Kogan Page Limited. Jery, H. and Soua, S. (2014) Strategic Human Resource Management and Performance: The Contingency Approach Case of Tunisia. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 4(6), 282-291. Dickson, T. (2018) The Human Equation: Building Profits by Putting People First by Jeffery Pfeffer [online]. Available from https://www.strategy-business.com/article/15825?gko=e5535 [Accessed 4 April 2018] Cognitive Performance Group (2013) Best Practices in Competency Modeling [online]. Available from https://cognitiveperformancegroup.com/2013/10/09/practices-competency-modeling/ [Accessed 4 April 2018] Gerber, S. (2018) 10 Best Practices For Your Human Resources Department [online]. Available from https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/10-best-practices-for-your-human-resources-department/ [Accessed 4 April 2018] CSB (2018) Human Resource Management Good Practices [online]. Available from https://www.csb.gov.hk/hkgcsb/hrm/e-good-practices/e-gp.htm [Accessed 4 April 2018] Heathfield, S.M. (2018) Employee Involvement [online]. Available from https://www.thebalance.com/employee-involvement-1918100 [Accessed 4 April 2018] Konrad, A.M. (2006) Engaging Employees Through High-Involvement Work Practices [online]. Available from https://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/engaging-employees-through-high-involvement-work-practices/ [Accessed 4 April 2018] Haas, M.D. (2017) Employee perceptions of High Performance Work Practices and its relationship with stress and work well-being [online]. Available from https://arno.uvt.nl/show.cgi?fid=144424 [Accessed 4 April 2018] Sparham, E. and Sung, J. (2017) High Performance Work Practices: Work Intensification or 'Win-win'? [online]. Available from https://www.beprodevelopment.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/The-case-against-HPW-practices.pdf [Accessed 4 April 2018] Management Study Guide (2018) Performance Management and Reward Practices [online]. Available from https://www.managementstudyguide.com/performance-management-and-reward-practices.htm [Accessed 4 April 2018] Martin (2014) How to Design and Implement an HR Strategy [online]. Available from https://www.cleverism.com/design-implement-hr-strategy/ [Accessed 4 April 2018] Ferguson, S. (2018) Defining, Measuring, and Improving Employee Performance [online]. Available from https://www.thehartford.com/business-playbook/in-depth/implementing-employee-rewards-programs [Accessed 4 April 2018] HR Zone (2018) What is Compensation? [online]. Available from https://www.hrzone.com/hr-glossary/what-is-compensation [Accessed 4 April 2018] Ismail, S. (2012) The Impact of High Performance Work Systems on Firm Performance in MNCs and Local Manufacturing Firms in Malaysia. International Journal of Economics and Management Engineering, 6(11), 3034-3044. Anthony, S. (2008) When Are Best Practices Not Best Practices? [online]. Available from https://hbr.org/2008/04/when-are-best-practices-not-becm_sp=Article-_-Links-_-End%20of%20Page%20Recirculation [Accessed 4 April 2018] Boxall, P. and Macky, K. (2007) High-performance work systems and organisational performance: Bridging theory and practice. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 45(3), 261-270. Nelson, L. (2017) The Importance of Employee Appreciation [online]. Available from https://bizfluent.com/about-6614787-importance-employee-appreciation.html [Accessed 4 April 2018] Schmidt, L.L. (2014) What are High Performance Work Practices? [online]. Available from https://www.thewisdomthatworks.com/high-performance-work-practices/ [Accessed 4 April 2018] Ebejer, C. (2010) High performance work practices [online]. Available from https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100404/business/high-performance-work-practices.301105 [Accessed 4 April 2018] Nelson, B. (2015) Recognizing and Engaging Employees For Dummies. 3rd edn. U.S: John Wiley Sons. Doyle, A. (2018) Types of Employee Benefits and Perks [online]. Available from https://www.thebalance.com/types-of-employee-benefits-and-perks-2060433 [Accessed 4 April 2018] Cascio, W. (2018). Managing human resources. 8th edn. McGraw-Hill Education. U.S: McGraw-Hill Education. Quantech Solutions (2014) Better Practices - why not Best Practice [online]. Available from https://www.quantechsolutions.co.uk/better-practices-why-not-best-practice.htm [Accessed 4 April 2018] Eilertsen, S. (2017) Best Practices Arent Always Best [online]. Available from https://www.clomedia.com/2017/01/26/best-practices-arent-always-best/ [Accessed 4 April 2018] Technology Marketing (2013) Implementing High-Performance Work Practices in Healthcare Organizations: Qualitative and Conceptual Evidence/Practitioner Application [online]. Available from https://unified-communications.tmcnet.com/news/2013/12/16/7596126.htm [Accessed 4 April 2018] Martin, M. and Whiting, F. (2016) Human Resource Practice. 7th edn. U.K: Kogan Page Publishers.

Times Oldest Debate Essay Example For Students

Times Oldest Debate Essay Times Oldest DebateRaffikkiPeriod 2According to recent studies, planet earth formed approximately four and ahalf billion years ago. Since then, the earth has undergone many evolutionarychanges. Earth began as a swirling gas which condensed to create an immenseland mass. The ancient earth was basically the same as todays earth except forthe environment. The atmosphere of the ancient earth was quite different,containing more carbon and nitrogen gases than oxygen. The former atmosphere iswhere much of present day organic molecules such as proteins, lipids, andenzymes were created in abundance. By chance or simply because of the laws ofnature, those life producing compounds bonded together to create the oldestknown life form on earth a bacterium. Other life forms evolved from thebacterium through natural selection. These microscopic organisms formedsymbiotic relationships with each other and produced larger, multicellularorganisms, such as man. It may seem like a gigantic leap, bacteriu m to man, butgiven billions of years, it is certainly possible. It is true that The Bibleholds certain truths which would imply a reliable source of information; however,some parts of The Bible are not true at all. According to science, life evolvedin the following order: bacterium to fish, fish to various land animals, andanimals to man. Coincidentally or divinely, The Bible states that God said,Let the waters teem with fish and other lifelet the earth bring forth everykind of animalLet us make man (Genesis 1:20-26). The Bible accuratelydepicts the order in which life was established. But how could the primitivepeople who wrote The Bible know the order of which life was created withoutscience to aid them? This evidence would stand to prove that The Bible truly isthe word of God Himself. However, evolutionists would prefer to believe thatthe writer of The Bible was an incredible guesser. That is because many partsof The Bible seem to be written based on conjectures of what people of the timethought was correct. An example of this would be from Genesis, God made twogreat lights the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light togovern the night (Genesis 1:16). Obviously the greater light is the sun andthe lesser light is the moon; however, the moon is not a light, it is a planetthat reflects light. The people who wrote The Bible did not know that the moonwas a planet; nor did they know that other planets even existed. So, theydescribed the moon as a source of light just as the sun is a source of light. We will write a custom essay on Times Oldest Debate specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now The writers of The Bible made a good guess; nevertheless, they were wrong. Thisis not to say that the entire Bible is completely inaccurate, but explanationsconcerning the creation are a little vague. Such an unclear source should not beheld accountable to explain the origin of mankind. Other proof that the biblical account of creation is wrong lies withinthe process of carbon and uranium dating, and fossil records. Carbon dating isthe process of determining age by counting the amount of radioactive carbon in afossil or corpse. When a creature is living, it has a certain ratio ofradioactive carbon in it. That radioactive material decays at a fixed rate whenthe creature dies. Scientists know the fixed rate and can therefore determinehow old a carcass is by counting how much radioactive material remains insidethe carcass. Carbon dating is useful for dating remains less than fiftythousand years old. Using carbon dating, scientists have discovered fossils ofanimals that lived five times as long ago as creationists say is possible. .u84a66fb514d3155ebd8edb1277141003 , .u84a66fb514d3155ebd8edb1277141003 .postImageUrl , .u84a66fb514d3155ebd8edb1277141003 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u84a66fb514d3155ebd8edb1277141003 , .u84a66fb514d3155ebd8edb1277141003:hover , .u84a66fb514d3155ebd8edb1277141003:visited , .u84a66fb514d3155ebd8edb1277141003:active { border:0!important; } .u84a66fb514d3155ebd8edb1277141003 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u84a66fb514d3155ebd8edb1277141003 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u84a66fb514d3155ebd8edb1277141003:active , .u84a66fb514d3155ebd8edb1277141003:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u84a66fb514d3155ebd8edb1277141003 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u84a66fb514d3155ebd8edb1277141003 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u84a66fb514d3155ebd8edb1277141003 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u84a66fb514d3155ebd8edb1277141003 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u84a66fb514d3155ebd8edb1277141003:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u84a66fb514d3155ebd8edb1277141003 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u84a66fb514d3155ebd8edb1277141003 .u84a66fb514d3155ebd8edb1277141003-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u84a66fb514d3155ebd8edb1277141003:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Bipolar disorders EssayUranium dating is similar to carbon dating except that it is used for datingthings much older than fifty thousand years, such as the earth. Using uraniumdating, scientists have accurately calculated the age of the earth to be fourand a half billion years old and the age of the earliest living creature to bethree and a half billion years old (Campbell 505). Carbon and uranium datingfurnish indisputable evidence that the biblical account of creation is wrong andevolution has occurred. The most conclusive proof that man has evolved fromlower life forms lies within the physical characteristics of man and hisrelation to other creatures. One physical examp le that man evolved is thevarious stages of a developing embryo. For example, while a human is still inearly embryonic stages, it has gill slits. While the gill slits never fullymature, they serve as evidence that mans ancestors at one time had gills. During another period of embryonic development, a human has a tail. Sometimes,a human is actually born with a tail. The tail is evidence of a traitpreviously owned by an ancestor, but was discarded thousands of years ago. Thisis not to say that tails and other physical features are simply cast off, butafter years of disuse, a feature will grow smaller and eventually disappear. This is also evident in the growth of certain animals as well. At certainstages of development, the embryos of various mammals, birds, fish, and humansare indistinguishable. Further evidence suggesting evolution is vestigialorgans (organs that are of little or no use to the organism). For example,whales possess a pelvic bone which would serve a purpose for functioning legs,and yet they have no legs. Millions of years ago sea creatures came onto land,acquired legs, then returned to the sea where legs were not needed. The pelvicbone is vestigial in whales because it no longer serves a purpose. Another morefamiliar vestigial organ is the human appendix. It serves absolutely no purposeand, for some humans, is even removed. Embryonic proof, and vestigial organs aresufficient evidence that man has evolved from lower organisms. While creationists may believe evolution is wrong in defense of theirbelief in God, evolutionists have extensive evidence to strengthen their claimthat man is the result of evolution. Evolutionists say that man is a highlyevolved ape-like creature. There is scientific evidence to prove that claim. There is also proof that evolution is occurring today. Modern apes are aperfect example: they portray almost identical physical characteristics to thatof man, use tools, and are learning to speak using sign language. Apes are notonly similar to man physically and intellectually, but genetically as well. Human and ape DNA are ninety-nine percent identical. In fact, genetically,humans are more closely related to the ape than the ape is to the orangutan. Regardless of this scientific evidence, creationists will continue to believethat mankind was created by God. Of course, the creationists view only holdsif there is belief that The Bible is the true word of God. If mankind had nobelief in The Bibles account of creation, the Book would remain a work ofmythology. The Bible requires no ordinary belief, however, but a gigantic leapof faith because there is absolutely no evidence God created mankind. The onlyevidence of creation is in the opinions of millions of creationists.But ifopinion or belief were to be the only basis for determining human origin,couldnt mankind believe in literally anything and claim it for fact? Humanscould believe the mythical god, Zeus, created mankind! Its a sad truth, butcreationism is a relic in a world where the concept of evolution logicallyexplains the origin of mankind. .ub8a74567d368e02d316882ea838352d7 , .ub8a74567d368e02d316882ea838352d7 .postImageUrl , .ub8a74567d368e02d316882ea838352d7 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ub8a74567d368e02d316882ea838352d7 , .ub8a74567d368e02d316882ea838352d7:hover , .ub8a74567d368e02d316882ea838352d7:visited , .ub8a74567d368e02d316882ea838352d7:active { border:0!important; } .ub8a74567d368e02d316882ea838352d7 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ub8a74567d368e02d316882ea838352d7 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ub8a74567d368e02d316882ea838352d7:active , .ub8a74567d368e02d316882ea838352d7:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ub8a74567d368e02d316882ea838352d7 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ub8a74567d368e02d316882ea838352d7 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ub8a74567d368e02d316882ea838352d7 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ub8a74567d368e02d316882ea838352d7 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ub8a74567d368e02d316882ea838352d7:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ub8a74567d368e02d316882ea838352d7 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ub8a74567d368e02d316882ea838352d7 .ub8a74567d368e02d316882ea838352d7-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ub8a74567d368e02d316882ea838352d7:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: The effects of the RussoJapanese War on WW1 EssayWorks CitedCampbell, Neil A. Biology Third Edition. California: The Benjamin/CummingsPublishing Company, Inc., 1993. The Living Bible: Paraphrased. 1971 ed. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale HousePublishers, 1971. Wertheim, Margaret. Science and Religion: Blurring the Boundaries.Omni Publications International, Ltd. October 1994: 36. Religion: SIRS, Vol. 4. 77. Religion

Etyka essays

Etyka essays 1. In my opinion, the young doctor did not do a right professional choice helping the police officer first. The professional choice should be made to the advantage of the gunman who was in the worse condition. A professional choice requires a doctor to chose a side of a person who is more seriously sick or injured regardless of other issues. On the other hand the doctor made a right moral decision because a policeman was an innocent man who also had family. If one of them would have to die it would be a right moral decision to save a person like the policeman with wife and children who need him than to save a worthless criminal who had no family to take care of. 2. I do not think that doctor Myricks experimentation is a noble guest. I think that taking homeless people from the street and experimenting on them causing a great pain or death are just to extreme way. However I can understand the need of sacrifice few people in order to help millions. In my opinion killing people is morally wrong and it does not matter who you kill. That is why I think that Dr. Myricks experimentation is not a noble guest. Maybe the alternative way would be to seek volunteers for such experiments who are for example sick with no chance for recovering. 3. Guys answer for the Dr. Myricks question is yes he would do anything to be able to walk again. This scene and particularly Dr. Myricks question is very important because it makes Guy and also viewers realize that he and probably we all in such situation would do anything to walk again, no matter if it would be morally right or wrong. 4. There is a connection between euthanasia that was performed by Guys father and the experiments of Dr. Myrick. The practices of both doctors (Dr. Myrick and Guys father) led to kill people. Most of religions puts peoples destiny in the hands of God and that is why both of them were pla ...

List of the 47 Prefectures of Japan by Area

List of the 47 Prefectures of Japan by Area Japan is an island nation located in eastern Asia in the Pacific Ocean. It is to the east of China, Russia, North Korea and South Korea. Japan is an archipelago that is made up of over 6,500 islands, the largest of which are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu,  and Shikoku. It is one of the worlds largest countries by population and it has one of the largest economies in the world due to its many international companies and highly advanced technologies. Because of Japans large size, it is divided into 47 different prefectures for local administration (map). Prefectures in Japan are the highest level of government that an area can have as it is right below the federal government. They are similar to the 50 states of the United States and the 28 states of India or the provinces of Canada. Each prefecture has its own governor and they are subdivided into districts and municipalities. The following is a list of Japans prefectures by area. For reference, capital cities have also been included. 1) HokkaidoArea: 32,221 square miles (83,452 sq km)Capital: Sapporo2) IwateArea: 5,899 square miles (15,278 sq km)Capital: Morioka3) FukushimaArea: 5,321 square miles (13,782 sq km)Capital: Fukushima City4) NaganoArea: 4,864 square miles (12,598 sq km)Capital: Nagano5) NiigataArea: 4,857 square miles (12,582 sq km)Capital: Niigata6) AkitaArea: 4,483 square miles (11,612 sq km)Capital: Akita7) GifuArea: 4,092 square miles (10,598 sq km)Capital: Gifu8) AomoriArea: 3,709 square miles (9,606 sq km)Capital: Aomori9) YamagataArea: 3,599 square miles (9,323 sq km)Capital: Yamagata10) KagoshimaArea: 3,526 square miles (9,132 sq km)Capital: Kagoshima11) HiroshimaArea: 3,273 square miles (8,477 sq km)Capital: Hiroshima12) HyogoArea: 3,240 square miles (8,392 sq km)Capital: Kobe13) ShizuokaArea: 2,829 square miles (7,328 sq km)Capital: Shizuoka14) MiyagiArea: 2,813 square miles (7,285 sq km)Capital: Sendai15) KochiArea: 2,743 square miles (7,104 sq km)Capital: Kochi16) OkayamaArea: 2,706 square miles (7,008 sq km)Capital: Okayama17) KumamotoArea: 2,667 square miles (6,908 sq km)Capital: Kumamoto18) ShimaneArea: 2,589 square miles (6,707 sq km)Capital: Matsue19) MiyazakiArea: 2,581 square miles (6,684 sq km)Capital: Miyazaki20) TochigiArea: 2,474 square miles (6,408 sq km)Capital: Utsunomiya21) GunmaArea: 2,457 square miles (6,363 sq km)Capital: Maebashi22) YamaguchiArea: 2,359 square miles (6,111 sq km)Capital: Yamaguchi23) IbarakiArea: 2,353 square miles (6,095 sq km)Capital: Mito24) OitaArea: 2,241 square miles (5,804 sq km)Capital: Oita25) MieArea: 2,224 square miles (5,761 sq km)Capital: Tsu26) EhimeArea: 2,191 square miles (5,676 sq km)Capital: Matsuyama27) ChibaArea: 1,991 square miles (5,156 sq km)Capital: Chiba28) AichiArea: 1,990 square miles (5,154 sq km)Capital: Nagoya29) FukuokaArea: 1,919 square miles (4,971 sq km)Capital: Fukuoka30) WakayamaArea: 1,824 square miles (4,725 sq km)Capital: Wakayama31) KyotoArea: 1,781 square miles (4,613 sq km)Capital: Kyoto32) YamanashiArea: 1,724 square miles (4,465 sq km)Capital: Kofu33) ToyamaArea: 1,640 square miles (4,247 sq km)Capital: Toyama34) FukuiArea: 1,617 square miles (4,189 sq km)Capital: Fukui35) IshikawaArea: 1,616 square miles (4,185 sq km)Capital: Kanazawa36) TokushimaArea: 1,600 square miles (4,145 sq km)Capital: Tokushima37) NagasakiArea: 1,580 square miles (4,093 sq km)Capital: Nagasaki38) ShigaArea: 1,551 square miles (4,017 sq km)Capital: Otsu39) SaitamaArea: 1,454 square miles (3,767 sq km)Capital: Saitama40) NaraArea: 1,425 square miles (3,691 sq km)Capital: Nara41) TottoriArea: 1,354 square miles (3,507 sq km)Capital: Tottori42) SagaArea: 942 square miles (2,439 sq km)Capital: Saga43) KanagawaArea: 932 square miles (2,415 sq km)Capital: Yokohama44) OkinawaArea: 877 square miles (2,271 sq km)Capital: Naha45) TokyoArea: 844 square miles (2,187 sq km)Capital: Shinjuku46) OsakaArea: 731 square miles (1,893 sq km)Capital: Osaka47) KagawaArea: 719 square miles (1,862 sq km)Capital: Ta kamatsuSources:Wikipedia.org. Prefectures of Japan - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefectures_of_Japan.

The Song of Roland exemplifies model knightly behavior. What qualities Term Paper

The Song of Roland exemplifies model knightly behavior. What qualities were most desired in a knight What were the worst crimes - Term Paper Example The soldiers of the time had special titles, Knights that did not only highlight their proclaimed ability but also set them above the normal citizens. The knights went through a rigorous recruiting and training process that thereafter resulted in brave individuals who substituted their personal interests with the interest of the state and their divine call. The special soldiers had a specific age group and originated from specific families in the kingdom thus implying that the title of a knight preferred extraordinary personalities who had the heavenly selection. The early societies had an effective way of coercing loyalty using religions. By claiming that knights had some deific anointment, the soldiers therefore obeyed their leaders and followed their commands without questioning. The religions made knights brave enough to offer their lives in order to protect their kings and immediate leaders. The loyalty ensured discipline, which kept the military coherent enough to protect their internal interest. Ordinary soldiers who exhibited extraordinary skills and behavior would also graduate from their elementary roles in the military roles to become knight. However, such occasions were rare thereby making the few who would appear saintly. The details of the battle of Saragossa as depicted in the song of Roland reveal a number of qualities that made knights. One such quality is bravery. All knights would at one time fight in major battlefields. The wars of the time, unlike the modern art of warfare used less technology and soldiers had to interact using the rudimentary weapons. Several soldiers could therefore die in the process a feature that demanded extreme bravery. Knights swore to substitute their individual interests with those of their kingdoms a feature that still is desired in the earlier societies. The leaders of the societies managed to use religion among other divine features to foster the interest of the societies by making their knights willing to sacr ifice themselves simply to make the societies safer. In a great show of bravery, Roland a young man leads the rear of an entire army with only a handful man. His strong enemy overpower and threaten to kill him but he still refuses to call for held an act that would appear cowardly. He later blows his horn not to seek help from the bigger legion but to inform his leader of their predicament. In addition to bravery, knights required both obedience and loyalty. The military of the times just as still is today had a specific bureaucratic structures with each higher position demanding great respect, obedience and loyalty from their juniors. The knights followed and acted on orders without ever questioning the sources provided they came straight from their immediate seniors. Acts of disobedience were rare and would often attract harsh public punishments to instil both fear and discipline on the remaining soldiers. Obedience and loyalty aided the leaders control their troops, which constit uted of different people from diverse backgrounds. Before recruitment, the knights went through a rigorous training which aided instil the specific values and societal virtues into them. Additionally, the use of religion helped develop holistic armies united by the common respect for their leaders and nation through committing oaths, which they would not dare betray. Roland is a young man but holds a higher rank in the military, he uses his

Performance Measurement in a Post Merger Integration Process Essay

Performance Measurement in a Post Merger Integration Process - Essay Example The objective of any merger is to increase the value of the enterprise which means the there is always an objective that helps the company to come up with such a strategy to merger with another company. This is mostly seen as a long term strategy culminating from inside research in the market as there is not firm which would like to lose its identity in the market as a result of the merger. (ndrade 2001, p. 106; Ronald and Suzanne 2000, p. 5) In the recent past, there have been increasing interest on the issue of mergers. Many people have tried to look at the effect of those mergers in the face of looking who are the real winners and who are the real losers of merger. There have been many studies which have been looking closely into the issue of outcome of the mergers and acquisitions. The outcome of these two processes has been evaluated on many grounds from economic, communication, and other performance standards. (Caves 1999, p. 4; Lipin 2000, p.4) Once we realize that the objective of any merger is to increase the value of the enterprise in the market in order to create a formidable force the can compete effectively with others in the market, it will be easy for us to analyse then how does a merger affect the operation of each firms after they merge. This paper will concentrate on assessing the post merger effects on trust building performance and communication in the new enterprise. It will review various literature and findings that have come from many researches. (Ghosh 2001, p. 13) Outcome of mergers Many studies that have conducted research on mergers and acquisition have basically centred on some of the interesting characteristics of the mergers. They have been able to categorize the effect of merge on three broad classes. The first class consist of measureing performance after a merger based on share price. The second one has categories it on profitability while the class takes in many studied which have used other effect of merger success. (Paul 2002, p. 49) As we mentioned earlier the aim of any merger is to ensure that there is success of a business. This success should not only be measured in term of finical success but also in the degree of integration the two firms. In this regard cultural integration is one of the most important aspects that help the merger to succeed. Whether a merger can be considered a success based on the financial implication depends on many factors including the benchmark that is used to evaluate the merger. Many studies have concentrated on the share price of the firm pre and post merger as a measure of success in themes. This is often based on the confidence the investors will have on the merger. In this regard, the revenue of the firm is used as bench mark for evaluating the success of the firm since the dynamic trend in the share price of a firm will depend on the revenue collection of the firm. (Sitkin 1996, p. 17; Kaplan 2000, p. 243) Based on the financial performance of the mergers, studies that have been carried out shows that 82% of all mergers evaluated have shown success in the share price and economic performance. However it has also been shown that more that 50% of all mergers do not meet the expectations of the investors with majority of them failing to attain the objectives of the new merger. Once a merger is planned, there

Canterbury Tales - Wife of Bath :: essays papers

Canterbury Tales - Wife of Bath â€Å"The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales† had numerous unique characters, but the Wife of Bath struck me as the most interesting personality. Through the narrator’s use of direct and indirect characterization, significant details, and motivations for actions I was able to analyze the distinct traits of â€Å"the worthy woman from beside Bath city.† The narrator was very successful in portraying the wife. The wealth of the wife was distinct. â€Å"Her hose of finest scarlet red† shows the fortune she possesses. The wife also had enough fortune to travel to the most important shrines in Italy, France, Spain, and Germany. The narrator’s described her appearance well. â€Å"Bold was her face, handsome, and red in hue† allows the reader to picture the wife as an attractive woman of her time. The middle-aged woman had impressive large hips and â€Å"gap-teeth† which express lust. Her corpulent figure was a very favorable aspect of the time; it indicated wealth and beauty. â€Å"She’d had five husbands, all at the Church door† allows the reader to grasp much about the wife. Having five husbands shows that she is sociable and interested in love and marriage. Her experiences with marriage allow her to be very knowledgeable of love, which is â€Å"an art in which she knew the oldest dances.† â€Å"†¦ All at the Church door† shows her devotion to tradition and her faith. Her dedication to the Catholic Church and the forbidding Church rules of the time, allow the reader to infer she did not divorce her husbands. Therefore, all of her husbands passed away, which allows us to conclude she may have married older men. This wealthy world-traveler, on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, is not motivated by her faith as she travels on this mediocre trip.

Building a 21st Century Organization

The power and versatility of the human visual system derive in large part from its remarkable ability to find structure and organization in the images encoded by the retinas. To discover and describe structure, the visual system uses a wide array of perceptual organization mechanisms ranging from the relatively low-level mechanisms that underlie the simplest principles of grouping and segregation, to relatively high-level mechanisms in which complex learned associations guide the discovery of structure.The Gestalt psychologists were the first to fully appreciate the fundamental importance of perceptual organization (e. g. , see Kohler, 1947; Pomerantz & Kubovy, 1986). Objects often appear in different contexts and are almost never imaged from the same viewpoint; thus, the retinal images associated with physical objects are generally complex and varied. To have any hope of obtaining a useful interpretation of the retinal images, such as recognizing objects that have been encountered p reviously, there must be initial processes that organize the image data into those groups most likely to form meaningful objects.Perceptual organization is also important because it generally results in highly compact representations of the images, facilitating later processing, storage, and retrieval. (See Witkin & Tenenbaum, 1983, for a discussion of the importance of perceptual organization from the viewpoint of computational vision. ) Although much has been learned about the mechanisms of perceptual organization (see, e. g. , Beck, 1982; Bergen, 1991; Palmer & Rock, 1994; Pomerantz & Kubovy, 1986), progress in developing testable quantitative theories has been slow.One area where substantial progress has been made is in models of texture grouping and segregation. These models have begun to put the study of perceptual organization on a firm theoretical footing that is consistent with the psychophysics and physiology of low-level vision. Two general types of model for texture segr egation have been proposed. In the feature-based models, retinal images are initially processed by mechanisms that find specific features, such as edge segments, line segments, blobs, and terminators.Grouping and segregation are then accomplished by finding the image regions that contain the same feature or cluster of features (see, e. g. , Julesz, 1984, 1986; Marr, 1982; Treisman, 1985). These models are relatively simple, are consistent with some aspects of low-level vision, and have been able to account for a range of experimental results. In the filter-based models, retinal images are initially processed by tuned channels, for example, â€Å"contrast-energy† channels selective for size and orientation.Grouping and segregation are then accomplished by finding those image regions with approximately constant output from one or more channels (Beck, Sutter, & Ivry, 1987; Bergen & Landy, 1991; Bovik, Clark, & Geisler, 1990; Caelli, 1988; Chubb & Sperling, 1988; Clark, Bovik, & Geisler, 1987; Fogel & Sagi, 1989; Graham, Sutter, & Venkatesan, 1993; Victor, 1988; Victor & Conte, 1991; Wilson & Richards, 1992).These models have some advantages over the existing feature-based models: They can be applied to arbitrary images, they are generally more consistent with known low-level mechanisms in the visual system, and they have proven capable of accounting for a wider range of experimental results. However, the current models do not make accurate predictions for certain important classes of stimuli. One class of stimuli are those that contain regions of texture that can be segregated only on the basis of local structure (i. e. , shape).Another broad class of stimuli for which most current perceptual organization models do not make adequate predictions are those containing nonstationary structures; specifically, structures that change smoothly and systematically across space. Nonstationary structures are the general rule in natural images because of perspective pr ojection, and because many natural objects are the result of some irregular growth or erosion process. A simple example of a nonstationary structure would be a contour formed by a sequence of line segments (a dashed contour) embedded in a background of randomly oriented line segments.Such contours are usually easily picked out by human observers. However, the elements of the contours cannot be grouped by the mechanisms contained in current filter-based or feature-based models, because no single orientation channel or feature is activated across the whole contour. Grouping the elements of such contours requires some kind of contour integration process that binds the successive contour elements together on the basis of local similarity. A more complex example of a nonstationary structure would be an image of wood grain.Such a texture contains many contours whose spacing, orientation, and curvature vary smoothly across the image. Again, such textures are easily grouped by human observe rs but cannot be grouped by the mechanisms contained in the current models. Grouping the contour elements of such textures requires some form of texture integration (the two-dimensional analogue of contour integration). The heart of the problem for existing quantitative models of grouping and segregation is that they do not represent the structure of the image data with the richness achieved by the human visual system.The human visual system apparently represents image information in an elaborate hierarchical fashion that captures many of the spatial, temporal, and chromatic relationships among the entities grouped at each level of the hierarchy. Grouping and segregation based on simple feature distinctions or channel responses may well be an important initial component of perceptual organization, but the final organization that emerges must depend on more sophisticated processes.The major theoretical aim of this study was to develop a framework for constructing and testing models o f perceptual organization that capture some of the richness and complexity of the representations extracted by the human visual system, and yet are computationally well defined and biologically possible. Within this framework, we have developed a model of perceptual organization for two-dimensional (2D) line images and evaluated it on a number of â€Å"textbook† perceptual organization demonstrations.In this article we refer to this model as the extended model when it is necessary to distinguish it from a simplified version, the restricted model, described later. Perceptual organization must depend in some way on detected similarities and differences between image elements. Furthermore, it is obvious that similarities and differences along many different stimulus dimensions can contribute to the organization that is perceived. Although there have been many studies of individual stimulus dimensions, there have been few systematic attempts to study how multiple dimensions inter act (Beck et al., 1987; Fahle & Abele, 1996; Li & Lennie, 1996). The major experimental aim of this study was to measure how multiple stimulus dimensions are combined to determine grouping strength between image elements. To this end, we conducted a series of three-pattern grouping experiments to directly measure the tradeoffs among two, three, or four stimulus dimensions at a time. Predictions for these experiments were generated by a restricted version of the model appropriate for the experimental task. The experimental results provided both a test for the restricted model and a means of estimating the model's parameters.The estimated parameter values were used to generate the predictions of the extended model for complex patterns. The next four sections describe, respectively, the theoretical framework, the restricted model, the experiments and results, and the extended model and demonstrations. Theoretical Framework for Perceptual Organization In this section we discuss four imp ortant components of perceptual organization: hierarchical representation, detection of primitives, detection of similarities and differences among image parts, and mechanisms for grouping image parts.These components taken together form the theoretical framework on which the restricted and extended quantitative models are based. Hierarchical Representation It is evident that the mechanisms of perceptual organization yield a rich hierarchical representation that describes the relationship of â€Å"parts† to â€Å"wholes† at a number of levels; that is, the wholes at one level often become the parts at the next level. However, there is evidence that the process by which the hierarchical representation is constructed does not proceed strictly either from local to global or from global to local.The global structure of a large letter composed of small letters can be discovered before the structure of the individual small letters is discovered (Navon, 1977), and there exist ambiguous figures, such as R. C. James's classic Dalmatian dog, that can be solved locally only after at least some of the global structure is discovered. On the other hand, the discovery of structure must sometimes proceed from local to global; for example, it would be hard to extract the symmetry of a complex object without first extracting some of the structure of its subobjects.Any well-specified theory of perceptual organization must define what is meant by parts, wholes, and relationships between parts and wholes. Given the current state of knowledge, all definitions, including the ones we have adopted, must be tentative. Nonetheless, some basic definitions must be made in order to form working models. In our framework, the most primitive objects are defined on the basis of the current understanding of image encoding in the primary visual cortex of the primate visual system.Higher order objects are defined to be collections of lower order objects (which may include primitive objects), together with information about the relationships between the lower order objects. The range of relationships that the visual system can discover, the order and speed with which they are discovered, and the mechanisms used to find them are unsettled issues. As a starting point the relationships we consider are quantitative similarities and differences in size, position, orientation, color, and shape.These dimensions were picked for historical and intuitive reasons: They are major categories in human language and therefore are likely to correspond to perceptually important categories. The precise definitions of these dimensions of similarity between objects are given later. Detection of Primitives: Receptive-Field Matching One of the simplest mechanisms for detecting structure within an image is receptive-field matching, in which relatively hard-wired circuits are used to detect the different spatial patterns of interest.For example, simple cells in the primary visual corte x of monkeys behave approximately like hard-wired templates: A strong response from a simple cell indicates the presence of a local image pattern with a position, orientation, size (spatial frequency), and phase (e. g. , even or odd symmetry) similar to that of the receptive-field profile (Hubel & Wiesel, 1968; for a review, see DeValois & DeValois, 1988). The complex cells in the primary visual cortex are another example.A strong response from a typical complex cell indicates a particular position, orientation, and spatial frequency independent of the spatial phase (Hubel & Wiesel, 1968; DeValois & DeValois, 1988). Receptive field matching may occur in areas other than the primary visual cortex, and may involve detection of image structures other than local luminance or chromatic contours, for example, structures such as phase discontinuities (von der Heydt & Peterhans, 1989) and simple radially symmetric patterns (Gallant, Braun, & Van Essen, 1993).An important aspect of receptive -field matching in the visual cortex is that the information at each spatial location is encoded by a large number of neurons, each selective to a particular size or scale. The population as a whole spans a wide range of scales and hence provides a â€Å"multiresolution† or â€Å"multiscale† representation of the retinal images (see, e. g. , DeValois & DeValois, 1988). This multiresolution representation may play an important role in perceptual organization.For example, grouping of low-resolution information may be used to constrain grouping of high-resolution information, and vice versa. The quantitative models described here assume that receptive-field matching provides the primitives for the subsequent perceptual organization mechanisms. However, to hold down the complexity of the models, the receptive-field matching stage is restricted to include only units similar to those of cortical simple cells with small receptive fields. These units proved sufficient for the line pattern stimuli used in the experiments and demonstrations.Receptive-field matching is practical only for a few classes of simple image structure, such as contour segments; it is unreasonable to suppose that there are hard-wired receptive fields for every image structure that the visual system is able to detect, because of the combinatorial explosion in the number of receptive-field shapes that would be required. Thus, there must be additional, more flexible, mechanisms for detecting similarities and differences among image regions. These are discussed next. Similarity/Difference Detection MechanismsStructure exists within an image if and only if some systematic similarities and differences exist between regions in the image. Thus, at the heart of any perceptual organization system there must be mechanisms that match or compare image regions to detect similarities and differences. (For this discussion, the reader may think of image regions as either parts of an image or as grou ps of detected primitives. ) Transformational matching A well-known general method of comparing image regions is to find out how well the regions can be mapped onto each other, given certain allowable transformations (see, e.g. , Neisser, 1967; Pitts & McCulloch, 1947; Rosenfeld & Kak, 1982; Shepard & Cooper, 1982; Ullman, 1996). The idea is, in effect, to use one image region as a transformable template for comparison with another image region. If the regions closely match, following application of one of the allowable transformations, then a certain similarity between the image regions has been detected. Furthermore, the specific transformation that produces the closest match provides information about the differences between the image regions.For example, consider an image that contains two groups of small line segment primitives detected by receptive-field matching, such that each group of primitives forms a triangle. If some particular translation, rotation, and scaling of one of the groups brings it into perfect alignment with the other group then we would know that the two groups are identical in shape, and from the aligning transformation itself we would know how much the two groups differ in position, orientation, and size. There are many possible versions of transformational matching, and thus it represents a broad class of similarity-detection mechanisms.Transformational matching is also very powerful—there is no relationship between two image regions that cannot be described given an appropriately general set of allowable transformations. Thus, although there are other plausible mechanisms for detecting similarities and differences between image regions (see section on attribute matching), transformational matching is general enough to serve as a useful starting point for developing and evaluating quantitative models of perceptual organization. Use of both spatial position and colorThe most obvious form of transformational matching is based on standard template matching; that is, maximizing the correlation between the two image regions under the family of allowable transformations. However, template matching has a well-known limitation that often produces undesirable results. To understand the problem, note that each point in the two image regions is described by a position and a color. The most general form of matching would consist of comparing both the positions and colors of the points. However, standard template matching compares only the colors (e. g. , gray levels 2 ) at like positions.If the points cannot be lined up in space then large match errors may occur even though the positional errors may be small. A more useful and plausible form of matching mechanism would treat spatial and color information more equivalently by comparing both the spatial positions and the colors of the points or parts making up the objects. For such mechanisms, if the colors of the objects are identical then similarity is determined solely by how well the spatial coordinates of the points or parts making up the objects can be aligned and on the values of the spatial transformations that bring them into the best possible alignment.In other words, when the colors are the same, then the matching error is described by differences in spatial position. For such mechanisms, B matches A better than B matches C, in agreement with intuition. Later we describe a simple matching mechanism that simultaneously compares both the spatial positions and the colors of object points. We show that this mechanism produces matching results that are generally more perceptually sensible than those of template matching. Attribute matchingAnother well-known method of comparing groups is to measure various attributes or properties of the groups, and then represent the differences in the groups by differences in the measured attributes (see, e. g. , Neisser, 1967; Rosenfeld & Kak, 1982; Selfridge, 1956; Sutherland, 1957). These attributes might be simple measures, such as the mean and variance of the color, position, orientation, or size of the primitives in a group, or they might be more complex measures, such as the invariant shape moments. It is likely that perceptual organization in the human visual system involves both transformational matching and attribute matching.However, the specific models considered here involve transformational matching exclusively. The primary reason is that perceptual organization models based on transformational matching have relatively few free parameters, yet they are sensitive to differences in image structure—an essential requirement for moving beyond existing filter- and feature-based models. For example, a simple transformational matching mechanism (described later) can detect small differences in arbitrary 2D shapes without requiring an explicit description of the shapes.On the other hand, specifying an attribute-matching model that can detect small differences in arbitr ary shapes requires specifying a set of attributes that can describe all the relevant details of arbitrary shapes. This type of model would require many assumptions and/or free parameters. Our current view is that transformational matching (or something like it) may be the central mechanism for similarity/difference detection and that it is supplemented by certain forms of attribute matching. Matching groups to categoriesThe discussion so far has assumed implicitly that transformational and attribute matching occur between different groups extracted from the image. However, it is obvious that the brain is also able to compare groups with stored information because this is essential for memory. Thus, the visual system may also measure similarities and differences between groups and stored categories, and perform subsequent grouping using these similarities and differences. These stored categories might be represented by prototypes or sets of attributes.Rather than use stored categori es, the visual system could also measure similarities and differences to categories that emerge during the perceptual processing of the image. For example, the visual system could extract categories corresponding to prevalent colors within the image, and then perform subsequent grouping on the basis of similarities between the colors of image primitives and these emergent color categories. Grouping Mechanisms Once similarities and differences among image parts are discovered, then the parts may be grouped into wholes.These wholes may then be grouped to form larger wholes, resegregated into a different collection of parts, or both. However, it is important to keep in mind that some grouping can occur before all of the relevant relationships between the parts have been discovered. For example, it is possible to group together all image regions that have a similar color, before discovering the geometrical relationships among the regions. As further relationships are discovered, the rep resentations of wholes may be enriched, new wholes may be formed, or wholes may be broken into new parts and reformed.Thus, the discovery of structure is likely to be an asynchronous process that operates simultaneously at multiple levels, often involving an elaborate interleaving of similarity/difference detection and grouping. Within the theoretical framework proposed here we consider one grouping constraint—the generalized uniqueness principle—and three grouping mechanisms: transitive grouping, nontransitive grouping, and multilevel grouping. The uniqueness principle and the grouping mechanisms can be applied at multiple levels and can be interleaved with similarity/difference detection.Generalized uniqueness principle The uniqueness principle proposed here is more general: it enforces the constraint that at any time, and at any level in the hierarchy, a given object (part) can be assigned to only one superordinate object (whole). An object at the lowest level (a pr imitive) in the hierarchy can be assigned to only one object at the next level, which in turn can be assigned to only one object at the next level, and so on. The sequence of nested objects in the hierarchy containing a given object is called the part–whole path of the object.The generalized uniqueness principle, if valid, constrains the possible perceptual organizations that can be found by the visual system. Nontransitive grouping Our working hypothesis is that similarity in spatial position (proximity) contributes weakly to nontransitive grouping. If proximity were making a dominant contribution, then separated objects could not bind together separately from the background objects. Proximity contributes powerfully to a different grouping mechanism, transitive grouping, which is described next.We propose that transitive and nontransitive grouping are in some competition with each other and that the visual system uses both mechanisms in the search for image structure. Refere nces Beck, J. (Ed. ). (1982). Organization and representation in perception. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Beck, J. , Sutter, A. , & Ivry, R. (1987). Spatial frequency channels and perceptual grouping in texture segregation. Computer Vision, Graphics and Image Processing, 37, 299–325. Bergen, J. R. (1991). Theories of visual texture perception. In D. Regan (Ed. ), Spatial vision (pp. 114–134). New York: Macmillan. Bergen, J. R., & Landy, M. S. (1991). Computational modeling of visual texture segregation. In M. S. Landy & J. A. Movshon (Eds. ), Computational models of visual processing (pp. 253–271). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Bovik, A. C. , Clark, M. , & Geisler, W. S. (1990). 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