Data Commentary Practice

GRP 5: KONG Chao, MAO Mao, ZHOU Tingting Figure 1 indicates the corresponding percentages of students’ correct answers to comprehension tasks at different thermal environment. According to it, we can tell that students' accuracy in answering questions changes when their environment gets hotter. As can be seen, they answered with higher accuracy at 23. 5? C, and kept the percentages of correct answers around 80%.A peak of approximate 85% was reached when the sessions went for 2 hours (120 minutes). Although during the first 1. 5 hours (90 minutes) students responded even more correctly at 20? C, the accuracy percentage then decreased to about 65% in the following time. As for situations at 27? C, it seemed that students showed a relatively lower degree of accuracy in the whole sessions, and the correct answers accounted for around 65% and never went beyond 70%.After this, another experiment was conducted with all factors staying the same, except a change in the tasks dealt from English comprehension to mathematics. Results are displayed in Figure 2. It’s easily to notice that at 23. 5? C students answered also around 80% questions correctly during the 3-hour math session, and performed better 2 hours (120 minutes) later at accuracy of 85%. However the highest accuracy in the first 1. 5 hours (90 minutes) was corresponding to the environment temperature setting at 20?C, and 85% it represented. With time passing, there were more and more wrong answers and the accordingly down-sloping trend of accuracy stopped at the end of the session, at approximate 75%, which were still 10% higher than the best correct answer percentage at 27? C students could get. The corresponding ratio of right answers began at 60%, then followed an increase and mounted at 65% 2 hours (120 minutes)later. Then it tended to drop slightly, and finally fell to 63%.From what have been observed in both Figure 1 and Figure 2, it is quite clearly that thermal environment do have an effe ct on students' performance. Moreover, what particularly noteworthy is that 23. 5? C proves to be better linked with a better performance on accuracy at the most time. This temperature ensures 80% of responses correct during a 3 hours (120 minutes) session, and even a higher percentage when matched with an appropriate session time setting less than 3 hours (180 minutes). For those sessions lasting for less than 2 hours (120 minutes), environment temperature of 20?C can also guarantee the same high percentage of accuracy, with shorter the lasting time, higher the percentage. Also another thing worthwhile noting is that 20? C clearly beats 23. 5? C when sessions are less than 1. 5 hours (90 minutes). In conclusion, higher performance may be achieved when classroom temperature ranging between 20 to 23. 5? C. Also limitations of the whole experiments exist, such as the weakness of experiment samples in representing the general students, considering they were all NUS students.

Hr Term Paper

Table of Contents: Introduction to SME Recruitment and the process involved Challenges faced by SME’s Overseas challenges Suggestions to overcome challenges What are SMEs? Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are businesses that employ up to 250 people.No one is precisely sure how many of them there are because there are lots of companies that have limited liability status but are not trading and there are lots of businesses that are sole proprietorships that have escaped the official net of the tax man, the VAT man and the registrar of companies. We will see figures that range as high as 4. 3 million and as low as 3. 7 million, the best estimate being around 4. 0 million. Although the most usual definition of an SME is a company employing up to 250 employees, nearly all (over 99%) employ less than 50 people.In fact, three quarters of them don’t have any employees – they are sole operators. So, the emphasis really is on small rather than medium in the SME label. T he engine of economic recovery The significance of these small businesses is often overlooked. They are the ants in the ant hill rather than the more glamorous animals of the forest. And yet they make up a half of all the jobs in the UK and account for half of our GDP. Because they are small and tightly managed, decisions can be taken quickly and they are flexible in responding to changes in the temperature of the market.In the UK as in the rest of the world, SMEs are recognised as the most responsive engine of economic growth. Who are they? There are over 1,500 different classifications of SMEs. These are referred to as Standard Industrial Classifications by the Government and they are used to describe the nature of a company’s business. As might be expected, SMEs do not compete where large capital investment is required for process industries. Therefore, they do not exist in car assembly, steel making, cement manufacture and the like. They are found in profusion in the serv ice industries from vehicle servicing, hairdressing, retailing to the professions.There are manufacturers, of course, and they operate across most industries from complex electronics to traditional businesses such as metal bashing and wood turning. The SME shopping basket Every SME purchases goods and services in the pursuance of its business. They all have some basic needs such as telephones, stationery and they consume energy. Nearly all have office furniture and operate vehicles. They rent property and they buy legal and financial services. Depending on their industrial classification, they also will buy materials of one form or another.In total this adds up to over ? 1 billion of products and services per annum. Safety in numbers The most surprising thing about this huge shopping basket is that it is often ignored by marketers who have their sites on the larger corporations that appear to make easier picking. Whilst it is true that large buyers are easier to line up in the sight of a marketing rifle, they are not necessarily the most profitable. Slimma enjoyed being a main supplier to Marks & Spencer until M&S changed its buying policy and it lost the business. It not only lost the business; it went out of business.In contrast, RS Components has always seen the potential in SMEs and through its next day postal delivery service, it supplies a myriad of bits and pieces to businesses at premium prices and good margins. A simple decision making unit There are no complicated purchasing teams in SMEs. Very often it is just the boss who is tea person, book keeper, principal sales person and buyer. With all these duties, it is not feasible to agonise too deeply about the choice of a supplier. Decisions are made quickly and based on simple criteria such as the supplier is easy to buy from, it is good value, it is supported by the right kind of service etc.Once a purchase has been made, a relationship is established and very often a buying pattern is set up that wil l last for a long time. The B2B SME panel B2B wants to get to the hearts and minds (and purchasing patterns) of SME owners and has recently launched an online panel comprised of key decision makers within the SME sector. B2B has undertaken a rigorous panel recruitment programme to ensure a diverse and high calibre sample of thousands of SME decision makers throughout the UK, people who are notoriously hard to get hold of yet who buy hundreds of different services. In IndiaIn India, the Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) sector plays a pivotal role in the overall industrial economy of the country. It is estimated that in terms of value, the sector accounts for about 39% of the manufacturing output and around 33% of the total export of the country. Further, in recent years the MSE sector has consistently registered higher growth rate compared to the overall industrial sector. The major advantage of the sector is its employment potential at low capital cost. As per available statistics , this sector employs an estimated 31 million persons spread over 12. million enterprises and the labour intensity in the MSE sector is estimated to be almost 4 times higher than the large enterprises. In South Africa the term SMME, for Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises, is used. Elsewhere in Africa, MSME is used, for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. Size thresholds vary from country to country. The lack of a universal size definition makes business studies and market research more difficult. RECRUITMENT Recruitment is the process where the HR identifying the gaps to be filled, attracting the suitable person's cv's through different media ( like adds. n paper, approaching consultants, employee references, campus placements( when the requirement is huge), even u can verify active working employees in ur company through promotions/transfers) & etc. , upto receiving the cv's. selection starts from scrutining the received cv's, conducting the tests & finally ends with the HR round of interview for taking a desicion whether selected or not. Recruitment Process The recruitment and selection is the major function of the human resource department and recruitment process is the first step towards creating the competitive strength and the strategic advantage for the organisations.Recruitment process involves a systematic procedure from sourcing the candidates to arranging and conducting the interviews and requires many resources and time. A general recruitment process is as follows: Identifying the vacancy: The recruitment process begins with the human resource department receiving requisitions for recruitment from any department of the company. These contain: Posts to be filled Number of persons Duties to be performed Qualifications required Preparing the job description and person specification. Locating and developing the sources of required number and type of employees (Advertising etc).Short-listing and identifying the prospective employee with required chara cteristics. Arranging the interviews with the selected candidates. Conducting the interview and decision making Identify vacancy Prepare job description and person specification Advertising the vacancy Managing the response Short-listing Arrange interviews Conducting interview and decision making The recruitment process is immediately followed by the selection process i. e. the final interviews and the decision making, conveying the decision and the appointment formalities. CHALLENGES FACED BY SME’S FOR RECRUITING NEW ENTRANTSChallenge One – Find, recruit & retain high quality sales people   Organisations of all sizes and in all market sectors have a major challenge in finding and developing quality sales people. The impact of employing average or poor sales personnel can seriously hurt SMEs, as these companies rely on a smaller number of sales staff. They simply do not have the resources, systems and processes that exist within large corporations to effectively mana ge, develop or re-deploy underperforming sales people. Having high quality, reliable and consistent sales people can make our sales function and a lack of them will break it.Organisations are able to invest in Health Checks, which reviews how the sales function is performing in terms of people, processes and customers. This health check also highlights the areas within the sales function which need to be developed, which is a good starting point for SMEs looking to build or enhance their sales function. Challenge Two – Develop high quality, profitable, long-term customers The issue of quality sales people is the main cause of challenge two – Developing high quality, profitable, long-term customers.The definition of a high quality customer is one where: * To have a win-win, mutually beneficial relationship * The relationship exists at the highest possible level with the key stakeholders * They take a number of products or services from you * They see you as a key suppli er or integral to their success * They believe in your people, brand and product, they will not use a competitor * They will actively promote your people, brand and product (word of mouth advertising & referrals) Gaining high quality customers is the focus of any successful business over the longer term.Look at any industry or sector where individual key players have shown steady, sustainable, controlled growth and where they have outperformed their competitors. You will notice a number of similarities around the quality of the sales people, perception of the brand, and standard of the product or service. You will also note that in the majority of these organisations, a number of reports and statements focus on' The Customer'. What makes these organisations so special is that they have simply developed an effective sales, supply, customer management and retention system.This system runs like a well-oiled, high-performance engine, where all the cogs turn and interlink in a highly eng ineered way. In business, this is like having a successful, proven ‘How to' users-guide for all the key aspects of sales and client fulfillment. Whether we like it or not, every business has a system that covers all of these critical sales and client management areas. What is evident is that these systems don't necessarily interlink effectively.In fact, some of these systems seem to work against each other and slow down progress, creating roadblocks for sales and client management to cross. Interestingly enough, high quality sales people also have a system they use at an individual level to sell effectively. This system guides them like a missile to the target and covers all areas of attitude, skill and execution of their tasks. If an organisation wishes to overcome the two key challenges of high quality sales people and high quality customers, they need to develop an effective system that covers sales and client management.An effective selling system has a huge number of bene fits to any business – too many to list, however they can be summarised into the following: * Increase profitability per customer and per sales person * Reduce cost of sale * Reduce lead times * Increase win ratio * Improve internal communication and access to information * Increase control and focus * Improve forecasting and business planning * Improve customer relationships and retention * Reduce churn of quality people We do not need to find, recruit and retain high quality sales people, especially as they are expensive.Even small organisations can develop quality sales people themselves and realise the key benefits this brings by simply introducing a successful selling system. This means that the organisation is reliant on an effective, proven and sustainable system and not on individual sales people to perform. If the system works, then the sales people can use the system to work for them. The system will show the organisation very clearly who is performing well and who needs to be developed, and it can even show exactly where and how.To clarify the key point, however, we are not saying that you can or should employ low quality sales people and tell them what to do, and how to do it. What we are saying is that the quality of focus has changed, from finding high quality sales people who can work individually and do the numbers for you, to developing a high quality, repeatable sales system. This is not a new concept; every successful franchise is built on this very principle. If a business wants to realise these benefits, then it is undeniable that they need to have an effective sales team.It is also undeniable that they need to develop high quality customers. If your organisation needs to realise these benefits and you would like the opportunity to work with a specialist, then contact Enact Services. They have developed the ‘Complete Selling System'. This has been designed specifically to address the challenges faced by your sales team(s). Thi s system has been proven to positively impact on the sales results of SME and corporate organisations. CHALLENGE IN THE TALENT WARThe global phenomenon in talent shortage has led to a ‘talent war’ amongst organisations large and small, across all industry sectors throughout the world. This talent war is all about attracting, retaining, developing and engaging a quality workforce that plays a critical role in impacting the organisations bottom-line and growth. With such a struggle for the best talents, it is no wonder that the SMEs often lose out to the MNCs which typically invest millions of dollars in their recruitment and retention strategies.Given that SMEs may not have such ‘muscle’ to fight the talent war, nonetheless it is becoming clear to business leaders / entrepreneurs that an effective HR strategy is critical for its long-term survival. The following are some of the typical challenges faced by SMEs today: Talent Attraction Not maintaining an acti ve database of potential hires – adverts are placed each time there is a vacancy without harnessing past database effectively Not implementing comprehensive hiring channels such as referral, graduate, recruitment internal transfers etc.Lack of detailed job analysis which leads to ineffective recruitment (i. e. often it is not known what are the key criteria for hiring the personnel and key success factors on the job) Weak or no employer branding – candidates do not have a good knowledge of the overall organization OR do not have a good experience during their recruitment exercise Not able to offer higher than average starting salaries and having ‘standard’ benefits/rewards Talent Retention Lack of a comprehensive orientation programme or induction training Lack of clear career path development for individual staffLack of communication of corporate goals/vision Lack of job-rotation : often SMEs lose talents as they are not able to provide new learning oppor tunities within the organization by redesigning jobs etc. Minimum investment in training ; development. We have heard: finding and retaining top talent be it for large corporations, SMEs, associations and consultancies is fast becoming a major challenge. In many cases, the challenge has become a factor in the loss of competitive strengths, and consequent decline of market share.Some underlying reasons are well known: demographics (the â€Å"baby boomers† are beginning to retire and not being replaced by equivalent numbers of new entrants into the workforce); declining unemployment; sustained high demand for candidates with similar profiles in many sectors, such as IT and Telecom; shifts in employee attitudes to loyalty and their work/life balance. But another, less obvious factor is at play: employers' response (or non response) and in particular the adaptation of their recruitment and retention strategies to a rapidly changing labour force landscape.In fact, pragmatically, t his is perhaps the most important issue. Employers can't change demographics, but they can change the way they recruit. Until recently, most employers were in the enviable position of being able to pick and choose among a plethora of spontaneous candidacies to fill most, if not all their open positions. In those cases where â€Å"Mr. or Mrs. Right† was not at hand, word of mouth, and an advertisement would more often than not elicit a more than adequate number of qualified applicants. The biggest challenge was making the right choice!But today, employers are facing new realities. And, as in any rapidly changing environment, those who are the quickest off the mark in adapting their attitudes and strategies will reap the benefits of stronger, more stable, and more efficient human resources. The more senior and/or technical the positions, the more vital this becomes. New challenges and the need for specialised assistance With many or even most employers fishing for the same prof iles in the same pond, yesterday’s recruitment strategies are fast becoming inefficient and un (or even counter) productive.The bottom line is that most employers are rapidly (re) discovering the value and economic sense of retaining, and building long term relationships with Executive Search firms. The simple logic is that the quest for talent needs to be both broader, and deeper than ever before. Chances are the ideal candidates are not scanning the â€Å"want ads† or online recruitment websites nor talking to friends about changing jobs. They could come from a different industry (which has already faced the challenge an employer is up against today), and thus bring fresh thinking and new vision.They may bring talent that will enable an employer to embark in new, lucrative business ventures. And they need to be in a position to contribute to an employer’s strategic plan. Leading Executive Search firms will build a highly personalised strategy for each individu al recruitment taking these complex factors into account. Headhunters†¦. and headhunters Most leading headhunters accept the title with a smile†¦. they generally prefer to be known as Executive Search consultants. Perhaps to more clearly identify themselves as employer business builders (via human resources), as opposed to simple recruiters.Recruitment agencies tend to use large databases of names, rely on electronic/web technologies, and place cold-calls to potential candidates whom they might never have met before. While not eschewing these methodologies, executive recruiters use their specialised and often personal networks of contacts to attract individuals to opportunities and search for candidates for the most senior positions. In Brussels, as an example, the typical minimum annual salary for a position that an Executive Search firm is retained to fill is â‚ ¬100,000.Consultants specialise within given industries, and typically have long-lasting relationships with their clients. These relationships are key, because the recruiter knows the nuances of the internal culture within the client’s organisation, and is best prepared to offer candidates that would make a good fit. In addition, executive recruitment firms often offer guarantees for the candidates who are hired. That is, if the individual resigns, for example, within six months of the date of hire, the firm will mount a new search to find another candidate. Taking care of the detailsCompanies that decide to search for a senior candidate using a specialised recruitment firm find that they save time and resources. Following an exploratory meeting to learn more about the position and after participating in a thorough briefing session, the search consultant returns a written description of the employer, the competitive situation, the recruitment context, and the position to the client for approval. The description is a key step, and the client must share as much information as possib le in order to enable the recruiter to identify the best possible candidates.Of course discretion is paramount – privacy of the client, as well as privacy of the candidates. Building on his experience as Managing Director and Marketing Manager for L’Or? al, Howard Honick has been a senior consultant with Alexander Hughes, one of the leading recruitment firms in Europe, since 2000. â€Å"We believe every mission, every client, every candidate is unique†, says Honick. Our consultants spend whatever time is necessary to understand every aspect of the mission; we pay particular attention to soft skills, and matching client/candidate culture†.Confidentiality is of course crucial. And we only present candidates to our clients who we know could be an ideal match in terms of experience and personality, and therefore make a long-term fit. † It’s all about who you know Executive recruiters know their client’s industries and have many contacts bec ause they have worked in the sectors themselves. Anne De Greef, a senior consultant at Alexander Hughes previously worked for many years in executive positions in business development, operations, strategic planning and M;A for DHL, UPS and as COO for Fleetlogistics/Wheels.Combined with her additional management experience in the chemical and leasing industries, she is well-placed to identify potential candidates for clients in these businesses, because she knows – and has worked with – many individuals in those sectors. â€Å"This detailed knowledge of and ability to recruit high-level executives is what makes clients rely on our services. Clients realise that top-level recruitment is not an overnight process,† said De Greef. Strategic recruitment impacts the bottom-lineRecruits for top-level appointments will eventually have a role in shaping the future of a company. They will be a part of the team making strategic decisions about the organisation’s dir ection and developing and enacting its business plan. Thus, candidates must have extensive experience and the business sense to succeed in making the right decisions. â€Å"There’s a lot on the line when filling positions for our clients,† said Honick. â€Å"The positions we help fill are vital to the client company’s success, otherwise the company probably wouldn’t invest in our services. Costs for recruitment services usually are linked to the salary level of the position being filled. Firms typically charge a placement fee when the candidate they identified and recruited accepts a job. The fee can be set as a straight percentage of the salary, or negotiated as a retainer. For some companies with ongoing hiring needs, the retainer model is usually the most advantageous. Widening the gene pool Once recruitment profiles have been defined, there are several steps to finding the right candidates.One of the most important is to take a cross-sector approach. Companies must not depend only on the talent that is already employed within their sectors; to the contrary, employers must extend their search for candidates to include industries that they may never before have mined. â€Å"Our experience shows that more and more companies are taking this cross-sector approach. This is particularly true in the financial sector, where we are seeing an increasing demand for mathematicians and actuaries to manage hedge funds and private equities,† said Honick.For big and small Surveys of European executives indicate that three factors are hampering corporate expansion: increasing bureaucratic and administrative complexity (regulation, compliance issues); uncertainty, as it relates to top line growth; and the difficulty of finding the best people to grow the company. These issues hold true for small, mid-size and large organisations. Executive recruiters specialise in filling senior leadership positions, no matter what the size of the organisa tion.Perhaps for SME’s, it is even more critical to find not just â€Å"the right person† but â€Å"the best person†, since each new recruit will have a proportionally greater impact on the existing team as a whole. â€Å"In smaller companies, the quality of internal human interaction tends to have a more immediate effect on overall results,† said Honick, â€Å"Also, responsibilities in an SME can cover more than one functional area. A Finance Director will probably have admin duties, and also might oversee HR. So we would need to find a person who can positively impact all three areas. ————————————————- Recruiting ‘in-house’ is typically the first reaction of most HR directors. But for small and mid-sized companies searching to fill management positions, looking within is often not feasible. Most likely, for young and/or small bus inesses the required talent does not yet exist in-house. So for middle and senior-level hires who will have a significant impact on the top and bottom line, it’s becoming more and more common for organisations of all sizes to rely on a executive search firm to find the best talent out thereOverseas recruitment and challenges: The rules of engagement Overseas recruitment has gone mainstream. Once viewed as the last resort of vaguely treacherous corporate wage cutters, hiring foreign workers is the newest trend for small and medium businesses struggling to deal with an unprecedented skills shortage. But the popularity of overseas recruiting – and a few well publicized instances of abuse by rogue employers – has caught the Government’s attention.In April 2007 federal Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews declared his intention to â€Å"clean up the system† by introducing tighter policing and hefty new financial penalties for employers who breach migratio n laws. All this means that overseas recruitment now presents greater risks and rewards for Australian businesses than ever before. For an increasing number of SME owners, coping with the skills shortage means this is a gamble they must take if they are to find the staff their businesses need to survive. So much work, so few workersEach month, economic data confirms what SMEs are experiencing on the ground: the skills shortage is getting worse. With unemployment already at a 32-year low of 4. 4%, in May 2007 the number of new jobs ads surged 10. 3% to 251,996, a massive 40. 8% rise on a year earlier. While shortages are being felt across the board, the cupboard is particularly bare for employers in the resources, information technology, professional services and hospitality sectors. Andrew Stormon, the manager of Queensland SME Mt Isa Fleet Maintenance Services, tells a common story. We advertised for 18 months trying to find people for mechanic positions; we just found we got very few responses, and those we did get didn’t have the right skills and weren’t suitable for the job. † In a booming economy, not enough staff means lost work and lost profits. â€Å"We lost in the vicinity of $500,000 because we continually had to knock back work. We lost one of our clients worth $250,000 because we just didn’t have the people we needed to service their fleet for them,† Stormon says.It is this combination of commercial opportunity and labour shortage that is driving business to recruit from overseas in increasing numbers. Immigration Department figures show 97,430 skilled migrants came to Australia in 2005-06, up from 77,880 in 2004-05. This number is set to increase to 102,500 in 2007-08. By far the biggest increase in numbers has been in the s457 temporary skilled migration category, under which employers sponsor foreign workers with in-demand skills to work in Australia for between three months and four years.There are reported to be 105,000 foreign workers currently in Australia on s457 visas, a number that could increase significantly next year. Navigate the migration minefield Bringing a worker into Australia is not just a matter of filling out a few forms and sending a cheque for the processing fee. Although there is a lot of information available – the Federal Government and industry associations are good sources – the migration process is complex and requires knowledge of both Australian immigration rules and those of the country from which a worker is migrating.Added to that is the difficulty of finding eligible candidates for the position in the country of origin, an especially difficult and time-consuming task in countries where English is not the first language. Given the complications involved, it is no surprise recruitment and migration service providers have proliferated in recent years, encouraged by low barriers to entry and the big dollars desperate employers are prepared to pay for good staff.It generally costs about $4000 to $6000 to have an agency find an employee and bring them into Australia, although prices vary depending on where an employee comes from and how they are employed in Australia. Jo Burston, the managing director of migration services firm Job Capital, says the time-consuming nature of the process and the heavy penalties associated with breaches of migration legislation means agencies offer good value for money for many businesses. â€Å"The Department of Immigration has very strict guidelines and the penalties can be substantial, so it’s a process that allows very little room for error.Since most SMEs don’t have specialised immigration staff, hiring an agency allows them to get on with their core business,† Burston says. â€Å"Most SMEs would hire an accountant to give them tax advice, they wouldn’t just have their admin person do it, and this is really no different. † Even businesses that can afford to devote staff to recruitment tend hire professionals to help them navigate the process. Mike Smith, operations manager at IT services and integration firm Anatas, says he supplements his in-house resources by outsourcing difficult aspects of offshore recruiting process. We would just burn weeks and weeks of staff time doing it all ourselves. Even with staff working on the process it can be time-consuming just providing the information and vetting candidates. There is no way to short-cut the process, you just end up causing problems for yourself if you do,† Smith says. Traps for young players and what to do about them Contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of businesses who hire foreign workers are not motivated by the prospect of lower wages.Imported workers cannot be employed to perform cheap unskilled labour and must be paid above a legislated minimum standard annual salary of $41,850 ($57,300 for IT staff). These rules are not flexible. The desire to avoid any furthe r horror stories of foreign workers being paid a pittance or charged outrageous migration fees has caused the Government to allocate more than $80 million in this year’s budget to increasing the monitoring and investigation capacity of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship and to increase penalties for breaching migration laws.From August 17, employers can be personally fined up $13,200 or, in extreme cases, jailed for up to two years for employing a worker without the appropriate visa or referring a worker without an appropriate visa to another employer; while businesses can be fined up to $66,000 for each offending worker they employee. More severe penalties are applicable if workers are being exploited through slavery, forced labour or sexual servitude. The complexity and bureaucracy that governs the skilled migration process means planning ahead is also important.Finding an employee and bringing them to Australia generally takes three to six months, migration serv ice providers say, with even longer lead times workers with very specialised skills are sought. A more obvious problem employers of foreign staff have to deal with is culture shock. Even for people who come with all the good will in the world, the shock of finding yourself in unfamiliar territory far away from family and friends can be too much to handle.Australian Recruiting director David Young, who recruits Asian and UK workers for Australia’s mining and healthcare industries, says it is rare for foreign workers to cut short their time in Australia because of culture shock, but it does happen from time to time. â€Å"It can be for all kinds of reasons: sometimes it’s the climate, the food, often people who come here don’t realise quite how big Australia is and get a bit of a shock if they find themselves in a remote location.On the other hand, I was talking to a company the other day who brought in workers from Sweden: they were very skilled but it didn†™t work out because there was a big difference between the sense of humour of Swedes and Australians,† Young says. Small things like meeting new arrivals at the airport, help with accommodation and transport, opening a bank account and taking out medical insurance can help minimise homesickness. â€Å"We brought someone in the other day who was a great musician and we connected him up with a local band; things like that can make a huge difference,† Young says.Once these hurdles are overcome, it seems there can be real upside to taking staff from other countries into your workforce. Mt Isa Fleet Maintenance manager Andrew Stormon says after dealing with some â€Å"out-of-date† attitudes on the workshop floor towards the four skilled tradesmen he brought in from the Philippines, the new arrivals have now become an important part of the business. â€Å"These blokes have turned up and keen as hell, punctual, their English is excellent and they really get in and wo rk.And their skills are fantastic: I haven’t come across tradesmen as good as some of these blokes for many years,† Stormon says. Another advantage of bringing in workers from overseas can be loyalty. Anatas’s Mike Smith says in sectors such as IT, where highly skilled employees tend to be highly mobile, this is be a big plus. â€Å"We have found workers we bring tend to stick with us. Often they will be looking to become permanent residents in a couple of year or perhaps it’s just because we have developed with them, but we’ve found they stick with us for a bit longer than Australian staff,† Smith says.As long as Australia continues to enjoy the fruits of the China-led resources boom, economic necessity will continue to drive Australian businesses to hire skilled staff from overseas. ————————————————- The key to making overseas rec ruitment a good experience is to take advantage of the information available and obtain professional advice and assistance where necessary. By going into the process with eyes open, a business of any size can successfully navigate the migration minefield. ————————————————- ———————————————— ————————————————- SUGGESTIONS THAT CAN BE IMPLIMENTED____________________ Outsource Outsourcing non-core activities is increasingly becoming popular even for SMEs. Instead of incurring huge fixed costs in manpower to manage recruitment/ retention issues with sophisticated IT software, SMEs can reap the following benefits by outsourcing such functions to the experts in the field: Cost savings Technology (a simple HR IT software can cost from to $50,000 to $300,000) Experienced HR staff to manage recruitment/retention issuesAdministrative time (even with the HR software, lots of time goes in updating, maintaining a database etc) Focus on strategic functions By outsourcing these functions, the HR can focus on vendor management and on making sure that results are achieved. Access to world-class recruitment/retention strategies Service providers typically invest millions in the most updated systems and technology as this is their core business. Hence by outsourcing such functions, SMEs can leverage on the service providers’ world-class technology.Create employer branding The service providers function as an extended arm of the SME. Hence by running the entire hiring process (right up to orientation) effectively, a positive brand image is created for the SME. Measurement of hiring effectiveness The HR can extract useful indices such as ‘q uality of hire’, ‘cost per hire’, ‘days to fill job’, ‘candidate experience’ etc. from the service providers. This will enable the HR to focus more on strategic issues rather than administrative tasks of the hiring process. Quality of HireThis is of critical importance to any organization – whether is there a good fit between the job and person. By outsourcing the hiring to experts, it has been proven that the quality of hire will improve. This means that the new hire performing better on the job and eventually affecting the organisation’s overall operational effectiveness and profitability in a positive way. Employer branding Having mentioned outsourcing as one of the strategies in managing talents, the responsibility on employer branding still remains with the organization.Companies need to brand themselves as choiced employers just like how they brand their products and services. There are some distinct advantages of bei ng an SME which need to be communicated to job seekers and existing staff. Being small can be an asset in many instances. Having a staff strength of less than 300 makes an organization a lot more nimble, fast and flexible compared to larger MNCs which often wait for global initiatives before implementing changes in their HR policies and practices.THE FOLLOWING ARE SOME TIPS FOR SMES: Talent Attraction Employer branding – focus on key strengths such as â€Å"innovative†, â€Å"fast-growing† â€Å"regional exposure† Provide flexible and innovative benefits/rewards that cater to individual needs Measure the current hiring effectiveness – indices such as ‘cost per hire’, ‘days to fill a job’, ‘effectiveness of hiring channels’, ‘candidate experience’ are critical so that SMEs can track where there are bottlenecks and where the hiring process can be improved. Plan career path for individualsMore growth opportunities, regionalization – which is attractive to the younger workforce. Talent Retention Shift from being family-oriented to more performance-based Communicating the corporate goals, vision, direction (for a more engaged workforce) HR can afford to give personalized attention to individual’s needs in terms of benefits, rewards, career goals, training ; development needs Invest in meaningful training ; development that leads to job expansion for staff Once the SME has established themselves as a hoice employer with attractive and innovative HR policies, retention strategies and career advancement opportunities, it is only a matter of time that happy employees spread the word. There is nothing more powerful for an organization than happy staff who become their ‘ambassadors’ wherever they go! This inevitably does wonders for enhanced employer branding and attracting better talents over the years. ******************************************************* **********************BIBLIOGRAPHY http://www. eurofound. europa. eu/emcc/content/source/eu06025a. htm http://en. allexperts. com/q/Human-Resources-2866/Challenges-faced-HR-Manager-1. htm http://72. 14. 235. 132/search? q=cache:yyt4gJDUXlMJ:www. gmprecruit. com/pdf/KC/SMEchallenge. pdf+recruitment+challenges+faced+by+SMEs;hl=en;ct=clnk;cd=1;gl=in http://www. hrmguide. com/recruitmentsmanagers/+tasksfaced+SME.

Proverbs for Cultivation of Minds Essay

Proverbs have been used in various cultures around the world: Chinese; English; and African are among the most common. According to Chinua Achebe in the book â€Å"Things Fall Apart†, African proverbs are described by the Igbo people as †the palm oil with which words are eaten.† In this culture, palm oil is a symbol of tradition and is commonly served at respected greetings and special events. When relating palm oil to proverbs, it shows that they too symbolize the same traditions and used for special circumstance to speak with great importance. Throughout â€Å"Things Fall Apart† various proverbs are used to teach the cause and effect of decisions, warn against certain events, and poetic words to find meaning. These types of proverbs are the most traditional and prominent ways of teaching in the Ibo culture. Another prominent way in the Igbo culture is trying to obtain a high rank. So, proverbs are used to explain what actions to execute to obtain such a thing.The saying ‘if a child washes his hands he could eat with kings,’ is an example of how Igbo culture uses proverbs to teach the culture the result of different ways of life. It does this by illustrating the privilege one can obtain when he surrounds himself with wealthy, wise, or dominant people in the culture, and mimicking mannerism they have. The cause, washing one’s hands, is following the mannerisms of the higher ranked individuals;the effect, eating with kings, is getting the privilege to be with those individuals. The book backs up its claim with the proverb ‘A man who pays respect to  the great paves the way for his own greatness.’ However, it is not always positive things that come of situations. It is thought to be one of the wisest things, in Igbo culture, to use a proverb as a warning. These proverbs state not only not to do something, but to ponder the results of doing whatever action that may be. In chapter eleven, the proverb ‘A man who makes trouble for others is also making trouble for himself,’ gives a clear example of a proverb saying ‘don’t make trouble for others,’ but also ‘the effect of that is one that is wanted.’ These proverbs tend to be very simplistic because they are intended to make  a person think about their actions, not the words or meaning of the proverb. Another example of a warning proverb is in chapter fifteen that states: ‘Never kill a man who says nothing.’ Proverbs used in this way have no need for a logical timeline of events or deep explanation because the words mean exactly what’s intended. Not all proverbs are clear in their meaning, however. These proverbs tend to be more poetic and metaphorical. All people learn in different ways, no matter what the culture. Some learn best by experience. Metaphorical proverbs are intended to use common scenarios to form general conclusions about life around them. The proverb ‘When a mother-cow is chewing grass its young ones watch its mouth,’ uses the commonality and understanding of a calf watching its mother eat, to explain that children often follow in the footsteps of their mother. The proverb does not state those words specifically, but when read, connections to watching one’s own mother do tasks, comes to mind. Proverbs that are more poetic can have similar meanings to other types of proverbs, just in a more creative way. Proverbs can be used to show cause and effect by stating direct result, can be used to  warn and provoke thought for certain actions, or be used metaphorically to encourage deeper meaning to an everyday situation. For these different reasons, proverbs are one of the most effective ways of teaching in the Igbo culture because each kind of proverb is explained various ways and supports different kinds of thinking. It is the result of the thinking that creates wisdom, wisdom that creates understanding, and understanding that makes a culture continue to grow in learn as time goes on; just like the Igbo culture.

Human Resource is the Most Important Asset of an Organization Essay

I agree with the statement that â€Å"Human Resource is the most important asset of an organization.† Human resource is â€Å"the set of individuals who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector or an economy.† (â€Å"Human resource definition†). Human resource is the least mobile of the four factors of production, which are resources required for generation of goods and services. The other factors of production are natural resources, capital (including all man-made resources) and enterprise. (â€Å"Factors of production definition†). The most important aspects of human resource are the knowledge, skills, creativity and motivation possessed by people. These aspects of human resource improve with age and experience, which no other resource can do. Thus, human resource is often regarded as the scarcest and most important asset that creates the largest and longest lasting competitive advantage for an organization. The idea that human resource is the most important asset of an organization is particularly relevant to the business landscape of the 21st century. In developed and even developing countries, their economies are moving away from being manufacturing-based into being knowledge-based. To quote Peter F. Drucker, the famous management guru, educator and author: â€Å"The most important, and indeed the truly unique, contribution of management in the 20th century was the fifty-fold increase in the productivity of the manual worker in manufacturing. The most important contribution management needs to make in the 21st century is similarly to increase the productivity of knowledge work and the knowledge worker.† (Drucker, 1999, p135). Knowledge has become the key factor of productivity and competitive advantage for organizations in today’s economy. Since knowledge can only be created, utilized and transferred by human beings, it is clear that human resource is the most important asset of a modern organization. Other resources such as capital and raw materials are also necessary and have different functions in an organization. However, human resource is still the most important because  only people can plan the usage of these resources as a whole to create maximum value for the organization. Starbucks, the highly successful Seattle-based coffee store, is a great example of a company that believes that its human resource is its most important asset. Starbucks’ employees, called partners, are the key to their customers’ experience and the success of the company (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart and Wright, 2012, pp. 3-4). Starbucks wants its baristas to have good coffee knowledge, product expertise, and provide excellent customer service. Thus, Starbucks invests heavily in the training of its baristas. For example, Starbucks shut down most of its stores in 2008 for a full-day training event called â€Å"Perfect the Art of Expresso† to train its baristas make high-quality expresso for customers. To reward and retain its partners (â€Å"Facts About Starbucks and Our Partners (Employees)†), Starbucks offers its partners a Total Pay package including a fair and competitive wage, a 401(K) savings plan, stock options, an employee stock purchase plan and other perks. Starbucks offers comprehensive health benefits to partners who work part time, unlike most companies which offer health benefits only to full-time staff. Finally, Starbucks offer its partners flexible work hours so that they can enjoy better work-life balance. In the modern knowledge-based economy, many companies seek to gain a competitive advantage in the market. Human resource is the most important element to build the competitive advantage of a company. The knowledge, skills, experience and creativity of each individual contribute to the development of new products and services, which ultimately impact the profitability and growth of the company. The Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (3M), a manufacturing conglomerate based in Minnesota, is a great example of a company which empowers its human resource to develop innovations that contribute to its profitability and sustained competitive advantage. 3M is famous for offering the â€Å"15 Percent Rule† program to its employees to encourage their creativity and innovation efforts (â€Å"The 15 Percent Solution†). For decades, 3M employees can spend up to 15 percent of work hours on their own projects  which may not be directly related to their job’s mission. The â€Å"15 Percent Rule† program has spawned many of 3M’s successful products. For example, 3M scientist Art Fry developed the famous Post-It Note, which became one of the 3M’s best-selling products, during his â€Å"15 percent time†. Since human resource contribute directly to a company’s bottom line, it is very important to keep retain good employees. It is well known that when a company loses good employees, it is a costly and time-consuming process to recruit and train new employees to replace the ones who left. Thus, companies should value their human resource, which is their most important asset. It makes sense for companies to be great places to work at, because happy employees will directly contribute to their bottom line. Google has been ranked first in Fortune Magazine’s annual Best Companies to Work For in 2013 (â€Å"100 Best Companies to Work For†). Google is well known for its lavish perks for employees such as free gourmet food, free massages, on-site laundry, Wi-Fi commuting shuttles, etc. In fact, Google monitors its employees’ well-being to a great degree. Google’s HR department, called People Operations (or POPS), collects and monitors data on how employees respond to benefits (â€Å"Here’s How Google Became Such a Great Place to Work†). A few years ago, POPS noticed a problem that the departure rate of women who had recently gave birth was leaving Google at twice the average departure rate of the company. They rectified the problem by improving the maternity leave plan to give new Google mothers five flexible months off with full pay and benefits. After this plan was implemented, the attrition rate for new mothers was reduced by 50 percent. In conclusion, human resource is the most important asset of an organization. We have discussed the importance of human resource. We also provided several examples of how great companies like Starbucks, 3M and Google recognize the value of human resource and create competitive advantages by effective management of various aspects of their human resource. (Total: 998 words) References Human resource definition. Retrieved June 1, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_resources Factors of production definition. Retrieved June 1, 2013, from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/factors-of-production.html Drucker, P. F. (1999). Management Challenges for the 21st Century, pp. 135, Butterworth-Heinemann. Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P. M. (2012). Human Resource Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage, 8th Edition, McGraw-Hill. Facts About Starbucks and Our Partners (Employees). Retrieved June 1, 2013, from http://news.starbucks.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=225 The 15 Percent Solution. Retrieved June 1, 2013, from http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/1998/01/9858 100 Best Companies to Work For. Retrieved June 1, 2013, from http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/best-companies/2013/snapshots/1.html Here’s How Google Became Such A Great Place to Work. Retrieved June 1, 2013, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/22/working-at-google_n_2526889.html

Mexicans on the Usa Essay

By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Mexican American migrant workers played an increasingly important role in the growing American economy, an estimated 11. 7 million unauthorized immigrants were living in the U. S. in March 2012, and American people want to solve this problem. In this essay am going to answer this question Should North American Companies hire illegal immigrants? I will answer this by looking at the advantages and disadvantages of hiring illegal immigrants. People in the USA don’t want that illegal aliens work in their country because they use the jobs that Americans can work in, they are angry because they are illegal and just legal people deserve to work in the USA. Illegal aliens (Mexican Workers) are a benefit to the USA companies because they work more time for less pay and they do the hard works that Americans will do for less time and more money. Mexican immigrants are vital to the U. S. economy, contributing about 4 % to GDP. Mexican Workers are not respecting the USA law and The Authorities can?t do anything this create a big problem between the USA communities and the government because they say that the illegal aliens are invading them This is called ? La Reconquista?. Mexican Illegals go only to find work and do it because they are force to do that, they have a family in very bad conditions that it’s believing that his familiar that pass the border could get a work and send them money so they cans survive. Mexicans Pass the border illegally because they don? t have money to buy a Visa even a Mexican passport so they go and work hard to get a better life that they couldn?t get at their country. The USA families are worried of their families because they can? t be relaxed just because some illegal people are in the street breaking the law, they are annoyed of Mexican illegal in every corner of their town, they have to take care of their children because they are dangerous. Mexicans just try to get a job and live better they are trying to became part of the community but the USA people are acting on a racist way, They don? t want to even see Mexicans and know them. There are been attacks to Mexican from the Americans sometimes they were close to kill them. A good example is that on a Mexican restaurant the employees have to use a t-shirt that says how to catch an illegal Mexican. Mexican illegal are increasing USA population and that is not a real problem but when there is more people, they use more services as foo health care, etc. The USA citizens that pay taxes make these services happen, if there are more people to serve the taxes will be more expensive and illegal Mexicans don? t pay these services. Mexicans help the community they buil houses, clean the streets and fix the public places such as gardens and parks.

Three Men in a Boat Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Three Men in a Boat - Essay Example I crawled out a decrepit wreck.† This situation happens when one tries to assimilate the knowledge on a subject on which one is not competent of assimilating! The contents of this book, written about a century ago are prophetic as for the thinking of majority of the humankind and the medical fraternity (especially the western medical system.) Even for small ailments people visit the doctors and the doctors create a grim situation on small health issues to extract as many dollars from the patients, as is possible! The overall merit of the book is-- the serious issues are commented in a humorous style. It contains lots of practical philosophical advice, told in a subtle manner. The three men in the boat are George, Harris and the narrator, who are great hypochondriacs—they are convinced that they are suffering from every type of diseases, even though there is nothing wrong with their physical equipment as such. Even in the so-called grim situation of their lives, their-sel f assessment about the state of health evokes ironic laughter. Jerome writes, â€Å"I sat and pondered. I thought what an interesting case I must be from a medical point of view, what an acquisition I should be to a class! Students would have no need to â€Å"walk the hospitals,† if they had me. I was a hospital in myself.

Company Analysis and Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Company Analysis and Management - Essay Example Apple is best known for its smart phones which are said to be among the most intelligent in the world today. However, Apple deals with many other products which are equally valuable, (Apple 2012). These products include personal computers and software, (Cameron & Quinn, 2011). Apple is best known for the Mac line of computers that use the Macintosh operating system. The company also designs and sells iPads, iPod and iPhone. Its software products include iOS and OSX, (Hamilton & Webster, 2012). Other creativity suits are iWork and iLife, (Apple 2012). Apple is the most admired mobile phone company in the United States. It was formed in 1st April, 1976, (Cameron & Quinn, 2011). Its name was apple computers, Inc. but was later changed to Apple in 2007(Apple 2012). Apple is the most valuable company on the planet, (Hamilton & Webster, 2012). The success of the Apple Inc. depends on the political environment, just like any other organization. Apple Inc. is subject to legislation and laws of the country it operates in, (Hamilton & Webster, 2012). The economic policies of the country do affect Apple’s ability to conduct business and satisfy her shareholders. Unfavorable political environments and extreme laws can affect the performance of this American multinational company, (Cameron & Quinn, 2011). ... This should be done in a way that protects the company’s interests and the share holders, (Cameron & Quinn, 2011). To be able to achieve this, Apple has got a vibrant government and expenditure group that engages the government directly with the approval of the vice president of the company. This happens annually, (Apple 2012). The organization complies with all the applicable laws and regulations that impact on the productivity of the company, (Thompson & Martin, 2005). Under some of these laws, this American multinational cannot sponsor people political offices. Indeed, Apple is non partisan, (Apple 2012). Besides, the company exposes all its contributions to the political process for scrutiny, (Apple 2012). Apple- government engagement group engages the state officials on all issues that can affect the running of the company, (Hamilton & Webster, 2012). Apple is also committed to the cleanliness of the environment, (Ireland & Hoskisson, 2008). This involves reducing some of toxins in the air. Apple’s executive team is active in the implementation of environmental policies. Apple reports the impact of its products to the environment. Apple’s environmental team is advised by experts and is build upon wide consultations, (Apple 2012). For instance, in the year 2009, Apple became the first company in the field of electronics to report its environmental impact through its product, (Cameron & Quinn, 2011). This includes providing the necessary information and details that help empower the customers, (Ireland & Hoskisson, 2008). Apple has a climatic change strategy which is entrenched in its development and production processes. Apple has an entire ecosystem of new and emerging technologies. Apple is known for its technological innovations and cutting

Housing Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Housing Law - Essay Example At some stage when the social housing was on the verge of collapsing, the Right to Buy made great contributions to the improvement of social change in council housing. However, only the high-income tenants were able to purchase the finest council estates. Those belonging to the small-earning tenants who are mainly dependent on welfare assistance were deprived of the privilege of better housing. The Right to Buy rather became discriminatory when only the rich tenants were favoured (Wilson, 1999). Whilst there were advantages from the elevated Scottish home ownership, the Right to Buy had its shortcomings too. This paper will show how the rights of tenants in the public sector in Scotland have gradually improved and how these tenancy rights have deteriorated in the private sector due to issues on repair and eviction. Some tenant associations crusaded for a constitutional ‘tenants charter’ with rights such as occupancy protection, reasonable rental fees, discussions, and membership. Through this campaign, the Tenants Rights (Scotland) Act 1980 established protected occupancies and other rights for tenants. The rights of the 1980 Act included the Occupancy protection; Right to a rent in print; Right to defy unfair rental provisions; Right to sublet, or occupancy transfer; Right to modify the house; Right to information about relocation and swap rules; Right to succession; and Right to purchase (â€Å"A New Single Social Housing Tenancy for Scotland: Rights, Obligations and Opportunities,† n.d.). The introduction of the Tenant’s Charter for Scotland in 1991 established protected occupancy existing rights and made an assurance to further develop these rights by lawful ways, leading to the introduction of the Leasehold Reform Housing and Urban Development Act in 1993. This 1993 Act consisted of the right to repair; right to reimbursement for improvements; changes to the right to buy; rent to mortgage; and right to

Dashboard and Executive Summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Dashboard and Executive Summary - Essay Example In this respect, the sales departments are charged with the responsibility of determining the effectiveness of the products of the company and the company rating among the consumers/customers. The sales design management team of Coca-Cola collected the following data from the survey on different variables that measure the performance of the organization in this competitive industry. The data collected measures the rating of the company services and products over the last four year. Besides, these information also measure the variations in the performance of Coca-Cola using key performance indicators (KPI) such as sales volume, market share and profitability index. Year 2009 2010 2011 2012 Sales Volume 20% 17% 16.3% 14.1% Profitability 23% 22% 11% 19% Market share 51% 50.2% 48% 48.6% Production cost 12% 12% 17% 19.2% No. of new customers 5% 7% 2% 3.1% From the above company performance dash board, it is evidenced that although the company is performing averagely in the industry, the s urvey indicates inconsistency in the industrial outcome over the last four years. Although Coca-Cola still has the dominant share and control of the soft drink and non-alcoholic drinks industry, the market share is slightly declining following the economic liberalization that allows room for other competitors to join the industry with diversity of products (Hays 12). This gives the consumers arrange of differentiated products to choose from. The entry of new firms in the market over the last decade has resulted into a continuous decline in the market share dominance of Coca-Cola. This was led to the slight decline in the market dominance from 51% in 2009 to 48.6% in 2012. Owing to the global economic and financial contagion of 2008-2009, the cost of production has been on the rise from 2009-2012. This because, the economic stability is yet to be realized globally, thereby making firms (including Coca-Cola) to invest more resource factoring in the expansionary inflationary pressure o n the production and raw materials that are essential for the entire process. The rise in the cost of production has negatively impacted on the sales and profitability index of the company. Over the last four years, as demonstrated above, the profitability index of Coca-Cola has significantly dropped. From 2009 to 2011, the records on the dash board indicate that the company profits have been falling from 23 to 11%. However, the little economic recovery in the last quarter of 2011 and 2012 resulted into a boom in the profitability index to 19% in 2012 (Hays 56-7). Consequently, the sales volume for the company also decline over-time since 2009 forcing the firm to revert to modern approaches of marketing and popularizing its product. It is revealed that the entry of new firms and the increasing customer base of other competitors such Pepsi-Cola have contributed to this fall in sales and profit margins. The survey also involved the customer survey on the variables such as satisfaction , likelihood of re-purchase, quality, pricing, design, and recommending Coca-Cola products to others. The outcome of the survey is as tabulated and dashed below. Year 2009 2010 2011 2011 Customer Satisfaction 72% 75% 81% 73% Re-purchase likelihood 67% 67% 69% 67% Recommending Coca to others 65% 71% 78% 56% Product Quality and Pricing 87% 70% 76% 72% The above dash board shows the customers’ level of satisfaction with the services and quality of products of Coca-Cola. Regarding the

Natural Cocaine Production in Plants Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Natural Cocaine Production in Plants - Essay Example The coca plant has similar biochemical properties as those that produce alkaloids. The coca plant belongs to a group of plants with natural alkaloids, or nitrogen-containing compounds that produce diverse effects on the physiology of humans. The alkaloid compounds in these plants are proven to have strong pharmacological effects on people and are known to contain nicotine, caffeine, quinine, morphine, atropine, strychnine, and the illegal stimulant compound cocaine. The plants that contain alkaloids include the Solanaceae or potato family, the Brassicaceae or mustard family, and the Erythroxylaceae or coca family, to which the coca plant belongs. The close relatedness of these plants is not only justified by the fact that they all contain alkaloid compounds but also by the fact that they had a common ancestor around 120 million years ago and that the alkaloid compounds that they contain obey similar biochemical pathways. The significance of this fact is that if one were to uncover th e details of the natural synthesis of cocaine, then it is possible to study it from the point of view of the other plants to which the coca plant is related (How Plants Make Cocaine, 2012). In the experiment conducted by researchers of the Max Planck Institute, in order to understand better how protein is naturally made by the coca plant, the synthesis of alkaloids in a particular species of the Solanaceae family was compared with the biochemical synthesis of cocaine in the coca plant (Secrets of Natural Cocaine Production Revealed, 2012).

Source evaluation Annotated Bibliography Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Source evaluation - Annotated Bibliography Example For instance, the institutions of learning in the United States are also known to provide some very generous scholarships to deserving individuals from poor countries; consequently, they receive many applications every year since individuals recognize that they might be given an opportunity to make their lives better. Even though, many have been associated with the urge of studying abroad, there are some cases approving that studying abroad is definitely a wrong option. In essence, answering this research question will help in discerning the associated negative impacts. Studying abroad can offer a lot of benefits to the students and the development of the society, but on the other side, it also have some drawbacks and disadvantages , over all studying abroad turned out to a good investment, but at the mean time people should realized that the profit exists paralleling risk. While looking up for relevant sources to back up the research, there are many credible articles that talk about the research question. This makes the completion of the project tedious since there is need to carry out evaluation of each source before picking up the most suitable for the study. Schemo discusses the gifts that are likely to befall students going abroad. Essentially, this source will help in answering the research question about why many students are attracted to the notion of travelling abroad for their studies. Schemo asserts that one of the benefits that students acquire from studying abroad is that they get a chance to pursue their education in an environment that is not limited by either geography or economic circumstances because they are able to work within an environment that is completely new and full of opportunities. Moreover, studying abroad makes it possible for students to develop the necessary skills at an international level that allows them

Resp. Aircraft Operator Security Threats Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Resp. Aircraft Operator Security Threats - Essay Example It is also the role of the airline baggage handler to scan all packages in a destination and allocate them to the suitable aircraft. Among these responsibilities, the airline baggage handlers are not expected to make any physical contact with the passengers, but in case they have anything to hand to them, they should first hand it to the staff in that aircraft, who are then allowed to hand it to the passengers. In this case, therefore, it was unethical for the airline baggage handler to give the phone directly to the passenger, and he should have handed it to the relevant authorities who include security officials, so that they would hand it to the passenger. This involves the transportation of prisoners by law enforcement officers in an aircraft. The law enforcement officer had not made prior knowledge of the transport to the authorities. This becomes an issue because prisoners and detainees are not treated the same in a flight. The difference requires some advance preparation by the authorities, so that the passengers do not feel threatened while in their flight. Normally, prisoners are the first to board the flight, and once they are settled, the other passengers can board the flight. In this case, the officers ought to have informed the authorities, and their credentials should not act as a way to allow the prisoners in the flight. For this reason, they are entitled to catch the next flight according to the clearly laid rules. The airline is privy to information regarding the prisoners, and the nature of the crimes that they have committed so that the airline decides on the treatment they will be accorded. This concerns the commotion caused by a drunken unruly passenger who is trying to open an emergency exit in flight. It is clear that such a passenger has a possibility of causing harm to himself and the airline will be responsible. The most ethical action to take in this

Chronicling America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Chronicling America - Essay Example However, much that has been written is about the Indians and their social-economic life. For instance, the author has written that the work done by the Indians in Minnesota brings them about $50,000 -$60,000 annually (Hauke, 1915). Also, the reader learns that these Indians are 95% industrious. This is well understood when the example of the full-blooded Chippewa is given that gets $100 monthly by being a forester. This is an indication that the Indians at Minnesota were hard working. The aspect of the Red Lake Minnesota Indians as living in deplorable conditions is also well captured by the author. Notably, the Red Lake News was a newspaper that published articles that lived in the vicinity of the Red Lake and not the Indians only. Notably, despite the fact that they live in such conditions, the author has clearly indicated the cooperation among the members of this community whereby they ensured that they lived comfortably. Much of the Indians activities both at home and at school w ere exhibited at fair thus enlightening the people that attended on the lives of the Indians. Also, the Indians activities while at school were also on display such as their progress in games and their social cohesion. In my opinion, the editor is trying to communicate on the importance of social cohesion in the society and the economic advantages that come with that togetherness. This is seen when the editor gives the names of the people who taught the Indians as well as the managers of the schools (Hauke, 1915).

Marketing, ( The All Seasons Hotel) - Assignment.4 Essay

Marketing, ( The All Seasons Hotel) - Assignment.4 - Essay Example All the above mentioned sectors use overseas travel as incentives to their employees as well as non-employee sales agents. Product: A new package with some complimentary offers is designed. It is a 2 nights, 3 days package along with banquet hall as a conference package. It also includes welcome drink, buffet breakfast and bed tea as complimentary offers. These compliments will be subject to the condition that the booking will be made for a minimum of 10 pax or rooms. Promotion: The All Seasons Hotel will be positioned as a business convention hotel for small groups. Promotion would be carried out on-line with relations to contextual advertising with popular search engines like Google and others. Also the associations to which the target segments would belong would also be roped in for publicity. B. As industries like fuel, glass, china, ceramics, armaments, ferrous metallurgy, machinery and equipment and coal are prevalent in Czech Republic and also being strong in engineering, the country can expect lot of business travelers coming from different places. In order to target this segment of consumer business, All Seasons Hotel needs to establish good industrial relations with the industries existing in their country, so that they would recommend their Hotel as a preferred place of stay to their business partners coming from other places. Intangibility is the major difference between a product and a service. For example, when a consumer decides to buy a television or a music system, he can actually see the product, touch it and can turn it on to listen or watch the quality of the picture or music. However, a service is intangible and it is impossible to experience unless it is consumed. The quality of the service is not so easy to establish as clearly as it is done in the case of a product. Let us consider the case of a customer approaching a bank to avail a bank loan. Though the customer has a prior idea about the services

The legality of downloading mp3 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The legality of downloading mp3 - Research Paper Example There are many contradictory opinions on this subject, and the fact that day by day the number of illegal mp3 downloads grows just makes the matter more and more actual and painful for the people whose work is being stolen. Transmitting mp3 files over the Internet has become by far the most popular method of distribution, generating in this way controversial and intense debates. This subject has been chosen for the research paper not only due to the indisputable popularity of the illegal actions, but also because of the fact that most of us have at least once downloaded the music we like by using these illegal sites, even if we are aware that it was wrong. Nevertheless, â€Å"the law enforcement community in the twenty-first century seems to have finally awakened to the fact that ...computers are here to stay†1 and something must be done in order to solve this problem as efficiently as possible. The term paper will be focused on revealing the essence of the growing popularity of illegal mp3 downloads, the legal matters that arise from these actions and come up with some recommendations on combating this phenomenon. The author will focus both on the national Canadian context, as well as on the international one, pointing out the main differences and similarities and analyzing them. The paper will be finished with the conclusions, where the personal opinion of the author is expressed, as well as some recommendations, which, in the author’s opinion, could improve the statistics. It is not possible to talk about illegal mp3 downloads in Canada, where downloading music from peer-to-peer networks is legal, uploading it being against the law. â€Å"Canada has a private copying levy, which grants the right to make personal, non-commercial copies of sound recordings. Canada has imposed levies (fees) on recording mediums like blank CDs and similar items. These levies are used to fund musicians and

Fashion Brand Management Rizla Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Fashion Brand Management Rizla - Essay Example The essay "Fashion Brand Management Rizla" talks about the Rizla Brand Management. According to David Aaker (author of BRAND PORTFOLIO STRATEGY, 2004), a pervasive lack of understanding of the role of brands in a company's success is wreaking havoc on companies' bottom lines. Subsequently, many companies fail to make the most of their brand portfolios. This trend can be reversed to revitalise brands to support growth. Rizla held an exclusive gig by a five piece Brazilian electro-rock band called CSS. The Rizla-inspired event also featured a special guest performance by the legendary Jarvis Cocker. The objective was to position Rizla as an innovative brand, targeting the 18-24 year olds; a strategy invoked to identify Rizla as a brand, with the music crazy younger generation. This is brand equity. Interbrand is a leading brand consultancy that was founded in London in 1974. Interbrand combines a rigorous brand strategy and analysis of management consulting practices with the entrepren eurial and creative spirit of branding and design. It offers a comprehensive array of consulting services that help in the creation, enhancement, maintenance and valuation of a client’s most valuable asset, their brands. Unlike other brand value league tables, Interbrand relies not on just a single source for evaluating a brand, but refers to a wide array of primary and secondary sources that are applicable to each brand, such as Datamonitor, ACNielsen, Gartner, and Hall & Partners. Interbrand engages its network.... Interbrand combines a rigorous brand strategy and analysis of management consulting practices with the entrepreneurial and creative spirit of branding and design. It offers a comprehensive array of consulting services that help in the creation, enhancement, maintenance and valuation of a client's most valuable asset, their brands. Unlike other brand value league tables, Interbrand relies not on just a single source for evaluating a brand, but refers to a wide array of primary and secondary sources that are applicable to each brand, such as Datamonitor, ACNielsen, Gartner, and Hall & Partners. Moreover, Interbrand engages its network of brand valuation experts from offices around the world to ensure that the league table considers the brands from a global perspective (Interbrand, 2006). Brands are tools used to project a product in the minds of the consumer. They exist mainly by virtue of a continuous process concerned with delivering a cluster of values, interpreted and internalised by customers in such a way that it enhances its existence. The feedback that an organisation receives determines the likelihood of brand success (De Chernatony, Ch.2, p.14, 2000). An important aspect in managing contemporary fashion business is supply chain management. Once an order is placed, the manufactured product needs to reach the designated store or consumer. Retail environment constantly undergoes changes, and unless the product reaches the wholesaler or retailer on time, it could have severe economic and consumer pressure. Market responsiveness and meeting the demands of the ultimate consumer are major reasons for success in fashion. The fashion industry ranks fourth largest in the UK today. The end of the world war changed the face of

Theories of Gender and development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Theories of Gender and development - Essay Example Emphasis will also be made to shade light on some of the critiquing approaches to development. This will be done in comparison to the effect of colonial masters in their application of mode of production as a bench mark to the contemporary culture. â€Å"†¦revealing the workings of power and the capitalist mode of production† (Smith 84). Women have for a long time been undermined in most nations. The gender discrimination has been felt by most women in the society with severity varying from country to country and from time to time. For instance, in India, according to the census conducted in 1972, about 94% of women were either employed in the informal sectors working in farms and handicrafts or remained at home taking care of the family. Because early crusaders for women equality were not vocal enough in ensuring that women were given equal opportunity in matters of employment, women accepted the existence of the initial development initiative without question. Therefore , the WID approach did little to improve the social and economic status of women. The situation has however improved given the fact that society has began to recognize women in matters development. In its approach, the WID has very much concentrated on working with women by empowering them by offering development opportunities to them through work related approaches so that women can concentrate less on home based economic activities and concentrate more on income generating activities (D'Agostino and Levine 34). Whereas Women in Development approach focuses on empowering women through self reliance projects and gender identity, Gender Development draws its focus on the gender perspective where the social and economic roles are looked at from the gender perspective rather than from the sexist approach. Gender analysis approach with respect to Gender and Development, however, explains how development projects can be pushed in the society so that focus is not placed on women alone but rather on the relationships between men and women. This approach is however not very much different from the initial WID approach, the difference lies in the integration of women in development projects without isolation. This incorporation of women and men in economic development is essential to ensure that as men make yards of progress in their areas of income, women also do the same. This focus in relationship between men and women is useful at the family level. For example, if I am married and own a handcart that I use for transportation, I shall have relieved my wife of the cost, energy and time for transporting, say her goo ds to the market. This is what Gender Development advocates for. In totality, I believe the Gender Development approach has advantage over the WID approach because of the pattern it follows in the integration of women in activities that are male dominated so that both can help in matters of national development instead of putting much weight on women alone. It is the Gender Development that has gained recognition worldwide and most nations are enthusiastic in adopting it so as to improve on the per capita income of the citizen. WID has rather decided to remain relevant by advocating for what women can do in order to promote development (Razavi and Miller 19). However, there have emerged various critiques to the GAD and the WID approaches by various scholars

What factors prohibits youth from re-entering juvenile detention Research Paper

What factors prohibits youth from re-entering juvenile detention centers - Research Paper Example It has also been seen that 88% of the children re entering the community are either 15 years old or more. However such is not the situation in all the cases and many of the juveniles are successfully absorbed back in the society. The reasons behind the repetition of offenses by the juvenile delinquents have interested the clinical psychologists. A study of the factors that successfully help the juvenile delinquents keep away from the detention center is necessary for the development of the community and this may reduce the number of cases of juvenile delinquencies (Youth Reentry, n.d). Review of current research A number of studies have been conducted to explain the offenses done by a child. Understanding the reasons behind the actions of an offender can help the psychologist eliminate the reason. One of the significant features of juvenile delinquencies has been gang behavior. The juvenile offenders often belong to a gang and commit crimes in the same. According to Roberts and Sprin ger (2007, p 200) the members of a gang have a sense of belonging to the group with feelings such as ‘looking out for each other’ and ‘staying together’. The gang works like a family where the other members deal with any threat posed to a gang member. Sometimes the older members of the gang pass on the traditions of the same to the new members. For a child from a disturbed family, getting included in a gang becomes a natural option in order to fill up the void created by the absence of a properly functional family. It also helps to nurture self-esteem within a child who is suffering from low confidence. Under such a situation the authors have advised to work on the strengths of the child. Sometimes the counselor may need to work on the strengths of the family...Introduction The Juvenile Act of 1973 declared that the children who were not suitable to return to their family were to be kept in a detention center that was separated from the adult delinquents. T hese out of the home facilities are called the juvenile detention centers. The juvenile criminal offenders are often separated from the community when they are perceived to be a threat to the society by placing them in these juvenile detention centers. In this way the detention centers offer a protection to the community as well as the juvenile delinquents. In these detention centers the children are supervised and structured programs are offered to them in order to reduce the ill effects of their confinement. The programs usually consist of educational aspects, recreational aspects and other developmental aspects to develop the social skills of the child with a view to help him return to the community after the release (Juvenile Detention Facility, n.d.). For successful rehabilitation in the community of the youths after their return from the detention center a number of measures must be taken.

Comparative Commentary Essay Example for Free

Comparative Commentary Essay Examine the use made by writers of innocence and/or ignorance, comparing the presentation of such elements and their effects on the individual works you have studied.  Ignorance has impeded human progress, impeded human prosperity. This very characteristic has tainted the world with injustice and allowed ignorant ones to abdicate responsibilities. Within the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex, and the modern tragedy Death and the Maiden, Sophocles and Dorfman have focused upon this universal trait to depict a microcosm of the world with the political and social issues stemming from ignorance. The central theme of the pursuit of knowledge has been highlighted through employing ignorance as the fundamental trait of the protagonists within both plays. A hierarchical society is portrayed within both plays and male protagonists dominate the peak. They have the ultimate power and power provides soil for ignorance. The male protagonists are ignorant to accept the truth. In the exposition of Oedipus Rex, Oedipus declares You know me, the world knows my fame, I am Oedipus. The protagonist fully displays his power and ignorance has rooted upon his attitude. The notion of male superiority is also embedded within Death and the Maiden. Gerardo has the ultimate power in the household. In fact, he abdicates domestic responsibilities within the household. This is the son of a bitch that gave me a flatIf his wife happened to remember to fix the spare, right? Ignorance has been presented to readers at the exposition of the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex. It has also provided the play with the central conflict. Oedipus murdered Lias at the intersection where three roads meet. The setting is highly symbolic as the father and son may have taken an alternative path. Yet, due to ignorance, they neglected this prospect and the quarrel was resolved by death of the father. Oedipus encrusted his soul with his fathers blood allowing the prophecy to partially unveil. Furthermore, Lias only surviving servant reported that they were attacked by a gang of thieves, ignorant to divulge the truth that Oedipus murdered the entire crew individually. This very lie caused Oedipus to blindly suspect others and ironically curse the murder. You said thieves-I cannot be the killer. One cant equal many. Purely ignorance has formed the basis of the central conflict within Oedipus Rex. Ignorance is also presented as a foremost quality within Oedipus. Through the climax of the play, Oedipus evolves from an impetuous, ignorant tyrant to a man of denial, a man enclosed by darkness, a tragic hero. The potent truth has elicited self-realization within the protagonist. Gradual revelation of truth has caused a gradual eradication of ignorance within Oedipus. He learns to accept his destiny. Ignorance is eliminated at the resolution of the play and the town of Thebes is redeemed from sin. Within Death and the Maiden, ignorance is also presented through the portrayal of male power. However, ignorance revolves around both female and male protagonists. It serves as a motif within this play and enhances the central theme of the pursuit of truth. There is a continuous implicit power struggle amongst the couple and Paulina is neglected until she gains power from the gun possession. Even then, Gerardo is reluctant to acknowledge the truth. Well die from excessive does of truth. Differ to Oedipus Rex, ignorance has a less significant role into forming the basis of the central conflict. In fact, Gerardo and Paulina do not step out of their ignorant character in the end. The handling of Roberto is also left ambiguous despite Paulinas promise to free Roberto. Perhaps this is the effect of the embedded trust-betrayal relationship between her and her husband as he had an affair while Paulina was tortured by Dr. Miranda. The trust-betrayal relationship allowed Paulina to neglect her promise and the destiny of Roberto is left unanswered at the resolution. Roberto too is ignorant. At the climax of the play, Paulina says But Im not going to kill you because youre guilty, Doctor, but because you havent repented at all. Dr. Mirandas ignorance has triggered the cycle of sin. His ignorance forbid him to repent. Therefore he could not be redeemed or forgiven. His consequences are left unrequited and Dorman depicts a rhetorical resolution. A parallel is drawn to the conseq uences of the country when oppressors do not repent. Through employing ignorance within the characters, Dorfman underscores the central theme of pursuit of truth. Within the two plays, Oedipus Rex and Death and the Maiden, the writers use ignorance as a powerful characteristic within the characters. The ways in which this trait is presented, however, is different. Oedipus grows and accepts fate while Roberto refuses sin. Sophocles and Dorfman have depicted a microcosm of reality comprising the social and political problems. Through ignorance, the writers have conveyed to readers that this trait has implanted sin within the society. Physical and spiritual wounds must be healed for human prosperity.

Greedy Based Approach for Test Data Compression Using Geometric Shapes Essay Example for Free

Greedy Based Approach for Test Data Compression Using Geometric Shapes Essay As the complexity of systems-on-a-chip continues to increase, the difficulty and cost of testing such chips is increasing rapidly. One of the challenges in testing SOC is dealing with the large size of test data that must be stored in the tester and transferred between the tester and the chip. The cost of automatic test equipment (ATE) increases significantly with the increase in their speed, channel capacity and memory. As testers have limited speed, channel bandwidth and memory, the need for test data reduction becomes imperative. This project deals with lossless compression of test vectors on the basis of geometric shapes. It consists of two phases: i) Encoding or Compression and ii) Decoding or Decompression. During the compression phase we exploit reordering of test vectors to minimize the number of shapes needed to encode the test data. The test set is partitioned into blocks and then each block is encoded separately. The encoder has the choice of encoding either the 0‘s or the 1‘s in a block. In addition, it encodes a block that contains only 0‘s (or 1‘s) and x‘s with only 3 bits. Furthermore, if the cost of encoding a block using geometric shapes is higher than the original cost of the block, the block is stored as is without encoding. We have created a new greedy based algorithm to find the shapes present in a block in minimal time. This algorithm after analysis seems to be at least 50% more efficient than the algorithm proposed by the author of the original paper which has been implemented in our program. During the decoding phase the data is read from the compressed file and decoded based on the format in which it was encoded. These phases have been implemented using software. The application gives a good compression ratio of nearly 50% under average conditions, is extremely fast and the shape extraction algorithm used provides fast extraction of shapes. To test a certain chip, the entire set of test vectors, for all the cores and components inside the chip, has to be stored in the tester memory. Then, during testing, the test data must be transferred to the chip under test and test responses collected from the chip to the tester. One of the challenges in testing SOC is dealing with the large size of test data that must be stored in the tester and transferred between the tester and the chip. The cost of automatic test equipment (ATE) increases significantly with the increase in their speed, channel capacity and memory. As testers have limited speed, channel bandwidth and memory, the need for test data reduction becomes imperative. 1. 2 Systems on a chip A system on a chip or system on chip (SoC or SOC) is an integrated circuit(IC) that integrates all components of a computer or other electronic system into a single chip. It may contain digital, analog, mixed-signal, and often radio-frequency functions—all on a single chip substrate. A typical application is in the area of embedded systems. A typical SoC consists of: †¢ A microcontroller, microprocessor or DSP core(s). Some SoCs nbsp—called multiprocessor system on chip (MPSoC)—include more than one processor core. †¢ Memory blocks including a selection of ROM, RAM, EEPROM and flash memory. †¢ Timing sources including oscillators and phase-locked loops. †¢ Peripherals including counter-timers, real-time timers and power-on reset generators. †¢ External interfaces including industry standards such as USB, FireWire, Ethernet, USART, SPI. †¢ Analog interfaces including ADCs and DACs. Department of Computer Science and Engg, TKMCE Page 4 Greedy Based Approach to Test Data Compression using Geometric Shapes Voltage regulators and power management circuits. These blocks are connected by either a proprietary or industry-standard bus such as the AMBA bus from ARM Holdings. DMA controllers route data directly between external interfaces and memory, bypassing the processor core and thereby increasing the data throughput of the SoC. Figure 1 Department of Computer Scien ce and Engg, TKMCE Page 5 Greedy Based Approach to Test Data Compression using Geometric Shapes 1. 3 Data Compression Data compression, source coding orbit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation would use. Compression is useful because it helps reduce the consumption of expensive resources, such as disk space or transmission bandwidth. On the downside, compressed data must be decompressed to be used, and this extra processing may be detrimental to some applications. For instance, a compression scheme for video may require expensive hardware for the video to be decompressed fast enough to be viewed as it is being decompressed (the option of decompressing the video in full before watching it may be inconvenient, and requires storage space for the decompressed video). The design of data compression schemes therefore involves trade-offs among various factors, including the degree of compression, the amount of distortion introduced (if using a lossy compression scheme), and the computational resources required to compress and decompress the data. Several test data compression techniques were proposed in the literature. These techniques can be classified into two categories; those that require structural information of the circuit and rely on automatic test pattern generation and/or fault simulation and those that are more suitable for intellectual property (IP) cores as they operate solely on the test data. Techniques of the first approach include some of the linear decompression-based schemes and broadcastscan-based schemes. Techniques of the second approach include statistical coding, selective Huffman coding , run-length coding , mixed run-length and Huffman coding , Golomb coding , frequency-directed run-length (FDR) coding , alternating run-length coding using FDR (ALT-FDR), extended frequency-directed run-length (EFDR) coding , MTC coding , variable-input Huffman coding (VIHC) , multilevel Huffman coding , 9-coded compression , Block Merging (BM) compression and dictionary-based coding . Test compression techniques in this class can be further classified as being test independent or test dependent. Test-independent compression techniques have the advantage that the decompression circuitry is independent of the test data. Changing the test set does not require any change to the decompression circuitry. Examples of test-independent compression techniques include Golomb coding, frequency-directed run-length (FDR) coding, alternating run-length coding Department of Computer Science and Engg, TKMCE Page 6 Greedy Based Approach to Test Data Compression using Geometric Shapes using FDR (ALT-FDR) , extended frequency-directed run-length (EFDR) coding , MTC coding , 9- coded compression and Block Merging (BM) compression 1. 4 Automatic Testing Equipment Automatic or Automated Test Equipment (ATE) is any apparatus that performs tests on a device, known as the Device Under Test (DUT), using automation to quickly perform measurements and evaluate the test results. An ATE can be a simple computer controlled digital multimeter, or a complicated system containing dozens of complex test instruments (real or simulated electronic test equipment) capable of automatically testing and diagnosing faults in sophisticated electronic packaged parts or on Wafer testing, including System-OnChips and Integrated circuits. ATE is widely used in the electronic manufacturing industry to test electronic components and systems after being fabricated. ATE is also used to test avionics and the electronic modules in automobiles. It is used in military applications like radar and wireless communication. . 4. 1 ATE in the Semiconductor Industry Semiconductor ATE, named for testing semiconductor devices, can test a wide range of electronic devices and systems, from simple components (resistors, capacitors, and inductors) to integrated circuits (ICs), printed circuit boards (PCBs), and complex, completely assembled electronic systems. ATE systems are designed to reduce th e amount of Figure 1. 2 test time needed to verify that a particular device works or to quickly find its faults before the part has a chance to be used in a final consumer product. To reduce manufacturing costs and improve yield, semiconductor devices should to be tested after being fabricated to prevent even a small number of defective devices ending up with consumer. Department of Computer Science and Engg, TKMCE Page 7 Greedy Based Approach to Test Data Compression using Geometric Shapes Chapter 2 2. 1 Problem Definition As the complexity of systems-on-a-chip continues to increase, the difficulty and cost of testing such chips is increasing rapidly. To test a certain chip, the entire set of test vectors, for all the cores and components inside the chip, has to be stored in the tester memory. Then, during testing, the test data must be transferred to the chip under test and test responses collected from the chip to the tester. Our application must be able to compress the test vectors by a significant percentage and it must also be lossless. In addition to these two basic requirements the program must extract the shapes from each block in an optimal manner (here the technique to be used is a greedy approach rather than a brute force one). Moreover the test data must be sorted and partitioned before shape extraction is done. The application must also be able to correctly decompress the encoded data. In order to obtain the shapes covering the bits in as little time as possible, we have created a greedy based algorithm which works in an overall time of O(n4). The original algorithm proposed by the authors of ? Test Data Compression based on Geometric Shapes? [1] on other hand requires one O(n4) operation to identify all possible covers and another O(n4) to find the optimal among them which is a brute force approach. 2. 2 Motivation for Project One of the challenges in testing SOC is dealing with the large size of test data that must be stored in the tester and transferred between the tester and the chip. The amount of time required to test a chip depends on the size of test data that has to be transferred from the tester to the chip and the channel capacity. The cost of automatic test equipment (ATE) increases significantly with the increase in their speed, channel capacity and memory. As testers have Department of Computer Science and Engg, TKMCE Page 8 Greedy Based Approach to Test Data Compression using Geometric Shapes limited speed, channel band-width and memory, the need for test data reduction becomes imperative. 2. 3 Problem Analysis The problem can be divided into the following phases 2. 3. 1 Test Set sorting Here sorting is done on the basis of its neighbors. Also to achieve maximum compaction the first vector after sorting must contain maximum number of zeroes. 2. 3. 2 Test Set partitioning Partitioning of test vectors into blocks can be done easily. But in the case of partial blocks which appears if the number of test vectors and size of test vectors are not integral multiples of N(block is of size N*N) we can partition the block as N*N and use a mark array to indicate which bits are not to be processed. . 3. 3 Shape Extraction Here the shapes must be extracted optimally which means we have to use a greedy algorithm. This algorithm was created and works superbly. 2. 3. 4 Decoding This is only a simple matter of finding the code and based on the code of filling up the test vectors. Department of Computer Science and Engg, TKMCE Page 9 Greedy Based Approach to Test Data Compression using Geometric Shapes Chapte r 3 3. 1 Encoding Phase 3. 1. 1 Test Set Sorting 3. 1. 1. 1 Description Sorting the vectors in a test set is crucial and has a significant impact on the compression ratio. In this step, we aim at generating clusters of either 0‘s or 1‘s in such a way that it may partially or totally be fitted in one or more of the geometric shapes shown in Table 3. 2. The sorting is with respect to both 0‘s and 1‘s (0/1-sorting). The technique is based on finding the distance D between two vectors A and B that maximizes the clusters of 0‘s and 1‘s. The next vector with the highest distance to the existing vector is selected during the sorting process. The distance D may be computed with respect to 0‘s (0-distance), to 1‘s (1-distance) or to 0‘s and 1‘s (0/1-distance) as follows: here k is the test vector length and W(Ai, Bi) is the weight between bits Ai and Bi. Table 3. 1 specify the weights used in computing the 0/1-distance between two vectors. Note that for i = 0, W(Ai, Bi-1) = 0 and for i = k 1, W(Ai, Bi+1) = 0. Table 3. 1 Department of Computer Science and Engg, TKMCE Page 10 Greedy Based Approach to Tes t Data Compression using Geometric Shapes Table 3. 2 3. 1. 1. 2 Algorithm 1. Find the vector with the maximum number of zeroes and interchange with first vector 2. i? 1 3. Compare ith vector with all other vectors from i+1 and calculate the distance based on the equation 4. Exchange the vector with maximum distance with ith vector 5. If ilt;n then i? i+1 Department of Computer Science and Engg, TKMCE Page 11 Greedy Based Approach to Test Data Compression using Geometric Shapes 3. 1. 2 Test Set Partitioning 3. 1. 2. 1 Description A set of sorted test vectors, M, is represented in a matrix form, R? C, where R is the number of test vectors and C is the length of each test vector. The test set is segmented into L? K blocks each of which is N? N bits, where L is equal to R/N and K is equal to C/N. A segment consists of K blocks. In other words, the test set is segmented into L segments each containing K blocks. For test vectors whose columns and/or rows are not divisible by the predetermined block dimension N, a partial block will be produced at the right end columns and/or the bottom rows of the test data. Since the size of such partial blocks can be deduced based on the number of vectors, the vector length and the block dimension, the number of bits used to encode the coordinates of the geometric shapes can be less than log2N. 3. 1. 2. 2 Algorithm 1. Partition the test vectors into 88 blocks( partial or full) 2. If block is partial then a. Mark the rest of the bit positions as already processed Department of Computer Science and Engg, TKMCE Page 12 Greedy Based Approach to Test Data Compression using Geometric Shapes 3. 1. 3 Shape Extraction 3. 1. 3. 1 Description This algorithm was created by our group to obtain the optimal covers of the shapes in as little time as possible. In our algorithm we begin by assuming that all other points before (i,j) has been processed. This means that if any new shape exists in this block it may only begin at a point greater than or equal to (i,j). Now if we are starting from (i,j) we need to check only four points adjacent to it along with (i,j). These positions are shown Figure 3. 1. This is a direct consequence of our initial assumption. Now let us assume that a shape begins from (i,j). Since no other shape has been detected so far, (i,j) is a point. Now the algorithm checks the four adjacent points to see whether the make any other shape when taken in combination with (i,j). Since (i,j) is classified as a point, the next possible shape that can be formed is a line. There are four possiblities for this. This is shown in Figure 3. 2. Figure 3. 1 Department of Computer Science and Engg, TKMCE Page 13 Greedy Based Approach to Test Data Compression using Geometric Shapes Now if another of the adjacent points is a valid bit and if the current shape s a line,then the next figure that can be formed from 3 points is a triangle. This also has four different possiblities. This is shown by Figure 3. 3. Figure 3. 2 If the current shape is a triangle(type 4) and if another point adjacent to (i,j) is of the bit we are checking for then, the only remaining possiblity is a rectangle. This is shown by Figure 3. 4. Figure 3. 3 In orde r to avoid the possiblity of rechecking bits that have already been processed our algorithm uses a ? mark‘ matrix similar to the block of bits,except that every position other than what has already been included in a shape are marked as zeroes. Those that have been identified as belonging to a shape are marked as ones. We also insert the points that have to be processed by the algorithm in the next stage into a queue for faster processing of the rest of the shape. Department of Computer Science and Engg, TKMCE Page 14 Greedy Based Approach to Test Data Compression using Geometric Shapes Figure 3. 4 The anomalies that can occur during this approach are: ? There can be other shapes starting from the same point (i,j). Since we are performing a greedy search, the only possiblity that comes under this category are additional lines emanating from (i,j). This can be easily solved by saving the current shape as well as the newly identified line into the list of shapes. Then the algorithm performs all the above mentioned steps, i. e. marking the bits processed and inserting the points to processed later into the queue. ? Another problem related with this simple approach is that the type 1 traingle may recognized as a rectangle and a few lines if its size is greater than one. This can be avoided by computing the length of the side of square that may contain the triangle(if it exists ) and the length of both the diagonals. If the length of a side is the same as that of a diagonal then its indeed a traingle or a square. To distinguish between these we check whether the length of both diagonals are same. If they are not, then the shape is a triangle,otherwise it‘s a rectangle. The reason these anomalies needs to be carefully implemented is that anomaly 2 can increase the computational complexity of our oerall algorithm significantly if its to be solved. Once the shapes have been detected for what they are we process only those positions that may be a continuation of the shape are processed. Also the proceesing of these bits are only done in the direction of interest(for example, in the case of say type 1 line the only possible extension of the shape occurs in the downward direction and hence this is the only direction processed). This means that not all of the four adjacent positions need to be checked during further processing, which in turn reduces complexity. Department of Computer Science and Engg, TKMCE Page 15 Greedy Based Approach to Test Data Compression using Geometric Shapes Once a shape has been completely detected, which begins from (i,j), we start the processing of the next bit at position (i,j+1) or (i+1,1). This is necessary so as to ensure that we do not miss any shapes during proceesing. Department of Computer Science and Engg, TKMCE Page 16 Greedy Based Approach to Test Data Compression using Geometric Shapes 3. 1. 3. 2 Algorithm Department of Computer Science and Engg, TKMCE Page 17 Greedy Based Approach to Test Data Compression using Geometric Shapes 3. 1. 3. 3 Complexity Analysis As we have seen the algorithm needs 3 loops. Out of this two is used to traverse the entire block. This gives us an outer loop complexity of O(n2). Then the third loop is always executed 4 times in order to check neighboring points. The actual detection of shapes is only a matter of addition of indices to (i,j) and checking to see whether they satisfy any of the conditions of the algorithm. Addition is done in constant time. Now although the detection of the kernel of shapes can be done in a constant time we need to spend some additional time in the case of anomaly 2. As mentioned earlier this can be solved by finding the length of the sides of the square containing it and the length of both the diagonals of the square. Also this must be the square that may contain the whole triangle. This means that in the worst case the lengths may be of size n. This gives us the complexity for this step to be 4O(n). The further processing of shapes that has been detected is done using a queue. The maximum number of times the queue can be executed is O(n2). This because there are at most that many bits in a block. Therefore the overall complexity for shape detection is O(n2) x4x(4O(n) + O(n2))=O(4n3 + n4)=O(n4). Now in average cases the queue will not need to contain the entire block, as the block can be assumed to be comprised of equal parts required and unrequired bits. This means that in the average case, shape extraction process predominates and average case complexity becomes O(n3). This is much better than a brute force approach to shape extraction. Even in the worst case our algorithm performs better as we do not need to perform a covering step to find the most optimal covers for the shapes detected. This would have taken another O(n4) which we avoid by directly using a greedy approach. Department of Computer Science and Engg, TKMCE Page 18 Greedy Based Approach to Test Data Compression using Geometric Shapes 3. 1. 4 Encoding 3. 1. 4. 1 Description The encoding process will be applied on each block independently. The procedure Extract_Shapes(b) will find the best group of shapes that cover the bits that are equal to b as shown in the algorithm. Encode_Shapes determines the number of bits, a, needed to encode this group of shapes. There are two cases that may occur: a) The block contains either 0‘s and X‘s or 1‘s and X‘s. In this case, the block can be encoded as a rectangle. However, instead of encoding it as a rectangle, it is encoded by the code 01‘‘ (indicating that the block can be filled by either 0‘s or 1‘s) followed by the bit that fills the block. Hence, the number of bits to encode the block a = 3. We call such blocks filled blocks. ) The block needs to be encoded by a number of shapes. We call such a block encoded block. In this case, we need the following: ? 2 bits to indicate the existence of shapes and the type of bit encoded. If the encoded bit is 0, then the code is 10, otherwise it is 11. ? P = 2 ? log 2 N ? 3 Bits to encode the number of shapes, S. If the number of shapes exceeds 2P, then the number of bits needed to encode the shapes is certainly greater than the total number of bits in the block. In this case, the block is not encoded and the original test data is stored. 3. 1. 4. 2 Algorithm 1. While there are shapes to be encoded a. Find shape and type of shape b. Find x,y coordinates of shape c. If shape has a length parameter calculate its value d. Depending on shape and type encode the parameters as per table 2. 2 Department of Computer Science and Engg, TKMCE Page 19 Greedy Based Approach to Test Data Compression using Geometric Shapes 3. 2 Decoding Phase 3. 2. 1 Description The pseudo-code of the decoding algorithm is given below. It first reads the arguments given by the encoder and computes the parameters needed for the decoding process. These parameters include the number of segments, the number of blocks in a segment and the dimensions of the partial blocks. For each segment, its blocks are decoded one at a time. The first two bits indicate the status of the block as follows: ? ? ? ? 00: the block is not encoded and the following N*N bits are the original test data. 01: fill the whole block with either 0‘s or 1‘s depending on the following bit. 10: There are shapes that are filled with 0‘s. 11: There are shapes that are filled with 1‘s. For those blocks that have shapes, the procedure Decode_Shapes is responsible for decoding those shapes. It reads the number of shapes in the block and then for each shape it reads its type and based on this it reads its parameters and fills it accordingly. Based on the arguments read first, the decoder can determine the number of bits needed for each variable (e. g. the coordinates and the distances). These are used for the partial blocks when only one block of each segment remains and when the last segment is being decoded. Department of Computer Science and Engg, TKMCE Page 20 Greedy Based Approach to Test Data Compression using Geometric Shapes 3. 2. 2 Algorithm Department of Computer Science and Engg, TKMCE Page 21 Greedy Based Approach to Test Data Compression using Geometric Shapes Chapter 4 4. 1 Language Specification The above project has been implemented in C/C++. This is because C/C++ is a language very well suited for bit level manipulations and provides other features which can be easily implemented using hardware directly. Another consideration that is of paramount importance here is the degree by which C/C++ lends itself to system level programming. The key considerations can be summed up as: ? ? ? ? ? ? Simple Very High Speed Very close to assembly language Can be used to directly implement application using hardware Bit level manipulations are possible Dynamic . 2 Hardware Specification CPU RAM Main Storage Medium Monitor : Pentium II or above : 4 MB : 1 GB HDD : Standard VGA 4. 3 Software Specification Operating System Design Tools : DOS : C/C++ Department of Computer Science and Engg, TKMCE Page 22 Greedy Based Approach to Test Data Compression using Geometric Shapes Chapter 5 5. 1 Application One of the challenges in testing SOC is dealing with the large size of test data that must be stored in the tester and transferred between the tester and the chip. The amount of time required to test a chip depends on the size of test data that has to be transferred from the tester to the chip and the channel capacity. The cost of automatic test equipment (ATE) increases significantly with the increase in their speed, channel capacity and memory. As testers have limited speed, channel band-width and memory, the need for test data reduction becomes imperative. To achieve such reduction, several test compaction and lossless compression schemes were proposed in the literature. The objective of test set compaction is to generate the minimum number of test vectors that achieve the desired fault coverage. The advantage of test compaction techniques is that they reduce the number of test vectors that need to be applied to the circuit under test while preserving the fault coverage. This results in reducing the required test application time. Department of Computer Science and Engg, TKMCE Page 23 Greedy Based Approach to Test Data Compression using Geometric Shapes CONCLUSION In order to check the effective compression ratio produced by the application several different test sets were taken and the algorithm was applied. The test vectors were sorted to maximize the compression. In this work, test vectors were sorted based on a greedy algorithm. Test vectors sorting based on the 0/1-distance was performed. For 0/1-distance sorting, the test vector with more 0‘s was selected as the first vector. The compression ratio is computed as: In the case of large vectors with only sparsely populated positions the application was found to produce very high compression ratio. In the average cases the compression ratio was nearly 50%.