Industrial Hemp Essay -- essays research papers

hangmans rope is the longest, strongest most durable natural fiber known to mankind and has been used for over twelve thousand geezerhood. Hemp can be grown in four months, is drought resistant and does not require herbicides or pesticides. The hemp plant is harvested for its fibers, seed, seed-meal and seed oil. Hemp is a distinct variety of the plant species cannabis sativa L. Due to the similar leaf shape hemp is frequently confused with marijuana. Although both plants ar from the species cannabis, hemp contains some no THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), the active ingredient in marijuana. Hemp cannot be used as a drug because it produces virtually no THC (less than nonpareil percent), where marijuana produces between five to twenty percent THC.Hemp is among the earths primary renewable resources. Trees cut down to make paper take fifty to five-hundred years to grow back while hemp can be cultivated in as little as one-hundred days, and can yield four propagation more paper over a twenty year period. Hemp also does not require pesticides, while half the pollutants in the U.S. today are sprayed on cotton plants, hemp is naturally mildew resistant, requires no pesticides, and maintains a healthy environment for the surrounding streams, air, flora and fauna. Hemp slows ozone depletion the industrial use of fogey fuels, like petroleum, contributes to global warming by rapidly increasing the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere however, hemp fuels, derived from the plant itself, maintain the e...

The Mind, Music, And Behavior :: essays research papers

The Mind, Music, and BehaviorabstractThe main purpose of the paper is to investigate and present the relationshipbetween the mind, harmony, and human behavior. For this purpose, investigate ispresented on previous works and studies that link music with the mind. Based onthis research, music increases neurotransmitter levels. Soft or mellow music hasa tendency to throw out tranquillity, while music with tempo sometimes distracts.Human memories can be cued by music, and music can promote improved learning.The brain is a cardinal and a quarter pound piece of living organic tissue thatcontrols the human nervous system. Music is a collection of sound waves thatpropagate by the air, and has varying frequencies and tones following adiscernible order. Yet we all recognize the significance of the brain beyond itsphysical function. Our minds are the essence of what we are. The braincryptically stores memories, and lets people experience such things as emotion,sensations, and thoughts. In the same sense, music is more than just acollection of vibrations. This leads to the question of how does music affectthe mind, and in addition, how does music affect human behavior? The readermight ask why such a question should be relevant. If more is known about thepsychological and neurophysiological effects of music on the human mind, thenthe possibilities of this knowledge are unbounded. Music can be used to treatsociable and behavioral problems in people with disabilities. The use of music inthe classroom might enhance or weaken a students work characteristics.Therefore, whether the influence of music is positive or negative, much needs tobe explored about the link between the mind and music.Physiologically, the brain receives information about sound waves from the ear through with(predicate) the auditory nerve. This information is then processed by the brain andanalyzed for the juxtaposition of melody and rhythm. The mixture of melody andrhythm is what we commonly refer to as music. However, our minds interpret thisauditory information as more than just sound signals somehow, we are able todifferentiate between certain types of music, and develop preferences for thesedifferent types. Yet, what are the ways in which the effects of music manifestthemselves?First, there are particular biochemical responses in the human body to music.Research shows that college students, when listening to music, nonplus moregalvanic skin response peaks, as opposed to when they were not listening tomusic. This research also indicates a significant decrease of norepinephrinelevels in students while they listen to "preferred" music. Norepinephrine is aneurotransmitter that arbitrates chemical communication in the sympathetic

The Physiological Breakdown of Hamlet Essay -- The Tragedy of Hamlet

The Physiological Breakdown of Hamlet In Shakespeares masterpiece Hamlet, the main character, Hamlet is overcome by a physiological breakdown. Hamlet was a sensitive man who was destroyed by a corrupt environment. Hamlets dead set about, the deeds of his uncle and mother, and the frequency of death caused the destruction of Hamlet. First of each, the expiry of any close family member is very traumatic. Hamlet is not immune to such effects. In the first of Hamlets soliloquies, Hamlet cries How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world Fie ont ah fietis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely (III. ii. 134-137). It is obvious that this is a window to Hamlets tortured soul. This is only the beginning of the barricade for Hamlet. In Act I. Scene iv. Hamlet confronts the spirit of his dead father. This is also disturbing to Hamlet. John S. Wilks writes in J. Leeds Barrolls Shakespeare Studies how me eting the ghost of his father ...throws his conscience into uncertainness and error, must naturally begin with the malign source of that confusion, the Ghost (119). Hamlet is also incensed when he learns the reason for his fathers torture. Old Hamlet was murdered by his brother when he was sleeping. This leaves Old Hamlet walking in limbo for his afterlife. After learning this, Hamlet decrees O all you host of heaven O Earth What else? And shall I couple hell? (I. v. 92-93). Also knowing that his father was miserable in the afterlife weighed heavily on Hamlets mind (Knight 20). Clearly, the death of his father and speaking to the ghost of his father started the corruption of Hamlet. The deeds of his uncle and his mot... ...rruption of Hamlet can be attributed to the ghost of Hamlets father, the actions of his mother and uncle and the many deaths that occur in this play. Hamlet is a sensitive man who could not take all trauma of all the events that happened in his life. His corru ption was the only way for him to escape the tribulations he faced. Works Cited Knight, G. Wilson. The undulate of Fire. London Oxford University Press, 1930. Mack, Maynard, et al, eds. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Sixth ed. Vol 2. New York Norton, 1992. Skura, Meredith Anne. Hamlet and Psychoanalysis Shakespeare The Tragedies. Ed. Robert B. Heilman. Englewood Cliffs MLA, 1984. 84-93. Wliks, John S. The discourse of Reason Justice and the Erroneous Conscience in Hamlet. Shakespeare Studies. Vol XVIII. Ed. J. Leeds Barroll. New York MLA, 1986. 117-144.

Sophocles Antigone and Bill Clinton :: Antigone essays

Antigone and Bill Clinton Antigone, in Greek legend, was the daughter of Oedipus. When her brothers Eteocles and Polynices kil take one another, Creon, king of Thebes, forbade the rebel Polynices burial. Antigone disobeyed him, performed the rites, and was condemned to death for what she had done. Now the question arises, "Did Antigone engage strait-laced action?". Was it just to go against her Uncle Creons wishes and go ahead and bury the brother that was to be left out for the vultures? Would it be better to give-up the ghost the situation how they are? Could she go on about life trying not to think of how she left her own blood out in the aerofoil? Could Antigone act as if she did not care? Afterlife to the Greeks back then was far more important and sacred than living life itself. Every occasion they did while they were brisk was to please the many gods they worshipped. They built temples for their Gods, made statues to symbolize their Gods, and had a diffe rent God to explain things that we now say are an act of mother nature. It whitethorn seem rather foolish to us when we study their beliefs and compare them to modern day beliefs. I am sure the Greeks would have considered us to be heathens and regularize us to death for our ways and beliefs. I think Antigone thought her act was courageous and valid. I myself would not have risked my life to ensure a proper burial for anyone, whether it was in modern times or back then. To go against authority and break the laws given by the monarch was a plain mistaken act. When someone is dead we now know there is nothing else anyone or anything can do for them at that point. It is too bad the Greeks did not believe that. As I stated before, afterlife to the Greeks was more important than living life itself. The Greeks seemed to spend most if not all of their lives preparing in some way for their afterlives. The lives they led back then were consecutive to please the Gods. I feel that she dese rved her punishment because of the fact that she knew what fate was to come of her actions. Just because Antigone thought she was doing the right thing does not mean it was right.

An Analysis of The House on Mango Street :: House Mango Street

An Analysis of The House on mango Street   In the novel, The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros describes the problems that Latino women face in a society that treats them as second class citizens. A society that is dominated by men, and a society that set women for what they look like, and not for what is on inside. In her Novel Cisneros wants us to envision the obstacles that Latino women must face everyday in order to be enured equally.       In the Book women atomic number 18 looked upon as objects by men whether they ar boyfriends, friends fathers or husbands. The girls in the novel grow up with the mentality that looks and appearance are the most important things to a woman. Cisneros also shows how Latino women are expected to be loyal to their husbands, and that a husband should have complete control of the relationship. tho on the other hand, Cisneros describes the character Esperanza as being different. Even though she is born and raised in the same culture as the women around her, she is not happy with it, and knows that someday she will break free from its ties, because she is mentally strong and has a talent for telling stories. She comes back through her stories by showing the women that they john be independent and live their own lives. In a way this is Cinceros way of coming back and giving back to the women in her community.       The Latino women and girls in the novel are extremely concerned about their appearances, because they feel that if they arent attractive then they wont be noticed by men, and they are raised to believe that they pack a man to fulfil their life, and that they need a husband to support them, and if they dont look attractive then they are not going to be noticed, and if they are not noticed, then they think they wont end up getting married. A good example of this is Marin. When Marin talks about a real job Marin says that the silk hat place to work is downtown, not because of the work that is there, but because you always get to look beautiful and were nice clothes. She also tells the girls that the only thing that matters is if your skirts are short, and your eye are pretty, so that you are noticed by guys.

Ultrasound ? Quick Project :: essays research papers

Ultrasound Quick ProjectUltrasounds are sound waves with relative frequency beyond the charitable limits, thitherfore humans are unable to hear them. It dismantle travels at exactly the same speed as sound in any medium. Humans tramp hear sound within the frequency range of about 20 to 20,000 Hz, so any sound above 20 kHz is ultrasound. Ultrasound or ultrasonography is a medical imaging technique that uses high frequency sound waves and their echoes. The technique is similar to the echolocation apply by bats, whales and dolphins, as well as SONAR used by submarines.Ultrasound has very high frequency vibrations and can be used to tonic things. Really dirty teeth can be cleaned superbly in this way. Really delicate mechanisms, such as in antique clocks and watches, can also be safely cleaned. Ultrasound for scanning is the most popular medical use. This is safer than using X-rays. Unborn babies can be seen by moving an ultrasonic transmitter across the mothers stomach. The sou nd waves will be projected from the transmitter and the waves are able to travel from one part of the human being to the other. As it hits a tissue or an organ, some waves reflects and gives of echos which can build up a picture on the TV screen. The shorter the wavelength is, the finer the full point of the picture is. Its use in scanning goes far beyond pregnancies. Many other parts of the body are analysed using it (bladder gallstones, the heart, etc.). Ultrasound can even check airplane wings for cracks that would be invisible on the surface.Ships use SONAR to determine the depth of water they are in. Ultrasound is used here because they have a higher frequency and this allows it to penetrate further. However, the disadvantage is that it might scare the fishes away as it would be too noisy for them.

Ultrasound ? Quick Project :: essays research papers

Ultrasound Quick ProjectUltrasounds are sound waves with frequency beyond the human limits, hence humans are unable to hear them. It even travels at exactly the same speed as sound in any medium. Humans locoweed hear sound within the frequency range of about 20 to 20,000 Hz, so any sound above 20 kHz is ultrasound. Ultrasound or ultrasonography is a medical imaging technique that uses high frequency sound waves and their echoes. The technique is similar to the echolocation used by bats, whales and dolphins, as hygienic as SONAR used by submarines.Ultrasound has very high frequency vibrations and can be used to clean things. Really dirty teeth can be cleaned superbly in this way. Really delicate mechanisms, such as in antique clocks and watches, can also be safely cleaned. Ultrasound for scanning is the most popular medical use. This is safer than using X-rays. Unborn babies can be seen by moving an ultrasonic transmitter across the brings stomach. The sound waves will be projec ted from the transmitter and the waves are able to travel from one part of the human being to the other. As it hits a tissue or an organ, some waves reflects and gives of echos which can build up a picture on the TV screen. The shorter the wavelength is, the finer the detail of the picture is. Its use in scanning goes far beyond pregnancies. Many other parts of the body are analysed using it (bladder gallstones, the heart, etc.). Ultrasound can even check airplane move for cracks that would be invisible on the surface.Ships use SONAR to determine the depth of water they are in. Ultrasound is used here because they have a high frequency and this allows it to penetrate further. However, the disadvantage is that it might scare the fishes away as it would be too noisy for them.

Is Online Social Networking Building Social Capital Essay

This is an argumentative research newsprint that examines Robert Putnams definition of Social Networking and provides arguments that Social Networking Sites atomic number 18 structure Social metropolis as Putnam intended its definition. First, this paper entrust explore Putnams definition of Social detonator as come up as its twitch definitions. Second, it will explore the definition of Social Networking according to Putnam as rise as other comparable definitions. Third, it will distinguish certain distinctions in the fancy of Social Networking, Social Networks, and Social with child(p).Fourth, it will examine Putnams thesis that Social Capital has been declining due to the growing popularity of electronic appliances, computers, and henceforth, Social Network Sites. Fifth, it will examine alternate arguments that other researchers have make in contrast to Putnams recognize arguments. Sixth, this paper will evaluate all of Putnams key arguments compared to arguments direct ly in contrast with Putnams thesis. This paper will worrywise provide personal insights and assessments that existing body of k todayledge in this area has non yet covered.Finally, seventh, this paper will conclude that contrary to Putnams thesis that Social Capital has been declining due to the growing popularity of Social Network Sites, Social Capital has in fact been growing at a very rapid pace. Introduction Robert Putnams most influential work Bowling Alone, which appeared in 1995, signaled the study changes that the Internet succession has brought about in the daily lives of Americans. Since then, the virtual alliance has grown in leaps and bounds as rapid expert advances and innovations radically changed American life.Putnam laid the groundwork for his arguments in Bowling Alone with Alexis de Tocquevilles observations of American life during the 1830s (65). Note that Toccquevilles era basically covered the economic novelty of America from the Agricultural Age to the industrial Age. This was an age where the exodus of rural Americans into American cities to work in factories and financial centers represented mass migrations as well as increased productiveness.Putnam continued laying the groundwork for his arguments as he described the shift from the industrial age to the Computer Age through a growing body of research on the sociology of economic development (66). Since Putnams Bowling Alone appeared in 1995, Putnams Computer Age has already speedily shifted into the Internet Age starting in 1997 as Boyd and Ellison represented in their timeline ending 2006 (212).Note also that the Internet Age signified the start of a worldwide trend in globalization where offshore manufacturing plants and the off-shoring of many American jobs created a great impact on American lives and local communities as well as certain ways of doing work. In this light, this paper will now explore Putnams perception of American Society through the concepts of Social Capi tal and Social Networks or Social Networking. Definitions Putnam provided a definition of Social Capital through an analogy with somatic and human metropolis as the hearty scientists of the Industrial Age perceived the phenomena (67).For Putnam, physical and human metropolis pertain to overlyls and training that enhance individual productivity while sociable capital refers to the features of a cordial organization much(prenominal) as nets, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for vulgar benefit (67). Putnams central premise on social capital is that a persons commonplace and private life is heavily and immensely influenced by social connections and civic engagement (67).In support of this definition, Barish aptly provided a simplified and paraphrased version It makes sense to understand Putnams techniques for describing and evaluating the American conjunction His argument goes like this A screwdriver is a valuable thing. It can help me fig ure a house, or fix a car, and so it increases both my individual productivity and the collective productivity of my federation. Similarly, any social connections that I have, whether with members of my bowling team, friends from the bar, co-members of the local Rotary club, or congregants from my synagogue increase my personal productivity and the productivity of my group.Just as the screwdriver is a piece of physical capital, the social contacts that I handle constitute social capital and are beneficial to both myself and bystanders in the community. In a nonher light, a literature review provided a more than constitutional definition of social capital in its broad, elastic, and indicative damage covering both its positive and negative indications (Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe 1145). Broadly speaking, a 1988 definition of social capital refers to the accumulation of resources via the relationships among people (1145).It has also been noted that social capital has an elastic de finition relative to the field of study it is being used in (1145). In such incompatible fields, social capital is generally seen as both a cause and effect or more elaborately in a 1992 definition, as a sum of resources, actual or virtual, that accrue to an individual or group by virtue of possessing a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition (1145). Social capital is unremarkably equated to beneficial results like better public health, lower hatred rates, and more efficient financial markets (1145).Meanwhile, indicators of its decline are the following negative outcomes increased social disorder, reduced participation in civic activities and escalating distrust among members of the community (1145). Having established the framework for understanding Putnams social capital, the next exploration will be on Putnams perspective on Social Networks. Amusingly, Putnam did not provide a formal definition of social networks scarcely rather discussed or described its context as follows1. Vitally important for job arrangement and many other economic outcomes 2. Highly efficient, highly flexible industrial districts based on networks of collaboration among workers and small(a) entrepreneurs and 3. The consolidation of country post offices and small school districts (66). With this context, it can now be discerned that Putnams focus on social networks is work-related or those that pertain to economic value or productivity. Additionally, since Putnams influential Bowling Alone in 1995, social capital and social networks have produced conceptual offshoots as Boyd and Ellison show in their 2008 definition of Social Network Sites and its residue with Social Networking Sites (211).In simple terms, Boyd and Ellison define social network sites as web-based services that enable people to show and tell about their social networks resulting in connections that will otherwise not happen among people with existing as well as previously existing offline connections in their line of work, schooling, community, family, former community and other specialized social groups (211).While Beer makes a fine argument on the broadness of Boyd & Ellisons definition and that there is a need to sort and categorize Social Network Sites or SNS (517-9), it is evident that aside from the people that are acceptd in an existing social network, interests like bowling (Putnam) or content like videos in the case of YouTube (Beer 519) can bond together strangers with similar interests. These make the boundaries between social network sites versus social networking sites confusing as Boyd and Ellison attempted to differentiate (211).Distinctions With the above definitions, clear-cut distinctions are now discernible from the available body of work pertaining to social capital, social networks, and social networking compared with Putnams concepts. Firstly, social capital according to Putnam are built from an individ uals public and private life as shown by a persons productivity through social connections and local community involvement. Quan-Hasse and Wellman also note that Putnams social capital is essentially limited to a neighborhood, city or a country.Moreover, Quan-Hasse and Wellman distinguishes Putnams concept of social connections as interpersonal communication patterns, including physical visits, face-to-face physical encounters, phone calls and social events. In addition, Quan-Hasse and Wellman distinguishes Putnams local community involvement, which is usually termed civic engagement, as the degree to which people become involved in their community, both actively and passively, including such semipolitical and organizational activities as political rallies, book and sports clubs.In this regard, Putnams concept is distinctive mainly as geographically-knit in nature rather than geographically-dispersed. Secondly, from Putnams point of view, social networks are usually work-related o r community-related where mutual benefits are produced as results or positive outcomes of a group activity or group activities involving physical actions or efforts. In this regard, Putnams concept is distinctive mainly as physical rather than virtual.Thirdly, based on Putnams perspective, social networks involve social bonds among people who see eye-to-eye, face-to-face, and physically in a geographically-knit location while social networks or social networking is social bonding and bridging among people who k advanced individually other or even strangers in a geographically-knit or geographically-dispersed location. In this regard, Putnams concept is distinctive mainly as an interaction between people with prior connections versus total strangers.Social Capitals Decline Putnam presented a doom and gloom scenario with the advent of the Electronic and/or Computer Age and its manifestations like the mailing list and television. He skilfully used facts and figures to illustrate that Social Capital has declined through the following manifestations 1. low voter turnout and substantial statistical differences since the 1960s compared with the 1990s (67) 2. lower public meeting attendance in a townspeople hall or in school (68) 3. lower trust in government (68) 4. ower membership in workers unions, parents-teachers associations, fraternities, religious organizations and other mainstream organizations (68-70) and 5. lower membership in organized bowling leagues and the unprecedented rise in solo bowling (70). Putnam argued that the decreased sales of pizza pie and beer among bowling lane proprietors is a fitting example of a negative economic trend due to the decline of social capital, when certain groups of people who bowled together now prefer to bowl alone.Noteworthy of Putnams five indicators that supported his argument is item 3. lower trust in government. All other indicators involve some form physical action or effort while trust is basically an abstract co ncept. Social Capitals Rapid increment Quan-Haase and Wellman carefully noted Putnams thesis about Social Capitals decline and likewise identified C. S. Fischers counter-arguments against Putnams that1. Putnams measures of social capitals decline are invalid and unreliable and 2. he amount of decrease appeared to be substantial from the point of view of Putnam while Fischer argued that it is measly and short-term. While Fischers counter-arguments against Putnams are not taking a 360 degree turn to illustrate the contrary, Fischers arguments subsequently fueled other arguments against Putnams contentions that showed the other side of the fence. Quan-Haase and Wellman insightfully observed The Putnam-Fischer debate is a continuation of a 150-year long tradition in the social sciences to see if community is declining or thriving since the Industrial Revolution.In short, the economic changes brought about by technology like machines and electricity for the industrial revolution or t elevision, electronic components and computers for the Electronic/Computer Age are quite moot and academic. Quan-Haase and Wellman are essentially saying that there will be a natural decline in the railroad channel when automobiles replace the old mode of transport just like when trains replaced horses, and horses replaced walking.The natural decline in the older technology as it is replaced by a fresher technology does not necessarily represent a decline in social capital rather it exactly represents a decline in an old technology. Meaning, new measures are simply needed to accurately determine social capitals decline or growth. And most likely, social capital has grown quick due to the newer technology rather than its opposite or contrary perspective whether these are supported with figures or not. Quan-Haase and Wellman are basically saying that Putnams facts and figures didnt fit when social capital is evaluated from a historical perspective.Another worthy contention is that Social Capital has, on the contrary, rapidly grew. Since Putnams concepts are too focused on the adult population, Putnam failed to foresee a growing trend among the younger population getting involved in social network sites (Hargittai 280) and technological advancements providing suitable substitutes to face-to-face contact like the web-camera, online team gaming across different geographic locations, broadband, etc. Comparative Evaluations and Insights Putnams definition of social capital and his concept of social network are essentially encapsulated within a by-gone age.First, face-to-face encounters, physical activities, geographic cohesion and the nature of jobs and hence, productivity, have changed and are always changing. Second, Putnams view that only the adult population is capable of building social capital could be very limited. Third, social connections and civic engagements could have had modify into a different form. Putnam laid the groundwork for his thesis with gr eat leverage on Tocquevilles observation of the Industrial Revolution in America.This groundwork has made his argument shaky and his definition of social capital quite narrow, failing to recognize that societies, hence social capital, in fact evolve as new technologies appear from the Stone Age, to the Iron Age, to the Bronze Age and so forth. Cooperation, collaboration and productivity normally improve as new technologies appeared throughout history. Hunting bands now became metropolitan cities with millions of residents. Caves now became mega-structures of skyscrapers that house thousands of humans. The examples would be endless.First, face-to-face encounters are now possible across great geographic distances through video conferencing, net meetings, and the like as teams of people work together across different time zones and different countries. Social Networks and Social Networking are not necessarily limited to websites but could also include the other technological tools that would facilitate communication, collaboration and cooperation. Thus, Putnams social network, which has a local flavor, has now become global. Moreover, various workers across the different U. S. States can now work collaboratively and cooperatively.Moreover, leisure time has also taken new dimensions. While bowling leagues may no longer be in fashion because bowling is in fact an individual sport rather than a team sport, new forms of recreation that encourage teamwork are now available as online games. Physical activities have likewise taken a new and robust meaning. Individuals now have a wider range of options when, where, and with whom they are going to pretermit their time with. Ticket reservations for vacations and other leisurely activities with groups of people now take lesser time to execute.Of course, Putnams argument that trust in government has declined, and this appears to be strong, exemplifies a decrease in social capital,. Yet from a different angle the same facts and figures would actually prove the contrary. Social Capital would have had in fact increased because greater civic engagement is now possible through the power of television and the media. That the low trust in government is simply saying that society is now more aware of what government is doing through television rather than through an actual attendance in a town hall.Moreover, society has become more efficient through the membership dues derived from mailing lists because these huge funds can finance professional lobbyists that would maximize a persons civic engagement. A highly paid professional lobbyist with huge funds representing a huge membership can do more compared to a group of individual amateurs representing a small group of people in a community. Second, exactly because of social networks and social networking, the youth are now actively involved in a variety of social activities online including collaborative projects, group assignments, net events, and online team sports.Third, social connections and civic engagements have now transformed into a different form. Group chats through the Internet are now possible among friends that are located at great geographic distances where they can view each others faces. Downloading forms and information from a government website is now more efficient compared to actually attending a town hall meeting. Moreover, social network sites are actually populated by people who have prior physical connections with one another rather than total strangers.Conclusion Putnam appears to have overlooked the effects of the various economic transformations brought about by technology that transforms society during the course of history. Thus, making his definition of social capital unresponsive to the changing times. However, this paper finds that Putnams general definition of social capital as referring to the features of a social organization such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and coo peration for mutual benefit is accurate and sound.The finding of this paper is that Putnams drawback appears to have occurred in his exposition of the general definition. This exposition provided metes and bounds that are geographic in nature, physical in nature, and pits people who have already established prior social connections versus total strangers. Migrations due to the nature of jobs, the highly evolved efficiency of transport systems, academic choices and suburban development have essentially dispersed people geographically. Social Network Sites basically strengthens these former social bonds.Most noteworthy also is that technological advances are now providing suitable substitutes that solve geographic and physical limitations making productivity more efficient through better communication, cooperation, and collaboration. The best evidence in terms of facts and figures that social capital has indeed been built up by online social networking is the phenomenal growth and pop ularity of social network and networking sites. Another is the exponential trade rule book growth on Ebay. Of course, the only difference in these observations with Putnams definition is on how Putnam elaborated his ideas.He built his groundwork and framework of understanding on a local and physical aspect that ultimately made him unable to foresee the economic, and thus social, transformations taking on a global flavor that somehow, everyone is committed and affected with and by another. This is the same reason why civic engagements have also likewise taken a worldwide scope in such organizations as Greenpeace and World Wildlife Fund and even through international causes like the fight against global warming and world hunger.

Andy Warhol Term Paper

Term Paper on Andy Warhol The fine contrivanceist that had the most make in the 20th Century was Andy Warhol. His life was such a struggle from the ascendant he contracted rheumatic f ever so at a young age and had neurological problems. He was born of parents that were from Czechoslovakia and moved to Pittsburgh before his birth on August 6, 1928. His mother had a huge influence on his finesse and would buy him potbellydy bars as a reward for scene. His preceptor died when he was young and his older brother took care of him while his mother worked.Every day his brother would make him Campbell soup and a sandwich for lunch. That later became the focus of wizard of his painting serial. Julia his mother started taking him to free Saturday art classes at a local museum. Andy would stay late and wonder the museum focusing every detail of the paintings. His father set aside the funds for Andy to go to college. In 1949 he graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology. He also showed signs of having Espaliers Syndrome or Autism throughout his life. In his teenaged long duration he had several(prenominal) nervous breakdowns and was almost suspended from college.He was very soci everyy awkward and was very self conscious of his looks. He had nose vocations and skin end processes through with(p) to help with the red splotches on his face that was a result of the rheumatic fever from his childhood. Andy moved to New York and was determined to get a Job in commercial art to ultimately become far-famed. He started hanging out a a little cafe in Manhattan called Serendipity. At this time Marilyn Monroe was al shipway with her friends there so she became the object of Andy obsession at that time. This is probably wherefore she is seen in his later works.This time period in his life everyone referred to him as Raggedy Andy because he was always seen in the same clothes and carrying a brown paper gag with all his drawings in it. He was struggling with his hom osexuality and his care of imperfection in himself. There were several attempt at having a relationship, but they ended with him very depressed for days. After making the conscious end to change his view on this and forget about it so he could focus on his art. He cute so desperately to become an know artist in the art community. That came later that he intended , but with more(prenominal) fame than he could ever imagine.Antas work took on so much mean and was a mirror of life under all the masks that everyone wore. He saw people from the inside and was noted at detecting retreats in people. The height of his art career was when he opened the Factory where he would have lavish parties and would begin dabbling in the film industry. Critics were very harsh on Antas first films such as Sleep an 8 hour long movie filming a man sleeping. When asked about wherefore he would film that he replied why not the man was his friend and he left his door unlocked. He had a desire to show be auty and greatness in the most superfluous things.His studio gave people from all walks of life a place to come and be their self. He studied these people and enjoyed them begin there while he created his art work. The atmosphere he created in the Factory was what is refereed to as the start of the asss. He was very sen hinge uponive to some things so he would rarely bollocks up in any of the drug taking parting that was going on around him. Instead he would Just watch everyone and that was like his inspiration for his art. moreover he did have a slight addiction to amphetamines that he refereed to as giving him the power to do more work.He was able to be a art creating machine. He was quoted at saying you should Just keep creating art even when others think it is not good. That was his drive he adapted after(prenominal) all his failures he endured along the ay. After Andy survived an assignation attempt that left him in the hospital for several weeks his art began to change. H e was more emerged in the serial reproduction of images in his art work. He was asked to do a portrait of a congress woman and he took her all over the town to photo strip booths with a baggie of coins he coached her through each picture session.Then he took them back and screen printed them in a series and she said it was the best representation of her portrait she could of ever imagined. The coaching in the photographs will later be a precursor to his directing career. Andy Whorls art will withstand the test of time and he became everything he ever imagined his self to be. The piece of artwork that had the biggest impact on Andy Whorls art career was a series of 32 paintings of all the varieties of Campbell soup cans. These paintings were created after Andy had several years of failed attempts to get his art work known.Always unsure of his direction with his own art it was important to Andy to get the opinion of his friends. After focusing on his painting skills so much that he wa s painting normal everyday household cleaners and objects over and over until he Hough it was perfect. He developed a new-fashioned form of painting it got rid of brush strokes and drip marks. It had clean cut perfect edges. At this time in the art era it was Jackson Pollocks influence in art this was out of the art realm of the time. He did some coca cola paintings like this thus moved on the the soup cans after one of his friends saying he should paint everyday stuff like soup cans.The Fears Gallery in Los Angels, California exhibited the entire collection for a fewer weeks. After that time Irving Blue called Andy and told him that for reasons he can not explain the time he pent with the paintings have changed him in such a collateral way that he wanted to purchase them. He bought he collection for $1,000 and sold the collection to the Museum of Modern Art for 5 Million dollars. The Thirty-two paintings were do in 1962 the rages were all the same size (20 x 16) with a chosen medium of Synthetic polymer paint.Each can is a different flavor labelled on the front. The cans are all similar on the outside, but upon close observation I noticed that each top had a series of scatty spots where the glare was different on each can. I then observed the them all as a group and realized that it presents society and how by genetic makeup we are all the same, but in reality we are all very different complex creatures capable of so many amazing things. This represented hope for achieving greatness. Before this time Antas art was viewed as lacking a emotional joining to the viewer.When he sold the collection to Irving he made him agree to keep it as an complete collection because Andy said they were all conceived at the same time. They are all still intact and unneurotic as a completely collection to be viewed at the Museum Of Modern Art. This set of paintings were very dear to Andy and had a very personal connection to them. feel back at his childhood after his f ather died the soup was the only stable thing in his life at that time. He had it everyday and he always felt that the most ordinary objects in our everyday lives learned to be shown for their simple beauty.He wanted everyone to see beauty and feel beautiful. There is another(prenominal) element to these painting that everyone can connect to. Each one is entirely different than the next yet as a group are all the same. The detail that he took to individualize every one could be compared to the work of god. He was raised Byzantine Catholic and went to church every week with her. The spectral influence in his art was from this time period in his life. He was a very sheltered boy and at church he would sit and stare at all the religious artwork. This artwork was brightly colored portraits on gold plates on a grid frame of the back wall of the church.This was how he portrayed a painting he did right after Marilyn Monomers death in 1962. This painting was called Golden Marilyn Monroe. He was able to achieve this model printed look by silk screening all the images onto the paintings. There was a technique he developed where he would paint the color on the canvas then screen print the image over the color. This is why in this painting you see the lip color go beyond where the lips are printed and the eye butt looks like a child put it on. Also the hair line is very Ronald McDonald looking.The precision it took to screen print on a painted canvas had to be very hard. This technique helped him add a color element to the commercial print art world he painted in. The idea crapper the Marilyn paintings was to show fame in mass society. This was Just the start of Antas famous people paintings in this time period. This was refereed to as the death and fame period in his art work. just about of his subjects were Elvis Presley and Ann Taylor. When Andy moved to New York he would sit in the ice cream shop and watch Marilyn so this painting was a way for him to immortali ty her forever.That is why she was surrounded by gold to show a heavenly portrayal and gave her bright colors similar to the church paintings. This painting is one of them most famous paintings of Marilyn and can been seen on so many things from clothes to purses and even phone covers. This tribute he did to here has stood the test of time as did the Campbell soup can it is still the same after all this time. This painting also represents Antas quest for beauty and how he connected beauty to fame. Marilyn was the perfect blend of beauty and fame.After this series of paintings he moved on to some more gruesome screen prints of car crashes to show people the reality of what the news was reporting. He also wanted to pay tribute to people and things that are forgotten or lost in everyday life. Also he was noted as having the need to vary his influence in history. The reason I chose Andy Warhol is my desire to be a graphic artist and he had such an insight in the start of polish art. H e was such a genius of his time with how he over came so many things. I could connect with him in so many ways through his art ND his personal life.His struggle to stratum took so many turns before he made it. I totally understood his need to become a machine with making art. I have recently started using markers in all my paintings and I can get one done a day where when I was painting them all by hand it took weeks. I am now extremely interested in learning more about screen printing to help me speed up the process and to use my own photographs. Just to do some paintings in his paint call with the paint first then screen print over it would be a lot of fun. I love how quick he could produce art they aid he created sass of paintings in a month.Also I loved how all the Campbell soup paintings were 16 x 20 that is the size of all my paintings and is a commonly starter artist canvas size. I do series of paintings on this size and from learning about his techniques I realized my art way of life is very similar. Even my husband said its like you are looking in a mirror isnt it and that is very true. Andy had a huge personal connection to his are it helped him deal with all of his questions about life. It is almost like there is a quest to push all the limits of a subject to better escort it.

Goal Line Technology Essay

Introductionsoccer is undoubtedly one of the most popular sports spherewide. From regional order of magnitude championship to the world cup, each association football event is watched with tremendous enthusiasm by people all over the world. As soon as the match starts and until it ends, association football fascinates its viewers by passes, shots, tackles, vacate kicks and penalties. Of feast, in the course of all this, on that point ar also remnants. Whenever the ball enters the finishing, it is a moment of triumph. For a moment everyone watching is left awe-struck until the realization sets in, and and so(prenominal) at that place is much rejoices. However, what if, the lector blows his whistle and says the oddment was invalid. to a greater extentover, what if, a ball that was seemingly deflected by the determinationkeeper is counted as a culture. Obviously, this would tolerate its repercussions, but this is the radical pronounced in the goal line engine room. Tw o IFA-approved methods of implementing goal line so far exist Hawk-Eye and GoalRef. To start a discussion about goal line, it should be understood how each of these technique works. Hawk-Eye, the more favored technique, is one which is already creation utilized in the sports of cricket and tennis. The technique makes use of six high-speed cameras linked to fast-processing computers. These cameras track every movement of the soccer ball as it moves through the field, and the computers calculate the relative spatial relation on the ball base on metrics provided by the cameras.When the ball would pass the goal line, the computers would be able to determine this and the possibility of a goal would have to be judged. The technique is more favored because of its potential to produce excellent 3D replays of what took place, and also because it stinker be used on-field for other purposes than just goal line. For in post, the curves a particular proposition free kick shot took, or eve n if an offside actually occurred or non could be realized with the help of Hawk-Eye. However, this technique would be instead expensive to implement. High-speed cameras aside, every soccer stadium would also need to implement black netting which is also a prerequisite of Hawk-Eye. On the other hand, GoalRef is a much more economical option. GoalRef makes use of a low-powered magnetic field around the posts and a magnetic probe in the ball. As soon as the low-powered magnetic field is found to be penetrated by the magnetic probe completely, the referee is notified through a hand-held thingmabob that a goal has occurred and the referee can announce it almost immediately.The relative simplicity of the design and applied science being used also makes it easier for ball manufacturers to add together probes into the balls. However, compared to the multiplicity of uses that Hawk-Eye provides, GoalRef is a bit lacking. Taking into consideration these factors, the discussion in this pa per would focus on both the technologies sooner than one. (EuroSport, 2012) Goal line technology has been weighd from both ends of the argument by various soccer overseeing bodies such as FIFA and UEFA for much of the last decade. However, to-date, no compromise has been reached. There are two reasons for which goal line technology has been proposed.Firstly, according to international soccer rules, a goal is scored if a ball completely passes the goal line. However, the on-field referee cannot judge this as he has to stay away from the goal during times of attack and defense. In the recent past, this inability of referees has resulted in many impose on _or_ oppress judgments. Secondly, the use of decision-aid technology is being sharp integrated in various other sports. With every passing year, popular sports across the world are introducing decision-aid technology to either aid existing referees or even replace them. As the pressure on soccer associations mount, it has become n ecessary to realize whether goal line technology is good or stinky for the game. This paper would argue that goal line technology is essential as it provides essential service to the game and also because arguments against it are largely invalid.Providing Transparent refereeThe inclusion of technology, however slight, in decision-making capabilities would enhance the decisions made by the referees. The refereeing system employed in soccer is known to possess quite contain capabilities (Collins, 2010). In essence, it consists of three individuals a main referee and two assistant referees. The standard is that the main referee runs diagonally from the north-east of the field to the south-west. However, the main referee does not normally enter the penalty area. However, both of the aforementioned criteria are not strict and the referee can follow his own path during the course of the match. As the diagonal run of the main referee covers the north-east and south-west area of the fie ld, the assistant referees essentially are responsible for judging the north-west and southeastward area of the field. The assistant referees are also responsible for calling offside and throws. From this brief description, it might seem that the refereeing system is quiet adequate. However, this is quite inaccurate as this system does not allow the referee to provide what is known by transparent justice, i.e. what appears to be the most correct decision (Colwell, 2000).First of all, it should be noted that the issue of transparent justice solo arose in the last 15-20 years as broadcasting of soccer matches and events grew only more popular (Colwell, 2000). sooner that the referees decisions were largely associated with presumptive justice, i.e. justice is done because one was in position to assess it. This presumptive justice was assumed to be transparent justice. The referee called it as he saw it, and that was the end of it. The referees authority was based on the opinion o f epistemological privilege, i.e. the referee was in the position to best see it as it is, as he had the closest view of the players action and he possessed great knowledge of soccer rules (Colwell, 2000 Collins, 2010). However, with goggle box broadcasting, there came the concept of replays. The replay allowed the viewer to see from multiple of angles an event within the match. Moreover, even the notion of speed could be slowed down to distinctly realize what actually happened within a particular event in the match. Even further, the rules of soccer were quickly made available online and the growing arouse in soccer made players known to most of the rules (Leveaux, 2010).The epistemological privilege that the referee held had been completely desecrated when newer technologies came to be known (Colwell, 2000). The referee no longer had the first-class view, as the viewers through television often could see what actually occurred from assorted views and even speeds. This provid ed the viewer to be in a position of greater epistemological privilege than the referee. As the referee has lost his epistemological privilege, it has only become questionable that soccer relies only on the referee to make decisions. nigh might even question whether referees are even needed as even a knowledgeable individual watching the match from a television set is bound to make better calls than the on-field referee. The loss of epistemological privilege is best seen in the penalty area. The most intense of occurrences in soccer move to occur in the penalty area (Collins, 2010). However, it is also one area where the referee cannot be present (EuroSport, 2012). As is quite frequent, the penalty area tends to be filled up with defenders and attackers during an intense play, and the referee can in such a position only view from far.Moreover, any decisions that the referee makes is from a upstage viewpoint or either through the help of an assistant referee (Collins, 2010). Howeve r, this means that the referee is not able to call it as it is, but rather call it as he sees it. This means that the referee is no longer the best provider of transparent justice in a match. The issue especially arises as sometimes during most intense of plays the ball barely passes through the goal line and is and so quickly pulled out by a argue player or the goalkeeper. Such an occurrence cannot be seen clearly either by the referee or any of his assistants. It should now be noted that the goal line technology allows even such a brief event to be recognized and hence transparent justice to be provided. For this reason, as a goal line technology would provide better justice, and as the notion of fair play requires that better justice be provided, the argument for the implementation of goal-line technology only gathers momentum.The Invalidity of Arguments AgainstThe main reason for not implementing the technology is tell to be that it would reduce the fun in the game. Although this reason seems to be one of the weaker ones that can be given against GLT, it also seems to be the one that many aficionados and supporters favor. For them (and it seems for FIFA), it is these types of incidents in sport that gives it value and makes it entertaining. The notion that fans still argue about Englands goal against Germany in 1966 and their more recent disallowed attempt in the 2010 World Cup as well as countless incidents in club games, indicate that these events stay on in footballing consciousness. Yet at the same time, people seem wedded to the idea of justice and fairness and would protest vehemently if they or their team were below the belt penalized or given an undue handicap. Furthermore, in professional sport, where careers and livelihoods are dependent on fair and impartial decisions, the idea that sport is better by not implementing technology that would assist in sporting justice seems peculiar indeed. (Leveaux, 2010 Ryall, 2012)The philosophy of sport l iterature is replete with discussion on fairness and justice so much so that it arguably accounts for the greatest proportion of academic thought in this domain, whether this centers on doping, cheating, spoiling, or the characters and virtues of those involved. So to say that it doesnt really affair whether sport is fair or not seems to be inconsistent with the amount of time and effort devoted to discussing it. Sport is based on a notion of fairness however that notion is defined. If players didnt think that they were being given a fair chance (and this includes handicaps in sports such as sailing and golf) then they would soon give up participating. As such, it would be absurd to argue that officials (at the bequest of governing bodies such as FIFA) provide these controversial incidents so that fans have something to argue about in the pub. Referee Jorge Larrionda didnt disallow Englands goal against Germany in 2010 because he was being unfair, he simply made a mistake in his ob servation.As far as Larrionda was concerned he was attempting to be as fair and consistent with the rules as possible, it was his observation skills that let him down. As is noted with reference to FIFAs other reasons, human error is something that FIFA is happy to accept and even embrace. FIFAs response may be that since these incidents are rare, the benefit gained from them in entertainment value outweighs the cost to the game itself. What FIFA doesnt consider in this response however, is the cost that is borne by individual stakeholders, such as managers, players, club owners and investors. Such a cost / benefit analysis, that FIFA appear to adopt with this reason, is a very crude tool to use at the business end of the game. Hence, FIFAs argument is largely unfounded and does not have any basis. (Leveaux, 2010 Ryall, 2012)Support for Technology ImplementationAnother reason why technology should be utilize is because the implementation of technology has gathered tremendous suppor t in the past few years. Especially after the incorrect calls in the 2010 World Cup and in some recent league championships, viewers, players and even soccer clubs themselves have called upon FIFA to test and promote implementation of goal line technologies (Ryall, 2012). Even FIFA itself recognized the need for goal line technology after the blunder of the 2010 World Cup (Leveaux, 2010). Despite the necessity of it being realized and this much support, FIFA has time and again waivered on its stance to implement goal line technology. More recently, the head of UEFA blatantly renounced goal line technology by stating that this is not what the fans want, and this is not what the referees want, and this is not what the soccer clubs themselves want. However, there can be no absurd and blatantly wrong assumption than this.A study of the referees viewpoints on implementation of technology was conducted by Leveaux (2010). The study interviewed nearly 40 referees from soccer, and also many others from other sports. The referees were interviewed on a variety of topics, one of which was the implementation of technology. Interestingly, majority referees called for decision-aid technology to be apply in their respective sports. Amongst soccer referees this majority was unanimous. All soccer referees called for technology to be implemented in soccer. Two rationales were provided behind this by the referees themselves. The referees first tell that the notion that soccer is a simple game that has not been intruded by technology so far is incorrect. In fact, technology is currently utilized by referees themselves in pre-game preparation and also in monitoring time-related events, i.e. extra time.Hence, if any implementation is denied on the basis that technology would make the sport lose its charm, it was wrong according to the referees. Moreover, the referees said that the burden of wrong decisions often falls on them and there is not much protection provided to them when such cases occur. Indeed, there are stories of referees being verbally abused for a wrong call. In some cases, referees have also been abused of making right but unpopular calls. The rationale then was that by including goal line technology, the referees would be able to steer the burden of the any possible decision away from them to the accurate technology. Hence, it should be noted that referees were in support of such an implementation and not against it as UEFA and FIFA would have one believe.Even fans and players support the notion of goal line technology. A survey conducted amongst devouring(prenominal) soccer fans in AUS also resulted in a similar viewpoint. The survey focused on two questions. The first question was how much does an individual debate on the notion of whether the ball passed the goal or it did not. The second question was straightforwardly asking whether goal line technology should be implemented or not. Around 50 AUS students were surveyed, and all of them were avid fans of soccer. The results found vastly supported the implementation of goal line technology. It was found that a very insignificant nonage (15%) actually debated things such as whether the ball passed the goal line, and most people often did not even notice when such things happened during the match.Moreover, nearly 95% said that a technology should be implemented if it allows for a better call on whether a goal has occurred or not. The reason behind this was that soccer fans would ilk goals to count in a sport where goals rarely occur at times. For instance, in between teams of equal strength, even a single goal could purpose the match however, often the games go on to penalty, and this is more undesirable than even the slight opposition to goal line technology. It should also be noted that a literature review found that most soccer players tend to be supportive of goal line technology. This was because most of these people often worked hard to study the ball from on e half to another, and when a goal that had occurred was not awarded it was often cause for frustration. Hence, it should be realized that implementation of goal line technology held abundant amounts of support in fans, referees and players.ConclusionFrom the discussion above, it is quite clear that the argument for the implementation of goal line technology has a lot of benefits and support. The use of different systems can also allow to make the match only more interesting rather than disrupting to the games flow or element of interest. Moreover, the arguments against do not have any actual basis in them. Surveys and literature review have not found any arguments to be valid. More or less, the arguments against is based on the opinions of a select few people are known to be conservative and whose personal interests in the game are affected by the technology.In comparison, an astounding majority supports and advocates the use of goal line technology, and this includes soccer playe rs and almost all soccer fans. It should be noted that the world is changing everyday as newer technological progress is made. In this technologically progressing era, it is only questionable that a sport as popular as soccer has not implemented any aspects of technology within it. When even the most mundane of sports such as cricket have included not only one but dozens of technology that aid in decision-making to its umpires. For these reasons, it should be realized that soccer games should possess goal line technology.ReferencesColwell, S. (2000). The letterand the spirit football game laws and refereeing in the twentyfirst century. Soccer and Society, 1(1), 201-214. Collins, H. (2010). The philosophy of umpiring and the introduction of decision-aid technology. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, 37(2), 135-146. EuroSport. (2012, July 5). Goal-Line Technology How Does It Work? EuroSport. Retrieved from http//uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/ Mignerat, M., & Audebrand, L. K. (2010). Toward s the Adoption of e-Refereeing and e-Ticketing in Elite Soccer Championships an Institutional Perspective. Paper submitted to International Conference on Information Systems, St. Louis, Missouri. Leveaux, R. (2010). Facilitating Referees Decision Making in Sport via the Application of Technology. Retrieved from http//bisongbakiaholmes.files.wordpress.com/ Ryall, E. (2012). Are there any Good Arguments Against Goal-Line Technology? Sports, Ethics and Philosophy. Retrieved from http//goo.gl/6eX4p

Building a 21st Century Organization

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