What is the purpose of the agency?

The purpose of the Arizona Medical Board is â€Å"to protect public safety through the judicious licensing, regulation and education of all allopathic physicians† (Arizona Medical Board, 2013). This means that the physicians in Arizona are monitored by the Medical Board for the sole purpose of protecting the public. What services does the agency perform? The Board is responsible for investigating patient complaints against physicians and when appropriate, taking disciplinary action against their licenses. This means that if a patient has a complaint about a specific doctor or a medical facility, the Board will review the complaint and then investigate the situation. Appropriate discipline will be administered, ranging from practice restrictions to revocation of their licenses. How does the agency maintain the integrity of the profession? The agency maintains the integrity of allopathic physicians (MD) by making sure their practices are ethical and safe. They pay attention to any complaints that are made, and they investigate them to the best of their ability. They make sure that the physicians are not risking or causing harm to themselves, their patients, or their practices. If or when the Board gets wind of a problem with a physician or facility, they waste no time before they investigate. Whom does the agency support? The agency supports the public. Their main focus is making sure that the public has access to competent health care professionals that are capable of providing safe, effective services to their patients. Identify education, licensure, or certification requirements. Physicians who have graduated from an approved medical school are required to have one year of training in an approved hospital internship, residency or fellowship program. Physicians who have graduated from an unapproved medical school are required to have 3 years of training in an approved hospital internship, residency or fellowship program. Physicians are required to complete 40 credit hours of Continued Medical Education during the two calendar years preceding biennial renewal. To become bored certified, a physician must take and pass an oral and written examination given by the American Board of Medical Specialties in a particular field of expertise or specialty. The Arizona Medical Board does not automatically give a license to a physician just because they have a license in a different state. They are still required to become licensed in Arizona (Arizona Medical Board, 2013).

Integrated Circuit Design

Integrated circuit design, or IC design, is a subset of electrical engineering and computer engineering, encompassing the particular logic and circuit design techniques required to design integrated circuits, or ICs. ICs consist of miniaturized electronic components built into an electrical network on a monolithic semiconductor substrate by photolithography. IC design can be divided into the broad categories of digital and analog IC design. Digital IC design is to produce components such as microprocessors, FPGAs, memories (RAM, ROM, and flash) and digital ASICs. Digital design focuses on logical correctness, maximizing circuit density, and placing circuits so that clock and timing signals are routed efficiently. Analog IC design also has specializations in power IC design and RF IC design. Analog IC design is used in the design of op-amps, linear regulators, phase locked loops, oscillators and active filters. Analog design is more concerned with the physics of the semiconductor devices such as gain, matching, power dissipation, and resistance. Fidelity of analog signal amplification and filtering is usually critical and as a result, analog ICs use larger area active devices than digital designs and are usually less dense in circuitry. Modern ICs are enormously complicated. A large chip, as of 2009 has close to 1 billion transistors. The rules for what can and cannot be manufactured are also extremely complex. An IC process as of 2006 may well have more than 600 rules. Furthermore, since the manufacturing process itself is not completely predictable, designers must account for its statistical nature. The complexity of modern IC design, as well as market pressure to produce designs rapidly, has led to the extensive use of automated design tools in the IC design process. In short, the design of an IC using EDA software is the design, test, and verification of the instructions that the IC is to carry out FundamentalsIntegrated circuit design involves the creation of electronic components, such as transistors, resistors, capacitors and the metallic interconnect of these components onto a piece of semiconductor, typically silicon. A method to isolate the individual components formed in the substrate is necessary since the substrate silicon is conductive and often forms an active region of the individual components. The two common methods are p-n junction isolation and dielectric isolation. Attention must be given to power dissipation of transistors and interconnect resistances and current density of the interconnect, contacts and vias since ICs contain very tiny devices compared to discrete components, where such concerns are less of an issue. Electromigration in metallic interconnect and ESD damage to the tiny components are also of concern. Finally, the physical layout of certain circuit subblocks is typically critical, in order to achieve the desired speed of operation, to segregate noisy portions of an IC from quiet portions, to balance the effects of heat generation across the IC, or to facilitate the placement of connections to circuitry outside the IC. Design stepsA typical IC design cycle involves several steps: 1. Feasibility study and die size estimate 2. Functional verification 3. Circuit/RTL design 4. Circuit/RTL simulation Logic simulation 5. Floorplanning 6. Design review 7. Layout 8. Layout verification 9. Static timing analysis 10. Layout review 11. Design For Test and Automatic test pattern generation 12. Design for manufacturability (IC) 13. Mask data preparation 14. Wafer fabrication 15. Die test 16. Packaging 17. Post silicon validation 18. Device characterization 19. Tweak (if necessary) 20. Datasheet generation Portable Document Format 21. Ramp up 22. Production 23. Yield Analysis / Warranty Analysis Reliability (semiconductor) 24. Failure analysis on any returns 25. Plan for next generation chip using production information if possible Digital designRoughly speaking, digital IC design can be divided into three parts ESL design: This step creates the user functional specification. The user may use a variety of languages and tools to create this description. Examples include a C/C++ model, SystemC, SystemVerilog Transaction Level Models, Simulink and MATLAB. RTL design: This step converts the user specification (what the user wants the chip to do) into a register transfer level (RTL) description. The RTL describes the exact behavior of the digital circuits on the chip, as well as the interconnections to inputs and outputs. Physical design: This step takes the RTL, and a library of available logic gates, and creates a chip design. This involves figuring out which gates to use, defining places for them, and wiring them together. Note that the second step, RTL design, is responsible for the chip doing the right thing. The third step, physical design, does not affect the functionality at all (if done correctly) but determines how fast the chip operates and how much it costs. RTL designThis is the hardest part, and the domain of functional verification. The spec may have some terse description, such as encodes in the MP3 format or implements IEEE floating-point arithmetic. Each of these innocent looking statements expands to hundreds of pages of text, and thousands of lines of computer code. It is extremely difficult to verify that the RTL will do the right thing in all the possible cases that the user may throw at it. Many techniques are used, none of them perfect but all of them useful – extensive logic simulation, formal methods, hardware emulation, lint-like code checking, and so on. A tiny error here can make the whole chip useless, or worse. The famous Pentium FDIV bug caused the results of a division to be wrong by at most 61 parts per million, in cases that occurred very infrequently. No one even noticed it until the chip had been in production for months. Yet Intel was forced to offer to replace, for free, every chip sold until they could fix the bug, at a cost of $475 million (US). Physical design It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Physical design (electronics). (Discuss) Here are the main steps of physical design. In practice there is not a straightforward progression – considerable iteration is required to ensure all objectives are met simultaneously. This is a difficult problem in its own right, called design closure. Floorplanning: The RTL of the chip is assigned to gross regions of the chip, input/output (I/O) pins are assigned and large objects (arrays, cores, etc. ) are placed. Logic synthesis: The RTL is mapped into a gate-level netlist in the target technology of the chip. Placement: The gates in the netlist are assigned to nonoverlapping locations on the die area. Logic/placement refinement: Iterative logical and placement transformations to close performance and power constraints. Clock insertion: Clock signal wiring is (commonly, clock trees) introduced into the design. Routing: The wires that connect the gates in the netlist are added. Postwiring optimization: Performance (timing closure), noise (signal integrity), and yield (Design for manufacturability) violations are removed. Design for manufacturability: The design is modified, where possible, to make it as easy and efficient as possible to produce. This is achieved by adding extra vias or adding dummy metal/diffusion/poly layers wherever possible while complying to the design rules set by the foundry. Final checking: Since errors are expensive, time consuming and hard to spot, extensive error checking is the rule, making sure the mapping to logic was done correctly, and checking that the manufacturing rules were followed faithfully. Tapeout and mask generation: the design data is turned into photomasks in mask data preparation. Process cornersProcess corners provide digital designers the ability to simulate the circuit while accounting for variations in the technology process. Analog designBefore the advent of the microprocessor and software based design tools, analog ICs were designed using hand calculations. These ICs were basic circuits, op-amps are one example, usually involving no more than ten transistors and few connections. An iterative trial-and-error process and â€Å"overengineering† of device size was often necessary to achieve a manufacturable IC. Reuse of proven designs allowed progressively more complicated ICs to be built upon prior knowledge. When inexpensive computer processing became available in the 1970s, computer programs were written to simulate circuit designs with greater accuracy than practical by hand calculation. The first circuit simulator for analog ICs was called SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuits Emphasis). Computerized circuit simulation tools enable greater IC design complexity than hand calculations can achieve, making the design of analog ASICs practical. The computerized circuit simulators also enable mistakes to be found early in the design cycle before a physical device is fabricated. Additionally, a computerized circuit simulator can implement more sophisticated device models and circuit analysis too tedious for hand calculations, permitting Monte Carlo analysis and process sensitivity analysis to be practical. The effects of parameters such as temperature variation, doping concentration variation and statistical process variations can be simulated easily to determine if an IC design is manufacturable. Overall, computerized circuit simulation enables a higher degree of confidence that the circuit will work as expected upon manufacture. Coping with variabilityA challenge most critical to analog IC design involves the variability of the individual devices built on the semiconductor chip. Unlike board-level circuit design which permits the designer to select devices that have each been tested and binned according to value, the device values on an IC can vary widely which are uncontrollable by the designer. For example, some IC resistors can vary  ±20% and ? of an integrated BJT can vary from 20 to 100. To add to the design challenge, device properties often vary between each processed semiconductor wafer. Device properties can even vary significantly across each individual IC due to doping gradients. The underlying cause of this variability is that many semiconductor devices are highly sensitive to uncontrollable random variances in the process. Slight changes to the amount of diffusion time, uneven doping levels, etc. can have large effects on device properties. Some design techniques used to reduce the effects of the device variation are: Using the ratios of resistors, which do match closely, rather than absolute resistor value. Using devices with matched geometrical shapes so they have matched variations. Making devices large so that statistical variations becomes an insignificant fraction of the overall device property. Segmenting large devices, such as resistors, into parts and interweaving them to cancel variations. Using common centroid device layout to cancel variations in devices which must match closely (such as the transistor differential pair of an op amp). VendorsThe four largest companies[citation needed] selling electronic design automation tools are Synopsys, Cadence, Mentor Graphics, and Magma.

Economic Activity as Reflected in Painting:

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY AS REFLECTED IN PAINTING: THE CONTRASTING VIEWS OF ECONOMISTS AND ART HISTORIANS [1] Manuel Santos-Redondo Universidad Complutense de Madrid [las diferencias con respecto al Documento de Trabajo disponible en la Web estan subrayadas] 1. Introduction The Moneychanger and his Wife is probably the picture most widely used to illustrate economic activity, and so it is (supposedly) well known by economists, managers, and accountants. The accounting book which appears in the picture is the origin of former AECA (Spanish Association of Accounting and Business Administration) logotype. It is a Flemish painting from the early 16th century. Not so many economists are, however, aware that there are two different versions of this picture: one by Quentin Massys, painted about 1514 (now in Paris, the Louvre), and another by Marinus (Claeszon) van Reymerswaele, painted in 1539 (now in Madrid, in the Prado). There are significant changes between the two versions. This being the Scholastic period and also the epoch of the commercial revolution in Europe, we would expect this picture to have some sort of economic meaning, and for the changes in the pictures to reflect these changes in economic activity and economic thought. We will argue in this paper that there does exist such a meaning; and that also the very important changes between Massys’s and Reymerswaele’s pictures have much to do with the economic changes in Europe in the beginning of the 16th century. Most art historians have seen in Massys' and Reymerswaele's paintings a satirical and moralising symbolism, The Money Changer and his Wife being the representation of greed. Others think that the picture shows economic activity in a respectable way. Flanders at that time was the centre of a flourishing industrial and commercial activity, and also was the centre of a mercantile trade in works of art. Both things led to a representation of the professional activity of moneychangers, goldsmiths, and bankers in a way that shows those activities as respectable professions. The second view is the one implicitly shared by economists when choosing this picture to illustrate many books on economics or business. Some scholars have proposed more subtle interpretations. Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson, the historian of economic thought who first aroused the interest of economists in the Spanish Scholastics of â€Å"School of Salamanca†, considers Massys' painting to be an illustration of the intention of Scholastics to make compatible the commercial customs of the time with Church doctrine on usury. According to her interpretation, Massys' painting would mean the money lender working and, at the same time, discussing with his wife the fairness of a particular commercial deal, helped by the religious book his wife is reading. It is important to notice that, 25 years on, the book in Reymerswaele’ painting is no longer a religious work but an accounting book. But art historians claim that there is still some symbolism in the painting which gives it a moralising and satirical intent. According to them, this symbolism was clear to contemporaries but not to us; or sometimes would have been intentionally difficult to notice for those contemporaries who were not in the same religious group as the painter or his client. For instance, the long, curved fingers of the bourgeois couple allegedly represented avarice. But Reymerswaele painted the fingers of Saint Jerome in the same way , so it must have an aesthetic intention and not a symbolic one. In the process of reviewing the different interpretations provided by art historians of this picture and other similar ones, we shall see that they are consistent with the views that most art historians share about the economy (as Hayek points out in his chapter of The fatal conceit, 1988, â€Å"The Mysterious World of Trade and Money†) rather than based on any objective interpretation of the painting and history. Thus, while the picture shows commercial and financial activity to be a normal, respectable occupation, most art historians see a moralizing and satirical intention. My view is that art historians’ prejudice towards commercial and financial activity leads them to a wrong interpretation of the paintings. When the painters wanted to be satirical and moralizing, they did it in a way that is clearly recognizable by us today. And that this is not the case with the The Moneychanger and his Wife, in either the version of Massys or that of Reymerswaele. 2. Quentin Massys Let us start with Quentin Massys,[2] The Moneychanger and his Wife, dated 1514. Figure 1]. It is probably derided from a lost work by Jan van Eyck, c. 1440. [3] On the table are placed coins, a set of scales, and various other tools of their trade. (â€Å"various other tokens of their wealth†, says the art historian Jean-Claude Frere, 1997, p. 186. This is our first difference in interpretation). The man is wei ghing gold coins with great care. At that time, coins with the same face value varied in the amount of gold they contained (and therefore in their real exchange value), because it was a normal practice to file them down, clip them, or to shake them together in a bag in order to collect the gold dust they produced. So, the moneychanger is simply going about his business, not counting his money as a miser would do. And, if you look at his face, it is not the face of a miser, but the face of a concentrating working man, carefully carrying out his job. His wife is looking at the coins and scales too; but she has a book in her hands. The book is a religious one, an illustrated â€Å"book of hours†. Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson, the historian of economic thought who first brought economists attention to the Spanish Scholastics of the â€Å"School of Salamanca†, considers Massys painting an illustration of the intention of the Scholastics to make compatible the commercial practices of their time with the Church's doctrine on usury. According to her interpretation, Massys painting portrays the money lender at work and, at the same time, discussing with his wife the fairness of a particular commercial deal, helped by consulting the religious book his wife is reading. [4] Many other interpretations of Massys’s work consider this picture as to be a oralizing one, in a much stronger sense than that of Grice-Hutchinson's view. The Encarta Encyclopedia says: â€Å"In The Moneychanger and his Wife, the subtly hinted conflict between avarice and prayer represented in the couple illustrates a new satirical quality in his paintings. â€Å"[5] (It is curious that the â€Å"Web Gallery of Art†, together with the Encarta article, provides this contradictory explanation: â€Å"The painting remains in the Flemish tradition of van Eyck, with the addition of a profane sense of beauty, sign of a new world†). [6] Another scholar says this about Massys: â€Å"Painters also began to treat new subjects. Men like Quentin Massys, for example, played an active role in the intellectual life of their cities and began to mirror the ethical concerns expressed by humanist thinkers with new paintings that used secular scenes to impart moralizing messages. Vivid tableaux warned against gambling, lust, and other vices. â€Å"[7] At the bottom of the painting there is a circular mirror; we can see the tiny figure of a man wearing a turban. [Figure 2] For some reason, the following is the explanation of the art historian Jean-Claude Frere: â€Å"a side window, under which we can just make out the tiny figure of a thief. He would seem to be spying on the couple as they count their gold, while they would seem to be oblivious to his presence, blinded by their greed†. [8] Let us leave aside the greed and concentrate on the tiny man. Is he a thief? I don't know. But I'm sure he is not â€Å"spying on the couple as they count their gold†: I am not an art historian, but it seems clear to me that the man is inside the room, he is reading a book and looking out of the window to the street. In think that this is not a casual mistake: it is consistent with art historians’ interpretation. Symbolism, a source of moralistic interpretation My view is that art historians explanation of The Moneychanger and his Wife as a satirical work containing symbolic allusions hidden from contemporary observers, is merely a reflection of their own prejudices concerning certain economic activities. Let us consider the serious arguments supporting the symbolic explanations of paintings of the Flemish Renaissance, in order to be able to judge when a painting has this meaning and when has not. The famous art historian Erwin Panofsky held that the Early Flemish painters had to reconcile the â€Å"new naturalism† with a thousand years of Christian tradition. Based on St. Tomas Aquinas, who thought that physical objects were â€Å"corporeal metaphors for spiritual things†, Panofsky (Early Netherlandish Painting, 1953) maintains that â€Å"in early Flemish painting the method of disguised symbolism was applied to each and every object, man made or natural†. [9] There are other historical sources that point to a symbolic meaning in the painting of Quentin Massys. In his painting Portrait of a Merchant and his Partner,[10] [Figure 3] there is a clearly legible inscription, in French: â€Å"L'avaricieux n'est jamais rempli d'argent†¦ N'ayez point souci des richesses injustes, car elles ne vous profiteront en rien au jour de la visitation et de la vengeance. Soyez donc sans avarice†. This is a paraphrase of the Gospel of St Luke, ch. XII, 15, 21-34; Saint Matthew, ch. VI, 19-21. Jean Cailleux says that the main character in the painting â€Å"est soumis a la parole evangelique. Il est vraiment fidele dans les richesses injustes. Il ne cede pas a la sollicitacion du Tentateur qui, derriere lui, le visage tordu par lavarice et la soif du lucre, lui propose des comptes fantastiques†. 11] Painting and Economic Activity at Flanders We can expect the Flemish painters to be familiar with market oriented economic activity and the money world, because of the society in which they lived. Flanders at that time was the center of a flourishing industrial and commercial world, and also was the center of a mercantile trade of works of art. Both things led to a representation of the professional activity of moneychan gers, goldsmiths, and bankers in a way that shows those activities as respectable ones. Most Flemish artists were familiar with this world because of their own craft of painting, which was indeed market oriented. Massys was the most important of Antwerp painters of his time; and this means his shop was an example of how artistic production was organized in Antwerp, and formerly in Bruges. It is not at all odd that Flemish painters should portray business people. Massys worked for religious confraternities, and also painted portraits and other profane subjects, sometimes satirical, in response to commissions from humanists and scholars. Frere says that Massys was â€Å"perfectly attuned to the new mercantile conception of art. Antwerp was already established as an active and liberal center for trade in art† (1997, p. 186). Both Antwerp and Bruges had a regulated guild system for painters at the beginning of the sixteenth century. It is important to notice not only the art of the painter, but also the evolution of the master's workshop. At the beginning of the Renaissance, training in a craft took place in workshops regulated by civic authorities: apprenticeship was followed by admission to a guild. By the end of the century, â€Å"workshops had become more like shops nowadays, turning out goods for a flourishing private market accountable to no one. And change came without a defining moment and without artists missing a beat. Workshop assistants had certain preparatory tasks, including grinding pigments, laying grounds, and the transfer of under-drawings. Experienced assistants took on subsidiary passages, including background or stock figures. Assistants also made copies to keep pace with demand, and they had access to the master's designs once they set up for themselves. Workshop copies ranged from straightforward replicas to transpositions into other media and from large commissions to private, devotional images. â€Å"[12] The conventional portrait of a rich man But this familiarity of artists with a commercial society does not lead them automatically to portray business people in their trade, as â€Å"occupational portraits†: the common way to portray a business man was in a way that showed him as a religious man, or as an intellectual in his house, surrounded by works of art and literature. The best known example is The Arnolfini Portrait by van Eyck, but there are many others. In the triptych The Last Judgement, painted in 1480 by the Flemish painter, working in Bruges, Hans Memling, we can see the portraits of Tomaso Portinari and his wife, naked inside the scales; and those of Angiolo Tani and his wife, Catarina Tanagli, kneeling on the floor at prayer. [Figure 4] Both Portinari and Tani were important business men working in Bruges branch of the Medici company. In the Italian Renaissance, Lorenzo de Medici is portrayed as one of the Magi in Gozzoli’s Journey of the Magi, 1459. 13] It was quite common to include the donors' portrait in a religious scene. Tomaso Portinari and his wife, Maria Baroncelli, were also directly portrayed by Memling, at prayer. [14] (The fact that Antwerp was a rapidly enriched city and lacked a traditional aristocracy, may well have been an important reason for the artist representing economic activity in the portraits of businessmen , instead of the traditional â€Å"rich and cultured† portrait). 3. Marinus van Reymerswaele Let us now move on to the other version of the portrait and to a different year. Marinus van Reymerswaele[15] The Moneychanger and his Wife, [Figure 5] painted in 1539, is inspired by Massys. [16] This is the explanation of the painting provided by the Spanish Association of Accounting and Business Administration, AECA, which in 1979 chose as the symbol of the association a section this painting. [Figure 6] â€Å"The painting which has inspired our logotype is internationally famous as an image of financial activity during the Renaissance: it shows a scene typical of the counting house of a banker of the period. The subject of the pair of moneychangers shows us a new profession which has appeared in the period, a profession related to the world of finance, taxes and commercial accounts. Reymerswaele adapts the subject of the banker and his wife from Massys’s painting now in the Louvre in Paris. In Reymerswaele’s painting, the bourgeois married couple are seen counting out gold and silver coins, and the husband is weighing them with great care in a small set of scales, since most of them would be clipped or scraped. The coins are probably the product of tax-collection, an exchange of foreign currency or the repaying of a loan. This would imply the use of the abacus which the banker has at his right on the table, and then the setting out of accounts in the accounts book which the wife is holding in her delicate fine hands. â€Å"[17] Compare the explanation of this picture given by the AECA with the moralistic and over-sophisticated explanations of the art historians. The changes Between 1514 and 1539, many things have changed. In particular, the accelerated growth of the economy that stemmed from the discovery and colonization of the New World, and the religious transformation known as Lutheran Reformation. Reymerswaele was himself involved in the Lutheran Reformation. (We know that in 1567, being an old man, he took part in the sack of Middelburg cathedral, and was severely punished (six years of banishment and public humiliation). Reymerswaele specialized in everyday scenes of flourishing Flanders, with great realism, which gives his works a considerable documentary interest. (Paintings by masters of Northern Renaissance realism often recorded official contracts or acts. The Lawyer's Office, 1545, by Reymerswaele, [Figure 7] is a remarkable example of this practice. Recent research has demonstrated that the documents, which form the background of the painting, refer to an actual lawsuit begun in 1526 in the town of Reymerswaele on the North Sea). [18] His subjects were businessmen: usurers, notaries, tax gatherers; but what could be seen as â€Å"occupational portraits† are always stressed as moralizing: Another art historian says â€Å"usuriers, changeurs, avocats, notaires, percepteurs d'impots, monde apre et rapace de l'argent toujours plus puissant dans le metropole enrichie. †¦ ] L'art de Marinus [Reymerswaele] presente une accentuation presque caricaturale, qui donne a l'ouvre sa portee moralisante† (Philippot, 1994, p. 173). Puyvelde considers that, in the genre painting by Marinus van Reymerswaele, the realist portrait turns into a caricature of rapacious and greedy businessmen. In Reymerswaele The Moneychanger and his Wife, he says, â€Å"l'esprit de lucre est plus nettement marque dans les physionomies et les doigts maigres† (Puyvelde, p. 13; we will turn to the fingers latter). The study of the gold coins that appear in the painting shows that â€Å"the coins are mostly Italian and are all of types minted before 1520† (Puyvelde, p. 17). This could mean that the painting is a trial effort done by Reymerswaele, before his first clearly datable painting, Saint Jerome, of 1521. The importance of Puyvelde's argument is not the exact date, which I cannot dispute, but the fact that Puyvelde considers The Money changer and his Wife closer to a portrait than to a satire, as ompared to later works by Marinus: later in his career, Reymerswaele would have abandoned portraiture and turned to satire and caricature (â€Å"pamphlet†, says Puyvelde). [19] The public appears to have had a preference for satire, and Marinus sought to satisfy the public with pleasant humorous pictures which enjoyed great popularity among collectors of the period. Other paintings contain inscriptions which refer to the taxes charged on beer, wine or fish. In one of the copies or i mitations of The Lawyer's Office, titled The Notary's Study, the document the notary is reading has been deciphered: it appears to be a parody of legal slang. Even the signature on the document in French reads â€Å"Notaire infame et faussaire†. [20] Usually museum guides reflect the views of art historians. Referring to Reymerswaele The Moneychanger and his Wife, a guide to the Prado says: â€Å"In this painting we find all the characteristics of Northern European painters: minute detail, fine quality raw material, an empirical approach to reality, and above all, the naked sordidness with which Van Reymerswaele approaches one of the principal evils of his time: usury, the greater of all possible sins in a commercial society such as Flanders. Corruption and fraud affected all levels of society, even the clergy, producing a critical reaction on the part of writers, theologians and artists. â€Å"[21] Reymerswaele was not the only painter who developed Massys portraits; several other Flemish painters did. Again, there are significant differences in their style, differences which influence the overall â€Å"tone† of the picture either as â€Å"occupational portrait† or â€Å"caricature†. My point is that a common spectator of today can spot the difference. Corneille van der Capelle painted Le Percepteur d'impots et son Garant and Le Percepteur d'impots et sa Femme,[22] [Figure 8] in which we can notice a real, kind portrait of the businessmen, quite far from any caricature. But, even given the very different styles, I find no moral satire in Reymerswaele The Moneychanger and his Wife, as compared to his other works. In Reymerswaele version, the religious book has disappeared. This is an obvious change, since Marinus was a Protestant and wouldn't have accepted any other religious book for daily reading than the bible. But there is no bible in Marinus painting. Instead, there is a hand-written book, with no illustrations, which seems to be an accounting book. The characters in Reymerswaele painting are most elegant, with luxurious clothes, and long, delicate fingers. This is also thought by some scholars to be satirical: â€Å"Long, curved fingers were, in XVI century, a sign of greed or avarice, so an apparently domestic subject can also be full of moral meaning†. [23] Long, curved fingers and noses use to represent Jews and, by extension, greed or avarice in Christian iconography. It may be important to notice that Jews played an important role in Antwerp’s economic activity. The money market was controlled by the Italian Lombards, and Jews could only act as minor money-lenders. The Jews lent mainly small amounts of money for shorter periods of time to less wealthy people such as butchers and bakers. Scarcity was an excellent situation for Jewish money-lenders. As a consequence, the y had many clients among the common people who probably had great difficulties in paying them back. This fact may have reinforced the strong anti-Semitism prevalent at that time. There were a massacre of Jews in Antwerp in 1350, and then many Spanish and Portuguese â€Å"marranos† came to settle there after 1492 and 1497, expelled from Spain and Portugal. [24] I haven’t fully explored yet the possibility of the satirical portraits being racist or anti-Semitic). But the long fingers can imply other things: they can be an esthetic technique to make people appear more mystical, unmaterialistic, attractive. We could interpret thus the fingers of Reymerswaele’ Saint Jerome, in 1521. [Figure 9] And Saint Jerome transmits you the idea of ascetic sanctity, the antithesis of greed. Although, again, some scholar says that Reymerswaele painting of Saint Jerome is â€Å"stressing the crabbedness of scholarship†. Even if that is correct, it would not be the crabbedness of greed). To me, the long, curved fingers of the moneychanger and his beautiful wife imply simply elegance. This is my personal impression. If I then look at other paintings by Reymerswaele, for instance, the two Tax Gatherers (also The Misers), described by the same scholar as â€Å"exceedingly ugly and covetous†, I don't need to be his contemporary to notice the satirical meaning. [25] After comparing their clever interpretations with what a spectator sees in these pictures, I would recommend that the meaning of a painting, as given by art historians, not be accepted uncritically: their judgments appear to be based upon certain prejudices, in this case concerning commercial and financial practices, rather than any objective analysis of the painting. 4. Other Flemish â€Å"occupational portraits† If you look at other paintings of the same school, it is easy to find examples of â€Å"good†, non critical or satirical, representation of moneychangers, goldsmiths, and bankers. Adriaen Isenbrant Man Weighing Gold (c. 1518),[26] [Figure 10] is described in this way by Jean E. Wilson: â€Å"This sensitive portrait of a banker or, perhaps, a moneychanger reveals the sitter's evident pride in his occupation. The portrait also serves as an example of the widening interest in portraiture, which had gradually extended to members of the business sector† (Wilson 1998, p. 196). But another scholar points out that â€Å"the act of weighing coins may allude both to the man's profession and to his contemplation of higher values, comparable to Saint Michael's weighing of souls on Judgment Day†. [27] In Hieronimous Bosch's The Table of the Deadly Sins,[28] 1480, [Figure 11] avarice is shown as a judge who is being bribed. This is completely different from the activity of the banker: what Bosch shows us is not a profit-seeking commercial practice which is therefore sinful, but an act of corruption which would be taken to be immoral equally in a commercially oriented society or in an ideal world described by Scholastic theologians. Another example of an â€Å"occupational portrait† is the Portrait of a Merchant [Figure 12] by Jean Gossaert (c. 1530),[29] thought to be a portrait of Jeronimus Sandelin, a real merchant from Zealand, in Flanders. There is nothing satirical about it: it is a purely â€Å"occupational portrait†. But the National Gallery of Art Brief Guide says this: â€Å"the sitter's furtive glance and prim mouth are enough to inform us of the insecurity and apprehension that haunted bankers in the 1530s, when the prevailing moral attitude was summed up by the Dutch humanist Erasmus, who asked, â€Å"When did avarice reign more largely and less punished? â€Å"[30] St. Eloy (Eligius) in His Shop, 1449, by Petrus Christus,[31] [Figure 13] is the clear representation of a goldsmith working in his shop and attending two clients: a rich, well-born bridal couple. It seems to be a representation of the goldsmith's trade, with the excuse of the portrait of a saint (hardly a subtle ploy, since St. Eloy is the patron of goldsmith's guild). The goldsmith sits behind a window sill extended to form a table, a pair of jeweler's scales in one hand, a ring in the other. Only his halo suggests that the painting deals with legend. On the right is a display of examples of the goldsmith's craft. The picture may very well have been painted for a goldsmith's guild (the one in Antwerp). St. Eligius is the Patron of metalworkers. As a maker of reliquaries he has become one of the most popular saints of the Christian West. Eligius (also known as Eloy) was born around 590 near Limoges in France. He became an extremely skillful metalsmith and was appointed master of the mint under King Clothar of the Franks. Eligius developed a close friendship with the King and his reputation as an outstanding metalsmith became widespread. It is important to notice that most prominent features in the life of St. Eligius can be seen both as indications of sanctity and the best professional characteristics of a good goldsmith. In the goldsmith's trade, skills were as important as reliability, as Adam Smith notices in Wealth of Nations: â€Å"The wages of goldsmiths and jewelers are every-where superior to those of many other workmen, not only of equal, but of much superior ingenuity; on account of the precious materials with they are intrusted†. [32] Eligius is praised for both qualities. From his biography, we can see how important this reliability of his goldsmith was, for the king to become Eligius' protector: â€Å"The king gave Eligius a great weight of gold. Eligius began the work immediately and from that which he had taken for a single piece of work, he was able to make two. Incredibly, he could do it all from the same weight for he had accomplished the work commissioned from him without any fraud or mixture of siliquae, or any other fraudulence. Not claiming fragments bitten off by the file or using the devouring flame of the furnace for an excuse. â€Å"[33] The portrait Saint Eligius by Petrus Christus is a fine example of the â€Å"occupational portrait†, describing a goldsmith's shop, the only religious connection being the halo and the fact than the saint is the patron of the guild. The true â€Å"moralizing† pictures of the Flemish School Look at the painting The Ill-Matched Lovers, c. 1520, [Figure 14] by Quentin Massys:[34] again you don't need to be a contemporary of his to notice the satirical intention. (It is important to notice that the theme of love between the old and the young was extremely popular in sixteenth century, and we can agree that both the popularity and the moral view has changed on this subject in modern times. The meaning of the painting, however, hasn't changed at all, because the artist doesn't paint the old man with tenderness and love and mature elegance, but as undignified uncontrolled, despicable desire). There are other paintings by Marinus which shows a clearly satirical approach, or at least an ugly expression which does not imply pride in the profession: see The Lawyer’s Office, 1545, and The Misers [Figure 15] (also known, in different versions, as The Tax Gatherers or The tax gatherer and his guarantor). This one shows â€Å"two tax collectors, or rather a treasurer, or an administrator with his clerk, the collector with a winking grimace†¦. The treasurer enters in a book the sums received for the taxes†¦ with his right hand counts and weighs the coins†¦ â€Å"[35] Both of them look clearly satirical for a modern observer. 5. Conclusion This paper has compared the rival interpretations provided by economists and art historians of the painting The Moneychanger and his Wife. The painting is seen as an â€Å"occupational portrait†, showing a banker in his office, carefully weighing coins simply because this is one of most prominent features of his trade. It is a clearly secular subject, much more so in Reymerwaele's version: the religious books in the woman's hands has been turned into an accounting book. We could expect Flemish painters to be familiar with market oriented economic activity and the money world, because of the society in which they lived. Flanders at that time was the center of a flourishing industrial and commercial world, and also was the center of a mercantile trade in works of art. [36] Both things led to a representation of the professional activity of moneychangers, goldsmiths, and bankers in a way that shows those activities as respectable ones. In the process of reviewing the different interpretations provided by art historians about this picture and other similar ones, we have seen that they are consistent with the views that art historians share about the economic activity, rather than based on any objective interpretation of the painting and history. Thus, while the picture shows commercial and financial activity to be a normal, respectable occupation, most art historians see a moralizing and satirical intention. This paper maintains that art historian’s prejudice towards commercial and financial activity leads them to a wrong interpretation of the paintings. LIST OF ILUSTRATIONS 1. The Moneychanger and his wife, by Quentin Matsys, 1503-1505. 2. The Last Judgement, by Hans Memling, 1480. Portrait of Angiolo Tani and his wife. 3. The Moneychanger and his wife, by Marinus van Reymerswaele, 1539. 4. Saint Jerome, by Marinus Reymerswaele. 5. Logo of the Spanish Association of Accounting and Business Administration (AECA). 6. Adriaen Isenbrant, Man Weighing Gold, fist half of the sixteenth century. 7. St. Eloy (Eligius) in His Shop, by Petrus Christus, 1449. 8. The Table of Deadly Sins, 1480, by Hieronimous Bosch. 9. Portrait of a Merchant, by Jean Gossaert, c. 1530. 10. The Ill-Matched Lovers, by Quentin Mastsys. 11. The Misers, or The moneylenders, by Marinus van Reymerswaele, 1545. 12. Marinus van Reymerswaele, Two Tax-Gatherers, 15–, National Gallery, London. [Yamey, p. 52, Plate XVI] 13. Marinus van Reymerswaele, Two Tax-Collectors, 15–, Alte Pinakotheck, Munich. [Yamey, p. 54, 29 XVI] 14. Map of Flanders and Antwerp. 15. The Lawyer's Office, by Marinus van Reymerswaele, 1545. 16. Portrait of a Merchant and his Partner, by Quentin Metsys. 17. The taxgatherer and his Wife, by Corneille van de Capelle (Corneille de Lyon? ) BIBLIOGRAPHY Ainsworth, Maryan Wynn (et al. (1994), Les Primitifs flamands et leur temps (sous la direction de Brigitte Veronee-Verhaegen et Roger Van Schoute). Louvain-la-Neuve: La Renaissance du Livre. Benezit, E. (1976), Dectionaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs (nouvelle edition, entierement refondue, revue el corrigee sous la direction des heritiers de E. Benezit). Libraire Grund. Vol. 7. â€Å"Marinus Van Roejmerswaelen† Campbell, Lorne, et al. (1978) â€Å"Quentin Massys, Desiderius Erasmus, Pieter Gillis and Thomas More†. The Burlington Magazine, Vol. CXX, n? 908, november, pp. 716-724. Cassagnes, Sophie (2001), D’art et d’argent. Les artistes et leurs clients dans l’Europe du Nord (XIVe -XVe siecle), Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes. Frere, Jean-Claude (1997), Early Flemish Painting, Paris: Terrail. Friedlander, Max J. (1967) [1929] Early Netherlandish painting. Vol 1, The van Eycks–Petrus Christus, Brussels: La Connaissance, and Leyden: A. W. Sijthoff. Genaille, Robert (1967), Dictionnaire des peintres flamands et hollandais, Paris: Larousse. Grice-Hutchinson, Marjorie (1993) â€Å"Santo Tomas de Aquino en la historia del pensamiento economico†, in Ensayos sobre el pensamiento economico en Espana. This essay, lectured to receive the Honoris Causa Doctorate from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, is not in the English version of the same book). Hayek, Friedrich August (1988), The fatal conceit. The errors of socialism, London: Routledge. Chapter 6, â€Å"The Misterious World of Trade and Money†. Mackor, Adri:  "Are Marinus' Tax Collectors collecting taxes? † Bulletin du Musee National de Varsovie XXXVI (1995; n? 3-4) pp. 3-13. Mackor, Adri: â€Å"Marinus van Reymerswale: Painter, Lawyer and Iconoclast†, Oud Holland 109 (1995) pp. 191-200. Mund, Helene (1994), â€Å"La copie†, in Ainsworth (et al. ) (1994), pp. 125-141. Panofsky, Erwin (1971) [1953], Early Netherlandish painting: its origins and character (2 vols. ) London: Harper and Row. Panofsky, Erwin (1993) [1955], Meaning in the visual arts, Penguin. Philippot, Paul (1994), La peinture dans les anciens Pays-Bas. XV-XVIe siecles. Paris: Flammarion. Puyvelde, Leo van (1957), â€Å"Un Portrait de Marchand par Quentin Metsys et les Percepteurs d'Impots par Marin van Reymerswale†, Revue Belgue d'Archeologie et d'Histoire de l'Art, vol. 26, pp. 3-23. Silver, Larry (1984), The paintings of Quinten Massys with catalogue raisonne, Oxford. Montclair, N. J. : Allanheld & Schram. Smith, Adam (1976) [1776], An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Comps. R. Campbell, A. S. Skinner y W. B. Todd. Oxford : Clarendon Press. Van Houdt, Toon (1999), â€Å"The Economics of Art in Early Modern Times: Some Humanist and Scholastic Approaches†, History of Political Economy, 31(0), Supplement 1999 (Economic Engagements with Art, edited by Neil De Marchi and Craufurd D. W. Goodwin, London: Duke University Press), pages 303-31. Vanhoutte, Edward (1997), â€Å"In your seed all the nations of the Earth shall be blessed. Importance and unimportance of the Jews of Belgium from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment†,. Guest-lecture. Lancaster (UK): Lancaster University, 6 february. In . VVAA (1994), El Prado, Barcelona: Lunwerg. Wilson, Jean E. (1998), Painting in Bruges at the close of the Middle Ages. Studies in Society and Visual Culture. Pennsylvania : University Press. Yamey, Basil S. (1989), Art and Accounting, New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ———————– [1] The author wants to thank John Reeder for his useful comments. A previous version of this paper, with the title â€Å"The Moneychanger and his Wife: from Scholastics to Accounting†, is in Internet, [http://www. ucm. es/BUCM/cee/doc/00-23/0023. tm]. [2] Quentin Massys (1465/66 – 1530), also Matsys, Metsys, Metsijs, Massijs. Famous Flemish painter, the founder of the Antwerp school, he was probably born in Leuven, Belgium. He was the main painter of his epoch. [3] Yamey (1989), pp. 24, 45. [4] Grice-Hutchinson (1993), pp. 203-205. [5] â€Å"Massys, Quentinâ₠¬  Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2000, . In the same Encarta website, Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY, says that Massys painted â€Å"a witty commentary on greed. The banker's wife pretends piety by leafing through a religious book, while stealing a glance at her husband's gold. [6] â€Å"Web Gallery of Art†, . The pages says that â€Å"the comments were compiled from various sources†. [7] National Gallery of Art (Washington D. C. , USA), 2000, â€Å"Antwerp in the Early 1500s†, . [8] Jean-Claude Frere, Early Flemish Painting (1997, pp. 187-188). [9] Wilson (1998), p. 191; quoted from Panofsky, Early Netherlandish painting, 1953, p. 142. â€Å"Every perceptible thing, man made or natural, becomes a symbol of that which is not perceptible†, says Panofsky (â€Å"Abbot Suger of St-Denis†, 1946, in 1955, p. 161) following Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite. 10] Quentin Massys, Portrait of a merchant and his partner (Paris, collection M. Cailleux) . [11] Puyvelde (1957, p. 5), quoting from Jean Cailleux, Les Richesses injustes, Reforme, Paris, n? 72, 3 aout 1946. In Antwerp, a tax-collector was obliged to have a surety or guarantor, who had the right to supervise the collection of money and its recording. The tax-collector is â€Å"shown as a respectable person, accompanied by his guarantor, malicously rendered with a pronounced scowl†. Yamey (1989, p. 54), confronts this van Puyvelde’s interpretation with other art historians’ view. 12] â€Å"The Boys in the Back Room†, written by John Haber in the Website â€Å"Postmodernism and Art History: Gallery Reviews from Around New York†. The informations refers to the exhibition â€Å"From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting†, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 1999. . [13] Benozzo Gozzoli (1420-1497), Italian painter. Procession of the Magi, 1460, Medici Riccardi Palace, Florence. [14] The Triptych The Last Judgement, now in Gdansk, Narodowe Museum, was painted by Memling (also Memlinc) in 1477. Angiolo Tani is painted in the outside of the wings. Tani had been the head of the Bruges branch of Medici Bank from 1455 to 1465. Tomaso Portinari was his successor in the position. Memling, Tommaso Portinari, 1470, tempera and oil on wood, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Maria Maddalena Baroncelli (Mrs. Tomasso Portinari), 1470, tempera and oil on wood, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. For details, see Ainsworth et al. (1994), chapter â€Å"Hans Memlinc†, pp. 462-466. [15] Marinus (Claeszon) van Reymerswaele (also Roymerswaele) is a Flemish painter (c. 1495-1566). He received his first artistic training as an apprentice to an Antwerp glass painter named Simon van Daele in 1509. Known as a painter of genre and satire, Reymerswaele was famous enough to have been mentioned by the Florentin historian Guicciardini and the art historian and painter Vasari. [16] Reymerswaele (or his workshop) made a lot of copies of this subject. Puyvelde (1957, p. 15) claims that the two paintings in the Prado and the one in the Collection of the State of Babiera, signed in 1538 and 1539, are inspired by Massys The moneychanger and his wife. Puyvelde considers that most other copies are inspired by Massys Tax Gatherers. 17] â€Å"El cuadro inspirador del logotipo es conocido internacionalmente como una imagen de la actividad economica del Renacimiento, especialmente de la financiera, ya que en el se muestra una situacion caracteristica de lo que podria considerarse un banquero de la epoca. El tema de la pareja de cambistas pone de manifiesto el surgimiento de una nueva profesion renacentista relacionada con el mundo de las finanzas, de los impuestos y de las cuentas mercantiles. Marinus toma de Quintin Metsys el tema del banquero y su mujer, que se expone en el Louvre de Paris. En el cuadro de Marinus, el matrimonio burges recuenta las monedas de oro y plata y el pesa en una pequena balanza, con gran delicadeza, aquellas, ya que la mayoria de las mismas eran raspadas o recortadas. Posiblemente provendrian de una recaudacion de impuestos, de una cambio de monedas o de la devolucion de un prestamo, lo que implicaria despues controlar o calcular la operacion con el abaco que tiene a su derecha sobre la mesa y a efectuar anotaciones en el libro de Contabilidad que ella tiene entre su bellas y delicadas manos†. From AECA's Website, 1999. 18] â€Å"Recent research has demonstrated that the documents, which form the background of the painting, refer to an actual lawsuit begun in 1526 in the town of Reymerswaele on the North Sea. The suit arose between three heirs of Anthonius Willem Bouwensz and Cornelius vander Maere, the latter having purchased a salt refinery from the heirs of Anthonius. Difficulties began when Cornelius vander Maere refused to make the initial payment and subsequently had his goods seized. The legal transactions lasted until 1538, by which time the property under dispute had probably been ubmerged or destroyed by storms. Ironically, the court fees still had to be paid. † New Orleans Museum of Art, Information written by Joan G. Caldwell. [http://www. noma. org/MARINUS. HTM]. The Museum owns one of the many versions of the painting: â€Å"Several versions of this composition exist in Munich, Amsterdam, Cologne and Brussels. While the Museum's version is apparently the last in the series, it is painted with the greatest detail, thus clearly revealing the documents in the lawsuit†. [19] Puyvelde (1957), pp. 7-18; â€Å"le veritable portrait fait place a la caricature de l'homme de affaire rapace† (Puyvelde, 1957, p. 13; also, p. 20). [20] Puyvelde (1957), p. 23. [21] â€Å"Es esta tabla encontramos todas las caracteristicas de los pintores nordicos: el detallismo, las calidades materiales que se aprecian a la perfeccion, la aproximacion empirica a la realidad, y sobre todo, la sordidez descarnada con la que Van Reymerswaele aborda uno de los principales males de su epoca: la usura, el mayor pecado posible dentro de una sociedad comerciante como era la flamenca. La corrupcion y la estafa afectaban a las capas de la sociedad, llegando al clero y provocando la reaccion de escritores, teologos y artistas†. CD-ROM La Pintura en el Prado, 1996, Editorial Contrastes. [22] Corneille van der Capelle, Le Percepteur d'impots et sa Femme. Jadis Sigmaringen, Pince of Hohenzollern collection. [23] The illustrated book El Prado (Barcelona: Lunwerg, 1994), p. 389. [24] Vanhoutte (1997). [25] â€Å"Web Gallery of Art†, description of the painting The Tax Collectors, 1542 (Wood, 103,7 x 120 cm. Alte Pinakothek, Munich), : â€Å"The Tax Collectors by Marinus Van Roymerswaele appears to be a deliberate caricature; the painter's Calvinist background clearly comes through in his depicting the tax collector's greed with a fierse grimace and claw-like hands, whilst the administrator records the money in the ledger, maintaining his proper distance. Marinus van Reymerswaele was a painter of three themes, all more or less caricatural. He painted a numbe r of straightforward S. Jeromes, all derived from Durer's picture of 1521 (Lisbon) but stressing the crabbedness of scholarship. The other two themes are interdependent: two exceedingly ugly and covetous Tax Gatherers and a Banker and his Wife (the banker counting his profits). The Banker is closely related to Massys's picture of the same subject, and it may be that the Tax Gatherers derive from Massys's borrowings from the caricatures of Leonardo da Vinci. There are about thirty versions of the Tax Gatherers (the best is in London, National Gallery; another has the date 1552), and what nobody has so far explained is why so many people should want to own a picture of tax collectors (and excessively ugly ones at that) gloating over their imposts. There are also examples in the British Royal Collection and in Antwerp, Berlin, Ghent, Madrid, Munich and Vienna. † The Website says on the Welcome page that â€Å"the comments were compiled from various sources†. [26] Adriaen Isenbrant (? ) Man Weighing Gold, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Friedsam Collection. Adriaen Isenbrant is also known as Hysebrant or Ysenbrant. He was active in Bruges, 1510 – 1551. He was first mentioned in 1510 when he became a master in the Bruges painters' and saddlemakers' guild. He was recorded as a stranger, but his native town was not mentioned. Between 1516/1517 and 1547/1548 he was listed numerous times as a vinder or minor offical of the guild and in 1526/1527 and 1537/1538 was a gouverneur or financial officer. Because of the uncertainty, some authorities prefer to use the name Isenbrandt in inverted commas or with or with question mark. See the Website of the National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C. , [27] Bauman, G. , â€Å"Early Flemish Portraits 1425-1525†, M. M. A. Bull. XLIII, Spring 1986, pp. 46 f. On the contrary, Wehle, H. B. , and M. Salinger, M. M. A. , A Catalogue of Early Flemish, Dutch and German Paintings, 1947, pp. 100 f. , â€Å"identify the sitter as a banker or a money changer and consider the portrait to be purely secular, not a ‘donor's likeness in a religious ensemble'†. References provided by Sandra Fritz, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Catalog. [28] The Table of the Deadly Sins, 1480, by Hieronimous Bosch (c. 1450-1516). Oil on panel, 120 x 150 cm. Prado Museum. Bosch is the name given to the Dutch painter Hieronimus van Aeken. [29] Jan Gossaert (c. 1478 – 1532), Portrait of a Merchant, c. 1530. Oil on panel, . 636 x . 475 m Washington, National Gallery of Art, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund. [30] National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA, Brief Guide, in . [31] Petrus Christus (fl. 1444-c. 1470), St. Eloy (Eligius) in His Shop, 1449, oil on panel, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. [32] Smith (1976), I. x. b. 18. [33] The Life of St. Eligius, 588-660, paragraph 5. The Life of Eligius, bishop and confessor, was written by Dado, bishop of Rouen (his friend and contemporary). Eligius lived from 588 to 660. The full text is in . [34] Quentin Massys, Ill-Matched Lovers, c. 1520/1525, oil on panel, 0'432 x 0'630 m. National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C. Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund. [35] Marinus Van Reymerswaele, The Misers, 1531. Oil on wood. Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, . [36] â€Å"Bruges et surtout Anvers ont donc cree les premiers marches publics consacres a l’art en Occident†, Cassagness (2001), p. 264.

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Proposal and contract - Assignment Example The company adopts a diverse multi-channel market strategy that aims to offer to clients a unique shopping experience with ideal pricing and a vast selection of goods and services (systemax.com). The company provides industrial equipment and computer supplies to other companies and businesses in North America through its company website, corporate sales teams and vividly detailed catalogues. The company’s technology product department focuses on Information and Communications Technology as well as Consumer electronics such as tablets, laptops, desktop machines, related accessories and software. Its consumer electronics products range from surveillance equipment, cell phones, toys, video games as well as other electronic accessories. Its industrial products are categorized under maintenance, repair and operations equipment and includes an array of both goods and services such as electrical and bulbs; plumbing supplies, fans, safety and medical items, storage, shelving, packaging and supplies among others. However, technology products account for the bulk of the company’s revenue. The company markets its products to both individual and business clients. Business clients consist of educational institutions, government agencies and corporate businesses mostly within the North American region

Interconnectivity of organ systems Research Paper

Interconnectivity of organ systems - Research Paper Example If the physiological balance in the body is disturbed or interrupted, the body’s organ systems react in a way that seeks to compensate for the imbalance (Swales, P. 45). Physiological studies and researches have discovered that a homeostatic imbalance or interruption in one organ, characterized by various signs and symptoms, not only affects that particular organ but also interferes with the functionality and the well-being of other organs connected to it. When the body reacts to compensate for the imbalance caused by a disease through various regulatory mechanisms, in most cases, not a single organ is involved (Swales, P. 45). Instead a group of organs are often found to play integral roles in maintaining the body’s homeostatic stability. This paper explores the concept of organ interconnectivity during the regulation of blood pressure and hypertension. High blood pressure, sometimes referred to as the ‘silent killer’ is one of the conditions that make an individual prone to heart attacks and strokes. In fact, studies indicate that high blood pressure is the major cause of stroke and heart attacks in many regions of the world. It is therefore important that the body’s organ systems are best placed physiologically to regulate high blood pressure and hypertension. The connectivity of the organs involved in the regulation of blood pressure is evident as early as during the causative stages of high blood pressure. For example, some of the major causes of high blood pressure are kidney complications, which result in a type of high blood pressure condition known as secondary hypertension (Swales, P. 45). These kidney-related causes of high blood pressure connects it with the main organ systems involved with blood pressure such as the major arteries, the minor arteries, the heart, veins, and the capillaries. These are just the few organs that are involved

Dream job specification Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Dream job specification - Essay Example The must allow flexible working hour so that the employees may easily maintain the balance in their professional and personal life. The employees must be granted vacation days, which they must ask for without any reprimand. Design compensation and benefits package related to your dream job. My dream job must provide me with different compensations and benefits. The salary must be enough to pay back my student loan and to fulfill all the basic, social and self esteem needs of my life. The firm must also give accommodation as well as transport facility to all its employees. The compensation packages must include other firm investment in the retirement funds for all the employees. The organization must provide Health care benefits for the employees and their family. The organization must finance an annual vacation of the employees along with limited number of family members, to the location of their choice. This would give a break to the employees from all the business activities and th ey would relax their mind. The organization must also offer the productive employees compensation according to the level of their productivity this would help to foster the growth of an organization. The employee must also be given share in the profit of the organization according to their level of performance; this would encourage the employees to be more productive and would contribute towards the profitability of the organization. Rationalize your compensation and benefits package. Be sure to indicate the research and considerations that went into the design of the compensation and benefits package. Employees’ compensation does not only include the salary of the employees but all the extra rewards and benefits that employees get while working with the... The essay makes sure you rationalize your compensation and benefits package. Be sure to indicate the research and considerations that went into the design of the compensation and benefits package. Employees’ compensation does not only include the salary of the employees but all the extra rewards and benefits that employees get while working with the organization. It is the responsibility of every organization to design benefits and compensation packages for their employees. When an organization has a balanced set of salary, wages, benefits and compensation, so they remain competitive in the respective industry they are operating in. Then the essay makes you imagine this is the only position of its kind in the organization. As an architect there are various factors that may affect my performance in the organization. It is the responsibility of the human resource manager to observe, the external factors that are affecting the performance of the employees. There are several facto rs that may be held responsible for affecting my performance in an organization; these factors may be; dissatisfaction in the working environment, work overload, etc. In the conclution, the essay makes you rationalize your performance appraisal program. Be sure to indicate the research and considerations that went into the design of the performance appraisal program. Performance appraisal is an important aspect of HRM. Performance appraisal is of great importance in the theoretical studies as well as in the practical life.

International Finance Assessment Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4750 words

International Finance Assessment - Case Study Example When a firm operates only in the domestic market, both for procuring inputs as well as selling its output, it needs to deal only in the domestic currency. As companies try to increase their international presence, either by undertaking international trade or by establishing operations in foreign countries, they start dealing with people and firms in various nations. Since different countries have different domestic currencies, the question arises as to which currency the trade should be settled in. The settlement currency may either be the domestic currency of one of the parties to the trade, or may be an internationally accepted currency. In this case, Rolls-Royce has agreed on a dollar as the currency for settlement. The mechanism by which the exchange rate between these currencies i.e. the value of one currency in terms of another currency is determined, along with the level and the variability of the exchange rates, can have profound effect on the sales, cost and profits of a fir m. The change in the value of currencies takes place because of the change in the demand for holding that particular currency. The businesses may be affected in a number of ways because of the changing exchange rate. Some of them are as follows: Exchange rates may be of different types like fixed exchange rate, floating exchange rate and also exchange rates with limited flexibility. Different kinds of exchange rate systems have different methods of correcting the disequilibrium between international payments and receipts. This actually is one of the basic functions of these mechanisms. Fixed Exchange Rate System - As the name suggests, under a fixed or pegged exchange rate system the value of a currency in terms of another is fixed. These rates are determined by governments or the central banks of the respective countries. The fixed exchange rates result from countries pegging their currencies to either some common commodity or to some particular currency. There is generally some provision for correction of these fixed rates in case of a fundamental disequilibrium. The Gold Standard System and the Breton Woods System are some of the examples of Fixed Exchange Rate System. There are also particular variations of the fixed rate system like: Currency Board System - Under this system, a country fixes the rate of its domestic currency in terms of a foreign currency, and its exchange rate in terms of other currencies depends on the exchange rates between the other currencies and the currency to which the domestic currency is pegged. The biggest advantage of a currency board system is that it offers stable exchange rates, which act as an incentive for international trade and investment. The discipline enforced on the government and the financial system also helps in improving the macroeconomic fundamentals in the long run. Target Zone Arrangement - A target zone arrangement is system in which a group of countries sometimes get together, and agree to maintain the exchange rat

Alia Malek, Patriot Acts. Book Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Alia Malek, Patriot Acts. Book - Essay Example Where of how law enforcement officers bully normal citizens, as well as how normal citizens bully other citizens who they consider are much lesser than them in a number of aspects such as race and colour. We hear of bullying stories every day in our schools. Students from different races (rather than whites) and deprived backgrounds among others fall prey to mostly white students who consider themselves more superior to other races (Bacon 35). I also fell prey to some of the worst bullies while in high school. It shows so evidently the role of our lack of knowledge as a country and as humans. I find both enraging and heartbreaking that parents, teachers, as well as schools, can be the major persecutors in a majority of these stories. The stories of Gurwinder and Rana truly drove the cultural unawareness home, but my own ignorance, as well: I echoed on the rage of my Sikh or Muslim friends and how immature I was of what they were enduring from the entire nation while they were going t hrough persecution in other regions of the globe I am delighted to have stumble upon this volume. The stories in Patriot Acts cope with one basic issue: what defines an American? Can United States citizens put on turbans? And can they pray openly? The storytellers in this volume are being deprived of their Americanism (which is that different when compared to citizenship) and, in the United States, that means that they are being shorn of their humanity (Malek 56). I marvel if this tendency to link Americanism with basic humanity is exclusive to the United States or if other nations are no different. A brand of American patriotism is to associate America with liberty, as well as freedom with ones fundamental rights (Bacon 40). However this principle, the highest confidence Americans have in this thought, depends on that liberty being indivisible from their citizens and not only the government. So how do individuals’ freedoms get

Organizing a trip to Edingburgh Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Organizing a trip to Edingburgh - Essay Example Art and other portraits are among the major contributions of Edinburgh. Scottish art council, National gallery of Scotland, Scottish National Portrait Gallery and other art centers are the major attractions. Edinburgh has witnessed lots of International twin programs from various universities and colleges across the world. The trip involves a large number of students and members of the faculty who will guide the students in different aspects during the trip. Some other university staff will also be part of the trip and their assistance is expected to make the trip more fruitful. The date selected for the trip is the month of May when the University classes are suspended due to summer holiday (5TH May, 2009 to 9th May, 2009). Flight tickets are being obtained for all the persons going for the trip. As per the rate given by the travel agents, the air fare is 200' per person (100' for Wales to Edinburgh and 100' for Edinburgh to Wales). The trip will be in business class. Hotels will be booked in Edinburgh for the trip. The rooms will be of double or triple occupancy. Rooms will be allotted to students and staff as per their preference. As per the rates provided by the hotel manager in Edinburgh, each person has to pay 200 ' daily for lodging. This price includes all the hotel facilities except food. ll the people goi Cab Fare ll the people going for trip are to assemble at the University campus. Cabs will carry them from the University campus to Wales airport on day 0. Cabs will also be hired to transport people from Hotel in Edinburgh to the airport of Edinburgh. As per the rates provided by the Cab association, they are going to charge 10 ' per person. All the cabs will be fully air conditioned. Food All the participants will be provided with breakfast, lunch, evening snacks and dinner. Breakfast will be provided by the hotel in Edinburgh. For lunch, restaurants have been selected in Edinburgh with flexible food items. Three different restaurants have been selected for three days of trip in Edinburgh. The restaurants have

The War on Drugs Essay Example for Free

The War on Drugs Essay Despite large amounts of government funding and agencies working together the war on drugs is the most counterproductive measure the United States has launched because its main focus was to stop drug trafficking and criminal activity, but it has done nothing but increase incarceration and large amounts of spending by the U. S. One of the first bills introduced to the United States was the National Prohibition Act in 1920 and also the 18th Amendment. This bill prohibited the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcohol on a national stage for every day consumption. The only way to get a hold of alcohol at the time was to obtain a prescription from the doctor for medical purposes. This was just another way the government can tax and control the use of alcohol consumption at the time. In 1933 the prohibition act was repealed. Because of the increase of other drug substance abuse outside the abuse of alcohol with the approval of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Department of the Treasury the Federal Bureau of Narcotics was introduced and the adoption of the Uniform State Narcotics Drug Act was established and created. First the war on drugs has been a long and expensive campaign the United States has invested in, to include resources, and manpower. President Johnson was the first president to focus illegal drug use. He be believed half of the crime committed in the U. S. was in drug relation and grow by 90 percent over the next decade. The Johnson Administration was the true beginning on the War of Drugs. President Johnson created the Reorganization Plan of 1968 which merged the Bureau of Narcotics and the Bureau of Drug Abuse to form the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs within the Department of Justice. The belief during this time about drug use was summarized by journalist Max Lerner in his celebrated work America as a Civilization: As a case in point we may take the known fact of the prevalence of reefer and dope addiction in Negro areas. This is essentially explained in terms of poverty, slum living, and broken families, yet it would be easy to show the lack of drug addiction among other ethnic groups where the same conditions apply. (Inciardi The War on Drugs IV, 248) The use of term War on Drug was first used by President Richard Nixon in 1971. President Nixon was also wanting to continue the anti- war precedent set by Johnson. The start of the U. S. to counteract the war, was to implement the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970. When President Nixon and Admistration declared the end the war on drugs it was manly stated for laws and acts that was made from earlier prohibitation act and laws not for the new era of drugs to sweep the United States . The actual term war on drugs was coined when in 1971 Congress of the United States released a report that there was a growing trend among the United States serve members from Vietnam that were addicted to heroin and other control substances. The Bureau of Narcotics was replace with the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1973. As early as 1982, with the intense epic of drug use sweeping the nation the United States increased aid and more involvement, tasking the help of the CIA and military indirection efforts national and international levels. Nixons drug force agencies practice illegal acts to make arrest to meet demands of the public, this put a widely held of the arrested made was of African-American personal. The following two presidents Ford and Carter, kept the tradition of continuing to respond with programs of their predecessors. In 1982, Ronald Regan became President with a radical bias within the War on Drugs received a new revitalization. In a speech delivered soon after taking office, Reagan announced, â€Å"We’re taking down the surrender flag that has flown over so many drug efforts; we’re running up a battle flag. Within his first five years of being president he strengthened drug enforcement. He created mandatory sentencing, forfeiture of cash and real estate. In 1986 Reagan was able to pass the Anti-Drug Abuse Act through Congress. This legislation cost the tax payers a additional $1. 7 million to fund, established 29 mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses. Reagans former Vice-President George H. W. Bush was the next in the oval office. He shared the same political views and background as past presidents. Intensifying narcotics regulation when the First National Drug Control Strategy was issued by the Office of National Drug Control in 1989 and doing nothing to reduce sentencing disparities and racial bias carrying over from the Reagan administration. The following three presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama continued with the trend and maintaining the promise to overcome the epidemic of drugs that will not be tolerated and over come during taking office. There are over one million people every year in the United States incarcerated due to drug law violations. With the increase of the youth involvement of drug violation, this has had a everlasting effect of them to include permanent removal of education opportunities, the ability to vote, obtaining employment become far more difficult because of violations of their youth. Studies show that the War on Drugs has made a permanent underclass of people who have few educational or job opportunities, often as a result of being punished for drug offenses which in turn have resulted from attempts to earn a living in spite of having no education or job opportunities. The drug was is said to have wasted billions of wasted tax dollars and misallocated spending. The government has spent more money on the drug war then it was spent of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Due to the over whelming account of people being incarnated it has put a financial drain and a puts a stain on the legal and law enforcement resources. Due to prohibition in the United States, criminal organization have found other means of transportation, growing and distribution causing a lost of many lives. Drug cartels are the only organizations that gain profit from prohibition which is regenerated for smuggling, violence and corruption in government networks. The next generation on fighting the war of drugs is coming. The question is to ask are selves to spend are tax payer money on prevention or treatment. The US funded a research study that showed that all of the Governments effects to stop drug trafficking coming into the United States all little to no effect. From the RAND Corporation the study, Sealing the Borders: The Effects of Increased Military Participation in Drug Interdiction, was prepared by seven researchers, mathematicians and economists at the National Defense Research Institute, a branch of the RAND, and was released in 1988. (R. Reuter 1988) There have been similar conclusions conducted by seven on organizations. The RAND corporation has also included that budget money for drug enforcement should be spent on treatment other then prevention. In 2008 a declaration was announced to balance a drug policy to the prevention, research, education and treatment. Many people are in favor of treatment and prevention instead of punishment sue to the high amounts of financing for law enforcement and court cost of the tax payers. In conclusion, the measure the United States have implemented to combat drugs, smuggling and drug abuse have been at best unsuccessful, and at worst counterproducvtive. If the United States truly desires to curb drug abuse, new forward thinking methods such treatment and rehabilitation would have to be implemented.

The outsourcing of ICT by Tesco

The outsourcing of ICT by Tesco Outsourcing ICT is quite commonly used by organizations as an approach to strategic management. Assess the advantages and disadvantages that outsourcing can bring in developing effective uses of information systems in an organization such as Tesco. Tescos used effectively its resources and capabilities (strength) and developed a competitive advantage over its rivals Asda and Sainbury in the retail trade. Tesco as a supermarket chain dominates the UK by keeping prices low, and having the ability to keep competitiveness high. Tesco is the UK most successful retailer. Its strengths are the powerful retail brand name, customers loyalty, trusting customers, financial power, stores, the Tescos Clubcard, etc. Tesco is part of the wider general retail market because the group has about the 20% of the grocery market and 5% of non food by moving to market place where the margins are higher. The group of Tesco sells also books, electrical products, clothing, and CDs (16% of the market). Tescos weaknesses are: lack of the experience and expertise in several areas, large infrastructure demands, the diversity of products and no free cash for innovation. External environmental factors keep giving great opportunities in broad retail as well to new market areas. Although Tescos share of total retail market is 12,3% the group believes that there is a lot far to go. Tesco targets its over-priced high street rivals tries to increase the market share and take the opportunities in broad retailing. In the last ten years the group was suffering by falling sales, slow profit growth, depressed share price because of the entering of continental Europe in UK. But this was not the only threat from the external environment. Hypermarkets from the other side of Channel, French hypermarkets (20-25% of the electric market), dealings between rivals, fear of losing customers, bid from Asda to buy Safeway are threats too. Wal-Marts move to UK was made so Tesco lose its home market. As Sir Terry says and the size of Tesco is no protection. The competitive environment influenced the process of strategic decision making. Tesco focused on growth strategies for existing and new products, in existing and new markets. Always tries to increase market share as well to find additional markets or expand in new geographical regions with more customers and markets new and riskier areas of growth. Since 1995 Tesco became market leader by developing the marketing, the Value range and the Clubcard loyalty. Tesco in our day has grown from efficient grocery operation to a non-stop supplier of everything and sells in ten countries as well China. Tescos strategy focuses on the core UK grocery business, non food, international expansion and retailing services as finance services dotcom business and telecommunications packages. Tescos effective strategic management helped in operate and respond in new challenges and carry out its competitive strategy. http://www.allbusiness.com/management/2975129-1.html Today everybody knows about the Tescos intention to remain a market leader with concentration of power. For staying in that position and multiply the sales it is necessary to focus on customer service. Gathered information from the external market, analysing opportunities and strengths forced Tesco to change to be more competitive and have stronger capability by adapting new strategy http://www.pim.com.pk/faq.htm#Str%20Mgt The results of two research projects showed that the customers were not satisfied and the levels of staff morale were suffering. Fundamental decisions and a set of actions should be undertaken with a focus on the future conditions. http://www.allbusiness.com/management/2975129-1.html The best way to respond, reach the goals and achieve results was to engage a team from Trilogy a three member consortium of specialist consulting companies. The joint Tesco/Trilogy team developed the Living Service Programme a 26 weeks process, undertaken by 660 stores and seven core components. Tesco used its strong and stable core and decided improvements to the processes by using outsourcing ICT It was very expensive to use and grow up Tescos IT infrastructure while outsourcing ICT was a very good solution. In our days as technology advances, organizations try to change their needs and stay ahead of their competitors. Outsourcing ICT is the international migration of service employment of information and communication technologies (ICT). New entry countries try to gain a share in this new highly competitive and dynamic market. Governments set the rules for the best result of their companies benefit. Now available knowledge is been transferred anywhere. http://www.unece.org/press/pr2004/04ireedd_p08e.htm Information and communication technology (ICT) consists of all-technical means used to handle information and aid communication, including computer, network, hardware and software. The advantages of outsourcing ICT are: Outsourcing ICT gives the organization the flexibility to get expert, skilled service and experienced people or teams. The outsourcing partner is specialized in that particular business process and gives technical support Outsourcing ICT gives access to world capabilities. Outsourcing ICT companies with a full support contract provide fast services with high skilled people and assets needed and reduce the organizations risks http://www.gen-i.co.nz/services/Pages/ICTOutsourcing.aspx There is no need to make investments in technology, methodology, infrastructure or on training costs, while these savings in time and money will increase revenue, profit, productivity and much more http://www.gen-i.co.nz/services/Pages/ICTOutsourcing.aspx .the organizations may gain a competitive edge in the market and may provide the best services to the customers who will be impressed with the high quality services. The operating costs (research, development, marketing and deployment) are reduced and the completive advantage may be increased with improvements in measures as cost, quality, service and speed. there are more profitable and productive activities, .with outsourcing ICT the operation functions may be carried out by outsider experts. http://www.gen-i.co.nz/services/Pages/ICTOutsourcing.aspx Tesco is using its strong and stable core functions efficiently in house, focus on core subjects, increase the profits while the non-core companys functions will be performed by the outsourcing partner (Trilogy) Organization as Tesco businesses may find a team or a partner for support their network management, helpdesk and server operations Outsourcing ICT is growing in EU as well in other continents. International outsourcing ICT in emerging market countries enables the organizations to find services with lower cost far away with well trained staff as engineers, programmers, IT technicians and pay them with lower wages http://www.unece.org/press/pr2004/04ireedd_p08e.htm http://www.ihotdesk.com/outsourcing.html Very often the employees dont work efficiently or dont use the computer application or the technical support is not enough. The small organizations prefer outsourcing ICT because they dont want fixed costs and the large organizations use outsourcing ICT because they need skilled people http://www.ihotdesk.com/outsourcing.html The organization may search for lower cost, high quality, and deliver effective manage service http://www.unece.org/press/pr2004/04ireedd_p08e.htm http://www.ihotdesk.com/outsourcing.html The disadvantages of outsourcing ICT are: The outsourcing ICT main disadvantage is that many employees may lose their jobs because the outsourcing partner is specialized in that particular business process and gives technical support. This unemployment usually come from North America and Western Europe. http://www.unece.org/press/pr2004/04ireedd_p08e.htm In some contracts may be not any quality defined due to low price. Under these circumstances the service and the buyer-supplier communication are poor. In offshore outsourcing people are hired with less money. The organizations productivity depends on these employees. Confidentiality of the information being transferred to the outsourcing firm is very important but any theft may occur. In that strategic management there is a risk. Some outsource ICT dont follow the signed contract http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1347866 The effective uses of Information Systems in an organization are many. The IS handles the flow of information, supports the organizations decision, helps to analyze complex problems and helps the organization to expand into global markets. Effective information systems deal with the development, use and management of an organizations IT infrastructure. The IS components are human resources, technical service, managers, computer programmers, operators, analysts and designers. In the organization, information about production, customers, sales and others may be distributed and help the organizations executives and the management. The most effective use of Information systems is that influence the organizations performance without caring about increasing the sales or introducing new products. Also Information systems are related with the organizations growth strategies. http://www.igi-global.com/Bookstore/Article.aspx?TitleId=43003 What do you understand by Knowledge management and knowledge management systems. Analyse how useful such a system could be to Tesco and why it is often difficult to persuade employees to use such systems. Knowledge management (KM) includes ies and practices used by an organization to identify, create, share and distribute the knowledge. Knowledge is a resource that the organization uses to make significant investments in the latest technology systems and infrastructure to support knowledge management. Organizations like Tesco have these resources which are part of their business strategy. Individuals try to encode their knowledge into a shared database. This reduce time and cost. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management Collection of data is not information but the pieces of data. Data represents facts or results. Information is a statistic in time. Relation between data and other relation represents information which may be figures about market size, customers needs, current production capacity etc. It becomes knowledge when an individual may understand the results patterns of relations of data and information and other patterns represent knowledge. This gives the opportunity to estimate. When someone understands the principles then there is wisdom. Knowledge management captures and understands how all these knowledge can be together and given to others in order to be effectiveness. http://www.systems-thinking.org/kmgmt/kmgmt.htm Knowledge management is getting the right information, to the right people at the right time in order to do the right actions. Innovations may be necessary. http://www.pim.com.pk/faq.htm#Str%20Mgt Knowledge management systems (KMS) is a class of IS and refers to manage of knowledge. KMS supports creation and transfers the application of knowledge in organizations. Effective development and implementation of KMS requires a foundation of several rich literatures that exists in different related fields. KMS enables employees to have ready access to the organizations documented base of facts, sources of information and solutions. Software tools are a collection of technologies not necessary acquired as a single software solution added to the existing information technology infrastructure. This is a great investment in the latest technology, systems and infrastructure supports the KM. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management Knowledge management systems (KMS) is a generally IT system for managing knowledge. Sharing the information widely and distributed databases new ideas come in mind for new or improved equipment. Employees have access to organizations documents, source of information and solutions. Users are active, participate in knowledge networks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management_system Categories: Hypertext How useful such a system could be to Tesco Knowledge is information which may be transferred in the organization by a common database. Employees are allowed to obtain knowledge, expertise, get ideas relevant to their work and know how to work efficiently. Cultural change is very important capital for the organization and drives to managing innovation facilitating the organization learning across the organization and solves difficult problems. Sharing valuable information the employees avoid non sense works and training time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management_system