A Letter to a Friend Who Is Going to Visit London

Hello, Caron! I heard you’re going to London these holidays! Oh, I must confess that you’re stealing the dream of my life! I’m getting a bit jealous because I still don’t have an opportunity to go there. But anyway, it’s great that you’ re (visiting/going to visit) this amazing country! And I’d like to advise you some places to visit as I spent a lot of time reading about this ancient city. As you know, London is divided into 32 boroughs and the City. From another hand it is divided into 4 main sections: the City, the West End, the East End and the South Bank. If you want to see the ancient edifices and to enjoy the beauty of history, you should go to the City. The City of London is the historical heart of London. This area was already a bustling trading post almost 2000 years ago, when it was a part of the Roman empire. Many of the irregular streets still follow the ancient Roman roads. Plenty of historic landmarks attest to the City's storied past. The most famous is the domed St. Paul's Cathedral, built in the 17th century by Sir Christopher Wren. And also you can find there the Guildhall, a beautiful early 15th century edifice that was reconstructed in the 17th century in a neo-Gothic style. And also you’ll enjoy the aspects of Royal Exchange Building and the Monument. But the City is not only about the ancient buildings. You’ll find there well-known modern building as the Lloyd's of London, designed by Richard Rogers, the architect of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. A more recent, but equally remarkable(Ð ½Ã µÃ ºÃ'€Ð °Ã' Ã ¸Ã ²Ã ¾:(( ) tower in the City is Barbican 30 St. Mary Axe, commonly known as the Gherkin. And if you want to go shopping, my advice is to go the West End of the city. The Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, where six streets come together. And don’t forget to visit my favorite Harrods. As they say, they have all goods for all the people from everywhere, but if they have money to pay. It’s a paradise for the shopaholics and for people that like exquisite things. I even heard that a baby-elephant was bought in Harrods for some well-known person. And if you come there at the sales season, you’ll have a great opportunity to buy everything at reduced prices. The South Bank of the site is a great modern cultural center where a great number of theatres, concert halls and art galleries are situated. And if you want to become a part of cultural life of London, you should go there and enjoy the plays, performances, exhibitions. So, the best advice I can give you is to enjoy this immaculate city, it’s culture and its’ beautiful traditions. Hello, Caron! I heard you’re going to London these holidays! Oh, I must confess that you’re stealing the dream of my life! I’m getting a bit jealous because I still don’t have an opportunity to go there. But anyway, it’s great that you’ re (visiting/going to visit) this amazing country! And I’d like to advise you some places to visit as I spent a lot of time reading about this ancient city. As you know, London is divided into 32 boroughs and the City. From another hand it is divided into 4 main sections: the City, the West End, the East End and the South Bank. If you want to see the ancient edifices and to enjoy the beauty of history, you should go to the City. The City of London is the historical heart of London. This area was already a bustling trading post almost 2000 years ago, when it was a part of the Roman empire. Many of the irregular streets still follow the ancient Roman roads. Plenty of historic landmarks attest to the City's storied past. The most famous is the domed St. Paul's Cathedral, built in the 17th century by Sir Christopher Wren. And also you can find there the Guildhall, a beautiful early 15th century edifice that was reconstructed in the 17th century in a neo-Gothic style. And also you’ll enjoy the aspects of Royal Exchange Building and the Monument. But the City is not only about the ancient buildings. You’ll find there well-known modern building as the Lloyd's of London, designed by Richard Rogers, the architect of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. A more recent, but equally remarkable(Ð ½Ã µÃ ºÃ'€Ð °Ã' Ã ¸Ã ²Ã ¾:(( ) tower in the City is Barbican 30 St. Mary Axe, commonly known as the Gherkin. And if you want to go shopping, my advice is to go the West End of the city. The Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, where six streets come together. And don’t forget to visit my favorite Harrods. As they say, they have all goods for all the people from everywhere, but if they have money to pay. It’s a paradise for the shopaholics and for people that like exquisite things. I even heard that a baby-elephant was bought in Harrods for some well-known person. And if you come there at the sales season, you’ll have a great opportunity to buy everything at reduced prices. The South Bank of the site is a great modern cultural center where a great number of theatres, concert halls and art galleries are situated. And if you want to become a part of cultural life of London, you should go there and enjoy the plays, performances, exhibitions. So, the best advice I can give you is to enjoy this immaculate city, it’s culture and its’ beautiful traditions. Hello, Caron! I heard you’re going to London these holidays! Oh, I must confess that you’re stealing the dream of my life! I’m getting a bit jealous because I still don’t have an opportunity to go there. But anyway, it’s great that you’ re (visiting/going to visit) this amazing country! And I’d like to advise you some places to visit as I spent a lot of time reading about this ancient city. As you know, London is divided into 32 boroughs and the City. From another hand it is divided into 4 main sections: the City, the West End, the East End and the South Bank. If you want to see the ancient edifices and to enjoy the beauty of history, you should go to the City. The City of London is the historical heart of London. This area was already a bustling trading post almost 2000 years ago, when it was a part of the Roman empire. Many of the irregular streets still follow the ancient Roman roads. Plenty of historic landmarks attest to the City's storied past. The most famous is the domed St. Paul's Cathedral, built in the 17th century by Sir Christopher Wren. And also you can find there the Guildhall, a beautiful early 15th century edifice that was reconstructed in the 17th century in a neo-Gothic style. And also you’ll enjoy the aspects of Royal Exchange Building and the Monument. But the City is not only about the ancient buildings. You’ll find there well-known modern building as the Lloyd's of London, designed by Richard Rogers, the architect of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. A more recent, but equally remarkable(Ð ½Ã µÃ ºÃ'€Ð °Ã' Ã ¸Ã ²Ã ¾:(( ) tower in the City is Barbican 30 St. Mary Axe, commonly known as the Gherkin. And if you want to go shopping, my advice is to go the West End of the city. The Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, where six streets come together. And don’t forget to visit my favorite Harrods. As they say, they have all goods for all the people from everywhere, but if they have money to pay. It’s a paradise for the shopaholics and for people that like exquisite things. I even heard that a baby-elephant was bought in Harrods for some well-known person. And if you come there at the sales season, you’ll have a great opportunity to buy everything at reduced prices. The South Bank of the site is a great modern cultural center where a great number of theatres, concert halls and art galleries are situated. And if you want to become a part of cultural life of London, you should go there and enjoy the plays, performances, exhibitions. So, the best advice I can give you is to enjoy this immaculate city, it’s culture and its’ beautiful traditions. Hello, Caron! I heard you’re going to London these holidays! Oh, I must confess that you’re stealing the dream of my life! I’m getting a bit jealous because I still don’t have an opportunity to go there. But anyway, it’s great that you’ re visitingthis amazing country! And I’d like to advise you some places to visit as I spent a lot of time reading about this ancient city. As you know, London is divided into 32 boroughs and the City. From another hand it is divided into 4 main sections: the City, the West End, the East End and the South Bank. If you want to see the ancient edifices and to enjoy the beauty of history, you should go to the City. The City of London is the historical heart of London. This area was already a bustling trading post almost 2000 years ago, when it was a part of the Roman empire. Many of the irregular streets still follow the ancient Roman roads. Plenty of historic landmarks attest to the City's storied past. The most famous is the domed St. Paul's Cathedral, built in the 17th century by Sir Christopher Wren. And also you can find there the Guildhall, a beautiful early 15th century edifice that was reconstructed in the 17th century in a neo-Gothic style. And also you’ll enjoy the aspects of Royal Exchange Building and the Monument. But the City is not only about the ancient buildings. You’ll find there well-known modern building as the Lloyd's of London, designed by Richard Rogers, the architect of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. A more recent, but equally remarkable tower in the City is Barbican 30 St. Mary Axe, commonly known as the Gherkin. And if you want to go shopping, my advice is to go the West End of the city. The Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, where six streets come together. And don’t forget to visit my favorite Harrods. As they say, they have all goods for all the people from everywhere, but if they have money to pay. It’s a paradise for the shopaholics and for people that like exquisite things. I even heard that a baby-elephant was bought in Harrods for some well-known person. And if you come there at the sales season, you’ll have a great opportunity to buy everything at reduced prices. The South Bank of the site is a great modern cultural center where a great number of theatres, concert halls and art galleries are situated. And if you want to become a part of cultural life of London, you should go there and enjoy the plays, performances, exhibitions. So, the best advice I can give you is to enjoy this immaculate city, it’s culture and its’ beautiful traditions.

Printing and its influence on the intellectual life Essay

The history of printing dated back as early as 868 AD when the Chinese used it to produce the earliest dated printed book known as the â€Å"Diamond Sutra. † However, it is believed that book printing may have occurred even before that. Around 1041, the movable clay type printing system was first invented by Bi Sheng in China. Later on, the metal movable type was invented in Korea in 1230. At around 1450, a goldsmith named Johannes Gutenberg assembled a printing system from which the modern printing system was developed. At present, all movable type printing systems have been derived from the Gutenberg design. Thereafter, the invention of the printing system hastened the production of many books. As more books were produced, the production of manuscripts also declined. During that time, manuscript was the official form of publication for all printed communications on the scientific and literary sphere. Political and religious communications are slowly catching up to the printing trend. Concurrently, publishing entities soon emerged. Printing and publishing materialized as a profitable livelihood. It even became an essential tool for the dissemination of information. Clandestine manuscript production containing unconventional ideas were easily produced and circulated due to the ease of its production. Evidently, printing and publishing had a profound impact on intellectual life. Impact of Printing on Intellectual Life Prior to the advent of printing, everything had to be done by hand. Think of it as diaries or journals, religious and medieval manuscripts are prepared by monks by copying the text. Biblical manuscripts and other books were handwritten and copied from a portion of the text source. These handwritten copies of books consist of attempts to reconstruct the original text. During that era, manuscripts were used as the means of storing and disseminating information, and the manuscript culture was basically dominated by monks until its transition to the market in the cities, along with the rise of universities. When Gutenberg introduced his printing system, it marked an improvement, at first, on the production of manuscripts, then on the production of books. His system revolutionized Europe’s book-making process that the technology expanded throughout the continent. Books were produced faster than before. Faster production of books means one thing: an increase of literacy. With this widespread increase in literacy rate, intellectual quests took off. The people have become thirsty for more knowledge, and printing became an essential tool to advance the academic pursuits. Gutenberg’s printing system, regarded as the most important invention of the second millennium, has been a key factor in the European Renaissance. With his printing system, the cultural movement easily spread throughout Europe. It allowed the people easy access to books. In addition, the invention of the printing system helped in the assimilation of Greek and Arabic knowledge. Classical and ancient ideas, which were lost through time have been revived and disseminated. The rebirth of these ideas fuelled the quest for rediscovery of ancient knowledge that had been long forgotten. While these old ideas were revived, novel thought were also spawned and disseminated. Combined with the technology of printing, intellectual pursuits were easily advanced. The printing technology also facilitated the social and political upheavals at that time through the dissemination of clandestine printed articles containing unorthodox views that challenged mainstream thought. Thus, printing afforded wide latitude of political freedom. It made the political atmosphere conducive for the advancement of revolutionary ideas. Printing and publishing also contributed to the transformation of scientific thought. Fundamentals in physics, astronomy and biology were easily propagated with the use of printed materials. Ancient science has been easily superseded with the dissemination of these new ideas. Thus, the scientific revolution ensued. The scientific revolution paved the way for modern science as we know today. Galilei, Copernicus, Kepler, Newton and the others questioned the foundation of the old science. Their ideas contradicted the prevailing ideas at that time. Theoretical developments, thus, emerged. The printing system facilitated the propagation of Copernicus’ work on the heliocentric model of the solar system. In the 16th century, Copernicus contended that the sun is the center of the solar system. This was received with opposition from the church. The church firmly adhered to geocentrism, which placed the earth as the center of the universe. With the help of the printing system, information regarding Heliocentrism was easily dispersed. With printing and publishing, these brilliant minds were able to easily communicate their knowledge through scholarly journals. It resulted to a greater awareness of things, which were previously hidden from the general public. Dissemination of information gave an understanding of the information dispersed. With printing, the process was rapidly spread across Europe. Printed articles of classical thought were reprinted and widely spread. A curiosity on all things were intellectual was aroused. People have begun to engage in intellectual discussions; hence, books have become a commodity. Book production evolved into a commercial enterprise. Accordingly, copyright laws were passed to protect these artistic and literary creations. This legal notion was conceptualized as a reaction to the advent of printing. Charles II of England was apprehensive about the unregulated production and copying of books. Moreover, printing helped established the standards of spelling and syntax. The English language also emerged as the language commonly used in most published works; thus, the use of Latin declined. On the religious end, printing also facilitated the Protestant Reformation. The movement was started an attempt to reform the Catholic Church. At that time, the Church’s hierarchy was plagued with corruption. Many Catholics observed that false doctrines and malpractices were carried out. This corruption was seen as even reaching the position of the Pope. With the printing press, the reform movement advanced the culture of Biblical literacy. By the translating the Bible and making it available to the masses, the message was dispersed and made it more accessible for the public. Moreover, Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk, also raised his protests against the Catholic Church. He discussed his discontent of the Church’s sale of indulgences. Because of the printing system, the swift dissemination of discontent was facilitated. Information relating to Luther’s theological teachings was dispersed in the form of broadsheets, to the poor sector of society. These broadsheets evolved into newspapers. Presently, newspapers are the most accessible tools for public information and written journalism. Information relating to political events, business and the society, among others, are disseminated. The wide circulation of newspapers as a means of communication was largely due to the advances of printing. Printing presses accelerated the process of making newspapers. With printing, intellectual innovations have progressed into something that we have today. The printing system has been a valuable tool in the dissemination of knowledge and information. Human advancements in the field of science, artistic and literary domain have been realized. The rapid dispersal of information is attributable to the fast production of books and other scholarly articles. These would not have been realized were it not for printing. The invention of printing assisted in the proliferation of new thought. Ideas, both old and new, were unearthed. Ancient knowledge was rediscovered. Dissemination thereof was necessary in order to inform the general public thereof. The innovation of printing and publishing helped pushed these ideas to the open, making it accessible for the public to see.

Cultural Diversity College Essay Essay

1. The University of Washington seeks to create a community of students richly diverse in cultural backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints. How would you contribute to this community?-University of Washington, Seattle I, a culturally influenced young woman, have not only one, but two influential ways to contribute to your diverse university. As a Jewish Caucasian girl, I am here to throw stereotypical beliefs down the drain towards any culture. I am a blonde, blue eyed, 18 year old who not only grew up orthodox, but also has a half Christian family. I do not have a dozen brothers and sisters, an abnormally large nose, or for that matter, any money to spare whatsoever. I grew up with married parents, and when divorced, lived with my father. Our family was never â€Å"well off† or capable of buying anything and everything. I spent the majority of my life in an apartment living with a single parent. As for all that money society said we had; let’s just say there were times we were lucky to have money for groceries that week. People expect snotty Asians, Muslims with terrorist intent, uneducated Latinos, and gang associated African Americans. It isn’t easy to read that much less write it. Unfortunately, we know that much of the world is still like this. But I’m writing this to tell you I am not th e world. I come from a culturally diverse family whom in the past, have even been at war. There is my mother’s side, where missing Sunday church was not an option; and my father’s side, the conservative yet non-orthodox classic Jewish background. Although my mother converted to Orthodox Judaism before my time, her family remained faithful Christians unable to understand her withdraw. I grew up an orthodox Jew, covered from head to toe, eating only what the Old Testament allowed me to. Growing with age, I grew out of my orthodox upbringing, realizing that my draw towards Judaism didn’t come from praying and unreasonable rules, but the Jewish traditions and values I grew up with. While I celebrate Hanukah with my father’s family, I equally enjoy Christmas time with my mother’s family. I get to learn both stories, both views, and the different values contributing to both religions. And during these annual holidays of rejoice and tradition, I have gained a respect for both. Because of my background, familial influences, and how I chose to embrace my religion, I am capable of respecting others with different views, and even learning from them. When one person is capable of this, I believe it is contagious to other people from different backgrounds. Thus, gaining more worldwide respect, more acceptance, and more closure from taking in various values that many religions, or different views, have to offer. Because of my culturally influenced upbringing, the opportunity to choose my stance on religion, and my non stereotypical Jewish background, I can contribute to every community. I have respect for other people’s views, encouraging them to have respect for mine and others. I don’t stereotype people based on their culture because I know first-hand this isn’t always the case. I can be a contagious positive attribute to your community.

Hot Coffee at McDonald's Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Hot Coffee at McDonald's - Case Study Example If a consumer is happy, more business transactions can be completed. This is good for both the consumer and businesses. Â  Prescriptions should have a fair price value, although sometimes do not. That is why generic medicine is cheaper. Many patients want name brand, but the generic is the same ingredients. Prescription prices should be regulated like any other product. Cost of prescriptions should be based on manufacturing cost, profit, and loss. Pharmaceutical companies are businesses. They are in business to make money. Pharmaceutical companies are not in the business of helping people. Researchers might want to help people, but in the end, business is what makes the American economy work. Â  Pharmaceutical companies do not have a moral obligation to make lifesaving drugs in poor countries at little or no cost. However, it does make good publicity if they do provide lifesaving drugs to poor countries at little or no cost. It also makes business sense due to tax benefits to charitable organizations. Morally pharmaceutical companies are businesses. They legally and morally should not sell drugs that harm. However, they do not have to give their product away for free. Pharmaceutical companies are businesses, not charitable organizations. Â  The Doe Run Company should pay the costs of cleaning up Herculaneum. Despite the fact the Doe Run Company has been in business before EPA laws on lead, the Company has been violating known EPA laws for years. This is why the Company should be responsible for cleaning up the town. Willful lawbreakers should have to pay the cost for cleanups. It is not the town people’s fault.

Case study on MABUCHI MOTORS CO. LTD Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Case study on MABUCHI MOTORS CO. LTD - Essay Example (Mabuchi Motor Co., Ltd.). The strategic management of Mabuchi Motor Co. Ltd., has come in for acclaim for its use of innovation in products, processes, and management techniques that has made the company a formidable business enterprise. This was rewarded by, Mabuchi Motor Company becoming one of the first four Japanese companies to receive the Porter Prize in 2002. (New Porter Prize Awarded in Japan). Mabuchi Motor Co. Ltd. has concentrated on market and production location diversification, while hanging on to its limited product range strategy. (Goerzen, A., 1998). This strategy of Mabuchi, enables it to concentrate all its efforts into its single product, and consolidate these efforts to give it opportunities into diverse markets. This also signifies the strong confidence of Mabuchi in its product enhancement to meet new challenges in the market for small electric motors. The disadvantage of a single product portfolio is that it makes the creation of adequate demand for the product a very significant factor. Mabuchi has turned this disadvantage into an opportunity, as it strives to meet customer requirements within its narrow product base. The Germany Company, Braun is the largest manufacturers of electric razors, and approached Mabuchi with an attractive proposal to enlarge its product base by developing an electric motor without a steel core. Mabuchi refused this offer, but t ook this up as challenge, and convinced Braun on the true capabilities of its steel-core electric motors, and developed a motor for Braun at roughly one-tenth the price of the motor that was in use at that time by Braun. This endeavor of Mabuchi has made it the sole supplier of small electric motors to Braun. The ability of Mabuchi to develop electric motors for diverse application provides it with a window of opportunity for finding new markets. (Hiroaki, N.). The prices of the products of Mabuchi are extremely competitive. This is because of

Annotated Bibliography Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 7

Annotated Bibliography - Essay Example It saves on pencil and paper, agrees Shane. The author makes a credible case because she does not just use facts, but the actual words of students interviewed. â€Å"With Smartphones, learning is a whole new experience,† she quotes a student. Smartphones are significant in the daily education of the American child. Author Sonia delves deep into the importance of Smartphones in health care. She observes that consumers are now increasingly using Smartphones to â€Å"collect vital information regarding health and storing it electronically†. They can use the gathered information to treat chronic diseases and prevent acute ones, without necessarily involving physicians. Jessop talks about the benefits of Smartphones in health, pointing out the fact that it provides them with tips on what to eat, monitor hypertension and diabetes and how they can work with some 90-health devices in the market. The Smartphone has all the health information pertaining to a patient stored in their personal health records (P.H.R). Although the project is growing slowly, observes the author, there will be positive developments in the future. The source is helpful because it shows that the American people can rely on Smartphones to know about diseases and their treatment; they can socialize and take control of

Participation Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Participation Questions - Essay Example Inez defines enterprise transformation as a change from lesser level to a greater level, which is quite right. Enterprise transformation usually is done for the business upgrade and with this transformation, the business is able to progress further because of the newly introduced improvements. Betty Bacon-ward also defines enterprise transformation as a change for the improvement of services and people of business, which is again correct. Ronald Scherban, Sheila and others also define enterprise transformation the same way. Dawna Radtke informs about enterprise transformation as enterprise’s renewed motivation, values and vision while I feel this is not wholly true as motivation is always there with business activities and usually a change discourages people in some cases. However, transformation renews business procedures, refreshes values and vision of the business. Therefore, enterprise transformation is all about change that is brought in a business for the betterment of the business and its people. Leaders play a crucial role in the transformation that is brought in a business. It is usually difficult for the employees of a business to accept any new thing such as change. The leaders that are motivated, distinguished, strong and have powerful leadership skills are able to motivate people in order to accept the change and work accordingly. The responses given for the question related to the role of leadership in transformation procedure inform that without leaders, the transformation process is quite hard. Leaders must be good enough to make the people agree to the change. Good leaders are able to make people follow them not because of their assertiveness but because of their leadership skills. It is rightly said that leadership cannot be underestimated. Without leadership, a successful transformation and a successful acceptance of transformation cannot take place.

Strategic Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words - 1

Strategic Marketing - Essay Example In the race to capture the lead in India for the most popular sportswear, Reebok has created the strongest showing in the market using their popularity to create new avenues of profit. Critically evaluate the strategic role of a sportswear manufacturer marketing function in achieving competitive advantage for the organisation. Support your answer with examples from the Reebok vs Nike case study. Nike and Reebok have entered into the sportswear manufacturing market through creating strong, identifiable brands that promote more than just the goods that they sell. Through powerful branding and globalization of their brand, they have made a mark on the industry as representative of lifestyles that include health and athletics. While both brands are distinctive, the Nike name and the iconic swoosh has outdistanced its competitors in recognizability. Through branding that creates attractive lifestyles, both brands have made their mark in the sportswear manufacturing industry. Nike’s most powerful advertising weapon is its brand. The Nike swoosh is a powerful pop culture icon. Slaughter and Rhodes suggest that â€Å"the effect of contemporary branding strategies is to push the ’host’ or sponsored culture into the background so that the brand emerges as the ’star’ (Slaughter and Rhoades, 2004, p. 261). In order to support the brand, the swoosh is on every piece of product that is put out into the market. The founder of Nike, Phil Knight, suggested that it wasn’t the mission of Nike to sell shoes, but to make peoples lives better through sports and fitness. The image became so powerful that by the decade of the 90‘s the name of the company was no longer needed in order to create recognition (Slaughter and Rhoades, 2004, p. 261). Nike has had some problems with proven claims of human rights violations in the factories that are subcontracted to produce their product. At the height of this, the Nike company decided to get ri d of the swoosh in order to allay the associations that the public was making to their problems in social responsibility issues. However, as Le Pla (2002) suggests â€Å"Changing an image in response to criticism makes sense. Dropping or reducing the visibility of a highly successful association does not† (p. 49). The brand icon has such a high recognition rate that it is foolish to abandon the brand icon, but to repair the image of the brand so that the associations are sanitized. In conjunction with their high visibility in branding, phrases have been associated with Nike in promoting their belief that every person is an athlete, therefore every person has the potential to be a consumer of their goods. A simple, yet powerful message was erected within the Nike mythology when the â€Å"Just Do It† campaign created a concept of the power of the athlete within everyone. The phrase suggested that no excuses would be allowed, that all goals should be achieved. The stateme nt had the power of a command, bringing an association of power to the athletic wear. The advertising premise, according to Nike, was â€Å" If you have a body, you are an athlete† (Nikeid 2011). The target audience for the Nike marketing concept is everyone without regard to age, health level, body shape, or sex. The original market was geared towards young athletes, but in this age the marketing has been

Terrorism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Terrorism - Essay Example Terrorist acts committed by women and children are becoming a widespread phenomenon. Joann Chesimard is a perfect example. Terrorist groups understand that it is much easier to commit a terrorist act if you are a charming woman or a little child. People usually do not tend to suspect women and children in being capable of committing a violent act. Thus, terrorists can reach their goals easier. Certainly, the representatives of fair sex, and especially little children, can be criminals and victims at the same time, because many of them are forced to commit terrorist acts or they can be imposed upon by some religious believes with this purpose. (Hoffman, Inside terrorism 3). 2. Hezbollah brought too much violence to the world in the past, so its present activity must also be considered as violent. Terrorist organization is the one that uses terror to achieve certain goals, but terror may have different forms (Hoffman, "The Logic of Suicide Terrorism"41). Notwithstanding that now the or ganization does not commit terrorist attacks, it still wants to have much power by controlling its own TV stations and news channels. Terrorists try to impose their influence on different governments that testifies about their desire to have much power. People should not trust the individuals who were terrorists in the past. Their behavior may turn to violent any moment, thus, European Union is quite right blacklisting them. 3. If we talk about the difference between the terrorism in Europe and in the United States, we should recognize that the terrorism itself and the tactics of struggling with it are very different in both continents. The difference is connected with the way terrorism is treated and the history of terrorist attacks. It is a well-known fact that the goal of the United States is to influence Muslims and impose western values upon them. The goal of the US is very understandable as Muslims’ behavior is sometimes cruel and violent, so it would be better if they accept some western values. However, Muslims value their culture and religion very high and are not going to lose their values or substitute them. They got used to the way of life they conduct, thus, they try to resist the imposed changes. For example, the terrorist act of September 11, 2001, was the Muslims’ response to the United States politics in their countries. Thus, the main goal of the United States regarding terrorism is not to prevent further attacks, but to defeat terrorism as a phenomenon, to eliminate terrorist groups in the bud (Campbell 2). Speaking about Europe, the attitude to terrorists there is very different. If the United States, as a more democratic country, tries to help Eastern countries become more developed, Europeans are just proud of their culture and consider it to be much better than a Muslims’ one. Therefore, Europeans consider terrorism to be the act of the â€Å"wild† part of the world against civilization. Thus, the tactics of s truggling with terrorism in Europe is directed on providing Europeans with necessary protection and on the prevention of further attacks. Thus, it we talk about terrorism, we should recognize that the politics of the United States is more aggressive due to the number of reasons, while the politics of Europe has a somewhat defensive character. 4. The main task of mass media is to

History of Pakistan 1912 to Date Essay Example for Free

History of Pakistan 1912 to Date Essay 1206-1526 The Delhi Sultanate Some of the earliest relics of Stone Age man were found in the Soan valley near Rawalpindi, dating back to at least 50,000 years. Predominantly an agricultural region, its inhabitants learned to tame and husband animals and cultivate crops some 9,000 years ago. Farming villages dating from 6000 BC have been excavated in Baluchistan, the North West Frontier Province and Punjab. The Indus Valley Civilization is considered to have evolved around 2600 BC. Built on the ruins of fortified towns near Kot Diji, it is now believed to have emerged from farming communities of the area. The Civilization boasted immense cities like Moenjodaro and Harappa. These towns were well planned, with paved main roads, multistoried houses, watchtowers, food warehouses, and assembly halls. Their people developed an advanced script that still remains un-deciphered. The Indus Civilizations decline around 1700 BC is attributed to foreign invaders, who at some sites violently destroyed the cities. But with recent research, historians have become unsure as to the exact causes of decline of the Indus Civilization. Aryans, who were rough cattle breeders, came from Central Asia around 1700 BC, seeking grazing land for their herds. Their religion was well developed, with gods identified from elements of nature. They followed a strict caste system, which later became Hinduism. They wrote the first book of Hindu scripture, the Rig Veda, which was a collection of hymns remembered through several generations. Some anthropologists believe that there is no real historical evidence to prove the coming of Aryans, and consider their coming as a myth. In sixth century BC, the people of the region were getting increasingly dissatisfied with the Hindu caste system. When Buddha, son of a Kshatriya king preached equality in men, his teachings were quickly accepted throughout the northern part of the Sub-continent. Around the same time Gandhara, being the easternmost province of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia, became a major power in the region. Its two cities Pushkalavati, or present day Charsadda near Pesha war, and the capital Taxila, were the center of civilization and culture. Alexander the Great invaded the Subcontinent in 327 BC. Conquering the Kalash valley, he crossed the mighty Indus at Ohind, sixteen miles north of Attock. He then defeated the mighty elephant army of Porus at Jhelum, and began his march towards the long Ganges plain. However, he was forced to plan for homeward sailing when his warwary troops refused to advance further. On his way back, a serious wound, received while battling the Malloi people at Multan, finally took its toll, and Alexander died in 323 BC, leaving his conquests for grab among his own officers. Chandragupta Maurya was an exiled member of the royal family of Magadha, a kingdom flourishing since 700 BC on the bank of river Ganges. After Alexanders death, Chandragupta captured Punjab with his allies, and later overthrew the king of Magadha in 321 BC to form the Mauryan Empire. After twenty-four years of kingship, his son, Bindusara, who added Deccan to the Mauryan rule, succeeded Chandragupta. Ashoka, son of Bindusara, was one of the greatest rulers the world has ever known. Not only did he rule a vast empire; he also tried to rule it compassionately. After initially causing thousands of lives during his conquest of Kalinga, he decided to rule by the law of piety. He was instrumental in spreading Buddhism within and outside the Sub-continent by building Buddhist monasteries and stupas, and sending out missionaries to foreign lands. The Greek king of Bactria, Demetrius, conquered the Kabul River Valley around 195 BC. The Greeks re-built Taxila and Pushkalavati as their twin capital cities in Gandhara. They were followed in 75 BC by the Scythians, Iranian nomads from Central Asia, and in about 50 BC by the powerful Parthians, from east of the Caspian Sea. After defeating the Greeks in 53 BC, the Parthians ruled the northern Pakistan area. During their era of trade and economic prosperity, the Parthians promoted art and religion. The Gandhara School of art developed, which reflected the glory of Greek, Syrian, Persian and Indian art traditions. The Kushana king, Kujula, ruler of nomad tribes from Central Asia, overthrew the Parthians in 64 AD and took over Gandhara. The Kushans further extended their rule into northwest India and Bay of Bengal, south into Bahawalpur and short of Gujrat, and north till Kashghar and Yarkand, into the Chinese frontier. They made their winter capital at Purushapura, the City of Flowers, now called Peshawar, and their summer capital north of Kabul. Kanishka, the greatest of Kushans, ruled from the year 128 to 151. Trade flourished during his rule, with the Romans trading in gold for jewelry, perfumes, dyes, spices and textiles. Progress was made in medicine and literature. Thousands of Buddhist monasteries and stupas were built and the best pieces of sculpture in the Gandhara School of art were produced. He was killed in his sleep when his own people resisted his unending expansionist pursuits. The Kushans Empire was usurped both from the North, where the Sassanian Empire of Persia eroded their rule. and the South where the Gupta Empire took hold. In the fourth century, due to decline in prosperity and trade, the Kushans Empire was reduced to a new dynasty of Kidar (Little) Kushans, with the capital now at Peshawar. Coming from Central Asia, the White Huns, originally the horse-riding nomads from China, invaded Gandhara during the fifth century. With declining prosperity, and the sun and fireworshipping Huns ruling the land, Buddhism gradually disappeared from northern Pakistan, taking the glory of the Gandhara School of art with it. After the defeat of Huns by Sassanians and Turks in 565, the area was mostly left to be ruled by small Hindu kingdoms, with the Turki Shahi rulers controlling the area till Gandhara from Afghanistan, and the raja of Kashmir ruling northern Punjab, and the areas east of the Indus. Buddhisms decline continued as more people were converted to Brahman Hindus. Overthrowing the Turki Shahis, the Central Asian Hindu Shahis ruled from 870 till the year 1008. With their capital established at Hund on the Indus, their rule extended from Jalalabad in Afghanistan to Multan, and covered as far north as Kashmir. Fasting Buddha from Gandhara region, Central Museum, Lahore Buddha in Dhyana Mudra preserved in Julian monastery Slave Dynasty [1206-1290] Khalji Dynasty [1290-1320] The founder of the Khalji Dynasty in South Asia, Malik Firuz, was originally the Ariz-iMumalik appointed by Kaiqubad during the days of decline of the Slave Dynasty. He took advantage of the political vacuum that was created due to the incompetence of the successors of Balban. To occupy the throne, he only had to remove the infant Sultan Kaimurs. On June 13 1290, Malik Firuz ascended the throne of Delhi as Jalal-ud-din Firuz Shah. Khaljis were basically Central Asians but had lived in Afghanistan for so long that they had become different from the Turks in terms of customs and manners. Thus the coming of Khaljis to power was more than a dynastic change. As majority of the Muslim population of Delhi was Turk, the arrival of a Khalji ruler was not much welcomed. Yet Jalal-ud-din managed to win the hearts of the people through his mildness and generosity. He retained most of the officers holding key positions in the Slave Dynasty. His own nephew and son-in-law Alauddin Khalji, killed Jalal-ud-din and took over as the new ruler. Alauddins reign is marked by innovative administrative and revenue reforms, market control regulations and a whirlwind period of conquests. It is considered the golden period of the Khalji rule. However, before the death of Alauddin, his house was divided into two camps. This resulted in the ultimate collapse of the Khalji dynasty. On one side were Khizar Khan (Alauddins son and the nominated hair to the throne), Alp Khan (Khizars father in law and the governor of Gujrat) and Malika-i-Jehan (wife of Alauddin and sister of Alp Khan). Malik Kafur led the other camp, who was one of Alauddins most trusted nobles. Malik Kafur managed to win the battle of politics and succeeded in making Shahab-ud-din Umar, a young prince of six years old, as the successor of Alauddin and himself became his regent. However, later his own agents killed Malik Kafur. After the death of Malik Kafur, Qutb-ud-din Mubarik Shah, another son of Alauddin removed his younger brother Umar from the throne and became Sultan in 1316. Mubarik was a worthless ruler and most of his time was spend in drinking and womanizing. During his rule the power was actually in the hands of a lowborn Hindu slave, who was given the title of Khusraw Khan by Mubarik himself. Khusraw, with the help of some of his friends killed Mubarik and declared himself the Sultan. With this the rule of the Khalji Dynasty came to an end. Tomb and College of Alauddin Khalji, although the grave is now missing The incomplete Alai Minar, built by Alauddin Khalji Tughluq Dynasty [1320-1412] During his rule, Khusraw replaced Muslim officers by Hindu officers in all key positions of the country. These Hindu officers openly insulted Islam, dishonored mosques and used copies of the Quran as pedestals for idols. This situation was very difficult for the Muslim of South Asia to digest. They gathered around a Tughluq noble popularly known as Ghazi Malik, who defeated and killed Khusraw. He wanted to give power back to the Khalji Dynasty, but could not find any survivor amongst the decedents of Alauddin. In this situation, the nobles asked him to become Sultan. He ascended the throne on September 8, 1320, and assumed the title of Ghiyas-ud-din Tughluq Shah, thus becoming the founder of the Tughluq dynasty. The Tughluqs belonged to the Qarauna Turk tribe. After becoming Sultan, Ghiyas-ud-din concentrated on crushing the Hindu rajas, who had gained power during the short rule of Khusraw. He conquered Bengal, which was no longer part of the central empire since the death of Balban. When he came back after the successful Bengal expedition, his son Jauna Khan gave him a very warm welcome. When Ghiyas-ud-din was taking the guard-of-honor, the special stage that had been constructed for the occasion fell down, killing Ghiyas-ud-din and six other people. His son Muhammad bin Tughluq succeeded him. Muhammad Tughluq was a man of ideas. He tried to implement a number of his own schemes. Unfortunately for him, almost all his schemes failed and he became unpopular amongst the masses. When he died, his cousin, Firuz Shah was raised to the status of Sultan. Firuz Shahs long rule of 37 years is known for his marvelous administrative reforms. Due to old age, Firuz Shah handed over power to his son Muhammad Shah during his lifetime. The new Sultan proved incompetent and was not liked by the nobles. A civil war like situation was created. Firuz Shah helped in cooling down the tension and replaced Muhammad Shah with Ghiyas-ud-din, his grandson, as Sultan. However, after the death of Firuz Shah in 1388, a tussle once again began between the power-hungry princes of the house of Tughluqs. The nobles, who in order to gain more power, started supporting one prince or the other, further worsened the situation. This period of fighting amongst the Tughluq princes continued for about quarter of a century. Amir Timurs invasion on Delhi in 1398 further destroyed the political and economic standing of the Tughluqs. The dynasty eventually came to an end in 1414 when Khizar Khan founded the Saiyid Dynasty in Delhi. Saiyid Dynasty [1414-1451] Saiyids Dynasty, claimed to be a descendent of the Prophet of Islam, Hadrat Muhammad (S. A. W.). Thus his established rule is known as the Saiyids Dynasty. Khizar collaborated with Timur during his invasion on India. As a reward, on his departure from the area, Timur made Khizar the governor of Lahore, Multan and Dipalpur. When Mahmud Shah, the last of the Tughlaq rulers, died in 1412, Daullat Khan Lodhi and Khizar both attempted to occupy the throne of Delhi. Tomb of Muhammad Shah Saiyid In 1414, Khizar won the battle and established the rule of his dynasty in Delhi. Although Khizar Khan was completely sovereign, he preferred to rule in the name of Timur, and then in the name of Timurs successor, Shah Rukh. As a result of Timurs invasion and the continuous wars for succession among the successors of Firuz Shah, a number of states and provinces of the Sultanate of Delhi declared their independence. Khizar tried to reintegrate these states through force, but failed in his mission. During his rule, the Sultanate was reduced to Sindh, Western Punjab, and Western Uttar Pradesh. Khizar died a natural death on May 20, 1421. His son Mubarik Shah succeeded Khizar. Unlike his father, Mubarik declared himself Sultan. His rule was full of internal and external revolts. On February 19 1434, two accomplices of his wazir, Sarwa-ul-Mulk, killed him. The reign of his successors, his nephew Muhammad Shah and Muhammads son Alauddin Alam Shah, were also marked by political instability. The territories of their empires were reduced to a distance of ten miles from Delhi to Palam. Finally, Buhlul Lodhi occupied Delhi and established his rule. Thus the era of Saiyids Dynasty came to an end in 1451.

ERP Comparison of Developed and Emerging Markets

ERP Comparison of Developed and Emerging Markets Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Research Topic The investment dilemma hits when individuals earn more than their consumption needs. Considering the fast rising inflation globally, saving the surplus earnings for future consumption is not sufficient anymore. Hence, making an investment such that the surplus earnings grow or even multiply over time is almost imperative. Such an investment can be made in many ways for instance commodities, stocks, bonds, pension funds, real estate etc. This study is concerned with individuals investment in stocks. When an individual invests, he/she expects a certain rate of return in the future from the investment which should ideally compensate future consumption needs, future increase in inflation and uncertainty of return if any. Therefore, investments with higher returns are preferred. A number of studies find evidence of stocks giving higher return than government bonds, although the relative uncertainty of return from stocks being much higher than from bonds (Dimson et al, 2002; Ibbotson Senquefield, 1976). Consequently, the more uncertain the future return gets, the riskier it is to invest. Hence, when an individual invests in stocks, he/she expects added compensation for added risk which leads to the concept of Equity Risk Premium (ERP). ERP is the surplus return from stocks/equities over the return from nearly risk-free (here on mentioned as risk-free) asset such as government bonds.It is the premium that individuals demand for bearing the additional risk in equity investments (Reill y Brown, 1999). ERP is calculated using equation-1. Stock returns can be the returns from a benchmark index (market returns) such as FTSE 100 and the returns from risk-free asset (risk-free returns) can be those from UK gilts. (Reilly Brown, 1999) ERP is an important consideration from an investors point of view for building and analysing a domestic equity portfolio or an entire equity market especially for an investor looking to diversify globally (here on mentioned as global investor). Therefore, it is a widely researched topic, however yet the existing literature is inadequate, considering there are numerous debates and puzzles pertaining to various aspects of ERP. Hence, looking at its significance in theoretical practical finance, ERP is chosen as the central topic to be researched in this study. 1.2 Research Background Individuals (retail investors) use ERP to forecast the expected growth of their equity portfolios over long-term and for portfolio allocation decisions. Corporations (here on mentioned as organisations) need ERP as an input to determine the cost of equity i.e. the annual expected rate of return from investment in stocks and for capital budgeting decisions. Overall, ERP is a significant factor in most risk-return models of corporate finance and investment management. Hence, estimating future ERP and identifying possible reasons for the results found, is an important financial and economic research topic for academia and practitioners alike. Although historical data is most popularly used to estimate future ERP, there exist financial, economic asset pricing models developed over the years which predict an implied ERP based on companies, macroeconomic equity market data. Evidence from the relevant literature suggests that every ERP estimation method has a distinct set of assumptions a nd underlying ideas therefore exuding both merits and demerits when compared to another estimation method. Rapid economic growth of emerging countries has been apparent especially because of industrialisation. Consequently the performance of emerging equity markets has been remarkable in the past decade. The big 4 i.e. Brazil, Russia, India China (BRIC) alone, accounted for more than 50% of the world GDP in 2006 (RICS, 2008). Due to saturation in developed countries and growing avenues for investment in those emerging, the ERP of emerging markets has risen due to growing investor confidence. Although perceived social, economic political risks are equally high, financial systems have strengthened and macro-economic conditions have improved drastically for most emerging countries. Barry et al (1997) argues that investing in emerging markets is more than just profitable, considering the risk-return trade-off. Hence, gauging the future of emerging equity markets has become a vital research topic for economists, finance professionals and global investors alike. In a discussion of emerging markets, India cannot be left out. Post liberalisation (i.e. post 1991) India is definitely the secondmost preferred emerging economy by global investors after China. Although Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows have been average compared to other emerging countries, Foreign Institutional Investment (FII) flows increased almost 10 times, from United States Dollar (USD) 739million in 2002 to a record USD 7.59billion in 2003. CALPERS, the worlds biggest pension fund with a base of USD 165billion has recently included India in their list of countries for investment (BSE India, 2008). The noteworthy rise to the position of the sixth largest emerging equity market with a total market capitalisation of USD 818billion and 8% p.a. average economic growth (CIA Fact-book, 2008) over past decade accentuates the importance of Indias ERP estimation and analysis. 1.3 Research Gap, Objective Questions Most of the research on ERP has focussed on developed markets clearly because of their sound history and stable fundamentals. Within limited research conducted on ERP in emerging markets, Salomons Grootveld (2003) demonstrate the evident differences in ERPs of developed and emerging markets and claim that global business cycle influences these differences. Claessens (1995) argues through his empirical research that investment in emerging markets can be fruitful in long-term considering that high ERP compensates for high risk. Although these and similar related researches vaguely guide investors wanting to explore emerging markets, there lacks a clear evidence of the possible risks attached and whether those risks can be tackled to earn complete benefit of the high ERP. Bernartzi Thaler (1995) and Campbell Cochrane (1999) claim that the reason for increase in investors interest in U.S. markets was the high ERP it offered. Hence if the same rule is applied to emerging markets then i nvestments should be made without any prior estimation of possible risks, especially considering the success of U.S. markets. However it is not the case, as investors are still sceptical about getting confirmed high returns from emerging markets. Therefore, the precise reasons for the difference in ERPs of developed and emerging markets have not been clearly identified as yet, hence constituting the first research gap. There exists considerable evidence on how political, social and especially macroeconomic factors affect the equity market returns of developed countries, especially U.S. (Chen et al, 1986). Considering the limited work done on ERP of emerging markets on the whole, negligible contribution has been made to analysing ERP in India with respect to its growing economy, Mehra (2006) being the most notable, hence constituting the second research gap. Considering the importance of ERP it is interesting to note that in-spite of there being many ways to calculate ERP; there exists no consensus on the best approach. Financial market analysis is performed based on historical data and the ERP measured from past performance of equity markets is most commonly used as an estimate of future ERP. For instance Ibbotson Sinquefield (1976) exemplified first accurate calculations of annual rate of return on equity investments in U.S. and ERP. Since then, Siegel (1992) Dimson et al (2002) are two of the most notable researches on ERP estimations using the historical method. However, there exist models developed for instance by Fama French (2002) and Arnott Bernstein (2002) that determine future ERP entirely based on forward-looking information through estimation of future investors markets expectations. This variation of approaches to ERP estimation has only widened the range of results and complicated the unresolved debate, hence constitut ing the third research gap. The 3 research gaps identified above lead to the overall Research Objective of this study, which is: Comparative analysis of ERP in the leading developed emerging markets; determine the macroeconomic influence on ERP and examine the ERP estimation methods; all from a global investors point of view. It is not realistically possible to fill the research gaps entirely through this study considering time, knowledge and relevant experience constraints. However, this study aims to fulfil the above objective through the accomplishment of satisfying solutions to the following 3 Research Questions: After estimating future ex-post ERP in the chosen sample index of developed and emerging markets, what is the impact of risk responsible for the differences found through the comparison of their risk-return trade-off? What effect do the country specific macroeconomic factors have on the ERP in India, if any? After estimating future ex-ante ERP in India using a supply-side method and comparing it with the estimated ex-post ERP, what is the most suitable method for global investors, if at all, and why? Research Contribution As this study is predominantly aimed at analysing the ERP of leading emerging markets and particularly India, it is hoped that this study contributes to simplify the decision making of global investors regarding their equity investments in emerging markets India. Furthermore, it is hoped that this study provides guidance to the global investors regarding the macroeconomic situation in India and its influence on the ERP, for sound portfolio management. Moreover, it is hoped that this study adds a small brick to the large edifice of ERP analysis/measurement/estimation on the whole. Finally, if this study motivates the eminent researchers and consequently triggers some ground breaking academic scholarship regarding the ERP of emerging markets, then the worthiness of this study will be truly identified. 1.4 Research Structure The following is the chronology and brief content of the chapters in this study here on: Chapter 2: Literature Review: This chapter aims to explain the historical development of ERP through empirical researches and relevant theoretical background. Furthermore, it examines important research literature on ERP estimation methods and emerging equity markets. Chapter 3: Overview of Research Methodology: This chapter aims to briefly explain the chosen research methodology for this study and justify its appropriateness. It also describes the chosen data collection method and clarifies how the data will be collected used for achieving the research objective. Chapter 4: Data Analysis, Findings Interpretative Analysis: This chapter aims to identify the collected data, explain the data analysis technique/model/method in detail, analyse the data that is collected by using the chosen methods models; and finally, interpret, examine evaluate the results/findings from the analysis to identify justifiable solutions to the research questions. The chapter is divided into 3 parts, each part pertaining to each research question and the procedure is conducted separately for each. Chapter 5: Discussion Conclusion: This chapter aims to summarise the results from chapter 4, recapitulate the entire paper and testifies the level of fulfilment of the research objective. Also, it plausibly links the past literature results from this study to check the level of accomplishment in filling the research gap and to identify the need for future study. Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1 Chapter Introduction ERP is a vital numerical figure in practical modern finance as it is considered by financial analysts, business managers and economists for the purpose of decision-making; perhaps best testified by Welch (2000, p.501) wherein he calls ERP the single most important number in financial economics. Consequently, it is and has been one of the most fascinating topics for academic scholarship leading to vast amount of literature. This Chapter discusses the various significant perspectives about ERP generated from the literature. The literature reviewed in this chapter is primarily related to the research questions that this paper aims to answer; having said that, other theoretical developments and empirical researches in the field of portfolio management and corporate finance that are significantly relevant to the research topic, are also discussed. Broadly speaking, the content matter in this chapter is organised in chronological order beginning from the earliest. Here on this chapter is divided into 5 sections. The historical advancements in productive assessment of the relationship between equity risk and return resulting from empirical researches which lead to the conceptualisation of ERP is discussed in section-2. The next section-3 highlights the important theoretical developments which laid the foundation for the large edifice of researches on investment management. Section-4 focuses on the models/methods that were formulated based on the theories, with an aim to calculate expected returns and measure estimate ERP. It also looks at the important contemporary researches in the field of ERP with a brief backdrop of macroeconomic factors. The following section-5 highlights the important literature with respect to the ERP Puzzle. It discusses the significant attempts by researchers to solve the puzzle. The next section-6 follows which briefly looks at the important literature on emerging equity markets overall. Finally, section-7 summarises the entire discussion. 2.2 Historical Conceptualisation of ERP The apt risk-return trade-off sought by investors worldwide augmented the importance of ERP evaluation and forecasting. Consequently, vast theoretical empirical research under various objectives has been conducted till date since the early 20thcentury on measuring, estimating and analysing ERP, most of which has concentrated on the developed markets, especially U.S. Furthermore, eminent financial economists have been engaged in empirical analysis of past investment results to gauge future investment strategies. In the late 19th and early 20thcenturies, most economists did not endorse the importance of risk in evaluating and justifying excess returns. The conception of the fact that incremental profit on equity investments is a result of the higher risk attached, was a gradual process. For instance, Clark (1892), professor at university of Columbia, claims that investments in some organisations give higher returns than risk-free rate some other organisations because those organisations have an advantage of monopoly in the market. Furthermore, modernisation and development in technology lead to comparatively higher competitive advantage which in turn gives excess returns. However, renowned author of the book Risk, Uncertainty and Profit, Knight (1921), does not endorse Clarks view but instead criticises him for inadequately exploring the association of risk and return in the models used in his economic research. Knight analyses the importance of risk in equity investments through past performance of U.S. markets and aimed at relating it to the concept of profit in the basic economic theory. He argues that any kind of risk deserves a premium (i.e. excess returns), even if the risk is unquantifiable (which he later termed as uncertainty), although, he could not suggest any solid and foolproof way of measuring the premium that he justified. As a cumulative result, the debate on equity risk and the attached premium flared up which necessitated ground breaking empirical researches based on historical data of past performance. Hence, many scholars developed stock price indices in early 20thcentury in order to measure long-term investment performance and estimate future returns; For instance, Mitchell (1910, 1916), Persons (1916, 1919), Cole Frickey (1928) in the U.S. and Smith Horne (1934) and Bowley et al (1931) in the U.K. However, Hautcoeur et al (2005) in their analyses of early stock market indices; argue that the main motive in development of these indices was forgotten in no time and instead they were used to gauge the influence of macroeconomic cycles on equity markets and as an easier way to estimate macroeconomic fluctuations. The popular index of 30 stocks developed by Charles Dow was never aimed at estimating future long-term returns but instead to measure daily returns on the market. Consequently, the relevance of the returns from risk-free assets like government bonds to comparatively risky equity returns was tested. The difference in their rate magnitude of returns solidified the so far debated idea of returns being a compensation of the risk attached to the investments made. Smith (1924) advocates through empirical research and later through his book that; equities give higher returns than bonds because they carry higher risk. He collected historical data on stock prices, dividends and corporate bonds from the stock exchanges at Boston and New York spanning 1866-1923. Furthermore, he divided this period into 4 sub-periods to recognise the economic development. After creating separate portfolios for each asset class (10 securities in each portfolio), he measured cash income and capital gains from both. Equity investments give higher appreciation and returns than bonds in the long-term in-spite of economic changes in the sub-periods, was his conclusion. Further in his book, he suggested a mechanical way of calculating ERP by paying out the equivalent amount of bond returns from the total equity returns and re-investing the remaining in the same equity portfolio. In this way, the relative growth rate of the equity portfolio is the ERP over the bond portfolio. Smiths estimation and method of ERP calculation attracted many retail investors towards the equity markets in 1920s. Later, Smiths attempt to assess equity investment returns over bonds; was improvised by Cowles (1938). He collected historical data on most of the stocks of NYSE instead of only 10 for the period 1872-1937 and notably created the first nearly-accurate index of total returns from common stock investments. Furthermore, he suggested of re-investing the dividend yields into the equity portfolio to save from measuring cash returns and value appreciation separately, the way Smith did. However, he made no concluding remarks such as equity investments can be more profitable than bonds, unlike Smith. By then, although the idea of an ERP was making financial economic sense, a solid way of estimating future ERP could not be developed yet; the two main reasons being the unavailability of adequate historical equity market data and the ignorance about the possibility of a forward looking method. However later, John Williams (1938) wrote the first book that defined; modelled and estimated forward looking ERP. Although he estimated future ERP in U.S. using Dividend Discount Model (DDM), he argued that ERP estimates based on Historical Method are equally precise. He believed that the most suitable way to calculate the riskiness of a security is by appending a premium to the risk. Later, he also became the first researcher to numerically estimate a forward looking ERP for U.S. By then, the concept of ERP had been clearly understood and its importance had been recognised. Nearing late 1940s economists and researchers had realised the importance of risk and conceptualised ERP as an essential ingredient to calculate future returns on equity investments. Moreover, enough historical data of U.S. equity markets was also available for past performance analyses and empirical researches. Even so, there was no method/measure that could quantify future risk and returns for any given portfolio of investments, as most experts and investors believed in calculating risk-return trade-off individually for equities and other securities. However, that did not serve the purpose of optimal risk-return trade-off as far as entire portfolio of investments was concerned, until 1952 when crucial theoretical developments began. 2.3 Theoretical Developments This section summarises the important theoretical developments which built models to quantify future risk and returns of equities and related vital researches in portfolio investment management and corporate finance, with a backdrop of their implications on ERP. The 4 most important theories/models reviewed in this section are Portfolio Theory, Capital Market Theory, Capital Asset Pricing Model and Arbitrage Pricing Theory. 2.3.1 Markowitzs Portfolio Theory Harry Markowitz (1952) introduced the Portfolio Theory or now what is called the Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT). It provides a formalised method to diversify the portfolio of all investments (not just equity) with an aim to achieve highest possible returns for lowest possible risk. MPT records expected returns, volatility or risk (standard deviation) for each investment and correlation of one investment to another to create the best combination. Therefore, risk is minimised while maintaining the expected returns, if investments are diversified based on the risk of each individual investment. However, Markowitz (1952) assumed that investors are naturally risk averse, i.e. they tend to choose the investment with highest returns for a given level of risk and refrain from investing if risk is higher than acceptable/favourable levels. Hence, by applying MPT, investors can choose less risky and highly risky investments at the same time in such a way that cumulative expected returns are unharmed and optimised. The risk appetite, although, of each investor differs from the other. Therefore, based on the above assumption, Markowitz (1952) believed that depending on the risk appetite, every investor aims at attaining highest possible returns for the level of risk that he/she is ready to bear. In other words, aims to build an Efficient Portfolio. Consequently, all the portfolios, ranging from high-risk to low-risk, which give optimal returns lie on the Efficient Frontier, as termed by Markowitz. Although Markowitzs MPT is still followed by many experts and investors, it also faces criticism on its unreal assumptions. MPTs assumption of volatility with figures of standard deviation or variance of an investment as its risk measurement may not always be true, especially for equities. It speaks about only a single period when actually volatility changes over time. Therefore, even if a portfolio is efficient today, it may be not be the same tomorrow. For instance, in an economic crisis or equity market crash, there is a high possibility of correlation of two assets in an efficient portfolio increasing than average. Malkiel Xu (1997) empirically prove that volatility of stocks increases with an increase in institutional ownership in the organisations. Similarly Campbell (2000) shows results of increased volatility with reduction in number of conglomerates as organisations started to narrow their focus. Lofthouse (2001) criticises MPT on the fact that it bases its calculation of expected returns, volatility and correlation on past historical figures which is inadequate especially when the aim is to build the most efficient portfolio possible. Furthermore, Bernstein (2002) notes that; MPT assumes that there is a possibility that some investments absolutely do not correlate with any of the other investments which is untrue, as each investment at some point in time correlates with one or the other investment in the portfolio. Hence, although MPT model enables investors to optimally gauge the future risk to gain highest possible returns, it is based on idealistic, theoretically decorative and practically unreal assumptions. 2.3.2 Capital Market Theory After MPT was developed, many researchers worked on the most important missing link in MPT, the inclusion of risk-free asset with zero volatility, zero correlation with risky assets and certain future returns. Tobin (1958) was the first to extend Markowitzs Portfolio Theory by introducing risk-free asset to the Efficient Portfolio. Later, Sharpe (1964), Lintner (1965) and Mossin (1966) contributed to his idea as they independently worked on similar theories. The final development is known as Capital Market Theory (CMT). It is important to note that CMT shares 3 assumptions with those made by Markowitz (1952) for MPT, as follows: Investors are always risk averse Investors decisions are solely based on expected returns and their volatility There exist no transaction costs and taxes However following are the new assumptions that CMT makes as extracted from Lofthouse (2001): All the investors have the exact same time-horizon for their investments Borrowing and lending at the risk-free rate is not restricted All the investors have the exact same expectations for correlation, risk and returns CMT states that the volatility for Efficient Portfolios that include risk-free asset; is actually the linear equivalent of volatility (risk) for the portfolios before risk-free asset inclusion. Hence these combined Efficient Portfolios lie on the straight line graph of risk and return, joining the risky and risk-free assets. This way, the optimal combined portfolio i.e. point-M in Figure.2.2, is identified at the tangency point formed by the ray starting from point-F in Figure.2.2 i.e. expected return of risk-free asset and the Efficient Frontier. It is optimal because it gives the highest possible returns for any level of risk. Therefore, it is known as Market Portfolio as it has all risky assets and the ray is known as Capital Market Line (CML). CMT advocates that all the investors should aim to build their portfolios on CML depending on their risk appetite. They could invest in risk-free asset by lending or borrow at risk-free rate to invest in Market Portfolio. Either way their p ortfolios will earn more returns than other portfolios (blue spots in Figure.2.2) on or off the Efficient Frontier, for any given risk (Brealey et al, 2007). Therefore, under the CMT the expected returns of the equity portfolio are calculated by determining the slope of CML which is the change in return for a given change in risk and intercept which is return of risk-free asset (See Equation-2). The risk is measured by the standard deviation (Lofthouse, 2001). The development of CMT was ground-breaking in the field of investment management. It clarified the effect of including risk-free asset in an equity portfolio. It formed the first equation made of ERP, risk and returns, all together. In Equation-2, change in return is market return less the risk-free return which is actually the ERP. However, this estimation of ERP is an empirical deduction (calculated from slope of CML), as early development of CMT by Tobin (1958) was just an extension of MPT. Until it was theoretically formalised by Sharpe (1964), Lintner (1965) and Mossin (1966) independently, which then led to the gradual development of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). Hence, the CAPM is usually referenced as SLMs CAPM for Sharpes, Lintners and Mossins equal and vital contributions. 2.3.3 Capital Asset Pricing Model The CAPM is undoubtedly the most widely known model to calculate expected returns. It is a sophisticated improvisation of CMT, which in-turn is an extension of MPT and therefore builds on the relationship/trade-off between risk and returns. It is primarily based on the universal classification of risk into 2 broad categories namely: Systematic: Risk that affects almost all assets equally Unsystematic or Specific: Risk that affects only individual asset or asset class (Sharpe, 1964) The CAPM is developed through the conception of Security Market Line (SML) (See Figure.2.3) which is a ray similar to CML originating from the return of risk-free asset. However, the big difference being that SML represents the linear relationship between risk and return from individual assets and/or inefficient portfolios in respect to market portfolio, unlike CML which only represents efficient portfolios. The risk that is measured is only systematic as it is un-diversifiable and hence rewarded, unlike unsystematic risk. The standardised measure of this systematic risk is called Beta which is covariance of an asset or portfolio with market portfolio divided by variance of market portfolio. Market portfolio has Beta equal to 1. Asset with Beta higher than 1, is riskier than market portfolio and hence higher return is expected. Assets with Beta lower than 1, are less risky with lower return. The expected returns are calculated by adding return on risk-free asset to the product of ERP and systematic market risk borne by the stock (See Equation-3) (Sharpe, 1964), (Lofthouse, 2001). However, the value of Beta for individual stocks of portfolios is not known. It needs to be estimated and is hence subject to errors. Understanding the mechanics and application of the CAPM is imperative to the study of ERP, as the slope of SML i.e. linear relationship between risk (Beta) and return, equals the difference between market returns and risk-free returns which is ERP. The application of the CAPM is extremely vital in the context of ERP measurement methods as it uses ERP as an input to calculate the expected returns on a stock. The empirical studies and relevant literature related to the CAPM and its applicability in ERP estimation methods are discussed in section 2.4.3. 2.3.4 Arbitrage Pricing Theory As seen before, MPT and CMT both assess only the cumulative risk of individual assets and market risk respectively, while calculating expected future returns. Ross (1976) proposed the Arbitrage pricing Theory (APT) based on the perception that the risk of assets and their future returns vary in accordance with the risks affecting the overall economic situation. Ross believed that unsystematic risks can be curbed/nullified through diversification as suggested by MPT CAPM and hence will not affect expected returns. But systematic risks having influence on all assets cannot be diversified and hence can cause fluctuation in the expected returns. Although he did not suggest any particular factors that can trigger the systematic risk, empirical results of Burmeister et al (1997) implied the following 5 factors: Inflation Business cycle Investor confidence Time horizon Market timing APT states that; the sensitivity of assets to the unanticipated instability in the above factors varies due to which one of them can get mispriced therefore creating an arbitrage opportunity. Consequently, by selling the highly-priced asset to buy the low-priced asset, the investor can ensure profit and nearly-perfect pricing of both assets. This arbitrage can be termed as the Risk Premium for that particular factor. However, this profit is expected and not guaranteed unlike usual arbitrage gains. Like MPT and CMT, APT also has some underlying assumptions as follows: No transaction costs Short selling i.e. selling assets that are not owned, is allowed Enough assets to diversify unsystematic risks (Ross, 1976) APT has faced many criticisms on its applicability in calcul

Accounting Essays Management Accounting Techniques

Accounting Essays Management Accounting Techniques Critically discuss the difference between activity based costing and throughput accounting. Changing external business environment has resulted in further developments in the tools and techniques used for management accounting. Traditional management accounting techniques had certain limitations associated with them, for instance, absorption costing methods have been found to be inappropriate in the modern environment. Similarly, standard costing suitability with respect to its general philosophy and detailed operations has come under severe criticism. It is believed that traditional management accounting performance measures can produce the wrong type of response. As a response to the limitations of traditional accounting techniques, activity based approaches has gained significant repute. The following paper will evaluate the activity based costing approach and attempt to highlight the inherent differences between activity based costing and throughput accounting approach. In the case of activity based approaches, the focus is on the activities that the business carries out as opposed to how the activities have traditionally been organised into separate functions. Activity based costing was thus developed because it was realised that older methods like absorption costing, which used labour hours as the basis for absorbing overheads, did not provide useful information about the cost drivers, in other words it did not answer for the question what was causing the overheads to be incurred in the first place. Generally, Activity Based Costing (ABC) is defined as an accounting technique that allows an organization to determine the actual cost associated with each product and service produced by the organization without regard to the organizational structure. Amongst various benefits associated with the ABC approach one of the major ones is that it helps to define the activities of the organisation in terms of value adding activities. In other words, as a result of ABC it is easy to identify which activities add value to the organisation. Identification of non-value adding activities helps in identifying where time, effort and money are being wasted and unnecessary costs being incurred. Advantages associated with activity-based approach are many. More generally it is said that activity based costing recognises the inherent complexities faced by many businesses in the present day, which results in the businesses having multiple cost drivers, many of them are transaction based rather than volume based.. These complexities arise due to businesses now having a broader product range and the business environment in general is more volatile and unpredictable. It is further argued that activity based analysis provides a more meaningful analysis of costs which provide a better basis for pricing decisions, product mix decisions, design decisions and production decisions. Besides activity based analysis is concerned with all overhead costs, including the costs of the non-factory floor functions (product design, quality control, production planning, sales order planning and customer service) and not just factory-floor overheads; thus it takes cost accounting beyond the traditio nal factory floor boundaries. In addition activity based costing helps in identifying the causes of increases in costs and thus it further helps in reducing costs. ABC can be used in conducting customer profitability analysis. Despite the advantages associated with activity based costing a number of criticisms have been identified. Theorists have argued that the costs of obtaining and interpreting the new information may be time consuming activity, thus it has been suggested that activity based analysis must only be introduced when there are provisions in the organisation to manage information to use in planning and/or control decisions. Secondly, it has been criticised on the grounds that many overheads do not relate either to volume or to complexity and diversity. Severe criticisms were also raised with the underlying principle of ABC, which is that activity causes cost. Proponents of this viewpoint argue that decisions cause cost or the passage of time causes costs or that there may not be any one clear cause of cost. Throughput accounting is an alternative to cost accounting based on Standard or Activity Based Costing (ABC) proposed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. Throughput accounting claims to improve management decisions by using measurements that more closely reflect the effect of decisions on three critical monetary variables. It has originated from the Theory of constraints. Throughput accounting is an approach to accounting, which is largely in sympathy with the Just-In-Time philosophy. In essence, Throughput Accounting assumes that a manager has a given set of resources available. These comprise of existing buildings, capital equipment and labour force. Using these resources, purchased materials and parts must be processed to generate sales revenue. Thus, according to Goldratt and Cox (1984), given the above scenario, the most appropriate financial objective to set for doing this is the maximisation of throughput, which is defined as, sales revenue less direct material cost. According to Noreen et. al (1995), there are three building blocks in Goldratts theory namely, throughput1, operating expenses2 and assets3 (Goldratt 1990). and Profit is measured by throughput minus operating expenses and profitability by profits divided by assets. (Goldratt Cox 1992.). Managers are thus motivated to apply the theory of constraints (TOC) because it presents them with a new dimension of focusing their energies on cost reduction rather than on profit enhancement. From this perspective TOC is considered simple. The official definition of throughput is revenue minus total variable costs. However, some companies exclude all the other expenses, such as the variable selling and shipping costs, considering direct material the most significant factor. Thus, a simplified version of throughput accounting is also used. The visible difference between conventional and throughput accounting is the handling of direct labour, which is considered as a fixed cost. The variable cost nature of direct labour seems to be more a historical reminder than contemporary reality. In many companies, labour cost is, in practise, treated as a fixed cost. (Noreen et al. 1995.) Noreen et.al (1995) cited the example where Throughput Accounting has been successfully applied also with ABC. Southwestern Ohio Steel has implemented a pricing model based on ABC and Throughput Accounting. This model has been used to analyse and justify manufacturing cycle-time improvements. (Campbell 1995). Fritzsch (1997) argues that the essential difference between throughput accounting and ABC lies in the time horizon. ABC is recommended for strategic planning whilst, throughput accounting works better to meet short-term purposes. As the time horizons increase, the solutions produced by throughput accounting begin to look more and more like those produced by conventional cost accounting techniques. Applications of ABC in strategic planning appear to be well documented. It must be noted that ABC and Throughput Accounting are based on differing sets of assumptions that have an implicitly different time horizon thus claims of superiority of one approach over the other should be abandoned. It is however, possible to use both approaches together to achieve appropriate results. Some researchers claim that Throughput Accounting approach requires less data and effort than ABC. It is further argued that Throughput Accounting is easier to implement and operate; it sometimes provides insufficient information to guide management decisions. A frequent question is whether ABC is worth the cost or whether the TOC approach will be sufficient According to Etienne du Plooy4, Throughput Accounting is differentiated from all other types of costing systems because only the costs that are truly variable and identifiable to products, are allocated to the products or services produced. These costs are called Totally Variable Costs (TVC). All other costs that are not clearly variable with the quantity of products or services produced are pooled into Operating Expenses (OE). These costs which must also be recovered are not allocated to products. As Throughput is the rate at which the system generates money, and is calculated by subtracting the TVC from the selling price of products, Throughput Accounting puts the performance measures required to maximise business opportunity in place and thus enables management to take immediate corrective action when necessary. It has been further argued by Noreen et.al (1995) by that the ABC approach yields the same activity for the unused capacity information that Throughput Accounting yields. As a result of tracing operating expenses to products and to unused capacity, an ABC income statement provides additional information concerning the per unit profitability of each product that a Throughput Accounting income statement alone would not provide. Throughput Accounting has been considered as a perfect complement for many approaches such as the Theory Of Constraints and Total Quality Management (TQM). It is strongly believed that both labour and capital productivity are increased when Throughput Accounting is applied in organisations. It does not lead to inventory build-ups. It is considered more useful for management decision-making. It is closer to a cash flow concept of income and in its purest form it is based on the cash flows of transactions. It is applicable to any enterprise that has constraints. It is relatively inexpensive yet extremely effective. It consistently provides the right information for effective decision-making. It brings the organisation closer to its goal. To explain the difference between activity based costing and throughput accounting an example has been provided: ABC takes the information used in throughput accounting and adds monetary values. ABC differs from Throughput Accounting in that it traces resource costs to activities. After resource costs have been traced to activities, one divides the activity cost (required by ABC) by the activity capacity (required by Throughput Accounting and ABC) to arrive at the activity-charging rate (required by ABC). Next, that activity-charging rate is multiplied by the quantity of the activity costs driver demanded by each product from each activity (required by Throughput Accounting and ABC). Based on the budgeted number of units produced, each activitys budgeted production cost is compared to that activitys budgeted capacity costs to arrive at the costs of unused capacity for that activity (expressed in financial amounts by ABC and in non-financial amounts by TOC). 5 Conclusion From the preceding paragraphs it can be concluded that Activity based costing and throughput accounting approaches can be used together to achieve the best possible results for the organisation. Despite the inherent differences in the two approaches, they are both essential management accounting techniques, which will help the managers to make sound decisions regarding the future growth of the organisation. Thus in conclusion it can be said ABC and throughput accounting are both required to achieve the long term corporate objectives and for management accountants to arrive at sound managerial decisions relating to profitability of the business. BIBLIOGRAPHY [1] Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox, The Goal, 2nd Revised Edition, North River Press, Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y. [2] Jay S. Holmen, ABC vs. TOC: its a matter of time, Management Accounting (USA), Jan 1995 v76 n7 p37(4) [3] John B. MacArthur, From activity-based costing to throughput accounting, Management Accounting (USA), April 1996 v77 n10 p30(5) [4] John H. Sheridan, Throughput with a Capital T, Industry Week, March 4, 1991 [5] Richard V. C., Eugene J. C., and Gerald E. C., Beware the New Accounting Myths, Management Accounting, December 1989, pp.41-45. [6] Robin Cooper, Regine Slagmulder, Integrating activity-based costing and the theory of constraints, Management Accounting (USA), Feb 1999 v80 i8 p20(2) [7] Robin Cooper, Robert Kaplan, Activity-Based Systems: Measuring the Costs of Resource Usage, Accounting Horizons, September 1992, pp. 1-13.

Welfare For Children of Illegal Immigrants Essay -- Politics Political

Welfare For Children of Illegal Immigrants The United States is in the midst of a major debate over immigrants and their place in our economic and political life. As during other times in our history, immigrants, are being blamed for causing or contributing to the social, economic and political ills of our society. Politicians from both major parties, at both the national and state levels, are promoting a range of punitive legislative proposals that single out immigrants for adverse treatment by the government. Many violate basic civil liberties principles. Based on "The Bill of Rights", foreigners do not have the right to enter the United States, but once here, immigrants are entitled to certain broad constitutional protections. In due process, immigrants have the right to be treated fairly, whether in a deportation hearing or a criminal court proceeding applies to every person within The United States borders. And Equal Protection prohibits discrimination based on race or national origin. An alien's rights to free speech and religious freedom are protected under the First Amendment. The Refugee Act of 1980 gives certain aliens the right to political asylum in the U.S. New immigrants to our country are not a scourge as some politicians claim. In fact, they can help solve many of our economic and social problems. Therefore when a child is born of illegal parents, the child should not be refused welfare. In other words, the child should not be treated as a second class citizen. In fact since it was born in the United States, he or she is to be considered a United States citizen because that is exactly what he or she is. Although it is believed that welfare receipt as a child has a negative effect on the earnings ... ...Uest. March 1998 Waldman, Amy. "Giuliana Oppose Biill To Deny Benefits To New Immigrants" New YorkTimes12 Aug. 1997, late ed.: B3.New York Times Ondisc.CD-Rom.UMI-ProQUest.March.1998 Federal Action Alert: Urge President Clinton to Veto Welfare Legislation that Harms Children. Online. Yahoo. Internet. 10 Mar. 1998. Immigrants' Rights. American Civil Liberties Union Freedom Network. Online. America Online. Internet. 10 Mar. 1998. Available ftp://iaehv.nl/users/hverbak/alert.htm Welfare Reform: CDF Summarize Conference Bill. Online. Yahoo. Internet. 10 Mar. 1998. Available ftp://libertynet.org/~edcivic/welfcdf.html Why Congress Must Reform Welfare. Heritage. Online. Yahoo. Internet. 10 Mar. 1998 Available ftp://nationalsecurity.org/heritage/library/categories/healthwel/bg1063.htm child's portion of welfare benefits as well. But the details would

Wernicke’s Encephalopathy Essays -- Biology Health Medicine Papers

Wernicke’s Encephalopathy Introduction Carl Wernicke first described the syndrome in 1881. He referred to the disorder as acute superior hemorrhagic polioencephalitis. Some of the original patients he described included two male alcoholics and a women with esophageal stenosis. He described a clinic triad of encephalopathy, ophthalmoplegia, and ataxia. Unfortunately, most diagnoses are not made clinically but rather at autopsy. This suggests that the classic clinical triad is rare, or that clinicians do not properly recognize the symptoms. In some clinical studies, only one third of patients diagnosed with Wernicke’s encephalopathy (WE) presented with the classical triad. The majority of the patients presented encephalopathy (characterized by disorientation, indifference, and inattentiveness). Ocular motor abnormalities (nystagmus, lateral rectus palsy, and conjugate gaze palsies) occurred in 96%, resulting from oculomotor, abducens, and vestibular nuclei lesions. Gait ataxia presented in 87%, probably due to a combination of cerebellar and vestibular involvement as well as polyneuropathy. However, an autopsy-based study revealed that while 82% had mental status abnormalities only 23% had ataxia, 29% ocular motor abnormalities, and 11% polyneuropathy. The clinical triad was identified in only 17% of autopsy cases, and 19% sh owed none of the classic symptoms. This discrepancy between the clinical and autopsy-based studies is probably due to exclusion of atypical cases in the clinical series and the underestimation in the autopsy series of classic signs that were not properly elicited, recognized, or recorded (1). At autopsy the characteristic lesions of WK occur primarily in nuclei and structures surrounding the thi... ...e), 8 (2):107-113. 6. Butterworth, R. F., Pathophysiology of Cerebellar Dysfunction in the Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome. Canad. J. Neuroscien., 1993 (May), 20 suppl. 3: sl23-126. 7. Parkin, A. J., Dunn, J. C., Lee, C., O’Hara, P. F., Nissbaum, L. Neuropsychological Sequelae of Wernicke’s Encephalopathy in a 20-Year-Old Woman: Selective Impairment of a Frontal Memory System. Brain Cognition, 1993 (Jan), 21(1): 1-19 8. Halliday, G., Ellis, J., Harper, C. The Locus Coeruleus and Memory: A Study of Chronic Alcoholics With and Without the Memory Impairment of Korsakoff’s Syndrome. Brain Research, 1992 (Dec), 598; 33-37. 9. Halliday, G., Ellis, J., Heard, R., Caine, D., Harper, C. Brainstem Serotonergic Neurons in Chronic Alcoholics With and Without the Memory Impairment of Korsakoff’s Psychosis. J. Neuropathol. Exp. Neurol., 1993 (Nov), 52(6):567-579.

Female Foeticide in India Essay

Save the girl child, or Beti Bachao, Beti Bachao Andolan in Urdu, is a campaign in India to end the gender-selective abortion of female fetuses, which has skewed the population towards a significant under-representation of girls in some Indian states. The â€Å"Beti Bachao† campaign is supported by human rights groups, non-governmental organizations, and state and local government in India. Contents [hide] 1 Female foeticide 2 Beti Bachao awareness campaign 3 National support 4 Effectiveness 5 See also 6 References Female foeticide[edit] Further information: Female foeticide in India Sex-selective abortion, or female foeticide, has led to a sharp drop in the ratio of girls born in contrast to boy infants in some states in India. Ultrasound technology has made it possible for pregnant women and their families to learn the gender of a foetus early in a pregnancy. Discrimination against girl infants, for several reasons, has combined with the technology to result in a rise in abortions of fetuses identified as female during ultrasound testing. The trend was first noticed when results of the 1991 national census were released, and it was confirmed to be a worsening problem when results of the 2001 national census were released. The reduction in the female population of certain Indian states continues to worsen, as results of the 2011 national census have shown. It has been observed that the trend is most pronounced in relatively prosperous regions of India. [1] The dowry system in India is often blamed; the expectation that a large dowry must be provided for daughters in order for them to marry is frequently cited as a major cause for the problem. 2] Pressure for parents to provide large dowries for their daughters is most intense in prosperous states where high standards of living, and modern consumerism, are more prevalent in Indian society. Rates of female foeticide in Madhya Pradesh are increasing; the rate of live births was 932 girls per 1000 boys in 2001, which dropped to 912 by 2011. It is expected that if this trend continues, by 2021 the number of girls will drop below 900 per 1000 boys. 3] Beti Bachao awareness campaign[edit] Beti Bachao activities include large rallies, poster campaigns, wall paintings, billboards, and television commercials and short animations and video films. Celebrities such as video director Jagmeet Bal, and Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra, have become involved in â€Å"Save the girl child† initiatives. National support[edit] The Beti Bachao campaign is supported by numerous medical organizations in India, including the Indian Medical Association. 4] Government support at the state level has provided funding for Beti Bachao publicity activities in particular. The expenditures related to the campaign have been a source of political controversy in Madhya Pradesh, which launched its official Beti Bachao Abhiyan campaign in 2012. [5] Effectiveness[edit] The campaign has reported some success in parts of India. In 2009, it was reported that in Gujarat, rates of female births increased from 802 to 882 for every 1000 male births. Beti Bachao activities were credited with this improvement. [6]