Name Essays (1711 words) - Discrimination, Race And Society

Name Professor's name Course number Year Racial discrimination has been a topic greatly debated upon for many centuries. It has been all around us and truly , there has never been a correct mechanism to deal with it. the United States, also known as the most powerful country nation in the world is among the top in racial and colour discrimination. Despite the success of the nation, discrimination is still greatly practised there and there are no signs of it going away. This is because it does not just require a law for it to stop; it has to come from people's hearts and minds because it is something that is psychologically mindset into someone.Since the times of President Roosevelt, there existed progressives who aimed at supporting the coloured races and fought for their rights to be acknowledged. The likes of Woodrow Wilson tried their best and we can say that to an extent they succeeded, but not completely. There was a great change but today the discriminative attitude crept back because it was deep inside th e hearts and minds and cannot be fully uprooted unless by choice. Title VII of the civil acts of 1964 was created with an effort to vouch for the rights of the African-Americans, the Hispanics and the Native Americans. In chapter 6 of Employment Law for Business, they have vividly put out numerous instances in which the coloured have been discriminated, oppressed and generally showed no respect. Even today we can see that in classes studying about the American history, most students are obliged to ask on which term to use fittest between African-Americans' or Blacks'. This shows that their conscience tends to tell them that one of them may be discriminative whereas it's just a term to refer to the black people and truth of the matter is that they are okay with both. The white man's mentality, however, tells them that there may be some openly discriminative nature they may expose (Monk, Ellis, 15). Research has found out that most employers when looking for employees would opt to employ a white man who has a criminal record or has recently been released from jail rather than a black man with a clean slate and no records of criminal activities. This shows how deep rooted the discrimination is considering one would rather trust a criminal with work because their skin colour matches rather than a well-behaved person just because his skin is coloured. This has been noted severally in workplaces in the United States and we really do not know how to deal with this problem if the problem is within us.Also, the identical resumes that bosses send out for people to fill and send back are biased. Before the employers can look at the qualifications and other related material, they first gauge the name and see if it has any ethnic ties, this is if it sounds black' or Hispanic'. If they note a name that is widely used by either race, that will be the end of looking at that resume des pite how qualified they are, they wish to have no ethnicities that are qualified in their workplace and would rather opt for less qualifies fellow white people among them (American Psychological Association, 17). They would not even bother if the zip code came from a place that is known to be financially stable, they would greatly diminish.In addition, the advertisements posted were also scrutinised for any form of the linguistic profile because they know how a black person or a Hispanic would write and they would immediately disqualify that with respect to the linguistic profiles. According to the American Census Bureau Data, it was acknowledged that white women are paid $0.77 for every dollar that a man earns as put out by law, it was however noted that black women and the Hispanics who were in the same work jurisdiction were paid $0.70 and $0.66 respectively. This is a relative decrease compared to the white woman whereas there exist in the same work jurisdiction. This may be considered wrong but do you know what is worse? In the 70's, the average pay was $0.08 less for the black woman compared to

Ethical Issues of Robots in Society Essay

Ethical Issues of Robots in Society Essay Free Online Research Papers Robots grow more and more capable all the time. Their abilities to see and comprehend the world around them are also increasing at a rate that far exceeds the scientific world’s initial expectations. With products like ASIMO from Honda, it is clear that robots are making their way out of the lab and into the hands of consumers. It is obvious that the ethical issue of machine slavery is relatively abstract. However, the real ethical questions that revolve around robots are their impact upon human society. Clearly, low skilled labor will experience the side effects of having their jobs replaced by machines. Thus leaving society with an over abundance of people with outdated skills and little education to fall back on. This could result in a serious economic and social backlash. There is also the ethical question of how is a robot to be treated on a day to day basis. It sounds silly, but is it ethical to turn your robot off? Consider the flip side, maybe it is more unethical to leave your robot turned on for too long. These two questions lead us to ask at what point does a household device become worthy of moral protection. By moral protection, one means a societal sense of it being wrong for one to intentionally damage or injure the machine. This would closely resemble a machine version of animal cruelty laws. Most researchers believe that robots are nowhere near a point to which they are advanced enough to even raise these questions. However, society has witnessed the result of not dealing with moral and ethical questions until the last minute or even after the fact on many occasions. How interesting it would be, to do something right from the beginning, before problems arise. Most would agree that intentionally beating or breaking a robot is more a damage of property issue, than a moral, life-entity one. However, this is probably going to be the first real ethical question that arises with the coming of the robotic age. Where does the line get drawn between a device used for work and something that deserves moral protection? A lot of what sets machines apart from animals in our psychological profile of them. Machines do not cry, show signs of distress, injury, nor do they act to avoid them. It is likely that robotic entities will be endowed with highly advanced self-preservation instincts programmed into them. Robots are expensive, and nobody wants their costly investment throwing itself into a pool one night after a hard day of labor. These programs will require a kind of internal, negative feedback system to harmful situations. Biological life forms have a sense of pain; it is our internally wired system that reacts to negative stimulus. Most intelligent robots today have some rudimentary form of self-preservation such as an aversion to dropping off an edge. Even more advanced robots can identify areas they had difficulty performing in, remember where it was, and in the future avoid it. Pattern matching is common as well, so as to actually predict what areas will be met with difficulty, and avoid them entirely, without actually encountering it. Perhaps as a result of the universally understood sense of pain, we have moral codes that believe it wrong to cause pain. Is it wrong to smash a robot appendage with a hammer? What if this machine has been endowed with a system that actively tries to avoid such situations, yet you were was able to overcome it? The machines of today and the very near future stand at the blurry boundary of simple machinery and the neurological functionality equivalent to insects, reptiles, birds and even some simple mammals. They are intended to operate and interact with us in the real world much as these natural creatures, yet with a set purpose in mind. The question is how long can we push off dealing with moral and ethical issues that relate to creating life like organisms. Research Papers on Ethical Issues of Robots in Society EssayBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfMoral and Ethical Issues in Hiring New EmployeesRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andGenetic EngineeringDefinition of Export QuotasIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductResearch Process Part OneTrailblazing by Eric AndersonEffects of Television Violence on Children

Definition and Examples of Inflectional Morphology

Definition and Examples of Inflectional Morphology Inflectional morphology is  the study of the processes (such as affixation and vowel change) that distinguish the forms of words in certain grammatical categories. In comparison to many other languages, the inflectional system of Modern English is fairly limited.   Inflectional  morphology is customarily distinguished from derivational morphology (or word formation). As A.Y. Aikhenvald points out, Derivational morphology results in the creation of a new word with a new meaning. In contrast, inflectional morphology involves an obligatory grammatical specification characteristic of a word class (Typological Distinctions in Word-Formation in Language Typology and Syntactic Description, 2007). This distinction, however, is not always clear-cut. Examples and Observations Inflectional Categories and Derivational CatgeoriesThe prototypical inflectional categories include number, tense, person, case, gender, and others, all of which usually produce different forms of the same word rather than different words. Thus leaf and leaves, or write and writes, or run and ran are not given separate headwords in dictionaries. Derivational categories, in contrast, do form separate words, so that leaflet, writer, and rerun will figure as separate words in dictionaries. In addition, inflectional categories do not, in general, alter the basic meaning expressed by a word; they merely add specifications to a word or emphasize certain aspects of its meaning. Leaves, for instance, has the same basic meaning as leaf, but adds to this the specification of multiple exemplars of leaves. Derived words, by contrast, generally denote different concepts from their base: leaflet refers to different things from leaf, and the noun writer calls up a somewhat different concept from th e verb to write.That said, finding a watertight cross-linguistic definition of inflectional which will let us classify every morphological category as either inflectional or derivational is not easy. . . . [W]e define inflection as those categories of morphology that are regularly responsive to the grammatical environment in which they are expressed. Inflection differs from derivation in that derivation is a lexical matter in which choices are independent of the grammatical environment.​(Balthasar Bickel and Johanna Nichols, Inflectional Morphology. Language Typology and Syntactic Description: Grammatical Categories and the Lexicon, 2nd ed., edited by Timothy Shopen. Cambridge University Press, 2007) Dictionaries and Inflectional Morphology[I]t is not correct to say that dictionaries never have anything to say about inflectional morphology. This is because there are two reasons why a word form such as pianists does not have to be listed, and these reasons are interdependent. The first is that, once we know that an English word is a noun denoting a kind of thing that can be counted (if the noun is pianist or cat, perhaps, but not astonishment or rice), then we can be confident that it will mean simply more than one X, whatever X may be. The second reason is that, unless otherwise specified, we can be confident that the plural form of any countable noun will be formed by adding to the singular form the suffix -s (or rather, the appropriate allomorph of this suffix); in other words, suffixing -s is the regular method of forming plurals.That qualification unless otherwise specified is crucial, however. Any native speaker of English, after a moments thought, should be able to think of at least two or three nouns that form their plural in some other way than by adding -s: for example, child has the plural form children, tooth has the plural teeth, and man has the plural men. The complete list of such nouns in English is not long, but it includes some that are extremely common. What this means for the dictionary entries for child, tooth, man and the others is that, although nothing has to be said about either the fact that these nouns possess a plural form or about what it means, something does have to be said about how the plural is formed.(Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy, An Introduction to English Morphology: Words and Their Structure. Edinburgh University Press, 2002) Eight Regular Morphological InflectionsThere are eight regular morphological inflections, or grammatically marked forms, that English words can take: plural, possessive, third-person singular present tense, past tense, present participle, past participle, comparative degree, and superlative degree. Most have phonologically sensitive realizations. . . .Modern English has relatively few morphological inflections in comparison with Old English or with other European languages. The inflections and word-class clues that do remain help the listener process incoming language.(Marianne Celce-Murcia, Donna M. Brinton, and Janet M. Goodwin, Teaching Pronunciation: A Reference for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Cambridge University Press, 1996)Irregular Inflectional MorphologyThe so-called irregular inflectional morphology or morphological processes (such as internal vowel change or ablaut (sing, sang, sung)) today represent limited historical remnants of former grammatical inflectional systems which were probably semantically based and are now acquired lexically for frequently used lexical items rather than as grammatical systems (Tobin 1993:Ch. 12).​(Yishai Tobin, Phonology as Human Behavior: Inflectional Systems in English. Advances in Functional Linguistics: Columbia School Beyond Its Origins, ed. by Joseph Davis, Radmila J. Gorup, and Nancy Stern. John Benjamins, 2006)

Are two sets of GAAP really needed for Colleges and Universities Research Paper

Are two sets of GAAP really needed for Colleges and Universities - Research Paper Example This resulted in difference in accounting procedures and financial reporting models adopted by the private institutions as compared to the public institutions which followed fund-based reporting. Later with the introduction of GASB in 1984, public institutions abandoned fund-based reporting to adopt the GASB guidance to conform to federal government directive. This has led to difference in the comparability of the financial statements where to institutions uses different rules and procedures in financial reporting (Hoyle, et al 831). The user of independent university and colleges are mainly rating agencies, donors, students, parents and federal agencies. The FASB provides for recognition of contribution, pledges, impairments and investments. These disclosures are important to the stakeholders in making decisions. On the other hand GASB does not allow for of contributed services, trusts, capitalization of software and pledges, are not necessary since the stake holders are interested in such disclosures. Therefore, the two set of GAAPs does not allow comparability between the public university and independent institutions (Ruppel 563). As delineated above both the FASB and GASB occasion disparity in display, disclosure, measurement and recognition thus challenging the comparability of financial statement. This occasions difficulties in ascertaining the transparency in financial reporting between the two similar institutions. Although both public and private universities and colleges objectives are similar, they differ on interested stakeholders who may require different disclosures to be made in the financial statements. Therefore, the financial statement and the disclosures should be tailor made to meet the need of the stakeholders. In conclusion, if the two boards could harmonize the measurements, display, disclosure and recognition of the financial reporting model and

Electronic Text Rhetorical Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Electronic Text Rhetorical Analysis - Essay Example The game is a combination of community features and role playing elements, just like in other MMORPGs, such as item trading, guilds, and chat. The game gives the player a chance to select different skills as the person levels up. This game, like other games, has various purposes expected of the player to experience (Elswrod). Rhetoric analysis means making arguments or claims about the video game. Video games features in procedural representations of material, social, and cultural aspects of human experience (Bogost 123). Elsword is an example of a videogame representing the entertainment aspect of human experience. A lot of action movies are characterised by the villain and the good heroes who sacrifice a lot to eliminate the villains. The heroes always have exceptional skills which they acquire through training and experience. Like real action movies, this video game has heroes with unique skills, and missions to accomplish. The video game also provides an opportunity for the players to test their skills, and know more about their personality. Different characters have different skills, and selecting one can enable one understand himself better when in combat. Also, there are various individuals with different characters such as a swordsman, an archer, a witch among others. One can enjoy the imaginatio n of being a witch and what he or she can do with being a witch. It is a skill simulator. Elsword provides very good entertaining content like the boss rush modes, the costumes, the pets, and the gear that unleashes the gamers’ skills and actions in an imaginary action movie world (Elswrod). It is argued that video games symbolize certain processes and the characters in the game are used to enact the processes (King). In Elsword, symbolizes several human experiences. It symbolizes the fantasy world full of heroes that humans always want. The characters are provided with

Ideology of the films Essay Example for Free

Ideology of the films Essay I. Introduction Feature films such as Star Wars and The Terminator last just a couple of hours, but they take months or even years to make. Huge teams of people are involved in preparing for the action, and then capturing it on camera. Then, when the acting has finished, more hard work begins on turning the action into a film fit for cinema and TV screens. This paper studies (1) who were the first film-makers; (2) know the development of cinema worldwide; (3) be aware of the different types of modern film and; (4) figure out the film-making at present. II. Background A. The first film-makers The first people to invent equipment for making films were the Americans W. K. L. Dickson and Thomas Edison, in the early 1890s. Their apparatus consisted of a camera called the Kinetograph and a viewing box called the Kinetoscope. Only one person at a time could look into the viewing box to watch the film, which was in black and white, had no sound and lasted just a few seconds. Two French brothers called Auguste and Louis Lumiere first devised a way of projecting film images onto a large screen for an audience. The Lumiere brothers called their apparatus the Cinematographe. They carried out their first demonstration in a Paris cafe in December 1895. People were stunned to see the large, moving pictures. Other inventors immediately began creating new types of projectors and experimenting with making their own films. ? Early film-making ideas Film cameras do not record movement. The moving pictures we see on screen are actually still photographs, taken so quickly one after the other that they seem to merge. Each still photograph is called a frame. Most film cameras today take 24 frames every second, on a big reel of film that is wound steadily through the camera. The first film cameras, though, could take only 16 frames every second. The length of the film on the reel was 20 or 25 metres, which gave just about one minute of screen time. So the first films usually showed just one, short scene. For example, L’Arroseur Arrose (A Trick on the Gardener) by the Lumiere brothers, made in 1895. The first film with more than one scene was probably Come Along Do! , produced by the Robert Paul company in Britain in 1898. The company joined a scene outside an art gallery with a scene inside. A film-maker called George Melies began to produce multi-scene films, such as Cinderella (1899). Melies also experimented with interesting ways to join the scenes together. He often used equipment, such as slides and magic lanterns, to create special effects. At the turn of the century, two British film-makers working separately in Brighton came up with creative ideas for shooting the scenes themselves. George Albert Smith invented a technique for filming a scene from different camera positions. In The Little Doctors (1901), a scene showing somebody feeding medicine to a kitten is shown first from a distance, then in close-up, then from a distance again. James Williamson had a different idea—to shoot a piece of action across several scenes, instead of just one. In Stop Thief! (1901), the lead character runs out of one scene, then the film cuts to a new scene elsewhere and the lead character runs into the scene, continuing the story. An American film-maker called Edwin S. Porter used ideas like these especially effectively in a 1903 film called The Great Train Robbery. III. Discussion A. The Development of Cinema Worldwide In the early days of film-making there were no cinemas. Film-makers used specialist sales organizations to sell their films to entertainment organizers, who projected them as part of variety shows in tent theatres. From 1905 to 1908 in the United States, thousands of theatres (known as nickelodeons) were set up especially for film. Permanent film theatres were also established across Europe, and film-making became a booming business. From 1908 a leading centre for American film-making developed in an area of southern California called Hollywood. Established British and French film companies were joined by flourishing film industries all over the world. An Italian film company produced the first large-scale film in 1912. It was called Quo Vadis? , and used massive film sets and more than 5,000 actors. Film-going became so popular that from 1914 many lavish cinemas called picture palaces were created. They could seat thousands of people at a time. Film-companies began to make films that lasted for several reels instead of just one. Picture palace audiences had to wait in the middle of a film while the projectionist changed reels. Films in those days were silent, so picture palaces usually had a pianist or organist who played music to accompany the action. Film-makers also included short written sentences in the film to add to the story or explain what the actors were saying. One of the most famous silent film stars was the British actor Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977), who created the loveable character of the â€Å"little tramp† who had a funny walk. Many film companies experimented with animated drawings and models, as well as human actors. European film companies introduced the idea of making information films about events in the news, as well as films for entertainment. ? Color and Sound From the early 1900s, inventors had worked on films with colour and sound. The first breakthrough with colour came in 1908 in London, when G. A. Smith demonstrated a colour film process called Kinemacolour. However, Kinemacolour shades were based on just two colours, so films continued to be made in black and white. The first colour films to be created successfully from two colours were Toll of the Sea and The Black Pirate, shown to the public in 1922. In 1926 the American film company Warner Brothers delighted audiences with a series of short films that had sound to match the pictures. As the sound was recorded on a separate disc, the words did not always match the mouth movements of the actors. Warner Brothers’ The Jazz Singer was the first full-length talkie, in 1927. The film company Fox soon developed a more effective technique for recording the sound onto the film itself. During the 1930s, Hollywood film companies made the most of the new sound technology by making musicals with singing and dancing stars such as Shirley Temple, and Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Gangster talkies and romantic comedies were popular in the United States and Britain, although at this time the Japanese film industry was the largest producer of films in the world. In 1934, the Bombay Talkies studio was formed in India, founding one of the biggest film industries in the world. While film companies had been busy creating talkies, they had also been working on perfecting colour in films. Finally a process was developed that used three colors to create different shades, rather than just two. In 1935, the first three-strip Technicolor film was produced, Becky Sharp. From then on, moving pictures not only sounded real, they looked real too. B. Different Types of Modern Films Since the early days, many different types, or genres, of feature film have been made. These include westerns (such as The Magnificent Seven), thrillers (The Fugitive), comedies (Home Alone), action adventures (Indiana Jones), supernatural horror (Dracula), war epics (The Great Escape), romantic comedies (When Harry Met Sally). Crime and gangster films (The Godfather), films with animation (Who Framed Roger Rabbit? ), spy adventures (Mission Impossible), kung-fu extravaganzas (Enter the Dragon), science-fiction (E.T. —The Extraterrestrial) and modern musicals (Grease and Moulin Rouge). Sometimes films combine two or more genres. Some films are produced with three-dimensional technology, so that if you wear special glasses, the images on-screen appear to have more depth, just like in real life. Other films are made for IMAX cinemas. These special cinemas have giant-sized screens with sophisticated sound systems to make you feel as if you are right in the middle of the action. IV. Conclusion A. Film-making today Film-making requires different specialist staff and technical processes, depending on what the film is about. All films go through three broad stages before they are ready for an audience. During the pre-production stage all the preparations are made for filming. The producer chooses the story, raises money and employs the people who will work on the film. The scriptwriter writes the words, creating an exciting plot and interesting characters. The director decides on the overall style of the film and chooses the leading actors. The art director is in charge of designers for the film sets, costumes and makeup, and choosing locations outside the studio. Technical directors are in charge of crews who build huge film sets and arrange lighting, sound and special effects. The production manager controls the budget and makes practical arrangements for filming. During the production stage filming takes place. Stories are not usually filmed in the right order. The actors and crew film all the scenes that take place in one location before moving on to another. The director guides the creative elements of the film, from giving opinions on the story, to instructing the actors, to choosing camera angles. The director is helped by people in different departments. For instance, a continuity person makes sure that all the details are correct in scenes that are shot out of sequence (such as the actors’ clothes and length of their hair). That way, when the filmed scenes are put into the right order later, they will run together smoothly. The post-production stage happens when all the action has been filmed. An editor cuts sequences of action and joins them together, adding the sound. When the director and producer are happy with it, the finished film is then ready for distribution companies to sell to cinemas or TV companies.

We Must Reduce Class Sizes and Improve Teaching Methods Essay -- Class

County High school's current purpose of education is to prepare students with the knowledge they need to be ready for the workforce. To fulfill their purpose they place a minimum of 30 students, if not more, in each class with only one teacher. I, as a junior at County High school, believe that to improve the education for the long term benefit of students the number of classes should be reduced and the customary teaching methods should be improved. Class sizes are too large and need to be reduced. For example, currently, there are 36 students enrolled in my English class, including myself. I have no problem of any kind with the other students. My problem is that there are so many students in that class that as a result, only some get feedback from the teacher. It is unfair that the teacher only has time to talk to some. If the class sizes are reduced the teacher will have the opportunity to talk one on one with the students, helping them overcome their academic struggles. In a class of 40, not all students are sentient of what the teacher is teaching them. Some sit in the back of the classroom like brainless zombies and waste their time day dreaming or doing something else. It is not obvious whether each student participates or not. There are so many that students hardly engage with the class. But in a class of 20, it is obvious if a student does not participate. Students are forced to be sentient and engage in what’s going on. In both classes there are students who are conscious. The only major difference is that in a smaller class all students are conscious rather than only some. If the classes are reduced each student will get an equal opportunity to engage in the education that will get them into the workforce. Jam... ...le of the Cave." Republic. (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.) pg.240-48. Print. James Baldwin, â€Å"A Talk To Teachers,† in The Language of Composition, edited by Renee H. Shea, Lawrence Scanlon, Robin Dissin Aufses. (Boston, MA: Bedford/ St. Martins, 2008) pg.123-129. James Baldwin, â€Å"A Talk To Teachers,† in The Language of Composition, edited by Renee H. Shea, Lawrence Scanlon, Robin Dissin Aufses. (Boston, MA: Bedford/ St.Martins, 2008) pg.123-129. IBID Horace Mann, â€Å" A Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education,† in The Language of Composition, edited by Renee H. Shea, Lawrence Scanlon, Robin Dissin Aufses. (Boston, MA: Bedford/ St. Martins, 2008) pg. 150-152. Ralph Waldo Emerson, â€Å"Education,† in The Language of Composition, edited by Renee H. Shea, Lawrence Scanlon, Robin Dissin Aufses. (Boston, MA: Bedford/ St. Martins, 2008) pg. 103-108.

Research Methodology – Summary

Descriptive studies help discover new meaning, describe what currently exists, and categorize the information. We will use desk research as well as field research; we will use both kinds of research because this way we will have the most appropriate Information. Desk research will include telephone Interviewing, online research etc. On the other hand we have field research, this will give us an edge because we'll be out in the field and have interaction with potential customers, immediate feedback etc. Experiments: We can experiment to see if a certain amount of people will actually enjoy and have good views towards Wipers.Research strategies: * Telephone Interviewing. * Questioning at shops Like Blocker and Supermarkets. * Questionnaires. Personal Interviewing. Purpose of the research: * Finding out the competitors. * Finding out if there is a place for us in market. * Finding out how marketable our product is. * Finding out what potential customers think of our product. Population and Sample: We have concluded that the Ranted regions will be the first regions for our questionnaires to find place at. Because of these regions populations It Is the most appropriate way to have Interaction with many potential customers..Because of the population it is obvious that it is not feasible to give unlimited samples, therefore a feedback to us and so we will process this data as well. As it is obvious that we want to have the most efficient information out of this selected group there will be some exclusion and inclusion criteria requirements. Include: * Stay at home ; working women or men * Age group of 18-50 * Minimum of 50 and maximum of 80 participants Exclude: * Kids Individuals who never clean their houses themselves ( help in the house ) We will have a letter of invitation for it to be send to our potential participants.Within this letter of invitation we will explain the reason of the research, discussion on confidentiality and what the participation will entail. With this letter of invitation will be agreement form, which must be read, signed and returned by participants in order to take part in the research. The time period will be two weeks. Participants will experience using the product and have their feedback on a written document as well as face to face interviews ( this tit only a again selected group ) Our analyzers will have a week time to process the gained data in the research.Data collection methods and procedures: As previously stated we intend to carry out a qualitative research design, In order to do so it requires us to have one on one interviews with the interviewees. This allows the interviewees to discuss their opinions and experiences. Having said that, there are also different kinds of interview styles. There is the semi-structured interview which has a prepared topic guide or certain amount of questions to be covered with each participant.How long the interviews will last depends on the kind of interview which will tak e place and on the participants' responses which will lead the direction and length of the interview. Participants will be ensured of their anonymity as well. Data analysis: The purpose of data analysis is to organize and provide structure to the research data. Qualitative data analysis occurs in three phases: description, analysis and interpretation. We will transcribe the interviews and carry out analyzing of the transcripts.Furthermore we will go on and complete a reduction in data through categorizing ND identifying similar information of the data we have gathered throughout the data and compare variables. Validity and Reliability: Validity is understood best by the question: ‘Are we measuring what we think we are measuring? And reliability is the degree to which a test consistently measures whatever it measures. So to test the validity and reliability we will perform a pilot study which is a brief and limited version of the planned research and which will help us identify any weaknesses in the plan and allow time to rectify any necessary amendments.A pilot study will allow us to make any adjustments before the main event takes place. Ethical consideration: All research studies present a number of ethical and moral concerns which must be identified and addressed prior to carrying out any research study in order to protect all participants from potential harm. Therefore we have asked our participants to sign a consent form ensuring them of the confidentiality and informing them about the nature of the research. However, we don't expect any ethical dilemmas to occur because of the nature of our research.

Financial Markets and Return Essay

Problem 1 (BKM, Q3 of Chapter 7) (10 points1) What must be the beta of a portfolio with E( rP ) = 20.0%, if the risk free rate is 5.0% and the expected return of the market is E( rM ) = 15.0%? Answer: We use E( rP ) = ÃŽ ² P *(E( rM ) – r f ) + r f . We then have: 0.20 = ÃŽ ² P *(0.15-0.05) + 0.05. Solving for the beta we get: ÃŽ ² P =1.5. Problem 2 (BKM, Q4 of Chapter 7) (20 points) The market price of a security is $40. Its expected rate of return is 13%. The risk-free rate is 7%, and the market risk premium is 8%. What will the market price of the security be if its beta doubles (and all other variables remain unchanged)? Assume that the stock is expected to pay a constant dividend in perpetuity. Hint: Use zero-growth Dividend Discount Model to calculate the intrinsic value, which is the market price. Answer: First, we need to calculate the original beta before it doubles from the CAPM. Note that: ÃŽ ² = (the security’s risk premium)/(the market’s risk premium) = 6/8 = 0.75. Second, when its beta doubles to 2*0.75 = 1.5, then its expected return becomes: 7% + 1.5*8% = 19%. (Alternatively, we can find the expected return after the beta doubles in the following way. If the beta of the security doubles, then so will its risk premium. The current risk premium for the stock is: (13% – 7%) = 6%, so the new risk premium would be 12%, and the new discount rate for the security would be: 12% + 7% = 19%.) Third, we find out the implied constant dividend payment from its current market price of $40. If the stock pays a constant dividend in perpetuity, then we know from the original data that the dividend (D) must satisfy the equation for a perpetuity: Price = Dividend/Discount rate 40 = D/0.13 ⇒ D = 40 * 0.13 = $5.20 Last, at the new discount rate of 19%, the stock would be worth: $5.20/0.19 = $27.37. The increase in stock risk has lowered the value of the stock by 31.58%. Problem 3 (BKM, Q16 of Chapter 7) (10 points) A share of stock is now selling for $100. It will pay a dividend of $9 per share at the end of the year. Its beta is 1.0. What do investors expect the stock to sell for at the end of the year if the market expected return is18% and the risk free rate for the year is 8%? Answer: Since the stock’s beta is equal to 1, its expected rate of return should be equal to that of D + P1 − P0 , therefore, we can solve for P1 as the market, that is, 18%. Note that: E(r) = P0 9 + P1 − 100 the following: 0.18 = ⇒ P1 = $109. 100 Problem 4 (15 points) Assume two stocks, A and B. One has that E( rA ) = 12% and E( rB ) = 15.%. The beta for stock A is 0.8 and the beta for B is 1.2. If the expected returns of both stocks lie in the SML line, what is the expected return of the market and what is the risk-free rate? What is the beta of a portfolio made of these two assets with equal weights? Answer: Since both stocks lie in the SML line, we can immediately find its slope or the risk premium of the market. Slope = (E(rM) – rF) = ( E(r2) – E(r1))/( ÃŽ ²2- ÃŽ ²1) = (0.15-0.12)/(1.2-0.8) = 0.03/0.4= 0.075. Putting these values in E(r2) = ÃŽ ²2*(E(rM) – rF) + rF one gets: 0.15 = 1.2*0.075 + rF or rF =0.06=6.0%. The Expected return of the market is then given by (E(rM) – 0.06) = 0.075 giving: E(rM) = 13.5%. If you create a portfolio with these two assets putting equals amounts of money in them (equally weighted), the beta will be ÃŽ ²P = w1*ÃŽ ²1+w2*ÃŽ ²2= 0.5*1.2+0.5*0.8 = 1.0. Problem 5 (15 points) You have an asset A with annual expected return, beta, and volatility given by: E( rA ) = 20%, ÃŽ ² A =1.2, ÏÆ' A =25%, respectively. If the annual risk-free rate is r f =2.5% and the expected annual return and volatility of the market are E( rM )=10%, ÏÆ' A =15%, what is the alpha of asset A? Answer: In order to find the alpha, ÃŽ ± A , of asset A we need to find out the difference between the expected return of the asset E( rA ) and the expected return implied by the CAPM which is r f + ÃŽ ² A (E(rM) – r f ). That is, express its expected return as: ÃŽ ± A = E( rA ) – r f + ÃŽ ² A (E( rM ) – r f )). Since we know the expected return of the market, the beta of the asset with respect to the market, and the risk-free rate, alpha is given by: ÃŽ ± A = E( rA ) – ÃŽ ² A (E( rM ) – r f ) – r f = 0.20 – 1.2(0.1 – 0.025) – 0.025 = 0.085 = 8.5%. 2 Problem 6 (BKM, Q23 of Chapter 7) (20 points) Consider the following data for a one-factor economy. All portfolios are well diversified. _______________________________________ Portfolio E(r) Beta ———————————————————-A 10% 1.0 F 4% 0 ———————————————————-Suppose another portfolio E is well diversified with a beta of 2/3 and expected return of 9%. Would an arbitrage opportunity exist? If so, what would the arbitrage strategy be? Answer: You can create a Portfolio G with beta equal to 1.0 (the same as the beta for Portfolio A) by taking a long position in Portfolio E and a short position in Portfolio F (that is, borrowing at the risk-free rate and investing the proceeds in Portfolio E). For the beta of G to equal 1.0, the pr oportion (w) of funds invested in E must be: 3/2 = 1.5 The expected return of G is then: E(rG) = [(−0.50) Ãâ€" 4%] + (1.5 Ãâ€" 9%) = 11.5% ÃŽ ²G = 1.5 Ãâ€" (2/3) = 1.0 Comparing Portfolio G to Portfolio A, G has the same beta and a higher expected return. This implies that an arbitrage opportunity exists. Now, consider Portfolio H, which is a short position in Portfolio A with the proceeds invested in Portfolio G: ÃŽ ²H = 1ÃŽ ²G + (−1)ÃŽ ²A = (1 Ãâ€" 1) + [(−1) Ãâ€" 1] = 0 E(rH) = (1 Ãâ€" rG) + [(−1) Ãâ€" rA] = (1 Ãâ€" 11.5%) + [(− 1) Ãâ€" 10%] = 1.5% The result is a zero investment portfolio (all proceeds from the short sale of Portfolio A are invested in Portfolio G) with zero risk (because ÃŽ ² = 0 and the portfolios are well diversified), and a positive return of 1.5%. Portfolio H is an arbitrage portfolio. Problem 7 (10 points) Compare the CAPM theory with the APT theory, explain the difference between these two theories? Answer: APT applies to well-diversified portfolios and not necessarily to individual stocks. It is possible for some individual stocks not to be on the SML. CAPM assumes rational behavior for all investors; APT only requires some rational investors: APT is more general in that its factor does not have to be the market portfolio. Both models give the expected return-beta relationship. 3

Why I Want an MBA †Grad School Admission Essay

Why I Want an MBA – Grad School Admission Essay Free Online Research Papers There are many reasons in my life that has helped me to decide â€Å"Why I Want an MBA?† How much education I obtain is fulfilling a personal goal that I set for myself a very long time ago, even though it has taken me some years to get there. First and foremost, it is very important for me to be a good role model, and an inspiration to my children and grandchildren; and to ensure that they understand that education leads to many successes in life. I have always believed in leading by example. Also, the changes in this global economy, along with my age and job security are some other reasons for my decision. Being able to influence and heighten my family members to aspire to greater and better things that life has to offer is very important to me, and I know that getting a good quality education will open more doors for them to be successful. In 1966, the late, great singer/composer, James Brown, had a hit song entitled â€Å"Don’t Be a Drop-Out† which has influenced me throughout my life. The global economy, as it changes from day-to-day, dictate that the skills and knowledge I possess today will be null and void tomorrow, unless I continue my education. Therefore, being an older and non-traditional student has made me realize how competitive the job market is in this global workforce. By obtaining my MBA and maybe entering a doctoral program, is something I must also do to ensure my success in today’s workforce. The job I have now depends upon writing a grant proposal and getting it funded through the federal government every four years, but the federal governm ent can stop funding this program in a moment’s notice. And because of this, the advantages for me getting an MBA outweighs the scarifies I have to make to get an MBA. As far as the advantages to obtaining an MBA, according to Conde (n.d.) are: â€Å"the opportunity to increase ones salary, to advance in ones career, and to meet and develop a rapport with influential executives and colleagues in ones industry†; but there are also reasons and disadvantages in obtaining an MBA. The reasons or disadvantages that some people find for not entering an MBA program or furthering their education is the cost (to expensive); â€Å"in some cases, the cost of an MBA degree is four times as much as ones average yearly salary†, according to Schweitzer (n.d.); and finding the time to study especially if you have a full time job and other family obligations†. After pondering over the advantages and disadvantages of entering an MBA program, I know that I have made the right decision because obtaining this degree will allow me to keep my family inspired; and this degree will afford the opportunity me to venture out into unknown territories of su ccess. â€Å"The MBA is not an end in itself, but a means to an end; and it should supply three main value propositions: skills, networks, and brand. Hard skills include economics, finance, marketing, operations, management, and accounting; and the soft skills include leadership, teamwork, ethics, and communication that are so critical for effective management. Equally important is the networks which include but is not limited to networking with MBA students, alumni, faculty, and business and community leaders. Networking is very useful when beginning a job search, developing a career path, building business relationships in one’s current career. As far as brand, the article states that the MBA degree is a recognized brand that signifies management and leadership training; and that a powerful brand can give one the flexibility to make changes throughout ones career† (University of Pennsylvania, n.d.). As a result of my â€Å"What’s My Jungian 16-Type Personality?â €  (Marcie Nutt, 1989), I am coded as an ENTJ that states: â€Å"I am outgoing, visionary, and argumentative, have a low tolerance for incompetence, and often seen as a natural leader. This personality test lists my possible career as a manager, management trainer, stockbroker, lawyer, chemical engineer, or police officer.† Therefore, obtaining an MBA will definitely help me become the role model I desire to be for my family, and my educational qualifications will make me better prepared to face this very competitive job market. And I will not forget that there are many successful business owners and CEOs to include self-made millionaires and billionaires that do not possess any formal education. An article about CEOs states that, Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell computer, was a pre-med biology major at the University of Texas before dropping out of school after his freshman year; and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates also left college without earning a degree (Lewis, n.d.). This article highlights CEOs who did not pursue an MBA and how successful they are in their field of expertise and in business. Just as these two men had the vision and the skill to hone in on what it would take to make them successful, I also know that my education will led me to a path of success. Without a doubt, the forces that have caused me to travel this journey will help me to be successful in my educational endeavors. Because of my entering an MBA program, my daughter whom I greatly admire and respect, has enrolled in a Master’s program and upon completing this degree, she plans to enter into a doctoral program. I won’t say that we are competitive but as her mother, I know what inspires her, and that is, following in my footsteps. My son, who makes more money than my daughter and I put together, have not entered into college as of this date, but I keep encouraging him to do so. He understands the importance of an education and has assured me that he will be enrolling in school in the near future. I am very proud of my accomplishments thus far, and I will continue to be the inspiration that my family need in this time of economic uncertainty; and I will always stress upon my family the importance of a good quality education. References Conde, C. (n.d.). Why get an mba? Retrieved September 7, 2008, from collegeview.com/articles/CV/careeers/why_an_mba.html Lewis, A. (n.d.). Many top CEOs say mba not necessarily ticket to success. Retrieved September 7, 2008, from home.honolulu.hawaii.edu/~pine/libart/ceolibarts.html Marcie, D., Nutt, P. (1989). Self-assessment library: What’s my jungian 16-type personality [University of Phoenix Custom Edition e-text]. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice hall. Retrieved September 7, 2008, from University of Phoenix, MGT521- Management Course Web site. Schweitzer, K. (n.d.). What is an mba degree? Retrieved September 7, 2008, from http://businessmajors.about.com/od/programcomparison/a/mbaDegree.htm University of Pennsylvania. (n.d.). The wharton mba. Retrieved September 7, 2008, from http://wharton.upenn.edu/mba/admissions/decision/why.cfm Research Papers on Why I Want an MBA - Grad School Admission EssayStandardized TestingThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalLifes What IfsResearch Process Part OneInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaTwilight of the UAWPETSTEL analysis of IndiaComparison: Letter from Birmingham and Crito

Agencies And Information Classification Criminology Essay

Agencies And Information Classification Criminology Essay Individual agencies classify criminal information that is compiled in a report as Uniform Crime Reporting. The Uniform reports are usually compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and they consist of criminal data that belongs to all the states that form United States of America. This program began in 1929. It was the idea of police commanders, who saw the need of creating a reliable criminal statistics for the country (Anderson and Dyson, 2002). Today, the reports form an important element of fighting criminal activities within United States of America. This is because they necessary information that law enforcement officers can rely on for purposes of fighting criminal activities. For instance, the reports provide the names of the most wanted criminals, and the patterns of crime within a certain locality (Anderson and Dyson, 2002). The reports also help policy makers in the department of homeland security on how to develop policies that will help in making the country secu re. The various law enforcement agencies within the country have the responsibility of collecting these reports, and thereafter present them to the FBI for compilation. Currently, there are three Uniform Crime Reports published by the FBI, namely; Hate Crime Statistics 2011. Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted 2011. The Preliminary Uniform Crime report 2012. Resources Available for Sheriffs and Police Chiefs: One of the resources that public safety officials like police officers and Sheriffs have in classifying crimes in their locations is the fusion centers. A fusion center is an institution formed by the department of homeland security for purposes of receiving, analyzing, and disseminating intelligence information from to the relevant security bodies. These centers can therefore guide security officers and Sheriffs on how to classify the various crimes within their areas of jurisdiction. They have the capability of identifying whether a crime falls under terrorism, or i t is a murder/ homicide. The Central Investigative Agency is also another resource that police chiefs and sheriffs have that can help them in classifying and analyzing crimes (Dunn, 2012). The agency has the responsibility of collecting intelligence information, and provides it for assessment by senior policy makers in United States of America. On this note, Sheriffs and local police chiefs can benefit from their facilities and experience in analyzing and classifying the various criminal activities within their locality. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is another resource unit that the Sheriffs and local police chiefs can use to classify and categorize criminal activities. This is a Federal Agency that has the responsibility of fighting crimes within the United States of America. The department is well equipped to handle any forms of criminal activities. The department also has experts who can categorize and analyze various criminal activities within the state, and therefore She riffs and local police chiefs can use their experiences in analyzing the various criminal activities within their areas of jurisdictions. Pros and Cons of UCR: The Uniform Crime Reporting system is advantageous because people are able to know the crime rate of their locality. For instance, women who are concerned with the security of their children might know the crime rates of the schools in which they take their children to, or the surrounding environment where their children play or pass through. The report also provides information on the various crimes that occur within the state, and tries to project their occurrence in future (Dunn, 2012).

Ethical argument smoking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ethical argument smoking - Essay Example Those who consider it justified ethically say that to smoke or not is individual’s decision and everybody has a right to decide for himself/herself. Smoking cigarettes is often considered to be a cause of other problems. There is need to find out how frequently smoking becomes the cause of more serious and condemnable habits like smoking heroin or marijuana. The optimal limit to which one can smoke plain cigarettes without causing substantial damage to one’s health should also be determined. I think that currently my topic is not narrow enough to write a detailed argument about it. I might need to narrow it down so that I collect facts and explore the topic from a particular aspect like the optimal level of plain smoking or smoking as a cause of heroin consumption etc. People who oppose my position would say that smoking is injurious to health, so it cannot be justified on any grounds. They would also say that smoking in private is also not acceptable since the activity does not yield a single positive result but does carry a lot of risks for the smoker. I can say that cigarettes are not the only thing that are injurious to health; there are many other activities that are injurious to health or environment but they are not taken as seriously e.g. alcohol consumption, drunk driving, and consumption of junk food. I can say that to smoke in private should be allowed because there is practically no way to stop an individual from smoking in private. Any amount of energy or resources invested in trying to stop people from smoking in private would go wasted. The readers would know that cigarettes are injurious to health and can be a cause of such conditions as lung cancer and mouth cancer. I would need to carry out some research to prove my readers that cigarettes are not as injurious to health as they are frequently assumed to be. I