Parenting Skills: Questions Essay

Review Questions 1. What is a family? What is family composition? 2. What is cultural bias? What is an example of this? 3. What are stereotypes? How are they different from prejudice? 4. What is the difference between a nuclear family and an extended family? Critical Thinking Questions 1. How can families assimilate to a new culture?  2. What are some of the problems with stereotypes or cultural bias when looking at families? 3. Adversity affects today’s family, just as Black Death affected families from earlier times. What kinds of adverse challenges do today’s families face and how can they manage the situations? 4. Why are families diverse in composition? How are family lifestyles of today different than the past? Review Answer 1. A family is a group of people who are tied together by co-residence, blood, or affection. A family composition is the makeup of a family, including the members of the family, their relationships to each other, and their ages. 2. A cultural bias is the judgement of practices by the standards of one’s culture. An example of this is we may look at a cultural practice different from ours and consider it wrong because it is not the same way our culture may handle things. 3. Stereotypes are assumed beliefs about a group of people. Prejudice is different from stereotypes because stereotypes are generally based on characteristics of some members of a group, while prejudice are assumptions made of the entire group. 4. The difference between a nuclear family and an extended family is that a nuclear family, also known as a traditional family, has two parents and the children, while the extended family may have multiple generations living under one roof. Critical Thinking Answers 1. Families assimilate to a new culture by letting them in, because they might not want a new culture to interfere with their traditions, but they might eventually let some cultures in. 2. Some problems with stereotypes and cultural bias are that when you look at minorities sometimes they may have to deal with negative comments or actions in various aspects of their daily lives.

Political Power in the Prince by Machiavelli Essay

Machiavelli argues in another major work that the purpose of politics is to promote a â€Å"common good.† How does this statement relate to the ideas Machiavelli presents in The Prince? The fact that two of Machiavelli’s greatest and most famous works on political power came into being thanks to the downfall of his own political career is quite ironic. More ironic however is the way he contradicts his statements in each book about the purpose of political power. As previously stated, one of Machiavelli’s major works, referring directly to The Discourses on Livy (1517), argues that the purpose of political power is to promote a â€Å"common good†. Meanwhile, The Prince presents a ruler less worried about the â€Å"common good† and more concerned about maintaining and expanding political power at all costs. â€Å"Laws make men good,† states Machiavelli in book one of the discourses, after a long explanation about how men created politics to create order. At first men searched for the strongest and bravest among them to mold him into a leader they could obey. Machiavelli then says: â€Å"From this beginning came recognition of what is proper and good, as opposed to what is pernicious and wicked.† However, as time went on, the people became harder to satisfy and politics became more complicated. New forms of government and laws were created in order to keep the people in order because as he states in The Discourses: â€Å"men will never be good, except by necessity†. Simple leaders became the tyrants he promotes in The Prince. They sought to be feared by their people in order to be obeyed and maintain power. In The Prince the leader is no longer the strongest and the bravest, but the prudent, more astute. The leader is one that can predict things such as treachery and conspiracy and end it before it can cause further problems in his government. The Prince discusses many ways for an astute leader to rule his state and maybe one or two of these promote the â€Å"common good† of the people, and it isn’t even actual common good. In The prince, the appearance of a common good is more important than having it as a reality. A ruler must appear to be honest and good but doesn’t necessarily have to be. I believe the relation between Machiavelli’s two texts on the purpose of political power is that one describes what politics were made to be while the other discusses what they have actually come to be and how to keep them that way. Instead of a â€Å"common good† it goes more along the lines of what is good for the ruler. While the statements contradict each other more than once, I believe the texts to be somewhat complementary in the sense that alone, they each give a different side or view of what politics actually are, while reading them both gives the reader an expanded, more complete understanding, not only on what politics are and how to maintain that political power, but also on why it has to be that way â€Å"for the good of the people.†

American Education Vs. The World Essay

United States public schools were regarded as some of the best public schools in the world up to the 1970’s. Compared to the educational development of Asian and European students, American students and the education system are ranked embarrassingly low. â€Å"In a 2003 study conducted by UNICEF that took the averages from five different international education studies, the researchers ranked the United States number 18 out of 24 nations in terms of the relative effectiveness of its educational system† (Wu 2). Some students are graduating from high school with little or no knowledge about the core classes, while other students are dropping out and not graduating at all due to lack of discipline. Recently, colleges and universities have stopped using diplomas and grade point averages as a basis of admission because American high school curriculums have consistently simplified over the years and do not come close to compare to other schools around the world. The structure of American public schools compared to European and Asian schools are greatly disorganized, and many American teachers hold no credential and are extremely unqualified. Another major issue facing students today is the number of students per classroom, which differs greatly between competing countries. The American students are floundering in comparison with their counterparts around the world educationally due to lack of educational preparation, simpler curriculums, and unqualified teachers. When it comes to international education rankings, recent studies show that other nations in the developed world have a higher caliber of student success than that of the United States. In 2003, the United Nations Children’s Fund conducted an educational study that took the averages of five different tests and ranked the 24 participating nations; the United States was ranked 18. In that same year a similar study, the Tends in International Mathematics and Science Study, showed that the United States students tended to decline in performance from grades 4 to 12 more than any other nation. In both studies, South Korea, Japan, and Singapore ranked the highest respectively, followed by the United Kingdom, Finland, Australia, and Netherlands. The United States preceded all of these. â€Å"In fourth grade, American kids do above average internationally. By eighth grade, they slip a bit, and by 12th-grade, they’ve slipped a lot, we’re the only country that slides down that much from fourth to 12th grade† (Marsh). Because of this  recent slip in rank, the educators of the United States have somewhat resorted to teaching the material that will only be on the test rather than material that actually needs to be learned by the students. The United States teachers focus more on procedure, and try to teach multiple topics quickly while other countries tend to break up the topics and go more in-depth. Other countries’ teachers work on the concept and the background of the material instead of just teaching the procedure. For example, teachers in the United States tend to teach mathematics in whole numbers, while other countries use rulers to teach mathematics to show that there are numbers between whole numbers, implying infinite many numbers. Students are then taught the concept behind mathematics at an early age, making progression more productive. When students are taught the procedure and not the concept behind the procedure, there is a higher chance of forgetting the subject all together. It’s not just the international education rankings that American students are lagging in, but also the high school’s curriculum for their students, which differs greatly from other developed nations. American students are graduating from high school with little or no knowledge about the core classes. In other nations, the curriculum and requirements for progression are extremely strict, and if the requirements aren’t fulfilled by the student within a certain time period, the student will not continue on the educational ladder. In America, this idea is altered greatly by letting unqualified students consistently progress towards the next level in their education without any repercussions. â€Å"Between 1995 and 2004, the percentage of youth ages 16-19 who had ever been retained decreased; high school dropouts were more likely than high school completers to have been retained in a grade at some point in their school career† (Indicator 1). This decrease in the grade retention rate is physical evidence that school systems are letting students that do not fulfill the curriculum for a certain grade continue onto the next grade without any repercussions. The decrease is also evidence that the school systems concentrate more on other issues than education. In America, it has basically become custom to put education behind everything; school administrators believe that self-esteem and even religion are more important than the education of the children. In other countries, this isn’t so, and almost nothing comes prior to education.  When comparing the mission statements from that of an American public school to one of a European public school, one can see how the educational goals differ. For example, the mission statement for City High School in Tucson, Arizona is as follows:City High School strives to be a community of learners in which all members use their minds well and care about one another. We engage with challenging academics and the unique resources of our city and region in order to become active citizens and responsible stewards of our world. City High School’s mission statement doesn’t differ greatly from those of other American public schools. The schools want their students to â€Å"care about one another† and â€Å"become active citizens and responsible stewards†. Only a few words have anything to do with education, which proves the point that American public schools believe that good citizenship should come before good scholarship, also providing evidence that the curriculum is not as competitive as other nations’. Another major setback for the students in America compared to students around the world is the increasing amount of unqualified instructors. â€Å"One out of every seven teachers holds no credential and has little or no training in how to teach or manage a classroom† (SF Gate 1). The Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning conducted a report on unqualified instructors and found that the number of teachers holding no credential rose 11% between 2005 and 2006 and rose 13% between 2006 and 2007. Each year, more than 40,000 teachers work under an â€Å"emergency permit†, allowing them to instruct classrooms for the school year. This is a major flaw in the United State’s educational system because these â€Å"teachers† know just about as much of a subject as their students do, thus creating a stagnation in educational progression. In 2001, the â€Å"No Child Left Behind† act was passed and forced teachers to demonstrate that they are qualified in the subject(s) that they are instructing by passing certification exams and completing graduate coursework. This act obviously did no good to the education system, for it allowed even more teachers to teach without credentials. American student’s poorer educational rankings cannot entirely be blamed upon American students, but upon American instructors.

Police accountability and police misconduct affect law enforcement Essay

Police accountability and police misconduct affect law enforcement - Essay Example They use their mind, experience and training to make important decisions while still have to uphold a high level of proper conduct. A misjudgment on their case may result to public outcry and the blame falls on the police. Still a good decision made according to a police officer may not be deemed the same by other parties due to, for instance, the occurrence of collateral damage. Police officer base their decision on unusual observation or distrusting look on a person. Other times when they are in direct contact with danger. Another reason may be the inappropriate time and place for a person, group to be or activity to occur. The decision itself brings unpleasant consequences such as blame to the officer and deeming the officer as incompetent. Sometimes an officer may be sued by an aggrieved party and eventually lose his job as a law enforcer (Brooks 15). The police department will be as well affected by the negative attention and will be seen by the public as not worth trusting. The decision to stop it may be based on the vehicle appearance, such as a broken headlight, or peculiar observation of the driving pattern, such as speeding. The officer will ask for the required documents for driving, state the reason for stopping and after that will decide whether to let the driver continue on his journey or to arrest the driver if fault has been found. If he arrests the vehicle owner without any clear reason, the officer will be at fault and may be charged. If the vehicle owner is at fault and resists arrest, the officer may have to use force. The police officer may use excessive force and injure the vehicle owner, or may draw out his weapon and shoot the driver. The decision he will take at that time shall have consequences, and the officer shall be held accountable. The law enforcer may have used it in self-defense, but it shall be duly investigated and held liable for his actions if found on the

Distinguishing Share Capital And Loan Capital Essay

Distinguishing Share Capital And Loan Capital - Essay Example This paper would go to investigate difference between share capital and loan capital, paying meticulous attention to the way in which loan capital may be secured1 Corporate borrowing where this is done by debentures or debenture Stock it also examines the types of charge that companies can issue to Creditors is floating and fixed charges. The priority of secured creditors is considered together with an examination of the registration requirements for charges. Membership of a company limited by shares is based on an undertaking to Contribute capital to the company in payment for shares issued by the company. The amount of capital to be contributed is a matter for agreement between each Member and the company but once the agreed amount has been contributed neither the company nor its creditors may demand a further contribution2. The contributed capital of a company is used by it to make profits, which may be shared among is members if the company is wound up when it is solvent, the contributed capital may be returned to members but if it has to be wound up when it is insolvent then all the assets acquired with the members contributed capital will have to be used to pay the company debts and nothing will be returned to the members. As well as sharing in profits the members of a company normally jointly control it by appointing directors to manage the company affairs. In many private companies, of course, the members are also the directors. A member of a company who contributes more capital than another will want a proportionally greater share in distribution of the company profits and also a greater influence on the company affairs (i.e., more votes at members meetings). The extent of a members undertaking to contribute capital, and of entitlement to share in distributions and vote at meetings, are all related to the number and class of shares of the company that the member holds a description of each member. Shareholding must be entered against the members name in the company register of members (CA 2006, s 113). A share is essentially a limit of account for measuring a member's interest in a company. Each share is required to have sum of capital assigned to it as its nominal value (s 542) and this is the size of the unit of account. The nominal value of a share is the minimum value that a company must demand to receive as contributed capital in exchange for the share so if Textbook Examples Co plc, has only one class of members and the nominal value of each of its shares is 50p, and I undertake to contribute 5000 worth of capital to the company I Cannot expect to be allotted more than 10,000 of its shares. Moreover, the company must not offer to allot me more than 10,000 of its 50p shares as an incentive to me to contribute only 5,000 worth of capital because to do so would distort the way in which the shares allotted to me measure my interest in the company (s 580) it is however permissible for a shareholder to undertake to contribute more for shares than their nominal value -the excess is called share premium Capital contributed in exchange for shares, apart from share premium, is called share capital. Having undertaken

Managing Diversity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Managing Diversity - Essay Example Center of discussion in this paper is diversity management that has attracted not only a lot of interest but also debates all over the world. Many countries are now making improvements in their diversity management strategies in order to accommodate the increasingly diverse labour market. Diversity management entails various actions by organisations aimed at maximising the inclusion of workers from a diverse background. These employees are recruited into not only formal but also the informal structures of the various organisations by use of deliberate policies. The recruitment may also be done through deliberate programs, specifically designed for promoting diversity management. As a way of countering the increasingly diverse working population all over the world, many organisations have put in place particular measures aimed at appropriate recruitment of employees, their inclusion, as well as the retention of these employees. Focus has been put on those employees from underprivilege d or minority groups within various societies. Various organisations in Europe have instituted laws that promote equal right, as well as policies aimed at enhancing affirmative action, so as to assist the less privileged groups to get jobs in both familiar and unfamiliar labour territories. It has been discovered that the exclusion of such workers from influential positions has seriously contributed to their limited contribution to the well being of their respective organisations. This has in turn given them very little chances to gain from these organisations maximally. (Subeliani and Tsogas 2005, p. 838). The various policies and initiatives for diversity management have been proven to have created conducive working environment in these organisations, especially to the underprivileged groups. It has indeed worked positively in recruiting individuals who are getting jobs for the first time, and those that are occupying higher positions for the first time too (Mathis and Jackson 201 0, p.200). The emergence of a global economy and that of multinational organisations has taken diversity management considerations beyond just the dynamic nature of labour market in a specific nation, but that across nations. The management of diversity of labour force in a national context is known as â€Å"intra-national diversity management. On the other hand, managing labour in an organisation with citizens from different nations is referred to as cross-national diversity management. In this sense, a company may be operating in different countries and as such, needs policies and programs, for diversity management, to be applied not only in its headquarters but also in its branches in the various countries. Moreover, cross-national diversity management policies work better when organisations put into consideration laws and culture of the countries in which they operate (Arredondo and Arredondo 1996, p. 178). According to Thomas (2005), diversity management goes beyond the simple consideration of the less privileged groups. It also considers differences and similarities within a workforce. He argues that diversity management entails handling the employee dynamics within the whole workforce, and not just a particular section of the workforce (Klarsfeld 2010, p.325). The European Union has shown its almost unrivalled commitment to promote equality in its labour market through

Reaction Paper Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Reaction Paper - Personal Statement Example ise in relationships between physicians and nurses are signals of absence of effective communication skills, which, in its turn, affects the attitude of patients towards nurses and the system of medical care in total. There have been multiple approaches to the issue of communication between a physician and a nurse: from the fields of cooperation, feminist studies, team psychology, cultutal perspective, organizational behavior, human factors science, etc. It has been proved that certain aspects of patient outcomes and safety are related to the level of this professional communication, and some of communication strategies in hospitals turned out to be more effective than others. So the bottom line is – communication between nurses and physicians should be improved by all means, no matter what specific method is used (in the chapter among others the author lists such methods as recognizing corporate culture, quality improvement, continuous assessment, reducing conflict etc). Pretty much all of these methods yield their results, proving effective, and there is no sufficient empirical evidence to prioritise any of them above the others. Claiming that â€Å"there is mixed or weak evidence to su pport using some of the techniques described in the cited literature†, Jean Ann Seago suggests a number of steps to be taken in the course of improving professional communication in a hospital – from evaluating strategies using measuarable outcomes and selecting the one that suits the particular organization to slow and step-by-step implementation of these strategies during a long period of

Researching Politics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Researching Politics - Essay Example The purpose of this essay is to examine how relevant the Marshall plan was to Western Europe’s economic recovery. The European continent had been devastated by the War. Most of them were battling with a series of issues. The continent was plagued with so many problems because the Second World War had been more expansive than the First World War. Industrial production was one of the key areas that had been affected by this war. This was largely as a result of the attack that nations had to face from aerial attacks. Some of the most developed cities in the continent urgently needed assistance. Berlin and London were such examples; also, there was an urgent need to look for mechanism of rebuilding other cities like Rotterdam that had been completely destroyed. (Bonds, 2000) Agricultural matters were also exerting a lot of pressure on members of the European continent. After the war, many people could not access food because agriculture had been destroyed. Infrastructure was also another problem owing to the fact that bridges, roads and rails had been air struck thus leading to their overall damage. Also, the war had used up much of the treasures that these European countries had placed in store. Consequently, there was a need to look for a system in which they could deal with some of these problems. It should also be noted that the Second World War had come after the First World War. This latter war led to a serious recession within the European continent. Also the US had played a large role in streamlining some of these problems prior to the Marshall Plan. For instance, it is on record that the US assisted Germany in paying its war reparation through a debt given to them. In the US States Department, Harry Truman became interested in luring very active foreign policy. However, the US Congress was not as enthusiastic as this leader was. In fact, at that time, the US Congress thought that Europe would look for

The Alcan Organization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Alcan Organization - Essay Example The company is highly vertically integrated having eight deposits and mines, seven alumina plants with a transport networks including rail and port facilities, seven alumina refineries, 12 electric power plants, 170 packaging material plants, 26 smelter, 50 engineered product plants and 18 laminated product plants (INDUSTRY CANADA, 2005). In an attempt to understand the Alcan’s IT structure, this paper explores a range of issues that are linked to the Alcan Organization as an IT oriented organization. This includes its organization and operating technology, its dominant IT Strategies and Practices, technological contributions linked to the organization, its technological barriers, as well as its business continuity plan. Organization and Operating Technology. In the Alcan Company, all groups are centrally coordinated. The information and technology organization works on the objectives of the organization rather than for each specific business IT group. The requirements of each group such as its activities are closely linked and cooperation amongst the business IT groups is up to date (Foster, 2007). The wish of the IT individuals is always to fulfill the particular demands of the whole organization and it is worth noting that estimating and analyzing of the costs of IT for the whole organization is achievable (Dube, & Roy, 2009). ... The group that is concerned with financial and other includes 14 resources that are divided among Singen, Montreal, Paris and Zurich. The Architecture group consists of three resources having technical skills corresponding to Infrastructure Planning and the Shared Infrastructure Service group. The technical skills for this group are middleware and Web technology. The Information System Solution group is composed of sixty resources that are distributed in five different cities. The cities are Issoire, Paris, Neuf Brisach, Voreppe and Warmley. This group’s major focus is on main SAP Implementation projects among the Engineered Product group. The last group is the Infrastructure Shared Service group which has about forty resources that are all located in 6 different sites. These are Montreal Paris, Singen, Chicago, Warmley, and Voreppe (Dube, Bernier, & Roy, 2009). This group helps in operation of the infrastructure components that include e-mail, global network and data processi ng. The group, as well provides workstation support alongside the collaboration of tools. All these groups are integrated (Foster, 2007). Technological Contributions to the Organization. The plan adopted by the Alcan management team has seen drastic changes in the IT sector of the Alcan organization. The plan has been a corner stone in so far as the implementation of the management services common to the business groups is concerned and the services are now handled by a central organization unit with the support of the internal billing mechanism. The centralization of the IT shared services has gone a long way in promoting economies of scale,

Pier Luigi Nervi and Santiago Calatrava - Protagonists of an Research Paper

Pier Luigi Nervi and Santiago Calatrava - Protagonists of an Engineering-based Architecture - Research Paper Example Their roles in the industry are similar. On juxtaposing them, it is clear that they are very much alike. Architecture is the entire process of designing and putting the design into action to produce a complete product. Engineering based architecture employs the principles of architecture in solving engineering problems. These include aspects like construction of buildings, roads, dams, aircraft, and vehicle. The engineer applies architectural skills to ensure that the engineering problem is solved. This is the field of operation of these protagonists. Pier Luigi Nervi and Santiago Calatrava have been in the engineering based architecture industry for years. Their work is magnificent. They are renowned the world over for their great work. They have Iconic structures which distinct them from the other players in the field. There role in the field is that of a kingpin. They are undoubtedly the protagonists. They work internationally. They serve all kinds of clients from all corners of t he world. There role in the field cannot be matched by other players. They have set very high standards in the field that are a pace setter for the rest of the players to emulate. It is out of proper dedication and resilience that one is capable of achieving such a milestone. To be able to be a role model to even one individual of sound mind is a mountain to climb. The fact that these players I the industry are an icon for others from all over the world is clear evidence that they are the protagonists in the industry. Santiago Calatrava Biography Santiago Calatrava is a Spaniard who was born in Valencia in the early 1950’s. He is one of the most renowned engineering based architects. He is also a sculptor in addition to being an architect and a structural engineer. He got his first bachelors degree from the Polytechnic University of Valencia. He graduated with an honors degree in architecture. He followed this with a post graduate degree in urbanism. He later on moved to Zuri ch in Switzerland where he graduated with an honors degree in Civil Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. It was until he got his doctoral degree that he began practicing his engineering and architecture. He wrote a thesis on Space Frames foldability. Calatrava’s engineering background. Calatrava spend his early career in engineering based architecture concentrating on bridges and train stations. This was in the early 1990s. Even at this early stage of his career, he came up with projects that were revolutionary in nature. He changed the horizon for the engineering based architectural industry. His designs were magnificent. He was very lucky to be granted a spotlight at the early stage of his career by the international Olympic Games. These games were hosted in Barcelona in his home country of Spain. He had just completed his Muntjuic Communications Tower. This was right in the middle of the Olympic site. With the full glares of the worldwide cameras, he stole the show with his design. It was a spectacle. This was followed by the Allen Lambert Galleria in the Canadian capital of Toronto. These projects marked the point of revolution in his career. He never looked back. Since then things have never been the same again in his line of work. He has risen to be an icon. He is a protagonist in the field. His techniques to link architecture and engineering in his design Calatrava is more like a genius. He employs the great architectural skills and background that he has into the civil engineering skills and background that he again has to come up with state of the art designs. His designs give other architects an eye opener. They

Hinduism and Buddism Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Hinduism and Buddism - Research Paper Example The prayers are confirmed by marking Tikka, i.e., a red mark of vermilion on the foreheads. The goal of the narrator as a Hindu is to illuminate ignorance and become more spiritual. Discussion Questions 1. What cuisines are traditionally prepared at Diwali? 2. Why is Diwali celebrated at the end of year? 3. How many days does Dilwali continue for? 4. Is celebration of Diwali a means of spiritual revival for the Hindus? 5. How different is the celebration of Diwali between India and elsewhere? Strengths and Weaknesses a. I think that the video presented the topic well as whatever the narrator says, the video displays images with that. For example, when the narrator says that everybody gets into the prayer room, the video shows everybody assembling in it. Likewise, the coins are shown being washed in milk and being applied vermilion upon as the narrator explains what is happening. In addition to that, the accent and dialect of the narrator is such that each and every word is understand able. Secondly, the audience gets the complete concept of the Festival of Diwali as well as the underlying beliefs of the Hindus related to this event in a video of just 2 minutes and 4 seconds. Not only this, the video explains that the concept of gods in Hinduism is like a board of members, so that the audience does not get confused when the video shows the family first worshipping Lord Ganesha and then the Goddess Laxmi. b. It is a good video to show to those who do not know what is Diwali because it explains the concept of Diwali, shows a family praying upon and celebrating Diwali, discusses the significance of different gods and goddesses in Hinduism, and explains the reason Hindus illuminate their homes at this Festival. c. I had to do some further research to understand Diwali as this video did not discuss everything related to Diwali. One weakness of the video is that it only projects the perspective of the narrator. It would have been better if different family members were invited to express what meanings they associate with the event, though considering the time constraints, it seems justified. d. This video is useful for students and people belonging to all categories as all people in the video are dressed modestly, and there is no offence whatsoever. e. This video shows how Hindus get united at the Festival of Diwali and pray and celebrate it together. This spreads the message of tolerance, unity, and mutual harmony and understanding. Video II Video Summary This video covers Buddhism. The video shows paintings of the 500 disciples of Buddha in the North East India from the V century. In Sanskrit, they are called as Arhats. These disciples were intercessors and messengers of Buddhism. The idea was that they were enlightened while living among common people. These 100 paintings were compiled between 1854 and 1863. The paintings were intended to project Buddhist catechism. The essence of Buddhism is that materialistic world is deceptive and everythin g is in transition. The paintings depict the everyday lifestyle of the Buddhist disciples, their comfortable interaction with people as well as animals, and present a holistic picture of their culture. The paintings show everything from murder, wars, suicides, and fire breakouts to daily activities of the Arhats in a peaceful environment. Discussion Questions 1. What was the

The conflict between different attitudes to loyalty Essay Example for Free

The conflict between different attitudes to loyalty Essay How does Shakespeare put on stage the conflict between different attitudes to loyalty? How effectively do you think he does this? On stage we are introduced to two different styles of leadership. Shakespeare uses the King and Hal to act as contrasts of leadership. We seethe king as a scary ogre, who is to be feared. When we first meet the king he is easily angered as he is not obeyed by Hotspur, as he does not hand over the prisoners which he has captured. This shows that the king immediately demands obedience and respect. Whenever someone is addressing the king, they call him my liege or my lord. This again shows that people fear him, as they feel they must respect him. However, when we first meet Hal, Prince of Wales, Falstaff addresses him with Hal and lad, which shows that people do not fear Hal as much, and that he is not as respected. Hal mingles with the common people, and he feels at home in the pub with his mates. This style of leadership is in contrast to his fathers, the King. Hal does not demand respect and obedience . He is content with others making jokes at him and having a laugh. Falstaff says to Hal for a fine thief of the age of two and twenty or thereabouts. Falstaff is suggesting that Hal is boring, but Hal is satisfied with being called this, whereas if it was the King who had received this comment, he would have got angry at being insulted. Hal himself enjoys a laugh with his mates, even if it means that someone is disadvantaged by it. For example he plays a trick on Falstaff, by allowing him to carry out a robbery and then the prince himself robs Falstaff. Hal did this just to show Falstaff up, and to make a fool of him, of which he does. Hal mixes with thieves and drunks, people of which his father would not approve. If Hal becomes king, it seems that he will not have the power and respect that his father had, because of the way he acts. It is not fit for the Prince of Wales to go on robberies, and get drunk in local pubs. People will lack respect for him and he will have no authority. In the scene with the King, we see him as not a very attractive character. He speaks in a manner which is slow, serious, and very stern. This introduction to the king is important as it is the audiences first view of him and they decide straight away what sort of character he is. This, almost evil presence around the King makes even the audience fear him, which is why the other characters in the play fear him. This is the kings way of leading his people. By being strict, snobbish, stern and fearful, this is why people follow him. We see the King lose his temper when he is disobeyed by Hotspur in the beginning of the play when Hotspur refuses to hand over some prisoners, and we also see him lose his temper over Hal because of Hals behaviour. God pardon thee! Yet let me wonder, Harry, at thy affections, which do hold a wing quite from the flight of all thy ancestors. The King here is getting angry with his own son, as he feels Hal approach to leadership and King is far different than his own or his ancestors. We do not see the King any more angered here with his own son, than he is with Hotspur earlier on. Hals approach is far different. When we first meet him he is smiling and having a joke with Falstaff, and admitting how his lifestyle is poor by thieving, and is now planning yet another one. This first impression does not make us see Hal as a leader, as he is irresponsible, and immature. He does not appear to be someone which we would look up to and respect and obey, we are more likely to argue back at him or simply be disobedience. It is difficult for the audience to see him ruling a country as king. It is the lack of respect that people have for him that makes the audience feel this way. After Falstaff was robbed, he comes back to the inn and addresses Hal with A kings son! If I do not beat thee out of thy kingdom and You, Prince of Wales! . Falstaff may have been let down by Hal as he did not help him in the robbery like was planned, but it is not normal for a normal person such as Falstaff to insult the Prince of Wales like that, and tell him that he is not suitable to be Prince. This is how people talk to Hal, without fear or respect. Shakespeare has effectively used Hal and the King as contrasts of leadership, and this is clear and easy to see. It is even more apparent when the King orders Hal to him to discuss his behaviour. The King becomes emotional at this stage and begins to compare Hal to Richard II. It is clear that the King does not approve of Hals attitude to leadership. What happens next is important, for Hal vows to his father that he will be more myself, and that he will change all of his ways. However, the next scene we see him pretending to ride a horse in the pub with Falstaff. After he vows to change, it is strange to see him act like this. It appears that despite what his father wants, he wishes to lead in his own way. The kings leadership qualities are mainly the fear which her gives out, also he speaks in poetry a lot, so he is a good speaker. He is able to address people and talk to them in a way that they will enjoy and remember. The King appears to consider things before acting upon. How ever with Hal we do not see many leadership qualities. Although one advantage Hal has is that he knows his faults, he is aware of himself, and he uses his faults to gain popularity with his locals. However, one leadership quality we see is when Hal plans the robbery on Falstaff, this was cleverly put together it is not the type of quality we look for in a King. The audience may see him now as a king in the making. Soon we hear him speaking in poetry which reminds us of his father and how he is becoming a king. It appears Hals ideas of being king are different from the kings, for he will be a sly king. He will not be bothered if others suffer because of him. As long as he is at an advantage he is happy. The current King may also do this, but in a different way. For Hal does this whilst drinking with common people, and thieving, whereas the King is apart from society and it appears he looks down on them and gives them no respect. How are people going to carry on respecting him if he does not show any signs of respecting others. Hal on the other hand may get more respect, but will find it hard to keep control of his people. Shakespeare has made an on stage battle of the contrasts in leadership. It is not evident as to which one is the correct one to use, but we can clearly see the advantages and disadvantages of both. Shakespeare has used the different types of leaderships in Hal and the King to create suspense on stage. Hal we see as a nice guy and someone who we can get on with, and because of this, we have a liking for him, and we care what happens to him. However, we may not like the King as much as Hal, but we still care what happens to him. This is because he demands respect so much on stage that we immediately we take an interest and concern as to what happens to him. This suspense is evident throughout the play, and it keeps the audience interested. Shakespeare has arranged the play so that we see the King and his associates in one scene, Falstaff and Hal in another, and Hotspur in another. So it is like having three little stories going on at once. These changes to different characters are deliberate, as it allows the audience a break. As if the play just focused on Hal and Falstaff, the suspense would be so great and constant that the audience would lose concentration. It would be too much to take in. A play needs suspense, but at the same time there needs to be breaks from that suspense for the audience to really appreciate the play, and Shakespeare has achieved this well.

The Importance of Heritage Conservation

The Importance of Heritage Conservation Heritage conservation is important for identifying, recording, analysing and protecting heritage and cultural resources. Conservation of heritage buildings is an important tool in city development which can be seen in some cities in the world. It plays an important role to define the landmark within the heritage area as well as to generate economic return and to support the tourism industry. Conservation of heritage buildings is very important because it provides a sense of identity and continuity in a fast changing world for future generations. Heritage buildings basically represent the past history and culture of a nation. They constitute together the architectural heritage of an area. Heritage buildings possess historical values resulting from their beautiful architecture and their correlation with important events that occurred in the heritage area such as religious, social and political events. Heritage buildings are subjected to processes of degradation with time, which leads to a situation in which they became not able to fulfil the purpose for which they were built. For example, in Canada about 20 percent of pre-1920 heritage buildings to demolition over the last 30 years has been lost (Heritage Canada Foundation website, 20 December 2012). Therefore, heritage buildings need an important tool to protect them. Conservation guidelines of heritage buildings are one of the proposed resolutions for protecting heritage buildings. The absence of these guidelines leads inevitably to deterioration of heritage buildings. They must be created and developed to ensure that any important changes in conservation work are undertaken in the most ways possible to preserve the heritage structures, historic character and features. They prevent the random works that have spread in the conservation projects of heritage buildings. On this basis, conservation guidelines for developing and utilizing these properties must be established. Libya is a treasure chest of historic and ancient cultures. Great civilizations flourished in the country, including Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic. They all left lasting imprints of their cultures. Libya has five official UNESCO cultural heritage sites. The five sites added to the World Heritage List between 1982 and 1986 provide a clear illustration that Libya has a heritage whose incalculable value belongs to all humanity. The old city of Ghadames (OCG) is one of the official UNESCO cultural heritage sites that Libya has. The OCG is a major desert city and played an important role as a cultural and trade centre between the Mediterranean and Africa for over 1400 years. It was declared a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1986 in recognition of its rich cultural heritage. Tourism plays an important role in the old city of Ghadames with many visitors from all over the world coming to attend the Annual Festival of Dates which is held in October. The conservation of heritage buildings of the old city of Ghadames will preserve and restore a valuable piece of Libyas heritage and also contribute to the development of the city as an important tourist destination. This research attempts to assess the overall structural integrity of the heritage buildings of the old city of Ghadames as well as provide and develop conservation procedures and guidelines for repairing and conserving heritage buildings of the old city of Ghadames, world heritage site. Problem Statements Defects of heritage buildings can result from the degradation of the construction materials or from the damage of the heritage building elements due to mechanical actions. Heritage buildings are subject to process of degradation with time. In other words, the degradation of the construction materials is a process that develops naturally with time, and can be accelerated by chemical, physical or biological actions. For this reason, several researches were conducted all over the world to assess the existing conditions of heritage buildings. For instance, A Ghafar Ahmad et al. (2008) assessed the existing conditions of heritage buildings in Malaysia with the main focus on the conditions of building defects and conservation approach used for these buildings. The research found that most of the defects that occur in heritage buildings in Malaysia were at external walls followed by internal walls and etc. Other research by Hashimah Shuhana (2005) where the two researchers assessed the strength of the old shophouses and the impending factors that threaten the continuous presence of these heritage buildings Malaysian town. The findings indicated that the practice of conserving the old shophouses is still not effective. A more effective measure in preserving the old shophouses needs to be undertaken. In addition, Itma M. A., (2007) assessed the situations of conservation projects in Palestine especially in the old city of Nablus. He found that heritage buildings of the old city of Nablus, Palestine, suffer from many random preservation. Although defects of heritage buildings can result from the degradation of the construction materials or from the damage of the heritage building elements due to mechanical actions. However, there is another risk which threatens the sustainability of the heritage buildings. Move of inhabitants of heritage buildings to modern concrete buildings with modern amenities is also a great risk that leads to heritage buildings deterioration. When inhabitants live in the heritage buildings, their houses are well maintained; some continue to be in excellent conditions and are properly cared for. If inhabitants stay in their heritage houses, they surely perform maintenance works periodically. In contrast, if they abandon their heritage houses, it will lose its vitality. This occurred in many heritage cities in the world. For example, many people moved away from the neighbourhood of Le Village in Cornwall, Ontario in Canada and sold their homes to investors who rented them out, when the textile mi lls in the area shut their doors. The layoff of many residents of Le Village marked the beginning of the deterioration of the communitys physical conditions. To resolve this problem, Friedman et al. (2002) developed urban and architectural guidelines for conservation of the neighbourhood of Le Village in Cornwall, Ontario. Another example occurred in China, when many younger and richer residents have moved from the old city of Yangzhou to the new city areas due to the deteriorating physical conditions of the heritage buildings. To make people return back to the old city of Yangzhou, Longbin (2007) developed a detailed design guideline for the whole old city Yangzhou in China. Like these events occurred also in the old city of Ghadames, Libya when the inhabitants moved out of their heritage houses of the old city to modern city in the early 1980s. Since then, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has carried out a project on the old city of Ghadames its objective was to encourage and motivate the inhabitants to come back to the old city. The project was completed in 2004 as part of the Tourism Master Plan (United Nations Development Programme and UNDP Office for Project Services Report, 2007). Even though the project maintained source of water (Ain Al-Faras), restored some heritage buildings a nd repaired streets. However, right now the inhabitants have not come back to the old city yet. This is also confirmed by UNESCO Report (2010) where the report mentioned that the old city of Ghadames has not yet seen the return of its inhabitants. Based on the above, assessment of the overall structural integrity of the heritage buildings of the old city of Ghadames, world heritage site, Libya is very important before developing the conservation guidelines for heritage buildings in the old city. Furthermore, there is a significant lack of researches conducted on the heritage buildings of the old city of Ghadames in spite of its heritage importance. Even though few studies were done on the old city and the modern city of Ghadames. However, none of them assessed the overall structural integrity of the heritage buildings of the old city of Ghadames. Additionally, none of them attempted to develop conservation guidelines to protect the heritage buildings of the old city. Some of research studies were carried out by Chojnacki, (2003); Elwefati, (2007); and Nura S. et al. (2006). Besides that there is a lack of expertise and specific conservation guidelines for heritage buildings in the old city of Ghadames resulted of dilemma in the management of the municipality to preserve the heritage buildings. The level of understanding of the heritage buildings in Libya still remains low. Without any documentation the beauty of the heritage buildings will be lost due to age factor and climate change. Lack of expertise in the maintenance of heritage buildings is also a source of beautiful heritage buildings are damaged or destroyed. There is a lack of technical knowledge to repair and maintain heritage buildings in the old city of Ghadames. Since late 1980s, several studies on the conservation of heritage building of the old city of Ghadames have been undertaken with the assistance of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and specialized (UN) agencies and other private or government entities. However, none of these studies have led to any concrete steps or conservation of heritage buildings of the old city in translating the plans into specific actions (UNDP Report, 2001). So far, no guideline on conservation guidelines for preserving heritage buildings of the old city of Ghadames has been developed in spite of its importance to protect heritage buildings (Arrabti, 2011; Al-Hasi, 2011). This was confirmed by Azzuz (2000) where the researcher has confirmed non-existence of any guidelines to maintain and enhance the character and integrity of the heritage buildings of the old city of Ghadames. Based on the discussion above, the main problem of this research results from the lack of: (1) Studies conducted on conservation of heritage buildings in Libya, (2) expertise and specific guidelines for heritage buildings in the old city of Ghadames, and (3) a suitable system in force for discovering and recording the heritage buildings in Libya. Therefore, the current research aims at identifying problems encountered in the heritage buildings in the old city of Ghadames, and suggests some conservation guidelines and references for the conservation of heritage buildings in the old city and which are all gazetted as national heritage buildings. Policies and guidelines to be provided are generally and specifically on an analysis of the heritage buildings. Research Questions Based on the research problem statements, the research questions mainly focus on the following areas: Is there any structural damage in the heritage buildings of the old city of Ghadames, world heritage site, Libya? How to repair and maintain the structural damages of the heritage buildings of the old city of Ghadames, world heritage site, Libya? Is there any conservation guidelines on heritage buildings of the old city of Ghadames, world heritage site, Libya? Objectives of the Research The main thesis objective is to assess the overall structural integrity of the heritage buildings of the old city of Ghadames as well as provide and develop conservation procedures and guidelines for repairing and conserving heritage buildings of the old city of Ghadames, world heritage site. The objectives of this research are: To assess the overall structural integrity of the heritage buildings of the old city of Ghadames, world heritage site, Libya. To provide conservation procedures for repairing and maintaining the structural damages of the heritage buildings of the old city of Ghadames, world heritage site, Libya. To develop the conservation guidelines and policy for the improvement and conservation of the heritage buildings of the old city of Ghadames, world heritage site, Libya. Scope of the Research Conservation of heritage sites includes generally, buildings, artefacts, structures, areas and precincts of historic, aesthetic, architectural, cultural or environmentally significant nature (heritage buildings and heritage precincts), natural feature areas of environmental significance or the sites of scenic beauty. The research does not discuss heritage in general, but mainly focuses on the built environment. The economic and social aspects are mentioned, but are not the main emphasis in this research. For instance, when discussing about the impact of conservation on the economy, the built environment is regarded as the main emphasis. The defined scope of the research is then conservation of heritage buildings in Libya. Heritage buildings of the old city of Ghadames were chosen as a representative city for conservation of heritage buildings in Libya. This was done so that to address its past, present and its future possibilities. The old city of Ghadames is one of the most typical tourism cities in Libya. This research does not cover all heritage cities in Libya, but the case of the old city of Ghadames has some characteristics and features with other heritage cities. Namely, the present research covers heritage buildings of the old city of Ghadames including houses, mosques, and shops. Public buildings and the surrounding environment of the heritage area of the old city of Ghadames are not addressed by this research. Therefore, the study focuses on heritage houses, mosques, and shops of the old city of Ghadames as one of the famous places of the Ghadames heritage area. 1.6 Significance of the Research The significance of the research results from the historical importance of the heritage buildings of the old city of Ghadames. Heritage buildings of the old city of Ghadames are an interesting case for investigation because the old city is considered one of the most prominent tourist destinations, and one of the most beautiful heritage cities in the desert. It has been recognized by several important international organizations such as the UNESCO and the Organization of World Heritage Cities. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has classified the old city of Ghadames like a heritage city and protected by the organisation in 1986, and classified it the third oldest city in the world (United Nations Development Programme and the UNDP Office for Project Services Report, 2007). The significance of this research also highlights from the architectural design of the heritage buildings of the old city which makes the old city of Ghadames important for studying its heritage buildings. The architecture of the heritage buildings of the old city is focused on resolving the climate problem and privacy. According to Nura S. et al., (2006), most of the people leave their houses in the new town of Ghadames and migrate to the old town and other cities during the summer, because the material of building construction and the air-conditioning in modern houses is unable to cope with the torrid heat of the desert and only the clay houses of the old town maintaining a degree of coolness, in summer-time the old town is still comfortable for living because of the good shelter against the extreme desert heat. In addition, the old city of Ghadames is located in desert regions. Therefore, it can be seen that its buildings are designed with flat roofs, small openings, and heavy weight materials such as dried mud. The thick exterior roof and walls help to absorb temperature fluctuations and, therefore, keep internal temperatures from rising above the outside surface temperature. An important function of the roof is its colour. A white or light coloured roof will stay approximately the same temperature as the outdoor air during the day, and 6-10 Celsius cooler than the outside air at night. This is an important feature because the cooler night times air will be channelled down by the slope of the roof and into the rooms in the building. One function of the small openings is to prevent dust from entering buildings. Windows are arranged so that equal areas are open on the windward and leeward sides of the building. The reason for this is very simple; the air stream can be directed into rooms tha t need constant ventilation such as the bedroom. When one window is positioned higher than another, thermal force will direct the airflow from the high window to the lower window creating good ventilation. Courtyards, patios, and verandas are other common features of heritage buildings in the old city of Ghadames. With high walls, these outside areas provide shade and a relaxing environment for their inhabitants for social gatherings, evening entertainment, food preparation, and domestic work such as laundry. Another way to provide shade in a more aesthetically pleasing way is through greenery. For example, trees, shrubs, and bushes provide natural shade from the sun while giving the courtyard area a pleasing look. Why are these outside areas so important? They are important because essential functions happen outside like cooking and entertaining. The outside environment in hot regions is just as important as the inside because it is a daytime relief from the intense climate. This beautiful architecture is worthy to investigate by study. This research is important because it focuses on heritage conservation which generates significant benefits to the economy. Based on the literature, benefits of the conservation of the heritage buildings are many. Economical benefits are considered one of them. Several studies confirmed that historic conservation yields significant benefits to the economy. In other words, these studies revealed that historic conservation is considered as an economic development tool. Namely, it yields significant benefits to the economy. For example Rypkema (1991) compared the relative costs of building conservation versus new construction, and found that building conservation makes more economic sense than new construction. Another study by Wolf et al (1999) where the researchers reached the same conclusion by Rypkema (1991). They found that in many cases; it is more efficient and profitable to preserve historic buildings than construct a new building. In addition, A Colorado Historical Society repo rt (based on an economic study conducted by Clarion Associates, et al, (2002) began, Studies across the country have shown that historic preservation acts as a powerful economic engine, creating tens of thousands of jobs and generating significant household income. On this basis, this research is deemed very important because it helps to develop tourism resources and exploitation of the architectural patrimony through re-using them and creating jobs. The significance of the research appears also from its main objective. As mentioned previously, this research attempts to develop conservation guidelines for the heritage buildings of the old city of Ghadames. According to the literature, conservation guidelines should be developed to control changes done by conservation works on heritage buildings and to prevent random conservation works that lead to deterioration of the heritage building. A research by Itma, (2007) confirmed that issuance of instructions for maintaining heritage buildings such as obtaining the official demobilization to change or demolition or addition of a supplement of the heritage building is very important. Therefore, conservation guidelines ensure a better way to preserve heritage buildings. It is a good tool for protecting heritage areas. Accordingly, this research is considered very important. Research Contributions The following contributions can be highlighted from this research: This research is expected to give a contribution in providing policy and guidelines that will become the future reference for other heritage buildings located in the desert region. In addition, the appropriate conservation guidelines provided by this research can be used by the conservator and building contractors to guide them through conservation works. The investigation into this area increases the understanding of the role of conservation guidelines to protect heritage buildings and contribute to the literature by extending the current body of knowledge on this issue. The study can be benefited by policy maker, professional urban planners, architects, and historians. This study attempts to adopt historic conservation policies for heritage buildings in Libya. Therefore, policy maker may utilize findings of this study in determining their policies and practices. 1.8 Organisation of the Research The research is organised as follows: Chapter One, Introduction, provides background to the research and delineates the structure of the thesis. It presents research issues including the research problem and outlines research questions. The Chapter exhibits the research objectives which establish the purpose of the study, considers potential limitations, discusses significance of the research and outlines the contributions of the research findings. Chapter Two, Literature Review, reviews the relevant literature regarding conservation of heritage buildings. It discusses international organisations that have an interest with heritage buildings, approach of architectural conservation and heritage buildings. In addition, the Chapter outlines conservation theory related to this research. Chapter Three, Research Methodology, explains the way, which is selected for this independent study to show the applied research method in this part. It gives an understanding of how the practical work and data collection has been conducted, as well as how the results have been analysed. It describes the research methodology base on the literature review in Chapter Two. Chapter Four, The Overview of the Old City of Ghadames, outlines the case study of the old city of Ghadames. It provides background information on the heritage buildings of the old city of Ghadames. The Chapter discusses also the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the World Heritage Site of Ghadames and shows the heritage sites added to the World Heritage List in Libya. Chapter Five, Case Studies, is dedicated to case studies. Some international experiences are addressed in this Chapter to benefit from them to achieve objectives of the research in chapter one. Chapter Six, Analysis and Findings, offers an in-depth discussion on the development of the conservation guidelines for the heritage buildings of the old city of Ghadames. Chapter Seven, Conclusions, discusses the outcome of the research (i.e. Design guidelines). It also provides a discussion for the testing of research objectives.

Why Investors Invest In Hedge Funds

Why Investors Invest In Hedge Funds Abstract Hedge funds have gained a lot of popularity in the last decade and are one of the fastest growing industries. The main aim of most hedge funds is to reduce volatility and risk. It also attempts to preserve capital and deliver positive returns under all market conditions. Not all hedge funds are same therefore it is important to know the difference between them. It differs in terms of its risks,  investment returns and volatility among the different hedge fund strategies. The strategies which are correlated to equity markets deliver consistent returns and have low risk while the ones that are not will be more volatile. Main objective of hedge funds is to provide consistency in its returns for investor, lower portfolio volatility and preserve their capital investments, which is the reason why investors such as pension funds, insurance companies, institutional investors and high net worth individuals and families invest in hedge funds. This thesis reviews various issues relating to the investment in hedge funds, which have become popular with high net-worth individuals and institutional investors, as well as discuss their empirical risk and return profiles. The concerns regarding the empirical measurements are highlighted, and meaningful analytical methods are proposed to provide greater risk transparency in performance reporting. It also discusses the development of the hedge fund industry in Asia. Asian hedge funds have grown vastly in past few years. It is said to have grown nearly six times as many funds while managing ten times are much in assets since 2000 according to Eurekahedge. The industry is estimated to consist over 1100 funds, and managing roughly $175 billion in assets. International managers are starting up their own Asia-focused funds too. Allocators are increasingly eyeing investment opportunities in Asia. Funds with a global mandate are increasing their allocation to Asia. The paper presents an overview of hedge funds, describing their development and characteristics. It also discussed the various issues related to the measurement of hedge fund performance, as well as examined alternative performance measures. This thesis ends with some remarks on the development of the hedge fund industry in Asia. 1. Introduction There has several definition of hedge funds throughout the history. There isnt one particular sentence that defines what hedge funds really means. However, according to Chicago Board Options Exchange (No Date), hedge funds can be defined as: A conservative strategy used to limit investment loss by effecting a transaction that offsets an existing position. Alfred Winslow Jones was the first person to create hedge fund structure more than 50 years ago. The fund established had following feature: He created hedges by investing in securities that was said to be undervalued and funded these positions by taking short positions in overvalued securities hence creating market-neutral position. He designed an incentive fee compensation arrangement for fund mangers. They were paid a percentage of profit from the clients capital assets; and He so invested his own investment capital in the fund, to make sure that his capital and that of his investors were coordinated and in line so that it is not just an individual investment but a partnership Almost all modern hedge funds have above listed features in them, and are set up as limited partnerships with a lucrative incentive-fee structure. In most hedge funds, managers also have a significant portion of their own capital invested in the partnerships. The term hedge fund has been generalized to describe investment strategies that range from the original market-neutral style of Jones to many other strategies and opportunistic situations, including global/macro investing. There is a large variety of hedge fund investing strategies present today and therefore no standard way to classify hedge funds separately. Many data vendors and fund advisors set up their own major hedge fund styles according to their popularity. Under the classification by Credit Suisse, the categories of hedge funds with 9 differentiated styles and a fund-of-funds category: (a) Event driven funds are the funds that take positions on corporate events when companies are undergoing re-structuring or mergers. For example, fund managers would purchase bank debt or high yield corporate bonds of companies undergoing the re-organization which is often referred to as distressed securities. Another event-driven strategy is merger arbitrage where the funds seize the opportunity to invest just after a takeover has been announced. They purchase the shares of the target companies and then short these shares of the acquiring companies. (b) Global funds are categories of funds that invest in non-US stocks and bonds with no specific strategy reference. This fund has the largest number of hedge funds and it includes funds that specialize on the emerging markets. (c) Global/Macro funds are the funds that rely on macroeconomic analysis and invest in long and short position in order to capitalise on major risk factors and unforeseen markets such as currencies, interest rates, stock indices and commodities. (d) Market neutral funds refer to hedge fund strategy that involves utilizing strategies such as long-short equity, stock index arbitrage, convertible bond arbitrage and fixed income arbitrage. Long-short equity funds use the strategy of Jones by taking long positions in selective stocks and going short on other stocks to limit their exposure to the stock market. Stock index arbitrage funds trade on the spread between index futures contracts and the underlying basket of equities. (e) Dedicated Short Bias  funds are strategies that take more short positions than long positions and earn returns by maintaining net short exposure in long and short equities. Detailed individual company research typically forms the core alpha generation driver of dedicated short bias managers, and a focus on companies with weak cash flow generation is common. To affect the short sale, the manager borrows the stock from a counter-party and sells it in the market. Short positions are sometimes implemented by selling forward. Risk management consists of offsetting long positions and stop-loss strategies. (f) Convertible bond arbitrage funds typically capitalize on the embedded option in these bonds by purchasing them and shorting the equities. (g) Fixed income arbitrage is a strategy that bets on the convergence of prices of bonds from the same issuer but with different maturities over time. This is the second largest grouping of hedge funds after the Global category. (h) Short/long fund-, shorts focus on engineering short positions in stocks with or without matching long positions. They play on markets that have raised too fast and on mean reversion strategies. Long funds take long equity positions with leverage. Emerging market funds that do not have short-selling opportunities also fall under this category. (i) Emerging Markets  funds invest in currencies, debt instruments, equities and other instruments of countries with emerging or developing markets (typically measured by GDP per capita). Such countries are considered to be in a transitional phase between developing and developed status. Examples of emerging markets include China, India, Latin America, much of Southeast Asia, parts of Eastern Europe, and parts of Africa. There are a number of sub-sectors, including arbitrage, credit and event driven, fixed income bias, and equity bias. (j) Fund of funds refer to funds that invests in a pool of hedge funds. They specialize in identifying fund managers with good performance and rely on their good industry relationships to gain entry into hedge funds with good track records. Table 1 gives statistics about the various categories of hedge funds and past performance. The global/macro hedge funds provided the best mean return over the period studied, while the event-driven funds had the lowest standard deviation of returns. On a risk adjusted basis which is obtained by dividing the mean return by the standard deviation, the category of fund that ranks highest is the global/macro funds followed closely by event-driven funds. Hedge funds are not required to publicly disclose performance and holdings information unlike the registered insurance companies, which might be construed as solicitation materials. This is the reason why which makes it more difficult for investors to evaluate hedge fund managers. TABLE 1 Jan 2000   Nov 2009 Categories Mean Return (%) Standard Deviation (%) Risk-Adjusted Return Event driven 8.66 5.44 1.60 Global 6.60 6.23 1.06 Global / Macro 12.28 6.07 2.02 Market neutral 2.09 13.48 0.16 Short/Long 5.50 8.88 0.62 Emerging Market 9.23 11.05 0.84 Convertible Arbitrage 6.98 8.34 0.84 Dedicated Short Bias (1.95) 16.40 (0.12) Fixed Income Arbitrage 3.66 6.81 0.54 Source: Credit Suisse/ Tremont hedge index Notes: The mean returns are annually compounded returns over the period 2000 to November 2009, The annualized standard deviations were computed from of the standard deviation of monthly returns for each investment style. Risk-adjusted returns are obtained by dividing the mean return by the standard deviation. In 1990 the entire hedge fund industry was estimated at $20 billion. At the end of 2008, global hedge fund industry was estimated to be worth $1 trillion with 8350 active funds. It has gained a lot of popularity in the last decade and is one of the fastest growing industries. While hedge funds are well established in US and Europe, they have also been growing rapidly in Asia. Hedge funds have posted attractive returns. A seven year annualised return of 2.47% posted by Hedge Fund Research (HFR) from 2003 to 2009, higher than the SP 1200 of 1.18%. Hedge funds are seen as natural hedge to control downside risk because they employ investment strategies believed to generate returns that are uncorrelated to traditional asset classes. Hedge funds differ in strategies- a macro fund such as quantum fund generally take a directional view by betting in particular bond market or a currency movement. Other funds specialise in corporate events such as mergers or bankruptcies. They also vary widely in investment strategies and the amount of financial leverage. In the recent financial crisis, hedge funds have been heavily criticised in terms of their strategies and also for the fact that in 2008, they have had hard time fulfilling their absolute return targets. There have been other criticisms towards hedge fund regarding this particular crisis. Stromqvist (2009) writes that ever since the growth of hedge fund industry there has always been discussions regarding the role of hedge funds in a financial crisis. The main focus of the criticism was on highly leveraged hedge funds and that they may have a large impact on price stability on both currencies and equities. In an article written in The Times, Dillow (2008) observes that even though average return of hedge funds in 2008 has been poor, they have not been a serious source of instability in the wider financial system. Regardless of the recent financial crisis, hedge funds still generate a growing number of interests all around the world. Due to their private nature, it is difficult to obtain information about the operations of individual hedge funds and reliable summary statistics about the industry as a whole. It is a common belief that investing in hedge funds can have superior returns. Many success stories have emerged in the past and the most popular of which is the George Soros story. In September of 1992, he risked $10 billion on a single  currency  speculation when he shorted the British pound, which gave him an international fame. He was right, and in a single day he successfully generated a profit of $1 billion â‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" ultimately, it was reported that his profit on the transaction almost reached $2 billion. Therefore, he is famously known as the the man who broke the  Bank of England. The greates investor: George Soros, http://www.investopedia.com/university/greatest/georgesoros.asp 16-12-09 As seen in Table 1, the hedge funds as a group can generate positive returns. For example, over the period 1990-1997, all the hedge funds had positive absolute returns. Global/Macro funds obtained mean returns of 28.1% p.a. with a standard deviation that is comparable to equity funds. Traditional asset allocation makes the most of the use of equities, bonds, real estate and private equity to invest in a portfolio that maximizes returns and minimizes the portfolio risk. Therefore, in an investment portfolio hedge funds can play a vital role in maximising returns. Moreover, in a bear market, many investment and fund mangers find it dull to just beat the market index, which may have negative returns. They generally prefer to go short or avoid long positions to have positive returns. Choosing an appropriate hedge fund to invest increases the possibility of obtaining positive absolute returns. It is also generally believed that hedge funds have returns that are generally uncorrelated with the traditional asset classes. In fact, hedge funds may even have a lower risk profile. For example, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (2000) reported that hedge funds exhibit a low correlation with traditional asset classes, suggesting that hedge funds should play an important role in strategic asset allocation. The answer to the question Why invest in Hedge funds? simply is to make money. The common analogy in all hedge funds strategies and the underlying rationale for investing in hedge funds is the search for absolute returns. This is sometimes called alpha. Alpha is the extra return a skilled manager can produce over and above the market return (or beta). Whereas many conventional fund managers aim simply to outperform their chosen benchmark index, hedge fund managers seek to produce positive gains in all market conditions. http://www.fleetstreetinvest.co.uk/shares/trend-investing/hedge-fund-investing-00128.html Research Question By using quantitative study, I will try to answer the following questions: Why investors invest in hedge funds? To answer this question I will be looking at the return, risk and performance associated with investing in hedge fund and how the fund mangers. By looking at the annualised return, standard deviation and risk adjusted returns of different styles of hedge funds their performance can be measured. What are the issues relating the investment in terms of risk, return and performance measurement? Although hedge funds are popular in terms of an investment vehicle, there are various issues. The issues related are its cost/ management fee structures, collection of data, survivorship bias and selection bias. Various performance measure techniques are available for hedge funds too. I will be looking at some of the performance measurement approaches. Purpose There are several purpose for this paper. First is to give an overview of hedge fund as an investment vehicle with a short description of different characteristics and styles of hedge funds. Second is to describe why hedge funds are attractive for investors and fund managers by presenting different theories where risk and returns of hedge funds are investigated in order to evaluate the performance measures. Third purpose is to investigate the issues related to the investment in hedge funds where several sets of issues are evaluated and various performance measures are identified. LITERATURE REVIEW There is no one particular definition of hedge fund as mentioned earlier. According to the Investment Company Act 1940 of the US, hedge funds were defined by their low degree of regulatory controls. In comparison to mutual funds, hedge funds were seen to have higher level of risk. This led to a 100-investor limit as well as wealth requirement of the investors. Fung and Hsieh (1999) claim that another reason for 100-investor limit is the use of leverage and short selling in hedge funds. The limit restrictions were later abandoned and wealth requirement lowered. Many definitions of hedge funds have been cited-most of them mainly based on its characteristics. Some of them are: Investment companies that by their charter can buy on margin, sell short, hold warrants, convertible securities and commodities and otherwise engage in aggressive trading tactics in order to profit from forcasting market swings.- Polhman, Ang and Hollinger (1978) A mutual fund that employs leverage and uses various techniques of hedging- Soros (1987) hedge funds are vehicles that allow private investors to pool assets to be invested by a fund manager. Unlike mutual funds, hedge funds are commonly structured as private partnerships and thus subject to only minimal SEC regulation. Moreover, because hedge funds are only lightly regulated their managers can pursue investment strategies involving, for example, heavy use if derivatives, short sales and leverage.- Bodie, Kane and Marcus (2008). Murguia and Umemoto (2004) claims that the reason why there is no proper definition of hegdge funds is because they are not classified by the different asset classes but by the type of strategies employed by the fund mangers is what classifies them. Such strategies range from very aggressive to conservative, which is the reason why there is no clear definition. Several studies have been carried out about hedge funds performance and risk issues. Fung and Hsieh (1997a) extend Sharpe (1992) style analysis and conclude that there are more diversified hedge fund strategies and suggested that hedge fund strategies are more dynamic. The literatures also conclude that option-based factors can enhance the power of explaining hedge fund returns. Brown, Goetzmann and Ibbotson (1999) examine the performance of offshore hedge funds and attribute fund performance to style effects rather than managerial skills. Brown, Goetzmann and Liang (2003) found, in a study using the TASS database, that fund of hedge funds reduce by a third the standard deviation of monthly hedge fund returns, as well as significantly reduce the value at risk of hedge fund investment. Hence, fund of hedge funds can also provide significant diversification potential. A well-diversified fund of hedge fund manager can therefore take advantage of market-specific risks while maintaining low correlations to stock, bond, and currency markets. As a result of which the fund of hedge fund manager can provide superior returns and generate alpha which reflects managerial skills. More generally, since fund of hedge funds deliver more consistent returns with lower volatility than individual hedge funds, they are considered to be ideal for diversifying traditional portfolios. During 1993â‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å"2001, fund of hedge funds outperformed the SP 500 index on a risk-adjusted basis (Gregoriou, 2003a). Koh, Koh, Lee and Phoon(2004) state that traditional asset allocation optimizes the use of equities, bonds, real estate and private equity to invest in a portfolio that maximizes returns and minimizes the portfolio risk. Thus, hedge funds become vital in enhancing returns in an investment portfolio. Following the growth in hedge fund industry, fund-of-hedge funds (FOF) have become more and more popular. Liang (2003) states that FOF mixes various strategies and asset classes together and creates more stable long-term investment returns than any of the individual funds. It invests in underlying hedge funds and diversifies the fund specific risks and relieves burdens on investor to select and monitor managers, and providing asset allocation in dynamic market environments. Fund-of-funds require less initial investment as compare to hedge funds and therefore are more affordable for small investors. To participate in the investment, small investors may be willing to pay extra fees as it might be the only way for them. Previous studies in this area by Brown, Goetzmann and Liang (2002) conclude that combining hedge funds with fund-of-funds not only causes the double counting but also hides the difference in fee structures between hedge funds and fund-of-funds. Liang (2003) state that a hedge funds charges a management fee and incentive fee while a fund-of-funds not only charges these fees at a fund-of-fund level but also passes hedge fund level fees in the form of after fee returns to the fund-of-fund investors whether or not the fund-of-funds make a profit. Brown, Goetzmann and Liang (2002) examine this issue and propose an alternative fee which provide a better incentive for fund-of-fund managers and reduce the cost for investors under the current fee structure, which is that the fund-of-fund managers absorb the underlying hedge fund fees and establish their own incentive fees at the fund-of-fund level. Liang (2003) conclude that because of the above issues fund-of-funds need to be separated from hedge funds in academic studies and address the difference in performance, risk and fee structures. However, the FOF mangers can add value to the portfolio through selection, construction and continuous monitoring of the portfolio. They provide professional services and have access to the information that are expensive and difficult to obtain otherwise. The FOF mangers quite often use different investment strategies and styles through a diversified portfolio of individual fund managers. Considering these advantages for an investor, investing in fund of hedge funds is not cheap. The cost can be as high as the cost of buying a building, according to Koh, Koh, Lee and Phoon (2004). This structure allows for more diversified portfolio and much reduced risk at the fund level which comes at a price. More diversified the portfolio is it is more likely that it will incur more incentive fees. Therefore, there are many persuasive reasons why investing in hedge funds are considered as alternative investments. Some uninformed investors may be misled about the risks and returns on hedge funds as it relies heavily on statistical compilation from the database vendors which is filled with data bias such as survivorship bias and selection bias. Fung and Hsieh (2001a) found that estimates of survivorship biases differed across two commonly used databases, HFR and TASS. The survivorship bias was much higher in TASS than that in HFR. They estimated that survivorship bias would over-report hedge fund mean returns by about 1.5% to 3% per annum. Brooks and Kat (2001) stated that around 30% of newly established funds do not survive the first three years, primarily due to poor performance. Thus, not including defunct funds is likely to lead to over-estimation of the returns and profile of hedge fund industry.

Essay examples --

Brandon Kour Date 2/12/2014 Mrs. Pohlonski 1st Hour A world of cloning Cloning use to be a thing of pure science fiction. Ever since the first successful clone, Dolly the sheep, was created by Dr. Ian Wilmut, scientists have been working on different techniques to clone animals and even humans. Scientist have developed several methods recently to clone animals. Harvesting Cells, Tissues, and Organs for cloning or later use advances scientists way to save lives and create the perfect baby. Cloning can be used in medicine, the revival of endangered species, cloning livestock, and even in drug production. Cloning for medical uses has the ability to benefit millions of people. First of all, with cloning you can clone animal models of disease. Most scientists that test the cause and effects of human diseases use mice as test subjects. Usually scientists introduce the disease to the animals for testing. However, giving the animals the disease requires a lot of trial and error. Cloning could significantly diminish the time needed to create these animal models and the outcome would be a community of genetically identical animals. In addition, scientist can use cloning to make stem cells. Stem cells are the building blocks of the body that maintain and repair the body throughout ones life. Stem cells can repair the body by themselves and can be used to repair or regenerate damaged organs or tissues. Some scientists are even looking at cloning as a way to create identical stem cells from the same human and help prevent heart attacks or strokes. If a stem cell is cloned that has a disease res earchers and scientist can understand the disease more and understand treatment. (Why Clone?, January 6, 2014) On June 11, 1993 a movie hit t... ...arize everything Harvesting Organs and tissues for cloning has many benefits. Whether its for Medical uses, Stem Cells, Bringing back extinct species, and Livestock cloning is definitely going to help us in the future. But until then the low success rates and the low survival rates will just have to continue. In Conclusion Cloning is truly a remarkable way to save lives,bring the back, and even fix them. REFERENCES APA format: Genetic Science Learning Center (2014, January 8) What are the Risks of Cloning?. Learn.Genetics. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/cloning/cloningrisks/ APA format: Genetic Science Learning Center (2014, January 8) Why Clone?. Learn.Genetics. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/cloning/whyclone/

Essay --

Although when we think of the history of cell phones we think of the small handheld devices we use daily not years ago that were in briefcases and were connected to the cigarette lighter in cars. Then in the 1980’s they lost the case, but were still twice the size the size of the cellphones we see today. The cell phones of today are more portable, smaller, and lighter than ever before. If this is the present, imagine the future of the cellular phones, but as we look into the future of cellphones we also need to take a look back in time to the cellphones of the past. Firstly in 1908, Professor Albert Jahnke developed the first wireless telephones, which lead to the testing of wireless telephones on German military trains in 1918. Although Jahnke was suspected of fraud it didn’t seem to hurt his ideas, as they continued to grow through the early 1930’s. This is when the public telephone trial began on a train from Berlin to Hamburg. Although Albert Jahnke did not invent the first cellular phone, he did get the ideas flowing for the man who did. Hardly a household name but the influence of Martin Cooper, or â€Å"The Father of the Cell Phone†, as stated in the economist, has been seen and heard around the world. â€Å"Marty is the most influential person no one has ever heard of,† says Robert McDowell, a commissioner with the Federal Communications Commission. Cooper, the engineer for Motorola that looked at car phones in the 1970’s and thought that these devices should be small enough to be portab le. He’s ideas and inventiveness led to the first prototype in 1973, and the first commercial cell phone in 19830. The first commercial cell phone call was placed using a Motorola DynaTAC mobile phone, the precurso... ...ds with calling, radio, and data technology available at your touch. I do believe, by looking at we have in the works with technology, that these armbands will be equip with a facetime application. This application will allow the user to connect with another, and a hologram of the user will appear in front of you, just as if you were talking face to face. With these future cellphone I do believe we will develop a fifth generation digital phone with more bandwidth and video capability. As you know and can see cell phones are huge part of today’s society and will only grow to be more and more important in the future, but these phones of today and of tomorrow wouldn’t be possible if not for the past. So while you’re sitting there daydreaming about those smartphones of tomorrow you need to think about all the work, and people who have advanced technology this far.

The Psychology of Serial Killers Essay -- Psychological Murder murdere

The Psychology of Serial Killers Many things today confuse, yet enthrall the masses. War, murder, medical science, incredible rescues, all things you would see on The History Channel. There is another topic that is also made into documentaries however, serial killers. Dark twisted people that commit multiple murders are of interest to the population, but what caused them to be this way. What horrible tragic set of events could twist a man to murder one or many people. Could Schizophrenia, psychopathy, or sociopathy? Many people have researched this topic and believe that childhood trauma, heavy drugs during the growing phase of life, as well as many other things have twisted the minds of men such as Jeffery Dahmer, Charles Manson, John Wayne Gacy, and David Berkowitz. Many say that their actions were preventable but many other believe that the warning signs were present and that their behavior could have been modified long before the murders began.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The triad is the name given to the set of characteristic that serials killers are evident of in their youth. The ?typical? serial killer is a sociopath or psychopath that during childhood was subject to three diagnoses: fire starting (pyromania), prolonged bed-wetting, and animal torture. All of these things correlate to a phase in life in which the young person is curious of certain things new to them. Most children grow out of their interest in fire starting when they first get burnt and bed-wetting when they progress out of the same phase. Animal torture is slightly different. Many children enjoy pulling the wings off a fly, or the legs off of other insects however grow up into quite productive members of society. Some children are enthused by larger animals. Jeffrey Dahmer was enthused originally by fish. He would gut them and inspect their organs to examined how they worked. Curiosity being the main reason for his actions, he would also nail frogs to trees an d collect animals that had been run over by cars. Dahmer was less than characteristic in his choice of animals, the most popular victim being cats. Be it throwing felines from high elevations to watch them ?splat? as explained by Ian Brady the Moors Murderer, gutting them and watching how far they can run after, or burying them alive cats have become the general choice among serial killers-to-be. The A to Z encyclopedia of Serial Killers men... ...for these people should be higher. If that cannot be done then in modern day with all the screening at schools for eye sight problems and back problems could psychological tests also be run to screen for the triad or other such symptoms that lead to murder. Can serial killers be medicated and dissuaded from their future murders before they occur? What can be done in order to dissuade murder in modern society? That is what the world needs now.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Works Cited Newton, Michael. The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. New York: Checkmark Books, 2000. Schechter, Harold, and David Everitt. The A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. New York: Pocket Books, 1997. Douglas, John, and Mark Olshaker; Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit. New York, Pocket Books, 1997.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   What Makes Serial Killers Tick?. Shirley Lynn Scott. From http://www.crimelibrary.com/about/authors/scott/index.html?sect=1 Angels of Mercy; The Dark Side. Rick Hampton Dec. 2003 Antisocial Personality Disorder: Treatment. Phillip W. Long M.D. Jan 1990. Psychopathic Sexual Sadists The Psychology and Psychodynamics of Serial Killers. Vernon J. Gerberth. April 1995.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Green Computing Research Essay

Operations, Natalie, is the program sponsor. Ito is the program manager, and there is a steering committee made up of ten senior executives, including Natalie, overseeing the program. There are several projects underneath this program, one being the Green Computing Research Project. The CIO and project sponsor, Ben, has given this project high priority and plans to hold special interview s to hand – pick the project manager and team. Ben is also a member of the program steer ing committee. Before coming to We A re Big, Inc., Ben sponsored a project at a large computer firm to improve data centerefficiency. This project, however, is much broader than that one was. The main purpose of the Green Computing Research Project is to research possible applications of gre en computing including: Data center and overall energy efficiency The disposal of electronic waste and recycling Telecommuting Virtualization of server resources Thin client solutions Use of open source software, and Development of new software to addres s green computing for internal use and potential sale to other organizations The budget for the project was $500, 000, and the goal was to provide an extensive report, including detailed financial analysis and recommendations on what green computing technologies to implement. Official project request forms for the recommended solutions would also be created as part of the project. Ben decided to have a small group of people, five to be exact, dedicated to working on this six – month project full – time and to call on people inoth er areason an as – needed basis. He wanted to personally be involved in selecting the proje ct manager and have that person help him to select the rest of the project team. Ben wanted to find people already working inside the company, but he was also open to reviewing applications for potential new employees to work specifically on this project as long asthey could start quickly. Since many good people were located in different parts of the world, Ben thought it made sense to select the best people he could find and allow them to wor k virtually on the project. Ben also wanted the project manager to do more than just mana ge the project. He or she would also do some of the research, writing, editing, and the like required to produce the desi red results. He was also open to paying expert consultants for their advice and purchasing books and related articles, as needed. Tasks 1. Research green computing and projects that have been done or are being done by large organizations such as IBM, Dell, H P, and Google. See www.greener – computing.com and similar sites provided on the companion Web site or that you find yourself. Include your definition of green computing to include all of the topics listed in the background scenario. Describe each of these areas of