Palliative care Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Palliative care - Essay Example e quality of the patient concerned, together with alleviating the different types of problems the family and the patient undergo during the course of a life-threatening illness (Coupland et al., 2010). Palliative care, in this case, is achieved by way of relief and prevention of suffering by ensuring problem identification is done early enough and by execution of impeccable assessment, treatment of pain, as well as offering psychological, physical, and spiritual relief for the patient (Penrod et al., 2006). This essay seeks to demonstrate the critical knowledge regarding the external influences that directly influence end-of-life care, together with the strategies applied by concerned practitioners in facilitating the delivery of palliative care services of the required quality. On the other hand, the essay also seeks to evaluate the variable factors, including the social, physical, and psychological factors, together with their respective impacts on the experience of the client in relation to the provided palliative care. The information, analysis, and proposals are made in relation to the case study provided herein. In essence, the references made to the case study are strictly within the context of care delivery, together with the related issues, which have a direct impact on the health outcome of patients. The palliative health care focused on herein concerns a patient in a hospital in the United Kingdom. For the purposes of data protection and confidentiality, the patient will be referred to by the name Janet throughout the discussion. Mrs. Janet was admitted into the palliative care unit 28 years following the diagnosis that revealed she had cervical cancer. Her suffering from this had taken quite a long time and exhibited a significant level of complexity, together with a painful history of the cancer illness course. The cancer diagnosis had been done and approved when she was 30 years of age, and this was followed by a hysterectomy. A year afterwards, she

1.how has unemployment affected the economy over the last four yeasr Research Paper

1.how has unemployment affected the economy over the last four yeasr. 2.Have unemployment rate increased or decreased over the last four years - Research Paper Example It has had negative effects on the economy because the government financial budget has had strains in trying to meet the needs of all citizens to their satisfactory but still can not because a high population is unable to cater for its daily needs. The problem still stands to be the issue of unemployment. The economy is unstable because people are over dependent in government expenditure rather than generating income for the economy (Markus 206). The rate of unemployment has increased from around 5% in the year 2007 to around 10% in the year 2011. This shows that the economy is rising with time and the government has failed in its efforts to draft measures that can counter these changes thus making the citizens to be on the receiving end to the harsh economic changes. Apparently, unemployment still remains to be a matter to be looked into as people are suffering without knowing the way forward to a solution. The government should increase the number industries so create job opportunities and control the rate of

Impact of the 17th Amendment

Impact of the 17th Amendment The Seventeenth Amendment, Senate Ideology, and the Growth of Government Danko Tarabar Abstract The 17th Amendment disturbed the existing electoral system in the United States by requiring direct elections for state Senators. Scholars have argued this made the Senate more populist and contributed to the growth of government in the US post-1913. We employ econometric tools to investigate whether the time series of mean ideology of Senate and its winning policies experienced a structural change around the time of the enactment. We find no compelling evidence of a structural break at that time but do find evidence for a change in the mid-to-late 1890s. Keywords: Seventeenth Amendment, structural break, Senate ideology JEL codes: D72, H19 Acknowledgments: The authors would like to thank Edward J. Lopez and participants at the 2012 Southern Economic Association meetings in New Orleans for helpful comments and suggestions. The Seventeenth Amendment, Senate Ideology,  and the Growth of Government 1. Introduction The 17th Amendment to the US Constitution established that Senators were to be directly elected by popular vote rather than appointed by state legislatures. The amendment ended a generation of state-by-state battles attempting to bring Senate elections under popular control. Although its 1913 passage is regarded by historians as enhancing democratic accountability, Zywicki (1994) argues that the amendment helped erode federalism and the separation of power. As Senator fidelity moved towards the electorate and away from protecting states’ interests, the Senate became as populist as the House, thus paving the way for government growth. In making this argument, Zywicki is attempting to contribute to one of the biggest questions in public economics: the dramatic increase in government in the United States during the 20th Century (Higgs, 1987; Husted and Kenny, 1997; Lott and Kenny, 1998; Holcombe, 1999). This paper empirically investigates whether the Senate experienced an ideology shift as the result of the change in political allegiance. If the interests of state legislatures and the median voters sufficiently differed, we expect to find evidence of a structural change in Senator and winning policy outcomes on roll calls at or near the time of adoption of the 17th Amendment. We examine this hypothesis by subjecting the time series of Senator and winning policy ideology to a battery of structural break tests. The evidence presented here suggest that a break most likely occurred during the 54th Congress (1895-1897), suggesting that the 17th Amendment merely codified what had already occurred through other means. 2. Data The most widely used measure of Congress ideology today are the NOMINATE scores, developed by Poole and Rosenthal in the 1980s (Poole and Rosenthal, 1997). The scores map House and Senate ideology outcomes onto a continuum, where negative scores denote liberal and positive denote conservative values (also analogous to greater or less government intervention in the economy). Zero implies centrist leanings, whereas score magnitudes reflect relative ideology strength. Each chamber since 1789 receives a mean score for legislators and winning policy outcomes, allowing for an overall assessment of ideology with respect to legislator behavior and the nature of enacted policies. We employ the DW-NOMINATE (dynamic, weighted) score subtype, estimated using normally distributed errors. The entire series contains 112 biennial observations, one for each Congress. The DW scores are comparable between Congresses, but comparisons only make sense within one of the three stable two-party periods in US history. We focus on the most recent such period, the Democratic-Republican (46th-112th Congress), since the formal adoption of the 17th Amendment occurred during the 63rd Congress (1913-1915). The operational database thus contains 67 observations ranging from 1879 to 2013 (Fig. 1). We exploit this dataset to search for structural changes in the series of mean Senator ideology and mean winning policy coordinates. 3. Methodology Structural change implies a sudden shift in any or all of the model parameters that control for the series mean and variance. In the current context, a structural break in either series would be indicative of mean â€Å"jumps† in chamber or winning policy ideology, whereas a break in variance implies a volatility shift not unlike, for instance, the Great Moderation. If the 17th Amendment instigated higher growth of federal government, one should observe a structural break in ideology in the 63rd Congress, presumably to the ideological left. While a visual inspection offers little in terms of inference, the diagnostics indicate that the mean chamber ideology is lower (-0.056 versus +0.01), and SD is approximately two times larger pre-Amendment. For mean winning outcomes, the average is higher pre-Amendment (0.037 versus -0.07), and the sample SD is exactly halved afterwards. We let both series evolve according to an AR(1) data generating process with drift and a deterministic linear trend: (1) where are serially uncorrelated errors and lag number is determined by Akaike and Schwarz Bayesian Info criteria. The structural change in series mean comes from breaks in drift, trend and autoregressiveparameters, while series’ volatility is largely dependent on error variance if is small. We estimate equation (1) using OLS. The econometrics of structural change underwent significant development in recent decades. The classic Chow (1960) test treats the breakdate as exogenous and a priori known. However, the current standard practice is to let the breakdate be an estimable endogenous parameter (Hansen, 2001). Quandt (1960) proposed taking the highest in the sequence of Chow F-statistics across all possible dates as the breakpoint, but the critical value asymptotic distribution for such a test was not available until Andrews (1993). Andrews’ now-conventional approach to testing for structural break rests on the â€Å"sup† methodology, in which the maximal significant F- (supF) or Wald-statistic (supW) across all observations is the most likely breakdate. Andrews and Ploberger (1994) further consider the averages and exponents of these test statistics. We use the supW-statistic, which has the advantage over supF in that it allows for residual heteroskedasticity. All statistically significant supW-statistics represent possible breakdates, but only that which minimizes the model sum of squared errors (SSE) is the most probable candidate (Hansen, 2001). In testing for and dating structural breaks in the series’ variances, the same methodology follows for equation (2): (2). Finally, the existence of breakpoints could erroneously lead to the conclusion that the series is nonstationary. We then use the Zivot-Andrews (ZA) (1992) test to distinguish between structural break and random walk disturbances. Conventional unit root tests tend to under-reject the null of nonstationarity in the presence of a break, while the ZA procedure allows for existence of one endogenously determined structural break in trend or intercept in testing unit root. Since neither series seem to be trending, we allow for an intercept break only, within 10% trimmed data. Some caveats are in order. First, the power of structural break tests is lower in smaller samples. Although a test statistic modification is possible, it is computationally costly (Antoshin et al., 2008). Second, the Quandt-Andrews procedure assumes regressor stationarity. As a solution for nonstationary regressors, Hansen (2000) proposes a â€Å"fixed regressor bootstrap.† Third, small sample size makes it impractical to search for multiple breaks simultaneously, even though an event such as women’s suffrage would make for a plausible structural break from public choice theory standpoint. Lastly, we recognize that structural break test results may be sensitive to model specification. 4. Results Table 1 summarizes our findings. In the case of mean Senate ideology, none of the supW-statistics, in any form (level, average and exponential), are significant at usual levels within 5, 10 and 15% trimmed data, so we find no evidence of a structural break. We also find no significant variance shifts. The ZA test rejects nonstationarity in favor of an intercept break in the 54th Congress (1895-1897). Although this date comes closest to the breakdate in the Quandt-Andrews procedure, it remains statistically insignificant. For the mean of winning policy ideology, the maximal significant supW-statistic also falls in the 54th Congress. Plotting the SSE from equation (1) over time, we observe the global minimum to fall in the 64th Congress (1915-1917). The ZA test allowing for an intercept break rejects nonstationarity at the 3% level, and also gives the breakdate as in the 54th Congress. Turning to variance shifts of mean winning ideology and repeating the same procedures on equation (2), we reject the null of no breakpoint at 4% level within 5, 10 and 15% trimmed data, with the maximal statistic during the 54th Congress. The SSE for variance breakdate (from equation (2)) exhibits multiple sharp drops indicative of a breakdate, with a global minimum in the 97th Congress (1981-1983). Overall, the evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the most probable breakpoint for mean and variance of winning policy ideology, as well as some evidence for chamber mean ideology, occurred between 1895 and 1897, in the 54th Congress. 5. Conclusion In his analysis of the political economy origins of the 17th Amendment, Zywicki (1994) notes that it was in the 1880s where dissatisfaction with the indirect system began to escalate. During this period, many states began to employ extra-constitutional means to move towards popular election of Senators (Riker, 1955). These approaches – public canvass and pledged state legislators –allowed for direct public participations in Senate elections. Our results provide some evidence that these approaches or other contemporary changes led to a change in ideology of the mean Senator, not the passage of the 17th Amendment. This finding suggests that while much the growth of in government occurred during the 20th century, the underlying ideological and institutional changes likely began in the Civil War and its aftermath (Higgs, 1997; Holcombe, 1999). References Andrews, D. W. K. (1993) Tests for parameter instability and structural change with unknown change point, Econometrica, 61, 821-856. Andrews, D. W. K. and Ploberger W. (1994) Optimal tests when the nuisance parameter is present only under the alternative, Econometrica, 62, 1383-414. Antoshin, S., Berg, A. and Souto, M. (2008) Testing for structural breaks in small samples, The International Monetary Fund, Working Paper Series No. 08/75 Chow, G. C. (1960) Tests of equality between sets of coefficients in two linear regressions, Econometrica, 28, 591-605. Hansen, B. E. (2000) Testing for structural change in conditional models, Journal of Econometrics, 97, 93-115. Hansen, B. E. (2001) The new econometrics of structural change: dating breaks in U.S. labor productivity, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 15, 117-128. Higgs, R. (1987) Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government, Oxford University Press, New York. Holcombe, R. (1999) Veterans Interests and the transition to government: 1870-1915, Public Choice, 99, 311-326. Husted, T. and Kenny, L. (1998) How dramatically did women’s suffrage change the size and scope of government? Journal of Political Economy, 107, 1163-98. Poole, K. and Rosenthal, H. (1997) Congress: A Political-Economic History of Roll Call Voting, 1st edn, Oxford University Press, New York. Quandt, R. (1960) Tests of the hypothesis that a linear regression obeys two separate regimes, Journal of the American Statistical Association, 55, 324-330. Riker, W. (1955) The Senate and American federalism, American Political Science Review, 49, 452-469. Zivot, E. and Andrews, D.W.K. (1992) Further evidence on the Great Crash, the oil price shock, and the unit-root hypothesis, Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, 10, 251-270. Zywicki, T. J. (1994) Senators and special interests: a public choice analysis of the Seventeenth Amendment, Oregon Law Review, 73, 1007-55. Fig 1. Mean Senate and winning policy ideology over time Source: http://voteview.com/pmeans.htm Notes: Vertical line denotes the 17th Amendment adoption 1 [† ] Corresponding author.

Fraud :: essays research papers

Fraud   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What is a Fraud? A fraud is when one party deceives or takes unfair advantage of another. A fraud includes any act, omission, or concealment, involving a breach of legal or equitable duty or trust, which results in disadvantage or injury to another. In a court of law it is necessary to prove that a false representation was made as a statement of fact, that was made with the intent to deceive and to induce the other party to act upon it. It must be proven that the person who has been defrauded suffered a injury or damage from the act.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Who commits a fraud and why? It is generally accepted that 20 percent of employees are honest. Another 20 percent are dishonest and don't mind doing wrong. That means the remaining 60 percent are potentially dishonest, that's a total of 80 percent of employees which may be dishonest. To understand fraud you first have to determine the contributing factors to why people commit fraud. Some people commit fraud for the sport and thrill of it. There are other recognizable reasons why honest people may commit a breach of trust. Need is the most common reason. A desperate financial need is usually the cause of most frauds. Still some people commit fraud to pay for an elevated life style which other wise they could not afford. Needs arise from a number of locations these include: Drug or alcohol addiction, Marriage break-ups and/of extravagant love affairs, Gambling Debts, Business losses, Unexpected family crises, Mounting debts, and the desire to live a lifestyle far beyond ones means.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Fraud is costing society several hundred billion a year. Organizations loose close to 6 percent of annual revenue to fraud and abuse of social systems. Fraud costs Canadian organizations $100 billion annually. On the average, organizations loose $9 dollars a day per employee to fraud. On an average of fraudulent cases males received $185,000 and females received $48,000. A study done by the insurance industry indicates the groups most likely to commit fraud. The most typical person who may commit fraud is a college/university educated white male. Men were responsible for almost four times the fraud as were females. Losses caused by people with post-graduate degrees were five times greater than those caused by high school graduates. Fifty eight percent of fraud is committed by employees, which averages $60,000 per case. Twelve percent of fraud is cause by owners, which on the average costs the insurance companies $1 million per case. Fraud increases the cost of Canadians everyday living. It affects bank rates, insurance rates, credit card rates, and product costs.

Scarlet Letter Images

Joseph Gurke 10. 17. 2012 Ms. Boas P. 1 The Scarlet Letter Light, Dark, Sunlight and Shadows Throughout his entire life, Nathaniel Hawthorne had lived in seclusion from people and society, isolating himself and his thoughts behind a mysterious shade. This may explain why the themes of sin, secrecy and guilt are used in Hawthorne’s fiction, exploring hidden human dimensions.The images of sin, secrecy, and guilt are constantly portrayed in Nathaniel Hawthorne's, The Scarlet Letter, through the presence of recurring motifs of light and dark, sunlight and shadows; as these themes aid the reader's depiction of the separation between evil and goodness. Images of light are seen throughout the novel The Scarlet Letter. These images illuminate a character’s true intention and personality, yet at the same time, force a character to hide certain aspects of his personality while under the public eye.The view of Hester on the scaffold, when she is receiving her punishment for adulte ry in front of the public eye, the image of light illuminates her scarlet letter and sin; liberating Hester from public judgment and the pain of concealing sin, â€Å"Those who had before known her, and had expected to behold her dimmed and obscured by a disastrous cloud, were astonished, and even startled, to perceive how here beauty shown out, and made a halo of the misfortune and ignominy in which she was enveloped. † (49).The fact the Hester’s sin is known to all and that she is stands tall with her baby in her arms and the scarlet letter on her chest shows that she no longer needs to conceal anything from the public eye, â€Å"And never had Hester Prynne appeared more lady-like, in the antique interpretation of the term, than as she issued from the prison. † (49). After being revealed to the public, Hester must now live in isolation with nature, self-reliance and non-conformity being the ethics in her life; yet having the relief of wearing sin on her chest. Sunlight is a naturally occurring light and one that reflects goodness and pureness in characters. It is a positive image, representing cleanliness and lack of sin in this novel. When in the forest with Pearl, the sunlight avoids Hester completely while she carries the scarlet letter on her chest, â€Å"Mother,† said little Pearl, â€Å"the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom. . . . It will not flee from me; for I wear nothing on my bosom yet! †(161).When she removes the letter, sunlight flows into the forest, bringing everything to light and removing any shadows present, â€Å"So speaking, she undid the clasps that fastened the scarlet letter, and, taking it from her bosom, through it to a distance among the withered leaves. † (191) â€Å"All at once, as with the sudden smile of heaven, forth burst the sunshine, pouring a very flood into the obscure forest, gladdening each green leaf, trans muting the yellow fallen ones to gold, and gleaming adown the grey trunks of the solemn trees. The objects that had made a shadow hitherto, embodied the brightness now. †(191).The sunlight represents cleanliness; washing sin, secrecy and guilt from characters, allowing them to feel a sense of freedom, â€Å"Her sex, her youth, and the whole richness of her beauty†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (190). With the absence of the scarlet letter, sunlight floods the forest and surrounding area around Hester and Dimmesdale, removing any shadows, which represent evil and bondage, and with this flood of sunshine comes a new feeling of freedom for both, exactly what sunshine represents in the text, â€Å"And as if the gloom of the earth and the sky had been but the effluence of those two mortal hearts, it vanished with their sorrow. (190). Darkness is a constant theme in this novel, representing guilt, sin and secrecy, major themes that Nathaniel Hawthorne incorporates into his literature. Dimmesdale, Hester and Pearl meet on the scaffold, under the darkness of night and shadows, the only time that Dimmesdale can express his sin and evil, â€Å"Mr. Dimmesdale reached the spot where, now so long since, Hester Prynne had lived through her first hours of public ignominy. † (133).The scaffold shows the irony of Hester and Dimmesdale’s situation because Hester, in the daylight reveals her sin to the town and could be freed from the bondage of hiding sin, and now Dimmesdale, after seven years is revealing his sin on the scaffold to only Hester at night, still feeling the pain of bondage and concealment of this sin. It is the only time that Dimmesdale, Hester’s lover and Pearl’s father ever embraces them and can openly reveal his sin, but the darkness does not allow him to be free. The minister felt for the child’s other hand and took it. The moment that he did so, there came what seemed tumultuous rush of new life, other life than his own, pouring lik e a torrent into his heart, and hurrying through his veins, as if the mother and child were communicating their vital warmth to his half-torpid system. The three formed and electrical chain. † (142).This love that the minister feels frees him of his bondage and cleanses his soul for a moment in time, yet this moment is enveloped back by the surrounding darkness that takes all hope of escape from him. Hester experienced this escape on the same scaffold that they are on yet in the light that allowed her to live the rest of her life without this bondage to sin, that under darkness, the minister cannot be free. Light, dark, shadows and sunlight, are all motifs that Nathaniel Hawthorne uses to describe different types of emotions in the text.Light and its more natural form in sunlight reflect the goodness in characters and the ability to be free from bondage with nothing holding you back, no pain of concealing sin. While one the other hand darkness and shadows allow the characters to reflect their emotions and reveal sin, but under darkness these emotions and secrets will not reach anyone else and will keep characters like Dimmesdale in bondage and pain. Works Cited Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Bantam Books, 1986. Print.

Conservation of Petroleum Products

PCRA aims at making oil conservation a national movement. As part of its mandate, PCRA is entrusted with the task of creating awareness amongst the masses about the importance, methods and benefits of conserving petroleum products & emission reduction. To take the message to the people, PCRA uses all possible and effective media for mass communication. These include electronic and press media e. g. TV, Radio, Electronic displays; Press at the National and State level printed literature for specific target groups; outdoor publicity through Hoarding, Bus panels, Kiosks, Balloons, Banners Transliders etc.The focus of all the messages is easy to implement and practical conservation lips for the industrial, transport, agriculture & domestic sectors. For effective communication to the target groups in semi-urban and rural areas, messages are made in regional languages. Field interactive programs like seminars, Technical meets, Consumer meets, Workshops, Clinics, van-publicity, Exhibitions, Kisan melas are conducted for dissemination of conservation messages and demonstration of conservation techniques.To give impetus to the oil conservation movement, PCRA utilizes various platforms like the World environment day, World energy day, various festivals etc. When creative press advertisements are brought out. Over the years, PCRA has developed a number of films, TV spots and radio jingles in various languages for promoting oil conservation. PCRA also publishes quarterly a journal and a newsletter. Active Conservation Techniques (ACT), is a journal containing articles on technology by energy experts. It also brings out successful case studies leading to conservation of energy.The conservation news is an in-house newsletter highlighting the major activities carried out by PCRA in the core sectors. For the benefit of various target groups of petroleum products, PCRA has developed literature containing simple ready to implement conservation tips and techniques. Special low co st green leaflets have also been developed to educate the masses on the ill effects of pollution caused due to incomplete combustion and its impact on health. The guiding light being â€Å"Where conservation fails pollution starts†. Oil & Gas Conservation FortnightIn order to generate awareness among the masses about the urgency of conserving petroleum products, the celebration of oil conservat ion week with the participation of PCRA and the entire oil industry under the guidance of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas was started in year 1991. Considering the over whelming response and enthusiasm generated by OCW in the entire country, and to further increase the reach as well as effectiveness of the oil conservation campaign the duration of the program was increased to a fortnight from the year 1997 onwards.The eco-friendliness of natural gas stands etablished beyond doubt and it is being used in progressively large volumes by Power, Fertilizer, Industrial, Commercial, D omestic and Transport sectors. As the demand is increasing, there is large scope for gas conservation. Keeping this in view, the national fortnightly conservation campaign has been renamed as â€Å"Oil & Gas Conservation Fortnight† in place of Oil Conservation Fortnight (OCF) since 2004.During the fortnight the entire oil industry under the guidance of MOP&NG undertakes various kinds of activities to emphasize the need and importance of conservation of petroleum products & environment protection. The activities undertaken include: dissemination of oil conservation messages through out door publicity, print media, electronic media, training programs, kisan meals, technical meets & distribution of literature in national as well as vernacular languages all over the country.The activities are carried out by the State Level Co-ordinators (SLCs) of the Oil Industry in each State under the directions of the Regional Level Coordinators (RLCs). Over the years the no. of activities und ertaken during OCF has risen. In order to recognize the efforts of the executing agencies, MOP&NG has instituted awards for the best performing; State Level Coordinators (SLCs), Regional Level Coordinators (RLCs) of the oil industry and the best performing States for the activities conducted during the fortnight.Besides this, State Transport authorities, empanelled energy auditors, industries in large, medium and small categories, who have done exemplary work in energy conservation activities, school children, teachers and their institutions are also given performance awards for the year. Petroleum has brought enumerable benefits to human civilization; quality of life and dynamic prosperity is fueled by this precious, miraculous resource. Petroleum is the lifeline of modern civilization.It is the source of energy for agricultural, industrial and transport sectors and keeps the wheel of other essential industries moving. In fact, there is no conceivable area where energy does not pla y its vital role. Petroleum currently provides 90 per cent of energy used for transportation, and while its benefits are astounding, the use of petroleum-based technologies also has cost. The environmental impacts associated with extracting and transporting petroleum remain a major issue, as the extraction of petroleum can affect fragile ecosystems.However, oil companies continue to develop new techniques and enhanced recovery methods, which reduce the footprint of drilling equipment and the amount of land affected. Perhaps the m «st serious concern, the combustion of fossil fuels contributes a variety of emissions to the atmosphere and releases carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas. These emissions have modified atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, which play an important role in moderating global temperatures. Therefore, there is considerable interest in reducing our reliance on petroleum-based technologies.At the time of independence, India produced crude oil from only one onshore field in Digboi, Assam. At that time, the country depended upon imports for international oil companies controlled 90 per cent of petroleum products and the industry. With Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd. (OIL), the production today has increased to over 34 MMTPA by technology upgradation and assimilation. During this period exploration and production activity has grown in its scope and has moved from onshore to offshore.Natural Gas Corporation associated with oil production, which was flared at the well head in the earlier day, is now being harnessed and supplied for power generation to gas-based power plants, as raw material units including petrochemical industry. Natural gas production has risen from ‘nil' at the time of independence to about 29 billion cubic meters during the five decades of planned economic development and it is taken to the consumer through an extensive network of 4100 kms. Gas pipeline system Conservation Petroleum i s an exhaustible resource and the industry has been conscious of  this attribute.To promote efficient and economic uses of energy, Petroleum Conservation and Research Association (PCRA) has been functioning for last two decades. PCRA has done enormous work in mass awareness energy conservation in industrial, transport, and household and agriculture sectors through energy audits and studies and by continuously educating the users of petroleum products on importance and urgency of energy conservation. The task is enormous as it includes highly qualified engineers, drivers or automobiles, housewives and farmers.

Today, our world is faced with many diseases. Some Essays

Today, our world is faced with many diseases. Some Essays Hiv Today, our world is faced with many diseases. Some havent been discovered and some have no cures. The immune system fights off many of these diseases, but what happens when it fails us? One of the most deadly, incurable disease the world is faced with today is the Human Immunodeficency Virus (HIV). There is no none cure yet. Viruses cause colds and the flu. Viruses are microscopic particles that invade the cells of plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria. They often destroy the cells they invade. How do viruses reproduce? A virus first enters a cell in one of three ways: direct penetration, endocytosis, or membrane fusion. The virus takes over the cells machinery and is thus forced to make the viruss proteins and RNA. When the virus has entered, viral RNA is released in to the cell and reverse transcriptase occurs. Reverse trancriptase is when the cell makes a DNA copy of the viral RNA. It then produces the proteins and genes the virus needs to be assemble. The virus can then be released by three ways: lytic, lysogenic, and persistent. A virus, although not considered to be alive, does have a life cycle. First the virus attaches to a cell, which it recognizes by its surface markers. Then it penetrates the cell and gets inside. Next, it replicates and makes copies of itself. It then assembles itself back together and the new viruses are released. A virus cannot replicate by itself; it has to infect a cell. The virus is always the same size. It doesnt have a metabolism. A virus has three different shapes it can be: helical, polyhedral, and enveloped. It is made up of nucleic acid (RNA or DNA), and surrounded by a protein coat. Certain viruses can survive harsh conditions. Pathogens, disease-causing agents, have to enter the body to cause illness. There are several ways for them to get into the body: through the genitals, breaks in the skin, and natural openings. The immune system usually stops these invaders from getting in. The primary way to stop pathogens is by the skin. But, the skin has natural openings where they can get in. The eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and genitals are all natural openings. The second line of defense is at these natural openings. The pathogens get stuck in the mucus lining of the nose and mouth or are killed by the saliva and stomach acids; tears from the eyes; earwax; and acidic secretion of the vagina all stop pathogens but they dont get them all. The third line of defense is the Tortiory Response. There are two different kinds, innate (which you are born with and is non-antigen specific and acquired (which you acquire through life and is antigen specific). Innate has three different reposes to it. The first: phagocytic cells eat live viruses, bacteria and, dead cells. The second: natural killer cells are non-specific and destroy all infected cells. The third: interferon binds to the surface of surrounding healthy cells and activates their genes to create an antiviral state. Acquired immunity has different parts to it: macrophages (ingest viruses and expresses information to other cells; intructs and recognizes), T4-cells (instruct), T8-cells (respond), B-lymphocytes (respond), and lymphokines (rate control). There are two different kinds of acquired immunity: humoral and cell mediated. The humoral response involves the production of antigen-specific antibodies. Those antibodies neutralize he virus, help macrophages ingest and T8-cells to destroy it, and cause the destruction of the viral envelope. Colonal selection is part of the humoral response. The T4-cells get the right B-cells and activate them. The B-cells produce antibodies quickly then start to divide. Once they divide, they are called plasma cells and are able to produce 2,000 antibodies per second for 4-5 days. The cell-mediated response develops T8-cells that destroy host cells that have been infected already. T8-cells can tell the difference between regular and infected cells. HIV is a very deadly disease. There are certain risk behaviors associated with the disease. HIV is mainly transmitted by sexual contact or either by IV drug use. Anal sex carries a higher risk of getting it than vaginal or oral sex. The probability is 1/33 to 1/10 people. Vaginal intercourse also caries a high risk. Male to female

American Civil War - American Civil War Eastern Theater 1863 to 1865

American Civil War - American Civil War Eastern Theater 1863 to 1865 Previous: War in the West, 1863-1865 Page | Civil War 101 Grant Comes East In March 1864, President Abraham Lincoln promoted Ulysses S. Grant to lieutenant general and gave him command of all Union armies. Grant elected to turn over operational control of the western armies to Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman and shifted his headquarters east to travel with Maj. Gen. George G. Meades Army of the Potomac. Leaving Sherman with orders to press the Confederate Army of Tennessee and take Atlanta, Grant sought to engage General Robert E. Lee in a decisive battle to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia. In Grants mind, this was the key to ending the war, with the capture of Richmond of secondary importance. These initiatives were to be supported by smaller campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley, southern Alabama, and western Virginia. The Overland Campaign Begins the Battle of Wilderness In early May 1864, Grant began moving south with 101,000 men. Lee, whose army numbered 60,000, moved to intercept and met Grant in a dense forest known as the Wilderness. Adjacent to the 1863 Chancellorsville battlefield, the Wilderness soon became a nightmare as the soldiers fought through the dense, burning woods. While Union attacks initially drove the Confederates back, they were blunted and forced to withdrawal by the late arrival of Lt. Gen. James Longstreets corps. Assaulting the Union lines, Longstreet recovered the territory that had been lost, but was severely wounded in the fighting. After three days of the fighting, the battle had turned into a stalemate with Grant having lost 18,400 men and Lee 11,400. While Grants army had suffered more casualties, they comprised a lesser proportion of his army than Lees. As the Grants goal was to destroy Lees army, this was an acceptable outcome. On May 8, Grant ordered the army to disengage, but rather than withdrawal towards Washington, Grant ordered them to continue moving south. Battle of Spotsylvania Court House Marching southeast from the Wilderness, Grant headed for Spotsylvania Court House. Anticipating this move, Lee dispatched Maj. Gen. Richard H. Anderson with Longstreets corps to occupy the town. Beating the Union troops to Spotsylvania, the Confederates constructed an elaborate set of earthworks in the rough shape of an inverted horseshoe with a salient at the northern point known as the Mule Shoe. On May 10, Col. Emory Upton led a twelve regiment, spearhead attack against the Mule Shoe which broke the Confederate line. His assault went unsupported and his men were forced to withdrawal. Despite the failure, Uptons tactics were successful and were later replicated during World War I. Uptons attack alerted Lee to the weakness of the Mule Shoe section of his lines. To reinforce this area, he ordered a second line built across the salients base. Grant, realizing how close Upton had been to succeeding ordered a massive assault on the Mule Shoe for May 10. Led by Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancocks II Corps, the attack overwhelmed the Mule Shoe, capturing over 4,000 prisoners. With his army about to be split in two, Lee led Lt. Gen. Richard Ewells Second Corps into the fray. In a full day and nights fighting, they were able to retake the salient. On the 13th, Lee withdrew his men to the new line. Unable to break through, Grant responded as he did after Wilderness and continued moving his men south. North Anna Lee raced south with his army to assume a strong, fortified position along the North Anna River, always keeping his army between the Grant and Richmond. Approaching the North Anna, Grant realized that he would need to split his army to attack Lees fortifications. Unwilling to do so, he moved around Lees right flank and marched for the crossroads of Cold Harbor. Battle of Cold Harbor The first Union troops arrived at Cold Harbor on May 31 and began skirmishing with the Confederates. Over the next two days the scope of the fighting grew as the main bodies of the armies arrived on the field. Facing the Confederates over a seven mile line, Grant planned a massive assault for dawn on June 3. Firing from behind fortifications, the Confederates butchered the soldiers of the II, XVIII, and IX Corps as they attacked. In the three days of fighting, Grants army suffered over 12,000 casualties as opposed to only 2,500 for Lee. The victory at Cold Harbor was to be the last for the Army of Northern Virginia and haunted Grant for years. After the war he commented in his memoirs, I have always regretted that the last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made...no advantage whatever was gained to compensate for the heavy loss we sustained. The Siege of Petersburg Begins After pausing for nine days at Cold Harbor, Grant stole a march on Lee and crossed the James River. His objective was to take the strategic city of Petersburg, which would cut the supply lines to Richmond and Lees army. After hearing that Grant crossed the river, Lee rushed south. As the lead elements of the Union army approached, they were prevented from entering by Confederate forces under Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard. Between June 15-18, Union forces launched a series of attacks, but Grants subordinates failed to push home their assaults and only forced Beauregards men to retire to citys inner fortifications. With the full arrival of both armies, trench warfare ensued, with the two sides facing off in a precursor to World War I. In late June, Grant began a series of battles to extend the Union line west around the south side of the city, with the goal of severing the railroads one by one and overextending Lees smaller force. On July 30, in an effort to break the siege, he authorized the detonation of a mine under the center of the Lees lines. While the blast took the Confederates by surprise, they quickly rallied and beat back the mishandled follow-up assault. Previous: War in the West, 1863-1865 Page | Civil War 101 Previous: War in the West, 1863-1865 Page Civil War 101 Campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley In conjunction with his Overland Campaign, Grant ordered Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel to move southwest up the Shenandoah Valley to destroy the rail and supply center of Lynchburg. Sigel began his advance but was defeated at New Market on May 15, and replaced by Maj. Gen. David Hunter. Pressing on, Hunter won a victory at the Battle of Piedmont on June 5-6. Concerned about the threat posed to his supply lines and hoping to force Grant to divert forces from Petersburg, Lee dispatched Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early with 15,000 men to the Valley. Monocacy Washington After halting Hunter at Lynchburg on June 17-18, Early swept unopposed down the Valley. Entering Maryland, he turned east to menace Washington. As he moved towards the capital, he defeated a small Union force under Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace at Monocacy on July 9. Though a defeat, Monocacy delayed Earlys advance allowing Washington to be reinforced. On July 11 and 12, Early attacked the Washington defenses at Fort Stevens with no success. On the 12th, Lincoln viewed part of the battle from the fort becoming the only sitting president to be under fire. Following his attack on Washington, Early withdrew to the Valley, burning Chambersburg, PA along the way. Sheridan in the Valley To deal with the Early, Grant dispatched his cavalry commander, Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan with an army of 40,000 men. Advancing against Early, Sheridan won victories at Winchester (September 19) and Fishers Hill (September 21-22) inflicting heavy casualties. The decisive battle of the campaign came at Cedar Creek on October 19. Launching a surprise attack at dawn, Earlys men drove the Union troops from their camps. Sheridan, who was away at a meeting in Winchester, raced back to his army and rallied the men. Counterattacking, they broke Earlys disorganized lines, routing the Confederates and forcing them to flee the field. The battle effectively ended the fighting in the Valley as both sides rejoined their larger commands at Petersburg. Election of 1864 As military operations continued, President Lincoln stood for reelection. Partnering with War Democrat Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, Lincoln ran on the National Union (Republican) ticket under the slogan Dont Change Horses in the Middle of a Stream. Facing him was his old nemesis Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan who was nominated on a peace platform by the Democrats. Following Shermans capture of Atlanta and Farraguts triumph at Mobile Bay, Lincolns reelection was all but assured. His victory was a clear signal to the Confederacy that there would be no political settlement and that war would be prosecuted to end. In the election, Lincoln won 212 electoral votes to McClellans 21. Battle of Fort Stedman In January 1865, President Jefferson Davis appointed Lee to command of all Confederate armies. With the western armies decimated, this move came too late for Lee to effectively coordinate a defense of the remaining Confederate territory. The situation worsened that month when Union troops captured Fort Fisher, effectively closing the Confederacys last major port, Wilmington, NC. At Petersburg, Grant kept pressing his lines west, forcing Lee to further stretch his army. By mid-March, Lee began to consider abandoning the city and making an effort to link up with Confederate forces in North Carolina. Prior to pulling out, Maj. Gen. John B. Gordon suggested a daring attack on the Union lines with the goal of destroying their supply base at City Point and forcing Grant to shorten his lines. Gordon launched his attack on March 25 and overran Fort Stedman in the Union lines. Despite early success, his breakthrough was quickly contained and his men driven back to their own lines. Battle of Five Forks Sensing Lee was weak, Grant ordered Sheridan to attempt a move around the Confederate right flank to the west of Petersburg. To counter this move, Lee dispatched 9,200 men under Maj. Gen. George Pickett to defend the vital crossroads of Five Forks and the Southside Railroad, with orders to hold them at all hazards. On March 31, Sheridans force encountered Picketts lines and moved to attack. After some initial confusion, Sheridans men routed the Confederates, inflicting 2,950 casualties. Pickett, who was away at a shad bake when the fighting started, was relieved of his command by Lee. The Fall of Petersburg The following morning, Lee informed President Davis that Richmond and Petersburg would have to be evacuated. Later that day, Grant launched a series of massive assaults all along the Confederate lines. Breaking through in numerous places, Union forces forced the Confederates to surrender the city and flee west. With Lees army in retreat, Union troops entered Richmond on April 3, finally achieving one of their principle war goals. The next day, President Lincoln arrived to visit the fallen capital. The Road to Appomattox After occupying Petersburg, Grant began chasing Lee across Virginia with Sheridans men in the lead. Moving west and harried by Union cavalry, Lee hoped to re-supply his army before heading south to link up with forces under Gen. Joseph Johnston in North Carolina. On April 6, Sheridan was able to cut off approximately 8,000 Confederates under Lt. Gen. Richard Ewell at Saylers Creek. After some fighting the Confederates, including eight generals, surrendered. Lee, with fewer than 30,000 hungry men, hoped to reach supply trains that were waiting at Appomattox Station. This plan was dashed when Union cavalry under Maj. Gen. George A. Custer arrived in the town and burned the trains. Previous: War in the West, 1863-1865 Page Civil War 101 Previous: War in the West, 1863-1865 Page | Civil War 101 Meeting at Appomattox Court House While most of Lees officers favored surrender, others did not fearing that it would lead to the end of the war. Lee also sought to prevent his army from melting away to fight on as guerrillas, a move that he felt would have long term harm for the country. At 8:00 AM Lee rode out with three of his aides to make contact with Grant. Several hours of correspondence ensued which led to a cease fire and a formal request from Lee to discuss surrender terms. The home of Wilmer McLean, whose house in Manassas had served as Beauregards headquarters during the First Battle of Bull Run, was selected to host the negotiations. Lee arrived first, wearing his finest dress uniform and awaited Grant. The Union commander, who had been suffering a bad headache, arrived late, wearing a worn privates uniform with only his shoulder straps denoting his rank. Overcome by the emotion of the meeting, Grant had difficulty getting to the point, preferring to discuss his previous meeting with Lee during the Mexican-American War. Lee steering the conversation back to the surrender and Grant laid out his terms. Grants Terms of Surrender Grants terms: I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of N. Va. on the following terms, to wit: Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate. One copy to be given to an officer designated by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers as you may designate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged, and each company or regimental commander sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms, artillery and public property to be parked and stacked, and turned over to the officer appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor their private horses or baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside. In addition, Grant also offered to allow the Confederates to take home their horses and mules for use in the spring planting. Lee accepted Grants generous terms and the meeting ended. As Grant rode away from the McLean house, the Union troops began to cheer. Hearing them, Grant immediately ordered it stopped, stating he did not want his men exalting over their recently defeated foe. End of the War The celebration of Lees surrender was muted by the assassination of President Lincoln on April 14 at Fords Theater in Washington. As some of Lees officers had feared, their surrender was the first of many. On April 26, Sherman accepted Johnstons surrender near Durham, NC, and the other remaining Confederate armies capitulated one by one over the next six weeks. After four years of fighting, the Civil War was finally over. Previous: War in the West, 1863-1865 Page | Civil War 101

Behavioural Finance

The occurrence of stock market bubbles and crashes is often cited as evidence against the efficient market hypothesis. It is argued that new information is rarely, if ever, capable of explaining the sudden and dramatic share price movements observed during bubbles and crashes. Samuelson (1998) distinguished between micro efficiency and macro efficiency. Samuelson took the view that major stock markets are micro efficient in the sense that stocks are (nearly) correctly priced relative to each other, whereas the stock markets are macro inefficient. Macro inefficiency means that prices, at the aggregate level, can deviate from fair values over time. Jung and Shiller (2002) concurred with Samuelson’s view and suggested that waves of over- and undervaluation occur for the aggregate market over time. Stock markets are seen as having some predictability in the aggregate and over the long runBubbles and crashes have a history that goes back at least to the seventeenth century (MacKay 1852). Some writers have suggested that bubbles show common characteristics. Band (1989) said that market tops exhibited the following features: 1. Prices have risen dramatically. 2. Widespread rejection of the conventional methods of share valuation, and the emergence of new ‘theories’ to explain why share prices should be much higher than the conventional methods would indicate. 3. Proliferation of investment schemes offering very high returns very quickly. 4. Intense, and temporarily successful, speculation by uninformed investors. 5. Popular enthusiasm for leveraged (geared) investments. 6. Selling by corporate insiders, and other long-term investors. Extremely high trading volume in shares. Kindleberger (1989) and Kindleberger and Aliber (2005) argued that most bubbles and crashes have common characteristics. Bubbles feature large and rapid price increases, which result in share prices rising to unrealistically high levels. Bubbles typically begin with a justifiable rise in stock prices. The justification may be a technological advance, or a general rise in prosperity. Examples of technological advance stimulating share price rises might include the development of the automobile and radio in the 1920s and the emergence of the Internet in the late 1990s. Examples of increasing prosperity leading to price rises could be the United States,Western Europe, and Japan in the 1980s. Cassidy (2002) suggested that this initial stage is characterised by a new idea or product causing changes in expectations about the future. Early investors in companies involved with the innovation make very high returns, which attract the attention of others. The rise in share prices, if substantial and prolonged, leads to members of the public believing that prices will continue to rise. People who do not normally invest begin to buy shares in the belief that prices will continue to rise. More and more people, typically people who have no knowledge of financial markets, buy shares. This pushes up prices even further. There is euphoria and manic buying. This causes further price rises. There is a self-fulfilling prophecy wherein the belief that prices will rise brings about the rise, since it leads to buying. People with no knowledge of investment often believe that if share prices have risen recently, those prices will continue to rise in the future. Cassidy (2002) divides this process into a boom stage and a euphoria stage. In the boom stage share price rises generate media interest, which spreads the excitement across a wider audience. Even the professionals working for institutional investors become involved. In the euphoria stage investment principles, and even common sense, are discarded. Conventional wisdom is rejected in favour of the view that it is ‘all different this time’. Prices lose touch with reality. One assumption of the efficient market hypothesis is that investors are rational. This does not require all investors to be rational, but it does require that the rational investors outweigh the irrational ones. However there are times when irrational investors are dominant. A possible cause of market overreaction is the tendency of some investors (often small investors) to follow the market. Such investors believe that recent stock price movements are indicators of future price movements. In other words they extrapolate price movements. They buy when prices have been rising and thereby tend to push prices to unrealistically high levels. They sell when prices have been falling and thereby drive prices to excessively low levels. There are times when such naive investors outweigh those that invest on the basis of fundamental analysis of the intrinsic value of the shares. Such irrational investors help to generate bubbles and crashes in stock markets. Some professional investors may also participate on the basis of the greater fool theory. The greater fool theory states that it does not matter if the price paid is higher than the fundamental value, so long as someone (the greater fool) will be prepared to pay an even higher price. The theory of rational bubbles suggests that investors weigh the probability of further rises against the probability of falls. So it may be rational for an investor to buy shares, knowing that they are overvalued, if the probability-weighted expectation of gain exceeds the probability-weighted expectation of loss. Montier (2002) offers Keynes’s (1936) beauty contest as an explanation of stock market bubbles. The first level of the contest is to choose the stocks that you believe to offer the best prospects. The second level is to choose stocks that you believe others will see as offering the best prospects. A third level is to choose the stocks that you believe that others will expect the average investor to select. A fourth stage might involve choosing stocks that you believe that others will expect the average investor to see as most popular amongst investors. In other words, the beauty contest view sees investors as indulging in levels of second-guessing other investors. Even if every investor believes that a stock market crash is coming they may not sell stocks. They may even continue to buy. They may plan to sell just before others sell. In this way they expect to maximise their profits from the rising market. The result is that markets continue to rise beyond what the vast majority of investors would consider to be the values consistent with economic fundamentals. It is interesting to note that Shiller’s survey following the 1987 crash (Shiller 1987) found that 84% of institutional investors and 72% of private investors said that they had believed that the market was overpriced just before the crash. Shiller suggested that people did not realise how many others shared their views that the market was overpriced. As Hirshleifer (2001) points out, people have a tendency to conform to the judgements and behaviours of others. People may follow others without any apparent reason. Such behaviour results in a form of herding, which helps to explain the development of bubbles and crashes. If there is a uniformity of view concerning the direction of a market, the result is likely to be a movement of the market in that direction. Furthermore, the herd may stampede. Shiller (2000) said that the meaning of herd behaviour is that investors tend to do as other investors do. They imitate the behaviour of others and disregard their own information. Brown (1999) examined the effect of noise traders (non-professionals with no special information) on the volatility of the prices of closed-end funds (investment trusts). A shift in sentiment entailed these investors moving together and an increase in price volatility resulted. Walter and Weber (2006) found herding to be present among managers of mutual funds. Walter and Weber (2006) distinguished between intentional and unintentional herding. Intentional herding was seen as arising from attempts to copy others. Unintentional herding emerges as a result of investors analysing the same information in the same way. Intentional herding could develop as a consequence of poor availability of information. Investors might copy the behaviour of others in the belief that those others have traded on the basis of information. When copying others in the belief that they are acting on information becomes widespread, there is an informational cascade. Another possible cause of intentional herding arises as a consequence of career risk. If a fund manager loses money whilst others make money, that fund manager’s job may be in jeopardy. If a fund manager loses money whilst others lose money, there is more job security. So it can be in the fund manager’s interests to do as others do (this is sometimes referred to as the reputational reason for herding). Since fund managers are often evaluated in relation to benchmarks based on the average performance of fund managers, or based on stock indices, there could be an incentive to copy others since that would prevent substantial underperformance relative to the benchmark. Walter and Weber (2006) found positive feedback trading by mutual fund managers. In other words the managers bought stocks following price rises and sold following falls. If such momentum trading is common, it could be a cause of unintentional herding. Investors do the same thing because they are following the same strategy. It can be difficult to know whether observed herding is intentional or unintentional. Hwang and Salmon (2006) investigated herding in the sense that investors, following the performance of the market as a whole, buy or sell simultaneously. Investigating in the United States, the UK, and South Korea they found that herding increases with market sentiment. They found that herding occurs to a greater extent when investor expectations are relatively homogeneous. Herding is strongest when there is confidence about the direction in which the market is heading. Herding appeared to be persistent and slow moving. This is consistent with the observation that some bubbles have taken years to develop. Kirman (1991) suggests that investors may not necessarily base decisions on their own views about investments but upon what they see as the majority view. The majority being followed are not necessarily well-informed rational investors. The investors that are followed may be uninformed and subject to psychological biases that render their behaviour irrational (from the perspective of economists). Rational investors may even focus on predicting the behaviour of irrational investors rather than trying to ascertain fundamental value (this may explain the popularity of technical analysis among market professionals). There are theories of the diffusion of information based on models of epidemics. In such models there are ‘carriers’ who meet ‘susceptibles’ (Shiller 1989). Stock market (and property market) bubbles and crashes are likened to the spread of epidemics. There is evidence that ideas can remain dormant for long periods and then be triggered by an apparently trivial event. Face-to-face communication appears to be dominant, but the media also plays a role. Cassidy (2002) suggested that people want to become players in an ongoing drama in which ownership of stocks gives them a sense of being part of a social movement. People invest because they do not want to be left out of the exciting developments. The media are an integral part of market events because they want to attract viewers and readers. Generally, significant market events occur only if there is similar thinking among large groups of people, and the news media are vehicles for the spreading of ideas. The news media are attracted to financial markets because there is a persistent flow of news in the form of daily price changes and company reports. The media seek interesting news. The media can be fundamental propagators of speculative price movements through their efforts to make news interesting (Shiller 2000). They may try to enhance interest by attaching news stories to stock price movements, thereby focusing greater attention on the movements. The media are also prone to focus attention on particular stories for long periods. Shiller refers to this as an ‘attention cascade’. Attention cascades can contribute to stock market bubbles and crashes. Davis (2006) confirmed the role of the media in the development of extreme market movements. The media were found to exaggerate market responses to news, and to magnify irrational market expectations. At times of market crisis the media can push trading activity to extremes. The media can trigger and reinforce opinions. It has been suggested that memes may play a part in the process by which ideas spread (Lynch 2001). Memes are contagious ideas. It has been suggested that the success of a meme depends upon three critical factors: transmissivity, receptivity, and longevity. Transmissivity is the amount of dissemination from those with the idea. Receptivity concerns how believable, or acceptable, the idea is. Longevity relates to how long investors keep the idea in mind. Smith (1991) put forward the view that bubbles and crashes seem to have their origin in social influences. Social influence may mean following a leader, reacting simultaneously and identically with other investors in response to new information, or imitation of others who are either directly observed or observed indirectly through the media. Social influence appears to be strongest when an individual feels uncertain and finds no directly applicable earlier personal experience. Deutsch and Gerard (1955) distinguish between ‘normative social influence’ and ‘informational social influence’. Normative social influence does not involve a change in perceptions or beliefs, merely conformity for the benefits of conformity. An example of normative social influence would be that of professional investment managers who copy each other on the grounds that being wrong when everyone else is wrong does not jeopardise one’s career, but being wrong when the majority get it right can result in job loss. This is a form of regret avoidance. If a bad decision were made, a result would be the pain of regret. By following the decisions of others, the risk of regret is reduced. This is safety in numbers. There is less fear of regret when others are making the same decisions. Informational social influence entails acceptance of a group’s beliefs as providing information. For example share purchases by others delivers information that they believe that prices will rise in future. This is accepted as useful information about the stock market and leads others to buy also. This is an informational cascade; people see the actions of others as providing information and act on that information. Investors buy because they know that others are buying, and in buying provide information to other investors who buy in their turn. Informational cascades can cause large, and economically unjustified, swings in stock market levels. Investors cease to make their own judgements based on factual information, and use the apparent information conveyed by the actions of others instead. Investment decisions based on relevant information cease, and hence the process whereby stock prices come to reflect relevant information comes to an end. Share price movements come to be disconnected from relevant information. Both of the types of social influence identified by Deutsch and Gerard (1955) can lead to positive feedback trading. Positive feedback trading involves buying because prices have been rising and selling when prices have been falling, since price movements are seen as providing information about the views of other investors. Buying pushes prices yet higher (and thereby stimulates more buying) and selling pushes prices lower (and hence encourages more selling). Such trading behaviour contributes to stock market bubbles and crashes. People in a peer group tend to develop the same tastes, interests, and opinions (Ellison and Fudenberg 1993). Social norms emerge in relation to shared beliefs. These social norms include beliefs about investing. The social environment of an investor influences investment decisions. This applies not only to individual investors, but also to market professionals. Fund managers are a peer group; fundamental analysts are a peer group; technical analysts are a peer group. Indeed market professionals in aggregate form a peer group. It is likely that there are times when these peer groups develop common beliefs about the direction of the stock market. Common beliefs tend to engender stock market bubbles and crashes. Welch (2000) investigated herding among investment analysts. Herding was seen as occurring when analysts appeared to mimic the recommendations of other analysts. It was found that there was herding towards the prevailing consensus, and towards recent revisions of the forecasts of other analysts. A conclusion of the research was that in bull markets the rise in share prices would be reinforced by herding. Research on investor psychology has indicated certain features about the behaviour of uninformed investors, who are often referred to as noise traders in the academic literature. Tversky and Kahneman (1982) found that they have a tendency to overreact to news. DeBondt (1993) found that they extrapolate trends, in other words they tend to believe that the recent direction of movement of share prices will continue. Shleifer and Summers (1990) found evidence that they become overconfident in their forecasts. This latter point is consistent with the view that bubbles and crashes are characterised by some investors forgetting that financial markets are uncertain, and coming to believe that the direction of movement of share prices can be forecast with certainty. Barberis et al. (1998) suggested that noise traders, as a result of misinterpretation of information, see patterns where there are none. Lee (1998) mentioned that a sudden and drastic trend reversal may mean that earlier cues of a change in trend had been neglected. Clarke and Statman (1998) found that noise traders tend to follow newsletters, which in turn are prone to herding. It seems that many investors not only extrapolate price trends but also extrapolate streams of good or bad news, for example a succession of pieces of good news leads to the expectation that future news will also be good. Barberis et al. (1998) showed that shares that had experienced a succession of positive items of news tended to become overpriced. This indicates that stock prices overreact to consistent patterns of good or bad news. Lakonishok et al. (1994) concluded that investors appeared to extrapolate the past too far into the future. There is evidence that the flow of money into institutional investment funds (such as unit trusts) has an impact on stock market movements. Evidence for a positive relationship between fund flows and subsequent stock market returns comes from Edelen and Warner (2001), Neal and Wheatley (1998), Randall et al. (2003), and Warther (1995). It has been suggested by Indro (2004) that market sentiment (an aspect of crowd psychology) plays an important role. Indro found that poll-based measures of market sentiment were related to the size of net inflows into equity funds. It appears that improved sentiment (optimism) generates investment into institutional funds, which in turn brings about a rise in stock market prices (and vice versa for increased pessimism). If stock market rises render market sentiment more optimistic, a circular process occurs in which rising prices and improving sentiment reinforce each other. It has often been suggested that small investors have a tendency to buy when the market has risen and to sell when the market falls. Karceski (2002) reported that between 1984 and 1996 average monthly inflows into US equity mutual funds were about eight times higher in bull markets than in bear markets. The largest inflows were found to occur after the market had moved higher and the smallest inflows followed falls. Mosebach and Najand (1999) found interrelationships between stock market rises and flows of funds into the market. Rises in the market were related to its own previous rises, indicating a momentum effect, and to previous cash inflows to the market. Cash inflows also showed momentum, and were related to previous market rises. A high net inflow of funds increased stock market prices, and price rises increased the net inflow of funds. In other words, positive feedback trading was identified. This buy high/sell low investment strategy may be predicted by the ‘house money’ and ‘snake bite’ effects (Thaler and Johnson 1990). After making a gain people are willing to take risks with the winnings since they do not fully regard the money gained as their own (it is the ‘house money’). So people may be more willing to buy following a price rise. Conversely the ‘snake bite’ effect renders people more risk-averse following a loss. The pain of a loss (the snake bite) can cause people to avoid the risk of more loss by selling investments seen as risky. When many investors are affected by these biases, the market as a whole may be affected. The house money effect can contribute to the emergence of a stock market bubble. The snake bite effect can contribute to a crash. The tendency to buy following a stock market rise, and to sell following a fall, can also be explained in terms of changes in attitude towards risk. Clarke and Statman (1998) reported that risk tolerance fell dramatically just after the stock market crash of 1987. In consequence investors became less willing to invest in the stock market after the crash. MacKillop (2003) and Yao et al. (2004) found a relationship between market prices and risk tolerance. The findings were that investors became more tolerant of risk following market rises, and less risk tolerant following falls. The implication is that people are more inclined to buy shares when markets have been rising and more inclined to sell when they have been falling; behaviour which reinforces the direction of market movement. Shefrin (2000) found similar effects among financial advisers and institutional investors. Grable et al. 2004) found a positive relationship between stock market closing prices and risk tolerance. As the previous week’s closing price increased, risk tolerance increased. When the market dropped, the following week’s risk tolerance also dropped. Since risk tolerance affects the willingness of investors to buy risky assets such as shares, the relationshi p between market movements and risk tolerance tends to reinforce the direction of market movement. During market rises people become more inclined to buy shares, thus pushing share prices up further. After market falls investors are more likely to sell, thereby pushing the market down further. Projection bias is high sensitivity to momentary information and feelings such that current attitudes and preferences are expected to continue into the future (Loewenstein et al. 2003). Mehra and Sah (2002) found that risk tolerance varied over time and that people behaved as if their current risk preference would persist into the future. In other words the current level of risk tolerance was subject to a projection bias such that it was expected to continue into the future. Grable et al. (2006) pointed out that this interacts with the effects of market movements on risk tolerance. A rise in the market enhances risk tolerance, projection bias leads to a belief that current risk tolerance will persist, people buy more shares, share purchases cause price rises, price rises increase risk tolerance, and so forth. A virtuous circle of rising prices and rising risk tolerance could emerge. Conversely there could be a vicious circle entailing falling prices and rising risk-aversion. The Role of Social Mood People transmit moods to one another when interacting socially. People not only receive information and opinions in the process of social interaction, they also receive moods and emotions. Moods and emotions interact with cognitive processes when people make decisions. There are times when such feelings can be particularly important, such as in periods of uncertainty and when the decision is very complex. The moods and emotions may be unrelated to a decision, but nonetheless affect the decision. The general level of optimism or pessimism in society will influence individuals and their decisions, including their financial decisions There is a distinction between emotions and moods. Emotions are often short term and tend to be related to a particular person, object, or situation. Moods are free-floating and not attached to something specific. A mood is a general state of mind and can persist for long periods. Mood may have no particular causal stimulus and have no particular target. Positive mood is accompanied by emotions such as optimism, happiness, and hope. These feelings can become extreme and result in euphoria. Negative mood is associated with emotions such as fear, pessimism, and antagonism. Nofsinger (2005a) suggested that social mood is quickly reflected in the stock market, such that the stock market becomes an indicator of social mood. Prechter (1999, 2001), in proposing a socionomics hypothesis, argued that moods cause financial market trends and contribute to a tendency for investors to act in a concerted manner and to exhibit herding behaviour. Many psychologists would argue that actions are driven by what people think, which is heavily influenced by how they feel. How people feel is partly determined by their interactions with others. Prechter’s socionomic hypothesis suggests that human interactions spread moods and emotions. When moods and emotions become widely shared, the resulting feelings of optimism or pessimism cause uniformity in financial decision-making. This amounts to herding and has impacts on financial markets at the aggregate level. Slovic et al. (2002) proposed an affect heuristic. Affect refers to feelings, which are subtle and of which people may be unaware. Impressions and feelings based on affect are often easier bases for decision-making than an objective evaluation, particularly when the decision is complex. Since the use of affect in decision-making is a form of short cut, it could be regarded as a heuristic. Loewenstein et al. (2001) showed how emotions interact with cognitive thought processes and how at times the emotional process can dominate cognitive processes. Forgas (1995) took the view that the role of emotions increased as the complexity and uncertainty facing the decision-maker increased. Information can spread through society in a number of ways: books, magazines, newspapers, television, radio, the Internet, and personal contact. Nofsinger suggests that personal contact is particularly important since it readily conveys mood and emotion as well as information. Interpersonal contact is important to the propagation of social mood. Such contact results in shared mood as well as shared information. Prechter suggested that economic expansions and equity bull markets are associated with positive feelings such as optimism and enthusiasm whereas economic recessions and bear markets correspond to an increase in negative emotions like pessimism, fear, and anger. During a stock market uptrend society and investors are characterised by feelings of calmness and contentment, at the market top they are happy and enthusiastic, during the market downturn the feelings are ones of sadness and insecurity, whilst the market bottom is associated with feelings of anger, hostility, and tension. Dreman (2001) suggested that at the peaks and troughs of social mood, characterised by manias and panics, psychological influences play the biggest role in the decisions of investment analysts and fund managers. Forecasts will be the most positive at the peak of social mood and most negative at the troughs. Psychological influences can contaminate rational decision-making, and may be dominant at the extreme highs and lows of social mood. At the extremes of social mood the traditional techniques of investment analysis might be rejected by many as being no longer applicable in the new era. Shiller (1984) took the view that stock prices are likely to be particularly vulnerable to social mood because there is no generally accepted approach to stock pricing; different analysts use different models in different ways. The potential influence of social mood is even greater among non-professionals who have little, or no, understanding of pricing models and financial analysis. Nofsinger (2005a) saw the link to be so strong that stock market prices could be used as a measure of social mood. Peaks and troughs of social mood are characterised by emotional decision-making rather than rational evaluation. Cognitive evaluations indicating that stocks are overpriced are dominated by a mood of optimism. Support for one’s downplaying of rational evaluation receives support from the fact that others downplay rational evaluation. The optimism of others validates one’s own optimism. It is often argued that the normal methods of evaluation are no longer applicable in the new era. Fisher and Statman (2002) surveyed investors during the high-tech bubble of the late 1990s and found that although many investors believed stocks to be overpriced, they expected prices to continue rising. Eventually social mood passes its peak and cognitive rationality comes to dominate social mood. Investors sell and prices fall. If social mood continues to fall, the result could be a crash in which stock prices fall too far. The situation is then characterised by an unjustified level of pessimism, and investors sell shares even when they are already underpriced. Investors’ sales drive prices down further and increase the degree of underpricing. Fisher and Statman (2000) provided evidence that stock market movements affect sentiment. A vicious circle could develop in which falling sentiment causes prices to fall and declining prices lower sentiment. Taffler and Tuckett (2002) provided a psychoanalytic perspective on the technology stock bubble and crash of the late 1990s and early 2000s, and in so doing gave a description of investor behaviour totally at odds with the efficient markets view of rational decision-making based on all relevant information. They made it clear that people do not share a common perception of reality; instead everyone has their own psychic reality.

PSYCHOLOGY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

PSYCHOLOGY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR - Essay Example Taylor and Brown (1986) are of the view that a person containing positive illusions about his own self and others also maintains healthy mind, because mental information system has the capability to reach a happy and optimistic conclusion. The researchers, above-mentioned, have discussed their socio-psychological perspective of mental health under the title Illusion and Well-Being: A Social Psychological Perspective on Mental Health. In this research paper, Taylor and Brown analyze how mental health has been co-related with perceiving realities without any illusion of optimism. According to this model, individuals mildly distort reality to their benefit due to self-serving biases. This construct represents an in-depth synthesis of many models. (Luca, 1999:37) The past researches used to measure mental soundness of individuals by their vision of realistic thoughtfulness. A dominant position has maintained that the psychologically healthy person is one who maintains close contact with reality. (Taylor & Brown, 1988:193) Taylor & Brown do not go eye to eye with the notion of assessing mental health with mere the soundness of realism; rather, they are of the opinion that unrealistic positive illusions serve as the definite indicators of metal health on the one hand and are highly supportive in keeping the mind healthy on the other for an individuals cognitive development and mental fitness. Cognitive development refers to the growth of mental processes as well as ability to think and perceive. It also discusses how an individual learns by his innate mental capabilities and from society. The study of cognitive psychology is motivated by scientific curiosity, by the desire for practical applications, and by the need to provide a foundation for other fields of social science. (Anderson, 1990:1) Taylor & Brown, emphasize on the significance of positive illusion for judging

Organizational Behavior 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Organizational Behavior 2 - Essay Example offering competitive salary, free lodging, free food, etc.), it will be easier on the part of the HR manager to satisfy the higher needs of each employee. Unlike the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, expectancy theories are not focused on satisfying the individual needs of each employee. Depending on the kind of rewards employees could receive from a business organization, the theory of expectancy suggests that employees will be motivated given that their efforts at work could contribute to the business success (Denhardt, Denhardt, & Aristigueta, 2002, p. 162). Similar to expectancy theories, the use of goal-setting theories also requires the HR managers to pay back employees’ efforts through attractive rewards (Denhardt, Denhardt, & Aristigueta, 2002, p. 165). In general, the main purpose of goal-setting theories is to increase the work expectations of each employee. Since a higher goal setting increases employees’ work motivation, the overall productivity of each employee is also expected to increase. The equity theories are based on â€Å"social exchange† (Denhardt, Denhardt, & Aristigueta, 2002, p. 165). Given that each employee is happy in their work environment (i.e. no conflict with other employees, fair working policies, etc.), there is a higher chance wherein employees will exert an effort to convert the organizational goals into a reality. When we talk about fair working policies, it means that the contribution of each employee to the success of the company should mean higher rewards as compared to the rest of employees. To be able to motivate employees, I assume that a realistic and fair monetary reward is necessary to satisfy the basic needs of each employee. Basically, when the financial needs of a person is not met, that person would either look for another job that offers higher salary or search for another part-time job. It means that the person becomes less loyal to his/her first

1.Phytochemicals Discussion .2.Foods and Cancer Prevention Essay

1.Phytochemicals Discussion .2.Foods and Cancer Prevention - Essay Example A group of phytochemicals are collectively called Flavonoids. These are compounds with varied chemical structures present in fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. The major flavonoid categories are flavonols, flavones, catechins, flavanones and anthocyanins. The main dietary sources of these compounds are tea, onions, soy and wine. The main flavonoid in onions is quercetin glucoside and the main flavonoid in tea is quercetin rutinoside. Flavonoid intake has been inversely linked with coronary heart disease in the Zutphen Elderly Study, the Seven Countries Study and a cohort study in Finland all of which have been reviewed and accepted by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and American Heart Association – both organizations that are highly credible. Also, the incidence of ovarian cancer may be reduced with increased consumption of dietary flavonoids, according to researchers from Brigham and Womens Hospital and the Harvard School of Public Health. The study looked at food intake surveys and ovarian cancer data from 66,384 participants in the Harvard Nurses Health Study, which collected health data from 121,700 women over a period of 30 years. This is the first prospective analysis of flavonoid intake and ovarian cancer incidence. (in Donovan, 2004) According to the article by Steinmetz and Potter (1996), there have been several studies trying to establish a relationship between vegetable and fruit consumption with the risk of cancer. After having compared the studies, it was established that the perceived benefits of eating vegetables and fruits especially with cancer protection was consistent in the studies. Asides from these, there are also associated benefits including protection against cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke, obesity, diverticulosis, and cataracts. A raw carrot (per 100 grams of edible portion) contain: Water 88g; Protein 1.0g; Total lipid

Healthcare Heat Lamps Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Healthcare Heat Lamps - Essay Example To be noted, these processes are often followed through the implementations of standard costing methods (Berger, 2011). However, standard costing possesses both negatives and positives in offering better control to the management when applying cost management strategies. The same will be discussed in this report, taking the example of Healthcare Heat Lamps. Starting with a generalised perspective, the term, ‘standard costing’ will be defined along with the key assumptions of these mechanisms. Standard Costing The term ‘Standard’ refers to the creation of a benchmark or yardstick. Accordingly, the word ‘Standard Costing’ has been defined by the Institute of Cost and Management Accountant of London as a predetermined cost which is taken into concern when producing or performing other operations to distribute each product and/or service to the customers under normal economic conditions. The cost variables considered in standard costing procedures m ight be based on technological requirements for the materials, labour and overheads for the decided period of time as well as effective analysis of the working conditions (Dosen, 2013). In simple terms, standard costing can be described as the technique of designing the criteria of costs as well as revenues (Shaub, 2010). To be precise, standard costing is a traditional concept of accounting which aims at determining the standard of each elementary cost and thus, often acts as a procedure of comparing the predetermined costs with the actual costs. Technically, it is considered as quite beneficial in discovering the deviations that are financially well known as ‘variances’. ‘Variances’ can be defined as the predetermined rate that is generally implemented in the standard costing as well as budgetary control systems. It can be affirmed in this context that the analysis of variances is deemed to be essential to summarize the incidents as well as defining the p rocess of standard costing so as to support the cost control aims of the company (Sivakumar, 2009). The method of standard costing might be based on an assortment of key factors that have been mentioned below. Determining the suitable benchmarks for each component in terms of cost variances Establishment of information regarding actual as well as standard costs that should be executed Comparing actual costs with the standard costs to determine the variances Properly analysing the variances to find out the actual cause of differences in the costs calculated Reporting the responsible authorities for developing and implementing curative measures to mitigate the differences in the costs as deciphered through the variances (Dosen, 2013) In this context, for the better understanding of the concept of standard costing, a pictorial flow chart has been illustrated below: Source: (Kingdee, n.d.) The Key Assumptions Related to the Calculation of Standard Costs The calculation of standard costi ng is generally conducted on the basis of certain key assumptions. These key assumptions have been listed below in a brief manner for comprehensive understanding of

The Impact Prison Has on Families and Children Essay

The Impact Prison Has on Families and Children - Essay Example However, studies have revealed that problems ensue when parents have committed violations and infractions that led to their imprisonment (Robertson, 2007; King, 2002; Cunningham, 2001). As emphasized, parental imprisonment have been validated to provide negative effects on the lives of the children and those of the family members. The current essay hereby aims to determine and expound on the impact prison has on families and children by initially enumerating the effects of parental imprisonment on children in terms of their behavioral manifestations, in terms of financial situations and in the parent-child relationships or bonds. Effect on Children’s Behavior When parents are incarcerated, the reactions of children could be varied depending on demographic factors: their age, the social status of the family, the income level, peers, and the availability and access to forms of support. As disclosed by Robertson (2007), â€Å"often children of prisoners are discriminated against and stigmatised as a result of parental imprisonment and have suffered from trauma, fear, shame, guilt and low self-esteem. Relationships with other family members frequently suffer.Some children become withdrawn, are affected by increased health problems and regressive behaviour such as bed-wetting, suffer worsening performance and attendance rates at school or display increased aggression, antisocial or criminal tendencies† (Robertson, 2007, p. 9). These findings were corroborated in the study conducted by King (2002) who revealed that among the changes eminent from children’s behavior when their parent/s were imprisoned include: either becoming withdrawn and quiet or being hyperactive; acting up with the remainign caregiver; depression; and shyness exhibited to imprisoned parent/s (p. 56). Likewise, physical and mental health changes were also reported by Roberston (2007) to wit: â€Å"noted problems have included: changes in sleep patterns or eating behaviour; sta rting or increasing their use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco; stress; depression; and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder such as flashbacks about the crimes or arrests† (p. 9). Effect on Financial Situations Evidently, for very young children, the primary effect of parental imprisonment is the curtailment of regular and appropriate financial support. If the parent who was incarcerated was the breadwinner, the sole parent left to attend to the financial needs of the family will bear the burden for financial support. On the other hand, for parent/s who have had previous experiences of drug abuse prior to the incarceration were noted to have led to some improvement in the financial situation of the family (King, 2002, p. 54). Also, as emphasized by Cunningham (2001), â€Å"incarceration may necessitate relocation for the rest of the family, and hence disruption of schooling and loss of support networks. Moving house may result from economic hardship arising from the loss of the breadwinner, or a desire to escape media or family attention† (p. 36). Effect on Parent-Child Relationships Due to the restrictions posed in the prison setting, prisoners with children were reported to have difficulties maintaining their relationships with their children. As a consequence, there are perceived diminishing of parent-child established bonds and the loss of parental authority (King, 2002). Likewise, as it was apparently noted that children with parents

Do Computers and Other Information Communication Technologies Increase Essay

Do Computers and Other Information Communication Technologies Increase or Decrease Social Connection - Essay Example Their mobile phones may have a way of binding the Japanese together, but the same gadgets serve only a divisive purpose outside of their area of the world. Let us not forget that alongside the innovative Smart TV sets that are being marketed these days, the Smart House is also being developed in some corners of the world. Bill Gates, one of the most prolific technological inventors of the modern era, already claims to be living in a Smart House. Yet somehow that does not seem like a hopeful thought for most people. The more gadgets we create in the pursuit of excellence in entertainment, socializing, and the like, the more it seems like we are developing ways and means to eliminate social contact with other people while in the past, we thrived as society in terms of social interaction. This is evidenced by the proliferation of coffee machines these days. These machines have taken over the functions of your favorite coffee barista of yesteryear: Does your cappuccino-maker always make perfect cappuccinos? How much time does it take? Does your neighborhood cafe make perfect cappucinos? If you had the time where would you prefer to have your cappucino? Is your neighborhood cafe run by a computer? Would it be better if it was? Where did you meet your wife (husband, lover)? (Gold) Most people these days are so on the go that even the formerly trendy social interaction of going to the nearest Starbucks for that cup o' Joe in the morning has almost been totally banished to oblivion. These days, the barista machines exist to make cheaper and faster coffee for everyone. Just pop in a coffee table and hit the button, presto, coffee perfect-o! You are ready to jump into your car and start your day. You just skipped the need to interact... This essay stresses that alongside the innovative Smart TV sets that are being marketed these days, the Smart House is also being developed in some corners of the world. Bill Gates, one of the most prolific technological inventors of the modern era, already claims to be living in a Smart House. Yet somehow that does not seem like a hopeful thought for most people. The more gadgets we create in the pursuit of excellence in entertainment, socializing, and the like, the more it seems like we are developing ways and means to eliminate social contact with other people while in the past, we thrived as society in terms of social interaction. This is evidenced by the proliferation of coffee machines these days. This paper makes a conclusion that most people these days are so on the go that even the formerly trendy social interaction of going to the nearest Starbucks for that cup o' Joe in the morning has almost been totally banished to oblivion. These days, the barista machines exist to make cheaper and faster coffee for everyone. Just pop in a coffee table and hit the button, presto, coffee perfect-o! You are ready to jump into your car and start your day. You just skipped the need to interact with real people – first thing in the morning which normally would provide you with a much needed natural energy boost as you talk to your friends or co-workers who happen to be in the same line at the coffee shop. That is definitely another technological innovation that successfully helped isolate us from the others in our social circle.

The Impact Prison Has on Families and Children Essay

The Impact Prison Has on Families and Children - Essay Example However, studies have revealed that problems ensue when parents have committed violations and infractions that led to their imprisonment (Robertson, 2007; King, 2002; Cunningham, 2001). As emphasized, parental imprisonment have been validated to provide negative effects on the lives of the children and those of the family members. The current essay hereby aims to determine and expound on the impact prison has on families and children by initially enumerating the effects of parental imprisonment on children in terms of their behavioral manifestations, in terms of financial situations and in the parent-child relationships or bonds. Effect on Children’s Behavior When parents are incarcerated, the reactions of children could be varied depending on demographic factors: their age, the social status of the family, the income level, peers, and the availability and access to forms of support. As disclosed by Robertson (2007), â€Å"often children of prisoners are discriminated against and stigmatised as a result of parental imprisonment and have suffered from trauma, fear, shame, guilt and low self-esteem. Relationships with other family members frequently suffer.Some children become withdrawn, are affected by increased health problems and regressive behaviour such as bed-wetting, suffer worsening performance and attendance rates at school or display increased aggression, antisocial or criminal tendencies† (Robertson, 2007, p. 9). These findings were corroborated in the study conducted by King (2002) who revealed that among the changes eminent from children’s behavior when their parent/s were imprisoned include: either becoming withdrawn and quiet or being hyperactive; acting up with the remainign caregiver; depression; and shyness exhibited to imprisoned parent/s (p. 56). Likewise, physical and mental health changes were also reported by Roberston (2007) to wit: â€Å"noted problems have included: changes in sleep patterns or eating behaviour; sta rting or increasing their use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco; stress; depression; and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder such as flashbacks about the crimes or arrests† (p. 9). Effect on Financial Situations Evidently, for very young children, the primary effect of parental imprisonment is the curtailment of regular and appropriate financial support. If the parent who was incarcerated was the breadwinner, the sole parent left to attend to the financial needs of the family will bear the burden for financial support. On the other hand, for parent/s who have had previous experiences of drug abuse prior to the incarceration were noted to have led to some improvement in the financial situation of the family (King, 2002, p. 54). Also, as emphasized by Cunningham (2001), â€Å"incarceration may necessitate relocation for the rest of the family, and hence disruption of schooling and loss of support networks. Moving house may result from economic hardship arising from the loss of the breadwinner, or a desire to escape media or family attention† (p. 36). Effect on Parent-Child Relationships Due to the restrictions posed in the prison setting, prisoners with children were reported to have difficulties maintaining their relationships with their children. As a consequence, there are perceived diminishing of parent-child established bonds and the loss of parental authority (King, 2002). Likewise, as it was apparently noted that children with parents