Care of Patients with Dementia Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Care of Patients with Dementia - Research Paper Example Environmental factors play a major role in the development of aggressive behaviour in a patient with dementia and contribute to distress and dissatisfaction. Nurses handling elderly patients must be aware of the fact that the environment of the hospital is new to the patient, the surrounding is filled with noise and the individual can feel uncomfortable in the surrounding (McCloskey, 2004).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The first and foremost step in appropriate management of patients with dementia in health care setting is identification of the disease process and careful assessment of the various factors in environment of the patient that contribute to stress. Identification of factors helps in the modification of future care whereas lack of understanding of these aspects leads to frustration, inappropriate care and stress not only for the patient but also for the nursing staff. It is due to such a lack of understanding that many physical restraints are employed in   handling dementia patient s and these contribute to patient mortality and increased burden of work for the nurses (McCloskey, 2004). One of strategies to prevent distress due to physical restraints is adoption of alternatives to physical restraints (McCloskey, 2004). Some such alternatives include adoption of door knob covers instead of doors, employment of various electronic devices like wandering system, bed alarms, door alarms and electronic monitors to monitor the movements of the patient, change in the regimens of medication in such a way that they offer comfort to the patient. and cause minimal disturbance and distress, placing the patient in strategic regions which are compatible to the patient and are familiar to the patient, place safety mattress on the floor to enable safe locomotion, remove tubes and drains in a prompt manner, assist and pursue routine toileting, decrease scope for environmental hazards, prevent falls, employ various aids for seating and positioning and usage of lower beds and emp loyment of split side rails (McCloskey, 2004, table-1). Other alternatives include involvement of volunteers, family members, sitters and hospice workers

No Mans Land Essay Example for Free

No Mans Land Essay I tiptoe through the night, scared for even my sweat to make the slightest noise as it drips off my face and onto the ground. I am not thinking of anything at the moment but my survival and how my life will be once I am free of the Soviet grip around my wrists. My heart feels like it is breaking through my ribs and protruding out of my chest with every breath I take as I run faster and faster towards the barrier that has incarcerated me over the years. As I throw myself over the eleven-foot concrete wall with barbed wire at the top, I can hear gunshots all around, and I pray they are not intended for me. I hit the cold, hard ground on the other side, but I am not even close to being safe any time soon. I am in no mans land now. I would be better off asking for someone to shoot me than to make it out of here alive. I have only one chance. At least that is how I imagined it would have been like if I were in trapped in the tribulations of East Berlin trying to escape into the desired West Berlin between 1961 and 1989. However, it is a gray December day in 2004, and if it werent for remains of the Iron Curtain and Checkpoint Charlie, people would not be able to relive that part of history or be reminded of the dictator that destroyed so many lives. The temperature was eight degrees Celsius as the gloomy sky attempted to cough up snow onto Berlin. Before that moment I had only heard of the Berlin Wall through history books and stories. I would sit and listen to travelers tales told by my courageous father who had walked through Checkpoint Charlie and into East Berlin in seventy-five. He told me how he had to exchange West Berlin money into East Berlin money at Checkpoint Charlie before entering East Berlin. Then going back into West Berlin he had to drop it in a rusty tin can at Check Point Charlie because you were not allowed to keep East Berlin money. He witnessed two tourists getting assaulted by the guards for trying to smuggle East Berlin money into West Berlin. My only expectations of Berlin came from the adventures of my dad. I expected Checkpoint Charlie to be a barricade miles long with tollbooths that have the arms that swing up and down. Similar to the tollbooths that run across the freeways of really large cities, or at the airports you go through after short-term parking. Once you pass through the chomping arms of the tollbooths I imagined East Berlin to be scattered with desolate buildings and run down streets. But as I approached the once controlling wall and Checkpoint Charlie I realized nothing was as I imagined it at all. It was like walking down any other street in a big city. A few people who were always pushing their way through the gaps that opened up between the wandering men and women, obviously in more of a hurry than anyone else on the street. Christmas lights clung to the tall buildings that ran down the streets of Berlin. People popped in and out of the busy stores, squeezing their last bit of Christmas shopping in before the Holiday. Suddenly the bustle of people slowed like a murmur in time as I stood right before the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie which are now surrounded by the commercial buildings of downtown Berlin. My gaze dropped to an engraved brick in the ground that now serves as a commemorative plaque for the Berlin Wall. A chill ran from the tip of my toes all the way to the ends of my hair as I realized how lucky I was to be standing right there in no mans land. I can now speak of the Berlin Wall, not as hearsay from a history book, but as a memory. No mans land, a memorial now, is where 171 people who attempted to escape into West Berlin were shot, and left to bleed to death like a deer on the side of the road. This area contained walls on either side with mines and stern East Berlin guards to make it almost impossible to escape. As I stood in the middle of no mans land facing East Berlin, I looked over my left and my right shoulders only to see black, wooden crosses a little taller than I am. The crosses looked as if snow had only given them the pleasure of its company and nothing else around them, when really it was just white sand covering the ground. I took a deep breath in as if I was trying to swallow it into my memory, making sure to keep it forever. I am motionless. Where the median strip of the road would have been, an American soldiers somber picture was enlarged and hoisted up on a pole staring out towards West Berlin. On the opposite side was a Russian Soldier keeping close watch over East Berlin. Below the soldiers pictures was Checkpoint Charlie. Wilted flowers surrounded this one room shack that once controlled the passage of people from East to West Berlin. Now it also stands as a memorial for people who died crossing over into West Berlin. On either side of me, there were remains of the wall still standing. I got an eerie feeling as I stared at them. My sense of time was completely altered. There I stood at one of the most historical sites imagining what it would have been like to be boxed in by a concrete wall that was suffocating you more and more each day. But when I looked around I was in the middle of one of the largest cities in Germany. It was like time slowed when I was walking through no mans land, but everything else around no mans land and Checkpoint Charlie was full of life. I was in my own little bubble. I walked about a block and returned to the normal noises and the packed sidewalks of what use to be the Soviet controlled East Berlin. My view of Berlin has been altered for the better, with a greater understanding of the saying seeing is believing.

Critical Issues in Law Enforcement

Critical Issues in Law Enforcement There are three critical issues in law enforcement Citizens today look to law enforcement for service and protection. In order for officers to serve and protect, some issues have to be resolved. Remaining stress-free, enforcing the code of ethics and lastly, the presence of female police officers. These three critical issues can quickly weaken a department if left to manifest without any intervention. Being stress-free in law enforcement is very important. An officers performance is diminished greatly if he or she has trouble concentrating at work. Law enforcement officers are perceived to be tough, rough, and always ready to protect and serve. Citizens feel safe when police officers are seen regularly patrolling the streets. When it comes to dealing with personal issues, officers tend to keep to themselves. Sometimes living up to those expectations can be challenging because the general public has a superhero image of law enforcement. Officers regularly deal with the worst of what society has to offer, and make special sacrifices to maintain the peace. In the process, performing daily tasks can be increasingly difficult. Unlike firefighters and paramedics, police officers are not trained to work as a group. Officers are left to work alone or with a partner. As a result, police coverage is often sparse throughout a jurisdiction. Officers today are in desperate need of a better support system. With the rising crime rate in todays society, officers can only handle so much before reaching a breaking point. As the stress of police duty builds up, an officer may soon experience anger, depression, or disillusion. Over time, these feelings may cause strained relationships with family and co-workers and in the end lead to suicide (Franklin, 2007). Running head: THREE CRITICAL ISSUES IN LAW ENFORCEMENT 4 Officers need to be in constant emotional control. Law enforcement officers have a job that requires extreme restraint under highly emotional circumstances. Officers are trained to stay calm when excited, to take charge when nervous, and to be stable when emotional. Constantly altering emotions takes a tremendous toll on an officers mentality. When an officer is emotionally drained, it may make the officer more prone to fatigue, such as not wanting to participate in social or family life. Energy drain can also create job and social burnout (Goldfarb, Smith n.d.). Another cause of stress is shift work. No matter how many years an officer has been working, a persons body never gets used to fluctuating schedules. The human body is naturally programmed to eat, sleep, and wake at a certain time. An officer performing shift work never gets a chance to stay on a schedule and in turn upsets the physical and mental balances. Police have several options when it comes to dealing with stress. One option is psychological therapy. Police officers may be ordered to undergo sessions with a therapist. The sessions can persuade the police officer to identify any problems officer might have with their career and ultimately arrive at valuable solutions. The focus of the therapy session is to teach the police officer in finding out how and why he/she reacts to certain situations. This in turn can help the officer react correctly to stress factors. Stress management in law enforcement also includes anger management. In anger management, police officers can be taught to identify the triggers that cause aggression within an officer. Anger management also teaches police officers how to detect and prevent hostile situations from ever taking place, which in turn can be applied in Running head: THREE CRITICAL ISSUES IN LAW ENFORCEMENT 5 settling disputes between citizens. Anger management can allow the officer to prevent and manage their stress by themselves, either on the job or at home with their families. The second critical issue within departments is code of ethics for criminal justice personnel. In order for the criminal justice system to work efficiently a code of ethics is needed. Due to the amount of power criminal justice professionals possess and because of the nature of problems officers encounter every day, employees often face serious conflicts and needs guidance, which is exactly what a code of ethics provides. One of the main purposes of a code of ethics is to guide a person in making a decision. These guidelines have to be in place in order for law enforcement agencies to operate smoothly and correctly. Superiors have to lead the rest of the department by being an example. If the leaders are corrupt, more than likely the subordinates are also (Peak, 2010). There are some behaviors which are completely unacceptable in law enforcement: bribery, excessive force, extortion and forgery. At no time should these behaviors be exercised by officers or any member of law enforcement. Citizens entrust law enforcement to protect and to serve communities. The lifeline of law and order for any society is law enforcement. It is therefore very important for the police personnel to command the respect citizens, to function effectively. The public-police relationship is vital, for maintaining law and order, and this relationship can be strengthened only when police conduct themselves in appropriate manner. Every police officer Running head: THREE CRITICAL ISSUES IN LAW ENFORCEMENT 6 must realize that they need to be law-abiding citizens also, and be committed to serve society proudly and with morals. All officers and members of law enforcement should be made to attend a seminar on ethics. And after the seminar is complete, all employees will be tested and trained on all material presented. Testing will help to ensure all employees are on one ethical accord. A code of ethics can help an officer decide how to act on a daily basis. Ethics is very important for people of power because this type of person has great influence on the public daily. Law enforcement personnel make important decisions every day and the decisions an officer makes impacts the lives of others. Therefore, it is necessary that all members of law enforcement are bias free. The last issue that needs to address is female officers in criminal justice. There has been tremendous growth of female officers within the last thirty years. Law requires law enforcement agencies to hire regardless of gender or race. Traditionally, the only job a female had in law enforcement was a social worker. In the past, men have strongly resisted the integration of female officers into police departments because being a police officer was thought to be a mans job. Women have slowly transformed the social worker role because of their determination to overcome the stereotypical barriers and in more recent years, the law. However, a females acceptance by males has grown in the past thirty years. Running head: THREE CRITICAL ISSUES IN LAW ENFORCEMENT 7 The first female police officer was Alice Stebbin Wells, born on June 13, 1873. Alice served in the Los Angeles police department. Joining the police department was no easy task in those days. Alice had to send petitions to the mayor, city council and police commissioner. Wells felt women and children needed someone to be their voice and Wells wanted to be the one who stood up for them. In 1985, Penny Harrington accomplished being the first female police chief in a large agency. And in 1990, Elizabeth Watson became the first female police chief of a city with a population of more than 1 million in Houston. Another reason why police departments have been hesitant in hiring female officers is because women officers are thought of as not being unable to balance their personal and professional lives. Trying to balance child care and work, especially for single female officers, can be a very demanding task. The pressure is on to be a good wife and mother regardless of the job. Every day a police officer encounters risks and dangers, including dealing with irate people and criminals. And also, maintaining workplace relationship in a male dominated field is not easy. Discrimination against female officers can also come from the community. Some citizens believe that policewomen are only able to settle domestic disputes or to deal with rape victims. Some may also think policewomen are incapable of diffusing physical altercations, mostly due to the fact that most crimes are committed by males. There are some female officers try to fit in and go along with the male police culture by acting subservient are quickly written off as not performing to police standards. Running head: THREE CRITICAL ISSUES IN LAW ENFORCEMENT 8 Hiring and retaining female officers offers great advantages. First, women are great communicators. Listening to a womans voice can sometimes calm an intense situation. Second, male officers are more likely to use excessive force than females, it is only natural. Males are naturally more authoritarian. Third, the presence more female officers will reduce the amount of claims of sexual discrimination within the department. Women officers tend to use a style of policing that relies more on communication than physical force, and are far more likely to avoid the use of excessive force. Female officers are more likely to have a community-oriented style of policing and females excel in responding to domestic violence situations which constitute a majority of crime calls. Also, female officers trend to have more empathy than male officers in certain situations and the trait could be useful in delicate situation such as domestic calls. Inappropriate response also adds to the risk of litigation, as departments are increasingly being held accountable for failing to properly handle domestic violence (Anderson, 1985). In the past, fitting in a police force has been a challenge for women. Some of the requirements were seen as discriminatory against females. For example, scaling a 6 foot wall and being able to bench press ones own weight was almost impossible for a female to do (Peak, 2010 pg. 132 para. 8). One way to make sure women are not discriminated against is to make departments re-examine physical fitness tests and figure out ways to include females in the tests. And also, agencies should permit all candidates to practice for the pre-employment physical exam (Peak, 2010 pg. 132 para. 8). Running head: THREE CRITICAL ISSUES IN LAW ENFORCEMENT 9 There are several issues which need to be addressed in order to help female avoid discrimination in the department. Police departments can hold job fairs at different colleges and pass out flyers, brochures, newspapers, or television advertising (Peak, 2010). Hiring in this manner is instead of randomly hiring brings a more diversified police force. Training males and females together will make female officers feel more equal to males. Female instructors are important also because female officers can look to the instructors as role models. Sexual harassment is another hurdle for female officers. If an officer is being harassed, the officer may not feel that reporting the perpetrator. The officer may not want to go through the scrutiny and embarrassment. All department need to have written policies informing employees of the consequences of harassment in the department. In the written policies, the information should include illustrations and examples of what not to do and a description of the proper protocol of handling complaints. The department will need to promptly file and investigate all complaints and most important of all, keep all information about the case and individual confidential.

Discuss the themes of Virtu and Fortuna in The Prince. Essay -- Englis

Discuss the themes of Virtu and Fortuna in The Prince. Niccolo Machiavelli was born in Florence, Italy on the 3rd May 1469. In 1498, Florence became a republic and Machiavelli gained a position within the Florentine government. After this he was soon confirmed by the great council as the second chancellor of the republic, making him the head of internal affairs. Less than a month later he was elected as secretary to the ten of war, which focussed on foreign and defensive affairs. In November 1498 Machiavelli was sent on his first diplomatic mission and over the years he continued with many more. On his first mission to France to see King Louis XII, which lasted six months, Machiavelli was able to observe the effects of having a single prince ruling a united country. When Machiavelli returned to Florence and he found it to be slowly disintegrating because Cesare Borgia endeavoured to create a principality for himself in Italy and during this time Machiavelli made many visits to him on behalf of the Florentine government to try and negotiate. When Borgia finally retaliated by killing his captains in Sinigaglia, Machiavelli was witness to this and later wrote an account of it. Machiavelli had a lot of admiration for Borgia’s conduct and believed his qualities would be found in the perfect prince who would eventually unite all the Italian states. Over the next few years Machiavelli maintained his position within the Florentine government and was sent on various missions and given many different roles with increasing amounts of authority over Florence. In 1513 Machiavelli is accused of being involved in an anti-Medici conspiracy with the Medici family being rulers of Florence at the time. Machiavel... ...t rule a principality. And also the book has visions of wanting to unite Italy, which is an idea 350 years ahead of its time. When Machiavelli wrote this book it was write for the time as there were frequent wars and some advice on the art of war was needed. Even though, in many cases, Machiavelli’s the Prince is still relevant today particularly in government, as if you want to succeed and gain power in it, you need to be ruthless and corrupted. Bibliography Machiavelli, N. (2003) The Prince. London: Penguin Group Solomon, R, C., Higgins, K, M., (1996). A short history of Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Skinner, Q. (2000) Machiavelli – A very short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. www.constitution.org/mac/prince00/html - another translation of The Prince. â€Å"Machiavelli, Niccolo†. Microsoft Encarta 99 Encyclopedia.

„Reconciliation“ by Polly Clark Essay

„Reconciliationâ€Å" is a short story and is written by Polly Clark. The story takes place in an office. The main character of the story is a woman, her name is Laura, and she is also the narrator of the story. Basically is the story about the fear of loosing someone, changes of persons and a marriage and a relationship after many years. It is difficult to find out how old the narrator of the story is. But because of the fact that she is married for a long time, in the text she said, â€Å"We began our relationship half my life ago.â€Å", I would say she probably is in her midlife maybe a bit younger. The fact that the main character is also the narrator makes it easier to see the proceedings form her angle and we are able to know how she thinks and feels – even when she doesn’t know it herself. The reader of this story receives an impression of a completely normal person when it comes to her appearance. But when the reader gets deeper into the story and sees how she thinks about things and the way of handling things, makes her look like she has some smaller mental issues. This can be caused because she is loosing her husband, his name is Vernon, she also calls him Mr. Pringle, whom she wants to stay with and stood with for many years. For months she and her husband have not spoken that much to each other. In the text she says: â€Å"We regard each other over months of frozen silence.â€Å" You can easily notice that she is afflicted with the silence between Vernon, her husband, and her. She mentions it with following sentence: â€Å"We began our relationship in a bar, and those were our best times, telling each other the truth of our lives in the warm light. I might be defective in every other way, defective enough to mean that I must be divorced, defective enough to mean that silence is actually my lot, but it doesn’t mean it comes naturally to me. News and questions bubble up in my throat, but I cannot speak.† She does not want to give up on their marriage and relationship. She has been used to having her husband and being with him, so if he is gone, she does not know what to do with herself and the things around her. The reader could get the impression that she doesn’t have a very high self-esteem, because she sees herself as faraway from perfect. This fact could explain why she is so afraid of loosing her husband, because if he doesn’t want to have her who then would like to have her with all her faults.? â€Å"I am your wife. That is everything that I am. Help me.† Laura applies for a job in her husband’s office just to be more in contact with Vernon and be with him together. On her first day in the office and at her new job, her actions disclose that she is very nervous. In the text you can find following examples for her tension: â€Å"I have forgotten my shoes†, â€Å"I bite my lip as I reach the desk† and â€Å"I slide one foot over the otherâ€Å". The fact that she has forgotten her shoes could be a sign that she is unable to think clearly. To describe the relationship between Laura and Vernon you can only use Laura’s point of view. So, it is difficult to understand their relationship and their marriage if you don’t know Vernon’s point of view. It is obvious that she wants her husband back. For the reader it is not quite clear how Vernon thinks about it. It seems that her husband doesn’t feel the same way and it seems that he doesn’t want to go back to her and move on with his â€Å"old† life. She says about him: â€Å"He looks so like my husband, and yet†¦How has he managed to remain himself, to become -dare I say it- even more himself, with not even a scar and even a brand new blue shirt?† Laura’s husband Vernon has already moved on. It is difficult for Laura, the narrator, to understand and recognize this fact.

Pornography Essays - Anti-pornography Feminism, Pornography Law

Pornography Essays - Anti-pornography Feminism, Pornography Law Pornography Suppose one accepts MacKinnon and Dworkin's suggested statutory definition of pornography. How does one who generally accepts MacKinnon and Dworkin's views on the pervasively harmful effect of pornography, and who accepts a need for legal redress of the harms perpetrated by pornography, deal with pornographic material? The ordinance proposed by MacKinnon and Dworkin would deal with such material by enacting legislation which gives people adversely affected by the works, which clearly fit their definition of pornography, a cause of action against the producers, vendors, exhibitors or distributors for "trafficking", or for an assault "directly caused by the specific work. I do not think liberals, or others for that matter, should have much problem with the clause dealing with assault, since a causal connection to specific works is demanded by it. However, s. 3.2(iii) which deals with trafficking would be very problematic for liberals and legal conservatives because it creates a cause of action for a person contrary to the traditional conception of a rights holder's cause of action. This subsection reads: Any woman has a claim hereunder as a woman acting against the subordination of women. Any man, child or transsexual who alleges injury by pornography in the way women are injured by it also has a claim. [emphasis added] My goal in this paper is to suggest that a slight modification to this subsection of the ordinance would make it very difficult for liberals and legal conservatives to object to it. This modification would restrict the cause of action to the same persons as the other sections of the ordinance, namely, the particular victim of the specified injury. I shall argue that such a modification would largely cohere with the conception of harm already at work in Ontario law, would afford only a minor reduction in the potential efficacy of such legislation in curbing the harm of pornography, and would offer to empower the feminist camp which is behind such an ordinance with a mechanism for social and political change if a sufficiently organized feminist "vanguard" took hold of the opportunity to empower women. Adrian Howe argues that the concept of social injury which may be suggested by the ordinance recognizes the differential harm felt by women from pornography. Howe suggests this social notion of harm may be a necessary feature of any successful law reform which is to address the huge social problem of male domination and female oppression. The liberal notion of an individuated human right fails to capture, for MacKinnon and Howe, "the specificity of the harm to women." Thus, an ordinance which did not create a cause of action "for women as women" would fail to address the root of the social problem of which pornography is a manifestation. This conception of social harm, and thus subsection 3.2(iii), may offend liberals or legal conservatives in two ways. First, the notion of non-individuated harm is antithetical to the liberal conception of a rights holder claiming a cause of action. Fundamental to a liberal conception of harm is the notion of the individual who is autonomous, separate and fundamentally worthy of respect. Rawls and Kant exemplify this view in their analyses when they posit the undifferentiated self, free of any particular qualities save that of being an agent worthy of a fundamental, inviolable respect. This notion of the individual worthy of equal concern and respect in the eyes of the state permeates liberal conceptions of rights. It is also a fundamental, if not exclusive, tenet of the common law of torts: In tort litigation, the courts must decide whether to shift the loss suffered by one person, the plaintiff, to the shoulders of another person [emphasis added]. Clearly, on its face this conception of harm precludes the notion of a harm suffered collectively which cannot be delineated individually. While class actions are possible, and claims may be made on behalf of groups such as company shareholders, this is only by virtue of the fact that a legally recognized individual has suffered an identifiable particular harm. Thus, the conventional liberal notion of harm is radically distinct from that outlined by Howe and MacKinnon. Since on the liberal conception rights holders are autonomous, individual selves who are essentially distinct, harm to one is distinct from harm to another. It may be that a liberal conception of a rights holder simply renders the concept of a social harm, and thus a cause of action "for women as women" incoherent. I do not wish to discuss whether it is possible to develop a complete liberal notion of social harm. It is sufficient to note

Free Essays on Analysis

â€Å"After High School† by Jake Smith is a referential text that explains the different options you have after high school graduation. The author uses classification to separates the choices you have and the step to reaching your goals. Smith gives different insights on how the schools and educational plans work. His referential purpose shown through the way he explains the different circumstances they will encounter once they’ve made an educational plan. Smith uses an outline of how the school system and classes entwine with each other. The author explains in details and factors to consider as well as the types of studies that best suit them. He also describes the courses and the fields of studies to accomplish his referential purpose. Each educational option is shown by the different ways to achieve that particular goal. Smith makes the reader understand the process that they’ll be getting into once they’ve made their decision about their educational plans. Smith shows the procedures and the courses a student have to take in order to go through help them achieve their educational goals. Through the text, Smith organizes his informative options by using classification. The educational plans, fields of studies, and types of colleges are outline consecutively in this text. Each step is organizes by the option that the student chooses. The option that a student chooses will lead them to an education plan that will help them through the process. Smith wrote â€Å"consider a number of different factors† then he goes on to explain those factors and what might be the best decision for them. He classifies the type of schools and training a student might encounter. Smith outlines the text into four year schools, technical school, and two year colleges. The he goes on to describe the types of studies, such as liberal arts, pre-professional, professional, and technical. This referential classification is useful to a high school se... Free Essays on Analysis Free Essays on Analysis â€Å"After High School† by Jake Smith is a referential text that explains the different options you have after high school graduation. The author uses classification to separates the choices you have and the step to reaching your goals. Smith gives different insights on how the schools and educational plans work. His referential purpose shown through the way he explains the different circumstances they will encounter once they’ve made an educational plan. Smith uses an outline of how the school system and classes entwine with each other. The author explains in details and factors to consider as well as the types of studies that best suit them. He also describes the courses and the fields of studies to accomplish his referential purpose. Each educational option is shown by the different ways to achieve that particular goal. Smith makes the reader understand the process that they’ll be getting into once they’ve made their decision about their educational plans. Smith shows the procedures and the courses a student have to take in order to go through help them achieve their educational goals. Through the text, Smith organizes his informative options by using classification. The educational plans, fields of studies, and types of colleges are outline consecutively in this text. Each step is organizes by the option that the student chooses. The option that a student chooses will lead them to an education plan that will help them through the process. Smith wrote â€Å"consider a number of different factors† then he goes on to explain those factors and what might be the best decision for them. He classifies the type of schools and training a student might encounter. Smith outlines the text into four year schools, technical school, and two year colleges. The he goes on to describe the types of studies, such as liberal arts, pre-professional, professional, and technical. This referential classification is useful to a high school se...

Red White and Blue Shooter Recipe

Red White and Blue Shooter Recipe Heres a recipe for a density column thats a layered cocktail. Its perfect for the 4th of July or Memorial Day or pretty much any holiday with a red, white and blue theme. Red White and Blue Shooter Ingredients Bottom Red Layer: Chambord or Framboise (or Grenadine)Middle White Layer: Irish Cream or Half and Half or any cream liqueurTop Blue Layer: Blue Curacao (or you could dye vodka or rum with blue food coloring) You may also want to add a float of Goldschlager to get a golden gilttery firework effect. Layer the Red White Blue Shooter Fill a shot glass about a third of the way full of the red drink.Place a spoon, back side up, just above the top of the red liquid. Slowly pour the half-and-half over the back of the spoon. This will layer it over the red with minimal mixing.Use a clean spoon to repeat the process to layer the blue liquid over the white. Add some Goldschlager if you wish. I (of course) would also set this drink on fire, but thats just me. To ignite the drink, add a small amount of high proof alcohol to the top. Everclear or 151 rum are good choices. Enjoy your alcoholic density column!

Are there advantages to treating a patient with a subarachnoid Essay

Are there advantages to treating a patient with a subarachnoid hemorrhage with endovascular coiling rather than neurosurgical clipping - Essay Example er to place an inert metal clip at the base of an aneurysm, removing this aneurysm from blood circulation and retaining the healthy part of an artery to supply blood to the brain. This procedure has been partially replaced in recent years by a relatively new procedure, endovascular coiling, which involves inserting a catheter through the femoral artery of a patient into the brain and using this catheter to fill the aneurysm with fine coils made up of the inert metal platinum, or other suitable material in order to strengthen and remove the affected part of the artery from blood circulation. Endovascular coiling has now becoming widely accepted because it is cheaper, less stressful for a patient and requires a shorter stay in a hospital, with generally lower absolute risks as compared to neurosurgical clipping. However, it is not possible to approach every aneurysm by endovascular coiling and depending on the location of the aneurysm neurosurgical clipping may still be required to be used. This dissertation presents a discussion about the relative advantage of using endovascular coiling as opposed to neurosurgical clipping as a treatment for SAH related aneurysms. Subarachnoid haemorrhage, or SAH, is a stroke subtype which occurs as a result of the rupture of either an intracranial aneurysm or an aneurysm in the basal cerebral artery which supplies blood to the human brain (Fassbender, 2001, Pp. 534) and (Kissela, 2002, Pp. 1321 – 1325). The classical presentation of SAH is a sudden and severe headache which is accompanied by vomiting, photophobia and neck stiffness (Whitfield, 2004, Pp. 14 – 16). However, it has been estimated that only one in four patients who suffer from such sever headache have had a SAH occurrence and that such headaches can also be the result of vascular—intracranial venous thrombosis, infections including meningitis, encephalitis etc, intracranial tumours, acute hydrocephalus or migraine etc to name a few other causes (Al – Shahi,

What is the relationship between Leadership and Ethics, why they must Essay

What is the relationship between Leadership and Ethics, why they must be related and how they can be related in daily Leadership in the Intelligence Community - Essay Example Leadership, which establishes the corporate identity, is difficult to delineate in terms of moral leadership, mainly because leadership is about the â€Å"influence of individual character and the impact of personal mentoring† (Gini, Structural Restraints, par. 11), while moral leadership is considered a reflection of acceptable organizational values. According to Paul Hoffman, core values are what define individuals while ethics are demonstrated through behavior. Values are constant but ethics are different in different settings, and things are right, wrong, true or false, according to observed behavior. Therefore, in terms of leadership, organizational values should be reflected in leadership behavior and if not, the leader’s commitment to these values is questionable. Organizational failure can be attributed to personal greed over expressed organizational values. When an executive has low ethical standards of behavior, workers feel justified in responding in kind. Therefore, they consider bending the rules to be acceptable and are apt to be late for work, often absent, and three quarters of workers in a survey admitted they did not give the job their â€Å"best effort.† In other words, â€Å"American workers are as ethical/dutiful in doing their jobs as their bosses and companies are perceived to be ethical/dutiful in leading and directing them† (Gini, par. 2). A decade ago, business ethics were viewed in terms of administrative compliance with rules and regulations to maintain a market share. The situation has changed in a global business community, and companies are beginning to realize they must earn the respect and confidence of their customers (Business Ethics). Ethical behavior in business is under more scrutiny than ever before, mainly because of recent events—9/11, Enron, terrorism and the war in Iraq, along with a devastating economy and an unexpected number

Single Mothers and Minimum Wage Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Single Mothers and Minimum Wage - Research Paper Example The single mothers are forced to enter the competitive job market and it has been seen that they face many problems related to the jobs and wages. It has been proved those single mothers who are working in low wage jobs are often face many real time hardship than the people who are dependent on welfare. (Mooney et al; 2008, p, 240). Single mothers and minimum wages: Wages or the earnings are the fuel of the family which keeps the family running smoothly. In a normal dual-parent family a husband and a wife both earn to have a smooth life. In many cases it has been seen that in a family the female is the bread earner and the husband looks after the kids and the household choirs. However, in case of the single mothers the work pressure is double as they have to look after the children in the house as well they have to earn to feed the kids. So, as far as the single mother is concern they have to earn moderate income in a smaller time to handle both the pressures. There are many initiati ves taken by the governments or the local communities to help these women by eradicating the pathetic effects of minimum wages. There are some policies which are favorable to these communities because the unfortunate children. Most of the policies are concern with the poor children living under the poverty (Neumark, and Wascher, 2008, p. 151). However, if there is one community which has got special attention for most of the policies related to the wages and social security is the community of the single mothers. The group of the single mother has got especial attentions towards the effects of the minimum wages (Neumark, and Wascher, 2008, p. 151). The strong initiatives towards the welfare of the single mothers started in 1996, this initiative given a strong... This paper approves that the community of single mother is consisting of women from different culture and different religions and they speak different languages. To unite all of these people are not an easy job. The cultural diversity is a big problem. Some rituals are accepted by some people and at the same time some people do not accept the facts and they try to protest also sometimes. Most of the African-American single moms are Christian and Muslims. The main learning from the work is the implementation of the nonracial behavior within the community. This paper makes a conclusion that the community for the single mothers is a functioning body which has many numbers of women who are mentally and financially tortured. The main aim of the community development members should be to heal the pain of these poor women. It can be said that being a single mother is very much hazardous to mental health. The motivation is the only healing to these poor women. They have faced many problems in finding jobs to feed their children and on the other side many of them have faced physical torture from their husbands. Canadian research the researchers have found that single mothers go through more psychiatric illness than that of the mothers in two-parent families. The researchers also found that after they have become single mom their mental condition started changing irrespective of the financial problems.

Explain new approaches in respect of how a firm could finance takeover Essay

Explain new approaches in respect of how a firm could finance takeover and acquisition. Identify issues with such approaches, f - Essay Example The strategy adopted by each group is prepared by the management accounting department through analyzing the market, shareholders and the regulatory framework within the industry. In some instances, it may be important to obtain synergies to help analyze the financial and accounting policies applied by each of the companies merging. Although the A&M started in 1980s, the international rate of industrial mergers and takeovers took place during the 1990s. However, the complexity and nature of international operations coupled with other complexities has sophisticated global takeovers and mergers. Mergers and acquisitions normally abbreviated as M&A refer to the corporate strategy aspect, management dealing and corporate finance that involve the selling and buying as well as combining and dividing of different companies aimed at assisting an enterprise grow in its location or sector or venture into a new location or field (Brealey and Myers, 2000, p 89). Such a growth is expected to be w ithout subsidiary, use of joint venture or child entity. Over the years, the distinction between acquisition and merger is  blurred with several aspects especially economic income. Shareholders lawsuits are common in the event that a firm opts to engage financially in an acquisition or takeover and is appreciated as being part of the current market now that they are meritless. Merger lawsuits frequency has increased in the recent years with their life cycle undergoing a complete change. These days, once a merger deal is closed, lawsuits are normally closed. However, some plaintiffs have come out strongly in mergers to refine the way they operate. They insist on keeping such litigation alive even after they have been closed. This is achieved through having extensive discovery more so against the acquirer executives in control of the purse strings. Why mergers and takeovers There are a number reasons cited by firms for mergers and takeovers. However, the most prevalent reasoning cit ed by majority of the firms participating in M&A is profitability and growth sourced from external means. The outsourced growth may be of great economic benefit to the acquirer through increase in the production capacity, product diversification, increased market share, and expansion of the product lines. Some firms cite quantifiable reasons such as tax advantage and increased economies of scale are the main reasons for the mergers. In laying the strategies for merger and takeovers, it is important for the participating firms to focus on their goals and strategies. The management accounting department of the merging firms observes the compatibility of the merging companies to determine the compatibility of the core values and beliefs of these corporations. While quantitative variable provide ideal aspects which makes takeovers and mergers very attractive, their applicability are limited as they fail to portray the clear picture of the scene. Qualitative factors of the merging corpor ations should also be deeply considered. In estimating the real value of each merging firm, intangible factors such as favorable location, the strength of management, and skilled labor force constitute the qualitative aspects of the takeover or merger. Whatever the goal or rationale of the merger, the failure or success of

Rite of Passage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Rite of Passage - Essay Example It is irrefutable that the way rites of passages are being conducted had evolved over time. As cultures recognized the changing needs of their member, they have devised new formal procedures to celebrate the transitions in their lives. However, rites of passage have already changed in context and meaning. For example, an individual's coming of age which was celebrated by a ritual which required jungle survival to test the survival ability and responsibility of an adolescent is now replaced with formal arties to celebrate the freedom from families especially parents. The current problematic situation of adolescents nowadays requires a modern rite of passage to signal their coming of age and transition to adulthood. This modern rite of passage should not only serve as an indication of the adolescents' newfound freedom to do what they want and the end of their parents' authority over them but also address the numerous issues which are currently faced by adolescents. This paper will present a modern rite of passage which will mark the transition between adolescence and adulthood. This will try to incorporate the issues which confront the modern youth in order to equip them with the much needed knowledge and skill to face adulthood responsibly. This report will be divided into three parts according to the distinct phases of rites of passage-separation, transition, and incorporation. This rite of passage will be conducted to teenagers aged 15-17 years of age. SEPARATION: LOSS OF IDENTITY The first part of rite of passage is called separation which is a process to end the current identity of the adolescent. This part is very important as the creation of a new identity is not possible without ending the old one. Thus, this modern rite of passage will begin with the physical separation of the adolescents from the significant people in their lives especially their families and friends. Adolescents aged 15-17 will need to prepare for the rite of passage by packing their clothing and other personal belongings to stay for a Transition Camp. It is extremely important that adolescents will only be restricted to bring what they will need. These are those basic things that individuals can't leave without like clothing, slippers, and things for personal hygiene. It should be noted that things like iPods, cellular phones, PCs, notebooks, and laptops shouldn't be brought to the Transition Camp. This will ensure that the adolescents will be fully separated from the outside world and will let them concentrate on the activities in the camp. Communication with people from outside the camp will not be tolerated. Also, no drugs, alcohol, and non-participants will be allowed inside the camp. Specific rules will also be observed inside the Transition Camp which will govern all the participants. The camp site will cater to both boys and girls. The boys will share a communal bedroom will all the boys while the girls will also be sleeping together. The adolescents will be doing on all the household chores in the camp. In order to organize the housekeeping, they will be grouped and assigned specific tasks for each week. The groups will consist of both boys and girls. Each of the household tasks will be rotated so that each group will have the chance to learn every household chore. Separation from the important persons in the adolescents is symbolic for this modern rite of passage. As the rite of passa

Nursing research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Nursing - Research Paper Example The second step is the selection of participants within the clusters, that is, the participating students who volunteered for the intervention study (Chambers & Skinner, 2003). In determining the sample size, the research selected participants from fixed number of schools, but there was no restriction on the number of students per school. Furthermore, since there was no clear precision or specific characteristics for the sample, the selection method could be referred to unaided judgment. Among the issues related to the sample size is that they were from sixth and seventh grade classes with a mean age of 11.8 years. The purpose of the study is to take the participants through a program that would reduce development of devastating health problems among these participants. Another issue related to sample size is that among the participants, 53.0% were female, and since they were individuals still under adult care, 26.8% lived with both of their parents. Similarly, the selection criteria were based on volunteer by the participants with permission from their parents or guardians, and this also determined the sample size that the researchers ended up with at the end of the day. Moreover, there money was provided in exchange of participation, and given that these were students from low income families, this could have motivated the decision to volunteer, and thus, the sample size. Finally, there is the issue of low-income communities, which made the basis for the research, and thus, relates with the purpose of research. There is a good description of the purpose and all the issues related to this interventions research study. For instance, the intervention program is adequately described from the purpose, objectives, and all the requirements, as well as the participants. The level of measurement for the variables in this research was ordinary level of measurement, which ranges the variables from low to

Explain new approaches in respect of how a firm could finance takeover Essay

Explain new approaches in respect of how a firm could finance takeover and acquisition. Identify issues with such approaches, f - Essay Example The strategy adopted by each group is prepared by the management accounting department through analyzing the market, shareholders and the regulatory framework within the industry. In some instances, it may be important to obtain synergies to help analyze the financial and accounting policies applied by each of the companies merging. Although the A&M started in 1980s, the international rate of industrial mergers and takeovers took place during the 1990s. However, the complexity and nature of international operations coupled with other complexities has sophisticated global takeovers and mergers. Mergers and acquisitions normally abbreviated as M&A refer to the corporate strategy aspect, management dealing and corporate finance that involve the selling and buying as well as combining and dividing of different companies aimed at assisting an enterprise grow in its location or sector or venture into a new location or field (Brealey and Myers, 2000, p 89). Such a growth is expected to be w ithout subsidiary, use of joint venture or child entity. Over the years, the distinction between acquisition and merger is  blurred with several aspects especially economic income. Shareholders lawsuits are common in the event that a firm opts to engage financially in an acquisition or takeover and is appreciated as being part of the current market now that they are meritless. Merger lawsuits frequency has increased in the recent years with their life cycle undergoing a complete change. These days, once a merger deal is closed, lawsuits are normally closed. However, some plaintiffs have come out strongly in mergers to refine the way they operate. They insist on keeping such litigation alive even after they have been closed. This is achieved through having extensive discovery more so against the acquirer executives in control of the purse strings. Why mergers and takeovers There are a number reasons cited by firms for mergers and takeovers. However, the most prevalent reasoning cit ed by majority of the firms participating in M&A is profitability and growth sourced from external means. The outsourced growth may be of great economic benefit to the acquirer through increase in the production capacity, product diversification, increased market share, and expansion of the product lines. Some firms cite quantifiable reasons such as tax advantage and increased economies of scale are the main reasons for the mergers. In laying the strategies for merger and takeovers, it is important for the participating firms to focus on their goals and strategies. The management accounting department of the merging firms observes the compatibility of the merging companies to determine the compatibility of the core values and beliefs of these corporations. While quantitative variable provide ideal aspects which makes takeovers and mergers very attractive, their applicability are limited as they fail to portray the clear picture of the scene. Qualitative factors of the merging corpor ations should also be deeply considered. In estimating the real value of each merging firm, intangible factors such as favorable location, the strength of management, and skilled labor force constitute the qualitative aspects of the takeover or merger. Whatever the goal or rationale of the merger, the failure or success of

Nursing research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Nursing - Research Paper Example The second step is the selection of participants within the clusters, that is, the participating students who volunteered for the intervention study (Chambers & Skinner, 2003). In determining the sample size, the research selected participants from fixed number of schools, but there was no restriction on the number of students per school. Furthermore, since there was no clear precision or specific characteristics for the sample, the selection method could be referred to unaided judgment. Among the issues related to the sample size is that they were from sixth and seventh grade classes with a mean age of 11.8 years. The purpose of the study is to take the participants through a program that would reduce development of devastating health problems among these participants. Another issue related to sample size is that among the participants, 53.0% were female, and since they were individuals still under adult care, 26.8% lived with both of their parents. Similarly, the selection criteria were based on volunteer by the participants with permission from their parents or guardians, and this also determined the sample size that the researchers ended up with at the end of the day. Moreover, there money was provided in exchange of participation, and given that these were students from low income families, this could have motivated the decision to volunteer, and thus, the sample size. Finally, there is the issue of low-income communities, which made the basis for the research, and thus, relates with the purpose of research. There is a good description of the purpose and all the issues related to this interventions research study. For instance, the intervention program is adequately described from the purpose, objectives, and all the requirements, as well as the participants. The level of measurement for the variables in this research was ordinary level of measurement, which ranges the variables from low to

Traffic Movie Essay Example for Free

Traffic Movie Essay I felt that the movie, â€Å"Traffic† (Soderbergh, 2000), was very informative on the subject of drugs. I was able to see three different stories concerning drugs and the drug trade, including the drug dealers, the people who abuse them and the narcotics officers who are paid to get rid of them. Each story was able to peak my interest, and taught me something different about the drug scene and some of the people they destroy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I found it shocking to realize just how powerful the effects of drug dealing can be on the family of individuals who take up selling drugs, as their choice in careers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   When Carlos Ayala was arrested, his pregnant wife, Helena didn’t realize what was going on. I felt bad for her, knowing she had the baby to care for and when she is threatened by Carlos’s associates and followed by DEA agents, it was hard to believe that she fell into the same trap as her husband.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Helena’s choice in taking over her husband’s business didn’t seem like a very good idea. I figured that she would have learned what can happen to a person who deals drugs, by watching the events that occurred when Carlos was dealing drugs.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I thought that Michael Douglas was perfect for the role he played as the judge, who is head of the President’s Office of National Drug Control. It was surprising that such an important person, such as a judge, who was paid to deal with drug dealers and abusers, so often, would have a young daughter who would be victimized by drug use. It shows that drugs can destroy many different types of people.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Crack cocaine is such a strong drug and it was hard to believe that Caroline, the judge’s daughter, would dare try such a dangerous drug.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Caroline and her boyfriend, I felt were going too far when they tried to dump their friend at the hospital, after they had overdosed on drugs. It showed that their fear of being caught for using drugs, and possibly being arrested was more important to them than remaining with their friend, who could possibly die from taking too many drugs.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the third story, I felt the interrogation of Eduardo Ruiz was insane. Ruiz was ready to rat out his friend to save his own skin, which shows how being involved in the drug trade can cause you to turn on anyone, at anytime. It’s very frightening to think about how many horrible things can occur from using or dealing with illegal narcotics, but it is very educational and teaches about the hardships of drug activity from all walks of life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Drugs were responsible for changing so many lives in this movie and some of them could have been so happy, if they wouldn’t have chosen the wrong path and resorted to greed and addiction.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Overall, I think this movie was worth watching and I feel that everyone could learn so much about the bad effects of drugs on our society. Some of the scenes aren’t appropriate for smaller children, but I think it’s a good idea for teenagers and adults to watch this movie so they can see what can happen if you have anything to do with illegal narcotics.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I felt that â€Å"Traffic† was a very good movie and I would recommend that parents allow their teenagers to watch this movie and learn from other’s mistakes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Reference Page Soderbergh, Steven. (2000).â€Å"Traffic† Polygram USA Video.

Sports Psychology Techniques, Research Design and Methods

Sports Psychology Techniques, Research Design and Methods Show a Critical Awareness of the Theoretical Basis to Applied Sport Psychology Techniques; Research Design, Methods and Procedures Used in This Domain, and Practical and Ethical Issues in the Delivery of Sport Psychology. In the research article relating to sports psychology, in particular the achieving of excellence, we can see that an attempt has been made by the researchers to asses the role of certain psychological phenomena related to positive performance to see if they could determine whether or not these factors played a significant part in the success of highly acclaimed professional sportspersons, in particular tour golfers. The research involved key concepts such as imagery, goal setting, focus, distraction control and evaluation techniques that all pertained to fundamental concepts outlined in findings from sports psychology theory and research. The study itself used a questionnaire from which an interview was conducted in the hope of extracting some of the mental processes and preparations of top golfers that were believed to have become evident in their responses. These interviews were tape recorded and transcribed according to qualitative research method processes and conventions. The in terviews were conducted at the convenience of the sportsperson as it was believed that this would make the process more free flowing as the interviewee would be more focused and inclined to cooperate with the questions. The findings of the research suggested in conjunction with former findings related to the field of sporting excellence that their was clear evidence of the usage of imagery, goal setting, focus distraction control and evaluation techniques in the interview answers put forward by the sportspersons. It was concluded that an integral part to the psychological phenomena detailed was the role of commitment and suggestion was made for subsequent research to be conducted into this area. Some of the areas that were drawn out and critiqued within the interview pertained to goal setting. Goal setting techniques can be understood as being set by psychologists to put in place the achieving of high levels of endurance in sport (Orlick Partington, 1988). Goals are generally set to focus the individual on desirable target behaviours or performance actions. The focusing on goals or targets is believed to take away extraneous and undesirable distractions from the sportspersons conscious perception and produce a well defined path towards achievement. This can be seen being evident in some of the interview responses as being a ‘clearly defined’ target. In Bandura’s model he suggests that there are three major factors at work in the acquisition of a behaviour or performance. Three key factors are believed to inform the intention towards a desired target in this model. It was suggested that manipulation of these factors could change the intention of a person and consequently change, or shape, their behaviour to a more desirable one (Bandura, 1997). In accordance with other factors a positive attitude towards a desired behaviour would essentially increase the intention towards any goal. To function successfully, the intended goals would have to be clearly defined. This notion of clearly defined goals is included and incorporated throughout the methodology of the research article and forms an essential part of the findings according to the model of excellence proposed by Orlick Partington (1988). Another factor indicated in research on goal setting is that of unrealistic goal setting and the effects of negative mental attitudes when the goals do not relate to the desired outcome. For instance, unrealistically high goal settings from pressures such as media and peer pressure may lead to a high percentage of failure. This can have a very negative effect on the individual’s mental state. For example, in the model proposed by Baumeister (1990) the destructive effects of unrealistic goal setting can be understood in three steps. The first step is a mismatch between circumstance and expectation, leading to unrealistic goal setting. The second stage highlights the negative outcomes of this phenomenon. The third and final step indicates the importance and fragility of the mind if it is not focused. Essentially, to avoid disturbing ideas of failure, the individual negates responsibility for the outcomes of their actions altering their logic in a very negative and destructive ma nner (Baumeister, 1990). That is to say, that if the perception of realistic goals is not adjusted then the mind of the individual will begin to apply severely disturbing logic patterns to the process of goal achieving. This is not regarded in the condition of club professionals. Rather than them being simply uncommitted as is concluded, it could be that the negative effects of unrealistic goal setting has disturbed their focus or commitment. For instance, the individuals may begin to apply the successful achievement of goals to external factors such as luck, and take responsibility for only failed goals (Abramson et al, 1978). Another key concept in achievement is learning. Essentially, objectives are considered to manage goals and goal setting. Fontana (1993) suggests that these objectives can be split into five mental processes. He defines these categories as ’identifying clearly what needs to be done, plan how we are going to do it, monitor our progress while we are doing it, assess the extent of our success when we have done it, learn more effectively from the experiences it has offered us’ (Fontana, 1993). This learning model shows of how goal setting and achieving goals can be utilised through the introspection of the experience gained. We can see from the research article that this idea of learning rather than focusing upon error is incorporated in the findings. The effects of learning can be seen in the formulation and use of educational objectives (Pearson and Tweddle, 1984). This research indicates the benefits of evaluation, reflection and consideration within the domain of sportin g achievement. The notion of learning can also be seen in the role of imagery and the imagination, highlighted within the findings of the interviews. This notion is concerned not only with the role of understanding and the learning of psychological processes after the event, but also the role of psychological processes before the event. Imagery is considered as being directly associated with the pathways of the imagination. This field of research has highlighted the importance of pre-conceived and pre-empted eventualities within the thought processes of the individual. Essentially, it focuses upon the actualisation of possibilities and outcomes within the mind. This would indicate the need for the individual to think in a certain way to achieve the best results. The imagination of sporting techniques is considered a cognitive pathway that can be honed and lead to more confidence and a more successful outcome. For instance, if the individual can visualise success then it is presumed that he/she can gain confidence in the achieving of a successful goal without the actual physical experience usually required in confidence acquisition (Kohler, 1925). We can see that this core idea has been implemented into the methodology of the research. For instance, there is an indication of imagining the ideal put before practising it. Imagery is also believed to help in the preparation for events that can not be prepared for with physical training alone. For instance, improvisation and the applying of insight into extreme circumstances can be utilised in ways that cannot be accounted for in normal physical training. In this sense the imagination and imagery is a key component in the conceptualising of an ideal action involved in a sporting technique. We can see from the methodology of our study that this notion has been incorporated. For instance, the ideal technique of a swing can be seen in the account that indicates that once the ideal stroke has been accomplished there is no longer a need to practise physically. This imagery can be seen as being indicated by the pro in the success of his action that is then carried out against the imagined goal in the learning manner put forward by Fontana. Imagery and the imagination seem to be manipulated by the golfers to hone their focus techniques as the methodology of the research article suggests. Focus is understood as being not something that is physically learned, but that is important to success. As we have seen, extraneous variables from the environment can have negative effects on the performance of actions. However, it would seem from the accounts of the tour pro’s that these extraneous factors have been removed from as they have attained focus. It would seem that this research has backed up the findings of former research. Although, some problems may arise from its use of a confined and pre-determined model of closed questions, it can be said to be valuable. Although this may arouse critical questions of validity, it can be said this research has brought to our attention some of the psychological dynamics associated with achievement, excellence and success within the sporting domain. Bibliography Abramson, L, Y., Seligman, M, E, P., Teasdale, J., (1978) Learned Helplessness in Humans: Critique and Reformulation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 87, 49-74. Bandura, A. (1997) Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Self Control. New York: WH Freeman. Baumeister, R, F., (1990) Suicide as Escape From Self. Psychology Review, 97. 90-113 Fontana, D., (1993) Managing Time: Personal and Professional Development. Leicester: BPS Books (British Psychology Society). Kohler, W., (1925) The mentality of Apes. New York: Harcourt Brace (Reprint ed., 1976. New York: Liveright.) Orlick, T., Partington, J. (1988). Mental Links to Excellence. The Sport Psychologist, 2, 105-130. Pearson , L. and Tweddle, D., (1984) The Formulation and Use of Educational Objectives. In Fontana, D. (ed.) Behaviourism and Learning Theory in Education. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press.

Analysis of Red Sorghum Essay -- Red Sorghum Zhang Yimou China Movies

Analysis of Red Sorghum WHEN Zhang Yimou made his directorial debut, Zhang Yimou made his directorial debut, Red Sorghum, in 1987, he was better known as a cinematographer whose talent had been crucial to the success of critically acclaimed films like Zhang Junzhao's One and Eight (1984, released 1987) and Chen Kaige's Yellow Earth (1984). Not only did Red Sorghum become a seminal film of the Fifth Generation, it also won the Golden Bear at Berlin in 1988, becoming the first mainland Chinese film ever to be awarded the highest honour at a major international film competition. Set in the 1920s and '30s in northern China, Red Sorghum's narrative centres on the fate of a young woman who is forced to marry a rich old leper but who eventually falls in love with a younger man. The motif of female oppression in feudal China is repeated in Zhang's next two films, Ju Dou (1990) and Raise the Red Lantern (1991). The films form a loose triptych, linked not only by similar thematic concerns but also stylistic elements. The latter include the luscious use of colour, lighting and bold composition to create the sensuous images and metaphors which have distinguished Zhang as an original auteur. Equally prominent are the silences and spare dialogue; music and sound are used with precision -- nothing extraneous is added. This article focuses on how visual and aural components in Red Sorghum are employed to enhance the dramatic aspect of the narrative as well as to convey philosophical and metaphoric meaning. RED SORGHUM is narrated as much through its storyline as by its splendid images and aural qualities. The film is photographed by Gu Changwei (who also shot Chen Kaige's (Farewell, My Concubine) in Cinemascope; the music is composed by Zhao Jiping, who has since composed the rest of the music scores for Zhang's films. The opening sequence establishes the vibrant mood and mythical atmosphere of the film and introduces the themes of passion and freedom through powerful imagery and music. It also establishes Zhang Yimou as a visual sensualist. In a deserted setting comprising mainly sand and stone, a strain of wedding music grows progressively louder. A traditional red sedan chair carried by a group of shirtless men, followed closely by a retinue of trumpeters and drummers, enliven the harsh landscape. Inside the covered sedan chair, the pretty face of a young br... ...vineyard. The workers revolt against the Japanese, and after their uprising is crushed, the Japanese order two of the local people skinned alive in front of the others. This sequence, shocking in its detail, is a dramatic change from the fable that went before. "Red Sorghum" perhaps can be read as a parable of China's development, or as a hymn in praise of the way the workers resisted the Japanese invaders. Western audiences probably are going to be more interested in the melodrama and the overwhelming visual quality of the film. It is some kind of irony that when Hollywood switched over to cheaper and faster forms of making color films, classic Technicolor equipment was dismantled and sold to China - which now makes some of the best-looking color films in the world. The cinematography in "Red Sorghum" has no desire to be subtle, or muted; it wants to splash its passionate colors all over the screen with abandon, and the sheer visual impact of the film is voluptuous. If the story is first naive and then didactic, that is one of the film's charms; Hollywood doesn't make films like this anymore, because we have forgotten how to be impressionable enough to believe them.

3g :: essays research papers

Verizon Wireless at the show launched Vcast, a consumer-focused multimedia service that will run on its 3G EvDO network. Vcast will let consumers access video, games and music on 3G handsets. Among the new, so-called next- generation phones touted at the show was Samsung's i730 handset, which supports 3G 1xEvDO data. Packed into the device, which runs Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for Pocket PC, is a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 64MB of RAM for applications and an SDIO (SD input/output) memory card slot for expansion, built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, a 2.8-inch QVGA 65K color display, and a speakerphone. The i730 will ship in the first quarter from Verizon, said sources. Pricing is not yet available. Also at the show, BenQ America Corp. showcased its forthcoming PalmOne Inc. Treo look-alike, the BenQ P50 Pocket PC smart phone. The quadband GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) phone has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a 2.8-inch color screen, a 1.3-megapixel camera, a built-in keypad, 64MB of memory and an SDIO expansion slot, and a speakerphone. The P50 will ship next quarter. Pricing and carrier have not yet been determined. New 3G phones weren't the only gadgets on display at the CES that could prove compelling to business users. Another new Samsung phone, the SPH-A800, includes a 2-megapixel camera and scanner capabilities that let a user scan a business card and automatically upload contact information to the phone. The SPH-A800 will be offered from Sprint this quarter. Pricing is not yet available. Samsung at the show also unveiled a handset for users who like the nonintrusiveness of sending text messages but abhor the tediousness of keying in messages. The p207 lets users verbally address, compose and send SMS (Short Message Service) messages or e-mail. The p207 is due in March through Cingular Wireless. Pricing is not yet available. Mobile business professionals got a glimpse into their future last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where faster third-generation networks—and the gear designed to work with them—suggested a world of fewer dropped calls, improved Internet access, better image quality and lower prices. ADVERTISEMENT To fulfill such promises, carriers will be making significant improvements to their networks in the coming year. Verizon Wireless at the show announced it was expanding its 3G EvDO (Evolution Data Optimized) network to 12 more cities, with plans to further extend the network this year to cover 150 million users.

Efficient Market Hypothesis and Behavioral Finance †Is a Compromise in Sight

Legend has it that once upon the time two economists were walking together when one of them saw something that struck his mind. â€Å"Look,† he exclaimed, â€Å"here’s a great research topic! † â€Å"Nonsense,† the other one said, â€Å"If it were, someone would have written a paper on it by now. † For a long time this attitude governed the view of economists toward the stock market. Economists simply believed that the stock market was not a proper subject for serious study.Indeed, most of the pre-1960 research on security prices was actually done by statisticians. The Pre-History: Statistical Research Most of the early statistical research of the stock market concentrated around the same question: are security prices serially correlated? Do security prices follow a random walk? Are prices on any given day as likely to go up as they are to go down? A number of studies concluded that successive daily changes in stock prices are mostly independent. Th ere seemed to be no pattern that could predict the future direction of price movements.One of the most interesting (and currently relevant) research projects of that earlier era was undertaken by Harry Roberts, a statistician at the University of Chicago. In his paper, â€Å"Stock Market ‘Patterns’ and Financial Analysis,† published in the Journal of Finance in 1959, Roberts wrote: If the stock market behaved like a mechanically imperfect roulette wheel, people would notice the imperfections and, by acting on them, remove them. This rationale is appealing, if for no other reason than its value as counterweight to the popular view of stock market â€Å"irrationality,† but it is obviously incomplete.Roberts generated a series of random numbers and plotted the results to see whether any patterns that were known to technical analysts would be visible. Figure 1 provides an example of Roberts’ plot: Efficient Market Hypothesis And Behavioral Financeâ€⠀Is A Compromise In Sight? Figure 1. Simulated stock price path Those somewhat acquainted with technical patterns might recognize a familiar head and shoulders formation, which technical analysts believe to be one of the surest indicators of a trend reversal. At this point, the reader may take pause. Are these stock price patterns of value or not?If they work even on decidedly random series, isn’t there a contradiction? Maybe not. Consider a hypothetical example of a stock price path in Figure 2. If tomorrow the price of this stock goes down, there will be a clearly visible head and shoulders pattern, which should signal a trend reversal. If, however, the price goes up, the resulting formation will look more like a pennant pattern, which, according to market technicians, signals the renewal of the trend. In other words, technical patterns are easy to see only when it is too late to act on them. P P t Figure 2. Hypothetical example of technical patterns formation tToday, anyo ne can replicate Roberts’ results using a common spreadsheet program. In his popular textbook, Financial Modeling, Simon Benninga of the Wharton Business School devotes an entire chapter to simulating stock price paths using Microsoft Excel. 2 Efficient Market Hypothesis And Behavioral Finance—Is A Compromise In Sight? Returning to Harry Roberts, his paper turned out to be almost prophetic in one major respect. He wrote: Perhaps the traditional academic suspicion about the stock market as an object of scholarly research will be overcome. As we shall see during the rest of this presentation, Roberts was right.The Pre-History: CRSP Another enabling factor for the soon-to-follow boom in stock market research was provided by an initially small outfit based at the University of Chicago, the Center for Research in Securities Prices (CRSP). CRSP was established by James H. Lorie in 1960 and provided comprehensive data on all stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange since 1926. From day one, CRSP data were available in machine-readable form, a rare and pleasant occurrence to anyone involved in economic research at the time. Also important is the fact that CRSP data contained a negligibly small number of errors.Overall, CRSP database was one of the richest data sets available. Everything was ready for a revolution. Indeed, the revolution was soon to begin. The Origin of the Efficient Market Hypothesis The introduction of the term â€Å"efficient market† is usually attributed to Eugene Fama. In his 1965 paper, â€Å"Random Walks in Stock Market Prices,† published in the Financial Analysts Journal, Fama cites, among other things, his earlier study of serial correlations in daily price changes of 30 stocks that comprise the Dow Jones Industrial Average index (â€Å"The Behavior of Stock Market Prices†).He concluded that daily changes had a very small positive correlation, approaching zero for practical purposes. The stock market seem ed to work in a way that allowed all information reflected in past prices to be incorporated into the current price. In other words, the market efficiently processed the information contained in past prices. Fama defined an efficient market as: a market where there are large numbers of rational profit maximizers actively competing, with each trying to predict future market values of individual securities, and where important current information is almost freely available to all participants. Efficient Market Hypothesis And Behavioral Finance—Is A Compromise In Sight? Note that this description is very similar to that of a perfectly competitive market out of a microeconomics textbook. And in a perfectly competitive market, every seller earns a normal profit, i. e. , the amount of profit sufficient to stay in business, but insufficient to attract a competitor. If we assume that this is true of the stock market, it follows that any new information that becomes available to the m arket will be very quickly reflected in the prices.Otherwise, there will be opportunities for abnormal returns. In Fama’s own words, In an efficient market, on the average, competition will cause the full effects of new information on intrinsic values to be reflected â€Å"instantaneously† in actual prices. The efficient market hypothesis has been formulated. The time has come to test it. Tests of Market Efficiency in the 1960s A number of different approaches were used to test the efficient market hypothesis. One of the most obvious ones was to do more studies on serial correlation of security prices.A variation of this approach would be to test various trading strategies recommended by technical analysts to see if they have any investment value. Both have been tried, and invariably came back with mostly negative results. An interesting area of research dealt with the nature of return distributions. There are some clearly visible asymmetries in stock returns. If we lo ok at the ten biggest one-day movements in S&P 500 index since 1947, nine of them would be declines. The market crash of October 1987 resulted in a negative return that was 20 standard deviations away from the mean.It turned out that stock returns are not normally distributed. They follow some sort of distribution, but, to our knowledge, no one has figured out what kind of distribution it is. On several occasions, stable Paretian distribution and Student t-distribution were found to be better approximations than the normal distribution. Needless to say, this poses a huge methodological problem for researchers who, for lack of a better assumption, are still assuming normal distributions for drawing statistical inferences. An important breakthrough in testing market efficiency came with the advent of the â€Å"event study† methodology.In an event study, researchers take a sample of similar events that occurred in different companies at different times and determine how, on aver age, this event impacted the stock price. And what would a researcher expect to see as the outcome of an event study? Assuming that we are studying favorable events, the outcome would depend on whether or not the event is anticipated by the market and, of course, on whether or not the market is efficient. In all cases, we would expect the stock price to go up. The question is, when? 4Efficient Market Hypothesis And Behavioral Finance—Is A Compromise In Sight? Consider an unanticipated event first. If the market were efficient, the stock price would adjust upward very quickly. If not efficient, it will drift upward for some time following the event (see Figure 3). P Efficient Market P Inefficient Market Event Time t Event Time t Figure 3. Market reaction to an unanticipated favorable event If the event were anticipated, the price would drift upward for some time before the event, and, in an efficient market, likely stabilize on the event date (see Figure 4). PEfficient Market P Inefficient Market Event Time t Event Time t Figure 4. Market reaction to an anticipated favorable event The first event study was designed and conducted by Eugene Fama, Lawrence Fisher, Michael Jensen, and Richard Roll. Their article, â€Å"The Adjustment of Stock Prices to New Information,† was published in the International Economic Review in 1969 and quickly earned itself a nickname, â€Å"the FFJR study. † FFJR studied the stock market reaction to announcements of stock splits. Typically, stock splits are believed to be seemingly inexplicable good news for investors.One possible reason was reported by FFJR themselves: they found that 72% of firms in their sample announced above-average dividend increases in the year after the split. Stock splits seemed to â€Å"signal† future dividend increases. (Actually, the term â€Å"signaling† was proposed in the early 1970s by Michael Spence, who won the 2001 Nobel prize for, among other things, his research on signaling in labor markets. ) 5 Efficient Market Hypothesis And Behavioral Finance—Is A Compromise In Sight? What FFJR found is that, on average, stock prices around the date of the split behaved as shown in Figure 5. Figure 5.Averaged stock price performance around the split date According to FFJR findings, the market begins to anticipate a stock split more than two years before it actually happens and figures out the consequences of the split the day it is announced. The event study techniques were further refined by other researchers. Some of the research designs are quite clever. A bizarre example appeared in a 1985 article in the Journal of Accounting and Economics by Johnson, Magee, Nagarajan, and Newman. The title of the article, â€Å"An Analysis of the Stock Price Reaction to Sudden Executive Deaths,† is self-explaining.The authors found that unexpected CEO deaths are associated with stock price decreases. However, in cases when the CEO was the company foun der, the stock market tends to react by a price increase, begging the inference that the ability to create a business is different from the ability to run one. The efficacy of professional investors is another enduring question. Can they, on average, provide better investment performance? The research here was focused primarily on mutual funds. Regrettably, most professional money managers are not able to provide superior returns.By 1975, the preponderance of evidence argued that markets were efficient. Statistical studies showed that technical analysis did not add value (consistent with the weak form of market efficiency). Event studies found that the market quickly reacts to new information (consistent with the semi-strong form of market efficiency). And studies of professional investors’ performance made a strong case for the strong form market efficiency. Tests of Market Efficiency after 1975 As more and more researchers tested the efficient market hypothesis, some rather controversial evidence began to appear. Efficient Market Hypothesis And Behavioral Finance—Is A Compromise In Sight? In 1976, Rozeff and Kinney published their article on stock market seasonality. They found that January stock returns were higher than in any other month. In 1981, Gibbons and Hess reported â€Å"the Monday effect† – stock prices tended to go down on Mondays. Both of these findings were clearly inconsistent with the weak-form market efficiency. Interestingly enough, Gibbons and Hess noticed that the Monday effect seemed to decrease over time (see Figure 6).Figure 6. The Monday effect In the nine-year period of 1962-1970, the S&P 500 returned about -0. 16% on an average Monday. In the following nine-year period, 1970-1978, the S&P 500 would only drop by 0. 10% on average. It appears that the effect has been known to some market participants for a while, and they were taking advantage of this private information, which, in turn, caused their gains to decrease over time. A growing body of research indicated that profitable selection rules could be based on publicly available information.In particular, stocks with low price-earnings ratio and high dividend yield outperformed the market. And, while small capitalization stocks have a greater risk than large-cap stocks, the return premium seemed to be too large for the degree of additional risk taken. The discovery of these and other â€Å"market anomalies† prompted the editorial board of the Journal of Financial Economics to publish a special issue in June 1978 on a dozen of those market anomalies. An unexpected blow to the efficient market hypothesis came from academic economists.In 1980, Sanford Grossman and Joseph Stiglitz published their article â€Å"On the Impossibility of Informationally Efficient Markets† in the American Economic Review. They argued that if all relevant information were reflected in market prices, market agents would have no incentive to acq uire the information on which prices are based. This line of reasoning came to be known as Grossman-Stiglitz paradox and, along with his other contributions, earned Joseph Stiglitz his Nobel prize in 2001. The empirical research, of course, did not stop there. 7Efficient Market Hypothesis And Behavioral Finance—Is A Compromise In Sight? In 1981, Henry Oppenheimer tested stock selection criteria developed by Benjamin Graham. Most of us probably know Ben Graham as the author of the classic, Security Analysis, but he also wrote another, somewhat less technical, book, called The Intelligent Investor. In each new edition of the book, Graham updated his investment advice to his readers, whom he called â€Å"defensive investors†. Oppenheimer back-tested this advice as if he purchased every edition of The Intelligent Investor and acted on it after reading it.It turned out that Graham’s advice did have significant value. Moreover, it actually had more value than Graham h imself claimed. In 1982, Rendelman, Jones, and Latane published their article, â€Å"Empirical Anomalies Based on Unexpected Earnings and the Importance of the Risk Adjustments,† in the Journal of Financial Economics. They studied earnings surprises and their effect on the stock price. They divided their sample into ten categories (deciles in statistical parlance) according to how positive or negative the earnings surprise was.Then they calculated averaged price paths for stocks in each decile. Figure 7 presents a summary of their findings. Figure 7. Stock price paths around earnings announcement by decile While the market did react to earnings surprises quickly, the prices also drifted in the direction of the earnings surprise following the announcement. In other words, the market commonly underreacts to the quarterly earnings announcements. This suggests the validity of an â€Å"earnings momentum† strategy (buying stocks that just had a positive earnings surprise).A number of later studies produced results consistent with this thinking. However, in a somewhat puzzling twist, there were studies which suggested that the stock market actually overreacts to certain announcements. In 1981, Robert Shiller published his article, â€Å"Do Stock Prices Move Too Much to Be Justified by Subsequent Changes in Dividends? † in the American Economic Review and concluded that they do. This phenomenon came to be known as â€Å"excess volatility†. 8 Efficient Market Hypothesis And Behavioral Finance—Is A Compromise In Sight?In 1985, Werner De Bondt and Richard Thaler published their article, â€Å"Does the Stock Market Overreact? † in the Journal of Finance. Their conclusion was that the stock market tends to overreact to long series of bad news. So by 1985, there were enough anomalies discovered to seriously doubt the validity of the efficient market hypothesis. Reconciling the Theory and the Reality This is a good point at which to consider the efficient market hypothesis and identify those assumptions that may be inconsistent with reality as we know it.First of all, as ironic as it sounds, there is no way to test market efficiency per se. We can only test a joint hypothesis stating that, first, the market is efficient in equating asset prices with their intrinsic values, and, second, we know what the intrinsic values are; i. e. , we have a perfect asset pricing model. Whenever an anomaly is found, we don’t know (and have no way of knowing) which part of this joint hypothesis did not work. Returning to Fama’s definition of an efficient market, he assumes that important current information is almost freely available to all participants.This appears to be an accurate assumption; however, both the processing of this information and the subsequent action have associated costs. An institutional investor must hire security analysts and portfolio managers. Even an individual investor faces an opportunit y cost with every portfolio evaluation. Both face transactional costs; large portfolios, in addition, may be subject to additional costs caused by market impact. The transactional cost considerations prompted Michael Jensen to argue that an efficient market should adjust prices within limits imposed by the cost of trading.In his 1978 paper, â€Å"Some Anomalous Evidence Regarding Market Efficiency,† published in the Journal of Financial Economics, he insisted that if, for example, transactional costs are 1%, an abnormal return of 1% must be considered within the bounds of efficiency. Indeed, if inefficiency cannot be exploited for profit net of costs, is the market really inefficient? This, of course, begs a question: what is the level of transactional costs at which we can no longer call a market efficient in spite of its being within the bounds of efficiency?There may also be some effects caused by the way security prices are reported (market microstructure effects, in the financial economics lingo). A typical research assumption has been that trades can be executed at the closing price as recorded by a data provider such as CRSP. However, the average NYSE-AMEX stock has a quoted bid-ask spread of about 3%. For NYSE-AMEX stocks priced under $5, the average spread is about 6%. In addition, sometimes it is impossible to execute at quoted spreads because of illiquidity or market impact. 9 Efficient Market Hypothesis And Behavioral Finance—Is A Compromise In Sight?In fact, Donald Keim used precisely this argument to explain â€Å"the January effect. † In his 1989 paper, â€Å"Trading Patterns, Bid-Ask Spreads, and Estimated Security Returns,† published in the Journal of Financial Economics, he reported that stocks tend to close near the bid in late December, but close prices move toward the ask in early January (although we still have to come up with the explanation of why it happens). Also, there is a short-selling issue. In an effic ient market, short sales are unrestricted. In reality, 70% of mutual funds state in their prospectus that they will never engage in a short sale.Interestingly enough, recent empirical evidence seems to suggest that, while undervalued investments are hard to come by, overvalued ones are much more common. For example, a 1999 article by Mark Finn, Russell Fuller, and John Kling, â€Å"Equity Mispricing: It’s Mostly on the Short Side,† in the Financial Analysts Journal concludes that in 1983-1998 overvalued large-cap U. S. stocks tended to be overpriced by as much as four times the amount of underpricing observed in undervalued large-cap U. S. stocks. Finally, there is the unavoidable issue of investor heterogeneity. Investors are not identical.Even if they have precisely the same information available to them, they are likely to interpret it differently. More importantly, they tend to act on it differently. One obvious example is tax status. Tax-exempt, tax-deferred, and taxable investors acting rationally will often choose different courses of action when presented with the same problem. Liquidity needs can also play a role. Speaking more broadly, is Fama-style rational profit maximizing the only possible model of investor behavior? Are there other models? This, of course, leads us straight into the brave new world of behavioral finance.An Alternative Behavioral Model? Since the early 1980s, there has been a movement toward incorporating more behavioral science into finance. The proponents of behavioral finance cite several key areas where the reality seems to be most at odds with the efficient market hypothesis. One is the excess volatility problem that we discussed above. Price movements seem to be much greater than an efficient market would allow. A related puzzle is that of trading volume. If everyone knows that everyone (including themself) is rational, then every trader might wonder what information the seller has that the buyer doesn’ t, and vice versa.Figuring out exactly how little trading should be occurring under the efficient market hypothesis is difficult, because people have liquidity and rebalancing needs, but the proponents of behavioral finance believe it is safe to say that a billion or so shares a day on NYSE alone is a little more than one should expect in an efficient market. 10 Efficient Market Hypothesis And Behavioral Finance—Is A Compromise In Sight? Next is the great dividend puzzle. In a perfect world according to Modigliani and Miller, investors should be indifferent between dividends and capital gains.In the real world, because of the structure of the U. S. tax system, investors should prefer capital gains to dividends, and companies should prefer share repurchases to dividends. At the same time, most large companies do pay dividends. In addition, stock prices tend to rise when dividends are increased or initiated. The current literature treats dividends as yet another instance of sig naling—companies that increase or initiate dividends send a signal of their financial health to the investors. Another puzzle is that of the equity premium.Historically, this benefit has been much greater than can be explained by risk alone. (To the defense of the efficient market hypothesis, the equity premium implied in dividend yields tends to be significantly lower. ) Finally, it seems that future returns can, at least partially, be predicted on the basis of various historic measures such as price-earnings and price-to-book ratios, earnings surprises, dividend changes, or share repurchases. However, in spite of all these irregularities, real-world portfolio managers are still having a hard time trying to beat the market.Most of the studies of mutual funds and pension fund performance still show that, on average, active managers do no better than the market. Moreover, good performance this year consistently fails to predict good performance next year. With this in mind, le t's examine the case for behavioral finance. First of all, what is behavioral finance? In short, it postulates that investors have cognitive biases. What is a cognitive bias? Simply put, it is an imperfection in human perception of reality. (Have you ever noticed how much bigger the moon looks when it is just above the horizon compared to when it is high? Here are a few of the most common cognitive biases in finance. Mental accounting. It seems that the majority of people perceive a dividend dollar differently from a capital gains dollar. Dividends are perceived as an addition to disposable income; capital gains usually are not. Biased expectations. People tend to be overconfident in their predictions of the future. If security analysts believe with an 80% confidence that a certain stock will go up, they are right about 40% of the time. Between 1973 and 1990, earnings forecast errors have been anywhere between 25% and 65% of actual earnings.Reference dependence. Investment decisions seem to be affected by an investor’s reference point. If a certain stock was once trading for $20, then dropped to $5 and finally recovered to $10, the investor’s propensity to increase holdings of this stock will depend on whether the previous purchase was made at $20 or $5. 11 Efficient Market Hypothesis And Behavioral Finance—Is A Compromise In Sight? Representativeness heuristic. In cognitive psychology this term means simply that people tend to judge â€Å"Event A† to be more probable than â€Å"Event B† when A appears more representative than B.In finance, the most common instance of representativeness heuristic is that investors mistake good companies for good stocks. Good companies are well-known and in most cases fairly valued. Their stocks, therefore, may not have a significant upside potential. One of the most peculiar manifestations of cognitive biases in finance is the reluctance to realize losses. Investors seem to have a problem adm itting to themselves that they have made a mistake and avoid selling securities at a loss, even though such sale has some tax incentives.Now, what are the implications of behavioral finance for the markets? In his 1999 article, â€Å"The End of Behavioral Finance,† published in the Financial Analysts Journal, Richard Thaler offers this simple model: Suppose a market has two kinds of investors: rational investors (rationals), who behave like agents in economics textbooks, and quasi-rational investors (quasi’s), people who are trying to make good investment decisions but make predictable mistakes. Suppose also that two assets in this market, X and Y, are objectively worth the same amount but cannot be transformed from one into the other.Finally, assume that the quasi’s think X is worth more than Y, an opinion that could change (quasi’s often change their minds) while rationals know that X and Y are worth the same. What conditions are necessary to assure tha t the prices of X and Y will be the same, as they would be in a world with only rational investors? This question is complex, but some of the essential conditions are the following. First, in dollar-weighted terms, such a market cannot have too many quasi’s (in order for the rational investor to be marginal).Second, the market must allow costless short selling (so that if prices get too high, the rationals can drive them down). Third, only rational investors can sell short; otherwise, the quasi’s will short Y when the two prices are the same because they believe X is worth more than Y. Fourth, at some date T, the true relationship between X and Y must become clear to all investors. Fifth, the rationals must have long horizons, long enough to include date T. These conditions are tough to meet.Thaler seems to suggest that the belief by quasi-rational investors that certain assets are undervalued may lead to an asset bubble, which will burst as soon as quasi-rational inve stors sentiment changes. (Did somebody say Internet? ) Why is behavioral finance important? 12 Efficient Market Hypothesis And Behavioral Finance—Is A Compromise In Sight? As most marketers know, any product has its unique set of utilitarian and valueexpressive characteristics. The value-expressive characteristics are the most visible in jewelry and almost absent in laundry detergents.An interesting question to ask, then, is, do investments have value-expressive characteristics? If they do, we should not be surprised that pricing differences exist between otherwise identical investments, based entirely on their value-expressive characteristics. A casual look at stock exchange advertisements suggests a positive answer to this question. The NYSE promotes itself as solid, while NASDAQ claims it is innovative. A review of mutual funds marketing can also give us a few insights. In 1983, Fidelity Investments put Charles Jarvie in charge of marketing its mutual funds.Prior to joinin g Fidelity, Jarvie marketed Tide and Pringles at Procter ; Gamble. Jarvie immediately noticed two deficiencies in Fidelity’s marketing. Fidelity’s flagship product, the Magellan fund, was not advertised as Fidelity Magellan; the company was underemphasizing its brand name. Also, almost no attention was paid to cross-selling. Under Jarvie’s leadership, Fidelity redefined itself as a â€Å"family of funds† and built itself one of the strongest brands in the financial services industry. Other mutual fund companies followed quickly.Even more interesting are the studies of investment clubs. Over 35,000 of these clubs exist in the United States. An investment club usually includes 10-15 members (friends, co-workers, or relatives) who, on average, contribute $25 a month to the club’s account. In 1998, Brad Barber and Terrance Odean of the University of California at Davis studied performance of 166 investment clubs that had accounts with a large brokerage firm and found that 60% of the clubs lagged the market. The average underperformance was 3. 8% a year. So it seems that investment clubs lack utilitarian characteristics.What about value-expressive ones? Also in 1998, Brooke Harrington of Harvard University studied the identity formation in investment clubs. Her sample included three clubs: an all-men’s club where all members were sports car hobbyists, an all-women’s club where all members belonged to the American Association of University Women, and a mixed-gender club where all members met each other through a church singles group. She concluded that investment clubs are also social clubs. In terms of our marketing approach, they do have strong value-expressive characteristics.The importance of behavioral finance and its role in the professional’s decision making process appears self-evident. While it may fail to enhance our capacity to beat the market, it can help us understand the beliefs and motivations of our clients and improve the service provided. Is a Compromise in Sight? Are the differences between traditional finance and behavioral finance irreconcilable? Recent literature suggest a negative answer to this question. 13 Efficient Market Hypothesis And Behavioral Finance—Is A Compromise In Sight? One the one hand, the sensible proponents of behavioral finance recognize the limitations of this approach.Meir Statman of Santa Clara University said it best: Market efficiency has two meanings. To some, market efficiency means that there is no systematic way to beat the market. To others, it means that security prices are rational – that is, reflect only â€Å"fundamental† or â€Å"utilitarian† characteristics, such as risk, but not â€Å"psychological† or â€Å"value-expressive† characteristics, such as sentiment†¦ I argue that finance scholars and professionals would do well to accept market efficiency in the beat-the-market sense, but reject it in the rational-pricing sense.On the other hand, the standard finance begins to produce some research that models effects of opinion differences. Earlier, we talked about the seemingly excessive trading volumes. It appears that trading volume varies directly with the difference in investors’ opinions. Figure 8 provides a simple Marshallian cross analysis of a widening difference in opinions. Both supply and demand for a particular security shift to the right as both number of buyers and number of sellers increase.While the effect on price cannot be determined without additional information such as relative magnitude of shifts in supply and demand, the volume is bound to increase. P (price) S S’ D D’ Q0 Q1 Q (volume) Figure 8. Opinion difference and trading volume An interesting thing to discuss here would be the work of Joseph Chen and Harrison Hong of Stanford University and Jeremy Stein of Harvard Business School. In their 1999 paper, â€Å"Differen ces of Opinion, Rational Arbitrage and Market Crashes,† Hong and Stein propose the following model. 14 Efficient Market Hypothesis And Behavioral Finance—Is A Compromise In Sight?There are two investors, A and B, and a class of fully rational, risk-neutral arbitrageurs. A and B each receive a different private signal affecting their rational perception of the value of the same stock. Both signals are useful, but A only pays attention to his signal, even if that of B is revealed to him, and vice versa. Arbitrageurs, on the other hand, recognize that the best estimate of the stock’s value is to be found by averaging both signals. However, if A and B face short sale constraints and the signals they receive are negative, the arbitrageurs simply will not see those signals.In other words, the negative private information will not have any effect on market price. This is consistent with the empirical research findings of equity mispricing being mostly on the short side. So if the arbitrageurs only hear the good news, the stock price may well be trending up, until some of the arbitrageurs begin to suspect overvaluation and take short positions in the stock. As a result, the trading volume would increase, reflecting the increasing difference of opinion among the arbitrageurs. If the stream of good news consequently ceases or private signals of A and/or B become public information, the stock price would collapse.In a later paper, â€Å"Forecasting Crashes,† Chen, Hong and Stein found that the probability of a crash is positively correlated with an increase in trading volume relative to trend over prior six months and positive returns over the prior thirty-six months. Overall, it appears that many stock market anomalies can be explained through either behavioral biases or institutional imperfections. In fact, Richard Thaler suggests applying the behavioral model to institutional investing and corporate finance. What immediately comes to mind he re is a Nobel-winning economist Herbert Simon and his 1947 book, Administrative Behavior.Here is how the outcome of Simon’s research was summarized by the Nobel committee: He rejects the assumption made in the classic theory of the firm as an omniscient, rational, profit-maximizing entrepreneur. He replaces this entrepreneur by a number of cooperating decision makers, whose capacities for rational action are limited, both by a lack of knowledge about the total consequences of their decisions, and by personal and social ties. A classic example of this approach is a 1956 paper by John Lintner, â€Å"Distribution of Incomes of Corporations among Dividends, Retained Earnings, and Taxes,† published in the American Economic Review.Lintner started by interviewing the corporate executives about their dividend policy decisions. These interviews led him to a very simple model. Companies move the dividend toward a desired payout ratio, but try to avoid having to cut the dividend. This model remains an accurate description of dividend policy to this day. Conclusion We conclude this presentation by quoting Meir Statman: 15 Efficient Market Hypothesis And Behavioral Finance—Is A Compromise In Sight? People are â€Å"rational† in standard finance; they are â€Å"normal† in behavioral finance.Rational people care about utilitarian characteristics, but not valueexpressive ones, are never confused by cognitive errors, have perfect selfcontrol, are always averse to risk, and are never averse to regret. Normal people do not obediently follow that pattern. Standard finance asks for too much when it asks for market efficiency in the rational sense, and investment professionals ask for too much when they insist that the primary contribution of behavioral finance is its potential help in beating the market.