New Changes and Emerging Disturbances to Agriculture

New Changes and Emerging Disturbances For along time smallholder agricultural systems has depended on inorganic fertilizers to supply the nitrogen required for crop growth as well as maintaining or slowing the rate of carbon loss. However, in other cases especially in Nitrogen limited environment of cereal based cropping systems (such as Mzimba district), fertilizer additions can actually enhance soil carbon loss (Snapp and Pound, 2008). The continued use of inorganic fertilizers has reduced soil carbon in the district and hence reduced the water holding capacity of the soil. Sustainable use of fertilizers is accompanied by the availability of residues in the soil however an emerging challenge is that recently there has been a competing demand for residues between crops and livestock. The clearing of land in search for settlement land and opening of new farming land has led to reduced forest areas and/or grasslands where livestock used to graze and consequently, they depend solely on crop residues. This competition redu ces the availability of residues to replenish soil organic matter and in the process the resilience of the agricultural systems. The outcome of the loss of resilience if increased reduced soil fertility and eventually low productivity. Another emerging change and irregular disturbance to the resilience of the agro ecosystem happening in the district is the issue of burning farming land in quest for reducing labour requirements when preparing the land forShow MoreRelatedThe Coastal And Marine Conservation And Management Approaches907 Words   |  4 Pagesrecognition of the coastal environment, existing and emerging threats and important economic value, implies that a feasible management approach is necessary. 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(+) Generous natural resources Nigeria has suitable climate and soil for agriculture and extensive oil and gas andRead MoreThe Rice Wheat Farming System3246 Words   |  13 PagesSYSTEM TO THE AGRO-ECOSYSTEMS AND WEATHER Rice wheat farming system: The Indo-Gangetic plain (IGP) of south Asia is formed by the sedimentation of alluvial soil by the Indus and the Ganges rivers. The large fertile plain with flowing rivers favours agriculture. The rice-wheat farming system in the Indo-Gangetic plain occupies 13.5 M ha of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal (Timsina and Connor, 2001). In India, the rice-wheat farming system is the major source of food security as it produces more thanRead MoreProgression vs Conservation-From the View Point of Third World Countries3064 Words   |  13 PagesEnvironment Debate,† n.d.) 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Is Facebook A Popular Free Social Networking Essay

The actual century is mainly marked by the rapid expansion of technologies and their unlimited diary improvement, so that led to an immediate fast development of social network services in the communication world. As result, almost everywhere and everybody even new born are now actors and participants onto the network world, and mostly its giant named face book. What is Facebook? According to the online dictionary WhatIs.com â€Å"Facebook is a popular free social networking website that allows registered users to create profiles, upload photos and video, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues†. All those features offered for free by the actual giant of the network service attract almost everybody since those features are the most usual into the modern society. Therefore, the huge concentration of the majority on these Facebook features let imagine human beings more and more addicted to their new technological passion, and for that reason they keep losing their outgoing and basic social behavior. Face book is available any time, it helps to exchange information and to communicate people worldwide. Beyond hundreds of other social network services most known such as QQ., Whatsapp., Qzone., WeChat., LinkedIn., Skype., Google+., Instagram., Baidu Tieba., Twitter., Viber., †¦, Facebook remains â€Å"the world’s largest social network†, and â€Å"it is available worldwide†(Mehra) . Therefore, it appears clearly verified how Facebook with its social and convenientShow MoreRelatedEssay on Social Networking in Business1149 Words   |  5 PagesMike Swanstrom 3/29/2010 Social Networking In Business Introduction Social networking in business is the study of individuals interacting socially for business purposes. 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The empire created by MySpace was then further expanded by a new generation of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. This era was marked with innovative new features including video chat and increased commercialization of businesses, leading to increased popularity and growth whi ch is intangible. The change in social networking over the past several years has modernized

Online Social Media Platforms

Question: Describe about the Online Social Media Platform. Answer: 1.0 Introduction The following assignment relates to the application of online social media platforms by individual users as well as by business entities. Social media has a pertinent impact on the operational as well as the marketing policies adopted by a business enterprise. It creates visibility for the brand and creates an interpersonal relationship with the consumers. Besides this, social media is an effective platform that enables users as well as consumes to stay in touch and post their feedbacks. However, there arise certain issues when using online social media platforms. In certain instances, the safety and security of consumers have been compromised (Duggan Brenner, 2013). In addition, there has been leak of confidential data. As such, it remains essential to safeguard users against such hazards to retain the effectiveness of online social media platforms. 1.1 Background Proper enhancement is made to the life of both users and the organizations by the rapid growth of social media. Social media makes global collaboration with the help of the shared information through the online platform and adopting the e-business and e-commerce model. According to the current trend, it is observed that social media forms the community of online communication channels by the combination of community-based inputs, coherent sharing of information, and proper collaboration. This particular formation is done by the various websites, web application, social networking, microblogging, Wikipedia, and different types of social forums (Sandilands, 2013). Adopting the different social application is the nature of modern day businesses as well as individuals. Social media emphasises on two separate aspects of the interest of people to develop relationships with the others; one is related to the protection from predation, and the other is seeking valuable information driving the appropriate decision-making. By aiming these particular intensions of the modern day human beings, social media facilitates the establishment of the overall system to guide the businesses for the achievement of success in their respective way of operations. Over the years, the continuous evolution of social media produces different kinds of benefits to the businesses and users (Kim Ko, 2012). However, some critical drawbacks can also be observed due to the application of the existing framework. Over the years, users, as well as businesses, have exposed to the number of threats posed by the different factors of social media (Van Dijck, 2013). Therefore, the research aims to investigate the utilisation of social media by the small businesses to explore the countless opportunities while facing significant challenges at the same time. 1.2 Problem Statement It is a known and obvious fact that the internet and information plays a significant role in the lives of people as well as the business leading the social media phenomenon as the interesting topic to research. Because of the fundamental influences of social media on the attitudes of people and brand image of the company, the particular interest on social media is provided importantly (Aral, Dellarocas Godes, 2013). Due to the influence of economic crisis, many brands suffered the diminishing sales and falling rates of customer satisfaction. According to the investigation, the individual financial crisis is not the only reason for the brand failure. Due to the perception issues, brands like MySpace and GAP have faced the declining sales alongside necessity of rebranding. Based on such scenario, companies are continuously prioritising on the changing preferences and opinions of the customers to cope up with the growing requirement. It is possible by embracing the advanced technology and avoiding the common challenges eventually (Castronovo, Huang, 2012). The relevance of brand attitudes can be found in different segments of the market, which confirmed by the previous studies. This individual face articulates that the actuality of the problem is evident from the business as well as users context. Therefore, the companies and the marketers are facing particular difficulties to cope up with the evolving brand attitudes of the customers while considering the widespread of social media and increasing number of social media users (Brennan, 2014). All the companies are engaged in building positive brand attitudes or at least an attitude that can lead them towards the profitability and attaining the leading position in the market by exploring the future opportunities of growth. It is found that different factors associated with social media failed to deliver the proper information to the companies supporting the development of the helpful insight about the customers a ttitude towards a brand, which is necessary for achieving the business objectives. 1.3 Significance of the Research The existing environment related to the social media users and the presence of social media platforms ensures the presence of the variety of companies into the same marketplace causing unfeasibility of the in-depth information required by the businesses (Tuten Solomon, 2014). Furthermore, the existing solutions are cannot be generalised for the numerous company belonging to the broad range of industries and locations. With the help of this study, it is expected that the strategies adopted by the small to medium businesses can be identified regarding the utilisation of social media to ensure the increasing customer engagement. Apart from that, the significance of the research is based on addressing the challenges faced by the businesses to adopt the suitable strategy related to utilisation of social media and exploring solutions to mitigate those. 1.4 Purpose and Aims The principal purpose of the study is based on investigating and developing proper strategies for the small and medium sized businesses to adopt the utilisation of social media adequately for interacting with the customers actually (Stephen Galak, 2012). Based on the identified aims, it is essential for the study to investigate the different challenges and obstacles faced by the businesses and individuals in the modern day environment. The primary purposes of the survey are highlighted below: Determining the implications of social media on the performance levels of the business Reviewing the current approaches adopted by the businesses related to the social media and their relevancy with the chosen business objectives Shaping the usefulness of social medial to generate leads Investigating the availability of unique approaches to mitigate the identified challenges for the users and the businesses 2.0 Literature Review 2.1 Introduction This chapter is designed to highlight the key pieces of literature for examining the roles of different approaches as part of the social networking framework in the strategic marketing process of the small to medium businesses. To achieve the aim, the literatures, and the theoretical frameworks will be reviewed from different perspectives specifically covering from the strategic planning and integrated market communication process, as adopted by these companies. (Newman et al., 2012). With the help of the process, different understandings related to the theoretical underpinnings will be developed to explore the issues associated with the growth and sustainability of these companies, while assessing the obstacles from overcoming the competition in the respective market. 2.2 Strategic Planning and the Role of Marketing The competitive advantage can be gained by the internal strengths and market opportunities of the organization. Alternatively, the success of the business also depends on the ability of its value promotion to identify and address the needs and expectations of the target market (Laroche, Habibi Richard, 2013). According to Aaker and Mcloughlin (2010), the strategic direction of the organization must need to be in line with the perceived value of the target market, and the overall processes referred to the strategic fit. Based on the argument of Hough et al. (2011), the individual process is achieved by the firm effectively with the help of strategic planning, which helps the business to define the vision and objectives. It is acknowledged that the certain factor helps the businesses to understand its business environment for driving the formation and implementation strategies while controlling the different areas of operations (Hollensen, 2015). In this situation, McDaniel et al. (20 13) explained that the use of social media by the businesses helps them to carry out their marketing by extracting detailed information about the attitudes and demands of the customers. The process facilitates the exchange of value in a significant manner between the organization and the target market. With the help of the understanding, it is observed that adoption of social media influences the development of marketing approaches for an organization while the marketing is playing significant roles in the strategic planning process. 2.3 Direct Marketing Communications Marketing of the organization is composed of different methods like telemarketing, direct mail, digital marketing, door-to-door leafleting, and digital marketing (De Vries, Gensler Leeflang, 2012). By looking at the modern day context, digital marketing is continuously gaining the utmost amount of importance due to the consistent evolution of the techniques to develop the communication between the people and organizations. John Fahy and David Jobber (2012) defined digital marketing as the combination of digital technologies used for achieving the marketing objectives of the business. Therefore, the characterisation of digital marketing is done by considering the significant changes in the communication process involved. From the perspective of utilising the social media, Fahy and Jobber (2012) further explained that the businesses of the modern day environment face the significant amount of challenges in the process of coping up with the new technologic requirements. Apart from that , challenges are also observed in finding new generation of customers according to the utilisation of media (Trainor, et al., 2014). Therefore, the businesses should need to provide growing importance to the social media for factor integrated into the marketing strategy would help the businesses to communicate and engage the customers to the organization. Previous researchers, in this case, have outlined three major components of social media marketing agreeing on the effective involvement of social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google Plus (Hudson Thal, 2013). Apart from that, these businesses must need to concentrate on their presence in microblogs and image sharing websites. 2.4 Internet Marketing and Difference of Strategies Because of the socio-cultural conditions, consumer behaviours are changing rapidly in the modern day business environment, while it is observed that people have less time for different factors (Seidel Chatelier, 2013). Due to the increasing work hours and growing number of women participating in the workforce, the time value of individuals has become highly important. Zappala and Gray (2006) argued that the significant rise of social media is based on the capability of the factor emphasising on such fact related to the modern day society by dramatically changing the purchasing and communication process for the individuals (Luo Zhang, 2013). The fast and efficient communication can be developed with the inclusion of social media to access the vast array of information for the users and businesses. Zappala and Gray identified the noticeable difference in the data area. According to Ingham et al. (2012), the customers can access the wide range of quality information by the use of internet related to the product and service related details and different promotional activities as part of the business marketing. The process is highly distinct from the traditional marketing regarding accessing the information and approaching to the reach of customers (Albarran, 2013). Apart from that, the authors have also noticed differences regarding the client relationship process. By the integration of social media in the marketing strategies, the businesses are required to develop the interactive relationships with the customers through the direct involvement, something that is far too different from the previous way of marketing. 2.5 Summary The overall chapter has successfully highlighted the overview of the relevant works of literature covering the small business marketing, integrated techniques of the marketing, and social media marketing. It is observed that the fundamental struggle is highly faced by the small businesses regarding the use of social media to reach towards the customers. It is important to mention that the existing researches conducted on the use of social media by the small businesses have failed to gain insights on the strategies employed by these firms for ensuring the favourable customer engagement (Malthouse, et al., 2013). Therefore, the overall understanding lead towards the need of additional research to gain deeper insight into developing some important approaches or method to address and eliminate the critical challenges associated with the use of social media by the businesses. 3.0 A Proposed Model Apart from the benefits of social media in the enhancement of life and marketing aspect of the business, different challenges and difficulties can be articulated by the help of literatures, highlighted earlier. Therefore, the application of proper models is required for improving each area of the identified issues. 3.1 Justification of New or Updated Models Firstly, SONET model should need to be implemented for measuring the quality of information and most importantly the privacy of data in the social networking sites. The tools of SONET model are adequately effective for achieving such objective. Secondly, particular attention is needed to be provided to the shared information to ensure the success of the business (Kumar, et al., 2013). Different techniques should need to be applied as part of this process to maximise the spread of the shared information. Thirdly, the platform like Verily should need to be considered for verifying the information collected from the social media to eliminate the misleading statistics. Lastly, the social measurement model must need to be developed for measuring the digital marketing success of the business while reducing the challenges in the process. 3.2 Explanation of Models SONET Model: SONET model is developed by two different tools called as PrivAware and Privometer providing online security to the shared information. As specified by (Thomas Thomas, 2012), sensitive information of the business or the individuals can be easily hacked by the hackers causing some significant amount of damages to the privacy related criteria of the businesses. Furthermore, (Thomas Thomas, 2012) have outlined the involvement of PrivAware and Privometer. Based on the critical analysis, PrivAware helps to detect the loss of unintended information in social networking, where Privometer measures the leakage of sensitive information from the user profiles to help the reduction of the identified issues. Paying Attention: (De Vries, Gensler Leeflang, 2012) has indicated the businesses to refer to a model, which can provide attention to the number of activities, which are conducted in the social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter. Based on the investigation to the particular work developed by (De Vries, Gensler Leeflang, 2012), it is observed that special attention must need to be provided to the posting of information. According to the process, the business or users must need to repost the previous post with the use of hash tag if the previous information is identified to be helpful in the different perspective. Fact-checking Platform: As disclosed by Evans (2012), the basic involvement of Verily is provided the major importance, as the model is utilised as a fact-checking platform for analysing the collected information both manually and technically. It is designed to eliminate the effects of fake information to the downturn of the business (Evans, 2012). The particular method helps the business to gather the accurate data and statistics for developing appropriate decision. Social Measurement: Measuring the social media responses is one of the most challenging issues for the small business as dictated by (Hollensen, 2015). Furthermore, the author has indicated that the measurement process engages the business to utilise the campaign-focused metrics and up-to-dated analytical tools helping the organizations to calculate the number of users with their opinions. The particular process ensures the high engagement rates of the users to the business to proliferate the possibility of growing sales and increasing brand awareness. 3.3 Strengths and Weaknesses of the Models Some of the major strengths of the identified social media models are highlighted below: Successful integration with different applications and websites to promote effective communication Increasing users engagement to the marketing initiatives and approaches Developing clear and precise understanding of the current market needs and trends Apart from the identified strengths, critical threats are also associated with the application of such models, which are disseminated below (Stephen Galak, 2012): Weakening the click-through-rate of advertisement Lack of maintaining different features associated with the social media campaigning process, such as dislike button, group or video chats, etc. Elimination of the entire risk of developing the protection of user information 4.0 Implementation of the Model 4.1 Context of implementation In the case of the SONET model, it should be implemented in the profile privacy settings of the user profile. Paying attention model should need to be considered for the posts that are shared previously by looking at their importance to the present context. The verily platform is required to be implemented in the process of sharing and collecting the information from the social media (De Vries, Gensler Leeflang, 2012). Lastly, campaign-focused metrics or different types of latest analytics must be implemented in the analysis of social media conversation. 4.2 Implementation In order to implement the SONET model, a bit-way implementation is required by the business providing end-to-end transport of the bit streams. Additionally, multiplexing should need to be done by byte interleaving. In the case of paying attention model, a statistical graph chart is necessary to be developed for tracking and measuring the responses from a particular post in the different periods. For implementing fact-checking platform model, Verily is needed to be introduced in the analytical process of the collected information, and the process should need to be carried out both manually and technically (De Vries, Gensler Leeflang, 2012). Lastly, statistical analysis and other marketing metrics are required to be adopted for implementing the effective use of social measurement model. 5.0 Evaluation of Implementation 5.1 Positive Outcomes of Implementation Number of increasing followers can be determined to measure the suitability of the business approaches Possible support can be delivered to the business expansion related objectives Development of open marketplace can be possible in the social media 5.2 negative Outcomes of Implementation Continuously changing technologic environment may obsolete the specific implementation Different ad-blocking extensions can be hinder the positive results of the implementation Chances of leaking the privacy can still remained open for the business and the users Conclusion By accomplishing the overall paper, it can be acknowledged that the adoption of new technology is often a complicated process for the business and requires the involvement of proper training. Because of the implementation of emerging technology, the businesses are often encountered with various kinds of challenges or restrictions from the potential users. Therefore, the organizations are highly required to adopt a suitable model in order to introduce the new technology favouring the small business (Hollensen, 2015). Based on the proposed models and frameworks, it should be mentioned additionally that the development process should needed to initiated after discussing effectively with the employees as well as potential users for recognising their challenges. Such process is significant enough to ease the transition associated with the overall process. References Albarran, A. B. (2013).The social media industries. Routledge. Aral, S., Dellarocas, C., Godes, D. (2013). Introduction to the special issue-social media and business transformation: A framework for research.Information Systems Research,24(1), 3-13. Brennan, R. (2014).Business-to-business Marketing(pp. 83-86). Springer New York. Castronovo, C., Huang, L. (2012). Social media in an alternative marketing communication model.Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness,6(1), 117. Crittenden, V., Crittenden, W. (2015). Digital and Social Media Marketing in Business Education Implications for the Marketing Curriculum.Journal of Marketing Education, 0273475315588111. De Vries, L., Gensler, S., Leeflang, P. S. (2012). Popularity of brand posts on brand fan pages: An investigation of the effects of social media marketing.Journal of Interactive Marketing,26(2), 83-91. Duggan, M., Brenner, J. (2013). The demographics of social media users, 2012 (Vol. 14). Washington, DC: Pew Research Center's Internet American Life Project. Evans, D. (2012).Social media marketing: An hour a day. John Wiley Sons. Hennig-Thurau, T., Hofacker, C. F., Bloching, B. (2013). Marketing the pinball way: Understanding how social media change the generation of value for consumers and companies.Journal of Interactive Marketing,27(4), 237-241. Hollensen, S. (2015).Marketing management: A relationship approach. Pearson Education. Hudson, S., Thal, K. (2013). The impact of social media on the consumer decision process: Implications for tourism marketing.Journal of Travel Tourism Marketing,30(1-2), 156-160. Ingham, D., Bejan, A., Mamut, E., Pop, I. (Eds.). (2012). Emerging technologies and techniques in porous media (Vol. 134). Springer Science Business Media. Kim, A. J., Ko, E. (2012). Do social media marketing activities enhance customer equity? An empirical study of luxury fashion brand.Journal of Business Research,65(10), 1480-1486. Kumar, V., Bhaskaran, V., Mirchandani, R., Shah, M. (2013). Practice prize winner-creating a measurable social media marketing strategy: increasing the value and ROI of intangibles and tangibles for hokey pokey.Marketing Science,32(2), 194-212. Laroche, M., Habibi, M. R., Richard, M. O. (2013). To be or not to be in social media: How brand loyalty is affected by social media?.International Journal of Information Management,33(1), 76-82. Luo, X., Zhang, J. (2013). How do consumer buzz and traffic in social media marketing predict the value of the firm?.Journal of Management Information Systems,30(2), 213-238. Malthouse, E. C., Haenlein, M., Skiera, B., Wege, E., Zhang, M. (2013). Managing customer relationships in the social media era: Introducing the social CRM house.Journal of Interactive Marketing,27(4), 270-280. Newman, G., Wiggins, A., Crall, A., Graham, E., Newman, S., Crowston, K. (2012). The future of citizen science: emerging technologies and shifting paradigms. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 10(6), 298-304. Sandilands, T. (2013). Advantages and disadvantages of social media marketing.. Seidel, R. J., Chatelier, P. R. (Eds.). (2013). Virtual Reality, Trainings Future?: Perspectives on Virtual Reality and Related Emerging Technologies (Vol. 6). Springer Science Business Media. Stephen, A. T., Galak, J. (2012). The effects of traditional and social earned media on sales: A study of a microlending marketplace.Journal of Marketing Research,49(5), 624-639. Thomas, M., Thomas, H. (2012). Using new social media and Web 2.0 technologies in business school teaching and learning.Journal of Management Development,31(4), 358-367. Trainor, K. J., Andzulis, J. M., Rapp, A., Agnihotri, R. (2014). Social media technology usage and customer relationship performance: A capabilities-based examination of social CRM.Journal of Business Research,67(6), 1201-1208. Tuten, T. L., Solomon, M. R. (2014).Social media marketing. Sage. Van Dijck, J. (2013). The culture of connectivity: A critical history of social media. Oxford University Press.

Solutions For Social Security Essays - Economy, Finance,

Solutions For Social Security Social Security is a hot topic of debate today, since most American's believe that the system is near collapse. The trust fund that Americans have been paying into for Social Security is likely to dry up in 2029 due to the large number of baby boomers heading into retirement. Franklin Roosevelt set up Social security to help the people that had worked and Struggled all their lives in honest toil. Social security was set up to accomplish two main goals. The first goal of Social Security is to act as a disability or life insurance policy that protects almost all Americans. Currently, there are seven million survivors of deceased workers and four million disabled Americans that receive income support from Social Security. The second goal is to provide lifetime retirement benefits that rise with inflation. Social Security payments for retirees are needed to keep half of the elderly Americans above the poverty line. A large number of baby boomers believe that they won't see a dime's worth of Social Security benefits, and most younger people assume that once they have reached retirement the program will be gone. There have been many proposed solutions to the Social Security problem. A first possible solution is to dramatically change the Social Security Payroll Tax. Another proposal is to change amount of benefits of the provided by Social Security. A third reform proposal includes investing Social Security money in stocks either by the government investing the money or by setting up mandatory IRA investing. Another major development in the future of Social Security is the recent proposals made by President Clinton's Advisory Committee on Social Security. In January of this year the Advisory Committee on Social Security presented a report of strategies to save Social Security. Shortly after the 261 page report was released there was a huge increase of debates and criticism over the future of Social Security. The issue facing American today is when and how to reform S ocial Security. Although the American public and political groups are unwilling to accept the burdens of social security reform, extensive reform is needed soon to continue paying the current benefits to American citizens. A change in the Social Security tax is a possible factor of reform to bring the Social Security program back on track. Currently the Social Security tax is a flat-rate tax paid on all employment earnings up to a specified limit. Due to inflation the limit is increased every year currently it is just over $60,000. This tax is much harder on a lower income individual because the higher income individual is only taxed on their income that is below a certain amount set every year. It has been proposed that if the limit on the payroll tax were lifted, two-thirds of the projected Social Security deficit would be eliminated. Once the limit on the payroll tax is lifted a rise in the tax rate of the employers and the employees by 1.1% is predicted to be enough to solve Social Security's problems. This is assuming that two evasive actions take place. First the government will have to keep its hands of this extra tax revenue gained by the tax increases. Second the proposed solution will only ha ve a chance to work if it is started immediately while the baby boomers are still able to add a little more cash to the trust fund for there own retirement. This solution isn't likely to be implemented by today's political system. The advisory council on Social Security would not pursue the lift of the limit because the support of the wealthy voters for Social Security reform would be lost. Americans are also weary of Social Security tax increases. The middle and lower class voters would also not support a Social Security tax increase. A recent poll by Money magazine found that 70% of the public is unwilling to pay more tax than the current 6.2% rate. Another proposed solution to Social Security's problems is a to decrease the amount of benefits received by retirees. The first way to reduce the amount of benefits that are being paid out is to adjust the CPI. Sen. Daniel Monynihan of New York (Dem.) has proposed that

The Impact of Ownership Structure on the Dividend Policy free essay sample

We find evidence in support of the hypothesis that a positive relation exists between dividends and free cash flow and it’s greater for low-growth firms than for the high-growth firms. The results also show that the impact of managerial ownership and bank ownership on dividend yield is positive particularly for the low growth firms. This is inconsistent with the view that the managerial ownership and institutional ownership reduce the need for the dividend mechanism. Finally, there is evidence that the Keiretsu classification affects relations between ownership structure and dividend payouts. Overall, the dividend policy appears to be used by Japanese low-growth firms to control the overinvestment problem. Free cash flow hypothesis is to some degree supported. JEL classification codes: G32 G34 G35 Keywords: Ownership Structure, Dividend Policy, Free Cash Flow -2- 1. Introduction Why does a firm pay dividends? This question has been the subject of debate for many years, In the pre-Miller and Modigliani era, it was believed that increasing dividends would always increase market value. We will write a custom essay sample on The Impact of Ownership Structure on the Dividend Policy or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Miller and Modigliani (1961) establish that in a perfect capital market, given an investment policy, dividend is irrelevant in determining share value. Empirically, however, we have observed that a change in dividend policy does have a significant impact on the share price. Different researchers have concentrated on different types of imperfections in the market in order to rationalize why dividends matter. Of these, a plausible idea is that corporate dividend policy addresses agency problems between shareholders and managers (Rozeff, 1982; Easterbrook, 1984; Jensen, 1986). According to these agency theories, unless profits are paid out to shareholders as dividends, they may be committed to unprofitable projects that provide private benefits for the managers. Rozeff (1982) and Easterbrook (1984) argues that the payment of dividends expose companies to the possible need to raise external funds, and hence subjects them to greater monitoring by capital markets. Jensen (1986) argues that paying dividends reduces the discretionary resources under managerial control and so helps to mitigate the overinvestment problem. In this study, we examine the implication of the free cash flow hypothesis in corporate dividend policy, and focus specifically on cross-sectional relations between dividend payout policy and ownership structure and free cash flow. Given the severity of the overinvestment problem, relations between dividend payouts and ownership structure, free cash flow may be conditioned on the existence of growth opportunities. This research examines how the sensitivity of relations between dividend payouts and ownership structure, free cash flow varies cross-sectionally with growth opportunities. Previous studies have shown that in countries like the US, firm ownership is relatively dispersed, leading to a limited ability of owners to monitor or control management’s use of free cash flow. Thus the dividend payout is one of the primary control mechanisms whereby shareholders can reduce management access to or abuse of discretionary funds. In countries with 1) a higher concentration of ownership 2) extensive cross-shareholding and 3) strong banking relationship, like Japan, dominant shareholders are believed to have both the incentives and the ability to keep management in check. Tests using a sample of 986 observations for 350 firms from 1992 to 2000 period indicate that the sensitivity of managerial ownership and bank ownership to dividend payouts varies directly with the relative abundance of growth opportunities. we find that dividend payouts for low-growth firms are significantly related to managerial ownership and bank ownership. In -3- contrast, there are no significant relations between dividend payouts and managerial ownership, bank ownership for high-growth firms. We also investigate associations between free cash flow and dividend payouts. Consistent with the prediction by Jensen (1986), there is a strong positive relation between the level of free cash flow and dividend payouts. Furthermore, association between free cash flow and dividend payouts is stronger for low-growth firms. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 reviews the previous theoretical and empirical research. Section 3 explains the Japanese institutional background. Section 4 describes the empirical framework. The empirical results are presented in Section 5-6 and Section 7 concludes. . Dividend payouts, Ownership Structure and Agency Cost Theory 2. 1 Dividends and Agency Costs Corporate dividend policy has been viewed as a control mechanism that mitigates agency conflicts between shareholders and managers. Jensen and Meckling (1976) suggest that one way to reduce agency costs of equity is to pay a larger proportion of its earnings as dividends to its stockholders. A high dividend payout ratio will result in lower â€Å"discretionary† cash flows available to be squandered away by managers. Rozeff (1982) argues that dividend payments are part of the firm’s optimal monitoring/bonding package and serve to reduce agency costs. Easterbrook (1984) lists some of the mechanisms by which dividends and the consequent raising of capital can control agency costs. Agency costs â€Å"are less serious if the firm is constantly in the market for new capital. When it issues new securities, the firm’s affairs will be reviewed by an investment banker or some similar intermediary acting as a monitor for the collective interest of shareholders, and by the purchasers of the new instruments†. Free cash flow hypothesis The free cash flow hypothesis is a variant of the agency argument based on the Principal-Agent framework. According to this framework, dividends are used by shareholders as a device to reduce overinvestment by managers. Jensen(1986) argues that managers with substantial free cash flow tend to invest it in wasteful projects rather than pay it out to shareholders, because managerial compensation and perquisites increase even with poor investments. These unnecessary investments lead to poor performance, creating conflicts between shareholders and managers. Jensen emphasizes the disciplinary role of dividends that restrain managerial unprofitable expansionary tendencies by limiting financial resources available to managers. Dividend payments represent an ongoing commitment to maintain higher payments in future periods, because firms are reluctant to cut dividends and have been greeted by a significant -4- negative stock market reaction when they do. Jensen suggests that dividends should be paid out in ways that instigate managers to gorge the cash beyond the optimal amount. This implies that free cash flow positively determines dividend payments. . 3 Ownership structure and dividend policy One criticism of the agency cost theory is that if managers want to overinvest or spend more on jets, what is the mechanism that will force them self-commit to an action that will prevent them from doing so? Several authors address this issue in the context of ownership structure 2. 3. 1 Institutional Ownership There are several important ways in which institutions differ from individual investors. In general, institutions manage large pools of funds and therefore invest larger amounts in each stock. Because they have larger amounts at stake, they should have incentives to devote resources to monitoring (Grossman and Hart, 1980; Shleifer and Vishny,1986). Institutions are also likely to be better informed than are individual investors. Not only do institutions devote resources to gathering information, but they are also sometimes privy to corporate information that individual investors do not have ( Michaely and Shaw,1994). However, the prediction on the relationship between dividend policy and institutional ownership are mixed. The first line of research suggests a positive relation. Zeckhauser and pound (1990) suggest the arm’s length view of investment held by many institutional investors, coupled with the incentives to free ride with respect to monitoring activities, implies that institutional shareholders are unlikely to provide direct monitoring themselves. The institutions, rather than providing monitoring themselves, forces firms to increase their dividends in order that they are subsequently forced to go to the external capital market for future funds. Eckbo and Verma (1994) argue that institutional shareholders will prefer free cash flow to be distributed in the form of dividends in order to reduce the agency costs of free cash flow. From this perspective, it may be argued that institutional shareholders may counter a tendency for managers to prefer the excessive retention of cash flow and, by virtue of their voting power, force managers to pay out dividends. Moh’d, Perry and Rimbey (1994) and Short, Zhang, and Keasey (2002) also provide additional support. The second line of research suggests a negative relation. Jensen and Meckling (1976) argue that external monitoring activity is an important controlling element when agency conflict exists. If large institutional investors act as monitoring agents, and if dividends are paid to reduce agency cost, then according to this theory, there should be a substitute relation between dividend policy and institutional ownership. This implies a negative relationship between the percentage of -5- hares held by institutions and the dividend payout. D’Souz, and Saxena (1999) provide the empirical evidence. 2. 3. 2 Managerial Ownership There are several lines of argument on the role of managerial ownership. The first line of argument suggest that managerial ownership may better aligning the interest of management and shareholders and helps mitigate free cash flow problems. Therefore it results in a higher level of total payouts when managers hold more shares. ( White,1996; Fenn and Liang,2001). The second line of argument suggest that insider stock ownership provides direct incentive alignment between managers and shareholders while dividends serve as a bonding mechanism reducing management’s scope for making unprofitable investment out of internal funds. Thus, insider stock ownership and dividend policy are viewed as substitute means of addressing potential agency problem. Empirical articles have shown that managerial ownership is not a linear function of agency costs. Morck, Shleifer and Vishny (1988) and McConnell and Servaes (1990) found insider ownership is related to performance in a nonlinear fashion. Schooley and Barney (1994) report a nonmonotonic relation between CEO stock ownership and dividend yield. Farinha (2003) documented the U-shaped relationship between insider ownership and dividend payout in the UK. He argues that it stems from the effects of managerial entrenchment. Japanese Institutional Background Japan offers us a valuable opportunity to examine issues related to dividend policy under an institutional setup quite different from that in U. S. , such as the main bank, the cross-shareholding among corporations. This distinctive Japanese institutional background may result in important difference between Japanese and U. S. firms in terms of corporate monitoring and information sharing. Since, most theoretical explanations of dividends rely on agency and information issues, they would suggest different choices of dividend policy in Japan. 3. 1 Main bank -6- Aoki, Patrick and Sheard (1994) highlight a significant governance role played by the main bank for Japanese firms. The main bank effectively monitors the client firms by becoming well-informed about the firm (Diamond, 1984)). The main bank’s equity stake in the client firm mitigates agency costs between creditors and shareholders (Prowse (1990)). The main bank sometimes intervenes the management of the client firm that performs poorly by appointing bank employees to the board of directors in the client firm (Kaplan and Minton,1994; Kang and Shivdasani, 1995; Morck and Nakamura, 1999). In case of financial distress, the main bank acts as a guarantor for other creditors, reducing the cost related to the restructuring of the client firm (Hoshi, Kashyap and Sharfstein,1990).. In contrast, several authors suggest that there is a cost in having a main bank. Firms relying on the main bank for financing are likely to be constrained in raising the additional capital when the banking sector as a whole has a financial difficulty (Kang and Stulz, 2000). The main bank can extract surplus from the client firms due to its monopolistic power of information production (Rajan, 1992). In a similar context, the main bank has an incentive to force the client firms to undertake low-risk, negative NPV projects (Weinstein and Yafeh, 1998). Firms that do not depend on bank borrowing exhibit higher profitability than the matched sample of firms that have a main bank ( Kang and Shivdasani, 1999). 3. 2 Keiretsu Group There exist differences between keiretsu or industrial groups centered around affiliated banks and financial institutions and unaffiliated independent firms with weaker banking ties. Japanese industrial organization is characterized by groups of enterprises (keiretsu) composed of firms based in different industries but bound by ties of fractional ownership and reliant on a large commercial bank as the major but not sole lender. The large shareholders of keiretsu firms often are also large creditors of the firm as well as important long-term commercial business partners. The keiretsu and non-keiretsu firms are facing different liquidity constraints in their investment spending. Investment spending is very sensitive to liquidity constrains for non-keiretsu firms, but not so for keiretsu firms. Since keiretsu firms are likely to have better access to financing sources, keiretsu firms seemingly face less liquidity constraints in making investment decision. The differences in institutional arrangements between keiretsu and non-keiretsu firms may influence the behavior of shareholders as monitors. Kester (1990) describes the corporate governance system of keiretsu firms in terms of a complex interaction between shareholdings, credit holding and long-term business relationship that exist between the firm and its stake holders. Aoki, Patric, and Sheard (1994), and Berglof and Perotti (1994) suggest a two-tier monitor system. In the first stage, corporate cross-shareholders serve as the monitors under -7- normal circumstances because they have specific industry knowledge and observe each others’ performance through their business relations. In the second stage, the financial institutions take an active intervention role when member firms get into financial distress, replacing incumbent managers and requiring restructuring and liquidation of assets. Managerial equity ownership Because the well-known keiretsu structure and influential bank shareholders, the agency problems between Japanese managers and shareholders are considered to be minimal (e. g. Nakatani, 1984; Hoshi, Kashyap and Scharfstein, 1990, 1991; and Prowse, 1990). The manager ownership, as a way of aligning interests between managers and shareholders, has been viewed as an unnecessary corporate governance mechanism. However Kang and Stulz (1998), Mock and Nakamura (1999), and Weinstein and Yafeh (1998) questioned the effectiveness of bank oversight in Japan. Morck and Nakamura (1999) argue that for independent firms, bank equity holders pursue their interests as creditors at the expense of their equity claims. Gibson(1995) and Kang and Stulz (2000) argue that poor bank health may adversely affect their dependent firms’ investment prospects, which, in turn, would affect their ability to monitor effectively. This particular contention is especially relevant to the late 1980’s and early 1990’s as it is well known that Japanese banks have been experiencing significant financial difficulties during this time period. In light of these findings, Morck and Nakamura (1999) contend that some independent firms may require corporate control mechanisms other than bank oversight. Due to the decline in power of Japanese banks, the rarity of incentive-based compensation contracts for Japanese managers, and the fact that many Japanese firms are not affiliated with a keiretsu group, the managerial-ownership may represents an alternative mechanism to ensure that firms operate efficiently. Thus, the unique Japanese institutional arrangements provide an interesting backdrop to investigate whether cash flow theory explanation for dividend policy still apply given the differences. 4. Empirical framework 4. 1 Hypotheses If one assumes, as suggested by Jensen (1986), that managers receive utility from increasing the size of the firm, the control function of dividend payouts on the overinvestment problem varies with the firm’s growth opportunities. Management may have an incentive to pay out as few dividends as possible at shareholders’ expense. The overinvestment problem is less important and may be trivial for firms with many growth opportunities, because the objectives of managers and shareholders are more likely to coincide. On the other hand, when good projects are not -8- available, managers with substantial free cash flow must find ways to spend it and hence choose poor projects. Thus, the overinvestment problem is higher for low-growth firms than for high-growth firms, and divergence of interests between shareholders and managers over the firm’s payout policy are more severe in firms with few growth opportunities. These firms can limit management’s temptation to overinvest by paying out a larger percentage of their earnings. Their high-growth counterparts with lots of investment opportunities are likely to pay low dividends because they have profitable uses for the capital. For this reason, we expect stronger relations between free cash flow and dividend payouts for low-growth firms. Hypothesis I: relations between the level of free cash flow and dividend payouts are positive and are stronger for firms with low growth opportunities. Most of the existing agency explanations of payout rely on the implicit assumption that firms can get refinanced on the capital markets when they need funds to undertake new investment projects. Consequently, the strategy that minimizes agency costs is to maintain a high payout (to reduce the amount of free cash flow and to avoid overinvestment problems) and to raise new outside capital whenever and attractive investment opportunity emerges. Outside shareholders are harmed by a potential overinvestment and therefore they have preferences for high payout, which curbs the amount of corporate resources that can be spent by management on value reducing projects. Managerial ownership helps to align interests of management and shareholders that may yield the reduction of agency costs stemming from payout smaller. Consequently, payout ratios in a firm with managerial block holdings may be low because the severity of manager-shareholder agency conflict is low. This traditional agency view generates a set of hypothesis that the payout is negatively related with the managerial ownership. Institutional investors are more effective at monitoring management than retail investors. Due to the size of their investments and the resources at their disposal, institutional investors have greater incentive and ability to gather and analyze information pertaining to their investments, as well as a greater ability to discipline management and push for changes when management performs poorly.

Write the Nonfiction Book Proposal Before Writing the Book

Write the Nonfiction Book Proposal Before Writing the Book I finished a manuscript, set it aside for a month, then read it again. But I never even tried to publish it. Why not? Because as brilliant as it was (well, I thought so and so did my mother), it was doomed because it had no point. The book, overflowing with insightful arguments and powerfully constructed sentences, was like a new pencil whose value lies not in what it is but in what it will do for a buyer. Without a point, neither pencils nor books have much reason to inspire their purchase. I should have considered that before I wrote even one chapter. The commercial value of what we write must not be an afterthought. That is why nonfiction publishers require a book proposal and why you should, too, even when youre the publisher. We write a book proposal to convince our publisher (and ourselves) that this book is a good idea and promises to be a good seller. The details, features, and benefits of the book discovered while writing the proposal will be the core components of your marketing campaign, so it accomplishes two things at one time. Looking at our idea through the lens of reality, the proposal asks and answers three compelling questions. Can this book find a market? Will it appeal to that market? Does it have what it takes to sell? Why a book proposal? 1.          Because we take our time and talent seriously. We cant afford to squander valuable time on a doomed project. We write to make money. Writing something for which there is no market, or for a market that is too small or that will not or cannot pay makes no sense. 2.         To find the angle. It defines how your book differs from other books in the genre. 3.         To establish why we are the best person to write it. We tend to exaggerate or underestimate ourselves. A book proposal establishes and clarifies our qualifications. 4.         To ensure there is a marketable point.   Nonfiction readers only buy solutions, answers, or fulfillment. What problem does my book solve? What question does it answer? What dream does it fulfill? 5.         To think in specific terms. WHAT will I write? WHO will read it? WHAT will it do for those readers? WHERE can they be found online and offline? HOW do I get to them? HOW do I help them find me? HOW do I convince them to buy my book? 6.         To create an action plan. All the data in the world does little good unless it forms into a plan. Publishers demand one, and if you are the publisher, you should demand one, too. Promotion and marketing reach buyers. The plan considers how to find them and how to persuade them. Whats in a book proposal?  ¦    Overview  ¦    Marketing Promotion Plan  ¦    Competing Books  ¦    Authors

Discuss the role of perceptions of 'otherness' in 'ethnic cleansing' Essay

Discuss the role of perceptions of 'otherness' in 'ethnic cleansing' - Essay Example In most cases, this includes dehumanizing that culture as well. The concept of the ‘other’ is central to the development of enough hatred to believe that ethnic cleansing is not only necessary, but feasible for one set of humans to commit against another. In order to create a belief system that can include ethnic cleansing as a solution for conflicts between cultures, a sense of the ‘other’ must be developed so that a belief in the dehumanization of the opposing culture diminishes any sense of committing murder against a fellow human being. According to Dirven, ethnic cleansing comes as a result of â€Å"abuses of cognitive processes (that) lead to atrocities against humanity beyond the imagination of most of us† (115). Cognitive semantics and the use of external symbols to create unity are also used in order to create a sense of the ‘other’. Those who are unified under a focused set of beliefs use the concept of those who are outside of those beliefs to create the sense of the ‘other’, the group that does not identify with the same belief systems. Dirven goes on to say that â€Å"Features or attributes of the so-called ‘outsiders’ may then be made cognitively significant through exaggerated contrast to the valued manners or behaviours of the newly identified ‘inside’ group† (114). ... They have an overpowering emotional and non-rational quality†. The nature of the need to belong is balanced by the need to identify those who do not belong. It is the nature of the individual to bond and create mutual ‘others’ that provide contrast to the superiority of their own cultural group. In doing this, the defined characteristics of the ‘other’ provide support for why a group will find reasons to isolate away from other groups and create conflict to assert their continued superiority. These methods can be varied, but one of the worst is through the policies that involve ethnic cleansing. Ethnic cleansing involves two different concepts. Ethnicity traits that identify a group are combined with cultural traits. Groups are identified by both their physical manifestations of difference and their cultural manifestations through systems of belief. The difference between ethnicity and culture can be defined by the idea that one is involuntary and the other is voluntary. One is through physical attributes that are not a matter of control or choice. The other is through choosing to bond with others in a formed group (Cohen and Stone 67). The differences between the two are cause for different types of conflict and the line is not always considered clearly drawn. Therefore, if a person of certain ethnic attributes joins a culture that no longer associates them with the belief systems of their ethnic cultural group, this may not prevent them from being included. Joining a cultural group without ethnic markers that identify an individual with that group will also not create a safe place for an individual. The example

Behavioral Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Behavioral Analysis - Essay Example It has a PE ratio of 27.9, and there are about 12 stock trade analysts rating Biogen as a Buy neither a sell nor a hold company. Average volume for Biogen has been 2.0 million dollars shares daily for 30 days annually. It has a market cap of 90.8 billion dollars and is a part of the medical sector and drug companies. Biogen stock has a beta of 0.62 and a short float of 1.3 percent with 0.89 days to cover. Biogen shares are up 13.7 percent annually of the close of trading monthly. According to the Street Quant Ratings, Biogen is a rate as a buy and the company’s strength exists in many areas. For example, the solid stock price performance, impressive record of earnings per share growth, and compelling growth net income. Others include robust revenue growth and largely solid financial status with reasonable debt levels by most measures. According to the recent highlight analysis of the Biogen company ratings, influenced by its outstanding earnings growth of 72.77 percent and other vital driving factors. The stock of the company languished by 30.23 percent over the past years outsmarting the performance of the S&P 500 index rating the same time. BIIB irrespective of numerous stock market challenges would maintain despite enjoying fabulous gains in the past year. Biogen Company has recorded significant earnings per share creating improvement in the recent quarter compared to the previous quarter. Company shows a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over a period of two years. In every fiscal year, the company increases its bottom-line profits by the rate of 12.39 dollars compared to 7.82 of the past years. Besides, the market anticipates much increase in the earnings of 16.78 dollars from 12.39 dollars (The Street Wire 2015, p.1). The company depending on the net income growth from the same quarter a year ago significantly outperformed against the S&P 500.The rate exceeded other sectors such as Biotechnology industry average. When compared to the

CT Scanning Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

CT Scanning - Research Paper Example The paper tells that CT scan stands for computed topography which is an x-ray test that is used to produce cross sectional images of the different parts of the body using an x ray and a computer. This allows the doctor to take an inside look into the different areas of the body and study them as to what problem is going on and then diagnose it for the patients. CT scan is used to evaluate the brain, neck, spine, chest, abdomen, pelvis etc. The CT scanning technique has made it relatively easy for doctors to diagnose and treat the patients and also is safe and well tolerated. A CT scan provides a very different view of the body than an x ray. The major difference lies in it giving a cross sectional image of the body which allows the doctors to examine from within the body. It is also used by cancer patients to look inside the body for the spread of the disease. Some of the advantages of using CT scanning are that it is one of the fastest methods of examining chest, pelvis and abdomen as it views all types of tissues. Also it diagnoses wide varieties of cancer. Moreover it is also useful in examining the spinal problems and injuries to hands, feet and other body structures. CT scanning works much like X ray machines in the sense that numerous X rays and electronic x-ray detectors revolve around the person and measuring the amount of radiation that is being absorbed by the body. The examination table simultaneously moves through the scanner so that the x ray beam follows a spiral path. A special computer program processes the volume of data to create two-dimensional cross-sectional images of the body parts, which are then displayed on a monitor. This technique is called helical or spiral CT (Morgan & Emberton, 1994). The Disease it cures As mentioned above CT scanning can be used to diagnose different types of cancers such as lung cancer, liver, prostate cancer and enables doctors to see the size of the tumor and see the rate at which it is increasing. The size of the tumor, its exact location, and its effect on nearby tissues is also seen through this. CT scanning is also used to see inside the head and the brain region of the person to check if there is internal bleeding or not. Also it helps in analyzing the vascular condition of the person. Vascular condition pertains to the blood flow of the person and if it’s not normal it can lead to kidney failure and even to a heart disease and stroke. It can help assess the bone disease, bone density and the state of a patient’s spine. before CT scan was introduced the examination of such things were not easy for the doctors and now the life expectancy for the patients have increased world over as they are exposed to better health benefits and treatments (Haaga, et al., 1977) (Coburn, 2008). In an article (Foster, Scott, & Payne, 1990) it is also believed that CT scanning may help cure dementia. Dementia is a disease in which the person loses his or her memory as they get old and the living gets tough. The article says that some dementia is reversible and early CT scanning can help establish that whether the treatment can take place or not. It says there are about 50 different reasons for the dementia but the most common one is Alzheimer’s disease which accounts up to about 50% of the cause of dementia. Then CT scanning is not to diagnose the disease but to find that whether it is treat-able or not. The article talks in detail about the dementia and what are the instances when it can be reversible and only in those circumstances should CT scanning are used. Some areas which should be looked upon are that does the patient have a history of family dementia. age again is an important factor which states that the older the patient is the lesser their chances of surviving dementia and the lesser their age is the more the chances they have of being treated for dementia. The statistics for the dementia can be as high as 20% which is an alarming rate. the article also

Van Den Haag Regarding Capital Punishment Philosophy Essay

Van Den Haag Regarding Capital Punishment Philosophy Essay In this paper, I will examine the debate over legalizing the death penalty, specifically by referring to the writings of Turrow in To Kill Or Not To Kill and Van den Haag in On Deterrence and the Death Penalty. I will argue that in responding to Van den Haags positions for the death penalty, Turrow would more strongly object to the argument that rests on its justice on opposed to its value as deterrent. I will then consider the merit of the arguments on both sides with regards to justice, eventually concluding that Turrows points are most convincing. Although Turrow makes space in his article to refute arguments based on both deterrence and justice, his argument against deterrence is much shorter and open to criticism. It boils down to the fact that he has not encountered sufficient evidence that the presence of the death penalty results in lower instances of crime. Van den Haag gives several arguments as to why this fails to make a convincing argument against the practice. The ones that are given the most time are the theoretical reasoning that a higher penalty for an action increases deterrence and why the lack of evidence for deterrence should not cause us to assume it does not exist. Since Turrow does not concern himself with the theoretical grounds for deterrence, this argument is unlikely to convince him. If the facts do not back up this theorizing then there is little reason to base policy on it. Luckily, Van den Haag also responds to concerns about the lack of evidence showing that the presence of the death penalty has any deterrent effect on crime. While he admits that no evidence can be found that the death penalty reduces crime, we should not conclude that this effect is not present. Because there are so many factors that influence things like homicide rates, it is impossible to derive a causal relationship or lack thereof between magnitude of punishment and frequency of offense. As Van den Haag puts it, it is wrong to believe, lack of evidence for deterrence is evidence for the lack of deterrence, (Van den Haag, 145). This is accompanied by the claim on Van den Haags part that often criminals are not even aware of laws in their state regarding capital punishment, so its presence would not factor into their cost-benefit analysis. Now, an immediate question raised by this is: How can the death penalty deter criminals if they arent aware of its existence? Even though only part of Van den Haags appeal to deterrence seems to carry any weight to Turrow, the inability to draw any solid conclusion from statistical analysis should be enough to give Turrow pause, if not necessarily convince him. I will now argue that while Turrow may still disagree with the deterrence argument, he will object more strongly to the appeal to justice that Van den Haag gives. This is not to say that Turrow rejects the idea that justice should be an end we seek in punishing criminals. In his article, he makes several statements that would be nonsensical if this were not the case. Firstly he says, Ive always thought death-penalty proponents have a point when they say that it denigrates the profound indignity of murder to punish it in the same fashion as other crimes. (Turrow, 4) Turrow is not appealing to deterrence or potential for rehabilitation here in his argument for the death penalty. His objection is based on the fact that some crimes are so heinous that we must respond in kind for the sake of the moral order. It seems to me that restoring the moral order, is as good a definition of justice as any other. Now that I have concluded that both Van den Haag and Turrow see justice as a legitimate ground on which to base arguments for and against capital punishment, I must show that appealing to justice leads the two authors to different conclusions. Van den Haags appeal to justice is a very much utilitarian argument that is dependent upon his argument from deterrence. He argues that whatever way that we were to define injustice, the correct action should be that which results in the least injustice. This leads him to conclude that if we are concerned with innocent people being mistakenly given the death penalty, we must consider the number of innocents killed this way and compare it to the number of deaths that could have been prevented by deterrence and see if we have a net gain in innocents saved. He then goes on to argue that capital punishment deters enough would-be killers to make its legality just. Turrow would object more strongly to claims of justice than to deterrence because, as Van den Haag states, the validity of his justice argument is dependent on the validity of his deterrence argument. I have already mentioned that Turrow is skeptical of claims of deterrence. I turns out that even if he were to reverse his stance on deterrence, he would also disagree with Van den Haags reasoning for why this would make a system with capital punishment a just one. The main flaw that Turrow finds with capital punishment is its inability to be properly implemented within our justice system. He relates stories of his firsthand experience with cases in which men are given, or very nearly given, the death sentence for crimes they did not commit. This deeply troubles him, and he is not so willing to accept this tragedy as Van den Haag is by simply requiring that more innocent lives are saved by the act than are wrongfully executed. He simply states that, Now and then, we will execute someone who is innocentà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Turrow, 7) He makes no reference to the number of people saved by this practice, because that number is not significant. Turrow seems to believe that wrongfully executing someone is far worse than the crime of murder enacted by an individual. This may be that the first is a sort of betrayal of the justice system, whereas the latter is simply a failure of it. Therefore, because Turrow would disagree with both the main argument (jus tice) and that which it relies upon (deterrence), his objection to justice would be the stronger of the two. I will now evaluate both arguments from each of these in regards to the justice of having a death penalty. Here I will assume that the argument for deterrence is valid and some innocent lives are spared since Van den Haags argument for justice is contingent upon this fact. As I have described it, the crux of this debate hinges on whether or not it is acceptable to allow some innocents to be executed in order to save more from would-be murderers who do not commit crimes out of fear of the death penalty. Van den Haag is satisfied as long as the number of innocents killed is less than without the death penalty whereas Turrow is against any system in which the innocent may be wrongfully given a death sentence. Something potentially overlooked by Van den Haag is that there may be more consequences to capital punishment being accepted than the accidental killing of innocents. The very idea that ones government may wrongfully convict you for a crime you did not commit could fray the trust that should theoretically exist between a citizen and the government designed to protect him or her. While this argument could certainly be made for any sort of crime, both authors make the distinction in the death penaltys irrevocability. If one has faith that the system may eventually discover its error (by no means certain), then a jail term can be ended and the victim compensated but this is not possible with death. This fear on the part of the citizen could lead to a lack of cooperation or assistance with the police in a case for fear that they will become a suspect. However, the argument that we should not inflict the death penalty because we may sentence the wrong person to death deserves a bit more analysis. The common point made by both authors is that it may be better to give a life-in-prison sentence because then any mistakes in conviction may be found and reversed. However, if this does not actually happen then this weakness of capital punishment does not actually exist. It would be worthwhile to examine statistics of how many prisoners serving life sentences are found to be innocent and released. This would give us insight as to how many innocent lives would be lost were capital punishment allowed, and be a mark in favor of prohibiting it. In other words, if life-in-prison sentences are never overturned then prisoners given them in lieu of the death penalty have no chance of being released so the increased chance of righting the wrong does not actually exist. Granted, this theoretical wrongfully accused person does gain life-in-prison as opposed to execution, but this seems like small consolation to a man who committed no crime. This is a measurable quantity, one that I suspect will come down in favor of prohibition. Of course, as with any objection to a utilitarian viewpoint, as the numbers become more and more extreme our convictions seem less concrete. Would we allow the wrongful execution of one man in order to deter the murders of one million? Because this case is quite unlikely, it does not bear much weight in my considerations. In this paper I have outlined reasons for which Turrow would object most strongly to Van den Haags defense of capital punishment on the grounds of justice, namely that wrongfully executing someone is far worse than failing to deter a murderer from doing the same. I have then considered the justice-based arguments of both authors and decided that, despite potential lives saved and pending statistical reinforcement, the societal consequences of capital punishment outweigh its benefits.

Curley’s Wife: Floozy or Innocent Girl? Essay

Curley’s wife is a young, pretty woman, who is mistrusted by her husband, Curley. The other characters refer to her only as ‘Curley’s wife,’ which is significant as she is the only character in the novel without a name. She is a simple object or possession belonging to her husband and this shows the severity of the sexual discrimination in America in 1930s. I believe Steinbeck would have thought of her not as a person but a symbol. Almost everyone on the ranch is lonely and she symbolises this. The audience would come to believe she is a weak isolated character however, the men are fearful of her. She is the wife of their boss. She has power and this power creates fear among the ranch workers. She is both in charge and screaming for attention. When we first meet Curley’s wife, the description of her suggests she is clearly overdressed for life on a ranch. ‘Her fingernails were red’ and she wore ‘red mules, on the insteps of which w ere little bouquets of red ostrich feathers.’ The repetition of the red suggests danger. This could be a warning about trouble in the future. Danger creates fear and the workers on the ranch definitely fear her. She has the power to dismiss them from their jobs or even have them lynched as she is the boss’s wife. This ‘Miss Dynamite’ image is supported by the fact that George thinks she will be trouble. He calls her a ‘tramp’, ‘poison’ and tells Lennie (who has taken a shine to her) to ‘leave her be’. He sees her as a threat and doesn’t want Lennie to get involved with someone who could potentially lose them their jobs. The audience begins to dislike this woman. This highlights the prejudice against women at the time. She comes across as a confident flirt when in company due to her body language. The first description of her includes ‘..so that her body was thrown forward’. This gesture suggests that she almost throws herself at men. George called her a ‘tramp’ and her actions are beginning to fulfill this opinion of her. I think some would view this as disappointing. Women were mainly seen in whore houses at the time. The fact that Curley’s wife had found herself a husband, lived on a ranch and not in a whore house, suggests she is a ‘good girl’. We want her to be different from the general view of women at the time which had been brought about by prejudice. Unfortunately she comes across as no different. This continues in chapter 5, when Curley’s wife consoles Lennie. ‘She moved closer’ is repeated showing how she continuously reduces the distance between herself and Lennie. It suggests she is forward and flaunting herself at him. The audience could start to feel uncomfortable and anxious at this point. This could be the moment of danger that was foreshadowed in the beginning. She seems to be the powerful Miss Dynamite. However, there are so many implications that she is a lonely victim. After she is killed there is a poignant moment in the book. The long sentences emphasise the movement of peace, time standing still before the men find her body. All the negative aspects of the character disappear and we feel sympathy for her. She tries to convey glamour and sophistication when really she is just a sweet country girl. Steinbeck describes her as ‘very pretty’, ‘simple’ and ‘sweet’ when dead. The audience now realise the simplicity of her true self. ‘†¦the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face’ shows that she is at peace. She doesn’t have to pretend anymore. She has been putting on an act. She had a dream which we only become aware of in this chapter to become a film star in Hollywood. One theme in the book is the American dream. Lennie and George have one. However, it is suggested that this is unreachable as George talks of them owning ‘red and blue and green rabbits’ which gives the American dream a fantasy quality. The fact that Curley’s wife still seems to believe in her dream gives her a naivety and we feel more sympathy for her and the audience warm to her. I think this is the point in the book (when Steinbeck reveals her true character) that the audience can look back over the book and think of her differently, as the lonely victim. For instance, she is constantly searching for her husband which could be an excuse to mingle with the other men. ‘I’m looking for Curley’ could have a hidden meaning and she could be desperate for some attention if she is lonely. The loneliness of her character is supported by the scene with Lennie in Chapter 5. She tells Lennie the about herself and her dream. She is so desperate to talk to someone and for someone to listen. ‘.. her words tumbled out in a passion of communication’ shows how desperate she is to share her story. This desperation continues when ‘she went on with her story quickly, before she could be interrupted.’ This could be seen as her being conceited. On the other hand, she could just be overwhelmed that someone is actually listening to her so she wants to say everything before it becomes too good to be true and Lennie loses interest. This implies she has no one to talk to which is saddening as it shows how isolated she must be. This isolation is emphasised further when she can’t even connect with Lennie. The one person who she starts to befriend turns out to be too good to be true. ‘Don’t you think of nothing but rabbits?’ shows that Lennie isn’t really listening. They lose what was a potentially beautiful connection. In conclusion, Curley’s wife dreams of being Miss Dynamite but is really only the lonely victim. Her dream was to be a film star in Hollywood but she finds herself living on a ranch. One of her strengths is her status in society as the boss’s wife but apart from this she seems to be the lonely victim through and through even though she tries to cover it up with her ‘glam’ image. She hides behind a mask and the audience only realise when she dies.

Equality And Inclusion In Health And Social Care Essay

Outcome 1.1 Explain what is meant by Diversity – Understanding that every individual is different, and being able to recognise and individuals unique differences, whether it be age, race, gender etc. Equality – Every person being treated equally and fairly regardless of cultural backgrounds, sexuality, beliefs. Inclusion – Being included without being limited or restricted, and irrespective of differences such as disabilities embracing individuals to make them feel included. Outcome 1.2 Describe ways in which discrimination may deliberately or inadvertently occur in the work setting A person being treated differently or unfairly because they are from a different race or from a different culture. Discrimination inadvertently can happen when a certain group of people feel restricted or limited from something like a general rule that applies to all only being written in English, excluding members from other cultural backgrounds and creating a barrier. Outcome 1.3 Explain how practices that support equality and inclusion reduce the likelihood of discrimination Treating another person as you equal, engaging and including them will have a positive effect and therefore reduce the likelihood of discrimination. Read more: What is meant by inclusion in health and social care  essay Outcome 2.1 Identify which legislation and codes of practice relating to equality, diversity and discrimination apply to own role Equality Act GSCC – The General Care Council Human Rights Act Outcome 2.3 Describe how to challenge discrimination in a way that encourages change Being positive towards co workers and service users, promoting positive behaviour will make other people feel positive and hopefully change their opinions and actions in the future. Outcome 3.1 Identify a range of sources of information, advice and support about diversity Library Internet Colleagues Policies and procedures Work based training Outcome 3.2 Describe how and when to access information, advice and support about diversity, equality and inclusion You can access this information by asking your line manager and also in the policy and procedures, if you feel someone is being treated unfairly the information should be dealt with as soon as possible

Myers Surname Meaning and Origin

Myers Surname Meaning and Origin The surname Myers or Myer is usually either of German or British origin, depending upon the country of the particular family. The German origin of the surname Myers has the meaning steward or bailiff, as in the magistrate of a city or town.​The English origin of the surname has three possible sources:   A patronymic surname meaning son of the mayor,  from  the Old English  maire  (maior)  meaning  mayor.A topographic surname for someone who lived near a marsh, or someone with mire (swampy, low-lying land) in the town name,  from the Old Norse myrr meaning marsh.Possibly a surname derived from the Old French  mire  meaning physician.   Myers can also be an  Anglicized form of the Gaelic surname Ó Midhir, likely a variant of Ó Meidhir, meaning mayor.   Myers is the 85th most popular surname in the United States. Surname Origin:  English, German Alternate Surname Spellings:  MYER, MEYERS, MEYER, MEERS, MEARS, MEARES, MYARS, MYRES, MIERS, MIARES, MYERES Famous People with the Surname MYERS Michael John Mike Myers: Canadian actor, comedian, screenwriter, director, and film producerStephenie Meyer: American author, best known for her Twilight book seriesJonathan Rhys Meyers: Irish actorWalter Dean Myers: American authorErnest Myers:  English poet, classicist, and author Where Do People With the MYERS Surname Live? Myers is the worlds 1,777th most common surname, according to surname distribution data from  Forebears, found most prevalently in the United States. It is most common based on a percentage of the population in Liberia, where it ranks 74th. It is a little less common in Canada, Australia, and England, where it ranks 427th, 435th and 447th respectively. Myers is especially common on Prince Edward Island, Canada, according to  WorldNames PublicProfiler. Within the United States, Myers is found most frequently in the states of West Virginia, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Kansas and Ohio. Genealogy Resources for the Surname MYERS 100 Most Common U.S. Surnames Their MeaningsSmith, Johnson, Williams, Jones, Brown... Are you one of the millions of Americans sporting one of these top 100 common last names from the 2000 census? Myers Family Crest - Its Not What You ThinkContrary to what you may hear, there is no such thing as a Myers family crest or coat of arms for the Myers surname.  Coats of arms are granted to individuals, not families, and may rightfully be used only by the uninterrupted male-line descendants of the person to whom the coat of arms was originally granted.   MYERS Family Genealogy ForumSearch this popular genealogy forum for the Myers surname to find others who might be researching your ancestors, or post your own Myers query. FamilySearch - MYERS GenealogyAccess over 9 million free historical records and lineage-linked family trees posted for the Myers surname and its variations on this free genealogy website hosted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. MYERS Surname Family Mailing ListsRootsWeb hosts several free mailing lists for researchers of the Myers surname. DistantCousin.com - MYERS Genealogy Family HistoryExplore free databases and genealogy links for the last name Myers. The Myers Genealogy and Family Tree PageBrowse family trees and links to genealogical and historical records for individuals with the last name Myers from the website of Genealogy Today. References: Cottle, Basil.  Penguin Dictionary of Surnames. Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1967. Dorward, David.  Scottish Surnames. Collins Celtic (Pocket edition), 1998. Fucilla, Joseph.  Our Italian Surnames. Genealogical Publishing Company, 2003. Hanks, Patrick and Flavia Hodges.  A Dictionary of Surnames. Oxford University Press, 1989. Hanks, Patrick.  Dictionary of American Family Names. Oxford University Press, 2003. Reaney, P.H.  A Dictionary of English Surnames. Oxford University Press, 1997. Smith, Elsdon C.  American Surnames. Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997.

Looking for Alibrandi Essay Example

Looking for Alibrandi Essay Example Looking for Alibrandi Essay Looking for Alibrandi Essay She feels caught in a claustrophobic trap between family lives obsessed with tradition, a trice disciplined Catholic school and trying to find herself and her position as a teenage girl. Throughout the novel Josses is constantly changing her views on people, and experiences her share of emotional upheaval as she comes to realize that a perfect world consists of more than Just gorgeous hairstyles, rich boyfriends and social privileges. It is a common representation throughout the novel that Josses Librarian is a selfish and egotistical girl whose internal angst and whose conflict with others all stemmed from her expectations that others should conform to meet her deeds. This can be seen In her Interactions with her close family members Christina. Nana and Michael. She also selfish towards her friends John and Jacob. Josses and her mothers relationship Is rocky, this Is shown when Josses attacks her mothers desires to go out on a date. Josses was constantly reminded of her mothers failures and sacrifices she made while raising Josses as a single mother. As Nonna lied to Josie and her relatives that Josie’s father died before Christina gave birth to Josie, thus Christina and Josie are misunderstanding to Nonna and also did not accept with what she did. It shows the differences in generation’s point of view towards Christina’s pregnancy. Furthermore, â€Å"Looking for Alibrandi† also displays relationships in a lot of depth, for instance, the relationships between Josie and Michael Andretti, Jacob Coote and John Barton. Josie meets Michael Andretti angrily because he left Josie’s mother when she got pregnant; therefore Josie became illegitimate child with no father. However, when Josie feels helpless and struggle after she hits Carly’s nose, she can only think about Michael to help her as a barrister and father. This event demonstrates that Josie really wants to and be proud of having father; they had more trust and build up the father- daughter relationships too. Josie’s final year of high school transforms her from the childhood world of dependence on her mother to dealing with adults like Michael Andretti and Jacob Coote. Jacob, the school captain of Cook High School, Josie calls him an ‘individualist’, because he has a strong personality, sensitive and independent as a typical Australian. Jacob feels uncomfortable in unfamiliar situations as he finds it difficult to understand with Josie’s Italian cultural background, he does not respect and think the traditions should not be maintained. For example, once, Jacob gave a sexual advance to Josie, but she is unwillingness to make love and told Jacob clearly that Italian thinking is more traditional and different to Australian’s. Sexual activity is not by accepted to Italian, but Australian just sees this as a normal practise. By comparison between Jacob Coote and John Barton, they are both Australian, but living in very different attitudes and family. John has weak and low self-image who comes from a well-educated family. Josie admires him and they have a very good relationship, but Josie did not realise that John is very upset as he is under a lot of pressure by his father to become ‘the best prime minster’, therefore, John’s father and people around John have a high expectation of him. As a result, John gets a lot of pressure that he thinks no one would understand him. John’s pressure from unconfident about passing the HSC, forces him to commit suicide. This does upset Josie but it also makes her a lot more resilient too. â€Å"Looking for Alibrandi†, also illustrates many prejudices between rich and poor people, and the racial prejudice. St. Martha is Josie’s school which is â€Å"dominated by white Australian†, high-class and rich people. Children of wealthy migrants accepted because of their wealth, which cause a social discrimination as Josie finds hard to cope in this school with her strong Italian and middle working class family background. The novel shows that although Australia is a multicultural society, but it still has racist problems with people from different culture backgrounds. Melina Marchetta always uses the word â€Å"Wog†, which is an offensive word to coloured skin people especially Italian, which is throughout the whole novel to inspire readers in racist issues. For instant, Ivy comes from high-class Australian family, who is not accept Josie as an Australia, but a completely Italian immigrant with strong Italian culture background. This idea is clearly expressed in these words â€Å"You’re a new Australians wear black a lot don’t you Josephine? â€Å"Looking for Alibrandi† emphasises some important cultural, relationship and social and racial prejudices among people from different cultural background. It examines the strength and resilience of Josie to cope with the relationship with family, John Barton’s dead and Jacob Coot’s sexual advance, and the intolerance of Italian traditions by Nonna. This novel makes readers aware of to see the beauty in other culture, because the world has many different cultures, we need to be respect, although there may have something that you may not except.