Monday, September 30, 2019
Film Theory Outline Essay
From the very beginning of film, theorists have tried to dissect or understand the nature of the new medium of art. As a result various theories of film have emerged, such as feminist, auteur, psychoanalytical, Marxist, Editing and Structuralist. This essay attempts to give an outline of these various theories. One of the first theories to emerge is Editing theory, coming from the context of early Russian cinema. A key event in this regard is the experiment carried out by the film-maker Lev Kuleshov in 1918, in which he demonstrated that what the viewer perceives depends on how images are juxtaposed with each other through inter-cutting. See more: essay apa format Thus, when a human close-up is juxtaposed with a bowl of soup, the perception is of hunger, but when juxtaposed with a shot of a coffin the same close-up is perceived to express grief. Kuleshov concluded that juxtaposition was crucial towards the effect, and thus advocated the use montage in film-making. Other film-makers like Sergei Eisenstein played close attention to these findings, and made use of them in his masterpieces of montage, such as Battleship Potemkin and October. He also spelled out a comprehensive film theory based on editing in a highly influential essay from the late twenties. In it he outlined he various categories of editing, such as metric, rhythmic, tonal, overtonal, and intellectual. For example, with intellectual montage a scene may be inter-cut with something immediately unrelated, but which nevertheless works as metaphor is a more profound sense. The above came to constitute soviet montage theory, which was in contrast to the Hollywood system of continuity editing. Montage is a very visible component of film, whereas continuity editing aims to make inter-cutting invisible, so that the viewer may concentrate on the flow of the narrative in an easy way. Since the fifties a parallel theory of editing has emerged in the West which embodies the Hollywood ethos. In the same essay Eisenstein proposed a Hegelian interpretation of film montage, and which came to form the basis of Marxist film theory. He suggested that montage worked by the principle of the Hegelian dialectic, where thesis is said to beget antithesis, and are resolved in the end through synthesis. For example, when human close up is inter-cut with a glass of water, the viewer interprets this as thirst. If the face is the subject, then its antithesis is the object of vision, i. e. the glass of water. ââ¬ËThirstââ¬â¢ is merely the synthesis of the two. It is present in neither of the two shots in consideration, yet emerges form the inter-cutting of the two. Of course, it was through the Hegelian dialectic that Marx had derived his famous concept of the proletariat revolution, and Marxism was the avowed principle of the Bolshevists. Therefore, it is not surprising that Eisensteinââ¬â¢s theories found a favorable audience in the Soviet Union. Indeed, it was instrumental in forming of Socialist realism, which became the state sponsored ideology in art. Marxist film theory soon found itself as defined in opposition to capitalistic and bourgeoisie art, in which the narrative of the protagonist finds prominence. Eisensteinââ¬â¢s films attempt to obliterate the presence of the protagonist, concentrating instead on the clash of images towards creating a larger ideological narrative. Even then he was accused by the authorities for not championing the workers, and for indulging in the internal mechanics of film, which was deemed to be a kind of formalism. Marxist theory held that the purpose of art is to overcome all ââ¬Ëformsââ¬â¢ towards dialectical purification. Formalism was felt to be a bourgeoisie component. Marxist theory, as it has flourished both in the East and the West, concerns itself with dissecting films in order discredit bourgeoisie forms, usually those emerging from the Hollywood system. A native western theory of film was late in developing, and a crucial starting point was the theories developed by Andre Bazin, as editor of the French film magazine Cahiers du cinema. Up to that point films were seen as merely commercial vehicles, and Hollywood had evolved into a mighty and well groomed machine that churned films for the pleasure of the masses. Analyzing these films Bazin came to the conclusion that it was the director who left the most characteristic stamp, and as illustration he held up the work of directors like Alfred Hitchcock and Howard Hawks. He advocated that directors infuse their personal vision into the films under their charge, in order that they become the complete authors, which is the ideal state. This came to be known as the Auteur theory of film, which was given a more formal presentation by Francois Truffaut. Directors were described as using the camera as a pen towards composing their films. Another significant idea of Bazinââ¬â¢s was that film should aim for ââ¬Å"objective realityâ⬠. This was in opposition to prevalent theory based on montage, which said that object of film is to manipulate reality. This instrumental approach led to the formulation of Structuralist film theory, which examines the structure of the components of film as they come together meaningfully. Instead of the dialectical approach of Eisenstein, the analysis takes into account conventional devices that have come to acquire meaning. The components that come into play are camera angle, lighting, juxtaposition, shot duration, cultural context etc. Meaning is usually accounted for by convention, and conventions change according to social and economic circumstances. For example, the highly commercial nature of Hollywood films has created the Institutional Mode of Representation, in which cinematic devices are used that make film viewing easy and exciting. For this reason it incorporates the established ideology with little departure from the norm. Other interpretations overlook the mechanics of production and instead considered the viewer as the focus of study. Psychoanalytic film theory offers such an interpretation. It is largely influenced by the views of the French philosopher Jacques Lacan regarding the childââ¬â¢s ââ¬Ëmirror stage of developmentââ¬â¢. According to this theory the developing child endeavors to see a reflection of itself in all the objects it encounters. Psychoanalytic film theory replicates this situation with the viewer of film. The viewer is always looking for self-identification in the process of watching a film, and in this sense uses the medium as a mirror. It is usually the male protagonist who provides the focus of this identification, and functions as a conduit by which the desires of the viewer are played out. The film is said to have constructed a ââ¬Ëgazeââ¬â¢ for the benefit of the viewer. Sometimes the gaze is simply the viewpoint of the protagonist; at other times, in the more graphic sequences, the viewer is allowed to gaze directly. Psychoanalytic theory is careful to point out that such identification is merely illusion, and therefore it differs from the identification of the child growing up, whose identifications come to form tangible character. Feminist film theory takes psychoanalytical theory a step further, in that it interprets the gaze as scopophilia, or ââ¬Ëthe desire to observe in secretââ¬â¢, which is also known as voyeurism. Such desire is sexual in origin, and feminist theory is framed in the context of the man wanted to gaze at the woman. Such a theory provides a ready explanation of the objectification of woman in film, a phenomena that has been noticed from the very beginnings of the medium. As in psychoanalytical theory, the male protagonist provides the focus of identification, but his specific desire is to objectify the women in the film, a desire which is vicariously shared by the viewer. There are three levels of objectification. First there is the cameraââ¬â¢s point of view, then that of the protagonist, and finally that of the viewer himself, who is allowed to gaze at the women directly. Critics of this theory point out that the female viewer is not taken into account, for women also go to see the same films, and they enjoy them too. However Laura Mulvey has given convincing arguments to explain female enjoyment. She says that it is either through a masochistic identification, or a transsexual one. In the first the female takes secret pleasure in male domination. In the second, the female identifies with the male protagonist, and thus shares in the pleasure that men take. However, she is also continuously slipping back into her female identity, which is said to be a mask that she wears. Identification with the male pushes her uncomfortably close to the image of the subjected women, and the masquerade allows her to maintain a distance from it. Feminist film theory is a harsh criticism of the norms of cinema, which is also blamed on the patriarchal norms of society. The advocacy is to make films that overcome the norms, and therefore to make films that are free from female objectification.
Long-Term Investment Decisions Essay
Assume that the industry you wrote about in Assignment 3 wants to expand and has to make some long-term capital budgeting decisions. Now the industry is confronted with government regulations to oversee the merger. Write a four to five (4-5) page paper in which you: Explain why government regulation is or is not needed, citing the major reasons for government involvement in a market economy. Provide support for your explanation. Justify the rationale for the intervention of government in the market process in the U.S. Assume that the companyââ¬â¢s is considering a merger. The possible merger currently faces some threats and that the industry decides on self-expansion as an alternative strategy, describe the additional complexities that would arise under this new scenario of expansion via capital projects. Analyze how the different forces will come together to create a convergence between the interests of stockholders and managers indicating the most likely impact to profitability. Provide support for your response. Use at least three (3) high-quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources. Look more:à difference between irr and mirr essay Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements: Be typed, double-spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions. Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the studentââ¬â¢s name, the professorââ¬â¢s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required page length. The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are: Assess how managerial economics is used in business decision making. Evaluate how government regulation is constraining and enabling for managerial decisions related to maximizing shareholder wealth. Use technology and information resources to research issues in managerial economics and globalization. Write clearly and concisely about managerial economics and globalization using proper writing mechanics.
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Mr. Know All by W. Somerset Maugham
First of all I want to begin with the narrative perspective. In the short story ââ¬Å"Mr. Know-Allâ⬠by William Somerset Maugham there is a first person narrator, who takes an active part in the story. He is a very important character. It is not easy to tell whether he is a minor or a major character. On the one hand he is a major character because the way he presents Mr. Kelada influences the reader a lot. On the other hand he is just a minor character because he is only the presenter of Mr. Kelada. The reader never can see him in real action when he is without Mr. Kelada. He is just present to tell the reader what Mr. Kelada does and how he behaves. Furthermore he is a minor character because the whole story deals with Mr. Kelada. In my point of view Mr. Kelada is the protagonist and the narrator is the foil, the so called contrast figure. He only reflects the good and the bad features of the protagonist. In this particular story the foil reflects more the negative than the positive traits. The narrator himself is an English snob. He is not very fond of staying with somebody else in a cabin for fourteen days. Furthermore he is biased about foreigners, because ââ¬Å"I should have looked upon it with less dismay if my fellow-passenger?s name had been Smith or Brown. â⬠1 That sentences shows that he values the British higher than people of foreign origin. He is very biased about foreigners and especially about Mr. Kelada. Throughout the story ââ¬â but especially in the first 45 lines (and that is more than the first half of the short-story) ââ¬â the narrator expresses his racist view. Consequently he depicts some incidents that make him despise Mr. Kelada. It is not only the name which arouses suspicion, because as he tells ââ¬Å"When I went on board I found Mr. Kelada?s luggage already there. I did not like the the look of it; there were too many labels on the suitcase [â⬠¦ ]â⬠2 They make him believe that Mr. Kelada is a man with savoir-faireâ⬠¦.
Friday, September 27, 2019
Greece and Rome Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Greece and Rome - Essay Example Contribution made by early Romans were huge in number including technology, religion, art, empire architecture, language, government, law, literature and war as well. The history of Roman Empire is still a source of inspiration in many parts of world (Cunningham and Reich, 2005). Greek civilization originates from Greek history. It survived from 8th to 6th Century, after that from 146BC to the mastery period of Rome. This civilization had the mastery of ruling on states. The classic stage of Greek culture leaves a significant influence on Roman Empire in many aspects. Greek civilization holds a vision which interpreted to numerous parts of Mediterranean Region and Europe as well. The basis of western civilization is the major reason of rich culture in Classical Grecian people. The development of Classic Greek civilization was observed between 4th and 5th century (Cunningham and Reich, 2005). Roman and Greek civilizations belong to Mediterranean Region but still differ in social aspec ts. Civilizations hold different mythology and live their life in different manner. The outstanding difference is related to progress. Romans failed to make remarkable progress in their era. Greece had begun their development in 5th century BC. On many instances, it is supposed that many of the items utilized by Romans were previously a part of Greek Civilization and Greek invented those items (Freeman, 2004). Civilization believed to divide people in groups. The division of Greek society is categorized in five groups. These groupsââ¬â¢ are women, slaves, medics, free men and in the end citizens. The position of women in Greeks civilization was even below that of a slave. In Romans the status of women is higher as compared to Greeks and give them equal rights of citizens, but still didnââ¬â¢t give them an opportunity to vote or work in offices belonging to political sector. The groups which were found in Roman society were Plebeians, Patricians, Free Men and Slaves (Moore, 200 6). Both civilizations were inspired by architectural techniques. Their building was the sample piece of innovative architecture. In Greek civilization, the style of architecture divides into three major groups. These groups were Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. Romans were motivated as well as inspired by the architecture of Greek building. Romans adopted the architectural style of Greeks; they gave a style of Greek architecture to their building structures. Romans added aqueducts and arches in Greek designs and gave them a new look (Moore, 2006). The common occupation of Greek was considered as agriculture, this occupation employed almost three quarter of people. Greek cape was rocky and mountainous area, giving tough time to famers. They failed to produce enough wheat. Grapes and olives were found in abundant quantity. Roman farmers produced what they needed like furniture, tools and clothing. After some time they started producing more than their requirement and began exporting (Fre eman, 2004). The major gods and goddesses of Greek were Poseidon , Aphrodite, Hera, Hades, Hestia, Apollo, Demeter, Artemis, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Dionysus and Ares. Mostly, different regions worshipped the same gods or goddess. The practice of Greek religion was expanding outside Greece as well to Asia Minor to Magna Graecia. ApolloIn Greek mythology, Demeter is the goddess of the harvest, who presided
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Human Resource Plan in Zeagol Company Ltd Research Paper
Human Resource Plan in Zeagol Company Ltd - Research Paper Example Zeagol Company Ltd was established in 1986 and has been operating in the pharmaceuticals industry since then. This company produces and markets drugs, medicinal chemicals, and other pharmaceutical products to laboratories in the state of California. This company has a comprehensive compensation and benefits package that is aimed at retaining and compensating, its five hundred employee base, which has been responsible for its profitability and growth. This paper designs a project charter to give a face-lift to this compensation and benefits package. Project Charter to Revamp the Compensation and Benefits Package This charter is created to formally authorize a project to develop and implement an upgrade to the existing compensation and benefits package. Included in this charter is a scope statement; a communication plan; and a work breakdown structure. The scope of the Project 1. Background In the past two years this company boasted of having an employee base of seven hundred laborers. This indicates that the number of employees has decreased by nearly twenty-eight percent. One major reason for this decreased number is last yearââ¬â¢s mass layoff that was carried out with an aim of doing away with the irrelevant and needles job positions. In this layoff, several departments were all also merged with an aim of reducing costs. Unfortunately, this layoff plan has not worked to the advantage of this company, since two years down the line this companyââ¬â¢s profits have been declining ever since this mass layoff was carried out. Somehow this layoff plan affected the employees psychologically since the remaining ones either lost the morale to work or resigned for greener pastures. This resignation trend has increased since the beginning of this year, with some of the employees opting to leave unceremoniously without any formal notification. An attempt was made to solve this issue by changing the human resource manager, but this is not enough. It is important to t his company the greener pasture that will attract the best employees in the market, and this can only be done through major changes in the compensation and benefits packages. Currently, this companyââ¬â¢s compensation and benefits package are structured as below, The employeeââ¬â¢s benefits include the pension and retirement plans, life and health insurance packages, and the federally required unemployment and workers compensations. The employee compensation covers the wage and salary program and structure for the different job categories and levels. This companyââ¬â¢s paying method has been conducted in line with the base pay method where employees are compensated depending on their role in the organization (Mathias & Jackson, 2010, p. 27).à Ã
Effects of Managerial Behaviours and Leadership Styles Essay
Effects of Managerial Behaviours and Leadership Styles - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that the evolution of industrialization paved the way for modern management practices and the emphasis shifted from autocratic management to human relations style of management. The human resources, once considered as menial labor earned importance through their inventive and innovative ways. The next phase revolved around establishing efficient processes and systems for gaining an advantage in the market. This practice was followed by the marvels of leadership in the business domain. With time it got apparent that businesses that realized the importance of human resources and their skills grew in size and acquired a competitive advantage in the market. These businesses deliberately designed intrinsic and extrinsic rewards for their employees, in order to keep them motivated and loyal. An inquiry into the research conducted on the subject matter of motivation reveals that employees tend to value intrinsic rewards more while extrinsic ones w ith time became tertiary. Within the scope of intrinsic rewards, the decision-making practices by management and behavior of managers towards employees acquired immense importance. Those managers that can gather their teams under one objective and achieve results were valued, consequently, those who could not motivate their teams became redundant in the modern era. After going through many ups and downs organizations realized that both employeeââ¬â¢s motivation and their sustainability depends on the decision making the ability of power players within the company. A manager or leader is entrusted to keep their subordinates motivated and actively working towards achievement of organizational goals. As a driving force within the organization poor leadership or managerial behavior can result in colossal damages. These damages can range from quantitative damages in form of monetary returns and decreased revenues to qualitative damages such as reputation in the market decreased goodwi ll and demotivated employees. Modern firms realized this threat and consequences of bad decision making; hence as a precaution, these organizations invested heavily in leadership development programs. These programs were geared towards identifying and developing incumbents into future leaders. Those who cannot only motivate their teams towards desired organizational objectives but also have the business acumen that can help them in facing future challenges. Additionally, these organizations refined their decision-making approach and practices such as mentoring; counseling and brainstorming were adopted by these organizations, in order to develop effective leaders who can take timely decisions. With the rise of a knowledge economy, visionary leaders became the scarcest commodity in the marketplace. Regardless of the product, size and prevailing market dynamics, it is proven through many case studies that effective leaders can take organizations to greater heights. These leaders have unique characteristics and attributes while their decision-making style suites the appropriate situation. Organizations these days understand that in todayââ¬â¢s economically fragile and dynamic marketplace, poor decisions made by individuals or appalling attitude towards employees or customers can devastate an organization.
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
US Foreign Policy against Terrorism and How Did This Policy Affect US Essay
US Foreign Policy against Terrorism and How Did This Policy Affect US Relation with Saudi Arabia - Essay Example In the background of the US domestic along with foreign policy, the new buzzword i.e. terrorism is regarded as a new threat, affecting the economy and the overall financial performance of the nation to a significant extent. It can be apparently observed that there prevails a rampant debate amid various scholars and politicians concerning what actually terrorism means. Theoretically, terrorism is fundamentally described as the unlawful executions of violence perform by an individual or a group. After acquiring a brief idea about the buzzword of terrorism, it can be affirmed from a broader outlook that this buzzword is not always restricted towards performing violent activities rather it entails threat of violence. The terrorism related victims are often described as non-combatants or civilians1. While determining the US foreign policy, one can find the aspect of terrorism to be rampantly addressed. It can be stated that the significant concern of international terrorism has long been witnessed as a domestic along with a foreign based security threat. It is worth mentioning that the execution of fatal events relating to September 11th in the US have noticeably re-energised the focus of the US government towards adopting effective policies for combating terrorism. ... With this concern, this essay intends to discuss about the foreign policy of the US against terrorism. Moreover, the essay also highlights how this policy has affected the relation of the US with one of the nations belonging to the Middle East i.e. Saudi Arabia. A Background of the US Foreign Policy against Terrorism With regard to analyse the US foreign policy against terrorism, it can be apparently observed that the past administrations of the US have intended towards adopting along with implementing broad assortment of effective measures in order to combat against various crucial concerns. These concerns comprise international terrorism, global cooperation, diplomacy, financial sanctions, military force, covert action and defensive security measures among others. During that particular time period, the application of sanctions was viewed to be one of the tools, which had been executed by the US policy makers for combating against terrorism. The organisations that were supporting t he aspect of international terrorism were forbidden from availing any kind of support from the US military forces. In general, the anti-terrorism policy of the US from 1970s to the mid period of 1990s focussed upon punishing and deterring particularly the state sponsors, as they countered to terrorist groups themselves. It is worth mentioning in this similar concern that the formation of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 had made a significant shift in the aforesaid policy. The policy shift was mainly performed by the abovementioned Act in terms of banning the funding, granting visas along with other related material support to Foreign Terrorist
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Young People and Politics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words
Young People and Politics - Essay Example With respect to the second one, the electoral numbers of young people is indicative of a comprehensive dissatisfaction that is upsetting the overall British political scenario. The level of non-voting with all qualified adults is in stable decrease for local, common as well as European legislative body voting, and there are deteriorating levels of hope normally within British political establishments, representatives and procedures (Wattenberg, 2011, p. 31). These improvements have brought a few to talk about there being a catastrophe of legality that should be met by plans to boost nationality as well as prompt a strengthened egalitarian society. The Governmentââ¬â¢s plan of legal alteration tries to deal with these concerns regarding nationality and involvement in egalitarian dealings. In a different place, the financial as well as communal research committee has set up a particular research agenda on parliamentary government and contribution to look into such issues. In additio n, the Crick Report thinks about the systems by which young people may expand a commitment with the political procedure, and recommends bringing in constitutional nationality courses into teaching at educational institutions (Buckingham, 2000, p. 42). This paper deals with these issues with respect to young people, and adds to the hypothetical perceptive of political involvement within Britain. Besides, it reviews the growth of innovative proposals planned to make the administrative structure more responsive to youth issues and additionally flexible to support youth involvement within democratic dealings. It is claimed that mutually, these will facilitate to set in the perception that young people have a chance in society in addition to a responsibility to ââ¬Å"play as full citizensâ⬠(Henderson et al, 2010, p. 88). There is rising apprehension between government circles that young people are turning more and more detached from politics as well as the egalitarian structure. C ontemporary opinion is that this improvement ââ¬Å"calls into question the legitimacy of the political system itselfâ⬠(Fahmy, 2006, p. 21) and that it is as well causing the rise of a disappointed as well as reckless youth generation. This is exemplified by their obvious reluctance to follow the regulation, to act by the set of laws, or to provide financial support for the requirements of others. Surely, the pace of voting turnout with young people during latest elections has pursued a stable descending tendency. During the earlier nationwide voting of 2002, merely 59 percent of 18 years to 24 years olds voted in comparison with a common turnout of 82.1 percent. Recently, the second figure was 71 percent, the smallest ballot from the war, with merely 65 percent of an approximate turnout rate for 18 years to 24 years olds of 68 percent (Fahmy, 2006, p. 21). On the other hand, a number of studies have recommended that whereas young people may be less concerned in official polit ics as compared to other (elder) age groups, this sort of a growth is not necessarily predictable, and nor does it hint at a lack of concern in politics as such. Instead, a number of authors have revealed that young people are apprehensive with reference to issues that are political in nature, but that these apprehensions stay further than the limits of how politics is traditionally recognized. As a result, several studies have revealed that this faction do have a high rate of involvement in different types of charitable as well as campaigning movement - the outcomes of which were projected to attain various political as well as communal alteration - without taking into account this step as essentially political. In addition, young people
Monday, September 23, 2019
Preventing of Gouty Arthritis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words
Preventing of Gouty Arthritis - Essay Example This directed the need to study prophylaxis with colchicines for different durations. This article reviews the trial conducted to study different duration of colchicines for preventing recurrence of Gouty arthritis and critique the methodologies used and recommends areas of future research. Colchicine is used for prophylaxis treatment against recurrent attacks of gout. But the most suitable duration of its administration for gouty arthritis needs to be assessed. The researchers in this study have hypothesized three regimens of dosage that can be beneficial to the patients without causing any harm. All patients were treated with allopurinol to lower the level of uric acid stored in the joints and randomly divided into three groups, the dosage of drug was kept constant (1mg/day) in all the groups but the period of treatment differed in every group ranging from 3-6 months (group 1), 7-9 months (group 2),10-12 months (group 3). The study did not include a placebo group. All the groups under study belong to the same age group of people all were in their 50's also since statistics have confirmed for every 7-9 male affected there will be 1 female affected that accounts to be 3% of women, hence few women are included in the study just about 3 % in all groups. The normal upper limit of serum uric acid is 7mg/dl in men and 6 mg/dl in women. A change in uric acid level is one of the predisposing factors for recurrence of acute gouty arthritis hence all the patients selected for the study have a mean uric acid level of 8.5 (mg/dl). For detecting similarity between patients of each group they were divided to two subgroups; with recurrence of arthritis or without any episode of arthritis, and mean level of serum uric acid and age were compared using T-test the difference was insignificant. Thus the researchers have taken care of carefully dividing the groups and the groups are
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Food Test to Determine the Presence of Reducing Sugars and Non-Reducing Sugars Essay Example for Free
Food Test to Determine the Presence of Reducing Sugars and Non-Reducing Sugars Essay Apparatus/Materials: Bunsen burner Solutions A, B, C, D, E, F and G (unknown) Measuring Syringes Stirring Rod Beakers Test tubes (7)plus holder and tray Copper sulphate solution (CuSO4) White dropping ray tripod stand and mesh -stopwatch Biuret? s solution Sodium Hydroxide solution (NaOH) (or Potassium Hydroxide solution) Hydrochloric Acid (HCl) Sodium Hydrogencarbonate (NaHCO3) Iodine Solution(I2) (or Potassium Iodide solution) Ethanol (C2H5OH) distilled water (H2O) Test Method Reducing Sugars 2cm3 of solutions A-G were placed into separate, labelled test tubes using separate measuring syringes. An equal volume (2cm3) of Benedict? s solution was then added to the solutions in the test tubes. The tubes were then gently shaken and placed in a water bath until any possible change in colour was noticed. Observation Inference/Explanation A- changed from a transparent bluish colour to purple. B- changed from a bluish colour to a yellow orange colour from the surface; middle began turning green; then entire solution turned bright orange in colour. C- turned from blue to a dark blue/purple. D- no reaction E- no reaction F- changed from a bluish colour to a yellow orange colour from the surface; middle began turning green;then entire solution turned bright orange in colour. G- no reaction. Benedict? s solution contains copper sulphate. Reducing Sugars reduce soluble blue copper sulphate, containing copper (II) ions (Cu2+) to insoluble red-brown copper oxide containing copper (I). The latter is seen as a precipitate. Therefore, solutions containing reducing sugars were: B and F. Those not containing reducing sugars were: A, C, D, E, and G. Test Method Observation Inference Nonreducing Sugars 2cm3 of solutions A-G were placed into separate, labelled test tubes using separate measuring syringes. 1cm3 of Hydrochloric (HCl) acid was then added to thesolution in the test tubes. The test tubes were placed into the water bath for one minute and were then neutralized with 2cm3 sodium hydrogencarbonate (NaHCO3). The Benedict? s test was then carried out (where an equal volume2cm3 -of Benedict? s solution was then added to the solutions in the test tubes. The tubes were then gently shaken and placed in a water bath until any possible change in colour was noticed. ). A- no reaction B- changed from a bluish colour to a yellow orange colour from the surface; middle began turning green; then entire solution turned bright orange in colour. C- no reaction D-changed from a bluish colourto a yellow orange colour from the surface; middle began turning green; then entire solution turned bright orange in colour. E- no reaction F-changed from a bluish colour to a yellow orange colour from the surface; middle began turning green; then entire solution turned bright orange in colour. G changed from a bluish/ purple colour to a yellow orange colour from the surface; middle began turning green; then entire solution turned bright orange in colour. A disaccharide can be hydrolyzed to its monosaccharide constituents by boiling with dilute hydrochloric acid. Sucrose, for example, is hydrolyzed to glucoseand fructose, both of which are reducing sugars (and would give the reducing sugar result with the Benedict? s test) 2cm3 of solutions A-G were placed into separate, labelled test tubes using separate measuring syringes. An equal volume (2cm3) of sodium hydroxide solution were added to the solutions in the test tubes and mixed. Approximately two drops of Copper Sulphate solution was added and mixed. Observations were recorded. A- changed from a colourless solution to a purple/lilac colour. B- no reactio C-changed from a colourless solution to a purple/lilac colour. D- no reaction E- no reaction, but solution E floated above the added
Saturday, September 21, 2019
Crime and disorder act 1998
Crime and disorder act 1998 The ratio of the case is that within section 28(4) of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 those who are not an immigrant of the country, in other words those who are not of a British origin, do represent a racial group. Section 28(4) of the Act defines the term racial group which includes nationality (including citizenship) and national origins along with race, colour and ethnic origin. The addition of nationality in the Race Relations Act 1976 section 1 subsection (1)(b)(ii) established that discrimination against the non-British was no longer allowed and therefore it didnt matter that the offender hadnt referred to the women as Spaniards, the fact that he mentioned foreigners indicate the non-British and demonstrates racially aggravated discrimination under the 1998 Act. The Court of Appeal addressed the central issue by focusing on the language of section 28 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, which includes the two circumstances under which an action would be considered to be racially aggravated, in subsection 1(a), the meanings of certain words in subsection 1(a), the basis of the offence and the meaning of the term racial group. The first key step in reaching the conclusion was mentioned by Baroness Hale, that the basic offence has been committed and that the offence is either racially or religiously aggravated under section 28 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. The next step towards the reasoning mainly concerns subsection 1(a) which states that before, after or at the time of committing the offence, the offender demonstrates conducts hostility towards the victim which is based on the victims membership or presumed membership of a particular racial or religious group. This subsection is based on an outward manifestation of hostility towards racial or religious groups and that is what the House of Lords (HL) interpreted for this case. The HL then accepted that if the offender had referred to the victims as bloody Spaniards instead of bloody foreigners which were the exact words the offended had used. However according to the 1998 Act the hostility must be shown towards a particular group instead of foreigne rs. Then it has been mentioned that the Act requires to be defined by what it is rather than what it is not. Thus the term Spaniards would be covered in the Act but not the term foreigners which refers to all non-British. Then it was established by the HL that the criterion by which the victims are defined, whether it is defined solely by reference to what the group members are not or broadly by reference to what they are, is the same. Finally the last step towards the final decision of the case was to obtain the answer to the question; whether or not non-British people, those who dont come from a British origin, represent a racial group within section 28(4) of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, to which the answer given was affirmative as it would be had the question been regarding whether foreigners represented a racial group within section 28(4) of the Act. I find the House of Lords decision to be convincing because of the following reasons: The offender has committed an offence and has demonstrated hostility towards the three Spanish women. The evidence for this lies in the fact he then pursued them in a kebab shop in an aggressive manner. The word aggressive is important in this context as it proves that he has shown hostile behaviour towards the three women. According to the facts of the case, after having said bloody foreigners and go back to your own country he then pursued them in a kebab shop in an aggressive manner. This indicates that the offender has committed a racially aggravated crime under section 28 , subsection 1(a) of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 which states that one of the circumstances under which an offence will be considered racially aggravated is if the offender demonstrated hostile behaviour towards the victims any time before, after or at the time of the offence, based on their racial backgrounds. Therefore the use of the word then satisfies this subsection of the 1998 Act because it indicates that he demonstrated hostile behaviour after committing the offence. It has already been proved that the act was racially aggravated and such acts lead to the denial of respect and dignity towards those who are considered as the others. They are never looked upon as part of the community and it is more hurtful to the victims as such conduct is likely to make them feel discriminated due to their racial backgrounds. Baroness Hale referred to the case of Director of Public Prosecutions v M [2004] 1 WLR 2758, where the Divisional Court held that the use of the terms bloody foreigners could portray hostile behaviour towards a racial group, depending on the context. The fact that Baroness Hale referred to this example to back up her opinion makes the final decision more convincing. Baroness Hale also mentioned that in Attorney Generals Reference (No 4 of 2004) [2005] 1 WLR 2810 the CA (Court of Appeal) held that someone who is an immigrant to this country and therefore non-British could be a member of a racial group for this purpose. This statement makes the decision really convincing because it actually states that the three Spanish women, being foreigners and therefore non-British, did constitute a separate racial group and hence the offenders appeal was dismissed. Baroness Hales opinion also includes examples which illustrate a clear distinction between words or phrases which demonstrate hostility towards a racial group and words that only demonstrate hostility towards foreigners only. One such example of this is Wogs begin at Calais which demonstrates hostility towards all foreigners and bloody wogs which is considered to have specific racial connotations. According to an article from telegraph.co.uk , the word wog is a vulgar name for a foreigner. So in other words the term bloody wogs which according to Baroness Hales opinion has racial associations, can also be translated to bloody foreigners. Therefore it shows how the expression bloody foreigners, used by the offender in the case, is a vulgar expression that insulted the three Spanish women. This further makes the House of Lords decision convincing.
Friday, September 20, 2019
Controversial Issues In The Industry Fashion Essay
Controversial Issues In The Industry Fashion Essay Fashion industry is always the topic that draws attention of every people of us at anywhere and anytime. Everyone becomes so familiar with fashion that he or she thinks that fashion is just simply a fashionable and sophisticated style. However, life in a modern community is far more controlled by fashion industry than many people realize; it affects not only clothing, but almost every aspects of our daily life. When many people think of the fashion industry, they often think of the association of four main areas such as: retail, manufacture, design and advertising. They are the four areas that cause not a little damage on our society and environment. Personally, I used to have a very simple and common conception about fashion industry that is merely clothing sales. However, after reading the newspapers and investigating thoroughly about the fashion industry, I was completely taken aback by the opposite sides of it in Australia and other countries. As a result, I came to focus on the effects of fashion industry on society and our environment. I determined my three objectives: How does fashion industry influence on teenagers body image? What are the facts about sweatshops behind the leading designer labels and are sweatshops exploiting or helping outworkers? Is the trend of the fur fashion industry in Australia and other countries ethical or not? (226 words) Section B: ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS I. Objective 1: To find out how fashion industry influences young women body image In fact, fashion industry is such a negative exertion on teenagers standard of beauty that it is now becoming an unsolved dilemma for our society. Sarah Murdoch, the representative of Bonds underwear, is of the opinion that fashion industry encourages unhealthy body images (Dunkerley, 2008) that is thought to be impractical and unhealthy for most women and girls. The fact that most designers prefer to choose thin models than big size ones (Bolger, 2007) shows us an astonishing phenomena that there are a lot of clothes from size 0 to size 4 displayed not only in the fashion shows but also on the sale markets because they think that there will be stigma attached when doing something for plus-size people (Stevens, 2010). Naomi Crafti representing for Eating Disorder Victoria thinks that teenagers are becoming obsessed with the very skinny models on the catwalk in the fashion shows (Stevens, 2010) which gradually leads to the issues relating to eating disorders, mental health and the impact of negative body image on young people (Stevens, 2010). Moreover, the figures of the News Editor show us a startling 75000 cases of 15-35 year-old British women suffering from eating disorder due to being sick of looking like cat models (Cooke 2000, pp 3). It is the evidence that append the controversy over the use of extremely thin models in fashion industry because it reduces the self-esteem of those who do not have ideal bodies and makes them besotted to strive to look exactly like catwalk models. The only way for them to do that is becoming anorexia that will certainly cause suffer drastic weight loss and premature ageing (Cooke 2000, pp. 3). As a result, The Federal Government has supported for the voluntary development of new code of body image from the fashion industry to curtail the situations of teenagers suffering from body image pressures immediately (Kennedy, 2010). Otherwise, there will be widespread unhealthy body images of teens with jutting bones and no breasts of hips in order to fit in dolls clothes in our society seriously (The Sunday Telegraph, 2009). Clearly, the growing obsession with being thin like catwalk is highlighting the risk of young women health and the rise in serious eating disorders. (370 words) II. Objective 2: To discover the facts about sweatshops behind the designer labels and whether they are exploiting workers or not. Fashion industry is thought to abuse workers. Workers in sweatshops have to work frantically in unacceptable working conditions, poor salaries and inhumane treatment. In Australia and other countries, it is reported that the use of outworkers by fashion industry in order to get more profit from cheap labours has been increasing significantly (Sheppard, pp. 20). Through the investigation of the Sunday Telegraph into Sydneys Sweatshop (The Sunday Telegraph, 2009), many uncomfortable facts are clearly discovered that behind some leading designer labels are the sweat and blood of poor workers. Nicola Finetti, Natashan Gan and Ginger Smart are the labels containing 30% Chinese and 70% Vietnamese outworkers who are usually paid between $10 and $35 when completing an article of clothing which will later sold in stores for at least 10 times the price (The Sunday Telegraph, 2009). Yet, workers interviewed for researches indicated that conditions had worsened worse in the past few years. A shortage of work all over the world has left them to have no other choices but to continue the job with poor conditions. One group working in the finishing department of Venus Knitwear in the research of Working Women organisation said they had to work long hours from 7 am until 11 pm (Oxfam 2003) and were even also threatened to be sacked if they refused to do overtime. In addition, many workers have to suffer health issues and may be dismissed for taking time off to see doctors or to recover from sickness. An interviewed worker was said to be deducted two days pay because of being absent one day to go to the doctor (Oxfam 2003). Some also reveals that they had to work in dim light and in condition with no proper ventilation system which had caused headaches, eyes, asthma and respiratory problems (Oxfam 2003). Finally, it is an urgent need that sweat-free labels must be highly appreciated by the manufacturers and consumers in order to create a fair work fair pay environment and to stop exploiting workers rather than practicing fashion industry motto: Winning Profits, Losing Rights (Oxfam 2004, pp. 28). (349 words) III. Objective 3: To consider the trend of the fur fashion industry in Australia and other countries and to see whether it is ethical or not. Fashion industry with talented designers has provided sale markets and consumers with a diversity of fashionable styles to meet the high requirements of our modern life. Furry fashion is now one of the styles coming back with more appealing appearance because of the popular use of real fur (Pepper 2010). Basically, the fur fashion trend was emerged at the Millenniums catwalk showed in Paris with the muttering that fur was definitely back in designers repertories (Cooke 2000, pp.13). Developments in fake fur technology (Cooke 2000, pp. 13) are thought to be partly a possible reason for the return of real fur. Perth label Harmony Lawson which produces garments made only of real fur said that her collections with rabbit and racoon fur have been proved to catch on most women and men and made the markets to desire it crazily (Pepper 2010). In the French designers fall 2008 collection, the models were all covered with wild furs which is embedded with tails, ears, noses and even teeth (ABC, 2008). Also, the fact that racoon, rabbit and fox fur were found in the winter collections of 4 Australian designers last year adds to the controversy about the increasing use of fur in fashion (CCF, 2010). However, a lot of people think that fur fashion trend stinks. It is no longer tolerable when designers have turned back in using real fur for their collections. ADI Chief Executive Creamer said that fashion industry has determined to close their eyes and hearts to the truth about fur production (CCF, 2010). The facts about ripped skin from rabbits bodies and fur taken off from possum, fox, mink, karakul (CCF, 2010) are believed to be inhumane and make those who support for choose cruelty free feel disgusted. Therefore, a lot of campaigns have shown their strong objection to fur fashion industry. Typical example is the top models got naked to encourage the anti-fur campaigns in fashion industry because the unnecessary killing those beautiful animals for coats are cruel and terrible (Cooke 2000, pp. 13). Giving publicity to outrageous collections will make them more successful but fashion industry is hoped to stop all the suffering of millions of animals as soon as possible (Cooke 2000, pp. 13). (371 words)
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Isaac Newton :: Essays Papers
Sir Isaac Newton developed calculus, natural forces, and optics. Newton was born on Christmas Day in 1642. His father had died before he was born, but he was still given his father's name (Westfall 17). Isaac stayed with his grandparents when his mother went to live with her second husband. While living with his grandparents he attended day school nearby (Westfall 17). After his grandmother died and Newton was seventeen, his mother took him out of school and brought him back to the family farm. She tried to teach him how to run the farm and manage the estate; this was a failure. In all of his spare time he returned to inventing and building machines. Newton's uncle and old schoolmaster saw that he was in the wrong trade and urged his mother to prepare him to attend the University. His uncle's efforts paid off; in 1660 he returned to Grantham to finish grammar school and prepare for the university. In June of 1661 Newton entered Trinity College, Cambridge (Westfall 17). At Cambridge Newton studied mathematics. This is when Newton first started to make many discoveries. He made most of his important discoveries there: pure mathematics, theory of gravitation, and optics, all before he even graduated college. Newton made contributions to all branches of mathematics. Modern study of aerodynamics and the science of hydrodynamics would be impossible without the principles of the calculus. Newton wrote Philosophiae Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), which is usually known by the last two words. "In the book Newton codified Galileo's findings into the three laws of motion." (Wilson online). Newton formulated three laws of motion, and resulting from them the law of universal gravitation. His laws of motion are the natural laws of mechanics. Newton's three laws of motion are: 1. The law of Inertia- an object at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. 2. 2nd Law- an unbalanced force applied to an object will result in the acceleration if the object. There was an equation that went along with this law which is F=ma.
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Natural Forces :: essays research papers
Natural Forces à à à à à A natural force is a power brought on by nature. Natural forces, unlike those of other powers, are uncontrollable. When a hurricane passes along the coast, a bolt of lightning strikes a rooftop, and a volcano erupts, these are all examples of natural forces. Natural forces can have devastating effects on wildlife, humans, and the earth itself. Our effects to resist these occurrences, our only way to cope with such devastating forces of nature are to observe, learn, and prepare ourselves for the worst. I believe that almost everyone has had at least one experience with natural forces. My experience of a tremendous force of nature occurred when my mother and I were in a car and all of a sudden a twister passed through the town. à à à à à Towards the end of 1989, my family and I were on vacation in Fort Myers, Florida. We drove from Trenton, New Jersey all the way to Florida where my grandfather lived. It was a long trip to undergo, especially being six years old and knowing that my father never stopped the car. By the time we arrived at Fort Myers, it was a beautiful sunny day. The wind was gusting enough to pull my hair back, and I was admiring the palm trees, coconuts, and lizards near the Gulf of Mexico. The first few days were nice, but little did I know that I would soon be caught in the middle of a twister. à à à à à I can clearly remember being in the car on a humid day with a little overcast. We were driving in the car when all of a sudden the wind started to pick up and it started raining a bit. Within five minutes, the weather progressed and there was so much wind blowing around the car that we could no longer hear the radio. I can remember when I saw a stop sign spinning in circles like a “merry-go-round'; with electrical problems. I do not remember how my mother got us home so quickly and where we were because all around us was a thick gray fog. However, all I can recall from that point on was sitting with my head in my lap in the back seat of the car. I never witnessed the true power of nature until this incident. à à à à à There was definitely a lesson to be learned from my experience that day in the car.
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution Essay
Due Process of the law, a legal principle, is a guaranteed right that was provided to us by the Constitution and it simply means we have protections. These rights that are guaranteed to us are ââ¬Å"life, liberty and property without a chance to defend themâ⬠; some also believe that we also have the right to a ââ¬Å"pursuit of happinessâ⬠. (Bill of Rights). When we think about Due Process we need to think fair process or fair procedures. This practice is known as Procedural Due Process. ââ¬Å"Standing by itself, the phrase ââ¬Å"due processâ⬠would seem to refer solely and simply to procedure, to process in court, and therefore to be so limited that ââ¬Å"due process of the lawâ⬠would be what the legislative branch enacted to beâ⬠(Heritage.org/constitution) . The Fifth Amendment states that we have the right to due process. Which if you are accused of a crime it means that the accusers must show fair and reasonable circumstances. Due process means that you have the rights to show cause and be taken to court swiftly. This process is called an arraignment. This right is one of the guarantees of the Fifth Amendment. The Constitution clearly defined and separated federal and state powers. The Constitution also provides the protection of individual rights which include but are not limited to a trial by jury if it is a criminal case. Because of the fifth and the fourteenth amendment we have certain guaranteed due process of law simply means that we have protection against a chance deprivation of life, liberty or property. The fourteenth amendment is the actual key that opens the door for the federal government to make sure that the states laws are lining up with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The Clause In other words and basically means ââ¬Å"fundamental fairnessâ⬠.(Constitution and the Bill of Rights). The definition of fairness is the condition of being just and impartial. That is what is alluded to and a guaranteed of the federal and state laws and is inclusive. In 1787 a United States Constitution was drafted with a system of checks and balances by the creation of the executive, legislative and federal judicial branches of government. The Framers of the Constitution did not consider it a necessity to include a specific right in the bill of rights. At first when the Bill of Rights was put together it was not inclusive ofà all people. Especially, people of color remembering they were slaves and owned by the framers of the Constitution. It wasnââ¬â¢t until the Civil War was won by the North was the Bill of Rights and the Constitution revised and amendments were added. The thirteenth amendment was the one that made sure that there was no longer slavery. By the end of the eighteenth century, citizens felt that a written constitution was an absolute must. The Constitution was not inclusive of certain rights. ââ¬Å"There was an absence of specific guarantees of individual rights such as the right to free speech, freedom of religion, due process of law, and freedom from governmental search and seizure.â⬠(Legal Dictionary,Due Process). Federalist and Anti-Federalist had very lively debates the Federalist was against and the Anti-Federalist were for the bill of rights. The leader of the Federalist was Alexander Hamilton, he was so opposed to including the bill of rights because he did not see the necessity. The federalist most of them were slave owners there was no need to list specific rights since the national government could execute only the limited powers authorized to it in the Constitution. (Samaha 31-32) The limitation of federal government powers ensured individuals from federal interference. James Madison, convinced the bill of rights was necessary to ensure acceptance of the Constitution, started to draft the original bill of rights. Hurtado v. California was decided in 188, this particular case rejected the idea of due process. This case involved Joseph Hurtado and Jose Estuardo what was so interesting about this case is that these two gentlemen were friend. Jose Hurtado was seeing Joseph Hurtado wife. When he asked him to leave town Hose simply replied that he would. He didnââ¬â¢t leave but continued to see Joseph wife. Joseph responded by shooting him once in the chest, then in the back,(Cortner 1981, 18,19). What makes this case a rejection of the due process is that the state of California refused to follow the process of a grand jury indictment by grand jury review. The prosecutors made the decision to indict Mr. Hurtado. This was a clear violation of the fifth and the fourteenth amendment. They indicted him usingâ⬠charging by informationâ⬠method. A long story short Hurtdo was sentenced to be hung by his neck by the judge. The decision was upheld by the state court. Hurtdo appealed to the United States Supreme Court and they decided to uphold the lower court decision. Their thought was that the state criminal procedure was a local matter andà none of the federal government business. Much to my surprise I thought they would overrule the stateââ¬â¢s decision. This case was a clear violation of Joseph Hurtdo fifth and fourteenth amendment. The Supreme Court ruled in Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 85 S.Ct. 1678, 14 L.Ed.2d 510 (1965) the ââ¬Å"intentâ⬠was to protect certain private areas from governmental interferences. The Supreme Court ruling in the Connecticut statue did prohibit the use of contraceptives was unconstitutional under the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. Individual rights such as the right to marry, the right to choose whether to keep a child or to abort the child,(Roe vs. Wade), is the choice of the individual and not the government. Another case that I want to discuss is the Scottsboro Boys whose rights were taken advantage of. They were people of color who were accused of throwing so white boys off the train and also accused of raping two white girls. There were nine of them one was only twelve, another was blind in one eye and only had ten percent vision in the other eye. These gentlemen were tried and convicted to death by electrocution. There was popular support for the Scottsboro boys. A long story short it was ruled that denying a right in the Bill of Rights violates fundamental principles of liberty and justice which lie at the base of all our civil and political institutionsâ⬠(Samah,33) It embraced within the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.â⬠I think that it is so important that the fore fathers of our country put in place the Fifth Amendment and the fourteenth amendment guarantee us due process. Due process helps the citizens of the United States from being taken advantage of. By that I mean that the courts would do what they willed against the constituents of the United States, especially people of color. Due process helps to protect a person against unfair and false accusations. Federalist Paper: Federalist No. 84. New York: McLeanââ¬â¢s Edition, 1787. Criminal Procedure: The meaning of Due Process
Monday, September 16, 2019
Choir
Frisco High 2009 Coffeehouse: A Night in Manhattan The director of the Frisco High choir is Tracy Bradstreet. During the performance, I didnââ¬â¢t see her direct the choir while they were singing. All the songs were in English. The whole performance was a Broadway theme. The choir overall was really good; the acting was nice. Although, the guys need to project their voices more. Theyââ¬â¢re too quiet and too shy!! I think that everyone needs to open their mouths more wide so we can actually understand what theyââ¬â¢re saying.During the concert, there were a lot of solo performances. In the song Vanilla Ice Cream from She Loves Me, Elison Willis was the soloist. She was awesome, and so was Kenneth West when he sang A Heart Full Of Love from Les Miserables along with Allison Behne and Rebecca Carrington. Allison Behne sang On My Own from Les Miserables. I absolutely love her voice. Her vibrato is awesome! She canââ¬â¢t really sing the high notes though. Bring Him Home from Les Miserables was sung by Alex Nelson. At the beginning of the song, he looked kind of scared.Although, he has a nice voice, very strong; great vibrato. L. O. V. E. was performed by Shachi Merchant. His dance was awesome! But he needs to sing louder; I could barely hear him even with the microphone. Heather Caton sang Part of Your World from The Little Mermaid. She was a little late for some parts; slow and fast here and there. I kind of heard a few flats. The ending was good, though. Pioneer Heritage Middle School Show Choir sang a song called It Donââ¬â¢t Mean a Thing If It Ainââ¬â¢t Got That Swing.The guys (even though there was only three of them, all the more reason) need to sing louder!! They got to project their voice more. Half of the time, they sang faster than what the CD played. Near the end of the first Act, the Frisco choir sang a medley of Wicked the Broadway musical. All choirs (excluding PHMS) sang No One Mourns the Wicked. One word: wow. They sound so totally awesome when they all sing together! The guys could still sing a little louder though. Next, two girls (Meghan Horstdaniel and Nicole Hathaway) sang What Is This Feeling.They need to add more feeling into that song because during that song, Elphaba and Galinda show how much they loathe each other. It felt like Meghan and Nicole didnââ¬â¢t add a lot of hatred towards their enemy character. In the song Popular, Ashley Romo was the soloist. She had a really pretty voice. But the choir sang too fast when they sang ââ¬Å"youâ⬠¦willâ⬠¦beâ⬠¦Ã¢â¬ It just didnââ¬â¢t match the music. Dancing Through Life had two soloists: Taylor Duke and Frank Rosamond. Frank was really good with his solo.On the other hand, Taylor was okay. The choir rocked hard, though. Plus their dancing. Choir sang the song For Good and it was totally awesome! The last song they sang before intermission was Defying Gravity. The soloist, Jourdan Kolb had a pretty voice! Choir was great, once again and the ending of the song was magnifique! I wasnââ¬â¢t able to stay for the whole concert; just only the first Act. Overall though, Act I was really funny. They had cool props, but too many feedbacks with the microphone. They need to fix that.
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Children Donââ¬â¢t Need To Learn More Languages Essay
With technology progress advances communication between foreign countries. Nowadays everybody has to know english, because itââ¬â¢s some kind of international language. And itââ¬â¢s recommended to know some other languages: french, german, chineese as example. But our children donââ¬â¢t need to learn more languages in the future. Why? We will find the answer from the text below. Some people say: ââ¬Å"_Those who know many languages live as many lives as the languages they know_â⬠. Itââ¬â¢s obvious that itââ¬â¢s silly to argue with this statement. Itââ¬â¢s really necessary, because language is the soul of intellect. But people are very slothful. And we know, that progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things. Nowadays we have electronic dictionaries in our smartphones, some of them have voice recognition. Who could imagine that ten years ago? And who can imagine, what will we have in ten years? I will try. Everybody has installed dictionary in his gadget: phone, PC, Tablet PC, even in clocks. And this dictionary can translate all languages, even unimportant, like languages of small african villages. All the devices have voice recognition, so you donââ¬â¢t need type text. And they can translate not only words, but phrases, sentences and even texts. But people learn languages, because you donââ¬â¢t use dictionary while having conversation. Though in other 10 years mankind will get rid of this problem. Everybody will have small ear-device, which will translate all the words, all the languages, all the accents. People will just hear some echo of people, and the main thing ââ¬â they will hear the translation instantly. Nowadays such devises are used on international meetings, political conventions. But they are far from perfect, there areà still little mistakes, so programmers need some time to do ideal ear-translator. There are a lot of words, which have several meanings. As example phrasal verbs: ââ¬Å"callâ⬠, ââ¬Å"runâ⬠. Or such words like ââ¬Ëbreakâ⬠, ââ¬Å"likeâ⬠. How computer will distinguish such words? Computers become better and better, their power and capacity increases every day. Nowadays computers can analyse information and change itââ¬â¢s own algorithm. In the near future such computers will be open to general use. And computer will see, what words people use, and use the most appropriate words. Somebody can say, that computer is just a programm, script. And you must have intellect and mind to translate languages, that computer will never replace human. But who could imagine robots, playing the piano and violin? Who could imagine planes without pilots and cars without drivers? Artificial Intelligence becomes more intelligent, more smart. So electronic dictionaries are really possible to supplant interpreters. However US author Elbert Hubbard said: _â⬠One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary manâ⬠_, thatââ¬â¢s why there will be several linguistic scientists who will translate books, but all the world will use digital translators. But there is another scenario of world evolution. Nowadays all international political meetings are held in english, a lot of computer programms are written in english. There are several companies in Moscow and some other big russian cities, where all the stuff speaks on english. New generation use english more and more often. Sometimes it seems, that they know english better, than russian. So, english becomes international language. In this way, do we need other languages? Of course, people will speak their native language, and english will be the secondary one, for international communication. It will be enough to have a good command of just two languages (three or four in some countries like Austria). So we can draw a conclusion: thanks to technological progress we and our children have no need to learn more languages in the future. We will learnà only two languages, our native and international one. Everything else computers will assume.
Saturday, September 14, 2019
Benjamin Franklins Poetry Essay
This is a research paper which I shall analyze on the comparison of Benjamin Franklins thoughts and Ideals on remarks concerning the Savages of North America and The Way to Wealth. Benjamin Franklins (1706-1790) who was a renowned founder father of the United States, he participated in its development as a philosopher, scientist, publisher and a leading writer who is important in the history of American history. He wrote a lot of literature materials which are of essence even today and they are used in most analysis of human development and livelihood. He is credited for being the founder of the American character and values he participated by enlightening people the importance of education, community service and hard work so that they would be able to develop themselves. He also emphasized on building self governing institutions which are not authoritative but those which shows sense of leadership to prosperity of the Americans. In this research paper I shall compare and contrast his writing in The Way to Wealth which is also know as Father Abrahams Sermon which he wrote in 1758 and Savages of North America which he wrote in 1784. The write up of The Way to Wealth had its theme based on frugality and work ethics. While, Savages of North America is a narration whose theme is based on the difference between the civilized North American society and the Indians who were referred to as uncivilized. According to Wohlpart (1996) the American Citizens were much concerned about being heavily taxed by the government and they requested Benjamin response which they awaited eagerly. To their surprise Benjamin spoke his mind to address on how they would be able to elevate themselves from poverty and make better use of the idle time they had. He notified them that they are taxed thrice by their pride, thrice by their idleness and four times by their folly and there was need to change how they operated. He told them ââ¬Å"God helps them that help themselvesâ⬠and therefore they must do something meaningful to alleviate themselves from poverty. He let them know that those people who love life they do not squander time for it is what life is made of. He challenged them for long hours which they spend asleep knowing very well that sleeping fox does not catch poultry. He told them ââ¬Å"Time is moneyâ⬠and ââ¬Å"lost time is never found againâ⬠therefore it was important to use every time one has at their disposal. He as well advised them it is only being early to bed and early to rise up which makes on wealthy and they should not tolerate laziness as it travels very slow therefore being overtaken by poverty. He wrote that ââ¬Å"There are no gains, without painsâ⬠so they should not hope and wish for better times because those who live hoping shall die fasting. Those who have trade they have estates while those who have offices they make profits and the must work on them so that they would productive enough to pay their taxes and have enough to develop their lives. He assured the Americans that if at all they are industrious they will never starve as he told them ââ¬Å"diligence is the mother of good lackâ⬠. He emphasized that one should do what is possible today without postponing it tomorrow because ââ¬Å"one today is worth two tomorrowsâ⬠and any delay will just result to things being pilled up undone the following day (Wohlpart, 1996). The reason why they should take his advice serious is because there is a lot which they needed to do for themselves, their country and families and this would only have been achieved by working hard and being not idle. He encouraged each of them to be their own masters and they should not get themselves idle as no one would wish to be found idle by their master. He made them understand that leisure is not idleness but a time when one does meaningful things he wrote ââ¬Å"A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two thingsâ⬠signifying that they should as well take the time which they refer as leisure very important and do something useful but not squander what they have labored for long and tirelessly. In his writings ââ¬Å"Get what you can, and what you get holdâ⬠he meant that most of the time gains are quit uncertain and temperately and they should be well guarded because as he advised them that it is much better to ââ¬Å"go to bed supper-less than to rise in debtâ⬠. This was meant to encourage them to live within their means and take charge of their wealth. Benjamin in his write up Salvages on North America which compared North Americans societies which he referred to as civilized and the Indians who were uncivilized. He presented it in using the incident of the treaty of Lancer which the governor of Pennsylvania presented an idea of taking the responsibility to provide all the comfort of the young Indians who will be sent to colleges (Lemay 2000). Benjamin shows on how the native population of the Indian Taught the North Americans about cultural relativism. By understanding that different nations usually have different conception, he wrote that the Indians when they are young they are warriors and hunters and when they grow up they are counselors. While, the women nurses and bring up their children and till they ground for food, it is also their responsibility to preserve public transactions which they pass over to the next generation through oral teachings. According to Lemay (2000) this form of employment which was much more natural was quit different on with the formalized civilization in the Northern America where there is government for the purpose of legislations and maintenance of order and a favorable environment for businesses to thrive. The life styles also necessitate it to have prisons, and officers who use force to compel obedience among the citizens. This is because civilizations come along with complexity in management and administration of the society that why they need established systems to take control of. The Indians although their youths are proposed to be trained in the white college and their payments be met by Government of Virginia they claim it would be of no use because after the training they will not be of any use at their home country. Because livelihood in India was done by being a warrior or hunter for men and taking care of children and subsistence cultivation by ladies which was not being addressed by the formal leaning of science and other studies which they were being taught. Indians are much polite and when they held their public councils they were much orderly and respected each others idea and they did not disrupt one another. Interruptions even when one is conversing with one another are regarded as being highly indecent, because their presentations were not written and any disruptions would interfere with the string of thoughts which would lead to forget what one intended to deliver. Benjamin compared on how disorderly and disrespectful the British House of commons is which there are frequent confusion as participants keeps on interrupting each other and the speaker has to intervene to maintain orderliness (Lemay 2000). This shows on how he was fascinated by the power of oral culture which was passed over generations orally by the six nations in India which is orderly as compared to the chaotic disrespectful discussions by so known civilized nations. The Indians had a lot of civility as compared to the citizens of North America; the Indians were hospitable to the Americans when they visit them. They are taken care of without pay but when Indians visits them they do pay for every thing which they spent. Benjamin in his write-up he shows on how churches would be seen as sinister places by on lookers that they are not meant for those who go there to be taught good things but places where business men congregate to set prices against the native traders. This is because the white settlers are seen being more cruel and rude by the Indians in their way of life and that the reason why they meet every other seventh day. The main concept of this write-up Benjamin was trying to show the different of the civilized and uncivilized societies. This proves that acceptance and demand of equality among different people had a long way to go because they are in different regions which has different needs to support their livelihood. Therefore its importance for each societal setup to adhere to their norms and practice which supports their unity and development in what they participate together (Baym, 1998). The main concern of the American was on how they would be able to establish industrialization to meet their rising cost of living and be able to pay tax while the Indians concern is on how one would be a good worrier and counselor when aged. This shows on how human kind should be able to use the resources at their disposal to better their livelihood. Work cited Baym, Nina. The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Beginnings to 1875. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. 1998 Lemay, Leo. Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America. 2000 Wohlpart, Jim. Benjamin Franklinââ¬â¢s ââ¬Å"The Way to Wealthâ⬠. University of South Florida in Fort Myers. 1996 >
Friday, September 13, 2019
Explain the differences in similarities between french regional Essay
Explain the differences in similarities between french regional geography and the development of cultural landscape geography under the influence of carl sauer - Essay Example His argument that ââ¬Ëhuman cultural actionââ¬â¢ that shapes the visible features of earthââ¬â¢s surface through culture remains unquestioned. He said, culture provokes action, responses and adaptation by humans. ââ¬Å"Culture is the agent, the natural area is the medium, the cultural landscape is the result. Under the influence of a given culture, itself changing through time, the landscape undergoes development, passing through phases, and probably reaching ultimately the end of its cycle of development. With the introduction of a different ââ¬â that is an alien ââ¬â culture, a rejuvenation of the cultural landscape sets in, or a new landscape is superimposed on remnants of an older one,â⬠Sauer (1925), The Morphology of Landscape.â⬠University of California Publications. French regional geography was the effect of external forces taking place in other spheres of France. As Sauer argued, French regional geography, like any other part of the world, showed every sign, every scar and mark of history and culture on it. The static growth of the rural areas during the long rule of monarchy, the chaos and the horrifying bloodshed during French Revolution, impact of Napoleonic wars and aftermath, success over the vast oceans, usurping new colonies and competing to retain them, struggling for supremacy amongst other European powers, wars faced by France, the various political, cultural, military, historical and economic upheavals of the country are etched on the French landscape over centuries. Sauer says (Northern Mists) that France lost most of her ports and her north and southwest regions were ravaged during the war of hundred years. Napoleonââ¬â¢s wars had left bitter memories in both France and Britain. The countryââ¬â¢s culture altered after Frenc h revolution, and so did the French landscape. Newly attained colonies had left far reaching impacts on European nations. Use of
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Google Launches Cloud Storage Nearline Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words
Google Launches Cloud Storage Nearline - Essay Example The targets are the users of Google Cloud Platform and those using storage solutions of dataââ¬â¢s brand name to perform backups. It is also an alternative to enterprises with in-house storage systems, or store user data using startups with mobile applications. NetApp, Geminare, Iron Mountain and Symantec enterprises, providers of storage systems, have collaborated with Google to incorporate Nearline in their products (Burnett, 2011). The data is saved in multiple locations such that even if one location goes offline the data remains intact for accessibility. Application Programming Interface (API) accesses the stored data using a data communications method known as Representational State Transfer (REST) that is understood by many developers. In the field of business/commerce, customers are able to enjoy the cheaper storage rate at rest of one cent per gigabyte to store infrequently accessed data, and to access the same faster on demand, which is critical in acquiring market intelligence and conducting analysis. A retailer in a bid to push a promotion might also want to pull out historical information. For the enterprises already using other storage and backup companies, migration pains have being eased through the partnership of several companies and Google, streamlining of customersââ¬â¢ moves to Nearline thus enlargement of market portfolio. The business/commerce ecosystem has been expanded, as user dependence on Googleââ¬â¢s search engine will exploit home delivery services, advertising, app stores, digital media services and mobile payment platforms. Enterprise initiatives like ââ¬Å"Chrome books for workâ⬠and ââ¬Å"Android for Workâ⬠are being complemented as Nearline is helping Google to tap int o ââ¬Å"hybridâ⬠cloud while using APIs as hooks to tether businesses to its productivity apps (Jennings, 2009). Google Cloud Storage Nearline will influence positively on the way businesses interact with
Thomas Paine's theory (in Common Sense) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words
Thomas Paine's theory (in Common Sense) - Essay Example Conversely, the government refers to an institution with a sole purpose of protecting the people from their own vices. The originality of the government can be traced to manââ¬â¢s evil. In this case, government is a needed evil to man. Apparently, the sole purpose of the government is the protection of life, property and liberty. Therefore, the judgment to a government should be based on its ability to fulfill this goal (Wilensky, 2010). Paine uses several imageries to pass his point. He considers a scenario in which some people are isolated in some island from where they are very detached from the rest of the rest of the society. With time with people will have to develop relations with one another and make laws that govern them. According to Paine, when persons are allowed to make their own laws, they will become much better off. This is because they pride of assuming responsibilities for the creation of their laws. He sees this as the best way for the American colonists to use. Therefore, the British reign over America and the whole system of government of Britain is a total flaw. The system used by the British to run their government is full of complexities and contradictions. Although, it claims to provide a reason system of the government, the British system is impractically wrong (Paine, 1995). Paine is also concerned with hereditary succession and monarchy notions. Naturally, man was born as equals and therefore such distinctions that occur between a king and a subject are unnatural. Although the world was created without kings, the ancient Jews insisted to have a king. Paine argues that God did not approve to this but just allowed them to have kings. Later on, God descended his wrath on the Jews because of their insistence on having a king. Paine therefore opines that monarchy as an institution has its origin from sin that is condemned by both the Bible and God. He goes ahead to condemn hereditary succession by arguing that even with the decision of having a king, the child of the king has no legitimate authority of becoming a future ruler. Hereditary progression has been a source of many evils like civil war, incompetent kings and corruption. Theoretically, America has thrived under the British rule. This makes them mandated to be under the rule of a king. However, the practical reality is that America has since evolved and no longer needs help from the British. Therefore, the claim that Britain protected America and should automatically seek allegiance is false since its mission is majorly to protect its economic interests. In most of Britainââ¬â¢s colonies, the British have been carrying out several attacks. Consequently, they do not deserve any loyalty from America. These attacks leave so little gains to the colonies. According to Paine, America or any other British colony can better do commerce with other countries in the rest of Europe. However, this will require that America first becomes independent. Past problems c annot be solved if colonies continue with their attachments to Britain. The only solution now for America and other British colonies is to seek independence. Otherwise, their problems will continue to persist (Paine & Slaughter, Common Sense and Related Writings, 2001). As a solution to this kind of mess, Paine offered to provide the form of government that can be adapted by
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Measuring Employee Performance - Part II Assignment
Measuring Employee Performance - Part II - Assignment Example anwhile as a public health facility, I opine that some of the goals, particularly on communication could have been made to include the provision of communicative roles to external stakeholders such as customers. As Aguinis (2013) noted, any true performance outcome should have the ability of reflecting the overall organizational culture, which I believe includes customer satisfaction. I like your post for two major reasons. First, you rightly appreciate the need for job description to be made in line with the organizationââ¬â¢s overall mission, vision, goals and strategiesâ⬠(Aguinis, 2013). Then leading up from this, you went ahead to set five metric goals which contain performance outcomes for both internal work output and external wok output. For example internally, you appreciated the need to establish effective HR programs whiles externally, you touched on maintaining good customer service. In my opinion, this approach ensures that the new employee will not only focus on the most immediate performance related attitudes that will be seen at the workplace. Rather, the employee will see a bigger performance responsibility that includes external stakeholders and thus put in more efforts to
Tuesday, September 10, 2019
Eassy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1
Eassy - Essay Example Globalization has significantly changed the dynamics of social structure and provided it with socio-cultural diversity that is indeed diverse in its application of ideas, ideologies and competencies across people coming from different race, culture, color and nationality. In such conditions, the role of HRM is crucial in creating a diverse workforce whose competencies are judiciously exploited for increasing organizational productivity (Gillham, Wood & Somerville, 2007). Indeed, in the transforming societal norms, cultural competencies can provide the organizations with unique competitive advantage that would be difficult to imitate. Thus, treating workforce as human capital is not only desirable but also essential in the changing environment of high competition. Moreover, environmental changes like globalization and technology are also intrinsically linked to other paradigms of business which have considerable impact on the overall performance of the firm. Computer and internet have redefined communication and provided people with huge entrepreneurial opportunities to expand their business across globe. They have diminished the geographical distances and increased the challenges for HRM. The job specifications have become more stringent and jobs less secure due to new trends of outsourcing in non-core areas of business. HRââ¬â¢s contribution to the human capabilities through training and development become vital facilitator of motivated workforce that generates job security and inculcates higher sense of self-worth (Zapata-Cantu et al., 2007). HRM is also responsible for creating an organizational culture that highlights cross cultural understanding, mutual respect, shared goals and strong teamwork. This is important in current times as diversity in workforce necessitates understanding of cross cultural values to inculcate mutual respect and strengthen teamwork
Monday, September 9, 2019
Overview of Accounting Analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Overview of Accounting Analysis - Assignment Example 52). Hence, admission of SEC and FASB standards will help in reducing corporate managers from providing unrealistic information and transaction within and outside the firm. Therefore, elimination of FASB standards and SEC will only increase the chances of corporate managers to provide unrealistic information about the firms; hence, I disagree with Billââ¬â¢s idea. 2- Many firms recognize revenues at the point of shipment. This provides an incentive to accelerate revenues by shipping goods at the end of the quarter. Consider two companies, one of which ships its product evenly throughout the quarter, and the second of which ships all its products in the last two weeks of the quarter. Each companyââ¬â¢s customers pay thirty days after receiving shipment. Using accounting ratios, how can you distinguish these companies? It should be noted that these two companies have no difference in their income statements; hence, they are all considered to have the same expense and revenue amounts. Nonetheless, they have different balance sheets. However, assuming that all other factors are the same, the company with even sales of products will have higher cash and receivable balance accounts at the end of the quarter compared to company that ships all its products within the last two weeks. Nonetheless, below accounting ratios will be appropriate in differentiating the two companies (Palepu and Healy Pg. 167): This will increase the estimated depreciable life of assets. In this case, the corporate managers may decide to increase the depreciable estimated life of the assets especially when they realize that their assets are likely to last in the market than was predicted initially. It may lead to a decrease in uncollectible allowances with the gross receivable percentages. The changes in the customer focus to the firm may make the managers to reduce
Sunday, September 8, 2019
Selection Procedure for the Post of Senior Receptionist Essay
Selection Procedure for the Post of Senior Receptionist - Essay Example The researcher of this essay focuses on analyzing and presenting of the selection procedure of a staff on a position of the Post of Senior Receptionist, that is a tedious task and requires proper planning for the human resources managers. The researcher states that if the selection process in not planned well, discrepancies can occur in the quality of the candidate selected, which can lead to difficulties in the working nature of the health centre. The researcher continues with following statement: ââ¬Å"Hiring the right employee is a challenging process. Hiring the wrong employee is expensive, costly to your work environment and time consumingâ⬠. The researcher then suggests and presents the selection procedure that concluds nine stages. Firstly, the head of the Corniche health centre should decide how many stages of assessment will be included and the number of applicants arriving for each stage. The researcher then analyzes eight other stages and concluds that the applicatio ns should be treated with confidentiality, so that further enquiries on them are dealt with ease and promptness. The interview structure was also discussed in details as well and was classified in four different steps, such as introduction, gathering of evidence part, questioning and commenting part and closing session stage. In conclusion, the researcher suggests his recommendations on the topic of human resource management and pesents eight questions to be asked the candidates for the Post of Senior Receptionist position.
Saturday, September 7, 2019
Target plc Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words
Target plc - Assignment Example The study provides the details financial analysis of the company. In the case study the financial and operational evaluation of the company in questions has been undertaken. For the purpose of operational capability of the company, its corporate strategy has been analyzed in addition to the competitive environment and other risks to which it is being exposed. Target Plc is not a new name in the retail, food and ingredients industry and is considered analogous to quality and premium branding. The company is a diversified conglomerate having five major strategic segments which are sugar, agriculture, retail, grocery and ingredients. As per the latest financial statements of the company for the annual year 2012, the company is operating in almost all of the major cities of the United States. The vision and mission statement of the company is to achieve strong leadership in the course of business which is sustainable and long lasting. The company always strives to provide quality product s to the individuals and other consumers and to become a necessary brand in the peopleââ¬â¢s day to day active life. Financial Highlight [Annual report Target, 2012 , Pg2] As apparent form the above financial highlight, the company presents a strong financial outlook and appears to be a lucrative company for the investors to invest in. The company has various revenue centers through which the company generates most of its revenues. During the financial year 2012, the highest earning revenue center for the company was heath, beauty and households which constituted about 25% of the total revenue of the company. Corporate Strategy Target Plc is now actively involved in acquiring new stores in order to capture a significant market share in the industry. Currently the company is facing tough competition in the market as new entrants are entering in the market and taking advantage of the new and improved industry state. The company current corporate strategy is to refurbish the acquire d stores and outlets so that they have fashionable, modern and attractive presented stores located in prime locations all across the region. The primary capital expenditure of the company consists of extending its stores portfolio. Competitive Analysis In order to analyze the financial outlook of a company, it is of prime importance that the cost leadership and differentiation strategies of the company are analyzed. In addition, the best method to assess the competitive advantage is through porterââ¬â¢s five forces model. The major competitors of Target Plc are as follows: Wal-Mart Stores Kmart Corporation Costco Wholesale Corporation Competitive Advantage Porterââ¬â¢s five forces model is an effective tool in exploring the competitive forces of the environment in which the organization operates. It allows the business to critically analyze its current business strategy and formulate one which can allow it to achieve a competitive position in the market. With the advancement i n Information Technology, it has been prominently observed that the businesses are now focusing more and more on implementing information system in order to make the best use of their resources. In the mentioned case, Target Corporation has several functional units carrying out activities related to the manufacturing and delivering of Sports merchandise. By integrating these units using information system, Target Corporation can gain competitive advantage in the market which can by analyzed in the light of Porterââ¬â¢s five forces model. The first competitive force according to the model is the entry of new competitors into the market. New entrants might be able to capture some of the market
Friday, September 6, 2019
The Role of the American Soldier Essay Example for Free
The Role of the American Soldier Essay We live in a very conflicted world today. Billions of people live in poverty, and war is a reality for everyone. However, there is still hope for freedom and a decent quality of life for all people. The American soldiers are the people responsible for protecting and promoting these ideals. While they dont make the executive military decisions, its their loyalty and dedication towards spreading and protecting democracy and freedom that gives them the ability to do their job exceedingly well. One of the first things that make the American soldiers so good at their jobs is their belief in America. Soldiers are some of the most patriotic Americans because they believe so strongly in American ideals. I think that becoming a soldier and fighting for your country truly allows you to fully comprehend what your country is all about. American soldiers understand and believe in America, and this drives them to do their job and if necessary, die for their country. The United States of America is the worlds leading superpower, so why should we care about the rest of the world? It is because we have a moral obligation to not only protect ourselves, but to help protect innocent people around the globe from evil and tyranny. It is the responsibility of the American soldiers to fight for justice and to keep evil from harming our world. Overall, they are fighting to keep peace, whether its defending an attack or eliminating a threat. In 2003, the staff of Time Magazine did something that they had never done before. They didnt give the Person of The Year award to a single individual, but instead to a whole group of people, the common American soldiers. I understand why they made that decision. The American soldiers are dedicated to protecting America and making the world a better place. They believe so strongly in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that they will die fighting for these ideals. This dedication to their country and beliefs allows them to play a key role in making a better future for humanity.
Thursday, September 5, 2019
The inter relationship between firm growth and profitability
The inter relationship between firm growth and profitability Abstract There is a widespread presumption that there is a close relationship between firm growth and firm profitability. However, most of the past studies on firm growth and profitability have been conducted without mutual associations. Only a few studies, thus far, have examined the inter-relationship between firm growth and profitability and the results have been inconsistent. The reason for the inconsistency is mainly due to the lag structure of the models in each study. To address the issue, this study conducted panel unit-root tests on firm growth and profitability separately and then made appropriate models using dynamic panel system GMM estimators. Through the analyses of the models, this study found that in restaurant firms the prior years profitability had a positive effect on the growth rate of the current year, but the current and prior years growth rates had a negative effect on the current years profitability. This outcome implies that profit creates growth but the growth impede s profitability in the restaurant industry. More implications are also discussed in this paper. Keywords: Firm growth; Profitability; Panel unit-root test; Dynamic panel system GMM 1. Introduction The dynamics of firm growth and profitability (or profit rate) is an important issue for industrial practitioners as well as academic researchers (Goddard, McMillan and Wilson, 2006). Theoretically, if firm growth rate is unrelated to firm size and prior growth rate, then firm growth follows random walk and the variance of firm size can increase indefinitely. This is known as the Law of Proportionate Effect (LPE). This stochastic growth process implies unlimited industry growth in the long run. However, if growth rate is inversely related to firm size, firm growth would converge in the long run. On the other hand, Mueller (1977) claimed that firm profitability converges at a certain level due to market competition, which is referred to as Persistence of Profit (POP). The POP literature argues that firm entry and exit are sufficiently free to quickly eliminate any abnormal profit and that the profitability of all firms tends to converge toward the long-run average value. However, Goddard, Molyneux and Wilson (2004) stated, even though it is generally presumed that firm growth and profitability effect each other, that firm growth and profitability are not necessarily connected. Overall, the impact and direction of this relationship remains ambiguous. The ambiguity is associated with various econometric issues. First, due to the endogeneity it is difficult to capture a clear causality and direction between them. Further, if firm growth and profitability time lags are incorporated into the models the endogenous relationship becomes more complicated due to the unknown effects of different time lags. Recently, there have been a couple of attempts to investigate the inter-relationship between firm growth and profitability (Coad, 2007; Davidsson, Steffens, and Fitzsimmons, 2009). Although it is worth exploring the relationship, the results of the studies turned out to be inconsistent. In the previous studies, two types of methodologies were used: panel unit-root test and dynamic panel system GMM estimator. The panel unit-root test is appropriate for testing the convergence hypotheses of firm growth and profit rates. It is also useful for finding the significance of the lag term in a simple autoregressive model, but it is difficult to control the endogenous effect in the model. Moreover, the panel unit-root test cannot directly examine the inter-relationship between firm growth and profitability. Dynamic panel system GMM estimator can control for endogeneity and test the inter-relationship, but determining the number of lag terms remains ambiguous. Thus, in order to address the analysis problems in the previous literature, we first employed the panel unit-root test and subsequently made a testable model for the dynamic panel system GMM estimator. Through those analyses, we intended to investigate the inter-relationship between firm growth and profitability under various time lags. More specifically, the objectives of this study were: 1) to examine the panel unit-root test on the series of firm growth and profitability separately and to find an appropriate lag structure; and 2) to make an appropriate model to investigate the inter-relationship between them through a vector autoregression (VAR) model via dynamic panel system GMM estimator. We used restaurant firms for the study sample and, thus, the results are useful for understanding the dynamics of firm growth and profitability in the restaurant industry. In the following section, we summarize prior LPE and POP literature and present the potential inter-relationships between firm growth and profitability. Next section outlines the details of the study methodology. The following section shows the results of panel unit-root test and dynamic panel system GMM regarding the inter-relationship between firm growth and profitability. Finally, we conclude this study with managerial implications and suggestions for further studies. 2. Literature Review 2.1. Law of Proportionate Effect (LPE) and Persistence Of Profit (POP) The notion that firm growth rate is independent of firm size and past growth rate is known as the Law of Proportionate Effect (LPE) (Gibrat, 1931). According to the LPE, firm growth happens by chance and thus past growth is not a reliable predictor of future firm growth (Goddard et al., 2006). Hence, deterministic factors of firm growth (i.e., managerial capacity, innovation and efficiency) are randomly distributed across firms. However, recent empirical studies have claimed that there is an inverse relationship between firm growth and firm size, rejecting the LPE (Hall, 1987; Evans, 1987; Dunne and Huges, 1994; Geroski and Gugler, 2004). Most empirical studies of LPE used cross-sectional regression models through a simple autoregressive model (for example, AR(1)), but the models were criticized due to their arbitrariness in choosing lag terms. Recently, Chen and Lu (2003) and Goddard et al. (2006) tested the LPE using panel unit-root models because the LPE assumes non-stationarity i n the time series analysis. The benefit of the panel unit-root test on LPE lies in its ability to test a long series effect in non-stationarity, while the weakness of the test is its inability to include control variables that may affect firm growth (i.e., prior profitability, leverage, and market competition). Conversely, researchers on persistence of profit (POP) argue that firm profitability converges at a certain level across all firms and no firms could achieve an above average profit rate in the long run. Mueller (1977) developed the deterministic time-series model for testing the POP and subsequently (Mueller 1986) demonstrated profit rate convergence through an autoregressive model. Since Mueller (1986), most studies on POP have adopted the autoregressive model. However, Goddard et al. (2006) stated that the typical methodology for POP estimated individual effects and autoregressive coefficients for each firm, so the estimated coefficients were often unreliable and the testing power was low. Hence, Goddard et al. (2006) tested the profit rate convergence hypothesis using a panel unit-root test in order to find the stationarity in a profit rate time series. 2.2. The inter-relationship between firm growth rate and profitability (or profit rate) As noted earlier, it is widely believed that firm growth and profit rates are related to each other (Goddard et al., 2004). Some prior studies have suggested that profit rate has a positive impact on growth rate. Alchians (1950) theoretical study argued that fitter firms survive and grow, but less viable firms lose their market share and exit through the evolutionary selection mechanism. Thus, if profit rate reflects the degree of fitness, it is possible to predict that profitable firms will grow. Further, according to the financing constraint hypothesis retained profits can be readily used for investment, whereas firms with low profitability could not grow even if they have positive growth opportunities. This is also consistent with the pecking-order theory, which claims that managers prefer internal capital to external capital, such as debt and equity financing. However, the influence of growth rate on profitability is inconsistent in theories and empirical studies. A Classical Ricardian perspective claims that if a firm shows high profit rates it would grow to exploit additional growth opportunities that are less profitable but still create additional profits. This notion implies three things. First, the profit rate is converges at zero from a long-term perspective. Second, high profit rates have a positive impact on growth rates until the profit rate is zero. Finally, firm growth has a negative influence on profit rate. Along similar lines, the Neoclassical view argues that firms first exploit their most profitable growth opportunities and then consider less profitable opportunities until the marginal profit on the last growth opportunity is equal to zero. Consequently, profitable firms maximize their overall level of profits through profitable growth opportunities but experience a decrease in profit rates. Even though this argument exclud es market competition, it theoretically explains the relationship between firm growth and profit rates. However, managerial growth-maximization hypothesis under market competition (Marris, 1964; Mueller, 1972) claims that the managerial objective of a firm is to maximize growth rather than profit. Thus, this hypothesis proposed that growth and profits are in a competitive relationship with each other, which suggests the possibility that growth victimizes profit. Nevertheless, there are a number of theoretical claims that growth rate has a positive impact on profit rate. First, the Kaldor-Verdoorn Law in economics (Kaldor, 1966; Verdoorn, 1949) claims that growth increases productivity and in turn the enhanced productivity increases profit rates. This notion is consistent with scale economies (Gupta, 1981). Thus, because firm growth contributes to an increase in firm size, the larger size could gain benefits from an economy of scale and in turn this affects profit enhancement. That is, growth can help increase profitability. However, empirical studies on the effects of growth rate on profit rate have not always been supportive. Capon, Farley and Hoenig (1990) reported that firm growth is related to high financial performance, but it was significant only in some industries. Chandler and Jansen (1992) and Mendelson (2000) reported a significant positive correlation between sales growth and profit rates, whereas Markman and Gartner (2002) found no significant relationship between growth and profitability. Furthermore, Reid (1995) claimed growth had a negative effect on profitability. The relationship between growth and profit rates are more complicated when time lags of the two variables are considered. Only a few empirical studies have considered the link between growth and profit rates using various time lag terms. Goddard et al. (2004) found profitability to be important for future growth in European banks. Conversely, through panel data estimates of French manufacturing firms Coad (2007) found that the opposite direction of causation (i.e., growth to profitability) might be true. Both Goddard et al. (2004) and Coad (2007) investigated the relationship between firm growth and profit rates with vector autoregressive models using dynamic panel system GMM estimators. The difference between the two studies was that Goddard et al. (2004) used a one-year time lag but Coad (2007) incorporated three-year time lags in the analysis. More specifically, Goddard et al. (2004) found that a one-year lagged profit rate had a positive significant effect on the current-years gr owth rate, but a one-year lagged growth rate did not have a significant impact on the current-years profit rates. However, Coad (2007) showed that two- and three-years lagged profit rates have a positive significant influence on the current-years growth rate and that the current-years growth rate was positively significant in terms of the current-years profit rates. As noted, Goddard et al. (2004) and Coad (2007) reported opposing empirical results, which could be attributed to the difference in lag length. Considering the scarcity of past studies on the growth-profitability relationship and the problems with analytic methods, there is a need for a study that can verify this important relationship in a more holistic way. Hence, we intended to address the above research need in this study. A detailed outline of how the study was conducted follows in the next section. 3. Data and methodology The data used in the analysis was collected from the COMPUSTAT database using SIC 5812 (eating places). The data covers fiscal years 1978 to 2007 for U.S. restaurant firms. Profit rate (or profitability) was measured as net income divided by net sales and growth rate was gauged as the difference between the current and prior years net sales divided by the prior years net sales. After deleting severe outliers in the two main variables, growth rate and profit rate, this study used 2,927 firm-year observations for the analysis. As previously indicated, this study first conducted panel unit-root tests on growth and profit rates separately. The Dickey-Fuller unit-root test was set up for testing the stationarity of a time series. For example, if à â⬠1 is equal to a unit in equation (1), the series is non-stationary. Equation (1) could be expressed as equation (2) by subtracting Yt-1 on both sides. Yt = à â⬠1Yt-1 + ÃŽà µt (1) ÃŽâ⬠Yt = ÃŽà ³Yt-1 + ÃŽà µt (ÃŽà ³ = à â⬠1 1) (2) Equation (2) above is a simplified Dickey-Fuller unit-root test (DF test). The null hypothesis of a DF test is that ÃŽà ³ equals zero and the alternative hypothesis is ÃŽà ³ p ÃŽâ⬠Yt = ÃŽà ³Yt-1 + à ¢Ãâ ââ¬Ëà â⬠iÃŽâ⬠Yt-i + ÃŽà µt (ÃŽà ³ = à â⬠1 1) (3) i=1 However, the data structure of this study was an unbalanced panel. Thus, equation (3) could be expressed as a panel setting following equation (4): p ÃŽâ⬠Yi,t = ÃŽà ³Y i,t-1 + à ¢Ãâ ââ¬Ëà â⬠iÃŽâ⬠Y i,t-i + ÃŽà µ i,t (ÃŽà ³ = à â⬠1 1) (4) i=1 Equation (4) is the testable model for the panel unit-root test in this study. A few studies have developed panel unit-root tests (Im, Pesaran and Shin, 2003; Levin, Lin and Chu, 2002; Maddala and Wu, 1999). However, in the case of an unbalanced panel setting, the Fisher test is the only one available. It combines the p-values from N independent unit root tests, as developed by Maddala and Wu (1999). Based on the p-values of individual unit root tests, Fishers test assumes that all series are non-stationary under the null hypothesis against the alternative that at least one series in the panel is stationary. Unlike other panel unit-root tests, Fishers test does not require a balanced panel. Thus, this study conducted Fishers test on the growth and profit rates and selected an appropriate lag length in ADF formula. After selecting the proper lag length in ADF formula, it was transformed as follows: p ÃŽâ⬠Yi,t = ÃŽà ³Y i,t-1 + à ¢Ãâ ââ¬Ëà â⬠iÃŽâ⬠Y i,t-i + ÃŽà µ i,t i=1 = ÃŽà ³Y i,t-1 + à â⬠1ÃŽâ⬠Y i,t-1 + à â⬠2ÃŽâ⬠Y i,t-2 + à â⬠3ÃŽâ⬠Y i,t-3 + à ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã ¦ + à â⬠pÃŽâ⬠Y i,t-p + ÃŽà µ i,t = ÃŽà ³Y i,t-1 + à â⬠1(Y i,t-1 Y i,t-2) + à â⬠2(Y i,t-2 Y i,t-3) + à ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã ¦ + à â⬠p(Y i,t-p Y i,t-(p+1)) + ÃŽà µ i,t = (ÃŽà ³ + à â⬠1) Y i,t-1 + (à â⬠2 à â⬠1) Y i,t-2 + (à â⬠3 à â⬠2) Y i,t-3 + à ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã ¦ + (à â⬠p à â⬠p-1)Y i,t-p à â⬠pY i,t-(p+1) + ÃŽà µ i,t (5) Consequently, equation (5) could be expressed as follows: Yi,t = (1 + ÃŽà ³ + à â⬠1) Y i,t-1 + (à â⬠2 à â⬠1) Y i,t-2 + (à â⬠3 à â⬠2) Y i,t-3 + à ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã ¦ + (à â⬠p à â⬠p-1)Y i,t-p à â⬠pY i,t-(p+1) + ÃŽà µ i,t (6) Thus, if the panel unit-root test chooses p lags in ADF formula, it could be transformed to AR(p+1) model. This AR(p+1) model was then used for the dynamic panel system GMM estimator. Also, since the purpose of this study was to investigate the inter-relationship between firm growth and profitability, this study adopted the vector autoregression (VAR) model to find the reciprocal relationship between growth rates and profit rates. p+1 q+1 p+1 SGi,t = ÃŽà ²0 + à ¢Ãâ ââ¬ËÃŽà ·iSGi,t-i + à ¢Ãâ ââ¬Ëà â⠬iPRi,t-i + ÃŽà ²1Salei,t-i + ÃŽà ²2LEVi,t-i + à ¢Ãâ ââ¬ËÃŽà ¶iÃŽâ⬠DMAi,t-i i=1 i=1 i=0 + DYeart + ÃŽà µi,t Model 1 q+1 p+1 PRi,t = ÃŽà ²0 + à ¢Ãâ ââ¬Ëà â⠬iPRi,t-i + à ¢Ãâ ââ¬ËÃŽà ·iGRi,t-i + ÃŽà ²1Salei,t-i + ÃŽà ²2LEVi,t-i + ÃŽà ²3MarketSharei,t-i i=1 i=0 + DYeart + ÃŽà µi,t Model 2 SGi,t is the sales growth rate and PRi,t is the profit rate at time t for firm i. Salei,t is the net sales at time t for firm i. We also included control variables in both models. In the LPE literature, recent studies showed that prior firm size is inversely related with current growth rate (Evans, 1987; Hall, 1987; Geroski and Gugler, 2004). On the other hand, Baumol (1959) provided evidence that firm profitability increases with firm size, while Amato and Wilder (Kwangmin!!, Year and reference?) showed that no relationship exists between firm size and profit rate. Finally, Samuels and Smyth (1968) stated that profit rate and firm size are inversely related. Thus, we included the prior years net sales as a firm size variable in both models to control for size effect. Debt leverage (LEVi,t) was also incorporated in both models as a control variable, which was calculated as total debt divided by total assets. Theories of optimal capital structure based on the agency costs of managerial discretion suggest that the adverse impact of leverage on growth increases firm value by preventing managers from taking on poor projects (Jensen,1986; Stulz, 1990). Opler and Titman (1994) empirically found that sales growth is lower in firms with higher leverage. Thus, the influence of debt leverage on growth could be negative. However, the prior literature on the relationship between debt leverage and profit rate, has shown mixed results. Debt affects profitability positively according to Hurdle (1974), but negatively according to Hall and Weiss (1967) and Gale (1972). Debt could also yield a disciplinary effect under the free cash flow hypothesis (Jensen, 1986; Stulz, 1990). Firms with high debt leverage can reduce wasteful investment opportunities and increase f irm performance, suggesting a positive relationship between debt leverage and profit rates. However, using debt can increase conflicts between debt and equity holders. Equity holders encourage managers to undertake risky projects because the benefits are transferred only to equity holders (Stiglitz and Weiss, 1981). Thus equity holders tend to support the use of debt. However, high uses of debt could deteriorate firm profitability by taking on overly risky projects. The effect of leverage on profit rate may not be uni-directional. Consequently, we incorporated leverage as a control variable due to its important potential effects on profitability. In the growth rate equation (Model 1), we incorporated mergers and acquisitions (MA) dummy variables from time t to t-(p+1) because MA execution abnormally increases growth rates. MA executions were identified from the SDC Platinum database. In the profitability equation (Model 2), we included a market share variable, which was calculated as the net sales of firm i at time t divided by the sum of net sales at time t. According to Buzzell, Gale and Sultan (1975), market share had a positive impact on firm profitability. Because a larger market share means stronger market power, firms with large market shares could have the power to control market prices and be in a better position to negotiate with their suppliers. Thus, a positive relationship between market share and profit rates is expected. Because the current years growth could affect the current years profit rate, following Coad (2007), we included the current years growth rate in Model 2. Statistically, ordinary least square (OLS) regression requires that the right-hand side variables should be independent of the error term. However, if there is a bi-directional causation between dependent (left-hand side) variables and explanatory (right-hand side) variables, this condition is not satisfied and thus OLS regression produces biased and inconsistent estimates. This endogeneity problem could be solved by choosing appropriate instrumental variables, which are correlated with the explanatory variables but not the error term. This means that the instrumental variables should be exogenous but if they are endogenous, the equation would be over-identified. However, if the instrumental variables are weakly correlated with the explanatory variables, which is called a weak instrument, the estimates are biased and inconsistent. Arellano and Bond (1991) proposed the GMM estimator for panel data, which could control the potential endogenous explanatory variables. This method uses the first difference model, which eliminates the time-invariant firm-specific effect, and instrumental variables for the endogenous variables were generated by lags of their own level. However, if the lagged level instruments are weakly correlated with the endogenous explanatory variables, there could be a finite sample bias in estimators. In particular, if the variable series tends to show a highly persistent profit rate series (Mueller, 1977), this weak correlation between lagged level instruments and endogenous explanatory variables is problematic. Arellano and Bover (1995) and Brundell and Bond (1998) developed a dynamic panel GMM estimator that estimated with level-equation and difference equation, which is called a system GMM. Consequently, the dynamic panel system GMM estimator has better asymptotic and finite sample propertie s than the one used by Arellano and Bond (1991). Thus, this study analyzed the proposed models using the dynamic panel system GMM estimator, which produces unbiased and consistent estimates after controlling for endogeneity and firm-specific effects even when the sample period is short. Even though the full sample period of this study is 30 years, the panel structure is not balanced due to the entry and exit of firms. Bludell and Bond (1998) suggested the minimum requirement for panel length as T à ¢Ã¢â¬ °Ã ¥ 3. Thus, we excluded firms which did not exist at least three years in the sample period. Another requirement was that there is no serial correlation of the second order error terms. We conducted the serial correlation test for panel GMM estimators developed by Arellano and Bond (1991). In order to test the exogeneity of instrumental variables, we used the Hansen test instead of the Sargan test because the Sargan test is not robust enough to detect heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation (Roodman, 2006). Finally, as Roodman (2006) suggested, we included year dummies in the models and estimated the system GMM by two-step estimator because the two-step estimator is robust enough to detect the heteroskedasticity. For comparisons with the dynamic panel system GMM estimator, we conducted ordinary least square (OLS) and fixed-effect regression. 4. Results 4.1. Panel unit-root test for firm growth and profit rates As indicated, we conducted the panel unit-root test developed by Maddala and Wu (1999) using Fishers test, which assumes that all series are non-stationary under the null hypothesis. Equation (4) was tested on both growth and profit rates. The results are presented in Table 1. For the series of sales growth and profit rates, lag(4) was justified. Thus, the law of proportionate effect hypothesis was rejected but the persistence of profit hypothesis was validated. The results indicate that the growth rates are serially correlated and the profit rates are convergent. The purpose of the panel unit-root tests on growth and profit rates was to examine the stationarity of the two series and to make an appropriate model for the dynamic panel system GMM estimator. As shown earlier, if the panel unit-root test justifies p lags, the ADF formula could be transformed to AR(p+1) model. Consequently, the testable model is AR(5) for both growth and profit rates. Based on the lag length from the pane l unit-root test, we excluded any firm that existed less than five years in testing the dynamic panel system GMM estimator. Then, we tested the proposed models using AR(5) in order to identify the inter-relationship between firm growth and profit rates in various time lag structures. (Insert Table 1 Here) 4.2. Descriptive statistics and scatter plots of growth and profit rates Table 2 shows the descriptive statistics of the major variables of this study. The average sales of the sampled restaurant firms was 541.8 million dollars and the average growth rate in sales was 16.3%. The average profit rate (return on sales) was 1.3% and total debt rate (debt leverage) was 61.3%. Thus, the figures show that the restaurant industry has a high growth rate, but its profitability is not positive and it uses more debt than equity. (Insert Table 2 Here) Before conducting the dynamic panel system GMM estimator, we checked the scatter plots between growth and profit rates using various time lags. As Coad (2007) indicated, the non-parametric scatter plots of growth and profit rates gave us a visual appreciation of the underlying phenomenon. Thus, before testing the quantitative relationship, we can obtain useful information via scatter plots. Figure 1 shows the scatter plots of growth at time t (Y-axis) and growth rates at time t-1 to t-5 (X-axis) for all samples. Except for the first plot (growth rate time t versus t-1), all other plots seem to show no relationship. The plots, excluding the first plot, look like a cloud shape but are a bit scattered horizontally. Based on the plot for growth rate time t and t-1, the current and prior years growth rates are positively correlated. However, Figure 1 represents all firms, including MA firms. Apparently, firms with MA can experience abnormally high growth rates compared with non-MA firms. Thus, we checked the same scatter plots after excluding MA firms, as presented in Figure 2. The relationship between current and prior years growth rate is clearly positive and growth rate at t-2 also looks positive on current years growth rate. However, the earlier years growth rates (i.e., t-3, t-4 and t-5) appear to have no relationship with the current years growth rate. Figure 3 shows scatter plots of profit rate at time t (Y-axis) and profit rates at time t-1 to t-5 (X-axis). Interestingly, clear heteroskedasticity is detected in the relationship between them. Thus, the usage of the two-step estimator in the dynamic panel system GMM estimator is justified by Figure 3. In all of the scatter plots there is a tendency toward a positive relationship between current and prior profit rates. (Insert Figures 1, 2, and 3 Here) Figure 4 shows scatter plots of profit rate at time t (Y-axis) and growth rates at time t-1 to t-5 (X-axis). In all plots, points were spread horizontally. It seems that there is no effect of growth rate on profit rate. Surprisingly, the scatter plot of current growth rates appears to have no relationship with current profit rate. On the other hand, Figure 5 shows that profit rates clearly have a positive influence on the current growth rate. The majority of the points were spread vertically. The scatter plots show that prior profit rates seems to have a positive influence on current growth rates, but the influence of prior growth rates on current profit rates was not found. (Insert Figures 4 and 5 Here) 4.3. Results from Dynamic panel system GMM estimator Tables 3 and 4 show the results of the proposed models explained in the methodology section. Even though yearly dummies were not reported in Tables 3 and 4, they were included in the models. As shown in Table 3, the prior years growth rate at time t-1 was found to be positively significant on current growth rates in all three regressions (OLS, fixed-effect and system GMM). However, the directions and significances of the coefficients of the other prior growth rate terms varied across the three models. As explained earlier, however, the system GMM is the most appropriate model for this study due to the endogeneity and time invariant firm-specific effect and the results of the OLS and fixed-effect regression models were used simply for the purpose of comparison. Goddard et al. (2004) reported that the prior years (time t-1) growth rate was positive but not significant. It is difficult to directly compare their results with ours due to the difference in the lag length structure. Interestingly, our study showed that growth rates at time t-1 and t-5 were positively significant on current growth rates, but growth rates at time t-2 and t-4 were negatively significant. These results suggest that short-term and long-term prior growth rates have a positive impact, but mid-term prior growth rates have a negative influence on current growth rates. Our primary interest in Model 1 was the effect of the prior years profit rates on current growth rates. The system GMM results show that profit rates at time t-1 and t-5 were positively significant. The magnitude of the coefficient of profit rate at time t-5 was small, meaning that the positive impact of long-term prior profit rates on current growth rates is small. However, the prior years (time t-1) profit rate has a positively significant effect on current growth and the magnitude of the coefficient is large. Coads (2007) study showed that profit rates at time t-1 to t-3 were all positive but the prior years (time t-1) profit rate was not significant. Coad (2007) used an AR(3) model and thus a direct comparison of ours to Coads (2007) is not possible. Yet it is clear that the direction of the coefficients were very similar. Overall, our study results provide evidence that recently profitable firms may grow faster. In terms of the relationship between prior years firm size and current growth rate, all three results show a negative coefficient but the negative effect was significant only in OLS. Also, debt leverage had a negative effect on current growth rates but the system GMM result was not significant. Additionally, all serial correlation tests were not significant, showing that there was no serial correlation problem. Also, the over-identification tests were not significant, meaning that our instruments were not endogenous and the estimates were reliable. (Insert Table 3 Here) Table 4 shows the results of the profitability equation (Model 2). The results of the system GMM shows that profit rates at time t-1, t-2 and t-5 were had positively significant effect on current profit rates. However, profit rates at time t-3 and t-4 were negatively significant. The results suggest that short-term and long-term prior profit rates have a positive impact on current profit rates, but mid-term prior profit rates have a negative influence on current profit rates. Similarly, Goddard et al.s (2004) results showed that the prior years (time t-1) profit rate was positive and significant in its AR(1) model. Table 4 also presents the effect of the prior years growth rates on current profit rates were negatively significant in time t and t-1. Unlike our results, Goddard et al. (2004) found that the prior years growth rate was posi
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