Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Art - Essay Example No doubt I have always been influenced with magazine cover photos such as the one below. I have always thought that an ideal female should look just like what the cover photos and advert images preach to us, and nothing less. Moreover, these cover photos are always of celebrities and models, and as such, my perception has always been shaped to believe that any other female need to match the celebrity standards. This image not only influences the belief and behavior of individuals, but also defines the culture of today’s society, whereby an ideal human to be acceptable is given standards that must be achieved. The artist statement accompanying this photography is, â€Å"Great American Women†. This explicitly reveals how the current culture defines greatness of female women. For example, they have to be fashion superstar, modern women, and all these come with super-slim bodies. This image is very alluring and sends a message both to young girls and grown up women to strive to look like such celebs because those are the culturally acceptable standards in today’s society. In turn, people also choose to view these photographs in one perspective, that is, the influence on body standards such as extremely tiny waist and generally slim bodies. However, there are several negative impacts that the above image inflicts in the society, especially among the female population. For example, young girls grow up to believe that if they do not attain such body sizes than they are not worthy. Therefore, I am going to critique this image in terms of the negative effects that it generates in th e society such as preference for cosmetic surgery, objectification of women bodies with reference to sex sells and media exaggeration of celeb glamour and glitz. The image links women’s beauty to the cult of thinness whereby the current society emphasizes, not on the substance, but on the surface of human being, and thus social and economic

Development of the US economy over the Past 3 Years Essay Example for Free

Development of the US economy over the Past 3 Years Essay The American government has been successful in running its economy for the years 2005, 2006 and 2007 as shown in continuing productivity growth, the low level of inflation as well low interest rate. This paper therefore attempts to discuss or dramatize the success of the American Government been in running its Economy over the last three years. Since any success will have to be explained on what actions the American government has, this paper will therefore describe and evaluate the main macro economic policies used by the American government, if there is any, over the last three years. How successful is the American government in running its Economy over the last three years? The American government performed well in terms of GDP and other growth measures for the last three years starting from 2005 up to the third quarter of 2007. GPD growth was recorded to have an average of 3 ? % from 2005 up to first quarter of 2006. This slowed down a little starting from second quarter of 2006 (2 ? %) to first and second quarter of 2007 , but the third quarter of 2007 appeared to started showing higher increases at 3. 9%. In describing the state of the US economy, Poole said â€Å"†¦The U. S. economy is highly productive, profit-making opportunities abound, interest rates and inflation are both relatively low and stable. † The economy is however not without any challenges to face. Said challenge is not the business cycle but how the US economy will adjust on many fronts to the baby boom generation retirement but Poole believes that the U. S. laws and institutions will enable the country to face these challenges with a better deal of buoyancy than in some other countries that is facing or will be facing the demographic challenge sooner. Poole expressed an assurance that the U. S. economy is fundamentally sound. He cited the fact that surveys of business economists over the past few years regularly pointed to key sources of strength of US economy and these include â€Å"a dynamic and flexible labour market and a financial system that rewards innovation and risk-taking by channelling capital to its highest rates of return. † He explained that the US market-based economy will allow companies â€Å"the ability and the incentive to innovate and to adapt quickly to changes in relative demands for goods and services. Thus he observes that present managements responding promptly to various shocks that shock the economy and according to him this is a growing dynamism of the U. S. economy which be believes is satisfactorily illustrated by the rise in the economy’s rate of productivity growth that has began as early as 1995 and there is still no sign of let up even at present. One way to check economic performance is the level of inflation. Poole said, that inflation as measured by the all-items CPI called â€Å"headline CPI inflation† slowed from 3. 4 percent in 2005 to 2. percent in 2006, while the inflation rate measured by the PCE (core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices) price index rose slowed from 2. 9 percent to 2. 3 percent over the same period. The decline of inflation in 2006 could only indicate remarkable effect of the monetary policy. Poole explained that the restraint of headline inflation is undeniably an indication of the sharp decline in energy prices over the second half of 2006. He added that most economists believe that core inflation is a better measure of inflation pressures. He also explained that that slight increase in the core PCE price index from 2. percent in 2005 to 2. 2 percent in 2006, and the core CPI index increase more, from 2. 2 to 2. 6 percent was negative indication. However, the core price pressures have been easing out lately which was an indication of a momentum that is headed to a favourable direction. What are the economic policies used by the American Government in managing the economy? The main macro economic policies used by the American government over the last three years include the use of its monetary policies. The use of monetary policy is evident in Federal Reserve Bank having raised its target for the federal funds rate from 1 percent in 2004 to 5? ercent in June of 2006 and is still maintained at present. It was the US monetary policy actions that have kept inflation largely, although not perfectly in check. Monetary policies involved the actions done by the Federal Reserve Bank to control money supply for purposing of managing inflation and necessarily GDP growth. Thus Poole believes that such monetary policy likely had something to do with the timing of slower GDP growth. He emphasized that the timing of slower GDP growth was the inevitable result of falling margin of underutilized resources. He admits however of other factors that is causing the slowdown starting in second quarter of 2006 which he felt as independent of monetary policy. One was the sharp increase energy prices, which showed improvement in the middle of 2006 while the other was considerable weakness in housing markets, which Poole believed may just now be giving off very tentative signal of the need to stop as has reached the bottom . In relation to the use of monetary policy to the US economy, Poole suggested three remarkable facts that deserve attention. He identified the first by saying that the real GDP growth, though sluggish in prior years has become robust starting in 2003, which may now have contributed a present low unemployment rate of 4. 6 percent. Another is that fact long-term inflation expectations were hardly shifted, while the third is the fact of quarterly average yield on 10-year nominal Treasury securities that was actually slightly lower than it was in mid 2002. Thus Poole is justifying that, â€Å"the economy has performed well despite a near tripling of crude oil prices since December 2001. He also pointed about the issue of present energy price increase. The first one is of course attributing, the increase in price â€Å"a consequence of a booming world economy, which raised energy demand rather than a supply shock; while the second one is attributing to monetary policies in the US and in most other countries have their jobs well of securing inflation expectations. † Despite a decline in growth in 2006 as compared to 2005, Poole found still further proof to the latest data on stable performance of the US economy. Poole, said, â€Å"†¦Particularly noteworthy was the larger-than-expected increase in real GDP during the fourth quarter of 2006. Following relatively anaemic rates of growth in the second and third quarters of 2006, growth of real GDP during the fourth quarter picked up nicely, rising to a 3. 5 percent annual rate. † Will the decline in the some of the measurable variable prove a failure of the monetary policy of the company? Poole cited two other aspects of the GDP report which were less favourable than the overall report. First, there was recorded slight decline in the business fixed investment during the fourth quarter of 2006. He interpreted that that the decline was nothing more than normal variation, as may be perhaps a consequence on the part of firms that were waiting for release of the new Vista operating system from Microsoft. To support his position, he explained that over the four quarters of 2006, a 6. 8 percent in non-residential fixed investment rose was recorded and one could readily appreciate that a healthy and expected increase given that the economy has continued to absorb excess capacity. This he even believe on the positive figures forecast for the economy that will â€Å"perhaps produce better than expected results. He however warned that â€Å"the extension of the fourth quarter weakness in business capital outlays going forward certainly would be a cause for concern. † The second noticeable aspect of the GDP report that was the nearly twenty percent rate of decline in residential fixed investment. He narrated that the decline began in the second quarter and was followed by a greater decline in each of the subsequent quarter. Thus he explained that as a normal result, the sharp decline in private housing starts and sales must have cause a significant pull on real GDP growth in 2006. Thus the second half of 2006, showed the contribution to real GDP growth from real residential fixed investment to have averaged about negative percentage points. This would prompt then the explanation for the slowing down in 2006 on why monetary policy was not applied to address the problem. Poole, explained that the Year 2006 was a hard situation for homebuilders as compared to 2005. He explained that following a record-setting rate of 1. 7 million units that have started in 2005, he noted that single-family started to fall to 1. 5 million units in 2006. He explained that the this average showed a comparatively large number of starts during the first half of the year which was followed by a much lower level of starts during the second half of 2006. This he noted December 2006- single-family starts which were approximately 16. 5 percent below annual average. In comparison, Poole cited the consensus of the Blue Chip forecasters made in December 2005 that real residential fixed investment would decrease by only about 1. 4 percent in 2006, using annual average data, but the actual the decline was about 4 ¼ percent. The rate fourth quarter as of 2006 is therefore obviously steeper, than the fourth quarter of 2005 to the fourth quarter of 2006. It may thus be observed that the slowing down of growth starting in the second quarter of 2006 may be attributed to the continued fall on sale of housing although presently there are already signs of recovery. But since the third quarter of 2007 has even exceeded even the average of growth rate prior to slight decline in second quarter of 2006, it may be argued that the problem of housing has eased out already. It may be concluded that the American government has been successful in running its Economy over the last three years in terms of GDP and controlled level of inflation and the lower interest rate. The main macro economic policies used by the American government over the last three years include mainly the use of its monetary policies through the Federal Reserve Bank of the US by raising interest rate a little in order to control inflation. Since it was able to do its part in controlling prices via inflationary measures the US Government through the Federal Reserve has done well it function of managing the economy.

Metaphysics as Addressed by Kant and Hume Essay -- Papers Kant Hume Ph

Metaphysics as Addressed by Kant and Hume In the Prolegomena, Kant states that reading David Hume, "awakened him from his dogmatic slumber." It was Hume's An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding that made Kant aware of issues and prejudices in his life that he had previously been unaware of. This further prompted Kant to respond to Hume with his own analysis on the theory of metaphysics. Kant did not feel that Hume dealt with these matters adequately and resolved to pick up where Hume had left off, specifically addressing the question of whether metaphysics as a science is possible. Hume basically asserted in his writings that metaphysics, as a science, is not possible. He specifically drew on the theory of "causality", which is the attempt by people to rationalize situations. These rationalizations deal with the experience of cause and effect. People tend to attribute patterns to things according to their cause and effect. For example, gravity causes the anything that goes up to come down- we have become so used to this principle that we have made a very definitive statement on the subject. Hume however, attacks this principle by claiming that we have not experienced every instance of this matter. It is not that it must come down, but that it happens to come down. He believed that any "all" or "must" statement is not reinforced through reason but through repetition. Because Hume feels this way, he then concludes that metaphysics is not possible. Hume's writing posed an interesting starting off point for Kant's theories. As said before, Kant attributes Hume's writing with waking him from his "dogmatic slumber." He recognizes both Hume's intelligence and the validity of his statements. However, he does n... ...th much like Hume stood by skepticism. He relies blindly on faith to explain a large part of what he is trying to discredit Hume for. It is almost as if he is not making a definitive statement on the existence of metaphysics. Rather, he is caught in the middle, claiming that it may be true in one instance, but not in another. Kant directly deals with the problems presented in Hume's analysis of metaphysics. Where Hume stops his line of thinking and becomes skeptical as to the existence of metaphysics as a science, Kant picks up. He proceeds to analyze both the validity of metaphysics as a science and a force in our lives. Turning to the methods of other credible men in the scientific field- such as Copernicus- Kant develops a whole new approach to looking at the world. However, like Hume, Kant encounters an obstacle and does not find a solution for it.

Research Paper Helicobacter Pylori

Helicobacter pylori| Previously named Campylobacter pyloridis, is a Gram-negative, microaerophilic bacterium found in the stomach. | | Microbiology (B1325) Research Paper| Detailed Introduction Helicobacter pylori are a species of epsilon proteobacteria which colonizes the harsh environment of the human stomach. Its name refers to both its spiral shape (Helicobacter) and the area of the lower stomach which it habitually colonizes: the gateway (pylorus) between the stomach and small intestine (Meyers, 2007).This bacterium is thought to be present within up to 50% of the human population and has been linked to the development of a number of different medical conditions (Chalmers et al. 2004). This report will provide information about the discovery of H. pylori as well as its morphological characteristics, taxonomic information, biochemical/metabolic characteristics, chemotherapeutic methods of control/treatment/eradication, immunological responses, pathological information, and epidem iology information. Morphological Characteristics Helicobacter pylori are a spiral-shaped, Gram-negative rod approximately 0. x 3. 0 micrometers in size. It is catalase-positive organism which has 4-6 sheathed flagella attached to one pole which allow for motility. It lives in the human stomach and duodenum. H. pylori possess five major outer membrane protein (OMP) families. The largest family includes known and putative adhesions. The other four families include porins, iron transporters, flagellum-associated proteins and proteins of unknown function. Like other typical Gram-negative bacteria, the outer membrane of H. pylori consists of phospholipids and lipopolysaccharide (LPS).The O antigen of LPS may be fucosylated and mimic Lewis blood group antigens found on the gastric epithelium. The outer membrane also contains cholesterol glucosides, which are found in few other bacteria. H. pylori has four to six lophotrichous flagella; all gastric and enterohepatic Helicobacter species a re highly motile due to flagella. The characteristic sheathed flagella filaments of Helicobacter are composed of two copolymerized flagellants, FlaA and FlaB. [1](From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). Taxonomic Information Helicobacter pylori are a gram-negative, spiral-shaped organism associated with gastrointestinal disease in humans.It has a worldwide prevalence, with approximately 50% of the world's population infected. Before the first isolation and documentation of this organism from the human stomach in 1982, it was assumed that the human stomach was a sterile environment because of the high levels of acid, which would exclude it as an ecologic niche for any organism. This bacterium is the human-adapted Helicobacter primarily found in the gastric mucosa and areas of gastric metaplasia in the duodenum and occasionally in Meckel's diverticulum and the rectum. It has been cultured rarely from feces, blood, and saliva.It can be detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in den tal plaque and feces. In the latter instances, the viability of the bacteria is in question. H. pylori also have been found in nonhuman primates and cats. H. pylori detection in animals is not common and could be due to human contact with animals. To date, no environmental reservoir has been shown. [2](http://www. gastro. theclinics. com/article/S0889-8553(05)70135-7/abstract) Biochemical/Metabolic Characteristics The genus Helicobacter was created in 1989 with H. pylori as the type species. Since then the genus has expanded to include about 18 species.Some species were reclassified from Campylobacter, but most were newly discovered microorganisms from gastric or intestinal sites in mammalian host animals. The essential property of almost all helicobacter is the presence of sheathed flagella. Most species possess strong ureolytic ability, particularly those associated with gastric mucosa, and exhibit considerable diversity in cell morphology with respect to cell length, number and l ocation of flagella, and presence of periplasmic fibrils. H. pylori have a global distribution and infect human gastric mucosa exclusively but there is some evidence for infection in cats.Genomes of isolates from different individuals are unusual in their diversity in gene order and sequences within individual genes. ‘H. heilmannii1 is another gastric spiral shaped organism less frequently infecting humans but commonly found in cat and dog gastric tissue. H. felis is important in the mouse model of infection. A range of conventional phenotypic tests as well as some new PCR based assays are available for identifying isolates of Helicobacter from clinical specimens. [11]( http://bmb. oxfordjournals. org/content/54/1/17. full. pdf) Chemotherapeutic Methods of Control, Treatment, and EradicationTreatment If you are found to have Helicobacter pylori infection, you may wish to have antibiotic treatment of some kind. Treatment of Helicobacter pylori is usually simple ; straight forwa rd. However, occasional patients need repeated endoscopies, biopsies, breath tests and several courses of treatment with different antibiotic combinations. After treatment of H. pylori, it is necessary to repeat one of these tests to see if the germ has been killed or eradicated for good. Only breath tests or endoscopy with biopsy can be used to prove that the bacterium has been eradicated.The blood tests *(serology) is not suitable to monitor H. pylori eradication because antibodies to H. pylori may remain positive for months or even years after successfully killing the H. pylori. [3] (http://www. helico. com/? q=TreatmentForHelicobacterPylori) Eradication Prolonging the treatment period is a possible strategy for improving H. pylori eradication rates. Several studies have been published that tested this approach, including this paper by Calvet et al. These authors studied the value of extending PPI-based triple therapy from 7 to 10 days and found no additional benefit for patients with peptic ulcers.There was, however, a significant benefit for nonulcer dyspepsia patients (an increase from 66% to 77% in the intention-to-treat analysis and from 73% to 91% in the per-protocol analysis). The authors concluded that the treatment period should be extended from 7 to 10 days for patients with nonulcer dyspepsia. As most eradication therapy, however, is given to patients with uninvestigated dyspepsia, it is not unreasonable to argue that longer therapy should be given to all subjects. Distinguishing between patients with ulcer and nonulcer dyspepsia is therefore rather academic and impractical.The most obvious one is that existing PPI-based triple therapy regimens are not perfect. In the community at large, up to 30% of patients might fail this therapy. If clinicians prescribe triple therapy it should therefore be prescribed for longer than 7 days. This runs the risk of decreased patient compliance, more side effects and a greater cost, but ultimately it boils down to local and national guidelines, which vary from one country to another. Alternatively, clinicians might consider some of the newer eradication approaches, such as use of fluoroquinolone-based therapy or sequential treatment.The latter comprises quadruple therapy over a 10-day period, starting with a PPI plus amoxicillin (1,000 mg twice daily) for the first 5 days, followed by PPI plus clarithromycin (500 mg twice daily) and tinidazole (500 mg twice daily) for another 5 days. Intention-to-treat analysis eradication rates of 97%, 92%, and 94% have been reported in children, adults and elderly patients, respectively. Ultimately, clinicians should still strive towards a much simpler eradication strategy, but this will require investment in novel antibiotic discovery or a better understanding of the pathogenesis of H. ylori. Either way, there is much to be gained from continued interest in this little organism. [4](http://www. medscape. com/viewarticle/525100_2) Immunological Responses Lifelong Helicobacter pylori infection and its associated gastric inflammation underlie peptic ulceration and gastric carcinogenesis. The immune and inflammatory responses to H. pylori are doubly responsible: gastric inflammation is the main mediator of pathology, and the immune and inflammatory response is ineffective, allowing lifelong bacterial persistence.However, despite inducing gastric inflammation, most infections do not cause disease, and bacterial, host and environmental factors determine individual disease risk. Although H. pylori avoid many innate immune receptors, specific virulence factors (including those encoded on the cag pathogenicity island) stimulate innate immunity to increase gastric inflammation and increase disease risk. An acquired T helper 1 response up regulates local immune effectors. The extent to which environmental factors (including parasite infection), host factors and H. ylori itself influence T-helper differentiation and regulatory T-cell response s remains controversial. Finally, effective vaccines have still not been developed: a better understanding of the immune response to H. pylori may help. [5](http://www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/pubmed/17382275) Pathological Information Until the discovery of Helicobacter in 1982, ulcers were thought to be caused by stress. Now it is known that ulcers, in addition to gastritis, are caused by a bacterial infection of H. pylori. Though relatively easy to treat with antibiotics, H. ylori can be a risk factor for gastric cancer if it becomes a long-term infection [6] (Stated by D. J. Kelly, 2004. The University of Sheffield). The body's natural defenses cannot combat H. pylori because white and killer T cells cannot easily get through the stomach lining. The defense cells eventually die, spilling their superoxide radicals on stomach lining cells, on which H. pylori can feed[6] (Stated by Helicobacter Foundation, 2004). Epidemiology Information The frequency of H pylori infection in the United States may be linked to race. White persons account for 29% of cases, and Hispanic persons account for 60% of cases.Internationally, H pylori are a ubiquitous organism. At least 50% of all people are infected, but an exact determination is not available, mostly because exact data are not available from developing countries. H pylori may be detected in approximately 90% of individuals with peptic ulcer disease; however, less than 15% of infected persons may have this disease. The mortality rate related to H pylori infection is not precisely known, but it seems to be minimal (i. e. , approximately 2-4% of all infected people). Mortality is due to the complications of the infection, uch as gastric ulcer perforation or MALTomas of the GI tract. Otherwise, the morbidity of H pylori infection can be very high. [7](http://emedicine. medscape. com/article/176938-overview#a0199) The pathogenetic role of H pylori may differ depending on geography and race. White persons are infected with H p ylori less frequently than persons of other racial groups. The prevalence rate is approximately 20% in white persons, 54% in African American persons, and 60% in Hispanic persons. No sex predilection is known; however, females have a higher incidence of reinfection (5-8%) than males.H pylori infection may be acquired at any age. According to some epidemiologic studies, this infection is acquired most frequently during childhood. Children and females have a higher incidence of reinfection (5-8%) than adult males. [7](http://emedicine. medscape. com/article/176938-overview#a0199) Cultural Characteristics Approximately two-thirds of the world’s population is infected with H. pylori. In the United States, H. pylori are more prevalent among older adults, African Americans, Hispanics, and lower socioeconomic groups. It is not known how H. ylori are transmitted or why some patients become symptomatic while others do not. The bacteria are most likely spread from person to person thro ugh fecal-oral or oral-oral routes. Possible environmental reservoirs include contaminated water sources. Iatrogenic spread through contaminated endoscopes has been documented but can be prevented by proper cleaning of equipment. [8](Centers for disease and control prevention) Case Study 1 Title: Correlation of Helicobacter pylori and gastric carcinoma. Authors: Khanna, AK, Seth, P, Nath, G, Dixit, V K, Kumar, M Issue Date: 26-Jan-2002Citation: Khanna AK, Seth P, Nath G, Dixit VK, Kumar M. Correlation of Helicobacter pylori and gastric carcinoma. Journal of Postgraduate Medicine. 2002 Jan-Mar; 48(1): 27-8 Language: Eng. Type: Journal Article Abstract: BACKGROUND: Difference of opinion about the prevalence of H. pylori association with gastric cancer exists in the literature. AIMS: To study the correlation of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) to gastric carcinoma. METHODS: 50 proved cases of gastric cancer were studied by rapid urease test, culture, histopathology and ELISA test for H. pylori IgG.RESULTS: 68% of cases of gastric cancer were found to be positive for H. pylori infection as compared to 74% of healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence rate of H. pylori infection in our patients of gastric cancer was lower than in the control population though statistically not significant, suggesting that H. pylori may not be responsible for gastric carcinogenesis in this population. Source URI: http://www. jpgmonline. com URI: http://imsear. hellis. org/handle/123456789/116058 MeSH: * Adult * Case-Control Studies * Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay * Female Helicobacter Infections –complications * Helicobacter pylori –isolation & purification * Humans * Male * Middle Aged * Prevalence [9](http://imsear. hellis. org/handle/123456789/116058Stomach Neoplasms –microbiology) Case Study 2 Title: Helicobacter pylori in dental plaque of children and their family members. Authors: Gill, H H, Shankaran, K, Desai, H G Issue Date: 1-Sep-1994 Citation: G ill HH, Shankaran K, Desai HG. Helicobacter pylori in dental plaque of children and their family members. Journal of the Association of Physicians of India. 1994 Sep; 42(9): 719, 721 Language: Eng.Type: Journal Article Abstract: A prospective study was undertaken to determine the presence of Helicobacter pylori in the dental plaque of children and their family members. 22 children (age range: 2-12 years; males: 16) admitted to the pediatric ward for various disorders and 17 healthy family members (age range: 7-40 years; males: 9) of 13 of these children were screened for presence of Helicobacter pylori in the dental plaque by the rapid urease test. H. pylori were detected in dental plaque of 82% (18/22) children and 88% (15/17) of family members.In 85% (28/33) of the positive cases the rapid urease test was positive within 1 hour. Our observations indicate that Helicobacter pylori are present in the dental plaque of majority of children and their family members. Source URI: http://w ww. japi. org URI: http://imsear. hellis. org/handle/123456789/95238 MeSH: * Child * Child, Preschool * Dental Plaque –microbiology * Family Health * Female * Helicobacter pylori –isolation & purification * Humans * Male * Prospective Studies Appears in Collections: Journal of the Association of Physicians of India [10](http://imsear. ellis. org/handle/123456789/95238) Conclusion The author covered morphological characteristics, taxonomic information, biochemical/metabolic characteristics, chemotherapeutic methods of control/treatment/eradication, immunological responses, pathological information, and epidemiology in this paper. The overwhelming conclusion is that it is critical to survival of the human race that hygiene and education will be the best possible steps to overcome an increasing body of bacteria in our world. References 1. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 2. http://www. gastro. theclinics. om/article/S0889-8553(05)70135-7/abstract) 3. http://www. heli co. com/? q=TreatmentForHelicobacterPylori 4. http://www. medscape. com/viewarticle/525100_2 5. http://www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/pubmed/17382275 6. Stated by D. J. Kelly, 2004. The University of Sheffield 7. http://emedicine. medscape. com/article/176938-overview#a0199 8. Centers for disease and control prevention 9. http://imsear. hellis. org/handle/123456789/116058Stomach Neoplasms –microbiology 10. http://imsear. hellis. org/handle/123456789/95238 11. http://bmb. oxfordjournals. org/content/54/1/17. full. pdf

Volunteer work

For example, many high school and college students in the United States often spend many hours as volunteers in hospitals, orphanages or homes for the aged. They read books to the people in these places. Sometimes the students Just visit them, play games with them or listen to their problems. Other young volunteers work in the homes of sick or old people. They clean up their houses, do their shopping or mow their lawns.For boys ho no longer have fathers, there Is a voluntary organization called Big Brothers. College students take these boys to baseball games and help them to get to know things that boys usually learn from their fathers. Some high school students take part In helping disadvantaged or handicapped children. They give care and comfort to them and help them to overcome their difficulties. Young college and university students participate In helping the people who have suffered badly In wars or natural disasters.During summer vacations, they volunteer to work In remote or mountainous areas to provide education for children. Each city has a number of clubs where boys and girls can go to play games. Some of these clubs organize short trips to the mountains, beaches or other places of interest. Most of these clubs use a lot of high school and college students as volunteers because they are young enough to understand the problems of younger boys and girls. Volunteers believe that some of the happiest people in the world are those who help to bring happiness to others.

Discussion on the Film A Beautiful Mind

Discussion on the Film A Beautiful Mind Introduction The movie, A Beautiful Mind, is a thought provoking film that makes one consider what it is that truly makes a genius, how far the human mind drive us to the heights of intelligence or the bottom of despair and finally makes one consider what it truly means to overcome adversity to rise and be recognized.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Discussion on the Film A Beautiful Mind specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Scenes in the movie such as Russell Crowes paranoid delusions, his incarceration in a mental asylum, his recovery and subsequent accomplishment of winning a Nobel peace prize are all scenes which highlight the sheer emotional quality evident in the way in which the movie attempts to portray the life of John Nash. The scenes invoke such joy, sadness and excitement in various instances that one cannot help but feel a distinct degree of emotional attachment to the character of Nash making the film that much more vivid to both watch and remember. Overall, the story quality combined with the plot film gives the movie a timeless quality that even a dozen repetitive viewings fail to tarnish due to the sheer strength of the emotions it captures and relays to viewers. While watching the film one cannot help but notice the touching and evocative film score that perfectly relays the emotions of the characters further strengthening the emotional connection between the film and its viewers. The film score is neither dramatic nor is too soft rather it is has a smooth tonal quality to it that draws people in, invokes a sense of nostalgia, wonderment and a sense of sorrow. The score has a steady melody wherein the sound of violins combines with smooth bass tones to create an environment that doesnt invoke excitement but rather a prolonged sense of contemplation. It music in the movie is almost entirely geared towards calm consideration and speaks highly of the skills of the composer in creatin g such a distinctive sound that people cannot help but think of both the good and bad that has happened in their lives and how they have helped to shape who they are at the present. The background of the movie isnt what one would normally consider exciting or for that matter overly interesting, rather, the setting itself seems to have been chosen for the way in which it closely resembles what an average person would see on a daily basis. This is an important point to consider since it provides an impetus for audiences to consider how they themselves could be placed in the exact same situation due to the similarity in settings. It makes people consider how they would react to the Nashs situation if they were in his shoes, if they would succeed the way he had done or if they could endure the same amount of emotional turmoil as what he endured. The background in the film doesnt overwhelm the characters in the story, rather, its muted quality helps to bring out the emotions, pain and an guish for the viewers to see and experience.Advertising Looking for essay on art and design? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More When watching the film one cannot help but notice the sheer acting talent of Russell Crowe in his portrayal of Nash. From Nashs eccentricities, brilliance all the way down to the paranoid delusions and schizophrenia everything is perfectly portrayed by Crowe. Scenes such as Nashs animated talks in the University, his portrayal as being crazy and his subsequent incarceration and the penultimate scene where he finally receives his Nobel peace prize display such power and acting talent that one cannot help but think that Crowe is John Nash. Crowe did an excellent job in portraying the anguish of a person that is realizing that his mind that is his greatest gift has now become his worst enemy. The slow deterioration, the emotional suffering and the fear of losing ones brilliance is perfectly captur ed by Crowe and this in itself is transferred to viewers which makes them pause and consider what it truly means to be brilliant, what is necessary to rise to the heights of academic accomplishment and what it truly means to lose something that makes you what you are today. The movie itself is set in the mid to late 1900s due to the events of the movie taking place during this time. Overall, it can be stated that this particular setting is rather interesting to take note of since it displays a time where not only are social behaviors different but the way in which mental illnesses are looked upon are vastly different as well. One of the most thought provoking scenes in the movie is the instance where Nash is sent to an insane asylum and subject to treatments such as electroshock therapy, mind numbing medications and an assortment of other practices that seem brutal by todays standards. It is this particular setting that helps audiences consider what it meant to be different during t his particular time in Americas history and as such helps to further strengthen the appeal of audiences to the case of John Nash. Lastly, it must be mentioned that the films overall cinematography lend its storyline a very distinct flow. It non-linear method of telling a story helps the scenes to blend into to each other creating a rather riveting story progression. The film doesnt seem hurried or overly slow rather it tells the story of the life of John Nash at a plodding pace. It is slow and deliberate in the way in which the scenes progress and as such gives time for viewers to examine different aspects of the film while truly enjoying the various emotional scenes the movie has. Work Cited Crowe, Rusell, Perf. A Beautiful Mind. Dir. Ron Howard. Universal Studios, 2001. Film.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Discussion on the Film A Beautiful Mind specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More

mtbe essays

mtbe essays 1990, the federal Clean Air Act was passed to improve air quality in the United States. President Bush's proposed amendments to the Clean Air Act initially would have led to the introduction of alternative, non-petroleum fuels. The petroleum and oxygenate industries responded by offering a reformulated gasoline program as a substitute for most of the alternate fuel proposals. As a result, the amendments to the federal Clean Air Act adopted in 1990 required steps to achieve lower vehicle emissions, including programs to oxygenate and reformulate gasoline. Oxygenated gasoline is designed to increase the combustion efficiency of gasoline, thereby reducing carbon monoxide emissions. Since January 1995, the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments require areas that have the most severe ozone pollution to use reformulated gasoline containing fuel oxygenates to improve air quality. Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether is one of the most commonly used fuel oxygenates because it is produced in very large amounts from isobutylene, a waste product in the refining process. MTBE can be easily produced at the refinery, at a low cost, and can be transferred through existing pipelines once it has been blended with gasoline. In contrast to other gasoline additives used in the past, MTBE is a member of a class of chemical compounds, ethers, whose unique properties are enhanced solubility in water and chemical attraction to water molecules. These properties, along with widespread use of MTBE, have resulted in frequent detection of MTBE in samples of shallow groundwater from urban areas throughout the United States. MTBE moves quickly to shallow groundwater because it is not attached to soil particles, and is chemically attracted to water molecules. MTBE the potential to impact regional groundwater sources and may present a cumulative contamination hazard due to its mobility and apparent recalcitrance. The United States Geological Survey, in a paper pres...

Can You Reschedule Your SAT Date Should You

Can You Reschedule Your SAT Date Should You SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips What should you do when you’ve already registered for an SAT test date, but you have a schedule conflict or just aren’t ready to take the SAT yet?Never fear! SAT rescheduling is an option! If you’re wondering how you can reschedule your SAT, this guide has all the answers you need about SAT change date procedures. We’ll explain what it means to reschedule SAT test dates, how late you can reschedule, how much it will cost, and we’ll walk you through each step of how to changeSAT test dates. What Does It Mean to Reschedule Your SAT? Why Would You Need an SAT Reschedule? When you reschedule your SAT, it means changing the date (and sometimes the location) of your exam after you’ve already registered for a particular date.You’ll need to cancel your current registration and reschedule a new date to take the SAT. There are a few reasons why you might need to change the date of your SAT: Schedule conflict: An academic, extracurricular, or personal activity may suddenly appear on your calendar on the day you were supposed to take the SAT. If it’s an important event, you may not be able to miss it, meaning you’ll need an SAT test reschedule. However, for certain school-related conflicts, you may be able to get an alternate SAT test date instead of rescheduling. Read more about alternative SAT test dates here. You haven’t prepared enough: Sometimes, despite your best efforts, you just can’t squeeze in enough time to study enough for the SAT before your test date. In these cases, you may want to reschedule your SAT for a later date so you have more time to prepare. What to Know Before You Reschedule Your SAT Before you begin the process of changing your SAT, you should know exactly what to expect and if it’s even possible for you to schedule an SAT date change. How Much Will the SAT Date Change Cost? If you need to reschedule SAT test dates, it will cost you $28 per reschedule(This is in addition to the $45 or $57 you already paid when you registered to take the SAT.)This $28 reschedule fee is the same whether your change just the test date and keep the location the same or if you change both the test date and the location.You will need to pay this fee even if you received a fee waiver when you registered for the SAT. How Late Can You Reschedule? The good news is that there is no deadline for rescheduling SAT test dates.You can even reschedule after your original test date has passed (as long as you didn’t show up for the test), and you’ll only need to pay the $28 reschedule fee, not an entirely new registration fee.However, if the new date you want to take the SAT on is less than a month away, you’ll also have to pay an additional $28 late registration fee on top of the SAT test reschedule fee. How to Reschedule Your SAT Not sure how to change SAT test dates? Rescheduling SATdates is an easy process that only takes a few minutes to complete. The process is the same for rescheduling both the General SAT and SAT Subject Tests. Follow these steps to change your test date. Sign-in to your College Board account. On your â€Å"My SAT† page, you’ll see the tests you’re registered for. Click â€Å"Change Registration† under the test that you want to reschedule. You’ll now see a new page with your SAT admission ticket information on it. At the bottom of the page, click â€Å"Change my test date.† You’ll then be brought to a page where, under â€Å"Test Date†, you can see the new SAT date(s) you can change to. Select the one that works best for you. You’ll then select your test center, confirm your personal information is correct, and pay the reschedule fee. When you’re finished, you’ll receive an email confirmation and a new admission ticket with your updated test date. Pros and Cons of an SAT Reschedule Is rescheduling your SAT the right decision for you? There are benefits and drawbacks for both options which we go over in this section. Pros Can Make It Possible for You to Take the SAT Sometimes you simply can’t make the original date you planned to take the SAT. If another commitment (whether it’s for school, an extracurricular, or another reason) makes it impossible for you to get to the test center on your original test date, rescheduling is sometimes the only thing you can do to take the SAT. Gives You More Time to Study Postponing your SAT will give you more time to study for the test, which can translate into a better score. This can be a significant benefit, but, remember, it only works if you put in the necessary study time. Check out these guides if you need help developing a study plan. How Long Should I Study for the SAT? The Best Way to Study for the SAT The Ultimate SAT Math Prep Guide Cheaper Than Canceling If you can’t make it to the test center on the day you already registered to take the SAT, it’s cheaper to reschedule the SAT then just outright canceling it and registering for a completely new test. Rescheduling will cost you an extra $28, while rescheduling a completely new test will cost $45 without the essay or $57 with the essay. Cons Added Cost As mentioned above, the reschedule fee for changing your SAT test date is $28. For some people this isn’t a big deal or it’s worth the benefit of changing their test date, but for others this cost, on top of the normal SAT registration fee, isn’t worth it. May Miss Certain Application Deadlines If you end up needing to push your SAT to a later date, you may miss certain college admission deadlines, depending on when your new test date is. Before you reschedule your SAT, be very sure that you aren’t jeopardizing your chances of applying to certain schools by postponing your SAT test date. It’s also important to be aware that some winter SAT test dates are occasionally delayed or canceled due to winter storms, so take into account when your new SAT test date will be and the chances of a snowstorm occurring where you’ll be taking it. SAT Reschedule: Key Takeaways If you can’t make your originally schedule SAT date, it’s possible to reschedule the exam.You can do this anytime before the test, but there is a reschedule fee of $28 that you’ll need to pay. If you're not sure how to reschedule SAT test dates, know that the SAT change date procedureis a simple process and can be completed in a few minutes on your My SAT page.Rescheduling your SAT can make it possible for you to still take the test, give you more time to study, and it’s cheaper than straight out canceling. However, it does come with an added cost and may cause you to miss certain college application deadlines. What's Next? Wondering what a good SAT score is? Learn how to set a score goalbased on the schools you want to get into. Need some study materials? We have links tofree and official SAT practice tests you can use during your studying! How do you send your SAT scores to colleges?Learn everything you need to know about sending SAT scores! Want to learn more about the SAT but tired of reading blog articles? Then you'll love our free, SAT prep livestreams. Designed and led by PrepScholar SAT experts, these live video events are a great resource for students and parents looking to learn more about the SAT and SAT prep. Click on the button below to register for one of our livestreams today!

Corporations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4750 words

Corporations - Essay Example In this regard, a duty of care involves the duty to ensure that the corporation’s interests are protected and in doing so, directors must ensure that their conduct does not bring about harm to the corporation (Guth v Loft, Inc.). In the class action lawsuit against the board, the claim is that the board of directors is jointly liable for the illegal conduct of Operator and Accountant. The claim is therefore substantiated by findings that board directors Operator and Account breached their duty of loyalty and the board as a whole was negligent in not preventing or acquiescing in that breach of the duty of loyalty. Liability in this regard will be founded on the statutory duty of care articulated by the Model Business Corporation Act 1984. Pursuant to Section 8.30 of the Model Business Corporation Act 1984, directors have a responsibility to act with the care of an ordinary reasonable person in the director’s position and how such a person would be expected to act in â₠¬Å"similar circumstances† (Model Business Corporation Act, Section 8.30). Therefore the substantive issue is whether or not the board as whole indirectly and through agency, breached the duty of loyalty and in doing so, directly breached the duty of care. From a purely procedural perspective, the business judgment rule engages judicial review of the substantive issues and argument. ... On the facts of the case, it appears that the board relied on Accountant and his teams to appropriately carry out the corporation’s financial affairs. Moreover, the audited financial statements sent to the directors would not have revealed an obvious issue although a closer examination of the books would have revealed the unlawful activities. The main question in assessing the business judgment rule is therefore whether or not it was prudent for the board to trust Accountant and to accept the audited financial statements at face value. Since audited financial statements are usually prepared by a certified public accountant and its authentic is confirmed by the certified public accountant, it does not appear to be unreasonable for the board to rely on the audited financial statements (Merrill Lynch). If the certified public accountant was Accountant and his team, it is only with hindsight that the board might have a reason to second guess his preparation of the audited financia l statements. Therefore this part of the class action lawsuit will not likely succeed. The board appears to have acted prudently or reasonably and had a rational basis for their decision and cannot be said to have acted in breach of a duty of care and therefore did not breach the duty of loyalty. With respect to the payment of a US$50 fine to avoid an indictment against the company, it can be argued that this particular act is negligent since the case against Operator appears to be falling apart. Procedurally, if the case against Operator, the main actor in the scandal is weakening, the case against Mousetrap is decidedly weaker. However, the prospect of facing an investigation and an

Fire Protection Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Fire Protection Strategy - Essay Example Safety engineering is much needed in fire safety because engineering involves careful planning. Incorporating safety measures in structures and buildings is a must under the Building Regulations 2000 (Health and Safety Executive, 2007) and other significant legislations on fire safety and prevention. It should occupy careful study by engineers and architects. The principles in the code must enable the engineer to properly plan the fire safety framework. Experience tells us that many causes of fire are due to poor building design, inadequate emergency procedures, and other necessary measures not being implemented, or not adhering to proper regulations. Furthermore, interior furnishings exacerbate the growth of fires, or they could be the primary cause of fire. Engineers and architects should not neglect installing the necessary fire protective devices in buildings and structures. In public buildings, such as the JB Firth Building, owners should be extra careful in installing furnishings or linings which can be said as â€Å"fuel load† to possible fires. Our report will cover the fire safety strategy, including conclusions and recommendations from our study with respect to the fire safety measures as incorporated in the plan. This will also evaluate whether these are in accordance with the Building Regulations 2000 on Fire Safety and other important legislations on fire safety and prevention. Also included in the report are the application methods of fire risk assessment. We will also examine the materials used in furnishings, structures and linings which should have the strength to withstand fire or heat. We will provide our assessment and summary of the building, and the provisions of the Building Regulations, whether these are being implemented and executed with respect to the detection and warning systems; the means of escape should there be a fire; the internal fire spread linings; the internal

Copyright and Creativity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Copyright and Creativity - Essay Example It is purported that copyright primarily serves the end of encouraging creativity, because of the inspiration it provides to authors/writers/creators and would-be authors/writers/creators that will see creativity as an opportunity to gain economic advantage as well as an acknowledgment of their talent. This claim, however, is being contested by those who argue that artists have been churning out great works of arts for centuries without the benefit of copyright protection. Worse, there are those who perceive copyright protection as an unwitting tool for stifling creativity as illustrated by recent cases where works have been prohibited from seeing publication on the ground that they infringe the copyright law. The question that is being contemplated by this paper, therefore, is whether or not copyright protection encourages or stifles artistic creativity. Background The US Copyright Law has its roots in the 1710, Statute of Anne, an English law that ended the monopoly of the Statione r’s Company by vesting exclusive right of books to their authors for fourteen years, subject to renewal. After the American Revolution in the 18th century, several states their own copyright laws that took after the Statute of Anne, but the Constitutional Convention decided that a unifying law on copyright should be enacted nationally and thus, attached a clause mandating such passage in Article 1 of the proposed Constitution. The subsequent Copyright Act of 1970 copied the 14-year period of exclusive right to authors renewable for another 14 years and was made applicable solely to books, maps and maritime charts. Eventually, however, the US copyright law was broadened to cover other original works as well. In the Copyright Act of 1909, the coverage of the grant extended to all written works not only in the US but to various written foreign works as well. In addition, it extended the period of the exclusive right to 28 years, which is renewable for another 28 years. The next copyright law, i.e. Copyright Act of 1976 is the precursor of the present US copyright law. This Act eliminated many of the earlier features as well as added new ones. For example, it established a single period of exclusive right for all kinds of works, which is the life of the author plus 50 years, dismissed the formalities and made the right applicable the very moment the work becomes a concrete medium of expression. 1 Before the present consolidated US copyright law came into being, the Copyright Act 1976 went through various amendments and supplementations. These include the following: the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992, which added copyright grant to digital audio recordings; the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, which extended the exclusive right to 20 years, and; the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, which deals with high-technology works. 2 Features of the Present US Copyright Law Under the present US Copyright Law, which is denominated as Title 17 of the United States Code, the exclusive rights to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies, perform, display publicly and use in a digital audio transmission of works, are granted only to their authors or creators.3 The copyright grant covers only 8 kinds of words, and their respective derivatives, namely: literary

Business planning Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Business planning - Research Paper Example Customization includes making the new jewelry with desired sizes, color, and design. We would also be able to accommodate the customer selected designs or drawn with mutually agreeable way. Opportunity and Strategy- The following are the available opportunities for the proposed business: the increasing consumer preference toward classic designs; the regional growth in suppliers will benefit the company; the existence of the creation of a new product through customization; the increased number of technology users; and the increased demand in locally-made and reliable products. The company would wish to exploit the above-mentioned opportunities using the following strategies: first, by providing uniquely made jewelry through combinations and customization. Second, by establishing an online portal, for the potential customers, where they can choose, modify, mix and match and upload their preferred designs. The company wants to make sure that those who do not have time during normal trading hours can use this portal which will be of mutual benefit. The target market and projections- We would like to consider factors that influence buyer’s behavior as the basis for selecting the target market rather than segregation criteria based on age or gender. The business would like to concentrate on the buyer’s purchasing decision in order to establish marketing factors such as the customer preference and the range of jewelry they use. Sara’s Jewelry: it maters Inc. wants deliver their product for the middle class (Targets the middle class). The value we want is affordable, durable and long lasting custom-made products. The business aims at satisfying the local demand of unique jewelry through local production. Sara’s Jewelry: it maters Inc. would like to serve their customers by creating a need rather than targeting at any problem. The customer value proposition can be defined as the ‘value’ which will make them feel satisfied and make them loyal

SDiverse learners as challenges and opportunities Research Paper

SDiverse learners as challenges and opportunities - Research Paper Example Thus, in this situation, the implications that the provided students’ characteristics would have for me as a facilitator of learning are providing the education within the vicious circle and initiating a standardized education regimen (Merriam & Grace, 2011). Certain challenges are likely to be faced by me while taking adult English as an ESL class with diverse learners. In this regard, one of such challenges can be determining appropriate goal settings of the individual learners. This is mainly owing to the reason of possessing diverse goals by different learners (Sample, 2002). Apart from this, I can also face the challenge of imparting basic psychological based concepts along with theories to such learners, as the learners belong to different cultural background and native places (Jackson, 2009). The opportunities that are present in the aforementioned context include acquiring the idea about how community or adult education is being imparted to the learners holding different cultural backgrounds and also exploring distinct problems or issues that tend to generate democratic learning spaces in the stated procedure. Apart from this, the learners might present the opportunity of carefully examine any sort of prevailing structural inequality in the learning procedure (Grace & Wells, 2007; Gouthro, 2007). Grace, A. P., & Wells, K. (2011). Using Freirean pedagogy of just ire to inform critical social learning in arts-informed community education for sexual minorities. Adult Education Quarterly, 57(2),

Business planning Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Business planning - Research Paper Example Customization includes making the new jewelry with desired sizes, color, and design. We would also be able to accommodate the customer selected designs or drawn with mutually agreeable way. Opportunity and Strategy- The following are the available opportunities for the proposed business: the increasing consumer preference toward classic designs; the regional growth in suppliers will benefit the company; the existence of the creation of a new product through customization; the increased number of technology users; and the increased demand in locally-made and reliable products. The company would wish to exploit the above-mentioned opportunities using the following strategies: first, by providing uniquely made jewelry through combinations and customization. Second, by establishing an online portal, for the potential customers, where they can choose, modify, mix and match and upload their preferred designs. The company wants to make sure that those who do not have time during normal trading hours can use this portal which will be of mutual benefit. The target market and projections- We would like to consider factors that influence buyer’s behavior as the basis for selecting the target market rather than segregation criteria based on age or gender. The business would like to concentrate on the buyer’s purchasing decision in order to establish marketing factors such as the customer preference and the range of jewelry they use. Sara’s Jewelry: it maters Inc. wants deliver their product for the middle class (Targets the middle class). The value we want is affordable, durable and long lasting custom-made products. The business aims at satisfying the local demand of unique jewelry through local production. Sara’s Jewelry: it maters Inc. would like to serve their customers by creating a need rather than targeting at any problem. The customer value proposition can be defined as the ‘value’ which will make them feel satisfied and make them loyal

General Aviation - Marketing Role Models Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

General Aviation - Marketing Role Models - Essay Example The onus of the growth and maturity of the aviation industry lies on four significant individuals – Clyde Cessna, Walter Beech, Lloyd Stearman and Russ Meyer. Clyde was the pioneer in designing and building monoplanes while Stearman concentrated and manufactured biplanes. Stearman is responsible for the Boring Aircraft manufacturing Company that still serves the nation and the world today. Cessna and Beech had only rudimentary education up to fifth grade while Stearman and Meyer received formal education. Meyer, apart from being a pilot, was a good administrator and leader and is responsible to revive the light aircraft industry. An inner urge and quest for designing led Cessna, Beech and Stearman to create, design and build airplanes. The fact that this was possible without formal education demonstrates the technical acumen that existed in all of them. Beech and Stearman have been enshrined in the Aviation Hall of Fame for their invaluable contribution to the aviation industr y. All of them had a very humble beginning and could rise in life due to their dedication and creative abilities with which they were endowed. In the last 50 years the airlines industry of US has experienced reasonably profitable to devastatingly depressed periods. The US was the first major market to deregulate the industry in 1978 and it has experienced more turbulence than any other airline or region (Wikipedia). Deregulation led to higher competition and drop in airfares. This can be a major constraint for established carriers which tend to have a higher cost base compared to the new entrants. The global aviation industry is expected to grow at Compound Annual Growth rate (CAGR) of 5.6% in the period between 2004 and 2024 (Zinnov LLC, 2007). Air travel is correlated to wealth and has increased over the years with the increase in the GNI. The markets in the US and Europe are growing at a slower pace that the rest of the world. This is demonstrated through a fall in their global share

Understanding of the Old Testament Essay Example for Free

Understanding of the Old Testament Essay To what extent does archaeology inform us about our understanding of the Old Testament? The Jewish scriptures that made up the Old Testament were written over a period of a hundred years during a time when the Israelites were established and prosperous, but also during the times when the whole religion and lifestyle were under threat throughout exiles and national crises. Biblical scholars study the evidence within the scriptures themselves and also use other resources such as prehistoric documents and archaeological findings in order to inform us more thoroughly about the Old Testament. Archaeology is a modern science calling for much patience and skill. Generally speaking there are three kinds of archaeology. The first is ruins of buildings, homes, temples and fortifications. These reveal culture, worship, social structure and manner of life. The second is artefacts, pots, lamps, weapons and ornaments. These reveal something about wealth and culture. The third is inscriptions, also known as epigraphic material. This reveals what people wrote about. We have to be cautious about what archaeology can prove. From reading ancient texts, scholars can not always tell whether it is true or not. We can simply tell what the writer of the text wanted the world to believe. Archaeology can help to provide evidence that an event happened, but it cannot always show why it happened nor who was involved. Therefore it is most useful for corroboration. Through archaeology scholars can discover more about the times in which people in the Bible lived. What importance did they have as a nation among other nations? What were their everyday lives like? What animals did they keep? What did they eat? How did they trade? What were their social habits and family interactions? What was the nature of the other religions by which they were surrounded when Judaism was first beginning and much more? One of the main reasons scholars look for archaeological evidence is due to an issue that causes the most controversy- whether the events described really happened. For many people who are strong believers this is not an issue for them as the Bible, which is the Word of God is thought to them to be more true than any other foundation of information, so therefore the events portrayed in the Bible are true to them. If there is no outside evidence to support this, or discoveries of scholars contradict what the Bible says, then the Bible remains true to the believers as the people investigating the evidence are thought to be able to be fallible whereas for the believers, the Bible is not. Many people are also willing to accept that some of the Bibles accounts are true in a theological rather than a historical sense. However, it is argued that the accuracy of the historical accounts might have been sacrificed in order to put emphasis on the theological point. It is very difficult for events in the Old Testament to be accurately dated for many reasons. The main reason is that many of the written records have not survived. This is because many of the texts were written on insubstantial materials and the climate was not particularly dry and therefore could not preserve the texts. Another reason is that much of the Old Testament originated as oral traditions rather than written, which means whilst being passed on from one person to another, the real translation could have sometimes been changed through misunderstanding or false impression. This makes it extremely difficult for scholars to work out which parts are historically correct and which are not as elements may have been removed or added. Texts occasionally referred to features which were thought to be of a later date than the story itself and therefore scholars have to decide if the older parts of a narrative were correct or had been altered. Biblical writers also often exaggerated wha t was written in order to express that someone was particularly blessed by God. This means scholars have to make informed guesses where they do not know facts, which means they can easily make mistakes in accuracy as well as writing according to their own biases. A final reason why the Bible cannot be accurately dated is because Biblical writers primary purpose was not to write an accurate historical record. Their main interest was to illustrate the relationship between God and humanity, particularly the relationship between God and his chosen people, Israel. This meant important rulers and political events of global importance, which could give the Bible definite dates if they were mentioned in the texts, were ignored because they did not show any relevance for religious faith. Some people dispute that a date from the Bible can be found using the text itself as many do believe the Bible is historically accurate and reliable as the Bible is inspired by God. However, for many scholars this is thought to be very unreliable. As well as using documents to attempt to place the Bible in historical context, archaeologists have searched for evidence of the existence of cities and buildings mentioned in Biblical stories. Since the First World War, scholars have used archaeology to discover more reliable sources about events that were said to have happened in the Old Testament. For example, excavations on the southern bank of the river Euphrates in Syria revealed the existence of a city called Mari. From this city, archaeologists found cuneiform (wedge-shaped writing of ancient civilisations) tablets dating from the nineteenth and eighteenth centuries BC. They provided a wealth of information containing economic factors which helped scholars to understand the ways in which people lived in the Middle Bronze Age. In the past, thousands of tablets covered with cuneiform have been discovered. They provide information about the Biblical world before 100 BC. After that time alphabets with letters not made up of combinations of triangles begin to emerge and we are on our way to the Hebrew script known to Biblical scholars. Names found through archaeology can provide more clues to the dating or geographical setting of particular events in the Old Testament because when scholars find evidence of other people with comparable names to those of characters in the Bible, it can suggest a background for the Biblical writings. To conclude, archaeology can help to inform us more about events that happened in the Old Testament and help us understand what happened and who was involved more than we already do. However, we cannot always rely on archaeology to inform our understanding of the Old Testament as archaeologists and scholars do not always know the truth behind evidence found, they are only able to use what they see with their own eyes and make educated guesses with what they already know.

Pakistan Commercial Banks Risk Management

Pakistan Commercial Banks Risk Management ABSTRACT The agreement on international banking regulations dealing with how the banks handle the risk, the Basel Accord mainly focuses on the credit risk; according the Basel accord the bank assets divided into five main categories according to how they are risky. The five main categories are as (1) is assets without risk means 0% risk weighted, second one is 10% risk weighted, 3rd is 20% weighted, 4th is 50% weighted and last one is 100% weighted. When the banks perform international transactions they are required according the Basel Accord to hold assets minimum 8% aggregated risk according the Basel 1. The Basel 1 was written in 1988 by the Basel committee on banking supervision. All Banks of G-10 countries have try to implement this accord since the early 1990s. Now a days it is considered largely outdated and Basel committee working on Basel 1 to changing process in the shape of Basel II. This is also called Basel I accord. The document Basel I Capital Accord mainly designs to evaluate the capital in relation with the credit risk, and also the risk that can be a cause of losses in which the risk will occur if the party fail or unable to fulfill the obligations. It is mainly focus on the risk increasing modeling research process that is improvement toward the risk increasing research mode; however, it is over simplified calculations, and also classifications that have been simultaneously called for its disappearance, but the improvement in the shape of the Basel II Capital Accord and also other further agreements that are the sign for the continuously refinement for the risk and capital in the banking sector. Nevertheless, the document Basel I accords, will remain the first international instrument that evaluate the importance of risk with the relationship to capital, and also will remain as a milestone in the banking sector like finance and banking history. This study is mainly related to the risk management practices being followed by the commercial Banks in Pakistan. The questionnaire is used as a main tool to collect primary data and check the extent to which the risk management practices are being carried upon by the commercial banks in Pakistan. The six important aspects of risk management process are categorized as one dependent and five explanatory variables. This study aims to investigate the awareness about risk management practices within the banking sector of Pakistan. This study is comprised of data collected through both, primary as well as secondary sources. The purpose of using primary source data is to check the extent to which different risk management practices have been followed by the commercial banks in Pakistan. Primary data is collected through the use of a questionnaire. The questionnaire comprises a number of statements under one macro statement. It includes Risk Management Practices (RMP) as the dependent varia ble, and different aspects of risk management as the independent or explanatory variables. Whereas, the objective to use secondary data is to link the risk weighted Capital Adequacy Ratio to the different financial indicators of the commercial banks that are used to measure their soundness. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Risk management practices by the Commercial Banks Within the last few years, a number of studies have provided the discipline into the practice of risk management within the corporate and banking sector. An insight of related studies is as follows: Amran, et al. (2009), this article mention the possible availability of risk exposà © in the annual reports of the Malaysian companies. The study was aimed to empirically test the characteristics of the sampled companies. And also the level of risk faced by Malaysian companies with the disclosure made was also assessed and compared. The findings of the research revealed that the strategic risk came on the top, followed by the operations and empowerment risks being disclosed by the selected companies. The regression analysis proved significantly that size of the companies did matter. The stakeholder theory explains well this finding by stating that As company grows bigger, it will have a large pool of stakeholders, who would be interested in knowing the affairs of the company. The extent of risk disclosure was also found to be influenced by the nature of industry. As explored within this study, infrastructure and technology industries influenced the companies to have more risk inform ation disclosed. Hassan, A. (2009), made a study Risk Management Practices of Islamic Banks of Brunei Darussalam to assess the degree to which the Islamic banks in Brunei Darussalam implemented risk management practices and carried them out thoroughly by using different techniques to deal with various kinds of risks. The results of the study showed that, like the conventional banking system, Islamic banking was also subjected to a variety of risks due to the unique range of offered products in addition to conventional products. The results showed that there was a remarkable understanding of risk and risk management by the staff working in the Islamic Banks of Brunei Darussalam, which showed their ability to pave their way towards successful risk management. The major risks that were faced by Brunei banks that was the Foreign exchange risk as well as credit risk and also operating risk. For the analysis regression model was used to explain the results which shown that the Risk Identification, or Risk Assessment and Analysis were also the most uncontrollable variables and the Islamic banks in Brunei needed to give more attention to those variables to make their Risk Management Practices more effective by understanding the true application of Basel-II Accord to improve the efficiency of Islamic Bank’s risk management systems. Al-Tamimi (2008) studied the relationship among the readiness of implementing Basel II Accord and resources needed for its implementation in UAE banks. Results of the research revealed that the banks in UAE were aware of the benefits, impact and challenges associated in the implementation of Basel II Accord. However, the research did not confirm any positive relationship between UAE banks readiness for the implementation of Basel II and impact of the implementation. The relationship between readiness and anticipated cost of implementation was also not confirmed. No significant difference was found in the level of Basel II Accord’s preparation between the UAE national and foreign banks. It was concluded that there was a significant difference in the level of the UAE banks Basel II based on employees education level. The results supported the importance of education level needed for the implementation of Basel II Accord. Al-Tamimi and Al- Mazrooei (2007) provide the comprehensive study relating of Bank’s Risk Management of UAE National and Foreign Banks. The outcome of this research is to find out that there are three most important types of risks facing the UAE commercial banks that were foreign exchange risk, 2nd one followed by credit risk and 3rd one is operating risk. And the result also found that the bank of UAE were also efficiently handle the risk; but the variables like as the risk identification, risk assessment and also analysis proved that the banks are more efficient in risk management process. Finally, the outcome of the result showed that there was a huge difference if we compare the UAE National banks and foreign Banks in the practicing the risk assessment and risk analysis as well as risk monitoring and risk controlling process. Koziol and Lawrenz (2008) provided a study in which they assessed the risk of bank failures. They said that assessing the risk related to bank failures is the paramount concern of bank regulations. They argued that in order to assess the default risk of a bank, it is important considering its financing decisions as an endogenous dynamic process. The research study provided a continuous-time model, where banks chose the deposit volume in order to trade off the benefits of earning deposit premiums against the costs that would occur at future capital structure adjustments. Major findings suggested that the dynamic endogenous financing decision introduced an important self-regulation mechanism. Basel Core Principles and Bank Risk: Does Compliance Matter? The recent financial crisis has sparked widespread calls for reforms of regulation and supervision. The initial reaction to the crisis was one of disbelief: how could such extensive financial distress emerge in countries where the supervision of financial risk had been thought to be the best in the world? Indeed, the regulatory standards and protocols of the advanced countries at the center of the financial storm were being emulated worldwide through the progressive adoption of the international Basel capital standards and the Basel Core Principles for Effective Bank Supervision (BCPs). The crisis exposed significant weaknesses in the financial system regulatory and supervisory framework worldwide, and has spawned a growing debate about the role these weaknesses may have played in causing and propagating the crisis. As a result, reform of regulation and supervision is a top priority for policymakers, and many countries are working to upgrade their frameworks. But what should the reforms focus on? What constitutes good regulation and supervision? Which elements are most important for ensuring bank soundness? What should be the scope of regulation? To date, the best practices in supervision and regulation have been embodied by the BCPs. These principles were issued in 1997 by the Basel Committee on Bank Supervision, comprising representatives from bank supervisory agencies from advanced countries. Since then, most countries in the world have stated their intent to adopt and comply with the BCPs, making them a global standard for bank regulators. Importantly, since 1999, the IMF and the World Bank have conducted evaluations of countries’ compliance with these principles, mainly within their joint Financial Sector Assessment program (FSAP). The assessments are conducted according to a standardized methodology developed by the Basel Committee and therefore provide a unique source of information about the quality of supervision and regulation around the world. Hence the international community has made significant investments in developing these principles, encouraging their wide-spread adoption, and assessing progress with their compliance. In light of the recent crisis and the resulting skepticism about the effectiveness of existing approaches to regulation and supervision, it is natural to ask if compliance with the global standard of good regulation is associated with bank soundness. Specifically, they test whether better compliance with BCPs is associated with safer banks. They also look at whether compliance with different elements of the BCP framework is more closely associated with bank soundness to identify if there are specific areas which would help prioritize reform efforts to improve supervision. The paper extends their previous work (Demirgà ¼Ãƒ §-Kunt, Detragiache and Tressel, 2008: henceforth DDT), in which they showed that banks receive more favorable financial strength ratings from Moody’s in countries with better compliance with BCPs related to information provision, while compliance with other principles does not affect ratings significantly. The policy message from this study was that countries should give priority to strengthening regulation and regulation in the area of information provision (both to the market and to supervisors) relative to other areas covered by the core principles. Using rating information to proxy bank risk significantly limited the sample size in that study, making it necessary to exclude many smaller banks and many banks from lower income countries. Furthermore, after the recent crisis, the credibility of credit ratings as indicators of bank risk has also diminished, questioning the merit of using these ratings in the analysis. In this paper, they explore whether BCP compliance affects bank soundness, but instead of using ratings they capture bank soundness using the Z-score, which is the number of standard deviations by which bank returns have to fall to wipe out bank equity (Boyd and Runkle, 1993). Because they can construct Z-scores using just accounting information, and because assessment data for additional countries have also become available, they can extend the sample size considerably relative to our earlier study, to over 3,000 banks from 86 countries (compared to 200 banks from 37 countries analyzed in DDT). This is not just a simple increase in sample size: the sample of rated banks was not a representative sample, because rated banks tend to be larger, more internationally active, and more likely to adhere to international accounting standards. From a policy point of view, they would like to investigate the effect of BCP compliance on all types of banks operating in different country circumstan ces, rather than a select subgroup. In this study, the richer sample allows us to explore whether the relationship between BCPs and bank soundness varies across different types of banks. All in all, they do not find support for the hypothesis that better compliance with BCPs results in sounder banks as measured by Z-scores. This result holds after controlling for the macroeconomic environment, institutional quality, and bank characteristics. They also fail to find a significant relationship when they consider different samples, such a sample of rated banks only, a sample including only commercial banks, and samples including only the largest financial institutions. In an additional test, they calculate aggregate Z-scores at the country level to try to capture the stability of the system as a while rather than that of individual banks, but also this measure of soundness is not significantly related to overall BCP compliance. When they explore the relationship between soundness and compliance with specific groups of principles, which refer to separate areas of prudential supervision and regulation, they continue to find no evidence that good compliance is related to im proved soundness. If anything, they find that stronger compliance with principles related to the power of supervisors to license banks and regulate market structure are associated with riskier banks. While these results cast doubts on whether international efforts to improve financial regulation and supervision should continue to place a strong emphasis on BCPs, a number of caveats are in order. First, insignificant results may simply indicate that accounting-based measures, such as Zscores, do not adequately capture bank soundness, especially for small banks and in low income countries, where accounting standards tend to be poor. They may also reflect low quality in the assessment of BCP compliance, especially in countries where laws and regulations on the books may carry little weight. It might be also argued that assessments are not comparable across countries, despite the best efforts of expert supervisors and internal reviewing teams at the IMF and the World Bank to ensure a uniform methodology and uniform standards. If their negative results arise because compliance assessments do not reflect reality or are not comparable across countries, then at a minimum they should lead us to question the value of these assessments in ensuring that supervision measures up to global standards. Review of related literature of this paper is as follows: Defining good regulatory and supervisory practices is a difficult and complicated task. Barth, Caprio, and Levine (2001, 2004, and 2006) were the first to compile and analyze an extensive database on banking sector laws and regulations using various surveys of regulators around the world, and to study the relationship between alternative regulatory strategies and outcomes. This research finds that regulatory approaches that facilitate private sector monitoring of banks (such as disclosure of reliable, comprehensive and timely information) and strengthen incentives for greater market monitoring (for example by limiting deposit insurance) improve bank performance and stability. In contrast, boosting official supervisory oversight and disciplinary powers and tightening capital standards does not lead to banking sector development, nor does it improve bank efficiency, reduce corruption in lending, or lower banking system fragility. They interpret their findings as a challenge to the Basel Committee’s influential approach to bank regulation which heavily emphasizes ca pital and official supervision. An important limitation of this type of survey is that it mainly captures rules and regulations that are on the books rather than actual implementation. IMF and the World Bank financial sector assessments have often found implementation to be lacking, particularly in low income countries, so that cross-country comparisons of what is on the books may hide substantial variation in the quality of supervision and regulation. BCP assessments have the advantage of taking into account implementation. Of course, assessing how rules and regulations are implemented and enforced in practice is not an exact science, and individual assessments may be influenced by factors such as the assessors’ experience and the regulatory culture they are most familiar with. Nevertheless, although it is difficult to eliminate subjectivity completely, assessments are based on a standardized methodology and are carried out by experienced international assessors with broad c ountry experience. Cihak and Tieman (2008) analyze the quality of financial sector regulation and supervision using both Barth, Caprio and Levine’s survey data and BCP assessments. They find that regulation and supervision in high-income countries is generally of higher quality than in lower income countries. They also note that the correlation between survey data and BCP data tend to be low, always less than 50 percent and in many cases in the 20-30 percent range, suggesting that taking into account implementation may indeed make an important difference. A number of papers also use BCP assessments to study bank regulation and performance. Sundararajan, Marston, and Basu (2001) use a sample of 25 countries to examine the relationship between an overall index of BCP compliance and two indicators of bank soundness: nonperforming loans (NPLs) and loan spreads. They find BCP compliance not to be a significant determinant of these measures of soundness. Podpiera (2004) extends the set of countries and finds that better BCP compliance lowers NPLs. Das et al. (2005) relates bank soundness to a broader concept of regulatory governance, which encompasses compliance with the BCPs as well as compliance with standards and codes for monetary and financial policies. Better regulatory governance is found to be associated with sounder banks, particularly in countries with better institutions. In this paper, as already discussed they rely on the Z-score to measure bank soundness. While the Z-score has its limitations, they believe it is an improvement over measures used in previous studies, namely NPLs, loan spreads, interest margins, and capital adequacy. Because different countries have different reporting rules, NPLs are notoriously difficult to compare across countries. On the other hand, loan spreads or interest margins and capitalization are affected by a variety of forces other than fragility, such as market structure, differences in risk-free interest rates and operating costs, and varying capital regulation. Thus, cross-country comparability is a serious issue. In contrast with ratings, Z-scores do not rely on the subjective judgment of rating agencies’ analysts. Results from the baseline regression, relating bank soundness measured by the Z-score to the degree of compliance with the BCPs. In the sample including all countries, the Zscore is higher, indicating a sounder bank, for banks with lower operating costs in countries with higher GDP per capita. Also, non-commercial banks tend to have higher Z-scores, while the other control variables are not significant. The coefficient of the BCP compliance index is positive but not significant. If they exclude Japanese banks, which account for over 20 percent of the sample, the fit of the model improves markedly (the R-squared increases from 10 percent to 19 percent) and the coefficients of many regressors change substantially.12 This suggests that the variables explaining the Z-score of Japanese banks may be somewhat different than for the rest of the sample, perhaps because of the lingering effects of Japan’s prolonged banking crisis on bank balance sheets. For example, in the sample excluding Japan inflation and the rule of law index are significant (with the expected coefficients), while GDP per capita is not (though the coefficient remains positive). Also, banks with a higher ratio of net loans to assets have higher Z-scores, perhaps because Basel regulation mandating minimum levels of risk-adjustment capital forces these banks to hold more equity. Also, in the sample excluding Japan larger banks have lower Z-scores, likely because they tend to hold less capital than smaller banks. Despite these differences, the coefficient of the BCP compliance index remains insignificantly different from zero also in the sample without Japanese banks. The same is true when they add to the regression additional macro controls, such as exchange rate appreciation, private credit, or the sovereign rating. In the regressions, they explore how the relationship between BCP compliance and bank soundness changes if they alter the sample composition to include various categories of financial institutions to explore whether BCP compliance may affect soundness for alternative types of banks. All these results refer to the sample excluding Japan, so that th e overrepresentation of Japanese banks does not distort the results. The first exercise is to examine the widest sample possible, i.e. one that includes investment banks/securities houses, medium and long-term credit banks, nonbank credit institutions, and specialized government credit institutions. These are institutions that in most countries are unlikely to fall under the perimeter of bank regulation and supervision, so they have excluded them from the baseline sample. When they include them, the sample size grows by 25 percent, but the main regression results are unchanged. In particular, bank soundness is not significantly affected by compliance with the BCPs. If they restrict the sample to commercial banks only, thereby losing about 300 banks compared to the baseline sample, once again they find that regression results remain very close to the baseline. When they focus only on banks rated by Moody’s, as in our earlier work, the sample shrinks considerably (to just over 300 banks), and the coefficient of the BCP compliance index becomes positive and significant, albeit only at the 10 percent confidence level. Thus, BCP compliance seems to have some positive effect on the soundness of this specific group of banks. To explore this issue further, they ask whether this result is driven by the fact that rated banks are larger banks. To do so, they consider two alternative samples: the first includes the largest 10 percent of banks within each country and the second includes the largest 20 percent of banks in the entire sample. In both cases, the BCP compliance index has an insignificant coefficient, as in the baseline sample. The BCP compliance index is the weighted sum of compliance scores for several individual chapters of the Core Principles. Could it be that, even though overall compliance does not seem to matter for bank soundness, some aspects of the Core Principles might be relevant? In fact, it may be possible that the overall index is not significant because of offsetting effects of its different components. In fact, in our previous study of Moody’s ratings, they found that, although overall compliance did not seem to matter, higher financial strength ratings were associated with better compliance with principles related to information provision to supervisors. They address this question by re-running the baseline regressions breaking down the compliance index into seven components, based on the standard grouping of principles used by the Basel Committee. An important caveat is that compliance scores are fairly strongly correlated, which may make it difficult to disentangle the effect of one set of principles from the others. They replicate the regression for different samples of banks to investigate the robustness of the results. There is only one component of the compliance index that has a fairly robust relationship with bank Z-scores, and that is compliance with Chapter 2 of the BCP, i.e. principles having to do with supervisors’ powers to regulate bank licensing and structure. Interestingly, this component of the index is negatively correlated with bank soundness, so that banks in countries were regulators have better defined powers to give out licenses and regulate bank activities tend to be riskier. This result holds in all th e samples except those including only the largest banks. This finding supports the contention that supervisory systems that tend to empower supervisors do not work well (Barth, Caprio, and Levine, 2001, 2004, 2006). So far, they have considered individual bank risk. In principle, bank supervision and regulation should be primarily concerned with systemic risk, rather than individual bank risk, although in practice it is not always easy to make this distinction. Could it be that BCP compliance, while not relevant to individual bank soundness, is important to ensure the stability of system as a whole? To address this question, it would be ideal to test whether BCP compliance reduces the probability of a financial crisis. However, since crises are rare events, this type of test requires a panel of data; since they have BCP compliance assessments only at a point in time, they are restricted to cross-sectional data. Nonetheless, to explore this question they compute a rough measure of systemic soundness as the aggregate equivalent of the individual bank Z-score. More specifically, they aggregate profits and equity of all the banks in the country (for which they have data), they compute the standard d eviation of aggregate profits, and then they compute an aggregate Z-score. This measure tells us by how many standard deviations banking system profits must fall to exhaust all the capital in the banking system. They then regress this measure on the BCP compliance score and a number of macroeconomic control variables. Their measure of systemic soundness is correlated with the macro variables as one might expect: higher growth, low inflation, low inflation volatility, appreciation of the currency, favorable sovereign ratings are all significantly associated with higher values of the aggregate Z-score. Once again, though, the BCP compliance index does not seem to be a significant determinant of banking system soundness. Though it is positive, the coefficient of the BCP index is small and not statistically significant in any specification. Remarks While the causes and consequences of the recent financial crisis will continue to be debated for years to come, there is emerging consensus that the crisis has revealed significant weaknesses in the regulatory and supervisory system. Resulting calls for reform have led to numerous proposals and policymakers in many countries are hard at work to upgrade their regulatory frameworks. This paper seeks to inform the on-going reform process by providing an analysis of how existing regulations and their application are associated with bank soundness. Specifically, they study whether compliance with Basel Core Principles for effective banking supervision (BCPs) is associated with lower bank risk, as measured Z-scores. They find no evidence of a robust statistical relationship linking better compliance with BCPs and improved bank soundness. The analysis of aggregate Z-scores to capture systemic stability issues yields similarly insignificant results. If anything, they find that compliance wit h a specific group of principles, those giving supervisors powers to regulate bank licensing and structure is associated with riskier banks, potentially suggesting that such powers may be misused in practice. While our results may reflect the difficulty of capturing bank risk using accounting measures, or the inability of assessors to carry out evaluations that are comparable across countries, nevertheless they raise questions about the relevance of the Basel Core Principles, the current emphasis on these principles as key to effective supervision, and the wisdom of carrying out costly periodic compliance reviews of BCP implementation in the IMF/World Bank Financial Sector Assessment Programs. Pakistan Commercial Banks Risk Management Pakistan Commercial Banks Risk Management ABSTRACT The agreement on international banking regulations dealing with how the banks handle the risk, the Basel Accord mainly focuses on the credit risk; according the Basel accord the bank assets divided into five main categories according to how they are risky. The five main categories are as (1) is assets without risk means 0% risk weighted, second one is 10% risk weighted, 3rd is 20% weighted, 4th is 50% weighted and last one is 100% weighted. When the banks perform international transactions they are required according the Basel Accord to hold assets minimum 8% aggregated risk according the Basel 1. The Basel 1 was written in 1988 by the Basel committee on banking supervision. All Banks of G-10 countries have try to implement this accord since the early 1990s. Now a days it is considered largely outdated and Basel committee working on Basel 1 to changing process in the shape of Basel II. This is also called Basel I accord. The document Basel I Capital Accord mainly designs to evaluate the capital in relation with the credit risk, and also the risk that can be a cause of losses in which the risk will occur if the party fail or unable to fulfill the obligations. It is mainly focus on the risk increasing modeling research process that is improvement toward the risk increasing research mode; however, it is over simplified calculations, and also classifications that have been simultaneously called for its disappearance, but the improvement in the shape of the Basel II Capital Accord and also other further agreements that are the sign for the continuously refinement for the risk and capital in the banking sector. Nevertheless, the document Basel I accords, will remain the first international instrument that evaluate the importance of risk with the relationship to capital, and also will remain as a milestone in the banking sector like finance and banking history. This study is mainly related to the risk management practices being followed by the commercial Banks in Pakistan. The questionnaire is used as a main tool to collect primary data and check the extent to which the risk management practices are being carried upon by the commercial banks in Pakistan. The six important aspects of risk management process are categorized as one dependent and five explanatory variables. This study aims to investigate the awareness about risk management practices within the banking sector of Pakistan. This study is comprised of data collected through both, primary as well as secondary sources. The purpose of using primary source data is to check the extent to which different risk management practices have been followed by the commercial banks in Pakistan. Primary data is collected through the use of a questionnaire. The questionnaire comprises a number of statements under one macro statement. It includes Risk Management Practices (RMP) as the dependent varia ble, and different aspects of risk management as the independent or explanatory variables. Whereas, the objective to use secondary data is to link the risk weighted Capital Adequacy Ratio to the different financial indicators of the commercial banks that are used to measure their soundness. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Risk management practices by the Commercial Banks Within the last few years, a number of studies have provided the discipline into the practice of risk management within the corporate and banking sector. An insight of related studies is as follows: Amran, et al. (2009), this article mention the possible availability of risk exposà © in the annual reports of the Malaysian companies. The study was aimed to empirically test the characteristics of the sampled companies. And also the level of risk faced by Malaysian companies with the disclosure made was also assessed and compared. The findings of the research revealed that the strategic risk came on the top, followed by the operations and empowerment risks being disclosed by the selected companies. The regression analysis proved significantly that size of the companies did matter. The stakeholder theory explains well this finding by stating that As company grows bigger, it will have a large pool of stakeholders, who would be interested in knowing the affairs of the company. The extent of risk disclosure was also found to be influenced by the nature of industry. As explored within this study, infrastructure and technology industries influenced the companies to have more risk inform ation disclosed. Hassan, A. (2009), made a study Risk Management Practices of Islamic Banks of Brunei Darussalam to assess the degree to which the Islamic banks in Brunei Darussalam implemented risk management practices and carried them out thoroughly by using different techniques to deal with various kinds of risks. The results of the study showed that, like the conventional banking system, Islamic banking was also subjected to a variety of risks due to the unique range of offered products in addition to conventional products. The results showed that there was a remarkable understanding of risk and risk management by the staff working in the Islamic Banks of Brunei Darussalam, which showed their ability to pave their way towards successful risk management. The major risks that were faced by Brunei banks that was the Foreign exchange risk as well as credit risk and also operating risk. For the analysis regression model was used to explain the results which shown that the Risk Identification, or Risk Assessment and Analysis were also the most uncontrollable variables and the Islamic banks in Brunei needed to give more attention to those variables to make their Risk Management Practices more effective by understanding the true application of Basel-II Accord to improve the efficiency of Islamic Bank’s risk management systems. Al-Tamimi (2008) studied the relationship among the readiness of implementing Basel II Accord and resources needed for its implementation in UAE banks. Results of the research revealed that the banks in UAE were aware of the benefits, impact and challenges associated in the implementation of Basel II Accord. However, the research did not confirm any positive relationship between UAE banks readiness for the implementation of Basel II and impact of the implementation. The relationship between readiness and anticipated cost of implementation was also not confirmed. No significant difference was found in the level of Basel II Accord’s preparation between the UAE national and foreign banks. It was concluded that there was a significant difference in the level of the UAE banks Basel II based on employees education level. The results supported the importance of education level needed for the implementation of Basel II Accord. Al-Tamimi and Al- Mazrooei (2007) provide the comprehensive study relating of Bank’s Risk Management of UAE National and Foreign Banks. The outcome of this research is to find out that there are three most important types of risks facing the UAE commercial banks that were foreign exchange risk, 2nd one followed by credit risk and 3rd one is operating risk. And the result also found that the bank of UAE were also efficiently handle the risk; but the variables like as the risk identification, risk assessment and also analysis proved that the banks are more efficient in risk management process. Finally, the outcome of the result showed that there was a huge difference if we compare the UAE National banks and foreign Banks in the practicing the risk assessment and risk analysis as well as risk monitoring and risk controlling process. Koziol and Lawrenz (2008) provided a study in which they assessed the risk of bank failures. They said that assessing the risk related to bank failures is the paramount concern of bank regulations. They argued that in order to assess the default risk of a bank, it is important considering its financing decisions as an endogenous dynamic process. The research study provided a continuous-time model, where banks chose the deposit volume in order to trade off the benefits of earning deposit premiums against the costs that would occur at future capital structure adjustments. Major findings suggested that the dynamic endogenous financing decision introduced an important self-regulation mechanism. Basel Core Principles and Bank Risk: Does Compliance Matter? The recent financial crisis has sparked widespread calls for reforms of regulation and supervision. The initial reaction to the crisis was one of disbelief: how could such extensive financial distress emerge in countries where the supervision of financial risk had been thought to be the best in the world? Indeed, the regulatory standards and protocols of the advanced countries at the center of the financial storm were being emulated worldwide through the progressive adoption of the international Basel capital standards and the Basel Core Principles for Effective Bank Supervision (BCPs). The crisis exposed significant weaknesses in the financial system regulatory and supervisory framework worldwide, and has spawned a growing debate about the role these weaknesses may have played in causing and propagating the crisis. As a result, reform of regulation and supervision is a top priority for policymakers, and many countries are working to upgrade their frameworks. But what should the reforms focus on? What constitutes good regulation and supervision? Which elements are most important for ensuring bank soundness? What should be the scope of regulation? To date, the best practices in supervision and regulation have been embodied by the BCPs. These principles were issued in 1997 by the Basel Committee on Bank Supervision, comprising representatives from bank supervisory agencies from advanced countries. Since then, most countries in the world have stated their intent to adopt and comply with the BCPs, making them a global standard for bank regulators. Importantly, since 1999, the IMF and the World Bank have conducted evaluations of countries’ compliance with these principles, mainly within their joint Financial Sector Assessment program (FSAP). The assessments are conducted according to a standardized methodology developed by the Basel Committee and therefore provide a unique source of information about the quality of supervision and regulation around the world. Hence the international community has made significant investments in developing these principles, encouraging their wide-spread adoption, and assessing progress with their compliance. In light of the recent crisis and the resulting skepticism about the effectiveness of existing approaches to regulation and supervision, it is natural to ask if compliance with the global standard of good regulation is associated with bank soundness. Specifically, they test whether better compliance with BCPs is associated with safer banks. They also look at whether compliance with different elements of the BCP framework is more closely associated with bank soundness to identify if there are specific areas which would help prioritize reform efforts to improve supervision. The paper extends their previous work (Demirgà ¼Ãƒ §-Kunt, Detragiache and Tressel, 2008: henceforth DDT), in which they showed that banks receive more favorable financial strength ratings from Moody’s in countries with better compliance with BCPs related to information provision, while compliance with other principles does not affect ratings significantly. The policy message from this study was that countries should give priority to strengthening regulation and regulation in the area of information provision (both to the market and to supervisors) relative to other areas covered by the core principles. Using rating information to proxy bank risk significantly limited the sample size in that study, making it necessary to exclude many smaller banks and many banks from lower income countries. Furthermore, after the recent crisis, the credibility of credit ratings as indicators of bank risk has also diminished, questioning the merit of using these ratings in the analysis. In this paper, they explore whether BCP compliance affects bank soundness, but instead of using ratings they capture bank soundness using the Z-score, which is the number of standard deviations by which bank returns have to fall to wipe out bank equity (Boyd and Runkle, 1993). Because they can construct Z-scores using just accounting information, and because assessment data for additional countries have also become available, they can extend the sample size considerably relative to our earlier study, to over 3,000 banks from 86 countries (compared to 200 banks from 37 countries analyzed in DDT). This is not just a simple increase in sample size: the sample of rated banks was not a representative sample, because rated banks tend to be larger, more internationally active, and more likely to adhere to international accounting standards. From a policy point of view, they would like to investigate the effect of BCP compliance on all types of banks operating in different country circumstan ces, rather than a select subgroup. In this study, the richer sample allows us to explore whether the relationship between BCPs and bank soundness varies across different types of banks. All in all, they do not find support for the hypothesis that better compliance with BCPs results in sounder banks as measured by Z-scores. This result holds after controlling for the macroeconomic environment, institutional quality, and bank characteristics. They also fail to find a significant relationship when they consider different samples, such a sample of rated banks only, a sample including only commercial banks, and samples including only the largest financial institutions. In an additional test, they calculate aggregate Z-scores at the country level to try to capture the stability of the system as a while rather than that of individual banks, but also this measure of soundness is not significantly related to overall BCP compliance. When they explore the relationship between soundness and compliance with specific groups of principles, which refer to separate areas of prudential supervision and regulation, they continue to find no evidence that good compliance is related to im proved soundness. If anything, they find that stronger compliance with principles related to the power of supervisors to license banks and regulate market structure are associated with riskier banks. While these results cast doubts on whether international efforts to improve financial regulation and supervision should continue to place a strong emphasis on BCPs, a number of caveats are in order. First, insignificant results may simply indicate that accounting-based measures, such as Zscores, do not adequately capture bank soundness, especially for small banks and in low income countries, where accounting standards tend to be poor. They may also reflect low quality in the assessment of BCP compliance, especially in countries where laws and regulations on the books may carry little weight. It might be also argued that assessments are not comparable across countries, despite the best efforts of expert supervisors and internal reviewing teams at the IMF and the World Bank to ensure a uniform methodology and uniform standards. If their negative results arise because compliance assessments do not reflect reality or are not comparable across countries, then at a minimum they should lead us to question the value of these assessments in ensuring that supervision measures up to global standards. Review of related literature of this paper is as follows: Defining good regulatory and supervisory practices is a difficult and complicated task. Barth, Caprio, and Levine (2001, 2004, and 2006) were the first to compile and analyze an extensive database on banking sector laws and regulations using various surveys of regulators around the world, and to study the relationship between alternative regulatory strategies and outcomes. This research finds that regulatory approaches that facilitate private sector monitoring of banks (such as disclosure of reliable, comprehensive and timely information) and strengthen incentives for greater market monitoring (for example by limiting deposit insurance) improve bank performance and stability. In contrast, boosting official supervisory oversight and disciplinary powers and tightening capital standards does not lead to banking sector development, nor does it improve bank efficiency, reduce corruption in lending, or lower banking system fragility. They interpret their findings as a challenge to the Basel Committee’s influential approach to bank regulation which heavily emphasizes ca pital and official supervision. An important limitation of this type of survey is that it mainly captures rules and regulations that are on the books rather than actual implementation. IMF and the World Bank financial sector assessments have often found implementation to be lacking, particularly in low income countries, so that cross-country comparisons of what is on the books may hide substantial variation in the quality of supervision and regulation. BCP assessments have the advantage of taking into account implementation. Of course, assessing how rules and regulations are implemented and enforced in practice is not an exact science, and individual assessments may be influenced by factors such as the assessors’ experience and the regulatory culture they are most familiar with. Nevertheless, although it is difficult to eliminate subjectivity completely, assessments are based on a standardized methodology and are carried out by experienced international assessors with broad c ountry experience. Cihak and Tieman (2008) analyze the quality of financial sector regulation and supervision using both Barth, Caprio and Levine’s survey data and BCP assessments. They find that regulation and supervision in high-income countries is generally of higher quality than in lower income countries. They also note that the correlation between survey data and BCP data tend to be low, always less than 50 percent and in many cases in the 20-30 percent range, suggesting that taking into account implementation may indeed make an important difference. A number of papers also use BCP assessments to study bank regulation and performance. Sundararajan, Marston, and Basu (2001) use a sample of 25 countries to examine the relationship between an overall index of BCP compliance and two indicators of bank soundness: nonperforming loans (NPLs) and loan spreads. They find BCP compliance not to be a significant determinant of these measures of soundness. Podpiera (2004) extends the set of countries and finds that better BCP compliance lowers NPLs. Das et al. (2005) relates bank soundness to a broader concept of regulatory governance, which encompasses compliance with the BCPs as well as compliance with standards and codes for monetary and financial policies. Better regulatory governance is found to be associated with sounder banks, particularly in countries with better institutions. In this paper, as already discussed they rely on the Z-score to measure bank soundness. While the Z-score has its limitations, they believe it is an improvement over measures used in previous studies, namely NPLs, loan spreads, interest margins, and capital adequacy. Because different countries have different reporting rules, NPLs are notoriously difficult to compare across countries. On the other hand, loan spreads or interest margins and capitalization are affected by a variety of forces other than fragility, such as market structure, differences in risk-free interest rates and operating costs, and varying capital regulation. Thus, cross-country comparability is a serious issue. In contrast with ratings, Z-scores do not rely on the subjective judgment of rating agencies’ analysts. Results from the baseline regression, relating bank soundness measured by the Z-score to the degree of compliance with the BCPs. In the sample including all countries, the Zscore is higher, indicating a sounder bank, for banks with lower operating costs in countries with higher GDP per capita. Also, non-commercial banks tend to have higher Z-scores, while the other control variables are not significant. The coefficient of the BCP compliance index is positive but not significant. If they exclude Japanese banks, which account for over 20 percent of the sample, the fit of the model improves markedly (the R-squared increases from 10 percent to 19 percent) and the coefficients of many regressors change substantially.12 This suggests that the variables explaining the Z-score of Japanese banks may be somewhat different than for the rest of the sample, perhaps because of the lingering effects of Japan’s prolonged banking crisis on bank balance sheets. For example, in the sample excluding Japan inflation and the rule of law index are significant (with the expected coefficients), while GDP per capita is not (though the coefficient remains positive). Also, banks with a higher ratio of net loans to assets have higher Z-scores, perhaps because Basel regulation mandating minimum levels of risk-adjustment capital forces these banks to hold more equity. Also, in the sample excluding Japan larger banks have lower Z-scores, likely because they tend to hold less capital than smaller banks. Despite these differences, the coefficient of the BCP compliance index remains insignificantly different from zero also in the sample without Japanese banks. The same is true when they add to the regression additional macro controls, such as exchange rate appreciation, private credit, or the sovereign rating. In the regressions, they explore how the relationship between BCP compliance and bank soundness changes if they alter the sample composition to include various categories of financial institutions to explore whether BCP compliance may affect soundness for alternative types of banks. All these results refer to the sample excluding Japan, so that th e overrepresentation of Japanese banks does not distort the results. The first exercise is to examine the widest sample possible, i.e. one that includes investment banks/securities houses, medium and long-term credit banks, nonbank credit institutions, and specialized government credit institutions. These are institutions that in most countries are unlikely to fall under the perimeter of bank regulation and supervision, so they have excluded them from the baseline sample. When they include them, the sample size grows by 25 percent, but the main regression results are unchanged. In particular, bank soundness is not significantly affected by compliance with the BCPs. If they restrict the sample to commercial banks only, thereby losing about 300 banks compared to the baseline sample, once again they find that regression results remain very close to the baseline. When they focus only on banks rated by Moody’s, as in our earlier work, the sample shrinks considerably (to just over 300 banks), and the coefficient of the BCP compliance index becomes positive and significant, albeit only at the 10 percent confidence level. Thus, BCP compliance seems to have some positive effect on the soundness of this specific group of banks. To explore this issue further, they ask whether this result is driven by the fact that rated banks are larger banks. To do so, they consider two alternative samples: the first includes the largest 10 percent of banks within each country and the second includes the largest 20 percent of banks in the entire sample. In both cases, the BCP compliance index has an insignificant coefficient, as in the baseline sample. The BCP compliance index is the weighted sum of compliance scores for several individual chapters of the Core Principles. Could it be that, even though overall compliance does not seem to matter for bank soundness, some aspects of the Core Principles might be relevant? In fact, it may be possible that the overall index is not significant because of offsetting effects of its different components. In fact, in our previous study of Moody’s ratings, they found that, although overall compliance did not seem to matter, higher financial strength ratings were associated with better compliance with principles related to information provision to supervisors. They address this question by re-running the baseline regressions breaking down the compliance index into seven components, based on the standard grouping of principles used by the Basel Committee. An important caveat is that compliance scores are fairly strongly correlated, which may make it difficult to disentangle the effect of one set of principles from the others. They replicate the regression for different samples of banks to investigate the robustness of the results. There is only one component of the compliance index that has a fairly robust relationship with bank Z-scores, and that is compliance with Chapter 2 of the BCP, i.e. principles having to do with supervisors’ powers to regulate bank licensing and structure. Interestingly, this component of the index is negatively correlated with bank soundness, so that banks in countries were regulators have better defined powers to give out licenses and regulate bank activities tend to be riskier. This result holds in all th e samples except those including only the largest banks. This finding supports the contention that supervisory systems that tend to empower supervisors do not work well (Barth, Caprio, and Levine, 2001, 2004, 2006). So far, they have considered individual bank risk. In principle, bank supervision and regulation should be primarily concerned with systemic risk, rather than individual bank risk, although in practice it is not always easy to make this distinction. Could it be that BCP compliance, while not relevant to individual bank soundness, is important to ensure the stability of system as a whole? To address this question, it would be ideal to test whether BCP compliance reduces the probability of a financial crisis. However, since crises are rare events, this type of test requires a panel of data; since they have BCP compliance assessments only at a point in time, they are restricted to cross-sectional data. Nonetheless, to explore this question they compute a rough measure of systemic soundness as the aggregate equivalent of the individual bank Z-score. More specifically, they aggregate profits and equity of all the banks in the country (for which they have data), they compute the standard d eviation of aggregate profits, and then they compute an aggregate Z-score. This measure tells us by how many standard deviations banking system profits must fall to exhaust all the capital in the banking system. They then regress this measure on the BCP compliance score and a number of macroeconomic control variables. Their measure of systemic soundness is correlated with the macro variables as one might expect: higher growth, low inflation, low inflation volatility, appreciation of the currency, favorable sovereign ratings are all significantly associated with higher values of the aggregate Z-score. Once again, though, the BCP compliance index does not seem to be a significant determinant of banking system soundness. Though it is positive, the coefficient of the BCP index is small and not statistically significant in any specification. Remarks While the causes and consequences of the recent financial crisis will continue to be debated for years to come, there is emerging consensus that the crisis has revealed significant weaknesses in the regulatory and supervisory system. Resulting calls for reform have led to numerous proposals and policymakers in many countries are hard at work to upgrade their regulatory frameworks. This paper seeks to inform the on-going reform process by providing an analysis of how existing regulations and their application are associated with bank soundness. Specifically, they study whether compliance with Basel Core Principles for effective banking supervision (BCPs) is associated with lower bank risk, as measured Z-scores. They find no evidence of a robust statistical relationship linking better compliance with BCPs and improved bank soundness. The analysis of aggregate Z-scores to capture systemic stability issues yields similarly insignificant results. If anything, they find that compliance wit h a specific group of principles, those giving supervisors powers to regulate bank licensing and structure is associated with riskier banks, potentially suggesting that such powers may be misused in practice. While our results may reflect the difficulty of capturing bank risk using accounting measures, or the inability of assessors to carry out evaluations that are comparable across countries, nevertheless they raise questions about the relevance of the Basel Core Principles, the current emphasis on these principles as key to effective supervision, and the wisdom of carrying out costly periodic compliance reviews of BCP implementation in the IMF/World Bank Financial Sector Assessment Programs.