What Does Genocide Mean The era of mass murder mi Essay Example For Students

What Does Genocide Mean? The era of mass murder mi Essay 644 ght be given as a name for the 20th century. Never in the history of the world have so many millions of people been deliberately killed since 1900. These millions werent all because of war. They were victims of genocide: the deliberate killings of racial, religious, ethnic, or political groups. The word genocide is from the Greek genos, meaningrace, or tribe, and the Latin cide, meaning killing. The First Significant Genocide The Armenian Genocide was directed against the residents of Asia Minor by the Turkish government. This deliberate slaughter began on April 24, 1915, under the cover of World War 1. The number killed are uncertain. We will write a custom essay on What Does Genocide Mean? The era of mass murder mi specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now The lowest is 800,000 and the highest more than 2 million. First the Armenians in the army were disarmed, placed into battalions, and then killed. Then the Armenian political leaders were rounded up on April 24, 1915, and then killed. Finally, the remaining Armenians were called from thier homes, told they would be relocated, and then marched off to concentration camps in the desert between Jerablus and Deir ez-Zor where they would starve and thirst to death in the sun. On March, often they would be denied food and water, and many were brutalized and killed by their guards. The authorities in Trezbizond, on the Black Sea coast, loaded Armenians on barges and sank them out at sea. The Turkish government has denied that this ever happened, but this event has been carefully recorded by others. My Comment: As I said before the era of mass murder should be given the name of the 20th century. This century was when most people for either their race, ethnic, or religion had been killed purposely. From the Jewish Holocaust to the all other genocides. Yet, there is also a reason why this happened. Maybe it was because it was a lesson to show us how easily we are capable of doing such atrocities as this. These past genocides also show us how important it is to be at peace with one another. Without this peace look what it all caused. Bibliography: .

buy custom Chinese Classic essay

buy custom Chinese Classic essay Introduction Just as any other country or community in the vast world has literature, the Chinese republic is not to be forgotten in terms of literal arts. China has had many forms of literature and subsequently many big names in the literal field. One of the big names in literature of the 20th century is a man known as Qian Zhongshu. Theodore Huters an American scholar of literature defines the man Zhongshu as one of awesome and diverse abilities with vast account of knowledge in his brains. To accredit the study of the literal expert Zhongshu, Huters has not only tried to fully discuss his obscure style of literature on his own self, he goes steps ahead to include ideas from other experts in this field. Some of the experts, whose ideas have been included in a bid to shade some useful light on the topic, are Hermann Melville and Wolfgang Iser who are portrayed as general theorists. He does this to create a general-purpose introduction to Qians works and style of literature and through this; he i s also trying to achieve an extensive argument for elementary analysis of his prose style as this is crucial to understanding and evaluation of his achievements as a Chinese writer. He moves on to acknowledge that it is an independent, stimulating and crowded agenda. Qian was then a young Chinese elite who was however reportedly not educated in China, he had gone abroad to increase his intellect and so on returning to his motherland, he used his international mastery to demolish a host of traditional literature practices which he thought unwise. He criticized his home form of traditional literal theories by bombarding them with international mastery of literature. For general purpose role, the book offers a full chapter with Qians biography which is further defined as a no nonsense which puts into discussion his works beginning with his literally criticism and moving forward on that background to explore his familiar essays and fiction. It is evident that the book does not move deep in its discussion of Qians four-volume survey of Chinese literature. This chapter in Huters book seeks to gradually develop his discussion on Qian Zhongshu. He presents his original analysis and appraisal of Qians well-known fiction and develops it to culminate in a s tudy of one of the Chinese writers novel which is a major piece of art of the 20th century. After substantial studies, Huters emphasizes that Qian and other Chinese writers of the 20th century shared a style in common. He states that they share the style of shocking readers out of easy assumptions and habits of thoughts conditioned by traditions. He however gives Qian a credit which according to him, the other writers did not deserve. He moves forward to explain the reason for accrediting Qian as, he used the heritage of Chinese literary language and rhetoric more positively than any of his predecessors. This keeps him ahead of the race or it even makes him stand aloof. Qians literary style was a shocking masterpiece as studies show that throughout his career as a writer; never at once did he allow his style of writing to be identified solely with one model or another. He was never a constant writer of one style, as soon as you thought you have gotten his way of writing, you were to be surprised by reading his next article which would have a very different style altogether. This is attributed to his great creativity which almost surpassed normal understanding. He is seen as a respiratory for ideas; an ironic force covers his ideas, and guides the flow of thoughts moving them from the playful down to the sharply satirical and later onto the tragic part of it all. Qian Zhongshu, had well developed this style for his short stories and essays, however, as he moved into fiction, he definitely had to modify this practice. He had to learn how to create a solid world of false characters who according to him, engaged the reader first before he later on bombard and overpower them with his ironic and subsequent tragic vision. He engaged his avid readers when he went out of his way to give them fiction with this literal style. He had to allow narrative and dialogue to develop his stories before finally bringing on board his irony. Qian is portrayed as an unnecessarily discursive character; however, twice in his readings he promises his readers and commits himself to make literature an autonomy. This point is not well developed to enable the reader to fully understand the importance and meaning of his commitment. This is the discursive part of Qian as it brings out many confusing thoughts but is willing not to explain all of them leaving his readers confused. According to Huters, Qians style of writing bears greatly with a pretty good range of historical events, this is well defined in the fourth chapter where Huters reportedly goes out of his way to show just how far he can go to elaborate this isue. He presents a major example of the field, depth of the vision, this he achieves by drawing parallel between the stylistic reforms witnessed in the 17th century Europe and those witnessed later on in China in the 20th century, and he puts the prominent writer with his mart in the middle of all these. Huters there hence demonstrates the style of writing of Qian Zhongshu at this time as been baroque. This was very apt of him as it was the perfect definition that suited the style that had been adopted by Qian at this time. In a short story called Souvenir, which is basically a story that talks about, the discovery of mortality after an adulterous affair to a woman, Huters does not fail to notice what kind of talent Qian Zhongshu possesses. Qian narrates this whole story in a comedy like manner without even giving the reader time to develop sympathetic feelings for the woman in context. Huters is even amazed how the writer achieves this and makes the whole story look like a big joke thought and in the near end; the reader cannot help himself but laugh even after reading through such an adulterous script. Huters reports that Qian makes sure that he gives the reader no time to develop any real sympathy for the characters and maintains excessive detachment. Another substantial analysis that Huters makes on the style of writing used by Qian Zhongshu is his enormous ability to shock his readers and challenge them with specious logic. Here he gives an example of one of Qians very obscure logics which goes that distinctions between right and wrong, good and evil, heterodoxy and orthodoxy and so on, are at times nothing more than distinctions between self and other. This is a mind-boggling statement which even most of the average minded persons couldnt comprehend. It is obviously sure that Qian is one of the writers who are given to gratuitous shocking and overwhelming statements. Qians style of writing was controversial in post war China and it stands controversial to this very date. This can be attributed to his numerous and endless use of satire, he sets up a very powerful conception of esthetic analysis which sustains as remarkably rich and broad discussion of his works. China as a republic is reportedly to have one of the longest period in human civilization which dates back to around 5000 years ago and it also rates high in translation having a history of around three thousand years back. The translation and its effects rose gradually from its most crude form to its most elaborate form which was better known as literary translation during the late Qings dynasty. This period is captive of the period in Chinese history when western literal works started been fully translated into Chinese. A Chinese grammarian and renowned writer/translator gives the values of a good translator as one who understands and has great mastery of the two languages such that he/she knows similarities and differences of the two languages. He requires that the would be translator should have full understanding of the meaning, style and spirit of the source text and transfer them directly to the target language, he finally requires that the same translator, should translate th e text such that there is no discrepancy between the source file an d the target text. Chinese literature of this new period of the 20th century is characterized with its complicated concepts of literature and its variety of learning institutions. This fully differs with any other of the Chinese literary period with exception of the well-remembered May 4th period when Chinese literary practiced were given a head on challenge by those practices from the much civilized West. Initially, poems and poetic essays were the main form of literal practice in China. However, the increasing translation of Western novels into the Chinese language dearly increased their form of literature enriching it to marked standards. This broke up the Manchus closed-door policy and brought the people of the Republic of China the much needed Western ideologies, lives and customs. This introduction had a marked impact on the then social reformers as it to some extent brought forth the democratic light which was well lacking in China. In present-day China a large quantity of Western works were translated into Chinese these mainly include m works revolving around scientific and technical grounds. This were to be very useful to the peoples republic of China putting in mind that this period, the same republic was undergoing industrial revolution at this time. Logically they therefore needed a wide pool of knowledge which could only be gathered by borrowing from the already developed We stern countries. This saw literary translators been a big and playing a useful part in the Chinese governance as they went as far as translating the United Nations documents and articles which the governance much needed. In 1964, another different trend in literal translation wwas witnessed when one of the most or probably the most renowned writer in the history of the peoples republic of China defined his understanding of literally translation in a way of his own. Qian Zhongshu defined the topic as transmigration theory for literal translation. He widely borrows from the Buddhists practices, where transmigration is defined as the instance where the soul, spirit or some other seat of personality vacate the body it has been occupying and enters into another body or object. Using this, he then states that, a literal translation is like the act of transmigration whereby the soul, the spirit of the original text, remains in the target text even though the career of them, the language has changed. He set requirements of his theory of transmigration in a bid to achieving literal translation which he himself later admits as been too, high for any personality to fully achieve. It should however be accepted that this new form of translation was to the utmost advantage the peoples republic of China, this is simply because the system was more diverse in style, it was also very much more inclusive in terms of ideas and more open in assimilating foreign culture especially those culture practiced in the Western countries. Because of this, Chinese literature is no longer a tributary of the mainstream world of literature. The fact is that it cannot be isolated by any reasonable scholar in literature it has come to a point where it reportedly carries on an equal dialogue with literature from the wide West. This state of event comes up duly because of the interaction between Chinese scholars and other many scholars from other countries especially those from the western nations. This interaction is what firstly brought the translation of Western literature into Chinese3 and which goers a long way to bring civilization, democracy and a range of good to the peoples rep ublic of China. Some literal critics argue that the New Period Literature in China is still progressing however, arguments have been put forth to counter this critics. For instance, if we intend to move on and observe this in the eye of the other or rather simply from the Western influence perspective, and give a down to earth analysis of this, we must therefore state that it is an occurrence which has just passed but which still hold s much significance to present day Chinese literature orientation. In the last century, it is evident that Chinese literature has been in full flourish twice. The first instance of this such flourishment is the period between May 4th and the 1930s. This had a strong impact on the traditional and cultural ideas of the Chinese republic. It put on board some novel trends and currents prevalent in the West then and was trained a group of talented writers who had a great spec of knowledge of bot5h languages. This period of development in Chinese literature was a stepping-st one to modern Chinese literature this is because it had remarkable achievements. The second and final instance of the literal flourishment experienced in the republic of China was the New Period. This period is to be remembered for the longest time in discussing literal development in modern day China. During this period, there was reportedly openness to the outside world and foreign cultural academic exchange programs enabled more and more Western trends of .philosophy and other humanities to flood into China. This second flourishing of the peoples republic of Chinas form of literature has helped train a group of great artistic writers with God given potentiality who move forward to exploring new literary concepts and experimenting with new artistic devices and techniques. This has greatly enabled the Chinese government to develop as the Western systems and policies of development are now known to them through the translation of theory works into Chinese for easier understanding. Conclusion The peoples republic of China has had a great history of civilization and translation. However, their earlier policies hindered their achievement of fast development. This is such as the closed policies which did not allow them to fully interact and gather knowledge from any other sources. Early in the 209th century, this was openly criticized and their traditional literal practices made .look inferior compared to the Western practices. This period then saw the training of writers who studied and sought to understand the Western literal culture. After this, the republic of China saw the change which started gradually by the introduction of Western form of literature intro that of Chinese. Great writers like Qian came up and the principle of openness which sought the integration of Western culture and Chinese culture was established. This went along way to bring development to the republic of China. All this is most directly attr4ibuted to the translation theory and literature. Buy custom Chinese Classic essay

Regulation of Physiological Process by Thyroid Hormones Essay

Regulation of Physiological Process by Thyroid Hormones - Essay Example On the other hand, each function may be controlled by several hormones, which act in concert. The secretion of the hormones in a normal human being is mainly based on negative feedback control, most of which involves the hypothalamic-pituitary axis that detects changes in the concentration of hormones secreted by peripheral endocrine glands. The hormones may also be secreted in response to changes in a controlled variable (Nussey & Whitehead 2001). The following examples illustrate as to how hormones regulate physiological function. The thyroid hormones, namely, thyroxine (T3) and tri-iodothyronine (T4) are secreted by the thyroid gland. They stimulate the oxygen consumption of most of the cells of the body, help in the regulation of lipid and carbohydrate metabolism, and are essential for normal growth and maturation. The thyroid hormones enter the cells after which T3 binds to the thyroid receptors in the nuclei. T4 binds, but not avidly. The thus formed hormone-receptor complex then binds to DNA via zinc fingers and affects the variety of different of different genes that code for enzymes which regulate cell function. The main physiological effect of thyroid hormones is calorigenic action (Ganong 2003). The hormones increase oxygen consumption of most of the tissues in the body except brain, testes, uterus, lymph nodes, spleen and anterior pituitary. The hormones also increase the metabolism of fatty acids. Due to increased calorigenic action, nitrogen excretion is increased and endogenous protein and fat st ores are metabolized, which may lead to weight loss. The hormones also cause hepatic conversion of carotene to vitamin A. Other functions include an increase in cardiac output by direct action on the heart and also by activating heat dissipation mechanisms. The pulse pressure and heart rate are also increased, thus shortening circulation time. In the central nervous system, the thyroid hormones increase the responsiveness of the brain tissue to catecholamines, thus activating the reticular activating system. The hormones also affect brain development and reflexes. They increase the rate of absorption of carbohydrate from the gastrointestinal tract.

Magazine Exceptionalism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Magazine Exceptionalism - Essay Example 2008). In the text under consideration, David Holmes proceeds to cite the examples of some important magazines that can be attributed largely the honor of altering the social dimensions and the way people thought. The most relevant example in this context is the magazine Sassy, which was targeted at the teenage girls and originated in Australia in the 70s (Tim Holmes ed. 2008). Eventually the Australian publishers took this magazine to America. The magazines catering to teenage girls until now were utterly conservative and modest in their approach to teenage issues (Tim Holmes ed. 2008). However, Sassy with its liberating content, revolving around the issues like teen sexuality and the erotic aspects of teenage girls' personality, played a pivotal role in changing the social norms (Tim Holmes ed. 2008). So much so, the other contemporary teenage magazines also started modifying their content to meet the competition posed by Sassy (Tim Holmes ed. 2008). The one other important magazine that brought to the forefront the economic and cultural aspects of contemporary cinema was Esquire, published in the late 70s (Tim Holmes ed. 2008). ... Primarily, the magazines as a media form are very close to the masses (Tim Holmes ed. 2008). In contrast, other media forms like the print and broadcasted media prefer to retain a journalistic distance from the society (Tim Holmes ed. 2008). Secondly, people look to the contents in the magazines as catalytic and proactive, which not only intends to inform them, but also stimulates them to act and respond (Tim Holmes ed. 2008). Magazines are media forms that not merely direct the society from outside, but are something that live, act and thrive within the confines of society and popular culture. There may exist objections to this exalted aspect of magazines, as it is very difficult to establish the causality between the contents of a magazine and the attributed alterations in the society, in a strictly academic and scientific way (Tim Holmes ed. 2008). In a culture saturated with media, it is utterly difficult to attempt this analysis, as the media forms and the culture are often intricately intertwined (Tim Holmes ed. 2008).Still magazines will continue to be an important and potent media form that will always have an important role in the shaping of the current culture and society. References Holmes, Tim ed. (2008). Mapping the Magazine. Wales: Cardiff

Visual Arts and Film Studies. Memento 200, Truffauts 400 Blows, Essay

Visual Arts and Film Studies. Memento 200, Truffauts 400 Blows, Casablanca and The Spirit of the Beehive - Essay Example The story is contrasting, as one part of the story in forward motion while the other one is in backward motion. It is refers to as one memory inside the other memory. The movie is a complicated challenging adventure where we see Leonard striving to avenge the death of his wife. This is complicated by the fact he had lost his memory, hence, was unable to recall the way the events took place from day to day. He attacked and took the life of one of the attackers that led to the death of his wife. He can only remember his wife dying from the attack from the gang. Because of this pain suffered inside, he vows continue until he gets the second man who was involved in the killing of his wife. This movie changes from the black and white flow and continues in the sequential order. The two colors coincide at the end of the story in forward and reverse manner. He describes how it is vital to have written notes that constantly remind him of the killers of his wife, written in a part of his arm, John G, the man who raped and murdered his wife. He continues with his narration and tells when he met Sammy during the time he became an investigator. Sammy has a condition that did not pass as mental disorder but he was rather unable to learn by conditioning. The life of Leonard focuses on trying to unravel the truth; this brings him to meet Mrs. Jankis who he tells that Sammy was in a position to come up with new memories. Leonard discuses with the caller, as to why the police did not buy hi story of the attackers that killed his wife. Fortunately, the person whom Leonard was seeking to turned out to be a police officer, and he gives him more clues towards his quest for his killers. Soon Leonard sets up a meeting with Joe at the lobby, who is an undercover police and prefers to be called teddy. The film then continues with the flow in contrast to the first part. Here we see teddy convincing Leonard that jimmy was the man he was looking for in connection to the killing of his wife. Natalie and Leonard go to the house and agree to stay together. She then tricks him to go and beat a man who had harassed her off her money, but before he could do that, teddy warns him of the plans of Natalie, and he leaves her. The truth is slowly becoming known, and in the morning, Leonard leaves and hide in Dodd’s’ motel, beating him senselessly, before calling teddy who persuade him to elope from the country. Leonard decides to spend the night with Natalie, as a thanks giving for helping him get Dodd. Finally, Leonard puts the clues together, and discovers that teddy was indeed the second killer of his wife. In deep aggression, he shoots teddy right in the head. Conc lusion The story reflects the quest for Leonard to find the truth of the death of her wife. He is surrounded by the main culprit, Teddy who tries to derail him in his findings. Leonard despite of his mental condition finds his way and puts clue together to finally know that teddy was the killer. Truffaut’s 400Â  Blows Question 2 This film demonstrates the steps taken by the 12 year old Antoine who was in bad terms with his parents and teachers, is seen descending into delinquency. Antoine is preparing to go to reform school, since the teachers and his parents, plus the squeezed house and classroom imprison him mentally and physically in his village. He often runs to his favorite spot where he hides fro the rest of the people. This leads him to participate in the game of hooky, which takes him to the streets where he enjoys the freedom of moving about far from the authorities. This continues to worsen as he gets more trouble both at home and school. In addition, the more trou ble he creates at

Corporate financial statement analysis of Volkswagen

Corporate financial statement analysis of Volkswagen Abstract The main aim from this project is to analyze manufacturing company in term of ratios analysis and common size analysis. We took Volkswagen Group as a manufacturing company and we try to know what are the line business, major competitors, and the goals of Volkswagen Group. Then we start to make common size analysis (vertical and horizontal analysis) for both income statement and balance sheet from year 2005 to 2009 to see the financial performance of the company over the time. Moreover we make ratios analysis to check the liquidity, solvency, profitability, efficiency, and cash flow of the Volkswagen Group.Finally, the report is going to discuss the data that we found on common size analysis and ratios analysis. Also the report will include all the annual report from 2005 to 2009. Company profile a)What is the companys principal line of business and major competitors? Volkswagen Group majorly known as the VW group is a German originated automobile manufacturing group that is ranked third largest in world as a motor vehicle manufacturer. The core business of the group includes developing vehicles and components for all marques and manufacturing complete vehicles for the Volkswagen Passenger Cars and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles marques. The group has world-wide working of operations but its primary focus is Europe market. Major competitors of Volkswagen are Toyotta, General Motors, Ford and Hyundai. b)On what day does the companys fiscal year end? The company Fiscal year ends on Dec, 31st c) What is the largest source of cash from financing activities? For the year ended Dec 31, 2009 its â€Å"Proceeds from issue of Bonds† d) What is the largest use of cash from investing activities? For the year ended Dec 31, 2009 its â€Å"Disposal of Equity Investments† e) What is the average income tax rate for the fiscal year reported? Income tax rate for 2005 is : 35.2%, 2006: 9.1%, 2007:37.0 %, 2008: 29.1%, 2009: 27.7%. The average tax rate is 27.62%. f) What is the average issue (sale) price per share of common stock issued as of the end of the fiscal year reported? The average issue (sale) price per share â‚ ¬ 149.42 Company goals and achievements Descriptive information, Compare goals provided in annual reports with achievements in the following periods, seek for any possible predetermined standards and find out whether the company achieved them in the following periods. There are numerous objectives and goals set by the Management of Volkswagen with the motive of enabling the company to expand the scope of its business and generate sustainable success by focusing on its customers and environment. As part of business operations management, the Board has focused on introducing measures to improve cost structures through process optimization overall and modular strategy implementation. The implementation of these goals can be seen through the financial performance of Volkswagen where in terms of sales, the related costs are kept in controlled and balanced trend with no irregular hikes. Volkswagen goal of servicing its customers with most innovative and fascinating vehicles is met with its ability to generate increased world-wide sales and improved cost position. In 2007, the company earned a sales record of 6.2 million vehicles. As part of Volkswagens global business strategy, the goal of the company had been to implement its multi brand strategy and introduce most environments friendly and broadest vehicle range. Towards implementing these goals, the company in year 2009 has been able to cope with the weak industry trends due to financial and economic crisis overall. Its implementation of integration and partnerships with Porsche and Suzuki have unlocked many growth prospects. It is the result of such policies of management that Volkswagen group did not suffer from the financial crisis to the extent most of the competitors did. The focus of maintaining quality standards is also evident from the analysis of financial statements where each year better quality improving standards and procedure are implemented as part of production processes to enable Volkswagen in delivering its customers best equipped quality vehicles. Future goals of company include exploring more developments in fuel efficiency for vehicles and climate friendly fuels as key components of automobility along with driver assistance systems to promote fuel efficient driving. Common Size Analysis Ratios analysis Data Analysis Having done with a thorough financial statement analysis of Volkswagen Group for year 2005-2009, it is seen that the company as a key component of Automobile Industry has been able to maintain its financial performance with slight disturbance in profits for fiscal year 2009 as a result of global depression in markets. Firstly having a look at the vertical common size analysis of Volkswagen Income statement and Balance sheet revealed that most items of Income statement and Balance sheet do not present any major fluctuations over five years. Year 2007 and 2008 were better performing business years where due to decreased CGS as a percentage of Sales, overall profitability was improved i.e. Operating profit and EBT improved from 2% in 2006 to 6% in 2007 and 2008. However, due to an overall market recession profitability has significantly decreased due to burden on costs and expenses i.e. PAT decreased from 4% in 2008 to 1% in 2009. The vertical common size balance sheet showed the group structure consists of Debt: Equity of 80:20. Other significant values are fixed assets, cash, inventory and financial service receivables. The horizontal common size analysis of Income statement and balance sheet taking 2005 as base year showed a healthy growth trend for years 2006-2008, whereas for year 2009, it exposed a decreased trend of profitability significantly in operating profit, Profit before tax and Profit after tax. The balance sheet shows increasing and decreasing fluctuations when looked at individual items but overall can be considered relatively stable and improving. The Ratio analysis of financial statements is done to evaluate the performance of company in a given year using relations between different balance sheet, income statement and cash flow items. Volkswagen analysis of different financial ratios over the period of 5 years enabled us in seeing the performance of Group under five heads: Assets efficiency, liquidity, cash flow, profitability and solvency. Assets efficiency: These ratios are used to check the efficiency of a company i.e. how efficiently assets of company are used in generating revenue. The fixed asset turnover and total asset turnover ratios are lower in magnitude over the time period under analysis. Generally the greater the magnitudes of these ratios the efficient are the assets of a company are considered in generating sales revenue. Volkswagen group assets turnover ratios for last five years vary within range of 0.5 and 1.2 which is not quite impressive. The inventory turnover ratio over the last five years shows a mixed trend whereas the receivable and payable turnover are also a concern as payable turnover should be greater in magnitude than receivable whereas its the opposite case here. Profitability: The profit margins for past five shows an increasing trend till 2008, however for year 2009 profitability is effected due to decreased sales and pressures on costs. The trends for Return on assets and equity, are also the same, whereas the magnitude of these is moderate. The earnings per share for the group is attractive enough just declines much for year 2009 i.e. from â‚ ¬4.6 in 2008 to â‚ ¬0.9 in 2009. Liquidity: These are the ratios derived from balance sheet and measure ability of company to generate liquid funds to pay its debts. The current and quick ratios for Volkswagen fall within the range of 0.9 and 1.2 for past five years which is considered well enough for liquidity purposes. The cash conversion cycle is the number of days cash is tied up in production and sales process. Our analysis shows a mixed trend which is observed to decrease in 2009 which is a good indicator. The receivable collection and payable deferral periods are also in favor of companys liquidity requirements. Cash flow: The cash flow ratio of less is one is indicative of greater chances for bankruptcy. Volkswagen cash flow ratio over past five years is consistently low and need attention. Debt /Solvency: These show the overall debt load of company. The debt as compared to assets does not portrays greater risks, however greater dependence if debt as compared to equity increases leverage and so the risk scope for the Volkswagen.

Collegiate Gladiator in the Gauntlet of Education :: Personal Narrative Papers

Collegiate Gladiator in the Gauntlet of Education I felt the presence of early morning dew against my skin as I marched through a grass field on a brisk October day. My classmates exuded enthusiasm; this excursion was reason to escape the confines of our bleak high school. There was abundant conversation with the occasional youthful act of animation, like sprinting downfield or throwing a rock. The world seems just a bit different when a student is taken from a classroom setting into a non-academic one. Opportunity and freedom appear to be ever so present. Perhaps, that was reason for our class being outside during my regularly scheduled English period. In all honesty I was quite skeptical. I have never been a morning person and can be a silent cynic when it comes to group events. I staggered behind the group, hands in pocket, submerged in totally unrelated thought. My teacher led the way stammering uphill and clenching his worn black book, almost appearing as if he was Moses carrying the Ten Commandments up Mount Sinai. After trekking through the endless barren of soccer and lacrosse fields, we came upon the overgrown pathway that led into the woods. Many of us were familiar to this area, coaches often made their teams run through these wild trails. Others seemed puzzled. Stepping into the wild that day we crossed the threshold on many levels: not just escaping into nature but escaping from ordinary thinking. For me, the change in location would also mark a change in philosophy. Some distance I have covered. The start of my journey seems like a lifetime ago. Blinded by innocence and burdened with little responsibility, being eight years old had its perks. Sure I had to attend school, but what exactly was school at that echelon? A day spent singing songs, playing dodge ball, paper macheing cardboard figurines, with the occasional napping and recess break. Almost like summer camp. To my surprise, second grade was far from what I imagined. My year revolved daily lessons on reading and writing... in hopes of achieving basic literacy. With the occasional dip into the kiddy pool of arithmetic, second grade was a year of hard work. I was lucky to have an incredible teacher like Mrs. Perdiz. She pushed me so hard, so hard that at times I disliked her. Music, math, and art took a definite backseat to reading.

Evaluate what psychologists have discovered about substance use and abuse Essay

In discovering about substance use and abuse one issue encountered are the inevitable ethical issues that occur. In Mestel and Concar’s study for example, sensitive data was collected. Sharing this sensitive data wit hthe researchers may have caused participants unnecessary anxiety or embarrassment if for example the urine test showed that they had used cocaine. This inevitably leads to ethical issues due to the unpleasant emotions participants may have been subjected to. Similarly in Robinson et al’s study, participants may have experienced unpleasant emotions such as embarrassment and ill ease as a result of the personal nature of the questions asked. From the two studies we can see that ethics is often a factor when exploring the issue of substance use and abuse however substance abuse is, by definition, against social expectations and consequently is always likely to incur ethical dilemmas when researchers attempt to discover substance use and abuse. Another difficulty incurred when attempting to explore substance use and abuse is social desirability. Social desirability is the term given to the situation in which people give answers that are contrary or different to their beliefs because their alternative answer is more socially acceptable. In Moolchan et al’s study for example personal data was collected and in order to present themselves in abetter light people may have lied when giving their answer – responding by saying that their parent didn’t smoke when in fact they did for example. Similarly in Lando’s study baseline data was collected by asking participants to keep a diary detailing their smoking for one week. Participants may have recorded false information because they felt this false information would be more socially acceptable. Social desirability can lead to results which are invalid and resultantly lead to a lack of validity as the study will not record peoples true response. Another difficulty in discovering substance use and abuse is the issue of generalisability. Generalisability is the term used to define the extent to which results from one sample of participants can be applied to wider groups. In Griffiths study for example the findings may not be able to generalised to a country such as Australia as the sample used was not representative. Similarly Murray’s study conducted in 1988 had a sample which was exclusively composed of adolescents and consequently it could not be applied to the wider population. In reality however a study is likely to never be truly representative to a global extent and in doing so such a diverse sample may make it hard for clear results to be distinguished due to cultural differences. Research into substance use and abuse may also incur the difficulty of ethnocentric bias. This is the tendency to perceive the world from you own cultural group, such as your wthnic group. The issue of ethnocentric bias can be seen in Gomels study. Gomel looked at a workplace in which smoking had been banned and how this related to the reduction in substance use (smoking). The study can be een to be ethnocentrically biased because it was conducted in one workplace in Australia. Ethnocentric bias can result in research that is not applicable to the larger population as the results from this study may not be found to be the same if it was conducted in Australia for example. c) Many people resolve to give up smoking each new year. With middle aged women specifically in mind suggest one psychological technique which would be useful to help them in their attempts to stop smoking. Give reasons for your answer. In attempting to stop smoking one technique which may be useful is the use of self help groups. Self help groups are support circles where each member is also attempting to quit smoking. As Moolchan discovered in his study, women who smoke are likely to be socially skilled and confident and so may find a group therapy useful where they can support and gain support from other women in the group who are in a socially similar position to themselves. Group therapy may also be effective in helping a middle aged woman quit smoking as she may make friends with people in the group and thus turn to them for support as she would turn to a friend outside of the group. The clear difference however would be that the person in the group would be going through the same experience as the middle aged woman and so would be able to identify with her. Those in the support group may also acknowledge an element of competition each one wanting to continue to stop smoking so they remain in the group. For this variety of reasons a support group is likely to be the most effective strategy in supporting a middle aged woman who is giving up smoking.

Computational Lingustics Essay

Computational Lingustics Essay Computational Lingustics Essay Computational Linguistics Computational linguistics is a discipline between linguistics and computer technology, which is concerned with the computational aspects of our languages. This area of computer science can correlate with the field of Artificial Intelligence. Put simply, computational linguistics is a set of programs that turns human speech into words and motions. There are a couple of different areas of computational linguistics that make up its entirety; theoretic computational linguistics and applied computational linguistics. These two areas can be divided into sub-areas and from the sub-areas they can be itemized even further. Theoretical computational linguistics is organized into theoretical linguistics and cognitive science. This specific region deals with formal theories about the linguistic understanding that a human needs for producing, understanding, and interpreting language. This area has made significant advances; its complexities can only be interpreted and managed by man ironically only with the help of computers. â€Å"These computers computational linguists are able to cultivate formal representations simulating characteristics of the human language and then incorporating that into programs.† (1) These programs are what form the overall core for the assessment and additional development of their theories. Alongside these comprehensive concepts lays an alternative role that plays a huge contribution to the understanding of theoretical computational linguistics and that part is cognitive sciences. These programs are able to interpret the words given to them by dissecting the syntax and e xtensiveness of the our languages and then able to match it up with its programming; a computer that can teach itself. The other portion of computational linguistics is called applied computational linguistics which targets the real-world outcome of modeling human language use. The methods, techniques, tools, and applications in this area are often subsumed under the term language engineering or (human language technology. The current computational linguistic systems are far from achieving human ability of communicating they have numerous applications. The goal for this is to eventually have a computer program that will have the same communication skills as a human being. Once this is achieved it will open doors never thought possible in computing. After all the major problem today with computing is communication with the computer. Today’s computers don’t really understand our language and it is very difficult to learn computer language, plus computer language doesnâ⠂¬â„¢t correspond to the structure of human thought. Even if the computer understands your language its abilities are really limited. The major problem with this type of software is the interpretation of your speech. Since no one speaks exactly the same, one word you say might sound like a different word that someone else would say. As a result each individual person must â€Å"teach† their computer the way that they speak. That process can often be a tedious and time consuming. Even after you â€Å"teach† your computer they way that you speak its still not a hundred percent that it will recognize what you are saying. Because of that this type of software isn’t very efficient today, but once that barrier is broken this technology will revolutionize the computing industry. After all, all you will need to operate a computer is your voice. An excellent example of how this type of technology will benefit man kind is language translators. What I mean, is that with this technology it will let people create multi-language translators that will aid in business transactions, peace conferences, etc. It w ill bring humanity one step closer to become equal because we wont have the difference of languages to get in our way. Another area that this technology

Popocatepetl essays

Popocate'petl essays Popocatepetl is a volcano found in Mexico that I have been following for 3 months. It is the result of a continental-oceanic plate convergence (fig. 1). When the oceanic lithosphere (the Rivera and Cocos plates) collide with the continental lithosphere (the North American plate), the oceanic plate will descend into the subduction zone. Subduction zones generate a lot of igneous magma that rises to the surface to form volcanic mountains. I will discuss the geologic history of Popocatepetl, the subduction of the Cocos and Rivera plates, and the most current eruptions of Popocatepetl. Fig. 1. Oceanic-continental convergence Popocatepetl is a 5,465-meter andesitic stratovolcano that is located 19.02 degrees north and 98.62 degrees west. It is approximately 55 km east of Mexico City and 45 km east of Puebla (Fig. 2). The volcano covers 500 square kilometers and has a 900-meter crater that is 200 meters deep. Popocatepetl means Smoking Mountain, in the Aztec language of Nahuatl (Dunlap, 1996). It is the second highest peak in Mexico and is one of the countrys most volatile volcanoes (Dunlap, 1996). It has had approximately 30 eruptions in historical time, mostly mild to moderate Vulcanian eruptions. Popocatepetl has also produced several Plinian type eruptions, and there are records of at least three enormous ones in the past 5,000 years (Ray, 2001). Popocatepetl is part of the Trans-Mexico Volcano Belt (TMVB) (fig. 3). Volcanic activity related to the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt started during Early stratovolcano Miocene (Capral, L. et al., 2000). The TMVB is 1200 kilometers long and goes from the Gulf of California all the way through Central Mexico and meets the Central American Volcano belt near El Chichon, a volcano in Chiapas, Mexico (Johnson, 1991). This line of volcanoes is caused by the subduction of the Cocos and Rive...

Private Equity Funds Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Private Equity Funds - Essay Example These types of funds have huge difference from the other investment funds from the perspective of the business strategy used for seeking control over the businesses where they have invested (Cumming, 2009). These types of funds are also different in their structure because they are generally close-ended and have finite life time. The private equity funds have fixed number of shares. Private Equity Firms Nowadays, the leveraged buyout investment companies are referred to as the private equity organizations (Stowell, 2010; 2012). These types of firms are different from the venture capital firms which invest in emerging and young companies and as a result are not able to seek the majority control (Cumming and Johan, 2013). The emergence of private equity firms arose from the leveraged buyouts. The leveraged buyouts started during the 1980’s (Kaplan and Stromberg, 2009). The leveraged buyouts had increased rapidly in this decade and gradually the leveraged buyout companies became dominant corporate organizations. The private equity firms have been defined as the decentralized organizations with relatively fewer numbers of employees and investment professionals. Big private equity firms are larger in size but smaller than the firms where they make the investments. The funds raised by these private equity firms are known as the private equity funds. ... The limited partners are the institutional investors like, the public and corporate pension funds, insurance companies or other wealthy investors. Now the question arises whether the private equity companies are the limited partners or the general partners. These firms act as the general partners of the fund. It is compulsory that the general partners provide at least one percent of the total amount of capital. However, some general partners invest even higher. These private equity funds have definite or fixed lifetime that ranges from 10 to 13 years. The private equity firm has a time period of five years, for investing the total capital to be funded to the companies and then, an additional time period of another five to eight years, for returning the total capital amount to the investors. After providing the capital amount, the limited partners do not have much to say about how the general partners would be deploying the investment funds, till the basic contents of the actual fund agreement are followed by these general partners. The basic contents of the fund agreement include restraints on the amount of fund capital that can be invested in one particular company, types of securities where the fund can be invested and restraints on the debt amount. The general partner i.e. the private equity firm, are generally compensated in three different ways. Firstly, these general partners incur a management fee as a percentage of the total capital committed followed by a percentage of the total capital employed, after the investment amount is realized. Secondly, these firms also incur one portion of the profit out of the fund which is known as the ‘carried interest’. The carried interest equals to 20 percent

Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 19

Essay Example petus to desegregation however occurred between 1866-1876 during the Reconstruction, when Congress overrode President Andrew Johnson and ratified the 14th Amendment. But in 1883 the U.S. Supreme Court overruled this and things reverted to their old ways although by 1869 the Freedmans Bureau had set up more than 3000 schools for black children. The most important judicial decision which led to total desegregation was the Brown v. Board of Education case, argued by such legal luminaries as Charles H. Houston and a battery of lawyers led by Thurgood Marshall, which opened the floodgates for reforms in the segregated educational system. The case was a combination of cases filed in South Carolina, Delaware, Virginia, Washington D.C and Kansas. The Delaware case challenged the poor conditions of schools for blacks and also the plight of children who had to travel an hour everyday to attend a school with poor facilities because the local high school refused to take them. Louis Redding, a local NAACP attorney was the lawyer. The South Carolina case was a class action civil suit against the inferior conditions in black schools, filed by the state NAACP at the urging of Rev. J.A. DeLaine. The case from Virginia was against the inadequate buildings and inferior school facilities and was facilitated by the NAACP. The case from Washin gton D.C was filed when students from a black school, during a field trip to a white school were denied entry and the ruling stated it â€Å"a denial of the due process of law guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment†. The Kansas case which gained fame as the Brown v. Board of Education case was filed on denial of admission to black children in schools segregated for whites. The Topeka NAACP under McKinley Burnett was responsible for this suit. This case was a landmark judgment because it paved the way for desegregation, not only in schools but also other public utilities and led the way for greater change in society and a general attitude towards