The difference between incidence and prevalence data

Statistical data can enhance insights by establishing the relationship of events or factors to a population. However, the value and validity of these insights depends on the researchers’ skill in using data available for their research. Therefore there is a need to understand the distinctions and uses of these data to be able to develop insights regarding the population or set of information. One example understands the difference between incidence and prevalence data. By understanding characteristics unique to each, researchers will be able to use them appropriately and effectively.DistinctionsIncidence refers to the probability that an individual will be fall under a constraint within a given period of time (Casella & Berger, 2001). In epidemiology, this refers to the chances that an individual will contract a specific in a particular time period. The rate of incidence is computed as a factor of the population susceptible to the constraint. Prevalence, on the other hand is d efined as the probability that a constraint given a population (McClave & Sincich, 2006). Extending the definition to epidemiology, this refers to the likelihood of an individual in a population to acquire the disease. Its rate is derived from dividing the number of diagnosed cases over the total population.The distinction between the two sets of data is based on the time and population it refers to. Incidence has a time frame or range while prevalence only considers the current data or data at a specific time. With regards to population, incidence is measured based on a constraint, usually defined because of its vulnerability to the diseases, whereas prevalence considers the whole population. If prevalence data is diminished, it means that disease is being eradicated versus in incidence where diminishing values only indicate the degree by which medical interventions are able to treat the disease (Bertoni et al, 2004). Furthermore, prevalence is the cumulative measure of incidence a s of the time period which can differ significantly from incidence values (Casella & Berger, 2001).UsesIncidence data is often used when studying new and or short-term events. The data is independent from data gathered from other time periods, measuring only the newly diagnosed cases and does not consider populations who still have the condition or disease. As a measure of success in medical intervention, it measures the rate of success of treatments of the disease’s symptoms. They are often utilized when conditions being studied are curable or when symptoms can become absent or in studies periods of vulnerability for a disease (Bertoni et al, 2004). Thus, in the study of respiratory sensitization and allergy n due to reaction enzyme producing plant, incidence data was used because the focus of the study the significance of exposure and host factors to employee reactions (Larsen, 2007). Incidence rates will better measure this relationship since the production of the enzymes that produce the sensitivity is seasonal and the population is limited to the employees who are exposed to the plants.Prevalence data in contrast is used more for long-term studies. As mentioned, it is a cumulative measure and therefore considers new and old diagnoses. It is often used in chronic illnesses or conditions whose symptoms will always fall under the constraints characterized for it. There is a presumption of the continuance of the disease or condition and the date is used often in conjunction with periodic measures.Thus, in the measure of effectiveness of vaccination against Hepatitis A in north-eastern Italy, prevalence data were used because the concern was the success of the preventive measures for drug users in low prevalence areas: the measure is not among the population the cases that will be reported and the comparison of data is annually (Lugoboni et al, 2005). Prevalence studies will better develop insights to the success rate of the intervention, in this case v accination against Hepatitis A, because vaccination implies that focus is on the non-occurrence of the condition and at the same time, the focus is not short-term.ReferencesBertoni, Alain G., Hundley, W. Gregory, Massing, Mark W., Bonds, Gregory Denise E., Burke, L. and Goff, David C. Jr. (20004). Heart Failure Prevalence, Incidence, and Mortality in the Elderly With Diabetes. Diabetes Care, 27: 699.Casella, George and Berger, Roger L. (2001)Statistical Inference, 2nd Edition. London: Â  Duxbury PressJohnsen, A. I. C. R. , Frickmann, J. and Mikkelsen, S. (2007). Incidence of respiratory sensitisation and allergy to enzymes among employees in an enzyme producing plant and the relation to exposure and host factors. Occup. Environ. Med., 64: 763 – 768.Lugoboni, Fabio, Quaglio, Gianluca, Pajusco, Benedetta, Foroni, Blengio, Maurizio Gianstefano, Talamini, Giorgio, Mezzelani, Paolo and Des Jarlais, Don C. (2005). Prevalence of hepatitis A among drug users in north-eastern Italy: Is vaccination necessary in low prevalence areas? Eur J Public Health, 15: 464 – 466.McClave, James T. and Sincich, Terry (2006). Statistics,10th Edition. by New York: Prentice Hall

Critical Review of three Scholarly Journal Articles Essay

One of the most important finding generated by this paper is the effects of race on the view that police is biased on race. This includes racial profiling of police where Black or minority group in general are most like stopped by police than White American. In all four models, blacks and Hispanics are more likely than whites to believe that police bias is a problem (Weitzer & Tuch, 2005). Blacks however, according to this article perceives police bias more of a problem than Hispanics. One interesting subset of this is that Blacks tend to perceive police discrimination against Hispanics than Hispanics see themselves. So that Black Americans tend to see that Hispanic drivers are being racially profiled compared to white drivers. Another important finding presented by this article is the role of media in shaping the perceptions of people regarding racial discrimination. People who frequently hear or read about incidents of police misconduct, as transmitted by the media, are inclined to conclude that the police engage in racial profi ling, are prejudiced, and discriminate against minority individuals and neighborhoods (Weitzer & Tuchs, 2005). The data gathering method and analysis technique used in this article is solid considering that it is based on a national survey of national survey of 1,792 white, African American, and Hispanic adult residents of U. S. metropolitan areas with at least 100,000 population (Weitzer & Tuch, 2005). The survey results where advantageous in the sense that oversampling African Americans and Hispanics, in contrast to the small number of minority respondents common to other surveys. Another advantageous factor is the tapping of both attitudes toward police and personal and vicarious experiences with the police. Another very important correction factor they have added is idea that there are differences in the number of households with phone access from the three different races, Black, Hispanics and White American. This is very important consideration since the data was collected using random dialing of phone numbers. So in general the data was very reliable. Race-Based Policing: A Descriptive Analysis of the Wichita Stop Study Unlike the previous article which discusses racial discrimination of policing in a wider perspective, this article focuses on racial profiling. The results of this rigorous effort put on the analysis of enforcement pattern do not prove race-based policing. The result of this document instead provides guidance for what are needed on studies to determine if race is a significant determinant for police to decide whether to stop them for inspection or not. According to this article, in order to fully understand the results of these decisions we must document the process by which these decisions are made (Withrow, 2004). Unfortunately, nothing in this data-set or any similar data-set is capable of such an analysis (Withrow, 2004). Although important findings emphasized by this study is that police awareness of the incorrect conceptions of well-established beliefs regarding race plays an important role in dealing with this sensitive police profiling issue. It is however certain that by asking the appropriate questions police administrators have a real opportunity to raise their department’s level of sensitivity to the issue (Withrow, 2004). One important finding that supports this idea is the result of this study that the proportions of searches that produces contrabands does not vary with race. The data gathering method used in this study is based on qualitative information recorded on every police stops from the Wichita Stop Study Dataset and the analysis technique are based on logical reasoning. In late July 2001 representatives from the Wichita Police Department provided the author with a data-set representing the first six months of collected information including 37,454 stops (Withrow, 2004). What is interesting about this data is that to date (relative to this article) this is the largest qualitative data set of this type. This provides reliability of the data gathered and provides validity of the results of this study. Perceptions of Racial Profiling: Race, class and Personal Experience The important result study is to provide a significant basis for the need to examined both race and class determinants of citizens’ relation with the police. In the discussions provided by the author, it was indicated that disadvantage black are more likely to believe that police are abusive of African American because of their personal experience. Another very important point generated in the discussion is with regard to racial profiling. We found that better educated African Americans are more likely than are less educated to disapprove of profiling, to view it as a pervasive practice, and to say that they have personally experienced it (Weitzer & Tuch, 2002). The authors argued that the reason for this is that higher education fosters greater exposure to media and information related to profiling problems. The data gathered were collected from a nationwide random-digit-dialing telephone survey of 2006 respondents conducted by the Gallup organization between September 24 and November 16, 1999 (Weitzer & Tuch, 2002). This offers reliability on the data gathered and considering it has the same strength of oversampling African Americans. Couple this data with various related literature from refutable sources, the data collection are quite valid. The analysis employed in the discussion where supported by citations from previous studies which further validates the ideas presented. CONCLUSION The important results generated by these documents suggest that minority group and Black American in particular, perceives that racial discrimination in the form of racial profiling is an issue. Through proper police awareness of incorrect conceptions that race is a factor that determines people tendency to commit crime, the sensitivity of this issue can be controlled. Couple this with the important role of education in providing proper understanding of the situation there is a possibility of correcting this perception. References Weitzer, R. & Tuch, S. (2005). Racially Biased Policing: Determinants of Citizen Perception. Social Forces from the University of Carolina Press, 83 (3), 1009-1028. Withrow, B. (2004). Race-Base Policing: A Descriptive Analysis of the Wichita Stop Study. Police Practice and Research, 5 (3), 223-240. Weitzer, R. & Tuch, S. (2002). Perceptions of Racial Profiling: Race, Class, and Personal Experience. Criminology, 40 (2), 435-453.

Attitude change Essay Example for Free

Attitude change Essay Technology also brought about a change in attitude to many employees because of its personal approach where despite the fact that it allows teams to work together it is also an ideal partner for individual tasks to get done. Craiger JP (2006) claims that technology resulted to a generation of employees who are self starters and problem solvers. By using technology employees learned to work independently, even if they are also dealing with their work teams and welcoming team initiatives on the side. For instance, an employee who does not have a desktop computer or does not know how to use one will have to depend on an encoder or a secretary for files to be encoded, taking two people to finish one document. When errors occur, it will be an accountability of two people. Often, when the margin of error was crossed is impossible to determine. On the other hand, an employee who has a desktop computer and knows how to operate it can type documents himself and be accountable for the whole task. It will also take just one person for the task to be completed. Computer users and the technologically inclined employees are not the only ones who had an attitude change. Those who do not have access to technological innovations in their respective departments were also encouraged to learn how to operate the new gadgets to be able to contribute to the growth of the company and, of course, to avoid being left behind. For fear of being retrenched or laid off by the company for the benefit of accommodating people who can work with the innovations that the organization is adapting, employees are more open than ever to learn new skills specially those that are technological. The same attitude change affects job applicants, who are otherwise not yet members but intending to become members of an organization. Job applicants are now putting more effort in getting at least the simplest technological skills and know-how to get an edge in their job-hunting process, especially with the fact that the younger graduates are more competitive in this area of knowledge. Issues Most of the changes brought about by technology to businesses were positive. The claims cannot be far from the truth. Technology was created to bring in convenience and efficiency, which is what it delivered right from the very start. However, there are also notions as to how technology has largely affected the way in which employees and organizations function, albeit on a negative light. Communication? Contrary to above claims that technology helped the culture of teams to flourish, and that communication became easier through new innovations that companies were investing on, computers and other technological equipment is also blamed for the downgrade in organizational communication. Craiger JP (2006) stressed that computers did not allow employees to communicate until networks were created. There was a great divide between employees who are operating the new facilities, and those who are not. There is also a sub-divide between employees operating the new equipment. The great divide between employees occurs from the very start, when not all employees have access to technology. People who have the know-how are roomed in with the computers, and those who are still on manual work stay in regular cubicles where other employees are present, allowing for interpersonal communication. After much development, majority of employees in many organizations gained access to computers. The problem which turned out later on concerned the transferring, sharing, and merging of files and information within the organization. Born is the network, and things went well. Employees can drag and drop information from and to a colleague, and even share pleasantries with each other on the side. This is where the communication problem began. The problem with technology is that it allows people to be convenient. In fact, employees felt too much convenience that the simplest things are often put on the hands of technology. For instance, instead of dropping by to the nearby cubicle of a co-employee, one just has to click on some icons and send her message through the computer. The technologically-driven workplace also slowly transformed into an impersonal workplace where every bit of thing was coursed through technology. This posed miscommunication problems—messages and files which were not received, lost files, misinterpretation of messages, errors in routing messages, and so on. The list is boundless, but the solution is not far from reach as well. To aid this problem, companies must orient new employees and train existing employees on the art of effective communication, as well as the proper use of company technology. With proper information and education, it is possible for companies to be technologically inclined but still effective in their communication. Re-trainings and new hiring A necessity for many companies who are just starting their technological stance is the re-training of employees. Companies cannot expect all of their employees to be familiar with the jargons and processes of technology once it is initiated in the company. There is also the need for people to maintain the equipment and to troubleshoot them in case something wrong happens. Thus, even if majority of the existing employees know how to operate technological equipment, the company still needs to hire additional people or get an outsourced service for these. This, however, does not sacrifice the cost-effectiveness of business technology. Even if a company spends for additional people or service, the costs that it will incur will still be offset by the multiplicity of role that business technology can undertake. A good way to minimize the costs in this area is to train employees, including those knowledgeable, on the proper use and maintenance of the equipment and by developing guidelines for reporting any problem or damage so that proper and timely intervention can be made. Telecommuting woes A point of debate in the technological workplace is the telecommuting option for employees. This has long been a trend, which proved to be convenient for both telecommuters and their companies. With off-site jobs, telecommuters need not travel to their workplace and be stuck with an office routine. They can also perform personal tasks while working, and avoid the pressure of being confined in an office cubicle. For companies, it saves them the office space the employee needs, and the costs of electricity and other provisional expenses of keeping an employee on the job site. However, human resources managers have one problem with keeping and working with telecommuters and off-site employees in the organization: performance appraisal and monitoring. When an employee works off the job site, he holds his time and place. He may be calling a client for a presentation while waiting for the kids for a drive to the school, and meet the client for a lunch meeting just before going to the grocery for some things needed for dinner. While this requires incredible discipline for tasks to get done, there is no guarantee that all telecommuters have the required character it takes. This brings about the importance of monitoring and performance appraisal, which is an equally grueling task for human resource persons to do with telecommuters. But for many companies, the solution is easy. Monitoring and performance appraisal can be largely dependent on one thing: end product. Telecommuters should be given deadlines and work expectations, and they should in turn give back results. This can prove when an off-site employee has the discipline it takes to work away from work, of he needs to work with the boss around. Privacy issues The ease of organizing work teams is undoubtedly one of the better benefits of modern technology to organizations, but it is not also ideal at all. With the convenient dragging and dropping of information throughout the network of technologically driven companies, it is easy for information to leak and for privacy seals to be broken. On a smaller scale, it can be as simple as one employee stealing the proposal of another employee; or one team member taking full credits to the collaborative work of a work team. On a larger scale it can be the theft of significant company information, or the leak of personal information of employees. This is a possibility to which all companies are susceptible. The exposure of an organization to modern technology, especially that which binds the company to networking, also puts many of its information and exchanges out in the open. Companies, however, need not fret. As privacy has been an utmost concern for many developers of technology, many solutions are now available for companies to protect themselves and their systems. A wide range of products are available to suit many companies’ generic needs, and many developers have come up with security measures that can be customized according to the needs and preferences of an organization. It should be noted, though, that security software and technology does not erase the possibility of privacy issues from taking place. While it can secure much of a company’s information, proper care and understanding of privacy clauses and measures by employees are equally important. Too fast and too furious Another issue concerning companies is the fast turnover of technological trends. New computers and gadgets are introduced everyday, and what is trendy today can be obsolete in a matter of months. While there are companies who are true to their subscription of technology, and strive to invest in newer, better models to improve their standing and service, not all companies can keep up. It can be disheartening for an organization to invest thousands of dollars in innovations, only to find themselves looking for an upgrade months after. Technology’s game is simple: the newer, the better. However, this game should not work for companies as well as they have financial books to consider. For business technology, the key is that whichever fits the company best is the better alternative. Unless very necessary, companies should not feel pressured in constantly buying new equipment every so often to keep up with competition. Delivery of good products and service is what matters most. Attitude change. (2017, Apr 14).

Postmodernism, Feminism and Social Science Essay

Postmodernism, Feminism and Social Science - Essay Example The essay "Postmodernism, Feminism and Social Science" states the social theories of interpretivism and feminism and how they are important for research in nursing in home care and nursing homes. Feminist is the way which helps women to know things and it gained support in the year 1980. â€Å"Women’s way of knowing† was the book which argued women have intuitive understanding. Sandra Harding explained about the contribution of feminism and increasing presence of women in the field of feminist sciences. Elsie Clew Parsons focused on gender and explained its influence on career of women. Feminist methodologies emphasizes on the idea that women have distinctive ways of knowing. There were many critiques that rejected the notion and even the methodology or reasons to be gendered. Feminists study the systematic oppression of women and the current wave of feminist thought includes the concept of empiricist principles. Nursing is primarily considered a woman’s professi on as the ideal of nurturing and caring is the essence of nursing which is associated with feminine aspect of human beings. Feminists theories believes the knowledge gained by the scientific methods is considered legitimate knowledge but, according to Hubbard, scientific knowledge may reflect the interest and outlook of producers. Feminists oppose the rigid scientific epistemology. It is necessary to have a nonsexist approach for research in feminism and the influence of social concepts on the working of female nurses in nursing homes.

Mobility Management for LTE-Advanced Relay Systems Research Paper

Mobility Management for LTE-Advanced Relay Systems - Research Paper Example These different technologies can cooperate together In order to improve the user’s quality of service and granting mobile users the ability of roaming across different wireless networks in a seamless manner. However, the different characteristics of each wireless technology with regards to QoS brought many challenges for provisioning the continuous services (e.g. audio/video streaming) in a seamless way. In such a heterogeneous environment, to support mobile user’s requirements, a mobility management mechanism is a key issue. Index Terms— Heterogeneous network, LTE-Advanced, Relay System, Vertical Handoff I. INTRODUCTION With the increase in demand and rapid development of wireless communication quality over the past 3 decades, the initial 1G has run into 4G with a high data rate and better mobility support. The 4G technique-International Mobile Telecommunications-Advanced (IMT-Advanced) systems include new capabilities that go significantly beyond those of the I MT-2000. Key requirements of the IMT Advanced systems, for instance, include improved mobility support and cell edge performance, increased spectral bandwidth and efficiency, reduced handover interruption time and reduced User plane latency and Control [1]. Considered as the main trend in future wireless communications, 3GPP LTE-Advanced has advanced features, for instance coordinated multipoint processing, carrier aggregation. It also considered as one of the top candidates towards achieving the IMT Advanced requirements. In 3GPP, high speed train scenario is agreed as the main scenario in Rel11 study item, mobile relay for E-UTRA. Here, when train rushes at a high speed the channel characteristics change and result in Doppler spread. Also the vehicles are vehicles are more crowded than other areas and therefore passengers are more likely to use high data rate services, for instance, browsing, playing games and watching videos so as to pass time [2]. The high data rate transmission requires strong signal strengths and high throughput, plus better mobility management, so mobile relay station for large vehicles are proposed for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) system. A relay system may be mobile, which means it is a dedicated network node equipped on the vehicles to provide a fixed access link to those travelling on the vehicles. It is very suitable to solve the capacity gain of the high speed vehicles if it is well deployed. In a conventional cellular network, user equipment (UE) is connected directly to a Base Station (BS), and when a user moves away from the cell center, he/she will get less bandwidth which means lower data rates. However relaying technique has been introduced in 3GPP release 10 & 11 to allow establishing an indirect two-hop link between UE and BS through a Relay Node (RN). Relay nodes can also be used to spread out the cell coverage and increase the coverage outside main area (e.g. at cell edge). The two major challenges addressed in this c ontext are maintaining the throughput and ensure a seamless mobility and service continuity to all UEs. Hence, the objective of this paper is to develop, implement, and evaluate intelligent algorithms for next generation wireless communications systems with focus on throughput and service continuity. Specifically, the paper mainly addresses to the following aspects: Relaying in heterogeneous network, resources and mobility management. The rest of the paper is arranged as follows. Firstly, the overview of fixed and mobile relay system is given is Section II. In Section III, the paper presents a Handoff Analysis. Section IV presents a system level simulation and results. The paper concludes with section V. II. FIXED AND MOBILE RELAY SYSTEMS OVERVIEW A. Background

Diglossia Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Diglossia - Research Paper Example Keywords: Arabic, diglossia, Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic, Iraqi/Syrian dialect Arabic is among the diglossic languages of the world because two formal varieties exist in concurrent use. These varieties are Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Both are referred to as al-lugha al-fusha or simply fusha for short, the latter part being pronounced as al-fuS-Ha and meaning ‘pure’ or ‘most eloquent’. Badawi however, distinguishes between al-fusha al-turath for CA and al-fusha al-‘asr for MSA (Ryding, 2005: 4). This distinction reflects the historical and cultural differences as CA pertains to Arab heritage (al-turath) and MSA pertains to the modern era (al-‘asr). Vincent Monteil (1960) thus regarded MSA as a modern development of the old classical form of CA. There are also colloquial forms and various dialects but the main distinction is drawn between the two aforementioned literary forms. Many Arabs and indeed Muslims r egard CA as the pure form, as it is the form used in the Holy Quran and the form used in heaven, and therefore regard all other varieties as inferior. The syntax and morphology of CA have thus remained intact but the lexicon present in MSA is changed. This classical form is the same globally although it has few fluent speakers whereas the other varieties are distinct enough â€Å"so as to impede mutual intelligibility† (Tan, 1999: 264). Nonetheless, the spoken varieties tend to be of greater practical benefit in the present age, as shown in a study by Palmer (2008). On the other hand, MSA, which functions as a global lingua franca, is used by the media and â€Å"stirs pan-Arab nationalistic feelings in the Arab world† (Palmer, 2008: 93). Above all, it also allows for greater intelligibility of the Holy Quran from being closer to CA and is the more respected and educated variety. It functions as educated Arabic speech because it is â€Å"characterized by general intell igibility among great regional and stylistic diversity† (Mitchell, 1986). Essentially therefore, despite a multiplicity of forms and dialects, Arabic is a prime example of diglossia. The term ‘diglossia’ was first used by the Greeks to describe two different varieties of their language, namely Dhimotiki and Katharevousa. Diglossia was more recently examined by Charles Ferguson (1959) in his book ‘Diglossia’ in which three other diglossic languages were identified including Arabic. It â€Å"describes any stable linguistic situation, in which there exists a strict functional differentiation between a (socially) ‘L(ow)-variety’ and a distinct ‘H(igh)-variety’† (Bussmann, 2006: 345). The latter is differentiated from the former by being more grammatically complex, standardised and formal. Gumperz (1964) considered linguistic societies as diglossic if functionally distinct varieties were found, but did not regard them as bi lingual because of their close relationship whereas Fishman (1967) related diglossia closely to bilingualism. Other scholars who have studied diglossia include Kremnitz (1987) and Willemyns & Bister (1989). As far as the various dialects of Arabic are concerned, the present day dialects can be roughly divided according to four geographical regions, which are: (1) Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf, (2) Levantine, (3)

Business ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Business ethics - Essay Example Each year, the company rates 20% of its employees below their requirements and ultimately, they were asked to leave the company (Jennings, 2009, p. 288). This rating system brought more harm to company than benefits. First, Enron’s rigorous performance evaluation standards and competitive environment resulted in a deceptive culture. Since employees began to have job insecurity, they emphasized only on how to make their performance look better. They ignored the ethical norms and began to focus on achieving their financial goals. Few employees started to cheat on their work. The only way to halt them was to cheat more. Very soon, every other person in the company was cheating and it became a prevalent conception since they were left with no choice and were also surrounded by those co-workers who were doing the same. This caused a deceptive culture of the company. Employees were evaluated on their ability to cheat. Second, such competitive environment led to covering of the mista kes and cheating, because employees seldom communicate with each other and were very un-cooperative. Employees were not encouraged to ask questions because asking question was considered as humiliating. In addition to that, they were also less willing to share information and resources because they were competing with each other. Therefore, in Enron, no one was asking anyone any questions and no one wanted to answer any questions. In this way, the employees of Enron began to ignore mistakes and errors and just focused on making their work look good. Such ethical problems had ripple effect and contributed to Enron’s ethical scandal. At Enron, both employees and executives behaved in an unethical and illegal manner since they were encountered with conflicts of interest. They all were self-interested and greedy. Major Causes of Enron’s Collapse After the fall down of the company, people started making its synonyms as corporate fraud and corruption. At one hand, the compan y contributed to charity with huge amount of money but systematically, on other hand, in 1990s, it swindled its financial statements along with an audit firm, named as Arthur Anderson. Enron’s method was systematic and creative. Its accounting practices and financial statements were not clear. For instance, the company made its practices of noting costs of those projects that have been cancelled as assets. Nevertheless, on other hand, there was no explanation as official letter, which states that the project has been cancelled. Such practices had ‘snowball effect’. Moreover, it has also created special reasons for raising profitability and avoiding taxes. It gave liberty to the management to hide losses and move currency. The CFO, Andrew Fastow was the mastermind behind the arrangement of all these practices. Such arrangements enabled him, his family and friends make millions of dollars at the cost of their stakeholders. Some of the actions of this reputable and responsible company were just like gambling. In the year 2000, the share price of Enron was at its peak i.e. at $90. Enron’s Executives already knew what was happening inside the company therefore; they started to sell their shares. On 5 March 2001, Article of Bethany McLean â€Å"Is Enron Overpriced?† further reduced the stock price of the company. She played a vital role in revealing the huge debt of Enron. Slowly and gradually, the stock price

Research Method in Social Science Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Research Method in Social Science - Essay Example It is infact a habit of questioning what you do, and a systematic examination of the observed information to find answers, with a view to instituting appropriate changes for a more effective professional service. One's philosophical orientation might stem from one of the several paradigms and approaches in research - positivist, interpretive, phenomenolist, action or participatory, feminist, qualitative or quantitative. The concept of 'validity' can be applied to any aspect of the research process. It ensures that in a research study correct procedures have been applied to find answers to a question. 'Reliability' refers to the quality of a measurement procedure that provides repeatability and accuracy. 'Unbiased and objective' means that every step has been taken without introducing vested self-interest. Adherences to these three criteria enable the process to be called 'research'. However, the degree to which these criteria are expected to be fulfilled varies from discipline to discipline and so the meaning of 'research' differs from one academic discipline to another. For example, the expectations of the research process are markedly different between the physical and social sciences. In the physical sciences, a research endeavour is expected to be strictly controlled at each step, whereas in social sciences rigid control cannot be enforced and sometimes is not even demanded. There are two main para... However, there is distinction between qualitative data on the one hand and qualitative research on the other as the first is confined to the measurement of variables and the second to a use of methodology. Qualitative Vs Quantitative Research The term quality comes from the Latin word qualitas which means "of what kind'. There is an element of evaluation and judgement and taste connected to the term quality. Quantity is a different matter. The term quantity comes from the Latin word quantitas meaning "how great" or, for our purposes, "how much" or "how many". In the context of social science, quantitative researchers are sometimes accused of being too narrow, basing their research on what they count, measure and observe, and neglecting other matters. Qualitative researchers, however, are accused of "reading into" texts that are not there or of having opinions or making interpretations that seem odd or excessive. Therefore none of the modes of research are exclusively complete in themselves. A combination of the two approaches is a better way of solving a social science research problem. Qualitative and quantitative research methodologies differ in the philosophy that underpins their mode of inquiry as well as, to some extent, in methods, models and procedures used. Though the research process is broadly the same in both, qualitative and quantitative research are differentiated in terms of methods of data collection, the procedures adopted for data processing and analysis, and the style of communication of the findings. Qualitative and quantitative research can be compared on the basis of certain parameters. Let us delve into the parameters one by one. 1. Underpinning philosophy The underlying philosophy of the quantitative approach is

New German Cinema Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

New German Cinema - Essay Example Finally, the films shared a concern with contemporary West German fact on the one support and search for public and markets on the other1. In an international view, the German Cinema was taken as the most encouraging development in German cinema since German assertions, and a handful of its directors who have won national reputations. The film developed in other countries like Britain and US during the mid 1970s through various magazines and television announcements. Many observers of the films focused on the characters of the new directors, discussing them as creative geniuses, artists with something to say and determined the films almost incompatible in terms of their personal visions of the directors. Thus, the New German Cinema in Britain and America was initially discussed predominantly as a â€Å"cinema des auteur.†2 Although the New German Cinema directors were undisputedly highly gifted, there were a number of historically particular influences that set up essential pre-conditions for the occurrence of the New Cinema. Of particular significant was the way in which Allies handled the fledging West German Film industry in the years promptly after the World War II. When the war was moving towards the end, the western Allies felt that it was vital to re-inform the German people in order both to declassify Germany and to assemble up the western zones of Germany as a barrier to the influence of the Soviet in eastern Europe and American films were recognized fast as an effective measure of disseminating western notions of freedom, democracy and capitalist enterprise. Before the distributors of America agreed to send their films to the FRG for this reason, however, they forced that they should be permitted to transfer any benefits made in Germany back to America. Since the market in the German was clo sed to America during the World war II, once this situation

Interference Colors Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Interference Colors - Essay Example Interference colors are thus an effect that emanates because different substances have different index of reflection (Ulery, & Drees 185). Birefringence is the variation in the indices of reflection. Interference colors can be understood by utilizing color charts that are contained in most of the course readings. If the thickness of an area is known, then the birefringence can be determined from the interference color. Most extreme birefringence can be analytic of a mineral when utilized with different properties. If the thin segment contains a known mineral, with a confined scope of birefringence, then the interference color can be utilized to focus the thickness of the segment (Haldar, & Josip 50). Standard slender areas are 30 microns thick. Meager segments thicker than 30 microns will deliver higher interference colors. Interference colors rehash. Nevertheless, high order colors can be recognized from lower order ones by watching the margins between gemstones or those crystals at the edges of the minor segment. These zones of a thin area are frequently more slender and will demonstrate an arrangement of lower inter ference

Television and Childhood Obesity Essay Example for Free

Television and Childhood Obesity Essay Childhood obesity has become a national dilemma. Recent studies have shown several causes for this public health epidemic. The evidence between childhood obesity and children’s excessive amount of time in front of the television has done nothing but increase each year. How long do children watch television each day. Does the media target children television? What are the health risks involved with childhood obesity? Childhood obesity continues to increase dramatically as the young viewers are victimized by television. Television Associated With Childhood Obesity During a recent study at UCLA School of Public Health, Sarah Anderson stated â€Å"The association between television viewing and childhood obesity is directly related to children’s exposure to commercials that advertise unhealthy foods. † (Anderson. S 2010) Researchers Frederick J. Zimmerman and Janice F. Bell conducted a study that involved 3,563 children, ages ranged from infants to 12-year-olds. Primary caregivers reported children’s activities and television viewing during the week. Studies had shown that commercial viewing had a significant affect with a higher BMI. According to Zimmerman and Bell, â€Å"steering children away from commercial television may be effective in reducing childhood obesity, given that food is the most commonly advertised product on children’s television and the fact that almost 90 percent of children begin watching television regularly before the age of 2† (Zimmerman, F. and Bell, J. 1997). Nevertheless, researchers have indeed discovered the link between television and childhood obesity as it continues to rise. Since 1980 the percentage of child obesity has more than tripled in the United States. Identifying childhood obesity can be done in various ways. One warning sign is acanthosis nigricans, a skin condition in which the darkening or thickening of the skin folds that can appear on the back of the neck, armpit or groin area. Acanthosis nigricans happens to children of all races. This skin condition is caused by insulin resistance in the body. In addition to visually identifying obesity in children, Pediatricians are measuring the BMI (body mass index) in children of all ges. A Pilot Program to identify obesity in children was performed by Ramona M. Kwapiszewski, DO, and Alex Lee Wallace. During the process Kwapiszewski stated â€Å"Our first challenge was to define obesity. We chose to use the BMI because it has been recognized by the National Institute of Health as a reasonable and accurate tool for detecting obesity in children younger than 18 years. † Kwapiszewski also proceeded to define the BMI as â€Å"the BMI represents the ratio of weight to height squared, and the definition of obesity in children varies based on age and gender. Generally speaking, the television itself does not cause obesity in children; it is how television viewing affects your child. According to the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) children who view more than four hours of television each day are likelier to be overweight. Children who view violence on television tend to be more aggressive and at the same time the child fears the outside world. Characters on television also portray smoking, drinking, risky behaviors, and racial stereotypes as cool. Most of all, too much screen time perpetuates obesity in children as physical activities decrease. Associations of Television Content type and Child Obesity Research has proven that different content types have different affects on obesity. â€Å"Television might lead to obesity through 3 primary pathways: by displacing time that would otherwise be spent in physical activity; by promoting eating while viewing which may foster both lower quality and higher quantity food intake; and by exposing children to food advertising, which adversely affects their diets† stated by Zimmerman PhD, F and Bell PhD, MN, MPH, J.  Studies have shown that as the number of hours children view television increases, so does their body fat. Evidence shows Amy B. Jordan, PhD during one of her investigations â€Å"the causal relationship comes from randomized controlled trials (RCTs), which have linked reduction of television and other screen media use to decreased BMI, waist circumference, and triceps skin fold thickness in elementary school-age children. † Jordan PhD, A. On the contrary, the media has found a way to target children. During children programming more 30 second advertisements are viewed. None of which have nutritional value. In 2007 the Kaiser Family Foundation performed a study and found that several of ads kids see 34% for candy and snacks, 28% for cereal, 10% for fast food, 4% for dairy products, and 1% for fruit juices. The number of food ads children view each year is phenomenal. Children from ages 2-7 view more than 4,000 food ads per year. Children between the ages of 8-12 see more than 7,000 food ads per year. Nevertheless, more than 95% of the food ads were high in fat, sugar and sodium. Most of all, the media has found a way to target young viewers. Childhood obesity has a variety of health risks. An article from the CDC (Center for Disease Control) included several consequences of childhood obesity. The CDC stated â€Å"Obese children are more likely to have high blood pressure and high cholesterol, which are risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD). In one study, 70% of obese children had at least one CVD risk factor, and 39% had two or more. Increased risk of impaired glucose tolerance, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes. Breathing problems, such as sleep apnea, and asthma. Joint problems, and musculoskeletal discomfort. Fatty liver disease, gallstones, and gastro-esophageal reflux (i. e. , heartburn). Obese children and adolescents have a greater risk of social and psychological problems, such as discrimination and poor self-esteem, which can continue into adulthood. † (CDC 2011) In this situation, it is important to increase activity and provide children with a well balanced diet. Strategies for Combating Childhood Obesity No doubt it is extremely important to combat childhood obesity. It is equally important to do so in a positive manner. Recently Amy B. Jordan PhD discovered an article written by an expert panel on children, television viewing, and weight. These are the five most promising strategies they believe will combat the negative effects of media use on children’s weight. â€Å"They are: 1. Eliminate TV from children’s bedrooms. Eliminating bedroom media use may reduce overall screen time and may help to limit nighttime media use that may interfere with children’s healthy sleep. 2. Encourage mindful viewing by monitoring screen media, budgeting TV time, and fostering media literacy. The committee encourages parents to collaborate with children on establishing appropriate amounts of screen media use and sharing and discussing the content to which children are exposed. 3. Turn off the TV while eating. Disconnecting food from TV viewing may increase awareness of food consumption, while also increasing family communication, and decreasing total TV watching time. 4. Use school-based curricula to reduce children’s screen time. The panel noted that schools are an excellent forum for efficiently and effectively reaching a large number of youth with a focused curriculum. 5. Provide training for health care professionals to counsel on reducing children’s media use. The panel recommends training and support for pediatricians and others on issues related to reducing children’s use of media. † In addition to implementing those five steps, it is also important to encourage healthy eating habits. To do so, start off by cutting down on fatty foods and start eating foods low in fat or fat free. Also, cut down on sugar and sodium intake and be sure to provide your child with a well balanced diet that includes fruits, vegetables, dairy, protein, and grains. Teaching children healthy eating habits when they are young will teach them a healthy eating style when they are adults. Conclusion The association between television and childhood obesity is directly related to the amount of television a child watches, television content type, inactivity, and unhealthy eating habits. Monitoring the amount of television a child watches and encouraging healthy eating habits along with plenty of exercise will help in maintaining a healthy weight. Help decrease the number in childhood obesity and do not let children be victimized by television.

Theology Proper Essay Example for Free

Theology Proper Essay The study of God is known as Theology Proper. This study is vital in knowing and experiencing the one true God. God goes by many names and He has revealed Himself to us, through His word and though revelation. By studying Theology Proper we can discover much about the Character of God like His attributes, His law and His will. When studying Theology Proper there are two different categories of studying God’s attributes. There are His absolute attributes and His comparative attributes. His absolute attributes are simply who and what God is. God is absolutely Holly, God is absolutely love and God is absolutely Good. These are unchangeable and consistent attributes of God. He can’t be any more or any less of any of these; if He were, He would not be the perfect holy, loving and good God that the Bible teaches. God also has comparative attributes. These attributes are ones that can be more difficult for our human minds to comprehend. God is Omniscient, which means He is all knowing. He knows everything, from every thought to every action that will ever be made. God is Omnipresent; this means that He is everywhere all the time. God is beyond time and space, so in essence no one is ever alone at any given point in time. God is finally Omnipotent, this means that he is all-powerful. God created the earth and rose from the dead. He can do all things and He chooses when to use his divine power for His purpose. God’s law is vital to know when studying Theology Proper. By knowing God’s law for His creation we can better understand His purpose for our lives. The law of God isn’t just an idea of what’s right and wrong, it is an expression of the nature of God. It is a revelation. Through God’s law, creation is controlled and God’s desires are carried out. Because we are sinful by nature, we must live under the law (not necessarily the mosaic law), without the law there can be not judgment or sanctification. The law is necessary for human existence. God is impartial, which means he must judge every violation of His law. Because of God’s perfect nature He cannot overlook the violation of His law. In order to know the Will of God when studying Theology Proper we must realize how this can be done. We can know God’s perfect will through prayer and talking with God. We can learn His will through studying His word and through listening to the Holy Spirit. These are ways God reveals His will to us. We can also know His will through divine circumstance and by being active in our faith. By being closer to God through these examples we are able to better understand God’s will for our lives. In conclusion we can better understand the study of Theology Proper and ultimately, better understand out Creator. Furthering our understanding of God’s attributes, God’s law and God’s will.

Dexter Opening Sequence | Analysis

Dexter Opening Sequence | Analysis In this assignment, I analyse Dexters opening sequence by employing semiotic tools and interpret the intended meaning in the polysemic signs which anchor to the connotative associations in the narrative structure of this generic text. I have opted to carry out a semiotic analysis of Dexters opening credits that airs on premium cable, Showtime. In order to develop an unequivocal semiotic analysis, the meaning of the terms and different aspects of semiology must be made clear. There is a set of analytical tools used to examine a media text such as a sign, a signifier and a signified, iconic, indexical, symbolic, polysemic, intertexuality, codes, paradigms and syntagms. Semiotics is the study of how signs make meaning while a sign could be anything that represents something else. The signifier is the sign itself and the signified refers to the mental concept. Iconic describes a sign which resembles the signified whereas Symbolic refers to a sign which does not resemble the signified but is purely conventional. Indexical represents a sign which is innately connected in some way to the signified. Paradigm refers to a set of signs that are put together to induce meaning. Syntagm, on the other hand, is the term used to d escribe the construction of a sequence of signs in a particular relationship to one another. A media text containing many meanings is known as polysemia and its existence in relation to other media texts is called intertexuality. Now it is feasible to delve into the semiotic analyses of Dexters opening sequence as the basic terms of the semiotics are comprehensible. One of Barthes arguments in Rhetoric of the Image is that all images are polysemous; they imply, underlying their signifiers, a floating chain of signifieds, the reader able to choose some and ignore others (1977, p.32-55). The narrative structure of the opening is filled with polysemic codes where the paradigm of signs are combined to show a man going through his morning routine, the interpretation of the coded message actually convey a different meaning depending on the analysis of the syntagmatic relations of the signifiers. The signifiers not only represent their denotation but also contain malicious belligerent connotations leading the audience to an entirely different signifieds or notion of discernment based on their construal. The genre is the crime and suspense drama series as the use of verbal rhetoric and paradigm is particular of this type of generic text. The title scene of Dexter is a complex combination of signs where every element is signifying the message of murder. This view is supported by Fiske (1990, p.40) who states: The conveyance of messages takes place through the development and use of codes, the form and existence that these take depends on the society and culture within which they operate. The blood drops are an indexical sign which has connotation of murder. The title Dexter is an iconic linguistic sign written with blood stains spewed across it. The typography is indicative of murder and crime, using the Soda Script font in red which is yet another signifier. It contains connotative value as its signifieds are danger and devil that is usually depicted as coloured red and wearing a red costume in both iconography and popular culture. Further association of the red colour sign connotes to the phrase caught red-handed, meaning either caught in an act of crime or caught with the blood of murder still on ones hands. It also sets a tone of violence which could be interpreted as a significant characteristic of the show. By deciphering these codes we can construe the intended meaning of the media text. In regards to coded messages Robert Innis (1986, HYPERLINK http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem13.html#Innis_1986p.88) writes that an articulated code has a vocabulary of basic units together with syntactical rules which can be used to generate larger meaningful combinations. The very first shot in the opening scene shows a mosquito sucking blood out of the mans arm that he then slaps and kills. The mosquito is a signifier and signified is it sucks blood. It denotes to the viewer that killing a mosquito is good. The close up facial expression of the man is a presentational code after he kills the mosquito a subsequent self-satisfied smile spreads on his face. When you interpret the coded message being used you get a connotative implication that this is a man who likes killing or that is how he starts his daily routine. The narrative structure of the text also employs syntagmatic value by the linking of signs from paradigm sets for an intended meaning. The one scene shows the man using a dental floss which is a signifier and its denotative of removing food and dental plaque from teeth. He wraps it around his fingers tightly that we can see the fingers areas turn white which connotes to his use of strength and force. In the next shot we see a close up of hi s neck which consists of syntagmatic relationship signifying connotative aspect if we compare it with preceding and following shots. Subsequently the next coded message is a close up shot showing a rope swaddled around the hands that is being pulled making the blood rush to the sides and turning the area around the ropes on his hands turn white. These syntagmatic signs consist of coded message and rely on the intertextuality of the text. Kristeva referred to texts in terms of two axes: a horizontal axis connecting the author and reader of a text, and a vertical axis, which connects the text to other texts (1980, p.69). The interpretations of the meaning of these juxtaposed coded signs rely on the readers previous experience of seeing strangulation scenes in other texts. After examination and coalesces of the signifiers and signifieds in the following shots, its denotative of a man clearly tying his shoes in the morning. The aesthetic codes and conventions used to show a close up shot of a grapefruit being sliced contains polysemic signs. The paradigm method in which the slow motion and graphic slicing of the grapefruit splatters the juice is denotative but also operates indexically indicative of blood spatter at a connotative level. The extreme close up shot of the grapefruit is a sign which resembles distorted flesh. The close up scene of opening the shower null with force making a fist and the shot of his biceps are metonyms of his vindictive personality which signifies his use of force, strength and power. There is an extreme close up shot of slicing of the meat which is still wrapped in a plastic bag connotes to a corpse in a bag. In this context, signifiers not only represent denotation but also carry connotation leading the audience to different signifieds. The visual rhetoric of the man when he is looking at himself through the mirror is a blurred close up shot which is an artifice of connotation. With regard to media artefacts Long and Wall (2009, p.40) stated that a text is manufactured or constructed out of elements of language and existing meanings. The deliberate blurring of his reflection on the mirror presents us with a constructed signifier. The blur is a symbolic sign which distorts the vision, making it harder to identify anything or anyone. The blur could signify the mans secrete persona as his facial features are obscured. Furthermore, it connotes to the implication that he is hiding a dark secret or his true self and does not want to be perceptible. Serial killers are invisible: they look like anyone else is, they could be anyone else. At the denotative level of the syntagmatic structure of the scenes we see the man simply putting a white t-shirt on, however, these coded signifiers also anchor to the connotative signified. The codes and conventions employed anchor to the intended meaning thus exhibit possible polysemia of the signs. The polysemic visual signifier is a symbolic close up shot of the mans face where he is pulling the t-shirt tightly over his head which provides anchorage to the connotative association of a bag over a suffocation victim. The conventions used to provide a connotational framework at this echelon is a cultural code. The big close up shot of his face is an indexical sign and denotative of him trying to catch his breath and reinforces the polysemic connotation of suffocation. The polysemic analysis of the contours of his face emerging from behind the stretching fabric could be interpreted as him being the victim or his close connection with the murder or crime. The purposely use of the sign s has connotative implications that he could be a victim or he could be a criminal and predator who commits the murders. At a mythic level we understand this sign as activating the myth of murderers: Most killers lead lives that appear normal to anyone in the general public. Connotatively, the semiotic analysis of these coded signs interpret the simple relatable morning rituals of the man who takes pleasure in cutting into objects and cooking things that could have been alive signify the delight he gets in killing living and non-living things e.g mosquito, fruit, meat. The narrative structure of this text is a superb paradigm composition of signifiers and signifieds that has polysemic signs which once decoded connotes to menacing and destructive meaning. The rhetorical manner in which he holds his neck in the shaving scene is a symbolic sign containing coded message of strangulation. The drops of blood from the shaving accident are signifiers and the implication of murder is signified. Subsequent combining of signifiers and signifieds in a sequential close up shots denotes to a man eating an omelette which also anchors to the connotative meaning of the signifiers. The razor-sharp knife he uses to slice the omelette is a signifier. Even the black colour of the sharp knife is a coded signifier. We can interpret the polysemic meaning of the metaphorical sign of knife taking into account that it is not a bread knife which is generally used. The knife symbolises murder and the colour black stands for death, enigma, and pain. The red liquid is a signifier and the ketchup is signified. However, employing analytical tools of semiology we can interpret the connotative meaning of calculated use of the fluid to represent blood. The use of ketch up instead of mayonnaise or sauce is a premeditated sign. The signs have connotation of obsession with blood of the main character of the show which signifies that he could be a killer or he is closely associated with the blood and criminal activities. Moreover the analysis of indexical sign of blood epitomise the symbol of life or of taking it. The close up shot towards the end is a signifier where we get to see the clear view of Dexters face for the first time which abstracts him from the context and places the main focus on his face and presentational rhetoric of the text. The facial expression on his face is denotative and also connotes to a disturbing underlining meaning as he looks us in the eye. The shot lingers for just a little too long which provokes uncomfortable and agitated reaction and connotes that the man is hiding a dark secret. The suggestive sly smile spreads on his face that connotes his devious, vicious and cunning personality traits. It also connotes to the ability of the man to present himself as a normal face to the world but underneath he knows he is hiding his true nature from the world. The most common nonliteral sound to accentuate character personality or emotion is music. (Sonnenschein 2001). In this generic text, the presentational rhetoric is employed in encoding the non-diegetic music to convey the connotative meaning of playfulness and ominous. The music and digenetic sound evoke emotional and dramatic reaction through a combination of its elements: rhythm, melody, chords and instrumentation. The music signifier contains sassy and sinister horns that punctuate the visual signs in the paradigmatic narrative structure to direct our attention and induce particular meaning. For example the blood drops falling on the sink which connotes to a more sinister meaning in this context. This clearly relates to the Saussurean analytical division of the sign into a sound-image (signifier) and the mood of the generic text is signified. This notion is further supported by Cook (1998, p.8) who writes By working with the image the sound seeks to explain the events, emotions an d meaning, to transfer its clarity of meaning to the other. The diegetic environmental sounds aid in accentuating the actions of the character and anchor to the connotative meaning of the signifiers. The music and sound are very successful in providing a multi-accentuate meaning to the text which connotes to the menacing, sinister, mysterious and ambiguous characteristics of the man and the generic text. Gibbs (2002, p.82) articulates Mise-en-scà ¨ne enables you to anchor your understanding of a film In this text mise-en-scà ¨ne of the narrative structure of lighting, actor, cinematography and camera makes possible a series of suggestive meanings. The careful use of paradigm and syntagm in the narration abet us to decode the connotative association and experience nonliteral meaning as well as literary one. The paradigm use of graphic and gritty nature of close up shots in the entire narrative anchors to the connotation of intimacy, closeness, asphyxiatation, leaving no room for the viewer to breath. With regard to Close-Up shot frames Munsterberg (1970, p.33) writes The close-up heightens the vividness of that on which our mind is concentrating on. Editing, extreme CU frames, lighting, sound, and swiftness of the images reveal polysemia with notion of perception. Every signifier is polysemic, emotionally poignant and revealing. The indication of fear, concealment and murder is the ultimate goal of each scene. The intensity, saturation, hue and depth of colours play a significant role in the syntagmatic structure of the text anchoring to dark, mysterious, fiend mood. The enhancement of the colour red directs our attention on this particular element of the composition and also connotes to a more sinister meaning. The long shot of the man when he is leaving is a sign and alteration in the tone of the light also has polysemic meaning as it renders our own notion of vision (and judgement) as unreliable or at least questionable. The purpose of the change in the lighting signifies that the man leads a double life or he has two personalities. When he is alone in his room he is himself as the tone of colours are saturated presenting a darker and baleful disposition of the man. But once he is outside the use of cheerful morning bright colours reinforces the connotation of the man leading a double life and keeping a secret. The nod he gives to the camera or audience is a sign which signify his ackno wledgement that we know his secret. The question arises that if he is portrayed as an antihero seeing that he is the main character of the show and has connotation of close associated of blood and murder. It also fortifies the myth of killers that the murderers could be anyone at all and are quite indistinguishable from ordinary people as we see the narrative structure following the man doing daily rituals with polysemic relationship. (Cameron Elizabeth 1987) The rich use of symbolic metonymies in the narrative structure to create malevolent connotations out of a denotatively peaceful routine which we can all relate to makes this media text fascinating to analyse semiotically. The codes and conventions used in the rhetoric construe syntagmic relationship which instantly conveys one sign or denotation to the audience but semiotic analysis of these signs decipher the true intended meaning. At the connotation level all the visual symbols are interacting to create a sinister, darker, destructive notion of perception which insinuates murder. REFERENCES: Barthes, Roland (1977), The Rhetoric of the Image in Heath, Stephen (Trans) Image, Music, Text. New York: Hill and Wang. pp. 32-51 Innis, Robert E. (1986), Semiotics: An Introductory Reade. London: Hutchinson. pp. 88 Kristeva, Julia (1980), Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art. New York: Columbia University Press. pp.69 Long, Paul and Wall, Tim (2009), Media Studies: Texts, Production and Context. England: Longman. pp. 40 Sonnenschein, David (2001), Sound Design: The Expressive Power Of Music,Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema. USA: Michael Wiese. pp. 178 Saussure, Ferdinand de (1974), Course in General Linguistics. London: Fontana. pp. 128 Cook, Nicholas (1998), Analysing Musical Multimedia. London: Oxford University Press. pp.8 Gibbs, John (2002), Mise-en-scà ¨ne:Film Style And Interpretation. London: Wallflower Press. pp.82 Munsterberg, Hugo (1970), The Film: A Psychological Study. New York: Dover Publications. pp.33 Cameron, Deborah and Frazer, Elizabeth (1987), The Lust To Kill. Cambridge: Polity Press. pp.158

Sir Isaac Newtons First Law Of Motion :: First Law Of Motion Essays

Sir Isaac Newton was in my mind one of the greatest people who ever lived. He was born in 1642 and died in 1727. He formulated three laws of motion that help explain some very important principles of physics. Some of Newton's laws could only be proved under certain conditions; actual observations and experiments made sure that they are true. Newton's laws tell us how objects move by describing the relationship between force and motion. I am going to try to explain his first law in more simple terms.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Newton's first law of motion states: A body continues in its state of rest or uniform motion unless an unbalanced force acts on it. When a body is at rest or in uniform motion this is called inertia. Let's say that someone parks a car on a flat road and forgets to put the vehicle into park. The car should stay in that spot. This state of being is called inertia. All of a sudden the wind picks up or some kid crashes into the car with a bike. Both the wind and the kid's bike crashing into the bike are unbalanced forces. The car should start to move. The car might accelerate to two miles per hour. Now we would all assume that the car would come to a stop sometime. We assume this because it is true. It is true because there is friction between the tires and the road. The car now has inertia in uniform motion. Since there is friction, the car cannot keep moving forever because friction is an unbalanced force acting upon the tires.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What if there was not any friction? The car would keep going forever. That is if there was not any wind or a hill or any unbalanced force acting upon the car. This is rather weird just to think about. Because this usually would not happen in our customary world today. You just would not see a car go on forever. An easy experiment to demonstrate this law is to take a glass jar and

Kurt Vonnegut :: essays research papers

Here is some info on Kurt Vonnegut. Kurt Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on November 11, 1922. After attending Cornell University from 1941-43 Vonnegut served in World War II and was captured during the Battle of the Bulge. As a prisoner of war, he survived the fire bombing of Dresden by Allied forces on 13 February, 1945 in an underground meat-storage cellar. When he emerged the next morning, Vonnegut was put to work pulling corpses from the ruins of the desolated city once known as "the Venice of the North." In one night the horrific fire-bombing of Dresden killed more people than the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, more than 135,000 in all. Vonnegut's first-hand experiences of this, one of the darkest episodes in human history, would later provide the basis for his most influential work, Slaughterhouse Five (1969), though it would take him more than twenty years to come to terms with his wartime experiences and complete the novel. After returning from the war Vonnegut attended the University of Chicago as a graduate student in anthropology. In 1947 he moved to Schenectady, New York, where he began to work on his first novel, Player Piano (1952), as well as a number of remarkably varied stories that would appear throughout the next decade in such magazines as Collier's, Playboy, Esquire and Cosmopolitan. The story starts off with Kurt reminiscing about the pass and how he wrote this book. The main character is Billy. Billy is born in 1922 in Ileum, New York. He grows into a weak and awkward young man, studying briefly at the Ileum School of Optometry briefly before he is drafted. After minimal training, he sent to Europe right in the middle of the Battle of the Bulge. He is captured behind German lines. That is where this story mostly takes place then there’s his wife who he meets later her name is Valencia. I chose this book well honestly I didn’t know what to read and this is what Mr. S suggested so I thought it would be good, but it just isn’t my type of book. Billy is the main Character I already talked about him in last paragraph, so you can just look there for more info on him. Kurt Vonnegut: The novelist inserts himself in the sections of Chapters One and Ten that frame Billy Pilgrim's story.

How the Catholic Church Survived Two Thousand :: Essays Papers

How the Catholic Church Survived Two Thousand Introduction On theDay of Pardon in the Year of Jubilee, 2000 years after the birth of JesusChrist, Pope John Paul II and several other high members of the Catholic Churchperformed a prayer of forgiveness and confession, apologizing for all thewrongdoings of the Church. The Pope said later that they had been preparing todo this for several years, but had chosen the year 2000 Further, the Popeactually apologizing for the wrongdoings of the Church poses several questions:â€Å"Why did the Pope need to apologize: what ills did the Church, itsofficials and it followers commit that required the Pope to publicly clear hisconscience by apologizing for them? Further, to what extent did the Churchembody both human and divine e! lements in the past, and to what extent does ittoday?† To understand the Catholic Church today it is essential tounderstand the society it was born into and how the culture and politics of thepast 2000 years have shaped the Church and the Bible itself. After oneacknowledges the behavior and dogma that dominated the papacy in theChurch’s history (including the papal infallibility clause stating thatthe Pope being God’s voice on earth, can do no wrong), one can see howrevolutionary these speeches really were. TheEarly Church Effectivelyunderstanding the Catholic Church today requires one to unders! tand how theculture and politics of the Roman Empire shaped the structure of the Church andthe Bible itself. Jesus lived in what is modern day Palestine, which was partof the Roman Empire. Judaism and Hellenistic Greek traditions were the dominantreligions of the day. Several sects of Jews existed but although they agreed onthe basic tenets of Judaism —there is only one God, God’s peopleought to follow certain guidelines and God would fulfill his promise—they spent most of their time bickering over how to serve God. Theearly Church faced several struggles such as maintaining the purity ofChristianity, defining the structure of the Church and surviving the constantattacks on Christians by the Roman Empire. One of the Church’s firststruggles! was to define itself vis-à  -vis the Jewish tradition and theRoman World. Both Paul and the Book of Acts reveal questions and issues theearly Church wrestled with. For example: â€Å"Should Christianity be its ownreligion or a new sect of Judaism?† â€Å"Which books should be includedin the Bible and which were the works of heretics?†

Morality and the crucible Essay

Morality is the distinction between right and wrong. It is the determination of what should be done and what should not be done; or what is right and what is wrong. Morals deal with behaviors as well as motives. All humans live by some set of morals especially religious people. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, this is clearly evident. It is about the puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts and the hunt for witches. Many people are falsely accused of witchcraft. Throughout this account of history key characters have to make choices that challenge their beliefs and ethics. They must decide whether to do what is right, and fight against a lie, or do what’s wrong and give in to the lie to save their own lives. Elizabeth Proctor is one of those who fought for the truth, therefore she; in my opinion is the most moral character in the story. Elizabeth is the wife of John Proctor; reserved, honest, slow to complain, and dutiful. She and her husband share a similarly strict adherence to justice and moral principles. She has great confidence in her own morality and in the ability of a person to maintain a sense of righteousness even when this principle conflicts with strict Christian doctrine. She is well known throughout the village for being a very Christian woman, knowing all her commandments. Whenever her husband is confused or indecisive about something, she leads him onto the path of justice. For example, she urges him to stop the witch trials by revealing the truth about Abigail’s sinful, deceitful ways. When Her husband has to decide whether to be killed or confess to witchcraft, she doesn’t want him to give into a corrupt and unjust society. Although she doesn’t wish to lose her husband, she still doesn’t sidestep her morals and beliefs. Even at the end, when Proctor decides to die instead of signing a confession that would have been a lie, she doesn’t try to fight his decision but shows respect for his righteous choice when she says, â€Å"He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him! † This shows that not only her own, but her husbands morals as well, were important to her. Out of all the characters in the Crucible, Elizabeth proved to be the most moral. In a society where it’s either, accuse or be accused, she chose to stick to her morals even if it meant her demise. She made a decision that was righteous in her eyes. â€Å"Often in true tests of moral character where people are tempted to deceive, be dishonest, or take advantage of each other, there are few who truly succeed. † This statement proved true, especially during the witch hunt, but Elizabeth Proctor was able to come out as one who succeeded in standing her grounds and protecting her morality.

Public finance and policy solution gruber Essay

Questions and Problems 1. The government of Westlovakia has just reformed its social security system. This reform changed two aspects of the system: (1) It abolished its actuarial reduction for early retirement, and (2) it reduced the payroll tax by half for workers who continued to work beyond the early retirement age. Would the average retirement age for Weslovakian workers increase or decrease in response to these two changes, or can you tell? Explain your answer. The first policy change, abolishing the actuarial reduction, would tend to lower the average retirement age. The actuarial reduction is intended to make workers approximately indifferent between retiring early and waiting until standard retirement age. With the reduction, early retirees have a smaller benefit over more years. Abolishing that reduction would make early retirement more attractive: the benefits would be just as high as if workers had waited, and they would be paid over more years. The second policy change would increase the return to working later in life and thus would tend to raise the average retirement age. The overall effect would depend on a number of factors. If people discount the future by enough (that is, have a high enough internal discount rate), they will tend to retire early: the benefit is immediate. People who have a lower discount rate will choose to work longer at the lower tax rate. A second factor that would influence the decision is the potential re tiree’s health status or personal (as opposed to statistical) life expectancy. Someone who believes he has a fairly high probability of living long and well late in life will be more likely to opt for later retirement. A third factor that will tend to increase the  retirement age is that the early retirement effect is truncated at the age designated for eligibility: even people who choose to retire early will only be able to retire a few years earlier than before in order to benefit. People who choose to retire later may retire many years after the standard retirement age. 2. When you called her last night, your grandmother confided that she is afraid to sell her home because doing so will affect her Social Security benefits. You told her that you’d call her back as soon as you read Chapter 13. Now that you’ve read it, what will you say to her about how her benefits will change when she sells her house? Social Security benefits do not change with changes in the value of assets held by the beneficiary. The formula used to calculate benefits under Social Security is based on earned income only. Your grandma’s Social Security benefits will not be affected by the sale of her house. 3. Congressman Snicker has proposed a bill that would increase the number of years of earnings counted when computing the Social Security Average Indexed Monthly Earnings amount from 35 to 40. What would be the effects of this policy change on the retirement behavior of workers? Would the Social Security trust fund balance increase or decrease? Why? Workers may work longer if their best 40 years counted rather than their best 35. Generally, you would expect earned income to increase over a worker’s lifetime; thus, the last several years are likely to yield higher income than the first several years. Being able to count 5 more high-earning years  would induce some workers to remain in the workforce to increase their calculated benefits; if they did not work longer, that 40 years might include some very low or zero-earning years (when the worker was in his or her twenties, possibly still in school). Increasing the number of years of earnings counted would certainly increase the trust fund balance if it caused people to delay their retirement: people would be paying in longer and withdrawing for fewer years. Offsetting that increase would be the increased benefits payable by including 5 higher-earning years in calculating benefits. This offset may not be huge, though. The highest-earning workers would not increase their benefits by very much due to the redistributive nature of the calculations. Low-wage earners who have zero or very-low-wage years among the 40 would have a lower average on which to base the benefit calculation. In addition, by including 5 more years, people who did not delay retirement would have an even lower calculated benefit: their lifetime average would include those low-wage summer or entry-level jobs. 4. Suppose the Social Security payroll tax was increased today to 16.4% in order to solve the 75-year fiscal imbalance in the program. Explain the effect of this change on the value of the Social Security program for persons of different ages, earning levels, and sexes. An increase in the payroll tax would reduce the value of Social Security for younger workers relative to older workers. Older workers would benefit from having a more secure plan, and they wouldn’t have to pay in at the higher rate for very long. Younger workers would have to pay the higher rate over many more years, and their benefit calculation would not increase (because the increase in taxes is meant to keep the current system solvent, not to increase benefits). The very-highest-earning workers would not be harmed as much as lower-earning workers because the payroll tax is not imposed on earnings above $87,900 (currently); however, their payroll tax burden would increase. Women generally benefit more from Social Security because they live longer than men. They are also more likely than men to have interrupted their careers to raise their families, so they tend to pay in less. They are  also more likely to receive benefits as a surviving spouse. All of these factors would continue to exist with a higher tax rate. The higher tax rate would be borne by the employed, not by those who receive benefits because of their survivor spouse status. 5. Senator Deal proposes to offer a choice to future retirees: Retire before age 70 and the benefits are calculated on the last 35 years of income; if you retire at age 73, however, you receive benefits calculated on only the last 15 years of income. Which option are high-income workers likely to choose? Low-income workers? Why? A high-income worker may not benefit by much if he delays retirement until age 73, and he would lose three years of benefits. He is likely to choose the earlier retirement age. Assuming no major work interruptions, which is perhaps a more reasonable assumption for a high-wage earner than a low-wage earner, his benefits will be calculated based on his wage since he was in his mid-thirties. These are likely to be fairly-high-earning years, as they begin a decade after a person would have completed his education. Because of the regressive nature of benefit calculations, the higher wages of the last 15 years would yield a low marginal benefit. High-wage earners are also better able to save for retirement in other ways, so they may be able to afford retiring three years earlier. Low-wage earners will be more likely to delay retirement until age 73. They would lose three years of benefits, but their benefits, once they do retire, will be higher if their income is higher in the last 15 year s of work. This option will be particularly attractive if these workers had some low- or zero-earning years over the course of their working lives. In addition, calculated benefits are a higher percent of  average monthly wage for these workers, so they stand to lose less by working more years. 6. A recent study found that people nearing retirement age were more likely to retire early if they experience large windfall gains (that is, sudden large increases) in the value of their homes. The author of that study concluded that this is evidence that Social Security and private savings are substitutes. What are the strengths and weaknesses of this argument and of the empirical evidence? It seems intuitive that all sources of private wealth combined substitute for, or augment, Social Security, particularly among higher-earning workers, because their Social Security benefits will not replace as high a percentage of their pre-retirement wage. If Social Security benefits are expected to be a relatively small component of post-retirement income, as may be the case for higher-earning workers, then the official Social Security retirement age might be less influential in retirement timing. A sudden increase in the market value of an asset (like housing) might be more influential in the timing decision. One concern this scenario poses, though, is the direction of causality. The implication is that the windfall gain caused early retirement by giving the retiree more money on which to retire. However, retirement may have led to realization of the windfall gain. Increases in the value of a person’s home are realized upon the sale of that home. Perhaps people sold their h omes and realized the gain because they were retiring and relocating. Even under this interpretation, though, the windfall gain would contribute to the retiree’s income, augmenting Social Security benefits. A second concern is that increases in home value are a relatively illiquid form of private savings. Extending this particular correlation (housing value and retirement) to a general statement about private savings requires a bit of a leap of faith. Data on other savings and investment value might help clarify this interpretation. Perhaps these retirees had anticipated inflation in the housing market and included it in their retirement plan portfolio—a portfolio that included assets and Social Security benefits. Finally, other correlates must be considered. A windfall gain in the housing market may be correlated with geographic location, as housing booms can be local in nature. A gain may also correlate to membership in a demographic group that tends to buy the kind of real estate that is most likely to appreciate and that tends to retire early. Suburban businessmen, for example, may tend to fall into both groups. 7. Senator Dare suggests lowering Social Security benefits by reducing the rates at which Average Indexed Monthly Earnings are converted to the Primary Insurance Amount. Senator Snow instead proposes reducing the rate at which benefits are indexed to inflation so that when the Consumer Price Index rises by one percentage point, Social Security benefits rise by less than one percent. Which proposal will benefit the elderly more? Senator Dare’s suggestion immediately and certainly reduces the benefits paid to retirees. Senator Snow’s proposal would reduce the benefits gradually, and in unpredictable ways. In times of extremely low inflation, Senator Snow’s proposal would very gradually erode the spending power of retirees’ benefits checks. However, suppose the plan were to increase benefits by, for example, 90% of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) each year. The following year,f the Cinflation-adjuste 10. Dominitz, Manski, and Heinz (2003) present survey evidence suggesting that young Americans are extremely uncertain about the likelihood that they will receive any Social Security benefits at all. How might demographic trends in the United States contribute to this concern? The most obvious trend in this regard is the aging of the baby boom generation. Young Americans are aware that, in a few years, the baby boom generation will become an extremely large body of retired people. Exacerbating that retiree population bulge is the fact that people live longer now than they have in the past. Those baby boomers will be around for a long time, collecting their Social Security checks. In addition, family sizes are smaller. Baby boomers may have grown up with several siblings, but they had fewer children as adults. Therefore, there will be fewer workers contributing for each baby boomer collecting. 11. The Social Security Administration Web site has a link to a publication entitled Social Security Programs Throughout the World. The European version is online at http://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/progdesc/ssptw/2002-2003/europe/index.html. Pick any two countries in Europe and compare the key attributes of their social security programs. Which of these two countries do you think will have the greater rate of early retirement? Why? Responses to this question will obviously depend on the countries chosen. There are fairly wide variations in the ages at which retirees become eligible for benefits in different countries. Retirement age is lowest in Slovenia, at 58 for men and 54 for women. Other Eastern European countries, such as the Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and Serbia, also have low ages of eligibility. These countries should see relatively low rates of retirement prior to the local age of eligibility, because eligibility occurs at relatively young ages. In contrast, the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Iceland, and Norway have the highest age of eligibility, 67. Holding health status equal across countries, countries in which eligibility occurs at older ages should experience higher rates of retirement prior to eligibility. It is difficult to generalize given the different currencies and complex structures of individual countries’ rules. However, most  countries generally provide an amount equal to a percent of average working wage. Some calculate it based on a fairly short window of working years; in Serbia, for example, the base is calculated using the best ten consecutive years. Advanced Questions 12. Suppose the Social Security system becomes fully privatized, so that all individuals save for their own retirements. Consider two of the various alternative methods of paying off the legacy debt of the program. (One such example is double taxation of existing generations of workers.) Compare and contrast the benefits and drawbacks of each potential â€Å"solution.† An inescapable problem with the Social Security system is that it pays current retirees from current workers’ taxes. If current workers were to â€Å"own† their own Social Security accounts, there would be no flow of funds available to pay current retirees, as their deposits have already been paid to the preceding generation. By double taxing a single generation, the system could switch over, but members of that one generation would have to pay their parents’ benefits as well as fund their own retirement accounts. That is a serious burden to impose on them. However, it would only have to be done once. Subsequent generations would simply fund their own retirement accounts. Another possible solution would be to increase payroll taxes over a longer time period to retire the legacy debt over several generations, while allowing current and future generations to invest privately. The high taxes necessary to accomplish this solution, however, would offset much if not all of the gains from investing in higher-yielding stock funds. An alternative to increasing taxes is reducing benefits. Several options exist to accomplish this reduction. One way would be to increase the full benefits age of retirement and adjust early retirement benefits to be actuarially neutral. An advantage of doing this is that it adjusts Social Security rules to reflect longer and healthier lives among people in their sixties and seventies. Not everyone in those age groups can continue to work, however, and this change would impose a hardship on them. In addition, there is something essentially unfair about changing the rules of the program after people have been paying into it for their entire working lives. A similar objection would be raised if the system were changed to reduce the benefits paid to the wealthy elderly. This approach seems reasonable; after all, those retirees who are wealthy do not need Social Security to stay out of poverty. But they paid into the program and perceive it to be more of a pension than an anti-poverty program. Making the program more ambitiously means-tested (as opposed to just redistributive) changes the nature and perceived legitimacy of Social Security. 13. Does Social Security provide much benefit in terms of consumption smoothing over the retirement decision? Contrast Social Security with a different social insurance program, unemployment insurance, which provides income support for half a year to individuals who have lost their jobs. Do you think that unemployment insurance is likely to pro vide more or less consumption smoothing than Social Security? Unemployment insurance smooths consumption over discrete, fairly brief, unanticipated interruptions in work; Social Security allows retirees to remain out of poverty after stopping work. Retirement is not a surprise. In the absence of Social Security (and even in its presence), people with foresight plan and save for retirement. Social Security payments alone are not enough to allow retirees to maintain their pre-retirement consumption level, but they do substantially reduce the number of retirees in poverty. The purpose of Social Security was not to allow retirees to maintain pre-retirement income (that is, to smooth consumption) but to help them avoid poverty. Unemployment insurance is much more explicitly aimed at  consumption smoothing between employment spells. It allows people to maintain their standard of living over intermittent dips in income. Thus, Social Security provides less consumption smoothing than does unemployment insurance. 14. Edwards and Edwards (2002) describe evidence that following a social security reform in Chile that reduced the implicit tax on working in the formal sector, informal sector wages rose. What do you think is the mechanism at work here? In equilibrium, prices and wages tend to equalize. In the case of Chile, if formal sector wages are particularly low, people will choose to work in the informal sector. One reason formal sector wages are low is that those wages are taxed. When tax rates are high, more people seek work in the untaxed, informal sector. However, when tax rates fall, as they did in Chile, the effective wages in the formal sector increase and people exit the untaxed sector to accept jobs in the formal sector. Wages in the informal sector must then increase to retain those employees who are tempted by higher after-tax wages elsewhere. 15. Suppose that you had information about the amount of private savings during the years before and after the introduction of the Social Security program. How might you carry out a difference-in-difference analysis of the introduction of the Social Security program on private savings? This data would be helpful in determining the extent to which Social Security crowds out private savings, but there may be reasons for savings rates to change that are unrelated to the introduction of Social Security. You could use difference-in-difference analysis to distinguish between differences in private savings that are related to general trends in saving behavior and those that are associated with the introduction of Social Security. Depending on how many years of data you have, you could determine the difference in savings rates between pairs of years preceding the change. You could also determine the difference in saving rates between pairs of years after the introduction of Social Security. Then you would want to investigate differences in savings rates in the years immediately before and after the institution of Social Security. This test is meant to determine whether that difference is statistically significantly different from the patterns of differences measured for pa irs of years in which there was no change. Specifically, if savings rates fell between the year immediately preceding Social Security and the year of the change by more than it fell for other pairs of years, you would have evidence consistent with crowding out. 16. Suppose you find evidence that high school dropout workers are more likely to retire at age 62 than are college-educated workers. You conclude that these workers do so because they are more liquidity-constrained than are other workers. Can you think of alternative explanations for this finding? One possible explanation is that less-well-educated workers are more likely to have jobs that are relatively more physically demanding and particularly difficult to continue after age 62. Similarly, the physical wear and tear of demanding jobs may leave these workers unable to comfortably work later in life. Another possible explanation is that these workers have already had their 35 best years: they began working at a younger age than college-educated workers and their upward mobility is constrained, so they will be unlikely to have high salaries later in life. Finally, higher education is correlated with better health; less-welleducated workers may  retire fairly early if they anticipate having a reduced life expectancy. 17. Consider an economy that is composed of identical individuals who live for two periods. These individuals have preferences over consumption in periods 1 and 2 given by: U = log(C1) + log(C2). They receive an income of 100 in period 1 and an income of 50 in pe riod 2. They can save as much of their income as they like in bank accounts, earning an interest rate of 10% per period. They do not care about their children, so they spend all their money before the end of period 2. Each individual’s lifetime budget constraint is given by C1 + C2/(1 + r) = Y1 + Y2/(1 + r). Individuals choose consumption in each period by maximizing lifetime utility subject to this lifetime budget constraint. a. What is the individual’s optimal consumption in each period? How much saving does he or she do in the first period? Optimizing the utility function subject to the budget constraint yields max U = ln(C1) + ln(C2) subject to C1 + C2/(1 + r) = 100 – C1 + 50/(1 + 0.1), or max U = ln(C1) + ln(C2) + ÃŽ »(145.45 – C1 – 0.91C2). This yields first-order conditions of 1/C1 = ÃŽ »; 1/C2 = 0.91ÃŽ »; and 145.45 = C1 + 0.91C2. Solving for C1 yields 0.91C2, and substituting into the budget constraint yields C2 = 79.92, C1 = 72.73, and savings in the first period are 100 – 72.73 = 27.27. b. Now the government decides to set up a social security system. This system  will take $10 from each individual in the first period, put it in the bank, and transfer it to him or her with interest in the second period. Write out the new lifetime budget constraint. How does the system affect the amount of private savings? How does the system affect national savings (total savings in society)? What is the name for this type of social security system? The new budget constraint reduces first-period income by $10 to $90 but increases second-period income to $50 + $10(1 + r): C1 + C2/(1 + r) = 90 + 50/(1 + r) + 10(1 + r). Solving, C1 + C2/(1 + r) = 90 + 45.45 + 11 = 146.45. Following the same procedure as in a, you would find savings by solving the constrained optimization problem: max U = ln(C1) + ln(C2) + ÃŽ »(146.45 – C1 – 0.91C2), which yields C2 = 80.47, C1 = 73.22, and total savings are 10 + (90 – 73.22) = 26.78. This social security system is a funded plan because the money that is paid in during the first period is used to pay the benefits in the second period. c. Now suppose that the existence of the new social security system causes an individual to retire in period 2, so he or she receives no labor income in period 2. Solve for this individual’s new optimal consumption in each period in this case. What is the new level of private and national savings? Does this differ from the level of savings in part b, and if so, why? (Explain intuitively.) The new budget constraint is C1 + C2/(1 + r) = 100. The new optimization problem, then, is max U = ln(C1) + ln(C2) + ÃŽ »(100 – C1 – 0.91C2). Solving, C2 = 54.95, C1 = 50 and, savings are 100 – 50 = 50. Total savings is greater with earlier retirement, as this consumer must save enough during the first period to completely finance consumption in the second period. 18. For each of the reforms listed below, briefly discuss the pros and cons of the reform, paying attention in particular to efficiency implications (through potential behavioral responses to the change) and equity implications (who wins and who loses). [Note that all reforms are intended to save the system money, so you do not need to list this as a benefit.] a. Increase the number of years used to calculate benefits from 35 to 40. Increasing the number of years used to calculate benefits could lower benefits, because more low- or zero-earning years would be included in a retiree’s average wage. To avoid this reduction in benefits, workers might choose to delay retirement so that they had 40 high-earning years included in the calculation. Workers who spent many years in college and graduate school might be most vulnerable, as they will have had fewer fulltime working years by the time they reach retirement age. Similarly, workers who have had some interruptions in their employment, to raise a family or to retrain for a new career, for example, will also have to delay retirement in order to avoid inclusion of zeroor low-wage years. b. Reduce benefits for beneficiaries with high asset levels (wealth). Means-testing, by considering asset levels, would increase the redistributive nature of Social Security but would induce some perverse behavior. People might be able to increase their benefits by hiding assets, by setting up trusts or other entities, for example. They might also change the timing of selling some of their assets in order to retain Social  Security benefits, which distorts resource mobility, an efficiency concern. While this plan may appear to benefit the less wealthy at the expense of the wealthy elderly, it seems vulnerable to loopholes and evasive behavior. c. Add new state and local government workers to the pool of covered workers (i.e., they pay payroll taxes now and receive benefits when they are old). Broadening the tax base to include these workers would yield a net increase to the system. Current Social Security participants will, over their lifetimes, pay in more than they withdraw. Therefore, increasing the number of workers covered provides a net increase to the cash flow in the system. The new workers stand to lose from this system relative to a plan in which they had their own retirement accounts (because with Social Security they will pay in more than they receive), but the Social Security system benefits. This new rule may induce some to exit these jobs, but since most workers are covered by the system, they will have little choice as to where else to work to avoid this tax. d. Gradually increase the normal retirement age (NRA) from 65 to 70 (under current laws, the NRA will gradually rise to 67 by 2022; the proposal is to speed up this process so the NRA will be 70 by 2022). Gradually increasing the normal retirement age will save the fund money by reducing the number of years during which retirees can collect. People who need to retire earlier for health or physical limitation reasons will be adversely affected. If they are able to, they may attempt to find less physically demanding work or they may increase private savings in order to be able to afford to retire earlier. Note: The icon indicates a question that requires students to apply the empirical economics principles discussed in Chapter 3 and the Empirical Evidence boxes.