How can I be effective in an Human Resource Business Partner role Assignment

How can I be effective in an Human Resource Business Partner role - Assignment Example strategy is to create a connection between HR and the performance of the firms through such that the value added by the HR team can be measured in more or less the same way sales and accounting departments as are evaluated (Ulrich, 2013). The objective of this report is to come up with ways through which I can contribute to the business strategies of CSIRO, from an HR perspective. To this end, I will be expected to outline the requirements for the facilitation of human resource strategies that provide for delivery of quality advice assistance and coaching of the staff at the business unit as well as leading a team of HR partners in assisting the firm and business units achieve their objective. CSIRO is the commonwealth scientific and industrial research organisations; it is the Australia’s equivalent of NSA and among the biggest and most diversified study organizations in the world. It is divided into 13 sections and they all work in harmony among each other and with leading research bodies around the world, the body is globally recognized for its expertise in research. A major challenge that faces the HR department in CSIRO and indeed most organisations is the task or determining the driving force behind the effectiveness of the firm. According to an analysis by CLC, analyzing different HR structures lead to the conclusion that irrespective of the organization’s model in play the HRBP has been consistently found to explain the variations in HR when it comes to line support effectiveness. In this context, Human Resource Business Partners work with the managers within the businesses and in some cases they are referred to as HR generalists. CLC found that even with exceptionally good professionals in their field of expertise any organization who’s HRBP are not effective will be unlikely to build effective partnerships within the line. One of the main fundamental premises on which the push for a more integrated Human resource practice is based on the

Library catalog Essay Example for Free

Library catalog Essay Today, libraries are intensified and triggered by many advances and rapid inventions of science and technology that are greatly affecting the library operations as a whole. The non-stop discoveries of this new technology, particularly computers, redefined the role of libraries. A library is a collection of information, sources, resources, books, and services, and the structure in which it is housed. It is organized for use and maintained by a public body, an institution, or a private individual. In a more traditional sense, a library is a collection of books (â€Å"Library†, 2009). The library, more than any instrument of the society, is open to public use and the knowledge embodied in books are the foundation of a society to attain or develop more the potentialities of man which in return, will be a great factor in the progress of a nation. The library has the responsibility to upgrade its status through open access to these advances, to develop a plan of action in order to contribute and to become an effective partner especially in instruction, research and extension programs of an educational institute (Enem, 2002). From the statements above it is proven that the library has a big role not only to the students but also to the society and our country. Through the help of modern technology and information system, the library circulation system can improve. Library circulation or library lending comprises the activities around the lending of library books and other material to users of a lending library. A circulation or lending department is one of the key departments of a library (â€Å"LC†, 2009). Library circulation provides lending services and facilities for return of loaned items. Renewal of materials and payment of fines are also handled at the circulation desk. Circulation staff may provide basic search and reference services, though more in-depth questions are usually referred to reference librarians at the library reference desk. The circulation desk is in most cases staffed by library aides instead of professional librarians. The functions of the circulation desk staff may include the lending materials to library users, checking in materials returned, monitoring materials for damage and routing them to the appropriate staff for repair or replacement, troubleshooting circulation technology, i.e. library circulation software, scanners, printers, etc. , and collecting statistics on library use, i. e. patron transactions, material checkouts, etc. The two categories of Information System (IS) are the manual or traditional system and automatic or also known as Computer-Based Information System (CBIS). Before the use of CBIS, all the data are processed manually in a traditional system, where all the information are written and stored in different files. Sometimes, this process is called non-computerized system. Non-computerized is not efficient because it consumes a lot of time to find and update the information. To eliminate this problem, a new system was created which is known as computerized system or CBIS. Computer-Based Information Systems (CBIS) is composed of hardware, software, databases, telecommunications, people, and procedures that are configured to collect, manipulate, store, and process data into information (Abraham, 2009). The library of University of the Philippines Diliman was established in 1922 has grappled with four basic concerns: the book fund, staff development, library services and information technology. And in 1999 the university had opened an online public access catalog and launched the university library web. Another school that has a library system running in web based is the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde in 1999. Each year, the school library acquires new resources and upgrades equipment for the use of students. As of august 2009, the library has a collection of over 122,000 book titles and more than 45,000 titles of electronic books. Using CBIS nowadays as a tool for development not only uplifts a company’s reputation, but also help fix things to the best. And also by using the intranet as a platform of the system can be a great help for improving the services of the library. An intranet is a private computer network that uses Internet technologies to securely share any part of an organizations information or operational systems with its employees. Sometimes the term refers only to the organizations internal website, but often it is a more extensive part of the organizations computer infrastructure and private websites are an important component and focal point of internal communication and collaboration (King, 2002). Mr. A. T. Valdes, the librarian of NPCMSTI said that the library is an instrument that is used to provide data and information needed by the student in his study by collecting books that are important in their subjects as references. He added that from the books collected and selected, they are maintained in  order to be available to the students when the need it (personal communication, April 6, 2002). In addition, there are problems encountered in the manual or traditional library system of NPCMSTI based from the study conducted by the students of NPCMSTI. These include more effort and slow inventory of books, inefficient searching of books, inefficient generation of reports, and inefficient monitoring of books. The library has more than 4000 number of books and monitoring all these books require a lot of time and effort (Carreon, Delmendo, Maala, Mendoza Penequito, 2008). Considering the advantages brought by CBIS and the problems encountered in the existing library system of NPCMSTI, the researcher decided to propose a computerized library system for NPCMSTI. Company Background The vision of the NPCMSTI library is to be a functional media center for meritorious resources especially in Nautical Science or Marine Transportation, Marine Engineering, Computer Science, Criminology, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, and Technical Vocational courses towards an excellent training development of professionals, diligent seafarers and skilled workers in the community. Its mission is to seek endeavor to provide quality service and to support the school’s educational programs, planning, research and extension services and instructional needs of the academic through stipulating bits of information comprehensively in any structure, in any part of the country, and of the whole world. Quality Objectives. The school library has the following objectives: (1) to strengthen and upgrade the library resources; (2) to upgrade library facilities and equipment;(3) to train personnel to enhance their technical skills and competitiveness; and (4) to link and network with local, national and international institutions. The library has a total of 11,832 book collections from the Degree courses to Non-Degree courses. The primary function of a library system are to facilitate the loan of books to borrowers, record receipt of returned books, and keep track of the status of books that should be returned. Reference Services. The obligation of the library is to render full assistance to readers in using the library and its contents. The librarian handles library resources such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, almanacs, biographies, atlases, and gazetteers. Orientation. The librarian’s unique responsibility is to utilize fully his resources in making as nearly certain as possible that the best materials for the particular purpose find their way to the readers. Also, the librarian serves as the mediator between man and the graphic records that he and his previous generations have produced and that the goal of the library is to maximize the social utility of graphic records for the benefit of the society. Library Hours. The library is open with its continuous hour service, from Monday to Friday which starts from 7:30 in the morning until 5:00 in the afternoon. Responsibilities of the Library Staff. The Northern Philippines College for Maritime, Science and Technology Library is manned by a Librarian, Assistant Librarian, and Library assistants. The Librarian shall administer the library, direct the activities of the staff, keep financial records of the library, keep records of the replacement of books, in charge of collecting and monitoring late fees, select and purchase books, library materials and supplies, stimulate growth of library services, attend library meetings or seminars, undertake indexing, classification and cataloging books and non-book materials and maintain relations to publishers and distributors. The Assistant Librarian shall take charge in absence of the librarian, help the librarian in indexing, classifying and cataloging of books and responsible for materials like clippings, periodicals and other documents, take charge in clipping and binding press and reviews, undertake the processing of books and non-book materials from putting accession number and stamping ownership mark to shelving. The Library Assistant shall issue and retrieve books at the circulation section, do the shelving and shelf reading of books retrieved, Paste torn pages of books and periodicals, undertake filing of clippings in the vertical file, type book cards, paste pockets and date due slips in books, cover books with plastic cover, stamp on books and periodicals, and file cards in the card catalogue. Cataloging and Classification. In the cataloging and classification of the book collections, the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules is adopted and the method used to describe an item that the library acquired. Also, the Dewey Decimal Classification System, the Sears List of Subject Heading and the Cutter Number of Tables are used in the NPCMSTI library. Borrowers. The student registered in the college, faculty members, staff, administrators, alumni of the college, and scholars or researchers from other institutions or organizations with endorsement letter from their librarians can use the services of the library. Importance of the Study This study is important to the following entities: To the Community. Through the help of this study it shall uplift the community’s education of the Filipinos by improving the services of the library. To the NPCMSTI. The output of the study shall be a great aid to the people using the library in the school. By improving and implementing the computerized system, books are monitored and also the quality of service that the school renders shall be uplifted and it also helps meet the vision and mission of the school. To the Staff-in Charge. The output of the study shall help easy recording and accessing of books records. By this study, librarians can monitor the status of the book at the library if it is available or borrowed. They can easily generate book reports such as available books, borrowed books, and inventory of the books by category. From this they shall save time and effort, and they can do more output in simple way. To the Faculty. The study would be beneficial to them for faster searching of the book information. By using the computerized system, the instructor can determine the book information in which they can use as their references in their subjects that they are teaching. They can also determine the book status whether it is available or borrowed by using the search feature of the system. From this they can save more time and effort. To the Students. The study would be beneficial to them in which searching of the book information would be faster. By using the computerized system, the student can determine the book information and also the book status if it is available or borrowed by using the search feature of the system or if they know the title of the book they want to borrow, they can easily determine if that book is available at the library, from this study they can save more time and effort. To other Researchers. This shall be a reference in conducting studies related to computer on wider prospective and may also serve as a basis for further study related to computer program. To the Researcher. Through this, the researcher shall be able to determine and appreciate the impact using technology for the productivity of every individual. Statement of the Problem The main aim of the study was to design and develop a computerized library circulation system for NPCMSTI. Specifically, the project aimed to answer the following questions: 1. What are the processes involved in the existing library circulation system of NPCMSTI along the areas on: a) borrowing and returning of books and other reading materials, and b) inventory of books and other reading materials, and  report generation? 2. What system features can be incorporated in the proposed library system in terms of: a) functionalities, b) back-up and restoration facilities, and c) security and control measures? Objectives of the Study The researcher aimed to design and develop a computerized library circulation system for NPCMSTI. Specifically, the study aimed to achieve the following: 1. Identify the processes involved in the existing library circulation system of NPCMSTI along the areas on: a) borrowing and returning of books and other reading materials, and  b) inventory of books and other reading materials, and report generation. 2. To determine the system features that can be incorporated in the proposed library system in terms of: a) functionalities, b) back-up and restoration facilities, and c) security and control measures. Definition of Terms The following terms are operationally defined: Administration. This refers to the supervision of the library by full-time, professionally-trained staff under a well-defined organizational setup. Back-up. This is the capability of the system to create a copy of the database. Book Category. The classification of a books as Filipiniana or Foreign. Borrowing of books. This is the process of lending available books and reading materials at the library. Inventory of Books. The process of generating a list of books borrowed, list of books available, and list of Filipiniana books and Foreign books by course. Filipiniana. These are books and non-book materials, published in the Philippines or abroad, written by Filipinos in any dialects or in English. Foreign. These are books and non-book materials, published in the Philippines or abroad, written by foreigners in any dialects or in English. Library System Functionality Features. These are the functions that are incorporated in the system such as searching of books, and verifying of borrowed books and returned books. Library Automation. It is an innovation using the computer to enhance the operation of the library. Library Circulation. It is comprised of the activities around the lending and borrowing of library books and other material to users. Library Environment. This refers to the physical condition, site, facilities and equipment of the library. Library Resources. This refers to the library personnel, book collection, services and use of the library. Non-print. These are non-book materials in various formats and style. Readers Services. These are services provided to customer such as bibliographical instruction on the effective use of the library, abstracting, information retrieval, reader’s guidance, and indexing. Report Generation. The process of generating a report on books needed by the librarian. Restore. Capability of the system that restores backup database into the system. Returning of Books. The process of returning the borrowed book at the library by the borrower. Searching of Books. The process of searching books at the library. Security measures. These are the computer controls that the library system will adopt in-order to protect the information or data in the database. Services. These are the activities that ensures maximum access and availability of resources and satisfactory use of the Library. Staff. They are the human resource of the library that maintains the services. This includes the professionals and the non-professional staff.

Be true to Yourself :: essays research papers

Be True To Your Self The question, â€Å"What is involved in being true to your self?† is very complicated. There are many aspects to this question. First you would need to know what is meant by being true. Being true is the act of putting forth sincerity, or being genuinely faithful. It is honesty, seriousness, and earnestness. Next you would need to realize what it means to be a self. In class we discussed the difference between animals, rational animals, and people. This topic also came up in the reading about the concentration camps. Frankl quotes, â€Å"†¦he (a guard) playfully picked up a stone and threw it at me. That, to me, seemed the way to attract the attention of a beast, to call a domestic animal back to its job, a creature with which you have so little in common that you do not even punish it. The most painful part of the beatings is the insult which they imply.† This shows how low the guards in the camps treated the Jews. They treated them like animals; they treated them as if they were not selves. The whole experience was extremely dehumanizing. I have never experienced anything so horrific in my lifetime but I have been through a dehumanizing affair. I was in high school when many of the boys would make comments about my womanly features in a derogatory fashion. Although they were just being playful and possibly trying to flirt, god-forbid, I would tell them off or sometimes just ignore it but it made me realize how insignificant those boys were and how that’s not all I was. I was and still am more than the derogatory terms they would call me. It pointed out more important things like intellect, and intelligence instead of physical image. It also made them look like animals. The primal concern for animals is pleasure and survival, the same for rational animals but they also strive for success, and finally people, our primary motivat ion in our lives is the search for meaning. That is first nature to us. The meaning of life is a very confusing question but to be able to answer it you must realize that it differs for everyone. There is never only one real answer. Everyday it can change for each individual. Everyone has their own way of living; they have their own thoughts and beliefs so therefore each persons answer to the meaning of life will be their own private version.

Excellence Is Not an Accomplishment

Topic No. 1: Excellence is not an accomplishment. It is a spirit, a never-ending process. A very famous line by Lawrence M. Miller. In order to develop excellence as a leader we must be willing to acknowledge that developing it is not an accomplishment – it's a never-ending process. It's a process full of many awesome moments and many lonely days. It's fun and exciting one day and then the next day we wonder why we ever wanted to lead in the first place. Many of us secretly fantasize about being a greeter at Walmart or on any other platform .Being a leader isn't easy – it requires commitment for the long haul. It's not something we can just accomplish and then move on. Being a leader requires hard work, sacrifice, commitment and a willingness to grow ourselves. The leaders I admire most are the ones who give selflessly of themselves and make personal development a priority. I can not give of myself as I leader if I do not first take care of myself. Great leaders balance personal development and organizational development.Both are important and one without the other does not work. As I have observed great leaders, I find they all have some things in common. â€Å"Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected. † ~ Steve Jobs Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. ~ Aristotle

Beautiful Things Essay

The poem A Thing of Beauty by John Keats conveys the message that Beauty is everywhere, and upon examination may be found. The theme of this work is largely centered on nature, as were many of Keats’ works. In this particular poem Keats describes the affects that beauty can have on a person. â€Å"Some shape of beauty moves away the pall / from our dark spirits† (12-13). According to Keats this beauty never diminishes and its affect is felt long after it is gone. Keats emphasizes that beauty is, â€Å"Made for our searching,† meaning that some people may find beauty in places that others may not (10). The theme of this poem is that beauty can be found anywhere, and when appreciated can be used to raise your spirits in times of gloom. One of the poetic elements Keats uses to express his theme is rhyme. One example of how rhyming can be helpful in conveying the meaning of the poem to the reader is found in the very first two lines of the poem. â€Å"A thing of beauty is a joy forever: / its loveliness increases; it will never† (1-2). Not only do these lines help the reader to understand the theme of the work, the fact that they rhyme makes them even more meaningful. Another example of how Keats used rhyme to express his theme can be found in the very last line of the poem. The poem was written using rhyming couplets; however the last line does not have another line after it with which to rhyme. â€Å"They always must be with us, or we die† (33). This line stands out due to the fact that every other line in the poem is part of a rhyming couplet. By purposely having this line is the last line and by stopping the rhythm that had flowed throughout the poem Keats emphasizes his theme of a need for beauty. Keats used many other poetic elements in this poem. One other poetic element used by Keats in this poem is imagery. Since the poem is about beauty it is important for imagery to be present in order to give the reader a mental picture of what the speaker feels is beautiful. â€Å"Such the sun, the moon, / trees old, and young sprouting a shady boon / for simple sheep; and such are daffodils / with the green world they live in; and clear rills† (13-16). Within these lines the speaker describes things which he finds beautiful. It is imperative that these lines be present so that the reader can imagine  this beauty and begin to relate with the speaker. Enjambment was also used by Keats in the poem. Through the use of enjambment Keats is able to keep his rhyme scheme in tact while still conveying his theme. â€Å"[un]till they become a cheering light / unto our souls† (30-31). The meaning of these lines are very important to the theme of the poem, however, without the use of enjambment Keats would have either had to sacrifice his rhyme scheme, or change the lines which could have potentially altered their meaning. Although much of the world has changed in the time between now and when the poem was originally written, the poems theme still holds true today. With the growth of cities, and urban areas it has become much more difficult to appreciate nature and its beauty. However, even in cities today people can find places to get away and appreciate the nature around them. Such is the case in New York City where residents can travel to central park to immerse themselves in the beauty of nature and open up their souls to the, â€Å"cheering light.† Although it is still possible for people to appreciate nature as Keats did years ago, many people today are lost in the hustle and bustle of the city. The communicative power of nature will always be present for those who wish to observe it, as Keats did, however many people have become oblivious to nature, taking it for granted, and becoming overly obsessed with technology and the man made world in which they live. It is understandable that this has happened in the almost two hundred years since Keats has lived because of the evolution of our society. Although much of nature may go overlooked by some people it will always be there for those who wish to immerse themselves in its beauty.

Free Essays on Cleopatra

Cleopatra VII Cleopatra The Queen of Egypt "Life of Cleopatra" by Craig T. Staunton Cleopatra VII's family had been ruling Egypt since 305 B.C., when Ptolemy I declared himself King of Egypt sometime after Alexander the Great's death. The Ptolemy family was of Macedonian decent, not of Egyptian. The capital city which they ruled from, Alexandria, had been established by Alexander and is a port city on the Mediterranean and Nile River. This made Alexandria very important commercially, and it also became an intellectually and artistically important city as well. Cleopatra VII's father was Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos "Auletes", who began his rule of Egypt in 80 B.C. He was not well respected and thought weak, as is exhibited by his popular nickname "Auletes", which means "flute-player" in Greek. Cleopatra VII's mother could possibly be Cleopatra V Tryphaena, who either died or disappeared in 68 B.C., right after Cleopatra VII's birth in 69 B.C. Cleopatra VII had two older sisters, Cleopatra VI and Berenice IV, and one younger sister, Arsinoe IV. She also had two y! ounger brothers, Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV. In 58 B.C. Berenice IV (and perhaps Cleopatra VI) took over the kingdom, forcing Ptolemy XII "Auletes" to flee to Rome. Berenice IV ruled the kingdom until Ptolemy XII "Auletes" regained the throne in 55 B.C. Berenice IV was beheaded, and Cleopatra VI disappeared in the intervening time between 58 and 55 B.C. Ptolemy XII "Auletes" then ruled until his death in 51 B.C. His will named Cleopatra VII and Ptolemy XIII as heirs to the throne. Leaders in Rome were named as guardians and were to uphold the choice of Ptolemy XII for the two to marry and jointly rule Egypt. These brother-sister marriages had been established as custom by Ptolemy II when he married his sister Arsinoe II. (From now on Cleopatra VII will be referred to simply as Cleopatra unless otherwise indicated) Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII ruled jointly and did marry, thou... Free Essays on Cleopatra Free Essays on Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Cleopatra The Queen of Egypt "Life of Cleopatra" by Craig T. Staunton Cleopatra VII's family had been ruling Egypt since 305 B.C., when Ptolemy I declared himself King of Egypt sometime after Alexander the Great's death. The Ptolemy family was of Macedonian decent, not of Egyptian. The capital city which they ruled from, Alexandria, had been established by Alexander and is a port city on the Mediterranean and Nile River. This made Alexandria very important commercially, and it also became an intellectually and artistically important city as well. Cleopatra VII's father was Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos "Auletes", who began his rule of Egypt in 80 B.C. He was not well respected and thought weak, as is exhibited by his popular nickname "Auletes", which means "flute-player" in Greek. Cleopatra VII's mother could possibly be Cleopatra V Tryphaena, who either died or disappeared in 68 B.C., right after Cleopatra VII's birth in 69 B.C. Cleopatra VII had two older sisters, Cleopatra VI and Berenice IV, and one younger sister, Arsinoe IV. She also had two y! ounger brothers, Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV. In 58 B.C. Berenice IV (and perhaps Cleopatra VI) took over the kingdom, forcing Ptolemy XII "Auletes" to flee to Rome. Berenice IV ruled the kingdom until Ptolemy XII "Auletes" regained the throne in 55 B.C. Berenice IV was beheaded, and Cleopatra VI disappeared in the intervening time between 58 and 55 B.C. Ptolemy XII "Auletes" then ruled until his death in 51 B.C. His will named Cleopatra VII and Ptolemy XIII as heirs to the throne. Leaders in Rome were named as guardians and were to uphold the choice of Ptolemy XII for the two to marry and jointly rule Egypt. These brother-sister marriages had been established as custom by Ptolemy II when he married his sister Arsinoe II. (From now on Cleopatra VII will be referred to simply as Cleopatra unless otherwise indicated) Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII ruled jointly and did marry, thou... Free Essays on Cleopatra According to Theophile Gautier ," Cleopatra is a person to be wondered at (†¦) whom dreamers find always at the end of their dreams." The story of Cleopatra’s life has been told in many different forms. Cleopatra in all forms was a woman of mystery, power, sin, and eroticism. When you think of the name Cleopatra what comes to mind? Many people may think that she was a saint for not just reason and that she committed suicide in the face of adversity. Other people may think that she was a deceiving, power hungry killer that had an obsession with men. In the two thousand years since Cleopatra’s death the vision of her has changed immensely (Hughes-Hallet 1). According to Lucy Hughes –Hallett, â€Å"the vision of Cleopatra has been recreated over and over again, each time in a form that fits the prejudices and fantasies of the age that produced it â€Å"(1). For example, Cecil B. Demille created a movie about her life making her â€Å"the wickedest woman in history â€Å" (1). According to George Bernhard Shaw she was an emotionally disturbed sex kitten; to the painters of the Renaissance she was a helpless victim; to the poets of Romanticism she was a terrifying femme fatale, and to Arabic historian Al- Masudi she was a scholar and a sag e (1). Cleopatra’s personality was one of the things about her that people liked in ancient Egypt, and as of today. In ancient Egypt women were often not considered intelligent and didn’t participate in the arts. Cleopatra, however, was an exception to the old tradition (Thomas 4). According to historian Henry Thomas, Cleopatra was very intelligent and often read literature with scholars in the palace library. She could have intelligent conversations about painting, sculpture, poetry, theology, statecraft, philosophy and religion with some of the most looked up to men of her time (4). Above all of Cleopatra’s sought -after traits her hunger for power overruled. She had a marvelous passion for the g... Free Essays on Cleopatra Cleopatra VII’s life has been proven to be very interesting, but also weird. The Ptolemy’s and Cleopatra were very clever at manipulating people. Cleopatra also had many affairs with men such as Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Cleopatra was born in the capitol of Egypt, Alexandria in 69 BC. Cleopatra was the daughter of the pharaoh of Egypt, Ptolemy XII, who was also nicknamed Auletes, and his Queen, Cleopatra V Tryphaena. Cleopatra V was Auletes’ sister but it was perfectly normal for those of the Ptolemaic dynasty to marry their siblings. Many people may think it is very gross and wrong, but what they don’t understand is that they were in a whole different time; in their day and time it was just normal. Cleopatra’s father wasn’t a strong ruler at all; he was actually pretty weak. He was also proven to be a heartless ruler. That is why in 58 BC he had been overthrown by the Plebeians. In 55 BC he had regained his thrown and had his daughter, Berenice and her husband beheaded since they had taken over after he was overthrown and then ran off to Rome. Cleopatra had five sibilings. She had two younger brothers named Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV. She had two older sisters named Cleopatra VI, Berenice, and one younger sister named Arsinoe. Cleopatra VI had died of anonymous reasons that we do not know. Arsinoe died at Cleopatra’s request. She made a deal with Mark Antony, a man that became her husband and true love, she would finance his attack on Parthia and he would help to fight off her enemies and kill her sister Arisnoe. He did come back to her later too, to ask her to feed his men and round him up a fleet. She did this in exchange for Lebanon, Turkey, Syria, and Jordan. Cleopatra and her brother, Ptolemy XIII inherited the throne in 51 BC after their father died. Cleopatra was just about around 18 years old when she married brother, Ptolemy XIII who was about 12 years old, but it was just a marriage of convenienc...

Abolition of the Death Penalty essays

Abolition of the Death Penalty essays Resolved: that the United States Federal Government should ratify or accede to, and implement The Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aiming at the Abolition of the Death Penalty In order to facilitate clarity and promote clash we exercise the affirmative right to define by offering the following definitions. should: is used to express moral obligation (taken from Websters New International Dictionary, second edition, 1961) Observation 2: Criteria and Resolutional Analysis A. In order for the United States to uphold its democratic ideals to the truest form possible, it must follow the basis of our democracy: the U.S. Constitution. Any law that contradicts what is in the constitution should not be allowed to exist. The death penalty is one of those laws. Rev. Jesse Jackson, Legal Lynching, Racism, Injustice, and the Death Penalty, 1996, pgs. 84 and 85. The U.S. Constitution protects the right of American citizens to their life, liberty, and property. In this, it has become the model for other countries wishing to codify human dignity, due process, and fundamental fairness in their own legal standards. The Eighth Amendment in particular the one prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment has been duplicated by new nations around the world. Germany and South Africa, two nations born from the ashes of brutal and bloody conflicts, have ruled in favor of life by banning the death penalty in their constitutions. The worldwide trend is toward the abolition of capital punishment... We recognize torture as a violation of the Eighth Amendment, but not the ultimate torture the threat of death and actual execution. Is not death by lethal injection, firing squad, or electric chair cruel and unusual punishment? Is not such punishment just as cruel as stoning or other forms of torture we call primitive? Is it not cruel to keep someone on d...

Sample Poor Letter of Recommendation

Sample Poor Letter of Recommendation Letters of recommendation are critical to your graduate school application, and later on, youll find that they are essential parts of your application to internships, post-docs, and faculty positions. Take care in requesting your recommendation letter because not all letters are helpful. Pay attention to signs that the professor is reluctant to write on your behalf. A mediocre or even neutral letter will not help your application and will even hurt it.   ~~ A Sample Poor Letter of Recommendation: Dear Admissions Committee:   Ã‚   It is my pleasure to write on behalf of Lethargic Student, who has applied for admission at XY University. I am Lethargics advisor and have known her for nearly four years since she was a freshman. In Fall, Lethargic will be a senior. She has had a variety of courses in psychological development, clinical psychology, and research methods that will aid her progress as a social work student. She has performed very well in her coursework, as evidenced by her 2.94 GPA. I’ve been very impressed with Lethargic because she is a very hard worker, intelligent, and compassionate.    In closing, I recommend Lethargic Student for admission to XY University. She’s bright, motivated, and has strength of character. If you would like to learn more about Lethargic, please feel free to contact me at (xxx) xxx-xxxx or email xxxxxx.edu    Sincerely,Passionate Prof ~~~~~~~~~~ Why is this letter mediocre? There are no details. The faculty member clearly knows the student only as an advisor and has never had her in class. Moreover, the letter discusses only material thats evident in her transcript. You want a letter that goes beyond listing the courses youve taken and your grades. Seek letters from professors who have had you in class or supervised your research or applied activities. An advisor who has no other contact with you is not a good choice because he or she cannot write about your work and cannot offer examples that illustrate your competencies and your aptitude for graduate work.

Richard Attenborough's Gandhi Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Richard Attenborough's Gandhi - Essay Example The movie also serves to reveal the atrocities of the colonial enterprise in India. Thus, not only does the movie reflect the anti-colonial feelings of the intelligentsia of the world of the seventies and the eighties, it also shows the audience the farsightedness of Mahatma Gandhi, who realised the economic effects of the enterprise on the people of the country. Several aspects of the life of the man are discussed in the story, which do not find mention in conventional narratives. In this respect, the film is different from other films on the man, in that it does not seek to glorify him mindlessly. It talks of the Mahatma as a human being who had several weaknesses of his own. The film talks of the man in his capacities as a politician, a social reformer, a husband and a friend. It also talks of the contributions of Christian missionaries in the development of his philosophy of life. Many of these aspects of his life were untold before the release of this movie. As far as this is co ncerned, the movie can also, in many ways, be considered to be a historical document. The movie begins with the assassination of Gandhi that is followed by a narration of the events of his life that preceded it. The opening serves to highlight the irony of the life of the Mahatma where he is killed by the very people whom he had served. The event has many more nuances to it than the scope of the movie allows it to depict. The rise of Hindutva and the clamor for a Hindu nation which Gandhi had rejected had led to the growth to dissatisfaction among some sections of the Hindu society. Since the movie seeks to depict the life of Gandhi, it does not go into these details. It reveals the fissures within the society that Gandhi had sought to unite and free. The failure of non-violence as a philosophy is hinted at here. In a society as complex as the one that one saw in India during the 1940s where people of various races and religions lived together, there could have been no one-stop solu tion. This also is consistent with the movie’s aim of depicting Gandhi as a human and not as almost a divine messiah, as he is often perceived by historians and journalists alike. The film then moves on to Gandhi’s life in South Africa where he was a lawyer. The episode where he is thrown off a train because of his racial belonging is one of the most important episodes of Gandhi’s life and he himself had often said so. The seeds of revolt that had begun to develop within him could be traced to that event. He understood that discrimination based on race needed to be stopped for the social and economic development of people of color. The subsequent developments in South Africa where Gandhi mobilizes the people of color to protest against the inequalities in the society is documented in a manner that is dramatic and may not have adhered to exact descriptions of what happened during those times. However, the larger details of the event are according to what historia ns have written about it. The origin of the theories of non-violence that Gandhi had developed was in South Africa where Gandhi had seen the cruel face of colonialism and the violence that went with it. He gave this form of protest and resistance the name Satyagraha. This form was dedicated to the understanding of truth and the movie reveals the paths that Gandhi takes in his quest for this truth. The

Family Issue Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Family Issue Report - Essay Example Using Erickon's Psychological Stages of Development, we will compare negative effects pageants have on girls from ages zero to five; and briefly take into account the damage it does to the development of the other children of the family. Young girls are taught from birth that it is more important to be dressed like a Barbie dolls with perfect artificial blond hair and glitzy clothes and show off their bodies and childlike voices than be children and good students. Parents, screaming in the audience, show that they have devoted their lives to their children. Many are overweight and demand utter perfection from their children. In the HBO documentary (1999), the little girl says "But Mommy, all I need is a hug. Her mother says, Not until you get it right." Does the child feel inferior? She is only 5 years old. Parents seem to want to fulfill their own fantasy that they did not fulfill as children. They want their children to be perfect beauty queens, perfect performers, and perfectly dr essed. They spend thousands of dollars on each designer dress. They hire coaches and makeup artists. When a child is interviewed, she never speaks of her education. Her one goal in life is to become a model or an actress. With over three million participants a year, how many actually make it? (Maliakal, 2010) 1. 1rst Stage of Development: 0 - 1 The Building of Trust and Confidence A baby from zero to 12 months only depends on the people in her own circle. If the people with her are stressed, she will realize that her world is not that safe place. it used to be. She doesn't want to have to be changing into complicated dresses and having funny creams put on her face. She doesn't want to be handled by strange people. Her most important trait is confidence in her mother. She does not to be in competition with her mother. A pageant at any age is stressful for the parent. The first year of life is the most important in developing a sense of trust that life does work out. There is no compe tition or stress beyond feeding and getting diapers changed. The mother who creates a different environment does it because of her own needs. If the baby does not have the comfort of this confident building, she will caring a sense of mistrust with her for her whole life. 2. Second Stage of Development: 2-3 The Building of Autonomy and Pride In Living Dolls Part 1- Part 6 HBO "1998" (HB0 1999), the viewer sees the progression of one young girl who started at 3 years old. The mother, who was an army brat, spent 4 years as a sergeant in the army. She had four children with her two marriages. Her life was devoted to her 'beauty baby'. She expected her other children to follow and not doubt any of her choices. At three, Shaw took the initiative to do everything right at each pageant. Her perfectionism became obsessive because her mother ran her like a boot camp. She would cry when she forgot her songs on stage or a dance step. She would search for her mother's approval after each perfor mance. When she didn't perform properly, she was shamed by her mother and avoided looking into her mother's eyes or would hide.. Her performances were to get her mother's approval. Her obsessive desire to win forced her to work harder and harder, she only practiced so she would become an actress or a model. In the update program, she turned into a normal adolescent. 3. Third Stage of Development: 4-5 The desire to have a real purpose in life She took

David irving Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

David irving - Essay Example His main action scene is in America. According to him, the happenings in the concentration camps have been exaggerated. Whatever are the cruel actions of Adolph Hitler, he is a great European and a morally decent individual. Irving has a friend in Richard Williamson, the Holocaust-denying bishop of the Society of Saint Pius X, and he has written to Irving to let him know the â€Å"the objective truth about what happened in Auschwitz and other concentration camps.† In response, Irving provided a summary of his views on the killings of Jews during World War II, asserting that Auschwitz has been â€Å"hyped† and that it had no gas chambers, but that mass killings of Jews did occur at other camps.†(www.adl.org) Now this is an important observation and I think, all those who are interested in researching the reality about the holocaust, must welcome his investigative spirit. Irving takes serious exception to the actions of Allied Forces, in his book â€Å"The Destruction of Dresden†, wherein many thousands of German civilians are killed. His question is, is this not holocaust? I agree with his view point. He has also provided studied explanations about the weak leadership of Hitler as for the internal administration of Germany. His assertion that Hitter personally is not aware of the concentration camps operating in occupied German territory is worth detailed investigation and research by the

Commercial law ( commercial contracts ) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Commercial law ( commercial contracts ) - Essay Example A contract is said to be formed only if such counter-offer is accepted. The common practice is that until acceptance is conveyed to the offeror, it is not valid. Some exceptions in this regard are a) if the offeror has waived the requisite for communication b) when acceptance is communicated by post, it will be effective on posting. Communication sent through fax, telephone, computer, telex or fax is not effective until received by the offeror. Moreover, it is arduous to find when exactly a telex, fax, a message left on a telephone answering machine or e-mail message is actually â€Å"received.† Decided case laws on the subject indicate that the time when such a message becomes effective relies on a number of issues including customary business practices, the anticipations of the contracting parties and the court’s evaluation of which of them should bear the onus as decided in Brinkbon Ltd v Stahag Stad Gmbh1. In case of acceptance through the e-mail, the time when it will be effective has not yet been considered by the courts. It has been recommended that in case of e-mail acceptance, the postal rule can be applied as an intermediate is involved. Conversely, it is argued that general rule will be applicable, since e-mail messages are delivered instantaneous and there is no facility to find out when the e-mail message is actually delivered. Any uncertainty provisions in the commercial contracts may make the contract non -binding. For instance, an agreement that a contract is to have a ‘regular force majeure stipulations ‘is not binding as the same is uncertain, since there are no ‘customary force majeure stipulations ‘as decided in the case â€Å"British Electrical and Associated Industries (Cardiff) Ltd v Patley Processing Ltd2. â€Å" In â€Å"G Scammell and Nephew Ltd v Ouston3, â€Å"it was viewed that an arrangement or

Rehabilitation Plan Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Rehabilitation Plan - Research Paper Example Leaders from different origin should come together and discuss to the public the importance of encouraging physical education among the youths as a tool for the advancement of economic, societal and personal health condition to an individual. Leaders need to improve the level of development and improve the relationship between the people in charge. Committed leaders also take into consideration the process of engaging with other stakeholders to discuss together major issues that need to be improved within their locality in a significant manner. On the other hand, leaders and their representatives need to conduct significant meetings within their communities due to the fact that they understand best their cultures and need to act as mediators to their subjects (SDCMHC, 2010). Committed leaders are always after stress free state to all members of the society. Mental health can be improved by the involvement in constructive activities that can be organized by leaders. Community leaders, however, need to organize good strategies for improving the ethnicity and cultural range by building, strengthening, developing and problem solving amongst members of the community. Through maintaining all these factors by a leader, both the youths and the adults will get an opportunity to improve their psychological nature of thinking and improvement of physical health by organizing tournaments for rehabilitation purposes. Both the CS4L and SDCMHC agreed that all should provide respect, training, development, employment opportunities and cultural competence to ensure positive production at all levels with regardless of color, race, origin, religion, sex, marital status, political differences and disability among others to foster rehabilitation processes within and between the members of the society (SDCMHC, 2010). Key leaders should be well conversant with the cultures of the community involved

Community outreach project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Community outreach project - Essay Example The mission of initiating a new service is to evaluate community-based library outreach programs using various components that are paired with relevant alternative strategies. In order to achieve its mission, there are various strategies that have to put into consideration to facilitate the process of community outreach program in the field of nursing. However, this paper intend to discuss two of those strategies and these encompasses directional strategy and market strategy. From research, a directional strategy is frequently developed focusing on different components such as, progress, steadiness, as well as cost cutting (Addis & Gamble, 2004). Therefore, for an organization intending to introduce a new service for patients, before establishing a directional strategy, it is vital to define the main objective of such an action. For instance, the main intention of this new service is to increase profits and cut costs at the same time, while improving the lives of patients through the community outreach program. By identifying the objective of introducing the new service, it becomes easier to choose the best type of directional strategy that suits the outreach program (Kreuter, Lezin & Young, 2000). For example, by using cost-cutting strategy, it will be easy to carry out rationalizations, eradicating particular products from the line before introducing the new one, or even file for impoverishment or selling out. The significance of a directional strategy is to play as a control to direct an organization through both peaceful and unsettled times (Berwick, 2003). Directional strategy helps in maintaining the objective of the new service to be introduced in the market; it also stabilizes and helps in the expansion of profits as well as makes it possible for the business to move forward with its activities without losing tract of the intended project. The key objective of a directional strategy is to keep the business focused in the planned manner probable while pr oceeding to expand both returns and services provided to patients in the community outreach program. In most cases, directional strategies enable the introduction or the initiation of the new service to develop in one of the two paths. These include either perpendicular or straight expansion. In this case, vertical expansion implies that introducing the new service will focus on present clients and clients increase their spending on the new service or establishing new clients with the new service. On the other hand, horizontal expansion encompasses pursuing new customers and those clients in the immediate location to enjoy the new service that is being offered. It also involves enlarging the outreach to other areas in order to expand the client base of the new service. Another strategy that will be used in this process includes the market strategy. As it is known, a strategy is always a long-term plan that is established to attain particular objectives. Thus, a market strategy is a plan developed to attain marketing goals for the new service intended to be introduced in the nursing field (Whitney, Dutcher& Keselman, 2013). For instance, marketing goal may be to initiate a new service by appreciating clients or patients. The strategic plan thus is the complete planning that includes marketing research, and then establishing a marketing mix to appreciate clients. It is essential for every business or organization

Rehabilitation Plan Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Rehabilitation Plan - Research Paper Example Leaders from different origin should come together and discuss to the public the importance of encouraging physical education among the youths as a tool for the advancement of economic, societal and personal health condition to an individual. Leaders need to improve the level of development and improve the relationship between the people in charge. Committed leaders also take into consideration the process of engaging with other stakeholders to discuss together major issues that need to be improved within their locality in a significant manner. On the other hand, leaders and their representatives need to conduct significant meetings within their communities due to the fact that they understand best their cultures and need to act as mediators to their subjects (SDCMHC, 2010). Committed leaders are always after stress free state to all members of the society. Mental health can be improved by the involvement in constructive activities that can be organized by leaders. Community leaders, however, need to organize good strategies for improving the ethnicity and cultural range by building, strengthening, developing and problem solving amongst members of the community. Through maintaining all these factors by a leader, both the youths and the adults will get an opportunity to improve their psychological nature of thinking and improvement of physical health by organizing tournaments for rehabilitation purposes. Both the CS4L and SDCMHC agreed that all should provide respect, training, development, employment opportunities and cultural competence to ensure positive production at all levels with regardless of color, race, origin, religion, sex, marital status, political differences and disability among others to foster rehabilitation processes within and between the members of the society (SDCMHC, 2010). Key leaders should be well conversant with the cultures of the community involved

Informal Fallacies Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Informal Fallacies - Article Example The paper discusses the State of the Union address by the president of the United States, Barack Obama.   In this speech, President Obama said that America was facing a â€Å"Sputnik moment.† This was an interesting premise and one that was designed to gain the attention of millions of Americans, even those who did not remember what Sputnik was. The facts are as follows: Sputnik was a satellite sent into orbit by the Soviet Union. It was the first ever satellite and marked the dawn of the Space Age. Americans were shocked that the Soviet Union was able to beat them in this manner. They believed they were richer and more technologically advanced. Sputnik was a wake-up call. It encouraged America to innovate faster. They were eventually the first country to land a man on the moon. Obama suggests that America has fallen behind countries such as China in terms of economic growth and research. Obama argued that this is a new Sputnik moment that must spur America on.   This is t he fallacy of hasty generalization. It may sound like a persuasive argument but the premise that America in 2011 is like America in the 1950s is a false one, as is the notion that a clear goal such as landing a man on the moon is comparable to increasing economic activity and research. Sometimes nice sounding rhetoric is not effective. The truth is that it was not a concerted government effort that landed a man on the moon, it was the hard work of engineers dedicating themselves to a specific task.

Investigating the effect of different liquid densities on the time taken to release 25 ml of alcohols Essay Example for Free

Investigating the effect of different liquid densities on the time taken to release 25 ml of alcohols Essay * Research question: * Does the change in liquid densities at the same temperature affect the time taken to release 25 ml of the alcohol from a 50 ml burette? * Variables: * Independent variable: The liquid density / g ml-1. * Dependent variable: The time taken to release 25 ml of the alcohol from a burette / s. * Controlled variables: * The volume of alcohol in a burette / ml. * The temperature of the alcohols / oC. * The absence of unnecessary substances or ions. * The same burette for the entire experiment. * Prediction: * The time taken to release 25 ml of the alcohol from a 50 ml burette is, stated by F. Weinberg (1984) [1], dependent on flow velocity and in particular are very sensitive to small changes in the density difference between the two liquids. * My prediction is, the higher the liquid density is, the more time taken for 25 ml of the alcohol to be released from the burette. The time taken to release 25 ml of alcohol increases in order: Methanol, Ethanol, Propan-1-ol, Butan-1-ol and Octan-1-ol. * Method: * Apparatus: * 50 ml burette (Uncertainty: à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ 0.500 ml). * Retort stand. * 125 ml ethanol C2H5OH 95.0%. * 125 ml methanol CH3OH 99.5%. * 125 ml propan-1-ol CH3(CH2)2OH 98%. * 125 ml butan-1-ol CH3(CH2)3OH 99%. * 125 ml octan-1-ol CH3(CH2)7OH 94%. * Thermometer (Uncertainty: à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ 0.0500 oC). * 5 x funnels. * 50 ml conical flask. * Casio stop watch (Uncertainty: à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ 0.0100 seconds). * Distilled water. * Risk assessment: * The procedure uses poisonous alcohols. Notably, suggested by Department of Chemistry Imperial College London (2006) [2], less than 2 teaspoons (2 ml) of methanol can cause blindness, and 2 table spoons (30 ml) can cause death. This toxicity is mainly due to it being converted in the body to formic acid and formaldehyde, which first attack the cells in the retina, then the other vital organs. Plus, propan-1-ol is used as a common solvent and cleaning agent in chemistry laboratories. Also, because it evaporates rapidly, IPA is widely used in astringents to cool the skin and constrict surface blood vessels. * Goggles and lab coat are therefore needed to be worn throughout the experiment. * Procedures: 1. Close the tap and run some distilled water into the top of the burette, then swish the burette up and down to let the water clean all the inside of the burette. Open the tap, let the water drain out. 2. Attach the burette to the retort stand and take care that the burette is upright and stable. 3. Close the tap and use the funnel to put 25 ml of ethanol into the burette. 4. Remove the funnel, make sure that there is no air bubble inside the burette. Measure the temperature of ethanol by the thermometer. 5. Put the conical flask under the burette, adjust the height of the burette so that the tip of the burette is just above the lip of the conical flask. 6. Open the tap and immediately start the stop watch. 7. Stop the watch when 25 ml of ethanol is fully released from the burette. 8. Continue to open the tap and collect the remained ethanol in the burette. 9. Repeat step 1 to 8 four more times. 10. Then change ethanol with methanol, propan-1-ol, butan-1-ol and octan-1-ol. Experiment step 1 9 with each alcohol. * Range and repetitions of experiment: * There are 5 different ranges (The lowest value: 0.789 g ml-1 the highest value: 0.826 g ml-1, Please refer to Data Collection and Processing - Processed data). * The initial procedure is repeated 5 times and thus 25 results are recorded. * Control of variables: * The volume of each alcohol sample remains constant for every test at 25 ml. Different volumes of the alcohol sample may cause inaccuracies in terms of measuring the time taken to release. For instance, larger volume of the same alcohol sample certainly takes longer time to be released. * The temperature of each alcohol sample need to remain constant for every test at 20 oC (293 K). The analysis, written by Weirauch, D. A., Jr. (1998, December) [3], of the high-temperature spreading kinetics for liquids affecting density shows that they can be modified with a constant shift factor. Therefore, higher temperature of the same alcohol sample may reduce the time taken for the alcohol to be released. * The burettes and funnels are rinsed carefully with distilled water prior to the experiment to ensure that inside the burettes do not contain any unnecessary substances/ions. If present, they may react with the alcohols to form products which have different liquid density, as opposed to original liquid densities of the alcohols at 20 oC (293 K). * The same burette is used for every measurement. This is because burettes from the same manufacturer cannot be guaranteed to have the same radius of the tips (possessing relatively small values). The use of different burettes can result differences in the time taken for the alcohol to be released. DATA COLLECTION AND PROCESSING * Raw data table: Alcohols Dependent independent variables Ethanol Methanol Propan-1-ol Butan-1-ol Octan-1-ol Liquid density / g ml-1 at 20 oC (293 K) [4] 0.789 0.791 0.804 0.810 0.826 1st repetition: Time taken to release 25 ml of alcohol from a burette / seconds à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ 0.0100 39.0 43.0 67.0 82.0 112 2nd repetition: Time taken / seconds à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ 0.0100 41.0 44.0 69.0 81.0 115 3rd repetition: Time taken / seconds à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ 0.0100 38.0 46.0 70.0 83.0 111 4th repetition: Time taken / seconds à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ 0.0100 39.0 42.0 71.0 80.0 114 5th repetition: Time taken / seconds à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ 0.0100 40.0 45.0 70.0 79.0 110. Table 2.1 shows the collected raw data table. * Processed data: * Calculating the mean time taken to release 25 ml of alcohol from a burette: * Mean time taken / s = (1st + 2nd + 3rd + 4th + 5th trial data) à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ 5. Alcohols Dependent independent variables Ethanol Methanol Propan-1-ol Butan-1-ol Octan-1-ol Liquid density / g ml-1 at 20 oC (293K). 0.789 0.791 0.804 0.810 0.826 The mean time taken to release 25 ml of alcohol from a burette / à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ 0.0100 seconds 39.4 44.0 69.4 81.0 112 Table 2.2 shows the processed mean time taken to release 25 ml of alcohol from a burette. * Presentation of processed data: Graph 2.1 shows the relationship between the liquid density and the mean time taken to release 25 ml of each alcohol from a burette. * Treatment of uncertainties: * I try to read off carefully volume of the burette from the bottom of the meniscus with my eye level at the meniscus in order to make sure that the volume of each alcohol sample used is only 25 ml. CONCLUSION AND EVALUATION * Graph analysis: * According to the presented graph of the mean time taken to release 25 ml of different alcohols, there is a very strong positive correlation between the liquid density and the mean time taken to release 25 ml of alcohol from a burette as a very good line of best fit can be observed. (Please refer to Data Collection and Processing - Presentation of processed data - Image 2.1). * Conclusion: * The results demonstrate that, the higher the liquid density is, the longer time taken for 25 ml of the alcohol to be released from the burette. * The conclusion totally agrees with my hypothesis. * Evaluation of procedures: * Strengths: * Safety in the laboratory is highly maintained (by wearing goggles, lab coat and being careful with glass apparatus to avoid any poisonous alcohols that may splash). * Standard ranges and repetitions are met, a very strong positive correlation between the liquid density and the mean time taken to release 25 ml of alcohol from a burette is observed. * Quantitative investigation, with repeats strongly supporting each other, successfully proves that the expectations based on scientific knowledge are totally correct. * Weaknesses: * Several inevitable uncertainties occur throughout the whole experiment which may account for inaccuracies in the collected data. * The concentrations of the alcohols vary from 94.0 % to 99.5 %. The differences in concentration of each alcohol affect the reliability of the data, since 25 ml of pure alcohols (or 5 alcohols with the same concentration) may take different time to be released from the burette. * Although there is a very strong positive correlation between the liquid density and the mean time taken to release 25 ml of alcohol from a burette, the independent variables (liquid density) do not increase constantly due to the limited number of available alcohols (Please refer to Data Collection and Processing - Presentation of processed data - Image 2.1). * The entire procedures, although are simple, take a long time to finish because of the 50 ml burette need to take at least 3 times to add 5 alcohol samples (5 repetitions for each alcohol), 25 ml each. Overall there are 15 times to add 25 alcohol samples since I decide to investigate 5 different alcohols. The more time I need to add more alcohols into the burette, the more likely inaccuracies to occur. * Improving the investigation: * The procedures can be partially replaced by computer data logging suggested by Laurence Rogers (1995) [5] to prevent uncertainties from human errors when stopping the watch. The experiment can be programmed to collect the data (Time taken for 25 ml of the alcohol to be released from the burette) automatically. * More alcohols with liquid densities within the ranges (The lowest value: 0.789 g ml-1 the highest value: 0.826 g ml-1) can be tested to fill the 2 gaps between methanol and propan-1-ol, butan-1-ol and octan-1-ol in the presented graph. For instance, penta-1-ol has the liquid density of 0.815 g ml-1 at 20 oC (293 K) [6]. * Pure alcohols should be bought in the same concentration to ensure the reliability of the collected data. Otherwise, diluting the alcohols to the same concentration can be less expensive, yet time consuming. * A larger burette, for instance, with measuring volume of 75 ml (only 2 times to add 5 alcohol samples, 25 ml each) will reduce the times need to pour more alcohols into the burette to 10. Not only this change in equipment may save time of experimenting, but also minimise the uncertainties. Bibliography [1] Weinberg, F. (1984, December). Fluid flow from a low to a higher density liquid. Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B, 15(4), 681. Abstract retrieved March 8, 2009, from Springer Link. Web site: http://www.springerlink.com/content/n84726w432072592/ [2] Department of Chemistry. (2006, August 25). Biological effects of Methanol and Larger Alcohols. In Ethanol. Retrieved March 8, 2009, from Imperial College London. Web site: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/mim/environmental/html/ethanol_text.htm [3] Weirauch, D. A., Jr. (1998, December). Predicting the spreading kinetics of high-temperature liquids on solid surfaces (Vol. 12). Alcoa Technical Center. Retrieved March 8, 2009. doi:10.1557/JMR.1998.0478 [4] Process Calculator. (2009). SG. In Liquid Density. Retrieved March 8, 2009, from Radix Business Models Pvt Ltd. Web site: http://www.processcalculator.com/Liquid_Density.aspx [5] Rogers, L. (1995, May). Sensors and The Data-Logger. In Hardware and software. Retrieved March 9, 2009, from School of Education, University of Leicester Web site: http://www.le.ac.uk/se/lto/logging/test1.html [6] Process Calculator. (2009). SG. In Liquid Density. Retrieved March 8, 2009, from Radix Business Models Pvt Ltd. Web site: http://www.processcalculator.com/Liquid_Density.aspx

Symbols of Military Identity Essay -- Symbols Symbolism Military Essay

At the United States Air Force Academy, the first experience of a new cadet is the loss of personal "stuff" and hence individual identity. All material possessions — those that signify individual identity, safety or relationship -- are taken from the cadet and replaced by "stuff" which indicate membership in the cadet wing. Clothing, jewelry, wallet, even hair, disappear as indexes of membership in an economic group. Pictures and address books vanish as symbols of connection with social groups in the broader world. Watches and calendars and money, reminders of being and safety, have no relevance as cadets move into the "other world" of the academy grounds. Replacement "stuff" is utilitarian. Clothing is functional and suits its intended purpose to shelter and protect with a well-researched efficiency indicative of the military frame of mind. The clothing is easily cleaned and sanitized. It is even named in a military way — shirt, nonflying, blue; gloves, dress, white — indicating its function as well as obvious characteristics. It is most importantly uniform. The not so subtle message is that all people are identical, in purpose and value, except for a name. The clothing is at first bare, like the personality-stripped human who wears it, but gradually it acquires ornamentation and indicates a new identity for the wearer. USAF Academy emblems appear first as cadets begin to see themselves as a real part of the academy system. Individual units identified by color, red, blue, yellow, etc, begin to work together. They build their bodies and their skills in these groups and as groups. They struggle, survive and triumph as a unit. Those who choose or are chosen to leave do so quietly without contact with the group as they depart... ... This symbol of individual recognition, honor, and respect will continue with them throughout their careers. It is probably not incidental that cadets, even in basic training, retain names rather than, say, numbers. As long as he has his name, the cadet remains an individual. This is essential to the military structure for "good name", honor, integrity can exist only when the individual exists. The military officer, despite this temporary subjugation to the group, is always personally responsible for his actions, and responsible to each individual under his command. The symbolic structure of the uniform which unites, the insignia which are indexes of achievements and relationships, the name tag and salute which signify recognition of the individual are in combination symbolic of the tension between group and individual identity which is vital to the military. Symbols of Military Identity Essay -- Symbols Symbolism Military Essay At the United States Air Force Academy, the first experience of a new cadet is the loss of personal "stuff" and hence individual identity. All material possessions — those that signify individual identity, safety or relationship -- are taken from the cadet and replaced by "stuff" which indicate membership in the cadet wing. Clothing, jewelry, wallet, even hair, disappear as indexes of membership in an economic group. Pictures and address books vanish as symbols of connection with social groups in the broader world. Watches and calendars and money, reminders of being and safety, have no relevance as cadets move into the "other world" of the academy grounds. Replacement "stuff" is utilitarian. Clothing is functional and suits its intended purpose to shelter and protect with a well-researched efficiency indicative of the military frame of mind. The clothing is easily cleaned and sanitized. It is even named in a military way — shirt, nonflying, blue; gloves, dress, white — indicating its function as well as obvious characteristics. It is most importantly uniform. The not so subtle message is that all people are identical, in purpose and value, except for a name. The clothing is at first bare, like the personality-stripped human who wears it, but gradually it acquires ornamentation and indicates a new identity for the wearer. USAF Academy emblems appear first as cadets begin to see themselves as a real part of the academy system. Individual units identified by color, red, blue, yellow, etc, begin to work together. They build their bodies and their skills in these groups and as groups. They struggle, survive and triumph as a unit. Those who choose or are chosen to leave do so quietly without contact with the group as they depart... ... This symbol of individual recognition, honor, and respect will continue with them throughout their careers. It is probably not incidental that cadets, even in basic training, retain names rather than, say, numbers. As long as he has his name, the cadet remains an individual. This is essential to the military structure for "good name", honor, integrity can exist only when the individual exists. The military officer, despite this temporary subjugation to the group, is always personally responsible for his actions, and responsible to each individual under his command. The symbolic structure of the uniform which unites, the insignia which are indexes of achievements and relationships, the name tag and salute which signify recognition of the individual are in combination symbolic of the tension between group and individual identity which is vital to the military.

The Scarlet Letter :: Literary Analysis, Hawthorne

When someone makes a mistake, they usually try to hide the truth to avoid the consequences. The Puritans had a very stringent society in which all sins were met with harsh punishment. In The Scarlet letter, by Nathanial Hawthorn, Hester Prynne and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale commit adultery, but the public only knows about Hester’s sin; Dimmesdale’s remains hidden. However, by hiding his sin, Dimmesdale suffers much more than Hester does. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorn shows that the repercussions of a â€Å"secret sin† are much worse than those of a revealed sin. Hester’s punishment comes from society, so it is not nearly as painful as it could be. One part of Hester’s punishment is to stand on the scaffold – in shame – for three hours. The scaffold is a place where â€Å"iniquity is dragged out into the sunlight† (57) and the truth is revealed, so everyone in the Puritan town knows that Hester is guilty of the sin. While her punishment is denigrating, it is not as bad as the punishments usually are, for she does not have to undergo â€Å"that gripe around the neck† (58). The other part of her punishment is to wear, for the rest of her life, a scarlet â€Å"A† on her dress. The A, for adulterer, is meant to be a stigma for everyone to see and mock. However, Hester beautifully embroiders the mark with gold-thread and wears it with pride. The mark stays with her after she leaves the scaffold and finds a home on the edge of town. She is originally scorned and avoided, but she is needed: S he sews for the governor and soldiers for public ceremonies. Due to the passage of time, her usefulness, and her acceptable behavior (she never battles with the public nor complains), Hester is forgiven and her sin is forgotten. Seven years after receiving the â€Å"A,† people change the meaning of the letter from â€Å"adulterer† to â€Å"able,† and instead of referring to her as a sinner, the townspeople refer to her as one who is â€Å"so helpful to the sick, so comfortable to the afflicted† (169). Society feels that Hester had already served enough punishment, and she eventually becomes a respected woman in the town. Since the truth about her sin is known, Hester is able to overcome society’s punishment; eventually she regains the acceptance, and even the admiration, of the Puritan townspeople.

Financial Market

International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management Emerald Article: Financial market risk and gold investment in an emerging market: the case of Malaysia Mansor H. Ibrahim Article information: To cite this document: Mansor H. Ibrahim, (2012),†Financial market risk and gold investment in an emerging market: the case of Malaysia†, International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management, Vol. 5 Iss: 1 pp. 25 – 34 Permanent link to this document: http://dx. doi. org/10. 1108/17538391211216802 Downloaded on: 26-09-2012References: This document contains references to 13 other documents To copy this document: [email  protected] com This document has been downloaded 335 times since 2012. * Users who downloaded this Article also downloaded: * Mohamed Hisham Yahya, Junaina Muhammad, Abdul Razak Abdul Hadi, (2012),†A comparative study on the level of efficiency between Islamic and conventional banking systems in Malaysia†, International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management, Vol. 5 Iss: 1 pp. 48 – 62 http://dx. doi. org/10. 1108/17538391211216820Muhamad Abduh, Mohd Azmi Omar, (2012),†Islamic banking and economic growth: the Indonesian experience†, International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management, Vol. 5 Iss: 1 pp. 35 – 47 http://dx. doi. org/10. 1108/17538391211216811 Samy Nathan Garas, (2012),†The control of the Shari'a Supervisory Board in the Islamic financial institutions†, International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management, Vol. 5 Iss: 1 pp. 8 – 24 http://dx. doi. org/10. 1108/17538391211216794 Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided y ASSUMPTION UNIVERSITY OF THAILAND For Authors: If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service. Information about how to choose which pub lication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www. emeraldinsight. com/authors for more information. About Emerald www. emeraldinsight. com With over forty years' experience, Emerald Group Publishing is a leading independent publisher of global research with impact in business, society, public policy and education.In total, Emerald publishes over 275 journals and more than 130 book series, as well as an extensive range of online products and services. Emerald is both COUNTER 3 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. *Related content and download information correct at time of download. The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www. emeraldinsight. com/1753-8394. htm Financial market risk and gold investment in an emerging market: the case of MalaysiaMansor H. Ibrahim Mar ket risk and gold investment 25 Department of Economics, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relation between gold return and stock market return and whether its relation changes in times of consecutive negative market returns for an emerging market, Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies the autoregressive distributed model to link gold returns to stock returns with TGARCH/EGARCH error speci? cation using daily data from August 1, 2001 to March 31, 2010, a total of 2,261 observations.Findings – A signi? cant positive but low correlation is found between gold and once-lagged stock returns. Moreover, consecutive negative market returns do not seem to intensify the co-movement between the gold and stock markets as normally documented among national stock markets in times of ? nancial turbulences. Indeed, there is some evidence that the gold market surges when faced with cons ecutive market declines. Practical implications – Based on these results, there are potential bene? ts of gold investment during periods of stock market slumps. The ? ndings should prove useful for designing ? ancial investment portfolios. Originality/value – The paper evaluates the role of gold from a domestic perspective, which should be more relevant to domestic investors in guarding against recurring heightened stock market risk. Keywords Malaysia, Emerging markets, Gold, Returns, Investments, Stock markets, Gold investment, Market return, Correlations, Market risk Paper type Research paper Introduction Over the past decades, the global ? nancial markets have witnessed a string of ? nancial crises, among them include the Mexican peso crisis in 1994, the Asian ? nancial ? in 1997/1998, the Russian crisis in 1998, the Brazilian crisis in 1999, the Argentine ? nancial crisis in 2001/2002 and most recently the US subprime crisis in 2007 and the Greece ? nancial crisis in 2009. Mentioning of these crises is likely to conjure up in the mind of many the images of excessive risk in stock market investment and to bring back interest in gold as an alternative investment asset. This interest is well-placed as gold used to be a standard of value, is still considered as a store of value and is universally accepted. Moreover, there seems to be a trong belief that gold can provide protection, as a hedge or a safe haven, against this heightened risk in the ? nancial markets. As noted by Baur and McDermott (2010), gold differs from other assets in that it reacts positively to adverse market shocks. As they mention, real gold value reached its historic high roughly in 1980 when the global economy faced the threat of stag? ation due to oil crises in 1970s. Likewise, at the time the US subprime crisis intensi? ed in September 2008, gold has responded with a surge in its value (Baur and McDermott, 2010). International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance andManagement Vol. 5 No. 1, 2012 pp. 25-34 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1753-8394 DOI 10. 1108/17538391211216802 IMEFM 5,1 26 Against a backdrop of recurring ? nancial crises and contagion as well as emerging interest in gold, several studies have attempted empirical investigation of gold hedging property. Notable among these studies are recent works by Capie et al. (2005), Hillier et al. (2006), Baur and Lucey (2010) and Baur and McDermott (2010). Capie et al. (2005) investigate an exchange rate hedge of gold using weekly data of gold price and sterling-dollar and yen-dollar exchange rates from January 1971 to February 2004.They ? nd supportive evidence for exchange rate hedging property of gold, although the strength of hedging tends to vary over time. Hillier et al. (2006) assesses the investment role of precious metals, namely gold, platinum and silver for the US market. They note low correlations between these three metals and stock market returns, which suggests diversi ? cation bene? ts of gold investment. Baur and Lucey (2010) examines whether gold is a safe haven, i. e. maintaining its value in times of market stress or turmoil, for the US, UK and German markets.They document evidence suggesting the ability of gold to hedge against ? nancial risks and to serve as a safe haven in extreme market conditions for these markets. Most recently, Baur and McDermott (2010) extend the work of Baur and Lucey (2010) to a larger number of markets, which include both major developed and emerging markets. They analyze the relations between gold return and returns of world and emerging market indexes, various regional market indexes, and 13 individual market indexes. Their results demonstrate the ability of gold to provide a hedge and a strong safe haven for European and US markets.Thus, for developed markets, gold provides protection against losses during extreme market conditions. As they explain, investors in these markets sell stocks and buy gold when faced with heightened ? nancial risk. By contrast, the emerging markets seem to lack these properties indicating that investors tend to react differently to adverse shocks in emerging markets. Namely, they shift the composition of their portfolios by selling shares of emerging markets and seeking shelter in the developed markets, which are viewed to be relatively safe.In the present paper, we take lead from these studies and examine the investment role of gold for an emerging Asian market, Malaysia. We attempt to contribute to this line of inquiry in several aspects. First, in Baur and McDermott (2010), the investment role of gold for emerging markets is examined by looking at the relation between gold return and emerging market index return and individual market returns of four largest emerging markets, i. e. Brazil, Russia, India and China. We add to their study by looking at a smaller emerging market.Second, while the present study looks at gold investment from an international perspec tive, we look at the issue from a domestic perspective. All aforementioned studies employ gold price in US dollar in their analysis. Instead of using the dollar-denominated gold price and converting it into domestic currency unit as in Baur and Lucey (2010), we use domestic gold price instead. While we acknowledge that the Malaysian gold price may have depended on the global gold price, the use of gold price quoted domestically in ringgit screens out potential confounding effect of exchange rate movement and currency onversion. Finally, we bring out a new empirical perspective in evaluating the investment role of gold. Namely, we examine whether gold maintains its value or its relation with market returns when faced with consecutive negative daily returns. We focus on Malaysia due to deep interest in gold shown by Malaysian policymakers and academics in the face of 1997/1998 Asian ? nancial crisis. Tun Mahathir Mohamad, the then Prime Minister of Malaysia, voiced interest in this un iversally accepted asset and proposed the use of gold particularly in international trade settlement The News Strait Times, 2001). A series of international conferences have been organized on the subject of gold and gold Dinar[1], among them include International Conference on Stable and Just Monetary System and International Conference on the Gold Dinar in Multilateral Trade in 2002, International Conference on Gold in International Trade in 2003 and International Conference on Gold Dinar Economy in 2007. In July 2001, Malaysia became the 12th country in the world to have its own gold bullion coins through the launching of the gold bullion coins known as Kijang Emas by the Royal Mint Malaysia.This is followed by the issuance of Royal Mint gold Dinar in 2003 and Kelantan State gold Dinar in 2006. While the introduction of these gold coins is to serve primarily as a store of value or an alternative ? nancial asset for investment, the gold investment performance for the case of Malays ia has hardly received any empirical attention. The availability of daily domestic gold bullion price since 2001 provides us an opportunity to examine the investment role of gold from a domestic market perspective and, at the same time, widens the literature on emerging markets. The rest of the paper is structured as follows.In the next section, we provides the empirical framework used in the analysis. Then, we describes the data and present estimation results. Finally, we conclude with the main ? ndings and some concluding remarks. Empirical framework We specify our empirical model using an autoregressive distributed lag model along the line of Capie et al. (2005). Thus, we have: RG;t ? a ? rRG;t21 ? b1 RS;t ? b2 RS;t21 ? 1t ?1? where RG is the daily return of gold investment and RS is the corresponding return of stock investment. The lagged dependent is included to allow for autocorrelation structure in gold return.Meanwhile, the incorporation of once-lagged stock return is based on our presumption that, in emerging markets, the transmission of information among markets may take time. That is, the changes in stock return may be impounded into the gold return with lag. The total sensitivity of gold return to stock market ? uctuations is based on the sum of stock market coef? cients, i. e. b1 ? b2. If this sum is signi? cantly positive and is far from unity or the model explanatory is close to zero, we may conclude that gold serves as a diversi? cation asset (Hillier et al. , 2006).Meanwhile, if it is not signi? cant or is signi? cantly negative, then gold investment can provide a hedge against ? nancial market risk (Baur and Lucey, 2010; Baur and McDermott, 2010). We refer to equation (1) as our basic model. Based on equation (1), we ask further whether gold return dynamics remain similar under conditions of consecutive negative market returns. To this end, we adapt the framework used by Nam et al. (2005) in their analysis of stock return asymmetry by modifyi ng equation (1) as: RG;t ? a0 ? a1 Nmt ? rRG;t21 ? ?b10 ? b11 Nmt ? ? RS;t ? ?b20 ? b21 Nmt ? ? RS;t21 ? 1t ?2? here Nmt is a dummy variable representing consecutive negative market returns. Five alternative dummies corresponding to days of consecutive negative returns are considered and they are de? ned as: Market risk and gold investment 27 IMEFM 5,1 N0 ? 28 † N1 ? N4 ? † † 1 if RS;t , 0 0 otherwise 1 if RS;t , 0; RS;t21 , 0 0 otherwise ?3? ?4? . . . 1 if RS;t , 0; 0 otherwise RS;t21 , 0; :::; RS;t24 , 0 ?5? Note that we include Nm as both intercept and interactive dummies. The intercept dummy is intended to capture the level effect of m ? 1 consecutive negative market returns, current return and the returns of last m days, on gold return.Meanwhile, the interactive dummy is to capture the changing relations between stock return and gold return under conditions of consecutive negative market returns, the main interest of the paper. In the paper, we denote these mo dels with alternative de? nition of dummies, respectively, as model N0, N1, N2, N3 and N4. In equation (2), the sum b10 ? b20 captures the relation between the two markets under normal market conditions while b10 ? b20 ? b11 ? b21 measures their relation when the stock market experiences m ? 1 days of consecutive negative returns. Accordingly, the signi? cance of b11 and b21 re? cts the changing relations between gold return and market return in times of market downturns. If they are signi? cantly positive, then the gold return tends to move in closer tandem to stock market movement, weakening gold investment role as a diversi? cation asset. However, if they are signi? cantly negative, then gold investment is said to provide at least a hedge against ? nancial losses during market downturns. Finally, if they are insigni? cantly different from 0, the dynamics of gold return tends to resist the slumps in stock prices and preserves its relation to the stock market regardless of the mark et conditions.We believe that this perspective that we bring provides a nice complementary empirical exercise to the works of Baur and Lucey (2010) and Baur and McDermott (2010) that look at the relations between the two during extreme market conditions. In the implementation of equations (1) and (2), we take note of ample evidence that high-frequency asset returns tend to exhibit leptokurtic property or volatility clustering, the so-called autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (ARCH) effect. In ? nance literature, various error distributions have been assumed and variance equation speci? cations have been suggested.The error distribution is assumed to be distributed according to either the normal distribution (N), t-distribution (T), or generalized error distribution (G). Among the time-varying variance speci? cations include the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH), threshold ARCH (TARCH), and exponentional GARCH (EGARCH). The latter two allow for asymmetric responses of volatility to positive and negative shocks. To avoid arbitrary model selection, we follow Capie et al. (2005) by basing on the maximum of log likelihood as a selection criterion. We ? nd asymmetric volatility speci? cation (TARCH or EGARCH) to best ? the gold return dynamics and generalized error distribution to best describe the error distribution. The suitability of asymmetric volatility modeling for gold return is in conformity with the behavior of other asset returns (Lobo, 2000; Koutmos and Martin, 2003). Data We employ 2,261 daily observations spanning from August 1, 2001 to March 31, 2010. The beginning date is dictated by data availability of gold bullion price. The selling prices of one troy ounce domestic gold bullion are used to represent domestic gold prices while the Kuala Lumpur composite index is used to represent aggregate prices of stock market investment.The data on the two prices are sourced, respectively, from Malaysia’s central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia, and Data Stream International. We compute gold and stock market returns as the ? rst difference of the natural log of respective series. Table I provides descriptive statistics of the two returns. We also plot these series in level and ? rst-differenced forms in Figure 1. Both gold and stock prices experience an upward trend over the sample period. While the daily average gold return is relatively higher than the daily average stock market return (i. e. 0. 6 percent against 0. 03 percent), it is more volatile than the market return as re? ected their respective standard deviations. This is accounted by the more extreme positive values of gold return (0. 1246) than the stock market return (0. 0426). Meanwhile, the extreme negative value of stock market return (2 0. 9997) is only slightly higher than the corresponding value of gold return (2 0. 0782). From the plots, we also note marked reduction of stock market prices around years of the Argentine ? nanci al crisis in 2001/2002 and of the US subprime crisis in 2007/2008.While the gold return is positively skewed, the market return demonstrates a negative skewness. Both return series are characterized by excess peakness having kurtosis statistics to be substantially higher than 3. This suggests volatility clustering in the return series, which is apparent in the graphical plots. The Jarge-Bera statistics reported at the bottom of Table I soundly rejects the null of normality for both returns. These characteristics in the data seem to justify the use of GARCH-type models for model speci? cation. As a preliminary analysis, we report the cross-correlations between RG,t and RS,t for up to ? e lags. With the standard error in the order of 0. 021 in absolute value, the correlation of roughly 0. 042 and higher suggests signi? cance correlation between the two returns. We note very low and mostly positive correlations between gold return and contemporaneous and lagged stock returns. Among the se correlations, only the DG Mean Median Maximum Minimum SD Skewness Kurtosis Jarque-Bera Probability Observations 0. 000305 8. 72 ? 102 5 0. 042587 2 0. 099785 0. 008518 2 0. 999659 15. 06466 14,082. 94 0. 000000 2,260 29 DS 0. 000561 0. 000000 0. 124645 2 0. 078182 0. 011909 0. 092587 12. 8588 8,656. 123 0. 000000 2,260 Market risk and gold investment Table I. Descriptive statistics IMEFM 5,1 8. 4 0. 15 0. 10 8. 0 0. 05 30 7. 6 0. 00 7. 2 6. 8 –0. 05 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 –0. 10 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 08 09 (b) Gold Return (a) Natural Log of Gold Price 7. 4 0. 08 7. 2 0. 04 7. 0 0. 00 6. 8 –0. 04 6. 6 Figure 1. Graphical plots of gold and stock prices and returns –0. 08 6. 4 6. 2 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 –0. 12 (c) Natural Log of Kuala Lumpur Composite Index 02 03 04 05 06 07 (d) Stock Market Return correlation between gold return and once-lagged stock return is signi? ant. Its correlation is positive, suggesting that the gold market tends to f ollow the stock market with one-day lag. The cross-correlations between gold return and lead stock returns indicate the absence of signi? cation correlations. Accordingly, the gold market does not lead the stock market. This preliminary analysis seems to provide a basis for our one-equation empirical approach with no feedback from gold return to stock return and with the inclusion of once-lagged stock return in the mean equation of gold return. As regards to our main interest, it indicates at best the diversi? ation property of gold investment since its noted positive correlation is far from unity. However, this ? nding is only suggestive and must be subject to a formal analysis, which we turn next (Table II). Estimation results This section conducts a formal analysis of gold return and its relation to stock market return as speci? ed in equations (1) and (2) using GARCH-type models. We experiment with various error distribution assumption and variance speci? cation and choose the o ne that maximizes the log likelihood. The values of log likelihood functions for alternative models are given in Table III.This log likelihood criterion unequivocally suggests the generalized error distribution of error terms. It also suggests either TARCH or EGARCH speci? cation to best describe variance speci? cation. TARCH speci? cation is chosen for basic model, model N0 and model N1 while EGARCH speci? cation for other models. Note that the differences in the log likelihood values between the two speci? cations are marginal. Estimation of the TARCH (1, 1) model for the basic mean equation yields the following results (numbers in parentheses are p-values): RG;t ? ht ? 0:0004 20:0344RG;t21 20:0111RS;t ?0:016? ?0:046? 0:582? 0:0000014 ?0:008? ?0:07721221 t 31 ?0:0502RS;t21 ?0:014? 20:05351221 I t21 t ?0:000? Market risk and gold investment ?0:003? ?0:9413ht21 ?0:000? N ? 2; 259; GED Parameter ? 1:7025 ? 0:000? ; Log Likelihood ? 7; 168:42 where It ? 1 if 1t , 0 and 0 otherwise. Th e use of TARCH model implies that previous shocks have asymmetric effects on volatility. Since the coef? cient of 1221 I t21 is negative, t bad news (1t , 0) tends to dampen market volatility. In other words, once-lagged positive news (1t2 1 . 0) exerts a greater impact on gold return volatility than negative news does, which conforms to the ? ding of Capie et al. (2005). Moreover, gold return volatility tends to be highly persistent as suggested by large coef? cient of lagged volatility. Turning to our main theme, we note the signi? cance of only once-lagged stock return. This conforms to the correlation structure observed in the previous section. However, its coef? cient is small, in the order of 0. 05. Thus, a 10 percentage point k RG,t, RS,t-k RG,t, RS,t? k 0 1 2 3 4 5 0. 0032 0. 0579 2 0. 0224 0. 0127 2 0. 0085 0. 0173 0. 0032 0. 0240 0. 0151 0. 0254 0. 0258 2 0. 0167 GARCH Speci? cation Basic N0 N1 N2 N3 N4GARCH-N GARCH-T GARCH-G TGARCH-N TGARCH-T TGARCH-G EGARCH-N EGARCH-T EG ARCH-G 7,035. 569 7,146. 246 7,163. 378 7,046. 186 7,153. 767 7,168. 421 7,026. 377 7,158. 247 7,168. 083 7,035. 893 7,146. 520 7,165. 204 7,046. 458 7,154. 348 7,170. 701 7,026. 710 7,158. 82 7,170. 554 7,036. 291 7,146. 26 7,163. 645 7,046. 785 7,153. 782 7,168. 730 7,027. 169 7,158. 361 7,168. 641 7,034. 568 7,142. 140 7,159. 647 7,045. 231 7,149. 472 7,164. 399 7,031. 521 7,154. 147 7,164. 628 7,031. 221 7,138. 171 7,156. 706 7,043. 397 7,146. 017 7,162. 170 7,030. 436 7,151. 064 7,163. 104 7,030. 379 ,134. 302 7,152. 533 7,042. 447 7,141. 644 7,157. 886 7,031. 285 7,146. 542 7,159. 008 Table II. Estimated cross-correlations Model Table III. Log likelihood of alternative GARCH speci? cations IMEFM 5,1 32 reduction in stock returns is associated the decrease in stock return by 0. 50 percentage point on average and likewise for the stock market increase. Note that the coef? cient of lagged gold return is negative. This suggests that the gold return tends to exhibit a reversal patt ern and that the long run impact on gold return of stock market variations is even smaller.In order to evaluate the dynamics of gold return during times of consecutive negative market returns, we estimate the chosen GARCH models (Table III) for the consecutive negative returns ranging from one to ? ve days (equation (2)). Results of the estimation are provided in Table IV. Note from the table that there are no changes in the results for the variance equation. Gold return volatility depends mostly on its past volatility and positive shocks tend to propel higher volatility. In the mean equation, we generally observe no level effect of consecutive negative market returns on gold return except for model 3.Similar to the basic model, we note signi? cant positive coef? cient of lagged stock return in all models except one, i. e. model N0. More importantly, there seems to be no changes in the relations between gold and stock returns in times of consecutive negative market returns. The coef ? cients of interactive dummies are all indistinguishable from 0 except one, i. e. the N3 model. In the case of N3 model, the investment role of gold is further enhanced. In responses to four consecutive Estimated coef? cients Mean equation a0 a1 r b10 b11 b20 b21 Variance equation u0 u1 u2 u3 N0 (TARCH) 0. 0000 2 0. 0007 2 0. 315 * 0. 0465 2 0. 0602 0. 0352 0. 0254 N1 (TARCH) 0. 0003 2 0. 0004 2 0. 0320 * 2 0. 0054 0. 0263 0. 0545 * * 2 0. 0114 Model N2 (EGARCH) N3 (EGARCH) N4 (EGARCH) 0. 0004 * * 0. 0001 2 0. 0341 * * 2 0. 0093 0. 0110 0. 0474 * * 0. 0150 0. 0004 * * 2 0. 0025 * * 2 0. 0265 2 0. 0034 2 0. 0979 0. 0549 * 2 0. 2243 * * 0. 0004 * * 2 0. 0008 2 0. 0284 * 2 0. 0036 2 0. 0146 0. 0507 * * 2 0. 2640 0. 000001 * * * 0. 000001 * * * 2 0. 1156 * * * 2 0. 1064 * * * 2 0. 1261 * * * 0. 0809 * * * 0. 0776 * * * 0. 0858 * * * 0. 0830 * * * 0. 0923 * * * 2 0. 0575 * * * 2 0. 0539 * * * 0. 0595 * * * 0. 0603 * * * 0. 0592 * * * . 9402 * * * 0. 9410 * * * 0. 9942 * * * 0. 9950 * * * 0. 9936 * * * Notes: Signi? cant at: *10, * *5 and * * *1 percent, respectively; the estimated models are: Mean equation: RG;t ? a0 ? a1 Nmt ? rRG;t21 ? ?b10 ? b11 Nmt ? ? RS;t ? ?b20 ? b21 Nmt ? ? RS;t21 ? 1t Variance equations: TARCH: Table IV. Estimation results of extended models ht ? u0 ? u1 1221 ? u2 1221 ? I t21 ? u3 ht21 t t GARCH: p log ht ? u0 ? u1 j1t21 = ht21 j ? u2 1t21 =ht21 ? u3 log ht21 negative market returns, current and last three-day returns, the gold market tends to move in the opposite direction of stock market slumps.The coef? cient of interactive dummy-lagged stock return in the N3 model is signi? cantly negative and its magnitude (in absolute term) is substantially higher than the coef? cient of lagged stock return. Thus, there seems to be a movement of the gold market away from downward trend in the stock market. The evidence that we uncover, thus, supports strong resistance of the gold market to stock market downturns. This is in sharp contrast to the we ll-documented ? nding that national stock markets tend to have strong co-movements during times of market decline and turmoil, which limit potential diversi? cation bene? across national stock markets. The heightened reaction of domestic stock markets to downturns in other markets have been documented by Pagan and Soydemir (2001) and Bahng and Shin (2003) for several emerging markets. Moreover, the ? nancial crises are noted to propagate shocks more strongly through the contagion or domino effect (Dornbusch et al. , 2000; Hasman and Samartin, 2008; Markwat et al. , 2009). Thus, a ? ight to other markets for shelter during times of ? nancial crises may not help. In the case of gold investment, its diversi? cation bene? ts are not restrained in times of market downturns.Indeed, there is some evidence that the stock market may surge in value when the stock market posts a negative trend. Conclusion A series of ? nancial crises that erupted in different parts of the world and their accom panying excessive risk have raised serious concern over investment in stock markets and are likely to bring back interest in gold as an alternative investment asset. In light of this, we examine the relation between gold and stock returns and investigate whether it changes during times of consecutive negative market returns for an emerging market, Malaysia.Applying GARCH-type models to daily gold and stock returns over the period August 2001-March 2010, we uncover evidence indicating signi? cant positive relation between gold return and once-lagged stock return. However, the coef? cient of the once-lagged stock return in gold return equation is small and far from unity. We further note that, their relation has not strengthened during times of consecutive days of market declines. To the contrary, we ? nd some evidence that gold return tends to break from its positive relation with stock market return following four consecutive stock market returns. These ? dings are in sharp contrast to the observed strong co-movements among national stock markets in periods of market downturns, which are attributed to contagion or domino effect. Based on these results, we incline to suggest the favorable property of gold as an investment asset for the Malaysian emerging market. At least, gold provides a diversi? cation bene? t to investors in the Malaysian market. The domestic Malaysian gold market tends to have resistance to heightened risk in the stock market as its preserve its low positive relation with stock market variations regardless of the market conditions.At best, with evidence pointing to the negative relation between gold return and stock market return after four consecutive negative market returns, gold tends to possess a hedging property in times of market declines. In short, our results seem to support the initiative by Malaysia in introducing various gold coins, namely Kijang Emas, Royal Mint gold Dinar and Kelantan State gold Dinar, as a vehicle for preservin g wealth in the midst of recurring ? nancial turbulences during the present time. Market risk and gold investment 33 IMEFM 5,1 34 Note 1. 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