Tuesday, August 6, 2019
The Financial Crisis Of 2008 Finance Essay
The Financial Crisis Of 2008 Finance Essay There were many economic and political factors that lead to the financial crisis of 2008. Specific regulations, companies overstepping their boundaries with leverage, and the housing market bubble are only a few that have been said to have caused it. All of these factors were very important, and some of them are still happening today. The following four companies were on the front pages of almost every newspaper during this time, Bear Stearns Co., Lehman Brothers Holding Inc., Washington Mutual, and JPMorgan Co. To understand how these companies became major players in the financial crisis, the history of the companies must be shown. Bear Stearns Co. began when three men named, Joseph A. Bear, Robert B. Stearns and Harold C. Mayerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ [Invested] $500,000 in capital to start one of the biggest independent investment banks in history. (11) Bear Stearns Co. came to be an extremely strong company. During the stock market crash, the firm [laid] off none of its employees. (11) Bear Stearns was always a strong company and it was not until 2007 that the company had its first quarterly loss. (11) To investors of a public company, over eighty years of profits means someone is running the company right. But once that first loss happened, the stock price sunk for the first time in company history. Lehman Brothers Holding Inc. was originally a small shop (4) that Henry Lehman opened when he moved to Alabama. After [Henrys] death in 1855à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Lehman Brothers evolved from a general merchandising business to a commodities broker that bought and sold cotton. (4) Lehman Brothers helped fund many major companies that are still around today. Some of these companies include Paramont Pictures, 20th Century Fox, RCA, Haliburton, according to (4). Lehman Brothers kept growing even through the Great Depression, making it one of the largest and strongest financial services firms in the US. Washington Mutual originated in 1889 [as] Washington National Building Loan and Investment Associationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ and [lent] its first $700 to build a house in Ballard. (8) Almost twenty years following, the banks name was changed to Washington Mutual Savings Bank. In April 1990, (8) Kelly Killinger was named the companys CEO. Within the next six years, WaMu acquired 16 smaller banks in Washington, Oregon, Utah and California. (8) In the year 1999, [Washington Mutual] buys subprime lender Long Beach Financial, which writes mortgages for people with less-than-stellar credit. This acquisition was a smart move for Washington Mutual to make more money, but it ends up coming back to haunt them in less than ten years. JPMorgan Chase Co. is one of the oldest, largest and best-known financial institutions in the world. (9) JPMorgan Co. started as The Manhattan Company in 1799. (9) JPMorgan Co. merged with many different big name banks and financial institutions of the time. Some of these banks included, Chase Manhattan Bank, Bank One, and The Bank of Manhattan. (9) JPMorgan Co. has also helped numerous big companies start and go public. JPMorgan helped create ATT, GE and U.S. Steel and also helped Apple Computers go public. There are a few different theories of the causes of the financial crisis. One theory is that Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and the FHA caused a housing bubble because they were loaning to lower income people that could not afford the mortgage payments after the ARM payments increased over a short period of time. ARM stands for adjustable rate mortgage, which means, when a house is purchased, there is a low interest rate that people like and can easily make the payments. However, the following year, the payment includes a higher interest rate, which is harder to pay, but still manageable. Then a year or so after that, the interest rate increases to an even higher percentage and this payment is too much for the homeowner to make the payment. The high interest on top of the principal made the mortgage payments so high that the number of foreclosures increased at a very rapid rate. Foreclosures are legal [processes] by which a bankà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦takes a homeowners propertyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ [And ] is the result of non-payment of the mortgage. (3) Soon after, people owed more money on their house than it was originally worth. This caused a panic in the housing system because homeowners that have had their house for years still owed more than their house was worth. This became a huge problem for investors as well. Some people like to invest in houses and flip them to make a quick profit. Flipping a house is when a house is purchased at a cheap price and is then renovated and sold for a quick profit. These investors were able to buy the house for cheap, but since they were considered dealers instead of brokers, they had an inventory of houses that they could not sell. Having to make mortgage payments on three or four different houses cannot be easy when homeowners are having trouble making one mortgage payment. Many of these investors then had to foreclose on their houses, sending them pretty close, if not, into bankruptcy. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were also major contributors to the financial crisis. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are government owned companies that were created to securitize mortgages, making the market for secondary mortgages larger. Securitizing mortgages is when a large amount of mortgages are combined into one security so investors only need to invest in one bond instead of hundreds or thousands of separate bonds, leaving more risk on the investor. AAA was, at the time, the safest bond that could be purchased on the bond market. Bonds are debt a company issues for investors to purchase, giving the company more money to operate with. Many investors choose bonds to invest in because they are extremely abundant and some are very low risk investments. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were government-owned, so the two most credible credit rating companies rated them as AAA. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae had been investing in mortgages that were eventually going to overturn; the bonds were not as safe of an investment as investors thought. This had a major impact on the rating system, making it not as trustworthy, influential or reliable as before. The reputation of credit rating companies has since been hard to trust and will remain questionable for a long time. There were now a countless number of foreclosures on the books of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Homeowners were not paying their mortgage payments because they did not have a reason to if they were going to lose their house. Once mortgages started to lose value to investors and homeowners, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds were not as valuable. This caused a downturn in investments and questionable thoughts about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The second theory for the cause of the financial crisis is that greedy bankers knowingly manipulated the financial system and politicians in Washington [took] advantage of homeowners and mortgage investors. (2) This means that back in 2004 when the exemption was passed, the bankers knew that by having fewer liabilities, they could make more money. So, when banks started being able to invest more money compared to their deposits, they were able to stuff more money back into their pockets, making them even richer than before. This was not good because some people say, money is power and investment bankers did not need more power or money to risk. This extended amount of money was unhealthy because the investment banks could risk more of their money and still have enough capital to cover the bank, if needed. The third and most thought out reason for the financial crisis has ten separate factors, leading to the real answer. (2) According to (2), the ten factors are a broad credit bubble, a sustained housing bubble, excess liquidity, failures in credit-rating and securitization transformed bad mortgages into toxic financial assets, managers amassed enormous concentrations of highly correlated housing risk, risk of contagion, common stock, rapid succession of ten firm failures, and severe contraction in the real economy. The factors listed above are not blaming one person or organization for something they did. These are rational reasons that could have caused the crisis and could have made it easier to calm. However, it is dangerous to conclude that the crisis would have been avoided only if we had regulated everything a lot more, had fewer housing subsidies, and had more responsible bankers. The crisis happened on a much bigger scale than what anyone could have predicted or prevented. The financial crisis of 2008 all started when Christopher Cox, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, passed an exemption on the regulations for the big five investment banks. The meeting on April 28, 2004 was an urgent plea by the big investment banks. (1) These investment banks were looking for a way to raise their leverage ratio. It is said that at Bear Stearnsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ [The leverage ratio] rose sharply, to 33 to 1 (1) shortly after the exemption was passed. The leverage ratio is the ratio between a companys liabilities and common equity. This was a major advantage to Bear Stearns, and the other big investment banks, because they could have a significantly lower amount of their deposits on hand than they were able to before. According to Harvey Goldschmid, a higher leverage ratio means if anything goes bad, it will be an awfully big mess.(1) This statement held true as we see today. On March 16, 2008, Bear Stearns made a deal with JPMorgan Chase Co. (12) This saved Bear Stearns from filing Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Bear Stearns collapse was only the beginning and nobody could stop the economy from being blind-sided. Bear Stearns spiraled from being healthy to practically insolvent in about 72 hours. This was bad news for the entire economy. Bear Stearns experienced one of the largest bank runs in the history of the U.S. A bank run is when many depositors withdraw their money from a bank in a short period of time because the public does not have any confidence in the banking system as a whole. The public panics because they want to make believe their money will be safer outside of the bank. Bank runs do not occur nearly as often as they did before the FDIC. The Federal Deposit Insurance Company ensures depositors that their money will be safe from bank runs by insuring up to $250,000. A bank run can not only shut down a poorly operated bank but could also shut down a healthy bank. JPMorgan, backed by the New York Fed extended a sure line of credit that [gave] Bear Stearns at least 28 days to shore up its finances orà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ find a buyer. (12) Bear Stearns was in immediate trouble and people were starting to believe they wouldnt make it out of that one. JPMorgan agreed to pay a mere $2 a share to buy all of Bear [Stearns]. (13) This was a huge discount for JPMorgan because just one year earlier the stock was around $159.36. (14) This was an extreme drop in the price of a once highly valued stock. According to (14), the actual percentage of the price JPMorgan purchased at compared to the 52 week high was a 98.7 percent drop. This was by far the most dramatic drop in stock price in the 21st century, hoping to not be passed up in the near future. Lehman Brothers was a major factor in the financial crisis of 2008, not because the company was the reason of the crisis, but because Lehman Brothers was the largest bankruptcy case in the history of the United States. (6) The bankruptcy was approximately 691 billion dollars in assets. On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filedà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ under chapter 11of the United States Bankruptcy Code.(5) According to the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy form, Lehman Brothers had over 150 billion dollars of bond debt and over 2.5 billion dollars in bank debts. On May 31, 2008, Lehman Brothers had total assets of 639 billion dollars and debts of 613 billion dollars. This is far from what the leverage or debt ratio should be in a major investment bank. Immediately following the Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual collapsed, causing one of the largest banks to also file for chapter 11 bankruptcy. The bankruptcy was preceded by a large amount of withdraws from the bank in a short amount of time. This is called a bank run. According to (7), Washington Mutual had a $16.4 billion dollar run on deposits in as little as a few days. So, after Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, the public started to get a little uneasy because they thought Lehman Brothers was a sound company. This resulted in many depositors of Washington Mutual to withdraw all or most of their funds. Moodys and Standard Poors are credit rating companies that are believed to have had a say in the financial crisis of 2008. Investors are very reliant on credit ratings, especially when it comes to bond investments. When purchasing a bond, there are ratings, which are related to the safety of the bond. An AAA bond rating is considered the safest bond that can be purchased and any bond with a rating of BB or lower is called a junk bond. A junk bond is considered to be a risky investment because it has a higher default risk than AAA bonds. Default risk is the risk that the borrower will not pay either interest or the principle back. For instance, the U.S. government treasury bonds have a lower default risk rate than Greek government treasury bonds. As earlier mentioned, Bear Stearns Co., Lehman Brothers Holding Inc., Washington Mutual, and JPMorgan Co. were major players in the financial crisis. It is hard to choose which theory is correct, but the third theory is the most reasonable because there is never only one factor that goes into changing the economy so drastically.
Monday, August 5, 2019
The impact of multinational corporations on an economy
The impact of multinational corporations on an economy Multinational Corporation also knows as Transnational Corporation or multinational enterprise. These three things have same definition and function. Multinational company is a company that have manage the business in one country or they called it headquarters and also have their branches of business in others country. Multinational company have brought the advantages and disadvantages in the host country. 2.0 FINDINGS 2.1 Definition of MNC According to the business dictionary MNC means the enterprise that operating in several countries but managed from one (home) country .While according to the International Economics books they divided it into three sections. First by the size, means MNC is the extent of internationalization need. Then by the structure the MNC include the number of countries in which the firm does business and the citizenship of corporate owners and the top managers. Lastly by the performance, depends on the characteristics as earnings, sales and assets. Others meaning of MNC is a network of capital, product, and knowledge flow between organisational units. 2.2 Characteristics of MNC The characteristics of MNC are a company must have and own or control value adding activities in more than one country. And they also have involving in strategic alliances with others company.MNC also bring the new technology with the new capital and access to the local market knowledge and distribution in the host country. Furthermore, the characteristic of MNC is to view the worldwide presence in one or more of businesses. 3.0 STATISTIC 3.1 Foreign Direct Investment Foreign direct investment means the other company from outside which is other country invest in one company of other country. Many of country include in foreign direct investment. Malaysia also takes a part in this business because many advantages Malaysia can get from foreign direct investment from other countries. Malaysia can get many profits and develop the country from it. Malaysia ranks among the world is a top 20th attractive country to foreign direct investment (FDI) according to the World Investment Prospects Survey 2007-2009 FDI by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Malaysia have a good strategy in map which means that the location of Malaysia in the heart of Southeast Asia and offer a cost competitive position for whom thats want invest in that country especially in manufacturing of technology product for regional place and global markets. The factors that Malaysia become a top 20th choice of foreign direct investment is firstly is a hum an resources that Malaysia have is from a younger categorize that is strong and intelligent enough. Malaysia also try to develop the country to become modern and technology so its need the foreign direct investment come invest to Malaysia .When this happen its will be the exchange of technology and increase the knowledge of Malaysia about the technology. Government also provide the good services and tax for foreign invest in Malaysia. This is to make sure the continuous supply of manpower to meet the needs of the growing manufacturing and technology sector of Malaysia. 3.2 The Gross Domestic Product The gross domestic product (GDP) is a basic measure of a country economics performance.GDP is a purchases prices that sum of gross value added by all resident producers in the economy plus any product taxes and minus any subsidies not included in the value of the products. The most common approach to measuring and quantifying GDP is the expenditure method. The figure above shown the graph of Gross Domestic Product from 2005 to 2009 Figure 1.1 Bar chart of Gross Domestic Product (in 2000 constant prices) Ringgit Malaysia in Million 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Gross Domestic Product  (in 2000 constant prices) Ringgit Malaysia in Million                     449,250 475,192 505,353          528,804       528,860 The bar chart above shows that the Gross Domestic Product from 2005 to 2009 in increase. Start from 2005 the Gross Domestic Product in Ringgit Malaysia shows the total is 449,250 million. Then follow by year 2006 the total amount is 475,192 million ,it have an increasing in number. While on 2007 the amount is 505,353 million. For 2008 and 2009 is 528,804 million and 528,860 million. This shows that the effect of MNC that invest in Malaysia have been increase the Gross Domestic Product in every year. The figure above show the pie chart of sector of MNC in Malaysia. Figure 1.2 A pie chart of sector of MNC in Malaysia 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Agriculture, forestry fishing           35,835                  37,769              38,593            40,073          39,260 Mining 42,472                  41,315            42,663              42,337        42,176 Manufacturing 137,940                 147,672            152,262            154,195       141,934 Construction 14,685                  14,604               15,279             15,604            16,071 Services 230,043              246,895               270,762         290,588         303,695 Many of MNC from other country invest in Malaysia. There have a specific into a few sector of MNC. There are agriculture, forestry fishing sector, the mining sector, manufacturing sector, construction sector and the lastly is services sector. The pie chart shows the total amount of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in each sector start from 2005 to 2009.All the sector have the incensement in the GDP according the increasing of the year. Start from agriculture, forestry fishing sector the total of GDP is 39,260 million for 5 years. While in mining sector and manufacturing sector the amount is 42,176 million and 141,934 million. The construction sectors have 16,071 million in the GDP.The largest amount sector that influence the GDP of MNC is a services sector. This can be prove by the total amount is 303,695 million. For the smallest amount is in agriculture, foresting fishing sector. The reason why the agriculture, foresting and fishing is the smallest influence is because Malaysia has their own product that can be produce by the country itself. Its not too necessary to receive the FDI from outside. Furthermore Malaysia has a larger area of forest and sea. Diverse from agriculture sector, is services sector that give a large amount in GDP. Malaysia is a one country that in progress to develop, so its need many of technology to be use especially on a services sector. Example the public transportation service, they need to be improve on the speed and safety for the passangers.Nowdays many of public transportation have been improve such as LRT and KOMUTER.This transportation have a high speed and big space to take a many passengers and they can arrive the destination at the short time. 4.0 EVALUATION 4.1 The contribution of MNC in Malaysia Malaysia is one of the most talented manufacturing and exports that base in the area. Malaysia ranks as among the worlds top 20 attractive countries foreign direct investment (FDI), according to the World Investment Prospect Survey 2007-2009 FDI by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). (www.tradechakra.com). There are more than 60 countries have invested in over 3000 companies in Malaysias manufacturing segment. The countries that have invested in Malaysia is Japan, Singapore, Thailand, United State and more else. Furthermore, Toyota, Hitachi, Ford and IBM are the examples of Multinational companies that contributed in Malaysia country. The main factor that are attracted foreign company to open up their business in Malaysia is the assurance of governments that retain the trade environment that are provides the foreign investors with the profits and opportunity for development. In general, foreign company in Malaysias manufacturing sector can hold 100% equit y in project which export 80% of their production and attractive tax rate incentives in 2008 is 26% and it will cut to 25% appropriate to mutually no-resident and resident companies. Malaysia proposes a broad range of tax encouragement for manufacturing scheme under the Income Tax Act 1967 and Promotion of Investment Act 1986. There are many types or sector of multinational company in Malaysia. The sectors are including the manufacturing, agricultural, mining, construction, forestry and services. For examples, the foreign country that contributes to manufacturing sector likes Japan automotive industry. Nowadays, Japan have contributes their automotive industry like Honda, Mitsubishi, Daihatsu and Toyota in Malaysia economies. 4.2 The advantages of MNC in Malaysia The advantages of multinational company in Malaysia are it will increase the economic resources. This is happen when other multinational companies from outside open their business in Malaysia and the foreign currency exchange rate in Malaysia will be increase the economies indirectly. When transnational company opens their industries in Malaysia, they need to hired people to work with them and it will provide job opportunities for unemployed graduates in Malaysia. Moreover, it will also transfer the management skills and technology to Malaysia. So, they can learn and used the technology for the development of the country. Other than that, Malaysia has its own natural resources like petroleum, oil, gas and others. It attracts the foreign country to open up their business in Malaysia. Moreover, it also will increase the development rate of host nation by introducing new investment, management skills and new technology. For example Perodua Myvi the 6th model of Perodua Malaysia is based on Daihatsu Boon and Toyota Passo from Japan automotive industry. Malaysia automotive and Japan automotive industry are joint venture to produce the new product and new technology. Furthermore, services transfer is also one of the positive impacts of multinational company in Malaysia. It means that, government will transfer the local workers to the foreign country to learn about their management and technology skills. So, they do not need to hired foreign employee to works in Malaysia 4.3 The disadvantages of MNC in Malaysia The negative impact of multinational companies that affected Malaysia is it will change the culture. Malaysia is based on different race and religion and they focuses about their culture and religion. The present of multinational companies from other country especially from West Country indirectly change and spoiling the local culture in the mentality, philosophy and more else. Other than that, they may not promote any development for the nations economic activities by basically source their components from out of the country. Its means, they will make local producers out of business. Multinational companies could take pleasure in high competitive advantages over local firms that can damaged local competition rather than promote it. Other than that too dependence of the foreign technology will make them take the advantages of Malaysias weakness and they will dominance the local industries. In addition, foreign country will interrupt of Malaysias economic plans and they will become ri cher better than local country. This is because they can get worker with low labour cost in Malaysia and cheap of raw materials. Other than that, the tax of Malaysia is low then their country so it makes them attract to open up their business in Malaysia. 5.0 CONCLUSION Multinational Company (MNC) gives a big impact in a country. It has the advantages and disadvantages impact. According to the Foreign Direct Investment the number of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increasing follow by the years. Start from the early 1960s century the enter of MNC in Malaysia give a big impact, mainly in economy and social development of the country .There also have an transfer of technology in the country. Many of the things now is based on the technology. This is the advantages for the country to attract the foreign to invest in Malaysia because Malaysia is the one of the country that in process to develop the country into the developed country. Furthermore many of knowledgement can get from them to produce the intelligent and educated people in the country. The MNC also give the big profit to Malaysia . Although they give many impacts on the advantages in the country, they also give the disadvantages one. When the transfer of social is occurred, they give a some of t he bad social impact for the country. For example, when they have too many MNC from outside invest in Malaysia automatically they dominant the industry and this give the small chance for the local to invest in their own country industry. Other than that the technology of the country just depend on the foreign country. It just gives the foreign company to take advantages toward the host country to produce their technology. 6.0 REFFERENCE Economy Watch, Malaysia Industry Sector [online] Available at: [Accessed on 18 November 2010] Natarajan M. Tan J.M, 1992, The Impact of MNC in Malaysia, Singapore Thailand [ e-book], Institute of southeast Asian ,Available at: [ Accessed on 21 November 2010] Trade Chakra, 2008. Foreign Investment in Malaysia [online] (Updated 7 Dec 2009) Available at: [Accessed on 19 November 2010]
Sunday, August 4, 2019
Love Today :: essays research papers
Love in today’s world has been strongly effected by the social and artistic factors of the past. The question of how has the social environment, in which love is taking place, effected the people that are in love. In stories like Romeo and Juliet, the social environment is the major aspect of the main character love life. Because of their feuding families, their love almost did not exisist, but at the same time, if their families where not in this situation, their love might not of been inspired in the first place. Problem’s like this show up in hundreds of fiction and true life stories all of the time. The only difference between the love between Romeo and Juliet and other scenarios such as West Side Story, and Splendor in the Grass, is that these social situations make the story interesting, therefore, a wonderful love story. In the story, West Side Story, there is a huge social disagreement between two New York City gangs, the Jets and the Sharks. The Jets are primarily a white territorial gang that has been sworn to defend there street from a Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks. This social difference had made these two groups sworn enemies of each and there fore there, it was known that there was to be no interaction between the gangs unless it was expressed in hostility. At a dance on night that both of the racial groups were attending, Tony, a Jets veteran, had his eye caught by a young girl, Maria, who happened to be the younger sister of the Sharks leader, Benardo. Both of the gangs where outraged because Tony had crossed the social line because his love had ruled out the idea of fighting the Sharks because it was not acceptable. Therefore, these two people in love, directly inferred with the social environment during the time that they were living in. In a different sort of social aspect of love, Splendor in the Grass is an excellent example of how a social environment may be related to people in love. Bud, the main character in the story, is from a rich family in the Midwest. Bud’s girlfriend, Deanie, is from a family with less money, who think the world of Bud, but look down at a sexual relationship between the two lovers. The play starts off with the two high school seniors very committed to each. They spend most of their time together and would enjoy times of being together alone. As the play moves on, many factors in Bud’s life make their relationship more and more complicated. Such as Bud’s father Ace, encouraging his son
Saturday, August 3, 2019
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Essay
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is classified as an anxiety disorder that can develop after an individual has observed and/or experienced an extreme traumatic event that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury to one’s self or another (APA, 2000). An extreme traumatic event can include, but is not limited to, military combat, terrorist attacks, natural or manmade disasters, sexual assault, physical assault, robbery, and torture (APA, 2000). The type of traumatic event could influence the way in which medical and mental health care professionals assess, conceptualize, and subsequently treat the individuals with a PTSD diagnosis. For this reason, sexual assault, as the traumatic event that led to the development of a PTSD diagnosis, will be the focus of discussion. The current statistics on sexual assault exemplify the need to focus on this particular population. For example: every two minutes, someone in the United States is sexually assaulted, and each year there are about 213, 000 survivors of sexual assault (RAINN, 2009). The purpose of this paper, then, is to explore how cognitive-behavioral therapies assess, conceptualize, and treat clients with a sexual assault history and a PTSD diagnosis. Treatment Components of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy The treatment components of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) that are typically utilized in the treatment for PTSD include psychoeducation, prolonged exposure and/or in vivo exposure, cognitive restructuring, and anxiety management (Harvey, Bryant, & Tarrier, 2003). Psychoeducation Psychoeducation includes providing the client with information about the common symptomology that may be experien... ... conceptualize, and treat clients with a sexual assault history and a PTSD diagnosis. The sexual traumatic event, experienced by the client, may elicit negative PTSD-related cognitions that are perpetuated by avoidant behavior. Prolonged exposure, in vivo exposure, and cognitive restructuring can challenge and correct such negative cognitions and avoidant behaviors. Psychoeducation can provide information, as well as a rationale about therapy, whereas anxiety management training can provide coping skills to engage in exposure and cognitive restructuring interventions. In general, cognitive-behavioral therapies can provide the means by which to assess, conceptualize, and treat clients, and has also shown to be efficacious (Dobson, 2010; Dobson & Dobson, 2009; Foa et al., 1999; Foa & Rauch, 2004; Harvey, Bryant, & Tarrier, 2003; McDonagh et al., 2005; Roman, 2010).
Friday, August 2, 2019
The Effectiveness of Medical Marijuana Essay -- Drugs
Marijuana, also commonly referred to as pot, weed, cannabis, or a variety of other names, has been cultivated as early as 4000B.C. in China, from the hemp plant cannabis sativa (Miller, 2012). There have been reports of it being used for medicinal purposes dating as far back as 1500B.C. (ProCon.org, 2012a). Although cannabis contains a variety of different chemicals, the main, and most understood, ingredient is THC, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol. The amount of THC in marijuana determines the drug’s strength and can be affected by the growing conditions. Marijuana is usually smoked by being rolled into â€Å"blunts†or â€Å"joints†or by being smoked through a pipe or bong. The difference between blunts and joints is that joints are rolled in cigarette paper, while blunts are wrapped in a cigar shell. Smoking is not the only route of administration. Often times marijuana is baked into brownies or other baked goods. Marijuana, in the form of baked goods, has become very widely used, so much in fact, that some high schools banned students from bringing baked goods from home (Villarosa, 2012). The legality of use of marijuana for recreational as well as medicinal purposes has been a controversial issue for a long time, dating as far back as 1913, and still remains a controversial issue today (Gieringer, 1999). So far, 16 states and Washington DC legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes, and 18 states are still pending legalization (ProCon.org, 2012b). Some major reasons why legalization of marijuana remains such a controversial issue is because of its previous advertisement as a drug that will cause you to be committed to a mental asylum and also the potential harmful side effects. A review of the FDA Adverse Events from 1... ...rce.php?resourceID=000145 ProCon.org. (2012a, March 8). Historical Timeline. MedicalMarijuana.ProCon.org. Retrieved from http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000143 ProCon.org. (2012b, March 9). 18 States with Pending Legislation to Legalize Medical Marijuana. MedicalMarijuana.ProCon.org. Retrieved from http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=002481 Solowij, N., Stephens, R., Roffman, R., Babor, T., Kadden, R., Miller, M., & ... Vendetti, J. (2002). Cognitive functioning of long-term heavy cannabis users seeking treatment. JAMA: The Journal Of The American Medical Association, 287(9), 1123- 1131. Villarosa, L. (2012). Brooklyn Tech Students Broiling Mad over Baked Goods Ban. The Local. Retrieved from http://fort-greene.thelocal.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/brooklyn-tech- students-boiling-mad-over-baked-good-ban/
Thursday, August 1, 2019
Information skills and system Essay
A system is a collection of devices that works together to archive a particular purpose. Examples include transport system, school system, digestive system etc. A system can be represented as following: Input – contribution to processing of system Control – commanding processing unit Processing – transforming input to output Storage – where content can be put away and retrieved for later use. Output – the outcome of this system An information system is a system that accepts data (raw material) as input and information (organised data) as output. Examples include a computer, searchable databases etc. An information system is shown below: Purpose – The use and function of the system Information process – The process of converting data into information Participants – All people who are involved in the system Information technology – The equipment and instruction used. Data and information – Data, the input (raw material), and information, the output (processed data). The information process: – Collecting – gathering of data from real world. Eg entering details – Organising – preparing data for the use of other processes. Eg arranging data into tables – Analysing – converting data into useful information, usually more digestible. Eg creating a graph from tables of data – Saving and retrieving – storing data/information for later uses. Eg saving document onto hard drive. – Processing – making change in data/information, including updating, correction of error etc. eg spell check – Transmitting and receiving – exchanging data/information with other information systems, near of remote. Eg internet, e-mailing – Displaying – presentation of information. Usually user-friendly, easy to understand. Eg projecting graph onto screen Digital representation of data: All data is in a central process unit is processed as electrical currents. Data is usually converted into binary decimals, consisting only 1 or 0, where 1 represents ‘on’ and 0 represents ‘off’. Different data types are converted differently, and this will be discussed in tools for organising later. Binary digits: Decimal Binary Each digit in a binary decimal can only be 1 or 0. To convert from decimal x to binary: divide x by highest possible power of 2, then divide left over by highest possible power of 2, repeat until 1 or 0 is left. Eg 25 = 24 x 1 + 23 x 1 + 22 x 0 + 21 x 0 + 20 x 1; therefore 25 decimal = 11001 in binary. To convert binary into decimal you do the reverse. Eg 101011 in decimal is 25 x 1 + 24 x 0 + 23 x 1 + 22 x 0 + 21 x 1 + 20 x 1 = 32 + 0 + 8 + 0 + 2 + 1 = 43 ASCII code system: The ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) system uses binary decimals to represent different characters. Each digit takes up memory of 1 bit; it takes 8 digits i.e. 8 bits i.e. 1byte to form a character. 1024bytes (210 bytes) = 1KB; 1024KB (220 bytes) = 1MB; 1024MB (230 bytes) = 1GB etc different combinations of any 8 bit forms a character. ASCII includes most if not all symbols, including intangible ones eg Del, Space etc Hexadecimals: Hexadecimal is used in computing when there are too many digits for binary decimal. Eg 255 have 8 digits in binary but only 2 in hexadecimal. It is used for large value numbers such as in the case of html colour panels. Hexadecimals are 16 digit based; 10 – 15 is replaced with A – F respectively. To convert decimal to hexadecimal or hexadecimal to decimal uses the same method as binary conversion, but 16 based. Eg converting 1980 into hexadecimal 1980 = 162 x 7 + 161 x 11 + 160 x 12 Therefore 1980 in hexadecimal is 7BC Eg converting 15FA into decimal 163 x 1 + 162 x 5 + 161 x 15 + 160 x 10 = 4096 + 1280 + 240 + 10 = 5626 Therefore 15FA in decimal is 5626. Social and Ethical issues: Health of human body can be affect through use of information systems. The study of human body and technology is referred as ergonomics. The following are a few health problems the can arise form the use of information system: Tools for information process – Collecting: The collecting process involves deciding what to collect, where to collect form and how to collect. Hardware for collecting different data Text – keyboard, text scanner, voice recognition Numbers – bar code readers, data loggers, keyboard Images – scanner, web cam Video – video recorders, digital cameras Audio – micro-phone, Software for collecting different data Text – Microsoft word Numbers – Microsoft excel Images – scanner software Video – windows media player Audio – Sound recorder Organizing Text – as explained before texts are converted into binary decimals to be processed by other processes, e.g. displaying, analysing etc. Examples of file types: word document, HTML, PDF Numbers – Like text, each numerical number can be converted into a binary number. Common file type: excel, word document Images – An image is an electronic copy of a picture, photo, scanned document etc for display on screen. All images are made of pixels, which are the smallest controllable display element on most screens. There are two types of images: Bitmapped: each pixel is treated individually and represents bits in memory. Their size, colour, tone etc is stored and therefore takes up large amount of memory. The most common bitmapped file types are BMP (high quality images), JPEG (less memory, lossy compression method) and GIF (maximum 256 colours for cartoons, lossless compression by less colour and smaller size). Vector: end points containing information about the line (thickness, colour, gradient etc) common type of file is PNG, but not supported by early versions of internet explorer. Audio – Series of sound measurements. Digital samples are created from real sound waves. The higher frequency of taking samples and the more accurate they are, the better the quality, but the larger the file. Common file types are MIDI and waveform (MP3, MP4 etc). Video – A series of still images recorded at high speed, usually along with audio. Hugh in file size. Common file types include animated GIF, MPEG, Flash etc. data is organized using key frames, one for each image that forms a video/animation when played Analyzing: An example of analyzing data is creating a chart in a spread sheet. Charts and graphs are the most popular ways of analyzing data. They show relationships, trends and comparisons at a glance. The impact (use of colours and symbols to draw attention to important data), speed (obvious) and simplicity (easily understood) made it popular. E.g. software excel, calculator Saving and retrieving: Saving and retrieving is important because it allows edited data to be stored and edited later on. Most information systems have a primary storage and a secondary storage. Primary storage is used to store data/information that needs to be instantly accessible to the CPU. It uses silicon chips on the motherboard to store. RAM random access memory, where frequently used data/information and instructions are stored. When the power is cut off everything in RAM disappears. Data are accessed directly without going through other things. Cache is another example of primary storage. It has the same functions are RAM, but is temporary storage for quick access. ROM read only memory, permanent memory where instructions are stored. These instructions are not to be edited or it may distract the processing of the computer. These instructions are applied when ‘booting’ the computer. Secondary storages are usually portable. Magnetic tape: long thin plastic coated with thin layer of magnetic metal. Magnetic tape can store large amount of data for a cheap price and little space. However it uses sequential memory access, which takes a lot of time. e.g. video tape. Good for back up. Magnetic disk works the same as magnetic tape, but with a circular piece of plastic/metal. E.g. hard disk / floppy disk. Uses random memory access. Optical media uses laser technology to read and write on CD, CDR or CDRE. Written with high power laser to create lots of tiny holes on disk. Flash memory is erasable memory chips e.g. USB, SD card, memory stick etc. Processing: Examples of processing software: audio editing programmes, movie maker, video editors Transmitting and receiving: Buses and ports are used for transmitting and receiving. Buses are connections between CPU and other parts. Ports are sockets that allow an external device to be installed. E.g. e-mail is transmitting and receiving mails. Displaying Printer, monitor speakers etc. most monitors are displayed in pixels. Number of pixels on the screen can be adjusted. Planning, deigning and implementation Understanding the problem This is the first stage of developing a system. It involves identifying the problem that needs to be solved and determining the requirements of the new system through surveys, interviews, analysing existing system, investigation, research etc. Draw up a project plan, specifying who, what how, when; consisting grant charts, schedules, dataflow diagrams, journals, plans etc. Making decisions Determine the feasibility (is it possible) of this new system, analysing potential solutions and makes a recommendation. A feasibility study shows: – nature of problem and overview of existing system – identifying problem – outline constraints (economical, cost vs. benefit; technical, technology requirements and demands; schedule, time wise; organisational, fitting the goal of organization) – restates aim of new system in detail – analyse data collected – suggest solution – no change, new system, investigate etc Designing solution Diagrams such as data flow diagram or system flow chart are used to show context of new system. Data flow diagram is a graphical way of showing the flow of data within the system. O process, ? external entity, ? Data storage, ? data flow. System flow chart shows both flow of data and logic of system. Terminals, input/output, process, database, decision, flow line. Decision trees show all possible decisions and their results. External specification – the appearance of new system Internal specifications – providing technical support to build the system, identify process required by new system, specifications for input data. Information technology – application software may be available e.g. existing accounting softwares. If not then programme has to be written and meets the exact needs of new system. Technical specification – new hardware support need or not. User documentation – user manual for new system. Must be user friendly. Implementing This is the stage of applying the new system. There are three ways of converting to the new system: – Direct conversion – where the new system is completely replacing the old system. Does not allow time to check that the new one works correctly, old system is erased. – Parallel conversion – the new system and old system is run at the same time to allow room for error. – Phrased conversion – gradual implementation of new system. Certain new ones are implemented while other old ones are still operation. Each operation is individually tested. – Pilot conversion – when a small part of the organization uses the new system. If new system fails, old is there to back it up. Training is needed to teach participants to use the new system. The participants include those who are learning and those who are teaching. Who needs to be trained is decided upon their existing knowledge. Testing, evaluating and maintaining System needs to be tested to ensure that it runs correctly. Results are compared to expectations and initial aims. Determines if change is required. Occurs after minor adjustments. Evaluation is the ongoing process of assessing the system to identify areas of weakness that needs to be changed. Maintaining is the modifying of system after installation, upgrading by making minor improvements. IPT year11 exams study notes
Food Preservation Essay
Men have preserved their foods from ancient times in order to keep the results of harvesting for winter months, for resale, for storage, and for transporting from sea to inland, overseas, or cross-country. To do so, they generally used nature’s methods, which are drying, parching and fermenting. Parching is the most natural method, but for many thousands of years, others have also been used. Direct fermentation of liquids, usually by the introduction of yeast, has not only preserved liquids but also enhanced their quality, the same of course applying to salting. Smoking has preserved, and sometimes improved both fish and meat. Hickory wood is generally used for the fires, and natural juices are contained by a slight coating of wood creosote. It was not until recently that the causes of rottenness were understood, these being the reactions of bacteria, molds, yeasts and micro-organisms. Some fermentation and molds are, of course, necessary in the production of food and drink; molds, for example, being used in cheese-making. But the real ‘breakthrough’ in preservation against the causes of rottenness came, when it was learnt how to deal with the micro-organisms present in all foods and drinks, and which react chemically over a period to produce unpalatable or poisonous food or drink. There are three basic methods. Firstly, food may be preserved by cooling or freezing, to a very low temperature when long-term preservation is required. This was originally done by packing in a mixture of salt and ice; today, cold storage is big business and refrigeration is a highly-developed science. ‘Dehydration’ may be bracketed with this method, as the principle involved is the same, namely to suspend the operation of bacteria which requires normal temperatures for chemical reaction. This is why reconstituted eggs cannot against dehydrated, and melted ice-cream refrozen. The second method of destruction is by heat-processes, which destroy all the bacteria present in food and drink. This process is used before canning foods in hermetically-sealed containers, great care being taken not to allow the foods or drink s to become re-infested after cooling and before canning. The third method is to preserve by the addition of chemicals, which control or destroy bacteria. This is merely a follow-up of the old systems of salting, smoking and candling. Eventually, the method of ‘cold sterilization’ is expected to supersede most of the others; this amounts to exposing the food-stuffs to ionizing radiation. Today more than mere food-preservation is sought by the consumer, and for this reason, processes are becoming more and more sophisticated. Quality, economy and convenience are sought by modern man  especially modern woman  convenience is important, the ‘ready-cooked’ meal is popular, while, in Western, or ‘Westernized’ communities, goods do not sell easily if they lack color, a good appearance, natural flavor, the right texture, and are free from defects.
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