Friday, December 27, 2019

Victor Frankenstein s Moral Ambiguity - 1062 Words

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley tells the tale of the protagonist Victor Frankenstein and his creation. Both Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s creation’s questionable actions lead them both to be considered morally ambiguous figures. Victor is ambitious with good intentions, but his ambition leads to bad results. The Creature is an innately kind and compassionate person who commits abominable actions due to how others treat him. Their moral ambiguity is significant, as it reveals that an obsession with ambition distorts one’s morals. Victor Frankenstein’s moral ambiguity lies in good intentions with bad results. Victor evolves from an intellectually curious, innocent and blameless man to being remorseful, secluded and obsessed with the†¦show more content†¦However, the results of the creation of the Creature are egregious, as the creature begins to murder people, specifically Victor’s loved ones, including his brother William upon realizing that William is related to Victor. Victor here is partially at fault in his brother’s death, as he abandoned the Creature, leaving it to terrorize the people. Though he is overwhelmingly contrite for their deaths, he neglects to admit who the true culprit is in William’s murder and allows Justine Moritz to take the blame, an example of his morally ambiguous actions. His inconsiderate actions cost Justine her life, though he feels horrible for it. Even then, he argues that the action he regrets the most—the creation of the monster—was the work of destiny, which was â€Å"too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction.† (Shelley 23) Again, Victor places blame on fate to justify his obsession with ambition that led him to create the thing he regrets the most. His failure to recognize his role in William’s, Justine’s, etc. deaths while concurrently feeling remorseful for them solidifies his status as a morall yShow MoreRelated Morality and Responsibility - Moral Development in Mary Shelleys Frankenstein1627 Words   |  7 PagesMoral Development in Shelleys Frankenstein   Ã‚   Mary Shelleys Frankenstein is a commentary on the natural disposition of man. By personifying her vision of a natural everyman character in the form of Victor Frankensteins creation, The Creature, Shelley explores the natural state as well as the moral development of man, and develops conclusions regarding both. But before Shelley could create her commentary on mans natural dispositions, she was in need of a character to represent her naturalRead MoreThe Moral Knowledge Of Mary Shelley s Frankenstein Essay1640 Words   |  7 PagesMoral knowledge, a tricky subject to grapple with because morals are subjective to everyone. We can’t say whether one is right or wrong, as the truth behind that knowledge is not determined. Since we can’t surely know what we say is right or wrong, is it ok to experiment with ideas that might not be determined to be right at that time? History has proven that the concepts of right and wrong are able to change over time. David Hume ha s much to say about the development of moral knowledge as he createsRead MoreJane Austen s Pride And Prejudice1139 Words   |  5 Pagesways does Jane Austen s Pride and Prejudice conform to ideas of the Enlightenment? In which ways does it foreshadow Romanticism? The Enlightenment refers to a European movement in the late 17th century and early 18th century which emphasized reason and individualism rather than tradition. Jane Austen was born towards the end of the Enlightenment and grew up during its waning years. The influence of the Enlightenment is seen throughout Pride and Prejudice, within Austen s opposition to the sensibilityRead MorePolitics and The English Language: George Orwell ´s Literature3705 Words   |  15 Pages which is for writers to try to separate themselves from their own political agendas as much as possible when they write creatively by dictating â€Å"the position of the writer in an age of state control.† During the context of the essay, the late 1940’s, Orwell use of rhetoric characterises it as a â€Å"political age† where the plethora of â€Å"isms† orbit around the consensus of â€Å"what we daily think about, and therefore to a great extend what we write about, even when we do n ot name them openly.† The connotativeRead MoreLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 Pagesarguing in our technical sense of â€Å"argument,† because neither is giving reasons for what is said. Choice (c), on the other hand, merely describes the Republican Party. One moral to draw from this Concept Check is that an argument based on incorrect information is still an argument; a bad argument is still an argument. A second moral is that an argument can have just one reason, although most arguments use more than one. 7 nearby to ask about Giardia. The underlying principle you applied isRead MoreMetz Film Language a Semiotics of the Cinema PDF100902 Words   |  316 PagesOxford University Press, 1974. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-226-52130-3 (pbk.) 1. Motion pictures—Semiotics. 2. Motion pictures— Philosophy. I. Title. PN1995.M4513 1991 791.43 014—dc20 90-46965 C1P The French edition of Christian Metz s Essais sur la signification au cinema, volume 1, was published by Editions Klincksieck in 1971,  © Editions Klincksieck, 1968. ÃŽËœThe paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence

Thursday, December 19, 2019

History of Relational Database Essay - 743 Words

History of Relational Database Hao-Wei He Wilmington University October 9, 2010 Abstract Database system have been inseparable with our daily life, since IBM developed the hierarchical database management system in 1969, database system has been innovated many times, such as hierarchical database, network database, relational database, and object-oriented database. Nowadays, relational database still is the most popular model used by different industries; this article is going to introduce the history of the relational database. History of Relational Database Data, which can be defined as an entity of meaning, it is the original material to construct message and knowledge. Thanks to the assistance of computer, data processing†¦show more content†¦This concept also derived to the following data types: * Hierarchical Data Model (1960s) Use record as a processing unit, and organize record by tree structure. As a result of the characteristic of tree structure, hierarchical data model particularly suitable for describe â€Å"One to Many† data composition relationship but â€Å"Many to Many† relationship. * Network Data Model (1970s) As a result of the tree structure does not reflect network connection relationship between data and data, so after hierarchical data model, some groups proposed â€Å"Network Data Model†, organize records by network structure. However, records in both Hierarchical data model and network data model use link to strung together, so when programming applications must accommodate the structure status between links, a lot of dependencies between programming applications and data structure, and the independence of data is hard to reach, cause the system difficult to maintain. * Relational DataShow MoreRelatedDescription Of A Database Management System999 Words   |  4 Pages A database is a collection of information sequenced and organized in such a way that the computer may be able to source and access it on demand by the operator. Like any other management system, a database management system is a collection of programs and protocols that enable the user to enter, sequence, organize, retrieve and select data on demand. Thus, a database management system (abbreviated as DBMS) can be defined as the cumulated system that helps the user to access and make effective useRead MoreThe Evolution of The Database Essay example847 Words   |  4 PagesIntro People have been collecting information since the dawn of recorded history. Very shortly after we started recording we ran in to the problem of storage. Where do we put all of this information? We soon developed written languages so we could store our collected information. The next problem to arise was retrieval of our stored information. This led to the development of systems like the dewy decimal system. Organizing books by subject and author made information retrieval a little easier.Read MoreDatabases Essay1628 Words   |  7 Pagestechnical term databases. Just like that the computers database have also come a long way. Database existed since antient times but it was always on paper. The history of Databases The history of database is a story of how experts have been trying to make well balanced usage of complex data. Databases help us think how to structure information and this has been the practices since early times. Before we get into the latest database systems lets go through the history of how the term database came intoRead MoreRequirements For Querying The Web Of Linked Data1244 Words   |  5 Pagesexploration process. 5.2 Querying of Web of Linked Data using SPARQL. We observed two interesting findings from the history of relational and XML databases. Firstly, from query perspective, it is desirable that an existing query language is extended to retrieve a new type of data, allowing information from two formats to be correlated. For instance, use SQL to query both existing relational data and new XML data. Secondly, from data management perspective, it is valuable to express existing data withRead MoreHistory of Database Technology1401 Words   |  6 PagesHistory of Database Technology Past and Present The term database was popularized with the growth of the computer industry and is typically thought of as software used to store, index, manipulate, and retrieve information (Vaughn). Database software has been in use since the Census Bureau used a punch card system to meet the requirements for the collection, sorting, and reporting of data for the 1890 census (National Research Council). These earliest databases were flat file databases. TheRead MoreThe Type Of Technology Necessary For Accurate Crime Analysis921 Words   |  4 Pagesmethods serves as a valuable tool in collecting, storing, and retrieving information required for crime analysis: records management systems, incident reports, computer aided dispatch information, and relational databases (Foster, 2013). Computer-aided dispatch systems only maintain a very limited database (Foster, 2013). The usefulness of a computer-aided dispatch system can be essentially increased by a direct interface with an agency’s records management system (Foster, 2013). A records managementRead MoreThe Life and Contributions of Dr. Edgar F. Codd Essay873 Words   |  4 PagesDr. Edgar F. Codd Dr. Edgar F. Codd was best known for creating the â€Å"relational† model for representing data that led to today’s database industry (Edgar F. Codd) (Edgar F. Codd). He received many awards for his contributions and he is one of the many reasons that we have some of the technologies today. As we dig deeper into his life in this research paper, we will find that Dr. Edgar F. Codd was in fact, a self-motivated genius. Dr. Edgar F. Codd started his monumental life on the southRead MoreEssay on HCM 220642 Words   |  3 Pagesï » ¿HCM 220 - Module 3 Case Study It is important to understand the history of how the healthcare industry decided to embrace the use of computer databases. Typically healthcare was often the last to employ new technology; especially when it came to assembling and disseminating data. As a Director of HIM (Health Information Management) it would be beneficial to remember this as there will undoubtedly be some resistance when attempting to implement new and improved systems to track everything fromRead MoreSql Vs. Oracle Server1285 Words   |  6 PagesWilmington University â€Æ' Abstract Databases are most paramount part in today s organizations. In the event that the servers are down for quite a while and data is not accessible there would be enormous misfortune to the organization regarding income and good will. Thus, databases play an essential part in today s business. There are various relational database management systems (RDBMS) like Microsoft Access, Sybase, MySQL and oracle but out of all databases Oracle and MS SQL are the widely usedRead MoreTesting : Testing And Testing838 Words   |  4 PagesTHE MAJOR TOPIC OF THIS DATABASE IS TESTING (DRUG TESTING) STATEMENT OF WORK: TESTING DATABASE PROJECT HISTORY A hospital is conducting a double blind test of a new depression drug. The test is expected to take into consideration 20 doctors and about 400 patients to be tested. It is planned that half of the patients will get the new drug and half will get traditional Prozac and neither the doctors nor the patients will know who is getting which drug and at what time. The test is organized such that

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Thriving in Competitive Global Context †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Thriving in Competitive Global Context. Answer: Introduction Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become a very important concept in the recent times. Due to the advancement in technology and increase in the popularity of the internet, every business is trying to make the most of this new concept. Internet and technology have not only increased the productivity of the business, but has also provided the business to develop a more personal and direct relationship with its customers. ICT can be used in almost all levels of business which include communication; both internal and external, advertisement, marketing, supply chain management, resource management and conducting competitive analysis. This report conducts a detailed analysis of how the United Arab Emirates is using the internet technology in its business environment. United Arab Emirates is a very important middle east country. The countrys main destination is Dubai, which is also known as the tourist capital of the country. Dubai is the hub for a lot of businesses and tourist activities. The destination is seen as a symbol for luxury throughout the world. This has put a lot of pressure on the economy to stay updated with the latest technology and social trends. Since the trend of media usage is growing at a very fast pace, the UAE is using this platform to improve its business recognition and efficiency (Buhalis, 2003). The report particularly focuses on the business operations of The Emirates Airlines. This airline was one of the key players in introducing internet facilities in its business operations. Emirates used social media marketing opportunities extensively in order to reach a wider customer base and encourage brand loyalty. The airline has a significant presence on the social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. These platforms have helped the business to maintain direct contact with the customers and provide them with a personal touch in the services. The last section of the report contains some recommendations on how Emirates can incorporate the usage of internet in other aspects of the business like traffic monitoring, baggage tracking and resource management (The Emirates Group, 2017). Role of Internet in United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates is one of the most important countries in the Middle East when it comes to tourism. Dubai is the most important tourist destination in the UAE and hence the country has a lot of opportunities when it comes to incorporating internet in the business operations of the country. The two main industries where the country can make the most of the internet is hospitality and airline industry (Jenner, 2017). Since a large portion of the countrys population is foreign nationals, a large number of people are dependent on the internet for the purpose of information on travel, food, geographical locations and other aspects. This gives the country a huge opportunity to make the most of the internet popularity. Free trade zones have been established specifically for foreign investments in industries like IT there is great demand for web based and localized online marketing services. In light of heavy investments in telecommunications the United Arab Emirates is also one of the most connected countries in the region. The country also has the highest reported broadband Internet connectivity in the Arab world which presents a huge opportunity to start online business, advertisement campaigns, communication simplification etc. According to survey conducted by Alexa.com, the most frequently visited global sites in the UAE region were Google, Google.ae, Yahoo, Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, LinkedIn, Dubizzle.com and Twitter. Additionally, the most famous local websites included Souq.com, Gulf news, Maktoob.com, Mozook.com and Google.ae. According to Google Zeitgeists, the search trends of 2016 in the UAE included topics like UEFA Euro 2016, Rio Olympics, Pokmon Go, Ramadan, Donald Trump, iPhone SE, T20 World Cup 2016 (Mercator, 2016). Putting some light on the Search Engine Result Page language, it is a major observation that in the UAE and Dubai results are displayed in both English and Arabic. In case of industries that are highly dependent on expatriates, the majority of search volume is in English. Similarly, the industries that are dependent on the native people and other Arabs, the search volume is mostly in Arabic. The language and keywords for internet search are determined by the nature of the products and the region of promotion.Cities like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, etc. have a very popular trend of paid search advertisements. For some keywords it is observed that there is a full first page of Ad words ads both above the organic search results and to the side of the organic search results. Arabic search result pages often have more open ad space than English result pages in both highly competitive and not so competitive niches. Social Media is becoming a part of the daily routine of people all over the world and United Arab Emirates is no exception to this trend. Since Arabs highly dependent onsocial signals in order to provide updates about their business decisions, having a strong social media presence is very important to become successful in online marketing. According to a survey done by bayt.com, it was found that a company having good social media presence was able to convert up to 40% fans into its customers. 52% of the respondents said that social media had a great impact on their websites traffic (Segre, 2015). Additionally, the survey also found out that more than 65% of the surveys included people that were following the corporations online. All these statistics confirm that social media can be a very successful platform for advertising products and services and also in order to gain brand loyalty. There are several social media sites that are available in the UAE, but Facebook tends to be the l eader when it comes to the number of people having accounts on these sites. It has almost 3.6 million users from UAE. Facebook is followed by LinkedIn, which current has over 1 million users. The popularity of this site can be owed to the popularity of Dubai in terms of business hub. Mobile marketing is one of the most quickly growing online channels in the UAE; Dubai being the leader in the segment. People in Dubai have adapted to mobile technology and the number of smart phone users is growing rapidly. The UAE happens to have the lowest cell phone usage cost which makes it very cheap for the people in UAE to buy and use smart phones. Also, since the lower-middle class of the country might not have access to personal computers, smartphones become their prime channel to use the internet. Hence, having a mobile presence in paid search and organic search in the UAE can prove to be really beneficial for a lot of businesses (Team, 2014). The UAE region does not have a lot of display networks, but it still has numerous networks and sites for banner ads.. There are a few business-to-business websites in the area that charge a huge sum of amount of banner placements. Finding cheaper locations to display advertising on the business websites can be a tough task. The cause of this can also be that there are less number of medium and small scale businesses in the region that use websites and blog for promotion. The region uses blogs to discuss topics like religion, politics and technology. Even though the online display advertisement is a costly affair, yet small-medium businesses use Google Adsense in order to monetize their websites (IstiZada, 2017). Emirates Airlines and Internet Communication plays a major role in order to ensure smooth working of the business. Every organization has communication both within the organization and outside the organization. Internal communication is very important for attaining the goals of the company successfully and external communication is important to stay in touch with the customers and also to find out what the competitors are doing. The organization uses different kind of media to communicate, which is broadly categorized into Old Media and New Media. The old media include mediums like newspapers, magazines and television. The new media consists of several forms of communication that have recently been developed using technology. Social media and internet is one of the most popular form of new media. Social media includes web based or mobile operated technologies that help in making effective communication. It mainly includes blogs, social networks, online wikis, internet forums (Bhasin, 2016). Social media has also had a huge impact on the marketing and corporate communication of the airline industry. The use of social media by the airline was pioneered by airline companies such as Air France and American Airlines. The carriers have the most popular pages on Facebook. The Emirates Airline has also started using social media as a platform for marketing, communication and to manage crisis specifically in bad weather. Emirates in 2011, took the first step to get a Facebook page that marked the footprint of the airlines entry into the social media. The main objective to do so was to create an emotional and active relationship with the customers and to capture the internet savvy segment of the customers. This also helped the brand to reach a wider range of audience since Facebook had always been the most popular social media site. Facebook was seen as a platform to gain brand loyalty and easy communication with customers,, to listen to their feedback; good and bad, and to work upon the loopholes (Paypervids, 2016). The Facebook initiative also happened to be a part of the companys objectives off becoming double its existing size in a time period of five years. In the Facebook category of talking about this Emirates came in second in the used metric with 39290 compared to the winner Southwest Airline at 41035. On the Likes metric in Facebook Emirates came in fourth with 447965 likes after Southwest, Air France and Jet Blue respectively. Emirates also used other social media platforms like Twitter to increase its brand awareness and indulge in effective communication with its prospective customers. According to a survey done by Lets Fly Cheaper, a business travel expert, it was seen that social media marketing was led by Southwest airlines in the airline industry. This trend was later adopted by a lot of other airlines to get the attention of general public. Emirates currently have approximately 867.6K followers. Even though the airlines successfully incorporated social media into its marketing strategy, the company lagged behind in a number of aspects in social media presence like level of tweet engagement and volume of US followers. The company can easily improve its degree of customer engagement if it works on being more active on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. Emirates have also ventured with social media sites like LinkedIn, YouTube and Mobile phone booking to provide excellent customer experience. The airlines have several profiles on LinkedIn that include pilots, air hostesses, crew members and stewardesses. The organization has also featured a number of YouTube videos that contain the experience of various passengers who have travelled with Emirates, expressing how they have loved flying with the airline and also promoting it to other customers. Also, introducing mobile phone booking has enabled the airline to eliminate various travel agencies and partnered organizations that would get their share of commission for booking the flight. This has helped the airline in two aspects. Firstly, the company got a chance to build a direct relationship with its customers. Secondly, Emirates generated extra revenue as the commissions of third parties was excluded from the sales (Lucky, 2014). Emirates in 2014 declared that majority if its flights are equipped with WIFI and also offer the passengers the first 10MBs if data free, using which the passengers can check into their social media accounts for updates. After the exhaustion of those 10MBs, the passengers would be charged a token $1 charge for the next 600 MB. Emirates plan to update its software programming to the extent that the passengers on flight can use unlimited data free of cost during their travelling period. The airline announced that its investing over $22 million every year in order to install and operate inflight connectivity systems that would enable the passengers on the flight to have access to Wi-Fi services. Currently, all Emirates53 A380s and 28 Boeing 777s have the facility of on board Wifi. The airline is taking aggressive measures to make its entire fleet Wifi enabled. Additionally, the airline is constantly working on reducing the charges that customers have to pay in order to use internet on t he flight. During the initial three years after Emirates launched on board Wifi connectivity, more than half a billion passengers got connected to the inflight internet facility and this number is expected to keep growing since the trend of using social media is increasing with every passing day (Verlinda Lane, 2004). Industrial Benchmarking is a technique used to find out how a particular organization is doing in comparison to its rivals in the industry. The industrial benchmarking of Emmirates in comparison to KLM, American Airlines and Air France has been displayed below. This clearly shows that Emirates is definitely lagging behind in terms of the number of followers on Twitter. The airline on the other hand is leading in the section talking about this . This shows that the airline is gaining popularity and attention of the social media users for sure. In terms of Facebook likes, the company is behind KLM and Air France (Ater Orlov, 2012). These facts reveal that Emirates is surely gaining recognition in the field of social media presence, but it still has room for a lot of improvement. The company has the potential to become the leader in social media marketing and can do so by finding the loopholes in its current strategy and improve them. . Metrics Emirates KLM American Airlines Air France Facebook Likes 447,965 1,551,569 291,325 765,102 Talking About This 39,290 30,677 4,855 7,889 Twitter Followers 20,200 279,578 363,700 22,500 Conclusion To conclude I can say that the UAE presents a huge potential for internet incorporation in their business environment. The advancement in technology and increase in the popularity of internet usage provides the country and its industries a lot of opportunities to make their business operations more efficient than ever. Considering the performance of Emirates Airline in using Internet Communication and Technology (ICT) in its business processes, it an be seen that the company is doing great when it comes to using social media for the purpose of marketing and promotion. There are certain areas where the company can put the internet to use and improve the overall efficiency of its business. Some recommendations have been made in this section on how Emirates can use internet in segments other than marketing to gain a competitive edge. The recommendations states some of the methods that are already being used by some other airlines, which can also be adopted by Emirates to improve the eff iciency of its business operations. These recommendations are a follows: Emirates should make use of the internet to detect any mechanical issue. For instance, Virgin Atlantic is using Internet of Things (IoT) devices to protect the airline from any mechanical issue. The airline has produced a fleet of Boeing 787 planes and equipment that was connected via IoT devices. The enabled the airline to receive real time data that would assist in identifying and solving a mechanical issue even before it appears. This made the flying experience safer, with fewer delays and improved the overall quality of the customer experience. Emirates should also take advantage of the technology in order to provide customers with best flying experience (Hudson, 2017). Another area where Emirates can use internet is baggage tracking. Under this, the airline can help the passengers to track their baggage while being on the plane till the time they do not land and receive it. Baggage causes a lot of issues in the airline industry, in case of being lost, misplaced, exchanged or delayed. Radio Frequency Identification technology can be used by Emirates to allow passengers to keep a check on the whereabouts of their checked in luggage. The airline may also develop a mobile application that could provide the travelers with the real time location of their baggage. This would provide transparency to the customers and will also ensure a carefree travelling experience. Since the awareness about environment protection is increasing among people, every organization aims to have minimum impact on the environment. Emirates can use IoT like AirAsia Airlines in order to reduce its footprint on the ecosystem. The airline should partner with GE and could use its flight efficiency services to reduce the amount of fuel used by the airline. This would not just protect the environment, but also reduce the companys cost incurred in buying the fuel. This technology could also be used to follow clearly identified navigation routes which are found to be around 17% inefficient throughout the airline industry (Cederholm, 2014). Another area where the airline industry could make efficient use of internet is in the check-in process. Any trip to the airport requires the passengers to go through long waiting procedures that reduces the quality of their travel experience. Checking is one of those mandatory and annoying activities. Emirates can use IoT to make this process of checking-in automatic in nature. Using this, the customers can get a seat automatically after booking their ticket, 24 hours before the take-off and do not have to stand in long lines to fetch themselves a seat. The chosen seat is determined by the preferences stated by the customer at the time of booking the flight. This saves the customer from a lot of hassle during the time of travelling and assures an excellent travelling experience. Emirates can also use the latest concept of virtual reality entertainment to make the flying experience of the passengers worthwhile. For eg, Qantas Airways partnered with Samsung Electronics to introduce this concept in their flights in the year 2015. The Virtual Reality headsets offered by the airlines provided the passengers with a unique immersive experience as well as collected and transmitted various characteristics of the passengers. This enabled the airline to provide a more personalized customer experience using the data and facts collected by the virtual reality headsets (Samoglou, 2016). Emirates can use decision support systems to check the amount of traffic and bookings on the computer based reservation systems. This will enable the airline to analyze the customer behavior, performance of the partners and traffic flows. This system also helps to compare the performance of the business to its competitors and improvise accordingly. Airports and Airlines can work together using Station Control Systems to monitor connections on a hub and report on issues like crew connections, the aircraft turns, baggage and cargo connections, etc. This will enable that all processes are in line with each other and no chaos will be created wither for customers or for the airlines and airports. Emirates can also use ICT to manage its two most expensive resources which are human beings and fleet. The airline can use maintenance control systems to monitor aircraft maintenance, operational and commercial requirements. This system can assist the airline to make sure that the aircraft is in proper shape and the equipments are well maintained too. This can further help to minimize technical and mechanical glitch. These systems are often installed with e-Procurement systems that allow airlines to order parts. These also consist of engineering systems that would provide online manuals and technical support. Technical documentation management systems often create, distribute, and manage complex technical data and documents. Hence, airlines aim to maximize fleet utilization by improving maintenance, repair and overall performance of the aircraft and airline. References Ater, I. Orlov, E., 2012. The Effect of the Internet on Product Quality in the Airline Industry, Available at: https://innovation-regulation2.telecom-paristech.fr/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Ater-The-effect-of-the-Internet-on-Product-Quality-Ater-June-2012.pdf Bhasin, H., 2016. Marketing mix of Emirates airlines Emirates marketing mix, Available at: https://www.marketing91.com/marketing-mix-of-emirates-airlines/ Buhalis, D., 2003. eAirlines: Strategic and tactical use of ICTs in the airline industry, Available at: https://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/1120/1/fulltext.pdf Cederholm, T., 2014. Must-know: The role of technology in the airline industry, Available at: https://marketrealist.com/2014/09/must-know-the-role-of-technology-in-the-airline-industry/ Hudson, S., 2017. How Airlines Benefit From Constant Connectivity, Available at: https://www.business.com/articles/how-does-the-airline-industry-benefit-from-constant-connectivity/ IstiZada, 2017. UAE Online Marketing Country Profile, Available at: https://istizada.com/uae-online-marketing-country-profile/ Jenner, G., 2017. How airlines are tapping internet things, Available at: https://www.ge.com/digital/press-releases/how-airlines-are-tapping-internet-things Lucky, 2014. Emirates Offering Free Wifi On A380 777, Available at: https://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2014/11/04/emirates-offering-free-wifi-on-a380-777/ Mercator, 2016. 5 great ways airlines are using the internet of things, Available at: https://www.mercator.com/blog/5-great-ways-airlines-are-using-the-internet-of-things Paypervids, 2016. Emirates Airlines Approach to Social Media Marketing Management, Available at: https://www.paypervids.com/emirates-airlines-approach-social-media-marketing-2/ Samoglou, E., 2016. UAE telecoms companies told to free up internet calling, Available at: https://www.thenational.ae/uae/uae-telecoms-companies-told-to-free-up-internet-calling Segre, F., 2015. How the Internet of Things is transforming aviation, Available at: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/01/how-the-internet-of-things-is-transforming-aviation/ Team, E., 2014. Free wifi onboard: How Emirates logs you in, Available at: https://www.emirates247.com/news/emirates/free-wifi-onboard-how-emirates-logs-you-in-2014-11-05-1.568958 The Emirates Group, 2017. Emirates: Communication. [Online] Available at: https://www.emirates.com/us/english/flying/inflight_entertainment/communication.aspx Verlinda, J. Lane, L., 2004. The Effect of the Internet on Pricing in the Airline Industry, Available at: https://leea.recherche.enac.fr/Steve%20Lawford/airline_papers/verlinda_lane04.pdf

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Japanese Gardens Essays (2501 words) - Landscape,

Japanese Gardens Japanese Gardens The role of gardens play a much more important role in Japan than here in the United States. This is due primarily to the fact the Japanese garden embodies native values, cultural beliefs and religious principles. Perhaps this is why there is no one prototype for the Japanese garden, just as there is no one native philosophy or aesthetic. In this way, similar to other forms of Japanese art, landscape design is constantly evolving due to exposure to outside influences, mainly Chinese, that effect not only changing aesthetic tastes but also the values of patrons. In observing a Japanese garden, it is important to remember that the line between the garden and the landscape that surrounds it is not separate. Instead, the two are forever merged, serving as the total embodiment of the one another. Every aspect of the landscape is in itself a garden. Also when observing the garden, the visitor is not supposed to distinguish the garden from its architecture. Gardens in Japan incorporate both natural and artificial elements, therefor uniting nature and architecture into one entity. Japanese gardens also express the ultimate connection between humankind and nature, for these gardens are not only decorative, but are a clear expression of Japanese culture. Although this extremely close connection of the individual with nature, the basic principle of Japanese gardens, has remained the constant throughout its history, the ways in which this principle has come to be expressed has undergone many great changes. Perhaps the most notable occurred in the very distinct periods in Japanese history that popularized unique forms of garden style?Heian (781-1185), and the Kamakura (1186-1393). Resulting from these two golden ages of Japanese history came the stroll garden from the former period and the Zen garden from the later. As we shall see, the composition of these gardens where remarkably effected by the norms of architecture and the ideals of popular religion in these eras. Therefor, in understanding each garden style in its context, it essential to also take into account the social, historical, and theological elements as well as the main stylist differences. Japanese aristocrats from at least mid-eighth century customarily had gardens near their homes. During the Heian period a somewhat standard type of garden evolved in accordance with the Shinden type of courtier mansion (Bring and Wayembergh, p. 28-29). Characteristic of the Heian period was its extremely rigid class stratification; life for the farmers, merchants and artisans consisted of very simplified dwellings in comparison to those of members of the aristocracy. The architecture ?norm? for aristocratic homes was in the Shinden-zurkuri style, ?which was clearly based on the principle that the individual parts of the building should be merged as much as possible into the garden? (Yoshida, p.12). The main building, named the Shinden, represented the area reserved for the master himself, and always opened up to the south side of the garden. There were corridors, or tai-no-ya, connecting the Shinden to the rest of the buildings in the complex. There corridors created an enclosure whi ch is where a lake would be placed and where the stroll garden was erected. Kinkakuji, also known as the Golden Pavilion (1394), serves as an example of this Shinden type. The site in northern Kyoto was developed as a large retirement estate by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1409) beginning in 1394. The pavilion itself was sited the edge of a sprawling palace complex that no longer exists today. This was intended as proof that the warrior shogunate could contribute to the cultural and aesthetic life of the land to an extent equal to that of the imperial aristocracy. It has been recorded that the actual emperor of Japan visited Kinkakuji in 1408, the first time an emperor had ever stayed with a person that was not a member of the imperial court. The shogun died the year after. After his death the palace was turned over to the Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism and it has remained under its control ever since. The Golden Pavilion is a three-story viewing and pleasure pavilion constructed on the edge of a pons as the focal point to a much larger garden on the grounds of the Rokuoni Temple. The pavilion itself is based on

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Huddle investigation Essay Example

Huddle investigation Essay 1. That the larger the huddle, the smaller the amount of heat lost. That is, an organism (test tube) on its own will lose more heat than if it were huddled in a group. In an experiment using test tubes, this will be supported by data which shows that a test tube by itself will lose more heat in the same amount of time than if it were in a huddle.2. The temperature loss should decrease proportionally as the size of the huddle grows.3. Also, the organism (test tube) in the centre of the huddle will lose less heat than an organism or test tube on the outside of the huddle.The reasoning behind this hypothesis is that as the huddle group grows in size, the amount of exposed surface area will be reduced per test tube. Although in practice not every test tube is exposed, theoretically, this is a way of comparing huddles.Also, in a huddle of many organisms, or test tubes, if there is a centre test tube which is not exposed, it will be warmer than those on the periphery of the huddle. This hy pothesis can be supported by data collected in the experiment by measuring the temperature of the centre of the huddle and the periphery of the huddle. The centre will be warmer because it has no surface area exposed to the outside.Huddling is a behavioural adaptation to the cold climate. Huddling (in the case of penguins) is when a group of penguins stand closely together, nestling, in an attempt to reduce heat loss collectively as a group. This idea is effective because as a group, the penguins have lesser surface area exposed to the cold per penguin. Thousands of penguins have been seen in the Antarctic nestling together. It is can be said that huddling together is the most vital adaptation of penguins to survive the breeding season, when the males are incubating the eggs and do not go out to find food, a source of energy.PLANNING BIndependent variable: the size of the huddleDependent variable: the amount of heat lost as a huddleControlled variables:- the type of test tubes- thic kness of the test tube glass- size of test tubes- the same test tubes were used- source of hot water- use of hot water, not any other substance- amount of hot water in each test tube- same thermometer- controlled environment thus the room temperature should be the same- the experiment was conducted away from windows, to minimise chance of sunlight adding heat to the huddle- amount of time allowed for each experimentApparatus:10 identical test tubes2 rubber bands2 thermometersA stopwatchA test tube rackHot water (from a tap)Materials to record dataMethod:In this experiment the temperatures of different huddles were measured. A test tube is used to represent one penguin.For means of comparison, an experiment was conducted where single test tube stood alone. Then we also used groups of 7 and 10 test tubes, to represent the increasing size of the huddle.Safety note: be mindful of the hot water.Measurements of the circumference of the huddle were also taken, to measure the surface area e xposed.The 1-test tube (solo penguin) experimentApparatus:1 test tube1 thermometerA stopwatchA test tube rackHot waterMaterials to record dataMethod1. We filled the test tube so that it has 22 mls of hot water. We did not use boiling water because the glass of the test tube may break.2. We placed the test tube in the rack, so that we were not holding it and transferring heat.3. We measured the initial starting temperature, and took measurements every minute for 6 minutes. The thermometer was held so that it was not touching the bottom of the test tube, to avoid measuring the temperature of the test tube rather than the water. The water temperature is wanted, because we are measuring the heat loss from the water, which would be the body of the organism. The test tube perhaps can be seen as the skin or fur of the organism. Also, glass retains heat.4. Repeat this experiment to obtain a more accurate overall result. We repeated this experiment 4 times. In consideration of time restraint s, there can be 2 of these experiments conducted simultaneously if there are 2 people involved.5. The circumference and length of the test tube was measured, so that a rough estimate of the surface area exposed can be measured.The 7-test tube huddle experimentApparatus:7 identical test tubes2 rubber bands2 thermometersA stopwatchHot waterMaterials to record dataMethod:1. We first bound the 7 test tubes together, to form a huddle. Identical test tubes are used so that a direct comparison can be made between the inside and the outside of the huddle with regard to heat loss. A test tube made of a thinner glass would lose heat more rapidly than a thick test tube.2. With 7 test tubes, a flower pattern was formed. The two rubber bands held the test tubes together. In this experiment, there was no props needed to keep the huddle standing, the huddle was self-standing. We also did not want to introduce a beaker to hold the huddle together, because this could act as insulation against heat l oss.3. Then we filled the test tubes with hot water from the tap, minimising the time taken. Each test tube was filled to approximately the same level. It would have taken too long to measure out 22 mls for each test tube the water in the first test tube would have lost a significant amount of heat by the time the 7th test tube was filled.4. As soon as all test tubes were filled, the initial temperature of the inner test tube and an outer test tube was taken (it does not matter which outer test tube is measured). Again, care was taken so that the water temperature was measured, not the test tube glass temperature.5. Measurements of temperature (of both the inner and an outer test tube) were taken every minute, for 6 minutes.6. This experiment was repeated 4 times.7. Again, with time restraints, 2 of these experiments can be conducted simultaneously, simply by doubling the apparatus needed.8. The circumference of the huddle and the length of a test tube was measured, so that later c alculations of the surface area could be worked out.The 10-test tube huddle experimentApparatus:10 identical test tubes2 rubber bands2 thermometersA stopwatchHot waterMaterials to record dataMethod:1. The 10 identical test tubes were bound together by the two rubber bands. Again, identical test tubes are used so that direct comparisons of between test tubes within the huddle can be made.2. In the experiment of the 10 test tubes, the formation illustrated below was formed.3. In this case, the test tubes were also self-standing, so no other apparatus was needed to prop the huddle.4. Steps 3 to 8 of the 7-test tube huddle experiment can be applied in the same way for this 10-test tube huddle experiment.To measure the circumference of a huddle1. To measure the circumference of a huddle, to place a string around the entire huddle and measure the string would be inaccurate. To gain a more accurate measurement, the string should trace the test tubes on the periphery, as shown below.2. The string is then marked, and measured against a ruler.RESULTSResults from the 1-test tube experiment (solo penguin)Temperature (à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C) of the 1 Test Tube HuddleTime (mins)Trial 1Trial 2Trial 3Trial 4040.040.043.045.0139.039.042.043.0237.538.540.542.0336.038.039.540.0435.036.538.539.0534.7535.538.038.0634.034.537.037.0Results from the 7-test tube huddle experimentTemperature (à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C) of the 7 Test Tube HuddleTrial 1Trial 2Trial 3Trial 4Time (mins)Inner Test TubeOuter Test TubeInner Test TubeOuter Test TubeInner Test TubeOuter Test TubeInner Test TubeOuter Test Tube043.042.042.042.044.044.048.046.0142.041.041.041.054.044.048.045.0243.041.042.540.544.543.048.045.0343.041.042.040.044.042.047.044.0442.040.542.039.043.041.046.043.0541.040.041.039.043.041.045.541.5640.539.040.538.542.040.045.041.0Results from the 10-test tube experimentTemperature (à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C) of the 10 Test Tube HuddleTrial 1Trial 2Trial 3Trial 4Time (mins)Inner TTOuter TTInner TTOuter TTInner TTOuter TTIn ner TTOuter TT046.044.046.044.049.048.048.046.0145.543.045.044.049.047.048.045.0245.043.045.044.048.046.047.044.0345.042.044.042.047.545.546.543.0444.041.044.042.047.045.046.542.5543.040.544.041.546.044.046.041.5642.039.543.040.545.543.046.041.0Physical Measurements of the huddleTable showing the physical measurements of the huddle and the test tubes1-test tube7-test tube huddle10-test tube huddleCircumference (cm)6.924.531.6Length of test tube (cm)15.0DATA PROCESSING AND PRESENTATIONChange in temperature in the experimentsTable showing the change in temperature (Initial temperature Final temperature)Temperature (à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C)Trial 1Trial 2Trial 3Trial 4Average1-test tube huddle6.05.56.08.06.3757 test-tube huddle INNER test tube2.51.52.03.02.2507 test tube huddle OUTER test tube3.03.54.05.03.87510 test-tube huddle INNER test tube4.03.03.52.03.12510 test tube huddle OUTER test tube4.53.55.05.04.500The variations in starting temperature in this case were ignored, as it was the i nitial temperature minus the final temperature calculated, thus the change was measured.It can be seen that the average change in the 1-test tube experiments were vastly different to those obtained in the other experiments. However this figure may be distorted by the result of Trial 4. If we look at the individual results from Trials 1 to 3, they are comparable with the results from the outer test tubes of the 10-test tube huddle. In this way, they do not look so atypical. The result obtained from Trial 4 must be an anomaly in the results.To more easily interpret the averages as shown in bold type in the table above, a bar chart can be drawn.From the chart, the distinct differences in heat loss can be seen, and two hypotheses are supported: the single test tube alone lost the most heat on average, and the inner test tubes lost less heat than the outer test tubes. However as shown by the overall taller columns for the 10-huddle, the increasing size of the huddle does not necessarily mean the lower the heat loss.The amount of heat lost by the single test tube (6.375à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C) was almost 3 times as great as the amount lost by the test tube at the centre of the 7-huddle (2.250à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C). The average amount of heat lost by an outer test tube of the 10-huddle was still significantly lower than that of the single test tube. Even if the anomaly of Trial 4 is taken out, the average is 5.833à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C, which is still considerably lower than 6.375à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C.The difference between the inner and outer test tubes of the 7 and 10-huddles is on average 1.5à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C (the difference between the inner and outer test tube of the 7-huddle was 1.625à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C, and the difference between the inner and outer test tube of the 10-huddle was 1.375à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C). This clearly supports the hypothesis that the inner test tube loses less heat than an outer test tube because of the lack of surface area exposed to the external environment.The fact that the 10-huddles over all lost more heat in the same amount of time than the 7-huddles is surprising, because assuming the more test tubes in a huddle, the more heat there is to share between the test tubes. However, if we perhaps look at the theory that radiation is transferred from hot to cold (so that the colder are warmed by the hotter), the size of the 10-huddle may be hindering its ability to collectively retain heat. Perhaps the overall greater surface area can be seen as the cause of the overall greater heat loss in the 10-huddle than in the 7-huddle.Below is a table showing the exposed surface area in each of the huddles.Table comparing the surface area exposed in the different huddles in the experiment1-test tube7-test tube huddle10 test tube huddleOverall surface area exposed (circumference x length of the test tube) cm2103.5367.5474.0Surface area per test tube (theoretically) cm2103.552.547.4The graph below compares the differences in exposed surface area.A greater exposed surface area woul d mean that more heat is being lost at one time from a single source. Perhaps it can be concluded that despite the increased amount of heat contained in the huddle (more test tubes means more hot water thus more energy altogether), the increase in exposed surface area counterbalances this heat, and thus the huddle is losing more heat than it is retaining collectively. The heat from the inner test tubes would be passing out more heat to the outer test tubes, to maintain the same temperature.Perhaps in theory, the 10-huddle should lose less heat because of the lower surface area per test tube figure (the surface area exposed per test tube for the 7-huddle is 52.5 cm2; 10-huddle, 47.4 cm2). However the discussion in the paragraph above gives a reason why this figure is misleading if one is to use this to judge the efficiency of a huddle in retaining heat.In real life, it would be difficult to say that the greater the huddle, the greater the surface area, thus the greater the inefficien cy in heat retention. Penguins prove this there huddles of thousands of penguins seen in the Antarctic region during breeding season. If smaller groups are more efficient, then surely the penguins would break up into smaller huddles as a survival mechanism.CONCLUSIONThe results from this series of experiments supports two hypotheses: that a single test tube will lose more heat per test tube than a test tube in a huddle, and that in a huddle, the inner test tube will lose less heat than an outer test tube. The single test tube on average lost 6.375à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C, whereas the other test tubes only lost 2.250-4.500à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C. The differences between the inner and outer test tubes within the huddles was at least 1.375à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C, as in the case of the 10-huddle. The difference between the inner and outer test tube of the 7-huddle was 1.625à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C.The hypothesis that the greater the size of the huddle, the lower the heat loss per test tube is not supported by the data collecte d. The validity of heat loss per test tube comparison is maintained by the measuring of temperatures of the individual test tubes, not by measuring the overall temperature of the huddle. The data showed that the 10-huddle per test tube lost overall more heat than the 7-huddle, both in the cases of the inner (the inner 10-huddle test tube lost 0.875à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C more heat than the inner 7-huddle test tube) and outer test tubes (the outer 10-huddle test tube lost 0.625à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C more heat than the outer 7-huddle test tube).It can be concluded huddling has an effect on heat loss, in that a huddle will lose less heat than a single test tube (or organism, as applied in real life). However, according to the experiment, it seems that the greater the size of the huddle, the greater the heat loss, although it is not as great as the heat loss experienced by the single test tube. This is odd, because in real-life, experiences of penguins would tells us that the greater the size of the huddl e, the lower the loss of heat per penguin (test tube). It can also be concluded that huddling is most beneficial to the animal in the centre, as they experience less heat loss than an animal on the periphery of the huddle. Thus, huddling has a significant effect on heat loss.EVALUATIONEvaluation of method:A weakness in the method is that the volume of water for the 7-huddle and 10-huddle experiments differed every time it was performed. As mentioned in the Method, it would have been impractical to measure out exactly 22 mls for each test tube, because by the time the 7th or 10th test tube was filled, the first test tube would have lost a considerable amount of heat while standing. The volume of water for each experiment was measured, and between the 7-huddles, there was only a difference of 4 mls, and between the 10-huddles, there was a difference of 5 mls.We have to take note of the fact that glass absorbs and retains heat, and so the heat loss we are attempting to measure may not be completely accurate. However, if we draw parallels between the test tube and skin of the animal, this may be accurate because the animal would retain the heat in its fur/feathers, thus not all the heat would be lost to the external environment. The heat loss in the water can be paralleled with the core temperature of the animal.I did not take into account the area exposed at the top of the test tubes, or at the bottom of the test tube because these would have been too difficult to measure. The meniscus of the water would prove difficult to measure, as would the curve of the bottom of the test tube. Furthermore, heat lost from the top would not be through glass (there is on glass at the top of the test tube). The bottom of the test tube is also thicker than the sides. Thus, heat lost from both these gaps would not be the same as heat lost from the sides. In order to keep the experiment consistent, these were ignored as part of the calculation for surface area.Time restrictions mus t also be considered. Although the time the temperatures were measured over was fairly small (6 minutes), there were still palpable differences between the experiments, and the hypotheses could be supported with the data collected. The differences were not so small it was difficult to establish whether or not there was a pattern. However if the experiment was conducted over an even longer period of time (perhaps 10 minutes), the patterns may be even more distinct. Perhaps in the long run the 10-huddle may have performed better than the 7-huddle in heat loss.The temperature could also only be measured to 1 decimal place, but my partner and I decided to round up to the nearest half or whole number. This way, interpretation is clearer and reading the thermometer can be done with ease.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Death Essays - Animation, Angry Kid, Filmmaking, Free Essays

Death Essays - Animation, Angry Kid, Filmmaking, Free Essays Death All it takes is five seconds, and it can change your whole perspective about the word "Death". Last May a good friend of mine died, after falling off a bicycle. I couldn't comprehend the fact that he was dead for a few hours after my father told me. It seemed to me that just a moment ago I was playing basketball with him. He was only twelve but I knew him since he was very young. Actually he was almost a best friend to me. After his accident he was rushed to the hospital with a coma. Then after two weeks all his organs eventually failed. I was so na?ve. During the time he was in the hospital, I always told myself that he was going to be all right and he was going to be out of there in no time. But I was wrong, and I learned that life wasn't like that and it didn't always happen that way. Having a near death experience myself, my thoughts about death also took a different turn. I never thought death would even come near me. Last year in May, my sister, dad, and I were driving down to California. And it was about seven o'clock in the morning and my sister was driving. Then she fell asleep and starting driving off the road. She swerved back on the road really hard, which made the car flip over four times. Then we were rushed to the hospital and stayed there for about an hour. My sister and I were all right but my dad was in critical condition. My dad ended up only loosing his pinky finger. Just being in that situation made my outlook on life and death different. I couldn't bear the fact that my dad would be gone forever. Being a Christian I was brought up to believe that people who believe in Jesus Christ would have a greater destiny in heaven. But in these two situations with death, I wasn't able to think about them being gone and in heaven. I only ! thought about them being gone period. Watching all the hurts and tears that people shed during my friends death made me think about how death can be such an impact on peoples lives. People do not take death lightly. Their emotions and thoughts take a big twist and a lot of questions go through their thoughts like "What if that were my son"? Or "What if that was me"? Also regrets start creeping into peoples minds especially the parents. I started to regret not spending enough time with him and not being a good enough friend with him before he was gone. And I'm sure the parents also had familiar regrets. And now that that person is gone, there will always be a piece of my thoughts missing. There are thoughts that I had that were so repetitive and thoughts that I had so often that involved my friend. And now I have to change those thoughts and adjust them into thoughts that I would have of him not being around and gone forever. Having a close friend die also will force anybody to make changes in their lif! e, in their thoughts and in there every day act of living. This experience with death also made me have a sentimental attitude towards people that I don't even know, that have died. For instance, when I watch the news and someone has died, I usually just feel sorry for a few minutes and forget about it. But now I can relate to the families and friends of the person that had past away. Just a few days ago a very important man in my church died from cancer. He was also my principle in grade school. They announced his death Sunday morning during the church service. I again got to watch many people weep and mourn over this great man of stature. I got to see some friends of mine cry that I had never seen cry before. Which is another example how death can totally flip anyone's emotions. In conclusion, death is never easy to deal with. And death is something that you cannot help. If anyone close

Thursday, November 21, 2019

DNA Barcoding Invertebrate Lab Report #1 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

DNA Barcoding Invertebrate #1 - Lab Report Example Currently two such databases exists, the Barcode of life (BOLD) and The International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaborative which is an intiative of the three main Nucleotide databases, GenBank, EMBL and DDBJ. The fouth and final stage is to carry out an analysis where specimens are identified with the closest matching reference record in the aforementioned databases. In this lab report, we sought to perform a barcode analysis using mayfly DNA sequences in the BOLD database. The barcode sequence is mainly a short DNA sequence which has a uniform location in the genome and is used to identify species. One of the commonly used sequence in DNA barcoding is the cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI). This was the sequence we used this work. The barcoding process involves identifying a universal locus which has retained enough sequence conservation throughout evolution and can be sourced from many organisms. This sequence should also be diverse so as to be competent enough to differentiate a target species to the family level. Generally regions of the chloroplast (rbcL gene) and the mitochondria (COI) meet these requirements. Various studies have been undertaken by Herbert et al (2003a, 2004b) and established this COI sequence as the sequence of choice in DNA barcoding in insects and vertebrates. Inverterbrates such as mayfly are collected whole and may b e euthanized in a kill jar by placing them in a freezer. In the lab, primers are designed to target the conserved regions flanking the rbcL or the COI

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

A change in the price of a good causes a movement along the same Essay

A change in the price of a good causes a movement along the same demand curve or along the same supply curve whereas a change in any of other determinant of dem - Essay Example This is a very important determinant. Generally, a rise in income is associated with an increase in demand for most goods (normal goods) (Sloman, 1994). Examples are cars and other durable goods. Demand for some goods is unaffected by a change in income. For example, demand for salt and furniture is satiated above a certain level of income. Demand for some goods will fall as income rises (inferior goods) (Sloman, 1994). These are often the less expensive substitutes of another better quality good. For example, consumers reduce their demand for cheap televisions with fewer gadgets and increase their demand for expensive televisions with more gadgets when income rises. The ability to afford a good, especially expensive durable goods, will depend also on the availability of credit facilities. Another determinant that causes a shift in the demand curve is substitute goods (Dominick, 2003; Sloman, 1994). These are goods that can be used to replace one another to satisfy a particular want. Consumers choose among substitutes partly on the basis of their relative prices. Examples of substitute goods are butter and margarine, tea and coffee, and apples and oranges. These goods are in competitive demand fulfilling the same kind of want. A rise in the price of Good Y will tend to increase the demand for Good X that has become relatively cheaper. The two goods are substitutes if an increase in the price of one leads to an increase in the demand for the other. For example, if the price of tea increases it is expected that the demand for coffee will increase. The quantity demanded for tea is expected to fall. The third determinant that causes a shift in the demand curve is complementary goods (Dominick, 2003; Sloman, 1994). A good is a complement to another good to the extent that it is used jointly. The goods are consumed together (in combination) to satisfy some particular want. Examples are car and

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Critical Response Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Critical Response - Research Paper Example The two stories intricately crisscross each other and in a way assume a form and life of their own as they gradually unravel. Dunye’s film primarily comes out as a complex yet somewhat enticing insight into the American history, delving on the relevance of cultural icons and issues pertaining to cultural representation. However, the film sometimes confuses the audience going by the fact that it has a lot going on in it at the same time, thereby making the plot a little complicated with haphazardly placed setting of the events, their order and duration, and the exact relationship between them. Still, Dunye has been able to manipulate the link between the plot and the story to facilitate a sense of drama. To a great extent the story relies on stereotypical contrasts and comparisons like the differences between regular, curious and evolving character of the young black lesbian Cheryl and Tamara, her particularly stereotypical, hardliner and close minded friend. The one big weakne ss in the film is that it predominantly intends to intrigue through the ingenuity of the exploitation of documentary techniques. May be it is owing to this that some audience may find themselves disappointed by the disparity and lack of correlation between the form and the content. What the forms in the movie Watermelon Woman seem to offer, the content sadly falls short of it. One special thing about the larger theme of the movie is that it has definitely succeeded in emphasizing the emotional relevance and value of cinema. However, the coy romance engaged in by Cheryl, and the wacky shots that she is continually subjected to, to a large extent dilute the overall impact of the movie, making it conveniently ingratiating for an audience with regular expectations, without being able to score the incumbent and associated political comments. Though, the prime focus of the director seems to be to resuscitate a part of the African American history that conveniently got sidelined in the flo w of time, which is the Black sexual history, the film badly falls short of achieving this objective in a forceful way. However, Dunye has managed to succeed in securing varied salient objectives that attend the feature films associated with the like subjects and themes. In her own peculiar way Dunye has been able to write a history that earlier never existed. In that context, the film Watermelon Women is securely grounded in the historiographical facts and realities of the Black people and especially the black women of the last century. For instance, Cheryl’s quest for the ‘Watermelon Woman’, engages her in interesting and thought provoking interviews with many people who happened to be the fundamental part and parcel of the Black Club culture during the interwar days. While delving on the film in a serious and analytical manner, one simply cannot help identifying the personal stake that the director has in the movie. The Watermelon Woman throughout hovers aroun d an essential black lesbian identity. However, it does so by stimulating the viewers to correlate and identify the connections between the stories of a black American actress from the bygone era, who managed to accrue fame through a range

Friday, November 15, 2019

Analysis of Momentum in Indian Stock Markets

Analysis of Momentum in Indian Stock Markets LITERATURE REVIEW The first study on momentum based investment strategy was documented way back in 1967. Levi (1967) claims the success of trading strategy based on buying stock with current price significantly higher than the average of last 27 weeks generate significant positive abnormal returns. However Jensen Bennington (1970) argues that the trading rule based on relative strength proposed by Levi was the one out of sixty eight trading strategies he tested and while tested for out of the sample test period it did not outperformed the buy hold strategy and hence was attributable to selection bias. Test of contrarian investment strategies was stealing the show fund managers were found busy picking stocks based on relative strength in US market. Majority of mutual funds examined by Grinblatt Titman (1989) note the tendency of fund managers to buy the stocks that have seen price increase in last quarter. Apart from that Value Line rankings of mutual funds that were largely based on relative strength also enjoyed high predictive power. The success of mutual funds investing on the basis of relative strength and high predictive power of value line rankings (Copeland Myres (1982)) provide some evidence of success of investment strategies based on relative strength. The academic literature suggests contrarian returns generate abnormal returns whereas value line rankings and mutual funds generating abnormal returns based on relative strength strategy are in stark contrast of each other. A seminal study by Jegadeesh Titman (1993) solves the puzzle by providing an explanation based on different of investment horizons considered by mutual funds using momentum strategies and contrarian strategies advocated by academic literature in late eighties and early nineties. Jegadeesh and Titman (1993) using US market data from 1965-1989 found not only the evidence of long term success of contrarian investment strategy but also found that momentum strategies generate significant positive returns in medium run over 3-12-month holding periods. They documented the reversal of momentum after about nine months. Their study suggests that in short run for about 3-12 months holding period momentum strategy generate significantly positive returns while in long run for the holding period of 1-3 years contrarian strategy generates significantly positive returns. Conrad and Kaul (1993) also find evidence from US market that the contrarian strategy is profitable for short-term (weekly, monthly) and long-term (2-5 years, or longer) intervals, while the momentum strategy is profitable for medium-term (3-12-month). As mentioned earlier the results of Jegadeesh and Titman (1993) had thrown a new light on seminal study of De Bondt Thaler (1985, 1987) and found evidence of short term momentum precedes long term reversal. Although all the results provided strong evidence of market inefficiency, different studies documented different explanations for such returns. Fama French (1996) presents result based on multifactor CAPM using size and MV/BV ratio to explain various anomalies in asset prices including momentum as well as contrarian returns and claim that market efficiency is intact. However the study failed to explain the presence of short term momentum using the multifactor model and hence short term momentum anomaly remains unexplained. Several behavioural explanations were found and presented to jointly explain the short-run cross-sectional momentum in stock returns documented by Jegadeesh and Titman (1993) and the long-run cross-sectional reversal in stock returns documented by DeBondt and Thaler (1985). Daniel, Hirshleifer, and Subrahmanyam (1998) (DHS hereafter) assume that investors are overconfident about their private information and overreact to it. If these investors also have a self-attribution bias, then investors attribute success to their own skills more than they should and attribute failures to external noise more than they should. The consequence of this behaviour is that investors overconfidence increases following the arrival of confirming news. The increase in overconfidence furthers the initial overreaction and generates return momentum. The overreaction in prices will eventually be corrected in the long-run as investors observe future news and realize their errors. Hence, increased overconfidenc e results in short-run momentum and long-run reversal. As against the above cited behavioral explanation to short term momentum and long term reversal, some scholars argue that the returns from these strategies are just compensation for taking additional risk or may be the product of the data mining. Most noteworthy of all Conard and Kaul (1998) argue that the profitability of momentum strategies may be the result of data-mining and momentum portfolio shows positive returns in any post ranking period is true irrespective of the length of test period. Thus Conard and Kaul (1998) suggest that there is no case of long term reversal. This is diagonally opposite to what the behavioral models suggests where after short term momentum prices will reverse to more fundamental levels. In fact, the criticism of Conard and Kaul (1998) led to another study by Jegadeesh and Titman (2001) where they used out of the sample test by using data from 1991 to 1998 an overlapping test period compared to their 1993 study where they used data form 1965-89. Their study also eliminated small firms from the study to check whether the earlier momentum returns were actually dominated by small, high-risk and illiquid stock or otherwise. Though they focus on short term momentum in their study choosing two year holding period post formation but they also tested post holding period returns from the period of two to five years after formation. They present some very interesting results. The momentum profits of Jegadeesh and Titman (1993) continued in 2001 also with almost same magnitude for same holding period that actually has proved that the earlier momentum profits were not the result of data-mining. It also suggests that unlike small firm effect where after the published research on superior returns on small firms compared to their large counterparts, superior returns on small firms disappeared in subsequent studies using data from the periods after the small firm effect from earlier studies got published, that means market has learnt quickly and hence such superior returns disappeared however momentum returns were still present with the same magnitude in 2001 as they were in 1993 study suggest that momentum returns are not just the temporary anomaly but it may have to do with some systemic cognitive bias which sustains for a long time. It also proves that momentum profit is just not the result of some small, illiquid and risky stocks and most noteworthy the reversal found in their post holding period cumulative returns, which render support to the explanations of behavioral theorists and provides evidence against the Conard and Kaul hypothesis. As far as studies in Asian markets are concerned Chang (1995) found abnormal profits of contrarian strategies in the Japanese markets. Chui (2000) found significant positive abnormal returns with contrarian investment strategy in Japanese and Korean markets. Hameed Ting (2000) found evidence of market overreaction hypothesis (contrarian strategy) in Malaysia. Kang (2002) found significant short term positive returns with contrarian strategy in Chinese markets. On the other end, Hameed Kusandi (2002) found no evidence of contrarian profits in six Pacific Basin markets. While Rouwenhorst (1998) and Griffin Martin (2005) found existence of momentum in many non-US countries, the quantum of momentum returns in non-US countries was small, and in the case of Asia, insignificant. For example, Griffin (2005) estimates average monthly returns of 0.78%, 0.77% and 0.40% for the Americas (excluding the US), Europe and Asia respectively. End of the Beginning or Beginning of the End†¦ The big bull has fallen down, investors have lost their vision, and experts knowledge went futile with the downturn of the global economies. When the markets were on peak, the funds across the world have flooded in the global economies. Policy makers had lot of confidence on the market, that it will help the economy to grow at faster pace. The market excelled 21000 points which was more ahead then the growth of the economy of India. But that does not seem true for the world economies, as the crisis had hit badly in USA and other parts of world which insisted FIIs and other investors to withdraw their money and markets crashed, went to 7000 points, where investor lost everything and policies could not work to take them up to the level. What was the reason of the crash? What will be the result of the market? Is this the end of the beginning or beginning of the end? Indian market is the strong base of determining the financial system of the country. Majority of the financial decisions are dependent on the stock market other financial market. Indian stock market serves a link to banking and other financial policies which provides impetus to the industry. Indian stock markets heavily based on the sentiments of the clients (market players) also of the market makers. The crash or boom (in a period/ year) determines the structure of the Indian capital system. The boom in the market (year till 2008) has brought many changes in the performance of mutual funds, insurance (ULIPS), investment products which led the country into the inflow of the money supply in the market. Till 2007-08 the market was running at its best, touched the heights, but the global crash in the market became a typhoon took away major players organizations into the quick sand of the recession. The insights from the market were not showing positive sign in anyways, so whether this was a new platform or just a time (economic) cycle. Prologue to decline†¦ Earth provides enough to satisfy mans need, but not greed. -M.K.Gandhi The market crash started with the fall of big financial organizations in the USA in the world like Lehman Brothers, AIG, Freddie and Fannie and many more. The failures were primarily due to exposure into Subprime loans Credit default swaps issued to insure these loans the issuers devolved resulted into bank failures steep reduction in the price of equities worldwide. The economic crisis led many world markets to suspend the trade due to fall in price. On October 8, 2008 Indonesian stock market halted trading, after a 10 % drop in one day. The crash of 2008 was around 21% which was little less than 1987 (Times of London). Beginning of October month was Black in the world market. The Dow Jones volumes were low and the industrial average fell over 1874 points which was worst weekly decline. The Icelandic stock market was into pitiable situation where the markets had been suspended for 3 days i.e. 9, 10 13 October. On October 24 many of the worlds stock market experienced the worst decline, with around 10% drop in the indices. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:OMX_Iceland_15_SEP-OCT_2008.png The above graph shows the steep and the worst decline a market could ever witness. The Iceland stock market crashed up to unpredictable level. The trading had been suspended for 3 days because of the crash in the market. This situation was visible in all global stock markets, because of financial crisis in USA. Hence, the worst was yet to be experienced by the global markets market players. The Indian stock markets were also badly hit the confidence of people was shattered. The markets were not showing the positive sign in any of the context people had no clue about the next jump or next level of the market. Market experts were expecting the markets will be into recuperation at the earliest, but things were not going the way it had been desired. Source: Hindubusinessline.com Indian market which has shown strong performance till 2007, but from January it plummeted more than 3000 points on all the stock prices by October 2008, it had touched the 7000 (BSE) line. The continuous unpredictable scenarios in the stock market led many investors and institutional investors to withdraw their money because of negative performance of the markets. The above shown graph is depicting the dream turned into nightmare for global domestic investors. The Beehive capitalism†¦ Everything that goes up without base falls steeply with great force. The same situation has happened with the world economies. The supreme economy of the world has become the devil for the small economies, leading major big companies to file for the bankruptcy. The global meltdown is the result of Financial Hybrids Innovations, which has been actively traded all across the world markets. The investment bankers, banks, financial institutions were actively relied on these new and innovative models, which has yet to gain the acceptance across the world. The main accused element for collapse is â€Å"Credit crisis†, in which the US banks got the regulations to lend money to the people having no sufficient background to get the loans. These kind of loans were termed as NINJA loans (NO INCOME, NO JOBS, NO ASSETS), given in abundance by the US banks. Emerging economies like India, China and other big economies were initially considered to be the places which will remain unaffected from the distortion of crisis. But despite of the strong fundamentals Indian economy dipped into the crisis. The stock market had lost more than 50% of its value (source: economic times), which shattered the hopes of the Indians. There was continuous monitoring by the Central Bank (Reserve Bank of India) on the market trend. The tornado of crisis had destroyed most of the stock markets, banks and financial institutions after soaring to the new heights of investment. The below mentioned graph depicts the movement of BSE Sensex SP CNX Nifty Source: SEBI Bulletin November 2008. BSE Sensex closed at 9788 on October 31, 2008 as against 12680 on September 30, 2008, a fall of 3072 points (almost 24%).The month of October 2008 had been the most volatile month, where Sensex recorded a high of 13055.67 on October 1, 2008 low of 8509.56 on October 27. Nifty closed 2886 on October 31 against 3921 against 30 September 2008. By the end of a month Nifty registered the fall of 1035 points (almost 27%). The market had shown unpredictability of the base stability level, dissuading more and more investors to take exit from the market. The Financial crisis: A Sub-prime loan is a type of mortgage loan made to borrowers who have at least one of the following characteristics: (1) Low credit scores; (2) The inability to post the traditional 20 percent down-payment for a home; and/or (3) The inability to fully document their income. The subprime crisis is not the result of recent financial innovations and developments, but it is the outcome of lax capitalism policies which had been developed by the US government. In the fifties American government passed a legislation to delink the commercial banking investment banking. The legislation stated implied that a commercial bank cannot open an investment bank. In 70s European American economies faced slowdown, due to which these banks were finding difficult to invest their investible surplus. This time the East Asian economies were liberalizing their economies, due to which the capital from western economies started moving to these economies. After the huge influx of capital into these economies, Asian bubble gets burst, forcing the western economies to introduce new financial measures to invest into the markets. These circumstances and the need of new financial avenues led the US European economies to trade into the new financial products, by liberalizing the norms for Commercial Investment Banks. The liberalization in the regulations led to the introduction of the Mortgaged products (a prime cause of crisis). In the late 90s US mortgage lender began offering the mortgage products to would be â€Å"home buyers† who could not qualify for a mortgage loans. Millions of Americans Europeans, who previously could not afford to buy home, were obtaining these mortgages, due to which great Demand of home (boom) took place leading to shoot of real estate prices. The above diagram shows how the base of subprime crisis took place in the global markets. The downfall in the economies is considered to be as the Dominoes Effect. The lax screening of borrowers, large capital accumulation capitalized market structure created a bubble which could not be ceased from getting expand. The whole cycle got mitigated with the introduction of new instruments in the financial markets. The sub prime crisis is about the collapse of the unregulated, $3 trillion over-the-counter market for complex structured assets, some of which happen to contain sub prime residential mortgages. The semiannual global financial stability report by IMF said that declining US housing prices and rising delinquencies on the residential mortgage market could lead to losses of $565 billion. When combining these factors with other market factors, it puts potential losses at about $945 billion which is almost 25% of the $24trillion global credit market. Financial innovations were brought into the market to make the products work in the market. The Mortgage products started to conflagrate the US European markets, where such loans started becoming the pool of assets (Risky) and been traded in the market. Hence, due to this many other factors got the impetus ultimately resulted into the uncontrollable bubble of mortgage, which gets burst and deepened the world economies into the recession. The subprime crisis has affected the global economies resulting into the fall of big financial corporation like Lehman Brothers, Bear sterns, AIG, Freddie Fannie, and many more big organizations of whom one cannot think to get fail. The sizes of the organization (exposure) were in plethora that it was not possible for the US European government to revive these financial institutions. AIG, one of the largest insurance companies (Private) became government undertaking due to the impacts of financial crisis. SUB PRIME OVERVIEW: Source: The India Economic Review 2008. (Dec 08) The whole system works in three stages, Stage First consist of Borrowers lenders; Second stage consists of the creation of SpecialPurpose Vehicle (SPV) with the inclusion of legal intermediaries. The last (third) stage consists of investors those who had invested their money into the riskier assets including the investment banks. In stage first agent enters between borrowers and lenders, accepting the collateral and also factoring the future price rise. The agents accept the loans, who previously could not even qualify for the approval, now getting loans from the banks other lenders. The housing price bubble allowed many borrowers to get loans easily because of the high house prices. The loans were mortgaged on a larger scale by creating the pool of similar group of mortgage assets through Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) given the risk involved on the pool of assets. In second stage, SPVs were created all the liabilities were transferred into bankruptcy remote securitization trust or SPV. Underwriters were used to issue market the MBS (mortgage backed securities). These securities were divided into different tranches, which were of similar securities. The rating agencies were to give rating to these tranches of securities. The ratings were given to the tranches based on the risk, priority of payment of the funds. Higher ratings were given to those tranches benefiting from the credit enhancements the MBS generates or credit insurance purchased from third party bond insurer. In third stage, Institutional or individual investors such as hedge funds or managers of Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs), purchase the securities and then re-securitize the MBS, along with other assets, into a CDO. The Commercial Papers (CP) generated in the initial years was all sold and there was demand for more. Consequently the SPVs started producing more CPs or MBS. The sale of the same only meant that the SPVs were flush with funds. These funds were to be invested somewhere so, the agents were pressed to bring in more borrowers. The lending norms were further diluted to accommodate lesser and lesser deserving borrowers in order to deploy the huge funds available. The consequent spiral that got generated only led to the continued dilution of the Capital Adequacy and Prudence norms. The system went burst once the housing prices turned negative turning the very foundation of subprime lending upside down. The turmoil of subprime has been expected of more than $ 3 trillion, which is too big for any country to even imagine of recuperating. The impact on Indian market was slow but had been proved acute on the stock market due to the constant humongous withdrawal of FIIs loss of confidence in the consumers (investors). Mortgage: Huge pack of cards†¦ The magnanimous crisis which all started with lax policies of US government, provided impetus for the Fed Reserve to implement new structures in the economy. The capitalist policy was looking very attractive to the market players, but the policy was hollow from the fundamentals. It all started with the Alan Greenspans reformative structures models in the financial markets, led to turmoil in the global economies. The US Fed Bank Clinton government in 1999 passed Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) which had abjured the old Glass-Steagall Act which had regulated the Investment Banks, Banks Insurance industries. The new legislation has unregulated the Wall Street Investment Banks and commercial banks. This deregulation has enlarged the gamut of activities in the financial activities of the commercial banks other financial institutions. The deregulation had been further reintroduced by legalizing gambling activities into financial sector, a prohibition that had been in place after 1907 financial crisis. The steps towards deregulation of the US markets had converted the US markets into a big casino. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2004 took a step towards the deregulation on the financial activities by removing the ceiling on risk that the largest American investment banks could take on Securitized loans. By this time, no one would have thought that the deregulation will result into large speculation create a bubble in the market. Lastly, the Securities and Exchange Commission took the last step toward deregulating financial markets when in the month of July 2007, weeks before the onset of the subprime crisis; it removed the â€Å"uptick† rule for short selling any security. The housing bubble was fed by extraordinarily low interest rates low lending standards (norms) for mortgages. The excessive monetary liquidity short term interest rates fell to 1%, which led to high borrowing of loans from the banks, resulted into the big bubble of mismanagement of financial activities. After the tech bubble burst in 2001 the recession, the Fed (Greenspan) aggressively lowered the Federal funds rate from 6.5 percent to 1 percent in 2004, the lowest since 1958. The lowered interest rates reduced lending standards made the banks to lend the money known as ‘ Predatory Lending to the borrowers who did not have capabilities to qualify for the loans, but with the mortgage lending, excessive loans were provided to these lenders as they (banks) were getting big bonuses for bearing risk on these loans. Non-traditional home loans were advanced to borrowers who had no documented incomes. Some loans were interest only loans with down payments of 5% or less . Some were Adjustable Rate loans (ARMs), with low interest rates for one or two years to be reset later at much higher rates. In 2006 around 25% of American mortgages were subprime and close to 20% were ARMs. Mortgage lenders and Home buyers presumed that home prices were not going to fall on a national basis. THE NEW ALCHEMY OF FINANCE The subprime crisis is the result of new financial products in the market the deregulation of the financial activities for the FIs. The main reason of such lending was the facility with which subprime lenders could sell their risky mortgages upstream to bigger players, investments banks for example, which undertook to buy them, pool them into mortgage bonds and re-channel them into new financial instruments through a process of aggressive securitization. The Structured Investment Vehicles (SIVs) which fall into the large class of derivative products came under various names such as Collateral Debt Obligations (CDOs). They had the characteristics of short term asset based commercial paper that were backed by the underlying income producing mortgage assets downstream and were graded according to a certain risk of default. More than 1 trillion half dollars of these asset backed financial products were sold in all over the world. Another new financial instrument that made matters much worse and led directly to the crisis: the Credit Default Swaps. Due to lack of government regulation, this product has become a weapon of mass destruction. In order to protect against the risk of default on the new asset-backed securities (ABS), some insurance companies but also some investment banks themselves began to issue bilateral â€Å"insurance† contracts against the newly created ABS. These were called Credit Default Swaps (CDS), which were supposed to protect the investment instruments against the default on asset based securities. The issuer of ABS could buy the protection against the default by paying a premium. This was a financial innovation, the so-called â€Å"insurance against default†, that opened the floodgates of money to be invested in the new financial instruments. Indeed, it allowed investors such as pension funds and other institutions which have a fiduciary obligation to buy only high-qualit y securities, to legally buy artificially highly rated (but risky) ABS securities, or to invest in hedge funds which specialized in leverage trading in derivative products. But the problem was that the issuance and use of such financial â€Å"insurance† contracts were not regulated by any government agency, because the word â€Å"insurance† was not used; instead, they were considered as simply a protection against the â€Å"default† of payment on a financial security. And thats where the gambling part enters the picture: only ten percent of CDS are genuine insurance contracts held by investors who really own asset-backed securities (these are covered CDS); 90 percent of them are rather held by speculators who trade CDS, while not owning any asset-backed securities to be protected (these are naked CDS). Economy as Casino: The gamut of gambling that US government Fed has created was even unimaginable, allowed big participation into these new investment instruments. Credit Default Swaps (CDS) can be bought and sold by speculators who are not directly involved in the mortgage business. Because of the 2000 Commodity Futures Modernization Act passed by Congress, no state has the power to regulate this new form of sophisticated gambling. The result is astounding: it is estimated that the notional value of credit default swaps outstanding today is about $ 62 trillion (four times the size of the US economy). This is an indication of popularity of the â€Å"naked† CDS innovation was as a way to bet on the collapse of the entire asset-backed securities construction. This was also a clear sign that, in a crisis, it would be all but financially impossible for the issuers of CDS to meet their obligations. In other words, disaster was just around the corner. This is an event that any regulatory agency should have seen coming. When housing prices hit the expected top of their cycle, in the 2005, and began falling, especially in 2006, the price for CDS s was still relatively low. So, some astute speculators undertook to buy CDSs and simultaneously began selling short the ABS that had been issued by investment banks, such as Lehman Brothers, in the correct expectation that mortgage-backed securities were bound to lose value with the expected rise in home foreclosures and mortgage defaults. This is how unimaginable spiral got created by the steps undertaken by Fed Reserve US government which ultimately result into the great burst ever faced in the history globally. GRAMM-LEACH- BILLEY ACT 1999 The Gramm Leach Billey Act 1999 (GLBA) passed by US government in the year 1999 with a view of security data integrity in the market. The GLBA repealed the part Glass Steagall act of 1933, which had opened the market among the banking companies, securities companies insurance companies. The GSA had prohibited any one institution from acting as any combination of an investment bank, a commercial bank and or an insurance company. But the GLBA allowed commercial banks, investment banks, securities firms, insurance companies to consolidate. The act was announced in the 1993 finalized in 1994, allowing many big corporations to merge to enhance their range of activities take the benefit of the deregulation. The law was passed to legalize these mergers on a permanent basis. The law has not fully deregulated the previous act, but they had relaxed the norms and allowed the FIs to have non financial assets. GLBA was amended with some part of the Bank Holding Company act of 1956. The crucial aspect of the GLBA stated that no merger can go ahead until the financial holding institutions, or affiliates receives a â€Å"less than satisfactory (SIC) rating at its most recent CRA exam†. GLBA compliance was mandatory; whether a financial institution discloses non public information or not, there must be a policy in place to protect the information from prospective threats in security data integrity. The law was segregated into three main aspects: FINANCIAL PRIVACY RULE: This rule requires FIs to provide each consumer with a privacy notice at the time the consumer relationship is established and annually afterwards. The notice must explain the information collected about the consumer, where that information is shared, how that information is used and how that information about the consumer is protected. The consumer must be notified give consent about any change at any point of time. Each time the privacy notice is reestablished the consumer has the right to opt it again. SAFEGUARDS RULE: The safeguards rule requires FIs to develop a written information security plan that describes how the company is prepared for, and plans to continue to protect clients non public personal information. This plan must include the following; Denoting at least one employee to manage the safeguards. Constructing a thorough on each department handling the non public information. Develop, monitor test a program to secure the information. Change the safeguards as needed. The Safeguards Rule forces financial institutions to take a closer look at how they manage private data and to do a risk analysis on their current processes. PRETEXTING PROTECTION: The GLBA encourages the organizations covered by GLBA to implement safeguards against pre texting. Pre texting means when someone tries to access the personal nonpublic information without proper authority approval. Thus the institutions having covered under the GLBA, needs to have control safeguard the information of their client, to prevent the details from any misuse. CRITICISM AND DEFENSE: There Analysis of Momentum in Indian Stock Markets Analysis of Momentum in Indian Stock Markets LITERATURE REVIEW The first study on momentum based investment strategy was documented way back in 1967. Levi (1967) claims the success of trading strategy based on buying stock with current price significantly higher than the average of last 27 weeks generate significant positive abnormal returns. However Jensen Bennington (1970) argues that the trading rule based on relative strength proposed by Levi was the one out of sixty eight trading strategies he tested and while tested for out of the sample test period it did not outperformed the buy hold strategy and hence was attributable to selection bias. Test of contrarian investment strategies was stealing the show fund managers were found busy picking stocks based on relative strength in US market. Majority of mutual funds examined by Grinblatt Titman (1989) note the tendency of fund managers to buy the stocks that have seen price increase in last quarter. Apart from that Value Line rankings of mutual funds that were largely based on relative strength also enjoyed high predictive power. The success of mutual funds investing on the basis of relative strength and high predictive power of value line rankings (Copeland Myres (1982)) provide some evidence of success of investment strategies based on relative strength. The academic literature suggests contrarian returns generate abnormal returns whereas value line rankings and mutual funds generating abnormal returns based on relative strength strategy are in stark contrast of each other. A seminal study by Jegadeesh Titman (1993) solves the puzzle by providing an explanation based on different of investment horizons considered by mutual funds using momentum strategies and contrarian strategies advocated by academic literature in late eighties and early nineties. Jegadeesh and Titman (1993) using US market data from 1965-1989 found not only the evidence of long term success of contrarian investment strategy but also found that momentum strategies generate significant positive returns in medium run over 3-12-month holding periods. They documented the reversal of momentum after about nine months. Their study suggests that in short run for about 3-12 months holding period momentum strategy generate significantly positive returns while in long run for the holding period of 1-3 years contrarian strategy generates significantly positive returns. Conrad and Kaul (1993) also find evidence from US market that the contrarian strategy is profitable for short-term (weekly, monthly) and long-term (2-5 years, or longer) intervals, while the momentum strategy is profitable for medium-term (3-12-month). As mentioned earlier the results of Jegadeesh and Titman (1993) had thrown a new light on seminal study of De Bondt Thaler (1985, 1987) and found evidence of short term momentum precedes long term reversal. Although all the results provided strong evidence of market inefficiency, different studies documented different explanations for such returns. Fama French (1996) presents result based on multifactor CAPM using size and MV/BV ratio to explain various anomalies in asset prices including momentum as well as contrarian returns and claim that market efficiency is intact. However the study failed to explain the presence of short term momentum using the multifactor model and hence short term momentum anomaly remains unexplained. Several behavioural explanations were found and presented to jointly explain the short-run cross-sectional momentum in stock returns documented by Jegadeesh and Titman (1993) and the long-run cross-sectional reversal in stock returns documented by DeBondt and Thaler (1985). Daniel, Hirshleifer, and Subrahmanyam (1998) (DHS hereafter) assume that investors are overconfident about their private information and overreact to it. If these investors also have a self-attribution bias, then investors attribute success to their own skills more than they should and attribute failures to external noise more than they should. The consequence of this behaviour is that investors overconfidence increases following the arrival of confirming news. The increase in overconfidence furthers the initial overreaction and generates return momentum. The overreaction in prices will eventually be corrected in the long-run as investors observe future news and realize their errors. Hence, increased overconfidenc e results in short-run momentum and long-run reversal. As against the above cited behavioral explanation to short term momentum and long term reversal, some scholars argue that the returns from these strategies are just compensation for taking additional risk or may be the product of the data mining. Most noteworthy of all Conard and Kaul (1998) argue that the profitability of momentum strategies may be the result of data-mining and momentum portfolio shows positive returns in any post ranking period is true irrespective of the length of test period. Thus Conard and Kaul (1998) suggest that there is no case of long term reversal. This is diagonally opposite to what the behavioral models suggests where after short term momentum prices will reverse to more fundamental levels. In fact, the criticism of Conard and Kaul (1998) led to another study by Jegadeesh and Titman (2001) where they used out of the sample test by using data from 1991 to 1998 an overlapping test period compared to their 1993 study where they used data form 1965-89. Their study also eliminated small firms from the study to check whether the earlier momentum returns were actually dominated by small, high-risk and illiquid stock or otherwise. Though they focus on short term momentum in their study choosing two year holding period post formation but they also tested post holding period returns from the period of two to five years after formation. They present some very interesting results. The momentum profits of Jegadeesh and Titman (1993) continued in 2001 also with almost same magnitude for same holding period that actually has proved that the earlier momentum profits were not the result of data-mining. It also suggests that unlike small firm effect where after the published research on superior returns on small firms compared to their large counterparts, superior returns on small firms disappeared in subsequent studies using data from the periods after the small firm effect from earlier studies got published, that means market has learnt quickly and hence such superior returns disappeared however momentum returns were still present with the same magnitude in 2001 as they were in 1993 study suggest that momentum returns are not just the temporary anomaly but it may have to do with some systemic cognitive bias which sustains for a long time. It also proves that momentum profit is just not the result of some small, illiquid and risky stocks and most noteworthy the reversal found in their post holding period cumulative returns, which render support to the explanations of behavioral theorists and provides evidence against the Conard and Kaul hypothesis. As far as studies in Asian markets are concerned Chang (1995) found abnormal profits of contrarian strategies in the Japanese markets. Chui (2000) found significant positive abnormal returns with contrarian investment strategy in Japanese and Korean markets. Hameed Ting (2000) found evidence of market overreaction hypothesis (contrarian strategy) in Malaysia. Kang (2002) found significant short term positive returns with contrarian strategy in Chinese markets. On the other end, Hameed Kusandi (2002) found no evidence of contrarian profits in six Pacific Basin markets. While Rouwenhorst (1998) and Griffin Martin (2005) found existence of momentum in many non-US countries, the quantum of momentum returns in non-US countries was small, and in the case of Asia, insignificant. For example, Griffin (2005) estimates average monthly returns of 0.78%, 0.77% and 0.40% for the Americas (excluding the US), Europe and Asia respectively. End of the Beginning or Beginning of the End†¦ The big bull has fallen down, investors have lost their vision, and experts knowledge went futile with the downturn of the global economies. When the markets were on peak, the funds across the world have flooded in the global economies. Policy makers had lot of confidence on the market, that it will help the economy to grow at faster pace. The market excelled 21000 points which was more ahead then the growth of the economy of India. But that does not seem true for the world economies, as the crisis had hit badly in USA and other parts of world which insisted FIIs and other investors to withdraw their money and markets crashed, went to 7000 points, where investor lost everything and policies could not work to take them up to the level. What was the reason of the crash? What will be the result of the market? Is this the end of the beginning or beginning of the end? Indian market is the strong base of determining the financial system of the country. Majority of the financial decisions are dependent on the stock market other financial market. Indian stock market serves a link to banking and other financial policies which provides impetus to the industry. Indian stock markets heavily based on the sentiments of the clients (market players) also of the market makers. The crash or boom (in a period/ year) determines the structure of the Indian capital system. The boom in the market (year till 2008) has brought many changes in the performance of mutual funds, insurance (ULIPS), investment products which led the country into the inflow of the money supply in the market. Till 2007-08 the market was running at its best, touched the heights, but the global crash in the market became a typhoon took away major players organizations into the quick sand of the recession. The insights from the market were not showing positive sign in anyways, so whether this was a new platform or just a time (economic) cycle. Prologue to decline†¦ Earth provides enough to satisfy mans need, but not greed. -M.K.Gandhi The market crash started with the fall of big financial organizations in the USA in the world like Lehman Brothers, AIG, Freddie and Fannie and many more. The failures were primarily due to exposure into Subprime loans Credit default swaps issued to insure these loans the issuers devolved resulted into bank failures steep reduction in the price of equities worldwide. The economic crisis led many world markets to suspend the trade due to fall in price. On October 8, 2008 Indonesian stock market halted trading, after a 10 % drop in one day. The crash of 2008 was around 21% which was little less than 1987 (Times of London). Beginning of October month was Black in the world market. The Dow Jones volumes were low and the industrial average fell over 1874 points which was worst weekly decline. The Icelandic stock market was into pitiable situation where the markets had been suspended for 3 days i.e. 9, 10 13 October. On October 24 many of the worlds stock market experienced the worst decline, with around 10% drop in the indices. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:OMX_Iceland_15_SEP-OCT_2008.png The above graph shows the steep and the worst decline a market could ever witness. The Iceland stock market crashed up to unpredictable level. The trading had been suspended for 3 days because of the crash in the market. This situation was visible in all global stock markets, because of financial crisis in USA. Hence, the worst was yet to be experienced by the global markets market players. The Indian stock markets were also badly hit the confidence of people was shattered. The markets were not showing the positive sign in any of the context people had no clue about the next jump or next level of the market. Market experts were expecting the markets will be into recuperation at the earliest, but things were not going the way it had been desired. Source: Hindubusinessline.com Indian market which has shown strong performance till 2007, but from January it plummeted more than 3000 points on all the stock prices by October 2008, it had touched the 7000 (BSE) line. The continuous unpredictable scenarios in the stock market led many investors and institutional investors to withdraw their money because of negative performance of the markets. The above shown graph is depicting the dream turned into nightmare for global domestic investors. The Beehive capitalism†¦ Everything that goes up without base falls steeply with great force. The same situation has happened with the world economies. The supreme economy of the world has become the devil for the small economies, leading major big companies to file for the bankruptcy. The global meltdown is the result of Financial Hybrids Innovations, which has been actively traded all across the world markets. The investment bankers, banks, financial institutions were actively relied on these new and innovative models, which has yet to gain the acceptance across the world. The main accused element for collapse is â€Å"Credit crisis†, in which the US banks got the regulations to lend money to the people having no sufficient background to get the loans. These kind of loans were termed as NINJA loans (NO INCOME, NO JOBS, NO ASSETS), given in abundance by the US banks. Emerging economies like India, China and other big economies were initially considered to be the places which will remain unaffected from the distortion of crisis. But despite of the strong fundamentals Indian economy dipped into the crisis. The stock market had lost more than 50% of its value (source: economic times), which shattered the hopes of the Indians. There was continuous monitoring by the Central Bank (Reserve Bank of India) on the market trend. The tornado of crisis had destroyed most of the stock markets, banks and financial institutions after soaring to the new heights of investment. The below mentioned graph depicts the movement of BSE Sensex SP CNX Nifty Source: SEBI Bulletin November 2008. BSE Sensex closed at 9788 on October 31, 2008 as against 12680 on September 30, 2008, a fall of 3072 points (almost 24%).The month of October 2008 had been the most volatile month, where Sensex recorded a high of 13055.67 on October 1, 2008 low of 8509.56 on October 27. Nifty closed 2886 on October 31 against 3921 against 30 September 2008. By the end of a month Nifty registered the fall of 1035 points (almost 27%). The market had shown unpredictability of the base stability level, dissuading more and more investors to take exit from the market. The Financial crisis: A Sub-prime loan is a type of mortgage loan made to borrowers who have at least one of the following characteristics: (1) Low credit scores; (2) The inability to post the traditional 20 percent down-payment for a home; and/or (3) The inability to fully document their income. The subprime crisis is not the result of recent financial innovations and developments, but it is the outcome of lax capitalism policies which had been developed by the US government. In the fifties American government passed a legislation to delink the commercial banking investment banking. The legislation stated implied that a commercial bank cannot open an investment bank. In 70s European American economies faced slowdown, due to which these banks were finding difficult to invest their investible surplus. This time the East Asian economies were liberalizing their economies, due to which the capital from western economies started moving to these economies. After the huge influx of capital into these economies, Asian bubble gets burst, forcing the western economies to introduce new financial measures to invest into the markets. These circumstances and the need of new financial avenues led the US European economies to trade into the new financial products, by liberalizing the norms for Commercial Investment Banks. The liberalization in the regulations led to the introduction of the Mortgaged products (a prime cause of crisis). In the late 90s US mortgage lender began offering the mortgage products to would be â€Å"home buyers† who could not qualify for a mortgage loans. Millions of Americans Europeans, who previously could not afford to buy home, were obtaining these mortgages, due to which great Demand of home (boom) took place leading to shoot of real estate prices. The above diagram shows how the base of subprime crisis took place in the global markets. The downfall in the economies is considered to be as the Dominoes Effect. The lax screening of borrowers, large capital accumulation capitalized market structure created a bubble which could not be ceased from getting expand. The whole cycle got mitigated with the introduction of new instruments in the financial markets. The sub prime crisis is about the collapse of the unregulated, $3 trillion over-the-counter market for complex structured assets, some of which happen to contain sub prime residential mortgages. The semiannual global financial stability report by IMF said that declining US housing prices and rising delinquencies on the residential mortgage market could lead to losses of $565 billion. When combining these factors with other market factors, it puts potential losses at about $945 billion which is almost 25% of the $24trillion global credit market. Financial innovations were brought into the market to make the products work in the market. The Mortgage products started to conflagrate the US European markets, where such loans started becoming the pool of assets (Risky) and been traded in the market. Hence, due to this many other factors got the impetus ultimately resulted into the uncontrollable bubble of mortgage, which gets burst and deepened the world economies into the recession. The subprime crisis has affected the global economies resulting into the fall of big financial corporation like Lehman Brothers, Bear sterns, AIG, Freddie Fannie, and many more big organizations of whom one cannot think to get fail. The sizes of the organization (exposure) were in plethora that it was not possible for the US European government to revive these financial institutions. AIG, one of the largest insurance companies (Private) became government undertaking due to the impacts of financial crisis. SUB PRIME OVERVIEW: Source: The India Economic Review 2008. (Dec 08) The whole system works in three stages, Stage First consist of Borrowers lenders; Second stage consists of the creation of SpecialPurpose Vehicle (SPV) with the inclusion of legal intermediaries. The last (third) stage consists of investors those who had invested their money into the riskier assets including the investment banks. In stage first agent enters between borrowers and lenders, accepting the collateral and also factoring the future price rise. The agents accept the loans, who previously could not even qualify for the approval, now getting loans from the banks other lenders. The housing price bubble allowed many borrowers to get loans easily because of the high house prices. The loans were mortgaged on a larger scale by creating the pool of similar group of mortgage assets through Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) given the risk involved on the pool of assets. In second stage, SPVs were created all the liabilities were transferred into bankruptcy remote securitization trust or SPV. Underwriters were used to issue market the MBS (mortgage backed securities). These securities were divided into different tranches, which were of similar securities. The rating agencies were to give rating to these tranches of securities. The ratings were given to the tranches based on the risk, priority of payment of the funds. Higher ratings were given to those tranches benefiting from the credit enhancements the MBS generates or credit insurance purchased from third party bond insurer. In third stage, Institutional or individual investors such as hedge funds or managers of Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs), purchase the securities and then re-securitize the MBS, along with other assets, into a CDO. The Commercial Papers (CP) generated in the initial years was all sold and there was demand for more. Consequently the SPVs started producing more CPs or MBS. The sale of the same only meant that the SPVs were flush with funds. These funds were to be invested somewhere so, the agents were pressed to bring in more borrowers. The lending norms were further diluted to accommodate lesser and lesser deserving borrowers in order to deploy the huge funds available. The consequent spiral that got generated only led to the continued dilution of the Capital Adequacy and Prudence norms. The system went burst once the housing prices turned negative turning the very foundation of subprime lending upside down. The turmoil of subprime has been expected of more than $ 3 trillion, which is too big for any country to even imagine of recuperating. The impact on Indian market was slow but had been proved acute on the stock market due to the constant humongous withdrawal of FIIs loss of confidence in the consumers (investors). Mortgage: Huge pack of cards†¦ The magnanimous crisis which all started with lax policies of US government, provided impetus for the Fed Reserve to implement new structures in the economy. The capitalist policy was looking very attractive to the market players, but the policy was hollow from the fundamentals. It all started with the Alan Greenspans reformative structures models in the financial markets, led to turmoil in the global economies. The US Fed Bank Clinton government in 1999 passed Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) which had abjured the old Glass-Steagall Act which had regulated the Investment Banks, Banks Insurance industries. The new legislation has unregulated the Wall Street Investment Banks and commercial banks. This deregulation has enlarged the gamut of activities in the financial activities of the commercial banks other financial institutions. The deregulation had been further reintroduced by legalizing gambling activities into financial sector, a prohibition that had been in place after 1907 financial crisis. The steps towards deregulation of the US markets had converted the US markets into a big casino. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2004 took a step towards the deregulation on the financial activities by removing the ceiling on risk that the largest American investment banks could take on Securitized loans. By this time, no one would have thought that the deregulation will result into large speculation create a bubble in the market. Lastly, the Securities and Exchange Commission took the last step toward deregulating financial markets when in the month of July 2007, weeks before the onset of the subprime crisis; it removed the â€Å"uptick† rule for short selling any security. The housing bubble was fed by extraordinarily low interest rates low lending standards (norms) for mortgages. The excessive monetary liquidity short term interest rates fell to 1%, which led to high borrowing of loans from the banks, resulted into the big bubble of mismanagement of financial activities. After the tech bubble burst in 2001 the recession, the Fed (Greenspan) aggressively lowered the Federal funds rate from 6.5 percent to 1 percent in 2004, the lowest since 1958. The lowered interest rates reduced lending standards made the banks to lend the money known as ‘ Predatory Lending to the borrowers who did not have capabilities to qualify for the loans, but with the mortgage lending, excessive loans were provided to these lenders as they (banks) were getting big bonuses for bearing risk on these loans. Non-traditional home loans were advanced to borrowers who had no documented incomes. Some loans were interest only loans with down payments of 5% or less . Some were Adjustable Rate loans (ARMs), with low interest rates for one or two years to be reset later at much higher rates. In 2006 around 25% of American mortgages were subprime and close to 20% were ARMs. Mortgage lenders and Home buyers presumed that home prices were not going to fall on a national basis. THE NEW ALCHEMY OF FINANCE The subprime crisis is the result of new financial products in the market the deregulation of the financial activities for the FIs. The main reason of such lending was the facility with which subprime lenders could sell their risky mortgages upstream to bigger players, investments banks for example, which undertook to buy them, pool them into mortgage bonds and re-channel them into new financial instruments through a process of aggressive securitization. The Structured Investment Vehicles (SIVs) which fall into the large class of derivative products came under various names such as Collateral Debt Obligations (CDOs). They had the characteristics of short term asset based commercial paper that were backed by the underlying income producing mortgage assets downstream and were graded according to a certain risk of default. More than 1 trillion half dollars of these asset backed financial products were sold in all over the world. Another new financial instrument that made matters much worse and led directly to the crisis: the Credit Default Swaps. Due to lack of government regulation, this product has become a weapon of mass destruction. In order to protect against the risk of default on the new asset-backed securities (ABS), some insurance companies but also some investment banks themselves began to issue bilateral â€Å"insurance† contracts against the newly created ABS. These were called Credit Default Swaps (CDS), which were supposed to protect the investment instruments against the default on asset based securities. The issuer of ABS could buy the protection against the default by paying a premium. This was a financial innovation, the so-called â€Å"insurance against default†, that opened the floodgates of money to be invested in the new financial instruments. Indeed, it allowed investors such as pension funds and other institutions which have a fiduciary obligation to buy only high-qualit y securities, to legally buy artificially highly rated (but risky) ABS securities, or to invest in hedge funds which specialized in leverage trading in derivative products. But the problem was that the issuance and use of such financial â€Å"insurance† contracts were not regulated by any government agency, because the word â€Å"insurance† was not used; instead, they were considered as simply a protection against the â€Å"default† of payment on a financial security. And thats where the gambling part enters the picture: only ten percent of CDS are genuine insurance contracts held by investors who really own asset-backed securities (these are covered CDS); 90 percent of them are rather held by speculators who trade CDS, while not owning any asset-backed securities to be protected (these are naked CDS). Economy as Casino: The gamut of gambling that US government Fed has created was even unimaginable, allowed big participation into these new investment instruments. Credit Default Swaps (CDS) can be bought and sold by speculators who are not directly involved in the mortgage business. Because of the 2000 Commodity Futures Modernization Act passed by Congress, no state has the power to regulate this new form of sophisticated gambling. The result is astounding: it is estimated that the notional value of credit default swaps outstanding today is about $ 62 trillion (four times the size of the US economy). This is an indication of popularity of the â€Å"naked† CDS innovation was as a way to bet on the collapse of the entire asset-backed securities construction. This was also a clear sign that, in a crisis, it would be all but financially impossible for the issuers of CDS to meet their obligations. In other words, disaster was just around the corner. This is an event that any regulatory agency should have seen coming. When housing prices hit the expected top of their cycle, in the 2005, and began falling, especially in 2006, the price for CDS s was still relatively low. So, some astute speculators undertook to buy CDSs and simultaneously began selling short the ABS that had been issued by investment banks, such as Lehman Brothers, in the correct expectation that mortgage-backed securities were bound to lose value with the expected rise in home foreclosures and mortgage defaults. This is how unimaginable spiral got created by the steps undertaken by Fed Reserve US government which ultimately result into the great burst ever faced in the history globally. GRAMM-LEACH- BILLEY ACT 1999 The Gramm Leach Billey Act 1999 (GLBA) passed by US government in the year 1999 with a view of security data integrity in the market. The GLBA repealed the part Glass Steagall act of 1933, which had opened the market among the banking companies, securities companies insurance companies. The GSA had prohibited any one institution from acting as any combination of an investment bank, a commercial bank and or an insurance company. But the GLBA allowed commercial banks, investment banks, securities firms, insurance companies to consolidate. The act was announced in the 1993 finalized in 1994, allowing many big corporations to merge to enhance their range of activities take the benefit of the deregulation. The law was passed to legalize these mergers on a permanent basis. The law has not fully deregulated the previous act, but they had relaxed the norms and allowed the FIs to have non financial assets. GLBA was amended with some part of the Bank Holding Company act of 1956. The crucial aspect of the GLBA stated that no merger can go ahead until the financial holding institutions, or affiliates receives a â€Å"less than satisfactory (SIC) rating at its most recent CRA exam†. GLBA compliance was mandatory; whether a financial institution discloses non public information or not, there must be a policy in place to protect the information from prospective threats in security data integrity. The law was segregated into three main aspects: FINANCIAL PRIVACY RULE: This rule requires FIs to provide each consumer with a privacy notice at the time the consumer relationship is established and annually afterwards. The notice must explain the information collected about the consumer, where that information is shared, how that information is used and how that information about the consumer is protected. The consumer must be notified give consent about any change at any point of time. Each time the privacy notice is reestablished the consumer has the right to opt it again. SAFEGUARDS RULE: The safeguards rule requires FIs to develop a written information security plan that describes how the company is prepared for, and plans to continue to protect clients non public personal information. This plan must include the following; Denoting at least one employee to manage the safeguards. Constructing a thorough on each department handling the non public information. Develop, monitor test a program to secure the information. Change the safeguards as needed. The Safeguards Rule forces financial institutions to take a closer look at how they manage private data and to do a risk analysis on their current processes. PRETEXTING PROTECTION: The GLBA encourages the organizations covered by GLBA to implement safeguards against pre texting. Pre texting means when someone tries to access the personal nonpublic information without proper authority approval. Thus the institutions having covered under the GLBA, needs to have control safeguard the information of their client, to prevent the details from any misuse. CRITICISM AND DEFENSE: There