Life Does Not Have A Title - 1555 Words

Life Does Not Get To Have A Title As time passes, the question remains of whether or not our lives are predetermined or if we get to choose our own destiny. The question of whether or not God or any other power in the universe has already made plans for us, or if the outcome of our own decisions will shape our lives. Every single person starts off with a certain position in society, and has the opportunity to grow from that place and become the person that they are meant to be. Fate and freewill will be constant no matter what one does. Through my own life, I can relate to Santiago’s experiences, as in the beginning of his journey he questioned whether fate or freewill was enough to fulfill his own destiny. My experience is rather unique compared to the typical American teenager. I was born in the United States, but raised on the Portuguese islands known as the Azores. I graduated from the local high school in Sao Jorge, while technically having dual citizenship. Being raised on an island, people see my life as living in paradise. However, they do not know the struggles I have gone through, and missed out on many experiences that people in the U.S. take for granted. Being born in the United States and taken to Portugal as a young child by my parents, I never really had the opportunity to do what I really wanted to do: to choose my own path, to live by my own expectations, and have my own goals. Last year, I realized the high school on the island didn’t meet my expectations.Show MoreRelated Title IX Essay examples944 Words   |  4 PagesTitle IX Great inequalities in the educational system between the sexes have occurred for many years and still occur today. Efforts have been made to rectify this disparity, but the one that has made the most difference is Title IX. Passed in 1972, Title IX attempted to correct the gender discrimination in educational systems receiving public funding. 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Thesis Sa Filipino - 1058 Words

PAKINABANG AT KAPINSALAAN NG KOMPYUTER SA BUHAY ESTUDYANTE ISANG MUNGKAHING PAPEL NA INIHARAP KAY DR. IMELDA VILLARIN CEBU TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY ISANG PARSYAL NA PAGTUGON SA KAHILINGAN SA ASIGNATURANG FILIPINO II Pangalan ng mga miyembro; Aying , Alona S. Bejoc , Emery E. Miro , Israe May M. Olasiman , Cristal E. Orandang , Janine Panerio , Ruben Tomongha , Irene M. Marso 2011 PANIMULA Sa ating mundo lalong umusbong ang mga technolohiya isa na rito ang kompyuter. Sa Kasaysayan ng serye kompyuter, nakita natin kung paano elektronika, na†¦show more content†¦Hangarin din ng pag-aaral na ito mabigyang tugon ang mga sumusunod na tanong: 1. Ano ang bahagdan ng kakayahan ng mga estudyante sa CTU ng paggamit ng kompyuter? 1.1 Layunin Pampaaralan 1.2 Layong Panlibangan 2. Alin sa dalawang layunin kadalasan ang nagtulak sa mga estudyante para gumamit ng kompyuter? 3.May nakita bang kaibahan sa mga resulta kung pag-uukulan ang dalawang layunin ng mga estudyante? 4. Ayon sa natuklasan, ano ang mga possibleng solusyon upang mas maunawaan ng mga estudyante ang mga limitasyon dapat taglayin sa paggamit ng konpyuter sa iba’t ibang layunin. IPOTESIS Karamihan sa mga estudyante ay madalas gumamit ng kompyuter sa iba’t ibang pakay. Walang nakitang makabuluhang pagkakaiba sa resulta ng subrang paggamit ng kompyuter sa layunin ng paggawa ng takdang-aralin sa paaralan at sa panlibang na pakay lamang. SAKLAW AT LIMITASYON Ang saklaw ng pagsisiyasat na ito ay para gumawa ng kamalayan sa mga estudyante at magabayan kung paano mabigyang limitasyon ang paggamit ng kompyuter at kung paano ang pamamahala ng mga oras nila dito. Ang mga respondente ay ang mga estudyante sa CEBU TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY mula sa iba’t ibang kurso. Limampung respondente ang nakasagot sa mga palatanungang naibigay ng mgaShow MoreRelatedAng Mga Kaugalian Ng Mga Kabataan Ngayong Henerasyon1382 Words   |  6 Pagesninyo sa talaan ng pagkain ang kaugalian tungkol sa pagkain. Special appreciation to Nais ng mga Pilipino ang Malusog na Puso Magkaroon ng Malusog na BABASAHIN 1 (Text 1) Magkaibang-magkaiba ang kaugalian ng mga mananakop na Amerikano sa kaugalian ng mga nasakop na Pilipino kung kaya kinailangan nilang gumawa ng mga pag-aaral Welcome to the Filipino UCCLLT Project- Tuloy Po Kayo Sa Filipino Ang mga salawikain o kawikaang Pilipino ay mabuting hanguan ng impormasyon all of eminems video hinggil sa matatandangRead Mo reIsyu Sa Wikang Filipino4603 Words   |  19 Pagesimmortality of souls among the faithful. Perhaps my saying outright that I am a partisan for a national language, Filipino, may outrage the postmodernists and cosmopolites among you—how can you say such a thing when you are speaking in English? Or, as Senator Diokno once said, â€Å"English of a sort.† How dare I infuriate the loyal speakers of Cebuano, Ilocano, Pampagueno, Ilonggo, Taglish, Filipino English, and a hundred or more languages used in these seven thousand islands. 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Isa rin itong malinaw na konsepto ng mga elementong bumubuo sa pagiging nasyon ng isang bansa, at bagay na nagtatangi at nagpapakita ng kaibahan nito sa iba pang nasyon (Alfonso, 1967; De La Costa, 1965; Osorio, 1963; Taà ±ada, 1955). Sa pananaw ni RizalRead Moreâ€Å"the Effect of Study Habits on the Academic Performance of Freshmen Education Students in Xavier University, Cagayan de Oro City, School Year 2008-2009† Bilang Pagtupad Sa Isa Sa Mga Pangangailangan Ng Asignaturang1792 Words   |  8 PagesBilang pagtupad sa isa sa mga pangangailangan ng asignaturang Filipino 2, Pagbasa at Pagsulat tungo sa Pananaliksik, ang panahong – papel na ito na pinamagatang Mga Kadahilanan na Nakakaapekto sa Pag-aaral ng Estudyante sa Ikatlo at Ika-apat na Taon sa Unibersidad ng Perpetual Help System - Laguna ng Kolehiyo ng Occupatio nal Therapy sa Ikalawang Semestre ng Taong - Akademiko 2010-2011 ay inihanda at iniharap ng mga mananaliksik mula sa kolehiyo ng Occupational Therapy na sina: Caabay, Ermar A. 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There was so much hype in the first halcyon years after the overthrow of the tyrant Ferdinand E. Marcos, and too many silly celebrations, with excessive hoopla, of each succeeding anniversary of the EDSA peopleRead MoreGay Lingo as a Form of Deviance1764 Words   |  8 PagesLanguage in the Philippines Binabae and bakla are familiar words in Filipino street talk. But what about badaf, baklush, and baklers? These are a little confusing for the average Filipino speaker, while the expressions Bading Garci, pa-mihn, pa-girl, x-men, will lose most expert speakers of the Filipino language. These are terms which are heard â€Å"only in the Philippines†; as the local TV advertisement says, ‘Walang ganyan sa States’ (â€Å"You don’t have that in the States†). 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Cabrera Ipinasa nila Princess Mae Modesto Kim Atienza Talaan ng Nilalaman Kabatanata I Suliranin at Sandigan ng Pag-aaral Panimula †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 1-2 Batayang Teorya †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 2 Konseptwal na Balangkas ââ€"  Talahanayan Blg 1 †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 3 Read MoreEpekto Ng Paglalaro Ng Kompyuter Games Sa Pag-Aaral2674 Words   |  11 PagesEpekto ng Paglalaro ng Kompyuter Games sa Pag-aaral ng mga Mag-aaral ng BSCS sa DYCI; Kahiligan at mga Kaugnayang Baryabol Isang Pamanahong Papel na iniharap sa Kaguruan ng Departamento ng Filipino, Kolehiyo ng Arte at Syensya sa Dr. Yanga’s Colleges Inc. 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Managing People and Organization Environment Affecting Restaurant

Question: Discuss about theManaging People and Organizationfor Environment Affecting Restaurant. Answer: Forces in General Environment-Affecting Restaurant: There are many forces in the general environment that influences the operation of the newly opened restaurant in Clementi. The main forces in the general environment that would affect the restaurant functioning are the competition prevailing in that particular area where the restaurant is being opened. The other forces are the social, cultural forces, demographic factors, government policies, technological forces and the natural forces of the environment. Competition- Competition exist when the similar brand of the product are offered by the business. The opening of the new restaurant is affected by the presence of restaurant, which sells similar products and offers similar service. Therefore, it is important for the newly opened restaurant to monitor the activities of their competitors (Ha and Jang 2013). Social and cultural forces- This force refers to the dynamic and structure of the group and the individual. The behavior, lifestyle pattern, friendly nature of the group affects the operations of the newly opened restaurant. The newly opened restaurant can expect higher purchasing power from the customers. The people are highly educated and is a place of trade and investment. Technological forces- technological plays a very important role in the Clementis advancement. This increases connectivity and ease the communication. As a consequence of this, the time and cost of conducting the business is lowered and this would provide the restaurant to flourish. The widespread information technology infrastructure would provide the restaurant to explore and carry out its functions at ease (Weinzimmer and Nystrom 2015). Government forces- The laws and the legal forces of the government affects the operations and the functioning of the restaurant. The restriction imposed by the government might be an obstacle in the development of the restaurant. The regulatory, business setting and certain legal supports are needed to support the need and growth of the new restaurant in Clementi. The government of Singapore has introduced some policies of e commerce to develop the e- commerce services. All this factors will have an impact on the functioning of the restaurant. Demographic forces- The buying behavior and the preferences of the product are determined by traits depicted by the demographic. The demographic forces affects the menu trends of the restaurants. The diversity in the population of Clementi leads to a diverse set of the food preferences. With the changes in the taste and the preference pattern of the population, the restaurant needs to modify its operations (Martin and Siebert 2016). Competitive Strategy Implemented by the Restaurant: The competitive generic strategy is about the porters generic strategy The porters generic strategies includes the cost leadership strategy, differentiation strategy, focus strategy. The positioning statements of the restaurant is discussed in later part. Cost leadership strategy- The loyalty of the customers can discourage the potential entrants and therefore the pricing of newly opened restaurant in Clementi is positioned as generic and reasonable. The pricing is such that it is affordable by all the consumers of Clementi. The differentiating attributes is mainly related to the pricing, which would attract the customers. Focus strategy- The strategy of the restaurant is to serve the target markets and the focus will be on quality factor. The strategy is to create strong brand identity in the local market of Clementi. The local store marketing is strategy of low budget plan that will make the customers aware about the facility and this is done by utilizing the local media. In store, marketing is another strategy and this would be the most effective and cheaper marketing strategy (Palmer 2012). The restaurant will build their brand actively by selling the supporting materials such as promotional items. The customer base will be built over the first three years of operations. Differentiation strategy- the restaurant needs to plan its activities of marketing, sales and customer service, which would incorporate the features of products and services. This will lead to increased sales and build consumer loyalty due to the differentiation factor. The sales strategy intends to increase the revenue by building the local customer base in the area where the restaurant is opened. The restaurant will position itself by focusing on its marketing and increasing the awareness of the customers in the surrounding community of the Clementi. The marketing programs and all the tactics of the business are directed towards explaining the features of the restaurant and the description about the restaurant. The name of the products of the restaurant are geared toward the target market, which can be easily remembered by the customers. The price of the products of the restaurant will be fair enough for the customers and it will be competitive enough. The main marketing force will be the word of mouth and the restaurant is intended to keep the high standard when it comes to serving the customers (Snell et al. 2015). The restaurant will try to gain the competitive edge by its ambience, which would have friendly and enthusiastic staffs, and the packaging of the products will be quite innovative. The restaurant will position itself by blending the local and the international ta stes. Reference: Ha, J. and Jang, S., 2013. Attributes, consequences, and consumer values: A means-end chain approach across restaurant segments.International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management,25(3), pp.383-409. Martin, G. and Siebert, S., 2016.Managing people and organizations in changing contexts. Routledge. Palmer, A., 2012.Introduction to marketing: theory and practice. Oxford University Press. Snell, S.A., Morris, S.S. and Bohlander, G.W., 2015.Managing human resources. Nelson Education. Thomson, R. and Thomson, A., 2012.Managing people. Routledge. Weinzimmer, L.G. and Nystrom, P.C., 2015. The search for opportunities by small business owners.Journal of Small Business Strategy,7(3), pp.1-14.

The Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy free essay sample

One of the central issues of corporate finance has been the dividend decision of a firm, which has always been studied in relation to a firm’s financing and investment decisions. The association amongst these two decisions has posed various questions. How much should a firm pay as dividend? How does a dividend payout policy influence the valuation of a firm? Does a firm’s decision to distribute cash correspond to its financing and investing decisions? What is the outcome of changes in the dividend policy assuming steady financing and investment decisions of a firm? Research has attempted to provide answers to these questions and many more but mystery still shrouds the dividend decision. Lintner (1956) argues that firms of developed markets target their dividend payout ratio with the help of current earnings and past dividends. In order to reach such target, various adjustments are made in the dividend policy of a firm and therefore firms should have stable dividend policies. We will write a custom essay sample on The Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Miller and Modigliani (1961) on the other hand feel that dividend policy is irrelevant in measuring the current worth of shares considering the irrational assumptions of market perfections, zero transaction costs, perfect certainty and indifferent behaviour of investors. However, Miller and Scholes (1982) argue that in the real world, dividend decision is inspired more by high taxes on dividends than capital gains and market imperfections. Alli, Khan and Ramirez (1993) observe that a change in the payout policy provides information about future earnings and a further change in the value of share price. This indeed shows a strong signaling effect of the dividend decision of a firm. It is evident that over the years, no Dr. Amitabh Gupta, Associate Professor, Department of Financial Studies, University of Delhi Ms. Charu Banga, Research Scholar, Department of Financial Studies, University of Delhi Decision, Vol. 37, No. 2, August, 2010 The Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy 64 single viewpoint has emerged which explains the dividend policy of a firm. In India too, modest research has been carried out on various aspects of the dividend decision. The present study re-examines the impact of various factors on the dividend decision of Indian companies taking a large and latest data set. Our study contributes to the existing literature by examining as many as fifteen financial variables. No prior Indian study has examined so many variables in the context of dividend decision using both factor analysis and regression. The remaining paper is organized as follows: Section 2 presents the existing literature. Section 3 discusses the hypothesis being tested in the study and also describes the data and the research methodology used in the study. Section 4 discusses the results of the study and section 5 presents the conclusion. Literature Review A large number of financial and non-financial determinants of corporate dividend policy have been discussed in the work of Lintner (1956). This seminal work developed a basic model stating that most of the companies follow dividend adjustment process by applying target dividend payout ratio. Rozeff (1982) investigates the impact of two kinds of costs – transaction costs and agency costs relative to external financing on the dividend decision of a firm. He argues that a balance between transaction costs and agency costs would lead to an optimum dividend policy. Alli, Khan and Ramirez (1993) find that dividends do not convey information regarding a firm’s future cash flows. They report that at beta, firm’s capital expenditure and financial slack are inversely related to the dividend payout. The dividend policy behaviour is also examined by Han, Lee and Suk (1999) by considering institutional ownership under agency cost hypothesis and tax–based hypothesis. They find that tax-based hypothesis is more relevant in the case of institutional investors as they prefer a greater dividend payout. Pandey (2001) looks at the corporate dividend payout behaviour of companies listed on the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange during 1993-2000. He categorizes the sample into six industries for examining the variation in the payout ratio. He also establishes a relationship between current earnings and past dividend rate. He finds that the Malaysian companies (by following Lintner’s model) exhibit unstable dividend behaviour with high adjustments in dividend payments in order to meet the target payout ratio. Myers (2004) finds strong support for earnings, profit margin, institutional ownership and debt-equity ratio on the dividend decision. Eriotis (2005) finds that Greek firms have a long-run constant dividend payout policy. He adjusts the firms’ distributed earnings and size in the Lintner model and reports that an increase in the earnings does not change the dividend distribution pattern of firms. Kania and Bacon (2005) find that variables such as sales growth, expansion and insider ownership have a negative impact on dividend decision but institutional ownership has an inverse relation with dividend payout, which is contrary to the existing literature. Denis and Osobov (2008) find that the tendency for paying dividends declined for countries such as United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan during 1994-2002. They also report that the international evidence does not support the investors’ preference for dividend, the signaling and the clientele interpretations as prominent variables. Rather, they go along with the distribution of free cash flow as the chief element of the dividend decision. Decision, Vol. 37, No. 2, August, 2010 The Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy 65 In the Indian context, we found few studies that have analyzed the factors that affect the dividend decision of a firm. For example, Kevin (1992) analyzes the dividend payment behaviour of 650 Indian companies during September 1983 to August 1984 and finds that profitability and earnings of the firms are the two foremost factors determining dividends. He concludes that Indian firms strive for achieving a stable dividend rate. However, keeping in view that the time period of his study was only one year; his results cannot be taken as conclusive. Mahapatra and Sahu (1993) find that cash flows, current earnings and past dividends are prominent factors that have an impact on the dividend decision. Their results are in contrast to Lintner’s model. Bhat and Pandey (1994) find that current year’s earnings, pattern of past dividends, expected future earnings, changes in equity base of the firm have an impact on the dividend decision. Taking a different line of research, Narasimhan and Asha (1997) look at the changes in dividend tax regime proposed in the Indian Union Budget of 1997-98 and analyze the impact of dividend tax on a firm’s dividend decision. They conclude that the burden of tax payment fell in the hands of companies rather than their shareholders. Mohanty (1999) studied more than 200 Indian companies for a period of fifteen years to understand the relationship between bonus-issuing and dividend-paying behaviour of companies. He found that in the Indian context, it is the dividend rate that is an important determinant of dividend policy in comparison to the dividend payout ratio. Reddy (2002) analyzes the trends and determinants of dividend of all Indian companies listed on two major Indian stock exchanges–The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and The National Stock Exchange (NSE) during 1990-2001. He investigates three factors viz. , number of firms paying dividend, average dividend per share and the average payout. His results indicate that only few companies maintain the dividend payout rate and that firms forming a part of small  indices pay higher dividend compared to firms forming a part of broad market indices. Deviations in the tax regime are also examined using the trade-off theory and it is found that this theory does not apply to the Indian corporate sector. He concludes that the omission of dividends have information content i. e. such companies expect lower earnings in the future whereas t he same does not hold true in case of dividend initiations. Anand (2004) analyzes the results of Anand (2002) survey of 81 CFOs to find out the determinants of dividend policy of Indian companies. He finds that Indian companies use dividend policy as a signaling mechanism to convey information about their present and future prospects, therefore, affecting their market value. He also reports that while designing a dividend policy, companies take into consideration the investors’ preference for dividends and the clientele effect. The relationship between corporate governance and dividend payout behaviour of the Indian firms is examined by Kumar (2006) by taking into consideration their financial structure, investment opportunities, dividend history, earnings trend and ownership structure during 1994–2000. He finds a positive association of dividends with earnings and dividend trends but does not find any association between foreign ownership and growth in dividend payout. Recently, Bhayani (2008) has examined the influence of earnings and lagged dividend on dividend policy of companies listed on the BSE. He found that the current year’s earnings is the foremost factor affecting the dividend behaviour of a firm and concludes that Indian Decision, Vol. 37, No. 2, August, 2010 The Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy 66 companies follow a stable cash dividend policy. Kanwal and Kapoor (2008) examine the dividend policies of companies in the information technology sector in India. They explore various factors such as profitability, cash flows, corporate tax, sales growth and growth opportunities that have an impact over the dividend policies of such companies. They report that only cash flows indicating liquidity and beta indicating risk are the foremost determinants. Thus over the years different strands of research have emerged in the area of dividend policy both in India and abroad. Data and Research Methodology Data and Sample Selection The necessary data have been sourced from the Prowess database of Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE)1 The sample companies are drawn from the broad based BSE 500 Index2. The period of the study is seven years from January 1, 2001 to December 31 2007. We only included those companies in the sample that had continuously paid dividend during the study period and have excluded financial institutions/finance companies and government owned companies. Only final cash dividends paid by companies have been considered as usually Indian companies pay only one dividend during a year. We have also ignored stock dividends and stock repurchases by companies and have examined only cash dividend. This process gave us a final sample of 150 companies from 16 industries. Description of Variables Over the years researchers have employed numerous financial variables that have a possible impact on the dividend policy (A list of such variables is provided in Annexure 1). Out of such variables, the present study considers fifteen variables to examine their effect on the dividend decision. The justification for choosing such variables is as follows. Liquidity is an important determinant of dividend decision. Liquidity and dividend payment behaviour of a company have a direct relationship (Benito and Young, 2001). If a company has adequate cash flows, it would like to distribute cash dividend in order to keep its shareholders happy. Moreover, firms have to make their dividend payments in cash therefore they have to be liquid enough to distribute dividends and also to remain solvent. Current ratio (CR) and cash from operations (CFO) are the indicators of the liquidity position of a firm. Thus, CR and CFO become the first and second variable respectively. Another significant factor is leverage. A firm with high leverage means large fixed payments for external financing, which indeed is a substitute for the dividend payments. High leverage increases the transaction costs and the risk of the firm (Rozeff, 1982). Contrarily, higher the earning retention rate, lower the chances for external 1 Prowess is a database containing information about large and medium Indian companies and is commonly used by both the researchers and the industry alike in India 2 Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) is one of the largest stock exchanges of Asia. Its broad based index BSE 500 constitutes major blue chip companies in India Decision, Vol. 37, No. 2, August, 2010 The Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy 67 borrowing and vice-versa. Hence we take debt-equity ratio (DER) and ratio of retained earnings to equity (REE) as proxies for financial leverage exhibiting a negative relationship with the dividend decision. Hence, DER and REE become the third and fourth variable respectively. Further, the relationship between ownership structure and dividend payment behaviour of a firm is also valuable. The control of the firm may lie with the directors or the promoters (insider owners), institutions (institutional owners) or with foreign investors. The insiders would like to avoid excess payment of dividend whereas institutional owners are usually more dividend demanding (Han, Lee and Suk, 1999). Thus, promoters’ shareholding (PS), institutional shareholding (IS) and foreign institutional investors shareholding (FIIs) represent the fifth, sixth and seventh variables respectively. Profitability has always been considered as the foremost determinant for dividend payment as more profit means more dividends. It becomes essential to consider variables for short-term and long-term profitability of a firm (Myers, 2004). We take net profit ratio (NPR), return on investment (ROI) and ratio  of profit before interest tax to total assets (PTA) as their proxies and therefore, they become the eighth, ninth and tenth variables respectively. In addition, growth opportunities play an important role. Higher the operational growth and growth in profits of a firm, higher shall be the dividend payments by the firm (Kania and Bacon, 2005) . The growth factor is represented by annual sales growth (ASG), return on net worth (RONW) and earnings per share (EPS) growth. The growth rates of ASG, RONW and EPS are taken as the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth variables respectively. Market capitalization (MC) corresponds to the size of the firm and is the fourteenth variable. Tax effect is another significant determinant as the rates of taxation influence the need for dividend by the investors. High tax paying investors would prefer to postpone receiving dividends and thus, would like to retain their earnings with the firm in order to avoid heavy taxes whereas investors in lower tax brackets would prefer higher dividends (tax clientele effect)3. For this purpose we take ratio of corporate tax to profit after tax (T) as a proxy and the fifteenth variable. A detailed definition of these variables is given in Annexure 2. Research Methodology The present study re-examines various factors that have a bearing on the dividend decision of a firm by using a two-step multivariate procedure. We have identified fifteen variables from the extant literature that are considered while framing a dividend policy. In the first step, we perform factor analysis on the data to extract prominent factors from these fifteen variables. In the second step we perform multiple regression on the factors extracted. Results Factor Analysis The technique of factor analysis indicates those factors that explain the correlation among the observed variables. We use principal component analysis (PCA) as the factor extraction method to identify distinct clusters of observed variables (Dillon and Goldstein, 1984; Tryfos, 3 Tax Clientele Effect: See Miller and Modigliani, 1961. Decision, Vol. 37, No. 2, August, 2010 The Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy 68 1998). The broad factors are further subjected to equamax orthogonal rotation (Alli, Khan and Ramirez, 1993). Table 1 shows the results of Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett’s Test. The KMO measure of sampling adequacy tells us whether we can reduce the variables into broad factors or not. Value of less than 0. 50 indicates that factor analysis would not produce distinct and reliable factors whereas any value close to one would generally indicate that this technique of analysis would be useful with the data. Our results gave a value of 0. 554 indicating that the pattern of correlation amongst the variables is relatively compact and hence, Factor Analysis yields distinct and reliable broad factors (Meyers, Gamst and Guarino, 2006). The Bartlett’s test of Sphericity investigates whether the original correlation matrix is an identity matrix or not. Our results show that Bartlett’s test has a chi-square value of 1. 500E3 which is significant for p 0. 01 confirming that factor analysis is appropriate. Table 1: KMO and Bartlett’s Test Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity .554 Approx. Chi-Square 1. 500E3 Df 105 Sig. .000 Table 2 gives the Rotated Factor Matrix using Equamax Orthogonal Transformation i. e. a matrix of factor loadings for each variable upon each factor. The factor loadings of less than 0. 30 have been suppressed and are not displayed. The institutional shareholding (0.  853) and foreign institutional investors’ shareholding (0. 735) are positively correlated whereas promoters’ shareholding (-0. 824) is negatively correlated to the first factor i. e. ownership structure. The dividend payout tends to bring a decline in the stock value, thus, a conflict of interest for the insiders. A company with high insider ownership proposes for a low ca sh dividend payout. Whereas, institutional owners are keen to influence high payouts in order to enhance control over the management for monitoring their external financing matters (Kumar 2006, Myers, 2004, Han, Lee and Suk, 1999). Our results strongly support the findings in the literature. However, one point worth noting is that the individual shareholdings of promoters, institutions and foreign institutional investors in relation to the total shareholdings of a firm have not been taken into consideration. This can be an area for future research. Factor 2 has high negative loadings for debt-equity ratio (-0. 756), taxation (-0. 704) and earning per share (-. 384) and positive loadings for return on investment (0. 759) and return on net worth (0. 577). We term this factor as leverage. This suggests that firms would like to pay high dividends if they are utilizing their retained earnings (least risk attached) as compared to external financing (equity and debt). In other words, high interest payments (fixed charge) will result in lower dividend payment (Alli, Khan and Ramirez, 1993 and Rozeff, 1982). Therefore, results indicate that there exists an inverse relationship between dividend rate and leverage. Decision, Vol. 37, No. 2, August, 2010 The Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy 69 The third broad factor is expressed as Profitability. It includes net profit ratio (0.932), ratio of profit to total assets (0. 932) and current ratio (0. 546). This factor indicates that greater the profit of a firm, higher will be the dividend payout. Therefore, profitability is positively related to dividend decision (Denis and Osobov 2008, Myers 2004). Our results confirm the same. The fourth factor incorporates high positive loadings for cash from operations (0. 809) and mar ket capitalization (0. 789). We coin this factor as liquidity. A firm with high external financing would require availability of cash flows i. e. strong liquidity position to meet its financial obligations. Therefore, in order to increase liquidity, the firm shall lower its dividend payout. On the other hand, the larger the size of the firm, the greater the availability of free cash flows and the greater will be the dividend payout. A firm with large number of shareholders is expected to pay higher dividends in order to keep their shareholders happy. It has been found that high retained earnings to equity ratio (indicating propensity to pay dividend) would ensure availability of free cash flows or residual cash flows within the firm (Benito and Young, 2001). One would, therefore, expect a direct relation between liquidity and dividend payout. The fifth factor is termed as Growth. It includes annual sales growth (0. 816), return on net worth (0. 530) and ratio of retained earnings to equity (0. 485) implying that growth in sales and profit is an important determinant for the payment of dividends. Our results support the findings of Myers (2004) who suggests that firms with high growth rate distribute high dividends in order to keep their shareholders happy. Table 2: Rotated Component Matrix Components IS PS FIIs ROI DER T RONW EPS PTA NPR CR CFO MC ASG REE Ownership Structure .843 -. 824 .735 Leverage Profitability Liquidity Growth .385 .759 -. 756 -. 704 .577 -. 384 Decision, Vol. 37, No. 2, August, 2010 .412 .415 .932 .932 .546 .530 -. 431 .809 .789 .816 .485 The Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy 70 Regression Results In the second step, multiple regression is carried out to examine the impact of the five independent variables on the dividend rate. The dividend rate is a dependent variable constituting the dividend decision and the five factors extracted from factor analysis viz. leverage, liquidity, profitability, growth, and ownership structure are taken as the independent variables. Since the factors used in the regression model are derived through the orthogonal transformations, they are free from multi-collinearity problems (Ali, Khan and Ramirez, 1993). Further tests for normality, heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation show that data is normally distributed and there are no related problems. Table 3 gives the results of the regression model. The R-square is 0. 244 i. e. around 25 per cent of the variability in dividend rate is explained by the independent variables tested. The FStatistic of 9. 320 is significant at 1% level of significance. The Durbin-Watson statistic of 2. 079 signifies that autocorrelation is not present among independent variables. Table 3: Regression Model Summary R-Square 0. 244 F 9. 320 Durbin-Watson 2. 079 Table 4 gives the results of the regression. Out of the five factors analyzed, four factors viz. , leverage, liquidity, ownership structure and growth have expected relationships with the dividend payout. Whereas profitability, shows a sign contrary to what was expected. In line with literature, our results show that the leverage position of a firm has a negative relation with the dividend rate (-0.239), which is significant at 5% level of significance. Higher the exposure of the firm to external financing, higher will be the risk of the firm and therefore, lower would be the dividend payout. Table 4: Regression results Variables Dividend Rate (Constant) Expected sign Standardized Co-efficients Beta Dependent variable T Sig. 3. 840 .000 Leverage Negative -. 239 -3. 013 .003 Liquidity Positive . 341 4. 138 .000 Profitability Positive -. 007 -0. 086 .932 Ownership Structure Positive .091 1. 113 .286 Growth Positive .041 .541 .589 Decision, Vol. 37, No. 2, August, 2010 The Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy 71 Similarly, liquidity (. 341) shows a positive relation with the dividend rate at 1 % level of significance. The ownership structure of a firm representing institutional owners has a positive coefficient (0. 091) but is statistically not significant. Growth (. 041) also shows a positive coefficient, which is not significant. Contrary to what was predicted, profitability shows a negative coefficient (-. 007) but is statistically not significant. Thus, the results of our study indicate that there are two main determinants of dividend decision viz.leverage and liquidity. Conclusion Despite few decades of active research on a number of theories discussing determinants of corporate dividend policy, no significant judgment can be drawn. The present study reexamines the determinants of corporate dividend decision of Indian companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange during the period January 1, 2001–December 31, 2007. The study uses P rincipal Component Analysis for analyzing fifteen variables that have an impact on the dividend decision of a firm. The results gave five broad factors viz. , leverage, liquidity, profitability, ownership structure and growth. These factors were then subjected to multiple regression with dividend rate as the dependent variable. The results of the regression show that leverage, liquidity, ownership structure and growth showed expected signs whereas profitability did not show the expected sign. Two factors viz. , leverage and liquidity were found to have a strong relationship with dividend rates of Indian companies. While leverage was found to be negatively associated, liquidity was positively related. One point worth mentioning here is that our results are drawn only from the analysis of financial factors affecting the dividend policy of an Indian company. In practice some non-financial factors such as foreign collaborators’ shareholding, attitude and behaviour of management, company policies, etc may also have a bearing on the dividend decision of a firm. References Alli, K. L, Khan, A. Q. and Ramirez, G. G. 1993. Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy: A Factorial Analysis. The Financial Review, 28(4): 523–547. Anand, M. 2002. Corporate Finance Practices in India: A Survey. Vikalpa, 27(4): 29 – 56. Anand, M. 2004. Factors Influencing Dividend Policy Decisions of Corporate India. The ICFAI Journal of Applied Finance, 2(10): 5 – 16.

Bobby McFerrin Essays - Musical Notation, Tempo, Bobby McFerrin

Bobby McFerrin Don't worry, be happy was by Played by Bobby McFerrin in the seventies. The in this piece the texture changes a lot as the work progresses. Every time the music would take a slower beat the texture would become thicker and the dynamic or the volume becomes lower. When the dynamic slows, one instrument would only be playing, and all at once when the tempo picks up more, and than three or more instrument would be playing. It seemed that when there are more than one instrument playing, they would all have a solo part to contribute. For example, the violin would play a fast tempo and the clarinet would play a slower tempo. The instrument that I most noticed in this piece is the violin. Throughout the piece the violin keeps on changing tempo and dynamic. What I liked most about this piece this how the instruments answer each other with a different beat, and dynamics. Maged Saleh Professor, Ferguson Jazz Open Listening Report "All I Want" The piece called "All I want" was written by Bobby Mcferrin.. In this piece I would say that the texture stayed the same most of the time. It starts out with a very slow tempo. It is like walking in a desert without water. The tempo keeps on dragging you to a faster and more dynamic sound. When that happens it is like taking the first taste of water after a long walk in the desert. The violin plays as the main instrument when it comes to the faster tempo and dynamic part. The clarinet on the other hand takes the slower mood in the piece. The volume would get louder as the tempo picks up. What I liked about this particular piece is the way it changed its tempo from vary slow to vary fast. What I did not like is that their are not enough instruments involved. The only instrument that stood out I would have to say is the violin. Maged Saleh Professor, Ferguson Jazz Open Listening Report Good Loven The piece Good Loven was played the most by Bobby Mcferrin. The piece starts out with a slow tempo and changes to a vary loud dynamic. The texture did stay the same. Once the dynamic becomes louder the texture takes a different turn. What is quince about this piece is the how all the instruments play the same tempo. The volume does not change as much as in the other pieces. When the tempo slows the violin and the flutes would take over. As the volume gets louder more instruments join in. What I liked about this piece is how the bass was being used. The words seemed to take in a big part on with the instruments. Just by the words alone you can what jazz was all about. I think this was the only song that I listened too more than one time.

Steps to a Successful Family Reunion

Steps to a Successful Family Reunion With some creativity and advance planning, you can organize and plan a memorable family reunion that everyone will talk about for years. Who Is Family? It may seem obvious, but the first step for any family reunion is to decide who is family. Which side of the family are you inviting? Do you want to include only close relatives or all descendants of Great Grandpa Jones (or another common ancestor)? Are you inviting only direct-line relatives (parents, grandparents, grandkids) or do you plan to include cousins, second cousins, or third cousins, twice removed? Just remember, every step back on the ancestral tree adds a ton of new potential attendees. Know your limits. Create a Guest List Start by assembling a list of family members, including spouses, partners, and children. Get in touch with at least one person from each branch of the family to help you track down contact information for each person on your list. Make sure to collect email addresses for those that have them - it really helps with updates and last-minute correspondence. Survey Attendees If youre planning to include a lot of people in your family reunion, consider sending out a survey (by postal mail and/or email) to let people know that a reunion is in the works. This will help you gauge interest and preferences, and ask for help with the planning. Include possible dates, proposed reunion type, and a general location (discussing possible costs early on can discourage a positive response), and politely ask for a timely response to your questions. Add the names of interested relatives who return the survey to your reunion list for future mailings, and/or keep them up-to-date on reunion plans via a family reunion Web site. Form a Reunion Committee. Unless this is a get-together of five sisters at Aunt Maggies house, a reunion committee is almost essential to planning a smooth, successful family reunion. Put someone in charge of each major aspect of the reunion - location, social events, budget, mailings, record-keeping, etc. Why do all the work yourself if you dont have to? Select the Date(s) Its not much of a reunion if no one can attend. Whether you plan your family reunion to coincide with a family milestone or special day, summer vacation, or a holiday, it helps to poll family members to avoid time and date conflicts. Since family reunions can encompass everything from an afternoon barbecue to a large affair lasting three or more days, youll also need to determine how long you plan to get together. A good rule of thumb - the farther people have to travel to reach the reunion location, the longer the reunion should last. Most importantly, remember that you wont be able to accommodate everyone. Choose your final date(s) based on whats best for the majority of attendees. Pick a Location Aim for a family reunion location that is most accessible and affordable to the majority of people you want to attend. If family members are clustered in one area, then select a reunion location thats nearby. If everyones scattered, then choose a central location to help cut down on travel expenses for far-flung relatives. Develop a Budget This will determine the scale of the food, decorations, accommodations, and activities for your family reunion. You can choose to have families pay for their own overnight accommodations, bring a covered dish, etc., but unless you have another source of income, youll also need to set a per-family registration fee to help with decoration, activity, and location costs. Reserve a Reunion Site Once youve chosen a location and set a date, its time to select a site for the reunion. Going home is a big draw for family reunions, so you may want to consider the old family homestead or other historic site connected to your familys past. Depending on the size of the reunion, you may be able to find a family member who will volunteer to have it at their home. For larger reunions, parks, hotels, restaurants and community halls are a good place to start. If youre planning a multi-day reunion, then consider a resort location where people can combine reunion activities with a family vacation. Choose a Theme Creating a theme for a family reunion is a great way to interest people and make them more likely to attend. It also makes things more fun when it comes to being imaginative with food, games, activities, invitations, and just about every other aspect of the reunion. Family history themes are especially popular, as are reunions which celebrate a very special family members birthday or anniversary, or the familys cultural heritage (i.e. Hawaiian luau). Determine the Menu Feeding a large group of people with different tastes is perhaps one of the trickiest parts of planning a reunion. Make it easy on yourself by selecting a menu that relates to your theme, or perhaps one that celebrates your familys heritage. Organize a group of family members to prepare the food for the family reunion or, if you have a large group and your budget allows, find a caterer or restaurant to do at least part of the work for you. A tasty menu makes for an unforgettable family reunion. Plan Social Activities You dont need to occupy everyone all the time, but planned activities and ice-breakers at your family reunion will provide an easy way for people who do not know each other well to comfortably spend time together. Include activities that will appeal to all ages and further family knowledge of shared heritage. You may also want to award prizes for special distinctions such as oldest family member or longest distance traveled to attend. Set the Stage Youve got a bunch of people, now what do you plan to do with them? Its time now to make arrangements for tents (if an outside reunion), chairs, parking decorations, programs, signs, t-shirts, goodie bags, and other reunion-day requirements. This is the time to consult a family reunion checklist! Say Cheese! While many family members will no doubt bring their own cameras, it helps to also make plans to record the overall event. Whether you designate a specific relative as the official reunion photographer or hire a professional photographer to take photos or videos, you should prepare a list of the people and events that you want to be recorded. For spontaneous moments, purchase a dozen disposable cameras and hand them out to volunteer guests. Dont forget to collect them at the end of the day! Invite the Guests Once you have most of your plans in place, its time to invite the guests by mail, email and/or phone. Youll want to do this way in advance to make sure and give everyone time to get it on their calendar. If youre charging admission fees, mention this in the invitation and set an advance deadline by which at least a percentage of the ticket price is required (unless youre wealthy enough to cover all of the costs yourself and can wait until the actual reunion for reimbursement). Tickets purchased in advance also means people will be less likely to cancel at the last moment! This is also a good opportunity to ask people, even if they cant attend the reunion, to provide family trees, photos, collectibles and stories to share with other family members. Fund the Extras If you dont want to charge admission fees for your reunion, then youll need to plan for a little fundraising. Even if you do collect admissions, fundraising can provide money for some fancy extras. Creative ways for raising money include holding an auction or raffle at the reunion or making and selling family hats, t-shirts, books, or reunion videos. Print up a Program Create a program that outlines the lineup of scheduled reunion events to provide to family members as they arrive for the reunion. You may also want to send this out via email or your reunion Web site in advance of the reunion as well. This will help serve as a reminder to people of activities which may require they bring something with them, such as a photo wall or family tree chart. Decorate for the Big Day The big day is almost here and now its time to make sure it goes smoothly. Create catchy, easy-to-ready signs to point arriving guests to registration, parking, and important locations such as bathrooms. Purchase or make a guest book to collect signatures, addresses, and other important information, as well as serve as a permanent record of the reunion. Purchase pre-made name badges, or print your own, to facilitate mixing and mingling between unacquainted family members. Family tree wall charts are always a big hit as reunion attendees always want to know where they fit into the family. Framed photos or printed posters of common ancestors or past family reunions are also popular. And, if you want to know what everyone thought of all your reunion planning, print up some evaluation forms for people to fill out as they leave. Keep the Fun Going Designate a volunteer or volunteers to create and send out a post-reunion newsletter with stories, photos, and news items from the reunion. If you collected family information, send along an updated genealogy chart as well. This is a great way to get people excited about the next reunion, as well as include less fortunate family members who were not able to attend.

Translation Technology (Experience of using SDL Trados 2014 and its Essay

Translation Technology (Experience of using SDL Trados 2014 and its impact on translation method) - Essay Example The window opens presenting option for the Welcome view allowing an operator to open the Home tab. The subsequent process involves clicking the â€Å"Translate single document†. This gives a chance for opening document window whereby one can check the correctness of the source and target language as shown in figure 2. A new Translation Memory (TM) is set up by clicking â€Å"create† and then selecting â€Å"New File-Based Translation Memory†. The figure 3 below describes the process used in setting up New Translation Memory Window. In which case, a new TM name is entered (Translation Test). Next process involves browsing a folder for storing the TM and counterchecking on the source language and target language whether they are in alignment with the assignment. Character- based concordance search is enabled to allow efficiency during searching, especially when using a group of characters for the search. The file then opens in the Editor window giving a chance for translation. The translation is typed by clicking tin the first segment found in the target column. By clicking Ctrl+Enter, the first segment is confirmed and sent to the TM. Translating the other segments follow the same process aforementioned. The bilingual .sdlxliff file is saved (ctrl + S) in the folder where the source file was saved. Further, the target file is saved by clicking Shift + F12. This signifies the end of the process and the studio is closed by clicking Alt+F4. The following figure shows a sample of translation obtained when using the software: The SDL Trados 2014 translation process bears impacts on translation method as evident in a number of features it contains. Various features associated with using the software contribute distinctly to the impact of the software as will be discussed. These features yielding impacts include Global tag verification, alphanumeric strings,

Discussion #10 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Discussion #10 - Essay Example Remembering things of the past ,increase attentive ability to observe things in the environment and a great sense of humor more urge to learn and being more informative,different ways of performing things, motor or physical activities and speech. Giftedness is either inherited or is adopted from the surroundings. It often runs in families. In order to cope up with such children they are indulging in school activities at an early age so that their abilities are more polished. (Mail Online, 2015) Such children must complete the curriculum early and move on to advanced level. Teachers must help them to learn to how to gain knowledge and how to make best use of their knowledge. Teachers must give them projects to enhance their knowledge.Teachers must engage them in decision making projects and help them to avail the chance of taking responsibility. (Globalpartnership.org, 2015) Gifted children as compare to others sleep less and are usually highly active when they are awakened. The Extended family all required in such cases including grand parents or close group of friends and families who can take care of the children while the parents are having rest. According to this article full time ability grouping of gifted students has been criticized. Students in regular classes and in special ones are divided according to their ability,sex and social status. It has been estimated that children in gifted classes have more interest in school. These classes make efforts to enhance the imagination of these children. Children with the same flaw happen to spend more with each other. They get along pretty well. Disabled children tend to consume more time during feeding. Even potty training requires a lot of time and patience. They also find it difficult to adjust in their age group of normal children. In this way, their parents need to be beside them 24/7, which costs their

Course project Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Course project - Coursework Example The company is quite strong compared to the peer group and the top competitors whose current ratio is 2.01 and 1.10 respectively. The strength emanates from the fact that the current ratio of the company is in between to indicate the assets are steering the growth of the company. The profitability ratio will measure the company’s ability to generate profits. Aswath argues that the gross margin indicates the percentage of net sales going towards fixed costs and profit (34-35). Macys aim for high gross margins that mean more money to cover fixed costs and increase profits. Asset management ratio is a good measure of the company’s efficiency and effectiveness in using the assets in revenue generation. Market value ratios relate to the stock price, observable market value and book value will get obtained in the company financial statement. Therefore, Equity Investors can extend credit to investors due to the report found in its financial ratios. The ratios show an upward trend to indicate that the company is

Influence Of Gambling Activities In College Students Psychology Essay

Influence Of Gambling Activities In College Students Psychology Essay My previous experience and lively interest in this subject motivated me to select Essence of gambling and influence of gambling activities in college students as a topic for my literature review. I had been problematic gambler for two years (gaming peers promoted tendencies to gamble) at first I started it as a means of recreation, but as a result it became major activity for me. I was spending great deal of time and money on it, without taking care of family budget or private life and it initiated real financial crisis and nervousness for me. But today, I am not gaming at all; I broke a deadlock, after loosing big sum of money, so I would like to scientifically realize the process of starting and terminating gambling by me. On the other hand, in Georgia sports betting (bookmakers) and Casino games are primary gambling activities, not only adults, but teenagers also are frequent users of these venues and I consider gambling as a large national problem. Increasing number of gambling v enues (for instance: my native city Batumi looks like a big casino) and promotion of gaming directed at students makes problem even more severe and large-scale. There had been hot debates around this topic, should gambling be declared illegal? Should it be removed from urban centers? Or simply prioritized as a profitable industry which is one of the main sources of taxation revenue? I want to assess where we are, acknowledge positive and negative sides of gambling, make judgments and as a voter support conventional wisdom. Why researchers even bother to tackle this topic? Because current developments in the world and mainly in USA makes lots of things around gambling challenging to investigate, analyze and conclude. On one hand there is profitable industry, which contributes a lot to taxation revenue, economic growth and development of services in urban centers, on the other hand negative consequences it yields to society, like emotional distress, personal bankruptcy, psychological trauma, so it is interest for researchers weather benefits cover those disadvantages or not. And why college students? Because studies of other risk behaviors have reinforced the opinion, that college students are at high risk for gambling ( LaBrie A. Richard; Shaffer J. Howard; LaPlante A. Debi; Wechsler Henry (2001) Correlates of college student gambling in the United States). Researchers examine different stages of gambling, when it becomes harmful, what are motives And which individuals are more inclined to gamble to deathà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦On the whole, the increase in the prevalence of gambling has stimulated a considerable body of research. (Platz Laurie and Murray Millar (1998) Gambling in the context of other recreation activity: A quantitative comparison of casual and pathological student gamblers.) As a prospective economist first I reviewed article by Koo Jun et al Rolling the dice? Casinos, Tax revenues and the social cost of gaming, (Journal of urban affairs. Volume 29, number 4.) Do the benefits from increased taxes and job opportunities associated with gambling outweigh those personal and social costs resulted from increased number of addicted gamblers? So three main issue worked out in this research are: 1)tax revenues and economic growth supported by these funds, 2) jobs at the casinos and improved public service, 3)possible social consequences. Wagering tax rates varies between 8.5 and 45.5% in US (Nevada, New Jerseyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Illinois) and as a percent of tax revenue it is between 3.4 and 27.8% (Illinoisà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Nevada), in Detroit casinos are sixth largest employer (Source: Indiana Gaming Commission, 2006) rigid evidence to agree that this industry is special for states economic stability. Research also focused on social costs: do casinos induce higher leve ls of social problems? Is there a link between casinos and socially destructive behaviors like unemployment, bankruptcy fillings and crime rate? Direction of causality must be checked. Article tried to answer these questions by analyzing changes in Michigan, Virginia, Indiana and Ohio; in Ohio casino-style gaming is forbidden while in others not, so researchers compared outcomes relative to social problems. Quasi experiment was carried out, unemployment rates of casino and non-casino countries in Michigan between 1991 and 2003 were compared and result was that although there was a slight decrease in the unemployment rate gap, the opening of casinos did not significantly change overall levels. Similar patterns are observed in terms of bankruptcy rates and crime levels, presence of casinos had no observable incremental effect, macro factors seem to play much significant role (Koo Jun et al, 2007). This research also used regression models, designed to control differences in initial conditions between casino and non-casino counties and separate the effects of casinos on the social cost variables: crime rate, personal bankruptcy rate and unemployment, results showed that there might be some casino effects but they are unimportant (Koo Jun et al, 2007). We can conclude this research that gambling does not have significant and catastrophic effects on socially destructive behavior, even recognizing direct connection between them is difficult, so there is no reason to declare it unlawful and sacrifice financial benefits of it. Now the essence of gambling must be studied. Gambling: normal adolescent activity or pathologic addiction? abstract by Selekman Janice 2008, explains essence of gaming. Gambling sometimes referred as Gaming, is defined as the practice of playing games of chance or betting in the hope of winning money or something of value, it involves risk and uncertainty (Verbeke and Kittrick-Nathan,2007) Most adolescent gamblers are considered as recreational, who gamble for the purposes of entertainment, but of the 80% gamblers 10-15% are at risk of development of a gambling problem and 3-8% are considered to be problem or pathological gamblers (Derevensky and Gupta, 2007) in adult population only 1.5% are problematic gamblers (Labrie and Shaffer). The median age for starting gambling is 11-13 years, when small amounts of money are readily accessible, when local environment accepts such behavior and rules of the game are understandable to a child and he/she plays to win money, gain status and resp ect among friends, escape stress, relieve boredom. While gambling they feel more control of the situation, more independence and self reliability (Jacobs, 2004) But at some phase recreational gambling becomes problematic, impulse-control disorders take place and can be characterized by following criteria suggested by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual: Preoccupied with gambling. Needs to gamble with increasing amounts of money. Has repeated unsuccessful efforts to control, stop gambling. Is restless or irritable. Gambles as a way of escaping from problems or of relieving a dystrophic mood. Chases ones loses. Lies to conceal the extent of involvement in gambling in gambling Has committed illegal acts such as forgery, fraud, theftà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Has jeopardized or lost a significant relationship, job or career opportunity because of gambling. Relies on others to provide money to relieve a desperate financial situation.(American Psychiatric Association, 2000) Pathological gamblers are at increased risk for use of alcohol and drugs, they have symptoms of anxiety and depression, sudden change in mood and school performance, they sell expensive possessions and are unable to count for money (Griffiths and Wood, 2005). It is worthwhile now to scrutinize problem gambling and prediction of gambling behavior in more details. Abstract The prediction of gambling behavior and problem gambling from attitudes and perceived norms by Susan M, Moore is useful in this sense. In the study by Moore the aim was to test the Theory of Reasoned Action, central hypotheses were that attitudes and subjective norms would predict intentions and intention-behavior. Survey designed to measure gambling attitudes, subjective norms, gambling intention, gambling behavior and problem gambling was completed by 215 participants (mean age 22). Results showed that: Most respondents approved of moderate gambling and hold that some gambling should be legal, but they were against too much gambling and endorsed to set limits on gambling opportunities. Realizing figure 2 we find out that family and friends have a great impact on gamblers, and gamblers are often surrounded by gaming friends and family members, and disapproval of their behavior comes from family members not from friends (Moore M. Susan; Ohtsuka Keis 1999) As frequency of gambling behavior in the sample shows very few of the sample regularly engaged in any type of gambling, but at a low level there has been widespread engagement in gambling. Survey also showed that not all gamblers, that game more frequently than they intend, are problematic, so correlation between gambling frequency and problem gambling was, moderately high but not corresponding: (Moore M. Susan; Ohtsuka Keis) And finally with table five, there is expressed gambling intention, frequency and problem as independent variables and potential predictors are sex, age, attitudes to gambling, subjective norms, intention to gamble. Regression analyses showed intention to gamble was significantly predicted by attitudes and subjective norms: more positive attitudes greater intention to gamble. Also males, people with strong intentions and positive subjective norms are more likely to engage in this activity. (Moore M. Susan; Ohtsuka Keis, Social behavior and personality, 1999) Gambling behavior and problem gambling is partly predicted and influenced by independent factors, but is it stable or characterized by progression? It was helpful for me to answer these questions by contemplating longitudinal studies reviewed by Debi A. Laplant et al in the abstract named: Stability and progression of disordered gambling: lessons from longitudinal studies. Stability tendency for individuals to stay at one diagnostic level opposed to moving to another improved or worsened level (Laplante A Debi et al 2008). this review found out that in contrary to conventional wisdom individuals can recover from disordered gambling (contrary to persistence assumption), like the other one that holds that individuals who have gambling problems are not more likely to worsen than individuals without gambling problems (contrary to progression assumption), so this review demonstrates that disordered gambling is unstable and not persistent, that means that professional and conventional wis dom about problem gambling have no empirical support. This review by Laplante A Debi was based on 5 peer reviewed articles (Abbott et al, Defuentes-Merillas et al, Shaffeer and Hall, Slutske et al, and Winters et al) which used various time points, populations and measures of problem gambling: In the above figure level 0-1 represents no gambling or gambling without problems, level 2 subclinical gambling problems, level 3 gambling problems. Then were developed cross tabs classification of gambling courses: improving decreased number of gambling problems; worsening increased number of gambling problems; stable consistent gambling problems across all time points (there were different time points and large time span) and variable fluctuation of gambling problems without consistent direction. As this figure shows Level 3 or problem gamblers who reduced their level of severity exceeded the studies corresponding margin of error, in each study proportion of level 3 gamblers improving was greater than zero. Results are similar for Level 2 gamblers, who reduced level of severity and their number exceeded corresponding margin of error. Improving was greater than zero. (Table2, Debi A. Laplante et al) it confirms that gambling behavior is not persistent, as problem gamblers reveal tendencies of improving in each study. We can conclude that these longitudinal studies with short-term and long-term periods indicate that while healthy gambling behavior appears to be stable, individuals with gambling problems experience movement from different levels of severity of gambling disorder to other more or less severe levels. Now as we have covered main issues, structure and characteristics of gambling we should pay more attention to segment of population which is frequently involved in gambling and pathological gambling yields disastrous consequences for them. As a bottom line we can use article by Emily M. Verbeke and Karin Dittrick-Nathan-Student gambling. Gambling is an addictive behavior that is often hidden but erodes students quality of life; it has increased significantly among adolescents, who have grown up in a society where it is legal and widely accepted.(Emily M. Verbeke) As article points out problem or compulsive gambling is characterized by: increasing preoccupation with gambling, a need to bet more money more frequently, restlessness or irritability, increasing bets to make up previous losses and loss of control over gambling activity. Result of problem gambling can be low grades absenteeism, poor concentrationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Emily M. Verbeke) (Then we will discuss this in more details). Although regulations forbid anyone under 18 to play, illegal gambling takes place out of controlled areas. There are several reasons why adolescents gamble: for recreation, to socialize, to win money, to experience thrill, to relieve depression or simply to escape from problems at home or university. Youths who have certain personality characteristics, such as extreme impulsivity, extroversion, sensation-seeking behaviors or low self-esteem may be at higher risk of developing a gambling problem and they have higher rates of depression and suicide attempts. Prevention and intervention activities must me carried out by teachers, mental health professionals, coaches, parents to communicate to students about negative effects of gambling and change a positive attitude towards gaming as a harmless behavior (Emily M. Verbeke). College students gambling behavior: when does it become harmful? by Jeremiah Weinstock et al is another useful abstract which gives us beneficial information about student gambling. 159 college students were interviewed, who also completed demographic questionnaire. Patterns of gambling behavior associated with pathological gambling gambling more than 1.2 times per month, gambling more than 2.1 hours per month, intending to wager more than 6.1% of monthly income and wagering more than 10.5% of monthly income. Pathological gambling was also associated with the combination of psychological distress, gambling frequency and a history of parental gambling problems (Jeremiah Weinstock). Pathological student gamblers report poorer academic performance and greater risk taking, like alcohol consumption, nicotine use, illicit drug use and unprotected sex, than recreational or non-gamblers (Weinstock et al). Also Weinstock et al found that 50% of students who gambled at least once a month expe rienced problems related to their gambling. In this study 160 students were participating, 18 years or older, the sample was diverse in both demographic characteristics and gambling behavior. Study showed that the most common gambling activities were cards (58.3%), slots (48.1%), sports betting (33.1%) and games of skill (26.3%). Questionnaire filled in by participants asked for GPA, monthly income, ethnicity, sex, marital status and age, also whether their parents gambled or not. Questionnaire also included other behavioral variables like Gambling frequency, duration, Gambling Plan Adherence index and episodes when amount risked exceeded amount intended to risk. On the basis of diagnostic interview participants were classified as pathological or non-pathological gamblers. As shown in table 1, pathological gamblers are significantly more likely to report a parent with a gambling problem history, a lower GPA, greater psychological distress than were non-pathological gamblers. This numbers identify several strong behavioral indicators, highlighting a behavior associated with pathological gambling: risking more than 10% of monthly income, gambling more than once a month and gambling more than 2 hours per month were related to pathological gambling status in college students. As study showed demographic variables play small role in pathological gambling status, behavioral and psychological variables are more influential and such behavioral indicators can be utilized to assess, prevent and intervene in problematic gambling behavior in college students. Pathological gambling among students is further analyzed by Randy Stinchfield in the article Problem and pathological gambling among college students. Article is divided into four sections, overview of problem and pathological gambling, risk and protective factors associated with student gambling, problem gambling screening and assessment instruments, prevention and intervention approaches. Problem gambling individuals life is disrupted by gambling, gambling takes precedence over other activities and individual experiences adverse consequences. Pathological gambling is a psychiatric diagnosis (Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders-American psychiatric association). Three cardinal signs of pathological gambling are: preoccupation with gambling and obtaining money with which to gamble, loss of control of ones gambling and continuation of gambling despite negative consequences such as losing large sums of money. Experimenting with gambling, regular gambling, excessive g ambling are types of student gambling. Many college student gambles, but only small percentage becomes problem gamblers (Winters, Bengston, Dorr 1998). Rates of gambling and problem gambling remained stable over time, but there was a shift from illegal games to legalized games (Winters 1995). How many college students are problem gamblers? 9.3% of men and 2.4% of women(Shaffer, Hall 1997 SOGS),other study 4.9%men 1%women(Winters, Bengston, Dorr 1998) another study 8.5%men, 1.9% women (Engwall, Hunter, Steinberg 2004). What about risk and protective factors associated with gambling? Out of all possible risks, most salient is substance use, abuse, dependence. The link between alcohol, illicit drug, and tobacco use and gambling and problem gambling are strong (Clark, 2003; Engwall 2004). Heavy alcohol use was highly predictive of problem gambling, particularly size of bets made while gambling, unanticipated withdrawal of extra money at the casino and loss of more money than could be afforded (Giacopassi 1998). In terms of gender, males are more involved in gambling that women (Kveitel and Allen, 1998) males also have higher rate of problem gambling than females (Ladoucer 1994). Ethnicity, like gender is another salient risk factor, studies have shown that African-Americans and Asian-Americans tend to gamble more then European-Americans. Other important risk factors can also be listed: students overall level of gambling activity, general gambling veracity, tendency to minimize losses, general academic performance, typical leisure or extracurricular activities and parental or guardian history of gamblingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦(Randy Stinchfield 2006). Now briefly discuss about pathological gambling assessment instruments. Most commonly is used the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), the content of SOGS includes items that inquire about spending more time or money on gambling than intended, hiding evidence of ones gambling, arguing with family members about ones gambling borrowing money. The twenty item SOGS is scored by summing the number of items endorsed, a cut score of 5 or more indicates PPG. Second item is the Gambling Behavior Interview (GBI) 76 item instrument designed to measure signs and symptoms of problem gambling. GBI is made up of eight content domains: Gambling attitudes, Gambling frequency of different games, Time and money spent gambling, gambling frequency at different venues, SOGS, DSM diagnostic criteria, Research diagnostic items and demographics.(National Collegiate Association, 2004). At the end of this article are recommendations for practitioners at colleges and universities: Monitor student gambling behavior, extent of gambling, illegal gambling and problem gambling. Develop student policies for gambling that emphasize rehabilitation not punishment. Conduct research into the cause, development, maintenance and cessation of problem gambling, with an emphasis on risk and protective factors. Develop and evaluate prevention programs and messages designed for students. Provide treatment services for students who have already developed a gambling problem. (Randy Stinfield, William Hanson, Douglas Olson, 2006). Correlates of college student gambling are worthwhile to analyze. Article named Correlates of college student gambling in the United States by Richard A. LAbrie et al gives some profitable information about it. Primary research questions which were answered: Will a nationally representative survey of gambling among college students confirm the concept that college students are at high risk for gambling problems? And will the problem behaviors and the risk factors conform to those of alcohol abuse and thereby support the persistence of a problem behavior syndrome (Richard A Labrie). Research used 2001 CAS self-administered questionnaire, which repeated standard questions used in 1993, 1997, 1999 surveys. The survey questionnaire asked, during the past school year, how often did you bet or spend money on each of the following gambling activities: Betting on professional sports, Betting on college sports, Betting on horse or dog racing, Casino gambling, Betting on the lottery or the num bers, Internet betting or gambling, Betting with a bookie, Playing cards, dice, or other games of chance. The 2001 CAS collected data from 120 colleges, 10765 students, to improve the representativeness of the sample; data were weighted to the gender, age and race/ethnicity distribution at the schools. Approximately 52% of men and 33% of women reported that they gambled, the most popular type of gambling was playing the lottery (25%), 30% reported casino gambling, 13% gambling with playing cards and dice. Gambling venues for men: lottery, playing cards, betting on sports, skill games and casino gambling, women preferred lottery, casinos, slot machines, bingo, and playing cards. Men are about 4 times more likely than women to have bet on sports and played games of skill for money, 3 times more likely to have bet on animals and twice as likely to have gambled in the stock market and played dice games (Douglas Engwall 2000). Of the students who gambled, 45% participated in only 1 type of gambling activity, the majority of student gamblers restricted their gambling to 1or 2 types (Richard A Labrie 2001). Students also answered questions about time spent on various activities in the past 30 days, these questions provided with an opportunity to evaluate the demographic and other factors that distinguished students who gambled from those who did not. Results showed that three demographic variables significantly predicted college student gambling for the total sample. Being male was the strongest demographic predictor of being a gambler, followed by being older than 20 years, and finally by having parents who had not completed the 4 year college. For men but not women, being white was a significant predictor of being a gambler, for women but not men having never been married was also significant predictor (Richard A Labrie 2001). Other covariates: those students whose families did not disapprove of drinking were more likely to gamble. Students who gamble intensely consider parties to be very important and religion and art less important. Male gamblers consider athletics to be very important. Men who lived in fraternity houses were more likely to be gamblers; having a grade average less than a B+ was more common among gamblers and also having 5 or more close friends was one of the predictors. Alcohol related behavior were the strongest risk correlates of gambling. Use of marijuana and illicit drugs also predicted gambling. Students of both sexes were more likely to be gamblers if they watched a great deal of television, spent time on a computer for non-academic reasons, studied less than 3 hours a day (Richard A Labrie 2001) The results of this nationally representative survey of gambling among college students do not indicate that students are at high risk for gambling problems, fewer college students in the 2001 CAS gambled in the last school year than adults in the last year. The CAS also found that 2.6% of students gambled frequently. Although findings reported in this article do not indicate a large national gambling problem among students, promotion of gambling could change a current situation. As we noted several times, intensive alcohol usage is most significant predictor of gambling behavior, so decision of choosing article The co-occurrence of alcohol use and gambling activities in first-year college students by Matthew P. Martens. Study written in this article was participated by 908 first-year college students, who were surveyed in 2005; research showed that alcohol use and alcohol-related risks were related to gambling frequency and peak gambling loss. National studies have indicated that approximately 40% of US students engaged in heavy episodic drinking, with men consuming more alcohol than women. In this study Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) was used as a measure of alcohol use. AUDIT is a 10-item measure designed to assess alcohol consumption, dependence symptoms and alcohol related risks and problems. To assess gambling behaviors, participants completed a 7-item inventory, these items were taken from the South Oaks Gambling Screen, six items as sessed gambling activities: playing cards for money, betting on horses or sports betting, playing slot machines, playing casino games, playing the lottery and playing a game of skill. The mean AUDIT score among participants was 8.61, men reported higher total scores than women (Matthew P. Martens 2005), results also showed that most played gambling activity was lottery games(55%) followed by playing cards for money(44%) and games of skill(26%), men reported gambling more frequently and having a greater peak gambling loss than did women. Goal of this study was to examine the co-occurrence of alcohol use and gambling. Table 2 shows the correlation between AUDIT scores and gambling variables, correlation between AUDIT and gambling frequency was 0.29 indicating the co-occurrence. By assessing differences in gambling behaviors between high-risk drinkers, low risk drinkers and abstainers, analysis of results indicated that high-risk drinkers gambled significantly more often than did others and had higher peak gambling loss. The finding of this study was that alcohol-related variables (use, dependence and alcohol related risks) and gambling frequency and peak gambling loss co-occurred in a group of students: Consuming large amounts of alcohol may make it more likely that a student chooses to gamble or it could negatively affect a students gambling-related decision. Similarly students may drink more heavily when they are engaged in gambling activity. (Matthew P. Martens et al, journal of American college health 2005). As we noticed lotteries are most common form of gambling and they are readily available to students, so next article is Predictors of lottery gambling among American college students by Beverly A. Browne and Daniel J. Brown. In this study gambling behavior of 288 American college students was examined and it was found that student lottery gambling was related to having parents and friends who were lottery gamblers. Students who were frequent lottery gamblers were more likely to participate in other forms of gambling. Discriminator analyses using parental gambling, peer gambling, games played, sex and locus of control could predict frequency of lottery playing for 72% of gamblers and non-gamblers. A small body of research that addressed the relationships between gambling and personality (Reviewed by Kusyszyn, 1984) indicated that college students who gambled on lotteries were similar to non-gamblers in characteristics such as intelligence, psychoneurotic tendencies and extroversion, m ale college students who gambled were found to be more secure, masculine and happy but less socially responsible. People who believe in luck may be more likely to gamble. The personality trait of locus of control has been linked to believing in chance rather than individual control over ones destiny (Rotter, 1966; Rotter, 1972). The sample of this research consisted of 288 students, as attitudes toward gambling might vary with nationality the sample was restricted to persons from the USA. The respondents completed a self-administered questionnaire that asked about gambling practices and the gambling of parents and friends. Results showed that almost 80% of the sample had purchased lottery tickets at one time or another; only 2% reported that they were frequent lottery players and 63% as occasional players. The average age of subjects when they bought their first ticket was 17.7 years, 31% of students reported that they had played lottery illegally before the age of 18. Responses als o showed that 61% of college students played the same frequency as they did before they came to college, so college environment is not motivator of gambling. Study used discriminator analyses to determine how well a combination of variables would predict lottery playing behavior. The analyses indicated that the combination of other gambling, parental gambling, peer gambling, sex, and locus of control could predict gambling status. Most predictive variables were engaging in other gambling, parental gambling, and peer gambling. Gaming peers may promote tendencies to gamble; nevertheless other influences (time, money, knowledge) may constrain those tendencies. Review gave me a great deal of information around gambling to make conclusions, researches indicated legal gambling is not directly connected to unemployment growth, crime rate or personal bankruptcy, it is not significant influencer, so if we consider those benefits expressed in huge taxation revenues, developed services, and employment in casinos, we can find legal gambling acceptable and sometimes necessary too. Those funds received from taxation will stimulate economic growth and result in greater GDP. On the other hand, it is persons legal right to gamble, if he is above 18 years and has desire, so it would be less than democratic to abolish gaming as a purpose of evading excessive or pathological gambling. I perfectly realize negative effects and bad sides of gambling, mainly influencing adolescents and problem gamblers, as excessive gambling frequently results in disruption of private life, psychological distress, big debts, failures at jobs, universities and in relationships with relativesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ so population must be informed about it timely, and then people will make informed choice to gamble or not. Restrictions in age must be controlled strictly; juveniles under 18 years must not be allowed to gamble at all, not only in casinos but anywhere. It means that illegal gambling must be eliminated, also in schools and universities have to be conducted monitoring of student gambling behavior, prevention programs must be developed and policies should emphasize not punishment of those who became problem gamblers but rehabilitation. By looking at predictors of gambling behavior profile of prospective problem gambler can be created, people who fit this profile noticed and eliminate threat until it becomes dangerous. In some dimensions gambling has negative effects on society as a whole(social distress) so there is one view and I agree with it that gambling ventures can be removed

Carson :: essays research papers

Carson   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I would like to thank Mr. and Mrs. Smith for asking me to speak today on behalf of Carson. First things first, everyone grab a tissue and wipe your tears. I know Carson is here right now and she is watching us come up here and cry, I know she hates that. She hates it when anyone cries, so everyone cheer up, crying is not what she would have wanted. We are here to celebrate and commemorate the life of a truly wonderful girl. I never in a million years thought that one day I would have to say good bye to such a wonderful soul. Carson, you were a shining light in my life for thirteen years. How can let you go with so much of our lives left still to experience. I remember the first day we met; truthfully I didn’t get a good impression of you. You were wearing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles t-shirt, I hated that cartoon. But you redeemed yourself by inviting me inside for snacks and a soda. It was only a matter of time before we were on the front lawn selling lemonade and playing house. I even broke my wrist in your backyard, boy did I feel stupid when everyone else could do a cartwheel and I couldn’t. The countless sleepovers, bike rides, movies, and fights made our friendship flourish.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Today, though I want to tell you about the Carson I knew. The girl who always put others before herself, the girl who loved, the girl who was beautiful inside and out. Carson was a straight A student who was very hard on herself, grades were very important to her. She also knew that there were those who didn’t do well in school, so she would tutor anyone who asked. I know I would have never passed physics without her.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Carson was a talented child right from the start. She would give me chills when she played Beethoven’s 5th symphony on her piano. Oh yeah, did I mention she was also an extremely gifted artist. She put her heart and soul in her drawings; I always thought they were her essence sketched onto paper.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  She was athletic, one of the best soccer and tennis players I have ever seen. Carson spent hours on end practicing; she was determined to be the best she could be. It never mattered what others thought of her ability, her self satisfaction was all she was aiming for.