Computer Manipulation of Photographs and Peoples Trust Essay

Computer Manipulation of Photographs and Peoples Trust - Essay Example Photographs are taken for identification of events, people, things and many other aspects (Goldberg 1991). Photographs are also thought to be a source of evidence for various purposes. With computer manipulation and editing of photographs for personal reasons, photography is not more considered as an evidence for reality. It is considered fake and somewhat containing lies (Brand, et.al 1985). With digital photography, the art of photo manipulation has become more easy and uncomplicated. The photographs that are captured digitally are stored in the computer in form of digital data (Brand, et.al 1985). This digital data can easily be edited and manipulated intentionally or unintentionally. In the market, there are various software programs available that offer the computerized manipulation of photographs. The computer manipulation of photographs is not considered illegal and people, media and other institutions employ the software programs for manipulating images according to their own requirements without any legal threat. We can take many examples of photographs as evidence. For a passport or identity card, photographs are required. Passports or identity cards are used for identifying a person with the help of his given photograph and concerning details. If the photograph is manipulated technologically with the help of the computer, it will give an edited version of the real person, which cannot be considered as wholly true. Passport or identity cards are sources of evidence of a person’s real identification but if the photographs attached with the identification cards are manipulated, no trust will be there. Before computer manipulation, trust in photographs as a form of evidence was there but after, technological development and launch of different software programs related to computer manipulation, people are being led towards distrusting the evidence of photographs (Goldberg 1991).

Background history of Facebook and the expected future Essay

Background history of Facebook and the expected future - Essay Example Although Zuckerberg in Oct 2004 intended to launch the organization’s international strategy, he did not have the resources and human personnel essential to push the business to the other part of the world. In August 2005, the organization managed to expand to other institutions and anyone with an institutional e-mail address was free to register in this network (Croft, 2007). In September 2006, the organization managed to go global and any member from wherever part of the world was able to open an account with their personal e-mail address and access this social site. Facebook is a company that has continued to grow financially since its launch in 2004. At its launch, the company was valued at $500, 000 and has continued to grow in net worth. According to its 2013 financial report, the company has total equity of $15.47 billion and was ranked among one the most competitive organizations in the social network. In this year, the company registered revenue of $ 7.872 billion dollars and net income of$ 1.500 billion. The number of register users of this social network is estimated to be about 1.2 billion and the organization employs over 5,800 employees within its network (Raice, 2011). Although the social media network has continuously expanded hence increasing competition, Facebook has remained on the competitive end by attracting more clients to the network. Although Facebook was started as a social network for the college students, the social site has grown to attract clients across different market stakeholders. For instance, the organization has provided business organization with an advertising medium which they have found crucial in their marketing strategy. For this reason, the organization has managed to pull the business people into the site leading to a rapid growth of its customers. The business organizations have found Facebook as superior advertising avenue as compared to other advertising

Paul’s Missionary Journey Essay Example for Free

Paul’s Missionary Journey Essay The Apostle Paul was the great leader in the momentous transition which characterized the apostolic age, the transition from a prevailingly Jewish to a prevailingly gentile Christianity. Under his guidance Christianity was saved from atrophy and death, which threatened it if it remained confined in Palestine. At the same time, by reason of his insight into the truth of the Gospel and fidelity to it, as well as by his devotion to the Old Testament and loyalty to the highest Jewish ideals in which he had been reared, he saved Christianity from the moral and religious degeneracy to which it would surely have been brought if it had broken with its past, and had tried to stand alone and helpless amid the whirl of Greek religious movements of the first and second Christian centuries. In Paul a great force of onward movement and a profound and conscious radicalism were combined with fundamentally conservative principles. Paul appears to have been born at not far from the same time as Jesus Christ. According to Acts, Paul was born in Tarsus (Acts 9:11; etc. ), received the double name Saul/Paul (13:9), and through his family possessed Tarsian and Roman citizenship (22:25-29 (Murphy-OConnor 32-33). Overall, Paul can be described as an able and thoroughly trained Jew, who had gained from his residence in a Greek city that degree of Greek education which complete familiarity with the Greek language and the habitual use of the Greek translation of the Scriptures could bring. At bottom he ever remained the Jew, in his feelings, his background of ideas, and his mode of thought, but he knew how to make tolerably intelligible to Greek readers the truths in which, as lie came to believe, lay the satisfaction of their deepest needs. At Jerusalem Paul entered ardently into the pursuit of the Pharisaic ideal of complete conformity in every particular to the Law. He was, he tells us, found blameless (to every eye but that of his own conscience), and, he says, I advanced in the Jews religion beyond many of mine own age among my countrymen, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers. With fiery passion he entered into the persecution of the Christian sect, was present and took a kind of part at the murder of Stephen, and undertook to carry on the work of suppression outside of Palestine at Damascus, whither he journeyed for this purpose with letters of introduction from the authorities at Jerusalem (Murphy-OConnor 52-57). At this time took place his conversion. That he was converted, and at or near Damascus, his own words leave no doubt. I persecuted, he says in writing to the Galatians, the Church of God. . . But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me, even from my mothers womb, and called me through his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the gentiles; straightway I conferred not with flesh and blood: neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me: but I went away into Arabia; and again I returned unto Damascus (Gal i. 13-17). The change evidently presented itself to Pauls mind as a direct divine interposition in his life. It came to him in a revelation of Jesus Christ, whereby (and through no human intermediary) he received the Gospel which he preached, and the commission to be an apostle. He refers to it as to a single event and an absolute change of direction, not a gradual process and development; the two parts of his life stood sharply contrasted, he did not conceive that he had slid by imperceptible stages from one to the other. What things [i. e. his advantages of birth and Jewish attainment] were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ . . . or whom I suffered — as if in a single moment —the loss of all things (Phil. iii. 7. 8). From Pauls own words, then, we know that he was converted from a persecutor to a Christian, at a definite time and at or near Damascus, by what he considered to be the direct interposition of God; and it seems to be this experience of which he thought as a vision of the risen Christ (Hubbard 176-77). After Pauls conversion, which took place in the latter part of the reign of Tiberius (14-37 a. d. ), about fifteen years passed before the missionary career began of which we have knowledge from Acts and from Pauls own epistles. During this time Paul was first in Arabia, that is in some part of the empire of which Damascus was the most famous city, then in Damascus, and later, after a brief visit to Jerusalem, in Cilicia, doubtless at his old home Tarsus. In this period we may suppose that he was adjusting his whole system of thought to the new centre which had established itself in his mind, the Messiahship of Jesus. With the new basis in mind every part of his intellectual world must have been thought through. Especially, we may believe, will he have studied the relation of Christian faith to the old dispensation and to the ideas of the prophets. The fruit of these years we have in the matured thought of the epistles. They show a steadiness of view and a readiness of resource in the use of the Old Testament, which testify to through work in the time of preparation. Epistles written years apart, like Galatians, Romans and Philippians, surprise us by their uniformity of thought and unstrained similarity of language, in spite of the richness and vivacity of Pauls thought and style. So, for the most part, the characteristic ideas even of Epliesians and Colossians are found suggested in germ in Corinthians and the earlier epistles. Pauls epistles represent the literary flowering of a mind prepared by years of study and reflection (Murphy-OConnor 90-95). At Pauls missionary journey and the beginning then made of churches in Asia Minor we have already looked in a previous chapter. After his return to Antioch followed that great and pivotal occasion of early Christian history, the so-called Council, or Conference, at Jerusalem, described in the fifteenth chapter of Acts and by Paul in the second chapter of Galatians. At that time Paul established his right to carry on the work of Christian missions in accordance with his own principles and his own understanding of the Christian religion. His relation with the Twelve Apostles seems then and at all times to have been cordial. His difficulties came from others in the Jewish Church. To this we know of only one exception, apparently somewhat later than the Conference, the occasion at Antioch when Peter under pressure from Jerusalem withdrew from fellowship with the gentile brethren, and called out from Paul the severe rebuke of which we read in Galatians. There is reason to believe that the rebuke accomplished its purpose. At any rate, at a later time there is no evidence of a continued breach. The idea of missionary travel had evidently taken possession of Paul, for after returning from Jerusalem to Antioch he soon started out again, and was incessantly occupied with missionary work from now until the moment of his arrest at Jerusalem. Leaving Antioch on his second journey he and his companions hurried across Asia Minor, stopping only, it would appear, to revisit and inspect churches previously established. They were led by the Holy Spirit, as the writer of Acts believed, to direct their course westward as rapidly as possible to Greece, which was to be the next stage in the path to the capital of the world. In Macedonia and Achaia Paul and his companions worked with varying success at Philippi, Thessalonica, Ber? a, Athens, Corinth. At Corinth, the chief commercial city of Greece, the Christians arrived in the late autumn. The work opened well, and Paul remained at that important centre until a year from the following spring. The date of his arrival cannot be exactly determined, but is probably one of the five years between 49 and 53 a. d. While at Corinth he wrote the First and (if it is genuine) the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. Somewhere about this time, perhaps before leaving Antioch for this journey, the Epistle to the Galatians was written. The churches of Galatia, to which it is addressed, were probably the churches known to us in Acts as Pisithan Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. After a flying trip to Syria and perhaps to Jerusalem Paul returned to Ephesus in Asia Minor, where he settled down for a stay of three years. A few incidents of this period have been recorded in the Book of Acts, and are among the most striking and realistic that we have. They include a remarkable number of points of contact with facts known to us from archeological discoveries, and in no chapters of Acts is our confidence more fully reassured in the contemporary knowledge and the trustworthiness of the writer of the book. While at Ephesus Paul had much communication with Corinth, and wrote I Corinthians, which had clearly been preceded by another letter. There are indications in II Corinthians that after this he found the difficulties in the church at Corinth such that he wrote them at least one letter which has been lost, and made a short, and in its outcome exceedingly painful, trip to Corinth and back to Ephesus. Finally he was impelled by danger to his life to leave Ephesus, and went through Macedonia to Corinth. On the way he wrote, to prepare for his own presence, the epistle we call II Corinthians. Arriving at Corinth in the early winter he stayed until spring. His literary impulse continued active, and to this winter we owe the Epistle to the Romans. Earlier letters had been called out by special need in one or another church; in Romans Paul comes nearer to a systematic exposition of his theology than in any of his earlier writings. He knew the importance that would surely belong to the Christian Church of Rome. He had made up his mind to go there. But first he must go to Jerusalem, and there were dangers both from the risks of travel and from hostile men. Of each hind his life had had many examples. Accordingly he provided for the Roman Christians a clear statement of his main position, together with a reply to several of the chief objections brought against it, notably the allegations that his presentation of Christianity involves the abrogation of Gods promises to his chosen people, and that it opened the way to moral laxity. This letter Paul sent as an earnest of his own visit to Rome. He had been for a year or more supervising the collection by the churches of Asia Minor and Europe of a contribution for the poor Christians at Jerusalem; the gentile churches should thus make a repayment in carnal things to those who had made them to be partakers of their spiritual things. This contribution was now ready, and Paul himself with a group of representatives of the chief churches took ship at Philippi and Troas for Jerusalem. The voyage is narrated in detail in Acts, evidently by one who was a member of the company. At last Paul reached Jerusalem, and was well received by the church; but, followed as he was by the hatred of Jews from the Dispersion who had recognized the menace to the Jewish religion proceeding from the new sect, he was set upon by a mob, rescued only by being taken in custody by the Roman authorities, and after a series of exciting adventures which will be found admirably told in the Book of Acts, was brought to C`sarea. There he stayed a prisoner for two years and more until on the occasion of a change of Roman Governor his case was brought up for trial, when he exercised the right of a Roman citizen to appeal from the jurisdiction of the Governor to that of the imperial court at Rome. It was late autumn, but he was dispatched with a companion whom we may well believe to be Luke the beloved physician, and from whom our account certainly comes. The narrative of Pauls voyage and shipwreck, of the winter on the island of Malta, and the final arrival at Rome early in one of the years between 58 and 62 a. d. is familiar. It is the most important document that antiquity has left us for an understanding of the mode of working an ancient ship, while the picture which it gives of Paul as a practical man is a delightful supplement to our other knowledge of him(Murphy-OConnor 324). In Rome, while under guard awaiting trial, Paul probably wrote Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and the circular letter, seemingly intended for churches in Asia Minor, known to us as Ephesians. They show some new development of ideas long present with him, and some new thoughts to which his other writings give no parallel, and the style of some of them has changed a bit from the freshness of Galatians and Romans; but these are not sufficient reasons for denying that Paul wrote the letters. They are, indeed, as it seems to me, beyond reasonable doubt genuine. The Book of Acts ends with the words, And he [Paul] abode two whole years in his own hired dwelling, and received all that went in unto him, preaching the Kingdom of God, and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, none forbidding him. This period of two years is sufficient to include the composition of the four epistles to which reference has just been made, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and Epliesians, the so-called Epistles of the Captivity. What happened at the expiration of the period? Apparently Pauls case, long postponed, then came to trial. Did it result in his release or his execution? The evidence is meager and conflicting, and opinions differ. It is perhaps a little more likely that he was released, and entered on further missionary work, probably carrying out his original purpose of pushing on with the proclamation of his Gospel to the west, and establishing it in Spain; but of this period there is no narrative. If after two years Pauls imprisonment at Rome ended with his release, as the absence of well-founded charges against him would lead us to expect, he must have been later again apprehended, probably in connection with the persecution artfully turned against the Christians at the time of Neros fire in July of the year 64. It is probable that he was beheaded, to which privilege his Roman citizenship entitled him, and that he was ultimately buried on the Ostian Way at the spot where now stands the splendid basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

The impact of financial leverage on return and risk

The impact of financial leverage on return and risk In this paper the author explained that each has an inherent risk in its operation which is generally related to the economic conditions in which the firm is operated. Business risk and the economic is not related to the firm financial structure but it is the function of economic conditions. Financial risk is another risk which is resulted from the financial decisions with the debt and preferred stock. Stock -holders have already bearing a risk which comes from the firms operations whereas financial risk is an additional risk which cause change in earnings due to leverage induction. The decision of the firm to undertake an investment affects its economic risk whereas the decision to finance the investment with the debt creates the financial risk. The level of interest rate affects all the firms as each individual is differing from the other firms in characteristics, from which firm decide to issue equity or debt. According to Levi and Sarnat (1994) the business or economic risk is re lated to the industry to which the firm is belonging and cause by the change in economic conditions. On the other word, business risk shows the firms assets riskiness if the firm don not use the debt. The business risk can be measure through standard deviation of return on assets (ROA). The business risk not only fluctuates from industry to industry but also various among in the firms belonging to the same industry. The firms business risk is depending on various numbers of factors. According to Brigham and Gapenski in 1994, there are some important factors influences the business risk. These includes demand variability, sales price volatility, input cost variability, ability to adjust output prices for in input cost, ability to develop new products in a timely, cost effective manner and the extent to which costs are fixed(operating leverages). Making investment with the debt and preferred stock may increase the potential return against the common stockholders. Stable income of the firm shows the brighter future of the firm by increasing in the debt. Its means that there is less probability that the firms net operating income is less than the interest which the firm has to pay against the borrowing. The traditional theories on the weighted averages cost of capital shows that if a firm introduces financial leverages into its capital structure, initially it will decrease the borrowing cost of capital, it is because of deduction of interest on the debts against the higher non-tax cost of capital for the new equity. The long term financial policy of the firm may be affected because of location of earning distribution, stability of sales and earnings, risk of bankruptcy, dividend policy, control and the agency cost. The operating leverage level affects the level of the financial leverage. The firms financial leverage increases the rate of return on the common stock equity. As the greater proportion of debt, has increased the risk of the stockholder. In the good eco nomic conditions, the financial leverage impact will be positive. The higher the degree of leverage reflects the greater firms business risk. The firms have taken loan to raise cash for operations. In this paper, the authors have analyzed that there are two types of leverages which the profitability and valuing to the firm. The measurement of leverage is total liabilities to equity. Some liabilities are arises from bank loans and bonds whereas some results from the transactions with the suppliers, customers and employees who are engaging in operations. Firms are less perfect than the capital markets because their operations are involved in buy and sell in input and output markets. Their research was related whether a dollar of operating liability is priced differently from a dollar of financial liability on the balance sheet. It means that the price to book ratio depend on the configuration of book value. The expected rate of return on the book value determined this ratio. Financial statements analysis provides the information that help to differentiate the shareholders profitability, arising from the borrowing activities. Leverages equations explained about whether the type of liability is favourable or unfavourable. The results in this article also revealed that financial statement analysis is not only differentiate the operations from financing activities but also tell about the future profitability among the firms. The following equation is splinting the effects of financing liabilities and operating liabilities on shareholders equity. Return on common equity (ROCE) = Comprehensive Net Income Common Equity Where Common equity = operating assets + financial assets operating liabilities financial liabilities Or Common equity = net operating assets net financing debt the above mean that investment in the inventory will be reduced in case of making too much investments in inventories.Net financing means that a firm cannot buy the bond with the excess cash from the operations. The income statement can also provide information that comes from financial and operating activities. Comprehensive net income =operating income net financing expense Operating income is earned in operations and net  ¬Ã‚ nancial expense is incurred in the  ¬Ã‚ nancing of operations. The authors also analyzed that if the  ¬Ã‚ nancial assets are more than financial liabilities, Financial leverage is negative. It means that the financial leverage levers the return on common equity over return on assets. Financial statements provides three types of leverages equations which are based on fixed accounting relations and the firms must hold the leverages at a given point in time. Financial liabilities are contraction obligations for the repayment of loans with some financial charges. High profitable firms might be take more leverage because of unfavourable risk is lower. Operating leverage is also provided the changes in the future profitability. (Stomper Zulehner, Why Leverage Distorts Investment ,2004) Many theories of capital structure explain the firms financing choices because of trade off between costs and benefits of leverages. The studies of Jensen and Mecking in 1976 and Myers in 1977 have analyzed the conflicts of interests between the firms owners and their creditors. These types of conflicts change the investment decision as the leverages changes their objectives functions. Management chooses such investment policy which maximizes equity value rather than maximizes the firm value. The strategic effects of leverages was explained by Titman (1984), Fudenberg and Tirole (1986), Brander and Lewis (1986) and Maksi-movic (1986).their papers clarified that why the leverages affects the firms strategy. The directions of the effects depend upon on the nature of firms interaction in oligopolistic situation. The models of Brander and Lewis (1986), Showalter (1995) demonstrate that leverage can make a firm more or less aggressive competitor. Leverages effects the firms investment dec isions in two way, first leverages increase the profitability with which a firm fail to pay its debt, as a result discouraging the investments in case if future profits are discounted at high rate. Second reason is levered firms investment policy depend upon the debt maturity structures so the firms shift their profit of those period in which the earnings are too high to cover the debt charges. If firm remain solvent, the leverage changes the s the firms marginal rate of substitution between current and future profits. To attract investments firms cut their prices at the cost of decreasing their current profits. They had also pointed out anther effect which was that in non defaulted states, the leverages change the marginal rate of substitution between current and future profits which used by the firms in making investment decisions for the purpose of maximize equity value. For this purpose those firms are considerable which cuts the prices of their output to attract additional cust omers and invest in market share. The authors used Limited Liability Effect model to reveal the fact that DLL-effect changes the firms investments. This model effects the firms investments in market share to over and under investment. They concluded, leverages affects firm pricing strategies in that case their future profits are depend on their market share. Levered firms make fewer investments in market shares because they discounted the future profits at high rate. The objectives functions are not change because of their nature of investment decisions. (Aly Tuan, Association between Accounting and Market-Based Risk Measures ,2005) In this article the authors examined the systematic risk and stock prices with help of cost structure of the firm. Systematic risk arises because of the firm fixed claims but having variable revenues. The fixed claims are associated with the debt financing. Shareholder systematic risk is depending upon the ratio of fixed cost to the total cost and leverage or gearing ratio give this relationship. There are two major components, financial leverage and operating leverage. Financial leverage is based on the level of interest paid irrespective to the profitability. Operating leverage is degree of rate of change in profit before interest and dividend with respect to change in the level of sales. The operating and financial leverage both have considered in empirical studies. Earlier studies have proved that accounting beta role was considerable in developing a positive relationship between operating leverage and the systematic risk. The knowledge based labour, research cost or other capita l incentive costs and scale based production may also create fixed cost which enhances the shareholder risk. This means that operating and financial leverages are independent to each other which give total leverage. But this view was criticises in 1983 by Huffman by using an option of pricing approach, she took the assumption fixed investment depend upon the level of previous debt risk. Mandleker and Rhee in 1984, found that operating and financial leverage had impact on beta and there was a significant relationship between these two variables. In 1989, Huffman discovered a negative relationship between the operating leverage and systematic risk which was opposite to the findings of Mandelker and Rhee.Ilord in 1996 had also reported a positive correlation between DOL ,DFL ,systematic risk and unsystematic risk ,however ,financial was related to the total and unsystematic risk but not to the systematic risk. According to the studies of Armstrong in 2002 raises the notion that because of change in corporate behaviour the flexible firms and labour markets have also impact on basic cost behaviour. The financial managers have to face more operating risk so they should adopt financial plan to get appropriate level of stock risk. In 2003, Rosett found that there was weak relationship between operating leverage and market risk but labour cost variable was an important variable. From the authors studies they had concluded that there was a strong relationship between operating leverage and financial leverage but the financial leverage was not more important than the operating leverage as the operating fixed cost have the greater impact on the market risk. Theoretically and empirically, the function of operating leverage has important for risk management and asset allocation within the firm and also for pricing of risk of financial markets. (Baum, Stephan, Talavera,Macroeconomic Uncertainty and Firm Leverage,2005) In this article the author analyzed the factor which influences the leverage level. The purpose of borrowing is make capital investment are existing payment of debt. Some time some firm make changes in the amount of debt they issue just before the official announcement. In 1958, Modigliani and Miller derived from their theoretical results that financial and real variables are irrelevant for a firms capital structure under perfect capital market. Most of the studies show a positive relationship between liquid asset holdings and the firms investment decisions. And some other studies show firms specific characteristics define the firm leverage such as s cash holdings, total assets, and the investment to capital ratio. They formulate a model which predicted that an increase in the macroeconomics uncertainty cause a decrease in leverage. According to them, the companies will issue less debt in times of greater macroeconomic uncertainty. Firms make their debt on the bases of future profits and investments. They have constructed four types of alternative macroeconomic uncertainty which are the conditional variances of index of leading indicators index of industrial production, the rate of consumer price inflation and return on the SP 500 stock market index. From their results it is suggested that macroeconomic uncertainty has impact on the non- financial companies capital structure and affect their investments. In most of the countries the monetary policy has a tendency to be constant in the direction of change in monetary instruments with reversals. (Faulkender Petersen, Does the Source of Capital Affect Capital Structure?, 2005) In this article the authors said that the trade off theory, the firms determine their leverage ratio by manipulative the tax advantages, costs of financial distress, mispricing, and incentive effects of debt against equity. Firms which have greater tax advantages over the debt, they have lower financial distress. When the firms determine that the total benefit from the debt is positive then they form their capital structure by issuing more additional debt and decrease the equity. There is an assumption that leverage is the function of firms demand for the debt. By considering the tax benefit of the debt, Graham argued in 2000 that the firms loose opportunity to enhance the wealth by increasing the leverage and reducing the tax payments on the assumption that other debt cost are correctly measure. Debt ratios also depend upon the firms characteristics. The differences in the leverage may be because of the product of the firm with different characteristics. The firms always try to secu re their funding for those projects having positive net present value NPV. But if the lenders are unable to evaluate the quality of investment easily then it will be difficult for the firm to raise the desire and sufficient amount of capital for all the good projects. The financial intermediaries mostly the banks also may have an advantage over arms length lenders (bond markets) after giving the capital to the firms. The firms which are riskier, smaller and less known mostly borrow the capital from the banks whereas well known larger firms mostly borrow from the arms length capital markets. In the imperfect market the cost of capital is not only depend on the risk of their project but also on the resources which are needed to confirm the viability of their projects. The cost of the debt is paid by the borrower in the form of interest. They observed that the level of the debt is the function of supply and demand of the firm for debt. These both are depend upon the price of debt capit al and the supply and demand factors. Qdemand =ÃŽÂ ±0Price + ÃŽÂ ±1Xdemand factors + E demand Qsupply = ß 0Price +ß1Xsupply factors+E supply They are using the data of 1986-2000 and exclude the firms having assets or sales less than $1million. They had measures debt to the asset ratio; the debt includes both long and short term debt. From their results, the firms which borrow from the financial intermediaries have lower leverage becuse of cost monitoring the imperfect financial contracts. Certain parts of the capital markets also affects the firms borrowing. The vfirms can moves from the private debt markets to the public debt market because banking capital markets have more dramatical impact than the public markets. (Amjed, The impact of financial structure onprofitability: Study of Pakistans TextileSector,2007) In this article the author main point that the capital structure affects the cost of capital of a firm and as a result of this the performance of the firm also affected. The firm must use an optimal combination of debt and equity to enhance the wealth of shareholders which s the main objective of the firm. In this paper the author analyzed the relationship between the capital structure and profitability of the Pakistan textile industry. According to the studies of d Bradley, Larrel and kim (1984) and Almazan and Molina (2005), the firms related to the same industry develop the similar capital structure. Eli Schwartz (1959) reported that optimal capital structure fluctuates in different industries because of the reason that the typical asset structure and profit stability which help in determining the inherent risk are differ for different types of production and the borrowing power of the firms are also differ. According to the Modigliani and Miller (1958) studied reflected that in t he perfect market conditions the market value of any firm and the cost of capital are independent in its capital structure. According to the pecking order theorists Myers (1984), Myers and Majluf (1984), and Shyam-Sunder and Myers (1999), first the firms should have internally generate the sources of financing then from the debt and finally from external equity which is obtained by issuing the stocks. The preferences are recognized by the cost gap between the internal and external sources of funds because of asymmetric information and organization problems. There is a negative relationship between the leverage and profitability of the firm in case if the firm hold the profitability. Booth, Aivaizian, Kunt and Maksimovik,(2001) revealed that if the firm is more profitable if its debt ratio is lower. If the firm can borrow more debt at low rate, the risk associated with the debt is lower as the chances of paying back the funds are increased. Fama and French used in 1998 concluding by using US sample that the relationship between capital structure and the firm profitability is unreliable. Jensen (1986) studied that profitable firms indicates their wealth of the firm by increasing the leverages which result in a positive relation between leverage and profitability. Joshua Arbor (2005) reported that there is a significantly positive relationship between short term debt and profitability and negative association between long term debt and profitability. This indicates that by too much long term debt it will decrease the profits of the firm. He had taken a data of 100 companies from KSE for the period of 1999-2004. The variables used for analyzing are leverage ratio and the profitability. From his results, he explained that the short term debts show positive relationship with the profitability as they are less expensive. While the long term debts has show negativity which means that they are much expensive due to direct and indirect cost. (Shah Khan, Determinants of Capital Structure: Evidence from Pakistani Panel Data,2007) Capital structure is the combination of debt and the equity which is used by a company in to meet its financing needs. It is the one of the most important decisions which a management should be taken carefully. The capital structure decision includes dividend policy, project financing, issue of long term securities, financing of mergers and buyouts. The objective of the financial manager is to keep the cost of capital lower and increases the value of the firm. Optimal capital structure is the point where the cost of capital is minimum. Most of the work related to the capital structure has been done in the developed countries and a few contribution related to it is by the developing countries. In 1995, Rajan and Zingales have studied the G-7 countries while in 2001 Booth el al extended this working by studying the emerging markets. The conclusions from their studies revealed that there are some features in the capital structure of the firms in different countries are common. But still it is necessary to identify the determinants of capital structure in particle industry or institution. Pakistan is a developing country which has three stock exchanges. Karachi Stock Exchange is the largest one on which more than 700 companies are listed. In Pakistan, the area of capital structure is relatively unexplored like other developing countries. The concept given by Modigliani and Miller has proved that the value of the firm is not depending upon the capital structure decisions under certain conditions. Because of unrealistic assumption in MM, it gave birth to the other theories for research on capital structure. According to trade off theory, optimal leverage adjustment is affected by three factors which are taxes, cost of distress and agency cost. Baxter argued in 1967 that too much use of debt enhances the chance of bankruptcy because the creditors demand extra risk premium. According to him, the firm should not use more debt than the tax advantage. Kraus and Litzenberg er (1973) argued that if a firms debt liabilities are greater than its profits then the firms market value is a function of its debt obligations. DeAngelo and Masulis (1980) studied further on Millers differential tax model; they had including other non-debt shields such as depreciation charges and investment tax credits. According to their conclusions that each individual firm has an internal optimal capital structure that increases the wealth of the firm. Their studied have based on the data taken from State Bank of Pakistan publications Balance Sheet Analysis of Joint Stock Companies Listed on The Karachi Stock Exchange Volume-II 1993-1999 and Volume-II 1997-2002. This publication is useful in proving the information related to the key account of the financial statements of listed companies. They have taken the debt to total assets ratio as understudy for leverage (dependent variable) and tangibility, size, growth, profitability, earning volatility, and non-debt tax shields are t aken independent variables. Their results show that descriptive statistics is the highest leverage ratio for textile industry but the average profitability of textile industry is negative. The year to year understatement of profit by family controlled firms in the textile industry reflect that they have refuse to pay the government taxes and the shareholder dividend.th negative figure of profit show that on all the average year it decreases the figure of equity and increases the percentage of debt in the entire financing. (Akintoye, Sensitivity of Performance to Capital Structure, 2008) In this article the author Ishola Rufus Akintoye (2008) analyzed that the financial leverage measures the financial risk which indicates the companys percentage change in EPS comes from percentage change in companys EBIT. Financial leverage increases the EPS when the economic are favourable and depresses the EPS when the goings is not favourable for the firm. It was discovered that the firms financial leverage can increase the shareholders return and as well their risk. The surplus/deficit will increase/decrease the return on owners equity. Fix operating cost is consider in operating leverage. Fixed operating cost such as administrative overhead expenses, contraction employees salaries and mortgage or lease payment that tend to raise business risk. The ongoing short term financial needs may generate a need for long term financing which includes an evaluation of the appropriate mix and the use of debt and equity that form capital structure. By combining the financial leverage and oper ating leverage we can see the effect of total leverages on EPS with respect to the change in turnover/sales as a result of improving capital structure strategies. The optimal capital structure with equity can minimize the firms cost of capital and maximize its returns. The different capitals structure and business risks effects are reflected in a firms income statement. The firm must consider varies factors while formulating the capital structure policy. The firm business risk, tax position and financial flexibility must be taking into the account. These factors are important in determining the target capital structure. The target capital structure may be used as a guide in determining an ideal capital structure which helps to minimize the cost and increases the shareholders wealth. The desire equity-debt mix has effects both the returns and the risk of a firm. The methodology used by the author is the degree of leverages. He took the EBIT, EPS and DPS as the performance indicators to the sales as to measure the capital structure of selected companies. The operating leverages and financial leverages together produce wide fluctuations in EPS for the given change in turnover. A small change in sales level will cause a dramatic effect in EPS in case if a firm employs a high level of operating and financial leverages. Degree of Operating Leverage: DOL = % Change in EBIT % Change in Turnover DOL =% Ά EBIT/EBIT % Ά Turnover/ Turnover The following equation is also used for calculating Degree of Operating Leverage DOL = Q(S V) Q (S V) F Q is the unit of output, S is the selling price, V is the variable cost, and F is the total fixed costs. Degree of Financial Leverage: DFL =% Change in EPS % Change in EBIT DFL =% Ά EPS/EPS % Ά EBIT/ EBIT (Sheikh Wang, Financing Behavior of Textile Firms in Pakistan, June 2010) In this article the authors explored those factors that influence the capital structure of Pakistan textile industry. Capital structure represents the combination of various debt and equity securities hold by a firm. it is very important to choose right set of capital structure as the wrong and quick decision of the management may lead to the financial distress and the firm may bear the cost. It has been recognized that the firm specific characteristics make the combination of debt and equity. These characteristics are profitability, size of the firm, asset structure, growth opportunities and the liquidity position of the firm etc. The financial instruments which are issued by the firm do not affect the productivity and its value. This is the assumption of Modigliani and Millers which do not hold in the real world. The firm should use much debt because of tax deductible interest payment and in this case the levered firm value becomes more than the unlevered firm by the equal amount o f present value of tax savings that are arise from the use of debt. In Pakistan the commercial bank are hesitant in providing long term loans due to risk factor. The author explained the capital structure with the help of different theories. (Trade off theory, Pecking theory, Free cash flow theory).they were selected a sample of 75 companies from the Karachi Stock Exchange for data analysis purpose. They had chosen debt ratio (as measure of leverage) as dependent variable while profitability, size, tangibility, growth opportunities and liquidity are taken as independent variables. According to their results, the average debt ratio among the Pakistani companies was 64.95%. This indicates that the firms are more levered than those firms in UK, Canada and USA. These firms are less levered than those in France, Japan, Italy and Germany. Their results suggest that the leverage is negatively correlated with the profitability determinant and positively correlated with the firm size. Negati ve relationship between the leverage and tangibility determinants shows that the companies with safer and secure tangible assets tend to borrow more from the banks than the companies having risky intangible assets. The highly liquid and profitable firms are preferred to finance new investments from internally available funds. According to the trade off theory the larger firms in Pakistan should operate at high debt level due to diversification risk factor while the smaller firms operate at low leverage as they liquidated when they facing financial crisis. Mostly the firms in Pakistan are dependent on the bank debts because undeveloped and small bond market. Majority of privatize commercial bank in Pakistan have prefer to extent the short term loans as compare to long terms loans. In short the firms in Pakistan are heavily relying on short terms loans. According to Myers, there is no theory to make better combination of debt -equity and no reason to expect that it add value to the fi rm. (Wasmullah, Toor, Abbas, Can High Leverage Control the Opportunistic Behavior of Managers: Case Analysis of Textile Sector of Pakistan ,2010) This article analyzed the impact of leverage on managerial earnings practices in textile industry of Pakistan. The investors/shareholders have been concerned with the earnings/profit. They had discussed the relationship between earning management and firm leverage among leverage increasing firms and control/highly levered firms. Theoretically they had proven the both the positive and negative association between them. Positive as if a firm highly levered so the manager are engage in increasing the income accruals to meet the investors and lenders expectations. According to Jensens (1986) control hypothesis, leverage increases control the opportunistic behaviour of the managers as if highly leverage firms can use the free cash flows in services of loans and managers are left with low free cash flows. In this case managers do not invest the amount in decreasing value projects and not depend upon profit management to hide their poor performance. This represents the negative association between leverage and earning management. IN 1985 Healy used total accrual as alternative of earning management but in 1986 DeAngelo argued that it the better measurement of earnings management is change in total accrual. But after five Jones argued with the statement of DeAngelo that non discretionary components of earnings did not remain the same. she had provided a model which explained that economic conditions changes non discretionary components of accruals. Two variables such as change in sales and the level of property can controlled the economic conditions. They had taken the data of 6 years from 2001-2006 of textile industry of Pakistan. According to Jensen (1986),Maloney et al(1993) and Stulz(1990), leverage increases the limit the opportunistic behaviour of managers as require debt payments decrease the amount of cash available to managers for investing in non-value projects. They had obtained the data from the Balance Sheet analysis of Joint stock Companies which are list ed on KSE, then classified the firms into increasing leverage firms and control firms. They had taken accruals as dependent variable and debt to equity ratio as explanatory variable. According to their results, the relationship has been significantly different in leverage increasing firms and control firms. According to control hypothesis, most of the portion from the low cash flow is expense out in the form of interest in case of highly leverages and as a result the opportunistic behaviour of the manager has been controlled, because they have not enough cash to invest in non value projects and less chances to hide their poor performance. This result leads to make carefully investment in the new projects. It is very difficult to measure the opportunistic behaviour of the firm. The author results supported the control hypothesis. In 2003 DeAngelo argued that total change in receivables are not the discretionary accruals because some portion of accruals is based on previous periods ac cruals, and some portion of inventory is also depend upon change in sales. (Mseddi Abid, The Impact of Operating and Financial Leverages and Intrinsic Business Risk on Firm Value,2010) The purpose of this article is to examine the fundamental risk determinants of firm value. The goal of the firm has to increase/maximise the firm value and firms constitute their

Epic of Beowulf :: Epic of Beowulf Essays

BEOWULF   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A hero is a person is a person distinguished for valor, fortitude, or bold enterprise. A hero is a person that will do anything to protect the innocent. Beowulf fits the description of a hero. Beowulf is a hero to his people and his men. Beowulf is brave and courageous and does what it takes to protect his people from danger. He goes off to other lands to help others; he slays a dragon to keep his people safe. Beowulf is considered almost a god but is actual made of the same things everyone is made up off just that he makes the most of it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Beowulf first proves that he is a hero when he hears that there is a monster killing and tormenting the men of Denmark and with this news decides he will go and help these men. Beowulf does not hesitate to think if he should go or not but just gathers his men and leaves. Beowulf gets to Denmark and sees this monster and kills him effortlessly proving that he is strong and courageous. Beowulf is the only person that can even stay alive for longer than a few moments while with the monster. Beowulf is so strong that the monster does not even believe it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Beowulf perceived his evil plan, sat up and stayed   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Grendel’s outstretched arm. Instantly that monster,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  hardened by crime, realized that never had he met any   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   man in the regions of earth, in the whole world, with so   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  strong a grip.† The author says that Beowulf’s strength is greater than that of any other man in the world.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After Beowulf defeats the monster, Grendel, he is faced with another monster. Beowulf instead of just leaving decides to stay and destroy the new monster. Beowulf proves that not only is he strong but he is loyal and destroys the other monster. In the following passage the author describes how Beowulf does not hesitate to go after Grendel’s mother.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Let us lose no time but track down Grendel’s   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  kinswoman. I promise you that wherever she turns   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   to honeycomb caves, to mountain woods, to the bottom   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  of the lake she shall find no refuge.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Beowulf is very respectful to others. Beowulf, with gold and treasures given to him by the king for killing the monsters, give it to others including his men. When Beowulf arrives home he gives the king some of the treasures and gold to show that he respects him and honors him by doing so.

Animal Farm as a Fable Essay -- Literary Analysis, George Orwell

Everyone has encountered Aesop's fables at some point in their life. Aesop is the most renowned author of fables; a fable can be any â€Å"short tale to teach a moral lesson, often with animals or inanimate objects as characters† (â€Å"Fable†). For example, Animal Farm by George Orwell can be considered a fable. In this novel, the animals on Manor Farm rebel against their oppressive dictator, Mr. Jones, forming Animal Farm. However, after the rebellion, the animals allow the pigs to take over, who become the oppressive dictators who abuse the animals; Animal Farm has come full circle. It is rather obvious that the characters and events in Animal Farm are parallels to the rise and revolution of Communism in Russia. But why would Orwell write a fable instead of a political novel? One reason is prominent among many. By writing a fable, Orwell is able to incorporate traditional morals from well-known fables into his novel, Animal Farm; The morals from â€Å"The Ass and th e Old Shepherd,† â€Å"The Hawk, the Kite, and the Pigeons,† and â€Å"The Lion’s Share.† Orwell uses the universal moral from â€Å"The Ass and the Old Shepherd† to defend a similar moral on government. In Animal Farm, the story opens on Manor Farm, which is run by the oppressive Mr. Jones. The animals are â€Å"born, we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength; and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty† (Orwell 28). The animals rebel and form their own farm: Animal Farm. They drive Jones out, and allow those of a higher intellect (the pigs) to take over. One dissolute pig named Napoleon now has absolute power over the farm, an... ...â€Å"The Hawk†), and â€Å"You may share the labors of the great, but you will not share the spoils†(â€Å"The Lion's†). These morals can also be found in famous fables by authors like Aesop or La Fontaine, which proves their validity. If the same moral can be applied in two different situations, (the fables and the novel) it is more likely to impact other situations outside of literature, in the lives of the readers. This is why Orwell decided to use a fable; he wanted to be able to include the morals that could affect real people. He wanted to warn lower classes everywhere of these important points in a novel that a plebeian might actually read. By writing a fable, Orwell is able to support the morals in his novel by incorporating traditional morals; â€Å"Mr. Orwell has worked out his theme with a simplicity, a wit, and a dryness that are closer to La Fontaine and Gay† (Wilson 51).

Restaurant Business Essay

The popularity of fast food establishments came in the 1980’s, and over the last years, the industry has consistently posted double-digit growth rates. Supporting human resources include hotel and restaurant managers and assistant managers, housekeeping supervisors, security personnel, chefs, cooks, waiters, bartenders, and other related workers and professionals directly involved in hotel and restaurant services. Francis Villaluz a director for marketing of Gerry’s Grill was asked how’s the  restaurant industry  doing these days and what’s its greatest challenge? He said â€Å"It’s still doing well, we’re still getting crowds. There’s still a need for it. The restaurant industry does have seasonality like other businesses. Gerry’s Grill  has 17 branches. Growth depends on the area you are in. According to our survey, restaurants are location-driven. People who eat in a certain branch live or work a few kilometers away. † Villaluz also mentioned that in the course of business, if sales will slightly go down, it means businessman have to reinvent and repackage. Manilareview. com reported that like every other country, the food industry has flourished very well in Philippines. Filipinos love to eat and that’s the reason why you will see a lot of restaurants and fast foods restaurants scattered in the cities. These restaurants and fast foods can be local or international food chains. Filipino food and chefs are considered one of the best in the world. It is hardly surprising that Filipino food is often labeled as somewhat strange (like the â€Å"balut† for example) but in its own way, its food is a unique mixture of eastern and western cuisines and reflects the history of Philippines. The Filipino food includes dishes and cooking procedures from China, Spain, Mexico, United States, and more recently from further abroad. However, what makes them Filipino is the history and society that introduced and adapted them; the people who turned them to their tastes and accepted them into their homes and restaurants, and specially the harmonizing culture that combined them into modern Filipino fare. Some of the popular fast food chains of Philippines are Jollibee, McDonald, KFC, Chowking, etc. and popular restaurants being Abe, Chelsea, Friday’s, Chili’s and a lot more. Attracting a huge crowd to restaurants or fast foods require more than just good food. Though important, good food is only a part of the total dining experience. Equally important is believed to be the way people feel while in the restaurant. This physical and emotional response is a result of the atmosphere, the total environment to which customers are exposed. The proper atmosphere can make the food, service and whole dining experience seem better. For that reason a restaurant or a fast food must take care of the following to please its customers. This includes checking the cleanliness of the place and freshness of the food, guarded premises, parking area where people can park, ambiance and landscaping, building design, lighting, and even music. FOREIGN Even in a business based on flavor, there’s no need to sugarcoat the truth: The restaurant industry is facing hard times. In December, the National Restaurant Association (NRA) released its 2009 Restaurant Industry Forecast that predicted although 2009 restaurant industry sales will exceed $566 billion–a 2. 5 percent increase from last year–the numbers translate to an inflation-adjusted decline of at least 1 percent. And that’s putting it kindly. Right now, credit is tight and investment capital is practically nonexistent. Inevitably, the consolidation of the banking industry will have a detrimental impact on restaurants nationwide.