Thursday, November 28, 2019

Trends of Social Networking free essay sample

The Trends of Social Networking Social communication has always been a vital need to humanity. At its core, social communication did not change. People still exchange thoughts, feelings and news; however, the ways they socially communicate have radically changed. Online social networking is a recent form of social communication conducted over the internet. It witnessed a huge growth since 1997 with the first social networking website SixDegrees. com (â€Å"Boyd†). Social networking websites provide a great socializing capability for their members. Primarily, they aim at connecting people with their acquaintances from all places, at all times. Such websites attract more than 1 billion users around the globe (â€Å"List of social networking websites†). Beside for personal use, social networking websites are used for e-marketing and legal investigations. One of the most rapidly growing social networking sites is Facebook. com, with more than 80 million users and a 270% growth rate from 2006 to 2007 (â€Å"To facebook or not to facebook†). We will write a custom essay sample on Trends of Social Networking or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page It was founded by an American Harvard Student, Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. Huge acquisitions offers were proposed for Facebook reaching as high as $1 billion. This big success may be attributed to Facebook’s ease of use and unique socializing features. Facebook allows users to connect to others by sharing pictures, blogs, videos, interests and more and has taken over American teens and even adults. There have been sites long before Facebook was created but this fairly new site has become the most popular today by far. Many people believe that Facebook is dangerous for users because of the amount of information that can be added on to one’s account. Also, those who oppose the use of the site feel that time should not be spent online because it takes time away from family and puts more emphasis on virtual rather than physical relationships. Others feel that this site allows for socialization and is just a way to have fun and keep in touch with others. Facebook should be allowed to be used by people under 18. It allows members to check students who are taking the same class, living within the same area, or coming from the same school. There are several reasons why Facebook should be used by teenagers. Facebook is well secured and organized website. Individuals who have an account in Facebook are now using more of their time to socialize with other people from far distance and lack of time. It makes easier to join groups having similar likes and dislikes, and can be used as a dating system. Facebook allows users to search for new and old friends, it makes less awkward when communicating with strangers or people we are not familiar with, and also why all of us should have Facebook is that it allows members to check students who are taking the same class, living within the same area, or coming from the same high school. What’s the first thing that pops in your mind when you think about MySpace? Is it friends, danger or is it drama? MySpace or facebook. com are often thought as dangerous websites because of the incidents that have happened or people have seen on TV like girls getting raped, kids getting kidnapped and teenagers getting killed because of MySpace. Now the big question is should myspace. com be restricted to people younger than 18 and only be used by people 18 and older? I personally think that it should not be because MySpace can be beneficial to all ages, a great way to keep in touch with old and new friends, and last but not least a great way to express yourself. Myspace is also another popular social network owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003. Their headquarters are based out of Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had a little over 33 million U. S. visitors. Myspace was founded in 2003. From 2005 until 2008, Myspace was the most visited social networking site in the world. In June 2006, it was the most visited site in the U. S. Despite a lot of changes the number of users decreased. Myspace. com is a very social able website and it’s not as bad as everyone tries to make it. This site is made for people to meet and find each other, listen to music, play games, write blogs and bulletins, and put up pictures within reason. When used properly, nothing bad can happen. MySpace isn’t bad for people under 18 as long as you can be smart about what you put on your MySpace and not give out too much of your information, and be careful with whom you talk to. MySpace can also be very beneficial in multiple ways. For example, if you miss a day at school and you need to get homework you can always ask a friend over MySpace what the homework assignment was or, your teacher can have a MySpace and she or he can post the assignment on MySpace that way every student knows what the assignment is another example on how MySpace can be beneficial to people. If you were like me when you heard about twitter, you probably thought it was pointless. I remember thinking â€Å"what can it do that facebook or MySpace can’t? It just seemed like another social media website to waste time on. I don’t know about you, but I waste too much time already on facebook. I assumed it was just like all the other social media websites that have come before it. Hearing of so many celebrities using it made me wonder what exactly the benefits of twitter are. Twitter lets you share information with people through short messages called â€Å"tweets. † An yone can read what you have to say by following you, or by viewing your profile. At first glance you may think it’s just a bunch of useless information that nobody would care about. When you look more closely at it you can see that there are a broad range of topics being discussed by millions of people. The information being exchanged can range from people just having a good time, to interesting and valuable information. It all depends on what you want to use it for. Twitter is especially valuable for businesses. Staying on top of the latest trend’s and what’s being said about them in real time is a very useful. It helps them more than any other social media website. They can better satisfy their customers if they know exactly what issues customer may have with their business. Being able to reach customers, and understand them so quickly makes twitter an invaluable asset to business. Catching on to twitter in the beginning can be somewhat frustrating. You look up people, or businesses you want to get updates on and follow them. It has a language of its own. You use @username to direct a message to someone, or to reply. Everyone can see this type of message. You can send a direct personal message to someone, but you both have to be following each other. Those are just the basics, and it gets even more complicated from there. It can all seem overwhelming at first, but after you get the hang of it you’ll be fine. Despite the success of online social networking, many opponents find social networking websites as great source of discomfort and risk. Social networking may lead to psychological and financial problems. But all in all as the internet becomes more of a friend then a foe we tend to rely on it from day to day. Maybe it’s because we are hooked on it, or maybe it is because in today’s society we need to have it. What will our next trend of the century be? Only one knows.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

How different concentration of enzyme catalase affects the rate of breaking down substrate hydrogen peroxide Essay Example

How different concentration of enzyme catalase affects the rate of breaking down substrate hydrogen peroxide Essay Example How different concentration of enzyme catalase affects the rate of breaking down substrate hydrogen peroxide Paper How different concentration of enzyme catalase affects the rate of breaking down substrate hydrogen peroxide Paper Enzymes are large proteins that speed up chemical reaction. As globular protein, enzymes have a specific three-dimensional shape which is determined by their sequence of amino acids. Despite their large overall size, enzyme molecules only have a small region that is functional. This is known as enzymes active site. The substrate molecule is held within the active site by bonds that temporarily form between the R groups of the amino acids of the active site by bonds and all groups on the substrate molecules. This structure is known as enzyme-substrate complex. Enzymes are classified into several categories, such as hydrolytic, oxidising, and educing. Depending on the types of reaction they control. In this case, the enzyme I will use in the investigation is catalase from celery extract, which is concluding as hydrolytic enzyme. This type of enzyme accelerates reactions in which a substrate is broken down into simpler compounds through reaction with adding up water molecules. Oxidising enzyme, known as oxidises, accelerate oxidation reaction; reducing enzyme speed up reducing reactions in which oxygen is removed. A substrate is the molecule, which can bind into the active of enzyme. In this case, I will use hydrogen peroxide as the substrate. Enzyme works in the same way as a key operates a lock. Enzymes active sites have a particular shape like a lock and only a particular key ( substrate) can fit into that lock. Enzymes are therefore specific in the reactions that they catalyse. This is known as the lock and key theory. In practice, unlike a rigid lock, the enzyme actually changes its form slightly to fit the shape of the substrate. In other works, it is flexible and moulds itself around the substrate. As it alters its shape, the enzyme puts a strain on the substrate molecule and thereby lowers its activation energy. In this case, enzyme catalse has a specific active site, which just for the substrate hydrogen peroxide to fit in, then the reaction takes place. The reaction involved is hydrolysis. The equation of reaction is: 2H2O2 2H2O + O2 Factor that would affect the reaction: Temperature At low temperature, the reaction takes place very slowly, this because molecules are moving relatively slowly as have low kinetic energy. Substrate molecules will not often collide with the active site, and so binding between substrate and enzyme is a rare event. Therefore, reaction is slow. A rise in temperature increases the kinetic energy of molecules which therefore move around more rapidly and collide with one another more often. This means at a higher temperature, the reaction will take place faster than a lower temperature and an increasing or a decreasing of temperature will affect my reaction and results. For this reason, I will control this effect by using a water bath to maintain the temperature the same during the whole reaction. As enzyme work best at a certain temperature, this is known as optimum temperature. If the temperature is too low, enzyme cannot work properly; if the temperature is too high, this may denature the enzyme active site and enzyme will lose its function. So to avoid this problem, I will keep the water bath has the temperature of 25?C, which is the room temperature. Therefore enzyme catalase will work properly and temperature will not be a factor to affect this investigation. PH Most enzymes also have an optimum pH at which they function best. In human body, most enzyme work fastest at an optimum pH of about 7. For example, the digestive system Pepsin found in the stomach to digest proteins. A change I pH means a change in the concentration of hydrogen ions in the surrounding of the enzyme. This affects the ionisation of R group in the amino acid residues of the protein molecule and the shape of the active site to bind with the substrate. The lower the pH, the bigger the hydrogen ions concentration it is . Hydrogen ions can interact with the R group of amino acids, affecting the way in which they bond with each other and therefore affect their 3D shape. So the lower the pH, the higher the hydrogen ions concentration it is, and therefore the slower the reaction. Oppositely, the higher the pH, the faster the reaction it will take place. To control this factor, I will keep the pH all the way through the same by using a pH paper to check the pH number during the experiment. Enzyme concentration The rate of reaction increases as the concentration of enzyme increase. Because higher concentration of enzyme means higher number of enzyme molecules, so that more enzyme molecule will collide with substrate molecule, therefore the reaction will take place faster. When there is plenty of substrate, the rate of reaction is not limited by the concentration of enzyme. Therefore if the concentration of enzyme is increased, the number of collision with the substrate molecule and hence the rate of reaction will increase. If the amount of substrate is limited, the rate of reaction decreases because if the amount of substrate is limited, the enzymes active site will not collide with substrate very often, therefore a few products will be made. As the reaction progressing, the substance will be broken down slowly, therefore less substrate left. So enzyme molecules freer, therefore products will be produced more slowly. Hence the slower the reaction goes. In this experiment, the enzyme concentration is an independent variable which I will vary the concentration of celery extract each time to investigate how different concentration of celery extract( enzyme concentration) affect the rate of breaking down hydrogen peroxide. Substrate concentration Increasing in the substrate concentration will increase in the rate of reaction. Because increasing the substrate concentration, we increased the number of substrate molecules; therefore more collision will take place between substrate and enzymes active site. Hence mere products will be produced. Therefore the faster the rate of reaction takes place. However, if we continue increase the substrate keeping the enzyme concentration and volume the same. The rate of reaction will not continue to increase. This is because a higher substrate concentration active site of all the enzyme molecule is busy with substrates. The number of enzyme molecules because a limiting factor. The rate of reaction at higher substrate becomes constant. In this case, I will keep the volume of hydrogen peroxide the same for using each time. Inhibitors Enzyme inhibitors are substances that directly or indirectly interfere with the functioning of the active of an enzyme and so reduce its activity. There are two types of inhibitors: Competitive inhibitors Competitive inhibitors are the molecules which have a shape similar to the substrate, so they fit into the active site of the enzyme. Therefore the substrate cannot enter into the active site and so the enzyme cannot catalyse the reaction. Hence, the reaction is slow down. However, the inhibitors are not permanently bound to the active site and so, when it leaves another molecule can take its place. Sooner or later, all the substrate molecules will find an active site, but the greater the concentration of inhibitors, the longer the reaction will be. Non-competitive inhibitors Non-competitive inhibitors will bind to another part of the enzyme rather than the true active site. This changes the shape of the enzymes active site so that the substrate no longer fits. Therefore the reaction is slow down. As the substrate and the inhibitor are not competry for the same site, an increase in substrate concentration does not decrease the effect of inhibitors. To control the factor of inhibitors. I will not add any substance except celery solution and hydrogen peroxide during the experiment. Prediction I predict that the higher the concentration of celery extract I use, the fast the rate of breaking down hydrogen peroxide I will get. As in higher concentration of celery extract, the more number of catalase molecules in the solution. So there are more collisions between substrate ( hydrogen peroxide) and enzyme( catalase) active site, and more products will be formed( water and oxygen). The rate of reaction can be measured by measuring the volume of oxygen produced in a period of time. The larger the volume of oxygen produced in the same period of time, the fast the reaction is taken place. Preliminary work In order to get finest and reliable results, I did a preliminary work. This enable me not just find out a suitable range of celery extract of catalase concentration I will use in my real experiment, but also help me descried the time interval I will measure the oxygen get and justify the equipment and method. I think these all lead me to get reliable and accurate results in the end. In the preliminary work, I choose to do three different concentration of celery extract. To get different concentrations of celery extract, I used distilled water to dilute the celery extract. I tested the range of celery extract between 100% 20%, the highest concentration is 100%, the lowest concentration is 20% and the median is 60%. The reason I chose these three concentrations is because between each concentration, there is 40% difference and this enable me to test that in which level of concentration, reaction goes best and to find out which concentration of celery extract I will use in my real experiment.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Scientific Writing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Scientific Writing - Essay Example Obakata and many of her co-authors are part of the research teams of the Riken Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan. Other Riken researches, however, tried to replicate Obakata’s study and did not find supporting evidence. As a result, it launched an investigation that proved that the research has serious data flaws. Obakata has retracted these two papers from Nature because of allegations of changing data and plagiarism. An investigating committee has found her guilty of fabricating and falsifying data, and she now faces potential dismissal from Riken and losing her doctorate degree. The investigating committee discovered that Obakata may be involved in falsifying and fabricating data. The committee noted that when they studied the DNA images of Obakata’s work, one DNA was spliced from two DNAs. The head of the committee, Shunsuke Ishii, stated: â€Å"The manipulation was used to improve the appearance of the results† (Sample, 2014). Obokata insisted that she only wanted to improve the clarity of the image and not to change the data itself (Sample, 2014). Changing DNA images suggests falsifying data results. In addition, Obakata fabricated data when data inconsistencies are found in her work. She told her co-researcher Teruhiko Wakayama that the green fluorescent protein (GFP) that they used to tag changes in expression of experimental gene is on the 15th chromosome (Cyranoski, 2014). Wakayama tested the mice and found the STAP cells through the GFP in the 18th chromosome (Cyranoski, 2014). Furthermore, the committee noted that Obakata reused data from her dissertation, which also means that she falsified her research by including data that were not part of her original research (Japan Times, 2014). Fabricating and falsifying data are serious accusations, though Obakata stressed that she did not change or add anything to her data (Cyranoski, 2014). Apart from data falsification and

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

The Zacarias Moussaoui Indictment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Zacarias Moussaoui Indictment - Essay Example A watershed moment in world history, the morning of September 11th 2001 will forever be engrained in the American national psyche. From a political, social and economic perspective, the hijackings of 9/11 were unparalleled in scope and sheer devastation. In a fascinating article entitled â€Å"Measuring the Effects of the September 11 Attack on New York City†, it was estimated that the direct cost of the attack stood at between $33 billion and $36 billion to the city of New York (Bram, Orr & Rappaport 2002). In addition to the direct economic costs associated with terrorism and the threat of further terrorism, 9/11 also had important political ramifications. The USA Patriot Act of 2001 (a contrived acronym meaning Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) was established in the aftermath of September 11th to protect Americans from the threat of future terror on American soil. Controversial from the outset, th e Patriot Act represented a serious departure from established legal norms and prior American jurisprudence with respect to privacy legislation. The United States also wanted culpability for the attacks and sought out anyone, anywhere in the world, whom they could link to this disastrous attack (Chaliland 2007). While all of the hijackers that morning perished in the attacks, one alleged plotter, Zacarias Moussaoui, was arrested and faced criminal charges due to his links to the attacks of 9/11. Accordingly, Moussaoui was charged with conspiring to kill American citizens during the attacks of September 11th and was sentenced to life imprisonment. What did his indictment entail? As the alleged replacement for the 20th hijacker, during Zacarias Moussaoui’s conspiracy trial he initially faced the death penalty and was subject to capital punishment for his alleged crimes. Charged with conspiring with the alleged 9/11

Monday, November 18, 2019

Electronic and Mobile commerce Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Electronic and Mobile commerce - Assignment Example The company has also expanded its menu to include fruits, smoothies, wraps, fish, salads and seasoned fries. This company adheres to B2C model of business. The corporation offers affiliation and franchise to local people who adhere to company‘s rules and regulation  of  all aspects  to the business.   The customers can get service through directly visiting the store. The customer can order and eat there itself or get a takeaway meal. The second method is dialing toll-free number and order meal for  the door-step delivery.  As the corporation is considering a new avenue of business, that is online, it needs to create a comprehensive business strategy to get success in this venture. Creation of a  new  business strategy for  new  medium of communication is not so easy as it includes  a lot of  investment in various parts of business and new strategies.  As the proposed investment is big, it is necessary to estimate the rate of returns and increase in business sales. This issue can be resolved by commissioning market research for  the Internet  and mobile survey of the existing customer group.   As the market report is very positive, the company decides to implement electronic and mobile commerce in form of easy to access user-friendly interactive website and mobile app from  where the customers can choose food items from menu and order for  doorstep delivery.   There are  a lot of  online  tools that helps to publicize the  McDonalds  online  order services such as social networking sites,  photo-sharing  sites, blog sites.  These sites  offer  free  services,  and company can maintain close relationship among  the members of the sites and can easily update them about  fresh services, schemes,  brand new  food items  on  the menu.   Today, Smartphone  is  becoming very common as most of the people prefer to purchase them for both business and pleasure. With Smartphone app., the customers can easily order from

Friday, November 15, 2019

Aggregate Demand And The Level Of Economic Activity Economics Essay

Aggregate Demand And The Level Of Economic Activity Economics Essay Introduction Collection of revenue and the use of government expenditure which affect the economy is termed as fiscal policy. Fiscal policy can be distinguished with the major sort of macroeconomic policy, monetary policy, which stabilizes the economy by controlling rate of interest and supply of money. Two major objectives of fiscal policy are taxation and expenditure of government Transforming in the level , composition of taxation and government expenditure can force on the following variables in an economy : Aggregate demand and the level of economic activity; The pattern of resource allocation; The distribution of income. Aggregate demand and the level of economic activity: At a given time the price level and the total demand for goods and services in an economy(Y) is called aggregate demand (AD) . [1]. It is the quantity of goods and services in an economy that will be obtained at all probable price levels.[2] When inventory levels are static the demand for the gross domestic product of an economy is termed as aggregate demand. It is also called effective demand although at other times this term is differentiated. It is often quoted that the aggregate demand curve is downward sloping as at lower price levels a larger amount is demanded. Components of Aggregate demand and the level of economic activity: An aggregate demand curve is the summation of individual demand curves for different sectors of the economy. The aggregate demand is generally expressed as a linear sum of four divisible demand sources.[3] where is consumption (may also be known as consumer spending) = ac + bc(Y à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ T), is Investment, is Government spending, is Net export, is total exports, and is total imports = am + bm(Y à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ T). The pattern of resource allocation: Resource allocation is generally used to allot the resource available in an economy in an economic way. How limited resources are allocated among producers, and how limited goods and services are distributed among consumers , this study takes into observation the accounting cost, economic cost, opportunity cost, and other costs of resources and goods and services. Allotment of resources is a vital idea in economics and is related with economic effectiveness and maximization of utility. The distribution of income: Amongst the population of a nation how the nations total economy is allocated is termed as income distribution. It has always been a major concern of economic policy and economic theory. The allocation of income between the vital factors of production, land, labor and capital are considered to express income distribution. Fiscal policy is a vital factor for the economic development of a country. In Bangladesh fiscal policy consists of activities, which the country carries out to attain and utilize resources to afford services while ensuring optimal efficiency of the economic units. This policy controls the behavior of economic forces throughout the public finance. The main factors to attain these goals are variation in public expenditure, variation in public revenue, and management of public debt. These are revealed in the financial planning operations of the government, set up and executed on year-on-year basis. Literature Review For the overall economic development of a country fiscal policy and its management exert greater influence on economic activity. To boost up an economic infrastructure many research and study have been done by economists and policymakers. In this section literature abounds on the effectiveness and importance of fiscal policy in developed and developing countries of the world. Developing countries are facing dual challenges while undertaking fiscal adjustment policies. One arises from the increasing demand for public expenditures for Infrastructure and social sector investment, and the other arises from the lack of capacity to raise revenue from domestic sources to finance the increased expenditure, primarily due to narrow tax base. To boost competitive capacity of the country in a rapidly globalizing world, the governments of developing countries have to invest a large portion of their revenue in building physical infrastructures. In addition, the low income developing countries also need to spend a major portion of their development expenditures in providing social services to the poor such as health, education etc. On the other hand, as Khattry (2003: 402) pointed out, the structural characteristics of low income countries, combined with prevalence of unsophisticated tax administration limit their ability to raise taxes from domestic sources, namely income and domestic indirect taxes. Also, the existence of a large informal sector and the underground economy constrains the governments capacity for revenue growth. Another source of fiscal problem arises with the process of trade liberalization that requires reduction of taxes on international trade together with the elimination of quantitative restrictions and other forms of trade barriers. Therefore countries have to resort to domestic sources to compensate the revenue loss emanating from trade liberalization. As the scope of domestic sources of revenue is limited due to the narrow tax base and structural constraints in the low income countries, this may lead to a vulnerable fiscal position. In principle, a well functioning VAT system on import combined with broad based low tariffs) can recoup some of the revenue loss due to the greater inflow of imports that eventually follows trade liberalization. National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction (NSAPR) of Bangladesh (2005) recognizes that, as government revenue is heavily dependent on trade taxes, and tariff liberalization typically results in tariff revenue loss, alternative sources of revenue must be ensured in order to prevent a sudden rise in budget deficit (which is already high). In order to recoup revenue losses due to tariff liberalization government is trying to increase revenue from direct taxes. It is also envisaged that indirect taxes such as VAT and supplementary duty are applied uniformly on both domestic production and imports, it would both reduce anti-export bias and increase government revenue by widening the tax-net (NSAPR, 2005, p.86). Trade liberalization may thus lead to a fiscal squeeze as a result of re duced revenue and simultaneous increase in expenditure. According to Khattry (2003) fiscal squeeze led some countries to reduce expenditure on physical capital, while that on social services (e.g. health and education) has been financed by acquiring additional debt. However, it has been empirically substantiated that government capital expenditure plays an important role in enhancing economic growth. Bose et al (2003) investigated a panel of thirty developing countries over the decades of 1970s and 1980s, and found that, the share of government capital expenditure in GDP is positively and significantly correlated with economic growth though current expenditure is insignificant. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the relationship between revenue and expenditure and its implication for managing the budget deficit. In order to do this a three variable model is formulated comprising government expenditure, revenue and GDP. Firstly, existence of a long-run relationship among these three variables is tested by using Johansen (1991, 1995) co integration approach. Granger causality test is applied on the corresponding vector error correction model to examine short-run causal relationship between the variables The goal of fiscal policy is to enhance economic growth and employment and to bring stability in economic outcome variables such as the real GDP growth rate. Under the above circumstances, the nature and objectives of fiscal policy may differ with the level of development of the countries. Long run outcome of expansionary fiscal policy depends on the nature of distribution of public resources as the same amount of public money can generate different growth pay-offs in different sectors, and the overall growth of the economy depends on the combined growth of these sectors When the government takes expansionary fiscal policy (expenditure surpassing revenue) either through increasing expenditure or reducing taxes or both, it has to borrow from internal and external sources to finance the deficit. The concept of deficit budget was popularized by Keynes and his followers -the principal argument is that government can boost up economic growth by increasing government expenditures in the short run. Again the government has to shrink its expenditures during the time of growth as excessive aggregate demand can generate inflation. In contrary to the above theory some economists argue that budget deficit negatively affects economic growth According to the advocates of the latter view, lowering budget deficit reduces interest rate thereby increasing investment, which in turn enhances economic growth The risk of expansionary fiscal policy is that, it leads to public debt growth, where it is envisaged that the growth of the economy will be significant enough in the subsequent periods so that the government will have a larger revenue base to finance its enhanced debt obligations. However, failure to generate enough economic growth may force the government into a deficit trap. Therefore the government has to borrow again to finance its deficit -this time may be in greater volume due to increase in the expenditure for repaying principal and interest of previous periods deb t even if the magnitude of public sector activities remains unaltered. There is also a risk that, government borrowing from domestic sources may crowd out private investment by raising the rate of interest. Constraining private investment in this fashion and expending the same amount of money in less productive sectors of the economy can negatively affect overall growth of the economy. As mentioned by Carneiro et al (2004, p.9), if economic agents are non Recording due to credit constraints and overlapping generation, public deficit can have a negative impact on growth as public deficits can hamper growth by competing with private physical capital for individual savings. Conversely, in developing countries public investment can be influential to crowd in private investment as shown by Binswanger et al (1993); infrastructure accessibility and the rural banks are crucial factors for increasing private investment in agriculture, which requires substantial government intervention in fac ilitating private investment. Given excess liquidity in the system (as it is the case in Bangladesh), in spite of significant public borrowing from the banking system over the last 4-6 months, private credit actually proceeded at its usual pace. This however need not be true all the time. Bangladeshs fiscal policy is closely linked to its monetary policy because public budget deficits are mainly financed by increases in money supply. Theoretically, expansionary fiscal policy would generate an increased supply of high-powered money in the face of frequent adjustment in the budget deficit and can provoke price spiral if there is no excess capacity in the economy (Friedman 1956; Friedman and Kuttner 1992). However, increasing government borrowing from central bank is seen as highly inflationary in the case of Bangladesh. But it should be noted that under the situation of chronic slow down of general demand (i.e. a general glut in the economy) higher public expenditure can create higher economic activity by protecting the falling trend in demand which is financed by increased public borrowing (Kiguel 1989). However, there is a general consensus among economists and policy-makers that regulating the growth of money stock is necessary to achieve a fairy stable price level a nd full employment of an economy (Sims 1972) Blanchard and Perotti (2002) use information about the elasticity of fiscal variables to identify the automatic response of fiscal policy, and find that expansionary fiscal shocks increase output, have a positive effect on private consumption, and a negative impact on private investment. More recently, using sign restrictions on the impulse-response functions and identifying the unexpected variation in government spending by a positive response of expenditure for up to four quarters after the shock, Mountford and Uhlig(2005) find a negative effect in residential and non-residential investment Similar studies applied to other countries are relatively scarce, largely due to the limited availability of quarterly public finance data, and, in addition, do not provide a consensual view. Perotti (2004) investigates the effects of fiscal policy in Australia Canada, Germany and the U.K., and finds a relatively large positive effect on private consumption and no response of private investment. Biau and Girard (2005) find a cumulative multiplier of government spending larger than one, and positive reactions of private consumption and private investment in France. De Castro and Hernà ¡ndez de Cos2006) use data for Spain and show that, while there is a positive relationship between government expenditure and output in the short-term, in the medium and long-term expansionary spending shocks only lead to higher inflation and lower output. Heppke- Falk et al. (2006) use cash data for Germany, and find that a positive shock in government spending increases output and private consumption, although the effect is relatively small. Giordano et al. (2007) show that, in Italy, government expenditure has positive and persistent effects on output and on private consumption. Analysis The Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, state of southern Asia, in the northeastern portion of the Indian subcontinent, edged on the north, east and west by India, on the southeast by Burma (Myanmar), and on the south by the Bay of Bengal. The total area of the country is 147,570 sq km with a population of 126 million. It lies roughly between 20 °34 and 26 °36 North latitude and between 88 °01 and 92 °41 east longitude. The capital and leading city of Bangladesh is Dhaka. The economy of Bangladesh is comprised by that of a developing country. Its per capita income in 2008 was est. US$1,500 (adjusted by purchasing power parity) significantly lower than India, Pakistan, both which are also lesser than the world average of $10,497. According to the gradation by the International Monetary Fund, Bangladesh ranked as the 48th largest economy in the world in 2008, with a gross domestic product of US$224.889 billion. The economy has grown at the rate of 6-7% p.a. over the past few years. More than half of the GDP belongs to the service sector; nearly half of Bangladeshis are employed in the agriculture sector, with RMG, fish, vegetables, leather and leather goods, ceramics, rice as other essential produce. The aim of the governments fiscal management is striking a weighing balance between government revenue and expenditure. One more foremost goal is to uphold shortage in the existing budget as much as reasonable for advanced investment in the public division. As a result of cautious fiscal policy and strengthening of fiscal management, overall fiscal deficiency through the current decade remained unchanged. To formulate and execute sound fiscal policy is one of the most significant functions of the government. It puts importance on sustaining macroeconomic constancy through balancing public expenditure management. There is no substitute to sound fiscal management in overall economic governance as a fair public income and expenditure management that assures private sector institutions and individuals a steady macroeconomic background. The vital source of government revenue is tax. Public revenue mainly consists of direct and indirect taxes which accounted for more than 80 percent of total government revenue. The government collects the rest of the public revenue from different non-tax collection such as fee, charge, toll etc. The level of revenue assortment is a vital indicator to establish the step of economic development of a country. The economy of a country becomes more stable if it collects large amount of revenue. In this section we are going to analyze the fiscal condition of Bangladesh during the time period from FY-1991 to FY-2008.During these years Prudent fiscal management emerged as a most important challenge facing the country. The Governments revenue mobilization efforts developed remarkably in the early 1990s following the launch of some major fiscal reforms, mainly introduction of the value-added tax (VAT) in 1991.The VAT provided greater coverage and raised rates than the taxes that it restored (mostly excise duty). The revenue tax to GDP ratio rose from 5.9 percent in FY1991 to 7.3 percent in FY1993, but since then, the proportion has remained steady at about 7 percent. A stagnant tax to GDP ratio reveals lack of improvement in broadening the tax net and in improving the tax management system; in brief, the effectiveness of tax assortment remains fragile and futile. Specifically, the Government has failed to widen the coverage of direct taxes, broaden VAT coverage to high-revenue-y ielding trades and services, develop the implementation of import taxes, and bolster tax government. Conversely, nontax revenues are relatively small (a bit less than 2 percent of GDP), and they also festered over much of the 1990s. As consequence, since FY1993, the entire revenue to GDP ratio has altered around 9 percent, making revenue collection of Bangladesh effort one of the weakest in the global economy. In spite of unsatisfactory revenue collection efforts for much of the 1990s, the Government was capable to uphold the fiscal shortage within 4-5 percent of GDP by keeping spending under control. Government expenditure, both current and capital increased rapidly. Therefore, the fiscal scarcity went up to indefensible levels. With declining alternatives to foreign funding of the deficit, the Government had been compelled to finance the shortfall from domestic sources -from banking sector and domestic borrowing. The ensuing monetary adjustment seriously damaged macroeconomic stability. Table 4 : Selected Fiscal Indicators (Percent of Gross Domestic Product) Because of drop of the revenue to GDP ratio to 9 percent in FY1998-99 from 9.3 percent in FY1997-98, caused by flood-induced disruptions, the Government attempted to reverse the declining trend and projected revenue to GDP ratio of 10 percent in the FY1999-00 budget. In spite of establishing a verified revenue mobilization object, no major efforts were made to apply vital fiscal reforms, reduce the tax structure, strengthen tax management, and extend the tax foundation. Moreover, the hindrance in introducing the reshipment assessment scheme, and slothful growth in imports also added to revenue shortfall. Customs duties collection declined by 10 percent in FY1999-00 compared with FY1998-99, and the share of customs duties in National Board of Revenue portion of taxes declined to 28 percent from 32 percent. Nontax revenue collection was also less than projected due mainly to reduced profit and dividend earnings of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). In FY1999-00, losses of nonfinancial SOE s were estimated at Tk31 billion, or 1.3 percent of GDP. Therefore, actual revenue mobilization in FY1999-00 rotated to be considerably below budget projections, at 8.9 percent of GDP. Government expenditure increased to 13.8 percent of GDP in FY1999-00 from 13.3 percent in FY1998-99, because of a rush in the outlay resulting from flood-induced expenditure, particularly the requirement for extra imports of food grains and post flood rehabilitation outlays. The tendency prolonged in FY1999-00 with overall expenses rising to 15 percent of GDP. Though the Government was capable to Keep up current spending at 7.6 percent of GDP (the same percentage as in the previous year), spending under the annual development program (ADP) went up to 6.7 percent of GDP from5.6 percent in FY1998-99. In the FY1999-00 budget, the Governments aim was to reduce expenses to 7.4 percent of GDP. It was a determined aim in view of the coming general election (scheduled for October 2001) when the pressures on t he Government to accommodate increased expenditure is bound to be considerable. Allocation for the ADP in the FY2000-01 budget was 6.5 percent of GDP, 50 percent of which was expected to be financed from domestic resources, and 40 percent of the domestic funding of the ADP would be from bank borrowing. The choice to fund a superior development budget with substantial borrowing from banks had risks to sustain macroeconomic constancy. While 34 percent of the ADP funds have been allocated to sectors that address poverty directly, about 33 percent had been assigned to infrastructure development comprising energy, transport, and communication. Not all ADP projects could be justified on grounds of accelerating the pace of development; several projects had questionable merit. What was more worrying was that some low -priority projects were being financed by high-cost foreign suppliers credits. In FY 1999-00, revenue/GDP ratio was 8.47 percent, which step by step went up to 10.79 percent in FY2005-06. In FY 2007-08 the revenue/GDP more went up to 11.17 percent and the g rowing trend of revenue-GDP ratio further increased to 11.24 percent in FY2008-09. Table 4.1 illustrates tax and non-tax revenue receipts and tax-GDP ratio within the period from FY1999-00 to FY2008-09. From the beginning of the FY2008-09 the revenue objectives of fiscal year came under challenge because of the impact of worldwide financial crisis. The international economy plunged into collapse mainly for noxious credit crisis in the US financial organizations and gigantic falls in prices of commodities like fuel, fertilizer etc. This price drop caused poorer collection of import duties which is the largest source of revenue although the price of commodities favored reduction of high inflation condition. The assortment of import duty in FY 2008-09 fell diminutive of the goals as the import duty is established on the basis of prices of the imported commodities. Study of revenue collection activities for FY2008-09 by categories illustrates that the volume of revenue collection attains from value added tax (VAT).Income tax takes up the second position in the row. Next places are held by import duties, complementary duty, additional taxes and excise duty. On the whole, the part of VAT in the entire revenue collection is progressively increasing. It can be states that, income tax occupies second place above import duties for the second consecutive time. In FY 2008-09, though the entire revenue collection by NBR source fell diminutive of the goals but overall revenue collection stood at TK. 52525.61 crore, which is TK. 5236.49 crore higher than the assortment of the previous fiscal year showing an 11.07 percent increase. In FY 2007-08, total revenue collection placed at TK. 47289.12 crore, which was Tk. 10,069.8 crore or27.06 percent higher than the assortment of the previous year. In FY 2006-07, the total revenue collection under NBR amounted to Tk. 37219.32 crore which was Tk. 3,216.89 crore or 9.46 percent higher than that of the previous year. Item-wise tax collection from FY2006-07 to FY2008-09 is shown in Table 4.2. Management of public expenditure is the most vital part for the fiscal management of the government. The major aims of fiscal management are to uphold social safety net activities, inspire expenditure in productive level, practice austerity in public expenditure and controls over unproductive expenses. Reducing poverty through improving the standards of living of the generals, building physical infrastructure and developing human resources are the key features of large public outlays in every year. Total public expenditure, development expenditure and expenditure/GDP ratio for FY 2008-09 and during the last decade are shown in Table 4.3. Investigation of entire non-development expenditure illustrates that in FY 2003-04, expenditure on pay and allowances was 27.4 percent of total non-development expenses. In FY 2004-05 and FY 2005-06 these percentage decreased to 25.3 and 27.6 respectively, but went up to 28.5 percent in FY 2006-07 and again decreased to 23.6 percent in FY 2008-09. In FY 2003-04, the spending on subsidy and current transfer accounted for 28.4 percent of entire non-development expenses. In FY 2004-05, FY 2005-06, FY 2006-07 and FY 2008-09 the spending on subsidy and current transfer accounted for 30.1, 29.1, 31.4 and 40.5 percent of entire non-development expenses correspondingly. In FY 2004-05, FY 2005-06, FY2006-07 and FY 2008-09 the shares of interest payments on foreign and domestic credits in total non-development cost were 18.8, 19.8, 20.2 and 20.8 percent respectively. The average genuine cost against the adjusted allotment of ADP was around 90 percent during the time from 1999-00 to 2005-06 (Table 4.4). In FY2006-07 and FY 2007-08, the utilization of ADP is about 83 and 82 percent correspondingly. In FY 2008-09 the short-term expenditure records 85.7 percent utilization of revised allotment. The growing tendency of distribution and expenditure in socio-economic and physical infrastructure segments all the way through ADP is constant with the twin objectives of the government- attaining higher growth and diminishing poverty. ADP expenditure and its composition by key sectors are shown in Table 4.5. Budget is organized in line with the national plans and policies taken up for economic development, poverty diminution and social growth. There arises a budget shortage occurring from a space between the government revenue and expenditure, where expenditure becomes more important than the revenue income. The succeeding governments are taking policies to control resources and shifts earnings at an increased rate to the poor people of the country since over 40 percent of population live beneath poverty line. Though, this enhances budget shortage little further, but it generates purchasing power of a vast population that finally propel growth by escalating aggregate demand. It also facilitates a huge portion of the population to keep minimum livelihood. The tendency of budget shortage in Bangladesh obviously shows that shortage remains under 5 percent of GDP except for those years when there were natural catastrophies. Table 4.6 below represents data on budget shortage and the form of i ts financing throughout the time period from FY1999-00 to FY2008-09. At present the debit obligation of the government is at a reasonable stage. Financing throughout grant and credit from outer sources is progressively tightening because of shifting in the policies of contributors. This, prompted the government to take a variety of restructuring initiatives and to adopt inspirational measures to mobilize resources from domestic sources together with from external sources. In principle, the government has a preferences on concessional foreign borrowing to domestic borrowing due to the poorer outlays of foreign borrowing and longer reimbursement time period. Findings Bangladesh is a third worlds developing country. At present it is going through a financial crisis. To analyze any countrys financial condition the key factor is to investigate its fiscal policy and management as fiscal policy has a great impact on the countrys development procedure. In our term paper we have discussed the fiscal condition of Bangladesh in brief. Financing of regular insufficiency, generally undertaken through borrowings from abroad, from Bangladesh Bank, and from scheduled banks, has become a central characteristic of the fiscal policy of the country. Opportunity of borrowing from the public by the government for financing budget deficiency is very limited in the country as investments capability of the people is very low. Therefore, the opportunity of non-inflationary financing of budget shortfall does not exist here. Availability of foreign borrowing depends on the international liquidity situation and the prevailing circumstances in the international capital market, which is always uncertain and unpredictable for a country like Bangladesh. Here, some major key findings which has a great influence on Bangladeshi economy that we noted out from the analysis section are added : # Introduction of Value Added Tax (VAT) in early 1990s is one of the key fiscal reforms to develop a effective fiscal administration. # The revenue tax to GDP ratio rose from 5.9 percent in FY1991 to 7.3 percent in FY1993 # Because of drop of the revenue to GDP ratio to 9 percent in FY1998-99 from 9.3 percent in FY1997-98, caused by flood-induced disruptions, the Government attempted to reverse the declining trend and projected revenue to GDP ratio of 10 percent in the FY1999-00 budget # Customs duties collection declined by 10 percent in FY1999-00 compared with FY1998-99, and the share of customs duties in National Board of Revenue portion of taxes declined to 28 percent from 32 percent # In FY1999-00, losses of nonfinancial SOEs were estimated at Tk31 billion, or 1.3 percent of GDP. Therefore, actual revenue mobilization in FY1999-00 rotated to be considerably below budget projections, at 8.9 percent of GDP # In FY1998-99 there had a rush in the outlay resulting from flood-induced expenditure, particularly the requirement for extra imports of food grains and post flood rehabilitation expenses # In the FY1999-00 budget, the Governments aim was to reduce expenses to 7.4 percent of GDP. It was a determined aim in view of the coming general election (scheduled for October 2001) when the pressures on the Government to accommodate increased expenditure is bound to be considerable. # In FY 1999-00revenue/GDP ratio was 8.47 percent, which step by step went up to 10.79 percent in FY2005-06. In FY 2007-08 the revenue/GDP more went up to 11.17 percent and the growing trend of revenue-GDP ratio further increased to 11.24 percent in FY2008-09. # From the beginning of the FY2008-09 the revenue objectives of fiscal year came under challenge because of the impact of worldwide financial crisis. # In FY 2008-09, though the entire revenue collection by NBR source fell diminutive of the goals but overall revenue collection stood at TK. 52525.61 crore, which is TK. 5236.49 crore higher than the assortment of the previous fiscal year showing an 11.07 percent increase. In FY 2007-08, total revenue collection placed at TK. 47289.12 crore, which was Tk. 10,069.8 crore or27.06 percent higher than the assortment of the previous year. In FY 2006-07, the total revenue collection under NBR amounted to Tk. 37219.32 crore which was Tk. 3,216.89 crore or 9.46 percent higher than that of the previous year. Item-wise tax collection from FY2006-07 to FY2008-09 # The average genuine cost against the adjusted allotment of ADP was around 90 percent during the time from 1999-00 to 2005-06. In FY2006-07 and FY 2007-08, the utilization of ADP is about 83 and 82 percent correspondingly. In FY 2008-09 the short-term expenditure records 85.7 percent utilization of revised allotment. # The tendency of budget shortage in Bangladesh obviously shows that shortage remains under 5 percent of GDP except for those years when there were natural catastrophes. The findings

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Morrisons Bluest Eye Essay: Conformity -- Bluest Eye Essays

The Bluest Eye: Conformity The basic theme of the novel, The Bluest Eye revolves around African Americans' conformity to white standards. Although beauty is the larger theme of the novel, Morrison scrutinizes the dominant white culture's influence on class levels. Morrison sets the foundation of the novel on issues of beauty in an attempt to make African Americans aware that they do not have to conform to white standards on any level. Morrison's main character, Pecola Breedlove, unquestioningly accepts the ideology that white features correlate with beauty. Yet Morrison wrote this novel at the height of the "Black Is Beautiful" era during which African Americans were being reconditioned to believe that their looks are synonymous with beauty. The novel is a retrospective story told by Claudia, one of Pecola's childhood friends. Claudia's account allows the reader to sympathize with Pecola's self-hatred. As an adult, Claudia best articulates how Pecola's victimization is caused by her environment. Telling the story almost three decades later, during the sixties, Claudia reflects on the pain of wanting to be something you can never become. According to an interview entitled "Toni Morrison's Black Magic" in Newsweek, Morrison states that Pecola's character was formed based on the fact that "Black is beautiful was in the air. . . .So I wrote about a child who was ugly-Pecola is the perfect defeated victim-only she was beautiful" (Strouse 56). Morrison's depiction of a victimized Pecola addresses how the dominance of white consumer society can effect the psyche of a young African American girl. Morrison writes the novel as a coming of age story about three elementary s... ...n life, being exposed to nicer lifestyles made them want more for themselves. The Breedloves all believe they would have attained a higher level of success, if they were born beautiful. Morrison implies that they believe success correlates with beauty. She states "As long as she [Pecola] looked the way she did, as long as she was ugly, she would have to stay with those people" (39). Do white standards of beauty put beautiful people in a higher class status? According to Morrison, the Breedloves attribute their storefront residence to the fact that "they were poor and black, and they stayed there because they believed they were ugly" (34). The Breedloves' mentality is instilled in them by their surroundings. Moving from the south to the north, African Americans' moral values changed from valuing the community and family to fetishizing material possessions.