Mad Cow Disease :: essays research papers

Mad cow disease kills many and is spreading rapidly throughout Britain and is slowly affecting the United States. Mad cow disease is a serious disease that affects many different species. There are different forms of the disease. This disease has occurred in Britain and can occur in the United States as well. Mad cow disease can be prevented.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mad cow disease has several different names. It is called Bovine Spongiform encephalopathy or BSE. Other names are New Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or vCJD (Morris). Transmittable Spongiform encephalopathy or TSE is another name. Spongiform encephalopathies are nervous system disorders which nerve cells of the brain die, causing the brain to assume a sponge-like appearance (Montague, Part 1). In 1985 a veterinarian found odd symptoms in a cattle (Morris). Cows in Britain began to die of mysterious ailments (Montague, Part 1). German physicians Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt and Alfons Jakob first discovered vCJD in its natural form in the 1920’s (Shell, Part 2). In 1996 British government conceded that people were falling victim to a degenerate new brain disease linked to BSE (Morris).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Some cows in the United States may already have mad cow disease. It is also very possible that people in the United States may have the human form of the disease. Cows are vegetarians by nature. They can be infected when they are forced to eat parts of other infected animals. When animals are slaughtered for human food at least half of the carcass-hide, hooves, entrails, etc can not be sold for human consumption. It’s then sent to a â€Å"rendering† plant where it’s ground up, boiled down and driven into the consistency of brown sugar. Now, it’s sold for feed for cows, pigs, chickens and pets. Eating infected animals transmits mad cow disease or eating animal parts especially brains and spinal cords (Montague, Part 3). Cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry that are exposed to BSE via animal food can secretly harbour the disease (Morris). Scrapie is a disease that has affected sheep for at least 200 years. Sheep infected with Scrapie rub up ag ainst fences or barns until they scrape away their wool, leaving raw wounds, then they die. Scrapie infected sheep are sometimes fed to cows (Montague). Humans can get the human form of mad cow disease by eating infected meat.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mad cow disease has a severe effect on animals. The infamous disease has increased 23 percent a year in Britain since 1994 (ABC News).

Death Penalty Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Death by execution has existed as a punishment since the dawn of time. Yet although this has existed seemingly forever, the question of its morality has also existed for that same amount of time. Killers kill innocent people, there is no question about that, but does that give us the right to kill these killers? I do not think so.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Racism is often the driving force behind crime. Yet in a justice system that preaches equality, it too is led by racism. There is â€Å"a pattern of evidence indicating racial disparities in the charging, sentencing, and imposition of the death penalty† according to a 1990 U.S. Government report. An overwhelming majority of death row defendants since 1977 were executed for killing whites despite the fact that whites and blacks are victims of murder in approximately equal numbers. In Texas, for example, blacks found guilty of killing whites were found to be six times more likely to receive the death penalty that whites convicted of killing whites. Of the 3,061 inmates on death row 1,246 of them are black, making 40% of death row inmates black. Compare this to the fact that blacks make up 12% of the U.S. population. Furthermore, many black prisoners on death row were sentenced to death by all-white juries after prosecutors had deliberately excluded black peop le from the jury pool.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Racism alone is not the only problem with Capital Punishment. Many inmates on death ...

Civilization of Ancient Greece

Greece produced classics in almost all genres of creative expression: literature, philosophy, music, the visual arts, and architecture. These classics advanced the aesthetic principles of clarity simplicity, balance, regularity, and harmonious proportion. As a style, Classicism is characterized by these aesthetic principles and by the related ideals of reason, moderation, and dignity (Firer 29). Greek culture is a very original culture in their way of life. A good example is the Parthenon.It towers in height with its beautifully elegant and simple design. It served as a shrine to Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war. Many people visit it each year for its history and unique structure. It had a columned design, made marble and realistic lifelike sculptures the first of its kind. Greek architecture has a specific look and feel to it that has been repeated in inspiration of many artists. It has been used as a design for many current structures, including banks, and libraries. The Iliad and the Odyssey are very unique epics that are the first of their kind.During the long period of political and social turmoil that followed, storytellers kept alive the history of early Greece, the adventures of Mycenaean, and the tales of the Trojan War, passing them orally from generation to generation (32). It was not until at least the ninth century B. C. E. That these stories were transcribed; and it was yet another three hundred years before they reached their present form. They became â€Å"national† poems of ancient Greece, uniting Greek-speaking people by giving literary authority to their common heritage (33).They tell stories that the Greeks held close and wanted to last forever within their culture. These are even used for Inspiration today in writing and poetry. Both are also taught In high school In basic literature classes. They carry lessons that we use In today's culture; for example, the concepts that everyone makes mistakes (even heroes), to follow directi ons, loyalty, and to never give up or let go for the ones that you love. All of these life lessons are very Important In our culture today. Work Cited Hero, Gloria K. Landmarks In Humanities. D deed. New York. McGraw Hill, 2013. Print Civilization of Ancient Greece By pleasantries and wanted to last forever within their culture. These are even used for inspiration today in writing and poetry. Both are also taught in high school in basic literature classes.

The Language of Mistrust and Fear

From the beginning, Bram Stoker makes it clear that Count Dracula should be viewed as The Other, a psychological distinction that has been used to describe the way people view the world in â€Å"them† and â€Å"us†. Stoker uses the concept of The Other to show how different Dracula is from the English and to create an underlying tension between the remaining characters and the vampire. He also uses the psychological distinction as a means of preventing the characters from determining the nature of the vampire earlier as they are aware that they have societal differences from the count.The characters choose to overlook many of the first warnings of the oddness of the Count because they were afraid they were acting out of a misunderstanding about the cultural differences. Stoker manages to establish Count Dracula as the other easily within the first chapter of the novel. In the first chapter, the impressions we have of Count Dracula all come from Jonathan Harker’s journal and Stoker establishes early on that Harker is uncomfortable with his surroundings.â€Å"The impression I had was that we were leaving the West and entering the East; the most western of splendid bridges over the Danube, which is here of noble width and depth, took us among the traditions of Turkish rule† (Stoker, Chapter 1). Even in his writing, Stoker decides to play up the strangeness of the land with the strange spelling of Budapest as Buda-Pesth. He establishes immediately that Harker is leaving the civilized world and going to a completely different land.He uses the lure and the mystique of â€Å"the East† to establish the difference all within the first paragraph of the book that Count Dracula is different from everyone else. As Harker travels inland, we learn that the count is from the edge of Hungary near the Carpathian Mountains, â€Å"one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe. † (Chapter 1) This is another attempt by the author to establish that Dracula is weird, and unlike the other characters. By claiming that he is from a wild and unknown region, Stoker is relying on the themes of Romanticism to imply that he is potentially evil and dangerous.And just a few paragraphs later he tells us that â€Å"I read that every known superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the centre of some sort of imaginative whirlpool; if so my stay may be very interesting. † (Chapter 1). These lines establish clearly that Harker believes the people of Hungary to be less educated and different from the people of England. Furthermore, by establishing that he has heard they are a superstitious folk, he can justify their odd behavior to himself and not question the decisions that he is making (going alone to the Count’s castle despite their warnings).Throughout the novel, Stoker relies on the concept of the other to isolate his main characters from the world around them an d never is this as evident as in Harker’s initial journey to meet the count. All along the way, Harker is the tourist, intrigued and yet critical of local population. â€Å"The women looked pretty, except when you got near them, but they were very clumsy about the waist. † (Chapter 1) He describes the traditional dress and the more rotund nature of the populace as â€Å"clumsy about the waist† emphasizing the fashion of the time in Britain to be very thin with corsets cinching the waist in even farther.And, to the men, he is even less generous. The strangest figures we saw were the Slovaks, who were more barbarian than the rest, with their big cow-boy hats, great baggy dirty-white trousers, white linen shirts, and enormous heavy leather belts, nearly a foot wide, all studded over with brass nails. They wore high boots, with their trousers tucked into them, and had long black hair and heavy black moustaches. They are very picturesque, but do not look prepossessin g. On the stage they would be set down at once as some old Oriental band of brigands.They are, however, I am told, very harmless and rather wanting in natural self-assertion. To the average reader at the time of this writing, Stoker’s words about the people of Europe would have been strange and more than a bit fearsome, driven by the fear of the unknown. The author, realizing this, includes that very observation in Harker’s journal, when he hastens to explain that despite the many odd things in his journal, he had not overindulged in either food or drink, going so far as to list what he has eaten.There too, Stoker attempts to make the reader revile the locals with a comparison of their dinner to the â€Å"simple style of the London cat's meat! † (Chapter 1). Having established the physical differences between the inhabitants of Eastern Europe and those in London and draw attention to their different manner of dress and food, Stoker is ready to cut the last tie w hich might bind the two groups together: religion. On the eve of Harker’s approach to Dracula’s castle, the innkeeper’s wife attempts to prevent him from going.She relays the fear that something untoward will happen to him at the Castle and begs him to take her crucifix. I did not know what to do, for, as an English Churchman, I have been taught to regard such things as in some measure idolatrous, and yet it seemed so ungracious to refuse an old lady meaning so well and in such a state of mind. She saw, I suppose, the doubt in my face, for she put the rosary round my neck and said, â€Å"For your mother's sake,† and went out of the room. I am writing up this part of the diary whilst I am waiting for the coach, which is, of course, late; and the crucifix is still round my neck.(Chapter 1) In this short passage, Stoker firmly establishes that the Hungarians are not like the English, establishing them firmly as The Other, but he also manages to establish the ir humanity. When the woman asks him to take the crucifix, â€Å"For your mother’s sake†, Stoker overcomes the barrier between them, pointing to a common bond among all humans, the love of a mother for her child. This is done for two reasons: first, to illustrate to the reader that the oddities of the count are in fact unnatural and second, to begin to create a mood, to explain the beginnings of the fear that Harker feels as he approaches the castle.The reader is meant to feel that Harker’s observations about his trepidation as he approaches the castle at midnight are justified, that he is not merely some frightened little boy who starts at the darkness. This concept that the fear might be justified is building all along Harker’s journey to the castle and might have built more if he had understood the languages his fellow passengers spoke, Stoker writes, again playing to the classical definition of the other as someone outside our normal understanding, se parated by culture, religion and sometimes, by language.Then, in a subtle criticism of the Carpathians, another form of creating distance between groups, Harker observes that the roads and rough and that the driver seemed to â€Å"fly over it with a feverish haste. † (Chapter 1) This observation is meant to again set the people apart from the English who, it is implied, would never think of driving at such a pace and would have most certainly kept the road in better repair. â€Å"I was told that this road is in summertime excellent, but that it had not yet been put in order after the winter snows.In this respect it is different from the general run of roads in the Carpathians, for it is an old tradition that they are not to be kept in too good order. Of old the Hospadars would not repair them, lest the Turk should think that they were preparing to bring in foreign troops, and so hasten the war which was always really at loading point. † (Chapter 1). Even in his discuss ion of the fear of the Turks, Stoker is driving a wedge between the English and the Hungarians, as the British never feared invasion from aggressive neighbors thanks to the fact that they were on an island.This is just another means of driving a stake between the two cultures. For the normally reserved British, the thought of strangers giving Harker gifts along the way also helps to establish the difference between the cultures. â€Å"One by one several of the passengers offered me gifts, which they pressed upon me with an earnestness which would take no denial. These were certainly of an odd and varied kind, but each was given in simple good faith, with a kindly word, and a blessing, and that same strange mixture of fear-meaning movements which I had seen outside the hotel at Bistritz– the sign of the cross and the guard against the evil eye.† (Chapter 1). This passage actually plays on English attitudes in two matters: First, it would have been unconscionable to give a random gift to a stranger and make him feel that he must accept it. Second, the fact that they were actively demonstrating their religion and superstition was an act the British of the time would have found completely unacceptable. The British largely believed that church, the Church of England, was something you did when you went to services and not something to be practiced at any other time.Furthermore, the concept that you would let someone catch you making a hex sign of any sort was simply unbelievable. The British would simply be too polite to have anything in common with these heathens, further establishing them as The Other. In the end, Stoker’s work is masterful at clearly establishing the differences between class lines and cultures and creating The Other on numerous different levels. He establishes that Mina and Jonathan are the others when compared to Lucy and her well-to-go friends, both of them having been raised with next to nothing.He establishes Renfield a s the other via his madness and his actions during his fall to Dracula’s control and even Lucy is somewhat established in this manner, being the least learned and scientific of the group. Stoker made each of the characters unique and bound them to one another, but also invested in making clear divides between them to create an additional tension and confusion in the book that is just complicated by the arrival of Count Dracula. Upon the count’s arrival in London, he is regarded as exotic and interesting, a facet as completely a portion of The Other as the fear and trepidation.Often we are fascinated by those things that are different from us and we desire to see them, to learn more about them and even to imitate them while still holding them at a distance, knowing that they are not like we are. The fact that Stoker felt it necessary to establish this extreme difference when Dracula could easily have become the other certainly by virtue of being a creature of the night implies that Stoker was perhaps attempting to force the scholars that would read his novel to recognize a certain xenophobia within their culture.His depiction of the Eastern Europeans as highly different, almost medieval compare to the bustling and modern London can hardly be considered accidental. Stoker clearly had some thoughts about the way that the British observed the world around them and made Harker the extreme viewpoint of that British charm. Harker had to be an extreme, the most British of British subjects in his observations for stoker to force his audience to see how absurd such characterizations could be. Works Cited Stoker, Bram. â€Å"Dracula† Accessed at http://www. literature. org/authors/stoker-bram/dracula/chapter-01. html, December 9, 2007.

‘Macbeth’ was one of the first plays written during the reign of James I Essay

‘Macbeth’ was one of the first plays written during the reign of James I. Shakespeare intended to honour the King by glorifying Banquo, the legendary founder of the Stuart line. Hence the play also serves as a mirror for magistrates, a dramatization of the theme of kingship. James I strongly believed in the Divine Right of kings. He believed that the lord of the heavens had placed kings to rule over people in the world, thus Kings had a god-given right to rule and treachery was like turning away from God and not only the king. In actually fact, if you went against your own king, you were indeed challenging God. James I had ruled the Scottish Parliament more or less how he liked using the concept of Divine Right but when he came to rule over England, he found the English parliament far less easy to handle, insisting that the king could only rule by its consent. In ‘Macbeth’ the common theme is based on the natural order of things. Macbeth’s lawless act destroys all law: it occasions confusion and disorder in the world of men and animals as well as in the heavens above. Everywhere there is upheaval: on the night when the murder is done, chimneys are blown down, lamentations and strange screams of death are heard in the air, and some say the earth was â€Å"feverous and did shake† (2,3,53-59). All this confirms the interdependency of man and nature. The natural elements, following the death of Duncan, are in strange disorder and there is the further recounting of other amazing violations of nature, the unnatural behaviour of animals no longer acting according to their ways. ‘A falcon towering in her pride of place was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed’ (2,4,13). As you can probably guess the owl is supposed to represent King Duncan, on top of the chain, and mousing owl is supposed to be Macbeth, the person who broke this chain and disordered everything, to the tiniest atom. ‘Macbeth,’ at the time would have been exceptionally, politically advantageous to James because it would have greatly increased the public’s view that James I was God’s so-called Sergeant on earth, and so had the right to do or change whatever he pleased. The easiest way to attack a political rival was to accuse him of treachery and the easiest way to prove his treachery was to link him with one of the proscribed religious groups. In 1605 James dealt with some troublesome rivals by claiming to have detected a Catholic plot to blow up the parliament. In Scotland, even more than in England at the time, political troublemakers were accused of witchcraft and heresy. James himself was an authority on witchcraft and the London edition of his Demonology was published in 1603, the year of his accession to the throne of Great Britain. Certainly most people believed in the existence and power of witches, devils and ghosts and the religiously orthodox stressed that the devil could take many shapes. According to the teaching of the Church, Heaven and Hell were actual places and the central teaching of Christianity was the sinful (fallen) nature of man and the necessity of a sense of guilt to bring the sinner to accept the salvation from sinfulness offered by Christ. The reason of man was not foolproof and the Church urged the faithful to be on their guard against any suggestion of communication with the Devil. In Act I, Scene 3 of ‘Macbeth’ Baquo expresses similar fears concerning the witches: Were such things here as we do speak about? Or have we eaten on the insane root That takes the reason prisoner? (Lines 82-84) And And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths; Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s In deepest consequence (Lines 122-125 At the start of the play there surrounds two conflicting views of the hero, Macbeth. In scene 1, when the audience have already found out that the witches have met in order to meet Macbeth, a big question mark surrounds Macbeth. The audience is forced to ask themselves who is this Macbeth and what business does he have with these foul witches. In scene 2 the audience finds out the true identity of Macbeth. He is indeed a Hero! We learn that a battle between King Duncan’s army and the rebels is raging nearby. The scene starts of with King Duncan being given the latest news of the rebellion by the sergeant. The sergeant reports, with great enthusiasm, how the battle was at first, in balance. That is until, gallant and brave Macbeth, ignoring all the odds, slashing in and out with his bloody sword reached the traitor Macdowald and with no pity, ripped the traitor from head to toe. After hearing how the battle went, King Duncan has nothing but praise for the heroic deed of Macbeth and announces that Macbeth is to be given the title of Thane of Cawdor and the treacherous Cawdor is to be executed immediately. The battle is given a size and importance that magnify the qualities of Macbeth and our curiosity and anticipation are aroused to meet this might champion so praised by all who have seen him. But our memories still hold the mention of his name by the witches and the finale line of the scene (‘What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won’) reminds us of line 4 in scene 1 (‘When the battle’s lost and one’) and this connexion is consolidated in Scene 3. Macbeth’s first words echo the witches ‘so foul is fair a day I have not seen.’ This suggests Macbeth is already in tune with the way the witches think. Banquo believes that these witches are in league with the devil and thus should not be trusted, ‘Can the devil speak truth?’ However Macbeth wants to hear more of this ‘strange intelligence’, ‘upon this blasted heath you stop our way with such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you.’ The witches predict two things:- that Macbeth will become the thane of Cawdor, and the king hereafter. They also predict two things for Banquo that he will be lesser than Macbeth, and his children will be the kings after Macbeth. The witches second prediction of Macbeth (‘All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter’) is exactly what Macbeth wants to hear because it is his greatest ambition to be king, the ultimate prize is his for grabs. The soliloquy beginning ‘Two truths are told’ which shows that the witches second prediction has come true about Mabeth earning the title of Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth then begins thinking about the witches’ third prophecy ‘the greatest is behind’ and what he needs to do now to become king. It is at this point that he starts to consider murder but he feels very uneasy about the word even though he is renown around Scotland as a ruthless soldier, ‘why do I yield to that suggestion whose horrid image doth unfix my hair and make my seated heart knock at my ribs’ (1,3,134-136). Macbeth is confused but still very ambitious. Macbeth shows signs of having a good heart and good intentions, but he also shows that he has a weak mind that ignores and disobeys what he knows is right. You can straight away see that Macbeth has got a powerful conscious when Lady Macbeth has a torrid time trying to convince him to kill King Duncan. At first he absolutely refuses to do such a horrible deed to such a noble person. He knows in his heart that to kill Duncan is wrong and deceitful. The reader can tell that Macbeth is trying is utmost best to resist the misgivings of his wife. ‘We will proceed no further. He hath honoured me of late, and I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people, Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, Not cast aside so soon’ (1,7,31-35). Although he knows that this deed will have profound consequences he allows Lady Macbeth to persuade him into doing what he knows is wrong. Macbeth knows he has chosen the wrong path when he says, ‘I’ll go no more. I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on’t again, I dare not’ (2,3,46-48). Therefore Macbeth is disobeying what his own heart is telling him. In fact, Macbeth speaks of the distrust he has for his own heart when he says ‘False face must hide what the false heart doth know.’ Lady Macbeth persuades her husband to do the murder by telling him that, all he is doing, is fulfilling his own lofty ambition and that surely he is not a coward. If he is a man, he should act like one. The fact that Macbeth is so easily persuaded to kill a man, proves that he must have considered murder before. It is also the sign of a person who has a weak mind and who does not stand up for himself. Lady Macbeth feeds on this weakness. Macbeth is tempted to do evil and Lady Macbeth is the key human agent – the one Macbeth trusts and loves- who ensures his temptation is through and complete. Lady Macbeth, when we first encounter her is, dominant, determined, powerful, and even perhaps frightening in the intensity of her uncompromising desire for her husband to ascend the throne. Be it, the price of murder. We understand that Macbeth has his own ‘deep desires,’ but this seems tame compared with Lady Macbeth’s unquenchable aspirations (she summons evil itself into her body and soul to unsex her and remove any doubts she might have). Further, we see in her actions, a cool, self-assured person, unlike her husband. When Macbeth falters, she is there and she also has the courage to return the daggers and to faint at the news of King Duncan’s murder, and so distract any attention from her husband. She plans the details of the murder; she has the future worked out. She is also pre-eminently cunning and shows no fear of the supernatural and death itself. That is why she can say, ‘a little water clears us of this deed’ (2,2,67), because there is nothing to fear from God and old-fashioned ideas of retribution. She can happily envisage hypocrisy and falsehood. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth fates are inextricably joined, but her role and character support Macbeth’s destiny. However like Macbeth, Lady Macbeth shows moments of humanity – she would have killed Duncan herself only he reminded her of her own father. It is these small details that perhaps indicate that she is not as cold and inhuman as she makes herself to be. It could actual, all be an act just to persuade Macbeth to do the final deed. This of course makes her breakdown seem the more inevitable as she is bound to blame herself in some way for the murder. Ultimately she finds out that water will not wash away the stain of blood. It is then ironic that Macduff on first meeting Lady Macbeth refers to her as ‘gentle lady’ and one too sensitive to even hear the word ‘murder.’ By the end of the play she is recognized for what she is, a ‘fiend-like queen’ (5,6,108). Macbeth, in the final analysis, is too preoccupied with his own role to give support to her. Once he has done his first major murder he needs no help from her to do the others†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã ¢â‚¬ ¦. Macbeth is a man of action: the play proves this in more ways then others. He is a fearless warrior – and an important lord – who defends his king against treachery. However, ambition is his finale weakness. He allows, first the witches’ prophesy and then his wife’s ambition for him, to undermine his integrity. It is clear that he is not easily won over to evil. His conscience is strong and throws up many objections to his doing the deed. However, he is also too easily influenced in the direction that he secretly desires to go. Once he has decided, he does not deviate, and each step subsequently reaffirms his initial choice. Macbeth, then, is determined, and with this determination turns to a violent and ruthless path, full of chaos. So how does Macbeth ‘a peerless kinsman,’ develops into King Duncan’s murderer? Is Macbeth’s mistake in killing ‘gracious’ king Duncan, his entire fault? Is he to blame for his own doing or were they any other factors that bade him to do this terrible deed? Is Macbeth still the hero at the end of this play and does he deserve what he gets? For these Questions to be answered we need to look at the fundamental theme of the play, Ambition. Partly because it is the driving force of Macbeth’s life. ‘Macbeth’ is a deep sentimental tragedy. ‘Tragedy,’ in Shakespeare usually concerns a great person, the hero, who through some weakness of his character falls from grace, endures intense sufferings (which fascinate the audience), and who inevitable dies a tragic death. In fact, who must die as a consequence of their weakness. Thus if you look at ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’, we find all these ingredients; and if we consider what is the hero’s weakness, it must and can only be ambition. Macbeth says this specifically when he is attempting to resist the murder of Duncan: ‘I have no spur†¦.but only/Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself’ (1,7,25-7).This acknowledgement comes after he has considered all the good reasons for not murdering Duncan. Only ambition is left to overrule his troubled conscience. Furthermore, whilst the influence of both Lady Macbeth and the witches is strong, their power over Macbeth is only possible because the ambition is already there. Macbeth ,then, is a hero but one who is fatally undermined by his ambition, that are the fabric of the play. Put in another way: it is his ambition that leads Macbeth to murder, treason, hypocrisy, corruption and deepest evil.

Quantitative Methods for Finance and Investment Essay

University of Bristol – School of Economics, Finance and Management QUANTITATIVE METHODS FOR FINANCE AND INVESTMENT (EFIMM005) Review Questions Question 1: Concepts a. Deï ¬ ne a stochastic process. Give an example in Finance of a quantity that can be modelled as a stochastic process. b. Deï ¬ ne a stationary stochastic process. c. Consider a stochastic process {Yt , t = 1, .., T }. Deï ¬ ne the partial autocorrelation function (pacf) associated to this process. d. Explain the diï ¬â‚¬erence between estimator and estimate. e. Let {Ut , t = 1, .., T } be a mean zero white noise process. What is the value of pacf at lag 2 for the process Yt = .5Yt−1 + Ut ? f. Explain the diï ¬â‚¬erence between the autocovariance function and the sample autocovariance function. Question 2: Application The capital asset pricing model (CAPM) can be written as E(Rjt |Rmt , Rf t ) = Rf t + ÃŽ ²j (Rmt − Rf t ), where Rjt is the net return of security j at period t, Rmt is the return on a market portfolio proxy, and Rf t is the return on a risk-free proxy. The coeï ¬Æ'cient ÃŽ ²j is the CAPM beta for security j. Suppose that you have estimated ÃŽ ²j by ordinary least squares and found that the estimated value was 1.37 with standard deviation 2.6. based on 3665 observations. a. A city analyst has told you that security j closely follows the market, in the sense that security j is equally risky, on average, to the market portfolio. Perform a 5% signiï ¬ cance level test of hypothesis to determine whether data support the analysts claim. b. Are hypotheses tested concerning the value of ÃŽ ²j or its estimated values? Question 3: Techniques Consider the moving average process: Yt = ÃŽ µt + ÃŽ ¸1 ÃŽ µt−1 + ÃŽ ¸12 ÃŽ µt−12 with {ÃŽ µt }T a mean zero white noise process with variance ÏÆ' 2 > 0. t=0 a. Calculate the mean of Yt . b. Calculate the variance of Yt . c. Calculate the autocovariance function of {Yt }T . t=a T =120 d. Assume that {yt }t=1 represents the monthly tons of ice cream sold in the UK between Oct. 2001 and Oct. 2012. What type of dependence can the term ÃŽ ¸12 ÃŽ µt−12 capture? 1

Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman (cited) Essay Example for Free

Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (cited) Essay Marriage (796) , Death (671) , Arthur Miller (560) , Sales (458) , Death of a Salesman (121) , Willy Loman (98) , Henrik Ibsen (84) , A Doll's House (53) , Krogstad (43) , Nora Helmer (19) company About StudyMoose Contact Careers Help Center Donate a Paper Legal Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy Complaints Willy and Nora: Tragic Heroes or Home-wreckers? No one has a perfect life. Despite what Aaron Spelling and his friends in the media might project to society today, no one’s life is perfect. Everyone has conflicts that they must face sooner or later. The ways in which people deal with these conflicts can be just as varied as the people themselves. Some procrastinate and ignore their problems as long as they can, while others attack problems to get them out of the way as soon as possible. The Lowman and Helmer families have a number of problems that they deal with in different ways, which proves their similarities and differences. Both Willy Loman, the protagonist of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and Nora Helmer, protagonist of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House experience an epiphany where they realize that they were not the person the thought they were: while Willy’s catharsis brings about his death, Nora’s brings her to a new life; hers. Both character’s flaws bring about their departure from their respective families as well. They are both overly concerned with the appearances they and their families present to society: as a result they both project false images to others. From their appearance, both seem to be involved in stable marriages and appear to be going places. Willy’s job as a traveling salesman seems stable (although we never know what it is he sells) when he tells his family that he â€Å"knocked ’em cold in Providence, slaughtered ’em in Boston† (Miller 1228). It is not until Willy’s wife, Linda tells us that he â€Å"drives 700 miles and when he gets there, no one knows him any more, no one welcomes him† (Miller 1241). If that’s not enough to convince readers of his failure on the job, the fact that he gets fired after working for the same company for 36 years cements his incompetency in the business world to readers. While Nora does not work in the business world, (few woman, if any did over 120 years ago) her failure to take care of her responsibilities becomes quite evident as well. When the play opens and Nora enters with a Christmas tree and presents for the children, she gives off the impression of a good mother trying hard to prepare a great Christmas for her family. Upon further analysis we see that Nora’s duties, in general, are restricted to caring for the children, doing housework, and working on her needlepoint. Nora cannot complete these duties even with the full-time help of Anne Marie, a housekeeper who cleans up after Nora just as much as the children. When Nora and Kristine are having a discussion towards  the start of the play, Nora informs her friend that, â€Å"I’m so happy and relieved [with my marriage]. I must say its lovely to have plenty of money and not have to worry. Isn’t it?† (Ibsen 1119). The rosy picture she painted of her family and marriage are in stark contrast to the â€Å"stranger of a man† (Ibsen 1168) she refers to her husband as. We realize that she had not been living her life at all; rath er the life that her husband wanted her to live. While both Willy and Nora succeed in giving of the appearance of being competent, efficient and helpful family members who contribute to the well being of their respective families, they prove otherwise as the plays progress. While the two plays take place nearly 100 years apart, are set on different continents and each have completely different family members, both engage in lies and deceit that hurt their families; after which each protagonist leaves their family. Not only does Willy lie about his performance on the job, he lies about his â€Å"faulty car† as well. He tells his family that the Studebaker keeps malfunctioning when in reality we find out through Linda that he has been deliberately trying to kill himself. The biggest way in which Loman deceives his family is by cheating on his wife while away for work in Boston. When his eldest son discovers his father’s unfaithfulness, he loses all trust for his father, and Biff’s life pretty much goes downhill from there. Willy Loman’s lies, deceit, unfaithfulness have resulted in huge problems for his family. Nora also starts trouble in her household through lies and deceit. Nora’s crime of forgery is not even a crime in her mind; she does not realize that the law does not take into account people’s motivations behind their actions. While she knows that Krogstad has been associated with shady law practices, she does not realize that his crime was on the same level, if not less illegal than the one that she has committed. When Tourvald opens the letter and finds out about her crime, he goes ballistic, and cannot believe that his own wife could be capable of such a crime. This is ultimately the reason / situation that helps Nora realize that she must leave her family in order to begin to live her own life. But Nora even lies about the little things in life such as the eating of macaroons (Ibsen 1126). Her husband forbade her from eating them on account that they will rot her teeth, and when she is seen eating them in her house, she says that they are a gift from Kristine, which is a lie. Both Willy and Nora’s lies and deceitfulness frustrate their families to the  point where each protagonist much leave their family; although Willy’s departure is his death, Nora’s is the start of her real life. Both main characters also use an escape mechanism to leave reality when they realize that their lives are on the wrong path. When Loman starts to realize that his pride and joy in life, Bi ff, â€Å"is a lazy bum† (Miller 1218) he begins to talk to himself (Miller 1221). These mental lapses bring Loman to a happier place and time, when his kids were young and innocent and he thought that the best part of his life lay still ahead. This acts almost as a defense mechanism against the pains of reality for Willy. In the final scene, after Biff tells his father that he is â€Å"a dime a dozen† and that the Loman name really doesn’t mean much, Willy engages in the ultimate escape mechanism; suicide. Although it may appear on the surface to be a selfish and coldhearted move to spite his family, he actually did it so that his family may live a better life with money he thinks they will receive from his life insurance policy. When faced with the harsh pains of reality, Nora also uses defense / escape mechanisms to ignore the problems at hand first, then to conquer them in the end. She believes that she has done nothing wrong, and that if what she has done is illegal, that her good intentions will nullify the illegality of her forgery. When Krogstad informs her otherwise, tells her the possible repercussions of her act, and ultimately gives her an ultimatum, this is her first touch of reality outside of the doll’s house that she lives in. To cope with the harshness outside of t his doll’s house, she immediately retreats back inside and attempts to distract herself with Christmas decorations (Ibsen 1133). She uses the tree and presents to distract her from her problems, and tells the nursemaid Anne Marie that she’s too busy to play with her kids who want to see her because she must try to distance her mind from the subject at hand. Here she is only making the problem worse by not dealing with it. When she finally realizes that her â€Å"main duty [is] to [her]self† (Ibsen 1166), and that she has been living life according to what her father and husband have wanted rather than what she has wanted, Nora’s epiphany is complete. She knows that the only possible solution that can work for her is to leave right away. Willy and Nora both escape their problems first by drifting away with mental distractions, then when they fully realize their problems, they both must physically leave their families. For Willy this means death, for Nora, the  start of (a new) life. Willy and Nora share a fatal flaw: they try to make others happy before making themselves happy. All that Willy ever wanted in life was to be â€Å"well-liked† and for his sons to follow in his footsteps. Their lives focused too much on fulfilling others rather than themselves, and in the end this flaw led to their departure from each of their respective families. When Charley asks Willie â€Å"when the hell are you ever going to grow up?† and Biff declares that â€Å"we never told the truth in this house for 10 minutes† (Miller 1280) we realize that Willy will never grow up and that he must leave his family because he will never grow up and that nearly his whole life has been a farce. Similarly, when Nora tells her husband that the only way he (and her) can only change if Tourvald has â€Å"his doll taken away† (Ibsen 1168) we realize that Nora’s life too has been a farce and that she must leave in order to begin her own life. 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