Brazil Allows Police to Buy High Caliber Guns Essay

The Brazilian military will now allow police and firefighters to buy powerful .45 caliber guns for personal use, raising fears over how the weapons will be used and where they might end up.Prior to the ruling, only federal police were permitted to buy .45 caliber weapons, while other police agencies carried less lethal .40 or .38 weapons. The new regulations open the way for civil, military, and transport police to purchase .45 handguns. The military command, which regulates gun sales in Brazil, said it changed the regulations in response to petitioning from state security forces. The move has already sparked controversy among some sectors. â€Å"They are giving weapons to the police that they don’t know how to use. This is putting the safety of the police and the population at risk,† a representative from violence prevention NGO Sou da Paz told O Globo. InSight Crime Analysis The decision to grant various police agencies access to more powerful weaponry is likely to prove controversial. Trust in the Brazilian police is low, amid widespread accusations of corruption, criminality and extrajudicial killings. Firefighters, who are allowed to carry weapons as part of the job, have also come under suspicion, with accusations that many form part of urban paramilitary groups while off-duty. The easing of the regulations could be linked to the ongoing conflict between criminal gang the First Capital Command (PCC) and the Sao Paulo police, which claimed the lives of at least 100 officers in 2012. The risk that rather than giving police another means to protect themselves, the increased availability of .45 weapons could only further fuel the conflict. Given past cases of Brazilian police selling weapons to criminal groups, there is a significant risk that these guns could fall into the hands of the gangs that are behind anti-police violence in much of the country. The high-power weapons could also end up being used by the vigilante militias that control many of Brazil’s favelas. Corrupt factions of the police and firefighting force are known to be members and collaborators of these militias.

Personal Philosophy of Nursing

A definition of a Philosophy is â€Å"when someone contemplates, or wonders, about something that serves as the blueprints or guides that incorporates each individual’s value and belief system. † (Chitty & Black, 2007, p. 318) Personal Philosophy of Nursing is the core values and beliefs that a nurse upholds when taking care of another human being. It is the belief that each individual no matter what disease, race, or economic status they have will get treated with the highest regards to compassion, integrity, and respect that they deserve. I Melissa Fielding believe that my personal nursing philosophy on September 13, 2009 would be to treat others as I would want to be treated. I would like to think that each individual patient has earned my compassion, integrity, and respect that they deserve. I choose nursing as my profession, to be able to take my compassion, knowledge, values and beliefs and apply them to the very ones who cannot take care of themselves. I believe that the very core of nursing is to maintain a good relationship with my patient and to be a patient advocate and to treat every human being with dignity and respect. My main focus for nursing to â€Å"practice compassion and respect in all professional relationships, by valuing the dignity, worth, and uniqueness of every individual, unrestricted by considerations of social or economic status, personal attributes, or the nature of the health problems. †(, 2001, p. 1). I will take into consideration each patient who may not be the most pleasant patient as a sign that the patient is afraid of not knowing what is going on with them and I will maintain a calm, professional and reassuring manner with them. My vision for myself as a nurse is to remember to â€Å"promote health and wellness. †(Core of Nursing, 1999) to those in need without prejudice. I would like to provide the best care to all patients remembering that they come from all different backgrounds. To live out my philosophy of nursing, every day I must remember about my patients that I will continue to treat my patients the way that I would want myself or a family member to be treated with allowing them to be involved in the decision making regarding their care, respect, care, compassion, and dignity. I will continue to involve the family members in the decision making by being sympathetic to their own sensitivities, needs, encouragement and fears. I will continue to treat my fellow colleagues with respect, knowing that they can be a help in my values and beliefs when taking care of patients. I will continue to take care of my own health by staying fit, eating right, and getting plenty of rest which will allow me to be the best nurse I can strive for thus being the best caregiver my patients can look forward to. In conclusion, I feel that the philosophy of nursing is a combination of core values, and beliefs that teaches us to treat each human being with the respect, compassion, dignity, and uniqueness, regardless of disease, social or economic status, or race that they deserve. My focus with each patient will be to allow them to have the right to be involved in the decision making of their care as well as allowing their family members to be involved in the decision making. I will maintain my beliefs and values by treating every patient, or coworker with respect that they deserve. I believe that each person has a calling in life and it takes a special person to become a nurse. Nurses have to have a very strong belief and value system in order to give patients the care and compassion they so deserve. I believe that by continuing education and always looking for new ways to learn is the very core and philosophy of nursing. Personal Philosophy of Nursing A definition of a Philosophy is â€Å"when someone contemplates, or wonders, about something that serves as the blueprints or guides that incorporates each individual’s value and belief system. † (Chitty & Black, 2007, p. 318) Personal Philosophy of Nursing is the core values and beliefs that a nurse upholds when taking care of another human being. It is the belief that each individual no matter what disease, race, or economic status they have will get treated with the highest regards to compassion, integrity, and respect that they deserve. I Melissa Fielding believe that my personal nursing philosophy on September 13, 2009 would be to treat others as I would want to be treated. I would like to think that each individual patient has earned my compassion, integrity, and respect that they deserve. I choose nursing as my profession, to be able to take my compassion, knowledge, values and beliefs and apply them to the very ones who cannot take care of themselves. I believe that the very core of nursing is to maintain a good relationship with my patient and to be a patient advocate and to treat every human being with dignity and respect. My main focus for nursing to â€Å"practice compassion and respect in all professional relationships, by valuing the dignity, worth, and uniqueness of every individual, unrestricted by considerations of social or economic status, personal attributes, or the nature of the health problems. †(, 2001, p. 1). I will take into consideration each patient who may not be the most pleasant patient as a sign that the patient is afraid of not knowing what is going on with them and I will maintain a calm, professional and reassuring manner with them. My vision for myself as a nurse is to remember to â€Å"promote health and wellness. †(Core of Nursing, 1999) to those in need without prejudice. I would like to provide the best care to all patients remembering that they come from all different backgrounds. To live out my philosophy of nursing, every day I must remember about my patients that I will continue to treat my patients the way that I would want myself or a family member to be treated with allowing them to be involved in the decision making regarding their care, respect, care, compassion, and dignity. I will continue to involve the family members in the decision making by being sympathetic to their own sensitivities, needs, encouragement and fears. I will continue to treat my fellow colleagues with respect, knowing that they can be a help in my values and beliefs when taking care of patients. I will continue to take care of my own health by staying fit, eating right, and getting plenty of rest which will allow me to be the best nurse I can strive for thus being the best caregiver my patients can look forward to. In conclusion, I feel that the philosophy of nursing is a combination of core values, and beliefs that teaches us to treat each human being with the respect, compassion, dignity, and uniqueness, regardless of disease, social or economic status, or race that they deserve. My focus with each patient will be to allow them to have the right to be involved in the decision making of their care as well as allowing their family members to be involved in the decision making. I will maintain my beliefs and values by treating every patient, or coworker with respect that they deserve. I believe that each person has a calling in life and it takes a special person to become a nurse. Nurses have to have a very strong belief and value system in order to give patients the care and compassion they so deserve. I believe that by continuing education and always looking for new ways to learn is the very core and philosophy of nursing.

Epic Hero Comparison(Beowulf and The hobbit) Essay

An epic hero is a larger than life character who has legendary skill and prowess. An epic hero has to perform heroic deeds. An epic hero is thought of having traditional charm and charisma. He has very strong ethics morals and a code of conduct. The epic hero is always thought of as a male as the tradition of the epic hero originated in the Anglo Saxon culture which was a male dominant society. A perfect example of an epic hero is Beowulf. He kills Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon all of which are heroic deeds that no one else was able or willing to take on. The foes that Beowulf fought were all beyond human strength and capabilities and required superhuman abilities to bring down. In Bilbo’s case he takes down the spider by himself and tries to face up to challenges that he would normally never have done in his comfortable hobbit home. This shows a hero putting the need of the many against the need of the few. The heroic tradition in literature has definitely moved from epic heroes, the creation of larger-than-life characters that had legendary strength and physical characteristics, to the move towards anti-heroes, which particularly developed in the 20th and 21st centuries, with the focus on leading protagonists who lack certain heroic qualities such as idealism courage and generosity. In both stories, the concept of vengeance is the first to appear. In Beowulf, vengeance is what drives the entire plot of the poem, as one action is carried out in response to a former action – to seek vengeance for a prior wrong. It is Beowulf, introduced as a strong, powerful character from the start, whose own heroic code compels him to seek vengeance against Grendel for deeds the monster committed against Hrothgar. Beowulf himself is an epic hero who even before arriving at Herot has already built for himself a tremendous reputation that goes before him and is based on acts that no mere mortal could accomplish or achieve. He arrives at Herot as a fully formed character. When considering Beowulf as a character, it is clear that his exploits and fame confirm his as a character whose strength is certainly out of this world, and more powerful than any other character alive today. This shows he is definitely a hero in the epic hero tradition. Bilbo by contrast starts the novel as a quiet, peaceful and unadventurous hobbit that sometimes goes through periods where he wonders what on earth he is doing on this adventure with dwarves and a wizard. Bilbo is called upon to do more than he imagines himself capable of. He does not like to travel, preferring the safety of his hobbit-hole, but he has inherited a streak of adventurousness from his mother’s side, the Tooks. His adventurous Took side and his comfort-loving Baggins side are in conflict throughout much of the story. It is clear from his early attempts to sneak up on enemies, such as with the trolls that he has a lot to learn and his early failures show that he is much more of a dynamic character than Beowulf is in the way that he learns heroism and courage and refines his skills as time goes by. Near the beginning of their journey, Bilbo was quite vulnerable to the dangers and was frequently rescued by the others. As the adventure continues and Bilbo shows his worth and value first in the Misty Mountains and then secondly with the Elves and then finally the spiders, Bilbo becomes a hero in his own right. As he progressed through the quest, he went on his own little adventures which helped him become braver and wiser. Bilbo willingly forfeits his own claim to the treasure in order to secure peace. Bilbo shows himself to not just be a hero in terms of his skills and qualities but a hero in his character as well which is something arguably that Beowulf does not show as he seems to risk his own life against the dragon knowing that his death would be disastrous for his own people. Finally, his heroic status is secured when he delivers the Arkenstone of Thrain to the Elvenking and Bard in order to secure a peace between the dwarves and the elves and humans.

Victor & Rolf brand analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Victor & Rolf brand analysis - Essay Example Two Dutch Designers Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren (amazingly identical to each other in some styles) mutually started this company in 1993, after their Graduation from the same academy, Arnhem Academy of Arts and Design. They said that they got inspiration from a German TV Program and thus decided to come in the fashion world and show their creativity (Menkes 2003). During the whole journey of their Business Viktor & Rolf have made collaboration with many other brands which include Samsonite, Shu Umeura, H&M and Piper Hiedsiek and this list include many others at small scale. Viktor & Rolf had also won certain prizes for their contribution in the fashion industry. They also presented their creations in certain exhibitions, art galleries and festivals and also got appreciation. Both the Founders of Viktor and Rolf are very much famous for their unique and surreal style of presenting their clothing lines. They actually try to twirl mind's eye in to veracity. About the Brand: The bra nd Viktor & Rolf was launched in Paris in 1993 at first. At the start both the founders of Viktor & Rolf assist some other designers and tried on their own ideas in the evening spare time (Viktor & Rolf: A Biography, 2012). Viktor & Rolf offered men’s and women’s wear and also include Haute Couture. ... In the mid of 2000’s, Viktor & Rolf entered in to the new voyage and offered a fragrance for women, in collaboration with L’Oreal, naming the Flowerbomb. Later they themselves progressed in this perfume industry. The Dutch Designers Viktor & Rolf are popular for their claims to change the imaginations in to the real world. The news has been roaming around from the start of 2013 that this year Victor & Rolf are again presenting their old Haute Couture fashion back and thus celebrating the 20 years of success in this way (Diderich 2013). Products: The company under the brand name of Viktor & Rolf is providing apparels, Clothing, shoes, perfumes, eye-wares and other accessories. Viktor & Rolf are working on men and women wear, ready to wear clothes, Haute Couture (special kind of fancy but hand-made clothing) and a perfume line also. Initially these clothing lines were introduced only for females only later on the lines for men were also introduced. Within all these produc t lines, the prominent and appealing feature is the creativity and innovativeness among the offers. Flowerbomb was the First ever perfume launched by Viktor & Rolf. This product was launched in Paris in the mid of 2000’s. The ladies perfume launched by the fashion brand, Viktor and Rolf, is so much popular that everyone wants to have it in her perfume collection. They are also working on the fragrances which can be offered for males. The bottle of the perfume Flowerbomb is like hand grenade. Its unique shape and sweet fragrance also adds points to the offered product. It is also included in the list of top ranking women perfumes (Smith 2005). The perfume Flowerbomb after gaining much success, launched in US, hoping to catch the huge market as

Strategic management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Strategic management - Essay Example It is the hope of this author that such an analysis will help to engage the reader with a clear and definitive understanding of how the associated business strategies in question impact upon the day-to-day decision-making structure, mission, and a general understanding of how the firm sees itself within its competitive environment (Singh, 2011). In short, the general perception that must be attained is with regards to the fact that a business strategy in and of itself is capable of differentiating a firm in almost the same degree and extent that different products or services differentiate one firm from another. In so much, even though Walmart and Microsoft are mega-corporations that garner a massive degree of profits each and every quarter, the products and services that they sell are nearly as diverse as the business strategy by which they operate (Mithas et al, 2013). Naturally, with respect to Walmart, the business strategy that is engaged with is that of a low-cost provider stra tegy. With this ultimately entails is a situation in which the key targets that Walmart seeks to leverage our with regards to price sensitivity, extreme price competition, segmentation within markets, the optimization of economies of scale, emphasis upon bargaining power, focusing upon low costs of input, offering incentives, reducing material, personnel, and shipping costs, vertical integration, and a variety of other tools to accomplish such an end (Rong et al, 2013). In such a way, a nearly continual emphasis is made upon seeking to cut each and every available cost corner to provide the minimum price to the consumer; due to the fact that without such a continual war on prices, the ultimate appeal that the firm is able to generate would necessarily be non-existent. Comparatively, Microsoft - although one of the most profitable firms within his United States - pursues quite a different business strategy entirely. Accordingly, Microsoft pursues what is known as a broad differentiat ion strategy (Rumelt, 2011). Such a type of strategy is often employed by firms that seek to target a diverse range of need and preference, value conscious consumers, premium price products, and buyers who might be loyal to a particular brand. As a function of such a complex and interwoven level of needs and targets such an approach must take, it should be the understanding of the reader that this broad differentiation strategy is effective for many types of firms (Bharadwaj et al, 2013). In such a way, the strategic inputs that are available to a firm or business that seeks to engage with a broad differentiation strategy are as follows: special water availability, customer service, marketing intensity, defensive strategies, continuous improvement an organization, constant value signaling, uninterrupted product availability, as well as unique tangible and intangible benefits. Due to the fact that this is something of a â€Å"catch all† strategy, it can be understood that a ve ry high number of firms, both small and large, integrate with this very approach (Bradley et al, 2011). Although it may be tempting to believe that the likes of Microsoft or Walmart have achieved their degree of success based upon the fact that they had leveraged

Fifth Chinese Daughter, Hong Wong's Parenting Philosophy And Practice Essay

Fifth Chinese Daughter, Hong Wong's Parenting Philosophy And Practice - Essay Example Hong Wong’s parenting philosophy is not Hong Wong’s own parenting philosophy! The philosophy was transmitted to him and it was the way of life in a traditional Chinese family. How did the philosophy mould into that shape? A scientific answer to this question is impossibility. It is so because it has been so since times immemorial! The parents loved the children; they punished them severely as well. Punishment and love were alternative beats of the same heart for the parents. The story is about Jade Snow Wong’s upbringing in such a family in San Francisco’s Chinatown of pre-World War II times. Women were looked down upon, not with any individual malice, but their inferior status was taken for granted. Corporal punishment was part of the manual of family governance. Family business was conducted along with home life just like a train that moved on two parallel tracks. Certain fixed Chinese values were taught to the children whom they were expected to follow scrupulously. Jade Snow Wong writes, (1989, p.2) â€Å"Even at this early age she had leaned the meaning of discipline, without understanding the necessity for it. A little girl never questioned the commands of Mother and Father, unless prepared to receive painful consequences.† Absolute dictatorship in the family!... Jade Snow’s admittance to college education changes her perspectives, and she begins to understand the merits of freedom in a woman‘s life. She is on head-on collision with the clash of cultures and values. She begins to assert her identity, but she is aware of the essential dignity of the Chinese traditions. Jade Snow was also exposed to racism in her life. To mention just two instances of racism, when the family moved into the basement, her father â€Å"hired Negroes to chisel out part of the brick walls.†(p.51)In school a boy name Richard used to harass her and she reports it thus: â€Å"With malicious intent in his eyes, he burst forth, â€Å"Chinky, Chinky, Chinaman†¦.Chinky, Chinky, no tickle, no washee, no skirtee†¦.† (p.68) Sex discrimination was an important part of the Chinese traditions. Women were mostly confined to the kitchen jobs and the boys were given more care and attention. But Jade Snow’s father faced a great moral/cult ural dilemma over the male-female issue. According to the popular Chinese opinion, daughters would eventually get married in another family, so why to invest in their education? His further observations have great significance. Jade Snow writes thus: â€Å"But my answer was that since sons and their education are of primary importance, we must have intelligent mothers. If nobody educates his daughters, how can we have intelligent mother for our sons? If we do not have good family training, how can China be a strong nation?†(p.15) My personal thoughts: The book shows how the assimilation process of two cultures is arduous and slow. For the first generation of the Chinese Americans it was the toughest

Revolution failure Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Revolution failure - Research Paper Example The deep analysis of the situation revealed a dark fact that the claims of societal equality and justice are superficial in nature and therefore, humans are still far away from becoming a unified race (Fuente, 2000). The slogan of equality and social justice was raised in order to help the Multinationals in the process of gaining entrance in the developing areas of the world. The rich environment of the developing nations attracted the eyes of the industrialists and they planned a fiscal invasion of the countries. The business professionals entered and promised to raise living standards of the societies. In response, the local governments reacted favorably and allowed the companies to start their activities. The companies used indigenous natural and manmade resources and destroyed the local industries with the help of using dumping. At the end of each year, the management repatriated a major chunk of profit into the home economy and because of this reason, it can be established that developed nations in the name of equality created more of it in an economic sense. The case of Cuba is no different in this regard, as American organizations entered into the Cuban economy few decades ago and pledged that they will work for the holistic development of the local system but what they did in reality was the destruction of local infrastructure and as a result, Cuba’s identity as a nation deteriorated. The social scientists are of the view that Cuba is just another name for national subsidiary of America (The Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2011). The American jails operating in the territory of Cuba is presented as the most significant proof of the abovementioned argument. The social equality and justice are profoundly considered as the byproducts of economic development. The economic development leads to increasing investment in education because economy’s need for skilled labor increases and therefore, governments are compelled to increase depl oyment of financial resources in the industry of human capital development. The rise in educational activities then stimulates educated and civilized behavior in the community. The fiscal development and growth of the troubled economy was hindered purposely by adjacent superpower. Every country in the world is known to operate with a secret and hidden agenda of increasing its influence on near geographical areas. In the past, the goal of increasing influence on other countries was accomplished by military incursions and conflicts. The development of nuclear and chemical weapons dulled the productivity of armed conflicts and nowadays the great nations of the globe find cultural, economic and societal invasion more attractive and suitable to their needs. This option is much less bloody whereas, its effectiveness is remarkable to say the least. The people of developing nations are being enslaved in masses every year and they are not aware of the fact. The Americanization is notably gro wing in all parts of the world. The Cuban culture has almost submerged and the newcomer would fail to differentiate Cuba from America (Buscaglia-Salgado, 2002). The Indian society on the other hand, is exhibiting early signs of Americanization. Unfortunately, all of the developing nations are implementing negatives of American culture in the local setting. The American

Calcium as Second Messengers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Calcium as Second Messengers - Essay Example Calcium ions are also important intracellular messengers. In fact, calcium ions are probably the most widely used intracellular messengers (Kimball, 2006). Calcium plays a fundamental role in a variety of cellular functions. It is involved in contraction, secretion, endocytosis, transport across membranes and in more general processes such as cell motility, cell growth and cell division (De Robertis & De Robertis, 1987). Calcium is one of the most important second messenger molecules, with a diverse array of effectors. The intracellular Ca2+ plays a role as the second messenger in the hypotonic stress-induced Na+ transport by stimulating the transcription of SGK1 and ENaC subunits (Taruno, Niisato, Marunaka, 2007). Calcium directly moderates electrical activity, on a relatively fast time scale, through its control of calcium-dependent potassium channels. Long term effects are mediated by various kinases and phosphatases. Calcium is one of the activators of protein kinase C, which pla ys a role in synaptic plasticity. In a complex with calmodulin56, calcium is an activator or regulator of several enzymes, including calcium-calmodulin dependent protein kinase, which plays a role in synaptic plasticity, and adenylate cyclase, which produces cAMP, another important second messenger. ... Once Ca2+ was recognized as a carrier of signals, it became important to understand how its concentration within cells was regulated. Reversible complexation to specific ligands soon emerged as the only reasonable means to perform the task. A number of small cell ligands bind Ca2+ with low affinity, but the process needed complex ligands able to complex Ca2+ with the specificity and affinity demanded by the intracellular ambient. A breakthrough in this direction was the solution of the crystal structure of parvalbumin by Kretsinger in 1972. This still functionally mysterious Ca2+ binding protein was to become the progenitor of a family of proteins known as EF hand proteins, which has now grown to nearly 600 members. EF hand proteins do buffer Ca2+ but also play another important role: They decode the information carried by Ca2+ and pass it on to targets. They do so by changing conformation after binding Ca2+ and after interacting with targets. Essentially, EF hand proteins become mor e hydrophobic on the surface after complexing Ca2+, approach the target, and collapse around its binding domain. Thus, these proteins are better defined as Ca2+ modulated proteins, or Ca2+ sensors (Carafoli, 2002). Second messenger pathways, and some mechanisms controlling calcium concentration, are modeled as a series of bimolecular reactions, enzymatic reactions, and diffusion. These processes occur both in compartments where the number of molecules are large enough to describe reactions deterministically (e.g. cell body), and in compartments where the number of molecules is small enough that reactions occur stochastically (e.g. spines). Thus, to model and simulate second messenger pathways in neurons requires algorithms for both diffusion and reactions, both

Human resource development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

Human resource development - Essay Example The training program should include: The program for the advisor should focus on the improvement of resources provision, conveyance of realities and supply of organizational information to the employees. The training and development program for the advisor should include: Consultant works like a referral agent whose training and development program should focus on assisting employees with their goals through networking with resources and people. Therefore, the plan should include training for: The reason for the evaluation is to document and determine the degree to which the stated objectives have been achieved by the training. In the evaluation process, analysis of the efficiency, effectiveness, appropriateness and the adequacy of the training are carried out. There are four levels of evaluation, impact evaluation, transfer evaluation, learning level and the reaction level. Through the evaluation, we can improve the training programs defined initially. Effective training and evaluation cannot be separated from one another. Evaluation should be carried out by a Quality Inspector who should evaluate the entire training program in a top-down approach. The training program should be evaluated to check whether the training program is effective, whether the resources being provided for the training program are sufficient or not and whether the program itself is training the members as needed. The evaluation should be carried out twice a year for the analysis of the regular training programs and annually after the annual training program has been completed at the end through feedback and control. Evaluation is necessary to ensure that the program delivers maximum incentives to everyone involved (ONeill, Albin, Storey, Horner, & Sprague, 2014). The evaluation should be carried out twice a year for the analysis of the regular training programs and annually after the annual training program has been completed at the end through feedback

Championship Manager Essay Example for Free

Championship Manager Essay Paul and Mark started work on Championship Manager 97/98 in early 1997. One of the greatest quotes ever came from this Oh thisll be easy itll only take a couple of weeks, said Paul, the eternal optimist. It took a solid ten months to get it together and released and that was just the English language version. The Championship Manager 2 engine was brought to its outer limits as nine leagues were combined with the possibility of running three simultaneously almost every part of the game needed to be modified and many improvements were made. A database of some 20000 players and 2500 teams was put together with researchers helping out from all corners of the globe. This final version of Championship Manager 2, released 31st October 1997 at an update price, went straight to number one of the all formats chart and remained in the top 20 for many many months. In the meantime, Oliver, who had taken a well earned rest after 18 months solid work on Championship Manager 2, started to conceive the first ideas for Championship Manager 3. The game would once again be totally re-written. In March 1997, Oliver and new staff member Marc Vaughan launched themselves into the Championship Manager 3 project. After a lengthy three months of interviewing, the right people were found to work on Championship Manager 3. With the team assembled, work on Championship Manager 3 steamed ahead and all involved worked hard to make it into a great game. The game was (finally) released on March 26th 1999 and made history as it was the fastest selling PC Game in the UK of all time shifting over 55,000 units in its first. Championship Manager 3 continued to sell well staying at the top spot of the all formats for 3 weeks and has been top of the PC charts for 11 weeks in total since release. Three foreign language versions of Championship Manager 3 were released in May 1999. The languages included were Italian, French and Portuguese and has proved popular in all these countries as well as all the other countries where it has been distributed.

Marketing Management Marketing Plan of Asda

Marketing Management Marketing Plan of Asda Introduction Marking planning is one of the main functions of marketing department of an organization (Kotler, 2003). This coursework will focus on marketing strategy and plan of ASDA. The main points of discussion in this coursework are internal and external analysis, SWOT analysis, market targeting and marketing mix. Vision Statement of Asda According to Asda (2009) the main aim of the organization is to serve the customers by offering them lower prices and giving their customers respect for which they deserve. They want to achieve this goal through their staff called colleagues. They are developing their skills. So they can satisfy their customers expectation and make their visit to store more pleasant and joyful. Situation Analysis When an organization works in the competitive market, it has two main types of environment. Internal Environment External Environment To formulate, implement and execute a successful marketing strategy, ASDA management and marketing decision makers have to understand these two types of environments. (ASDA, 2009) Internal Environment The internal environment of an organization is inside of organization. Most of the processes and procedures working in the organization are part of internal environment of organization. Internal environment of an organization contains most of the controllable variables (Sadler and Craig, (2003). Following are the main elements of internal environment of ASDA. Employees The employees of an organization are most important part of organization as they participate in almost all the processes and produces of the organization. Even highly technological intensive organizations, the role of human resources is extremely important to get optimal benefit from that technology. The human resources of ASDA are 150000 of which 90000 are casual and remaining 60000 are full time. The company is managing casual and part timers to save the employees expenses. The marketing employees of organization include customer relation staff, people who work in general market and do surveys to collect market data and executives and managers work in the head office. (ASDA, 2009) Products ASDA is selling large range of products and services to their organization. Before its merger with the Wal-Mart the organization was under performing. As soon as they get the specialized help for their parent company, they started to grow. As a result, in 2003 they have taken over Sainsburys. They are selling their customers grocery, clothes, electronic products and many other type of products through their store based retailing and online retailing. In the online business, customers can get access to the store through ASDA website. The goods are delivered next day to customers at their door step. They are also providing financial services through their stores and website. (ASDA, 2009) Communication Communication within the organization and with the external world is mostly done through company own services. They are using modern technology for this purpose as well to establish social networking and get benefit for the experience and information of other. The internal structure is well defined and all the members know who is reporting to whom. For marketing communication same channels of communication are used. The market research data, different sort of analysis are available to all the people working in organization at the central local on services. (ASDA, 2009) External environment Markets ASDA is occupying 16% of United Kingdom Retail market. Out of these 16% nearly 50.30% people are visiting to their favorite stores everyday and nearly 14.60% people are visit the store two or three times daily. In the busy cities, the organization is continuously losing their customers base due to congestion in the cities. It takes time to go to ASDA and buy the goods. People prefer the corner shop for buying the product of casual use. (ASDA, 2009) Competitive Environment The UK market is very mature market and all the key players in the retail industry have their constant market share. It is very hard to increase the market share. To increase the market share organization has to spend more on the marketing expenses. The cost of marketing campaign is also reducing the profit margin of the owners/shareholders. Same is the problem for the marketing personnel of ASDA. (ASDA, 2009) Economic environment UK and whole world is passing through a world worse economic depression. This economic depression has reduced the purchasing power of the people. Same time it is hard for the organization to get access to the financial resources for their development projects. The per capital income is reducing due to reduction in per capital income. Organizations are facing more pressure from the government in terms of tax as their national deficient are increasing in larger extent. The United Kingdom recently has national deficient nearly 63% of their total GDP. This also has limited the organization marketing activities. They are cutting down the expenses and adopting more pessimistic approach. Though credit crisis has less impact on the retail industry like ASDA, Tesco as they are selling the products of basic needs but still economic impact is visible in their different marketing and business activities. (ASDA, 2009) Social and cultural environment The most of operations of ASDA are in United Kingdom. The society of UK is multicultural society. Keeping the nature of society in mind, ASDA marketing people do not ignore this fact. They have good range of products for different type of people belonging to different countries, religions and cultures. They are serving such customers in their world food department. (ASDA, 2009) Hitt, et al (2008) critically examined that the life style of the people in United Kingdom has changed in during last two decades. They prefer to buy bulk of goods from their favourite stores. This gives them benefit of time saving and less hassle. This also has developed the loyalty culture. The marketers are trying to understand the changing in thinking and taste of people and developing products to satisfy their changed needs. Political and legal environment The government of United Kingdom is thinking about out of town policy for the supermarket. This is negative for the supermarket and they will lose significant part of their sales due to this reason. The people will not come to store for the casual products. The control over the inflection is also function of government. The government of United Kingdom have taken number of quantitative measures after credit crisis. These enable the government to keep rate of inflation under 3%. Fiscal policy, monitory policy, employment policy or taxes are main part of government of United Kingdom. (Hitt, et al 2008) Technological environment Technology is used in many functions of business but use of technology in the marketing is really getting more importance. Marketing data is flowing from marketing personnel working in the field in real time basis. ASDA marketing personnel are using modern tools like mobile computer terminal at different places. The data generated by these machines straightaway comes to the central location. These tools are also helping the marketing managers to analyze the marketing data and give analytical reports. (ASDA, 2009) SWOT analysis Strengths ASDA is well known brand. Their financial strength is also higher due to support of their parent country. They have improved their managerial skills and developed number of best practices which they get from Mal-Mart. The organization is adopting lower price strategy which is best tool to attract more customers in current economic environment. (Lee and Lin, 2008) Weaknesses ASDA is lacking in smaller stores while their competitor Tesco is getting huge sum of money for smaller stores. It is not possible for the company to build bigger stores at shorter distance. The market share of ASDA is constant from number of years. This shows that there is no growth opportunity for the organization in future if conditions remain same. (Lee and Lin, 2008) Opportunities The organization has greater chances to diversify their business to India, China and other emerging economies. There are number of smaller and local chains which are struggling. ASDA can take over these stores and re-structure them to increase their customer base. (Lee and Lin, 2008) Threats the obvious threat of ASDA is its close competitor Sainsburys. If economy goes in further recession then organization is not in the position to reduce further prices as they are selling already at lower prices. (Lee and Lin, 2008) Marketing Objectives The main objective of ASDA is to provide more modern services to their customer. They are aiming to increase their customer base by provision of better services, adding more products in their product range and lastly the development of new channels of distribution. (ASDA, 2009) Through, more control over the prices, they have reduced their cost while quality of services is same. The 30% of the queues have been reduced due to application of more advanced technology at the checkouts. In this way they are willing the customer satisfaction. The organization is successfully implemented the policy of lower prices successfully. They want to carry on executing same policy in future. (ASDA, 2009) Target markets According to ASDA, (2009) The organization is targeting almost all the segments of UK society. However most general customers of ASDA are women of age 20s and 30s. These women buy the goods of day to day use for themselves and their families. The second group of market segment of ASDA are males. They also buy for themselves or for their families. It is showing that marketing campaign of ASDA is not specified on a particular group. Marketing Mix Strategies Product strategies ASDA is enabling their customers to go get access to their favourite products at the cheaper prices. In addition, they are also offering the customers to give their valuable suggestion for the better product development. When new products are launched they are encouraging their customer to participate in the product launching ceremony. When customers get such a care and freedom of suggestion then probability to get loyal is much more. ASDA is giving option to their customers that the person will come with the brightest ideas will get 5% of first year saving. (ASDA, 2009) Pricing strategies The organization is mainly focusing on the lower prices of their products. They are successfully running this policy from last 12 years. However during this time they could only win 0.50% market share from Tesco. (ASDA, 2009) Promotion strategies ASDA marketing people are always curious to adopt new and innovative promotional techniques. They are offering their customers like two for two pound, one for 1.99 and similarly many other techniques. The roll back tags of ASDA are visible to every visitor. The stores are instructed to display reduced price products in front of store so these can catch the attention of customers immediately when they enter into store. (ASDA, 2009) Distribution strategies ASDA have 25 bigger depots national wide scattered around at different strategic locations. In 2008, ASDA came into contract with Gazelle Company Limited who took the responsibility of management of its warehouse and its international marketing. ASDA stores also have their own production and manufacturing stores. (ASDA, 2009) Conclusion The marketing strategy of ASDA is successful especially inspiring the customers through their lower prices strategy. However, more innovation and new ideas are needed to catch the market leader Tesco. They should develop the team of marketing people who take care of their customers at more professional basis. More they will get success to make the customer loyal more they will grab the market share.

Humans Activity And Climate Change Environmental Sciences Essay

Humans Activity And Climate Change Environmental Sciences Essay Climate change has been occurring on the planet for billions of years since its inception. At different times it has been caused by a catastrophic global event or by the dynamic inner workings of the earth. These climate changes have been proven by science over long periods of time. The big question these days is whether human activity such as the burning of fossil fuels is a major contributor to the climate change of the planet In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, stated that human activities contribute to climate change by causing changes in Earths atmosphere in the amounts of greenhouse gases, aerosols (small particles), and cloudiness. The largest known contributing human activity comes from the burning fossil fuels that release carbon dioxide gas to the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases and aerosols affect climate by altering incoming solar radiation and outgoing infrared (thermal) radiation that are part of Earths energy balance. Along with the change in temperatures come heat waves, new wind patterns, worsening drought in some regions, heavier precipitation in others, melting glaciers and Arctic ice and rising global average sea levels. A collaborated effort by hundreds of climate experts and government representatives from 113 countries, believe that climate change is caused by human activities. Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperature since the mid-twentieth century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic (human-caused) greenhouse gas concentrations. Climate change is real, rapid and humans are playing a large part in transitioning to a warmer world. Human Activity and Climate Change When I turn the television on, and surf the news channels I get a quick snap shot of the latest events that have unfolded. At any given time Ill be informed of the latest earthquake, tsunami, flood, tornado or drought thats taken place while I was away. I dont remember these uncommon events being in the news as often as they have been. Not only that but they have been more violent as well. The increases in these events are sure indicators that a climate change is occurring on the planet as we speak. Climate change is defined as any long-term significant change in the weather patterns of an area. This has been occurring on the planet for billions of years since its inception. At different times it has been caused by a catastrophic global event or by the dynamic inner workings of the earth. These climate changes have been proven by science over long periods of time. The big question these days is whether human activity such as the burning of fossil fuels is a major contributor to the climate change of the planet. (Desonie, 2012) Humans have reached a level of knowledge and technology that allows us to detect a change in climate, identify the causes and consequences for that change. For example, I live in Twentynine Palms, CA which is located in the Mojave Desert. Climate changes here show a slow warming of the Mojave and Sonoran Desert regions. This warming is altering rainfall and weather patterns, altering plant cover and productivity, plus affecting ecosystem functions and species distribution. Desert ecosystems are predominantly sensitive to changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Future rises in atmospheric carbon dioxide will affect rates of plant photosynthesis and water loss, and are predicted to increase efficiency and productivity in certain desert plants. Increased plant productivity, particularly the productivity of invasive grasses, will increase the occurrence of wildfires in the desert. Increased severe and persistent droughts are also predicted for these desert ecosystems. (Webb, 2009) So, sim ply said climate change is already having and will continue to have major implications for plants, wildlife species, and ecosystem processes in this particular region. In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, stated that human activities contribute to climate change by causing changes in Earths atmosphere in the amounts of greenhouse gases, aerosols (small particles), and cloudiness. The largest known contributing human activity comes from the burning fossil fuels that release carbon dioxide gas to the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases and aerosols affect climate by altering incoming solar radiation and outgoing infrared (thermal) radiation that are part of Earths energy balance. (Solomon, 2007) Along with the change in temperatures come heat waves, new wind patterns, worsening drought in some regions, heavier precipitation in others, melting glaciers and Arctic ice and rising global average sea levels. (Hogan, 2007) A collaborated effort by hundreds of climate experts and government representatives from 113 countries, believe that climate change is caused by human activities. Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperature since the mid-twentieth century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic (human-caused) greenhouse gas concentrations. (Solomon, 2007) Climate change is real, rapid and humans are playing a large part in transitioning to a warmer world. Studies have shown that humans have been burning fossil fuel at an alarming rate. By burning fossil fuels to produce energy to run vehicles or provide electricity, we emit carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide has been scientifically proven to have harmful effects on the earths atmosphere. (Roach, 2007) The causes and effects of humans burning fossil fuels are easy to understand. By burning fossil fuels we emit carbon dioxide; carbon dioxide in turns depletes our ozone layer. The ozone helps block some of the suns heat and radiation. Without the ozone layer more sunlight, sun heat, and sun radiation reach the surface of the earth. This immediately means warmer temperatures. Warmer temperatures cause climate change. A very simple concept to understand yet the average individual seems to have a nonchalant attitude towards this fact. Granted natural climate change has been occurring for billions of years, but I believe that humans are greatly influencing the current climate change by our own activities. The industrial era for the human race began around 1750 and since this point in time we have been affecting the climate in many ways not known until recently. I also believe that humans are not concerned enough with the consequences that will result from our continued pollution of the earth, I am very surprised with the lack of urgency on our part. (Desonie, 2012) We produce four main greenhouse gases that possibly affect climate change, CO2 (carbon dioxide), CH4 (methane), N2O (nitrous oxide), and halocarbons. All of these types of gases contribute to the depletion of the atmosphere, but CO2, is the one mainly produced from the burning of fossil fuels. Levels of these gases have increased significantly since the industrial era, and are attributed to human activities. Changing the atmospheric abundance or properties of these gases and particles can lead to a warming or cooling of the climate system. (Solomon, 2007) Given the time and resources, there is no limit to what the human mind can do. Unfortunately, much of the knowledge and technology that has been used has had a negative impact on the environment. Yes, climate change is a natural occurring phenomenon as well but we have long been burning fossil fuels use before we understood the consequences. All pollution thats been levied upon the earth was cause by the human animal. So, my answer to the question of whether human activity, especially the burning of fossil fuels, is a major contributor to climate change is, yes, we are.

Are Parents the Best Teachers? :: Economics

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Parents are the best teachers. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. Parents are the best teachers because of the amount of influence they have over us, the amount of time we spend with them, and the morals they teach us. I agree with parents are the best teachers. In general, children must learn many things such as the way to treat people, to be polite and be respect, living skill, table manners, basic positive ideas toward things, what should be done or others should not be done, or others else that children do necessarily have in daily life. Also in terms of parents’ religion, their belief, and also political status as well, any thing that related to personal life are connected with parents closely. Parents who can influence children even more then teachers. Because the amount of time that spend with parents is much more then any others. By talking to them, by setting an example, and unconsciously, parents’ behaviors and thoughts influence them a lot, they are the best models for children, however, it’s because children in childhood are the most period that can be easily influenced, no matter they show them for purpose or children learn by themselves. Children observe how their parents treat people, how to handle things happened besides them and then learn it gradually. It can simply describe why lots of tragedies or some negative things news always happened from those people who don’t have complete family background or their parents are not good people. Because their parents didn’t teach them well and their parents affect them incorrectly. I believe that I influenced by my parents deeply as well. I can have my own idea, but according to them, I know lots of things positively, to be polite and be honest, and ethic value toward many things, even accustom doing things and my hobbies are connected with them. They introduced me to a correct way and to be a good person.

Vouchers and School Choice Meet the Needs of Parents Essay -- Argument

School Choice Meets the Needs of Parents Parents are requesting the ability to choose a school for their children as a means towards legitimate objectives. "The parents are saying that they are not going to tolerate their children being miseducated any more, and that they are the ones who ultimately responsible for what happens for their children". (Milwaukee Parental Choice program). "Parents are using the scholarships to meet a number of needs, including high academic standards; safety; discipline; and moral environment".(Following The Teachers' Lead). The bad situation at many of the public schools encourages parents to look for other public or private schooling for their children. "Dire condition of too many today's public schools, especially in inner cities where disadvantaged families have no alternatives and where the students are stuck in failing schools because of where they live."(Unleashing Pent-up Demand). "The quality of of public education is low relative to the quality of private one. For example, only two high schools in Chicago public school system are ranked in the top 100 high schools in Chicago metropolitan area based upon their ACT scores".(Chicago Tribune, January 1,1994). "In the past four years, New Jersey powered more than $100 million in the city's schools system -despite this, fewer than half of the nine graders pass the state proficiency exam".(Choice in Action) "Those who know the school best - the teachers -in America's troubled cities are two or three times as likely as the public at large to use privat e schools".(Following The Teacher's Lead). A good indication on the success of the program its expansion year after year ever since it was initiated . "Milwaukee, ... ...out strong students in terms of standard of achievements. However the idea is to give chance to all choose the appropriate school for their children. Administrations and teachers of schools characterized with not accepted standards of performance should be aware that their schools are going to close eventually and they will loose their jobs. We care for standard and quality of learning for our children; school choice is improving standard and quality. We care for accountability; school choice implies a warning that schools which don't guarantee a minimum standard of achievement for its students will be subject to public accountability. We care for the cost ; it looks that on the long run, the cost per student on the basis of school choice will be less than the cost per student in public schools. Accordingly I would support school choice.

Guidelines for Report Essay

   †¢We focus on just the executive summary, because in your career that is what management will most often read from your report. The focus is on the logic of your argument and how well your report builds a clear coherent business case for decision makers. This means part of your task is to decide what information to include in your summary and what information is not essential. Your writing will need to be crisp and precise. †¢There are multiple potentially correct answers to this case. The quality of your summary comes down to how well you can justify your conclusions and how persuasive your argument is. Therefore, you will need to consider not just what you say but how and why you say it. †¢This report will require you to apply techniques covered in MGB309. Not all the techniques will necessarily be applicable or helpful. Part of your job as an analyst is to identify and apply the right tools and techniques for your analyses. †¢Adequately conducting the analyses will not guarantee an excellent mark. It is an important but not the only part of the process. A really good summary requires that you synthesise your information to build a compelling case rather than just report findings. The assignment requires that you demonstrate your understanding of strategic management through application of your strategic analysis knowledge. †¢Showing where you obtained the data from through appropriate referencing is an important aspect to substantiate your analysis. The references you use may be checked. If you use ideas that are not yours but are taken from a resource you have to reference it. Remember that the quality of the source will determine the credibility of the argument. Referring to essays from other students found on the internet is therefore highly inappropriate.

Aid and Two Gap Model

Aid and the Two Gap Model Aid is a burning issue these days. The question of countries accepting foreign aid has intrigued economists and the general public for a quite a while. Television discussions and newspaper articles have frequently focused on this issue while politicians try to fight this matter out in the parliaments. Furthermore, many are trying to unravel the enigma of aid and its effects on growth. This paper, in the little word space provided, will try to establish a relation between aid and growth.It will do so by first defining aid and growth and then moving on to some of the important models which can be used to understand this link. We will discuss the two-gap model and then move on to the Solow and Harrod-Domar model, giving empirical examples in each case. Finally, we will analyze two countries and try to inspect the reasons for their different growth rates using the logic used in the discussed models. Aid can be defined as any voluntary transfer of resources. It c an be either public (provided by donor countries or multilateral donor organization such as the IMF and The World Bank) or private (given by NGO’s. . The Organization for Economic Corporation and Development defines aid as any transfer of money or resource that fulfills the following criteria: a) The objective of the transfer should be noncommercial. b) It should be given for the purpose of economic development. c) The terms of the transfer should be concessional (interest rate should be less than the prevailing interest rate in the market OR the maturity period should be longer than usual). Aid should not be mixed with grant which is often used interchangeably with this term.Aid is any transfer that has concessional terms while grant is a form of aid that does not require the repayment of the principal. In this paper, we will often measure aid in the from of official development assistance (ODA) which is a convenient indicator of international aid flow. On the other hand, we will measure growth by scrutinizing the percentage change in GDP. One of the most widely used framework for analyzing the effects of aid on growth is the two-gap model which holds a key position in policy decisions related to foreign assistance.The two gap model is based on the Harrod Domar equation g = s/v where s is savings rate v is capital output ratio Capital output ratio is assumed to be constant. The two gap model assumes that a developing country faces either a savings gap or a foreign exchange gap. The savings gap occurs when a country faces a shortage of savings to match Investment in attaining an intended growth rate. In such a case, foreign borrowing or aid can supplement the savings and help bridge the gap between savings and investment. This allows a country to achieve the targeted growth rate. Ft < I – S (Savings gap)A foreign exchange gap takes place when a country’s exports are not enough to finance its imports. In such situations, aid is handy as it fills the foreign exchange gap and provides countries with sufficient exchange to reach the required level of imports. At a given point in time, only one of the two gaps is binding. Ft < M – X (Foreign Exchange gap) Following this further, we fit empirical data into this model. Zambia is a developing country that has continuously received aid since the mid 1960’s. In 1992, almost 80% of Zambia’s investment was financed by foreign aid.Since, Zambia has received aid over such a long period, the two gap model predicted that its per capita GDP would reach $2300 by the turn of the century. On the contrary, its GDP per capita in 2007 remained merely half of what was expected . i. e. $1300. The fig. below summarizes the analysis of the Zambian economy. To examine whether the Zambian case is an exception or does the model always fail to predict the reality, we scrutinize on various factors which could have blocked the path of growth for this country. Zambia has be en infected by violence and instability right from its independence, with bloodshed and massacres a common feature.In addition, economic growth has been hindered by the outbreak of civil war and influx of refugees from the neighboring countries. Corruption is another problem that has stalled growth which can be seen from the fact that Zambia is ranked 101 on the corruption perception index. Very recently, Sweden and Netherlands stopped aid to Zambia due to rampant corruption allegations. All these problems add to the ineffectiveness of aid on the growth of Zambian economy which can explain why the two-gap model failed to forecast the ineptness of aid.The effect of aid on growth can also be explained using two basic but important models, namely Harrod Domar model and the Solow model. Although the upshot of aid on growth is a multidimensional and complex process we only take into account the effect of aid on variables defined in these two models. The main focus of our discussion will be the saving rate which comes out to be the most imperative variable in both these models. We start through the basic Harrod Domar model. Capital output ratio, capital labor ratio and labor output ratio are assumed to be constant.Some of the important relations are as follows: S=s. Y (2) (3) (1) g= (s/v)-(? ) S=I Where: Y is income S is total saving I is Investment ? is depreciation of capital According to this model, growth can be increased by increasing s, decreasing v or decreasing ?. We shall mainly focus on the relation of aid on growth through the savings rate channel. Countries ask for aid mainly due to its perceived beneficial effect on the savings rate. As shown, saving equals investment in the Harrod-Domar model, subsequently an increase in savings will result in an increase in investment.This increase is supposed to boost the growth rate of the recipient country. Michael P. Shields offer an interesting explanation of the relation of foreign aid on growth in his paper â⠂¬Å"foreign aid and domestic savings: the crowding out effect†. If foreign aid is expected to increase savings, then equation (3) becomes g=(s+fa)/v -? Where fa is foreign aid as a proportion of income (4) (s+fa) represents the total funds available for backing investment. According to this equation, an increase in foreign aid is supposed to increase the total saving funds and hence investment by an equal amount.This suggests that an each additional dollar of foreign aid should result in a one dollar increase in investment in the economy of the recipient country. Reality however is not that perfect and it is too generous for anyone to assume such a one-to-one increase in investment from aid. Famous economist Edward Griffin offers a criticism of such approach. According to him foreign aid should be taken so as to supplement income rather than having a direct impact on savings. In such a case, an increase in income by the amount of foreign aid fa would increase consumption by (1 -s). a, thus increasing the investment by s. fa. In such a case, domestic savings can be crowded out by foreign aid by the net amount –(1-s)fa which equals (s-1)fa. Markedly, foreign aid can crowd out private savings and investment, resulting in a decrease in growth as suggested by the Harrod Domar model. The main obstacle in the way of growth in the Harrod-Domar model is the phenomenon of aid filtering out into increased consumption (1-s). fa. Aid has to be spent on investment or has to increase the saving rate (both eventually come out to be the same) for a country to grow.To see a practical example of this, we consider Pakistan, which is a country largely dependent on foreign aid. During the period 1952-2002, the total amount of aid given to Pakistan equaled 63703 million US dollars. Ghulam Mohey-ud-din examines in his paper â€Å"Impact of foreign aid on economic development in Pakistan†, the reasons for aid not resulting in the required growth for Pakistan. He sta tes three main reasons for the failure of aid to account for growth. First of all, a staggering 58% of this total aid (approx. 6945 million US dollars) was tied to development of large projects while only 13% (approx 8281 million US dollars) accounted for non-food and BOP aid. Such a large portion of aid (58%) going towards consumption invariably meant that the effect on savings was going to be very minute. Thus, financial aid tended to crowd out saving and investment. Secondly, while the nominal aid gradually increased, in reality, aid as a percentage of gross national income fell from approximately 7. 6% in 1960 to nearly 3% in 2002. This meant that aid was not catching up to the required increase in the GNI of Pakistan.Thirdly, along with the increase in aid came the burden of burgeoning foreign debt. This required huge amounts of debt servicing which reduced Pakistan’s current account. As previously explained, aid was already not resulting in much growth due to it crowdin g out savings and investment. An additional burden of debt servicing did the government no better. Accordingly, its GDP growth rate was subject to constant fluctuations and Pakistan could never attain sustainable growth. The growth rate reached a peak of 10. 22% in 1953 but since then, the average growth has gone down with the exception of one or two years.In 2002, the GDP growth rate stood at 4. 73%. Aid during a whole half of a century could not result in sustained economic growth. Another approach that looks at the impact of foreign aid on growth is the poverty trap. Many poor developing countries face an inability to grow at reasonable rates due to getting stuck in a poverty trap, which can be defined as a self-reinforcing mechanism which causes poverty to persist. We use the Solow model to analyze how aid can be used to pull countries out of this poverty trap and onto the path of self-sustaining economic growth.We assume the basic assumptions of Solow model to be true. Thus, we assume constant returns to scale production function and diminishing returns to capital. The final and important relation of the Solow model is ? k=s. y-(n+? ). k (5) k is capital per worker n is population growth Philipp Harms and Matthiaz Lutz depart from this conventional Solow model by assuming that people have to satisfy their basic consumption needs for which savings are zero until per capita income does not exceed a certain level. The modified Solow diagram is shown belowTwo steady states are shown in the above figure. k* is an unstable steady state while k** is a stable steady state. If the country’s initial capital per worker is below the unstable steady state k*, then the country is stuck in a potentially dangerous poverty trap. Low income levels result in low saving which leads to lower investment in capital stock. Increasing depreciation ? of capital will further lower the capital per worker k and result in even lower income. This vicious cycle of poverty and lac k of growth will keep re-enforcing each other unless the country is given a push start.This push can be in the form of aid, which may impact the savings rate s as discussed in the extended Harrod Domar model. Furthermore, aid in the form of foreign capital inflow can also increase capital per worker, consequently pushing the country out the poverty trap. Now we come to the analysis of growth patterns in two Arab countries namely Egypt and Palestine. We will explore the amounts and type of aid given to these countries and then investigate their underlying effects on various growth variables based on the Solow and Harrod Domar models discussed earlier in the paper.With this in mind, we turn to the empirical evidences which show that: 1. ODA/GNI ratio for Palestine has increased during the period 2000-2005, while that of Egypt has decreased during the same period. 2. ODA/Capita for Palestine has increased to $500 during the period 2000-2005, while ODA/Capita for Egypt has come down to $15 in 2003 from $179 in 1979. 3. In Egypt, 13% of the total aid was tied whereas in Palestine 8% was tied. 4. Technical aid provided to Egypt was 44% while that of Palestine was 16% of total aid during the period 2000-2004. 5.In Egypt, education was given the highest priority among the aid allocated to the social sector. While in Palestine, Education was the second lowest recipient of aid allocated to the social sector. 6. In Palestine, growth rate of real GDP from 2003-2005 was 35. 50%, while the percentage change in real GDP for Egypt was 127. 46 for the same period. ODA/GNI ratio signifies the dependency of the recipient country on the donor for foreign aid. A large increase in the ODA/GNI ratio of Palestine meant that it was becoming more and more dependent on foreign aid for support, while the opposite was true for Egypt.Consequently, Palestinian institutions kept weakening and were not given the incentive to develop due to their heavy reliance on outward help. On the other ha nd, Egypt’s lower dependency on foreign aid meant that it was getting increased opportunities to develop its institutions and stand up on its own feet. As the ODA/capita of Palestine increased to alarming heights, it signaled the reliance of Palestine on foreign donations. This could have created a moral hazard problem for the rulers of Palestine who knew that growth would result in drawing back of aid.In such a scenario, the incentive to grow could have actually vanished. Conditional or tied aid has great disadvantages because the recipient government cannot spend the aid on their desired projects. Moreover, tied aid has to be spent on specific and predetermines projects. As discussed earlier in the paper, if foreign aid is diverted to such consumption, it has the tendency to crowd out investment and savings. Although Egypt had a greater share of tied aid than Palestine, however the small size and weak economy of Palestine meant that even 8% of tied aid had a profound effect on its growth.Egypt was provided more technical aid than Palestine. Technical aid in turns translates into higher Theta in the extended Solow model. An important relation of this model is ?ke= s. ye-(n+? +theta) k Therefore higher technical aid for Egypt resulted in higher effective capital per labor and in turn higher growth than Palestine. The allocation of higher portion of aid to education by Egypt as compared to Palestine means that Egypt is contributing more to its human capital. This will in turn again stimulate theta in the extended Solow model, resulting in increase growth rate of Egypt.In the light of above discussion, it can be said that the effect of aid on growth does not only depend on variables explained in the models above. Many other factors play a vital role in this link as well. As seen in the case of Zambia, the macroeconomic and political stability are pre-requisites which feed into this complex relation as well. The aid distribution plan should be effective an d free of corruption of all sorts for it to have an impact on growth. A major chunk of aid should be distributed towards the saving and investment channel.While our analysis has tried to determine a link between aid and development, it still carries some shortcomings. The assumptions used in the models such as a fixed capital output ratio are too stringent and do not carry much weight in the reality. Some variables such as savings rate s and productivity theta are determined exogenously, while the macro/microeconomic conditions determining these variables could also affect the impact of aid on growth. Nonetheless, the analysis provides useful insight into the complex relation of aid and growth.Economicgrowth,Capitalaccumulation,Macroeconomics,Grossdomesticproduct,Investment,Economicdevelopment,Stockandflow,EconomicsAid and the Two Gap Model Aid is a burning issue these days. The question of countries accepting foreign aid has intrigued economists and the general public for a quite a while. Television discussions and newspaper articles have frequently focused on this issue while politicians try to fight this matter out in the parliaments. Furthermore, many are trying to unravel the enigma of aid and its effects on growth. This paper, in the little word space provided, will try to establish a relation between aid and growth.It will do so by first defining aid and growth and then moving on to some of the important models which can be used to understand this link. We will discuss the two-gap model and then move on to the Solow and Harrod-Domar model, giving empirical examples in each case. Finally, we will analyze two countries and try to inspect the reasons for their different growth rates using the logic used in the discussed models. Aid can be defined as any voluntary transfer of resources. It can be either public (provided by donor countries or multilateral donor organization such as the IMF and The World Bank) or private (given by NGO’s. . The Organiza tion for Economic Corporation and Development defines aid as any transfer of money or resource that fulfills the following criteria: a) The objective of the transfer should be noncommercial. b) It should be given for the purpose of economic development. c) The terms of the transfer should be concessional (interest rate should be less than the prevailing interest rate in the market OR the maturity period should be longer than usual). Aid should not be mixed with grant which is often used interchangeably with this term.Aid is any transfer that has concessional terms while grant is a form of aid that does not require the repayment of the principal. In this paper, we will often measure aid in the from of official development assistance (ODA) which is a convenient indicator of international aid flow. On the other hand, we will measure growth by scrutinizing the percentage change in GDP. One of the most widely used framework for analyzing the effects of aid on growth is the two-gap model which holds a key position in policy decisions related to foreign assistance.The two gap model is based on the Harrod Domar equation g = s/v where s is savings rate v is capital output ratio Capital output ratio is assumed to be constant. The two gap model assumes that a developing country faces either a savings gap or a foreign exchange gap. The savings gap occurs when a country faces a shortage of savings to match Investment in attaining an intended growth rate. In such a case, foreign borrowing or aid can supplement the savings and help bridge the gap between savings and investment. This allows a country to achieve the targeted growth rate. Ft < I – S (Savings gap)A foreign exchange gap takes place when a country’s exports are not enough to finance its imports. In such situations, aid is handy as it fills the foreign exchange gap and provides countries with sufficient exchange to reach the required level of imports. At a given point in time, only one of the two g aps is binding. Ft < M – X (Foreign Exchange gap) Following this further, we fit empirical data into this model. Zambia is a developing country that has continuously received aid since the mid 1960’s. In 1992, almost 80% of Zambia’s investment was financed by foreign aid.Since, Zambia has received aid over such a long period, the two gap model predicted that its per capita GDP would reach $2300 by the turn of the century. On the contrary, its GDP per capita in 2007 remained merely half of what was expected . i. e. $1300. The fig. below summarizes the analysis of the Zambian economy. To examine whether the Zambian case is an exception or does the model always fail to predict the reality, we scrutinize on various factors which could have blocked the path of growth for this country. Zambia has been infected by violence and instability right from its independence, with bloodshed and massacres a common feature.In addition, economic growth has been hindered by the outbreak of civil war and influx of refugees from the neighboring countries. Corruption is another problem that has stalled growth which can be seen from the fact that Zambia is ranked 101 on the corruption perception index. Very recently, Sweden and Netherlands stopped aid to Zambia due to rampant corruption allegations. All these problems add to the ineffectiveness of aid on the growth of Zambian economy which can explain why the two-gap model failed to forecast the ineptness of aid.The effect of aid on growth can also be explained using two basic but important models, namely Harrod Domar model and the Solow model. Although the upshot of aid on growth is a multidimensional and complex process we only take into account the effect of aid on variables defined in these two models. The main focus of our discussion will be the saving rate which comes out to be the most imperative variable in both these models. We start through the basic Harrod Domar model. Capital output ratio, capital labor ratio and labor output ratio are assumed to be constant.Some of the important relations are as follows: S=s. Y (2) (3) (1) g= (s/v)-(? ) S=I Where: Y is income S is total saving I is Investment ? is depreciation of capital According to this model, growth can be increased by increasing s, decreasing v or decreasing ?. We shall mainly focus on the relation of aid on growth through the savings rate channel. Countries ask for aid mainly due to its perceived beneficial effect on the savings rate. As shown, saving equals investment in the Harrod-Domar model, subsequently an increase in savings will result in an increase in investment.This increase is supposed to boost the growth rate of the recipient country. Michael P. Shields offer an interesting explanation of the relation of foreign aid on growth in his paper â€Å"foreign aid and domestic savings: the crowding out effect†. If foreign aid is expected to increase savings, then equation (3) becomes g=(s+fa)/v -? Where fa is foreign aid as a proportion of income (4) (s+fa) represents the total funds available for backing investment. According to this equation, an increase in foreign aid is supposed to increase the total saving funds and hence investment by an equal amount.This suggests that an each additional dollar of foreign aid should result in a one dollar increase in investment in the economy of the recipient country. Reality however is not that perfect and it is too generous for anyone to assume such a one-to-one increase in investment from aid. Famous economist Edward Griffin offers a criticism of such approach. According to him foreign aid should be taken so as to supplement income rather than having a direct impact on savings. In such a case, an increase in income by the amount of foreign aid fa would increase consumption by (1-s). a, thus increasing the investment by s. fa. In such a case, domestic savings can be crowded out by foreign aid by the net amount –(1-s)fa which equals (s-1)f a. Markedly, foreign aid can crowd out private savings and investment, resulting in a decrease in growth as suggested by the Harrod Domar model. The main obstacle in the way of growth in the Harrod-Domar model is the phenomenon of aid filtering out into increased consumption (1-s). fa. Aid has to be spent on investment or has to increase the saving rate (both eventually come out to be the same) for a country to grow.To see a practical example of this, we consider Pakistan, which is a country largely dependent on foreign aid. During the period 1952-2002, the total amount of aid given to Pakistan equaled 63703 million US dollars. Ghulam Mohey-ud-din examines in his paper â€Å"Impact of foreign aid on economic development in Pakistan†, the reasons for aid not resulting in the required growth for Pakistan. He states three main reasons for the failure of aid to account for growth. First of all, a staggering 58% of this total aid (approx. 6945 million US dollars) was tied to devel opment of large projects while only 13% (approx 8281 million US dollars) accounted for non-food and BOP aid. Such a large portion of aid (58%) going towards consumption invariably meant that the effect on savings was going to be very minute. Thus, financial aid tended to crowd out saving and investment. Secondly, while the nominal aid gradually increased, in reality, aid as a percentage of gross national income fell from approximately 7. 6% in 1960 to nearly 3% in 2002. This meant that aid was not catching up to the required increase in the GNI of Pakistan.Thirdly, along with the increase in aid came the burden of burgeoning foreign debt. This required huge amounts of debt servicing which reduced Pakistan’s current account. As previously explained, aid was already not resulting in much growth due to it crowding out savings and investment. An additional burden of debt servicing did the government no better. Accordingly, its GDP growth rate was subject to constant fluctuations and Pakistan could never attain sustainable growth. The growth rate reached a peak of 10. 22% in 1953 but since then, the average growth has gone down with the exception of one or two years.In 2002, the GDP growth rate stood at 4. 73%. Aid during a whole half of a century could not result in sustained economic growth. Another approach that looks at the impact of foreign aid on growth is the poverty trap. Many poor developing countries face an inability to grow at reasonable rates due to getting stuck in a poverty trap, which can be defined as a self-reinforcing mechanism which causes poverty to persist. We use the Solow model to analyze how aid can be used to pull countries out of this poverty trap and onto the path of self-sustaining economic growth.We assume the basic assumptions of Solow model to be true. Thus, we assume constant returns to scale production function and diminishing returns to capital. The final and important relation of the Solow model is ? k=s. y-(n+? ). k (5) k is capital per worker n is population growth Philipp Harms and Matthiaz Lutz depart from this conventional Solow model by assuming that people have to satisfy their basic consumption needs for which savings are zero until per capita income does not exceed a certain level. The modified Solow diagram is shown belowTwo steady states are shown in the above figure. k* is an unstable steady state while k** is a stable steady state. If the country’s initial capital per worker is below the unstable steady state k*, then the country is stuck in a potentially dangerous poverty trap. Low income levels result in low saving which leads to lower investment in capital stock. Increasing depreciation ? of capital will further lower the capital per worker k and result in even lower income. This vicious cycle of poverty and lack of growth will keep re-enforcing each other unless the country is given a push start.This push can be in the form of aid, which may impact the savings rate s as discus sed in the extended Harrod Domar model. Furthermore, aid in the form of foreign capital inflow can also increase capital per worker, consequently pushing the country out the poverty trap. Now we come to the analysis of growth patterns in two Arab countries namely Egypt and Palestine. We will explore the amounts and type of aid given to these countries and then investigate their underlying effects on various growth variables based on the Solow and Harrod Domar models discussed earlier in the paper.With this in mind, we turn to the empirical evidences which show that: 1. ODA/GNI ratio for Palestine has increased during the period 2000-2005, while that of Egypt has decreased during the same period. 2. ODA/Capita for Palestine has increased to $500 during the period 2000-2005, while ODA/Capita for Egypt has come down to $15 in 2003 from $179 in 1979. 3. In Egypt, 13% of the total aid was tied whereas in Palestine 8% was tied. 4. Technical aid provided to Egypt was 44% while that of Pale stine was 16% of total aid during the period 2000-2004. 5.In Egypt, education was given the highest priority among the aid allocated to the social sector. While in Palestine, Education was the second lowest recipient of aid allocated to the social sector. 6. In Palestine, growth rate of real GDP from 2003-2005 was 35. 50%, while the percentage change in real GDP for Egypt was 127. 46 for the same period. ODA/GNI ratio signifies the dependency of the recipient country on the donor for foreign aid. A large increase in the ODA/GNI ratio of Palestine meant that it was becoming more and more dependent on foreign aid for support, while the opposite was true for Egypt.Consequently, Palestinian institutions kept weakening and were not given the incentive to develop due to their heavy reliance on outward help. On the other hand, Egypt’s lower dependency on foreign aid meant that it was getting increased opportunities to develop its institutions and stand up on its own feet. As the ODA /capita of Palestine increased to alarming heights, it signaled the reliance of Palestine on foreign donations. This could have created a moral hazard problem for the rulers of Palestine who knew that growth would result in drawing back of aid.In such a scenario, the incentive to grow could have actually vanished. Conditional or tied aid has great disadvantages because the recipient government cannot spend the aid on their desired projects. Moreover, tied aid has to be spent on specific and predetermines projects. As discussed earlier in the paper, if foreign aid is diverted to such consumption, it has the tendency to crowd out investment and savings. Although Egypt had a greater share of tied aid than Palestine, however the small size and weak economy of Palestine meant that even 8% of tied aid had a profound effect on its growth.Egypt was provided more technical aid than Palestine. Technical aid in turns translates into higher Theta in the extended Solow model. An important relati on of this model is ?ke= s. ye-(n+? +theta) k Therefore higher technical aid for Egypt resulted in higher effective capital per labor and in turn higher growth than Palestine. The allocation of higher portion of aid to education by Egypt as compared to Palestine means that Egypt is contributing more to its human capital. This will in turn again stimulate theta in the extended Solow model, resulting in increase growth rate of Egypt.In the light of above discussion, it can be said that the effect of aid on growth does not only depend on variables explained in the models above. Many other factors play a vital role in this link as well. As seen in the case of Zambia, the macroeconomic and political stability are pre-requisites which feed into this complex relation as well. The aid distribution plan should be effective and free of corruption of all sorts for it to have an impact on growth. A major chunk of aid should be distributed towards the saving and investment channel.While our anal ysis has tried to determine a link between aid and development, it still carries some shortcomings. The assumptions used in the models such as a fixed capital output ratio are too stringent and do not carry much weight in the reality. Some variables such as savings rate s and productivity theta are determined exogenously, while the macro/microeconomic conditions determining these variables could also affect the impact of aid on growth. Nonetheless, the analysis provides useful insight into the complex relation of aid and growth.

False memories in bilinguals: The influence of different languages on veridical and false recalls.

Introduction The question of how two different languages can affect the memory of bilingual individuals has consistently been present throughout the literature in psychology (Altarriba, 2003; Marmolejo, Dilberto-Macaluso and Altarriba, 2009; Schrauf, 2000). Researchers have been curious to discover whether these languages are both stored in the same parts of the mind, how they affect the memories of bilingual individuals, what the advantages and disadvantages are of knowing two languages, and whether being bilingual affects the individual’s ability to recognise and recall information. The inquisition of these issues has inspired the undertaking of the present research, which sought to ascertain how bilingualism affects false recall in the memories of the individuals associated with an orientation towards using the Greek and English languages. A false memory is a mental experience which is mistaken as veridical representation of an event from an individual’s past (Johnson & Raye, 1998). False memories can manifest in both minor and major forms, having significant implications both for the individual and for others (Johnson & Raye, 1998).. For example, one may have a false memory as minor as believing that they saw their keys in the kitchen, when in actual fact they are in the living room; or one may have a false memory as major as believing that they were the inventor of a famous idea, or that they were sexually abused as a child (Johnson & Raye, 1998). The nature of false memories is not limited to confusion between reality and imagination. Elements from various perceived events, such as television news and a fictional novel, may also be confused. This is known by psychologists as source confusion or misattribution and can be described through the Source Monitoring Framework (SMF) (Johnson, Hashtroudi & Lindsay, 19 93). The literature highlights the importance of understanding that although memories have been confabulated; it does not mean that the original information was lost. Thus, representations of perception and those which have been constructed by the mind may both be stored in the memory and manifest under different conditions (Johnson, 1981; Reyna & Brainerd, 1995). With regards to language orientation, the knowledge and use of more than one language has been found to be one of the conditions in which false memories are manifested (Sahlin, Harding & Seamon, 2005). Effort has been made to elaborate on this condition throughout this introduction. Researchers have proposed that false memories can cross language boundaries through the findings that conceptual representations of words provide an appropriate climate for false memories to appear in as opposed to specific lexical representations, where errors in memory were found to be significantly decreased (Sahlin, Harding & Seamon, 2005). These findings were tested by the notion that bilingual witnesses are equally as susceptible to post event misinformation, whether it was presented in the same language as the actual event, or in another language that they speak (Shaw, Garcia & Robles, 1997). The fact that language context makes no difference to post event misinformation provides sufficient grounds to inquire whether there are any differences at all in false memory recall between monolinguals and bilinguals. Theory indicates that bilinguals process information in a different way to monolinguals (Bialystok, Craik & Luk, 2012; Martin et al., 2012; Wang et al., 2011). The reason for this has been suggested as the notion that bilinguals tend to encode experiences and information in two languages rather than one (Grosjean, 1989). Where monolinguals utilise only one language in their minds during the encoding process, bilinguals utilise two, which has been found to have a significant effect on memory performance when comparing bilingual and monolingual individuals (Ardila, 2014; Paivio, 2014). For example, bilingual individuals have been found to combine languages, resulting in a more enhanced cognitive performance in recognition and recall of information than monolinguals (Francis, 1999). These findings provide further grounds to investigate the extent to which cognitive processes are at an advantage through bilingualism, and whether bilingualism could result in more false memories than monol igualism. Thus, with reference to the difference that language context could make to one’s memory performance, it has been suggested that language may be used as a retrieval cue when eliciting memories from past experiences (Altarriba, 2003), suggesting that the original language context plays a significant role in the quality and nature of the memories retrieved (Godden & Baddeley, 1975). Consequently, this provides implication for further research as it lays a foundation for the speculation that bilingual individuals may be more susceptible to false memory, signifying a disadvantage as opposed to the enhanced cognitive processing that was suggested by the findings of Francis (1999). It may be suggested that the reason for the differences between monolingual and bilingual recall is due to the functioning of the phonological loop, a short term memory system for auditory information acting as ‘the mind’s voice’ when processing information (Lindberg, 2005). The phonological loop plays a crucial role in learning new words in native and foreign languages (Salame & Baddeley, 1986). Researchers propose that acquisition of a new language expands the phonological loop allowing the individual to access a larger store of sounds and words (Salame & Baddeley, 1986). However, the effects that the cognitive enhancement has on the Long Term Memory and the overall functioning of the Working Memory has been suggested to leave bilinguals at a disadvantage, as the literature also suggests that processing words in a second language consumes additional working memory resources in bilinguals (Service et al, 2002). This suggests that overall memory performance in bilinguals is reduced because of increased concentration on the textual definition and relationship between words (Service et al, 2002). Therefore, it is appropriate to question if false memories could be a result of reduced working memory performance, or whether they are a result of enhanced cogn itive processing in bilingual individuals. In order to understand the concept of working memory of bilinguals better in its relation to false memory, it is relevant to consider how false memories are created. Memories can include errors at the time of encoding becoming distorted (Roediger & McDermott, 1995). According to some, false memories may also be created by external suggestion (Loftus, 1997; Zhu et al, 2010), such as when someone suggests that an event had occurred in early childhood, and this information is retained by the individual as a memory, thus forming the basis of a false memory. This is named the misinformation effect phenomenon, as the misleading information, which is given to the individual, causes them to create false recollections of an event (Loftus, 1979; Loftus, and Hoffman, 1989; Tousignant, Hall, & Loftus, 1986). This phenomenon has also been shown to occur in a number of individuals from various backgrounds (Frenda, Nichols, and Loftus, 2012), including th ose who have been asked to recall events as eyewitnesses (Loftus, 2013; Patihis et al, 2013; Shaw, Garcia, & Robles, 1997). Consequently, the misinformation effect phenomenon may offer one explanation for the creation of false memories in the working memory. With regards to language orientation, experiments provide evidence to show that false memories may also be created because of the events that bilingual individuals recall in association with the words that they have been shown during experiments (Deese, 1959). This idea is pertinent to the creation of false memories in bilingual individuals, therefore, to further investigate this phenomenon, the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm was used as a methodology in which false memories were studied (Deese, 1959; Roediger, & McDermott, 1995). In a number of studies, participants were asked to recall a list of words, associated with one word in particular. For example, sadness may be associated with tears, pain, grief, unhappiness, sorrow, gloom, despondency, desolation, or melancholy. The word sadness is not shown in any of the lists, but the associated words are. The participants are then asked to recall as many words as they can remember. Results of the studies show false memories to be evident in the participants (Cann, McRae & Katz, 2011; Gallo, 2010; Koriat, Pansky & Goldsmith, 2011). This suggests that words hold semantic power and have the ability to influence memories by filling in any ‘gaps’, thus providing support for the notion that false memories are influenced by language. However, these studies may be criticised through the suggestion that individual differences plays a significant role in working memory, and therefore must be considered when studying working memory (Daneman & Carpenter, 1980). For these language and memory studies in particular, it should be considered that individual differences may play a major role in the way that an individual interprets words such as ‘te ars’, ‘pain’, ‘grief’ ‘sorrow’ and so on, as these words may hold different connotations for individuals from different cultural backgrounds.With reference to false memory as a result of bilingualism, studies indicate that language was tested in separate DRM experiments but not manipulated as a factor. It was seen that each language had a different set of lists in the experiments. As a consequence, the comparison of words across languages must be considered with the utmost caution, as lists presented in one language may trigger a higher proportion of false recall that those presented in another language (Marmolejo, 2009). This suggests that bilingual individuals are more inclined to false memories that monolinguals. Therefore, it is essential that when DRM methods are used, these factors be considered as they may affect the results of the experiments. In conjunction, the findings from other studies have shown that where the second langua ge proficiency of the bilingual participants is mixed, higher number of false recalls are evident (Anastasi et al., 2005; Holliday, Kang and Lee, 2003; Marmolejo et al., 2009; Miyaji-Kawasaki, Inoue, & Yama, 2003). Hence, these findings must also be taken into consideration, as they may affect the outcomes of experiments which seek to examine the language recall or recognition of bilingual individuals and the incidence of false memories. Other research shows that false memories in bilinguals may be created due to the Schema Theory (Bartlett, 1932), whereby different schemas in the mind represent different languages. These schemas store the information necessary so that bilingual individuals are able to use various languages. When new information is attained, errors occur when the old information becomes mixed with this (Bransford and Franks, 1971). This process therefore leads to a distortion in the memory, which may be used to explain why false memory recalls are observed when bili nguals are tested using the DRM method. From this knowledge we can expect that the results of the present study will show that bilinguals have a higher tendency towards false memories. Comparatively, Craik and Lockhart (1972) stated that false memory recalls occur due to the levels at which language is processed by the mind. According to the Levels of Processing theory (Craik & Lockhart, 1972), when memories are processed, it is undertaken on different levels. If the levels of processing are shallow, the memories that are created are weaker than those which are formulated on a deeper level (Gallo, 2013). Therefore, if language memories are formulated on a deeper level than new memories, they will be stronger than new ones. However, a number of studies have demonstrated that this is not advantageous as this leads to higher levels of false memory recall (Anderson, 2013; Hunt, Smith & Dunlap, 2011; Thapar & Mcdermott, 2001; Toglia, Neuschatz & Goodwin, 1999). This may be another way th rough which false memories may be created in the working memory of bilinguals. Yet, in opposition, it may be suggested that this is not only limited to bilinguals, and may also occur in monolinguals. However, the speculations for the present study do suggest that false memory will be an occurrence that is more prevalent among bilinguals, not limited to bilinguals.. Others have stated that the reasons for false recall may be found in the way in which sematic representations are strongly linked to language (Cann, McRae & Katz, 2011; Wakeford et al., 2009). Each language has a direct link to representations, thus, when these are presented under experimental conditions, errors are found. When both language memories are being accessed by the participants in DRM experiments (Gallo, 2010), this may cause confusion in their memory. As a result, this could lead to some memories being triggered simultaneously, which in turn causes false recalls or the creation of false memories. This explanat ion of why false memory recalls may occur in bilingual individuals is often referred to as the spreading activation theory (Gallo, 2013) and is with reference to the activation of different semantic networks, which are used to access language memories of bilingual individuals. As the semantic network is activated, its activity spreads out across the brain so that the language related memories might be accessed and recalled. In relation to this, another notion named fuzzy trace theory has also been proposed to explain false memory recalls (Toglia et al. 1999).According to LaTour, LaTour, and Brainerd, (2014), false memories are seen as a result of deficient processing. However, recent psychological research has shown that elaboration and inferences can result in ‘smart’ false memories. These ‘smart’ false memories are explained by fuzzy-trace theory (FTT), which assumes that they derive from comprehension of the meaning of experience. FTT predicts that †˜smart’ false memories should be positively correlated with measured levels of Need for Cognition. (LaTour, LaTour & Brainerd, 2014) Thus, as information is processed and encoded in two different languages the representations, speech and main points of these memories are formed simultaneously in conjunction with each other (Graves & Altarriba, 2014; Reyna & Brainerd, 1995; Reyna & Kiernan, 1994). In accord, the main points of these memories may become related to other familiar representations (Brainerd & Reyna, 2002) so false memories are created as these memories are recalled because they were never actually created in the first instance. For this reason, false memory recall is higher when second languages are learnt as they are often learnt through accessing memories associated with native languages, which have their own schematic representations in the bilingual individual’s memory (Toglia et al., 1999). From this knowledge, it can be expected that the results of t he present study will show that bilingual individuals are more inclined to accumulate false memories. On reflection of the evidence at hand, it the several ways in which false memory recalls are created may begin to be ascertained. Errors in processing may be the cause (Anderson, 2013; Hunt, Smith & Dunlap, 2011; Thapar & Mcdermott, 2001; Toglia, Neuschatz & Goodwin, 1999), receiving inaccurate or false information (Loftus, 1979; Loftus & Hoffman, 1989; Tousignant, Hall & Loftus, 1986) or differing levels of language proficiency (Anastasi et al., 2005; Holliday, Kang & Lee, 2003; Marmolejo et al., 2009; Miyaji-Kawasaki, Inoue & Yama, 2003) may be held accountable. A single explanation which determines how or why false memory phenomena may occur more in bilinguals than in monolinguals does not exist. Therefore, it is important that a number of theories are considered when investigating why false memory recall occurs in bilingual individuals. It is also essential that these notions be examined further, in order for a deeper insight into why false recalls are more prevalent in some situations than in others. This could help to establish which of the notions that have been discussed are more accurate. In turn, this would enable a deeper understanding of how individuals that speak two languages utilise their memories. The present study sought to examine and ascertain how bilingualism influences false memory recall in individuals using the Greek and English languages. The research question at hand asked: To what extent does bilingualism influence the veridical and false memory recalls of individuals when they are asked to remember dissimilar alphabetic scriptsTherefore, the aim of the present research study was to test the effects of bilingualism on veridical and false memory recall when individuals were asked to recall dissimilar alphabetic scripts. In order to test this, the hypotheses were devised in accord to the literature covered suggested thatBilingual indivi duals will falsely recall words in Greek or English as they create false memories;Bilingual individuals will falsely recall different languages in different proportions, depending upon whether it is their native or non-native language; False recalls will occur in non-native languages more than native languages and false recognition will occur more in non-native languages than native languages. These hypotheses were tested through the execution of several experiments. 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