Character Motivations in Antigone Essay

The main characters in Sophocles’ drama, Antigone, are Antigone herself, the play’s tragic heroine and Antigone’s uncle and King of Thebes, Creon. Both characters are ruled by powerful motivations and beliefs; however, they differ from one character to the next. Antigone’s motivation is love for her family- she puts it above all else. In fact, she is willing to sacrifice her life to defend that love. Antigone goes to great lengths to bury her deceased brother, who according to an edict issued by King Creon, died in dishonor, consequently making it illegal for anyone to bury his body. Through her actions to comply with her motivations, it is revealed that Antigone’s actions are also fueled by her strong beliefs that, first, the gods’ laws are more powerful than any law made by man, and second, that it is better to die a heroic death than a cowardly one. Throughout the play, Antigone stands firm on these beliefs by standing up for them even through her death as demonstrated through the following dialogue in which she admits her crime, and voices her beliefs to Creon; â€Å"It was not Zeus who published this decree, nor have the powers who rule among the dead imposed such laws as this upon mankind; nor could I think that a decree of yours- A man- could override the laws of heaven unwritten and unchanging†¦For me to meet this doom (death) is little grief; But when my mother’s son lay dead, had I neglected him and left him there unburied, That would have caused me grief; this causes me none† (437-459). This scene illustrates the essence of Antigone’s character. She’s defending her â€Å"crime† of burying her brother, thus demonstrating that she is motivated by the love that she has for her family. She’s further justifying her act by stating that Creon’s law is not the law that she feels she must adhere to- she follows the gods laws, another one of her guiding beliefs, and finally, she’s not only accepting her impending doom, but actually welcoming it because she’s dying defending her beliefs, therefore dying a heroic death rather than dying in cowardice. On the other hand, Creon is also motivated by love; however, his love is love for his country, rather than his family. He puts country above all else, including his family- he’s willing to do whatever he needs to do to make sure that Thebes remains powerful. In order to achieve this goal he demands loyalty from his subjects, once again, family included; he rules by intimidation, and is very proud. In fact, pride is another one of his major motivations. For these reasons, his character is a feared leader. First of all, the fact that he issues that his nephew cannot be buried shows that- one, he demands loyalty, even over loyalty to the gods, and two, he defends his country over his family. He continues displaying his beliefs when he doesn’t revoke the edict even after his wife, and niece clearly disagree with it. Creon’s pride continues to take precedent when he begins falsely accusing his subjects, and acting rashly with little thought. Creon’s character, while a complex character is strongly represented in much of his dialogue, perhaps this passage of dialogue between Creon and the prophet Teiresias best captures his essence. â€Å"Sir, all of you, like bowmen at a target, let fly your shafts at me. Now they have turned even diviners on me! By that tribe I am bought and sold and stowed away on board. Go, make your profits, drive your trade in Lydian silver or in Indian gold, but him you shall not bury in a tomb, no, not though Zeus’ own eagles eat the corpse and bear the carrion to their master’s throne: Not even so, for fear of that defilement, will I permit his burial-for well I know that mortal man cannot defile the gods† (994-1006). Through this single quote, Creon demonstrates all of his predominate qualities; he’s accusing Teiresias of bribery, therefore, acting before thinking, he won’t repeal his edict even though he admits that the edict does defy Zeus, thus illustrating his pride. He likes being in power of a powerful state, so much so that he is blind to his own pride, and is fine with ruling by intimidation and demanding loyalty from his subjects.

Australia Country Risks Essay

The overall performance of Australia in world economic outlook is generally one of the most stable. Because of the well planned course of running the economy, the Australian government has been maintaining a good level of growth among the Asia Pacific countries. However, it is also important to see some of the risks involved if one wishes to invest in the Australian market. The first aspect in strategic planning is to identify the political risks. Apparently, the political risks in the country can only be identified in terms of effectiveness. The implementation of different laws is at least better in Australia than any of its neighbors. In a general scale, it is one of the most stable political units in the world. Although some corruption incidences have been reported previously, there is still a very good control of the government to combat such problems (McKeever). The legal risks involved in Australia are also very minimal. Since the Australian laws are basically made of Federal Parliament directives, there are very little chances of having a biased law towards a particular party. The laws are ratified by the three system political approval such as the executive, legislative and judicial segments. Basically, Australian Laws are for the common man which reduces the possibility of having extreme unwarranted consequences of biased judgments. Lastly, it is also important to note he regulatory risks in a particular country. In Australia, this risk is also very minimal because of the previous financial deregulation processes ratified in 1983 by making the Australian dollar float in the international foreign market (Wikipedia, 2007). This served as the primary attractive factor for most investors who wish to get a deregulated instrument for investment. References McKeever. N. D. The McKEEVER Institute of Economic Policy Analysis. Retrieved December 2, 2007 from http://www. mkeever. com/australia. html. Wikipedia. 2007. Economy of Australia. Wikipedia-The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved December 2, 2007 from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Economy_of_Australia.

Individual Report (50%)

You are required to prepare a report for management, recommending that the Company enter into a new overseas market (defined as a country or large region within it) and outline the main features of the marketing plan. The new market that you recommend is your choice but it must not be one where the Company is already present. The report should be 3000 words max and the hand in date is 13th March 2013 via Blackboard before 12 noon. Your recommendation needs to contain the following:1 Reasons for selection of new market for entry by the Company 2.Alternative markets which were candidates and reasons not selected 3 Proposed market entry strategy, including rationale 4 Outline of recommended marketing mix. Assessment criteria * Knowledge of theory underpinning internationalisation of marketing * Demonstration of the ability to develop appropriate solutions for differing market circumstances * Evaluation of options and justification of recommendations * Use of references, and professional standard of the report The critical points to remember are: 1 Answer all 4 questions and ensure that you answer the questions stated.All questions are equally important but do not necessarily use the same number of words. Do not spend so much time on one question to the detriment of another. Use common sense. 2 The questions are interrelated and you can refer to previous sections to improve the links so that the report flows well. 3 Your marketing mix must make sense with your proposals and with the other parts of the mix. E. g. it is nonsense to suggest that a brand which is positioned as say luxury and High end utilises an everyday low value pricing strategy. Try to be succinct and do not include great parts of research reports. These should be referred to and used to support your arguments. Remember answer the question using your research and analysis not the other way around.5 Use theory and research appropriately to support your justifications and recommendations. Suggested re port structure 1 Introduction – state the company, where they operate now the new country product range/brand and outline of the report. This is very important to set the scene of the report. Do not write the history of the company. Justification for country x Using your research and analysis propose reasons for your selection of the new market to enter. A competitive analysis should be evident. Refer to appropriate theory and reference. 3 Alternative market(s) rejected – suggest markets that were considered and justify why they were not as suitable Refer to appropriate theory and reference. 4 Market entry strategy Propose your market entry strategy which must make sense with the research and analysis from section 2, the attitude towards risk of the company, and your rationale for the entry strategy.Do not just describe the entry strategy – you must justify what you propose. 5 Outline marketing mix strategy – these are your recommendations for the marketi ng mix with justification. You must use appropriate theory and references throughout. You should include here the brand values, positioning, segments and targets for the country you are choosing to enter and provide a justification based on theory and research. For each strategy make sure you mention whether this is a global position whether it has been standardise or adapted.Refer to appropriate theory throughout. You may use examples to illustrate your points but we do not expect a full tactical marketing mix outline i. e. messages. Product strategy – in relation to other parts of the world, product decisions e. g. full product range/limited and why. You might refer to the PLC, competitive advantage, brand position, values etc. Pricing strategy – strategy not tactical pricing/actual price for the product/service. Distribution strategy Promotions strategy – which media do you propose and why?Is it standardised or adapted? You do not need to develop advertising materials or messages. Budget not required. People – is there a service element to your product/service? Process Physical evidence You may use sub headings, diagrams, tables, graphs, as appropriate. You do not need to produce an executive summary. You do need a contents page, page numbers, section headings and reference list. Mistakes from last year 1 Reports were unbalanced – so much time spent on the first questions that the subsequent sections suffered. Missing references throughout the report and use of non credible sources. 3 Lack of International marketing theory. Too much use of very basic marketing theory and textbooks. You must use and International marketing text and appropriate reading. 4 Descriptive PESTLs with no analysis and not used throughout the report. Your research is to be used to justify your decisions. 5 Marketing mix were lists of suggestions with no justification. They must be linked to the PESTL analysis, research and theory and justified. Jacq ueline Lynch February 2013

Data analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Data analysis - Essay Example The data gathering process is conducted through online questionnaires or surveys in order to determine the information, which is gathered and then analyzed. The Strategic Communication is first important in communicating to authors what was uncovered in the research. Secondly, when the book is ready to be sold, the Strategic Communication, through advertising and public relations (PR), reflects the changes made in this new edition to all those who potentially will adopt or purchase this book for their courses (Churchill and Iacobucci 566). As another example of Strategic Communications, a Vice-President in a business may need to inform the board of directors about a new process that can be implemented, but with some additional costs. The research done as to the plan’s effectiveness and what it will cost, is essential to selling this new process to the board of directors. Therefore, the statistics which shows this information, is an essential part to successfully selling the ne w plan or operation. 2. Differentiate between a population and sample. The difference is that a population consists, for example, of all people who drink coffee at Starbucks (Zikmund 296). The sample of the population must be taken from within that population of all people who drink coffee from Starbucks (Week 4, p.2). ... This is part of variables when we determine these parameters of the data while canvasing those people who have applied to take the survey Week 4, p.4). If any of the required parameters (variables) are not present, such as a certain age group, buying Starbucks coffee more than once a month, who are currently working, and own a home, for example, then those returns are not vetted or accepted. In general, use 10% of the overall group to get a representation, such as 100/1000 (Muijs 35). In describing a sample of School of Communication students, they would need to be taking classes in public relations, journalism, marketing, and radio/television courses (Zikmund 296). Age is not considered a factor but it can be a descriptive of the sampling, as older students also take these courses, not just those who are 18 to 22 years of age. In defining parameters for attaining the sample, the objective for this might be that only those who are majoring in any of these courses, and within a certai n age group, can apply to the research study. Other parameters that could be applied in some cases, is to only have honor students apply, rather than the whole population of students in the School of Communications. Creating such parameters in the invitation communication means that only those who closely fit the parameters, will apply, rather than the whole school or college, thus saving on wasted time weeding out those who do not fit in to the objective (Muijs 35; week 4, p.6). 3. Explain what statistical significance is. Statistical significance is the process of testing data through various operations. One example might be in creating two different messages, with a call to action, which will be sent to a sample group. This would be called A/B testing to see which

Gender Relations, in Relation to Violence and Misogyny Essay

Gender Relations, in Relation to Violence and Misogyny - Essay Example At times their music has been inspired by the experiences they have had with the opposite sex, observations they have made in the environment or general attitudes that they hold towards the gender. These opinions are demonstrated in the writer’s choice of words, the facial and physical signs and the dancing art accompanying the songs. Misogyny is also expressed in many of songs written by these writers. Misogyny refers to hatred for women usually exposed by men. A significant number of songs written by men tend to carry this theme (Sellnow 34). They tend express hatred towards the opinion of women while others of express hatred towards the physical appearance some women. In this state women are seen as objects for men’s utilization. Songs that purports gender violence have been designed to communicate that women should be submissive to their men giving the man power over the women. In this situation exploitation is not only expected but should also be demanded. The mess ages included in the songs include, abuse and torture, rape, and fostering an acceptable sexual objectification towards women. These themes are not only an issue of violence but also misogyny (Campbell 518). This has led to participants also obtaining a negative attitude towards women and therefore enhancing gender violence and misogamy. Misogyny is a situation where there exists a feeling of hatred towards female gender in the society. This happens especially where there is women subordination, inequality and gender discrimination. Misogyny usually has an impact on the gender relations especially between men and women. In the music industry, men, who are viewed as rational beings, tend to express their attitude towards women through songs. These songs consist of... This paper stresses that most of the song writers writing about relationship from the perspective of love tend to portray an emotional attachment that exists between the genders in terms of love. They tend to communicate that both genders will have a beautiful life if they existed together in love and care for each other. Many songwriters have also written songs that express violence that exist between men and women in the society. Song writers who express this theme of violence express the turbulent nature of relationship that exists between men and women. This report makes a conclusion that it is true that music is a very effective tool of communication used to transmit information from one person to another. Its effectiveness can be explained by its popularity and persuasiveness. All the same, its effectiveness can be a tool of destruction in the community if its content is not checked. Music is a main source of disregard to women arising form songs that have been written by their male counterparts. Music by several musicians such as Eminem, Kanye west and Flo Rida is evidence to violence to women by men in the music industry. Women are portrayed as a weaker sex, which is dependant on men, immoral, and should be an object to man’s desires. More to this, women are shown to lack authority to make major decisions and can only use their appearance to seduce men into something. When women dance in the videos naked they are demonstrated as sexual objects whose worth can only be judged from their appearance. This information when sen t to the public is very destructive leading to gender violence and misogyny.

IT technology becoming the basis of every employment Essay

IT technology becoming the basis of every employment - Essay Example Lifelong learning is seen as a solution to long-standing social and economic problems, despite criticism of adult education colonisation unleashing libratory forces, scholars pointing out bifurcation of labour market, and the ever-existing criticism of political shift towards neoliberalvalue. The article deals with the tussle between the viewpoints of UNESCO and OECD. Lifelong learning, initially thought to be an answer to societal and economic crises, was launched by OECD in 1948 to help Western Europe's economic revival under Marshall Plan and it was referred to as Vocational Training. unprecedented enrolment in 1960s due to economic growth caused stir and resulted in oversupply of graduates who could not be fully absorbed and said that recurrent education should be distributed along lifespan, with work, leisure and retirement. Later it adopted the concept as a long-term strategy and created two axes, vertical, to integrate educational opportunities against disrupted childhood lear ning and a horizontal, for further education according to requirements of labour, research and opportunities. Behind the belief of additional opportunities, economic stability, knowledge, satisfaction, there exist pragmatic issues like non-achievement of equality and opportunity. Due to 1968 student revolt, UNESCO realised that education export from First World to Third failed to meet latter's need. Faure commission was set up to meet the educational challenge and for growth of scientific mind by promoting lifelong modern learning. Although starting point approach was overlapping, there are fundamental differences in later approach. While OECD is unable to connect education with labour potential, UNESCO stops short at educational modernisation. If oecd's aim is to bring non-traditional students into the educated cluster, unesco's goal is to make education basis of democratic process. While first is focussed on industrialised nations, second has global outlook. While first approaches from technical updating point of view, second sees it as a tool of equality and wants a learning world society. It wants to provide the educational facility at any point with a worldwide dimension. There is a suggestion of classless society in the concept and seventies onwards, li felong learning has figured in the national policy of many nations. With globalisation, capitalism has erupted and oecd stressed on education as need of changing society and its reports links education with economy. Second generation of human capital theory questioned the relevance of initial approaches and firmly placed the lifelong educators in labour market/unemployment. Both EC and oecd concentrated more on learning, than on education and human resources became more important now. CRITICISM Article also says that by then unesco had lost its importance on educational issues. The new Commission reported the tension between global, national, regional and local vested interests, tension between individual and universal, tradition v. modernity, long-term v. short-term, spiritual v. material etc. Even from outside, they are regarded differently. Unesco has humanistic tradition and intellectual role while oecd is regarded as capitalistic. While presenting the two paradigms connected to two world views, the article has

Healthy Grief Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 5

Healthy Grief - Essay Example Kubler-Ross described grief as occurring in five stages. In the stage of denial according to Ross, the individual facing grief attempt to shut the reality of the loss incurred for a false reality that’s assuring. This stage has characteristics of isolation according to Ross. In the Bible, the depiction of Denial is absent in the account of job. Job on hearing different servants report of the loss that had befallen his house immediately gives God glory and declares that he came naked, and he will return to God naked (Mason, 2002). In Islam, the Quran commands Muslims of true faith to acknowledge that God owns it all and can call anyone home as He pleases (Irish, Lundquist, & Nelsen, 2014). From this comparison, it is clear that the denial lacks in the religious accounts. In the second stage of anger according to Ross, emotions and the masking effects that were applied in denial fade overwhelm the individual. Wailing may occur and intense anger that is directed at self, others of objects like animals around. Even though, rationally it is clear that the dead cannot feel the blame for emotional sake the grieving may do so. According to the account of the bible of job, it is clear that Job felt anger. This is manifested in Job 3; 25 when he said that his fears had come finally even though he either rested or was quiet about preventing them (Johnson, 2010). In Islam, the Quran prohibits wailing but acknowledges sadness that is a form of anger manifestation. An account of prophet Mohamed’s son talking and asking the mountain in it would not break to pieces if it had such grief as he had is a perfect example of anger (Kristiansen & Sheikh, 2012). The third stage on the account of Ross is bargaining. Here the grieving regains hope that maybe perchance the loss can be undone. At times, the grieving may offer to give any possible thing to any agency or God to restore the life of the deceased. In the

Compensation and benifets Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Compensation and benifets - Research Paper Example The human resource system of the organization is decentralized and is trying to serve its employees as much as possible in a variety of locations. Service delivery ascribed to the human resource is highly dismantled, and is driven by a small team in charge of human resource operations. In spite of the hard work and effort put in by team members to afford the company support, they lack the requisite training, tools of human resource needed for success, as well as critical mass. The key challenge that the benefits and compensations program experiences is significant errors in data and inconsistencies in the responses of inquiries by employees. The decentralized human resource system used by the company allocates most of the human resource very little time to support their business associates. The high score of mistakes in data entry makes it difficult for the firm to provide accurate and timely information to key stakeholders. A Review of a Firm Experiencing a Similar Challenge Quite g ood example of a firm that faced a challenge similar to that of Boehringer Ingelheim is Hong Kong Polytechnic University, specifically its Department of Management. The university chose to implement information systems of managing the human resource with an aim of lowering the number of errors linked to data entry. Human Resource Information Systems refer to software applications that play the serve the specific purpose of aggregating and synthesizing information about employees. The information systems can serve purposes that range from populating breakdowns of payroll and benefits, to illustrating present positions held by employees, through the applications that run the system. The university discovered that the executives within the human resource were more comfortable carrying out the critical and creative projects because data about the employees were arranged neatly within the databases of human resource information systems. It was emergent that data automation minimized the probability of data entry errors. Moreover, more complex and integrated analyses were possible through the implementation of an extensive and unified pool of information about employees. In general, Hong Kong University together with many other manufacturing firms based in Hong Kong discovered the effectiveness of human resource information systems in improving the performance of business operations dovetailing a variety of human resource processes, and transforming thee management process of an organization with regard to compensations and benefits. Research and Analysis Contemporarily, human resource information systems connote fully automated systems that comprise of payroll processing, a system of human resource information and the management of recruitment (Pynes, 2008). Because there is a need to integrate data across the various departments of an organization, it is important to incorporate transparency and integrity in order to augment productivity and consequently meet the specific requirements of compensation and benefits legislation. Updating or entering of data win the human resource information system is conducted in within a single database. Consequently, all departments make use of these data. As such, this reduces errors, eliminating the presence of different records and saving both time and money. Errors in data

Critically examine the sources of law which have shaped the English Essay

Critically examine the sources of law which have shaped the English Legal System. Assess which source is the most influential to - Essay Example This essay will assess the sources of law shaping the English legal system and in doing so will demonstrate why acts of parliament are the most influential source of law today. This essay is therefore divided into two main parts. The first part of the essay examines the four main sources of law and the second part of this essay examines the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty and its role in shaping the hierarchal order of sources of law today. The Main Sources of Law The four main sources of law shaping the English legal system can be classified as case law and codes of law. ... Only when statutory laws have been exhausted can a judge then look to case law. When both sources of law have been exhausted, a judge may rule on the matter and establish a precedent.10 As creative and as important as judicial precedents are, it is a long established principle that Parliament can overrule or alter any judicial precedent.11 Separate and apart from the binding nature of acts of Parliament, case law is also subject to a hierarchal order. This is established by the doctrine of stare decisis which compels a lower court to be bound by the previous decisions of higher courts or a court of equal rank.12 The difficulty with the doctrine of stare decisis is that although it establishes an hierarchal structure, a lower court may be bound by a faulty decision of a higher court and is powerless to overrule the decision.13 Master of the Rolls Lord Greene, established rules designed to resolve some of the difficulties that might arise when applying the previous decisions. Lord Gree ne ruled that when there was a conflict â€Å"between two decisions† of a courts of â€Å"co-ordinate jurisdiction†, the court must choose between them.14 However, where a decision of a higher court conflicted with a decision of a court of higher jurisdiction, the court must follow the decision of the highest court. A court when looking at decisions of higher courts could not â€Å"follow decisions of its own given per incuriam†.15 A decision is given per incuriam when it misapplies a previous decision or a statute.16 Noticeably absent is the authority to ignore a previous erroneous decision of a higher court. Obviously, case law serves an important function in shaping the English legal system. When Parliament enacts a law, it passes through a formal debate process

Reading To a Child Everyday and Language Development Essay

Reading To a Child Everyday and Language Development - Essay Example Nativist perspective: This theory was suggested by Noam Chomsky and has remained significant in understanding language acquisition in children. The nativist perspective postulates that children learn through their innate ability to organize language laws. However, the theory acknowledges that children cannot utilize their ability to organize and utilize language laws in the absence of adults. Based on this theory, children have in-born Language Acquisition Device embedded in their brains, which enable them to learn language skills as they grow (Martin, Fabes & Fabes, 2009). Social interactionist theory: This theory emphasizes on the environment and context in which language is acquired. According to this theory, pragmatics of a language precedes grammar. Children and adults live in a negotiated environment where there is likelihood of feedbacks. As such, language develops through one’s negotiation of his or her environment (Martin, Fabes & Fabes, 2009). Language development stems from children’s desire to learn and share new information with others. The theory argues that language acquisition takes both biological and social dimensions. Cognitive theory: In this theory, Jean Piaget postulated that symbols and structures constitute language and becomes exposed as children’s brains develop. Consequently, language is a mental activity. Piaget’s cognitive theory on how a child’s brain develops has for a long time been influential in shaping educational theory (Ellis, 2006; Pütz, 2001).

Strategy to overcome loneliness Essay Example for Free

Strategy to overcome loneliness Essay Though Mrs. Kennedy is indeed a lonely woman, the ritual of having to visit the park each Saturday usually helps her to cope with her boredom and loneliness. It is patent how much this old lady enjoys from the simple activities. The Saturday outing provides a prospect for Miss. Kennedy to be in the presence of other people as she leaves her little boring room which she has lived for the last seventy five years. She has employed the tactics and the techniques of listening keenly and watching in order to passively feel happy and complete in the ongoing activities of the crowd at the park. She is a major expert at eavesdropping to other people’s conversation. This habit of listening and pretending she is not interested has helped her a lot as it makes her feel included too and part of the group. Being an avid watcher, Mrs. Kennedy pays immense attention to all those who are around her. Through the same care that she places in noticing and appreciating the presence of other people, she usually hopes deep inside that somebody among the group would obviously notice incase she was not there. This thought helps her to have a sense of communion and happiness in the midst of strangers on Saturdays. Miss. Kennedy’s seizes each opportunity she get to imagine herself as being connected with individuals that she observes in attempt to have some sense of belonging. She usually likens herself to being a part and parcel of the ‘family’ that the band in the park plays. In effect, the Saturday outing offers her a means to escape from the isolation that is felt and has always been felt in her solitary existence since her husband died through engaging herself in all the happenings of the public park. However, as she listens and observes, she usually prefers to view her entire world through her set of colored glasses in order to confront the truth that she is indeed a lonely woman.

Ethical Principals for Protecting Research Participants Essay Example for Free

Ethical Principals for Protecting Research Participants Essay Participating in a research study is an opportunity for people to contribute to the advancement of healthcare practice or other measures. Researchers typically collect data from a population of people that share common characteristics that make them appropriate subjects for the area being studied. In order to assure that participants are adequately protected, a set of ethical principles should be adhered to by all research facilitators. â€Å"The Belmont Report articulates three primary ethical principles on which standards of ethical conduct in research are based: beneficence, respect for human dignity, and justice† (Beck Polit, 2006). The principle of beneficence serves to minimize harm to participants, maximize the benefits of the study, and protect the participant from any form of exploitation. â€Å"In research with humans, harm and discomfort can take many forms: they can be physical, emotional, social, or financial† (Beck Polit, 2006). Facilitators of any research study must be conscious of this and use strategies to alleviate potential of such harm. Ethical researchers must be prepared to terminate their study if any evidence of distress on the participants is discovered. Another duty that researchers face is to protect participants from exploitation. â€Å"Involvement in a study should not place participants at a disadvantage or expose them to situations that they have not been prepared† (Beck Polit, 2006). In summary, participants must feel secure that the information they provide will not be used against them in any fashion. The second ethical principle addressed by The Belmont Report is the respect for human dignity. Study participants have the right to self-determination, or the capability to control their own activities. This right encompasses the ability to ask questions, refuse to provide information, or even withdraw from a study without consequences. The entitlement of self-determination also includes the freedom from being coerced into participating in a study, such as an economically disadvantaged person being offered a large stipend to participate. This may be seen as placing this individual under undue pressure to participate in the study. The principle of the respect for human dignity also includes the right to full disclosure. This allows a person to make informed, voluntary decisions regarding the study they are participating in. â€Å"Full disclosure means that the researcher has fully described the nature of the study, the person’s right to refuse participation, the researcher’s responsibilities, and the likely risks and benefits that would be incurred† (Beck Polit, 2006). The last ethical principle delivered in The Belmont Report pertains to justice. This principle ensures participants’ rights to fair treatment and the right to privacy. Justice promotes duties to neither neglect nor discriminate against individuals. â€Å"The principle of justice imposes particular obligations toward individuals who are unable to protect their own interests to ensure they are not exploited for the advancement of knowledge† (Beck Polit, 2006). Researchers must also acknowledge the participants’ right to privacy. They must ensure that their research is minimally intrusive and the participants’ privacy is respected throughout the study. People that partake in a study should expect that any information they provide will be kept in strict confidence. There are designated procedures in place to ensure participants’ satisfaction of a study upon completion. One such task is the risk/benefit assessment. â€Å"Such an assessment is designed to determine whether the benefits of participating in a study are in line with the costs, be they financial, physical, emotional, or social† (Beck Polit, 2006). Researchers can also offer a debriefing session after data collection is complete. This allows participants to ask questions or air complaints pertaining to the study. Researchers can demonstrate their interest in study participants by offering to share findings with them once the data has been analyzed. Lastly, facilitators should refer participants to appropriate health or psychological services as deemed necessary. Bibliography Beck, C. and Polit, D. (2006.) Essentials of Nursing Research: Methods, Appraisal, and Utilization. (6th ed.) Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins.

How Investment Opportunities Affect Cash Holdings

How Investment Opportunities Affect Cash Holdings Introduction In recent years the interest of financial researches raised to firms cash policy, cash positions; if more accurate they are paying more attention why do firms hold so much cash. These issues have a long history and are the basis of corporate finance.  Indeed, from the day to day operations to finance long-term investments, own funds are just the most important source of funding. In particular, observers have recently serious doubts about the validity of so much cash.  This problem has led to important research aimed at clarifying the multifaceted aspects of monetary policy firms.  Although the rapid development of significantly enriched our understanding of the factors that stocks of companies the funds, the literature has paid little attention in the form of cash policys real impact on the daily activities of firms. In the 2007-2008 credit crunch business leaders and the media have made the phrase cash is sovereign back in vogue.  Although the firms internal cash flows decline, the stock markets collapsed and the credit markets nearly frozen, the lack of money has become a reality for many firms.  For example, General Motors (GM), based in the U.S. automaker, announced on 7 November 2008 that he could escape from the liquidity, despite the ongoing restructuring process. GM eventually reorganized through bankruptcy, but their fate was to demonstrate the importance of cash holdings.  Although the reduction of cash flows, as a rule, inevitable in many industries during the economic downturn, the symptoms can be removed by a sufficient amount of cash as a buffer to the crisis.  Nevertheless, for several reasons shareholders do not always want to see the firm to save money and sit on it.  The shareholders outlook on firms cash holdings and the cost they place on it will be examined in this research. The determinants and consequences of corporate cash holdings have attracted enlarged interest of scientists over the past ten years.  One key issue was that the relationship between cash and the value of the company.  Broadly speaking, two main factors in the equation of the advantages of liquidity of the company and the agency cost of managerial discretion.  Both these arguments have their supporters. For example, Myers and Majluf (1984) argue that costly external financing means that firms must maintain a sufficient cash reserve, which provides liquidity to take advantage of new projects a positive NPV.  However, according to Jensen (1986) the agency costs of managerial consolidation means that large amounts of cash should be paid to shareholders to keep managers overinvesting negative NPV projects.  Apparently, there is no single truth, which will apply to all companies at once, as the needs of both the firm and its managers are not uniform. Understanding the value of cash is of interest not only for researchers and scientists, but even more so for practitioners.  Equity analysts, financiers and corporate chief financial officers must all be very interesting to know which factors affect the cost of cash holdings in the company and why. Most equity analysts simply add cash to the top of the value of the company, without giving attention from what could be the reason why money should not be evaluated at face value. However, researches show, markets, monetary values in different firms in different ways, and, consequently, analysts may be too especially if the company has a large amount of liquid assets.  For corporate financiers situation is somewhat different, because they often give the conclusion that the value of the target firm is the acquirer, thereby eliminating the influence of the prevailing corporate governance and financial policies.  Nevertheless, it can be valuable to understand the value of cash when as sessing the market value of the firm.  Finally, the financial department of a firm must know why their cash cannot be appreciated at face value, and that they could do if they want.  This allows us not only to understand the preferences of shareholders, but perhaps an opportunity to meet them. Problem Statement In this research I want to find answers to the questions like: What is the reason of holding so much cash than needed? What kind of effects it could cause? How the financing constraints and investment opportunities together affect the value the shareholders place on cash? How firms investment opportunities affect the marginal value of firms cash holdings? How firms the state of external capital markets affect the marginal value of firms cash holdings? 1.3 Research objectives The aim of this work is the approach to the cost of cash holdings of firms in two directions. First, subsequent to Faulkender and Wang (2006), who studied the cross-section changes in the marginal value of corporate cash, which arises from differences in corporate financial policy. Secondly, inspired by the credit crunch of 2007-2008, I examine how changes in the external capital markets affect the cost of money over time.  As far as I know there have not been previous studies on the time changes in the value of cash.  There are several reasons why the loan should affect any results related to the companys cash holdings.  First, Almeida et al.(2004) show that financially constrained firms maintain a significantly higher proportion of their cash flow, the following adverse macroeconomic shocks than before.  This means that the relationship between the preserve cash flow and earnings of the company is dynamic and may change over time.  Second, the importance of cash is emphasized in a recession.  When a loan is becoming more rationed, the company in which a lot of cash does not need to worry about the inability to finance daily operations.  Intuitively, firms with more cash are less likely to be downgraded credit rating and are able to maintain acce ss to capital markets.  In addition, these companies can take advantage of the plight of the weaker firms, which may be less liquid assets, through active competitive actions and acquisitions.  Thus, it seems appropriate to us a treasure load of cash in good times to be able to strike when the economy turns.  Finally, as credit becomes more and more rationed, it also becomes more expensive.  This is especially true for financially constrained firms. I use a sample of around 1000 Malaysian firms for the last decade from 1999 to 2009 to test the hypothesis in Faulkender and Wang (2006), impact of investment opportunities on the value of cash, and the change in value of cash over the economic cycle. The usable observations begin from 1999 because for most of the variables I require a change throughout a fiscal year. The extraordinary state in the financial markets during 2007-2008 allows me to study how it may have impacted the value of cash. The following terms interchangeably I use in this thesis. First, in a few ways, mainly as cash holdings, cash reserves, or simply cash I refer to firms cash holdings. Nevertheless, cash level is used to refer to cash ratio (cash to net assets). Second, I use the value of cash, the marginal value of cash, value of additional cash, value of an extra dollar of cash, and the value the shareholders place on cash while referring to the value of firms cash holdings. Third, since most of the previous studies have been done with U.S. data, I discuss the value of a dollar in the introduction. However, my data are from Malaysia, and therefore in the empirical part I am examining the value of a ringgit. I review the related literature in the next section. Section 3 develops theoretical framework of the study, the main hypothesis, illustrates the methods and details the sample selection. LITERATURE REVIEW The literature on market value of cash can be divided into research focus on the benefits of liquidity, or agency costs.  The former approaches through the studies of financial policy and corporate decision making of companies, whereas the latter evaluates the degree of agency conflicts on the basis of corporate governance factors.  Despite the general division between the two issues, both are at least implicitly always present during the tests and conclusions. Although much effort has recently been devoted to studying the determinants of cash policy of firms, data on the impact of reserves firms cash remains relatively small.  However, there are a few notable exceptions.  Blanchard, Lopez-de-Silanes and Shleifer (1994), who studied a small sample of companies that received cash windfalls from lawsuits, and Harford (1999), studied the acquisition of the company with unusual cash, the document that managers with weaker incentives to maximize  value, tend to spend large amounts of cash is inefficient. Opler, Pinkowitz, Stulz and Williamson (1999) argue that corporate cash can be attributed to a compromise, the theory of financial hierarchy and agency theory.  Kim, Mauer and Sherman (1998) develop a model of compromise and argue that the optimal amount of corporate cash holdings is determined by the tradeoff between lower income and benefits to minimize the need for costly external financing.  Almeida, Campello and Weisbach (2004) believe that corporate cash holdings affected by financial difficulties.  Pinkowitz and Williamson (2001) believe that the bank authorities can affect the cash holdings of Japanese firms.  Faulkender and Wang (2006) consider changes in the marginal value of corporate cash holdings related to differences in corporate financial policy.  Foley, Hartzell, Titman and Twite (2006) offer tax-based explanations of corporate cash. Most of the literature to evaluate the relationship between financial policy and the exact market value cash holding focused on companies in the United States of America (USA) Pinkowitz and Williamson (2004), Faulkender and Wang (2006), and Denis and Sibilkov (2007) all  study how the financial characteristics of the company, and the cost of cash to play together. Pinkowitz and Williamson (2004) show that the average market value of the dollar held by a firm at roughly $ 1.20, which indicates that shareholders believe that the benefits outweigh the potential liquidity problems of the agency associated with it.  Faulkender and Wang (2006), using different methodologies to find the market value of the dollar at $ 0.94 on average.  Their results suggest that the potential costs of institutions, as well as tax effects outweigh the benefits to the average firm.  Denis Sibilkov (2007) focus on the financial difficulties of the company and the investment opportunities and find consi stent results.  Nevertheless, there is significant cross-section changes in the market value of money, thus focusing on the mean values shows only a little about the relationship between fiscal policy and the value of cash. The other branch of value of cash literature focuses on the effect of corporate governance.  For example, Dittmar and Mahrt-Smith (2007) use U.S. data show that the additional $ 1 cash for badly managed companies worth between $ 0.42 to $ 0.88, while good governance doubles the value.  Pinkowitz et al.  (2006) used a cross-border data and found that an additional $ 1 is associated with an increase in company value of $ 0.29 to $ 0.33, depending on the criteria of corporate governance in countries with weak protection of shareholders, while an additional $ 1 in cash  associated with an increase of $ 0.91 to $ 0.95 in the value of the company in countries with good shareholder protection.  In addition, Kalcheva and Lins (2003) found that a minority of investors who are not very well protected by applicable discounts for firms in high levels of cash.  This is consistent with the findings Fresard and Salva (2009), which show that the value of $ 1 of excess cash of typical non -US companies is U.S. $ 0,58, while it is $ 1.61 for the firms listed in the U.S. through exchanges means that  investors discount the value of corporate cash reserves when they are at high risk of turning into private profit. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Theoretical Framework Here I will talk about the early literature related to the value of cash holdings of the company, as well as provide relevant theory.  I begin with outlining the background to understand why firms hold cash. It is necessary to identify with why firms hold cash in order to understand how the shareholders determine the importance they attach to the cash.  Then I will present before the relevant studies and conclusions contained in the value of the cash literature. 3.1.1 Cash holding motives If all firms operating in the world of perfect capital markets, cash holdings will have no value.  If the firm was in need of cash for operations or investments, it can raise funds at zero cost. While there is no liquidity premium in such a world, holdings of liquid assets have no possibility of cost.  Consequently, if a company borrows money and invests it in liquid assets, shareholder wealth is unchanged. Nevertheless, in the real world markets are not perfect and the holding of liquid assets has its costs.  Thus, a firm must strike a balance between the marginal cost of holding liquid assets and the marginal benefit of holding these assets. Here, I present five theories of why firms hold cash and which have been shown in earlier literature. 3.1.1.1 The transaction motive Transactions motive for holding cash is due to the cost of converting money substitutes into cash.  According to Keynes (1936), a company can save on transaction costs by using cash to make payments without liquidation of assets.  Miller and Orr (1966) model the demand for cash to finance daily operations, and the required level of cash.  The company short of liquid assets has to raise funds in capital markets, liquidate existing assets, reduce dividends and investment, the revision of existing financial contracts, or use a combination of these actions.  Since there are both fixed and variable costs in increasing cash, the company must hold a buffer of cash to avoid raising cash often, and thus to avoid the associated fixed transaction costs. Myers and Majluf (1984) argue that the increase in external financing is more costly than using internal resources in the presence of asymmetric information.  Since outsiders know less than the management, they may discount the price of securities more than management was willing to accept.  Thus, the management may find it more profitable not to sell securities, and even reduce the investment.  For this reason, it may be optimal for companies that conduct a certain level of cash to meet the needs of investment spending. 3.1.1.2 The agency motive Jensen (1986) argues that entrenched managers have incentives to retain cash rather than an increase in payments to shareholders, even if the firm has limited opportunities for investment.  Opler et al.  (1999) tender reasons why managers can use the optimal cash policies.  First, managers can accumulate funds to pursue their personal interests.  Cash allows managers to invest in external capital markets would not be willing to finance.  They usually spend one dollar in cash in hand, even if they cannot raise financing from the markets.  Consequently, they could make investments that may have a negative impact on the value of the company.  Jensens (1986) free cash flow problem predicts that managers with surplus cash are probably to overinvest.  Thus, a one dollar increase in cash holdings of firms can lead to significantly less than one dollar increase in the value of the company.  As the outsiders do not know, whether managers are accumulating cash to increase the value of the company or pursue their own goals, the cost of external capital is likely to increase. 3.1.1.3 The tax motive In recent studies by Foley et al. (2007) shows that U.S. companies which will bear the tax consequences associated with the repatriation of foreign earnings hold a high level of cash. Affiliates referring to the highest tax consequences of repatriating also have the highest level of cash.  This means that multinational companies are more likely to accumulate cash.  The extent this applies to the Malaysian firms has yet be studied. 3.1.1.4 The theory financing hierarchy The theory of financing hierarchy implies that there is no optimal amount of cash, based on arguments similar to the hierarchy theory of capital structure (Opler et al. (1999)).  According to theory, firms are not willing to issue shares, because it is too expensive because of the asymmetry of information.  They sell the debt when they do not have sufficient resources, and when they can do so.  When they have sufficient resources to invest in profitable opportunities available, they pay the debt which becomes due, and to accumulate more cash or else.  The theory assumes that the cash holdings of firms are less strategic choice but more a result of a dynamic, endogenous process. 3.1.1.5 Investment opportunities and the value of cash Pinkowitz and Williamson (2004) were the first who studied the market value of cash holdings.  They focus on firms investment and financing opportunities.  They find that the growth of the company have the possibility of a positive attitude to the market value of money.  Firms with greater investment opportunities have a higher cost of cash.  They also show that firms with higher uncertainty of investment have a higher valuation.  In addition, firms in a difficult financial situation have lower valuation on cost. Faulkender and Wang (2006) confirm this conclusion, as they show that firms with lower leverage, a proxy for financial distress, have higher value put on cash.  Finally, Pinkowitz and Williamson (2004) argue that access to capital markets does not affect the market value of cash.  However, they note that their proxy for access to capital markets, company size may not be perfect. Consequently, Faulkender and Wang (2006) show that the difficulties in obtaining ac cess to capital markets play an important role in the market value of cash.  Liu and Chang (2009) show similar proof on the impact of financial constraints on the market value of cash.  Faulkender and Wang (2006) also show that the marginal cost of cash reduces with the amount of cash holdings.  They argue that this is associated with an increase in the probability distribution of cash to shareholders, and consequently incurring transaction costs and taxation, to reduce the cost of cash. Hypothesis After I studied the theory of the value of cash holdings, I turn to the empirical predictions.  I present hypotheses for the impact of financial policy and investment opportunities on the value of cash.  These hypotheses relate to previous work in the field of corporate finance and the value for cash. Hypothesis 1: The marginal value of cash is decreasing in the level of the firms cash position After Faulkender and Wang (2006), I initially hypothesize that the marginal value of the shareholders place on cash holdings of the company reduces as the level of cash holdings increases.  The reasons are based on agency and tax considerations.  As firms cash level rises it becomes more likely to distribute the cash to shareholders who then as a result incur a dividend tax.  In addition, the company with high cash holdings becomes more vulnerable to face agency costs as shareholders begin to worry about the interest and ability of managers to invest in positive NPV projects.  Thus, the marginal cost of cash should reduce as the cash level of the company increases. Hypothesis 2: An extra ringgit of cash holdings is less valuable for shareholders in highly levered firms than in firms with low leverage. The second hypothesis from Faulkender and Wang (2006), which I test in my Malaysian sample, is the negative relation marginal cost of cash and firms leverage.  The cost of cash for shareholders in high levered firms is likely to be less than in firms with low leverage as contingent claims analysis predicts that most of the value of these firms is in the hands of debt holders. Additional ringgit is likely to go mostly to increase the value of debt and therefore, the value for shareholders is low. Hypothesis 3: An extra ringgit of cash holdings is more valuable for shareholders in financially constrained firms. The last hypothesis which follows Faulkender and Wang (2006) is that the simplicity of accessing to external capital markets should have an impact on the value of cash.  Access may be limited for various reasons, but often associated with asymmetric information about the state of the company, which may occur for smaller firms, firms without any credit rating or equity research coverage and the firms that do not pay dividends.  These firms can be considered as financially constrained and can be thought of having higher costs in raising external funds.  Thus, with its own funds, i.e. cash in hand, should be more valuable to these firms than financially unconstrained firms, which are likely and able to obtain external financing. Hypothesis 4: An extra ringgit of cash holdings is more valuable for firms with good investment opportunities. I examine whether firms with better investment opportunities have a higher valuation on their cash holdings than firms with weaker growth potential by following Pinkowitz and Williamson (2004).  Pinkowitz and Williamson argue that the main theoretical determinant of the value of cash holding should be the investment opportunity set of the firm.  First, liquidity is important, because without liquid assets of the firm will be forced to abandon a positive NPV project (Myers and Majluf (1984)).  This should increase the cost of cash as it is expected to increase in value of assets.  Secondly, Jensens (1986) free cash flow problem arises when the firm has a few good opportunities for investment.  If a company with sufficient cash reserves has positive NPV investment opportunities, it is likely to use these advantages instead of wasting money on unproductive ventures.  Intuition is that when two identical firms except that one has a positive NPV investment opportunities and th e other one does not have the opportunity to invest, it is likely that the first firm will spend its cash in ways more valuable to the shareholders. Hypothesis 5: The marginal value of cash is high for financially constrained firms with good investment opportunities. One of the arguments in Faulkender and Wang (2006) having a higher marginal value of cash for financially constrained firms is that when firms have positive NPV investment opportunities. The higher the cost of raising external capital is, the more likely these opportunities are foregone. Though, they do not test for it empirically. I hypothesize that the reason why financially constrained firms and firms with better investment opportunities have a higher value placed on cash when examined separately, is in fact due to the combined effect of these two criteria.  A financially constrained firm without investment opportunities is unable to make return for the cash, while a financially unconstrained firm with good investment opportunities can simply increase external funding when it needs to. Thus, financially constrained firms with good investment opportunities should have a high value placed on their cash holdings by their shareholders compared with other firms. Hypothesis 6: Firms cash holdings, on average, decrease when the cost of external capital increases. When conditions in the corporate credit market deteriorate, it often leads to a reduction in the economy (Fisher (1933)).  As firms generate less internal cash flows and at the same time, corporate credit becomes more expensive and rationed, cash reserves of firms, on average, should decline.  It was also suggested by Opler et al (1999). Hypothesis 7: When the cost of external capital is higher an extra ringgit of cash holdings is more valuable. As the supply of credit becomes more rationed and therefore more expensive, the cost of raising capital increases.  The increase in the cost of capital makes firms more likely to give up positive NPV projects due to lack of funding.  Therefore, when a credit is more rationed, cash holdings should become more valuable because they can help companies take advantage of positive NPV investment opportunities without incurring high costs of raising external capital. Methods I follow Faulkender and Wang (2006) who developed a methodology which estimates the extra value the market incorporates into equity values that result from changes in the cash position of firms over the fiscal year to measure the impact of corporate financial policy on the value of cash holdings. Since stock returns are influenced by the common risk factors, as well as changes in firm-specific characteristics it is necessary to control for both to be able to estimate the magnitude change attributed to the change in cash. The change in the value of a firm is measured by the excess return for the firm i during fiscal year t less the return of stock is benchmark portfolio during fiscal year t. Then the excess returns are regressed on changes in the characteristics of the firm.  In this case the main interest is in the estimated coefficient corresponding to the variable measuring the ratio of unexpected changes in cash of the firms lagged equity value.  Since the dependent and indepe ndent variables are standardized by lagged market value of equity, the coefficient measures the dollar change in shareholder value resulting from a change of one dollar of cash held by the firm. Faulkender and Wang (2006) methodology is in effect a long-term event study, in which event is unexpected changes in cash holdings, controlled for other factors that may impact returns over the assessment window of one year. 3.3.1 Controlling for risk-related market-wide factors To control for risk-related factors excess returns are examined that may impact a firms discount rate and return. Fama and French (1993) show that size and the book-to-market of equity clarifies ordinary variation in stock returns. To arrive at the estimate of the excess return I use the 25 Fama-French portfolios (Fama and French (1993)) formed on size, measured as market capitalization, and book-to-market value of equity ratio (BE/ME henceforth) as my benchmark portfolios. First firms are sorted by size and divided in five size groups, and then firms are sorted by BE/ME ratios and divided in five BE/ME quintiles for each year. Then I group every firm into one of BE/ME portfolios and 25 size based on the intersection between the BE/ME and size independent sorts. Firms excess return is calculated by subtracting the firm is benchmark portfolio return during fiscal year t from the firm is stock return during fiscal year t. The fiscal year, or yearly, returns are calculated using the monthly returns. Hence, the dependent variable for the baseline regression is (1) where ri,t is the stock return for firm i during fiscal year t and is stock is benchmark portfolios return during the corresponding fiscal year t. 3.3.2 Controlling for firm-specific factors It is necessary to control for variables that could be correlated with both change and returns in cash holdings to be able to examine how much the change in cash holdings impacts the change in equity value. Hence, in addition to change in cash should be regressed the excess stock return over the fiscal year on changes in a firms profitability, investment policy, and financing policy. The subsequent equation describes baseline regression: = (2) where the ΔX term indicates unforeseen change in variable X. The dependent variable is described above. The independent variables are firm-specific factors that control for sources of value other than cash or may be correlated with cash holdings. The dependent variable was described above.  Independent variables are firm-specific factors that control the sources of value, except for cash and can be correlated with cash holdings. ΔCi,t is the unforeseen change throughout fiscal year t in firm is cash holdings in balance sheet and the most significant variable in the regression. I suppose that the unforeseen change in cash holdings equals to the realized change in cash holdings throughout the fiscal year. ΔEi,t is the change throughout fiscal year t in earnings before interest and extraordinary items, and controls for profitability of firm. Firms investment changes policy are controlled by ΔNAi,t, the change throughout fiscal year t in total assets net of cash, and ΔRDi,t, the change throughout fiscal year t in RD expenditure. The financing policy is controlled by ΔIi,t which is the change throughout fiscal year t in interest expense, ΔDi,t which is the change during fiscal year t in sum dividends, Ci,t-1 which is firm is lagged cash holdings at time t-1, Li,t which is market leverage at the of fiscal year t, and finally NFi,t which is the firms net financing throughout the fiscal year t. As the stock return is also by definition divided by Mi,t-1, the standardization allows for understanding the estimated coefficients as the dollar change in value for a one-dollar change in the relevant independent variable. Sample Selection For my empirical analysis of the marginal value of cash in Malaysia and how it may have changed over time with the availability of capital from the external market I use a sample of publicly listed Malaysian firms from 1999 to 2009. The sample includes both active and inactive firms to avoid a survivorship bias. In this section I describe how I calculate the variables and from where I obtain the data. Here I will first describe how the dependent variable is calculated, and then describe the independent variables in detail. 3.4.1 Dependent variable The dependent variable is the excess return of a firms stock (Eq. (1)). The stock return for a firm i through fiscal year t, ri,t, is calculated using Total Return Index (item ReturnIndex) from Thomson Reuters Datastream database (referred as Datastream after this). The index regulates for stock splits and dividends, and therefore the most accurate measure of increase in firm equity value. 3.4.2 Independent variables The change is basically the difference between fiscal years t and t-1. In addition, all variables excluding for leverage and net financing are deflated by one-year holdup market value of equity. The variables used in Eq. (2) are measured as below: a) Ci,t and Ci,t-1 One-year holdup cash holdings and cash holdings are measured as cash and short-term investments (CashAndSTInvestments). Ever since this is the most important variable, it should be noted that firms cash holdings are considered to include marketable securities and cash in majority of academic studies. Depending on the source, these can be listed as cash and equivalent, cash and short-term investments or marketable securities and cash. Though, in addition to cash the definition can include items such as commercial papers, treasury bills and other money market investments. In general databases adjust the reported records from firm financial statements in order to make the data comparable across the firms. b) Ei,t Earnings before interest and extraordinary items are calculated as earnings before extraordinary items (IncomeBefExtraItemsCFStmt) plus interest expenses (InterestExpenseOnDebt). c) NAi,t Total assets net of cash or net assets, are calculated as total assets (TotalAssets) minus cash holdings (CashAndSTInvestments). d) RDi,t RD expenditure is simply RD expenditure (ResearchAndDevelopmentExpense). It is set to zero if missing. e) Ii,t Interest expense is measured as interest expenses on debt (InterestExpenseOnDebt). f) Di,t Total dividends are measured as common dividends paid (CommonDividendsCash). g) Li,t Ma

Oliver Twist :: essays research papers

Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist When you told us to read a book from the period which were we learning about I decided to read a book written by Charles Dickens because his works are not so complicated and are good for reading. You can find out some facts about the life in the 19th century. But Dickens wrote many books. So I decided to read Oliver Twist and I was satisfied. Setting: The main part of the novel take place in London especially in the poorer parts of the town in the 1830s. Theme: I think that it is about honest boy who is in the wrong gang. But after all he is not a criminal because ha has got a good heart. But that is what bring him many problems. But his honesty and kindness are the moral qualities which rescue him from the life of a thief. Main characters: Oliver Twist – is a young boy who is bought up as an orphan without parents. He lives in London. His moral qualities do not allow him to live as a criminal. After all troubles he find a group of kind people who gave him what he need – love and family. Mr. Brownlowe – is an old kind gentleman. He is an old friend of Oliver ´s father but nobody knows it. After all he adopted Oliver Nancy – is a young woman who lived with Sikes. She is the member of the gang but she is not a thief or a criminal. She helped Oliver more times. But she can not leave Sikes and that is her problem. Fagin – he is the â€Å"brain† of the gang. Everything what the boys stole is going to him. He is very sly and mean. He wants Oliver to be a thief. Monks – he is Oliver ´s brother. They have the same father but different mothers. He wants his money so he tried to do everything against him. Plot: Oliver Twist was born in a workhouse and his mother died a short while after. Oliver came to the world in very poor conditions. The only persons who were present were an old drunken nurse and a doctor who wasn ´t paid well to care. Oliver Twist was brought up in a special â€Å"baby farm† for orphans and poor. The only person who was carrying about these children was Mrs. Mann who kept the money ,which were for children, for herself. Oliver Twist :: essays research papers Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist When you told us to read a book from the period which were we learning about I decided to read a book written by Charles Dickens because his works are not so complicated and are good for reading. You can find out some facts about the life in the 19th century. But Dickens wrote many books. So I decided to read Oliver Twist and I was satisfied. Setting: The main part of the novel take place in London especially in the poorer parts of the town in the 1830s. Theme: I think that it is about honest boy who is in the wrong gang. But after all he is not a criminal because ha has got a good heart. But that is what bring him many problems. But his honesty and kindness are the moral qualities which rescue him from the life of a thief. Main characters: Oliver Twist – is a young boy who is bought up as an orphan without parents. He lives in London. His moral qualities do not allow him to live as a criminal. After all troubles he find a group of kind people who gave him what he need – love and family. Mr. Brownlowe – is an old kind gentleman. He is an old friend of Oliver ´s father but nobody knows it. After all he adopted Oliver Nancy – is a young woman who lived with Sikes. She is the member of the gang but she is not a thief or a criminal. She helped Oliver more times. But she can not leave Sikes and that is her problem. Fagin – he is the â€Å"brain† of the gang. Everything what the boys stole is going to him. He is very sly and mean. He wants Oliver to be a thief. Monks – he is Oliver ´s brother. They have the same father but different mothers. He wants his money so he tried to do everything against him. Plot: Oliver Twist was born in a workhouse and his mother died a short while after. Oliver came to the world in very poor conditions. The only persons who were present were an old drunken nurse and a doctor who wasn ´t paid well to care. Oliver Twist was brought up in a special â€Å"baby farm† for orphans and poor. The only person who was carrying about these children was Mrs. Mann who kept the money ,which were for children, for herself.

Speech on Smoking -- Papers

Speech on Smoking Good afternoon ladies and Gentlemen I am here today to illustrate the points against banning smoking in public places. I will be addressing the following issues 1. Whether passive smoking has a significant impact on our health 2. The Economic factor 3. The unenforceability of the act 4. How this proposition will affect society Turning to the first issue: its impact on our health. The strongest argument in favour of banning smoking in public places is that it is harmful to people who work in that environment and those who don't smoke however the reality is that we still have no conclusive evidence to suggest that passive smoking is as harmful as to health as it is made to be. The British Medical Journal on of the most influential and well respected medical journals has published an explosive new study published in May 2003 that seriously questions the impact of environmental tobacco smoke on our health and concludes that the link between environmental tobacco smoke and coronary heart disease may be considerably weaker than generally first believed. One of the few scientists who has managed to publicize attempts to measure significant exposure to environmental tobacco is Professor Robert Nilsson. He quoted findings that showed that non-smokers who consistently breathe second hand smoke are smoking the equivalent of one cigarette a week to two cigarettes a year. What is this in comparison to all the car fumes that we breathe? I ask you even if there is a weak link between environmental smoke and heart disease the answer is not take draconian measures and snatch away smoker's right to e... ...eople indefinitely without charge, which I would like to remind you is a blatant contravention of the UN declaration of Human Rights. Is this the route we want society to take a turn in, do we want this nation to become a policed state? Conclusion In conclusion I would like to say that banning smoking in public places is not only a violation of our human rights but there is also no inclusive evidence to suggest that smoking harms health. The only thing we will be harming if we this proposition is put into legislation will be our economic heath and our integral right to freedom. An amicable solution would be to provide better ventilation in public places and more smoke free areas in pubs and clubs. Surely millions did not give their life in 2 world wars, to have this great nations freedom robbed so disgustingly!

Video Games Are More Useful Than You Think Essay -- Argumentative Vide

In today’s world of video games, there are wonderful pictures, surround sound effects, and realistic graphics which encourage players to keep playing. It means when they play an action game or war game, it will have shooting shots, bloody splashes, decapitated scenes, or fighting movements. Unfortunately some people call these games causes negative effects in players. They say that violent video games cause players to become killers or terrorists. A research study on video game violence concluded, â€Å"There is no evidence to show proof of the relationship between computer game violence and violence in children above the age of 8.† (Stuart, 2014) Moreover, millions of people play violent video games and never commit crimes. Actually video games have been established for long time ago – more than 20 years before the violent video games became a mainstream industry around the world. Vidoe games provide player with numerous benefits. More than hundred reasons that make video games violent are good for people who really love to play an action video game. Video games create benefits for players both directly and indirectly ways. First of all, the clear advantage of video games is a video game introduces children to computers and the internet technology because nowadays most games are involved with the internet. (Farrales) Then the video games avoid drugs and uninvolved with gangsters. Because when children or teenagers begin to play games inside the home rather than being on the streets and join the gangsters, or use any drugs. Moreover, the players are training for cooperation skills between making their brain move fast to moving their hands, and having sharp eyes for catch up. Consequently, the players increase their potential of co... ...ResearchPaper.htm#effects ) Nadeau, Brandon. â€Å"Video Games Make Society Less Violent.† American Now. The Daily Campus., The University of Connecticut. October 21, 2012 Stuart, Keith. "Video games are not making us more violent, study shows" Guardian News and Media Limited, Monday 10 November 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/10/video-games-violent-study-finds Kalning, Kristin. â€Å"Does game violence make teens aggressive?† Dec. 8, 2012 (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16099971/) Pratt, Bill. â€Å"The Advantages of Video Games.† April 25, 2013 (http://www.articlesbase.com/web-hosting-articles/the-advantages-of-video-games-395921.html) Taylor, Laurie N. â€Å"Positive Features of Video Games.† Handbook of Children, Culture, and Violence. Eds. Nancy E. Dowd, Dorothy G. Singer, and Robin Fretwell Wilson. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2006.

Our Journey to the New World

For Two days Martha rode in the back of the dusty wagon and cried. She was one big mess. Feeling sorry for herself, and mad at the whole family. Pa stopped the wagon, and everybody got out to eat, Everybody but Martha. She just sat where she was, moping instead of crying, till she'd run out of tears. â€Å"Martha Madison, are you going to eat something?' asked ma. â€Å"You know I can't swallow when I'm upset,† she told Ma. â€Å"Leave her be,† said Pa. â€Å"My Martha has a mind and a stomach of her own.† â€Å"I'll take her gingerbread,† said Billy. He was Martha's older brother, only one year older. Ma plunked Bob on Martha's lap. â€Å"Well, if you're not going to eat, how about looking after your baby brother?† Bob was a cute little rascal, but Martha was busy thinking about her home back in Jackson, Mississippi and her friend Denis. Martha missed her home and wanted to go back home. Denis and Martha swore to be friends forever, but the creaky old wagon was putting more miles between them everyday. Billy and Bob liked traveling in the wagon, the same with Pa. Ma wasn't the complaining sort, but Martha just hated traveling. Ma said to many times to Martha, â€Å"Your Pa's got itchy feet. He's a traveling man and he'll keep on moving west till we run out of land.† Everybody was excited about going to Saint Joseph, Missouri. It was where Pa was bringing them to join a wagon train headed for Oregon. It took them two weeks to reach Saint Joe. When they got to Saint Joe it was Pa and Billy who turn to be disappointed. They were too late for the wagon train. It had been gone for a week. They'd have to wait a month for the next one. After their long miserable ride from Jackson things moved pretty fast. By late afternoon they were set up in two little rooms on Mudd Street. And Pa found a job with the New West Harness Company. Martha and Ma had supper ready. They all crowded around the table and joined hands. Pa said grace and they all said â€Å"Amen.† After supper Ma spread two blankets on the floor for Martha and Billy. Pa and Ma and Bob took the big bed in the other room. And everyone was sound asleep. Pa worked all day at the New West Harness Company. â€Å"Missing that wagon train may turn out to be a blessing,† said Pa. â€Å"Why?† said Ma. â€Å"It'll give me time to bargain for all the things we'll need for Oregon,† answered Pa. First Pa bought extra oxen. Then he traded their old wagon in for a big new one with a canvas top. â€Å"How does she look?† he cried. â€Å"Looks like a cross between a boat and a wagon,† said Ma. â€Å"That's why they call these contraptions prairie schooners,† said Pa. â€Å"We're going to sail her all the way to Oregon!† shouted Billy. Martha had to laugh. The wagon did look like a ship, with its big white canvas top. There small rooms in the wagon were crammed with things for the trip. Bags of dried beans, tin buckets of lard and brown sugar, and jars of apple jelly all these things crowded around their beds. When Martha looked up at night, Martha was staring at slabs of bacon and dried beef hanging from the ceiling. â€Å"We'll need enough food to last us through six months,† said Ma. Saint Joe was filling up fast. New wagons pulled in, crammed with goods and people. New children and dogs were all over the place. Martha's worries came to her head the day Pa said, â€Å"Time to pack the wagon. Captain Jonah, the trail boss, says the train moves tomorrow.† Billy and Pa loaded all the heavy boxes into the wagon. â€Å"It's going to hard to fit everything in the wagon,† she said. â€Å"But all of us ought to have our own little space. You can take anything you want, as long as it fits into your box.† Martha took out her box out to the porch. It wouldn't hold much. Maybe the box would hold her doll with the china head and her hair ribbons. Leaving Saint Joe was going to be just as bad a leaving Jackson. At breakfast Pa said grace. â€Å"Dear Lord, give us a good journey and safekeeping. And bring us finally to Oregon if it be thy will.† Everyone rolled up there bedding and put it in the wagon. Martha helped Ma hang her pots on big hooks on the outside of the wagon. Pa said, â€Å"I'm going to drive the wagon to the front of the house. Just to see how she pulls.† They all watched. Billy bounced up beside Pa. â€Å"Giddup!† shouted Pa. The oxen strained under the load. The wagon jerked forward. â€Å"She rides real smooth,† called Pa. â€Å"Everybody hop in.† Ma climbed up with Bob. The grove outside Saint Joe where the wagon train formed looked like a big campground. Children ran yelling and playing around the wagons, dogs joined in, barking and chasing after kids. Pa finally found Captain Jonah. He gave Pa a number for our wagon number 49. Billy asked Pa if he could carve the number on the side of the wagon. â€Å"You can do more than that,† said Pa. â€Å"We've got to keep track of the days. Carve a notch for each weekday and a long mark for each Sunday.† Martha felt cheated. Pa always gave Billy the important things to do. But Pa surprised Martha. â€Å"Come with me, Martha girl,† he said. â€Å"I've got a special job for you.† Pa lifted up a round tin can from under the wagon seat. Then he showed Martha how to put axle grease on the big wagon wheels. â€Å"Every day it gets dark I want you to grease each wheel, Martha. Then check all the spokes for cracks. Let me know if you find anything wrong.† said Pa. Martha stared at the big wheels. They were as tall as her. Pa said, â€Å"It's these wheels that will get us to Oregon. You've got a sharp eye, Martha. I'm trusting our wheels to you.† Pa managed to get there wagon through all the confusion. Finally they found wagon number 48. They pulled up right behind it. Toward the front of the line they could hear a lot of shouting. â€Å"I can't make it out,† said Pa At first Martha couldn't make it out either. Then she got it clear. â€Å"They're shouting, ‘Wagons, ho!† she cried. The air was ringing with â€Å"Wagons, ho!† too. Martha thought it was pretty exciting, before she knew it she was yelling, â€Å"Wagons, ho!† too. The white tops of the wagons in front of us started bobbing up and down. â€Å"Giddup!† shouted Pa. â€Å"Oregon, here we come!† yelled Billy. Martha crawled over the boxes and sacks to the back of the wagon. She raised the lid of her box, and there she saw her doll. â€Å"We're on our way, Miss Chocolate,† she whispered. â€Å"So far, so good.† The canvas topped wagons were like ovens. Billy and Martha found out they could walk as fast as the train moved. It was cooler to walk, too. The first day they were walking beside the wagon, she met a big girl who was in wagon 48. She was a sight. Wild, curly, carrot colored hair shot out in all directions around her head. Her calico dress looked about two sizes too large. She wore it hitched up so you could see the big brogan shoes on her feet. This big headed girl walked right up to Martha and said, â€Å"My name's Laura Smith. What's yours?† â€Å"Martha Madison,† she told her. â€Å"Let's be friends, I'll look after you,† said Laura. â€Å"But I don't need anybody to look after me,† Martha told her. â€Å"Rats!† she said. â€Å"Everybody needs a friend, and I am the best looker you'll ever meet. I do all the looking after for my Pa.† â€Å"What about your Ma?† asked Martha. â€Å"Ma's dead a year now,† she said. â€Å"And you cook and wash and do everything?† asked Martha. â€Å"Everything,† boomed Laura. â€Å"Promised Ma I'd look after Pa.† Then Laura said, â€Å"Stick with me, honey. You won't have a thing to worry about. Let's shake on it.† When the shadows started getting long, a message came down the line of wagons. â€Å"Campsite for the night about a mile ahead,† yelled the scout. By the time they made the circle with the wagons it was late afternoon. Pa and Billy unhitched the oxen to let them graze on grass. Martha helped Ma get a cook fire started. Then Martha got the tin bucket from under the wagon seat and greased the wheels. She felt every spoke till they were smooth as glass. Supper on the prairie that first night was delicious. Cook fires circled the big camp. There was lots of visiting back and forth. Laura came barreling over to there campfire. She didn't give Martha a chance to even introduce her. â€Å"I'm Laura Smith,† she said, grabbing first Ma's, then Pa's hand. When she went to Billy, he stepped back and just nodded his head. â€Å"Welcome,† said Ma. â€Å"Would you like some coffee?† â€Å"No, I'm full as a boardinghouse bedbug,† said Lauren, patting her stomach. Everyone laughed. Then Laura settled down with them like a longtime friend. In one of the wagons someone was playing a fiddle. Martha looked up at the sky. About a million sparkling stars were winking at her. It was a perfect night. From the first day, Billy was asking, â€Å"When are we going to see some buffalo?† But he had carved ten notches on the wagon before we spotted any. â€Å"I'd sure like to see one of them beasts up close!† he cried. â€Å"I like them right where they are,† Martha said. In a way Martha soon got a lot closer to the buffalo. They ran out of firewood and had to burn dried buffalo droppings. They were called â€Å"chips.† The longer they were on the trail, the hotter it got. Everybody was glad to see the sun set. At least it was cooler at night. But when night came, so did thousands of buffalo gnats. The only way to keep from being eaten alive was to sit close to the campfires. The gnats hated smoke more than they liked humans. Martha sneaked over to Laura's wagon , and got dozens of bites. Late one afternoon Laura and Martha were counting the notches Billy had carved. â€Å"It's hard to believe we've been on the trail almost three weeks,† Martha commented. â€Å"Not for me,† said Laura. â€Å"I feel like I've already walked three thousand miles and picked up a million buffalo chips!† While they were laughing, Martha heard a rumbling sound. â€Å"You hear that?† asked Martha. â€Å"Sounds like thunder,† said Laura. From the front of the train two scouts came riding towards them. â€Å"Swing the wagons in a circle!† they shouted. â€Å"What's wrong?† asked Pa. â€Å"Buffalo stampede!† shouted the scouts. The rumbling was growing louder. Laura ran to her wagon. In a few minutes the wagons were in a raged circle. Ma and Martha ducked under the wagon with Bob. Pa and Billy grabbed guns and crawled behind the big wagon wheels. All Martha could see was a big dark cloud mobbing towards them. â€Å"Where are the buffalo?† Martha asked. â€Å"In the dust cloud,† said Pa. â€Å"There must be thousands of them.† Captain Jonah rode up. â€Å"Have your guns ready!† he shouted. â€Å"But don't shoot until I give you the order.† The buffalo were close. Martha could taste dust in her mouth. Then, in the moving dust cloud, she saw them. They were packed tight, like a solid wall. Their heads were down. Their tails were in the air. The ground shook under their pounding hooves. â€Å"Hold your fire!† commanded Captain Jonah. Martha was sure the buffalo would crush them any second. She closed her eyes. â€Å"Fire! Fire! Fire!,† shouted Captain Jonah. The guns barked and Martha's eyes flew open. Several buffalo in the front of the pack crumpled to the ground. More and more piled up behind them. But one huge wounded beast kept coming. He plowed into a wagon near there's. There was this sickening thud. The wagon rolled over. Martha heard screams and more gunfire's. The huge shaggy buffalo was slumped against a schooner. A red stain was spreading in the sand around the dead buffalo. Martha felt sick. But the gunfire was working. The solid line of buffalo split in the middle. They turned away from the pile of dead buffalo and ran past the wagons. Martha could see hundreds of brown shaggy legs flying by their wagon. â€Å"We've broken the stampede!† shouted Captain Jonah. The mad, rushing buffalo swung wide of the wagons. Soon the last of the huge herd passed them by. The dust began to settle. The thundering roar of the stampede faded away. â€Å"We're safe now,† said Pa. â€Å"I'm going over to help the folks under the wagon and shook the dust off. Back at the wagon Pa told us we were going to stay put for the night. â€Å"It'll give us time to skin some buffalo for supper,† he said. Billy went to skin the dead buffalo. Martha started greasing the wagon wheels. The men came back with big buffalo steaks. Ma fixed some for there supper. Martha couldn't eat the tough meat. Martha stared out across the starlit prairie. She felt so lonely. As far as she could see there was nothing just flat prairie stretching on and on. â€Å"Where is your Pa?† asked Captain Jonah. â€Å"Over there,† Grasped Martha, pointing in the opposite direction. The Captain rode away, in a hurry. When Pa came back to there wagon, he said we would make camp early. â€Å"Why?† asked Ma. â€Å"Indians,† said Pa. â€Å"They've been tracking us all day.† For three days the scouts reported: â€Å"Indians still tracking us.† â€Å"They probably only want to do some trading,† Captain Jonah reassured us. â€Å"The important thing is that no one panics and does something foolish. I've brought many wagon trains through Indian country and I had never had any real trouble.† It was late in the afternoon on the fourth day when Martha saw them. At first they were tiny specks bobbing up and down far out on the plains. â€Å"They're on horseback,† said Laura. The scouts rushes up shouting, â€Å"Circle the wagons!† As soon as the circle was made, Pa grabbed his gun. Then he joined the men lined up behind Captain Jonah. Martha peeked through a slit in the canvas. A long line of Indians on horseback were moving slowly toward them. It was so still and quiet, Martha could hear everyone breathing in the wagon. Suddenly the Indians stopped. Captain Jonah made a sign with his hands. An Indian who must have been the chief returned Captain Jonah's sign. Then Captain Jonah and the chief rode out and met in the middle. For a few minutes they talked, and made signs with their hands. Then Captain Jonah turned and went back to his men. The chief did the same. Crack! A single gunshot rang out from one of there wagons. The pony one of the young Indians was ridding stumbled and crashed to the ground. The rider went down with him. Our scouts raced back toward the wagon train, yelling, â€Å"Hold your fire!† The Indians pulled up around the wounded pony and the fallen rider. Captain Jonah dashed up to them and jumped off his horse. Martha was sure the Indians would kill him. Why didn't the scouts go to his rescue? Instead the scouts kept yelling, â€Å"For God's sake, don't shoot!† In a few minutes that seemed to last forever, the crowd around the fallen rider parted. The young Indian who had gone down with the pony looked dead. The captain rushed back to the wagons. The Indians made a long line facing them. They just stood there, silent and threatening. â€Å"Who fired that shot?† demanded the captain angrily. Two scouts dragged a man from wagon 42. â€Å"That was a stupid thing to do, Ned Butcher!† shouted the captain. Ned stared to protest. But Captain Jonah shouted, â€Å"I don't care about your excuses. I only care about the safety of the folks on this wagon train. I could hang you for disobeying orders. Or I could just hand you over to the Indians.† Ned's wife rushed up to Captain Jonah. She stared to pleading with him. Captain Jonah motioned her away. â€Å"All they wanted was to trade hides for blankets and sugar. Now the stakes are higher. Thank God the boy's only stunned. But the pony is dead. Either we supply them with two oxen and sugar and blankets, or we can expect an attack. Those are the terms!† The men started shouting all at once. Captain Jonah held up his hand for silence. â€Å"They're going to sit there for a half hour. If we don't have the oxen and other stuff outside the wagon train by then, they're going to come swooping down on us. I've told the chief we'd meet their demands.† â€Å"Ned Butcher, you have 4 oxen. Unhitch two of them for the Indians,† commanded the captain. â€Å"But only two oxen can't pull my wagon,† Ned protested. â€Å"You can lighten your load by dumping some of it right here.† â€Å"Every wagon must give a pound of sugar and a blanket,† said Captain Jonah. â€Å"And be quick about it! Our time is running out.† In just a few minutes every person piled up a great mound of blankets and sugar. Captain Jonah and the scouts brought out the two oxen. They staked them by the sugar and blankets. Then everyone pulled back behind the wagons. â€Å"Keep your guns ready, men. But don't make a move unless I give order!† shouted Captain Jonah. Suddenly the still, silent line of Indians plodded. They came racing toward them. They were yelling and waving guns and spears, kicking up clouds of dust. Martha expected arrows and bullets to rip through the wagon any second. When the Indians reached the staked oxen, the pile of blankets and sugar, the Indians stopped in a cloud of dust. Suddenly the wagon train started to move out. When Martha looked back, the Indians were dividing up the blankets and sugar. They were chattering and laughing and didn't seem the least bit warlike. That night as they sat around the campfire, they celebrated there coming to Oregon. In the morning Captain Jonah pushed the wagon train hard after the Indian scare. â€Å"This is the hard part of the trip,† he said. â€Å"We've got a tough river to ford before we cross the mountains.† â€Å"But the oxen are worn out,† one of the men protested. â€Å"Get out of the wagons and walk!† snapped the captain. Then he made it an order. â€Å"Everybody walks from here on.† All of them plodded along beside our wagons in the boiling sun. â€Å"If you had three wishes, what would you wish for?† Laura asked Martha. â€Å"Ice, ice, and more ice!† â€Å"Your wishes wouldn't last a minute in this heat,† said Laura. They kept walking in the whole terrible heat. One day they came upon a long line of boxes, trunks, and furniture scattered beside the trail. Lauren and Martha ran over to see what was in the trunks. â€Å"Keep moving!† shouted one of the scouts. â€Å"Just count yourself lucky we don't have to dump all our goods. Take a like over there!† Martha gasped. Sun bleached skeletons of oxen lay in the sand. â€Å"Their teams gave out,† explained the scout. â€Å"They doubled up and went on as best they could. Move along now. We've got a river to ford up ahead. By the time they reached the river, the scouts were struggling to get ropes strung across. The muddy water looked ready to overflow the riverbanks. The oxen had a hard time making it across. But finally the scouts got two short ropes anchored across the river. Then the captain gave the signal. â€Å"One driver to a wagon, everybody else, over on the ropes!† he ordered. Pa drove there big schooner into the river. â€Å"She floats like a boat!† he called They plunged into the water. Martha could see Laura up ahead on the rope. At first it felt good just to be cool again. Then in the deeper water Martha began to feel the strong pull of the undertow. Billy called behind Martha. â€Å"Hey, this is fun!† Martha was about to tell him to hold tight, since he'd soon be in the undertow. But Billy shouted again. â€Å"Look, no hands!† Martha turned, there he was, treading water with both hands off the rope. â€Å"Billy!† called Martha. â€Å"Stop that!† You know you can't swim!† He struck the undertow and went under like a rock. Martha was so frighten, she couldn't even call for help. Billy popped back up right next to her. He was coughing and spitting water. Martha grabbed his arm. But she was thrashing around so wildly, Martha lost her grip on the rope. They both went whirling toward the center of the river. They shot right past Ma and Bob. Ma screamed. Martha was sure they were lost. But she still held on to Billy, but his head kept on bobbing under. Then she hit something. Something hard that sent pain shooting up her arm. It was Laura's wagon. Martha grabbed it. Then she pulled Billy up close, where she could keep his head above water. He coughed, and spit more muddy water. â€Å"Grab the wagon!† She yelled. He clawed at the side of the wagon and found a pot hook to hang on to. Martha was afraid to let him go. But her arm was hurting so, she didn't know how long she could hold on. Suddenly Laura was there with her arms around both Billy and Martha. She had them penned against the wagon. â€Å"Hang on!† she cried. â€Å"You all right, Billy?† He spit more water and mumbled, â€Å"I'm fine.† â€Å"You don't look too bad for someone who's just drunk half a river,† said Lauren. â€Å"How about you, Martha?† Martha was scared to death, and her arm was hurting something fierce. Laura clung to the wagon with them until they were across the river. Everyone cheered as they staggered up the muddy riverbank to safety. The three of them flopped on the ground and sat there, completely worn out. â€Å"Oregon's on the other side,† announced Captain Jonah. â€Å"We've got a hard ride up, but an easy ride down. Let's start climbing!† They all still had to walk. And when the trail got steeper, they had to help push the heavy wagons. But the coolness in the mountains felt good. The rocky trail was hard on wheels. Every day a wagon would have to pull out of line to fix a broken wheel. Martha still took care of their wheels. Even though her arm was hurt, she wouldn't let Billy take over. She was superstitious about them. When the last one was checked, she'd pat it and say, â€Å"Lucky wheels! You'll get us there!† Well, the luck played out before they reached the crest of the mountains. The whole family plus Laura's was pushing there wagon up a steep part of the trail. Crack! There left front wheel hit a big rock. â€Å"Knocked the iron rim completely off!† cried Pa. â€Å"We'll have to drop out of line and fix it.† â€Å"How long will it take?† Martha asked Pa. â€Å"Maybe half a day,† he answered. Captain Jonah rode up. â€Å"Tough luck,† he said. â€Å"We're less than a day away from the crest. Then it's easy going. Tell you what we'll do. I'll camp an hour early tonight and start out an hour later tomorrow. That'll give you time to catch up.† Pa thanked the captain. Then he rode off and left them to tend the broken wheel. Martha was scared seeing all the wagons go, and being left behind. By the time Pa fixed the wheel, it was dark. â€Å"Hurry! We've got miles to make up,† he said. And he pushed the oxen as fast as he dared. â€Å"Pray for a bright moon,† said Pa. â€Å"Driving by night is the only way we're going to catch up.† But low hanging clouds blocked out the moon and the stars. It started to rain. â€Å"We'll have to stop,† said Pa. â€Å"It's foolhardy to go on.† â€Å"Might as well try to get some sleep,† Ma said. Martha then realized it stopped raining. A bright patch of moonlight cut through the back of the wagon. â€Å"The moons out! It's so bright you can see everything! Pa! Pa! Martha called. Wake up! The rain's stopped. We can get moving!† Pa jumped up â€Å"By golly, our luck's changed. We'll catch up now!† he cried. Day was breaking when we saw the wagon train camp on the crest of the mountains. When we pulled into camp, Lauren ran to meet their wagon. â€Å"I knew you'd make it!† she shouted. I've got breakfast ready. As they had breakfast the sun suddenly popped out, round and red and beautiful. Captain Jonah's big voice boomed, â€Å"Look, folks. There it is. That's Oregon down there!† From there high perch you could see miles of wild, beautiful valleys stretching before them. For a moment no one said anything. Then Martha let out a yell and turned a cartwheel. Pa put his arm around Ma. â€Å"Now, this looks like our Journey to the New World.†