All About Smoking in the Philippines Essay

The campaign against smoking, which kills close to 90,000 people a year in the Philippines – on a par with the number of deaths in natural disasters or conflicts – is becoming a losing battle. â€Å"My friends look so cool smoking,† Arnold Santos of Mandaluyong City said, who took up the habit out of peer pressure. â€Å"Now, I smoke 10 cigarettes a day,† the 17-year-old, who has no plans of quitting just yet, said. Despite the passage of the Tobacco Control Act, more Filipino youths are now smoking, â€Å"indicating that the law has not been effective†, Maricar Limpin, executive director of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines (FCAP), said. The 2003 act sets both the guidelines for and regulation of the packaging, sale, distribution and advertisements of tobacco products. Among others, it mandates the printing of warnings in either English or Filipino of the harmful effects of smoking. Yet a recent global youth tobacco survey showed that smoking prevalence among Filipino youth had jumped from 15 percent in 2003 to 21.6 percent in 2007. â€Å"We are losing the war against smoking,† Limpin conceded. At least 240 Filipinos die each day – 87,600 a year – from smoking-related diseases such as lung cancer, cardiac arrest, stroke and other chronic-obstructive lung failures, the health department reported. These figures are based on the 2005-2006 Tobacco and Poverty Study in the Philippines conducted by the College of Public Health of the University of the Philippines, National Epidemiology Center of the Department of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO). The figures are higher than Malaysia and Vietnam, where 10,000 and 40,000 people respectively die each year from smoking-related diseases, but lower than Indonesia, where 400,000 people die annually. Graphic warnings Since 2007, separate bills have been pending with lawmakers to introduce the printing of graphic health warnings. An FCAP survey on 10,000 Filipino youths revealed they were more receptive to graphic warnings than text warnings. Limpin said the survey showed that the graphic design had a better ability to convey the health risks related to smoking and some said it stopped them from buying cigarettes. While the visual warning has little effect on long-time smokers, preventing young people from taking up the habit would deny tobacco companies a new market, Limpin said. â€Å"The industry knows that the introduction of graphic warnings threatens its future market,† Limpin said. In the Senate, the bill is now being discussed in the plenary. But in the House, composed of district and party list representatives from all 78 provinces, the bill has not passed the committee level because of opposition from legislators. â€Å"It is being blocked because of fears it could kill the tobacco industry,† Northern Samar Rep. Paul Daza, main author of the anti-smoking bill, said. According to the National Tobacco Authority, more than 57,000 farmers are engaged in tobacco farming. La Union Rep. Victor Francisco said the main flaw of the bill was that it would raise the prices of local tobacco products compared with imports. To compete, local manufacturers would have no choice but to increase their prices because of the additional cost, he said. In addition, the bill failed to factor in the repercussions on local livelihoods; almost two million people depend on the tobacco industry. â€Å"Our tobacco farmers, especially in the north, cannot easily shift to other crops because the soil is not compatible with other produce,† Francisco said. The WHO’s Tobacco Framework Convention on Tobacco, to which the Philippines is a signatory, recommends the use of effective campaigns against tobacco consumption. Article 11 requires that state signatories adopt effective measures by September 2008, but the Philippines missed the deadline. Filed under medicine, philippines Harmful Health Effects Of Smoking Cigarettes The harmful health effects of smoking cigarettes presented in the list below only begin to convey the long term side effects of smoking. Quitting makes sense for many reasons but simply put: smoking is bad for health. Harmful Effects of Smoking * Every year hundreds of thousands of people around the world die from diseases caused by smoking cigarettes – Smoking KILLS. * One in two lifetime smokers will die from their habit. Half of these deaths will occur in middle age. * Tobacco smoke also contributes to a number of cancers. * The mixture of nicotine and carbon monoxide in each cigarette you smoke temporarily increases your heart rate and blood pressure, straining your heart and blood vessels. * This can cause heart attacks and stroke. It slows your blood flow, cutting off oxygen to your feet and hands. Some smokers end up having their limbs amputated. * Tar coats your lungs like soot in a chimney and causes cancer. A 20-a-day smoker breathes in up to a full cup (210 g) of tar in a year. * Changing to low-tar cigarettes does not help because smokers usually take deeper puffs and hold the smoke in for longer, dragging the tar deeper into their lungs. * Carbon monoxide robs your muscles, brain and body tissue of oxygen, making your whole body and especially your heart work harder. Over time, your airways swell up and let less air into your lungs. * Smoking causes disease and is a slow way to die. The strain of smoking effects on the body often causes years of suffering. Emphysema is an illness that slowly rots your lungs. People with emphysema often get bronchitis again and again, and suffer lung and heart failure. * Lung cancer from smoking is caused by the tar in tobacco smoke. Men who smoke are ten times more likely to die from lung cancer than non-smokers. * Heart disease and strokes are also more common among smokers than non-smokers. * Smoking causes fat deposits to narrow and block blood vessels which leads to heart attack. * Smoking causes around one in five deaths from heart disease. * In younger people, three out of four deaths from heart disease are due to smoking. * Cigarette smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of low birth weight, prematurity, spontaneous abortion, and perinatal mortality in humans, which has been referred to as the fetal tobacco syndrome. As mentioned earlier, this list can only begin to convey the harmful health effects of smoking cigarettes and its long term side effects. Next we consider reasons why smoking is bad for those around you in the effects of second hand smoke. Quit-Smoking-Stop.com  ©2011 Len Johnson. All Rights Reserved. – Medical Disclaimer – Privacy – Advantages and Disadvantages of Smoking Smoking is a bad habit widespread among teenagers.It contains dangerous items which destroy the human brain and lungs. It causes different diseases such as cancer in different areas in the human body. From the religious point of view,it’s prohibited . There are different clear versuses in the Holy Qura’n as God says;†Don’t throw yourself in the destroy.† The reason of the teenagers’ smoking is based on psychologica factors.Through smoking they think they show people that they are adult and can do whatever they want. Advantages and Disadvantages of Smoking The great tobacco debate has been going on for years. Ever since it was determined that smoking cigarettes causes lung cancer, along with a host of other diseases, non-smokers have been railing against the evils of cigarettes, while many smokers have clung to their tobacco like a miser with his last penny. But the question is, are the smokers right? Are there indeed advantages to tobacco use? Die-hard cigarette users claim many benefits to smoking, some are the following: * Peer group acceptance if peers smoke * Effective weight loss aid * Performance enhancement in tasks requiring * concentration * Stress relief * Some smokers truly enjoy the taste There are issues with most of these perceived advantages. If a smoker attempts to change peer groups, they could find smoking to be a barrier to acceptance. The performance enhancement is minimal after the first few cigarettes a smoker has in their lifetime; from that point on, it is just a perception of enhancement based on the memory of those initial cigarettes. Weight loss and stress relief could be as effectively obtained by other, healthier means. Therefore the only valid advantage is if a smoker really enjoys the taste, but one has to wonder if they don’t enjoy the taste of the cigarette merely because they cannot taste anything else. The disadvantages to smoking are far more numerous, and much harder to argue against, a sampling of them include: * Death from disease caused by smoking * Diseases (even if they don’t cause death) * Lung Cancer * Throat Cancer * Mouth Cancer * Many other types of cancer have also been linked to tobacco use * Emphysema * COPD * Asthma * Decreased lung function * Advanced signs of aging * Cost of cigarettes, applicable taxes and paraphernalia such as lighters * Decreased acceptance by non-smoking peers * The lingering odor of smoke on body and clothing * Lowered ability to exercise due to inability to breathe * Cost of stop-smoking aids when the decision to quit is made It is clear that the disadvantages of smoking far outweigh any perceived advantages. While there is a cost associated with quitting, over time the damage smoking had done to the body can reverse itself if a person ceases tobacco use. This puts that cost into perspective, especially when compared to the thousands of dollars spent every year on smoking. With all the disadvantages to continued smoking and no real advantages to it, isn’t it time you saved your health and your money by putting in the effort to become tobacco-free? How To Quit Smoking†¦And Quit For Keeps U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Public Health Service National Institutes of HealthINTRODUCTIONThis guides you from thinking about stopping through actually doing it – from the day you quit to quitting for keeps. It gives tips on fighting temptation – and what to do if you give in – and on avoiding weight gain (a handy Snack Calorie Chart is included). By telling you what to expect, it can help you through the day-to-day process of becoming and remaining a nonsmoker.Here you’ll find a variety of tips and helpful hints on kicking your smoking habit. Take a few moments to look at each suggestion carefully. Pick those you feel comfortable with, and decide today that you’re going to use them to quit. It may take a while to find the combination that’s right for you, but you can quit for good, even if you’ve tried to quit before.Many smokers have successfully given up cigarettes by replacing them with new habits, without quittin g â€Å"cold turkey,† planning a special program, or seeking professional help. The following approaches include many of those most popular with ex-smokers. Remember that successful methods are as different as the people who use them. What may seem silly to others may be just what you need to quit – so don’t be embarrassed to try something new. These methods can make your own personal efforts a little easier.Pick the ideas that make sense to you. And then follow through – you’ll have a much better chance of success. PREPARING YOURSELF FOR  QUITTING†¦ * Decide positively that you want to quit. Try to avoid negative thoughts about how difficult it might be. * List all the reasons you want to quit. Every night before going to bed, repeat one of the reasons 10 times. * Develop strong personal reasons in addition to your health and obligations to others. For example, think of all the time you waste taking cigarette breaks, rushing out to buy a pack, hunting for a light, etc. * Begin to condition yourself physically: Start a modest exercise program; drink more fluids; get plenty of rest; and avoid fatigue. * Set a target date for quitting – perhaps a special day such as your birthday, your anniversary, or the Great American Smokeout. If you smoke heavily at work, quit during your vacation so that you’re already committed to quitting when you return. Make the date sacred, and don’t let anything change it. This will make it easy for you to keep track of the day you became a nonsmoker and to celebrate that date every year.| | | KNOWING WHAT TO EXPECT†¦ * Have realistic expectations – quitting isn’t easy, but it’s not impossible either. More than 3 million Americans quit every year. * Understand that withdrawal symptoms are TEMPORARY. They usually last only 1-2 weeks. * Know that most relapses occur in the first week after quitting, when withdrawal symptoms are strongest and your body is still dependent on nicotine. Be aware that this will be your hardest time, and use all your personal resources – willpower, family, friends, and the tips in this booklet – to get you through this critical period successfully. * Know that most other relapses occur in the first 3 mo nths after quitting, with situational triggers – such as a particularly stressful event – occur unexpectedly. These are the times when people reach for cigarettes automatically, because they associate smoking with relaxing. This is the kind of situation that’s hard to prepare yourself for until it happens, so it’s especially important to recognize it if it does happen. Remember that smoking is a habit, but a habit you can break. * Realize that most successful ex-smokers quit for good only after several attempts. You may be one of those who can quit your first try. But if you’re not, DON’T GIVE UP. Try again.INVOLVING SOMEONE ELSE†¦ * Bet a friend you can quit on your target date. Put your cigarette money aside for every day, and forfeit it if you smoke. (But if you do smoke, DON’T GIVE UP. Simply strengthen your resolve and try again.) * Ask your spouse or a friend to quit with you. * Tell your family and friends that you’re quitting and when. They can be an important source of support, both before and after you quit. * Alta Mira Recovery offers an inpatient nicotine cessation program designed for long-term, chronic smokers.WAYS OF QUITTING†¦Switch brands * Switch to a brand you find distasteful. * Change to a brand that’s low in tar and nicotine a couple of weeks before your target date. This will help change your smoking behavior. However, DO NOT smoke more cigarettes, inhale them more often or more deeply, or place your fingertips over the holes in the filters. All of these will increase your nicotine intake, and the idea is to get your body used to functioning without nicotine.Cut down the number of cigarettes you smoke * Smoke only half of each cigarette. * Each day, postpone lighting your first cigarette 1 hour. * Decide you’ll smoke only during odd or even hours of the day. * Decide beforehand how many cigarettes you’ll sm oke during the day. For each additional cigarette, give a dollar to your favorite charity. * Change your eating habits to help you cut down. For example, drink milk, which many people consider incompatible with smoking. End meals or snacks with something that won’t lead to a cigarette. * Reach for a glass of juice instead of a cigarette for a â€Å"pick-me-up.† * Remember: Cutting down can help you quit, but it’s not a substitute for quitting. If you’re down to about seven cigarettes a day, it’s time to set your target date and get ready to stick to it.Don’t Smoke â€Å"Automatically† * Smoke only those cigarettes you really want. Catch yourself before you light up a cigarette out of pure habit. * Don’t empty your ashtrays. This will remind you of how many cigarettes you’ve smoked each day, and the sight and smell of stale butts will be very unpleasant. * Make yourself aware of each cigarette by using the opposite hand or putting cigarettes in an unfamiliar location or a different pocket to break the automatic reach. * If you light up many times during the day without even thinking about it, try to look in a mirror each time you put a match to your cigarette – you may decide you don’t need it.Make smoking inconvenient * Stop buying cigarettes by the carton. Wait until one pack is empty before you buy another. * Stop carrying cigarettes with you at home and at work. Make them difficult to get to.Make smoking unpleasant * Smoke only under circumstances that aren’t especially pleasurable for you. If you like to smoke with others, smoke alone. Turn your chair toward an empty corner and  focus only on the cigarette you are smoking and its many negative effects. * Collect all you cigarette butts in one large glass container as a visual reminder of the filth smoking represents.JUST BEFORE QUITTING†¦ * Practice going without cigarettes. * Don’t think of NEVER smoking again. Think of quitting in terms of 1 day at a time. * Tell yourself you won’t smoke today, and then don’t. * Clean your clothes to rid them of the cigarette smell, which can linger a long time.ON THE DAY YOU QUIT†¦ * Throw away all your cigarettes and matches. Hide your lighters and ashtrays. * Visit the dentist and have your teeth cleaned to get rid of tobacco stains. Notice how nice they look, and resolve to keep them that way. * Make a list of things you’d like to buy for yourself or someone else. Estimate the cost in terms of packs of cigarettes, and put the money aside to buy these presents. * Keep very busy on the big day. Go to the movies, exercise, take long walks, go bike riding. * Remind your family and friends that this is your quit date, and ask them to help you over the rough spots of the first couple of days and weeks. * Buy yourself a treat or do something special to celebrate.IMMEDIATELY AFTER QUITTING†¦ * Develop a clean, fresh, nonsmoking environment around yourself – at work and at home. Buy yourself flowers – you may be surprised how much you can enjoy their scent now. * The first few days after you quit smoking, spend as much free time as possible in places where smoking isn’t allowed, such as libraries, museums, theaters, department stores, and churches. * Drink large quantities of water and fruit juice (but avoid sodas that contain caffeine). * Try to avoid alcohol, coffee, and other beverages that you associate with cigarette smoking. * Strike up a conversation instead of a match for a cigarette. * If you miss the sensation of having a cigarette in your hand, play with something else – a pencil, a paper clip, a marble. * If you miss having something in your mouth, try toothpicks or a fake cigarette.Avoid temptation * Instead of smoking after meals, get up from the table and brush your teeth or go for a walk. * If you always smoke while driving, listen to a particularly interesting radio program or your favorite music, or take public transportation for a while, if you can. * For the first 1-3 weeks, avoid situations you strongly as sociate with the pleasurable aspects of smoking, such as watching your favorite TV program, sitting in your favorite chair, or having a cocktail before dinner. *  Until you’re confident of your ability to stay off cigarettes, limit your socializing to healthful, outdoor activities or situations where smoking isn’t allowed. * If you must be in a situation where you’ll be tempted to smoke (such as a cocktail or dinner party), try to associate with the nonsmokers there. * Try to analyze cigarette ads to understand how they attempt to â€Å"sell† you on individual brands.Find new habits * Change your habits to make smoking difficult, impossible, or unnecessary. For example, it’s hard to smoke when you’re swimming, jogging, or playing tennis or handball. When your desire for a cigarette is intense, wash your hands or the dishes, or try new recipes. * Do things that require you to use your hands. Try crossword puzzles, needlework, gardening, or household chores. Go bike riding; take the dog for a walk; give yourself a manicure; write letters. * Enjoy having a clean-mouth taste and maintain it by brushin g your teeth frequently and using a mouthwash. * Stretch a lot. * Get plenty of rest. * Pay attention to your appearance. Look and feel sharp. * Try to find time for the activities that are the most meaningful, satisfying, and important to you.When you get the crazies * Keep oral substitutes handy – try carrots, pickles, sunflower seeds, apples, celery, raisins, or sugarless gum instead of a cigarette. * Take 10 deep breaths and hold the last one while lighting a match. Exhale slowly and blow out the match. Pretend it’s a cigarette and crush it out in an ashtray. * Take a shower or bath if possible. * Learn to relax quickly and deeply. Make yourself limp, visualize a soothing, pleasing situation, and get away from it all for a moment. Concentrate on that peaceful image and nothing else. * Light incense or a candle instead of a cigarette. * Never allow yourself to think that â€Å"one won’t hurt† – it will.About gaining weightMany people who’re considering quitting are very concerned about gaining weight. If you’re concerned about gaining weight, keep these points in mind: * Q uitting doesn’t mean you’ll automatically gain weight. When people gain, most of the time it’s because they eat more once they’ve quit. * The benefits of giving up cigarettes far outweigh the drawbacks of adding a few extra pounds. You’d have to gain a very large amount of weight to offset the many substantial health benefits that a normal smoker gains by quitting. Watch what you eat, and if you’re concerned about gaining weight, consider the following tips:Tips to help you avoid weight gain†¦ * Make sure you  have a well-balanced diet, with the proper amounts of protein, carbohydrates, and fat. * Don’t set a target date for a holiday, when the temptation of high-calorie food and drinks may be too hard to resist. * Drink a glass of water before your meals. * Weigh yourself weekly. * Chew sugarless gum when you want sweet foods. * Plan menus carefully, and count calories. Don’t try to lose weight – just try to maintain your prequitting weight. * Have low-calorie foods on hand for nibbling. Use the Snack Calorie Chart to choose foods that are both nutritious and low in calories . Some good choices are fresh fruits and vegetables, fruit and vegetable juices, low-fat cottage cheese, and air-popped popcorn without butter. * Take time for daily exercise, or join an organized exercise group.| 5 Simple Methods to Treat Smoking Addiction By Waqar Akhtar Smoking addiction popularly refers to the formation of an uncontrollable urge to smoke nicotine-induced tobacco cigarettes. This usually causes smokers of all ages to become dependent on cigarettes down to the point where kicking the habit causes severe mental, emotional, and even physical reactions. Various studies have presented statistical research that claims 2 out of 5 smokers may have higher percentages of dying at an early age due to their smoking addiction or by other causes related to smoking such as heart disease and cancer. Only a small percentage of those who have tried to quit smoking have succeeded to kick the habit. Based on various studies, 2 out of 30 smokers may stop smoking in an indefinite or permanent amount of time as opposed to the others who may stop the habit of smoking nicotine-induced cigarettes in intermittent periods of a day to a month or more. Here are some tips for those who want to quit smoking: 1. Motivation is key – this means that you should always be highly motivated to resolve your addiction on your own. You should make it a point to feel the urge to quit smoking more than the urge to smoke a few cigarettes a day until you attain your intentions of totally eradicating the addiction from your system. Gradually reducing your cigarette consumption may just lead to binges here and there, so you should set a schedule wherein you intend to completely stop smoking and stick with it at all times. 2. Support helps – this means that you should seek a support group amongst your family and friends. They will often  at times be very accommodating of your needs when it comes to your purpose of kicking your smoking addiction. They may avoid smoking whenever you’re with them since this would help reduce your cravings for cigarettes. This would also inform them about your intentions that would lead them to understand the changes in your personality since it has been known that withdrawals from nicotine-induced cigarettes often lead to irritability and depression among other emotional and mental symptoms. 3. Medical assistance is an option – this means that you should consider consulting with your physician when it comes to quitting. This is because smoking addiction is now treated as a medical condition just like other addictions to regulated substances such as heroin and cocaine. These medical specialists may offer you support in terms of prescribing drugs and dietary programs that best suit your intentions of kicking the smoking habit. 4. Calculate the cost of your addiction – this can help some smokers to get rid of their smoking addiction once and for all, but it may not work for others. You need to think about the money you spend for financing your deadly habit, and the various things you could gain by channeling your ‘cigarette money’ to your family’s needs. You need to set up some sort of financial plan to best support your intentions of getting rid of your smoking addiction since this would add to the advantages you could gain once you successfully kick the habit out of your system. 5. Consider the health of others – this is especially effective for smokers who live with their family and children. As passive smoking is more of a risk to children and adults alike than smoking itself, you should think about the people you endanger along with yourself whenever you smoke a cigarette at home or wherever you are with them.

Mass in Minor B

Johann Sebastian Bach, popularly known as Bach, was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist, and was regarded as the supreme composer of the Baroque and one of the best of all time. His contributions are secular works for the choir, orchestra and solo instruments. Though he didn’t introduced new forms and he enriched the German style of music through a contrapuntal technique and adaptations of rhythm, forms and textures from other countries such as Italy and France. His musical style arose from the influences of the South German, North German, Italian and French music.During his time, Bach was popularly known on being on one extreme end of the spectrum, notating almost majority of the details of his melodic lines, particularly in his fast movements. He preferred dense contrapuntal textures which allowed lesser margin for the variation of his musical lines. Bach's contrapuntal textures have the tendency to be more cumulative than those of other compo sers before and nowadays. Noticeably, his harmony tends to use a brief ‘tonicisation' or a subtle reference to another key that lasts only a few beats at the longest. He also favored the supertonic to add color to his musical texture.Mass in Minor B Mass in B Minor is a complete musical setting in Latin Mass by Johann Sebastian Bach. This was one of Bach's last works before his death in 1750. This musical setting is a composition of the music that Bach had made before. He divided the work in a score of four parts of the Latin Mass that was given each title page of their own. These are the Kyrie, Gloria, Symbolum Nicaenum or Credo and the group of Sanctus, Hossana, Benedictus and Agnus Dei. In total, the work consists of 27 sections. Kyrie The Kyrie which means â€Å"O Lord† has three parts as used in Mass in Minor B.The first was the Kyrie eleison (Lord, have mercy). It is a five-part chorus in B minor consisting of Soprano I, II, Alto, Tenor and Bass. Second was the Ch ristle eleison, a duet in D major with obbligato violins. The duet was in Soprano I and II. Last was another Kyrie eleison but this time with four-part chorus only in F# minor, consisting of a Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass. Gloria The structure of Gloria or Gloria in exelcis Deo (Glory to God in the highest) composed of nine movements with the largely symmetrical structure and Domine Deus in the center.First movement was Gloria in excelsis, a five-part chorus of Soprano I, II, Alto, Tenor and Bass in D major in 3/8 time. The music appears also as the opening chorus of Bach's Cantata Gloria in excelsis Deo, Second was Et in terra pax, a five-part chorus of Soprano I, II, Alto, Tenor and Bass in D major. Third was Laudamus te, an aria of Soprano II in A major with obbligato violin. Fourth was Gratias agimus tibi, a four-part chorus of Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass in D major. Fifth was Domine Deus, a duet of Soprano I and Tenor in G major, marked Andante common time.The sixth movement was Qui tollis peccata mundi, a four-part chorus of Soprano II, Alto, Tenor and Bass in B minor in 3/4 time. Seventh was Qui sedes ad dexteram Patri, an Aria for Alto in B minor with obbligato in 6/8 time. The eight movement wasQuoniam tu solus sanctus, an Aria of Bass in D major with obbligato in 3/4 time. And last but not the least was the Cum Sancto Spiritu, a five-part chorus of Soprano I, II, Alto, Tenor and Bass in D major in 3/4 time. Credo Also known as Symbolum Nicaenum, Credo also had nine movements with symmetrical structure, and the crucifixion at the center.The first movement was Credo in unum Deum, a five-part chorus of Soprano I, II, Alto, Tenor and Bass in A mixolydian. Second was Patrem omnipotentem, a four-part chorus of Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass in D major. Third movement was Et in unum Dominum, a duet of Soprano I and Alto in G major. Fourth was Et incarnatus est, a five-part chorus of Soprano I, II, Alto, Tenor and Bass in B minor. Fifth was the Crucifixus, a four-part chorus of Soprano II, Alto, Tenor and Bass in E minor, in 3/2 time. The sixth part was Et resurrexit, a five-part chorus of Soprano I, II, Alto, Tenor and Bass in D major in 3/4 time.Seventh was Et in Spiritum Sanctum, an Aria for Bass in A major in 6/8 time. The eight movement was Confiteor, a five-part chorus of Soprano I, II, Alto, Tenor and Bass in F# minor. Last but not the least was Et expect, a five-part chorus of Soprano I, II, Alto, Tenor and Bass in D major. Sanctus, Hossana, Benedictus and Agnus Dei The fourth part was a combination of Sanctus, Hossana, Benedictus and Agnus Dei. Agnus Dei is a Latin term which means Lamb of God. In the musical setting, this part composes of six movements. First was Sanctus, a six-part chorus of Soprano I, II, Alto I, II, Tenor and Bass in D major, in 3/8 time.Second was Hosanna, a double chorus with four parts both, in D major in 3/8 time. Third movement was Benedictus, an Aria for Tenor with flute obbligato in B minor in 3/4 time. Fourth was another Hosannna . Fifth was Agnus Dei, an Aria for Alto in G minor with violin obbligato. And last was Dona nobis pacem, a four-part chorus in D major. The Mass in Minor B was frequently performed was not played during Bach’s lifetime. Though there are some scholarly debates and arguments with the motivation of Bach to pursue its kind structure during that time, most composers believe that the Mass in Minor b was one of Bach’s best compositions of all time.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Essay

Often people are traumatized by traumatic events that take place their lives. We seldom expect these events to happen so we often do not know how to react when it does happen, this can lead to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In this assignment is the definition of PTSD, the reason why South Africa has such a high prevalence of PTSD and also the methods of prevention of PTSD will be discussed. DEFINITION OF POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be defined as a response people have to traumatic events in life and can arise as an immediate, delayed and/or protracted response (Seedat, 2011). These events can be natural disasters, such as a tsunami or earthquake, or it can be ‘human-made’ like a hijacking or an assault, and even things like apartheid and xenophobia (Austin, et. al. , 2011:111) (Seedat, 2011). PTSD can lead to a person feeling helpless and having an intense fear (Austin, et. al. , 2011:111). To diagnose a person with PTSD, three main criteria of symptoms must be visible in the person namely the person must be re-experiencing the traumatic event, the person must have an avoidance associated stimilu, and the person must have a hypervigilance and chronic arousal (like having anger issues or not being able to sleep) (Austin, et. al. , 2011:111) (Seedat, 2011). These three symptoms can be in a minimum state, but all three need to be visible before a person can be diagnosed with PTSD (Austin, et. al. , 2011:111). All symptoms must be shown for a month or more and cause signifcant distress or impairment in social or occupational areas of functioning and if these symptoms carry on for more than three months it can be seen as chronic PTSD (Seedat, 2011). Different psychological factors can play a role in the development and maintanence of PTSD. These factors were identified by Edwards (2005c) as emotionally distressing and problematic processes of guilt, shame, grief, anxiety, dysfunctional and/or distorted cognitions, and various cognitive, affective, and behavioural avoidance mechanisms (Austin, et. al. , 2011:111). WHY SOUTH AFRICA HAS SUCH A HIGH PREVALENCE OF PTSD PTSD is fairly common as approximately eight out of 100 people will develop PTSD (Seedat, 2011). Women are twice as likely as men to develop PTSD (Seedat, 2011). Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is very common in South Africa because of various reasons (Seedat, 2011). In 1997, the World Health Organization issued a study on the Global Burden of Disease. They found that mental disorders are second in burden to infectious diseases (Burke, Unknown). There have not been much studies of trauma disorders in SA, but the existing research suggests that South Africans, especially black South Africans, are still struggling with SA’s past, this being the apartheid which started in 1948 and lasted until 1994 (Burke, Unknown). In 1997, Market Research Africa and the Community Agency for Social Equality issued a study of face-to-face interviews with 3,870 adults who grew up during this time and the results were that 17% of people who had been exposed to trauma described their mental health as poor. There were 2 % of people who were exposed to violent events and 78 % of this 23% had one or more symptoms of PTSD (Burke, Unknown). Most peo ple who lived through apartheid do not suffer any symptoms of PTSD, but there are those people who are still so undone by the atrocities of the apartheid era that they still suffer the symptoms of PTSD. The symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder have many different consequences for different people. PTSD can sometimes lead to drug and alcohol abuse. According to a report from the Health Department released recently, South Africa has the highest rates of alcoholism in the world (Burke, Unknown). METHODS OF PREVENTION OF PTSD Some evidence suggests that intervening with medications or psychotherapy within a short time after the traumatic event may prevent PTSD to develop (Seedat, 2011). One possible method for the prevention of PTSD is the Child and Family Traumatic Stress Intervention (CFTSI). The purpose of this method is to prevent the development of PTSD within a 30 day range after experiencing a potentially traumatic event. In a study, a number of 7 to 17 year old children were randomly assigned to the intervention or to a four-session supportive Comparison condition. The results were that the children part of the CFTSI had less and less symptoms of PTSD which suggests that a caregiver-youth and early intervention for children exposed to a potentially traumatic event is a promising method to prevent chronic PTSD (Berkowitz, Stover, and Marans, 2010). Another possible method for the prevention of PTSD is memory structuring intervention (MSI). Studies have been made on how trauma is processed which lead to the creating of MSI. In a randomised-controlled study, traffic accident victims who were at risk for PTSD were assigned to two MSI or two supportive-listening control sessions and the MSI patients reported a significantly less frequent arousal and PTSD symptoms than the controls (Gersons, Carlier, Lamberts & Kolk, 2001). CONCLUSION PTSD can come forth when people are exposed to a traumatic event, and it can become a chronic disorder if it lasts for longer than 3months. In South Africa we have a high prevalence for PTSD. We think that there are more people who were part of the apartheid era, that have PTSD than what studies have shown. Not every person understands the severity of PTSD or knows the symptoms of PTSD so they don’t realize that they have it. PTSD is not only treatable but possibly preventable too. There is no definite prevention method as different people handle different situations in different ways. Thus it would be good if people were more aware of the symptoms more could be done to prevent PTSD. Biblography Austin, TL., et al., (2011). Schizophrenia. In TL. Austin, et. Al. Abnormal Psychology: A South African Perspective (pp. 160-193). Cape Town: Oxford University Press South Africa. Burke, L. (Unknown). The consequences of truth: Post-traumatic stress in new South Africa (continued). Retrieved April 20, 2012, from South Africa in Transition: http://journalism.berkeley.edu/projects/southafrica/news/traumapart2.html Gersons, Carlier, Lamberts & Kolk. (2001). Translating Research Findings to PTSD Preventionl: Results of a Randomized-Controlled Pilot Study. Retrieved April 21, 2012, from Spingerlink: http://www.springerlink.com/content/w18292635382q182/ Seedat, S. (2011, 03 01). Depression – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Retrieved April 20, 2012, from Health 24: http://www.health24.com/medical/Condition_centres/777-792-807-1650,11960.asp

Welfare Cost in the Government is Running out of Control Research Paper

Welfare Cost in the Government is Running out of Control - Research Paper Example Costs of different commodities are running out of control while the Medicare is unfairly limiting options for almost every American. The name of poverty still lingers in the minds of many (June & Mark, 2004). This is because, the poverty is tragic and is as rampant as it was at the onset of the fight against poverty and welfare programs in the outset of 1960s. The history of the American welfare is intriguing as the Congress and other policy makers can take divergent paths. The Fantasy path, which opines that Medicare and Social Security can survive even without structural reforms, the â€Å"Welfare Empire†, has no problems even upon keeping over fifty million Americans in dire poverty, and there is nothing wrong (Marx, 2004). However, this paper intends to show that the cost of welfare in government is running out of control and the only way to end this problem is through divergent means that it will highlight. Today, the level of poverty in America is high, the cost of medic al health is expensive, and overly the cost of living is becoming exorbitant. With reference to Austerity path, the concerned officials tend to turn a blind eye on these issues and concede that, the best days of American life are over, then cuts rations care, attests that things like incremental change are not enough and cannot meet the existing challenges (David, 2010). Additionally, the radically divergent paths taken by policymakers result to cut benefits and a Gingrich path of growth and innovation that concedes that poverty will remain to be an inevitably concurrent fact of all American lives (Howard, 2002). Nevertheless, it has come to most peoples’ minds that, in spite of all the challenges facing Americans today, there exist numerous and radical measures that can save Americans from cash drainage and continuous siphoning of welfare funds (Eric & Glenn 2004). One, in order to control the cost of welfare in government from running out of control, the government could sl ow the growth of welfare, promote personal responsibility, give portions of welfare assistance in form of loans instead of grants, and/or the government and the other concerned agencies could simply do away with the welfare (Mink & Rickie, 2003). Organizations likely to benefit Enacting these measures would relief a number of organizations of the burden of providing welfare funds to areas that require it. For instance, the government of United States spends lost of dollars in funding welfare services such as medical health, insurance, food aid agencies, public utility steering agencies, and many other organizations within the States (Marx, 2004). It is agreeable that, if only America could invest in ending or relinquishing the welfare services, it would save itself a big deal of responsibility (June & Mark, 2004). Therefore, the Government of the United States of America is one of the agencies that would benefit from stopping or easing the welfare services. Findings make it clear th at the Government of the United States does not service welfare all by itself. Other agencies facilitate initiation of the welfare funds and they include the US Department of Health, The Treasury Department, Human services Department, and non-governmental organizations such as the World Food Program, The World Health Organization, and the UNEP (Wenli, 2002). Slowing the growth for welfare As indicated in this paper, slowing the growth for welfare will be part of the efficient and reliable measures aimed ensuring that the cost of welfare in government does not run out of control (Eric & Glenn 2004). This is because, as the history of relief and help runs deep in the hearts of fake poor people, slowing the grow

An e-commerce strategy and architecture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

An e-commerce strategy and architecture - Essay Example According to the research findings it can therefore be said that the Secure-Car Business deals in such systems along with other accessories which can help secure our vehicles from illegal intrusion. Up till now, this firm has been running its business using tradition business management structure. For instance, it has a store where people come to shop. They shop for the desired product and pay instantly. The firm has adopted a paper based approach to keep the record of its products and services. In this IT based era where people want to shop by remaining at their homes, Secure-Car has been using a traditional business approach. Once the manager/owner of the firm was using the Internet to locate information on a specific device, he was shocked to see the support of the Internet for delivering the required information in a few seconds. Manager/owner of the firm decided to implement an e-commerce platform for their business. The basic purpose of implementing this e-commerce business is to promote their business and let the other people shop by sitting at their homes. This e-commerce web site will allow the customers to place an order online by filling an online form. In this scenario, the order details will be received by the Secure-Car firm and they will deliver the product to their customer. Though, it is a proposed scenario and for the actual implementation of this idea, the manager/owner of the firm must be familiar with the terms associated with e-commerce. 2- Introduction to E-commerce Concepts A lot of the ways business organizations and individuals perform their daily tasks and continue to exist in the twenty-first century are measured with the huge web of electronic networks that is normally acknowledged as the Internet (Turban, Leidner, McLean, & Wetherbe, 2005). In addition, the across-the-board existence of the Internet for performing transactions between sellers and buyers is the fundamental motive behind the development of electronic commerce or simp ly (e-commerce). According to (Laudon & Laudon, 1999, p. 25; Stair & Reynolds, 2003, p. 19), â€Å"electronic commerce is the process of selling and purchasing services and goods and products is carried out electronically by means of computerized business transactions over the Internet, networks, and other digital technologies†. In addition, e-commerce also encompasses the operations behind those business transactions, such as business marketing advertising, offering customer support, and processing payment. Additionally, by replacing old and rigid paper-based and manual techniques with electronic processes, and with advanced information flows in up to date and active manners, e-commerce does not only offer the business organizations a capability to accelerate the process of ordering, delivery, and payment for products, services and goods but also minimizes the operating and inventory expenditures of the organizations (Laudon & Laudon, 1999, p. 25). Moreover, the World Wide W eb (WWW) has turned into a common platform for performing e-commerce, building and implementing latest tools and technologies for the organizations to communicate with each other and their customers.

Specialized Investment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Specialized Investment - Essay Example vidual with the opportunity to focus his money in the desired industry or sector, and spread his investments in the various companies in that industry or sector. The diversification of investments allows investors to reduce the risk of their respective investments. Another important advantage of mutual funds is liquidity. One can redeem mutual fund shares on any day at the funds net asset value per share. Another benefit is that an investor would not pay any commissions or other fees upon redemption of the mutual fund. It is only when an investor owns certain classes of shares that he may be required to pay a deferred sales charge if the shares were not held for a specified period of time. As a way to reduce the negative effects of short-term trading in mutual fund shares, mutual funds have implemented redemption fees if shares are held for less than a specified period of time. The deferred sales charges and redemption fees increase the cost associated with redemptions. (Braham, 2007) Mutual funds enable investors to avail of the services of a professional asset management. A mutual fund is managed by a professional manager, who initiates and leads investment decisions on behalf of the fund. The portfolio manager is assisted by competent analysts who conduct research on market conditions, industries and individual companies. Small investors would not be able to avail of the services of a professional fund manager outside of a mutual fund. A mutual fund is easy to manage as investors are continually purchasing and redeeming shares of the fund. Mutual funds offer intra-day pricing which helps investors get a good price for their shares at the end of the day. Before investing in a mutual fund, there are several caveats one must observe. First, determine how the fund impacts one’s tax bill.The law requires a mutual fund to make a capital gains distribution to shareholders if it sells a security for a profit that cant be offset by a loss. If one gets a capital

Insulin Administration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Insulin Administration - Essay Example The methods and techniques utilized for insulin administration should be understood by the nurses at an appropriate level to avoid the unwanted consequences that may result due to improper drug usage. The nurses should be aware of the proper dosage techniques of insulin along with the appropriate ways of injecting the drug to the patients. The nurses should be actively involved in such cases and they should monitor these patients on regular basis to ensure that their blood glucose levels stay within the normal limits. The nurses also have important roles in the outpatient settings. Their proper understanding of insulin administration ways is essential owing to the fact that they have to impart this knowledge to the patients as well. The patients are to be guided in the best manner so that when they are at home, they know the best ways to take care of their health. This is done by explaining the ways of administering insulin in association with proper dosage and monitoring.The knowled ge with regard to insulin administration is very essential for my career as a registered nurse. This is because it is an important aspect of the work that a nurse has to perform. It is important for the nursing practice as they are actively involved in both the hospital settings as well as the outpatient departments. Proper information with this regard can assist the nurse to prevent many untoward medical results.The patients who are on insulin administration should be treated with the combined assistance and coordination of nurses.

Study on the Internet Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Study on the Internet - Assignment Example PhD is most likely a level that a researcher must examine any subject of choice in details, for a number of years in his or her course. In this sense, it was decided to study the matter of sample size in PhD studies’ context. The two major concerns of this study were to find out the number of participants who make use of qualitative interviews in their PhD studies, and if this numbers differ depending on the procedural approach. The method of the study A PhD database content analysis was carried out on the â€Å"Index To Theses: A comprehensive listing of theses with abstracts accepted for higher degrees by universities in Great Britain and Ireland since 1716†. This research was performed between the third of August, and twenty forth of August, 2009 (Mason, 2010). In the collection, 532,646 abstracts were used to discover PhD studies, indicating that they had utilized qualitative interviews to collect information. To find out any dissimilarity between diverse research t echniques, a classification of 26 varying qualitative research techniques from different disciplines were used. The methodological traditions were classified into four groups, namely: discovery of regularities, reflection, language characteristics, and comprehension of action or text meaning (Gravetter & Forzano, 2011). The researchers used a â€Å"standard search† with a number of parameters applied: if â€Å"any field† entailed â€Å"insert methodology†; if â€Å"any field† entailed interviews†; and if â€Å"Degrees† entailed PhD. The study looked solely at the use of individual to individual personal interviewing, meaning that focus groups were excluded from this analysis. The outstanding studies were collected using samples. A search on the abstracts was carried out and the following details were recorded on each: category of qualitative research; the methods used; and the number of interviewees who participated (Mason, 2010). Findings Th e findings by the authors indicated that in general, the range of the participant numbers used was between 95 and 1. Of the 560 studies examined, the mean and median were 31 and 28 respectively, perhaps suggesting that the central dispersion measures were consistent in general. It was clear that some approaches used interviews in their methodologies than others. Out of the 26 qualitative methods, 9 returned over 10 studies. The most popular techniques utilized in PhD studies as per this analysis were: life history, grounded theory method, discourse analysis, case study, phenomenology, content analysis, hermeneutics, action research, and symbolic interactionism. Case study projects were the most frequently utilized interviews; 1,401, while the grounded theory accounted for 429, with an inclusion criteria of 41%. On the other hand, qualitative evaluation accounted for the highest mean in the number of participants at 42, while ethnography communication recorded the lowest at 34. Discu ssion The most popular sample sizes were 30 and 20. Forty, ten, and twenty five followed the sequence. The considerable high proportion of studies using the multiples of ten to act as their sample stands out as the most vital finding of this analysis (Rubin & Babbie, 2009). There is no hypothesis-driven or logical reason why samples that end with any single integer would prevail than another in qualitative PhD researches that uses interviews. If the directing concept for qualitative resea

Homwork Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Homwork - Research Paper Example To begin with, children with televisions in their bedroom perform poorly in school and have high propensity to have sleep problems. Also, children who have television in their bedrooms are likely to be overweight and have higher risk for smoking. According to Parker-Pope, one of the consequences of having a television in a child’s bedroom is that the child end up watching programs that are not suitable for them without the knowledge of their parents (Parker-Pope Para 3). The article presents several studies that have been carried out to demonstrate the effect of having televisions in children’s bedrooms. For instance, he presents a study that was conducted on eighty children aged between 4 to 7 years in Buffalo. The findings of the research indicated that having a television in the bedroom increased average viewing time by approximately nine hours, from 21 hours to 30 hours. According to the research, there is high probability of parents of such children with television in their bedrooms to misjudge their children’s viewing time. In the article, Professor Leonard H. Epstein argues that the parents are usually unaware of what their children watch when the televisions are put in their bedroom. The television set is usually in the child’s bedroom and it becomes difficult for parents to remove television set from the child’s bedroom. In their one two-year research, Dr. ... The researchers discovered that reducing television viewing time did not increase play rate, but the children snaked less. This research did not simply the data by bedroom television viewing. However, the journal Pediatrics, 2002, reported that children with televisions in their bedroom risk being overweight. Further, the journal Obesity reported that boys have higher risk of becoming overweight. In a French research on adolescent, boys with television in their bedrooms showed higher likelihood of having larger waist, body fat and body mass index than their counterparts with no television in their bedrooms. In another study that was conducted among 400 children in six schools in Northern California, approximately 70 percent had television in their bedrooms. These children performed significantly and constantly lower on math, reading and language-art examinations. However, children who said they have computers in their bedrooms scored higher in the tests. Despite the fact that the pro found impact of bedroom television remains oblivious, it could be a big distraction from doing homework or it obstructs sleep leading to poor performance at school. A study on kindergartens indicated that children with bedroom televisions had sleep problems. Another research of over 700 middle-school students aged between 12 and 14 revealed that children with bedroom televisions have higher likelihood of smoking. 42 percent of those who had bedroom televisions in the study smoked compared to 16 percent of those who had no bedroom television. In another article, Parents Urged Again to Limit TV for Youngest by Benedict Carey, the American Academy of Pediatrics warned parent to limit the time that their children spend on televisions, computers and self-described educational games. The

Financial Policies of Westpac Banking Corporation Essay

Financial Policies of Westpac Banking Corporation - Essay Example The bank is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and has made a satisfactory performance over time. Financial Policies of Westpac Banking Corporation related to Capital Structure In 2008, Westpac went into a strategic alliance with St. George Bank Limited in a merger operation. In that merger, the exchange ratio of St. George Bank Limited to Westpac Bank was 1.31. This means that the valuation of the assets of St George was at a higher level than that of Westpac, and therefore the shareholders of St George have got a better valuation as compared to the shareholders of Westpac. The bank went into a merger policy because it wanted to make more use of its resources and have a better financial health (Rosenbaum and Pearl, 2009, p. 36). This would also help the bank to survive in the long run. At this juncture to retain the positive sentiment of the investors, Westpac announced a special dividend of $ 1.25 per share. This has a positive impact on the prices of the shares and the prices seem to go up; therefore, it is a deliberate step on part of the company to keep a stable position in the securities market. Dividend Payout Policies of Westpac The financial history of the company reveals that dividend has been paid by the company bi-annually in the month of July and at the end of the year, December. The dividend yield for the stockholders had ranged from 0.56 to 0.86. The returns that the shareholders have got by investing in the company is well understood by the dividend yield paid ever time (Gallagher, 2003, p. 194). The mean and the standard deviation of the yield have been calculated. Mean 0.736666667 Standard Deviation 0.108857705 The average yield of the dividend has been 0.736. A dividend payout ratio of 70% per share would encourage the shareholders to invest more money in the stock and to hold the stock for a longer period of time. These dividends are directly transferred to the accounts of the shareholders. The company generally adopts any of the two di vidend payout policies- the Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRP) in which the retained earnings that the company generates are capitalized by the company instead of being distributed (Modigliani and Miller, 1958, p. 282). This is often known as the growth schemes by which the company acquires more assets or uses the money for productive purposes. The second option that the company takes is to distribute the dividends to the shareholders. The shareholders who look forward to short-term investments and do not want to engage their money in the long term in the stocks of Westpac would prefer the second option because they would be getting a dividend yield of an average of 70% within 6 months time. For example, in the year 2010, the company paid out dividends at a ratio of 64.9% (Westpac Group, 2012). The share price of Westpac that time was at an average of 23.24. Thus it is lucrative stocks for the investors who would hold the stock for a minimum period of 1 year. Buyback of Shares by West pac Most of the companies in Australia goes for a share buyback for avoiding the risk that any bigger firm may take over the business (Doan, Yap, and Gannon, 2011, p. 69). Westpac followed on the similar line to keep the capital structure fundamentally strong. The company announced the buyback of shares as a strategy for successful management of its finances. The cash profit of the bank from interest income and other supplementary services got increased by 10% during this time.  

Women in Fashion and Photography Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Women in Fashion and Photography - Essay Example The essay "Women in Fashion and Photography" talks about the woman in fashion photography and analyzes the gender issue in this context. Through this discussion, it is planned by the researcher to find better resources which could actually make a great impact on how the understanding of men and women status in the society becomes likely controlled through media works. Men were particularly known as the supreme gender in the human society. As the population belonging to the supreme gender, men are expected to have special responsibilities as well as advantages with regards the activities that they are able to do. Men were expected to have responsibilities of providing for those that belong to them. This includes their families and other people that are living around them. On the other hand, they benefit form the authority that is given to them. The power to control others, especially women has naturally given them pride when it comes to the thought of being able to rule over several s ectors of the human society. Through the pages of the human history, men of different races and different ages have primarily been able to change the ways by which humans perceive their purpose in living. Indeed, men have naturally drawn the different demarcation lines of limitations and possibilities that identify each human individual’s capability of living. Most likely, the powerful sense of being of the appearance of man has naturally affected the characteristic and the attitude that he perceives upon others. Within the paragraphs that follow, the different roles of men within the American society shall be outlined in clarity to be able to assist in the understanding of what actually is the important part that men plays in the advancement of the human civilization towards progress. II.A. Men as Key Agents of Family Strength The family is one of the basic units of social relationship within the human generations. It could be observed that men are appointed as head of the family. As head of the family, a man has the responsibility of providing the guidance that the members of the family need to be able to get through with the challenges of life. Aside from this, men also stand as the basic source of spiritual and intellectual aspects of life when it comes to taking care of the younger generations of the family. Not to mention, men are also viewed as the major providers of the needs of the family in terms of finances, shelter, food and clothing. From this particular point of view, it could be observed that men are indeed given high regards by the human society especially in terms of the role that they play in the family. At some point, they work as complimentary personnel to the fulfillment of the dream of their wives and their children. They are the primary source of strength for their family members and from them comes the most valuable advices of life that would naturally help the members of the family get along with the ups and downs of living in a more eased and controlled procedure. Certainly, men are given the chance to handle the most complicated responsibilities within the family arrangements. The challenges are really not that easy to face. However, with the strong conviction and determination of men to succeed in this particular responsibility shall give them the reputation that they need to be able

A brief history of science education in ghana from the colonial era to present day Essay Example for Free

A brief history of science education in ghana from the colonial era to present day Essay Science education is the cultivation and disciplining the mind and other faculties of an individual to utilize science for improving his life, cope with an increasingly technological world, or pursue science academically and professionally, and for dealing responsibly with science related social issues (Akpan, 1992). Ghana, formerly known as the Gold Coast, was the first African country to the south of the Sahara to gain political independence from colonial rule in 1957. This former British colony of 92,000 square miles (about 238,000 square kilometers) shares boundaries with three French-speaking nations: the Cote dIvoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north and Togo to the east. The Gulf of Guinea of the Atlantic Ocean is to the south of the country. EARLY HISTORY OF EDUCATION BEFORE INDEPENDENCE As was the case in many colonies during the early colonial period, the main goal of education was to ‘make civilization march hand-in-hand with evangelization’ (Anum –Odoom, 2013). This statement gives a clear description of how education in Ghana was implemented at that time. The formal, western-style education in Ghana is directly associated with the history of European activities on the Gold Coast The Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive at the Guinea coast in 1471. Their intention to establish schools was expressed in imperial instructions that, in 1529, encouraged the Governor of the Portuguese Castle at Elmina to teach reading, writing, and the Catholic religion to the people. It is imply proven that the Danish, Dutch and the English merchants also set up schools in their forts and castle to educate their mulatto children by native women. Unmistakably linked to the implementation of formal education in Ghana with the Christian missionaries, who realized that in order to spread the word of God, they needed well- educated local assistants. Following the consolidation of the coastal region as the British Gold Coast Colony, the administration became more aggressive in pursuit of its educational policy. This was precipitated by the British purchase of the Danish property at Christiansborg in 1850 and the Dutch Elmina Castle in 1872. To help redress problems faced by the mission schools—such as training local teachers and improving the quality of education—the administration made grants to both the Wesleyan and Basel missions in 1874. In the Educational Ordinance of 1882, government grants to denominational schools were made dependent on an assessment of the level of efficiency. The schools receiving grant-in-aid were defined as government assisted schools, but their primary funding was to come from the missions themselves and from other private sources. On the Gold Coast, the appointment of Brigadier General Gordon Guggisberg as governor brought its own advantages. During his tenure from 1919 through 1927, Governor Guggisberg initiated several major developmental programs that included educational improvements as a critical ingredient in his construction of a modern Gold Coast. While the previous administration had seen the provision of elementary schools by the various Christian missions as adequate, Guggisberg was of the conviction that the current system could not sustain future developments. In fact, only a few months after his arrival, the governor presented a 10-year development plan for the Gold Coast. Among other things, funding was aggressively sought for post elementary education for boys and girls. Even though the administration proposed a technical college for Accra, the Prince of Wales College (now Achimota College) was the real trophy of the administrations educational program. This non denominational school catered for students from kindergarten to the pre university level. THE BIRTH OF SCIENCE EDUCATION The inadequacies inherent in the system of education were observed in the post-World War I appeal made by the Foreign Missions Conference of North America to the Phelps-Stokes Funds for a review of the state of education in Africa. The Phelps-Stokes Commission on Africa issued reports in 1922 and 1925 in which educators were criticized for inadequately catering to the social and economic needs of the continent. The commission of which James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey was a member, called for instructions in the mechanical operations necessary for the improvement of the condition of the mass majority of the people. This included science education and character training. The Phelps-Stokes funds founded in 1920, is an African Education Commission represented one of the early attempts to link black Africa with Negro America. The attempt to forge this link represented a concerted policy on the part of a number of missionary and philanthropic groups in the United Kingdom and the United States to draw attention to what seemed to be analogous situations-politically, socially, and economically. Ghana is said to be the first independent sub-Saharan African country outside South Africa to embark on a comprehensive drive to promote science education and the application of science in industrial and social development (Anamuah-Mensah, 1999). Science Education after Independence After Phelps- stokes commission had pushed for the birth of science education in Africa in general and in particular, Gold Coast, there has not been any clear cut national policy for science education in Ghana up to date (Ahmed, 2013). Dr Kwame Nkrumah who aimed at achieving Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education instituted an Act called 1961 Act, (Act 87) . This Act was to make Basic education free and Compulsory and anyone who fails to send his or her child to school was made to pay a fund by the Minister for education. The education system at that point consisted of six year of primary education, followed by four-years of secondary education. At the end of the four years suitable students went on to do a two-year sixth form course that could lead to a three year University course. Students, who were not suitable to continue, completed two- year of pre-vocational classes. The Nkrumah government encouraged the learning of science by instituting a special scholarship scheme which enabled science and agriculture undergraduates to enjoy scholarships a little higher than those of their counterparts in the humanities. This facility was withdrawn after 1966. Science and mathematics teachers were also paid a little more than their colleagues in the humanities. (Djangmah, 2007) The Reforms The seven year development plan instituted by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was short lived. The system was later regarded as too long and too academic. Thus Dzobo Education Reforms of 1974 saw a reform of the system, instating the Junior Secondary School (now Junior High School) on an experimental basis. The Junior Secondary School introduced practical subjects and activities allowing students to acquire occupational skills, which after an apprenticeship lead to the qualification for self-employment. Due to a wide range of factors such as the economic decline, bureaucracy and sheer lack of interest the JSS-system never went beyond the experimental phase. By 1983 the education system was in a state of crisis. It faced drastic reductions in Government financing, lack of educational materials, and deterioration of school structures, low enrollment levels and high dropout rates. With the assistance of several development partners (World Bank, Department for International Development (ODA) and international grants) the education system was reviewed and proposals were implemented in 1987 known as Evans-Anfom reforms. In 1987, Ghanas Ministry of Education introduced a restructured educational system that gradually replaced the British-based O-level and A-level system. The transition was completed in June, 1996, when the last class took A-level exams. The last O-level exams were administered in June 1994, although a remedial exam was offered through 1999 (Keteku, 2013) The 1987 Reforms had strengths as well as weaknesses. One of the strengths was that it provided a comprehensive Basic Education which improved access to education for more children of school-going age. Junior Secondary Schools were provided throughout the country and this helped to increase literacy levels. The reform also introduced Continuous Assessment which formed part of the final examination. This ensured that internal assessment in schools was included in the final examinations and this ended the single-shot examination existing in the old system. The Anamuah-Mensah Report recommended similar structure of education just like the Evans-Anfom Report of 1986. The difference was the inclusion of two (2) years of Kindergarten education as part of Basic Education and Apprenticeship training for leavers of the Junior Secondary School who unable to or do not want to continue in the formal sector. The implementation of the Anamuah-Mensah Reforms began in September 2007, and it was faced with initial problems. These problems included delay in the supply of syllabuses and textbooks for the smooth take-off of the programme, and teachers were not adequately prepared in terms of training to implement the reforms. These problems were later dealt with as the implementation of the reforms progressed. The next major problem being anticipated is the inadequate classrooms and other facilities as students will enter the fourth year of Senior High School in September 2010. The Way Forward For Science Education Promotion of science education in the country will depend on three drivers of change, namely, funding, teaching and interventions, and research (Akyeampong ,2007) Funding Knowledge is not cheap. Science, technology and mathematics knowledge required to move the country into the knowledge society can never be cheap. Government’s commitment to science education should be demonstrated in the level of resources allocated to science and technology. Laboratories and workshops in the schools, teacher training colleges, universities and polytechnics should be well equipped and new ones constructed to take into consideration the increasing student population. Research The knowledge society thrives on the creation of new knowledge. Research provides the means by which new knowledge is created. Resources, both material and human, for research in science and technology are woefully inadequate or non-existent. This has had a profound effect on the development of post graduate research in the universities. A number of measures need to be taken to strengthen research in science and technology in order to meet the demands of the country. The following are being suggested: †¢Research in research institutions and the universities should be adequately funded. †¢Most researches carried out in the universities are those that interest the researchers and are hence supply-driven; the Government should challenge our scientists and provide funds to carry out research on problems confronting the country. This can be done through the provision of research funds to be competed for by all scientists in the country. †¢Establish a National Science Research Facilities Centre equipped with world class specialized facilities which are normally expensive and therefore beyond the means of single institutions, to provide opportunities for Ghanaian researchers to carry out scientific research and development and retain local researchers as well as attract foreign ones. †¢To improve the quality of science education at all levels, research in science and technology should include research on teaching and learning science, technology and mathematics. †¢Institute special awards for best researchers and science teachers. This could be termed the President’s Award for Science to be given annually. We need to celebrate achievement. †¢Set up a formal scheme for mentoring the Youth- This is critical to the development of a career path in science for the youth. Mentors excite interest in junior colleagues and help them to â€Å"walk the path†. This experience is however rare in the universities. These days, newly recruited scientists struggle to keep afloat with little or no support. A formal mentoring system should be established in all institutions to ensure that young scientists recruited into the universities or research institutions are attached to professors and senior scientists in their fields of study to receive advice and support. The mentoring can take the form of joint research, publications and presentations at conferences and seminars. †¢To raise the level of awareness of science and technology innovation (research) and foster a synergy among education, industry and research institutes, a project referred to as SMART MOVES in some countries should be established in secondary schools. This project will involve encouraging schools through visits, presentations and seminars to work on problem solving projects with support from the community. The projects will be assessed and students with innovative and creative projects will be invited to present their projects at a Junior Scientist Conference which will be attended by senior scientists who can later act as mentors for the students. Prizes will be given to students based on the quality of project and presentation. The Ghana Academy of Science and Arts can take up this. Conclusion The vision of the National Science and Technology Policy is: â€Å"to support national socio-economic development goals with a view to lifting Ghana to a middle income status by the year 2020 through the perpetuation of a science and technology culture at all the levels of society, which is driven by the promotion of innovation and the mastery of known and proven technologies and their application in industry, and other sectors of the economy†. (MEST, 2000) This vision can become a reality when science education is given a boost at all levels of education. It has been suggested that the promotion of science education hinges on three pillars – funding, teaching and intervention, and research. Without adequate funding, quality teachers, supportive intervention activities and research to illuminate our understanding, science education will have no impact on the everyday lives of Ghanaians; and the observation made by the National Development Planning Commission will remain true. Our national vision for science and technology will be therefore be meaningless. REFERENCES Ahmed, M. (2012). Ghana to launch National Science policy. Retrieved 4th October, 2013, from http://www. ghanaweb. com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel. php? ID=235350. Akpan, O. E. (1992) Toward Creative Science teaching and learning in West African school. Ghana: catholic Press Akyeampong, K. (Centre for International Education, University of Sussex, England) in his lecture on â€Å"50 Years of Educational Progress and Challenge in Ghana†, at Parliament House, London, England; 2007 Anamuah-Mensah, J. (1999). Science and Technology Education in Ghana. A paper delivered at the National education Forum on the theme: Towards Sustaining an Effective National Education System, held at the Accra International Conference Centre, Accra, 17-19th November. Anum-Odoom, A. K. M . Educational Reforms in Ghana, 1974-2007. Retrieved on 12th October, 2013, from http://www. ghanaweb. com/GhanaHomePage/blogs/blog. article. php? blog=2091ID=1000004125- Djangmah, J. S. Clarifying Ghana’s national vision for the application of science and technology to development. Retrieved on 12th October, 2013, from http://www. ghanansem. org/index. php? option=com_contenttask=viewid=234 Keteku, N. W (EDUCATIONAL REFORM IN GHANA: THE SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL). Retrieved 10th October, 2013, from http://www. bibl. u-szeged. hu/oseas_adsec/ghana. htm Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology (MEST) (2000). National Science and Technology Policy Document. Accra: MEST.

Improving The Risk Return Performance Of Portfolios

Improving The Risk Return Performance Of Portfolios With the development of the Chinese capital market, more and more investors start to look for a more rational way to invest. To increase the investment return and decrease the risk, investors must learn to allocate their funds in order to diversify risk. However, due to the limited assets that can be invested in, the convenience and effectiveness of portfolio diversification must be studied. This paper mainly explores the function of futures in the ordinary stock portfolio through the study of risk-return performance. By comparing the efficient frontiers of different portfolios, the risk-return performance of the futures portfolio and mixed stock-futures portfolio is better than the stock only portfolio. Futures play an important role in upgrading the integrated portfolio of stock and futures. The results of this study provide investors with a feasible way to diversify their funds in multi-type investment portfolios, which is of great theoretical and practical significance. I. An introduction to Chinese capital market Ever since December 19, 1990, when Shanghai stock exchange opened, people become more and more interested in investing in the security market to make money. After twenty years, investing in stocks is a quite popular and important way for ordinary Chinese people to manage their money. However, stock market itself can not meet investors needs of diversifying risk and increase capital return, and investment diversification becomes a natural solution and guiding concept. Although twenty years have passed since Shanghai stock exchange came in existence, development of Chinese capital market is quite slow, with limited kinds of investment products. Lack of varieties of trading tools and incomplete structure of capital market products make it difficult to diversify in Chinese capital market. In developed capital markets such as Hong Kong, over 80% of financial derivative instruments in international financial market have been introduced. In stock market, the trading of index futures, options and warrants is quite active with a trending of exceeding the trading of spot market. Hong Kong bond market is even more diversified. Based on three basic kinds which are bond, note and certificate of deposits of fund-raising tools, many more complicated derivatives such as floating rate bonds, variable rate bonds, convertible bonds, credit card receivables, and the current debt instruments traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange listing has been increased to 129.(20 09) On the contrary, despite of stocks, there are few more than five years investment instruments in mainland China capital markets. The trading of 1-5 year instruments is also confined so that the available trading instruments are quite limited. As an emerging market the risk of stock market is higher than normal, both systematic risk and market risk. The systematic flaws in Chinese stock market such as no trades of state owned and corporation owned stocks and lack of index futures  [1]  or other kinds of hedging instruments make the whole stock exchange system more uncertain. The strong influence of state policy changing is also a reason for high uncertainty. As for the market risk, stock market is in sharp adjustment since the end of 2007. On the one hand, the overall risk has lowered a little; it is still too high compared with the mature capital markets. On the other hand, the low self-control ability of the participants involved in stock market makes the unsystematic risk highe r than average. Investing only in stock market can not successfully diversify risk. Considering the incompleteness of Chinese warrant market, futures have been chosen to diversify risk. Chinese future market also started in 1990. After six years of cleaning up and reconstruction (1995-2000), future market is in good development. In 2002, stock market turned down, which made part of the stock market capital switch to future market and made it a hot deal. This situation is quite similar to what happened in 2007-2008. Chinese future market developed from first pilot reform to rectification and now has entered a new stage of stable development. The legal operation and market discipline have been significantly improved. These features make futures possible as a component of portfolio. At present, research of the role of futures in the portfolio is focused on index futures and its hedging properties, while the research of commodity futures is focused on its function of price discovering. Adding futures into ordinary stock portfolio has not been well discussed so that this article will research on the performance of portfolio with commodity futures to see whether futures can effectively diversify risk and raise the return. How to optimize investment portfolio becomes the first and most important question that investors need to consider. Thus, modern portfolio theory becomes quite widely applied in practice. Portfolio means investors allocate certain amount of money to different kinds of assets in order to gain as much as possible return or to get the lowest possible risk. II. Past literature review in portfolio selection theories In 1959, Markowitz published his paper named Portfolio Selection: Eficient Diversification of Investments, which conducted a pioneering study of optimizing portfolio in the security market. Ever since then, modern finance and investment decision making comes into a quantitative stage. Portfolio theory is a set of theories and methods to help investors choose certain types and allocate their money from varieties of instruments to form efficient portfolio. In Markowitz theory, mean-variance model can be applied to any class of financial assets, as long as its expected return and the correlation of each asset can be accurately estimated (Markowitz, 1959). In his model, mean represents the expected return of an asset and its risk is represented by the variance. In order to use the Markowitz mean-variance method, we need to find the expected rate of return and risk. However, considering the ineffectiveness of Chinese stock market, the simple mean-variance is not applicable. Thus, more app ropriate method of evaluating return and risk needs to be found. Among these different evaluating methods, people tend to agree using expected return as a representative of future earnings. The return of a financial asset is consisted of two parts: intertemporal cash flows and capital premium (asset price changes during the holding period). The return that this article is going to use is the daily logarithmic rate of return, so the intertemporal cash flows can be ignored. The yield can be expressed as: Because logarithmic rate of return can be simply added which facilitate the data processing by software and its value can be any real numbers, this article will use logarithmic rate of return as the evaluation of asset yields. The simplest way to get the expected rate of return is calculating its average. Its flaws are also quite obvious: the result is far from accurate. In order to find more accurate estimation, we need to fit time series data to appropriate model and find the unconditional expectation of asset return. In 1980s and 1990s, lots of literatures have discussed the predictability of stock market and suitable model of predicting asset returns. M.Hashem Pesaran and Allan Timmermann (1995) found that the predictable components of stock returns are highly correlated with business cycle and the magnitude of shocks influences the model more than expected. But because what they studied is a long term relationship in the stock market, the results can only be a consultation. As for the daily stock return, many researches suggest that it shows significant dependence on former returns. Vedat Akgiray found in his paper about the conditional heteroscedasticity in stock returns that the probability distribu tion of return lag of s days is dependent on return today for several values of s (1989). He used daily returns on the CRSP (Center for Research in Security Prices) value-weighted and equal-weighted index from January 1963 to December 1986 to find that GARCH (1,1) shows the best fit and forecast ability among the econometric models. Noticing that the return he used is also logarithmic rate, the features of logarithmic rate in this article can be expected to be just like that in his study. Similar results can be obtained from other literatures. There is a positive relation between the expected risk premium and the predictable level of volatility and a negative relation between unpredictable component of stock market risk and excess holding period return (K. R. French et al, 1987). Although they can not determine a certain model to describe the exact relation (difficult to choose between ARIMA and GARCH-M), the relation between return and risk is quite significant. Studies about Chinese stock market also show evidence of fitting stock return data in ARMA or GARCH models. The daily returns of Shanghai and Shenzhen index indicates significant ARCH effect and the data fit in GARCH-M model well (Hua Tian and Jiahe Cao, 2003). It is reasonable to choose ARMA or GARCH model to simulate the actual stock movement. But as for the measurement of risk there are comparably various methods. Markowitz explained the mean-variance theory in his 1959 portfolio selection paper which introduced the statistical concept of expectation and variance into the study of investment portfolio. Under a certain probability distribution of returns, he used the average deviation from the average return of all the random returns. Thus, risk can be quantified with the expectation of return as return expected and standard deviation as the measurement of risk. Although variance has some easy to use features such as simple calculating and easy understanding, it is only an approximate measurement of risk. Using variance needs the distribution to be systematic and does not take the investors different feeling about capital gain and loss into consideration. Given the same amount of gain and loss, the pain of loss is usually larger than the happiness of the capital earnings. Variance ignores this asymmetry while LPM (lower partial moments) would be a better measurement. Harlow proposed this new indicator as a more accurate way to describe risk (1991). LPM is an abbreviation of lower partial moment, which P (partial) stands for its measuring only one side of the returns compared with the fundamental rate and L (lower) stands for less than fundamental rate (downside risk). LPM is a risk measurement which meets the requirements of Von Neumann Morgenstern utility function and can cover almost all peoples risk preference. It shows a new way to describe risk apart from the traditional utility measurement which is the function of variance or the standard deviation. The expression of LPM is: , where n is called the order of LPM indicators, representing the risk aversion of investors, and z is called fundamental rate of return which is the minimum return that investors would accept. Different values of n would change LPM into different measurements of risk and therefore meet different investors risk preference, from risk preference to risk neutral, then risk aversion. One advantage of LPM is that it can show only the pain or loss possibility when the return is lower than the expected. The other is it can show what investors different risk preference can affect the feelings to the same asset by simply changing the order n. LPM is less popular in evaluating volatility than variance as the calculation of LPM is more complicated. Another reason is that LPM must be calculated separately for each variable while variance can be added or processed under certain assumptions. This means people need to program it in order to use LPM with computer data processing programs. On the contrary, all the data processing programs have a default function of calculating variance. The way to evaluating the performance of asset portfolios is its efficient frontier. Every combination of risky assets can be plotted in a risk-return space, and those combinations with the highest return under the same risk or with the lowest risk under same return are called efficient portfolios. Usually, the upper part of the curve which describes risk-return features of efficient portfolios is called efficient frontier. Ordinary efficient frontier of investment portfolio is calculated by Markowitzs mean-variance method. This article will use LPM to substitute variance to calculate efficient frontier which makes it more like investors thoughts of risk. Merriken suggested that variance and LPM are suitable for the study of short-term investment (1994), which is quite popular in Chinese capital market. Based on the review of the related literatures, this article will use econometric models to get expectation daily return of stock and futures and both variance and LPM to calculate efficient frontiers to see whether adding futures into stocks would improve the performance of portfolios. III. Theoretical study and empirical data results i. Theories of econometric models and multi-type asset portfolio The econometric models used to estimating the expected return and risk are ARMA and GARCH models depending on the features of different stock and futures time series. ARMA is an abbreviation of autoregressive and moving average model, which is typically used in estimating autocorrelated time series. As what is mentioned in the literature, auto-correlation in daily logarithmic return is shown by theoretical study, and the empirical study of the realistic data also suggests this result. Typical ARMA model is consisted of two parts: AR (auto-regressive) part and MA (moving average) part. It is normally notified as ARMA (p, q) where p is the order of autoregressive part and q is the order of moving average part. AR part is written as: , where are the parameters and is the error term (usually white noise). The value of p suggests how many lags of are regressed on and therefore is a measurement of autocorrelation. For the need of stays stationary, usually we need the absolute value of is less than unit. MA part is written as: , where are the parameters, is the expectation of , and is still the error term (usually white noise). The value of q suggests how many error terms are included in the smoothing process of average and MA process is always a stationary time series. Thus, ARMA model is written as: , which is a combination of autoregressive part and moving average part. The value of parameters is generally determined by the least square method which minimized the residual error term. The value of p and q is chosen to better fit the model without too much lags or smoothing terms. The method used in this article is through the value of ACF (autocorrelation function, which is used to determine the order of moving average) and PACF (partial autocorrelation function, which is used to determine the order of autoregressive part). In spite of autocorrelation, there are other special features of financial time series data such as fat tails, extreme values and volatility clustering. Simple ARMA models assume that the error term is independently and identically distributed which does not meet the fact. Thus, Engle (1982) posed ARCH (Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity) model to analyze this volatility feature of financial data. Four years later, T.Bollerslev improved this model and made it GARCH which is a generalized ARCH model. GARCH model is developed specially for financial data and is widely used in the study of volatility. In addition to the normal econometric model, people use GARCH to better analyze and forecast volatility. GARCH model can be written as: where the first equation is a simple ARMA model, but this time is not an independently and identically distributed normal error term. is an independently and identically distributed error term and is called conditional variance which is estimated by the third equation (also an ARMA model). and are independent of each other and the distribution of is not restricted as normal but can be changed to satisfy actual situation. This makes GARCH a more accurate model in estimating the expected rate of return and risk. Hiroshi Konno and Katsunari Kobayashi (1997) made an attempt to add bonds into ordinary stock portfolio to find a new way of allocating investment. Their purpose is to extend the mean-variance model normally used in optimizing stock portfolios to integrated bond-stock portfolios. At that time, big scale mean-variance models were restricted in stock portfolios although the computer technology and mathematical methods in financial engineering developed fast. Although bonds seem always to be considered separately when people intend to invest in financial market, Hiroshi and Katsunari still want to add bonds into portfolios. The reason is that before 1980s, the return of bond was far less risky than that of stock due to the stable interest rate. However, after 1980s, interest rate became much more volatile and investors bore heavily loss and huge risks. Actually, the volatility of bonds at that time was even higher than that of stocks. Considering this, combining bonds and stocks into the same portfolio is of great realistic meanings. The method they used is mean-variance and mean-absolute deviation models where variance and absolute deviation are as the different measurement of risk. The results are also quite satisfied as adding bonds into stock portfolios can increase the expected return under the same risk level. Never the less, Raimond Maurer and Frank Reiner in 2001 also used this idea of multi-type asset portfolio to discuss the possible outcomes of adding real estate securities into international asset portfolios under a shortfall risk frame. They noticed the fact that financial time series data had its own features and the tradition way of evaluating risk using variance can not reflect what investors think in the reality. Therefore, LPM was introduced as the way of measuring risk to reflect the asymmetry in the rate of return of asset. They compared the situation in Germany and in US by calculating the efficient frontiers of common portfolios, then calculating the efficient frontiers of adding real estate securities into portfolios. Because they studied between different countries, Raimond Maurer and Frank Reiner also calculated the effects of hedging. The results are also quite satisfied as the efficient frontiers move to the left, especially for those high risk-averse investors in Germany. Also, hedging could improve the performance of portfolios, especially for the US investors. With hedging they can build investment portfolios with higher rate of return under a relatively low risk level. But as mentioned above in the introduction part, there are few commercial bonds besides the government bonds; the only possible type of asset besides stocks that can be added into investment portfolios is futures. This article will also calculate the efficient frontiers of stocks, futures and combined portfolios separately, using both variance and LPM as the measurement of risk. As to the number of assets that should be held in one portfolio, investors have different opinions. Most mutual funds in the US market hold more than 100 stocks. Although these over-sized investment portfolios may well diversified risks, the expected return can be just acceptable as higher operational fee are needed to maintain such a huge portfolio and these stocks usually contains some low return ones. Xianyi Lu (2006) discussed this question that how many stocks are suitable for Chinese investors to hold in a single portfolio. He constructed portfolios with different number of stocks to compare their risk-return performance. The measurement of risk he used is variance. He came to the conclusion that 20 stocks would be enough to diversify most of the risk. The close-up price of stock is quite easily obtained while to find suitable closing price of futures is somewhat tricky. Futures are contracts which specify certain quantity and quality of fundamental assets between two parties to trade at a specified date in the future with a price agreed today. Thus there can be various contracts with the same kind of fundamental asset in different delivery date. Considering the trading characteristics of Chinese future market, Chengjie Ge and Yong Liang from a Chinese fund called Guotai Junan tried to construct a continuous future contract to get the daily closing price in 2008. When a contract first comes into market, the transactions are quite few. One contract is traded most actively just three or four months before delivery date, as the coming of specified date the trading volume begins to fall quickly. Those investors, especially the speculators would only trade those contracts that so-called à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“dominant contractà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. Thu s, each future contract is in good liquidity only for a short time period. A continuous future contract is selecting the most actively traded contract of same fundamental asset at the same time to form a new, artificial contract to get the continuous price time series of one asset. ii. Data collection and analysis This article uses daily closing price of stock and futures from the time period 04/01/2007 to 31/12/2008. The data is obtained from RESSET database  [4]   Futures chosen are copper, aluminum, rubber and fuel oil from Shanghai Future Exchange, corn and soybean meal from Dalian Future Exchange and cotton and wheat gluten from Zhengzhou Future Exchange. In order to get daily return we need to construct continuous future contracts by selecting the most active contracts. As to the 8 futures used in this article, the most active contracts of wheat gluten, soybean meal, cotton, fuel oil and corn are those contracts with delivery date four months before the current month (not accounting current month); the most transacted contracts of rubber, aluminum and copper are those with delivery date two months before the current month (still not accounting current month). For example, current time is 19970201, so the contract which should be selected for cotton is the 199705 contract whose delivery month is May 1997. When it comes to 19970301, the contract selected for cotton should be 199703, and so on, so forth. After constructing eight continuous future contracts, we can get the time series of close-up price. The calculation of logarithmic rate of return, variance and LPM is just like the stock data. Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics of futures like the mean, the standard deviation, and some others. As the bond market is not mature in China, the risk free rate that used in this article is the three-month central bank bill rate which is also from the RESSET database, same database as the closing price of stocks and futures. From the statistics in the table we can find that the logarithmic daily return of futures shows asymmetry and fat tails, far from the assumption of mean-variance model that the distribution of returns should be normal distribution, or at least a symmetric bell-shaped distribution. Thus, using variance or standard deviation or any other kind of symmetric statistics would be less accurate. Fitting data into econometric models should provide a better estimation of expected rate of return and risk. Table 2.1-2.4 and Table 3.1-3.3 show the estimation of coefficients using ARMA and GARCH models. The models of stock returns are mostly ARMA models, but of futures are half GARCH models and half ARMA models. Table 2 is the results of future data and table 3 is the results of stock data. From the table we can see that there are four futures which are better fit in GARCH models and for the other four, ARMA is enough as the residual series after ARMA does not show significant heteroscedasticity in error terms. As for stocks, none of the 19 stock time series show significant heteroscedasticity which means ARMA could describe the features of stock price series. One interesting finding is that only 11 stock price time series show the correlation effect while the other 8 stock price series seem to be random walk. Table 2.1 and Table 2.2 are the GARCH results of future returns. Cotton, soybean meal, aluminum and copper show significant auto correlated heteroscedasticity. The basic model that used to estimate the return is ARMA model, and the first two lags show the most correlation with current logarithmic rate of return. The null hypothesis for all the coefficient in the model is the coefficient equals zero. The constant terms in the models are not significant despite that of soybean meal whose p-value is 0.0202, which means we can reject the null hypothesis under a 5% confidence level. The reason for not able to reject the null hypothesis of constant terms equaling zero may be the absolute value of daily logarithmic rate of return is too small, usually under 0.01. In such a low level the normal test to calculating p-value may become not suitable. So the value of constant terms is still used in the ultimate model to calculate the estimation of expected return although we can not reject the po ssibility that it actually equals zero. Table 2.3 and Table 2.4 show the ARMA results of future returns. Wheat gluten, corn, fuel oil and rubber daily logarithmic rate of return are estimated by ARMA model. The null hypothesis is also that any coefficient equals zero with p-value stands for the probability of making mistakes when rejecting the null hypothesis. The problem is the same with that of GARCH models as the p-values are too large to reject. But still we accept this result and make forecast using the present model. In spite of the not-so-satisfying results in the constant term, the coefficients of AR term and MA term are quite significantly different from zero which can be tell from the p-values. This is also true in futures GARCH model and stocks ARMA models. The significance of correlations in logarithmic rate of return series matches the features of financial time series and is what we would like to expect when estimating these coefficients. There are 19 stock return series to be modeled, but only 11 of them shows autocorrelation with their lags. None of these shows significant heteroscedasticity in the error terms so the model chosen is ARMA model. The constant terms of each stock return model is smaller than that of future return model, and the p-value is bigger than 0.05 as expected. The current return of four stocks out of this eleven shows significant correlation with the six and seven lags, showing the existence of cycle effects in the stock market. For these four stocks, what happened in the week before affects the price of this week more compared with other time. Other seven stocks show the ordinary one or two lags correlation. The coefficients of AR and MA part are also of great significance and the null hypothesis can be rejected. For those 8 stocks which do not show the existence of autocorrelation, the processing method is to calculate the basic descriptive statistics such as mean and variance. This method may ignore the asymmetry and fat tails of the data, but as there is no good econometric model to estimate random walk series, this simple way has its own advantage and also of quite high accuracy in estimating the expected rate of return and risk. This article use the forecast value of each model as the expected rate of return, and the variance of the sample as the expected risk for the mean-variance model of investment portfolios. For those 4 GARCH future models, the expected risk is the forecast value of the error part model. As for those eight stocks whose logarithmic daily return series are random walk, simply use the mean as the expected rate of return and the variance as the expected rate of risk. LPM1 is using the three-month central bank bill rate as fundamental rate of return because of its risk-free characteristic. The mean-LPM model also uses the results of expected rate of return from the forecast of GARCH and ARMA models as the only change in this new model is the risk measurement from variance to LPM. Someone may argue that different econometric models could cause different estimation of expected rate of return, thus the results of efficient frontiers become not so convincing. The purpose of this article is to compare the efficient frontiers of different asset portfolios, trying to find the possible improvement of adding futures into the ordinary stock portfolios. The econometric estimation is used to construct Markowitzs mean-variance model. What can be seen from Table 2 and Table 3 is that most of the assets can be fitted into ARMA model. As a matter of fact, because the absolute value of daily logarithmic rate of return is too small, the difference of constant terms between GARCH and ARMA model for the same asset is very small that can be ignored. The calculation of efficient frontiers is using MATLAB financial tool box, and the original data is what has been done above. After calculating the correlation coefficient matrix of 19 stocks and 8 futures, there is not much correlation of each asset. In fact, most of the correlations coefficients are between 0.1 to 0.3, with some of them even to be negative correlated. It suggests that the risk diversify of investment portfolios should successful using these 27 assets according to the statement of Markowitz. 8 futures portfolio Stock and future portfolio (The green line is the efficient frontiers of 19 stocks portfolio, the purple line (in the middle) is of 8 futures portfolio and the blue line is of the mixed stock and future portfolio.) Compared these three efficient frontiers, we can find that adding futures into the ordinary stock portfolio can greatly improve the performance of portfolios, which is even greater under lower risk level. Single future portfolio also performs well compared with single stock portfolio as it can offer higher rate of return under the same risk level. From Figure 1 we can find with the same expected return of 0.4ÃÆ'—10-3, the mixed stock and future portfolio can reduce the risk from 0.012 of single stock portfolio to less than 0.006. This more than fifty percent of risk reduction shows great practical meaning of multi-type asset investment portfolios. Figure 2: the efficient frontiers of stock, future and mixed portfolios using mean-LPM model Figure 2 shows the same results as the Figure 1. The mixed stock and future investment portfolio can improve the risk-return performance of portfolios. Similarly, future portfolio performs much better than stock portfolio, and it can greatly raise the expected return under higher risk level. The mixed portfolios improvement is mainly under low risk level, as the risk becomes bigger, the performing difference between future portfolio and mixed portfolio are not so significant, for the efficient frontiers overlap each other. The efficient frontiers are straight lines in Figure 2 while they are curves in Figure 1. The different risk measurement may result in this. Because LPM only calculates the downside risk, the risks of the portfolios which provide same return are not the same. Every single LPM must be calculated separately. So the shape of the new efficient frontiers may look different from the traditional hyperbola-shaped curves in mean-variance models. Both the mean-variance model and the mean-LPM model show that only investing in stock market can not get as much return as investing only in future market under the same risk level because the efficient frontier of stock portfolio is to the right of that of future portfolio and the distance between the two efficient frontiers is quite large. It reveals a fact that investing only in stock market can not guarantee ideal revenue. Although twenty years has passed since the establishment of