Sound Essay -- Hearing Papers

Sound It may be commonplace to point out that acoustic reality and perceptual reality are different. In a live performance situation, for example, no matter how still the audience, the environment will be full of sounds extraneous to the music. If a tape recorder were positioned somewhere in the midst of such a situation, and if a segment of the resulting tape were submitted to digital sound analysis, the results would highlight the difference between what one heard during the performance (what is presumably captured on the tape), and what analysis confirms the tape actually contains. Sound analysis reveals the behavior of sound in the physical world. In this case, analysis would show that soundwaves from all the sound sources in the environment -- the various instruments of the performance, perhaps the stirring of the audience, or the sound of vehicles passing beyond the confines of the performance context -- the multitude of acoustic elements that make up each of these sounds do not rema in conveniently grouped by source. Rather, the components of all these sounds mix together, combining into a single, very complex waveform which is represented on the tape and revealed through analysis. This is because sound waves are additive, like waves in water, multiplying in quality rather than quantity. In the simplest possible terms, what digital analysis uncovers are the acoustic features of the sounds captured by the tape recorder; what are actually heard are the perceptual features of the same sounds. The acoustic and perceptual characteristics of sound are not the same, nor in many cases is there a one-to-one correspondence between them. Parameters of Sound In a very general sense, sounds in a normal environment consist o... ...on provided by either form of presentation is an approximation at best, limited by the resolution capabilities of both the digitizer and the analyzer, as well as by the fineness of detail possible in the graphic display of the software. It is also important to be cautious in considering which details of the visual representation of a sound sample are salient to the sound as perceived; often the picture of a sound will include clearly visible elements which are acoustically present in the sound but too short in duration, or too soft in intensity to register perceptually. A useful maxim in this regard is the following: If a discrete element is filtered from a sound with no difference to the resulting tonal sensation, then the element is unimportant to the final percept and need not be considered in interpreting the data, no matter how blatantly it appears in analysis. Sound Essay -- Hearing Papers Sound It may be commonplace to point out that acoustic reality and perceptual reality are different. In a live performance situation, for example, no matter how still the audience, the environment will be full of sounds extraneous to the music. If a tape recorder were positioned somewhere in the midst of such a situation, and if a segment of the resulting tape were submitted to digital sound analysis, the results would highlight the difference between what one heard during the performance (what is presumably captured on the tape), and what analysis confirms the tape actually contains. Sound analysis reveals the behavior of sound in the physical world. In this case, analysis would show that soundwaves from all the sound sources in the environment -- the various instruments of the performance, perhaps the stirring of the audience, or the sound of vehicles passing beyond the confines of the performance context -- the multitude of acoustic elements that make up each of these sounds do not rema in conveniently grouped by source. Rather, the components of all these sounds mix together, combining into a single, very complex waveform which is represented on the tape and revealed through analysis. This is because sound waves are additive, like waves in water, multiplying in quality rather than quantity. In the simplest possible terms, what digital analysis uncovers are the acoustic features of the sounds captured by the tape recorder; what are actually heard are the perceptual features of the same sounds. The acoustic and perceptual characteristics of sound are not the same, nor in many cases is there a one-to-one correspondence between them. Parameters of Sound In a very general sense, sounds in a normal environment consist o... ...on provided by either form of presentation is an approximation at best, limited by the resolution capabilities of both the digitizer and the analyzer, as well as by the fineness of detail possible in the graphic display of the software. It is also important to be cautious in considering which details of the visual representation of a sound sample are salient to the sound as perceived; often the picture of a sound will include clearly visible elements which are acoustically present in the sound but too short in duration, or too soft in intensity to register perceptually. A useful maxim in this regard is the following: If a discrete element is filtered from a sound with no difference to the resulting tonal sensation, then the element is unimportant to the final percept and need not be considered in interpreting the data, no matter how blatantly it appears in analysis.

History Behind Moulin Rouge the Movie Essay

It was 1899 in Paris. France. it was the clip of the Bohemian Revolution. and it was the summer of love. Christian. played by Ewan McGregor. was a author and came to Paris to see this revolution and be surrounded by the creative persons. vocalists. and terpsichoreans of this new Bohemian universe. Small did he cognize that he would see something he had ne'er felt before but ever believed in: love. Moulin Rouge. directed by Baz Luhrmann. is an keen film musical based off of a existent life nightclub called Moulin Rouge in Montmartre. The film tells the narrative of the love trigon between Christian. Satine aka the â€Å"Sparkling Diamond† of the Moulin Rouge. played by Nicole Kidman. and The Duke. Although Christian and Satine are fictional characters. the narrative includes existent life characters such as Harold Zidler. the co-mastermind of the Moulin Rouge and Toulouse-Lautrec. a celebrated Gallic creative person. Moulin Rouge is a great expression into what life was like ba ck in Paris in 1900. but besides adds in the love narrative between Christian and Satine to do for a great film musical. In the beginning of the film. Christian’s optimistic love shines some light into Satine’s dark mercenary world. To do a life. Satine became a concubine at the Moulin Rouge. She gets paid for doing work forces believe what they want to believe. so she sells her organic structure to do money. She erroneously became attracted to Christian for his pure and optimistic belief in love. Sing that Christian did non hold a batch of money. she becomes hesitant of loving him because he would non be able to back up her and her dreams of being an actress. With Christian’s pure and optimistic belief of love. he captures Satine’s bosom by loving her for who she truly is. non for what she is. Although Satine dies in the terminal of the film. Christian learns that true love lasts everlastingly even through decease. Harold Zidler. who is non a fictional character. is the adult male who helped to run the existent Moulin Rouge nightclub. In the movie. and in existent life Pari s. Zidler was the adult male who was. â€Å"a ‘brother’ to the creative persons and the adult male in the shadows who watched over the terpsichoreans and the remainder of the forces with a benevolent oculus and ruled with an Fe fist† ( History ) . In the movie he is the 1 who is in charge of doing certain everything goes absolutely at the nightclub and makes certain all his terpsichoreans. particularly Satine. cognize what they are supposed to make and who they should affect that dark. Not merely did he run the Moulin Rouge he was besides a showman and performed with his terpsichoreans in the shows. Toulouse-lautrec was besides an of import individual when it comes to the nightclub in Paris. In the movie he does non hold a immense function other than aid Christian acquire inside the Moulin Rouge and happen a manner for him to run into Satine. In Paris in the 1900’s. though. he is said to hold been â€Å"the eyes of the Moulin Rouge. † Toulouse-Lautrec attended every eventide show when the nightclub opened ; and as mentioned before he was an creative person. so every dark he would sit in a corner and pull the terpsichoreans accompanied by a glass of common wormwood ( History ) . The fact about the common wormwood is besides in the film ; Toulouse-Lautrec. Christian. and a few others take a shooting of common wormwood before they head to the Moulin Rouge one dark and the following few proceedingss of the movie are merely filled with pure daftness and hallucinations. His graphics. though. was highly of import in the success of the Moulin Rouge. â€Å"In 1891. he drew the first advertisement posting for the Moulin Rouge. which today remains the best known image of the Moulin Rouge around the world† ( History ) . His work is still celebrated today and without him the Moulin Rouge in Paris would non be every bit good known as it is today. The terpsichoreans of the Moulin Rouge were Masterss of the â€Å"cancan. † One of the stars and besides known as â€Å"Queen of the Cancan† was Louise Weber. but her moniker was â€Å"La Goulue. † She is non specifically in the movie. but in a life about her. it states that. â€Å"one eventide when she was dancing a frantic cancan. between two cartwheels she spotted the Prince of Wales. who had come to pass an eventide on his ain at the Moulin Rouge. and called out. with the Parisian cheek for which she was good know. ‘Hey. Wales! The champagne’s on you? ’† ( History ) . La Goulue is relatable to Satine in the movie. because Satine was besides the star and best terpsichorean and she spotted Christian the first dark he was at that place and while she was dancing called him out in forepart of everyone who was in attending at the Moulin Rouge that flushing. Moulin Rouge is one of Baz Luhrmann’s best movies. The film came out in June 2001 and has won many awards and is one of the best films in the musical genre. The set design. costumes. casting of functions. and music all is so absolutely set together to make this superb movie. Luhrmann. who besides co-wrote the film with Craig Pearce. traveled to Paris with Pearce and the production interior decorator to carry on historical research and compose the outline for the film. â€Å"To find ways to picture 19th century Paris and the Moulin Rouge as it may hold felt to its audience so – at the cutting border of sex. music. dance. theatre and modern thought – the film makers immersed themselves in the vicinity. locales and civilization of their story† ( Luhrmann ) . Through their research and larning about the civilization. they came to understand that the Moulin Rouge was a nine that brought all different categories together and Pearce quotes that is the equivalent of â€Å"Studio 54 in New York in the late 70’s ; a topographic point where the rich and the powerful can blend with the immature. the beautiful and the penniless† ( Luhrmann ) . This is shown in the film because we see the powerful. such as The Duke. and so Christian who is merely a author. come to the same nine to see the same thing. adult females and amusement. The first half an hr of the film is nonstop music. dancing. visible radiations. and merely perfectly craziness. Audiences are non given a opportunity to â€Å"relax† and merely easy take the film in ; it is fast paced and keeps the film spectator on their toes merely waiting for what will come following. In a film review. shortly after it came out in 2001. the film referee describes Moulin Rouge as â€Å"grandiose. glorious. absinthe-soaked surplus. † When cinematography. Luhrmann wanted everything to be over the top and wanted more out of the production ; more vocals. more sound. more colour. more everything ( Kaplan C. D. ) . This is what it was like in the existent nightclub. the dance and vocals were all so intense and brainsick so the work forces would be to the full entertained and ne'er acquire bored. There was a batch traveling on in Paris in the late 1880’s and 1890’s. The Eiffel Tower was built. the first cinematographic showing was shown by the Lumiere brothers. and the most celebrated nightclub opened its doors. â€Å"The public came in mass to detect this excessive topographic point with its immense dance floor. mirrors everyplace. and galleries that were the last word in elegance. to blend with the rabble and misss of easy virtue† ( History ) . The Moulin Rouge was a topographic point for the rich and hapless work forces to come for dancing. music. and amusement from the ladies ; it is said to hold been an ambiance of â€Å"total euphory. † This was a clip where workers. blue bloods. creative persons. and the middle-class could all gather together to see nightclubs. music-halls. and other dark clip activities. As mentioned before. this film takes topographic point during the Bohemian Revolution. This revolution was non a revolution of contending. but a revolution of art and civilization. It was a clip for artisits. poets. author. vocalists. terpsichoreans. and anyone else who wanted to show themselves to demo off their endowments and be recognized. These were the â€Å"child ren of the revolution† ( Moulin Rouge ) . In the beginning scenes of Moulin Rouge. Christian is told that to truly be a kid of the revolution. he has to believe in beauty. freedom. truth. and most significantly love. Which of class he believes in love. it is what he lives for and as stated earlier. he is given the opportunity to see love for the first clip. Not merely is the film based off of the existent nightclub in Paris. but it is besides partially based on the Grecian myth of Orpheus and partially on the opera La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi ( IMDb ) . The Grecian myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is slightly like the narrative between Christian and Satine. Orpheus is said to hold been the best instrumentalist that of all time lived and until he met Eurydice. he lived his merely and heedlessly. Orpheus and Eurydice fell in love and it meant everything to both of them but person else wanted Eurydice’s beauty and wanted her but she did non care for this other adult male. To do a long narrative short. she ends up deceasing and Orpheus attempts to acquire her dorsum from the underworld but could non salvage her ; all he had left was the love they one time had ( â€Å"Orpheus† ) . For Christian. he lost Satine and would ne'er acquire her back once more but what he got from her decease was a narrative of true love that he has to portion with the universe. Satine was already deceasing before she fell in love with Christian. but at least she was able to decease cognizing what it was like to be in love. The opera La Traviata is another love narrative that ends tragically. Violetta. who is a concubine. claims that love means nil to her until she meets a immature adult male named Alfredo which makes her so inquire if he could be the adult male that she could love. In the terminal of the narrative. though. Violetta is diagnosed with TB and does non hold long to populate and dies at Alfredo’s pess ( â€Å"La Traviata† ) . This opera. the myth of Orpheus. and Moulin Rouge. are all similar in the manner that the adult female ne'er truly believed in love until they met that one adult male that changed their positions on love. there are challenges to confront one the adult male and adult female autumn in love. and so it is the adult female who dies in terminal go forthing their lovers all entirely. Each narrative is a small different but the same basic thought. from the opera and Grecian myth. are evident in the movie. From 20th century Paris. the Bohemian Revolution. the myth of Orpheus. Harold Zidler. and other historical minutes. Moulin Rouge is a 1 of a sort musical movie that is an astonishing piece of work put together by Luhrmann. Knowing the history behind the movie makes it exciting to watch and understand what it was similar back in Paris in 1899. Plants Cited â€Å"The History of the Moulin Rouge and its Shows. † Moulin Rouge. Fr. Le Bal du Moulin Rouge. n. d. Web. 17 Nov. 2011.Kaplan. C. D. Rev. of Moulin Rouge. by Baz Luhrmann. Louisville Eccentric Observer. Louisville. Ky. : 30 May 2001. Vol. 11. Iss. 30 ; pg. 21â€Å"La Traviata. † The Metropolitan Opera. N. p. . n. d. Web. 18 Nov. 2011. Luhrmann. Baz. . and Craig Pearce. commentary. Moulin Rouge. Dir. Baz Luhrmann. Perf. Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor. Twentieth Century Fox. 2001. Film. Moulin Rouge. Dir. Baz Luhrmann. Perf. Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor. Twentieth Century Fox. 2001. Film. â€Å"Moulin Rouge. † IMDb. IMDb. com. Inc. . n. d. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. â€Å"Orpheus and Eurydice. † Paleothea Myths. N. p. . 10 Jan. 2008. Web. 18 Nov. 2011.

Investing in Futures and Options Essay

INTRODUCTION Of late, investors who are in the stock and commodity are focusing their attention towards risk management especially due to high volatility nature. Since these volatility movements are uncertain, it has become foremost cause of vagueness for such investors. Since the globalization of trade and free trade between major countries has become the order of the day, all most all the investors have to be under mercy of the exchange rate fluctuations which results in volatility   .The notion that exchange rates , profitability and other factors   influence a firm’s value and therefore the price of its stock is widely held by financial analyst ,economists and corporate managers . The liberalization of economic policies and investment policies due to world trade organization’s (WTO) free flow of investments and trade between member countries and bilateral free trade agreements between countries have augmented internationalization of economic activity and exceptional era of world wide currency and interest rates instability. To counter these financial risks, new pioneering concept commodity and stock market hedging techniques have nurtured at a rapid speed. The main feature of the using derivatives through hedging is to have control over the financial risk and minimizing the effect of uncertain cash flows. Financial institutions have come to rescue to these corporations who have exposure to financial risk with the range of products to assist in risk management. By far the most significant event in finance during the past decade has been the extraordinary development and expansion of financial derivatives. These instruments enhance the ability to differentiate risk and allocate it to the investors most able and   willing to take it – a process that has undoubtedly improved national productivity growth and standards of living .’ Allen Green Span, Chairman, Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve System. The structural advantage of derivatives i.e. leverage or gearing   makes them suitable for managing risk can also result in the generation of leveraged profits or in the event of adverse market movement , a significant losses. The main advantage of gearing is that the buyer or seller need only to cough up a small proportion of total price at the time of deal is executed. It may be 1% and 8% depending upon the volatility of the underlying commodity or instrument. In the case of exchange traded transactions, this deposit is recognized as â€Å"initial margin† and is expected to reflect the amount by which the price of a contract may vary in one day’s trading. At the day end, all contracts will be valued and if the price has been found to move against the position, the losing party will have to pay further â€Å"variation margin† calls. In contrary, if the price movement is positive, credit will be given to the party .It is this element of gearing that provides the opportunity to make large gains or losses. Prudent handling of this leverage will result in considerable profit maximization and if it handled inexpertly, may generate losses .In some cases , these losses though high but they are few in number when measured against volume of business and number of participants in derivative business .The contributory factors for sustaining loss includes excessive position taking ( in relation to capital) , fraudulent activity , unexpected market moves, ineffective risk management, insufficient product understanding and inadequacies in corporate policy governing their use. What is a derivative? Derivative is a mathematical word which refers to a variable, which has been derived from another variable and they have no values of their own. Derivatives derive their value from the value of some other asset, which is referred as the underlying. For instance, a derivative of the shares of AT & T Corporation (underlying), will derive its value from the share price (value) of AT & T Corporation. Likewise, a derivative contract on wheat depends upon the price of wheat. An agreement or an option to buy or sell the underlying asset of the derivative up to a certain time in the future at a predetermined price i.e. the exercise price by way of special contract is known as derivative contract. The contract also has a flat expiry period mostly in the range of 3 to 12 months from the date of origination of the contract. The price of the underlying asset and the expiry period of the contract determine the value of the contract. Financial derivatives comprises of underlying financial asset like currency, debt instruments, equity shares, share price index etc.Exchange-traded derivatives are derivative contracts that has been standardized and traded on the stock exchanges. Over-the –counter derivatives is one which has been customized as per the requirements of the user by negotiating with the other party involved. Some of the common forms of derivatives are Futures, Forwards and Options. Futures: Futures are the derivative contracts that give the holder the chance to buy or sell the underlying asset at a pre-specified price some time in the near future and usually thy come with standardized form like contract size, fixed expiry time and price. The future market is one where continues auction market and exchanges presenting the recent information about the supply and demand as regards to individual commodities or financial instruments like stocks . In other words, future market is one where buyers and sellers of variety of commodities, financial instruments get together to trade. The main aim of the future market is to manage price risk. The future price risk is averted by buying or selling futures contract, with a price level arrived at now, for items to be delivered in future. This is achieved by hedging which helps to shield against the risk of an adverse price change in the near future or use of futures to lock in an acceptable margin between their purchase and their selling price. In futures, bankers, farmers, traders, manufacturers will arrange for the purchase or sale of a futures contract. In future market, commodities are broken down into five categories namely agriculture, metallurgical, interest bearingassets, jndexes and foreign currency. Agricultural futures market includes oats, corn , wheat , soybeans , soy meal ,soyoil,sunflower oil ,cattles , live hogs   and pork bellies, lumber , plywood ,cotton, coffee, cocoa, rice, orange juice and sugar. For every one of these commodities, different contract months are available and it depends upon the harvest cycle. More aggressively traded commodities usually have more contract months available and a new type of contract is available almost every month to meet the growing institutional and corporate market. Futures on Metallurgical Products: Petroleum products and metals is being covered under this group and it includes platinum, gold, silver, palladium, copper, gasoline, crude oil, propane and heating oil. Every month a new type of contract emerges to cater the needs of ever increasing institutional and corporate market. Assets which bears interest: This has its origin during 1975 and products in these categories include treasury bonds, Treasury Bills, Municipal Bonds, Treasury Notes and Eurodollar deposits. It is also possible to trade contracts with the same maturity but different expected interest rate differentials. Futures on Indexes: Now futures are available on most chief indexes such as New York Stock Exchange Composite, S&P 500, New York Stock Exchange Utility index, Russell 2000, Commodity Research Bureau (CRB), S&P 400 Midcap, FT-Se 100 Index (London) and Value line. These stock index features are settled in cash and there is no delivery of goods is involved in this method. A trader has to settle his positions by buying or selling an offsetting position or in cash at expiration. Foreign Currency Futures: During the post war period, the exchange rates and interest rates were stable and the mechanism of fixed exchange rates of the Bretton Woods era enabled the corporations to know in advance their foreign exchange liabilities for their imports. But the collapse of Bretton Woods’s system after the war resulted in the introduction of general floating exchange rates replacing the earlier fixed system. The introduction of floating exchange rates have resulted in large unexpected movements in exchange rates that too in unforeseen directions and magnitudes which affected interest rate movements as the monetary establishment tried to influence the exchange rates by movements in interest rates. It is to be noted that the forward market in currencies is much bigger than the foreign exchange futures market. Further, there are cross currency futures that are being traded and these includes Deutsch mark / yen, Deutsch mark / French franc. Forwards & Options: Forward is another form of a derivative contract but tailored to the needs of the user in terms of expiry date, contract size, and price. These contracts confer the holder the option to buy or sell the under lying at a pre-determined price some time in the future .Call option is one where the buyer has given his option to buy the underlying at the near future .Where as an option to sell the underlying at a specified price in the future is called as Put Option. As regards to the option contract, the buyer is not obliged to exercise the option contract. Generally, options can be traded on the stock exchange or on the OTC. In option, the participants may assume a position in an underlying futures contract at a certain price which is known as exercise or strike price within a particular period of time. The price or premium of the option is determined through action market trading. Swaps: Swaps contract was introduced in 1981 and can be considered as one of the latest financial innovations to manage financial risks. The contracting parties are obliged to exchange specified cash flows at specified intervals under a swap contract. In a nutshell, a swap contract can be defined as a series of forward contracts put together. If the exchange of interest rate payments in one currency for payments in another currency is devised, then it amounts to a currency swap. If the exchange between two parties of interest obligations or receipts in the same currency on an agreed amount of notional principal for an agreed period of time is devised, then it is known as interest rate swap. An interest rate swap is an agreement between two parties to exchange interest payments calculated on different bases over a period of time. Under interest rate swap, one party to the contract makes fixed –rate payments while the other party’s payments are based on a floating rate such as LIBOR. For instance, if a company which has borrowed from a bank at a floating rate (7 m LIBOR) may want to swap that for a fixed rate (7m LIBOR) so that they can cover the risk if the interest rates go up. On one side, they pay 7% (of the agreed notional principal) and receive 7m LIBOR and on the other side they pay 7m LIBOR straight out to repay their loan. Thus they have converted a floating rate loan into a fixed rate loan. The said bank may manages its own risk from the above swap transaction by backing it out with another swap , say by paying 6.95% for 7m LIBOR and thus they earn a profit of 0.5% difference thus avoiding the risk in the interest rate changes . The other different types of interest rate swap are: Basis swap: For instance, swapping 2m LIBOR for 4m LIBOR. Basic swaps are mostly used by mortgage companies because the get the mortgage payments on monthly basis. Both fixed Currency Swap : Both fixed and say fixed $ for fixed  £ Both floating currency swap: 2m $ LIBOR for 4 m Yen LIBOR. Cross Currency Swap: fixed  £ for 2m CHF LIBOR. Companies derive more flexibility to exploit their comparative advantage in their respective borrowing markets under currency swaps. Under interest rate swap, corporations try to focus on their comparative advantage in borrowing in a single currency in the short end of the maturity spectrum vs. the long –end of the maturity spectrum. USES OF DERIVATIVES: Derivatives are mainly used for speculation or hedging. For speculation, derivatives offer us leverage. For instance, instead of buying  £ 5Million bond in the anticipation that its price will rise up, one can buy an option on that bond, which might only cost  £ 2000. The profit chances or opportunities are the same less the price of the option but the risk is much less as the most we can loose in this deal is the option price ( £ 2000). For hedging, derivatives let you to seal the price now for a trade in future or at least limits the rise or fall of that price. An UK company holding a US bond which is on the verge of its maturity could buy an interest rate option to guarantee the dollar / sterling rate did not diminish the value of its bond. Volatility is regarded as the most precise measure of risk and its return. The greater the volatility, the greater the risk and the reward as it is evidenced in the transaction from bull to bear markets. It is to be observed in the bearish market, volatility and risk augment while returns disappear including short –selling returns. History: The very first exchange for trading derivatives started by Royal Exchange in London, which allowed forward contract. Likewise, the first future contract was introduced to Yodoya rice market in Osaka, Japan in 1650. Then in 1848, Chicago Board of Trade was started to handle futures market of US. Russell Sage, a famous New York financier introduced synthetic loans using the principle of put-call parity. Sage could able to create a synthetic loan by fixing the put, call and strike prices with interest rate poignantly higher than the US usury law permitted. Chicago Mercantile Exchange started International Monetary Market in 1972 which permitted trading in currency futures. The Chicago Board of Trade started first interest rate futures in 1975.Treasury bill futures contract was introduced in 1975 by Merc. The Chicago Board Options Exchange was started in 1973 and there were publications for the first time option pricing model of Fischer Black and Myron Scholes. Chicago Board Options Exchange created an option on an index of stocks which was originally known as CBOE 100 index which later known as S&P 100. During 1980, Swaps and other over-the –counter derivatives were introduced. It was in 1994, the derivative trade witnessed a series of huge losses and this affected experienced trading firms like Metallgesellschaft and Procter and Gamble. Orange country, California which is the America’s wealthiest city was declared as bankruptcy due to derivative trading and use of leverage in a portfolio of short -term Treasury securities. DERIVATIVES OR DESTRUCTIVE? A CASE STUDY OF BARINGS, UK. Baring Brothers, a British merchant bank went to bankruptcy in 1995 after incurring a whooping loss of  £ 860 million occurred on the Singapore and Osaka derivative exchanges. Nick Leeson, the bank’s star trader and absence of management controls to monitor his activities were the main reasons for this debacle. During the period between 1992 and 1995, Lesson built up positions in futures and options contracts on the Nikkei 225 stock exchange index, which proved highly profitable in the early years. Futures positions were bought by Lesson on the Nikkei index and financed cash calls on them as they fell in value by selling put options on the contract, thereby producing a straddle and thus betting against volatility of the market. Simex derivative exchange in Singapore were used to book the contracts and he run a hedged position on Nikkei index futures and make money by arbitraging between Singapore and Osaka markets. However he ceased hedging on the purchases made in Singapore and took on risk. Due to unexpected volatility in the market, losses were incurred and these losses in fact exceeded the net worth of Baring Bank .Lesson was later imprisoned for the falsification of records in an attempt to cover up his activities. The rationale of this case law is to elucidate how a bank can face bankruptcy if there is no proper risk management system is in force. The case also establishes the concept of ‘value at risk ‘(VAR) which is a simple method to express the risk of a portfolio. Because of the recent derivatives disasters, end-users, regulators, financial institutions and central bankers are now resorting to VAR as a method to foster stability in financial markets .The case illustrates how VAR could have been utilized to Baring Bank case to warn its management of the risk they were facing in advance. VOLATILITY: Volatility has its effect on administered market and it is high when both supply and demand are inelastic and liable to random shocks. According to Rudiger Dornbusch, market always overshoots in reaction to unexpected changes in economic variables. Volatility is a type of market incompetence and it is a reaction to uncertainty and excessive volatility is unreasonable. Volatility in stock and commodity market is represented by sharp changes in prices and inventory levels and level of volatility itself has fluctuated over the time. Changes in future prices, spot prices and inventories are influenced by changes in volatility Volatility is a determinant of changes in price expressed in percentage terms without regard to direction especially in stock price and stock index levels , commodities and in financial intermediaries .For example , an increase from 200 to 201 in one index is as same as the volatility terms to an increase in 100 to 101 in another index , because both changes are 1% and as this 1% increase is equal to volatility terms to a 1 % price decline .There are four ways to explain the volatility or movement and they are historical volatility , future volatility , expected volatility and implied volatility . Historical volatility is an appraiser of actual price variation during a particular period in the past. Future volatility refers annualized standard deviation of daily returns during particular future period basically between current and an option expiration. Expected volatility is an investor’s forecast of volatility utilized in an option method to gauge the theoretical value of an option. Implied volatility is the volatility percentage that illustrates the current market price of an option and it is the indicator of an option’s price. Volatility is described as standard deviation of the yield of an asset and the value of an option always increases with volatility. The greater the volatility, the higher the option chance during its life and convertible to the underlying asset at a marginal profit and this methodology has been proved in the Black-Scholes formula. Black-scholes formula yield results during trends and unsuccessful when the market change sign. â€Å" The implied volatilities are efficient forecasts of future volatility since varying market conditions cause volatilities to change through time stochastically and traditional volatilities   can not correct itself to varying market conditions as ghastly .Stochastic volatility contradicts the assumption required by the Black-Scholes model –if volatilities do modify stochastically through moment in time, the Black-Scholes method is no longer the correct pricing method and an implied volatility derived from the Black-Scholes formula provides no fresh information. Black-Scholes formula is lacking on certain issues like the oblique volatilities of various options on the identical stock tend to differ disregarding the formulas hypothesize that a single stock can be correlated with only one value of implied volatility. The Black-Scholes formula mainly ignores the distribution of stock prices in US market.   Some studies have revealed severe deviation from the price process fundamental to Black-Scholes formula like excess kurtosis, skewness, time varying volatilities and serial correlation. Further Black –scholes deals with stochastic volatility poorly and it relies on impractical assumption that market dickers endlessly thereby ignoring institutional constraints and transaction costs. Stock Charting: Stock charting is the process of a graphical sequence record enables it easier to dapple the effect of cardinal happenings on authoritarian security’s price., its functioning over a period of time and whether it’s trading its higher or its lower or in between these. Traders are very particular in daily, intraday data to forecast short-term price movements.   Investors rely on weekly and monthly charts to mark long term trends and movements. Line chart, Bar chart, Candlestick Chart and point and figure chart are some of the examples of stock charting method.   Arithmetic and semi-log arithmetic scales are two methods of price scaling used in the stock charting method. When the price range is hemmed within a tight range and used in general for short-term charts and trading. Semi-log scales are useful for long term charts to estimate the percentage movements over a foresighted period of time including large movements. Stock and other securities are estimated in relative terms through tools lime PE, Price/Revenues and Price/Book and as such it will be more useful to analyse in percentage terms. Ocillator: This is an indicator which is calculated by taking 10 day moving average of the difference between the numbers of advancing and defining issues for authoritarian given index. An indicator will reflect whether an index is gaining or losing impetus, so the size of the moves is more significant than the level of the current reading. The level of the reading is influenced by how the oscillator changes each day thereby dropping a value ten days ago and adding today’s value. The scale in moves is also helpful when it is compared with the divergence from the index price. If the Dow climaxes at the same time, the oscillator peaks in overbought area and suggests a top. Divergence is said to be negative and momentum is declining when index makes a new high but the oscillator fails to make a higher .One can buy if the index declines at this point but oscillator moves into oversold territory. If the oscillator rises above a previous overbought level though the index rises but does not make new heights, it is said to be upside momentum exists to continue the rally. Support: A support level is the price at which buyers are anticipated to enter the market in considerable numbers to take control from sellers. As the market has its track record, when price falls to a new low and then soars, the buyers who ignored on the first low will be persuaded to buy if price returns to that level back .Fearing of missing out the opportunity for the second time, these traders may enter into market in adequate numbers to take control from sellers. As the result, there is a rally strengthening sensitivity that price is unlikely to fall further thereby creating a support level. Resistance: The price level at which the sellers are anticipated to enter the market in sizeable numbers to take control from buyers is known as resistance level. If price makes a new High and then move back, sellers who ignored the previous High will be predisposed to sell when price returns to that level back. Fearing of missing the opportunity for the second time, these sellers may enter the market in large numbers to overwhelm buyers. As the result, market perception will be reinforced that price is unlikely to increase higher and form a resistance level. CANDLE CHARTING: It is a price chart that shows the open, low, the high and close for a stock each day over a specified period of time .It is known as Japanese candles because they used to analyse the price of rice contracts. When the close is higher than the open , the same is represented by an white empty box in the candle charting .When the close is lower than the open , then it is represented by a solid black candle ,Colored candles are used to reflect the day’s volume. Investment strategies in stock and options Following is the most of common investment strategies for keeping investment objectives, financial means and risk tolerance. Despite of market crash in 1929, market break in 1987, market correction in 1989 and though the prices of all securities fell down drastically but broad movement of the market has seen their value steadily increased. One of the strategies is to buy and hold for long the high quality stocks or futures of stock or commodities .The buy –and-hold strategy offers one to profit from this long term forward trend of the stock market. Further, dividend investment plan offers small investors a painless method of building wealth. Dollar –Cost Averaging: This is also a long term strategy and one has to invest in a stock or mutual fund or futures at regular intervals monthly, quarterly or semiannually. The success of dollar-cost averaging relies on consistency of amount invested and the regularity of the payments so as to minimize pricing and timing risk. The success of the Dollar cost averaging depends upon the following factors. The plan for the investment should be for a long period i.e. from 7 years to 10 years .In the last 100 years, there were about 40 recessions or market corrections or a downturn about every 3 years and If one carry on to invest through about three of these corrections, the profits of dollar-cost averaging tend to be maximized. 2 .Investment at regular intervals is most preferred. Investment should be made regularly regardless of the price of the stock. Give preference to high quality of stocks or mutual funds and a company or fund with history of habitual dividend payments and possible for capital appreciation is a better choice. One has to make sure that he has enough strength so that he can adhere to the plan through highs and lows and sell out at the peak and thus the money allocated for dollar-cost averaging result in wealth-building funds, not committed funds.[i] Going Short: An investor who prefers short i.e. enters into futures contract by agreeing to sell and deliver the underlying at a price and wishes to make profit from declining price levels and thereby selling high now , the contract can be repurchased in the future at a lesser price thus creating a profit for the investor. 16.Spreads: It involve taking benefit of the price difference between two different contracts of the same commodity and spreading is believed to be the most conventional forms of trading in the futures market because it is much safer than the trading long / short futures contract. There are different types of spread namely calendar spread, inter-exchange spread and inter-market spread. Swing Trading: It denotes a technique of placing emphasis on playing the swings in the PPS, selling on the highs and buying on the lows rather than the swiftness of the trade. To complete the swing trade, it may need more than a day, a week or authoritarian month or longer period and channeling stock is pursued by the some swing traders. Flipping: It refers the process of trading a stock very quickly with in minutes or hours etc as past as possible may be on the same day. It is often used to explain a buy and sell with a share that is running and where the trader buys the stock as it is moving up and sells the same on even a higher point in a short period of time. A flipper aim is to maximize his profits by emphasizing on fast trades to earn quick profits. The risk is also less downside as the trader sits in a stock for a less time. [i] Hall, Alvin D., and Carolyn M. Brown. â€Å"Investment Strategies Made Easy: Here’s How to Overcome Your Fears of the Market and Invest like a Pro.† Black Enterprise Mar. 1994: 66+. 2.Fisher, Black and Myron Scholes, â€Å"The pricing of Options and Corporate Liabilities â€Å"The Journal of Political Economy, 81,637-654. 3.Mackay, Charles. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds: New York, Harmony Books (1980). 4.Chance .Don M.† A Chronology of Derivatives† Derivative Quarterly, 2 (winter, 1955) 53-60. 5.Thomas L. Friedman ,The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century Stephen Leeb, Glen Strathy ,The Coming Economic Collapse: How You Can Thrive When Oil Costs $200 a Barrel 7.George A. Fontanills, Tom Gentile The Volatility Course 8.George Soros, Paul A. Volcker The Alchemy of Finance (Wiley Investment Classics) 9.John C. Hull Options, Futures and Other Derivatives (6th Edition) 10.Marc Allaire ,The Options Strategist 11. George Kleinman, Trading Commodities and Financial Future: A Step by Step Guide to Mastering the Markets (3rd Edition). 12. Sheldon Natenberg ,Option Volatility & Pricing: Advanced Trading Strategies and Techniques Jeffrey M. Christian, Commodities Rising: The Reality Behind the Hype and How To Really Profit in the Commodities Market. John J. Murphy ,Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets: A Comprehensive Guide to Trading Methods and Applications (New York Institute of Finance John F. Carter, Mastering the Trade (McGraw-Hill Trader’s Edge) 16. Joseph Kellogg, Trading From the Inside 17. Thomas N. Bulkowski ,Encyclopedia of Chart Patterns (Wiley Trading) 18.Stephen W. Bigalow, Profitable Candlestick Trading: Pinpointing Market Opportunities to Maximize Profits   

Chapter 12 The Patronus

Harry knew that Hermione had meant well, but that didn't stop him from being angry with her. He had been the owner of the best broom in the world for a few short hours, and now, because of her interference, he didn't know whether he would ever see it again. He was positive that there was nothing wrong with the Firebolt now, but what sort of state would it be in once it had been subjected to all sorts of anti-jinx tests? Ron was furious with Hermione too. As far as he was concerned, the stripping-down of a brand-new Firebolt was nothing less than criminal damage. Hermione, who remained convinced that she had acted for the best, started avoiding the common room. Harry and Ron supposed she had taken refuge in the library and didn't try to persuade her to come back. All in all, they were glad when the rest of the school returned shortly after New Year, and Gryffindor Tower became crowded and noisy again. Wood sought Harry out on the night before term started. â€Å"Had a good Christmas?† he said, and then, without waiting for an answer, he sat down, lowered his voice, and said, â€Å"I've been, doing some thinking over Christmas, Harry. After last match, you know. If the Dementors come to the next one†¦I mean†¦we can't afford you to — well –â€Å" Wood broke off, looking awkward. â€Å"I'm working on it,† said Harry quickly. â€Å"Professor Lupin said he'd train me to ward off the Dementors. We should be starting this week. He said he'd have time after Christmas.† â€Å"Ah,† said Wood, his expression clearing. â€Å"Well, in that case — I really didn't want to lose you as Seeker, Harry. And have you ordered a new broom yet?† â€Å"No,† said Harry. â€Å"What! You'd better get a move on, you know — you can't ride that Shooting Star against Ravenclaw!† â€Å"He got a Firebolt for Christmas,† said Ron. â€Å"A Firebolt? No! Seriously? A — a real Firebolt?† â€Å"Don't get excited, Oliver,† said Harry gloomily. â€Å"I haven't got it anymore. It was confiscated.† And he explained all about how the Firebolt was now being checked for jinxes. â€Å"Jinxed? How could it be jinxed?† â€Å"Sirius Black,† Harry said wearily. â€Å"He's supposed to be after me. So McGonagall reckons he might have sent it.† Waving aside the information that a famous murderer was after his Seeker, Wood said, â€Å"But Black couldn't have bought a Firebolt! He's on the run! The whole country's on the lookout for him! How could he just walk into Quality Quidditch Supplies and buy a broomstick?† â€Å"I know,† said Harry, â€Å"but McGonagall still wants to strip it down –â€Å" Wood went pale. â€Å"I'll go and talk to her, Harry,† he promised. â€Å"I'll make her see reason†¦A Firebolt†¦a real Firebolt, on our team †¦She wants Gryffindor to win as much as we do†¦I'll make her see sense. A Firebolt†¦.† Classes started again the next day. The last thing anyone felt like doing was spending two hours on the grounds on a raw January morning, but Hagrid had provided a bonfire full of salamanders for their enjoyment, and they spent an unusually good lesson collecting dry wood and leaves to keep the fire blazing while the flame-loving lizards scampered up and down the crumbling, white-hot logs. The first Divination lesson of the new term was much less fun; Professor Trelawney was now teaching them palmistry, and she lost no time in informing Harry that he had the shortest life line she had ever seen. It was Defense Against the Dark Arts that Harry was keen to get to; after his conversation with Wood, he wanted to get started on his anti-Dementor lessons as soon as possible. â€Å"Ah yes,† said Lupin, when Harry reminded him of his promise at the end of class. â€Å"Let me see†¦how about eight o'clock on Thursday evening? The History of Magic classroom should be large enough†¦I'll have to think carefully about how we're going to do this†¦We can't bring a real Dementor into the castle to practice on†¦.† â€Å"Still looks ill, doesn't he?† said Ron as they walked down the corridor, heading to dinner. â€Å"What d'you reckon's the matter with him?† There was a loud and impatient â€Å"tuh† from behind them. It was Hermione, who had been sitting at the feet of a suit of armor, repacking her bag, which was so full of books it wouldn't close. â€Å"And what are you tutting at us for?† said Ron irritably. â€Å"Nothing,† said Hermione in a lofty voice, heaving her bag back over her shoulder. â€Å"Yes, you were,† said Ron. â€Å"I said I wonder what's wrong with Lupin, and you –â€Å" â€Å"Well, isn't it obvious?† said Hermione, with a look of maddening superiority. â€Å"If you don't want to tell us, don't,† snapped Ron. â€Å"Fine,† said Hermione haughtily, and she marched off. â€Å"She doesn't know,† said Ron, staring resentfully after Hermione. â€Å"She's just trying to get us to talk to her again.† At eight o'clock on Thursday evening, Harry left Gryffindor Tower for the History of Magic classroom. It was dark and empty when he arrived, but he lit the lamps with his wand and had waited only five minutes when Professor Lupin turned up, carrying a large packing case, which he heaved onto Professor Binn's desk. â€Å"What's that?† said Harry. â€Å"Another Boggart,† said Lupin, stripping off his cloak. â€Å"I've been combing the castle ever since Tuesday, and very luckily, I found this one lurking inside Mr. Filch's filing cabinet. It's the nearest we'll get to a real Dementor. The Boggart will turn into a Dementor when he sees you, so we'll be able to practice on him. I can store him in my office when we're not using him; there's a cupboard under my desk he'll like.† â€Å"Okay,† said Harry, trying to sound as though he wasn't apprehensive at all and merely glad that Lupin had found such a good substitute for a real Dementor. â€Å"So†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Professor Lupin had taken out his own wand, and indicated that Harry should do the same. â€Å"The spell I am going to try and teach you is highly advanced magic, Harry — well beyond Ordinary Wizarding Level. It is called the Patronus Charm.† â€Å"How does it work?† said Harry nervously. â€Å"Well, when it works correctly, It conjures up a Patronus,† said Lupin, â€Å"which is a kind of anti-Dementor — a guardian that acts as a shield between you and the Dementor.† Harry had a sudden vision of himself crouching behind a Hagrid-sized figure holding a large club. Professor Lupin continued, â€Å"The Patronus is a kind of positive force, a projection of the very things that the Dementor feeds upon — hope, happiness, the desire to survive — but it cannot feel despair, as real humans can, so the Dementors can't hurt it. But I must warn you, Harry, that the charm might be too advanced for you. Many qualified wizards have difficulty with it.† â€Å"What does a Patronus look like?† said Harry curiously. â€Å"Each one is unique to the wizard who conjures it.† â€Å"And how do you conjure it?† â€Å"With an incantation, which will work only if you are concentrating, with all your might, on a single, very happy memory.† Harry cast his mind about for a happy memory. Certainly, nothing that had happened to him at the Dursleys' was going to do. Finally, he settled on the moment when he had first ridden a broomstick. â€Å"Right,† he said, trying to recall as exactly as possible the wonderful, soaring sensation of his stomach. â€Å"The incantation is this –† Lupin cleared his throat. â€Å"Expecto patronum!† â€Å"Expecto patronum,† Harry repeated under his breath, â€Å"expecto patronum.† â€Å"Concentrating hard on your happy memory?† â€Å"Oh — yeah –† said Harry, quickly forcing his thoughts back to that first broom ride. â€Å"Expecto patrono — no, patronum — sorry — expecto patronum, expecto patronum† Something whooshed suddenly out of the end of his wand; it looked like a wisp of silvery gas. â€Å"Did you see that?† said Harry excitedly. â€Å"Something happened!† â€Å"Very good,† said Lupin, smiling. â€Å"Right, then — ready to try it on a Dementor?† â€Å"Yes,† Harry said, gripping his wand very tightly, and moving into the middle of the deserted classroom. He tried to keep his mind on flying, but something else kept intruding†¦Any second now, he might hear his mother again†¦but he shouldn't think that, or he would hear her again, and he didn't want to†¦or did he? Lupin grasped the lid of the packing case and pulled. A Dementor rose slowly from the box, its hooded face turned toward Harry, one glistening, scabbed hand gripping its cloak. The lamps around the classroom flickered and went out. The Dementor stepped from the box and started to sweep silently toward Harry, drawing a deep, rattling breath. A wave of piercing cold broke over him — â€Å"Expecto patronum!† Harry yelled. â€Å"Expecto patronum! Expecto –â€Å" But the classroom and the Dementor were dissolving†¦Harry was falling again through thick white fog, and his mother's voice was louder than ever, echoing inside his head — â€Å"Not Harry! Not Harry! Please — I'll do anything –â€Å" â€Å"Stand aside — stand aside, girl –â€Å" â€Å"Harry!† Harry jerked back to life. He was lying flat on his back on the floor. The classroom lamps were alight again. He didn't have to ask what had happened. â€Å"Sorry,† he muttered, sitting up and feeling cold sweat trickling down behind his glasses. â€Å"Are you all right?† said Lupin. â€Å"Yes†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Harry pulled himself up on one of the desks and leaned against it. â€Å"Here –† Lupin handed him a Chocolate Frog. â€Å"Eat this before we try again. I didn't expect you to do it your first time; in fact, I would have been astounded if you had.† â€Å"It's getting worse,† Harry muttered, biting off the Frog's head. â€Å"I could hear her louder that time — and him — Voldemort –â€Å" Lupin looked paler than usual. â€Å"Harry, if you don't want to continue, I will more than understand –â€Å" â€Å"I do!† said Harry fiercely, stuffing the rest of the Chocolate Frog into his mouth. â€Å"I've got to! What if the Dementors turn up at our match against Ravenclaw? I can't afford to fall off again. If we lose this game we've lost the Quidditch Cup!† â€Å"All right then†¦Ã¢â‚¬  said Lupin. â€Å"You might want to select another memory, a happy memory, I mean, to concentrate on†¦That one doesn't seem to have been strong enough†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Harry thought hard and decided his feelings when Gryffindor had won the House Championship last year had definitely qualified as very happy. He gripped his wand tightly again and took up his position in the middle of the classroom. â€Å"Ready?† said Lupin, gripping the box lid. â€Å"Ready,† said Harry; trying hard to fill his head with happy thoughts about Gryffindor winning, and not dark thoughts about what was going to happen when the box opened. â€Å"Go!† said Lupin, pulling off the lid. The room went icily cold and dark once more. The Dementor glided forward, drawing its breath; one rotting hand was extending toward Harry — â€Å"Expecto patronum!† Harry yelled. â€Å"Expecto patronum! Expecto Pat –â€Å" White fog obscured his senses†¦big, blurred shapes were moving around him†¦then came a new voice, a man's voice, shouting, panicking — â€Å"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off –â€Å" The sounds of someone stumbling from a room — a door bursting open — a cackle of high- pitched laughter — â€Å"Harry! Harry†¦wake up†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Lupin was tapping Harry hard on the face. This time it was a minute before Harry understood why he was lying on a dusty classroom floor. â€Å"I heard my dad,† Harry mumbled. â€Å"That's the first time I've ever heard him — he tried to take on Voldemort himself, to give my mum time to run for it†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Harry suddenly realized that there were tears on his face mingling with the sweat. He bent his face as low as possible, wiping them off on his robes, pretending to do up his shoelace, so that Lupin wouldn't see. â€Å"You heard James?† said Lupin in a strange voice. â€Å"Yeah†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Face dry, Harry looked up. â€Å"Why — you didn't know my dad, did you?† â€Å"I — I did, as a matter of fact,† said Lupin. â€Å"We were friends at Hogwarts. Listen, Harry — perhaps we should leave it here for tonight. This charm is ridiculously advanced†¦I shouldn't have suggested putting you through this†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"No!† said Harry. He got up again. â€Å"I'll have one more go! I'm not thinking of happy enough things, that's what it is†¦hang on†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He racked his brains. A really, really happy memory†¦one that he could turn into a good, strong Patronus†¦. The moment when he'd first found out he was a wizard, and would be leaving the Dursleys for Hogwarts! If that wasn't a happy memory, he didn't know what was†¦Concentrating very hard on how he had felt when he'd realized he'd be leaving Privet Drive, Harry got to his feet and faced the packing case once more. â€Å"Ready?† said Lupin, who looked as though he were doing this against his better judgment. â€Å"Concentrating hard? All right — go!† He pulled off the lid of the case for the third time, and the Dementor rose out of it; the room fell cold and dark — â€Å"EXPECTO PATRONUM!† Harry bellowed. â€Å"EXPECTO PATRONUM! EXPECTO PATRONUM!† The screaming inside Harry's head had started again — except this time, it sounded as though it were coming from a badly tuned radio — softer and louder and softer again†¦and he could still see the Dementor†¦it had halted†¦and then a huge, silver shadow came bursting out of the end of Harry's wand, to hover between him and the Dementor, and though Harry's legs felt like water, he was still on his feet — though for how much longer, he wasn't sure†¦ â€Å"Riddikulus!† roared Lupin, springing forward. There was a loud crack, and Harry's cloudy Patronus vanished along with the Dementor; he sank into a chair, feeling as exhausted as if he'd just run a mile, and felt his legs shaking. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Professor Lupin forcing the Boggart back into the packing case with his wand; it had turned into a silvery orb again. â€Å"Excellent!† Lupin said, striding over to where Harry sat. â€Å"Excellent, Harry! That was definitely a start!† â€Å"Can we have another go? Just one more go?† â€Å"Not now,† said Lupin firmly. â€Å"You've had enough for one night. Here –â€Å" He handed Harry a large bar of Honeydukes' best chocolate. â€Å"Eat the lot, or Madam Pomfrey will be after my blood. Same time next week?† â€Å"Okay,† said Harry. He took a bite of the chocolate and watched Lupin extinguishing the lamps that had rekindled with the disappearance of the Dementor. A thought had just occurred to him. â€Å"Professor Lupin?† he said. â€Å"If you knew my dad, you must've known Sirius Black as well.† Lupin turned very quickly. â€Å"What gives you that idea?† he said sharply. â€Å"Nothing — I mean, I just knew they were friends at Hogwarts too†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Lupin's face relaxed. â€Å"Yes, I knew him,† he said shortly. â€Å"Or I thought I did. You'd better be off, Harry, it's getting late.† Harry left the classroom, walking along the corridor and around a corner, then took a detour behind a suit of armor and sank down on its plinth to finish his chocolate, wishing he hadn't mentioned Black, as Lupin was obviously not keen on the subject. Then Harry's thoughts wandered back to his mother and father †¦ He felt drained and strangely empty, even though he was so full of chocolate. Terrible though it was to hear his parents' last moments replayed inside his head, these were the only times Harry had heard their voices since he was a very small child. But he'd never be able to produce a proper Patronus if he half wanted to hear his parents again †¦ â€Å"They're dead,† he told himself sternly. â€Å"They're dead and listening to echoes of them won't bring them back. You'd better get a grip on yourself if you want that Quidditch Cup.† He stood up, crammed the last bit of chocolate into his mouth, and headed back to Gryffindor Tower. Ravenclaw played Slytherin a week after the start of term. Slytherin won, though narrowly. According to Wood, this was good news for Gryffindor, who would take second place if they beat Ravenclaw too. He therefore increased the number of team practices to five a week. This meant that with Lupin's anti-Dementor classes, which in themselves were more draining than six Quidditch practices, Harry had just one night a week to do all his homework. Even so, he was not showing the strain nearly as much as Hermione, whose immense workload finally seemed to be getting to her. Every night, without fail, Hermione was to be seen in a corner of the common room, several tables spread with books, Arithmancy charts, rune dictionaries, diagrams of Muggles lifting heavy objects, and file upon file of extensive notes; she barely spoke to anybody and snapped when she was interrupted. â€Å"How's she doing it?† Ron muttered to Harry one evening as Harry sat finishing a nasty essay on Undetectable Poisons for Snape. Harry looked up. Hermione was barely visible behind a tottering pile of books. â€Å"Doing what?† â€Å"Getting to all her classes!† Ron said. â€Å"I heard her talking to Professor Vector, that Arithmancy witch, this morning. They were going on about yesterday's lesson, but Hermione can't've been there, because she was with us in Care of Magical Creatures! And Ernie McMillan told me she's never missed a Muggle Studies class, but half of them are at the same time as Divination, and she's never missed one of them either!† Harry didn't have time to fathom the mystery of Hermione's impossible schedule at the moment; he really needed to get on with Snape's essay. Two seconds later, however, he was interrupted again, this time by Wood. â€Å"Bad news, Harry. I've just been to see Professor McGonagall about the Firebolt. She — er — got a bit shirty with me. Told me I'd got my priorities wrong. Seemed to think I cared more about winning the Cup than I do about you staying alive. Just because I told her I didn't care if it threw you off, as long as you caught the Snitch first.† Wood shook his head in disbelief. â€Å"Honestly, the way she was yelling at me†¦you'd think I'd said something terrible. Then I asked her how much longer she was going to keep it†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He screwed up his face and imitated Professor McGonagall's severe voice. â€Å"As long as necessary, Wood†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦I reckon it's time you ordered a new broom, Harry. There's an order form at the back of Which Broomstick†¦you could get a Nimbus Two Thousand and One, like Malfoy's got.† â€Å"I'm not buying anything Malfoy thinks is good,† said Harry flatly. January faded imperceptibly into February, with no change in the bitterly cold weather. The match against Ravenclaw was drawing nearer and nearer, but Harry still hadn't ordered a new broom. He was now asking Professor McGonagall for news of the Firebolt after every Transfiguration lesson, Ron standing hopefully at his shoulder, Hermione rushing past with her face averted. â€Å"No, Potter, you can't have it back yet,† Professor McGonagall told him the twelfth time this happened, before he'd even opened his mouth. â€Å"We've checked for most of the usual curses, but Professor Flitwick believes the broom might be carrying a Hurling Hex. I shall tell you once we've finished checking it. Now, please stop badgering me.† To make matters even worse, Harry's anti-Dementor lessons were not going nearly as well as he had hoped. Several sessions on, he was able to produce an indistinct, silvery shadow every time the Boggart-Dementor approached him, but his Patronus was too feeble to drive the Dementor away. All it did was hover, like a semitransparent cloud, draining Harry of energy as he fought to keep it there. Harry felt angry with himself, guilty about his secret desire to hear his parents' voices again. â€Å"You're expecting too much of yourself,† said Professor Lupin, sternly in their fourth week of practice. â€Å"For a thirteen-year-old wizard, even an indistinct Patronus is a huge achievement. You aren't passing out anymore, are you?† â€Å"I thought a Patronus would — charge the Dementors down or something,† said Harry dispiritedly. â€Å"Make them disappear –â€Å" â€Å"The true Patronus does do that,† said Lupin. â€Å"But you've achieved a great deal in a very short space of time. If the Dementors put in an appearance at your next Quidditch match, You will be able to keep them at bay long enough to get back to the ground.† â€Å"You said it's harder if there are loads of them,† said Harry. â€Å"I have complete confidence in you,† said Lupin, smiling. â€Å"Here — you've earned a drink. Something from the Three Broomsticks. You won't have tried it before –â€Å" He pulled two bottles out of his briefcase. â€Å"Butterbeer!† said Harry, without thinking. â€Å"Yeah, I like that stuff!† Lupin raised an eyebrow. â€Å"Oh — Ron and Hermione brought me some back from Hogsmeade,† Harry lied quickly. â€Å"I see,† said Lupin, though he still looked slightly suspicious. â€Å"Well — let's drink to a Gryffindor victory against Ravenclaw! Not that I'm supposed to take sides, as a teacher†¦Ã¢â‚¬  he added hastily. They drank the butterbeer in silence, until Harry voiced something he'd been wondering for a while. â€Å"What's under a Dementor's hood?† Professor Lupin lowered his bottle thoughtfully. â€Å"Hmmm †¦ well, the only people who really know are in no condition to tell us. You see, the Dementor lowers its hood only to use its last and worst weapon.† â€Å"What's that?† â€Å"They call it the Dementor's Kiss,† said Lupin, with a slightly twisted smile. â€Å"It's what Dementors do to those they wish to destroy utterly. I suppose there must be some kind of mouth under there, because they clamp their jaws upon the mouth of the victim and — and suck out his soul.† Harry accidentally spat out a bit of butterbeer. â€Å"What — they kill –?† â€Å"Oh no,† said Lupin. â€Å"Much worse than that. You can exist without your soul, you know, as long as your brain and heart are still working. But you'll have no sense of self anymore, no memory, no†¦anything. There's no chance at all of recovery. You'll just exist. As an empty shell. And your soul is gone forever†¦lost.† Lupin drank a little more butterbeer, then said, â€Å"It's the fate that awaits Sirius Black. It was in the Daily Prophet this morning. The Ministry have given the Dementors permission to perform it if they find him.† Harry sat stunned for a moment at the idea of someone having their soul sucked out through their mouth. But then he thought of Black. â€Å"He deserves it,† he said suddenly. â€Å"You think so?† said Lupin lightly. â€Å"Do you really think anyone deserves that?† â€Å"Yes,† said Harry defiantly. â€Å"For†¦for some things†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He would have liked to have told Lupin about the conversation he'd overheard about Black in the Three Broomsticks, about Black betraying his mother and father, but it would have involved revealing that he'd gone to Hogsmeade without permission, and he knew Lupin wouldn't be very impressed by that. So he finished his butterbeer, thanked Lupin, and left the History of Magic classroom. Harry half wished that he hadn't asked what was under a Dementor's hood, the answer had been so horrible, and he was so lost in unpleasant thoughts of what it would feel like to have your soul sucked out of you that he walked headlong into Professor McGonagall halfway up the stairs. â€Å"Do watch where you're going, Potter!† â€Å"Sorry, Professor –â€Å" â€Å"I've just been looking for you in the Gryffindor common room, Well, here it is, we've done everything we could think of, and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it at all — you've got a very good friend somewhere, Potter†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Harry's jaw dropped. She was holding out his Firebolt, and it looked as magnificent as ever. â€Å"I can have it back?† Harry said weakly. â€Å"Seriously?† â€Å"Seriously,† said Professor McGonagall, and she was actually smiling. â€Å"I daresay you'll need to get the feel of it before Saturday's match, won't you? And Potter — do try and win, won't you? Or we'll be out of the running for the eighth year in a row, as Professor Snape was kind enough to remind me only last night†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Speechless, Harry carried the Firebolt back upstairs toward Gryffindor Tower. As he turned a corner, he saw Ron dashing toward him, grinning from ear to ear. â€Å"She gave it to you? Excellent! Listen, can I still have a go on it? Tomorrow?† â€Å"Yeah†¦anything†¦Ã¢â‚¬  said Harry, his heart lighter than it had been in a month. â€Å"You know what — we should make up with Hermione†¦She was only trying to help†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Yeah, all right,† said Ron. â€Å"She's in the common room now working — for a change.† They turned into the corridor to Gryffindor Tower and saw Neville Longbottom, pleading with Sir Cadogan, who seemed to be refusing him entrance. â€Å"I wrote them down!† Neville was saying tearfully. â€Å"But I must've dropped them somewhere!† â€Å"A likely tale!† roared Sir Cadogan. Then, spotting Harry and Ron: â€Å"Good even, my fine young yeomen! Come clap this loon in irons. He is trying to force entry to the chambers within!† â€Å"Oh, shut up,† said Ron as he and Harry drew level with Neville. â€Å"I've lost the passwords!† Neville told them miserably. â€Å"I made him tell me what passwords he was going to use this week, because he keeps changing them, and now I don't know what I've done with them!† â€Å"Oddsbodkins,† said Harry to Sir Cadogan, who looked extremely disappointed and reluctantly swung forward to let them into the common room. There was a sudden, excited murmur as every head turned and the next moment, Harry was surrounded by people exclaiming over his Firebolt. â€Å"Where'd you get it, Harry?† â€Å"Will you let me have a go?† â€Å"Have you ridden it yet, Harry?† â€Å"Ravenclaw'll have no chance, they're all on Cleansweep Sevens!† â€Å"Can I just hold it, Harry?† After ten minutes or so, during which the Firebolt was Passed around and admired from every angle, the crowd dispersed and Harry and Ron had a clear view of Hermione, the only person who hadn't rushed over to them, bent over her work and carefully avoiding their eyes. Harry and Ron approached her table and at last, she looked up. â€Å"I got it back,† said Harry, grinning at her and holding up the Firebolt. â€Å"See, Hermione? There wasn't anything wrong with it!† said Ron. â€Å"Well — there might have been!† said Hermione. â€Å"I mean, at least you know now that it's safe!† â€Å"Yeah, I suppose so,† said Harry. â€Å"I'd better put it upstairs.† â€Å"I'll take it!† said Ron eagerly. â€Å"I've got to give Scabbers his rat tonic.† He took the Firebolt and, holding it as if it were made of glass, carried it away up the boys' staircase. â€Å"Can I sit down, then?† Harry asked Hermione. â€Å"I suppose so,† said Hermione, moving a great stack of parchment off a chair. Harry looked around at the cluttered table, at the long Arithmancy essay on which the ink was still glistening, at the even longer Muggle Studies essay (‘Explain Why Muggles Need Electricity') and at the rune translation Hermione was now poring over. â€Å"How are you getting through all this stuff?† Harry asked her. â€Å"Oh, well — you know — working hard,† said Hermione. Close-up, Harry saw that she looked almost as tired as Lupin. â€Å"Why don't you just drop a couple of subjects?† Harry asked, watching her lifting books as she searched for her rune dictionary. â€Å"I couldn't do that!† said Hermione, looking scandalized. â€Å"Arithmancy looks terrible,† said Harry, picking up a very complicated-looking number chart. â€Å"Oh no, it's wonderful!† said Hermione earnestly. â€Å"It's my favorite subject! It's –â€Å" But exactly what was wonderful about Arithmancy, Harry never found out. At that precise moment, a strangled yell echoed down the boys' staircase. The whole common room fell silent, staring, petrified, at the entrance. Then came hurried footsteps, growing louder and louder — and then Ron came leaping into view, dragging with him a bedsheet. â€Å"LOOK!† he bellowed, striding over to Hermione's table. â€Å"LOOK!† he yelled, shaking the sheets in her face. â€Å"Ron, what –?† â€Å"SCABBERS! LOOK! SCABBERS!† Hermione was leaning away from Ron, looking utterly bewildered. Harry looked down at the sheet Ron was holding. There was something red on it. Something that looked horribly like — â€Å"BLOOD!† Ron yelled into the stunned silence. â€Å"HE'S GONE! AND YOU KNOW WHAT WAS ON THE FLOOR?† â€Å"N — no,† said Hermione in a trembling voice. Ron threw something down onto Hermione's rune translation. Hermione and Harry leaned forward. Lying on top of the weird, spiky shapes were several long, ginger cat hairs.

Television in UK Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Television in UK - Research Paper Example People over 65 spend five hours a day watching TV perhaps because certain channels are free for them. Most of the adults between 24 and 65 that spend time on the television, are not actually watching the programs or the ads but are doing some other work simultaneously like talking on the phone or surfing the internet. The three main activities that take up the day include sleeping working and watching TV and men are more likely to watch TV than women. Adults over the age of 16 spend under three hours watching the television and the 24-65 year olds fall under the same category of viewers. The following chart shows that watching television is the most common activity by most people in the UK: According to this, 66% of the adults between 25-64 years of age watch TV regularly, while a higher percentage watches the heritage TV among the 45-64 age groups than those between 25-44 age groups. With the reduction in television viewing, naturally the advertising on television also suffers. With switchover to digital TV all the households will have access to multi-channel and this will affect the viewing behavior. it is expected that over the next decade multi-channel TV viewer ship will increased while the BBC and the traditional channels will decline. It is expected that the position will be thus: UK television advertising is regulated when it comes to minutes per hour and hence the cost of advertising increases. The TV advertising market has two differentiated products - advertising on the traditional commercial channels (Channels 3, 4 and 5) and the multi-channels which includes all other commercial channels. Due to economic conditions and declining audiences, the advertising revenues have declined. There has been a shift from traditional channel viewing to commercial multi-channel viewing which has also impacted the value of TV advertising revenues. The TV has also reduced in its attractiveness as an advertising medium. Because of declining audiences the price of traditional channel advertising has received a boost which means it costs more to deliver to the same audience (PWC, 2006). The advertising budget remains the same but the impacts are fewer. At the same the trend towards watching multi channels is increasing and hence the costs become spread out. The cost of 30 seconds of television advertising now costs just '4.81 per thousand adults and this works out to 29pc cheaper than in 2000 (Mason, 2008). Digital spin-off channels are expected to increase their advertising revenue by ten percent but this will not be able to compensate for the terrestrial channel advertising like the ITYV1, channel 4 and channel 5. The most popular and traditional TV channels are ITV1, Channel 4 and Five and the cost of advertising is the highest for ITV1. Some of the most popular TV channels with the cost of advertising are: * itv1 + GMTV 48.5p * BBC ONE 35p * Channel 4 18.7p * Sat and cable 16.8p * BBC TWO 12p * five 7.7p * BBC THREE 2.5p * BBC FOUR 1.3p * S4C 0.3p Source: Glen, n.d. The television advertising revenue is expected to fall for all channels and by 6 and 7% for channels

Unit V AAssessment#3 Oxidative Stress Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Unit V AAssessment#3 Oxidative Stress - Essay Example In order to eavaluate thr ability of particulate air pollution to promote oxidative stress, six adult pathogen free Sprague-Dawley rats were obtained from Taconic Farms in New York,USA, and fed with conventional laboratory diet and water ad libium.Three of the rats were exposed to filtered air (control group) and the other three were exposed to concentrated ambient particles (CAPs). Throughout the study, all rats were awake and unrestricted. At 1, 3 and 5 hours, two rats: 1 from filtered air and 1 from CAPs , were removed and analysed. The rats that were exposed to CAPs aerosols for 5 hours showed significant oxidative stress. The rats showed significant increase in lung and heart water content (about 5% , p According to Gurgueira, et al., (2002 p.260), the generation of ROS can induce cellular oxidative stress and biological effects,including DNA damage.In most aerobic cells, electron –transport chains are located in mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum . The electron –transport chains are the major source of ROS produced in vivo (Gurjar, et al., 2010: p.190). Gurgueira, S. A., Lawrence, J., Coull, B., Murthy, K. G. G., & Gonzà ¡lez-Flecha, B. ( 2002). Rapid increases in the steady-state concentration of reactive oxygen species in the lungs and heart after particulate air pollution inhalation. Environmental Health Perspectives, 110(8),

Role of tracheotomy in ventilator Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Role of tracheotomy in ventilator - Article Example Tracheotomy is commonly performed for critically ill, ventilator-dependent patients to provide long-term airway access. The benefits commonly ascribed to tracheotomy, compared to prolonged translaryngeal intubation, include improved patient comfort, more effective airway suctioning, decreased airway resistance, enhanced patient mobility, increased opportunities for articulated speech, ability to eat orally, and a more secure airway. Conceptually, these advantages might result in fewer ventilator complications (eg, ventilator-associated pneumonia), accelerated weaning from mechanical ventilation, and the ability to transfer ventilator-dependent patients from the ICU. Concern, however, exists about the risks associated with the procedure and the costs involved. The impact of tracheotomy on the duration of mechanical ventilation and on ICU outcomes in general has been examined by several different study designs, none of them ideal. Most studies are retrospective, although a few prospect ive studies have been performed. A serious problem is that many studies assigned patients to treatment groups on the basis of physician practice patterns rather than random assignment. Those studies that used random assignment frequently used quasi-randomization methods (eg, every other patient, every other day, hospital record number, or odd-even days). Studies have compared patients undergoing tracheotomy vs those not undergoing tracheotomy, and patients undergoing early tracheotomy vs those undergoing late tracheotomy.... decreased airway resistance, enhanced patient mobility, increased opportunities for articulated speech, ability to eat orally, and a more secure airway. Conceptually, these advantages might result in fewer ventilator complications (eg, ventilator-associated pneumonia), accelerated weaning from mechanical ventilation, and the ability to transfer ventilator-dependent patients from the ICU. Concern, however, exists about the risks associated with the procedure and the costs involved. The impact of tracheotomy on the duration of mechanical ventilation and on ICU outcomes in general has been examined by several different study designs, none of them ideal. Most studies are retrospective, although a few prospective studies have been performed. A serious problem is that many studies assigned patients to treatment groups on the basis of physician practice patterns rather than random assignment. Those studies that used random assignment frequently used quasi-randomization methods (eg, every other patient, every other day, hospital record number, or odd-even days). Studies have compared patients undergoing tracheotomy vs those not undergoing tracheotomy, and patients undergoing early tracheotomy vs those undergoing late tracheotomy. The definition of early vs late tracheotomy varies between studies. "Early" may be defined as a period as short as 2 days after the start of mechanical ventilation to as late as 10 days after the start. Patient populations included in studies also vary widely between investigations and include general surgical and medical patients in some studies and specific patient groups (eg, trauma patients or head-injured patients) in other studies. Most studies have design flaws in the collection and analysis of data, foremost of which