Safe Travel Essay Example for Free

Safe Travel Essay Modern life is impossible without traveling. First of all, in towns or cities the majority of us are committed by trips to school and work every day. For some people it’s a real travelling to get from the house to work. They are going by the underground, then by bus or by taxi. Occasionally we have to go to other city or country on businesses. After a year of hard work, people receive a holiday, and they do not like to spend it sitting at home. Millions of people all over the world spend their holiday travelling. They travel to see other countries and continents, modern cities and ruins of ancient cities, to enjoy picturesque landscapes or just to change the situation. It is always interesting to discover the new, to see, how different the life can be, to meet new people, to try unusual dishes, to hear unfamiliar musical rhythms. Most travelers and holiday-makers take a camera with them and take pictures of everything that interests them the sights of a city, old churches and castles views of mountains, lakes, valleys, plains, waterfalls, forests, different kind of trees, birds, plants and animals. For those who live in the country, it is pleasant to go to a big city and to spend time, visiting museums and artistic passageways, examining storefronts and having dinner at exotic restaurants. City dwellers usually like quiet holiday at sea or in the mountains, when it is not necessary to do anything, except walking, bathing and idling, lying on a beach. Those who are going travel on business or for pleasure, have at their disposal various means of transport. The fastest one is the plane. It’s better to book tickets in advance. In the very day you go to the airport by car. Soon you will be sitting in a big plane, and it will bring you to new lands. Sitting in a plane, you can look around yourself. The pilot and the crew are in the front cabin. Passengers can relax in comfortable seats. (944 words) Air Travel Q: Air travel only brings advantages to the rich people. But the majority of people do not benefit from it. To what extent do you agree? The proliferation of air technology has changed our world, air travel is one of the most welcome transport type. There is a viewpoint that only rich people enjoy the benefits brought by air travel. I do not support this opinion. Nowadays, air transport is a part of public transportation and air travel is afforded by people. Most of the seats installed in every airliner serve the common passengers. Rich people could choose first class or business class, even though they felt more comfortable, the fly experience, safety, the convenient and time-saving brought by air travel are all the same as well as economic class. As the air plane technology is advancing and globe air transport market competition is fiercer, cheap air travel has been born which bring many benefits to public. The engineers will make air plane flying longer with less fuel-consumption, meanwhile, the competition, in the same airline, gasping more passengers, between many air companies give more choice to individuals who can choose the No. depend on their situation, specifically, such as money, time and position. On the other hand, corporate jet is too expensive to afforded by common individual. Although personal car is afforded by common family, the price of small airplane are accepted only by rich people, so that free flying is a dream that many person having. Only small part of rich people have their own airplane and air port, due to the high maintain fee. It is evident that air transport technology could be used in other field. Scientists and engineers are inventing fly cars, combined with fly abilities, the new transport which can resolve a serious problem – traffic congestion in city. Once this product come to realistic, everyone will enjoy a cheap, fast and convenient flying experience as their wish, sound like in the film . Advantages of Travelling In our modern times, when travelling has become easier, domestic trips and foreign journeys are more popular with people. Although almost everyone is willing to participate in such events, there are still some people, who prefer staying at homes to visiting other places. What are the advantages and disadvantages of travelling? To start with, journeys are one of these kinds of entertainment, which make people feel cheerful and happy. According to many people’s believes, temporary change place of living improve human well-being or even bring an excitement. Secondly, apart from being a great source of enjoyment, travelling is also a perfect way to relax. Consequently, thanks to going on trips people can forget about their problems or daily life and duties even for a while. Furthermore, journeys are claimed to broaden people’s knowledge about foreign cultures. Not only can people find out more about other traditions and customs, but also learn some history, improve language skills or taste in local cuisines. Nevertheless, travelling requires a larger sum of money which is connected with transport, accommodation, food and some extra expenses. Therefore, an average man is not able to spend his money on it systematically. Moreover, trips, especially abroad journeys seem to be very tiring. It may happen that it takes many hours or has uncomfortable conditions and as a result travelers feel sleepy, exhausted or annoyed. Additionally, travelling is often associated with some kind of risk. People who visit other, extremely different nations, cannot be sure how to behave in some situations, particularly when they do not know language. Then, they can easily offend locals, even if they do not want it. On the whole, travelling has both advantages and disadvantages. Despite numerous drawbacks like high costs, tiredness and risk, it is a fantastic way to spend free time, which makes our lives more interesting.

Tissue Conditioners Soft Lining Materials Health And Social Care Essay

Tissue Conditioners Soft Lining Materials Health And Social Care Essay As a briefing history of the denture lining materials, we can find that in 1942, Matthews introduced plasticized polyvinylchloride as one of the first soft lining materials used with acrylic resin dentures (Sultana, 1991) then Lammie Storer published a summary of observations on different soft denture materials and classified the processed resilient materials as follows. (1) natural rubber, (2) polyvinylchloride, (3) polyvinylacetae, (4) methyl methacrylate copolymer, (5) silicone (Lammie Storer, 1958). Furthermore, they stated that this material became hard due to loss of plasticizer after several months, and became stained and cracked in the mouth. However, we tend to examine the composition and uses of both tissue conditioners and soft lining materials in prosthetic dentistry. Basically, Tissue conditioners composed of polyethylmethacrylate and mixture of aromatic ester and ethyl alcohol and they are found in three components system: polymer (powder), monomer (liquid) and dibutyl phthalate as plasticizer flow control (liquid) when mixed together a gel is formed (Braden M 1970). The major uses of these tissue conditioners materials are: tissue treatment, temporary obturator, baseplate stabilization, to diagnose the outcome of resilient liners, liners in surgical splints, trial denture base and as a functional impression material (Nallaswamy D. 2003). Tissue treatment: the advantage of using a tissue conditioner is to prepare the selected oral structure to withstand all the stress from the prosthesis and to preserves the residual ridge. It is also used to heal irritated hyperemic tissues before denture fabrication. Temporary obturator: tissue conditioners can be added as a temporary obturator over the existing complete or partial denture and this can be done directly in the month or indirectly after an impression of surgical area has been made. Stabilization of baseplate and surgical splints or stents: when undercuts are present on an edentulous cast, an acrylic temporary denture base cannot be used as it may get locked into the undercut and break the cast during removal. In this case tissue conditioner may be used to stabilize the record base and prevent breakage of the cast. Adjunct to an impression or as a final impression material: when it is difficult to determine the extent of the denture base due to movable oral structure, tissue conditioner can be used to record the extensions of the denture in a dynamic form that will later help in preparing an impression tray for the final impression. To diagnose the outcome of resilient liners: patient with well-constructed denture sometimes develop chronic soreness and find it difficult to wear it comfortably. Tissue conditioners can be used to determine if this problem will be resolved with the use of a resilient liner. (Nallaswamy D, 2003). Commercially, there are a wide range of tissue conditioner products, for example, GC tissue conditioner and Visco-gel and more but here we will compare between these two only: Firstly, GC- tissue conditioner is composed of Polyethylmethacrylate (powder), methacrylate monomer (liquid) and dibutyl sebacate (plasticizer). Manufacturer claims that using of dibutyl sebacate as plasticizer instead of the conventional dibutyl phthalate has a merit of not being harmful to the human endocrine system. However, it is suitable for conditioning and relieving tissue (for example when there are areas of inflammation or pressure points on the inflamed alveolar ridge), but also for temporary soft relining of partial and complete dentures as well as functional impressions to fabricate new dentures or restore existing ones, for immediate dentures and as an interim solution for direct loading situations in implantology. It is manufactured by GC EUROPE, Belgium (www.gceurope.com). On the other hand, Visco-gel tissue conditioner is composed of Polyethyl methacrylate (powder), Phthalyl butyl glycolate, Ethanol (liquid). It is can be used prior to denture replacement, extension or rebasing, tissue conditioner where the denture-bearing tissues have become disturbed by either denture trauma or infection, temporary lining immediately after extraction or oral surgery, temporary soft liner when normal dentures are not tolerated, particularly for patients with impairment of general health and as functional impression material in post-operative cases or when ill-fitting dentures require replacement or rebasing. Visco-gel is manufactured by DENTSPLY DeTrey GmbH, Germany (www.dentsply.com). Regardless the trade, the following steps should be considered while applying a tissue conditioner, first, tissue part of the denture base, which crosses an undercut, should be reduced then the tissue surface of the denture, which covers the crest of the ridge, should be reduced by 1 mm to allow sufficient room for placement of the tissue conditioner (Nallaswamy D, 2003). Soft lining material is the second part of this review and here it is wise to understand the difference between the tissue conditioner and the soft lining material. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has issued two international standards related to liner materials: (ISO 10139-1:1991): first, lining materials for removable dentures-Part 1: short-term materials and soft lining materials for removable dentures (ISO, 1991) and the second, lining materials for removable dentures-Part 2: materials for long-term use (ISO, 1999). A short-term liner is one that is used intraorally for up to 30 days. A long-term liner is one that maintains softness and elasticity for more than 30 days (Garcia Jones, 2004). Practically, the ISO is differentiating between the temporary and the permanent soft ling material but theoretically, we can find that tissue conditioners can be used for more than 30 days depends on the loss of the plasticizer. Moreover, tissue conditioner and soft l ining have been used for the same purpose clinically. So then, what is the difference? Viscosity is that difference so whenever the material is with low viscosity and flow easily you can use it as a tissue conditioner while material with high viscosity is indicated to be used as a soft liner. There are two groups of soft lining material the first is the acrylic resin-based liner which consists of powder and liquid components. The powder has poly (ethyl or methyl) methacrylate, and sometimes copolymers, while the liquid contains methyl methacrylate monomer and plasticizers that are added to lower the glass transition temperature. The distribution of the large plasticizer molecules minimizes entanglement of polymer chains, which allows individual chains to slide by one another, keeping the liner from fully hardening. The liquids used do not contain acrylic monomers (Craig Gibbons, 1961; Anusavice, 2003). The second type of these soft lining materials is the silicone denture liners wh ich are basically polymers of dimethylsiloxane. Poly(dimethylsiloxane) is a viscous liquid, which can be cross-linked to give rubber a good elastic property. The cross-linking agent is usually an alkyl-silane (silicate) and the reaction is catalysed by an organo-metal salt such as tinoctoate or benzoyl peroxide (McCabe, 1976). Silicones are not dependent on leachable plasticizers and remain elastic for longer periods of time (Anusavice, 2003; Munksgaard, 2004). These liners cannot bind to the acrylic denture base; however, the use of an adhesive can overcome this limitation, which was shown to be a method of failure (Dogan et al., 2006). These liner materials may be selected for the treatment of the following conditions: poor stability of denture, inadequate retention of denture, reduction of vertical dimension, degradation of the denture base, improper extension of borders into the muccobuccal fold regions, mucosal irritations, atrophic ridges, bony undercuts, denture opposing natu ral teeth, reduced thickness and viscoelasticity of the mucosa, pain from gingival irritation, maxillofacial defects, traumatic or pathologic tissue loss and for reline of an existing denture (Zarb et al., 1989; Christensen, 1995; Hayakawa et al., 2000; Hill Rubel, 2011). As a conclusion then, these viscoelastic materials either tissue conditioners or soft lining materials are contributing to solve a list of dental problems that might exist in the removable prosthesis or could be used in a range of dental procedures which are related to fully or partially edentulous patients. Furthermore, these materials need a continuous care and maintenance especially, the tissue conditioner which tends to harden and roughen due to the loss of the plasticizer. However, we should not forget the primary purpose of these materials which is they are used as temporary materials during transitional situations.

Non financial factors before decision to discontinue course

Non financial factors before decision to discontinue course As the course used to be popular, there must be certain amount of students have joined for this course. Thus, if Mawar College wants to discontinue this course, they must place their first priority to these students. As what they expected, students will have tons of questions and of course they will feel frustrated and angry. They could even come out with the petition with the hopes that the college could continue running this course before they graduate. Even if the college has decided to discontinue this course, they also have to consider on where they should place these students as they only halfway studying for this course. They have to understand that all these students will absolutely feel unhappy and discontent if the college place them in another course that is not as famous as the course they are studying now. This issue could possibly bother the students and could affect their emotions making them hardly to concentrate well on their studies. (Olejnik and Holschuh 2007) These grievance students will also raise this issue to their parents and again, their parents will call or even pay a visit to Mawar College to identify the reasons and details that halt the course from continuing. However, the college has to remember that not every of these parents are understanding and willing to listen the explanation by management. As being customers, most of them only concern on how much they have already paid and where their children will be placed to. Even some of these parents might argue and quarrel with the college management. When these parents concerns are not being addressed, they might carry out some conducts which could possibly spoil the reputation of the college. For example, these disgruntled parents will start spreading their dissatisfaction about the college because of its failure to meet and satisfy their suspense. (The Associated Press 2010) Recapping above, the image and reputation of Mawar College will be affected and people will start losing confident to the college. Other students might reluctantly register to any courses that run by this college as they worry the same incident might be happening again. Even their parents may discourage them from studying under this college and request them to further their studies in another more reliable college. This has clearly showed that their good impression to the established Mawar College has dashed out and people will hardly believe this college anymore. The Mawar College rankings among other colleges can come to a deep fall and they might face difficulties to gain back their credibility and again be competitive advantage among its competitors. (The Indian Express Limited 2010) Besides of affecting the reputation of the college, the reputation of the well-known University will also be affected. People around the world will start doubting whether the University is having any problems that lead to the discontinuing of the course. University will definitely feel displeasure and will not allow any accusation that will influence its goodwill. This would certainly be a hard job for the college to run any courses under this University in the future since they have break their promises. The University could possibly sue the college if the college breaches the contracts. Hence, the college has to bear the risk of facing legal suits from the University if they have decided to end the course. The college might lose huge amount of money for the purpose to compensate the University because of their doings and this would be a loss to Mawar College. (The Times of India 2010) As the college has already employed a large group of full-time lecturer for this course, thus every of this lecturer will be affected too if the college discontinue the course. They could be appointed in teaching another course and subjects or even discharged by the colleges that will definitely reduce their level of income. Their motivation and enthusiasm in teaching will also decrease due to their dissatisfaction to the college. This could also affect the rest of the college employees and their level of production will start decreasing once they have lost faith to Mawar College. (Race 1999) Other than above, there are still many factors that the college has to realize and take into account before making their decision. As the course used to be famous, I can assume that certain scholarships and loans have been given to some students to further up their studies on this course. Therefore, it would be a tough and complicated task that these students have to gone through for the cancellation of loans or transferring their scholarships if this course has to be stopped. Certain welfare organizations such as Genting Malaysia and Hong Leong Group that provide free scholarships to Mawar College on this course will also feel discontent because it will burden up their works when the students have more enquiries regards on their transferring or cancellation of scholarships. (Sunway University College nd) People that do not understand the reason of why they discontinue the course might also claim that the only intention for the college is to make profits and ignore the future of the students. Thus, all these will trouble the college and they hardly to survive in the market as people and other Universities have lost their reliability to this college. The college might face problems when they have to search and look for other Universities and running their courses because these Universities also dread the same case will be happening again and affects their reputations. Mawar College will also face difficulties in employing high qualification lecturers due to their spoilt image and have no choice but to employ new lecturers without much teaching experiences. As they are new, most of them still could not master the lectures and issues such as the failing of students in exam could possibly occur because they do not know the correct ways of teaching the students. When the students are unable to show their achievements, again the reputation of the college will be affected. (BNET nd) All these clearly show that there are different non financial factors that the college has to consider and it is pertinent to make a correct decision in order to prevent any unforeseen circumstances from happening that could lead them into a deep fall and hardly for them to bounce back in the education industry. Part C Investment appraisal methods are act as a tool for planning an investment and decide whether or not to accept the projects. (Gotze et al 2008) There are a few different investment appraisal methods can be used, including discounted cash flow (DCF), payback, (Smith 2007) and Accounting Rate of Return (ARR) whereby DCF includes the methods of Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR). The NPV under DCF has been recognized as the sound of all the investment appraisal methods due to its consideration on the time value of money. This time value of money refers to the amount of money that the business need to be compensated for forgoing the use of the money for a period of time if it has to be invested in a project. (Evans et al 2003) NPV is a method of including all the cash inflows and outflows that will be earned and used in a project at a chosen acceptable rate of return and taking the net total. (Evans et al 2003) Even though there are many advantages in using NPV, but payback method and ARR are still widely used and adopted by many businesses due to the limitations brought by NPV and benefits of payback and ARR methods. (Fabozzi and Peterson 2003) The weaknesses that business normally face when using this NPV approach is they hardly to make accurate long-term forecast of cash flows they can receive in the future. No company can predict the future cash flows as factors such as future sales, costs of labor, interest rate, and government policies can affect the estimated cash flows. Overestimation or underestimation can sometimes bring uncountable loss to the business. (Siddiqui and Siddiqui 2005) Further, in reality it is difficult for business to determine the discount rate, which is cost of finance or cost of capital. It is not an easy job to calculate various costs of finance such as share capital and loans. (Coombs et al 2005) They also have to take the bank interest rate, risk and future inflation into account when deciding the cost of capital because the money value of RM1 in the future will be lesser than its today value. (Bowhill 2008) Moreover, NPV method will assume that the discount rate will remain the same throughout the project running periods. But in fact, these discount rates are easily swayed from year to year. Business has to prognosis the future discount rate which sometimes might be a big differences compared to their forecast with the real situation. (Groppelli and Nikbakht 2006) Besides that, NPV also not suitable to be used in the situation when comparing projects with different lives times. (Siddiqui and Siddiqui 2005) They also have a weakness whereby they never take the size or capital invested into account but only look at the higher yield of NPV. (Moyer et al 2009) This can be shown by the example where a project with size RM1 million that yield NPV RM1500 will be recommended compare to other project with capital RM 1000 with a NPV of RM800. (Coombs 2005) Calculation of NPV which is expressed in money form is not favorable by most of the companies compared to percentage form. (Fabozzi and Peterson 2003) Payback method also has been called as payout method (Belkaoui 2001) and it refers to the number of years a project or investment will take to pay back the initial cash outlay. This is only done when the cumulative cash inflows equally same with the cash outflows. (Bowhill 2008) Payback method is still widely used because it offers information regard to the risk of the investment. Risk analysis can be made depends on the payback period of the investment. (Moyer et al 2009) Risks will be dwindled by using this payback method because it focuses on earlier cash flows and not the later cash flows which are hardly to predict especially in this fast pace world. (Walker 2009) The business will face less risk with the shorter payback period and vice versa. (Moyer et al 2009) Furthermore, payback method will clearly show the liquidity of the investment because it measure the net cash earned by the investment in shorter term. (Bowhill 2008) For company that always concern the liquidity of their businesses will definitely adopt this helpful method so they could know whether their businesses are in strong or weak liquidity to perform or carry out any plans or activities. (Moyer et al 2009) This simple to use and easy to understand method (Walker 2009) can be applied especially to small projects where only a simple decision is needed without consider other cash flow implications. (Bowhill 2008) There is no complicated calculation needed and thus many companies find it is the best way to check whether the money invested can be generated back in reasonable period of time. (Groppelli and Nikbakht 2006) Last but not least, ARR is the average annual profits divided by the initial investment and it also known as Return on Investment (ROI) that used for performance appraisal. (Walker 2009) The investment will only be accepted and applied if the ARR was the same or higher than the target rate set by the company. (Bowhill 2008) This percentage form of ARR is easy to compute and understand especially to business people because it sounds familiar as return on capital employed that mostly applied by companies. (Coombs 2005) ARR is always been used due to its consideration on all the returns and whole life of the investment into account. ARR is the only one that is based on the accounting profits and focus on accounting income rather than cash flows. (Belkaoui 2001) The amount and value calculated by ARR also relevant and used for financial statement presentation such as balance sheet. (Shim and Siegel 2004)

Essay on the Importance of Perspective in Gullivers Travels

The Importance of Perspective Revealed in Gulliver's Travels       According to Gulliver, "Undoubtably philosophers are right when they tell us that nothing is great or small than by comparison." This quotation sums the knowledge a person would gather after making a vast study of different societies. The nature of humanity is being discussed, rather than physical size.    The Lilliputians are narrow-minded people who become angry over trivial matters, while the Brobdingnagians are a deeper people, in contrast. From an outsider's view, one nation would not be so great if another were not so poor. Actions which seem natural today may appear barbaric to the generations of the future just as the actions of the past generations abhor the students of today. Only by comparison to something better does a system of power or a way of life seem small or evil. This is the purpose of satire. When studying history, students may find the customs of the past primitive. However, the people of that time most likely did not believe that they were. Perspective is vital in any comparison. A person from a highly technological society cannot easily understand the lifestyle of a civilization n... ...person who sees it. When an aspect of life is held to something better, the frailties can be seen, and a change for the better may result.    Works Cited Davis, Herbert. Gulliver's Travels. Great Britain: Oxford. (1965). Gulliver's Travels. Ed. Paul Turner. World's Classics. Oxford: Oxford University, 1998. Greenacre, Phyllis. M.D. Swift and Carroll. New York: Int. Universities. (1977). The Writings of Jonathan Swift; Authoritative Texts, Backgrounds, Criticism. edited by Robert A. Greenberg and William Bowman Piper. Norton Critical Editions. New York: Norton, 1973.

Pips Personality Change in Great Expectations :: Great Expectations Essays

Pip's Personality Change in Great Expectations Most people would assume that through age and maturation, a boy with a wonderful heart and personality would further develop into a kind hearted, considerate gentleman. In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens provides his readers with an example of a boy who regresses in certain aspects of his personality rather than progressing as one would expect. Pip, a person who had loved and revered his uncle Joe as a child, while maturing, finds that his perspective on life has shifted. This boy, beginning life with a caring, generous heart, regresses becoming a superficial, ungrateful man who is ashamed of what he had once been. Pip and Biddy had become the best of friends and felt very strongly towards each other. However, once Pip had been introduced to Estella, he was overcome by her beauty, and would never again be able to look at Biddy, without feeling critical towards her. Slowly, after coming into contact with Estella, Pip was becoming superficial, as he was only interested in a girl's appearance. Thinking of Biddy, Pip thought to himself, "She was not beautiful--She was common and could not be like Estella..." (p 600) Estella's beauty had made Pip blind as to what was really important in a person. No matter how coldly Pip was treated by Estella, he went on loving her only because of her astounding beauty. As Pip progressed in life, he became increasingly ungrateful to the people that had raised and cared for him as a child. His disrespect was most strongly shown towards Joe. Having not seen Joe for a number of years, Pip shows that he would rather have continued his now prosperous life without having anything to do with Joe, when he thinks, "Let me confess with what feeling I looked forward to Joe's coming... Not with pleasure though I was bound to him by so many ties; no, with considerable disturbance and some mortification." (p 630) Despite Joe's kindness and caring, Pip remained unappreciative and ungrateful, for now Pip was wealthy and did not care to have contact with a poor man. Pip's most unfavorable quality was the fact that he was ashamed of his past and his family. By now, the only thing Pip was interested in was

Art Comparison Essay example -- essays research papers

Compare and Contrast Works of Art Bright colors jumping at you asking for attention, images so real viewers can not tell the difference. These are the thoughts that came to my head as I gazed at two works of art by two Mexican artists at MoLAA museum of art . I visited two museums, Bowers Museum of cultural Art in the heart of Southern California and the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach for my report unfortunately I only liked the works in MoLAA and will talk about it through out my paper. I will talk about two Mexican artists Rafael Cauduro and David Alfaro Siqueros that caught my eye, and made me want to learn more of them and their approach to art. Siqueiros caught my eye and interest because according to his biography â€Å"no individual associated with the arts with the possible exception of Andrà © Malraux, had been involved in direct political action more than David Alfaro Siqueiros† (Siqueiros Biography online). Personally that to me said a lot and that got me intrigued, and made me want to know more about him and his work. Cauduro on the other hand got me intrigued through his illusionistic approach to art and interpretation of his view of things. Eve thought they seem like different approach to art they are both similar in different ways. My first artist is Rafael Cauduro. Rafael Cauduro was born in capital city of Mexico and now resides in the city of Cuernavaca (state of Morelos) 1950. Rafael started out making superior studies of architecture and industrial design in the Latin American University in Mexico City. According to his biography Cauduro is a self taught painter who steps outside of traditional artist’s standard. Cauduro’s paintings contain a â€Å"trompe de l’oeil† (Fool the eye) quality as indicated in by how in his paintings walls, fences, and objects are so real that people can almost touch them. To the visual realism of Cauduros work, according to critic Ruiz Soto, adds what he termed â€Å"critical illusion† which combines an extreme technical proficiency with fantasy-filled concepts(www.rafael cauduro.com). Rafael Cauduro painting technique is of a surrealism in which the reality of dreams, or subconscious mind are as more real than the surface reality of everyday life (Sayre p.51). Cauduro paints in a Surrealistic way usually portraying the forces of dreams and subconscious that he has been famous for. This artistic movement originat... ...eiros and Cauduro works are politically motivated, but like people, depict them in their own way. Siqueiros because of his military background and more no nonsense look at life is more straight forward as compared to Cauduro, but have similar objectives. Cauduro a more recent unknown artist is more contemporary in the sense that explorers the mind of viewers and makes them think and come with their own conclusion of his views. I liked both of these artist and enjoyed learning more about them and how similar they were, yet so different in terms of style. Art is a language of its own and with out he proper understanding, people are like expression goes â€Å"left on the outside looking in†. In other words, people without the proper understanding of art, technique and form as well as other elements can’t appreciate a work of art as much as when you understand why an artist painted in the way they did and what they are trying to get across to his audience. Despite artists attempts to try and make their works as viewer friendly as possible, without the understanding and knowledge gained from an art class as this one people will never fully understand the a work of art as it is meant to be.

Corporate Strategies to Hedge Commodity Price Risks Applying

Table of contents List of abbreviationsIII List of figuresIII List of tablesIII 1Introduction1 1. 1Problem and objective1 1. 2Structure of this paper1 2Background Information2 2. 1Definitions of fundamental terms2 2. 2Commodity price risk in different firms2 3Explanation of derivatives3 3. 1Options3 3. 2Futures4 3. 3Forwards6 3. 4Swaps6 4Hedging strategies with derivatives7 4. 1Hedging with options7 4. 2Hedging with futures7 4. 3Hedging with forwards8 4. 4Hedging with swaps8 5Pros and cons of hedging strategies with derivatives8 5. 1Pros and cons of options9 5. Pros and cons of futures9 5. 3Pros and cons of forwards10 5. 4Pros and cons of swaps10 6Practical example of corporate commodity price risk hedging10 6. 1Introduction on firm's practical hedging strategy10 6. 2Analysis on this strategy11 7Summary12 Appendix13 Appendix 1: Amounts outstanding of over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives by risk category and instrument——in billions of US dollar13 Appendix 2: Derivatives fi nancial instruments traded on organized exchanges by instrument and location——in billions of US dollar14 Bibliography15 Internet Source16 List of abbreviations CHClearing HouseIMInitial Margin MBMargin Balance MM NMaintenance Margin No OTCOver The Count VM YVariation Margin Yes List of figures Figure 1: Structure of this paper2 Figure 2: P of each option position4 Figure 3: Flow chart of marking-to-market process5 Figure 4: P of each future position6 Figure 5: Hedging model on fuel oil of Air China11 List of tables Table 1: Summary for 4 option positions4 Table 2: Summary for future positions6 Table 3: Summary for 4 derivatives9 1Introduction 1. 1Problem and objective The risk of commodity price is a ferocious topic in corporate operation.Corporate profit is equal to total revenue minus total cost. For firms, because of the high volatility on commodity price, their inputs and outputs relating to commodity are unpredictable. As a consequence corporate profit will be imm ensely volatile, which will possibly lead the firm to go bankruptcy if no any preventive actions are taken. For example, producers of commodities probably need to assume unexpected losses, when the price of outputs goes down or the price of necessary raw materials goes up. The situations are similar to wholesale buyers, retailers, exporters and even governments.Volatility of commodities price has great impacts on corporate daily operation. The objective of this term paper is to introduce derivative hedging strategies for corporate managers to reduce or even eliminate future unpredictability, mainly from the perspectives of the role commodity price risks play, what the typical derivative instruments are, where and how to apply these different derivatives in terms of hedging principles thereof, and both advantages and disadvantages when applying each derivative in real business transactions. 1. Structure of this paper Firstly, this term paper highlights problems existing in real world . Secondly, it introduces advanced derivatives theory that can be applied to solve these problems. Thirdly, specific details on the theory will be presented, including explanation, application, as well as pros and cons of each derivative instrument. Then, an example is analyzed to show how companies apply derivatives to hedge commodity risks practically. Last is a summary of this term paper. Following figure shows the body of this paper. 2Background Information 2. Definitions of fundamental terms In financial markets derivative is a contract or security whose value is derived from the value of other more basic underlying variables . One of its most important functions is hedging. In corporate operation, hedging is to secure the companies against potential loss caused by variable risks that arise in international market, such as the commodity price risks. In this paper, commodity means any tangible goods or raw materials that may be sold or traded in the markets, such as energy, gold , or agricultural products. 2. Commodity price risk in different firms Volatility of commodities price influences firms’ daily operation significantly. Producers of commodities, such as farms, oil producers, mining companies, face price risk on output. Wholesalers and retailers, face price risk during the time period from buying from suppliers and selling to customers. Exporters, face the same price risk as well as currency exchange risk. And governments face price and yield risks generating from tax revenues that depend on firms’ operational conditions. 3Explanation of derivativesDerivatives are traded in exchange-traded markets and over-the-counter markets. (See recent derivatives transaction status in appendix 1 and appendix 2. ) Notably, exchange-traded derivatives are default risk free and liquid. However over-the-counter traded derivatives are the opposite. 3. 1Options An option is the contract that gives the buyer the right but not obligation to buy (call option ) or sell (put option) an underlying asset at a predetermined price (exercise price) for certain quantity during a fixed period of time (maturity).The buyer of the option pays a particular amount of money (option premium) to the seller to buy a right whereby he can decide whether or not to exercise this option, simultaneously the seller has the obligation to perform if the buyer exercises the option. European options only can be exercised on expiration day, and American options can be exercised at any time before maturity. The buyer of the call option is named long call, while the seller of the call option is named short call. Similarly, the buyer of the put option is named long put, while the seller of the put option is named short put.In commodity market, underlying of commodity option is a commodity, such as oil, wheat, or gold. Commodity options are both exchanges-traded and OTC traded. Following figure shows P of each option. Following table is the summary for these 4 option po sitions. Table 1: Summary for 4 option positions Market price expectationMaximum profitMaximum lossBreakeven point Long callupunlimitedoption premiumexercise price + option premium Short calldown or stableoption premiumunlimitedexercise price + option premium Long putdownexercise price – option premiumoption premiumexercise price – option premium Short putup or stableoption remiumexercise price – option premiumexercise price – option premium Source: author’s own. 3. 2Futures A future is a contract between two parties to buy or sell a specified amount of asset at a specified time period in the future for a certain price. Normally there are two types of futures, commodity futures whose underlying are commodities and financial futures whose underlying are financial assets. They are highly standardized, regulated, and traded in exchange markets with highly liquid and default risk free property. Because of the marking-to-market process, at maturity the settling price is the spot price at expiration date with profit gaining or loss paying from a margin account, which indirectly makes the effective bargain price equal to the predetermined price in the future contract. Notably, to ensure high liquidity of futures, marking-to-market process plays a significant role. The following figure shows the marking-to-market process. Generally there are two alternative ways at maturity to settle futures, either by cash or by actual delivery of underlying, which is clearly defined by futures exchange.Following figure and table show the details of a future. Table 2: Summary for future positions ?Maximum profitMaximum lossBreakeven point Long positionunlimitedexercise pricespot price + cost of carry Short positionexercise priceunlimitedspot price + cost of carry Source: author’s own. 3. 3Forwards A forward contract is a customized and over-the-counter agreement to buy or sell an asset at a specified time in the future for a specified price, where a long position has the obligation to buy and a short position has the obligation to sell. Compared with futures, no marking-to-market process are required.Counterparties can negotiate with each about the parameters of the contract. As a result, a firm who wants to make forward contract needs to find the counterparty by itself. 3. 4Swaps A swap is a customized and over-the-counter agreement to exchange a series of specified assets periodically in the future. Normally the counterparties of a swap contract are a large institution such as a bank and a company. Basically, we can view a swap as a complicated forward. Except currency swaps, counterparties just need to pay the differences between the cash flow they should exchange. Because swaps are bespoken as a result they are less liquid.There are commodity swaps, interest rate swaps and currency swaps. Interest rate swaps is an agreement of two counterparties to change fixed interest and floating interest on predefined nominal pr incipal in the future periodically. Commodity swaps normally vary tremendously among different markets. In a currency swap, counterparties change same value of different currencies in inception and termination, where the exchange rate of the tow currencies depends on the negotiation of counterparties. 4Hedging strategies with derivatives This chapter will focus on the principles of hedging strategies on commodities. . 1Hedging with options If a trader wants to procure a commodity with high volatile price, he can buy a commodity call option to hedge the price risk of going up. Similarly, if a company wants to sell a commodity product, it can buy a long put to hedge the price risk of going down. In practice, because investors want to bet more precisely on the future price of the underlying, and hedgers with long positions want to save option premiums, a few combinations of options come out, such as a long call and a short put with identical parameters except the different strike price . 4. 2Hedging with futuresWhen the objective of a commodity trader wants to neutralize the price risk as far as possible, usually he will choose to take a position on a future on commodity. A hedger who already owns a commodity asset or doesn‘t own right now but will at some future time expecting to sell it in the future without assuming any price risk, he can apple future hedging strategy to enter into a short position to become a short. Likewise, a hedger who has to buy a certain commodity asset in the future and wants to lock in spot price immediately, he can apply a future to enter into a long position to become a long. . 3Hedging with forwards The principles of hedging strategy with forwards are similar with futures'. Whether to use futures or forwards depends on different requirements. Generally, financial assets investors who need high liquidity prefer to choose futures, while commodity investors such as producers who need high customization prefer to choose forwards. 4 . 4Hedging with swaps When investors want to hedge risks of interest rates, currencies, or commodities, they can use swaps. In gold swaps, counterparties change fixed lease rate with variable lease rate.In swaps on base metals, counterparties change fixed metal price with average price of near dated metal future. In oil swaps, counterparties change fixed West Taxes Intermediate (WTI is a benchmark in oil price) price with average price of near dated WTI future. 5Pros and cons of hedging strategies with derivatives The following integrated summary of these derivatives depending on pervious analysis makes systematic comparisons. (The options here are exchanged-traded European options) Table 3: Summary for 4 derivatives SUMMERY OF DERIVATIVES FOR GENERAL TYPES OptionsFuturesForwardsSwapsTypes of contractstandardizedstandardizedcustomizedcustomized Settlementscash and deliverymost cash and few deliverydeliverydepends on individuals Trading marketExchange tradedExchange tradedOTCOTC Liqu idityhighhighlowlow Marketing-to-marginnorequirednono Time of settlementmaturitydailymaturityperiodically Initial investmentoption premiuminitial margin nodepends Default risk assumed byClearing houseclearinghouseBoth partiesBoth parties ProsDefault risk free & liquiditycustomization & no initial investment Consinitial investment & inflexibledefault risk for both party & illiquidity Source: author’s own. . 1Pros and cons of options The pros of options are obvious. Firstly, they have no risk to assume more loss than premium but have possibility to get unlimited potential profit. Secondly exchanged-traded options are highly liquid and OTC traded options are flexible. However, the cons of options are also explicit, such as the difficulty to decide when to enter into a long position.Because buying an option needs to pay option premium, if the spot price cannot go above (for a long call) or go below (for a long put) the breakeven point the hedger will suffer a loss, and depends on statistics the possibility of a long position to lose is about 66%. 5. 2Pros and cons of futures It definitely makes sense for most companies whose majors are in businesses but not professional in forecasting the price of commodities price volatility, which can make them pay more attention on their core competences instead of fearing about volatile price.Nonetheless, taking neutralized strategies make hedgers give up the possibility of both profit and loss. Moreover, instead of hedging risks by companies, shareholders can hedge themselves according to their preferences. Additionally, if other competitors of the same industry don’t apply hedging strategies, in fact, it is the hedging company itself that assumes risks, because competitive pressures are the same for other all competitors but different for the hedging company its own. 5. 3Pros and cons of forwards Basic pros and cons have been listed in the table in front of this chapter.Generally, compared to futures, the most explicit pro is that forwards are highly customized and therefore the con is that they are hardly liquid. 5. 4Pros and cons of swaps Basic pros and cons have been listed in the table in front of this chapter. Gernally, compared to futures and forwards the most precise pros is that both counterparties could reap benefits from a swap, such as in a currency swap where a firm with a low rate may get a cheaper loan as other firms with high rates, and the counterparty may get a payment as compensation.However the corresponding cons is that counterparty may need to pay commision to intermediary, because it is difficult to find an appropriate counterparty by itself. 6Practical example of corporate commodity price risk hedging 6. 1Introduction on firm's practical hedging strategy Air China is an airline company, whose cost of fuel oil occupies 44. 75% of total revenue in 2008. To hedge the fuel oil price risk, Air China bought a call option with strike K1, meanwhile sold a put option with st rike K2, where K1