A Synopsis of the Movie I, Robot Essay

I generally inquired as to whether those anecdotes about robots conquering mankind will turn out to be genuine. Science fiction books are being my top picks since I was a child and I observed each significant film about this subject. My top choices is â€Å"I, robot† that recounts to the account of a general public later on that depends on robots for all its local exercises, yet some way or another one of those robots got mindful of his own self and began to build up a brain, however generally significant, a spirit. The robot began to build up a feeling of what is good and bad, and not on the grounds that some program introduced in its memory or a calculation convention of requests, it started settling on choices not founded on directions or learning unintentionally process, yet via looking through profound on its â€Å"heart† what was the proper activity. The robot’s name is Calvin and the film, featured by Will Smith, depends on a lot of short stories by Isaac Asimov, productive author thought about an ace in hard sci-fi. On his â€Å"I, robot† short stories, one of them named â€Å"Three Law of Robotic†, and which he thought about his top level input to mankind of things to come (Asimov composed the book on 1950), he concocted three laws that he figured a future society must contribution on robots so as to exist together with them as a major aspect of their step by step living. Those laws are: 1. A robot may not harm a person or, through inaction, permit an individual to come to hurt. 2. A robot must comply with the requests given to it by individuals, aside from where such requests would struggle with the First Law. 3. A robot must ensure its own reality as long as such security doesn't struggle with the First or Second Laws. These laws appear to be extremely essential, however their rationale truly doesn’t have any holes, in any event from the start impression. At the point when Calvin (the robot) experiences a contention with those orders, he began to build up its man-made reasoning and getting progressively human. At the point when Calvin is in a circumstance that its deactivation will be destructive for his two human companions, he chose to battle for his reality, and another period of robots was conceived. Like Asimov there are a few creators and researchers that anticipated a future where robots and man-made consciousness are a major piece of society. Furthermore, they have motivations to accept on this. After the Industrial Revolution occurred, we have being looking for increasingly gainful approaches to build make. Industrialization and large scale manufacturing levels request better, quicker and more astute plans to fulfill the more prominent interest of devour based social orders. To accomplish those urgent objectives, innovation and uniquely mechanical technology is utilized increasingly more frequently. A few manufacturing plants are made uniquely on robots that construct gear parts or procedure food in a manner no human can do. Significant organizations know where we are going and put increasingly more in mechanical innovation and man-made consciousness, similar to we read in the accompanying reference of the article of Nicholas Carr â€Å"Is Google Making us Stupid?†: â€Å"Where does it end? Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the skilled youngsters who established Google while seeking after doctoral degrees in software engineering at Stanford, talk as often as possible of t heir craving to transform their web index into a man-made consciousness, a HAL-like machine that may be associated legitimately to our minds. â€Å"The extreme web index is something as brilliant as peopleâ€or smarter,† Page said in a discourse a couple of years back. â€Å"For us, dealing with search is an approach to deal with counterfeit intelligence.† In a 2004 meeting with Newsweek, Brin stated, â€Å"Certainly in the event that you had all the world’s data legitimately appended to your cerebrum, or a fake mind that was more astute than your cerebrum, you’d be better off.† Last year, Page told a show of researchers that Google is â€Å"really attempting to assemble man-made consciousness and to do it on a huge scale.†Ã¢â‚¬  There is no uncertainty for me that there is where robots will be all over: Some robots may be performing exact heart medical procedures, controlling traffic and regulated appropriate travel in the city, cleaning our homes as local help or possibly showing English Composition at the nearby Community College (no offense to Ms. Patrice Fleck), however let’s be prepared if sometime they become mindful of their own reality, giving the following stage on their advancement as metallic creatures. Let’s trust that their aims towards us are connected to the Three Laws of Robotic specified by Asimov, they could be the contrast between our endurance and concurrence, or our absolute destruction.

The scramble for africa free essay sample

The Scramble for Africa In the time somewhere in the range of 1886 and 1914, there were occasions called European scramble for Africa. They were called scramble for Africa in light of the fact that there were a ton of European nations who colonized African nations and attempted to hold onto arrives in Africa. Before long, the European nations totally settled themselves on the place that is known for Africa making it open to Western investigation. Thus European nations colonized all Africa with the exception of Ethiopia and Liberia.Britain, France and Portugal were the fundamental pilgrim controls in Africa, yet Belgium, Germany, Italy and Spain were additionally included. The accompanying guide shows the expansionism in 1914. With the improvement of industrialization all through Europe, rivalry for crude materials expanded. Mechanical creations required HR and naturals. Be that as it may, the vast majority of Europe was asset poor. European nations needed to control handles that had the crude materials they required for their mechanical economies, for example, elastic, cotton, copper, tin and tea.They sanctioned that Africa was modest work, constrained rivalry and have all assets that they required. We will compose a custom paper test on The scramble for africa or on the other hand any comparable theme explicitly for you Don't WasteYour Time Recruit WRITER Just 13.90/page Since these assets were inaccessible in their nations, they began to storm Africa. They additionally needed to open up business sectors for the merchandise they made in light of the fact that Europe was creating more mechanical products than Europeans could devour. Along these lines, industrialists looked for business sectors for their products around the globe. The industrialists urged their administration to acknowledge colonization of Africa so as to secure markets for their modern goods.With the initial f these business sectors, monetary administrations turned into an inexorably significant segment of the British economy. European nations had the option to force their will on African nations by utilizing tech oenology. Steam motors, railways and broadcasts made them ready to infiltrate profound into Africa and still have contact with the nation of origin. They likewise had automatic rifles most prominent weapons around then. Moreover, the creation of quinine pushed them to against jungle fever, which struck Europeans. They were additionally helped by the absence Of understanding among African People.As an aftereffect of European colonization, there were a great deal of ramifications for African individuals. The African individuals lost their past wonders in light of the exercises of the outsiders who needed to become bosses of all that they overview. The example of exchange among Africans and Europeans didn't urge the Africans to create in light of the fact that the African assets were taken to create ventures in Europe instead of in Africa. In addition, the impact of the slave exchange was that it made the entire African landmass by and large unsafe.However, the most harming impact of European contact with Africa was the incredible misfortune in populace. It was about more than 30 million Africans were diverted as captives to America. This does exclude the few millions who passed on in the exploitative work.

Modern American Government Example

Modern American Government Example Modern American Government â€" Essay Example > Question: What Factors Best Explain Why Americans Vote as They Do? ReplyJust like other democratic societies, election results in the United States often change dramatically. A landslide victory for one party may be followed by a lopsided victory for another party in the following election. Election changes in the United States can be categorized into two classes: short-term and long-term changes. Short-term election changes are related to fluctuations in factors that are related to an election such as the condition of the economy or the qualities of the candidates. Short-term factors can be strongly favorable to the Democrats in one election, moderately favorable to the Republicans in another election and evenly divided in the subsequent election. Long-term shifts in election results are related to shifts in basic loyalties which last beyond a particular election period. The most critical long-term election changes occur when there are realignments in party systems. Realignments of American party systems occur infrequently and are substantial enough to cause fundamental changes in voting patterns. For instance, the New Deal Realignment of the 1930s fundamentally reshaped the country’s political system and today, some of the ideological differences between parties can be traced to the New Deal Realignment. The most interesting issue in the United States elections is not who wins but how the people voted and what the implications of the election results are. Voters in the United States have developed a complex voting trend incorporating a number of social and attitudinal factors. The main attitudinal factors that have over the years influenced voting patterns include evaluation of government performance, personal characteristics of candidates, party identification, orientation of policy issues and ideologies. On the social perspective, religion, race, social class, gender and marital status are among the most important factors that have influenced voting patterns over the years. Ideally, evaluation of candidate characteristics and government policies are short-term forces capable of effecting substantial shifts from one election period to another. On the other hand, ideology and party identification are stable in the short terms. In fact, many American voters have shown the tendency to shift party identifications during elections. While some critical issues in presidential elections change over time, a number of important basic policy issues such as social welfare programs and defense spending remain pertinent and stretch over several election periods and have far reaching ramifications on voting patterns. The issue of race is an important social factor that has traditionally shaped voting patterns in the United States. The Democratic Party has historically been associated with efforts to advance the civil rights cause, especially under the leadership of Lyndon Johnson. Naturally, the Democrats have had a wide following among Afric an Americans and other minority groups in the United States. The presidency of Johnson is credited with successfully sponsoring three civil rights acts in the Congress. The bills granted various rights to the minority groups especially the Blacks which were hitherto prohibited. In 2008, Barrack Obama became the first Black American to win presidency in the history of the United States. Obama received a huge support from the Blacks partly because racial background. Although the number of Blacks who vote is small compared to the numerically larger white population, a large proportion of the Blacks live in regions that are election targets for both Republicans and Democrats such as California and Florida. Historical results show that majority of blacks vote for the Democrats regardless of the party’s success or candidate’s qualities. In contrast, the White voters in Southern states are historically more inclined to vote for the Republican Party because the party is not associated with the civil rights movement.

Handling Stress Essay - 2056 Words

Handling Stress This essay is about handling the stress of University studies. We will be looking into many ideas and different people ¹s views on how to handle stress. I will also be giving my own opinions on how I think stress can be controlled or relieved. The first thing we must do is ask ourselves one very important question,  ³what is stress ²? WHAT IS STRESS? According to an Australian born physician, Hans Selye (1979), stress is the nonspecific response of the body to any demand made upon it. The body responds in many ways. One is to the loss of blood and the other is to the lack of sleep. Both of these are nonspecific responses, however all demands made on the body evoke generalised, nonspecific responses. For example, they all†¦show more content†¦This group of students were placed in stress management sessions. These sessions included overall stress assessment, assertiveness training, time management, exploration of stressful thoughts or belief systems, and life-style and stress reducers. The main focus of these sessions were: a) how to manage stress by using things other than food and b) how to apply stress management principles to the amount of food you take in. The majority of these students found better ways to manage or control their stress by using more healthful outlets, such as walking or taking up a sport. During the last twenty years disease prevention and health promotion have been found to be related to the development of healthy life-style behaviour and the management of stress. The course entitled  ³ Psychology and the Management of Stress: Theory and Application ² (Personnel and Guidance Journal), has been set up to: a) acquaint students with theory and research related to stress management techniques b) to provide guidance and information about diet, physical exercise, and other matters of a healthy life-style and c) to provide an opportunity for students to learn and practice how to apply stress management to their present lives. Each Handling Stress # course is developed around four dimensions. Two of these are,  ³the influences of diet, physical exercise, and alcohol, drug, and cigarette use on stress and physical health ², andShow MoreRelatedThe Problem Of Low Back Pain1591 Words   |  7 Pagesexperts look to solve the nursing shortage problem. Project Back to Back is one initiative aimed at addressing this issue. It seeks to reduce the prevalence of low back pain experienced by nurses by introducing continual training in proper patient handling and Dru yoga classes to nurses working in the hospital facilities that are a part of the Mount Sinai Hospital System. In the United States, low back pain is singled out as the most common reason for time lost at work after the common cold, theRead MoreStress And Stress Related Stress1224 Words   |  5 PagesStress is a common problem in modern day life today. It is a basic thing of everyday life and there is no way to completely escape it. Most people associate stress with a negative situations; however, whether the stress related problem is negative or positive, the important key is how you respond to it. People experience stress in many different ways. Because stress has negative effects, it will usually manifest itself it one way or another. Stress is not avoidable but it can be managed withRead MoreCoping With Stress Essay1454 Words   |  6 Pagespeople have stress and they find ways to cope. Stress is a person’s feeling that is created by our body when there is certain event that can cause tension to strain upon our physical, mental, and emotional state. Stress can be caused by being in college, the tests, homework, clinicals and state boards can have an overwhelming amount of pressure. Stress can be physical and mental strain on our body, this can be very harmful. The tragic loss of a loved one can cause tremendous amount of stress. LearningRead MorePositive or Negative Impact of Stress on Students775 Words   |  3 PagesFirth- Cozens, 2001) Stress can have a negative or positive impact on a student but it all depends on how they perceive it. An individual’s response to stress is determined by whether they see it as a challenge or a threat. This determines whether a person will take an active or avoidant or active strategies to cope with a situation. The way in which a student perceives academic stress will determine how they cope with it. It has been proven that some level of stress can be adaptive even consideredRead MoreThe Effects Of Stress On Our Mental And Physical Health926 Words   |  4 Pageswe learned in class, stress is any force that changes the body’s natural state, known as homeostasis. Stress does not always have to be viewed as a bad thing. For example, stress can motivate someone to study for an exam or plan ahead in his or her agenda to stay organized. Its only when stress manifest out of control and is not addressed properly that it can have very negative effects on both our mental and physical health. Reflecting on the document we watched in class, Stress: Portrait of a KillerRead MoreThe Effects Of Stress On College Students And Cognitive Processing906 Words   |  4 PagesIntroduction Stress is a nonspecific response of the human organism to any demand make upon it. It can influence the way we perform on tests and homework and how we act at home or work. There are different types of stress that can occur in the body. Acute stress is the body’s response to imminent danger. This short-term stress usually occurs when we are told we will have a quiz or have to give a speech in class. Chronic stress is a prolonged physical or emotional stress. This can cause damage toRead MoreHow Work Related Stress Is A Growing Problem Around The World Essay1215 Words   |  5 PagesPART A Understanding Workplace Stress Work-related stress is a growing problem around the world that affects not only the health and well-being of employees, but also the productivity of organizations. Work-related stress arises where work demands of various types and combinations exceed the person’s capacity and capability to cope. Work-related stress is the second most common compensated illness after musculoskeletal disorders. Emotions are physiological, behavioral, and psychological episodesRead MoreEssay on The Breakdown of Mental Health and Stability1611 Words   |  7 Pagessociety and the stress level of the average individual. Another question to ask is what exactly is the role stress plays in an individuals overall health, both physically and mentally? Could it be a key factor in this sudden uprising of mental ailments and the loss of many peoples emotional and mental balance and stability? There are numerous studies linking stress with a multitude of health problems, many with a neurobiological connection. One of the biggest things stress takes its tollRead MoreThe Effects Of Stress On Our Lives Essay1467 Words   |  6 PagesStress is not what happens to us. It s our response TO what happens. And RESPONSE is something we can choose. - Maureen Killoran We live in a world of uncertainty and there s no escaping this fact. Trying to balance the excess stress in our lives at times might seem like an impossible task, but it is achievable. We all suffer from excess stress at some stage in our lives. And I say suffer, because the symptoms of excess stress can provoke very unpleasant feelings and emotions. Most of us haveRead MoreThe Effects Of Stress On The World1718 Words   |  7 Pages On the topic of stress, research has widened eyes on the issues of stress because stress is related to how many hours one is spending away from family or friends. In America, it was customary that people work long hours. â€Å"In the U.S., 85.8 percent of males and 66.5 percent of females work more than 40 hours per week†(G.E. Miller). But for many Americans, more work leads to more stress and a lower quality of life. This amount of stress is not only known to the United States of America, it is actually

How Drinking Bleach Can Kill You

Household bleach has many uses. Its good for removing stains and disinfecting surfaces. Adding bleach to water is an effective way to make it safe to use as drinking water. However, theres a reason there is a poison symbol on bleach containers and a warning to keep them away from children and pets. Drinking undiluted bleach can kill you. What Is in Bleach? Ordinary household bleach sold in gallon jugs (e.g., Clorox)  is 5.25% sodium hypochlorite in water. Additional chemicals may be added, especially if the bleach is scented. Some formulations of bleach are sold containing a lower concentration of sodium hypochlorite. Additionally, there are other types of bleaching agents. Bleach has a shelf life, so the exact amount of sodium hypochlorite depends largely on how old the product is and whether it has been opened and sealed properly. Because bleach is so reactive, it undergoes a chemical reaction with air, so the concentration of sodium hypochlorite goes down over time. What Happens If You Drink Bleach Sodium hypochlorite removes stains and disinfects because it is an oxidizing agent. If you inhale the vapors or ingest bleach, it oxidizes your tissues. Mild exposure from inhalation can result in stinging eyes,  a burning throat, and coughing. Because it is corrosive, touching bleach can cause chemical burns on your hands unless you wash it off immediately. If you drink bleach, it oxidizes or burns tissues in your mouth, esophagus, and stomach. According to the National Institutes of Health, it can cause nausea, chest pain, lowered blood pressure, delirium, coma, and potentially death. What Should You Do If Someone Drinks Bleach? If you suspect someone has ingested bleach, contact Poison Control immediately. One possible effect from drinking bleach is vomiting, but it is not advisable to induce vomiting because this can cause additional irritation and damage to tissue and may put the person at risk of aspirating bleach into the lungs. First aid typically includes giving the affected person water or milk to dilute the chemical. Note that highly diluted bleach can be another matter entirely. It is common practice to add a small amount of bleach to water to make it potable. The concentration is enough that the water has a slight chlorine (swimming pool) smell and taste and it may lead to a slightly upset stomach, but it should not cause burning or difficulty swallowing. If it does, the concentration of bleach very likely is too high. Avoid adding bleach to water that contains acids, such as vinegar. The reaction between bleach and vinegar, even in a diluted solution, releases irritating and potentially dangerous chlorine and chloramine vapors. If immediate first aid is administered, most people recover from drinking bleach (sodium hypochlorite poisoning). However, the risk of chemical burns, permanent damage, and even death are present. How Much Bleach Is Okay to Drink? According to the U.S. EPA, drinking water should contain no more than 4 ppm (parts per million) chlorine. Municipal water supplies commonly deliver between 0.2 and 0.5 ppm chlorine. When bleach is added to water for emergency disinfection, it is highly diluted. Suggested dilution ranges from the Centers for Disease Control are 8 drops of bleach per gallon of clear water up to 16 drops per gallon of cloudy water. Can You Drink Bleach to Pass a Drug Test? There are all kinds of rumors about ways you can beat a drug test. Obviously, the easiest way to pass the test is to avoid taking drugs in the first place, but thats not going to be much help if youve already taken something and are facing a test. Clorox  says their bleach contains water, sodium hypochlorite,  sodium chloride,  sodium carbonate, sodium hydroxide, and sodium polyacrylate. They also make scented products that include fragrances. Bleach also contains small amounts of impurities, which arent a big deal when youre using the product for disinfection or cleaning  but could prove  toxic if ingested.  None of these ingredients binds to drugs or their metabolites or inactivates them such that you would test negative on a drug test. Bottom Line: Drinking bleach wont help you pass a drug test and may make you sick or dead.

Torstar Case Report Free Essays

Group-based case report Torstar Corporation BUSN81 Theory of Corporate Finance 2011 Autumn 1. Introduction The case of Torstar Corporation suggests the plan and result of repurchasing its Class B shares in December of 1997. Besides this, the situation of its business structure, capital structure and expenditures, future plan are also described in the case. We will write a custom essay sample on Torstar Case Report or any similar topic only for you Order Now Therefore, the purpose of our case study is to state, analyze and drew to some important conclusions about Torstar Corporation, and try to estimate its power to compete with a new national newspaper. . Background Torstar Corporation was incorporated on February 6, 1958 and published Canada’s largest newspaper Toronto Star. It had two main rivals which are Sun Media Corp. and the Globe and Mail. One launching second national newspaper by Southam Inc. would also be one competitor of The Star. Since 1975, by acquisition of domestic and international book publishing and supplementary educational products, Torstar found its three major business, newspapers, book publishing and supplementary education. After the acquisition of Troll in fiscal 1997, it also has one 3-year-time plan to acquire more companies which fit with its core business at the reasonable price. As of March 31, 1998, Torstar share structure included 5 million Class A voting shares and 34 million Class B non-voting shares. Since they believed prevailing Class B stocks were undervalued, they began to repurchase it back from December 17, 1997. In 1997 the debt-to-total-asset ratio was 18%, and management believed that 30% was more appropriate. Actually they also suppose that they could carry a 50% debt-to-total-asset ratio if they had a suitable strategic acquisition. Therefore, based on this background, we will analysis the effects of repurchasing stocks of Torstar, the advantages and disadvantages of its leverage ratio and its ways to investment. Then by adding some assumptions, one prediction of Torstar’s power to compete with new launching rival is possible. 3. Analysis 4. 1 Overview of Cash Flow, debt, Operating Situation and Income The company was doing well so far, until 1997. The cash flow, operating situation and the income were all healthy. We can conclude that from the Balance-Sheet the company had adequate cash  flow, exhibit 3 shows that the operating cash flow kept increasing from 1995 to 1997 with the free cash flow, this was enough cash for Torstar facing with some possible risky. The only problem is that how to stop the continued increasing free cash flow since too much cash means increasing costs of keeping cash and decreasing market value of cash. The amount about $50,000 would be a good expectation. The three main business of newspaper, book and supplementary education were operated well, they had sustainable increasing revenue and stable expenditure, so the profit was increasing positively after 1993 acquiring the business of supplementary education, especially in 1997, it got a rapid increasing of net income. See the return of equity below, it shows a well increasing on return of investors. (Base on Net Income over Total Equity) The debt ratio was a little bit low as our analysis, it had space to increase. But how? Increasing dividend payment or repurchase in the open market? We analyzed these two possible ways below. 3. 2 Dividend policy Torstar Corporation has a stable dividend policy recent years which was to pay out 30 to 35 percent of the previous year’s operating cash flows. Cash dividend was paid regular quarterly which was keeping $0. 26 per share in 1997. Dividend empirically decreased in the propensity of firms due to its benefits are not attractive than repurchase, but it is still important for management. Advantage of payout dividends * Dividends may appeal to investors who desire stable cash flow but do not want to incur transactions cost from periodically selling share of stocks * On behalf of stockholders, paying dividends can keep cash from investors * Dividends can be used to reduce agency cost of managerial discretion * Managers may increase dividends to signal optimism concerning future cash flow * Disadvantage of payout dividends * Dividends are double taxed * Dividends can reduce internal sources of financing. Dividends may force the firm to forgo positive NPV projects or to reply on costly external equity financing * Firms often view dividends as a commitment to their stockholders and quite hesitant to reduce an existing dividends. Once established, dividend cuts would adversely affect the firm’s stock price as a negative signal As illustrated by Torstar, a stable cash flow in paying dividends implied a well operating status. The sale of Hebdo provided additional financial flexibility in 1997, free cash flow increased rapidly as can be seen in Appendix. An extra or special cash dividend and share repurchase are two choices to payout adequate cash. Special dividend is expressly not intended to be a recurring event, but as mentioned above, paying dividends with the tax drawback and may produce a negative signal when fluctuating. So keeping the stable payout ratio was a better choice for Torstar. 3. 3 Repurchase Compared with dividend payout, shares repurchase have the listed effects on Torstar Corp, * Send a costly signal to investors that stock of Torstar is a good investment. Recent investments seem to cause side-effect on investor’s confidence about the company. As mentioned in the article, institutional investors treat Torstar as a ‘pure play’ investment into the area of newspaper and book publisher. But from year 1995 to 1997, acquisitions into children’s supplementary education products are viewed as not favorable. They hope Torstar Corporation can continue the historical expansion of the newspaper and book division. In order to mitigate the side-effect caused by recent investment. Repurchase would result in fewer shares outstanding and thus higher equity value per share which leads to a better performance of the stock. It also sends a signal to the market that the management believes the stock is undervalued. The price of the stock would go up. As a result of the repurchase sends a strong signal to the investors. The signal is costly as a repurchase would use up corporate cash and hard to mimic. * Increase the EPS which shows great confidence of future performance Repurchase would decrease the number of shares outstanding which leads to directly change of EPS of the Torstar Corporation. In the interim financial statements, the EPS shows great improvements after the repurchase. (Show in Figure 1) Figure 1 EPS change in 1997 * Availability of excess cash from operations By checking the interim financial statements, cash provided by operating activities of Torstar Corporation face an increase in the year 1997, from 25. 6 million to 130 million dollars. The retained cash from operation activities is too much as the normal on-going capital expenditures was expected to be 25 million to 30 million dollars. Additionally, Capital cycle in the publishing industry is approximately six years and Torstar Corporation has recently modernized its plant. There’s no major capital expenditures were forecast for the near future. Thus, excess cash should be paid out. By checking the retained cash in the Quarter 1, 2008, the operating cash is 27. 97 million dollar. It is sufficient for on-going capital expenditure. (shown in figure 2) Reduction in excess cash would reduce the agency cost of managerial discretion as the manager has fewer resources to pursuing consuming perks. Figure 2 Cash provided by operating activities Compared with the dividends payout, repurchase is tax efficient as dividends is taxable. Compared with dividends payout, repurchase avoid price drop results from dividend issuance. Institutional investors are happy when the performance of the stock is good. High price shows the strong performance of the stock. * Optimize capital structure. Torstar’s long-term debt outstanding was reduced from 321 million in 1996 to 197 million in 1997 result in a debt-to-total assets ratio of percent. While the management believed that a 30 percent target debt-to-assets ratio was more appropriate. Too less debt may cause the loss of tax shield and influence the value of the firm. While at this level of debt-to-assets ratio, the risk is still acceptable. Torstar Corporation still has excess debt capacity for future capital expansion. Thus repurchase can decrease the shares outstanding, and also decrease the value of assets. It would push up the debt-to-assets ratio to the appropriate level. By using the interim financial statements, we get the trend of debt-to-assets ratio. In December 31 1997, the decrease of debt-to-assets ratio is mainly a result of the long-term debt decreasing from 510. 007 million to 197. 322 million dollars. And in March 31 1998, the increase in debt-to-assets ratio is a result of repurchasing shares (decreasing in value of total assets). 4. Conclusion After analyzing, we all agree with the activity the Torstar hold, stock repurchasing transfer a strong and credible signaling to the market that the company is in a good situation and will do better in the future, the debt ratio increases and the market value will also goes up. We estimate that Torstar will keep increasing in the next financial year. 5. Appendix Cash Flow Analysis (CDN$000) | 1995| 1996| 1997| operating cash flow| 78. 3| 102. 9| 130. 0| dividends| 30. 9| 35. 1| 40. 3| Capital expenses| 20. 3| 29. 8| 26. 6| free cash flow| 27. 2| 38. 0| 63. 1| Dividends | 1st Q 1997| 2nd Q 1997| 3rd Q 1997| 4th Q 1997| Dividends($000)| 10120| 9965| 10080| 10095| Average shares| 39151| 39107| 39060| 39044| Dividends per share| $0. 26| $0. 26| $0. 26| $0. 26| How to cite Torstar Case Report, Papers

Investment Policy

Questions: Investment policy:Firstly give a general outline of the investment style of your team, including your attitude to risk, the ways you will manage risk as well as any financial targets you have. Secondly explain the theories that you will use to select individual stocks to buy or sell. This is may include fundamental analysis, technical analysis as well as portfolio and risk management theory. It is expected that you will refer to books and a range of other sources for this information, please ensure you use Harvard referencing for this.Asset selection: This will include how you analysed and selected particular stocks or other assets to trade. Relevant financial and other details about these companies should be included to justify your trading, (randomly selecting shares will not gain marks). It is also important that you are consistent with the general principles set out in your investment policy, for example if you state that your investment policy is low risk but you select only high risk shares this would not make sense.This section should also refer to and link to the record you keep of your trading meetings that are included in the appendices.Performance review: Discus s whether the trading went according to what you expected or hoped for and any possible reasons why it did not happen as you expected. (Note that trading rarely goes to plan so do not be disappointed if this happens but try to identify why it went wrong). Answers: Executive summary: There are some of the investment policies that entail a shorter term of profits while then there are some that entail profits that extend to a longer term. The first step in investing is to assess the individual requirements for cash, competence to undertake the risks that are involved and assess the returns that an investor is expecting. The following are some of the investment options that an investor can undertake: (Maps of India, 2015) For the purposes of the short term investments, the following are the investment options that could be undertaken: Online savings accounts Certificate of deposits and money market accounts For the purposes of the long term investments, the following are few of the options: Managed mutual funds Index funds Exchange traded funds (US news, 2015) The following is the investment policy framework: (Invest climate, 2015) The team would like to undertake the investments with the return of up to 20% and risk of 10%. The investment policy: The team wants to invest $10, 00,000 and would invest in the following: Mutual funds Shares of Mc Donalds The funds have been selected due to the following reasons: One can earn money from the following: Payments from the dividends and interest on the securities in the portfolio Amount received from the selling of the shares and earning capital gains on the same. The prices of the securities can increase and when any fund sells its security in price, the fund earns a capital gain on it. In the end of the year, the capital gains arise to the investors. The net assets value is increased and the expenses and the liabilities are deducted from the same. The higher net asset value gives a higher value to the investment, when it comes to payment of dividend and the distributions of the capital gains, one could have the dividends and the distributions are re-invested in the fund in order to buy more number of shares. (SEC, 2015) The following are the reasons to invest in the shares: 1. The UK market is currently yielding the return of 4.5pc and the shares are considered to be the attractive source of an investment when compared with the other income producing assets. This is especially given the inherent potential for the capital appreciation. 2. There is a growing income especially in the sectors like the utilities that could offer the investors the robust and the reliable stream of income. There are many small and medium sized companies that have a fair and a healthy dividend to invest and there is a potentiality of growth. 3. Overseas potential: the dividends is a predominantly a phenomenon whereby the cash is returned to the shareholders. Cash is given to the investors in return to their investment. 4. Once the shares are purchased, it becomes easier to invest in the world. An investor has the potential to gain an exposure in the fast growing areas, sectors, companies irrespective of the locations. 5. The ownership from the shares allows one to take the stakes in the companies in the new and the exciting industries and the areas from those that experience the rapid amount of changes. The property and the investment in the bonds allows one to participate in the growth of the usage of the mobile phones and the development of the market economies or the magnetic growth of an investment. 6. Real growth: the shares never expire or never mature, they are very different from the fixed income investments. The shares offers an access to the real growth of an asset and allows to participate in the company as it develops and grows. 7. The portfolio has to be reviewed on the regular basis so as to know that whether the shares need the maintenance or not. This is in contrary to the investment in the property, wherein the ongoing effort is necessary in order to maintain the value of the existing capital and the future returns. 8. The slower economic growth entails slower growth in the dividends since the profits grow at a slower rate. The good new here is that the bad news is always reflected in the price with the banks cutting back on its dividends. (Telegraph, 2015) The performance: Investment in Mc Donalds: The following is the formula for the calculation of return and the price of the share. When we calculate the return of the investors, we get 3.67%. This shows that the company is giving a good return to the shareholders. The following table shows the risk and return on the shares along with the Sharpe ratio: Date Close Dividends Holding period return 02-01-2015 92.44 -1.73 -1.84% 02-01-2014 94.17 0.81 -0.31 -0.33% 02-01-2013 95.29 0.77 -2.99 -3.02% 03-01-2012 99.05 0.7 26.08 35.40% 03-01-2011 73.67 0.61 11.85 18.98% 04-01-2010 62.43 0.55 4.96 8.55% 02-01-2009 58.02 0.5 4.41 8.15% 04-02-2008 54.11 0.375 54.485 std deviation 17.463467 return 3.68% 3.68 Risk free return 2.50% 2.5 Sharp index Expected return-risk free rate of return/standard deviation 0.0675696 Date Dividends 26-11-2014 0.85 0.146123128 Point to point 28-08-2014 0.81 29-05-2014 0.81 1.000315506 27-02-2014 0.81 0% compound using regression 27-11-2013 0.81 29-08-2013 0.77 D1 = 3.4 30-05-2013 0.77 P0 = 92.44 27-02-2013 0.77 r = 3.6780614452617900% 29-11-2012 0.77 dividend yield = 0.036780614 30-08-2012 0.7 31-05-2012 0.7 28-02-2012 0.7 29-11-2011 0.7 30-08-2011 0.61 27-05-2011 0.61 25-02-2011 0.61 29-11-2010 0.61 30-08-2010 0.55 27-05-2010 0.55 25-02-2010 0.55 27-11-2009 0.55 28-08-2009 0.5 04-06-2009 0.5 26-02-2009 0.5 26-11-2008 0.5 28-08-2008 0.375 05-06-2008 0.375 28-02-2008 0.375 (Yahoo finance, 2015) Investment in T. Rowe Price Diversified Small Cap Growth Fund: Volatility Measurements The volatility measures the uncertainty or the risk of change in the value of the security. Standard Deviation 12.55 Mean 1.67 Sharpe Ratio 1.59 Bear Market Decile Rank 37 (Money, US news, 2015) The following shows the calculations in respect of the excess returns of the fund and the benchmarks in the returns. The same are based on the returns of the month. Standard Index SP 500 TR USD Best Fit Index Morningstar Small Growth TR USD R-Squared 72.43 94.91 Beta 1.17 0.93 Alpha -2.41 3.34 Hypothetical Growth of $10,000 The following are the trailing returns: Total Return% + / - SP 500 TR USD + / - Russell 2000 Growth TR USD %Rank Year-to-date 6.38 -7.31 0.77 17 1-Month 1.12 1.37 -1.85 77 3-Month 6.76 1.83 -3.30 72 6-Month 3.64 -2.48 0.33 23 1-Year 6.38 -7.31 0.77 17 3-Year (Annualized) 21.07 0.65 0.93 16 5-Year (Annualized) 19.19 3.74 2.39 5 10-Year (Annualized) 10.20 2.52 1.66 5 (US News, 2015) Reasons for not getting the expected results: The following are the reasons for not getting the expected returns: Volatility risk: The prices of the shares fluctuate over time. Any stock that is trading at $40 may drop at $2 after a few months. And could end up at $100 by the end of the year. But the investor panics the moment the share price drops. It is very difficult to predict the price movement of the share and to know with surety whether the price will increase or decrease over the time. The risk of volatility will reduce if the investor keeps on investing with the long term perspective. Then there are some factors that have the following types of issues: Competition Changes in the technologies Difficulty in obtaining loans Changes in the regulations Increase in the cost of the materials and the labour Fraud or illegal business procedures Negative changes in the economy Rumours about the company etc. These are some of the factors that affect the price of the stocks of the company. (Mass resources, 2015) Conclusion: In the nutshell, the following is the risk and the returns form the investment: Shares Mutual funds Monthly Return 3.68% 6.38 3.2084 0.267367 Risk 17.46347 12.55 15.00673 1.250561 It would be right to say that the return was very less when compared with the return but with the initial amount of an investment, this was safe to play. References Business.mapsofindia.com, (2015). Top 10 Investment Options in India. [online] Available at: https://business.mapsofindia.com/investment-industry/top-10-investment-options.html [Accessed 1 Feb. 2015]. In.finance.yahoo.com, (2015). MCD Historical Prices | McDonald's Corporation Common S Stock - Yahoo! India Finance. [online] Available at: https://in.finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=MCDa=01b=2c=2008d=01e=1f=2015g=v [Accessed 1 Feb. 2015]. Massresources.org, (2015). Investing Money: Risks of Investing in Stocks. [online] Available at: https://www.massresources.org/investing-stocks-risks.html [Accessed 1 Feb. 2015]. Money.usnews.com, (2015). T. Rowe Price Diversified Small Cap Growth Fund (PRDSX) Performance | US News Best Mutual Funds. [online] Available at: https://money.usnews.com/funds/mutual-funds/small-growth/t.-rowe-price-diversified-small-cap-growth-fund/prdsx/performance [Accessed 1 Feb. 2015]. Money.usnews.com, (2015). T. Rowe Price Diversified Small Cap Growth Fund (PRDSX) Risk | US News Best Mutual Funds. [online] Available at: https://money.usnews.com/funds/mutual-funds/small-growth/t.-rowe-price-diversified-small-cap-growth-fund/prdsx/risk [Accessed 1 Feb. 2015]. Steinberg, S. (2014). The Best Ways to Invest $5,000 - US News. [online] US News World Report. Available at: https://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/investing/articles/2014/04/10/the-best-ways-to-invest-5-000?page=2 [Accessed 1 Feb. 2015]. Telegraph.co.uk, (2009). 10 reasons to buy shares - Telegraph. [online] Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/5787455/10-reasons-to-buy-shares.html [Accessed 1 Feb. 2015]. Wbginvestmentclimate.org, (2015). Investment Policy. [online] Available at: https://www.wbginvestmentclimate.org/advisory-services/international-trade/investment-policy/ [Accessed 1 Feb. 2015]. www.sec.gov, (2015). Mutual Funds A Guide for Investors. [online] Available at: https://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/sec-guide-to-mutual-funds.pdf [Accessed 1 Feb. 2015].