The effect of the recent financial crises on the UK investors psyche Literature review

The effect of the recent financial crises on the UK investors psyche - Literature review Example Theories are provided to guide the behaviours and investment strategies of the investors. The theories give emphasis on the psyche of the investors and their way of thinking and reacting to the financial market changes. The individual decisions are cognitive while investments are made. The paper also highlights on the risk measurement capacity of the investors. The risk is associated with the changes that are brought in the stock prices by the companies during the crisis period. Key Words: financial behaviour, financial crisis, Investment psyche, decision making Critical Review (Background) It is quite understandable when people ask how the crises could have happened after the disaster had struck, but given that market players are irrational, it can be said that people, including experts and laymen alike, play a psychological role in financial decision making. According to Sahi and Arora (2012) it is hardly ever heard that investors make wrong decisions who buy when they have to sell and vice-versa, despite possessing the correct information. This is in complete non-conformity with the efficient market hypothesis theory, which states that people behave rationally and maximize their utility by accurately processing all the available information. This highlights that prices remain at true values of the stock and reflect all essential information about investment (Phansatana et al., 2013). However, Shiller (2013) argues that the behavioural finance disproves the theory stating that individuals are impacted by more factors than just objective figures, including all kinds of subjective factors like, human biases and inconsistency in behaviour, thought and irrationality, when they are faced by market uncertainties. The paper analyses how the recent financial crisis has supported the idea that investors behave irrationally when faced with the financial meltdown and offers interesting observations on post crisis behaviour of investors. Investigations of the recent fina ncial meltdown in 2007 reveal that the lessons to be learnt are plentiful. The crisis investigations done by (Adrian and Shin, 2009; Taylor, 2008; Greenlaw et al., 2008) give general view of the affairs proceeding the crises and they all to some extent agree it was due to a conglomerate of macroeconomic factors like, interest rates, high market liquidity and booming rates of securities market and household. This market crisis also emphasized on the fact that financial sector was unable to predict risk specifically in US mortgage lending segment (Ferguson, 2013). This is the reason why the communication between financial sector and stakeholders was faulty and that the stakeholders had made investments without proper investigation. Ulkua and Weber (2013) firmly believe when recession occurs at the business cycle it brings in a general slowdown in the economy. A general trend of reduced spending is observed. Governments play their role by adopting policies that have an expansionary imp act on the economy like, increasing supply of money and reducing taxes. As a result of the financial crisis, Mehl (2013) examined that the equity markets had also shown a lot of volatility and this had instilled unpredictability among the investors. Investors rely on the efficient markets and expect rational behaviour, but this efficient market hypothesis had seen anomalies in the recent past. According to

Development can improve your work Essay Example for Free

Development can improve your work Essay ?1.3- explain how learning and development can improve your own work, benefit organisations, and identify career options. Learning and development means that you will be able to broaden your knowledge and skills in that particular aspect of your job role. This will improve your marketability in your job, meaning more people will recognize your company. This also helps you to understand your job role better and to open up possible places for future promotions. When learning new skills, you could realise that you are now able to do a job you used to think was impossible to complete. In completing a job it increases your value to your employer and helps provide that you keep your job and hopefully advance with the company that you are working for, also meaning more career offers, as people around different company’s may recognize you, meaning that they like the way your work and could potentially ask to employee you. It can benefit work as well the employee is better qualified and should have a better understanding of their job role.

Cryptography With Biometrics For Secure Key Exchange

Cryptography With Biometrics For Secure Key Exchange Biometrics is the application of biometry techniques to the authentication and automatic identification of people in security systems. The traditional concept of biometry addresses the application of mathematical and statistical techniques to biological sciences. Biometrics on the other hand can be said to be the science of recognizing the identity of a person based on the physical or behavioural attributes of the individual such as face, fingerprints, voice and iris (Jain et al). In Modern society, Biometrics has been important to large scale identity management systems whose functionality relies on the accurate determination of an individuals identity in several different applications context (). Traditional methods of establishing a persons identity includes knowledge based (e.g., passwords) and token based (e.g., ID cards) mechanisms, but these substitute representations of identity can be lost easily, shared, manipulated or stolen thereby compromising the intended security. By using biometrics it is possible to establish an identity based on who you are, rather than by what you possess, such as an ID card, or what you remember, such as a password (Poli et al, 2009). Biometrics is not recommended for every application and user, and in some cases biometric authentication is simply the wrong solution. Defining those environments in which biometrics offers the strongest benefit to individuals and institutions is one of the major challenges facing the biometric industry As time goes by, the increasing success and affordability of biometric technologies has continually broadened the range of applications in which biometrics operate effectively (). Cryptography is the science of writing in secret code and is an ancient art. The goal of cryptography extends beyond merely making data unreadable. In this project it also extends into user authentication. The security of a cryptographic system is dependent relatively on the secrecy of the cryptographic key and not causing inconvenience when it falls in the hand of the enemy. Therefore, the key issue in cryptography is key management (Dong et al, 2008). Biometrics can be used to protect the key in cryptography, while cryptography and data hiding can be used to protect biometric templates (). Combining biometrics and cryptography together will have the potential to offer higher assurance of the legal information holder. Key management is an important issue in cryptographic systems. There are several ways to combine biometrics with a cryptosystem, namely: Biometrics key release Biometrics key generation Biometrics key binding In a key release mode, biometrics plays a predetermined role in a cryptosystem. The key would be released to users only if biometric matching is successful. A key generation mode requires the key of a cryptosystem being derived directly from a biometric template, hence the unique biometrics provides a unique key for the security system based on some transform or feature extraction. In the key binding mode, the system binds a cryptographic key with the users biometrics at the time of enrolment. The key would be retrieved only upon a successful authentication. The key generation/binding modes seem to be more secure than the key release mode because in key release mode, the user authentication and key release are two separate parts (Dong et al, 2008). The conventional cryptography systems do not need any complex pattern recognition strategy as in biometric systems. They almost always depend on an accurate key matching process. That is, it requires that keys are exactly correct and does not tolerate a single bit error. However, as biometric characteristics are known to be variable and noisy and each new biometric sample is always different, only an approximate match under a threshold between the input biometric data to a corresponding stored template would lead the authentication successful. Aim and Objectives Integrating only biometric authentication on systems exposes new problems. This project investigates how to enhance biometrics security using cryptographic encryption and attempts to present an overview of an up to date research in this increasingly important topic by putting biometrics, cryptography and data hiding in the same context of security enhancement. The Objectives in this project are to: Identify the main characteristics of Biometrics. Identify the main security characteristics of Cryptography and Biometrics. Identify threats and attacks towards Biometrics. Propose countermeasures for securing Biometric Templates. Evaluate attack techniques against Crypto-Systems. Research Question The following research questions have been identified after some initial investigation and going through the initial literature review. Will the combination of biometrics and cryptography secure a system from attacks and produce a secured channel to exchange data. Hypotheses The hypotheses below have been created by extensive research into biometric systems, cryptographic encryption and the security. The hypotheses created in this project are the initial reviews and may change throughout the project. The identification of threats and attacks in biometrics and cryptographic systems security. The information collected will be used to create attack scenarios to conduct an experiment on the different threats faced by biometric systems and cryptographic encryption then identify any countermeasures that can be used to secure the system. Rationale Section 2 Methods 2.1. Secondary Research Method (Literature Review) The literature review will give a detailed insight into the combination of biometrics and cryptography for the purpose of securing data exchanges. By looking at the wider topic before the development will allow the study to take a more furnished approach to a useful answer to the research question. The main objectives of the literature review will be to: Identify the main characteristics of Biometrics. Identify the main security characteristics of Cryptography and Biometrics. Identify threats and attacks towards Biometrics. Identify threats and attacks towards Cryptographic Encryption. Countermeasures for securing Biometric Templates. Evaluate attack techniques against Crypto-Systems. Identifying suitable data gathering techniques for the project. Identifying suitable data analyse techniques for the project. 2.1.1 Literature Sources Books Journals Journal of Applied Security Research, 2010 International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security, 2009 Information Forensics and Security, 2010 Conferences Science and Technology for Humanity (TIC-STH), 2009 IEEE Toronto International Conference, 2009 Computer Security Applications Conference, 2008 Websites IEEE/IEE Electronic Library (IEL) via IEEE Xplore http://www.ieee.org/ieeexplore ProQuest http://proquest.umi.com Springerlink www.springerlink.com 2.2. Primary Research Method (Experiment) Section 3 Resources and Risks 3.1. Required Resources Throughout this project, many resources are required for carrying out the experiment and the initial literature review. 3.1.1. Literature based resources Access to Glasgow Caledonian University library: To gain access to computers to research literature on the internet, Athens, or access books which have been published by authors that may be relevant to Cryptography and Biometrics. Internet connectivity for any other research such as Google scholar: Home and university based internet connectivity will be needed to further research any literature that may be needed. 3.1.2. Experiment based resources 3.2. Risks Section 4 Project Plan The main tasks which have to be completed during the project, the estimated time to complete and any deliverables that may be available at that time of the project are shown below. A Gantt chart will be produced to show the tasks to be done in parallel rather than in sequence to manage time effectively and avoid delays. 4.1. Project Task

American Teenagers Similar to The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq; by William Thackeray :: Memoirs Barry Lyndon Thackeray Essays

American Teenagers Similar to "The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq;" by William Thackeray "The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq;" by William Thackeray, is a story that follows an Irishman who wishes and makes attempts to become a bougeiouse nobleman during the 18th century. Upon first reading the novel, I couldn't help but notice a peculiar feeling I developed towards the story: it has a lot in common with an American teenager's life! Of course, it seems rather absurd to compare the story of an 18th century Irishman to a contemporary American teenager lifestyle, but closer inspection of the novel proves that a lot of Barry's experiences, desires, fears, and emotions have very interesting similarities with those of an American teenager. In Barry's younger years, he wished to join the upper-class and be viewed as a nobleman among society. Many teenagers of the present day can relate to these desires. For what American teenager does not wish himself to be more wealthier and perceived as more socially-signifigant? Barry feels that joining the British Army will strenghten his social identity and help him move up in the world. It is interesting how Barry's desires to join the Army are similar to a teenager's desire to join a clique/sporting team. Teenagers often try to find a strong social identity by joining a clique that appears to have some sort of social signifigance. For what is so different about Barry wanting to join the Army from a geeky kid wanting to join his high school football team? Both situations show men wanting to prove their worth by joining a group that promotes masculinity. The novel displays women as being objects of desire as well as sources of emotional chaos. The women in Barry's world create romance and passion but also bring about confusion, inadequecy, rejection, and heartbreak. Any teenage male can identify women like these in their world. High school and college can be times when dating is taken very casually and in a nonchallant manner. Teenage males can be very recognizable of women who elicit the same types of feelings Barry faces with his women. There are many females in Barry's world, but the feelings of intimacy are rather brief. Any teenage male can surely relate to Barry's love life. "The Memoiors of Barry Lyndon, Esq." is ultimately the story of a man who finds himself in the social status he always dreamed of, but finds that it is not as fulfilling as he though it'd be.

Living in the forest Essay

Although the majority of people in the Amazon live in the cities and towns, there are still many indigenous groups living in the forest, some who have no contact with the ‘outside’ world and live in a harmonic environment. Rainforests are the most diverse ecosystems on the planet, as well as being the home to an estimated 50 million indigenous forest people. These people depend on the rainforest for their way of life. It provides them nearly everything from shelter and food to tools and medicine. The people living in the forest make practical and sustainable use of the forest. It also plays an important role in their spiritual and cultural life. Other than hunting, gathering wild fruits and nuts and fishing, each family usually has two gardens. One is a small house garden which consists of a variety of plants and the second is a large plantation planted with bananas, manioc or rice. They use a sustainable farming method called shifting cultivation. First they clear a small area of land and burn it (slash and burn). Then they plant different types of plants, to be used for food and medicines. After a few years, the soil has become too poor to allow for more crops to grow and weeds start to take over. They then move to a nearby un-cleared area. This land is traditionally allowed to re-grow for 10-50 years before it is farmed again. Shifting cultivation is still practiced by those indigenous groups who have access to a large amount of land. However, with the growing number of non-indigenous farmers and the shrinking rainforest, other groups, especially in Indonesia and Africa, are now forced to remain in one area. The land becomes a wasteland after a few years of overuse, and cannot be used for future agriculture. Indigenous people respect the forest that, until the present, has protected them from outsiders and given them everything they need. They live in a sustainable existence. This means that they use the land without harming the plants and animals that also call the rainforest their home. Indigenous people get all their resources primarily from the forest. Other than their food they get their clothing, tools, medicines and shelter form there. This is part of their culture and way of life, as their ancestors also lived in this way. Children do not go to school however they learn about the forest through their parents and other members of the community. They are taught how to survive in the forest. This usually includes how to hunt and fish. They are also taught which plants are useful as medicines or food. Some of these children know more about the rainforests than scientists who have been studying rainforests for many years. There are many different groups. But one example is the ‘Maku’ group. A daily life of someone in the ‘Maku’ village: The women wake up at sunrise and prepare the men’s breakfast. Each meal is communal and is eaten at the leader’s house. After the men have eaten breakfast they depart either alone or in pair’s depending on what prey they saw the day before. After they have left the women and children eat and soon after go to the swiddens to harvest and replant manioc. They return around midday and prepare manioc flour, bread and porridges. At about three in the afternoon the men return with what they have caught and hand it over to their wives. Each woman cooks at her own fireplace but the meal is communal and held in the leaders house. The men eat first and then the women and children. After this three or four meals follow until they sleep, this is at around 9p.m. Indigenous people have a very strong culture and still practice it. One of the rituals are when a young boy or girl go into adulthood the hair on their head is plucked out by other people. Even though they are given a medicine to make them unconscious it is still very painful. Anybody can take part in this ritual. Each group has the same basic believes but then differs when it comes to rituals and culture. In the ‘Karaja’ group the role of men and women are very important. The men are responsible for defending the territory, clearing swiddens, domestic and collective fishing trips and formalized discussions in the men’s plaza. Women are responsible for the education of the children until the age of initiation for the boys but permanently  responsible for the girls. They also do the domestic tasks such as cooking, collecting swiddens products and arranging the marriage of the children (usually done by the grandmothers) and also the painting and decoration of the children during rituals and the manufacture of ceramic dolls. When a baby is born the baby is washed with warm water and it face is painted with red dye. During the infancy the baby spends most of its time with its mother or grandmothers. However when a boy reaches the age of seven or eight his lower lip is pierced. When he reaches the age of ten to twelve years- the boy takes part in a large male ritual called Big House or Hetohoky. The boys are painted with blue/black genipap and remain confined for seven days in a ritual house called the Big House. The hair is cut off and the boy is called giant river otter or jyre. During the first menstrual period of a girl, the maternal grandmother looks after her and she is confined in isolation. Her public re-appearance is when she is elaborately decorated with painted body designs and feather adornments in order to dance with the Aruanas. This is highly rated by the men. The marriage is ideally arranged by the grandmother-preferably from the same village. Once married the couple life at the girls mothers house. When the family number becomes numerous the couple makes their own house. They also have many myths. For example the ‘Canela’ believe that the origin of fire and corn came about like this: a boy brought fire for his people by stealing it from the hearth of a female jaguar. Star woman fell in love with a Canela and so came down to live for awhile among his family members. During her stay she told them that corn would grow fin the forest and she taught them that it was good to eat. This is the origin of the gardens. She then returned to the sky with her mate and they transformed into twin starts which we know as Castor and Pollux. These are just one of the myths which have now become the background of these people. Nutrient cycling is an important part of the ecosystem. It is added into the ecosystems in many ways: Leaching- the nutrients are removed by the movement of the water. Harvesting- when the trees get harvested the nutrients they contained get removed. The amount of nutrients removes depends on how the harvesting is done. Atmosphere- nutrients contained in precipitation and dusts are deposited on the forest site. Weathering of parent material- the slow process of breaking down rock and mineral gets nutrients released in the soil. Due to human activity the life of these people are being altered. There are also a lot of environmental issues which affect the rainforest and the people living in it. This includes forest fires, diseases and landslides. The changes of environment are depending on the region and the climate. Due to all of this the lives are being changed and more recently in a major way. The cultures they had a long time ago are being lost. Before they lived depending on their surroundings and what they had and also they enjoyed it. But now they are slowly depending on tourists for some of their income and will most probably become completely dependant on tourists. Spear fishing- it is used when setting a net would be impractical, such as near trees. The spearhead is three pointed and barbed. A string is attached at the end of the spear so the fisherman can get the fish after a successful throw. Sugar cane pressers- sugar cane is grown primarily for the juice and then fermented to make a type of rum called ‘aguardiente’.

Local Anaesthetic Agents †Anatomy Research Paper

Local Anaesthetic Agents – Anatomy Research Paper Free Online Research Papers Local anaesthetic molecules are made of an aromatic group linked to a basic side chain by an ester or amide bond. The side chain is basic because it is made of a secondary or tertiary amino derivatives. This typical structure is demonstrated by lignocaine, as shown in the adjacent diagram. These molecules are therefore weak bases, with pKa values in the range of 8-9, so they mainly exist as ions in body fluids at physiological pH. The only exception is benzocaine, where the amino group is attached directly to the aromatic side chain. Local anaestheics act by reversibly binding to the S6 transmembrane helical segment on any of the four domains of the sodium voltage-gated channel. The S6 segment possesses a binding site accesible only from the cytosol, therby physically blocking the entry of sodium ions into the axoplasm. As a result, the inward sodium current upon neuron excitation cannot exceed the outward potassium current, the membrane cannot be depolarised to threshold and an action potential cannot be initiated. This is effective only when the anaesthetic is in its ionised quartenary form. Therefore, the compound must be able to penetrate the hydrophobic lipid-rich axon membrane (and myelin sheath, if present) to act effectively; only the electrically neutral form of the anaesthetic can do so. Once in the water-rich axoplasm, the anaesthetic ionises, and subsequent binding is hence possible. Thus, it is the coexistance of the neutral and protonated forms of the anaesthetic in solution that allows for the â₠¬Å"bypassing† of the axolemma and the relatively rapid targeting of the voltage-gated sodium channels. Another beneficial feature of anaesthetics attributed to their mechanism of action is their preferential blocking of pain and autonomic neurons, while sparing those involved with coarse touch and movement. Myelinated neurons have a higher surface density of voltage-gated channels than the axolemma of unmyelinated neurons; therefore, they are less likely to be blocked when exposed to the same dosage level of anaesthetic. Axons with larger diameters are also less likely to be blocked than ones of smaller diameter because they can conduct passively over longer distances. Since nociceptive impulses are carried by A? (small myelinated) and C (unmyelinated) fibres, pain sensation is blocked more readily than other sensory modalities. Although all neurons in the region of anaesthetic introduction will be affected to a certain extent when considering the practical anaesthetic dosages used during surgery, this mode of action nevertheless ensures that the patient does not experience sensations of pain. Numerous varietes of anaesthetics show use-dependence: the more channels are open, the greater the block becomes. This is because the entry of the blocking agents is more probable with an open channel, that possesses a wider pore. Furthermore, due to the shape of the anaesthetic molecule, the equilibrium between the closed and inactivated states of the channel will be in favour of the inactivated state in the presence of the anaesthetic, thereby greatly reducing the probability of the initiation and propagation of action potentials. Since touch, pressure and pain sensory-neurons in the anaesthetised region will relay a train of action potentials during surgery, they are the most likely to be blocked as their voltage-gated channels will cycle through open and inactivated states. This mechanism contributes greatly to the overall blocking effect of the anaesthetic. Drug solubility and the presence of either an ester or amide bond are important factors when considering the required rate of onset and duration of anaesthesia. Ester-linked local anaesthetics, such as anethocaine, are rapidly hydrolysed by both plasma and liver cholinesterases, and so have a short biological-half life and blocking duration (about one hour). Amide-linked anaesthetics, such as lignocaine, can only be metabolised in the liver by N-dealkylation, and the resultant metabolites themselves are often anaethetically active. They are therfore more widely used due to their longer blocking duration (about 2 hours). Anaesthetic solubility can also be a determining factor when choosing an anaesthetic. Benzocaine is an unusual local anaesthetic of very low solubility, and so is used as a dry powder to dress painful skin ulcers: the drug is slowly released and produces long-lasting surface anaesthesia. Lignocaine, on the other hand, is often utilised in the form of its acid salt (us ually with hydrochloric acid) and so can be injected in an aqueous form during epidural and spinal anaestheisa for a rapid blocking effect. Lastly, all local anaesthetics used are stable when heated. This is necessary to ensure that sterilisation of the anaesthetic prior to introduction into the body is effective and does not alter the anaesthetic’s binding efficacy to sodium voltage-gated channels. Although local anaesthetics are administered in such a way as to minimise their spread to other parts of the body, they are ultimately absorbed into systemic circulation. Furthermore, local anaesthetics may be injected into veins or arteries by accident. The major unwanted side effect that may occur systemic toxicity, the risk of which increases when higher doses and larger areas are involved. Thus, they are capable of interfering with normal central nervous system function. At low doses, the main effect of the anaesthetic on the CNS is stimulation: this produces restlessness, tremor, and subjective effects ranging from confusion to extreme agitation. Higher doses can cause the tremors to progress to severe convulsions, and even higher doses produce CNS depression. The main threat to life at this stage comes from respiratory depression, because of the anaesthetic’s depression of the respiratory centre and/or phrenic nerve. To reduce the possibility of such effects from occurri ng, a cuff may be used to reduce anaesthetic systemic spread when introduced in the upper limb, or by introducing vasoconstrictors such as adrenalin and felypressin when dealing with the thorax. The risk of systemic toxicity is present if the cuff is released prematurely, or if the dosage of vasoconstrictor is to low. The only exception to this rule is cocaine, which produces euphoria at doses well below those that cause convulsions due to its specific blocking effect on monoamine uptake. Procaine produces especially prominent unwanted central effects, which is a reason for its replacement by lignocaine and prilocaine, whose central effects are much less pronounced. Local anaesthetics commonly affect the cardiovascular system when present in systemic circulation. They have negative chonotropic and inotropic effects on the heart: by inhibiting the inward sodium ion current, anaesthetics decrease the cytosolic concentration of sodium ions in cardiomyocytes, which in turn reduces intracellular calcium ion stores, and this reduces both the frequency and force of contraction. Vasodilatation of arterioles is due to the direct effect of local anaesthetics on vascular smooth muscle and the indirect inhibition of the sympathetic nervous system. The combined myocardial depression and vasodilatation produces a fall in blood pressure, which may be sudden and life threatening. Cocaine is an exception: it produces opposite effects, such as increased cardiac output and arterial pressure, and increased cardiac output because of its ability to inhibit noradrenalin uptake. Another common side effect restricted only to the use of local anaesthetics in spinal and epidural anaesthesia is postoperative urinary retention due to the block of pelvic autonomic outflow. Other side effects are more rare. Hypersensitivity reactions sometimes occur, usually in the form of allergic dermatitis (most frequently during surface anaesthesia in atopic patients), but rarely as an acute anaphylactic reaction. Other unwanted side effects are specific to particular drugs, such as mucosal irritation when applying cocaine, and methaemoglobinaemia when using large doses of prilocaine due to the production of toxic metabolites (the haeme iron is oxidised from the +2 to the +3 state and so cannot bind to oxygen: subsequent symptoms include fatigue, dizziness and cyanosis). This is why prilocaine is rarely used in obstetric analgesia. 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