Applications of Nanocellulose

an overview of the recent research on the fundamental and applied properties of nanoparticles extracted from cellulose, the most abundant polymer on the planet and an essential renewable resource. Given the rapid advancements in the field and the high level of interest within the scientific and industrial communities, pioneered the use of cellulose nanoparticles (cellulose nanocrystals or whiskers and cellulose microfibrils) in nanocomposite applications. n the life sciences and bio-based applications, biological, chemical and agricultural engineering, organic chemistry and materials science. Cellulose has great potential as a nanomaterial as it's abundant, renewable and biodegradable. It can be used in paper for its superior strength properties and can also be used as a wet-end additive to enhance retention in coating and packaging applications. Nanocellulose can form transparent films with excellent barrier properties, allowing it to be competitive with petroleum-based plastics in food packaging. Due to its reinforcing properties, nanocellulose can also be used in bio-composites and other matrix materials. 6. 9 Concluding remarks Natural fibres, cellulose and other constituents of natural fibres are very promising materials for the future, having the capability to replace current synthetic materials. ith the rapid developments in nanotechnology, nanocellulose brings many new insights to the materials world, such as its modulus value of 160 GPa, which is much greater than metallic materials. Considerim the challenges mentioned earlier, it is rational to predict that immediate applications of nanocellulosic materials can be formulated from water-based polymer matrices, like polyvinyl alcohol, starch/polyvinyl alcohol blends and latexes, by which two major problems can be eliminated. Here, the dispersion is done in the aqueous phase, so the additional step of drying can be omitted and the hydrophobic modification of the nanocellulose materials is not required. However, the main limitation is that this will give a product that can be used only tinder dry condition like This paper provides an overview of recent progress made in the area of cellulose nanofibre-based nanocomposites. An introduction into the methods used to isolate cellulose nanofibres (nanowhiskers, nanofibrils) is given, with details of their structure. Following this, the article is split into sections dealing with processing and characterisation of cellulose nanocomposites and new developments in the area, with particular emphasis on applications. The types of cellulose nanofibres covered are those extracted from plants by acid hydrolysis (nanowhiskers), mechanical treatment and those that occur naturally (tunicate nanowhiskers) or under culturing conditions (bacterial cellulose nanofibrils). Research highlighted in the article are the use of cellulose nanowhiskers for shape memory nanocomposites, analysis of the interfacial properties of cellulose nanowhisker and nanofibril-based composites using Raman spectroscopy, switchable interfaces that mimic sea cucumbers, polymerisation from the surface of cellulose nanowhiskers by atom transfer radical polymerisation and ring opening polymerisation, and methods to analyse the dispersion of nanowhiskers. The applications and new advances covered in this review are the use of cellulose nanofibres to reinforce adhesives, to make optically transparent paper for electronic displays, to create DNA-hybrid materials, to generate hierarchical composites and for use in foams, aerogels and starch nanocomposites and the use of all-cellulose nanocomposites for enhanced coupling between matrix and fibre. A comprehensive coverage of the literature is given and some suggestions on where the field is likely to advance in the future are discussed.

Dividend Policy and Stock Price Behaviour in Indian Corporate Sector: a Panel Data Approach

Dividend Policy and Stock Price Behaviour in Indian Corporate Sector: A panel data approach Upananda Pani? Abstract: This paper attempts to explore the possible links between dividend policy and stock price behaviour in Indian corporate sector. A sample of 500 listed companies from BSE are examined for the years 1996-2006. Dividend policy has always been a source of controversy despite years of theoretical and empirical research both in developed countries and emerging economies. The present paper features a panel data approach to analyze the relationship between dividend-retention ratio and stock-price behaviour while controlling the variables like size and long-term debt-equity ratio of the firm. The sample is taken across six different industries namely electricity, food and beverage, mining, non-metallic, textile and service sector. The results are based on the fixed-effect model, as these perform statistically better than random effects and pooled OLS model. Results of the fixed-effect models indicate that dividend-retention ratio along with size and debtequity ratio plays a significant role in explaining variations in stock returns. The fixed effect models show the presence of firm level effect in explaining the possible links between dividend policy and stock price behaviour of the firm. In another words it exhibits the possibility of â€Å"clientele effect† effect in case of some industries. Therefore the model helps to understand the intricacies of dividend policy and stock-return behaviour in Indian corporate sector for the same period. Although the results are not robust enough as in the case of developed markets but shades some more interesting facets to the existing corporate finance literature on dividend policy in India. Kew Words: Dividened Policy, Stock Price, Corporate Finance, Fixed Effect Model JEL Code: G30, G35 Research Scholar, Indian Institute of Technology, Khragpur-721302. The author can be contacted [email  protected] ac. in ? 1 1. Introduction Dividend policy still remains an academic debate amid the clouding picture of its importance among the financial economists till today. There are few aspects of corporate financial policy where the gap between the academics and the practitioners is larger than that of the dividend policy. From Miller & Modigliani (1961)1, ,Gordon & Linter to Fama & French (2001)2 ,the research on the topic exhibits conflicting trends in dividend payments & firm value. The academic consensus shows that dividends really don’t matter very much for the market nor is relevant, when firms pay dividend as a signal to the investors. Both corporate officials and investment analysts, still continue to insist that a firm’s dividend policy matters a great deal for conveying the information to the stakeholders. One side of the argument on the basis of economic theory is, it doesn’t matter or is irrelevant. But the practitioners believe it as information content to the public, which reflects seriousness of the problem that is inherent in the reaction mechanisms of the market to the dividend policy announcements. I want to foreground an explanation before the practitioners, why, in the face of all this evidence of price increase in response to dividend announcements, otherwise sensible academics believe that a firm’s dividend policy really doesn’t make much difference. At the same time, I’11 argue that the dividends do matter for a firm. Dividend Policy & Share prices The dividend policy of a firm becomes the choice of financial strategy when investment decisions are taken as given. It is also imperative to know whether the firm will go for internal or external source of financing for its investment project. There are a number of factors affecting the dividend policy decisions of a firm such as investor’s preference, earnings, investment opportunities; annual vs. target capital structure, flotation costs, signaling, stability & Government policies and taxation. In the presence of asymmetric information, signaling is one of the crucial factors that influence the market. Dividends may convey information about the company, so it suggests the possibility of its influence 2 on the stock market. Paying large dividends reduces risk and thus influence stock price (Gordon, 1963) and is a proxy for the future earnings (Baskin, 1989) Baskin (1989) takes a slightly different approach and examines the influence of dividend policy on stock price volatility, as opposed to that on stock returns. He advances four basic models which relate dividends to stock price risk. He terms these as the duration effect, the rate of return effect, the arbitrage pricing effect and the informational effect. The difficulty in many empirical works examining the linkage between dividend policy and stock volatility or returns lies in the setting up of adequate control over the factors that influence both. For example, the accounting system generates information on several relationships that are considered by many to be measures of risk. Baskin (1989) suggests the use of the following control variables in testing the significance of the relationship between dividend yield and price volatility are operating earnings, the size of the firm, the level of debt, the payout ratio and the level of growth. So he had tried to explain the underlying linkage between dividend policies (dividend yield and dividend payout ratio) and stock price risk in his empirical work on USA. A number of theoretical mechanisms have been suggested that cause dividend yield and payout ratios to vary inversely with common stock volatility. As dividends can be cash dividends, stock dividends, stock splits & share repurchases, the question comes about the nature of the dividend & its impact on the share price and whether market is more volatile to high dividend yield share than normal share comes into the picture. There is a need to study the sensitivity of market to the nature of dividends. The linkage etween dividends & share price should be examined by controlling other factors which are responsible for affecting the dividend policy of a firm. Study of dividend policy and stock price in India As Indian stock market is one of the most volatile stock market in the world. As the no of private corporations are growing day by day, & financial markets becoming more developed, there need of the study of different policy implications by corporate sector. 3 There are a number of stu dies existing on the determinants of dividends3 behaviour in Indian context. All the studies have determined the dividend behaviour from the perspective of the factors influencing the dividend behaviour in the short run as well as in the long run4. But a very few literature captures the intricacies of market reaction to the dividend announcement by Indian corporate sector. The study by Reddy, Y S (2003) on dividend behavior of Indian corporate firms over the period 1990 – 2003 shows a conflicting picture of the dividend policy of firms across different industries. The study explores dividend trends for a large sample of stocks traded on the NSE and BSE, indicate that the percentage of companies paying dividends has declined from 60. 5 percent in 1990 to 32. 1 percent in 2003 and that only a few firms have consistently paid the same levels of dividends. Further, dividend-paying companies are more profitable, large in size and growth doesn't seem to deter Indian firms from paying higher dividends. Analysis of influence of changes in tax regime on dividend behavior shows that the tradeoff or tax-preference theory does not appear to hold true in the Indian context. This paper shows the contradictory results from the previous one. The limitations of these papers are they have taken only cash dividends for analyzing the determinant behaviour. The present paper is structured as follows as introduction. The subsequent section II follows the theoretical strands and section III highlights ed model for the purpose. The section IV denotes the data sources and variable construction. The section V shows empirical results and discussion. The last and final section displays the findings. II. Theoretical Strands and Literatures study The dividend irrelevance theory of Modigliani and Miller (1961) proposed the absence of any significant impact of the dividend policy on the value of shares because it’s impact is offset exactly by other means of financing and is thus irrelevant. This theory was formulated by assuming perfect market conditions, which didn’t take into account the imperfections like taxes, transaction cost or asymmetric information. Consequently, dividend policies have little impact on the market value of the firms. In a perfectly competitive market situation both the company, through its profit retention, and the 4 hareholders, through their dividends, might invest in the same assets, and hence, who’s making the investment does not matter for the economy as a whole. However, since the capital market is neither perfect nor complete the dividend irrelevance proposition needs to be applied carefully by focusing on effects of taxes, information content, agency cost and other relevant affecting variables. The Gordon model (1959) stock valuation model states the fair value of a stock should equal to the stock-dividend per share and the difference between the discount rate and the long-term dividend growth rate. The model assumes that the firm’s dividend will grow at a constant rate and that the discount rate stays the same for ever. The theory suggests if there will be an increase in dividend rate there will be simultaneously an increase in stock value of the firm. Fama (1998) is the advocate of modern corporate finance theory, which states that firms should be managed to create and maximize value. Here the value depicts the total price of a firm commands in the market that is the sum of the values of its equity and debt. Thus, the criteria and rules for correct financial decisions are oriented towards maximization of the total value of the firm. In theory, value maximization is appealing because it is associated with efficient allocation of resources, provided the capital market operates efficiently. That is, it rewards the most to firms that channel their resources to the best uses. Extensive empirical work on capital Market behaviour shows that the prices of corporate securities indeed respond to firms’ decisions in a way that appears to be consistent with expectations about the appreciation or depreciation of value in the market. The theory emphasizes the importance of corporate financing decisions on the value of the firm in the market. Thirumalvan & Sunita (2005) studied the impact of Share repurchases & Dividend announcements on Stock prices in the context of Indian Corporate sector during the period (2002-2004). They examined the signalling effect of Stock repurchases and Dividend announcements. The study examined abnormal returns across various repurchases level. They have taken the firms listed in the BSE Index for the purpose of 5 empirical investigation. The study covers the impact on stock prices five days prior and after the dividend announcement. The result exhibits the upward trend of share price movement after the dividend announcement. The crucial point of their findings is that positive signalling existed only for a day after the announcements. After which the extent of positivism of shares starts declining. Their finding shows that market reaction in the Indian context to events or announcements such as share repurchases and dividends generally fluctuate around day or two. The study can be cited as important for the present study. Sen and Ray (2003) have explained an interesting phenomenon regarding the key determinants of stock price in India. The study is based upon the stocks comprising the BSE index over a period 1988-2000. The empirical study revealed dividend pay-out is by far the single important factor affecting stock prices. The second factor comes earning per share which has very weak impact on the share prices. So the study explored one of the crucial factor dividend pay-out ratios having impact on Indian stock price. Black and Scholes (1974) in their study on the effects of dividend yield & dividend policy on common stock prices & returns They stated uninformed demand for dividends can result from dividend decisions which in turn derive from imperfections such as taxes, transaction costs and institutional investment constraints. Given the above background, the study makes an attempt to examine the effect of dividends and retention earnings on the stock price behaviour in Indian corporate sector in a partial macro economic framework. III. Proposed Derived Model In analyzing dividend and stock price behaviour, the most important point to begin with is an objective function representing a firm’s preference regarding dividend-retention mix instead of taking only dividend yield or payout ratio. Because the objective function is related to firm’s main motives & there has been a shift in it’s motives due to the dominance of joint stock corporations & the associated characteristics of separation of ownership & control. This shift can be characterized from the sole motive as maximization of rate of return on capital to other set of motives such as sales maximization, expansion of business. This set of motives contributing to an increase in the market value of the firm, also, is in consonance with the managing agency system of operation, which is a characteristics of Indian companies. Moreover, the separation of ownership & control also implies a difference in the objectives & preferences between firm’s management & its shareholders. From the shareholders side, their preferences depend upon mainly their income level & the degree of understanding of corporate stock –dealings & associated tax implications. Nevertheless, the behaviour of the shareholders may be generalized as that they prefer stable dividend rates & that the effect of taxes is only on the preference of the shareholders as the shareholders, who belong to the richer classes prefer low dividends and high retained earnings. The opposite is applicable in the case of middle income group of shareholders. On the other hand, the management behaviour can be relatively & conceptually distinguished between a ‘passive’ & an ‘active’ type5. The motives of passive management are similar to those of the shareholders & it efforts to ensure stable dividend. But firm also requires sufficient profit retentions to satisfy the firm’s long-term needs such as investment demand & liquidity needs etc. But the ‘active’ management aims at increasing the market value of the firm & the market price of shares as well. So while its credibility requires to emphasize on the shareholders preference, it’s general tendency would be to reduce dividends on the basis of different excuses like high tax rates on distributions, ‘tax shelter’ benefits. Given the vast diversity of stockholders, it is not surprising that, over time, stockholders tend to invest in firm’s whose dividend policies match their preferences. Stockholders in high tax brackets who do not need the cash flow from dividend payments tend to invest in those companies which either pay low or no dividends. By contrast, stock holders with low tax bracket will invest in companies with high dividends. This clustering of stock-holders in companies with dividend policies that match their preferences is called as clientele effect. So it suggests that firms get the investors they deserve since the dividend policy of a firm attracts 7 investors who like it. Second, it means that firms will have a difficult time changing an established dividend policy, even if it makes complete sense to do so. However in practice, it is reasonably assumed that managements are neither extremely ‘passive’ nor extremely ‘active’ and shareholders are neither rich nor badly dependent or dividend income alone but contain all the elements in different combinations. Thus, let’s consider a typical firm having a map of dividend preference curves, each indicating a specific level of utility obtained by alternative combinations of dividends & retentions. So the dividend preference function can be noted as: U = f (Dn, R) (3. 1) Where, Dn and R are the dividend and retention net of all taxes at all levels. The utility level can be seen as monotonically related to the motives of the management with respect to the shareholders preference. The shape of the utility curves might be a result of a process of accounting for their relative performances & the factors influencing such preferences as well. The second step is to represent the hypothesis that dividends affect stock prices or market value of the firm. The utility function can be represented as the function for optimizing the market value of the firm. The market value of the firm can be represented as Market value of the Firm = ? ? Dividends ? f ? Net profit , ? Re tained earnings ? ? ? (3. 2) The market value of the firm here is basically represented on the basis of Accounting Earning Analysis. Here the Net profit is derived from the current investment of the firm. The higher the net profit the higher will be the stock price. The market value of the firm also depends upon the ratio of Dividends to Retained Earnings because the profit is basically segregated into either dividend or retained earnings. If clientele effect is not present in the firm then higher dividends will lead to higher value of the share price whereas if the investors are rich then they will prefer lower dividend to retention. The 8 return on equity entirely depends on the net worth6 of a company. Equity return of a company depends upon dividends and retained earnings. If a company is going for dividends then the retained earning will be less, leading the firm to go for either newequity issues or External financing. If the flotation cost7 is high, the company will go for external financing which will be costlier for the firm than internal financing through equity. So the firm has to maximize the dividend to retained earnings ratio for any new investment aimed at firm’s growth. We can represent it through the following function; ? D? Pt = f ? Y , ? ? R? (3. 3) Where Y represents the net profit of the firm D represents ratio of dividends to retention earning of the firm. The ratio of R ividends to retained earnings acts as a proxy for future cash flow of the firm and share price, Pt , acts as the proxy for the absolute market value of the firm. While calculating the stock return on an equity share, we are basically interested to calculate the change in current price with respect it’s price in the previous period. So the equation (3. 3) can be represented as ? Pt ? ?P ? 0 ? ? ? ? = f ? Y , D ? , ? P R? ? ? ? 0 ? (3. 4) The eqn (3. 4) represents the change with respect to base price. We have assumed a CobbDouglas type of function represented as the following ? Pt ? ? Y ? ? D ? 2 ui ? ? = A? ? ? e ? P ? R ? P ? ? 0? ? ? ? 0? ?1 ? (3. 5) The equation (3. 5) can be expressed alternatively as 9 ?Y ? ?P? ?D? ln ? t ? = ln A + ? 1 ln ? ? + ? 2 ln? ? + ui ? P ? ?P ? ?R? ? 0? ? 0? (3. 6) We can write the above equation as ?Y ? ?D? ln Vit = ? i + ? 1 ln? ? + ? 2 ln? ? + uit ? P ? ?R? ? 0? (3. 7) Where ln A = ? i = 1†¦ N t = 1†¦ T, There may be potential links between size and volatility of stock returns of the firm. The size of the firm also exhibits crucial link between size and volatility. Small firms are likely to be less diversified in their activities and subject less investor’s scrutiny for the firm. But research is still confined to large listed companies. The Information on the stocks of smaller listed companies could conceivably be less informed and illiquid in nature. These firms are subject to greater price volatility as a result of above posed factors. So a control variable, long-run debt equity ratio is being added . When asymmetric information comes into the picture, there is also likely to be a link between borrowing & dividend policy. Baskin (1989) suggests that firms with a dispersed body of shareholders may be more disposed towards using dividend policy as a signaling device. The dividend policy may also be a function of size and there is a need to introduce size as a control variable. There is also a need of introducing control variables, which will reflect the corporate leverage. The earlier models have been aimed at capturing the effect of stock price and dividends but very few of them have tried to include the control variables such as debt-equity ratio and size of the firm. So in the present study, the focus is to fillup the limitations of the previous studies by using context-specific Panel-Data models including the control variables like leverage ratio and size of the firm. Through panel data estimation we can observe firm effect8 and time effect throughout the sample period. So now the eqn (3. 7) can be stated as ? Y ? ?D? ?D? ln Vit = ? i + ? 1 ln? ? + ? 2 ln? ? + ? 3 ( SZ ) + ? 4 ? ? +  µi + ? it ? P ? ?E? ?R? ? 0? (3. 8) Where V = value of the firm SZ = Ln (Total Assets) 10  µ i = firm specific component ? it = disturbance term IV. Analytical Framework We have already discussed the proposed model to be tested here to analyze the impact of dividends on stock returns. So in this section we will analyze the methodological issues over our proposed derived model. Simultaneously we will discuss other options available for the analysis. We will first analyze the results of different industry and then aggregate data over all the industry. The proposed model is here is ? Y ? ?D? ?D? Ln Vit = ? i + ? 1 ln? ? + ? 2 ln? ? + ? 3 ( SZ ) + ? 4 ? ? +  µi + ? it ? P ? ?R? ?E? ? 0? 4. 1 Where SZ = Ln (Total Assets)  µ i = Firm specific component ? it = Disturbance term Here the null Hypothesis is dividend or D/R ratio affects stock return i. e. H0: D/R affects Vit . We will test the results of the classical linear regression model and other tests. Then we will proceed to see if Panel data models improve the estimation. So we will propose different models before proceeding to fixed effect model. We will define four basic models to be tested before proceeding towards final estimation. 1. y it = ? + ? it (No group effect or xs) 2. y it = ? i + ? it (Group dummies only) 3. y it = ? + ? ?X it + ? it (Repressors only) 4. y it = ? i + ? ?X it + ? it (Xs and group effects) Model 1 on 2: H0: (no group effects on the mean of y) Model 1 on 3; H0: (no fit in the regression of y on xs) Model 1 on 4; H0: (no group effects or fit in regression) 11 Model 2 on 4; H0: (group effects but no fit in regression) Model 3 on 4; H0: (fit in regression but no group effects) We have tested the data set for applying the panel data models with the above five different hypothesis. The LR, F and LM Test along with the Hausman Specification test favors the use of fixed effect models for Food and Beverage, Mining Industry and Nonmetallic Industry whereas the diagnostic tests rejects the use of fixed effect models for Other services, Textile industry, and Mining industry. The Aggregate data is also not satisfying the qualifying criterion for applying Fixed effect models. V. Data Sources and Sample Design The study mainly relies on the Prowess database of the CMIE (centre for monitoring on Indian economy) in India in order to mitigate the above noted objectives. Since the present study aims at exploring the dividend and stock return volatility with the assumptions of â€Å"semi strong efficiency† in the stock market a sample of 500 companies from â€Å"A1† and â€Å"B1† group of shares is selected for the empirical analysis. All of them are spread across six different industries namely Electricity, Food and Beverage, Mining, Non-metallic, Textile and Service Sector. The first filtering criterion for selecting the stocks is their consistency with the dividend payment history for the study period 19962006. The second filtering criterion used for the selection is that the market-capitalization of these companies should be more than ten crores. The third filtering criterion is that the scrip must be traded continuously without any interruption during the above mentioned period. However, the study has conceptualized the dependent variable (i. e. market value of the firm) and the explanatory variables such as size of the firm, dividends to retain earning ratio, and debt to equity ratio. The stock return is considered as proxy for the market value of the firm (dependent variable) and for other subsequent variable, Ln (total assets of the firm) have taken as a proxy. 12 Sock Return: Market value of the firm which is the dependent variable of our interest is being represented by Stock Return . This can be calculated by taking closing share prices of each company. Stock returns should be calculated using the log return of the closing price of the stock, where the Closing price is defined as the last trade price of the stock. Vit = ln (Pt/Pt-1). Net profit Here the net profit is taken as the profit after taxes. Average book value of equity Profit after taxes is calculated as the difference between the profit before taxes and tax for the year. PBIT or Profit before interest and taxes is generally calculated as the sum of operating profit and non-operating surplus/ deficit. This represents a measure of profit which is not influence by financial leverage and the tax factor. Hence, it is pre-eminently suitable for inter-firm comparison. Hence it is assumed that higher Net profit of a firm leads to higher share prices as opposed to stock returns. It is denoted as Y in the study. P0 Dividend ? D? ? ? This can be calculated by adding together all the annual Re tained earnings ? R ? cash dividends paid to common shareholders & then dividing this summation by the total no of outstanding equity shares in each year. The average of all available years will be used. Retained earnings is calculated as the difference between profit before taxes and dividends and dividend by the total no of outstanding equity shares each year . Like Earnings, dividends act as proxy for the future profitability . Therefore this ratio is expected to have positive relationship with the stock return. Long term debt (Debt to Equity ratio) is calculated as the sum of each company’s debentures, mortgages & loans with a maturity greater than one year to total equity is to be calculated. The average over all the years will be used. 13 Size of the Firm (SIZE) The variable size should be constructed in such a way that it will reflect the value of the firm in real terms. Here the natural log of Total assets is being used as a proxy for size. VI. Empirical Estimation and Results Discussion The basic principles of fixed-effect model have already been discussed in the previous section. So in this section we attempt to estimate our proposed model. In this section we present the results in two sections. We present first the results of those industries that how the applicability of fixed effect models by our previous section of hypothesis testing. And those industries that don’t satisfy our criterion in another sections (table 4. 9). Here we test the other models and the significance of our target variables. The results from the regression analysis are discussed in two sub-sections. The first section is the result of the Table 8, which exclusively covers the regression result of one-way fixed effect model for Electricity, Food and Beverage and Non-Metallic Industry. The other section of the result from the Table 9,covers the regression from the other three industries that did not satisfy the filtering criterion of hypothesis for fixed effect model. These industries are other services, Textile and Mining. In the last section we discuss about the results of aggregate data. Electricity Industry:As we have already discussed in the previous chapter, we have taken one-way fixed effect model. The result for the electricity industry can be summarized as follows. Before estimating the final model, we have tested different combination of variables. The estimation of one way fixed firm effects multivariate regressions illustrate that controlling for the underlying time-invariant heterogeneity of firms has significant effect on results. The coefficient for PAT/P0 is 9. 32 which is significant at 5% level of significance. It explains 9. 32% variation in the model. The variable D/R is also exhibiting positive relationship with stock-returns. It implies higher the dividend paid 14 to the investor higher will be the return in the long-run. The co-efficient for D/R is 2. 48 which is significant at 1% level. This implies validity of the model through the dividends and retention. The coefficient of leverage ratio or D/E ratio is -1. 89% which is significant at 10% level. The negative sign of the coefficient implies the negative relationship between the stock return and D/E. As the leverage ratio will be higher then it will have a negative impact on the stock-return. The coefficient for another variable size is . 96 which is coming insignificant at any level of confidence. The standard error is also coming very high at 12. 54. The R2 for the model is 0. 44, which is explaining 44% variation for variation in the dependent variable stockreturn. The p value of F-test is significant at 1% level. The computed F-tests (Fixed firm effect versus pooled OLS) of the null hypothesis that all coefficients are jointly equal to zero are rejected. The one-way fixed effect model explains the relationship more clearly as it explains more than 50% level of variation of firm-specific component in the model. So the over all explanatory power of the model is high in the Electricity Industry. Food and Beverage Industry:- The computed F-test results favors the use of the fixed-effect model over the Pooled OLS is justifiable over the test of OLS vs. Fixed effect model. The Hausman statistics is also high suggesting the use of the fixed effect model over the random effect model. Before estimating the model with variables D/R, PAT/P0, D/E and SZ with Stock return, we have tried with different combination of independent variables with the stock-return. The Current model gave the high R2 and low standard errors. The coefficients for the variables D/R, PAT/P0, D/E and SZ are 3. 05, 11. 09,-1. 41, . 68 respectively. Here the variables D/R and PAT/P0 are significant at 1% and 5% level of significance. The coefficients for the control variable which is included to control the heteroscedasticity is significant for size of the firm which explains 68% variations in the stock-return is and the coefficient for the debt-equity ratio is -1. 41. The most important result is that the dividend retention ratio is positive and explains 11. 09% variation in stock return. The R2 is 0. 36, explaining 36% variation in the dependent 15 variable i. e. Stock return. The F-test for Pooled OLS Vs Fixed effect turns out to be significant and the null-hypothesis that all the co-efficients are zero is rejected here. Non-metallic industry:- The coefficients for the variables D/R, PAT/P0, D/E and SZ are . 024, 10. 58,0 -. 88 and 30. 5 respectively. The variables are significant at 5%, 1%, and 10 %( Sz. ) level of significance in T-test for testing the null-hypothesis that the means of the co- efficients are zero. The sign of the D/R remains positive here. It explains positive relationship with the stock-return. So the D/R ratio explains 11. 98% variation in the stock-return behaviour of the firms. It supports the null-hypothesis that D/R affects the stock prices. Another important observation is that the coefficient of size of the firm is 30. , which is quite high in comparison to the other industry. The variables are insignificant in other models like pooled OLS, so the F-test rejected the hypothesis that all co-efficients are jointly equal to zero. The R2 is coming with improved performance of 0. 46%, which is high in comparison with other two industries. After all Non-metallic industry is showing robust result with th e expected sign as proposed in methodology. Results from the Table 9:- We have presented another analysis for other services, Textile Industry and Mining industry because these industries are not satisfying the criterion for the fixed effect model. So the next best alternative is to test it with pooled OLS and Random effect model. We have done comparison with these three models for these industries. Other Services Industry:- If we compare the results of the fixed effect model and Random effect model here, then some interesting picture emerges. The co-efficients for the fixed firm effect model for the variables D/R, PAT/P0, D/E and SZ are coming 6. 37, . 33,-10. 54, 2. 61 respectively. Among the co-efficients D/R and D/E are significant at 10% level of 16 significance. D/R is surprisingly significant with a positive sign according to our prior expectation. We then compare the R2 value of two models, which is very low i. e. 0. 09 for fixed firm effect model and 0. 11 for the random effect model. Although R2 turns out to be very low the variable D/R and D/E ratio is exhibiting correct sign as per the hypothesis is concerned. The F-test for comparing the coefficients are equal to zero or not is becoming insignificant for the variables. This can be observed through the p-value which comes out 0. 9870. This is not significant at 1%, 5%and 10% level of significance. In the Random effect model the Coeff for the variables D/R, PAT/P0, D/E and SZ are 4. 9, 0. 53,-8. 09 and 13. 96 respectively. The R2 improves by two points to 0. 11 the target variable D/R ratio remain insignificant in the model. May be the cause for insignificant variables and low explanatory power of the model is due to improper specification which is affected by the industry characteristics. The firms in the Services industry generally went for less dividends and more retenti on in the study period. These are high growth firms which require more flow of money for the projects. So the investors got return through the capital gains here. Textile Industry:- If we observe the Coeff for the variables D/R, PAT/P0, D/E and SZ, the values are 5. 28, . 10, -1. 73,5. 95 and for the Random effect model the values are coming out 4. 83,. 17,-1. 30 and 0. 87 respectively. The results show some unexpected outcomes in the model. The signs of the Coeff are as per prior expectation but D/E ratio is out significant at 5% level in fixed firm effect model and other variables are remaining highly insignificant with R2, 0. 04 . In the Random effect model, the target variable D/R is significant at 5% level and PAT/P0, D/E ratio are significant at 10%, 1% level of significance respectively. The R2 for the random effect model has improved to 0. 13%. When we compare the result between two models, random effect model turns out to be more robust than the fixed effect model. 17 Mining Industry:- The values of the co-efficients for the variable D/R, PAT/P0, D/E and SZ, are 17. 07, 14. 75,-13. 77, 4. 09 and for the Random effect model the co-efficients are 16. 01, 10. 08,-6. 63 and 1. 66 respectively. In fixed effect model three Coeff. of PAT/P0, D/R and D/E ratio remain significant at 5%, 1%, and 10% respectively. The R2 for the fixed firm effect model remains at 0. 0 and for the random effect model it is 0. 14. We cannot judge the models by the R2 only because we have to check out the significance of the variables. So given these conditions, the fixed effect model is more appropriate in the Mining industry. Aggregate Industry Data:- As we have examined above the different industry wise data, only three Electricity, Food and Beverage and Non-metallic satisfy the tests for use of the fixed firm effect model whereas other three industries namely Textile, Mining and Other services do not satisfy the test criterion in favour of fixed effect model. Aggregate industry data doesn’t shows any robustness for using fixed-effect model over other possible models such as pooled OLS and Random Effect model. The results from fixed-effect models is having leverage over the random effect model results . The aggregate data of whole industries is affected by those industries, which are not satisfying the criterion for fixed effect model. The overall explanatory power of the Aggregate industry data are affected the fluctuations in other industries as the data set is characterized by different industry. So when we run the regression of one-way fixed effect model, the R2 is also exhibiting very low at 0. 12 only. The value of the Coeff of the variables D/R, PAT/P0, D/E and SZ are coming out 3. 10, . 34,-. 60, -. 15 respectively. If we observe the sign of the variables D/R, D/E and PAT/P0 remains as per prior expectation. Among the Coeff of variables, PAT/P0 and D/E come out significant at 1% and 5% level of significance. Whereas if we compare the result with random effect model, we will find that no variables are significant and the R2 turns out to be very low at 0. 08 18 only. The p-value of F-test is also coming very high at 0. 6, which is well above the 0. 01and 0. 05 level of significance. The use of the fixed effect model in aggregate data explained the variation of the independent variables more clearly than Random effect model and Pooled OLS model. VII. Conclusion We have tried to explore the relationship of dividends and stock return by using a simple Specification of stock r eturn as a function of net profit and dividend-retention ratio with two control variable such as size & debt-equity ratio of the firm. There was an attempt to test different structural tests before proceeding towards the final estimation through panel-data modeling. The exclusive tests of different model allow us to go for the use of panel-data modeling. As we have given six different industry classifications for the study, we have tested the proposed model for each industry separately with different combination of variables. The results display statistical significance and linearity when the industry classifications are given. The regression on aggregate data remains in significant. .However, the direction of relationship between the dependent variable is as per prior expectation. In other words dividend retention ratio is positively related with the stock-returns. In case of aggregate data which consists of all firms above from industry classifications, the regression lacks statistical significance, the null hypothesis that there is no relationship between the dependent variable and independent variable cannot be rejected. 19 When the fixed firm effect regression is applied on sample firms of classified industry category-wise, we observe some industry specific peculiarities. Firms of Electricity, Food and beverage and Non-Metallic Product show some robustness in the results of the regression. The signs of the coefficient and their value remain significant in the analysis. Other three industries, textile, mining and other services are exhibiting insignificant coefficients values and very low R2. This conflicting trend of these variables is also visible when we have tried Pooled OLS and Random effect model. When we relax the industry classification and with the same data set and variables, fixed effect model shows the regression is significant at 0. 05 level of significance as the p value of getting a higher or equal value than calculated f-value is 0. 0497, which is we can reject the null hypothesis that all coefficients are equal to zero. Another important result is the sign of the leverage ratio and the coefficient remain as per prior expectation. The negative sign of the debt-equity ratio implies the negative relationship between the stock-return and debt-equity ratio. As the firm will go for more debt, then its value is going to be affected by stock-return. Size of the firm remains consistently positive but in many cases it turns out to be insignif icant. So we can not generalize about the variable size. So we can conclude that dividends have impact on the stock-return in Indian corporate sector, which is industry specific. The study explores that the dividend paying companies are large, profitable and growth rate of the firm does not seems to dissuade the dividend payment. Although the regression is not showing high R2 but Net profit and Dividend and Retention Ratio remains significant in other services, mining and Textile industries. 20 Appendix Electricity Industry (Table 1) Models R2 H0 LRTest Chisqu. 114. 3 pvalue F-test FVal. 52. 06 pvalue LM-Test vs. Model-3 Haus. Spec. Fix vs. Ran. 1. Constant term only 2. Group effects only 3. X-variables only 4. X & group effect 5. Fit in Reg. but no Group effect. . 0000 M1 on 2 M1 on 3 M1 on 4 M2 on 4 M3 on 4 0. 001 0. 000 Chi 2 (1) 36. 21 p value; chi 2 =0. 000 0. 4245 123. 4 156. 6 0. 000 0. 000 113. 5 121. 9 0. 002 0. 010 1. 52 p ; chi 2 (1) 0. 2183 0. 2135 0. 63 141. 5 0. 100 128. 6 0. 000 0. 24 129. 5 0. 000 134. 7 0. 100 Note: – Large values of Hausman statistics argue in favour of the fixed effect model over the random effect model. 2. Large val ues of the LM statistics argue in favour of the one factor model (either Fixed or Random depends upon further Hausman Specification test) against the classical regression with no group effects. . A large value of the LM-statistics in the presence of a small Hausman statistics argues in favour of the random effect models. 4. If p ; 0. 10, then the test is significant at 90% confidence level, if p; 0. 05, then the test is significant at 95% level of confidence. If p; 0. 01, then the test is significant at 99% level of confidence. 5. The p-value of the LR test will be set to 1 if it is determined that your estimate is close enough to zero to be, in effect, zero for purposes of significance. Otherwise, the p-value displayed is set to one-half of the probability that a chi-square with 1 degree of freedom is greater than the calculated LR test statistic. 21 Food and Beverage Industry (Table 2) Models R2 H0 LRTest Chisqu. 113. 4 pvalue F-test FVal. 112. 9 pvalue LM-Test vs. Model-3 Haus. Spec. Fix vs. Ran. 1. Constant term only 2. Group effects only 3. X-variables only 0. 000 M1 on 2 M1 on 3 M1 on 4 M2 on 4 M3 on 4 0. 000 0. 000 Chi 2(1) 34. 21 2. 53 0. 32 134. 2 0. 000 132. 5 0. 000 p ; chi 2(1) p; chi 2=0. 000 0. 41 4. X & group effect 0. 53 103. 5 142. 8 0. 000 0. 000 126. 5 176. 5 0. 004 0. 3831 0. 001 5. Fit in Reg. ut no Group effect. 0. 24 121. 7 0. 002 183. 5 0. 000 Mining Industry (Table 3) Models R2 H0 LRTest Chisqu. 116. 070 pvalue F-test F-Val. pvalue LM-Test vs. Model-3 Haus. Spec. Fix vs. Ran. 1. Constant term only 2. Group effects only 3. X-variables only 4. X & group effect 0. 00 M1 on 2 M1 on 3 M1 on 4 M2 on 4 M3 on 4 0. 000 52. 084 0. 000 Chi 2(1) Chi 2 (1 ) 2. 02 p; chi2 (1) 0. 7318 0. 21 150. 894 0. 001 170. 23 0. 000 1. 21 p ; chi 2(1) 0. 32 161. 23 0. 003 232. 419 0. 000 0. 2721 0. 42 277. 186 0. 005 186. 03 0. 001 5. Fit in Reg. but no Group effect. 0. 15 172. 5 0. 000 58. 78 0. 000 22 Non-Metallic Industry (Table 4) Models R2 H0 LRTest Chisqu. 119. 070 pvalue F-test FVal. 21. 00 pvalue LM-Test vs. Model-3 Haus. Spec. Fix vs. Ran. 1. Constant term only 2. Group effects only 3. X-variables only 4. X & group effect 0. 00 M1 on 2 M1 on 3 M1 on 4 M2 on 4 0. 000 0. 000 chi2(1) = 3. 92 chi2(3) = 1. 23 Prob;chi2 = 0. 0013 0. 21 154. 894 0. 000 31. 01 0. 000 Prob ; chi2 = 0. 0477 0. 13 165. 23 0. 000 12. 02 0. 064 0. 25 267. 186 0. 000 49. 64 0. 000 5. Fit in Reg. but no Group effect. 0. 31 M3 on 4 172. 05 0. 214 64. 57 0. 741 Models R2 Other services Industry (Table 5) H0 LRpFTest value test ChiFsqu. Val. 0. 060 11. 00 on 2 pvalue LM-Test vs. Model-3 Haus. Spec. Fix vs. Ran. 1. Constant term only 2. Group effects only 3. Xvariables only 4. X & group effect 5. Fit in Reg. but no Group effect. 0. 01 M 1 109. 70 164. 89 0. 087 chi2(1) = 0. 30 chi2(4) = 1. 39 Prob;chi2 = 0. 8460 0. 24 M 1 on 3 0. 000 41. 01 0. 001 Prob ; chi2 = 0. 5812 175. 23 0. 000 52. 02 0. 020 0. 14 M1 on 4 217. 19 0. 000 79. 64 0. 000 0. 33 M 2 162. 05 on 4 M3 on 4 0. 000 95. 4 0. 000 23 Textile Industry (Table 6) Models R2 H0 LRTest Chisqu. 139. 070 pvalue F-test FVal. 71. 00 pvalue LM-Test vs. Model-3 Haus. Spec. Fix vs. Ran. 1. Constant term only 2. Group effects only 3. X-variables only 4. X & group effect 5. Fit in Reg. but no Group effect. 0. 03 M1 on 2 M1 on 3 M1 on 4 M2 on 4 M3 on 4 0. 000 0. 000 chi2(1) = 7. 75 Prob ; chi2 = 0. 0054 = 3. 50 0. 14 124. 894 0. 000 44. 00 0. 000 Prob;chi2 = 0. 4774 0. 21 195. 23 0. 000 22. 02 0. 000 167. 186 0. 000 152. 05 0. 000 69. 67 96. 8 0. 000 0. 001 0. 43 Aggregate Data (Table 7) Models R2 H0 LRTest Chisqu. 169. 70 pvalue F-test FVal. 31. 01 pvalue LM-Test vs. Model-3 Haus. Spec. Fix vs. Ran. 1. Constant term only 2. Group effects only 3. X-variables only 4. X & group effect 5. Fit in Reg. but no Group effect. 0. 02 M1 on 2 M1 on 3 M1 on 4 M2 on 4 M3 on 4 0. 000 0. 00 chi2(1) = 0. 01 chi2(4) = 1. 28 0. 11 184. 94 0. 000 51. 01 0. 000 Prob ; chi2 = 0. 9425 Prob;chi2 = 0. 8649 0. 21 145. 23 0. 000 62. 42 0. 000 0. 24 257. 186 0. 000 172. 95 89. 84 0. 000 24 Table 8 Results of Fixed-effect model Industry Variables Coeff. Fixed effect model S. E R2 F. V PAT/P0 Electricity Industry D/R D/E Size PAT/P0 Food & Beverage D/R D/E Size P AT/P0 Non-Metallic D/R D/E Size 9. 32** 12. 48* -1. 89*** . 96 3. 05* 11. 97** -1. 41* . 68 . 024** 10. 58* -. 88 30. 5** 5. 84 . 0794 4. 38 12. 54 1. 63 . 18 0. 71 1. 79 . 04 1. 74 2. 72 4. 70 0. 46 0. 36 0. 44 F(4,56)=11. 49 P;F= 0. 000 F(4,256) = 1. 26 0. 01 F(4,232) = 12. 21 Prob ; F = 0. 0000 Note:-1. Fixed effect model has no constant term. 2. *, **, *** represents 10%, 5% and 1% level of significance respectively 25 Table 9 Comparison of results of fixed effect model and Random effect model. Industry Variables C. F PAT/P0 D/R Other services D/E 6. 37 (12. 52) 0. 33*** (. 443) 0. 09 -10. 54*** (24. 56) 2. 61 (15. 52) 5. 28 (1. 83) 0. 10 (. 704) -1. 73** (1. 28) 5. 95 (2. 73) 17. 07** (10. 57) 14. 75* (27. 90) -13. 77*** (10. 79) 4. 09 (5. 80) 3. 10* (. 095) D/R Aggregate Data D/E . 34 (. 10) -. 60** (1. 89) -. 15 0. 10 0. 04 F. E R 2 R. E F F (4,182) = 0. 08 p;F = 0. 870 -8. 09*** (16. 69) 13. 96** (8. 43) 4. 83*** (1. 51) . 172** (. 667) -1. 30* (1. 066) . 87 (. 459) 16. 01** (8. 67) 10. 08*** (22. 26) -6. 63 (7. 39) 1. 66 (4. 91) -. 011 (. 0945) . 31 (. 1051) -1. 06 (1. 40) 0. 14 0. 13 C. F 4. 69 (9. 81) 0. 053 (. 426) 0. 11 R2 W W chi2(4 =2. 86 p;chi 0. 5819 Size PAT/P0 D/R Textile D/E Size PAT/P0 D/R Mining D/E Size PAT/P0 F (24,244) =0. 33 p;F =0. 990 Wald Chi 2(4)=10. 36 p;chi 2=0. 0348 F (4,46) =2. 00 p;F =0. 1097 Wald Chi 2 (4) =6. 35 p;chi 2 = 0. 1747 F (124,1232) = 16. 49 p;F 0. 76057 Wald Chi 2 (4) 0. 08 = 2. 31 p; chi2 0. 8745 0. 12 Size 1. 55 (1. 037) Note:- *, **, *** represents 10%, 5% and 1% level of significance respectively 26 References:Aharony, J. and I. Swary, 1981, â€Å"Quarterly Dividends and Earnings Announcements and Stockholders' Returns: An Empirical Analysis,† Journal of Finance, Vol 36, 1-12. Altman, E. I. , 1968, â€Å"Financial Ratios, Discriminant Analysis and the Prediction of Corporate Bankruptcy†, Journal of Finance, Vol 23, pp 589-609. Altman,E. I and V. Kishore, 1996, â€Å"The Default Experience of U. S. Bonds†, Working Paper, Salomon Center. Altman, E. I. , 1994, â€Å"Defaults and Returns on High Yield Bonds†, Working Paper, Salomon Center, New York University. Amihud, Y. B. Christensen and H. Mendelson,1992,†Further Evidence on the Risk-Return Relationship,† Working Paper, New York University. Asquith, P. and D. W. Mullins, Jr. , 1983, â€Å"The Impact of Initiating Dividend Payments on Shareholder Wealth,† Journal of Business, Vol 56, 77-96. Bailey, W. â€Å"Canada's Dual Class Shares: Further Evidence on the Market Value of Cash Dividends,† Journal of Finance, 1988, v43 (5), 1143-1160. DeAngelo, H. and E. M. Rice, 1983, â€Å"Antitakeover Charter Amendments and Stockholder Wealth†, Journal of Financial Economics, Vol 11, 329-360. DeAngelo, H. and L. DeAngelo, 1985, â€Å"Managerial Ownership of Voting Rights: A Study of Public Corporations with Dual Classes of Common Stock,† Journal of Financial Economics, Vol 14, 33-69. DeAngelo, H. , L. DeAngelo and E. M. Rice, 1984, â€Å"Going Private: The Effects of a Study in the Creation, Transfer and Destruction of Shareholder Value, Homewood, Ill. , Irfan, C. M. and Nishat, M. (2003),†Key fundamental factors and long run stock price changes in an emerging market- A case study of Karachi stock exchange†, Paper presented at PSDE conference, Islamabad. Jensen, M. C. nd Meckling, W. H. (1976) Theory of the firm: Managerial behaviour agency costs and capital structure, Journal of Financial Economics, (October) 305-60 Linter, J. , (1956), â€Å"Distributions of incomes of corporations among dividends, retained earnings and taxes†, American economic Review, 46 (1): 97-113. 27 Mendenhall, W. , and T. 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What is your specific research interests in finance - Scholarship Essay Example My research interest in real estate financing stems from the challenges facing the real estate industry—high interest rates. Increased interest rates have negative impact on investors and buyers, who may be reluctant into making meaningful investment options. Often, some investors have to contend with high interest rates that reduce the ability to repay their mortgages with time. Despite this scenario, I am interested into finding factors that influence interest rates on real estate products. Equally important, I will focus on how this research will provide guidance to investors interested in avoiding burdens from mortgages. With this goal, I am confident being awarded scholarship in finance will enable me to learn the tools and concepts that will allow me to conduct this study. Without doubt, awarding me this scholarship will enable me deriver immense insight on financial trends in the real estate arena. Ultimately, I see myself graduating and providing significant solutions on how investors can take make sound investment, despite challenges high interest

Interracial Marriages As Phenomenon In Modern Society Essay

Interracial Marriages As Phenomenon In Modern Society - Essay Example Landry has spent five years with the African American husband who was her college fellow. After the divorce, she married the Caucasian husband and has been living with him for four years. When she reflects back upon the two experiences, she realizes that race was never a strong issue. Landry parted ways with her ex-husband because there was the communication gap between them and he was disloyal to her. Besides, they had issues related to money. Therefore, when Landry searched for a husband the second time, she placed more emphasis upon his commitment towards budget and his tendency to exchange views frequently and maintain loyalty to her in marriage than the race he belonged to. Landry spent twelve years as a single after her divorce. In those years, she spent time with numerous men from different ethnic origins. Having dated men of different professions and racial backgrounds, Landry reached the conclusion that two people’s resemblance in the level of intelligence, personal i nterests, aspirations, and values were much stronger determinants of their compatibility with each other than race could ever be. Landry has evaluated the potential advantages and disadvantages of interracial marriages in this article. Discussing the pros of interracial marriages, Landry first discusses personal growth. The successful marriage requires the partners to grow together with the passage of time. Marital partners can enhance their growth by sharing with each other and appreciating the challenges arising from their cultural and racial differences. Landry has noticed that her Caucasian husband’s behavior is changed for the better after marrying her. He has started to understand how people of color may feel like strangers in settings where the others don’t look like them. He had a new experience of going to church with an African American wife as a lone white man.

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

Nucleoside Analogue - Research Paper Example Despite the remarkable success of this method, the use of lifelong HBIg for hepatitis B prophylaxis has its limitations. Among others are the high cost, limited supply and parental administration. The patient needs to frequently visit the clinic too and requires laboratory monitoring. Another problem with HBIg is it’s a blood product not readily advised by physicians. If a safer non-biological alternative existed, it would have been very easy for the patients. This particular study examined 61 patients that went under donor orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). The study found that the HBIg cessation a 12 months minimum after the transplant with successive administration of nucleoside and nucleotide analog agent gives an effective prophylaxis against recurring HBV infection. Despite the success of the procedure concerns still persist when applying the same procedure to patients with chronic stable renal dysfunction. One recurrence case in the study seroconverted to HBsAg whi le being administered oral antivirals (to treat renal dysfunction). Hence renal dysfunction does represent a complication in applying this procedure. Renal toxicity is still a matter of concern regarding the long-term usage of oral antiviral drugs for preventing HBV. This study didn’t show any change in renal functional of patients however, the focus of the study was not the renal dysfunctional, studies with larger durations and follow up should be conducted to analyze this aspect comprehensively. Moreover this study doesn’t cover interaction between hepatitis delta, hepatitis C and pre-transplant hepatitis B viremia, for the risk of hepatitis B breakthrough on our protocol. Hence the oral antiviral procedure should better be performed on low risk patients. Liver transplant recipients are at a great risk of acquiring hepatitis B after liver transplantation. The transplantation performed is a preventive measure against the Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) related liver disease. This study by Saab et al. (2011) evaluates the effectiveness of the new hepatitis B prophylaxis, incorporating conversion from 12 months of HBIg along with lamivudine, to ‘combination therapy’. This was done using oral nucleotide and nucleoside analogue. During the research (between June 2008 and May 2010) 61 liver transplant recipients in total, were converted to a combination of a nucleotide and nucleoside analog. Standard deviation (or the mean) follow-up time after conversion was recorded at 15.0 (Â ±6.1) months. Recurring HBV befell in only two patients (3.3%) at 3.1 and 16.6 months when HBIg dosage was halted. The time incidence rate for HBV relapse after terminating the HBIg was calculated at around 2.7 cases per 100 person-years. HBV relapse was estimated at 1.7% at 1 year after terminating the HBIg. The HBIg termination 12 months minimum after the liver transplantation with succeeding ‘combination therapy’ with a nucleotide and nucleoside analog, gives effective prophylaxis to fight against recurring HBV infection. The clinical associations of HBsAg findings, short of the clinical, molecular or biochemical indicators of recurring hepatitis B, require further study. One limitation of the study was it did not include a control group. All eligible patients at the center were put to dual nucleoside and

Current Scenario Essay Example for Free

Current Scenario Essay The only issue the company has to consider is the identification of the potential market and customers as the industry is already crowded with too many players. There are other factors which influence the expansion plans of the company which however can be mitigated with a careful planning and organizing the resources properly. With a view to assess the company’s capabilities to fight against the threats an analysis of the external factors employing an External Factors Analysis Summary (EFAS) was undertaken. The analysis revealed that the company possesses adequate strengths in the areas of quality customer service at competitive rates. However the company has to face a stiff competition from other players of the industry, the competitive package deals being offered by the cable companies and VoIP services being offered by software companies. The growth can also be obstructed by the governmental regulations in the US as well as the countries in which the company proposes to expand the services as well as the inadequacies of the infrastructure the company presently having. The analysis proved that despite these issues the company possesses adequate strengths to overcome these problems in the due course. Current Scenario The current scenario with respect to WDT’s past performance and other corporate policies and objectives are stated below: a. Past Corporate Performance, Sales, Profits and Markets: WDT has specialized in art of providing long distance calls at discounted rates and the products include the local telephone calls, long distance calls, internet, internet telephone and providing wireless service. The company has more than 100,000 customers presently. The company presently has offices at Niles, Illinois, Dallas, Texas, New York, Lublin and Poland. b. Mission The company’s mission statement as stated in their official website is: â€Å"World Discount Telecommunications’ mission is to satisfy communication needs of ethnic customers by striving to offer exceptional communication experience by providing services that are priced competitively, using reliable technological solutions and offering superior customer service, while creating a fun place to work and satisfaction for the stakeholders. † (WDT. com) c. Objectives The objective of the company is to expand the existing business by exploring the untapped markets both for traditional telephony service. This includes voluminous Asian markets like India and China and also the Central and South American markets which have more emerging economies presenting abundance of opportunities for business expansion. With the expertise already acquired in the area of discount telecommunicating options, the company strives to get exposure in these different geographical locations. Provision of VoIP facilities in the already established ethnic segments like East European Countries and Russia is considered as another important objective. d. Strategies Strategically instead of competing larger players in the domestic market on the VoIP segment where the competition is stiff and too many players are present, the company would opt for only the following strategic measures to achieve significant growth within a shorter period. A. Expansion of the traditional services to potential markets in the emerging economies of Asia and Central/South America and B. Expansion of VoIP services to already familiar ethnic markets and customers in East European countries and Russia. Policies The business policies of WDT are aligned to the mission and objectives. The major policy of the company is to provide superior customer service catering to ethnic customer groups. The company was formulating its business policies based on this broad policy and expanding to various ethnic markets by providing quality telecommunication services at affordable prices. With the rollout of VoIP WDT intends to extend the service to the Russian customers whom they are already serving with traditional telephone services.

Brown V. Board of Education Essay Example for Free

Brown V. Board of Education Essay Brown v Board of Education is a historical landmark case that dismantled segregation laws and established a great milestone in the movement toward true equality. The Supreme Courts unanimously decided on Brown v. Board of Education that separate but equal is inherently unequal. Ruling that no state had the power to pass a law that deprived anyone from his or her 14th amendment rights. For my historical analysis I will use Richard Kluger’s â€Å"Simple Justice†, in which he argues, â€Å"that the Declaration of Independence was marred by hypocrisy—all men were not equal if black†. His book will assist me in learning the policies that lead to and surrounded this case. Using interviews I conducted, where I questioned inner city high school students of their schooling experience in comparison to my brother who attends a predominately white privileged private school, I will ultimately uncover the many inequalities that still exist today. While researching I interviewed my great-Aunt Bertha, who grew up in the state of Mississippi, she had a first-hand experience of life before Brown v Board of Education and life after the Supreme Court ruled on the case, her life was changed forever. My research will focus on not only a historical analysis of what occurred, but how far America has claimed to truly come in dealings with race relations, and the inequalities that still exist today. The American Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865 between the United States also known as the â€Å"Union† and the few southern states that announced their separation from the United States known as the â€Å"Confederates†. The war was based mainly on differing opinions on the issue of slavery. The war lasted about four years and the results yielded in the Confederacy being defeated by the Union. Upon defeating the Confederates, the Union abolished slavery. From that moment on the process of rebuilding the Union as a strong united nation began. This Union was to guarantee freedom to slaves and began the process of having former slaves obtain rights entitled to all citizens. Once the Civil War had ended, so did the policy of legal slavery. However former Confederate leaders did not intend on allowing the former slaves to have all the same rights as whites nor did they intend for former slaves to be counted equally as citizens. Just before the end of the war, congress had passed the Morrill Act of 1862. This act was to provide for federal funding of higher education. Former slave-holding states decided to find loop holes in allowing former slaves to benefit from the new federal funding as they were not ready to asked them as citizens or even human for that matter. Post-Civil War, the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution granted equal protection under the law to all citizens. Although the amendment was put into effect Congress knew the transition from slave to citizen with a hand full of rights would be difficult for former slaves so to help with the transition process Congress created the Freedmen’s Bureau. This program was created to assist in the integration of former slave into society as citizens. At the end of the reconstruction period in 1877 former Confederate states implemented random laws that would blatantly go against the federal law and the constitutional right granted b y the 14th amendment to all including African Americans for equal treatment under the law. Southern state believed they could somehow obey federal orders by having equality yet keeping order by having races remain separate. For many years the court at both state and federal level claimed the 14th amendment applied only to federal, not state, citizenship, therefore they had no control over how a state thought to treat or label an African American on their land. This was proven true of the court in the 1863 Civil Rights Case heard before the Supreme Court. This case was made up of five lower level court cases and made into one because they all had the same claim. In this case The Court held that Congress lacked the constitutional authority under the enforcement provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to outlaw racial discrimination by private individuals and organizations, rather than state and local governments. After the end of Reconstruction, the federal government generally did not hear racial segregation cases instead advising the issue be left up to each individual state to handle. In understanding Brown v Board of Education one must first understand a little about Plessey v Ferguson. The issue in this case was can the states constitutionally enact legislation requiring persons of different races to use â€Å"separate but equal† segregated facilities? And the Court ruled, yes. The states can constitutionally enact legislation requiring persons of different races to use â€Å"separate but equal† segregated facilities, this coming from the highest Court of the land. The trouble with this ideology was that it is contradictory even in its simplest form. Although the Constitution required equality, the facilities and social services offered to African-Americans were almost always of lower quality than those offered to white Americans; for example, many African American schools received less public funding per student than nearby white schools. Public water fountains, which were label â€Å"colored†, were always of lower quality than those labeled for â€Å"whites†. Life went on lived with this flawed idea of serrate equality for many years creating an inferior class of citizens, black were at the bottom and therefore not equal. Many people have tried to challenge the â€Å"separate but equal† rule but most went unheard and those that were heard failed have a change occur. Eventually in 1954 a case did make it on the Supreme Court docket, that case was Linda Brown v. Board of Education. Brown v Board of Education asked the Supreme Court to answer the question of does the segregation of children in public schools s olely on the basis of race deprive the minority children of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14th Amendment? Blacks wanted justice and wanted this question to be answered and clarified for all the nation that they too are people entitle to all the same rights as whites. Thurgood Marshall was one of leading attorney, and civil rights activists, who fought against the segregation laws and policies that were violating the rights of African Americans, especially the children. Kulger â€Å"†¦the African Americans were going to ask equal treatment from top to bottom; buses, buildings, teachers, teacher’s salaries, teaching materials. Everything the same. Anything less was patently in violation of the Fourteenth amendement, Thurgood Marshall explained. â€Å" (18) Thurgood Marshall was one of leading attorney, and civil rights activists, who fought against the segregation laws and policies that were violating the rights of African Americans, especially the children. Kulger Black children were denied admission to public schools attended by white children under laws requiring or permitting segregation according to the races. Linda Browns father though it to be insane that just based solely on the color of his daughters skin she would have to travel really far across train tracks to go to the black only school when they lived near by a school that happened to be labeled whites only. The National Association of the Advancement of Colored People picked up his case, making Linda Brown the poster girl for the cause; She was the embodiment of young black students that were not getting an adequate education that they are entitled to. Brown embellished the ideal look of an average, young, innocent girl, just trying to go to school like any other White child would. The NAACP hired a team of lawyers and civil rights activist to petition the court to hear out the constitutionality of this issue. The lawyers on the case complied many other cases into the same bulk because they all asked of the court the same question, which was the constitutionality of the separate but equal. The Supreme Court ultimately decided in favor of Brown and cited, â€Å"despite the equalization of the schools by objective factors, intangible issues foster and maintain inequality. Racial segregation in public education has a detrimental effect on minority children because it is interpreted as a sign of inferiority. The long-held doctrine that separate facilities were permissible provided they were equal was rejected. Separate but equal is inherently unequal in the context of public education.† This decision called for an end to all state maintained racial segregation. Although the legal end was called for the mentality of many remained the same some going so far as to verbally and physically torture blacks that would dare utilize the same facilities as whites. Brown v Board of Education was decided in 1954 approximately 60 years ago but the strong effects of life before the decision still live on today even in the State of New York which is known to be progressive and libe ral I find myself surround by many disparities. Within the New York Public school system for example. Although we are not literally labeled certain schools as a black school or a white schools the idea of zoning children into schools based on their address is just the new form of â€Å"separate but equal† in my eyes. I had the pleasure of interviewing a fellow political science major at The City College of New York. John Miller shared with me his experience within the New York City public school system, where he was educated until his graduation from high school or as he called it â€Å"aging out† of the system. John described in detail his experience of never having shared a classroom with a white person before enrolling at City College. John was born and raised in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York. Bedford Stuyvesant is widely known as the black cultural mecca of Brooklyn, similar to what Harlem is to Manhattan. He explained to me the way New York City public school system works from kindergarten through 9th grade. Children are assigned a school tha t is in close proximity to their neighborhood. If they don’t like the school they are assigned to, which many do not, the answer from authority figures is â€Å"tough luck† or simply â€Å"move†. Unfortunately John was one of the students that had to stay in his underfunded school. He also told me about his best friend who was one of the lucky few that gained admission into a charter school (which seems to be the only way out of the failed Bedstuy public schools) in downtown Brooklyn. His friend was admitted into the school because his mother’s employer noticed what she felt was great intelligence for someone whose mother was a simple housekeeper. While he spent the day watching his mother clean her house she simply made a phone call to one of her friends who happened to be a big donor to the charter school and in just a few weeks he was being bussed to a 21st century private charter school. He was one of the lucky few to made it out. Miller is now at the University of Chicago studying biology, I hope of becoming a doctor. Most of their childhood friends from the neighborhood are either in prison most for crimes of necessity given their unfortunate circumstances. He described how another friend would frequently steal from the local grocery story to supply his family with food. Miller would like to point out that he is not trying to create excuses for the crimes committed, however he is sympathetic to their reasoning. He is also not oblivious to the fact that not all the crimes his childhood friends are being incarcerated for are crime of necessity but rather some are crimes of pure boredom. He is not sure where to place blame or on who in either circumstance. The past stories accounts for the majority of the men John knew but the women are not excluding from this group of underachievers. Most became pregnant at an extremely early age giving birth to children out of wedlock. They gave birth with the expectation that there is always â€Å"food stamps/welfare† I don’t need a job† while others are working dead end jobs making minimum wage. In his community education is clearly not something to value and I would make the claim that it is because from kindergarten the schools in this community are underfunded and have teacher who don’t care working in the system. If the teachers don’t care neither will the students and so the cycle continues. Was this system plan and created by our white socioeconomic counter part? We were taught to believe Brown v Board of Education would change our lives forever. Once the high Court made the claim that â€Å"separate but equal† actually was impossible to accomplish and an oxymoron within itself. Mississippi was so defiant towards the Brown v. Board of Education case, schools in the state refused to integrate. Therefore the federal courts in 1969 had to modify the Mississippi â€Å"desegregation order†. People still had their racist ideologies and even today 4 of the schools are â€Å"single-raced†, although it is legally outlawed. My aunt Bertha was a student in the Mississippi public school system in the year prior to and post Brown v. Board of education. She vividly recalls sitting with her family around a radio and hearing the Chief Justice announce the courts decision to declare â€Å"separate but equal† unconstitutional. Making separate schools for whites and black she thought would immediately become a something of the past. She admits to being very nervous yet excited about the idea of going to schools that white people would also go to. She even recalls telling her dad â€Å"maybe we wont have to share books anymore† pointing to the fact that her school was so underfunded and there weren’t enough books to go around. Bertha says 2 years after the decision was handed down by the court she remained a student at a school on the east side of the track which were for black and the whites remained enrolled in the other school. She visits once a year now for her high school reunion and is just now starting to notice some integration almost 60 plus years later the principle proudly announced we â€Å"now have a white population of 2.3 percent† although she was proudly to see Brown v. Education being implemented into her hometown she still is saddened by the fact that people of color on her side of the track could potentially go through life without ever having much interaction with the other race if they so chose. This saddens her because we are now living in 2012 and our President is black however whites and some blacks still seem very uncomfortable with they idea of being together, not just in the classroom but also in all aspects of life. â€Å"Segregation was an unmitigated evil, and no black man anywhere in America was free of its scar so long as the Supreme Court tolerated it† (290) We are still living in a systematic world of segregation in the New York City School System in the public and private sector. Schools where most of the students are minorities get underfunded. Is this a problem of economics? Distribution? Or an ongoing internal racism that often gets ignored? BIBLIOGRAPHY Kluger, Richard. Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black Americas Struggle for Equality. New York: Vintage, 2004. Print. Mississippi Schools Still Segregated Despite Court Order. Breaking News for Black America RSS. NewsOne Staff, 4 May 2011. Web. 18 Dec. 2012. Miller, J (2012, 5 October) Personal Interview Moore, B (2012 15, October) Telephone Interview

The Importance Of Age In Sla

The Importance Of Age In Sla There are many theories if age affects second language acquisition. Some authors saying that, to learn a second language when you are child is easier than to learn a second language when you are older. We can define children ages from 3 to 18 that are in school and adults or older learners from the ages of 18 and above. However the critical period hypothesis it can also play a role in the learning and also the implicit and the explicit shift hypothesis. Below will examine what authors point out. What is the difference of learning a second language in early stage or later, the benefits and the negatives. And when is easier to start learning a second language. To start with, in critical period hypothesis suggests that there is a period when language acquisition takes place naturally and effortlessly. Penfield and Roberts (1959 in Ellis, 1985:107) argued that the optimum age for language acquisition it starts the first ten years of life. Because in this time of period the brain retains plasticity but with the onset of puberty this plasticity begins to disappear. They suggest that this is a result of the lateralization of the language function in the left hemispheres of the brain, and slowly concentrated in the left hemisphere for most people. Thus, increased difficulty which learners supposedly experience as a direct result of a neurological change. According to Lenneberg (1967 in Ellis, 1985:107) to support the critical period hypothesis found that injuries to the right hemisphere caused more language problems in children than in adults. He also found that in cases of children who underwent surgery of the left hemisphere, no speech disorders resulted, whereas with adults almost total language occurred. Furthermore, Lenneberg provided evidence to show that whereas children rapidly recovered total language control after such operations, adults did not do so, but instead continued to display permanent linguistic impairment. This suggested that the neurological basis of language in children and adults was different. However, Lennebergs evidence does not demonstrate that is easier to acquire language before puberty but he assumed that language acquisition was easier to children. According to Lightbown and Spada (1999:61) most studies of the relationship between age of acquisition and second language development have focused on learn ers phonological (pronunciation) achievement. In general, these studies have concluded that older learners almost inevitably have a noticeable foreign accent. However, another interesting cognitive theory is the implicit and the explicit shift. This suggests that the age affects the decreasing in language learning capacity in SLA and it happens because of the declining role of implicit learning and memory in the language acquisition process, and at the same time increase the role of explicit learning and memory. This statement is supported by a wide agreement that learners process their late-learnt language differently than their native language, but the results of the performance are rarely the same. Paradis (2004 in Dornyei 2009:256-257) point out that a particular strength of the implicit and the explicit shift hypothesis is that they can account of the age effects in naturalistic SLA and in formal school learning: first, the dominating learning mechanism is the implicit thus the younger we are, the better we can capitalize. Second the limited amount of L2 exposure and cognitive structure input is typically favours explicit learning and learning we can benefit from this language environment more in older age when the implicit and the explicit shift is on the way and thus prepared us for utilizing explicit learning mechanisms. Although it is often assumed that the loss of the implicit learning that is forces the second language learners to rely in the explicit learning, which uses a cognitive system different from that the native language is support. Dekeyser (2000 in Dornyei, 2009:241) point out that if the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) is constrained, however in the implicit learning mechanisms appears that there is more than just a sizable correlation. Also early age confers an absolute that there may well be no exceptions to the age effect. Between the ages of 6-7 and 16-17 , everybody loses the mental equipment that requires for the implicit induction of the abstract patterns that underlying the human language, thus the critical period deserves its name as DeKeyser mention. DeKeyser and Larson Hall (2005 in Dornyei 2009:241) point out, that this approach is also accepted by Lenneberg (1967 in Dornyei 2009:241) who had the original observation of the CPH that automatic acquisition from mere exposure to a given language seems to disappear after this age. Also many scholars agree with DeKeyser (2000 in Dornyei, 2009:242) that the qualitative disparity between adult (post Critical period) and child language acquisition shows that somewhere along the line there is bound to be break that it caused from maturational constraints. Studies have repeatedly found that age causes a gradual decline in acquiring language with an attainment curve with a sharp discontinuity at the terminus of the period. Although there is a theory the younger the better whereas Dornyei points out that language learning is easier when one is young. For example a family of immigrates to a new country for a 5 year old child will be far easier to learn a L2 proficiency than the 30 year old father, but he would be better than 60 year old grandma. I can agree with Dornyei view, as for a child it can be easier to learn the second language because of the school context, but for the father it depends from the working or the environment he will be surrounded, thus it can be more difficult for older learners. As Dorney (2009:249) explains, a young immigrant child who will start primary school in the new country at the age of 5-6, will be able to learn as often optimal conditions are provided by the school experiences. However, for an adult immigrant whose social network involve people from the same ethno linguistic group and has few native speaking colleagues at work the learning conditions are far from the ideal. It is also the same for a student that contact a L2 onetime per week in a school context. Some other authors that agree with Dornyei, is Kuhl (2008 in Dornyei, 2009:249) who states, There is no doubt that children learn languages more naturally and efficiently than adults and N.Ellis (2005 in Dornyei, 2009:249) also concludes, It is an incontrovertible fact that ultimate second language attainment is less successful in older than younger learners According to Gass and Selinker (2001:342) children are more successful second language learners than adults and there various explanations: First, there social psychological reasons why adults learn languages less easy than children. There many different versions of this hypothesis. Some suggest that adults dont want to give up the sense of identity that the accent provides them. And other suggests that adults dont want to surrender their ego in the extent that required adopting a new language, which combines with a new life-world. Second the cognitive factors are also responsible for the weakness of the adults to succeed in learning. Adults have greater cognitive abilities than children. Adopting the cognitive abilities in language learning task has less successful learning in children, which according to the hypothesis where supposed to rely a greater extent in a specific language acquisition device. Third, there are neurological changes that prevent adults to use their brain with the same way that children learn language learning tasks. This usually presented as a loss of plasticity or the flexibility in the brain. Fourth, the children are exposed to a better input for language learning thus children are provided with better data about the language. On the other hand, some other authors disagree with that point of view and point out that the older the better by state that a 5 year old student probably will occur to less progress in learning language in school context than an older learner age of 15 or 30, even 60 years old. According to Dornyei (2009:235) Anglophone children in French immersion who entered the immersion programme relatively late, around 9 to 11 years old, very quickly manage to caught up with the early immersion of students, who start he immersion programme in kindergarten or when entering the primary school. Also Dornyei (2009:250) point out that in school settings older students make better progress than their younger peers, particularly in acquiring morphosyntactic and lexical aspects of the second language and sometimes also in acquiring phonological aspects. Also Dornyei (2009:250) states that younger the better principle suggests that younger children learn better in educational settings in the sense of going further but not faster. Singleton and Ryan (2004 in Dornyei, 2009:250): Extrapolating from the naturalistic studies, one way plausibly argue that early formal instruction in an L2 is likely to yield advantages after rather longer periods of time than have so far been studied. Over the last few years two investigations took place in Spain, to examine the older the better issue. They examine three groups of Basque learners of English who attended the fifth year in primary school, the second year in secondary school and the fifth year in secondary school who had 600 hours of instruction, Cenoz (2003 in Dornyei, 2009:251) reported that the oldest group had the highest proficiency in English, followed by the intermediate group and the youngest group. The youngest learners where only better in attitudinal and motivational disposition from their older peers. The second study investigated Catalan learners of English in the Barcelona Age Factor (BAF) project and they found very similar findings. Several groups of learners (total N= 1928) with different AoA were examined three times, after 200 hours, 416 hours, and 726 hours of instruction. In the results older learners where progress faster in learning a foreign language than younger learners. Munoz (2006 in Dorny ei, 2009:251) concluded that after linger periods of time, younger starters did not outperform later starters, and the extensive span and size of this investigation makes this finding particularly robust. However, many authors point out that in formal language contexts younger learners are not better but worse. Thus, in recent initiatives they attempt to push forward the starting age of learning a foreign language as a school productive. Lightbown and Spada (2006 in Dornyei, 2009:251), conclude that older learners are possible to achieve a better use in L2 learning in limited time. When the goal is the basic communicative ability for all students in an educational system, and when the childs native language will remain the primary language, it may be more efficient to start learning a second or a foreign language teaching later. When the learners receive few hours of teaching per week, the learners who start later between 10 to 12 years old often are likely to caught up with the learners who start earlier. Some second or foreign languages programmes that start with very young learners and provide minimum of contact, usually they do not lead to much progress. On the other hand Ellis gives some facts of younger and older learners. According to Ellis (1994:491-492) adult learners have an initial advantage of learning, where rate of learning in concerned, particularly in grammar. Eventually adult learners can overtake the child learners that are exposed to L2. This is less likely to happen in instructional than in naturalistic settings because the critical amount of exposure is usually not available in the former. First, only child learners are able to acquire informal learning contexts. Long (1990 in Ellis, 1994:491-492) point out that the critical period is age 6, but Scovel point out that there is no evidence to support it and argues for a pre-puberty start. Also Singletton (1989 in Ellis, 1994:491-492) point out that children are able to acquire a native accent only if they are exposed to massive L2 learning. However, some children still do not manage to acquire a native like accent possible because they try to maintain active use of the ir L1. Adult learners may be able to acquire a native accent if they have an assistance of instruction, but more researchers have to take place to substantiate this claim. Second, children are more likely to acquire a native grammatical competence, as the critical period of grammar may be able to be later than for pronunciation, around 15 years old. But some adult learners, might achieve to acquire native levels of grammatical accuracy in speech and writing and linguistic competence. Third, children are more likely to reach higher levels of attainment in pronunciation and grammar than adults. Fourth, the process of acquiring a L2 does not really affected by the age, but the acquiring of pronunciation can be. Beside if younger learners or older learners are better, age can affect the mastery of native like learning as we saw above. Also Mark Patkowski (in Lightbown, 1999:61-62) studied the effect of age in acquisition of features of a second language, despite the accent. He pointed that even if the accent was ignored only the learners who start learning a second language before the age of 15 they could achieve full, native-like mastery of that language. Patkowski also examined the spoken English of 67 highly educated immigrants to the United States. The learners started to learn English in different ages, but all of them lived in the United States more than 5 years. Also 15 native-born Americans English speakers of spoken English from similarly high level of education take place to the research to show the validity of the research. In the research, a lengthy interview with each of the subjects in the study was tape recorded. Because Patkowski wanted to remove the possibility that the resu lts would be affected, he did not ask rates to judge the tape-recorded interviews themselves. Instead, he transcribed five-minute samples from the interviews. These samples were rated by trained native-speakers judges. The judges were asked to place each speaker on a rating scale from 0, representing no knowledge of the language, to 5, representing a level of English expected form an educated native speaker. The main question in Patkowskis research was: Will there be a difference between learners who began to learn English before puberty and those who began learning later? However, in the light of some of the issues discussed above, he also compared learners on the basis of other characteristics and experiences which some people have suggested might be as good as age in predicting or explaining a learners eventual success in mastering a second language. For example, he looked at the relationship between eventual mastery and the total amount of time a speaker had been in the United States as well as the amount of formal ESL instruction each speaker had had. The findings were remarkable, because thirty-two from the thirty-three learners who start learning English before the age of 15 years old scored 4+ or the 5 level. The homogeneity of the post-puberty learners seemed that the success of learning a second language was almost inevitable. On the other hand, was a variety in the levels that the post-puberty achieved. The majority of the post-puberty learners achieved +3 level, but a wide if distribution of levels achieved. The variety of the performance of this group were look more like the performance range were expected if someone were measuring success in learning, almost in any kind of skill or knowledge Patkowskis (in Lightbown, 1999:62-63) first question, Will there be a difference between learners who began to learn English before puberty and those who began learning English later?, was answered with a very resounding yes. Thus Patkowski found that the age of acquisition is very important factor for the development of native-like m astery of a second language and that does not only affect the accent. The experience and the research showed that native-like mastery of spoken language is difficult to achieve by older learners. Also, the ability to distinguish grammatical and ungrammatical sentences in a second language seems that is also affected by the age factor. However, according to Dornyei (2009:242) learners who are young enough in the critical period are still failing to master the L2 to a native like level. And, on the other hand are adult learners whose AoA is late, for example learners in their twenties, that has to be after the offset of the Critical Period and they succeed in acquiring native like proficiency. Also, there are evidences against the Critical Period hypothesis, an example that provided by Flege (2006 in Dornyei, 2009:242) are young learners of L2 whose L1 influence the pronunciation and it could still be detected after a long period in the host environment. And in another investigation that took place in 2007 by Jia and Fuse is that none of the ten immigrant children whose development followed by five year period in the USA manage to master the regular past tense -ed suffix at a minimum of 80% accuracy level, even thought the youngest children were 5 to 6 years old in the arrival and when the participated in mainstream schooling with additional English teaching. Birdsong (2006 in Dornyei, 2009:243) point out that few studies that have identified in early starter L2 learners that they should achieved native like proficiency but they do not as the Critical period defeating, native like adult L2 learners has received more attention in the literature. Common figures of post pubertal learners who reach a native like level range between 5 to 10% of learners in naturalistic environments. However there are two important points that adults can also do it. First, Birdsong (2007 in Dornyei, 2009:244) observed in his study that the late learners can success in phonetic training and also are having highly motivated to improve L2 pronunciation. Second, it appears that if you dig deep enough you can find chinks in the L2 armour, or even the most successful L2 adult learner. There various ways of accessing the native-like speaker judgment of L2 pronunciation, oral and written production tasks, even grammaticality judgements in more sophisticated probes such as examining subtle phonetic differences in voice onset time or intonation contour. It seems that even if standard measures identify someone to belong within the native-speaking range obtained of performance-usually within two standard deviations of the mean rating obtained for a native-speaking norm group- more elaborate techniques can still detect subtle deviations from the native norm. To conclude, there are many beliefs if age affects second language acquisition, if younger learners or older learners are better, if younger learners or older learners can achieve a native like language and if there is a critical period. In my opinion, learning a second language in younger age is more effective because is easier to save or remember new things, however if you are older learner there is a benefit to be able to practise the second language. And for my personal experience practising your second language and use the second language is how you learn it, instead of just learning a second language only in school context, through books, exercises, etc. In the second part of the native like proficiency I do not believe that the age matters but it matters from the person. Some people are more motivated to achieve a native like proficiency and they will try more, but other they just want to speak a second language and be able to understand them, nothing else. And for the third p art, if there is a critical period, I will agree as they say the children are like sponge, I will also agree with the part that says there is a time you stop learning as I believe in some point in your life you cannot handle new things, new words or new grammar but it happen in different stages for every person.