Benefits of the Second Amendment Essay - 850 Words

After a long, exhausting, painful war for independence from Great Britain, the United States became its own nation, a nation of choice and rights, a nation of voice and strong opinion, a nation with freedom handed to humans by God. The birth of this glorious new state brought forth a new era of revolution throughout the world. Countries took America’s victory to heart, overthrowing their monarchial governments and establishing governments run by popular sovereignty. The existence of the United States, perhaps, led to the global fight for self-government. However, though all our grandeur, this great nation was naà ¯ve at birth. The establishment of the first constitution nearly brought an end to the triumphant title of the United States.†¦show more content†¦Yet as the nation expanded, a formidable Army was assembled, and the formation of a Militia became unfathomable. Over two centuries after recognizing this as law, this Amendment now taking fire. Weapons are used f or various reasons, be it hunting, sport, or defense. Many politicians, however, are challenging that the benefits of firearms are overcast by the dangers. Is this new take on weaponry accurate? After all, weapons are designed to injure, to kill. Any weapon in the wrong hands can result in devastation. They can be used in robberies, homicides, suicides, and in the ever-growing threat of terrorism. At the same time, weapons can protect from crime. Police are equipped with guns. The military uses rifles and explosives to â€Å"secure the blessings of liberty.† And yes, weapons can be used to defend one’s self in their own home. The castle doctrine, more commonly known as the â€Å"Make My Day† law, states that if someone is attacked on their property, they may use deadly force to defend themselves. There was a road rage case in Florida where castle doctrine was used. A couple was driving and got into a minor car accident. The passengers of the other vehicle started to beat the woman’s boyfriend, and she stabbed them both in self-defense. Some witnesses declared that if the woman had not acted, her boyfriend would have been killed. In a perfect world, weapons would not exist.Show MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Article The Constitution 948 Words   |  4 Pagesthis is a violation of his Second Amendment, but he is also stating that it violates the Relig ious Freedom Restoration Act (Moyer, 2015). Hertzler argues taking a photo goes against his religious beliefs as well as right to humanity. He currently has a state identification card; however, it does not have a photo id. In this article there are two major issues. First there is the issue of the Second Amendment. Hertzler is entitled to bear arms under the Second Amendment. However, firearm laws requireRead MorePersuasive Essay On The Second Amendment1250 Words   |  5 Pages America’s Second Amendment The second amendment, not only a right in the United States but today it is also a huge topic of debate. A large majority of citizens want to enforce gun control and another majority want to exercise their second amendment with no boundaries. This right has its positive and negative views due to the way people decide to use their weapons. Some individuals immediately think of violence when hearing the word â€Å"gun†. Guns and violence have a lot in relation and thatRead MoreThe Welfare System Within New Zealand1626 Words   |  7 Pagesto a welfare dependency which they then become more reliant on benefits and tend to pass this easy knowledge on to the next generation and so on. Thus, the welfare system within New Zealand has had a negative impact on health, social and economic consequences for benefit recipients and their families. A social development and youth affairs minister, Paula Bennett, from the National Party and New Zealand Politician, wrote an Amendment Bill on this issue of the welfare system. This essay will firstlyRead MoreGun Control And The Second Amendment1179 Words   |  5 Pages13 colonies. The Second Amendment has been up for many debates, especially in the recent light of mass shootings in the US. But does the entire removal and ban of firearms really work? Gun control and the second amendment has been a never ending conflict between politicians. As we look further into g un control there are more draw backs for the citizens than benefits. The Second Amendment was ratified to the US Constitution on December 17, 1791 by Congress. The Second Amendment states â€Å"A well-regulatedRead MoreDonald Trump Is The Best Chance America1484 Words   |  6 PagesJune of 2015, the Trump Campaign has swept its way across America, gaining advocates and citizens who blatantly detest the leading Republican candidate. Supporters respect the straightforward stance Trump takes on topics such as immigration, the Second Amendment, international affairs, and America s current ObamaCare system. Compared to other candidates like Ted Cruz, who also focuses on some of the same issues, Mr. Trump is the leader with laid out processes assuring that he can complete his missionRead MoreWhat Is The Issues And Contributions In The Amendment Act?804 Words   |  4 PagesCertain other recommendations made in the LCR could have been expressly codified and included in the Amendment Act. For instance, the question of arbitrability of disputes relating t o fraud. Another significant suggestion of LCR which has been ignored by the legislators is the encouragement of institutional Arbitration most importantly it does not take into consideration the fact that there is a need to actively encourage institutional arbitration across India as also the establishment of a specialRead MorePersuasive Essay On Gun Control1086 Words   |  5 Pagesof criminals who commit violent crimes. The Second Amendment to the Constitution gives all citizens the right to bear arms, yet perhaps the true meaning of freedom is being misunderstood in modern time. Other countries have benefitted from restrictive gun laws, significantly reducing firearms deaths. Therefore, it is important for the United States to pass and enforce stricter gun control laws for the protection of its people. First, the Second Amendment must be understood through the eyes of thoseRead MoreThe Issue Of Gun Ownership1502 Words   |  7 Pages Despite the harms associated with handguns, the Second Amendment, which states that â€Å"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed†, protects the private ownership of them. The Supreme Court has consistently ruled against gun bans or regulations as violating the 2nd amendment. In the landmark ruling Heller vs. District of Columbia in 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that a thirty-two year ban on theRead MoreThe Debate Over Stricter Gun Control Laws924 Words   |  4 PagesStates for quite some time now. Individuals who oppose stricter gun control laws argue that the second amendment to the constitution of the United States constitute part of the bill of rights that protect the right of American citizens to bear arms, and any attempt to set up laws for gun control will be a direct violation of this (Hofstadter 10). They argue that the primary purpose of the amendment was to ensure that American Citizens had the capability to protect themselves against criminal activitiesRead MoreThe Government s Debate On Gun Violence1256 Words   |  6 Pagesrights because the second amendment gives us the right to bear arms and to protect ourselves and those that we love. The U.S. constitution was modeled after some of the earlier colonies in the 1600s. The Constitution was created in 1787, generally known as the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights are the first ten amendments of the Constitution. Though the Constitution has a degree of continuity but was built with a mechanism for change. Either both houses of Congress must pass an amendment by a two-thirds

Wgu C212 Marketing Vvt2 Task 1 Essay - 1849 Words

EdgeMark New Services and Marketing Marketing C212 February 2nd, 2015 EdgeMark New Services and Marketing EdgeMark Cinemas are a chain of movie theaters located in 37 states with 475 theaters in those states covering the west coast, east coast, and Midwest. EdgeMark’s profits, like other cinemas, have been in a small but constant decline over the last 12 years. Industry Wide Average of 2.05% ticket sales decline per year for the last 12 years also, when adjusted for inflation, revenue has dropped an average of 1% a year for the past 12 years (Domestic Movie Theatrical Market Summary, 2015). The chain is currently looking to increase ticket sales, loyal customers, and profits by adding additional products and services.†¦show more content†¦Premium Membership The first new service is aimed at rewarding loyal customers by offering them a selection of memberships that would make their regular movie going experiences more pleasurable and inviting. The membership would consist of four tiers consisting of silver, gold, platinum, and diamond. The benefits inferred upon mem bership into the various tiers will include: ââ€" ª VIP access for ticket sales for premieres ââ€" ª Front of line for premieres and other lines ââ€" ª 10% Discount on food and beverages ââ€" ª Access to special premium seating when available ââ€" ª Discount tickets at specific screenings, matinee, special screenings etc. ââ€" ª Special screenings with access to a premium food and beverage menu for VIPs only Currently there are no major regular cinemas in the United States which offer such membership or perks, giving EdgeMark Cinemas a competitive advantage. Only luxury cinemas and foreign cinemas currently offer membership and premium services. As certain memberships confer a privlidge to bypass many unpleasant parts of the movie going experience, customer would be drawn to EdgeMark versus competitors. Special Viewings The second service targets the enticement of new customers while also catering to loyal customers. This service would consist of

Ethics of Robots and Technique

Question: Discuss about the Ethics of Robots and Technique. Answer: In this article Devlin (2016), have presented the recent development regarding the ethics in robots. The ethics of the robots have been formulated by the British Standards Institute,' which comes after the basic guidelines that have been formulated by Isaac Asimov. The document presented in dry language discusses the undesirable scenarios that might pop up due to the usage of the robot in regular lives, such as the deception, addiction and other factors that may be induced by robots. Whats going on? The introduction of the automated machines in the human life has eased many aspects, and this has resulted in the latest innovation in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) (Devlin, 2016). The author here has presented the latest trends in innovation and the ethical standards that have to be incorporated to make the system more human-friendly, to ensure that no harm is done while using the robots. The standards set for the robots aims for transparency that might help in reduction of the contingencies to the user of the robots. What are the facts? The implementations of the robots in human life have become widespread which can be seen in the area of the healthcare, in transportation in the form of autonomous vehicles, etc. so it can be easily understood that we are just a few steps away from robots in normal human life which will take care of every aspect of human needs. And the formulation of the standards for the operation and the ethics of the robots is just the confirmation of the fact (Russell, 2016). Hence robotics is the next big step in the automation of various human actions. What are the issues? It is a known fact that the robots cannot think on their own and are programmed to serve in a specific way. But with the previous programming techniques the responses of the robots were not up to the mark, which gave birth to the advanced techniques such as AI and ANN (Artificial Neural Networks). These provided a mechanism to make the robots learn on their own based on the tasks and the optimal path, which was independent of the programming of the robots, which couldnt predict the behavior of the complicated robots (Devlin, 2016). Who are affected? The application of the automated robots is widespread which ranges from the surgery robots to autonomous cars which will drive the cars instead of the human beings. The robots have to take a complicated decision to sort out the various complications based on the various environmental variables and decide the fate of the patient or the passenger (Katz Halpern, 2014). So anyone who buys the technology or is dependent on the robot will be affected, which is a large mass of people. And will result in unemployment of a large section of people which could lead to unrest o in society (Martin, 2016). What are the ethical issues and their implication? The loss of life or the harm created due to the robotic action is a serious issue and should be treated seriously. Hence the developers have a very difficult constraint of designing something which will take a decision like a human being but cannot harm the human being. The worst part of the latest programming techniques like deep learning,' is the programming is done based on the environment and the outcome and the response to unknown variables is not known which could be disastrous (Sparrow, 2015). It has also been noted that the facial recognition program cant effectively recognize the darker faces thus creating a racial discrimination. What could have been done about it? Automation has become a part of the human life. With the latest machines that have been installed at various locations, life has been simplified. The development of the robots is the net obvious step. The software modeling has been done to rectify the defects of the previous systems but has not succeeded as planned (Sharkey Sharkey, 2012). So the programming and the modeling techniques are evolving every day to make the system more versatile. What are the options? The available options for tackling the situation are: Robots should be totally eliminated from the human life Making robots more intelligent so that the tasks can be well performed Critical decision should be taken away from robots Which option is best and why? The best option among the three is making the robots more intelligent so that the various tasks that are assigned to them are taken care of in an efficient way. This could result in the increased unemployment in the traditional sector but staffs can be trained to take up the other sector based on the needs and will also ensure that the world moves towards a better future. References Devlin, H. (2016). Do no harm, don't discriminate: official guidance issued on robot ethics. The Guardian. Retrieved 1 December 2016, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/18/official-guidance-robot-ethics-british-standards-institute Katz, J. E., Halpern, D. (2014). Attitudes towards robots suitability for various jobs as affected robot appearance.Behaviour Information Technology,33(9), 941-953. Martin, S. (2016). UN warns that robots will put MILLIONS out of work. Express.co.uk. Retrieved 1 December 2016, from https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/731282/UN-robots-MILLIONS-out-of-work-unemployed-artificial-intelligence Russell, B. (2016).The impact of science on society. Routledge. Sharkey, A., Sharkey, N. (2012). Granny and the robots: ethical issues in robot care for the elderly.Ethics and Information Technology,14(1), 27-40. Sparrow, R. (2015). Killer Robots: Ethical Issues in the Design of Unmanned Systems for Military Applications. InHandbook of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(pp. 2965-2983). Springer Netherlands.

Joesph Cambell Four Functions of a Mtyh free essay sample

Seyed Maghloubi (Historical Mythology) Joseph Campbell explains the following four functions of a myth. Its metaphysical function is to awaken us to the mystery and wonder of creation, to open our minds and our senses to an awareness of the mystical ground of being, the source of all phenomena. Its cosmological function is to describe the shape of the cosmos, the universe, our total world, so that the cosmos and all contained within it become vivid and alive for us, infused with meaning and significance; every corner, every rock, hill, stone, and flower has its place and its meaning in the cosmological scheme which the myth provides. Its sociological function is to pass down the law, the moral and ethical codes for people of that culture to follow, and which help define that culture and its prevailing social structure. Its pedagogical function is to lead us through particular rites of passage that define the various significant stages of our lives-from dependency to maturity to old age, and finally, to our deaths, the final passage. We will write a custom essay sample on Joesph Cambell Four Functions of a Mtyh or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The rites of passage bring us into harmony with the ground of being and allow us to make the journey from one stage to another with a sense of comfort and purpose. The mystical experience, the core spiritual journey that envisions God, has always been a tough experience to communicate. Some would say its impossible to communicate. Others would say that this is the primary function of myth-to find a way to communicate whatever mystical insight has been gained on the journey: an understanding of the mysteries that underlie the universe; an appreciation of its wonders; the sense of awe or rapture experienced. Since these things cant be communicated by direct means, myth speaks in a language of metaphors, of symbols, and symbolic narratives that arent bound by objective reality. Some believe that the mystical experience is what gives birth to metaphoric language, metaphoric thinking. In our post-Enlightenment western world, we have decidedly turned to science to tell us what the shape of the world is. Originally, however, myth performed this function, explaining the cultural history, religion, class structure, origin, even the origin of the geographical features in the surrounding landscape. A myth describes the shape of the world, and infuses each part of that world with meaning and significance. And though a mythic tale may seem literally false in our world today, it was once considered true, and it still expresses a metaphorical truth. Campbell explains that the sociological function of myth is to support and validate a particular social order. The myth will make it clear who is in charge, what ethical code is appropriate, what the institutional rituals will be. The problem is that these codes are fixed, like the natural order, for all time; they are not subject to change. Our myths, according to Campbell, are seriously outdated. Changing time require new myths, and since our times are changing so very rapidly, the myth-making function cant keep up. As a result, we are practically myth-less. Campbell felt we needed to expand into much more than we presently have. This is the aspect of myth that teaches us how to pass into and live all the differing stages of our lives. Our myths (as religion) give us rituals to live by, rites of passage to accomplish. We learn how to look at the world, at ourselves, from birth till death. Because he felt they were all true, Campbell believed myth could teach us important lessons about how to live.

Symbolisms in ‘Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening’ Essay Example

Symbolisms in ‘Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening’ Paper Lots of symbolism has used by Robert Frost in this poem. Although the poem itself is written on a very typical, iambic and rhythmic approach using simple language that can easily be understand, there are lots of hidden messages enclosed on every words, lines, stanzas and even to its title itself which has to be interpreted in order for the poem as well as the poet to be understood. Thus, his symbolism, which adds more spice to the poem, has been a help in analyzing its meaning. The title ‘Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening’ was a thought-provoking message which could predict that someone has saying goodbye to his life when he was undergoing through the worst time. Perhaps, the life that he was trying to saying goodbye with or to have its stopping period was a life that is full of misery and agony. The first stanza alone covered four symbolisms in which after interpreting those them could help identify the real meaning of the poem. Firstly, the woods here suggest life. The speaker in this poem tried to figure out whom life it was after all, although he said he thinks he knew who it was. We will write a custom essay sample on Symbolisms in ‘Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening’ specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Symbolisms in ‘Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening’ specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Symbolisms in ‘Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening’ specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Life may have different meanings, and that was the very reason why Robert Frost wanted to write it in plural form –woods. Secondly, the house of the woods’ owner might depict God or the giver of life. The tone of speaker offered the connotation that God doesn’t see him while he was staring at the life he provided. Thirdly, it was the village. Probably, village was the representation of heaven. Frost did not mention that the village was snowy or freezing as well as the house. God in heaven, as everybody believes, would never experience such upheaval. The last symbol was the snow. The snow represented storm or blizzard, a cold natural phenomenon, or perhaps an unpredicted but anticipated natural catastrophe that can freeze one’s life. Again on the second stanza laid four symbolisms, the little horse, farmhouse, frozen lake, and the darkest evening of the year. To the little horse, it might speak as a voice of the speaker’s conscience. It was written as little because one’s conscience never took proud over the consciousness but not as littlest because it would never be littlest to the point that one could see it as insignificant. The farmhouse suggested point of recognition to the presence of the speaker’s conscience, probably located in his heart where the speaker does not always referring to. Frozen lake might offer a clear picture of death. Lake with its deep and wide characteristic is as frightening as death. Frozen can also be seen literally as lifeless or immovable. The darkest evening of the year although it was written figuratively indicated hopelessness, helplessness and powerlessness. At certain moment, the speaker confidently admitted that he was undergoing through his roughest time. Third stanza covered symbolisms formed on different sounds such as harness bells, easy wind, and downy flake. The harness bell of the horse denoted murmuring of the conscience. It’s as if the shaking sound of the bell tried to awaken the speaker about the stopping thinking in the midst of such heavy snowfall. Easy wind offered calmness and lightness of the speaker’ burden in his heart or perhaps denoted a peace of mind while downy flake suggests tears falling. Such peace of mind might be experience only if one lets his tears flow because it is the best way to lighten up the heart’s load. In the first two lines of the last stanza, which said that ‘the woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep,’ (Frost, 1011) one could predict that the tone of the speaker here tried to figure out the bad and the good memories collected all through his whole existence. Those memories might be though some were somewhat upsetting, all of it could be meaningful and hard to forget. However, he still has no option but to do what he has to do just like performing the promise that he once said. Two last two stanza was identical. Robert Frost made this very ending as dramatic as it looked like. Having that style would make the readers think that the speaker still followed his heart’s desire to just do the stopping by the woods on a snowy evening which means to pause for quite sometime with the life he is living while it still on its darkest and gloomiest period. The speaker here realized not to just cut his journey as he has so many miles to go before he went asleep. Lastly, the poem although can be perceived its tone as very depressing all throughout just like a suicide note, the ending still portrayed a positive outcome and contentment. R E F E R E N C E S Ciardi, John. â€Å"Robert Frost: The Way to the Poem. † Robert Frost: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. James M. Cox. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1962. 21-30. Frost, Robert. â€Å" Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening. † Literature and Its Writers. A compact Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 4th Ed. Ann Charters and Samuel Charters. 2007. 1010-1011. Jeffers, Susan, and Robert Frost. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. New York: Penguin, 2001.

Agency cost and ownership structure in aim traded companies The WritePass Journal

Agency cost and ownership structure in aim traded companies Introduction Agency cost and ownership structure in aim traded companies IntroductionOverview of Alternative Investment MarketCorporate governance in AIM companies The causes of agency problemThe measurement of agency costConclusion ReferencesRelated Introduction The aim of this chapter is to explain and discuss a number of prior researches that have been developed in relation with agency cost. The literatures are grouped into four parts based on their different research area. The first part gives the overview of Alternative Investment Market (AIM). Subsequently, the issue of corporate governance in AIM companies will be discussed. The next part will focus on the causes of agency problem. Both direct and indirect measurement of agency cost, include asset utilisation, operating expense and the firm’s performance, will be detailed analysed in the final part. Overview of Alternative Investment Market Alternative Investment Market (AIM) is the world’s leading market for smaller and growing companies. It helps them to raise new capital and allowing their shares to be traded widely. Since it was launched in 1995, over 3000 companies  from across the world have joined AIM and a large proportion of them are in oil and gas industry. Its admission requirement and on-going rules are less onerous. For example, there is no requirement on prior trading, minimum public float or market capitalization. In fact, to be admitted to AIM, a firm is only required to have the support from a nominated advisor (Nomad). Subsequently, the only disclosure obligation for the firm is the general duty of disclosure requiring information which is reasonably considered to be necessary by the issuer which will enable investors to have a full understanding of the applicant’s financial position. AIM membership roles were thus kept simpler for encouraging a wide variety of companies to join, keepin g capital rising and reducing membership cost. However, a SEC commissioner, Roel Campos likened AIM as a casino, and he stated that 30% of the issuers that list on AIM are gone within one year (Bawden Waller, 2007). This comment has aroused great amount of abjections and London Stock Exchange (LSE) claimed that the only 2% companies go into liquidation each year. Corporate governance in AIM companies AIM is crucial for investor’s confidence to the market and companies’ significant failures on AIM market would have a negative effect on the overall confidence in the UK market. A consequence of the deliberately light regulatory burden placed in AIM companies means that they are not obliged to abide the UK’s Combined Code (2006). However, based on the UK’s Combined Code, the Guidelines on the Quoted Corporate Governance for AIM companies have been produced by Companies Alliance (QCA). According to the wide range of interviews and detailed analysis of the corporate governance statements in the annual report and accounts, Mallin and Kean (2008) found the majority of their sample AIM companies disclose some basic elements of good governance practice, such as including a corporate statement, identifying the directors and their responsibilities, and splitting the role of chairman and the CEO, and the presence of board sub-committees. However, their sample of AI M companies did not disclose as much corporate governance practice as they were expected by the QCA Guidelines’ recommendations. Some interesting results were given by the regression of the firm and market related factors on the disclosure score. Firstly, the young AIM companies tend to disclose more of their governance practices than the older ones. Secondly, larger companies disclose more than smaller ones. Thirdly, by the presence of the institutional investors has influence on the disclosure levels. Subsequently, the higher gearing ratio of the company, the lower disclosure level there will be. It also suggested that the AIM companies with no long-term debt may be required better governance structures to protect the claims of equity investors, because there are no debt holders to monitor the companies. In addition, the board size has positive impact on the reporting of governance practice and the companies with small board are less likely to obey to the QCA Guidelines. Th erefore, the efficiency of corporate governance in AIM companies is related to the age of companies, size, gearing ratio, debt, as well as board size. The causes of agency problem When discussing the ownership of an organization, ‘agency problem’ is an inevitable vocabulary. According to Jensen and Meckling (1976), the agency relationship is defined as a contract between the principal(s) and the agent who is given some decision making authority to run the firm on the behalf of principal(s). In fact, for majority of companies, both agent and principals are utility maximizes. Consequently, the agent will not always act in the interest of principal. To mitigate the conflict in interest between both parties is a big issue in corporate governance. Besides establishing appropriate incentives for the agent, monitoring cost will be designed to limit the aberrant activities of the agent. In some situations, the agent needs to pay to expend resources (bonding costs) to guarantee he/she will not take the actions that will harm the principal’s interest or to ensure that the principal will be compensated if the agent does take such actions. Additionally, there will be some divergence between the agent’s decisions and those decisions which would maximize the principal’s welfare. The reduction in the principal’s welfare caused by thus divergence is also a cost of agency relationship which is referred by Jensen et al. (1976) as ‘residual loss’. They also stated that the costs of deviation from value-maximization decline as the management ownership rises. As their stakes rise, managers pay a larger part of these costs and are less likely to squander corporate wealth. However, limited direct evidence exists on the magnitude and extent of the actual costs with the agency problem. The measurement of agency cost Direct measurement Ang et al. (2000) analyzed the how agency cost is affected by the firm’s ownership structure, number of outsider managers and non-manger shareholders and external monitoring by banks. They measured firm’s agency cost with two measures, sales to asset ratio and expense to sales ratio. They argued that agency cost can be directly measured by assets-to-sales ratio as it measures the efficiency with which management uses the firm’s assets to generate sales. A high ratio reflects that the assets are generating significant sales and therefore indicates low agency cost. Conversely, a low ratio shows that manager makes poor investment decisions, exerts insufficient effort, resulting in low revenues, and consumes excessive unproductive assets, such as automobiles, fancy office space and resort properties. The expense ratio is the operating expense scaled by annual sales. It is a measure of how effectively the firm’s manager controls operating cost, including excess ive perquisite consumption and other direct agency cost. In contrast to the sales-to-asset ratio, agency cost is in line with the expense ratio. Banks usually require managers to report results regularly and honestly; consequently, managers may be forced to run the business efficiently. Thus, bank monitoring complements the monitoring of managers by shareholders, thereby reducing owner-manager agency cost indirectly. Ang et al. (2000) utilized a sample of 1708 small corporate from the National Survey of Small Business Finances (NSSBF) database and found agency costs are significantly higher when an outside manager manages the firm and when there are more non-manager shareholders. In this situation, managers’ ownership share and monitoring by banks may be a helpful corporate control mechanism that can decrease agency costs. Singh and Davidson (2003) adopted the approach used by Ang, Cole, and Lin to study large firms and sales, general, and administrative expenses were applied to measure agency cost instead of total operating expenses. Moreover, they analysed the role of corporate leverage in influencing the agency cost experienced by the large corporations instead of the banking relationship because large firms have larger access to the public debt market and therefore less depend on bank financing. They found that higher managerial ownership does positively influence asset utilization efficiency which was in line with result of Ang, Cole, and Lin. However, excessive discretionary expenses cannot be decreased by such ownership. Additionally, larger board size and outside block ownership does not improve the efficiency of a large corporation. However, this measure has three potential drawbacks. As McKnight and Weir (2009) suggested, sales may not actually come from profitable activities so sales may not be consistent with shareholders welfare. Secondly, cash flows that generated by the sales may being expropriated instead of being distributed to shareholders. Thirdly, as Coles et al. (2005) stated, productivity can vary even between firms within the same industry. Generally speaking, Ang et al. (2000) and Singh and Davidson (2003) provided a useful indicator of agency costs. Jacky Yuk-Chow So (2005) noticed that in Ang, Cole, and Lin’s study, ownership variables and external monitoring variables are highly significant statistically when a single regression is applied. However, some of these variables, such as family ownership and a banking relationship become insignificant when they are regressors of the multiple regressions. Therefore, he focused on the combined effect of expense ratio and asset-to sale ratio to measure agency cost using the NSSBF database from 1993 survey. This combined effect was analysed using both internal and external control variables. Debt-to-asset ratio and ownership variables were applied to study the impact of internal corporate control and the firm’s relationship to its bank was as proxies for external corporate control. Additionally, a dummy variable was also employed to capture the industry effect. Jacky Yuk-Chow So proposed that, the ‘combined effect’ approach implies that cash flow is a more app ropriate measure of managerial performance since it captures not only efficiency, but also leverage, which is measured by the debt-to-asset ratio. The ordinary least squares (OLS) method and seemingly uncorrelated regression (SUR) were used to test his hypotheses and found out firms in manufacturing industry tend to have the highest agency cost; family ownership more appropriately resolves the agency problem; cash flow reflect the joint impact of agency cost and efficiency; agency cost increases when there are more non-shareholder managers; the number of banks involves and the length of the bank relationship do not have significant impact to the agency cost. Indirectly measurement Jensen (1986) paid attention to the conflicts of interest between shareholders and managers over payout policies when the organization generates large free cash flow, which is the cash flow in excess of that requires to fund all projects that have positive net present value when discounted at the relevant coat of capital. He stated that agency costs will increase when high free cash flows are combined with poor growth opportunities and hence large free cash flows suggest greater managerial discretion and higher agency costs. Therefore, motivating managers to disgorge the cash rather than investing in low-return project or wasting it on organization inefficiencies is a puzzle of many firms. This theory explains the benefits of debt in reducing agency cost of free cash flows and how debt can substitute for dividends. Managers may increase dividends or repurchase stock or even announce a ‘permanent’ increase in dividend to control the use of free cash flow. However, such pr omises are weak since the dividends can be reduced in the future. In fact, the organization will be punished if dividend is cut with significant stock price reduction is consistent with the agency of free cash flow. Debt enables managers effectively bond their promise to pay out future cash flows. Thus debt reduces the agency cost of free cash flow by reducing the cash flow available for spending at the discretion of managers and can be an effective substitute for dividends. The interaction of free cash flow and growth prospects are used to measure of agency cost in many previous literatures. Opler and Titman (1993) stated that firms that have good growth prospects are more likely to be better managed. They are also less likely to have excess free cash flows because the available cash will be spent on positive net present value projects. Thus, as Jenson (1986), Doukas, Kim, and Pantzalis (2000) argued, agency costs may be regarded as a function of the interaction of growth opportunities and free cash flow. Firms that combine high free cash flow and low growth prospects can be regarded as suffering from high agency costs. Therefore, control function of debt is more important in thus organizations. Acquisitions are one way in which funds can be spent by managers rather than distributed to shareholders. Free cash flow theory (Jensen, 1986) predicts acquisitions decrease, rather than increase, shareholder wealth, particularly from the perspective of the acquirer’s shareholders. There is a significant literature which is in consistent with this theory. Servaes (1991) and Houston, James and Ryngaert (2001) have found significant negative short run returns to acquirers. Agrawal, Jaffe Mandelker (1992) undertook a thorough analysis of the post-merger performance of acquiring firms, measured by the stock market performance of a large number of acquiring firms over a long period of time. They concluded there is a strong evidence of long term underperformance following merger and this result is supported by Kohers and Kohers (2001). Accounting studies such as Sharma and Ho (2002) also show poorer post-acquisition performance. Finally, the survey done by Kelly, Cook, and Spitzer (1999) provide evidence that 53% of acquisitions were believed to have destroyed value. Given the extensive evidence that indicates a lack of positive returns to acquiring firms’ shareholders, it can be concluded that acquisitions can represent agency costs as directors use funds on negative net present value projects. Demsetz (1983) recognized, when a manager owns a small stake, market discipline may still force him toward value maximization. In contrast, a manager who controls a substantial fraction of the firms equity may have enough voting power or influence more generally to guarantee his employment with the firm at an attractive salary. In this case, manager may indulge his preference for non-value-maximizing behaviour. This Entrenchment hypothesis predicts the agency may increase and corporate assets can be less valuable when managed by an individual free from checks on his control. Morck et al. (1988) investigated the relationship between management ownership and the market value of the firm which is measured by Tobin’s Q. They found that Tobin’s Q increases as the board ownership increases from 0% to 5%, declines as the ownership rises further to 25%, and then continues to rise slowly when the board ownership rises beyond 25%. The increase of Tobin’s Q with ownership can be explained the convergence of interests between managers and shareholders, while the decline reflects entrenchment of the management team. The results confirm the conclusion that imposing a linear relationship between profit and the ownership by large shareholders is not appropriate. They also found that the presence of the founding family adversely affects Tobin’s Q in older firms, where the entrepreneurial of the founder might be less valuable. Conclusion The perspective of the development of AIM is optimistic. Mitigating the agency cost is a core part in corporate governance. Based on previous study, agency costs are higher when an outside manager manages the firm and when there are more non-manager shareholders. Managers’ ownership share and monitoring by banks may be a helpful corporate control mechanism that can decrease agency costs. However, imposing a linear relationship between profit and the ownership by large shareholders is not appropriate. The decrease of free cash flow will also decrease the agency cost. References Agrawal, A., Jaffe, J.F. Mandelker, G.N., 1992. The Post-Merger Performance of Acquiring Firms: A Re-Examination of an Anomaly. Journal of Finance, 47, 1605-1621. Ang, J., Cole, R., Lin, J., 2000. Agency Costs and Ownership Structure. The Journal of Finance, 55(1), 81–106. Bawden, T. Waller, M., 2007. London vs. New York: top US regulator attacks AIM ‘casino’. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article1490202.ece (accessed: 14 Jan 2011). Coles, J., Lemmon, M., Mescke, J., 2005. Structural Models and Endogeneity in Corporate Finance: The link between managerial ownership and corporate performance. Arizona State University working paper. Demsete, H., 1983, The Structure of Ownership and the Theory of the Firm. Journal of Law and Economics, 26, 375-390. Doukas, J., Kim, C., Pantzalis, C., 2000. Security Analysts, Agency Costs, and Company Characteristics. Financial Analysts Journal, 56(6), 54–63. Houston, J., James, C., Ryngaert, M., 2001. Where do merger gains come from? Bank mergers from the perspective of insiders and outsiders. Journal of Financial Economics, 60, 285–311. Jacky Yuk-Chow So, 2005. Agency Costs and Ownership Structure: Evidence from the Small Business Finance Survey Data Base. Texas AM International University working paper. Jensen, M., Meckling, W, 1976. Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behaviour, Agency Costs and Ownership Structure. Journal of Financial Economics, 3, 305–360. Jensen, M. C., 1986. Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance and Takeovers. American Economics Review, 76, 323–339. Jensen, M. C., 1993. The Modern Industrial Revolution, Exit, and the Failure of Internal Control Systems. Journal of Finance, 43(3), 831–880. Kohers, N., Kohers, T., 2001. Takeovers of technology firms: Expectations vs. reality. Financial Management, 30, 35–54. Kelly, J., Cook, C., Spitzer, D., 1999. Unlocking Shareholder Value: The Keys to Success. New York: KPMG LLP. McKnight, P. J. Weir, C., 2009. Agency Costs, Corporate Governance Mechanisms and Ownership Structure in Large UK Publicly Quoted Companies: A Panel Data Analysis. The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 49, 139–158. Opler, T., Titman, S., 1993. The Determinants of Leveraged Buyout Activity: Free Cash Flow vs. Financial Distress Costs. Journal of Finance, 48, 1985–1999. Servaes, H., 1991. Tobin’s Q and the gains from takeovers. Journal of Finance, 46, 409–41. Sharma, D., Ho, J., 2002. The Impact of Acquisitions on Operating Performance: Some Australian Evidence. Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, 29, 155–200. Singh, M., Davidson, W. A., 2003. Agency Costs, Ownership Structures and Corporate Governance Mechanisms. Journal of Banking and Finance, 27, 793–816. Morck, R., Shleifer, A. Vishny, R. W., 1988, Management Ownership and Market Valuation. Journal of Financial Economics, 20, 293-315. Mallin, C. Kean Ow-Yong, 2008. Corporate Governance in Alternative Investment Market. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.

Priciples of Managment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Priciples of Managment - Essay Example Introduction We come across teams almost everywhere that we look- from the football field to the office, from the community center to the entertainment club that we belong to. It seems that teams and teamwork are an established part of modern life. If teams and teamwork is so important, it is clear that there should be much attention given to their makeup, strength and functioning so that they continue contributing to the goals of the organization or meet the purposes that they have been set up for. This paper will focus on what is the difference betweeen groups and teams, what makes a team come together, what are the obstacles usually encoutnered in the formation of teams and how can a team be made to contribute most effectively towards group and organizational goals. What are Teams? A team may be defined as a group of people that come together or have been brought together to accomplish some common goal. The essence of a team is a unified effort towards achieving a common purpose, in which each member has a defined role or specific tasks to perform in order that the team objective may be reached. This is where a team differs from a group of people. For example there may be a group of people at the office having lunch together because of proximity or seating next to one another, but if it is decided to make a team consisting of some people from Accounting and Administration to control an excess of office expenses, this can convert people from the same or different groups into a specific team with a now common purpose. A team usually reports to a team leader, and it is expected that the productivity of a team would be greater than the sum of its members due to synergistic benefits. The Difference between Groups and Teams We have seen from the above the difference between groups and teams. A group can be seen as an informal gathering of people in the same organization or community, but when they have a defined common purpose with deadlines and tasks and roles to perform, that is what converts them into a team. Team theory and its development has been a part of 20th century management theory, where it was thought that such a defined and cohesive effort would speed up the achievement of planned objectives. The work of Meredith Belbin in the UK and Bruce Tuckman in the USA has been quite influential in this regard. How to Convert a Group into a Self Managed Team The conversion of a group into a self managed team is a challenging process and puts a lot of responsibility on the team leader. The first step is to develop common goals and a vision. One should also work towards harnessing the value of diversity rather than belittling those with different perspectives. The last step is to foster effective communication. Bringing cohesion among team members is a slow process and is more easily said than done. We have to find out the barriers to change and discover how best to approach the change aspects so that these barriers are crossed or eliminate d. Changing team member attitudes is admittedly one of the most difficult steps in the change management process (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2007) but experts have whittled it down to a series of steps, which if carefully managed can bring about the desired change in the least time possible, with a minimum of fuss. Quite simply, the steps involved in the team building process are (1) clarifying the team goals; (2) identifying the issues that are preventing the team from reaching its goals; and (3) addressing these issues, removing the inhibitors and enabling goal achievement. The team leader may also act as facilitator or mentor to those having difficulties, thereby ensuring that all the resources and support is available to members as needed.

Mission, Vision, and Stakeholders Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Mission, Vision, and Stakeholders - Essay Example This same view was earlier aired by Raynor (1988) where the researcher refers to mission and vision statement as an organisation cornerstone that guide and provide actions, directions and aspirations for the future. Vision statement refers to the desirable (O'Brien & Meadows 2001). In other words, a vision is the articulated goal for the organisation. Unlike mission statement, vision statement is a core goal. Once this is achieved, a direction will be set for the next vision (Soyer & Asan 2007, O'Brien & Meadows 2001, Thomas et.al., 1993). Forman & Camponovo (2004:1) referred to mission statement "as the most basic embodiment of business strategy.. for mission statement is often at the heart of strategy formulation for successful organisation. Raynor (1998) further outlined the role of vision and mission statement which include In addition, Mission and vision statement by defining an organisations' boundaries draw demarcation between one organisation and the other by exhibiting the organisations salient features (Soyer & Asan 2007, O'Brien & Meadows 2001, Forman & Componova 2004). In all, in an organisation the creation of its mission and vision is an important first step in the development of modern, strategic management (Forman & Componova 2004). ... t some carefully crafted and publicly promulgated statement of an organization' s mission, purpose, values, goals, and vision" (Forman & Componova 2004:10) In Wal-mart, the mission and vision statements are defined within five core business principles which include, outstanding customer service, effective and efficient operations, strong capital and liquidity, prudent lending policy and strict expense discipline. However, vision and mission statement are frequently abused by the people trusted to implement it. According to Fama & Jensen (1983) managers of organisations will always act at the expense of the institution because of their personal interest. This is true because bonuses have become a thing of the past (Forman & Componova 2004). Mission and vision statements message must be communicated in precise simple and clear language supported through out the organisation. In today's organisation, this is not often the case due to misalignments; the mission and vision were overstated. Forman & Componova (2004) argued that misuse of this statement is so common and over time hard work is necessary for revival. They caution that, "Unless mission and vision reflect the core values, capabilities, and goals of individual organisations, they cannot shape current and future operations and therefore soon become clichs" (Forman & Componova 2004:7) References Fama, F.E., & Jensen, C.M. (1983). Separation of Ownership and Control. Forman, P.H., & Componovo, J. E. (2004). The business Radiology and the Mission Statement. Journal of American college of Radiology. Volume1, Issue 2, Feb. 2004 Pp.108-112 O'Brien, F., & Meadows, M. (2001). How to develop visions: A literature review, and a revised CHOICES approach for an uncertain world, Journal

Angry Men Essay Example for Free

Angry Men Essay The character in this movie that was the most effective critical thinker was juror 8(Henry Fonda). The types of characteristics that Fonda, exemplify is provisionalism, creativity, and critical thinking. By doing this he is uncover new ways of interpreting evidence, turns to certainty and shortsightedness when arriving at conclusions. For example, Fonda commented on how the boy had been slapped around all his life and was treated poorly. This kind of thinking leads to more external attributions—it was the way the boy was treated in life, not something inherent about the boy or his character. Next Fonda asks the jurors to consider the larger picture: the defendants background, the witnesses credibility, and the defending attorneys motives. He then shakes up the room by presenting a knife identical to the murder weapona weapon that the jurors were certain was unique. At this point, he has them wavering about reasonable doubt. Fonda was clearly self-confident. He had complete conviction in what he was doing and saying which instilled confidence in other members of the jury who were leaning in that direction a guilty verdict. The character that is the least effective critical thinker is juror 3 (Lee J. Cobb). Cobb made more internal attributions for the boy’s behavior. He agreed with the slum kid idea, but also focused on the notion that kids today don’t have any respect or sense of morality. He is basing this decision on his own life situation because of his poor relationship with his son. Cobb categorizes the defendant as a rebellious kid and wants to persecute him. Another example is when Henry Fonda insulted Lee Cobb by calling him a sadist and that due to his own beliefs. Cobb got mad and said: â€Å"I’m gonna kill ya. † Thus, when Cobb said it, it was just the situation that provoked this expression, but when the boy said it, it was an indication of his murderous rage. So this is an example of Cobb is view as bias. The other jurors are shocked that he seems to have forgotten the sure and certain facts of the case that prove the defendants guilt. Now these are facts, you cant refute facts as stated by Cobb. The barriers that prevented three other jurors were racist, baseball fan, advertisement. Ed Begley was racist this become a barrier when thinking ritically because he is so ingrained in the way of his life. He is not simply accepting information at face value in a non-critical or non-evaluating way. He feel that because the boy as a slum kid this is stereotypes which lead to a biased way of interpreting the evidence. He relayed the idea that there’s something about slum kids who belong to certain ethnic groups that makes them i nherently rotten. These are internal attributions which lead to more of a guilty verdict. Jack Ward barrier was that he wants to conform with the majority in order to quickly end the deliberations so he can attend a ballgame. He was selfish and inconsiderate that another person life was at stack. He also stated the he had enough of all the talking and wasn’t going to say nothing. But when was asked why he could not response why. Webber was continually strays off course with advertising stories and slogans. His job was getting in the way of his decision. Not staying focus on what is going on can lead to the wrong decision. Towards the middle of the movie Sweeny, Marshall, and Voskovec all become critical thinkers. Sweeny initially conformed in the public vote, but switched when it was private—suggesting that he went along with the crowd. But then later he remembers information that the eye witness stated. Sweeny did not accuse either of the eye witnesses of lying but question the information. He said that these people believed they saw the boy commit the crime. In other words, they somehow misremembered what they saw and heard. Thus, they probably witnessed an ambiguous event and filled in the missing information with details that were prescribed by their own stereotypes of slum kids. In addition, the police officers and lawyers who interviewed the witnesses may have planted false memories in them by asking leading questions. In either case, these people probably believed that they saw the boy at the scene of the crime—but this was probably due to the misinformation effect. With Marshall at first he refuses to budge until he is presented with sound reasons for changing his mind. He went by the boys alibi was that he was at the movies when the murder took place. Marshall said that because the boy couldn’t remember the names of the films and who played in them when he was interviewed by the police then he obviously was lying but he remembers that the boy was under conditions of high emotional stress. Thus Marshall failed to consider how the stress of the situation could have affected the boy—and just made an internal attribution that he is a liar. However, when Marshall was asked to remember the films he saw last weekend, he couldn’t fully remember them—even without emotional stress. Marshall also eventually changed his vote based on informational influence. He was convinced that the female eye witness had poor eyesight and therefore couldn’t make a positive identification. This was less of a superficial change. Voskovec became a critical thinker because throughout the trail he took down information that he felt was important. Then when it was time to deliberate him then took down more information that each juror had to say. By this his was gathering important information to base his decision on whether the boy is guilty or not. The four types of logical fallacies that are present in the jurors thinking process are flaws in thinking, illogical sequences of thought, stereotyping, obfuscation, and other typical critical thinking errors displayed in the movie as the characters move through the stages of critical thinking development. Fonda and Cobb revealed an emotional argument: The whole debate in which one character called the other a sadist. A scuffle occurred afterward. Ed Begley revealed unqualified generalization: he was a racist who hated slum-kid such as the defendant. He went on a rant in which he claimed not a one of them are any good. Sweeny showed false analogy: When he mentions how the one of the witnesses in the trial just made a up a story to get attention. The character said that he knew because he would have done the same thing, were he as lonely as the witness.

Enantioselective Disposition of MDMA and its Metabolites

Enantioselective Disposition of MDMA and its Metabolites INTRODUCTION Amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) are a group of drugs, mostly synthetic in origin, that are structurally derived from ÃŽ ²-phenethylamine (Figure 1). Amphetamine (AMP, Speed) was initially synthesized in Berlin in 1887 as 1-methyl-2-phenethylamine. It was the first of several chemicals, including methamphetamine (MET, Ice) and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, Ecstasy), which have similar structures and biological properties, and are referred to collectively as amphetamines (Cody, 2005). Since 1887, amphetamine was thought to be a human invention (Berman et al., 2009), but the compound was found in 1997, along with methamphetamine, nicotine and mescaline, within two species of Texas acacia bushes (Clement, Goff and Forbes, 1998). AMP and MET are most commonly abused drugs. They have asymmetric centre and exists as one of the two possible enantiomers (see Figure 2) (Cody, 2005). In attempt to maintain anorexic activity while limiting undesirable side effects, substitutions have been made to amphetamine and methamphetamine. Others have been made to enhance the stimulatory activity or to avoid legal restrictions on the manufacture and use of the drugs (Cody, 2005). The related groups of amphetamine derivatives are shown in Figures 3 and 4. Figure 5 shows another group of precursor drugs that is metabolized by the body into AMP and MET. Administration and neurotoxicity of amphetamines Amphetamines are generally administered as oral capsules. This route results in a gradual increase in drug concentration, which peaks in around an hour and maintains effective drug levels for 8 – 12 hours. Amphetamines can also be injected into the circulation (Parrott et al., 2004). Amphetamines readily cross the blood-brain barrier to reach the sites (Berman et al., 2009) of action in the brain. The acute administration of amphetamines produce a wide range of dose-dependent behavioral changes, including increased arousal or wakefulness, anorexia, hyperactivity, perseverative movements, and, in particular, a state of pleasurable affect, elation, and euphoria, which can lead to the abuse of the drug (Berman, 2009). This causes amphetamines to be associated with acts of violence. Acute drug abusers will develop tolerance, where the same dose of drug has diminishing physiological and psychological effects. They need to increase their dosage if they wish to generate the same stre ngth of effect. Cross-tolerance will also occur as tolerance to one drug affects another drug with similar neurochemical profile. As a result, drug abusers will seek for another class of drug and become polydrug users (Parrott et al., 2004). Chronic drug abusers usually take in amphetamines through injection or smoking ice amphetamines. These abusers suffer many health problems and a reduced life expectancy. They are more susceptible to HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), AIDS (acquired immunity deficiency syndrome) and SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) (Parrott at al., 2004). Clinical uses In accordance with the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971, amphetamines are enlisted as narcotic compounds in the List of psychotropic substances under international control. The list is prepared by the International Narcotics Control Board. These compounds are prohibited to be imported and exported in countries like Japan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Thailand and etc (International Narcotics Control Board, 2003). Amphetamines and related compounds are clinically used for narcolepsy (sudden day-time onset sleep) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in young children. It was formerly used as a short-term slimming agent, as an antidepressant and to boost athletic performance (Parrott et al., 2004). 3,4-METHYLENEDIOXYMETHAMPHETAMINE (MDMA, ECSTASY) History of MDMA abuse MDMA, also known as ecstasy, ETC, or Adam, is one of the most commonly abused amphetamine derivatives that was re-synthesised by Alexander Shulgin during his research career at the Dow Chemical Company in 1970s. Soon MDMA was being synthesised in illicit laboratories, and became popular as recreational drug since then. As MDMA does not have any clinical/medical use, it is scheduled as Class I illicit drug by the American Drug Enforcement Agency in 1985 (Parrott et al., 2005). Also, MDMA other ring-substituted phenylethylamines were generically classified under the Misuse of Drugs Act as Class A drugs, in United Kingdom (Wikipedia, 2009). Chemical Properties of MDMA The methylenedioxy analogues of amphetamine (see Figure 3) are series of compounds referred to designer drugs. They include methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), methylenedioxyethylamphetamine (MDEA) and MDMA (Hensley and Cody, 1999). The synthesis of N-alkyl-MDA derivatives only produces ( ±) racemic mixtures. As a results, only racemic forms of (capsules, loose powder or tablets) the compounds are sold in the illicit market and abused (Matsushima, Nagai and Kamiyama, 1998; Fallon et al., 1999). MDMA is chiral, possessing two enantiomers, S-(+)-MDMA and R-(-)-MDMA (see Figure 6), with S-(+)-MDMA is more potent than R-(-)-MDMA (Lyon, Glannon and Titeller, 1986; Shulgin 1986). The basic structure of MDMA is ?-phenylisopropylamine group (see Figure 6), with a methylenedioxy group forming a 5-membered ring including C-3 and C-4 of the benzene ring (Cho and Segal, 1994). The empirical formula of MDMA is C11H15NO2 (Shulgin, 1986). MDMA is a phenylisopopylamine derived from safrole, aromatic oil found in sassafras, nutmeg, and other plants. The methyl group on ÃŽ ±-carbon (R2) (see Figure 6) of MDMA confers resistance to oxidative deamination of this compound and, therefore, increased its metabolic half-life (Cho and Segal, 1994). According to Cone and his colleague Huestis (2009), S(+) isomer of MDMA is responsible for its psychostimulant and empathic effects and the R(-) isomer for its hallucinogenic properties. Uptake, absorption, metabolism and elimination of MDMA in human body MDMA is usually formulated in tablets of its racemate (1:1 mixture of its enantiomers) in doses ranging from 50 to 200 mg (Pizarro et al., 2004), which is most commonly sold in batches of 3–5 for ?10 (Wikipedia, 2009). MDMA powder is also found in the market at a higher price, indicating that it has higher purity. MDMA powder is not usually insufflated (snorted) as it causes sneezing, pain and nosebleeds. MDMA cannot be smoked and is very rarely injected intravenously (AMCD, 2008). MDMA is absorbed into the blood streams and distributed in body. Postmortem analysis by Letter et al. (2002) shows that MDMA is distributed in cardiac muscle, both lungs, liver, both kidneys, spleen, the four brain lobes, cerebellum and brainstem, adipose tissue, serum, vitreous humor, urine, hair and bile upon administration. Rapid distribution of MDMA in body is mainly due to its basic property of pKa around 9.9 and low plasma protein binding, MDMA can diffuse across biological matrices that is more acidic than blood (Pichini, 2005). After an oral administration of MDMA, the plasma concentration peaks in within 1.5 to 2 hours (Cone and Huestis, 2009). MDMA is metabolized by multiple pathways (see Figure 7), primarily involving N-demethylation and O-demethylenation. The enzymes involved in the pathway are a group of cytochrome P450 isoenzymes, including CYP1A2, CYP3A4, and CYP2B6. Firstly, MDMA is O-demethylenated to 3,4-dihydroxymethamphetamine (HHMA) followed by O-methylation to 4-hydroxy-3-methoxymethamphetamine (HMMA). The enzymes involved in the metabolic process are CYP2D6 and catechol-methyltransferase respectively. At a lower rate, MDMA is N-demethylated to 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA) (a reaction regulated by CYP2B6), which is further metabolized to the catechol intermediate (3,4-dihydroxyamphetamine) and finally O-methylated to 4-hydroxy-3-methoxyamphetamine (HMA). In the reactions, the ÃŽ ±-carbon responsible for stereochemical properties of MDMA is not affected and all the metabolites are chiral compounds that may be presented as a mixture of their enantiomers. In addition to these major compounds, some other minor metabolites derived from the activity of monoamine oxidase on the amine residue are also formed (Kolbrich et al., 2008; Pizarro et al., 2004). N-demethylation of MDMA yields 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), an active metabolite exhibiting similar pharmacological properties as the parent drug. A further O-demethylenation of MDA produces 3,4-dihydroxyamphetamine (HHA) which is mainly regulated by CYP2D6. Additional metabolites are formed by O-methylation of HHMA to 4-hydroxy-3-methoxymethamphetamine (HMMA) and of HHA to 4-hydroxy-3-methoxyamphetamine (HMA), deamination, and conjugation (Cone and Huestis, 2009). The metabolic pathway mainly happens in the liver. Some people with reduced CYP2D6 shows lower metabolic rate of MDMA and thus are more susceptible to MDMA toxicity (ODonohoe et al., 1998; Schwab et al., 1999). Physiological and psychological effects of MDMA Berman et al. (2009), Hensley and Cody (1999) and Piper (2008) reported an increased alertness and euphoria, increased heart rate, blood pressure, respiration and body temperature upon administration of MDMA. United Nation Office on Drugs and Crime (2006) conveys that chronic amphetamines abuse causes agitation, tremors, hypertension, memory loss, hallucinations, psychotic episodes, paranoid delusions, and violent behavior. Withdrawal from high doses of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) could result in severe depression. MDMA impairs the temperature control by hypothalamus. This causes MDMA users to die of hyperthermia (Piper, 2008) and some die from hyponatraemia, i.e. the dilution of blood due to excessive fluids taken to counteract heat exhaustion (Parrott et al., 2004). Neurotoxicity of MDMA Nichols (1986) and Vollenweider et al. (1998) categorize MDMA as entactogens, a special class of drug that produce changes in mood, social interactions or feelings of interpersonal closeness and changes in perception. MDMA shares some of the pharmacological effects of stimulants and serotonergic hallucinogens (Cami et al. 2000; Gouzoulis-Mayfrank et al. 1999; Liechti Gamma and Vollenweider, 2001; Tancer and Johanson 2003). MDMA acts an agonists on various neurotransmitters action especially serotonin. Boost in serotonin turnover induced by MDMA tends to generate feelings of contentment, elation, liveliness and intense emotional closeness to others. This causes people to enjoy themselves without their normal concerns and inhibitions. MDMA is classified as neurotoxin. Studies have found evidence for dopaminergic nerve destruction in higher brain regions. As shown in Table 2, the higher brain function such as memory, information processing and storage, complex stimulus analysis and decision making of MDMA users are impaired. CHIRAL DRUG ANALYSIS Chirality Chirality is formally defined as the geometric property of a rigid object (like a molecule or drug) of not being superimposable with its mirror image (McConathy and Owen, 2003). Achiral molecules can be superimposed on their mirror images. Molecules that are not superimposable with their mirror images are said to be chiral. Each chiral molecule will have at least one chirality centre or stereogenic centre (Leffingwell, 2003). Chirality centre of an organic molecule is usually a carbon atom, bonded to four different groups of atoms. Chiral molecules with one chirality centre exist in two enantiomeric forms (see Figure 8). The two mirror images are termed enantiomers. Both molecules of an enantiomer pair have the same chemical formulae and can be drawn the same way in 2 dimensions but in chiral environments such as the receptors and enzymes in the body, they will behave differently. Enantiomers are identical in all physical properties except for their optical activity, or direction in which they rotate plane-polarized light (McMurry, 2004). Some optically active molecules rotate polarized light to the left (levorotatory) while others to the right (dextrorotatory) (Baker, Prior and Coutts, 2002). A racemate (often called a racemic mixture) is a mixture of 1:1 amount of both enantiomers of (+) and (-) enantiomers and is optically inactive. The optical inactivity results from the rotation caused by one enantiomer canceling out that produced by its complementary enantiomer (Beesley and Scott, 1998). The absolute configuration at a chirality center is designated as R or S to unambiguously describe the 3-dim ensional structure of the molecule. R is from the Latin rectus and means to the right or clockwise, and S is from the Latin sinister for to the left or counterclockwise (McConathy and Owen, 2003; Baker, Prior and Coutts, 2002). Pharmacological aspect of chiral drugs In pharmacology, chirality is an important factor in drug efficacy. About 56% of the drugs currently in use are chiral compounds, and about 88% of these chiral synthetic drugs are used therapeutically as racemates (Leffingwell, 2003). As previously mentioned, MDMA is a chiral drug that exists in two enantiomeric forms as shown in Figure 6. Chemical modification at the positions R1 to R9 (refer to Figure 9) of MDMA results in unlimited number of pharmacologically active compounds, some of which are more potent stimulants than others. Although there are several possibilities for side chain modification, substitution on the aromatic ring contributes the most to substantial qualitative differences in pharmacological effects. Hence, it is important to discriminate between the enantiomers present in the drugs administrated as both the enantiomers of a chiral drug may differ significantly in their bioavailability, rate of metabolism, metabolites, excretion, potency and selectivity for receptors, transporters and/or enzymes, and toxicity (McConathy and Owen, 2003). The difference in interaction between a chiral drug and its chiral binding site is illustrated in Figure 10. The different domain of a drug molecule has different binding affinity towards the active site of biochemical molecules in the body. As shown in Figure 10, it is obvious that the active enantiomer has a 3-dimensional structure that allows drug domain A to interact with binding site domain a, B to interact with b, and C to interact with c. In contrast, the inactive enantiomer cannot be aligned to bind the same 3 sites simultaneously. Due to the difference in 3-dimensional structure, binding of the active enantiomer exerts a biological effect, while the inactive enantiomer does not possess any (McConathy and Owen, 2003). The hypothetical interaction of drug enantiomers is supported by the studies done by Matsushima, Nagai and Kamiyama (1998) and Kolbrich et al. (2008) shows that stereoselective cellular transport of MDMA allows the drug to accumulate at different extent in biological matrices. According to ODonohoe et al. (1998) and Schwab et al. (1999), stereoselectivity also affects genetic differences in the expression of metabolic enzymes that are responsible to metabolize MDMA in the body. For example, CYP2D6 is expressed as 2 phenotypes; one being extensive and another as poor metabolizers. Thus, it is obvious that the stereospecificity of a chiral drug can alter absorption, elimination and cellular transport of the drug itself. Analytical aspect of chiral drugs Approximately 50% of marketed drugs are chiral, and of these approximately 50% are racemix mixtures of enantiomers rather than single enantiomers (McConathy and Owen, 2003). Differences in pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic activities of the enantiomers of drugs administered as racemates are increasingly appreciated (Porter, 1991). Thus, quantification and qualification of drugs of abuse play important roles in the prediction of and protection from the risk to human health (Nakashima, 2006). Two main approaches to chiral drug analysis have been taken. In the indirect approach, the drug enantiomers are derivatized with an optically pure chiral reagent to form a pair of diastereomers, which may then have sufficiently different physical properties for separation to occur on conventional chromatographic columns (UNODC, 2006; Porter, 1991). In the direct approach, the enantiomers form transient rather than covalent diastereomeric complexes with a chiral selector present either in the mobile or the stationary chromatographic phase (Porter, 1991). Each of these analytical approaches has advantages and disadvantages prevail, depending upon factors such as time, purity, chemical processing, and inherent side reactions (Carvalho et al., 2006). Indirect chiral drug analysis In order to successfully resolve the enantiomers, a stable, optically pure chiral derivatizing reagent (CDR) has to be available for the covalent formation of diastereomeric derivatives (Porter, 1991). Diastereoisomers of amphetamine-type stimulants can be prepared using different reagents such as acylchlorides, alkylsulphonates, isothiocyanates, chloroformates. Moshers acid [R(+) or S(-)-methoxy(trifluoromethyl)phenylacetic acid], Moshers acid chloride, and N-trifluoroacetyl-1-prolyl chloride (TPC, also known as TFAP-Cl) are the most popularly used chiral derivatizing agents (UNODC, 2006). The reaction scheme may be illustrated as follows: The purity of the chiral derivatizing agent is vital in the process of separation of the racemic mixture. The resolution of a racemic drug by the R-enantiomer of a CDR contaminated with its S-enantiomer causes an additional pair of diastereoisomers to be formed, each of which is the enantiomer of one of the first pair (Porter, 1991), as shown in Figure 12. As a result, the enantiomers R-R, S-S and S-R, R-S would coelute in conventional chromatographic systems due to their similar physical properties. Racemization during the reaction would bring about analytical error especially when attempting to quantitate small quantities of one enantiomer in the presence of a large excess of its antipode (Porter, 1991). Methods using chiral derivatization are essentially less expensive and do not require specialized equipment or columns. The use of normal, achiral columns allows easy integration of chiral separations into routine analysis schemes (UNODC, 2006). Thus, considerable flexibility in chromatographic conditions is available to achieve the desired resolution and to eliminate interferences from metabolites and endogenous substances. Moreover, a reasonably good selection of chemically and optically pure CDRs is available for derivatizing various functional groups (Porter, 1991). Direct chiral analysis Chiral gas chromatography (GC), High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) or Capillary Electrophoresis (CE) are popular methods in direct analysis of illicit drugs (UNODC, 2006). Direct analysis does not require a CDR for covalent diastereomeric complexation. Instead, separation of chiral drugs occurs via the interaction between the enantiomers and a chiral selector. The chiral selector is an optically active compound that may be present in the mobile phase for use with conventional HPLC columns or it may be incorporated into the stationary phase to provide specialized chiral stationary phases (Porter, 1991). Calvalho (2006) lists the most successful chiral packing materials i.e. amylose, Pirkle type stationary phase, cyclodextrin, proteins, and cellulose ester and carbamate derivatives used in GC. Sometimes, derivitization may be carried out with a nonchiral reagent, in order for appropriate molecular interactions with the chiral discriminator to occur and/or to impart requisite spectral or fluorescent properties to the molecule (Porter, 1991). HPLC with fluorescence detection method is done by Al-Dirbashi et al. (1999) in attempt for the determination of methamphetamine in human hair. Nakashima (2006) claimed that the use of a chiral stationary phase in GC to separate pairs of enantiomers after suitable derivatization with an achiral reagent is able to achieve a powerful separation. Recently CE has become a highly competitive tool for chiral analysis of many compounds since it allows for the highly efficient separation of enantiomers without derivatization and specialty columns (capillaries) (Porter, 1991; Ramseier, Caslavska and Thormann, 1999). For the separation of amphetamine-type stimulant using CE, chiral additives such as hydroxyl-propyl beta-cyclodextrin are added in the running buffer. This eliminates the need of derivatization in analysis of chiral drugs commonly used (Iio et al., 2005; Ramseier, Caslavska and Thormann, 1999). Separation of chiral drugs using gas chromatography UNODC (2006), Pirnay, Abraham and Huestis (2006) and Rouen, Dolan and Kimber (2001) agree that gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) is the most common instrumental technique for analysis of amphetamines and derivatives. However, GC/MS still has its limitations. Chiral gas chromatography is selected as the separation technique if the materials are volatile and stable at elevated temperatures. In addition, if the solutes can be derivatized to form a sufficiently volatile product without racemizing the enantiomers, or changing their racemic proportion, then GC may be the choice. GC offers much higher efficiencies, much higher peak capacities and significantly higher sensitivities than LC. It follows, that GC can easily contend with multicomponent mixtures, especially mixtures from biological samples. In addition, the columns have short equilibrium times, trace impurities are easily assayed, and the analyses are shorter providing much faster sample throughput (Beesley and Scott, 1998). Prior to analysis by GC, compounds containing functional groups with active hydrogens such as COOH, OH, NH, and SH have to be derivatized. This is because these compounds tend to form intermolecular hydrogen bonds, hence reducing volatility of the compounds in the machine. They are also thermally unstable and can interact with either fused silica or the stationary phase, causing peak broadening (Danielson, Gallgher and Bao, 2000). Most underivatized amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) have fragment ions of low m/z ratio, low intensity, and only one fragment ion of higher abundance (base peak). Derivatized ATS usually produces fragment ions of higher m/z ratio and higher abundance. Molecular ions with greater molecular mass have greater diagnostic value, due to the reason that they are not affected by interfering background ions such as column bleed or other contaminants (UNODC, 2006). Capillary electrophoresis as a complementary method in the analysis of MDMA According to Meng et al. (2006), capillary electrophoresis (CE) can be used to complement GC and HPLC methods of amphetamines analysis due to their high efficiency, accuracy, very high resolution, and tolerance to biological matrices. Capillary electrophoresis utilizes the electrical nature of charged molecules and enables the separation of molecules based on charged in an applied electrical field (Landers, 1995). MDMA is an organic compound and so its enantiomers are not charged. Hence, for the separation of enantiomers of MDMA, micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) is utilized (Beesley and Scott, 1998). This is a modified electrophoresis system in which the chiral selector is added to the electrolyte as additives, or be immobilized on the capillary tube surface as a traditional type of stationary phase (Beesley and Scott, 1998). The applied voltage causes the analytes to migrate through the capillary and being separated (Landers, 1995). Figure 13 shows the instrument used for micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC). As seen in the figure, during sample separation, the individual analytes are driven in the appropriate direction by their inherent electrophoretic mobility (neutral species are static, anionic species move towards the anode, and cationic species move towards the cathode) with a magnitude represented by the arrows. Concurrently, the EOF of buffer towards the cathode, with a magnitude greater than the individual electrophoretic mobilitles, results in electrophoretic zone formation as all analytes (neutral, positive, and negative) are swept past the detector (Landers, 1995). The detector produces an electropherogram that is almost the same as the one obtained from the gas chromatography (see Figure 14). The chiral selector used in micellar electrokinetic chromatography is usually beta cyclodextrin. Cyclodextrin is an oligosaccharide with an external hydrophilic surface and a hydrophobic cavity, in which they can include other compounds by hydrophobic interaction (Tagliaro, Turrina and Smith, 1996). This allow for the separation of molecules with different sizes, charges and polarity. The aim of this literature review is to investigate the effectiveness of GC/MS and CE in the analysis of MDMA enantiomers. Not only that, the enantioselective disposition of MDMA in hair and urine is also reviewed. The use of hair and urine as a medium for drug detection is also explored. CASE STUDY Urine analysis Urine is the most widely used biological specimen for the analysis of illicit drugs (Nakashima, 2006; Rouen, Dolan and Kimber, 2001). According to Ramseier, Caslavska and Thormann (1999), urinary screening of drugs of abuse is usually performed with immunoassay, whereas GC/MS is the standard approach employed for confirmation of the presence and absence of a specific drug or metabolite. The goal of urine drug testing may be stated as the reliable demonstration of the presence, or absence, of specified drugs or metabolites in the specimen (Chiang and Hawks, 1986). Despite a number of persistent shortcomings, such as its susceptibility to tampering, urinalysis is a well-researched technology in which most of the problems have been identified and addressed, if not resolved. It offers an intermediate window of detection making test scheduling an important issue in many situations (Rouen, Dolan and Kimber, 2001). The Physiology of Urine Production Blood is drained through the kidney in the rate of 1.5 litres per minute. Ultrafiltration of blood that occurs at the kidney leads to the production of urine continuously. During urine production the kidneys reabsorb essential substances. Excess water and waste products, such as urea, organic substances and inorganic substances, are eliminated from the body. The daily amount and composition of urine varies widely depending upon many factors such as fluid intake, diet, health, drug effects and environmental conditions. The volume of urine produced by a healthy adult ranges from 1-2 litres in a 24 hour period but normal values outside these limits are frequently reported (Rouen, Dolan and Kimber, 2001; Pichini, 2005). Incorporation of Drugs into Urine The possible ways of drug disposition in the human body is shown in Figure 15. When a drug is smoked or injected, absorption is nearly instant and excretion in urine begins almost immediately. According to Pichini (2005), 80% of the drug is metabolized by the liver, leaving 20% of the drug to be excreted unaltered. However, absorption is slower when a drug is orally administered and excretion may be delayed for several hours. Generally, a urine specimen will contain the highest concentration of parent drug and metabolite within 6 hours of administration. As for MDMA, the peak concentration is reached after 2 hours of administration (Cone and Huestis, 2009). As drug elimination usually occurs at an exponential rate, for most illicit drugs a dose will be eliminated almost completely within 48 hours. A number of factors influence the detection times of drugs in urine including the quantity of drug administered, parent drug and its metabolite half-life, cut-off level used, and a number of physiological factors. Fallon et al. (1999) reported that the plasma half-life in humans of (R)-MDMA (5.8  ± 2.2 h) was significantly longer than that of (S)-MDMA (3.6  ± 0.9 h). It is also noted that for many of drugs, frequent, multiple dosing over extended periods of time can cause the drug to accumulate in the body resulting in significantly extended detection times, and leads to the possibility of hair analysis which will be discussed in the later part. The detection times in urine are significantly greater than the detection times in blood because most drugs are rapidly eliminated from blood both by the bodys metabolic system and by excretion into urine (DuPont and Baumgartner, 1995). As the bladder is emptied only a few times during the day, the urine becomes a reservoir of drugs and metabolites (AIC Research and Public Policy, 2003). According to DuPont and Baumgartner (1995), most abused drugs, including their metabolites, fall to low levels in the blood within a few hours of last drug use and so urine samples generally have a short surveillance window (SW) of about l-3 days (see Table 3). AIC Research (2003) also reported that longer detection time of drugs is due to high doses and high urine pH. Despite of its small detection time, urine testing is still a reliable and convenient way of investigating whether a person has abused drugs in the past few days. The comparison between commonly used specimens for drug analysis is shown in Table 3. Case Study One: Stereochemical Analysis Of 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine And Its Main Metabolites In Human Samples Including The Catechol-Type Metabolite (3,4-Dihydroxymethamphetamine) Objectives This case study aims to determine the enantioselective disposition of MDMA and its major metabolites, 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), 3,4-dihydroxymethamphetamine (HHMA) and 4-hydroxy-3-methoxymethamphetamine (HMMA) in human urine. The R versus S enantiomer of MDMA and its metabolites in urine samples after administration of known amount of MDMA is also calculated. Other than that, the use of indirect method in determining concentration of MDMA and its metabolites by chemical derivatization is also illustrated. Results and Discussion Urine samples were obtained from seven healthy recreational users of MDMA. They were given a single 100-mg oral dose of (R,S)-MDMA ·HCl (Pizarro et al., 2004). Participants were phenotyped with dextromethorphan for CYP2D6 enzyme activity and all were categorized as extensive metabolizers (Schmid et al., 1985). Urine samples were collected before and after drug administration at 0 to 2, 2 to 6, 6 to 12, 12 to 24, 24 to 48 and 48 to 72 hour time periods, acidified with HCl, and stored at around 20 °C until analysis (Pizarro et al., 2004). The samples and standard solutions were analyzed by GC/MS using achiral column with 5% phenyl 95% dimethylpolysiloxane cross link (15 m Ãâ€" 0.25 mm Ãâ€" 0.25  µm film thickness) before and after a chiral derivatization. MDMA in the urine sample was derivatized using (R)-(-)-ÃŽ ±-methoxy-ÃŽ ±-trifluoromethylphenylacetyl chloride (Figure 16) in ethyl acetate/hexane (50:50) that contained 0.015% triethylamine as described by Pizarro et al. (2003). Derivatization step functions to induce volatility to the sample for GC analysis (Beesley and Scott, 1998). A baseline enantiomeric separation was obtained for all the studied compounds in a single run. Chiral analysis of plasma and urine samples was carried out by combining the extraction procedure developed for the high performance liquid chromatography analysis method for HHMA quantification (Segura et al., 2002) and derivatization steps developed for GC/MS determination of enantiomers of MDMA, MDA, HMMA, and HMA (Pizarro et al., 2003). Extraction and derivatization coupling was not achieved easily because chemical properties of extracted samples make it impossible for the target compounds to be derivatized. The presence of considerable amounts of HCl in t he elution mixture was responsible for the formation of the corresponding amine chlorhydrate salts making amine reaction unfeasible. An attempt using evaporation of extracts to eliminate HCl be

Problems In Nigeria Essay

INTRODUCTION That â€Å"Africa was a cultural wasteland, until the Europeans sowed the seeds of civilization on her cultural barren shores† amounts to no culture in this geographical entity inhabited by people until the Europeans brought them the way of life. It is tempting to want to be subjective rather than being objective in discussing this topic, but bearing in mind that the Europeans are as rational as the Africans, one cannot but try to detach self from every sentiment in order to appraise and come out with substantial arguments with regards to the subject matter. Africa is of the continents of the world where Homo sapiens inhabit. It has been a stage upon which the drama of human development and cultural differentiation has been acted since the beginning of history. Yet, no continent has suffered: mistreatment; misunderstanding; misrepresentation; misinterpretation and have been misreported either in people’s conversation or on the mass media. The African continent has been described as synonymous to famine, drought, barbarism, peoples without culture until the Europeans in their magnanimity brought civilization to them. These amongst others are the opinions of many Eurocentric thinkers and ideologists. Yet, the fact remains, that the African like the European have eyes, hands, organs, affections and passions; laughs when tickled; angry when provoked; searches for food and security; reasons and judges. Like the Europeans can be murderous, hypocritical, rude, polite, selfish and loving so is an African capable. In whatever ways, the African as well as the Europeans are subject to the same laws of nature. It stirs equivocation in attempting to place superiority of one over the other. Thus, this work shall however, try to clarify the conceptual terms in the topic of debate as well as provide answers to the pertinent questions there in: What is Culture? What is Civilization? Had Africa any culture or civilization before her interaction with the Europeans? What are the seeds of civilization sown by the Europeans? To what extent do these seeds pay the African? From facts  gathered, the work shall evaluate and draw a conclusion. THE CONCEPTS OF CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION In his work, African Culture and Civilization, S. A. Ajayi presents culture as the established pattern of behaviour among a people that embraces every aspect of a man’s life and experiences. He refers to culture as a perceived way of life or the totality of all human efforts and achievements in bid to struggle to survive the prevalent opposing forces of nature. Culture comprises all about man’s ideas, behaviours and products. It finds expression in a people’s language, philosophies, institutions, arts, architecture amongst others. In fact, while everything created by God is nature, everything made by man is culture. However, many people from varying backgrounds have viewed culture differently. In the Western world, culture is limited to ideas, values, and attitudes. While Africans view it as the preserved traditions or ways of life of the forbearers and ancestors. This therefore is responsible for the reason why people tend to equate some aspects of culture of a people such as traditional dances and music, arts objects, traditional institutions, rites of passage such as marriage, birth, initiation, burial and the likes to mean the totality of culture. Technically speaking, Edward Burnett Tylor employs culture and civilization as complement of each other. According to him, â€Å"Culture and civilization, taken in its wide ethnographic sense, is the complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, arts, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society†. Having observed the various definitions of culture, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2002, defined culture as a â€Å"set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of a society or a social group, encompassing, in addition to art and literature, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs†. And culture vary from one people to another, as such it is relative across peoples and places. Therefore, it would be inappropriate to use the culture of one people as a standard to judging another. A people’s culture develops, and this development makes up the people’s civilization and history. Civilization is an on-going process as man continues in his bid to conquer and control his immediate environment for aesthetic, cultural, religious,  social, economic, and political advancement. In a nutshell, civilization refers to the social advancement that occurs in a given society be it in terms of technological advancement, progressive changes in folkways, education, leisure, family life, customs, beliefs, and more. CULTURAL VIEW OF AFRICA BEFORE EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION J. E. Casely-Hayford, (1922), an African (Gold Coast) Nationalist said of Africa that â€Å"Before even the British came into relations with our people, we were a developed (cultured) people, having our own institutions, having our own ideas of government†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Casely means to say that Africans did not need to encounter the Europeans before developing their culture. To say a people that lived for several millennia as recorded in books of history had not the way of life amounts to suspicion. Africa is occupied by many distinct human populations of a great complexity of cultures. They and their history, culture and civilization are inseparable. This is â€Å"because their history is the record of what they did, thought and said; and their culture and civilization are the totality of ideas, concepts and values that characterized their societies†. The indigenous peoples of Africa are culturally diverse as evident in the variations in the elements of culture across Africa. However, there are some common elements in the core African values. Like all societies experience, Africa is no different that the level of civilization across the continent differs. Twenty five (25) centuries ago â€Å"Egypt was capable of producing wealth in abundance because of mastery of many scientific natural laws and intervention of technology to irrigate, grow, food, and extract minerals from the subsoil† while other parts of Africa employed bows, wooden clubs in their exploration. The reason why civilization was uneven amongst peoples when left on their own can partly be dependent upon the environment in which they evolved, and the ‘superstructure’ of the human society. This implies that as humans battled the material environment, they created forms of social relations, forms of government, patterns of behaviour and systems of belief which together constituted the superstructure which was never exactly the same in any two societies. However, there existed interaction between the elements of the superstructure. For instance, the political and religious patterns affected each other and were often entwined. Whenever we try to discuss pre-European  African past, many concern themselves to knowing about the existence of African ‘civilizations’. This flows from an attempt to make comparisons with European ‘civilization’. This however is not the context in which to evaluate the so-called civilization of Europe. The activities of the European capitalists from the period of slavery through colonialism, fascism and genocidal wars in Asia and Africa instigate suspicion to attach to the use of the word ‘civilization’. Western racism which became more pronounced in the 19th and early 20th centuries came to promote the prior unfamiliar predisposition in which the peoples of the Western world saw â€Å"civilization† as their exclusive feat and equated to it entirely mean the Western culture. To them any way of life other than theirs amounted to uncivilized or at best semi-civilized life. EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION IN AFRICA: AN ABSTRACT OF ITS â€Å"CULTURAL SEEDS† The 19th century witnessed most colonization of Africa by various European powers. It was apparently to bring enlightenment to the ‘dark continent’. Over a century has passed by; it seems to Africans that colonialism amounts to material exploitation, cultural expropriation and anthropological insolvency. It is obvious today that Africans have â€Å"benefited† indeed from the cultural seeds of European civilization; for they speak their languages, wear their clothes, bear their kind of names, drive in automobiles made by them, and drink their champagnes. These â€Å"benefits† otherwise known as cultural seeds of European civilization have brought upon the African, gross ego distortion; he is stripped of his self confidence. In fact, he has been dehumanized. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o says: â€Å"the cumulative effect of the experience of slavery and colonialism is tantamount to a cultural bomb. The effect of this cultural bomb is to annihilate a peopleâ€℠¢s belief in their names, in their language, in their heritage of struggle, in their unity, in their capacities and ultimately in themselves†. Furthermore, to corroborate the position of Ngugi Wa, an American Journalist writes of the African experience: The colonialists left behind some schools and roads, some post offices and bureaucrats. But the cruelest legacy on the African continent was a lingering inferiority complex, a confused sense of identity. After all, when people are told for a century that they’re not as clever or capable as their masters they eventually start to believe it. In the words  of an African renowned author and poet, Chinua Achebe in his magnum opus: Things Fall Apart (1959), Achebe says â€Å"the white man has indeed put a knife on the things that held Africans together and they have fallen apart’. In his contribution in the work edited by Byron William (1982), Eileen Egan’s â€Å"Refugees: The Uprooting of People as a Cause of Hunger†, Egan says: â€Å"much of the post-colonial history of the continent of Africa could be recorded in the calligraphy of agony traced by refugees as they crossed and re-crossed new-made frontiers. The nations which sprang up at the wake of the â€Å"scramble for Africa† were heir to colonial errors in drawing borders. The borders carved out in faraway Berlin, cut across tribal, religious and linguistic groupings and also joined groups harbouring immemorial enmities. This is a major cause of civil wars and hostilities which have occurred in such countries as Nigeria, Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Guinea, Zaire, Uganda, Chad, Sudan and Somalia. The greater numbers of refugees in Africa come from some of these countries. EVALUATION Having expounded the concepts of culture and civilization and its evidence in human societies, it then becomes palpable that prejudice and perhaps ignorance of what culture entails, predicated the derogatory assertion against Africa. It may also not be far from fact that for a people to hold that Africa had no civilization until their contact with the Europeans could be as a result of their lack of knowledge of the African continent with her cultural wealth. The assertion made by early European explorers, that Africa was a jungle until her contact with Europeans can be said to be unsubstantiated. Even before the birth of Christ, the Noks in Nigeria were already casting iron and producing terra-cotta. Trans-Sahara trade was already on when William the Conqueror ruled England. It is worthy of note, that several historians of Africa have it that when the first Europeans reached Benin in the fifteenth century: many years before Columbus set off for the Americas, they found a highly organ ized kingdom with a disciplined army, an elaborate ceremonial court, and artisans whose work in ivory, bronze, wood and brass is prized throughout the world today for its craftsmanship and beauty, one that is comparable to what was then found in Europe . How then can a people without culture be organized and creative?  The answer is looming in the air as evident in the quote by Walter Rodney (2005). He presents the description by the Dutch visitors to Benin, thus: The town seems to be very great. When you enter into it, you go into a great broad street, not paved, which seems to be seven or eight times broader than the Warmoes Street in Amsterdam†¦ The king’s palace is a collection of buildings which occupy as much space as the town of Harlem, and which is enclosed with walls. There are numerous apartments for the Prince’s ministers and fine galleries, most of which are as big as those on the Exchange at Amsterdam. They are supported by wooden pillars encased with copper, where their victories are depicted, and which are carefully kept clean. The town is composed of thirty main streets, very straight and 120 feet wide apart from infinity of small intersecting streets. The houses are close to one another, arranged in good order. These people are in no way inferior to the Dutch as regards cleanliness; they wash and scrub their house so well that they are polished and shining like a looking glass In the spirit of objectivity, unless the Eurocentric minds have a different meaning yet to be conceptualized of culture and civilization though, or are able to establish the foundation that these terms are exclusive reserves of the Europeans, their assertion of Africa remains a defamation. CONCLUSION This work has tried to conceptualize civilization and culture; it did not find these concepts as exclusive reserves of a particular people or race. It therefore leaves one in a puzzle why supposed elites such as David Hume, A. P. Newton, Harry Johnson, Margaret Perham, Trevor Roper and others would view Africa as no good until her contact with Europe. Harry Johnson opines that before the arrival of Europeans, tribal Africans were barbarous people who had never advanced beyond the first step of civilization. If these â€Å"elites† have knowledge of history, the experience of the Dutch visitors to Benin in the 15th century would have put right their thinking. In my opinion, if there is anything the Europeans’ arrival brought, it definitely could not have been cultivating a virgin African land with the seeds of European civilization. It perhaps could be the sowing of darnel in the vibrant plantation of Africa cultural heritage. Scholars are not intellectual fraudsters. For anyone to qualify to be a scholar, he must separate himself from all emotional sentiments, free himself of all prejudice, racial injustice and deal squarely and be unbiased in dealing with a subject matter. On this basis, one may begin to wonder whether world acclaimed elites as David Hume, Trevor Ropers, A. P. Newton and others can be referred to as scholars. And for many academic loyalists who do not read between lines ideas presented in books or propagated through other means, here is a clarion call to retrace the right path employing the apparatus of objectivity so as not to be caught in the celebration of falsehood. BIBLIOGRAPHY ï‚ §Ajayi, S. Ademola. ed. (2005). African Culture and Civilization, Ibadan: Atlantis Books. ï‚ §Byron, William ed. (1982). The Causes of World Hunger, New York: Paulist Press. ï‚ §Ehusani, George O. (1991). An Afro-Christian Vision â€Å"OZOVEHE†: Toward A More Humanized World, New York: University Press of America. ï‚ §Lamb, David (1986). The Africans: Encounters from the Sudan to the Cape, London: The Bodley Head Press. ï‚ §Ngugi Wa, T. O. (1986). Decolonizing the Mind, London: James Curray Press. ï‚ §Rodney, Walter (2005). How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Abuja: Panaf Publishing, Inc.