Milton Friedman Essays - Conservatism In The United States

Milton Friedman Milton Friedman has been credited with many different achievements, including being one of the most effective advocates of economic freedoms and free enterprise, being the greatest economist to ever walk the face of the earth, and proving every single word that Lord Maynard Keynes ever said to be wrong. Why these may or may not all be true, it is obvious that Friedman was a brilliant man of many accomplishments. Milton Friedman was born on July 15th, 1912 in New York City. His parents were poor immigrants and his father died when he was a senior in high school. Despite all of these obstacles he had to overcome, Friedman received a scholarship to Rutgers University and got his B.A., an M.A. in 1933 from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in 1946 from Columbia University. He worked as a research assistant to Henry Schultz at University of Chicago until 1937 when he started working with the National Bureau of Economics. There he jointly published the book Incomes from Independent Professional Practice with Simon Kuznets, which also served as his doctoral dissertation at Columbia. This book introduced the concepts of permanent and transitory income. In 1933 Milton Friedman met Rose Director, a fellow Economics student, and six years later they were married. Rose and Milton have collaborated on quite a few books and essays, and have established the Milton & Rose D. Friedman foundation, which promotes School Choice, which will be explained in more detail later. In 1976 Milton Friedman won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory, and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy. Milton Friedman coined the terms only money matters as his emphasis on the role of monetary policy in the United States economy. Friedman is perhaps the most effective advocate for free enterprise and monetarist policies from 1945-1985. His only rival among economists of the 20th century would have to be Keynes. As well as being a Nobel Prize winner and just an overall brilliant man, Friedman served as Senator Barry Goldwater's informal economic advisor in 1964 and for Richard Nixon in 1968, then as President Nixon's advisor. He served as President Reagan's Economic Advisor on his Advisory Board in 1981. Friedman was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1988 and received the National Medal of Science the same year. He was also a member of the Presidents Commission on an All-Volunteer Armed Force and the Presidents Commission on White House Fellows. He is a past president of the American Economic Association, the Western Economic Association, and the Mont Pelerin Society and is a member of the American Philosophical Society and the National Academy of Sciences. Friedman was awarded with many honorary degrees by universities in the United States, Japan, Israel, and Guatemala, as well as the Grand Cordon of the First Class Order of the Sacred Treasure by the Japanese government in 1986. He is known as the leader of the Chicago School of monetary economics. Milton Friedman is the author of many books and two public television series that he did with his wife Rose: Free to Choose(1980) and Tyranny of the Status Quo(1984). His most important books include Free to Choose and Tyranny of the Status Quo( both of which compliment the TV series), Capitalism and Freedom(1962 with Rose D. Friedman); and Bright Promises, Dismal Performance (1983), which consists mostly of reprints of tri-weekly columns that he wrote for Newsweek from 1966 to 1983. Also, A Theory of the Consumption Function(1957) and A Monetary History of the U.S.(1963 with A.J. Schwartz). Milton Friedman has a primary belief in the tenet of limited government. He describes himself as classic liberalism. Today's liberalism views are very opposite to Friedman's, and therefore he is often considered a Republican Libertarian, as conservative is really to narrow a label to encompass his other views of a limited government. Friedman's belief in a limited government is supported by his desires to restrict the scope of government's authority in the lives of individuals and to decentralize the power base of government to prevent a person's unwanted entanglements with a federal bureaucracy. Friedman's belief is that any one

What Are the 7 Principles of Design

What Are the 7 Principles of Design SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips If you’re taking any of AP Art courses, like 2-D or 3-D studio art, you absolutely have to understand the core principles of design. That’s because the elements and principles of design are a foundational element of great art! In this article, we’re going to teach you everything you need to know about the seven principles of design, including: An overview of the principles of design An introduction to key concepts An in-depth look at each of the principles one-by-one Three top tips for incorporating these principles into your own work Let’s get started! What Are the Principles of Design? If you’ve ever played a sport, then you know that there are some fundamental rules that you have to follow if you want to be successful. For example, if you play soccer, then you know that one of the rules is that you have to kick the ball into the opposing team’s goal in order to score a point! While you don’t have to follow this rule- your team could just kick the ball to one another for 90 minutes- you’ll have a much better chance of winning if you do. The principles of design are a lot like the rules of a sport. That’s because the principles of design are the rules and principles that artists and designers use to create visual compositions. Artists use these principles to make sure whatever they’re making accurately and effectively delivers their intended message to their audience. 2Key Concepts: Visual Language and Design In order to understand the principles of design, you first have to have a handle on two key concepts: visual language and design in general. Visual language is the idea that we communicate through visual symbols. For example, take a look at the clothes you’re wearing. Do they have a logo on them, like the Nike â€Å"swoosh† or the Ralph Lauren â€Å"polo pony†? If they do, you’re participating in visual language! Visual language is the way that designers and artists communicate messages and meaning through their work. They can use things like colors, lines, and shapes to make you feel or think a certain way. And since this is the ultimate goal of design, it’s important to understand how visual language works! The second key concept is the definition of design itself. You probably hear the term thrown around a lot, whether it’s about the design of the newest Tesla car or the launch of a new designer clothing label. But when it comes to principles of design, the term â€Å"design† has a very specific definition. In this case, design is the process of selecting and organizing elements or components in order to fulfill a specific purpose. This purpose may be functional, aesthetic, or both! So when we talk about design in this article, we’re specifically talking about how design elements are used to support the artist’s ultimate goal, whether that’s marketing a product, telling a story, or creating the next great artistic masterpiece. What Are the Principles of Design Used For? Artists use the principles of design to make sure that the work they’re creating...well, works. For instance, let’s say a graphic designer is supposed to create a poster for a presidential candidate. It’s going to be really important for the designer to use the principles of design during their design process to ensure the finished poster is visually communicating the right message to potential voters. The same holds true for fine art, too. Artists paint, sculpt, and create in order to communicate with their viewers. Let’s say an artist is worried about how much Americans consume on a daily basis. That may become the subject of their work, and they’ll pay close attention to how their finished piece speaks to viewers about issues of capitalism. (A good example of how opinions on topics like consumerism and capitalism can be expressed through fine art is the painting â€Å"Landscape,† by American painter Mark Tansey.) On the flip side, these principles are also used to determine whether a piece of art is a success or failure. When a visual composition uses the principles of design well, it will succeed in fulfilling its purpose (whatever that purpose might be). But just because a work is successful doesn’t mean you have to like it. That’s because liking or disliking a visual piece involves your personal taste. The difference between the principles of design and taste is important. As an artist, it's important to separate your work from taste. This is true for many commercial artists, where their clients’ tastes might not reflect their own. Even fine artists need to be able to do this so that they aren’t conforming their art to others’ tastes. For a critic, the separation helps them make better judgements. While there’s no real objective way to critique art, the principles of design provide a kind of rubric for assessing whether a piece of art functions. It might make more sense to think of this in terms of baking. Let’s say you’re judging a cookie baking contest, and when you go to taste one cookie, it’s actually a small, round pizza. The baker argues that you should consider it a cookie: it’s small, flat, round, and baked in an oven. But just because the pizza lines up with the qualifications of a cookie in some ways, it’s missing some other important criteria: it’s not sweet, it’s not cake-like, and it’s certainly not dessert. At the end of the day, a pizza just isn’t a cookie. The seven principles of design work the same way. Critics can use them as a measuring stick for art. If the goal of art is to communicate a message, then the fundamentals of design give critics a way of checking whether an art piece does so effectively. For critics, the seven principles of design also help ensure they aren’t labeling works as â€Å"bad† just because they don’t suit their personal tastes, too. The 7 Principles of Design: Explained Now that you’re familiar with the ideas behind the principles of design, let's take a closer look at each of the seven principles. How an artist uses these elements is important to the overall quality and effectiveness of their work. One quick note: if you Google the principles of design, you’ll find lists that feature five, six, or even eleven principles! That’s because there’s not 100 percent consensus on what the fundamental principles of design are. So to create our list, we picked the principles that appeared the most often across the widest variety of sources. Ginevra de'Benci by Leonardo da Vinci Principle 1: Contrast Just like in literature, visual contrast happens when different elements of a piece are noticeably different from one another. When contrasting elements are juxtaposed, or place next to one another, it draws the viewer’s attention. One of the common ways artists do this is by using contrasting colors close to one another. (These are colors that appear on opposite sides of the color wheel from one another.) But this can also be done through the size or types of objects, too. Take a look at Leonardo da Vinci’s work, Ginevra de’ Benci, pictured above. Notice the contrast of the woman’s skin against the dark background of the trees. Da Vinci uses contrast to draw your eye to what he considers to be the most important part of the piece- the woman’s face. Jurassic Park/Universal Pictures Principle 2: Emphasis Emphasis is important for helping viewers see the most important part of a visual design. Oftentimes, we don’t notice emphasis when it’s done well...but it definitely stands out when it’s done poorly! For example, think about the billboards you see when you drive down the highway. The best ones put the most important information in big, bold letters, or use a related image to capture your attention. But when the type is too small or the images are too cluttered, the advertisement doesn’t work as well. The movie poster for Jurassic Park is a great example of emphasis. It puts the most important information front-and-center: from a glance, you know that title and opening date of the movie. But the prominent outline of a skeleton also gives you a pretty good idea of what the movie is going to be about. (Spoiler alert: it’s about dinosaurs!) It’s important to note that emphasis is closely linked to other principles of design. For example, the Jurassic Park poster uses contrast and space to create emphasis. Other posters, like this one for Gravity, use movement, space, and contrast to do the same thing. Principle 3: Pattern Pattern happens when an object, image, or symbol is uniformly repeated throughout a visual composition. Anything can be turned into a pattern, though some classic examples include intersecting lines, shapes, and spirals. Patterns can do many things for a design. It can set the tone for the piece, like if the background features a 70s mod pattern or a repeating image, like an animal. A pattern can also set the stage for other design elements, like contrast or emphasis. In the image above, you can see how the star pattern combines with contrast to reveal a patriotic star, which becomes the emphasis of the advertisement. Principle 4: Repetition In design, repetition is used to unify and strengthen a design. Unlike a pattern, where one thing is repeated consistently throughout a design, repetition is the repeated use of certain elements, like color, shape, or font. When repetition is used correctly, it creates consistency in a design. As a brand, Target Stores are famous for their use of repetition. They use color repetition to help viewers immediately associate an advertisement with their store. A good example of this is the advertisement above, which uses the repetition of colors and shapes (the concentric circles of the Target logo) to reiterate their brand. Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh Principle 5: Movement It can seem strange to talk about movement when some visual compositions are still images. But movement as a principle of design is about the movement of a viewer’s eye across a work. Good art leads the viewer from one important element to the next. If a viewer’s eye tends to get stuck in one place, it’s a sign that some of the principles of design aren’t working quite right! Using movement as a part of your design process has an added benefit: it helps viewers feel connected to what they’re seeing. Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh is an excellent example of movement in action. In this painting, the swirls of color in the sky carry the viewer’s gaze from left to right, which makes you feel like you’re experiencing the night breeze. But on a mechanical level, Van Gogh’s brush strokes create movement, too. The sweeping lines on the mountains, for example, help[ bring your eye to the village, and following the vertical lines on the plant in the foreground return your gaze back to the sky. Steve Jobs Tribute by Jonathan Mak Principle 6: Space In design, space refers to the area around different visual elements. There are two types of space: positive space and negative space. Positive space is the area that the subject of the composition occupies. If you go back to da Vinci’s portrait above, you’ll see that the woman occupies a lot of the portrait’s positive space. As a designer, you use positive space to display the most important elements of your design. On the other hand, negative space- which is sometimes called â€Å"white space†- is the space around objects! If you look back at the Jurassic Park poster, all of the black surrounding the central image and the other copy is a textbook example of negative space. Negative space can be tricky for designers since it seems empty, but it’s actually helping to create emphasis. It helps viewers quickly discern what’s important while also giving a design â€Å"room to breathe.† Positive and negative space work together to create emphasis and visual appeal. Check out the piece above by graphic designer Jonathan Mak, which he made as a memorial to Steve Jobs after his death. He plays with the negative space of the Apple logo, turning the normal bite mark into the profile of the company’s late founder. Principle 7: Balance Now it’s time to talk about the last (but perhaps most important) principle of design: balance. Every element in a visual composition carries weight. The more an element is emphasized, the heavier it is. A designer’s goal is to balance the weight of each object on the canvas in order to create a feeling of balance for the viewer. There are two ways to do this: through symmetrical balance and through asymmetrical balance. Symmetrical balance adds objects to both sides of the center of a work to create symmetry. You can think of this as balancing a set of old-timey scales. You have to add the same amount of weight to each side to keep them level! Asymmetrical balance happens when objects and elements aren’t spread evenly across the composition, but how they’re placed creates a sense of balance anyway. Oftentimes, asymmetrical balance helps create a sense of movement and draws your eye from one element to another. In the photo above, you can see asymmetrical balance at work. The hand and donut are in the bottom of the image, and there’s no identical image at the top! The balance here comes from the amount of negative space in the photo. By limiting the emphasized image to a small part of the picture, the photo maintains its balance. The 3 Best Tips for Using the Principles of Design So how can you use the principles of design in your own work? Here are our three top tips for using principles of design to take your art to the next level. Tip 1: Embrace Negative Space Like we mentioned earlier, it’s tempting to fill up every corner of a composition with something. After all, we often think of space as â€Å"wasted,† right? But remember: negative space is incredibly important to helping the more important elements of a work shine. A good way to do this is to follow the advice of Coco Chanel, the famous French fashion designer, who famously said: â€Å"Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.† Take a step back and look at your composition. Is there something you can take off, shrink, or move that will help create more balance and space in your work? Tip 2: Rethink the Axis of Symmetrical Balance When it comes to symmetrical balance, we sometimes think about it like a Rorschach test where the balance of an image is either left/right or top/bottom. But in fact, the axis of balance for a visual composition can bisect the image at any angle. Take a look at the picture above. The line of symmetry is on a diagonal from bottom right to top left. The image is still balanced, but the axis is tilted, which gives the image a lot more visual interest. It also comes across as more modern, too! Tip 3: Take a Step Back When you’re working on a composition, you’re normally pretty up close and personal with it. But that can sometimes skew your perspective of the piece as a whole. That’s why one of the best ways to see if a composition works is to view it from a distance. (This is especially true if your composition is meant to be viewed from a distance, like with a large painting or advertisement.) Backing away from the screen or canvas will blur the elements together and help you get a better sense of whether the contrast, movement, and balance of a piece communicates your message. What's Next? Are you looking for more AP classes to take before applying for college? Here’s a list of every AP class (and test!) But be careful: AP classes can be more challenging than their general education counterparts. Get the inside information on how hard AP classes really are so you can make sure you’re balancing a challenging schedule with making good grades. So what’s the benefit to taking AP courses? Well, most high schools in the United States add points to your final grade to create a weighted average. Learn more about weighted averages and how they affect things like your graduation rank and college admissions chances here.

How to Place a Checkbox Into a DBGrid

How to Place a Checkbox Into a DBGrid There are numerous ways and reasons to customize the output of a DBGrid in Delphi. One way is to add checkboxes so that the result is more visually attractive. By default, if you have a boolean field in your dataset, the DBGrid displays them as True or False depending on the value of the data field. However, it looks much better if you choose to use a true checkbox control to enable editing the fields. Create a Sample Application Start a new form in Delphi, and place a TDBGrid, TADOTable, and TADOConnection, TDataSource. Leave all the component names as they are when they were first dropped into the form (DBGrid1, ADOQuery1, AdoTable1, etc.). Use the Object Inspector to set a ConnectionString property of the ADOConnection1 component (TADOConnection) to point to the sample QuickiesContest.mdb MS Access database. Connect DBGrid1 to DataSource1, DataSource1 to ADOTable1, and finally ADOTable1 to ADOConnection1. The ADOTable1 TableName property should point to the Articles table (to make the DBGrid display the records of the Articles table). If you have set all the properties correctly, when you run the application (given that the Active property of the ADOTable1 component is True) you should see, by default, the DBGrid display the boolean fields value as True or False depending on the value of the data field. CheckBox in a DBGrid To show a checkbox inside a cell of a DBGrid, well need to make one available for us at run time. Select the Data controls page on the Component Palette and pick a TDBCheckbox. Drop one anywhere on the form - it doesnt matter where, since most of the time it will be invisible or floating over the grid. Tip: TDBCheckBox is a data-aware control that allows the user to select or deselect a single value, which is appropriate for boolean fields. Next, set its Visible property to False. Change the Color property of DBCheckBox1 to the same color as the DBGrid (so it blends in with the DBGrid) and remove the Caption. Most importantly, make sure the DBCheckBox1 is connected to the DataSource1 and to the correct field. Note that all the above DBCheckBox1s property values can be set in the forms OnCreate event like this: procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);begin DBCheckBox1.DataSource : DataSource1; DBCheckBox1.DataField : Winner; DBCheckBox1.Visible : False; DBCheckBox1.Color : DBGrid1.Color; DBCheckBox1.Caption : ; //explained later in the article DBCheckBox1.ValueChecked : Yes a Winner!; DBCheckBox1.ValueUnChecked : Not this time.; end; What comes next is the most interesting part. While editing the boolean field in the DBGrid, we need to make sure the DBCheckBox1 is placed above (floating) the cell in the DBGrid displaying the boolean field. For the rest of the (non-focused) cells carrying the boolean fields (in the Winner column), we need to provide some graphical representation of the boolean value (True/False). This means you need at least two images for drawing: one for the checked state (True value) and one for the unchecked state (False value). The easiest way to accomplish this is to use the Windows API DrawFrameControl function to draw directly on the DBGrids canvas. Heres the code in the DBGrids OnDrawColumnCell event handler that occurs when the grid needs to paint a cell. procedure TForm1.DBGrid1DrawColumnCell( Sender: TObject; const Rect: TRect; DataCol: Integer; Column: TColumn; State: TGridDrawState); const IsChecked : array[Boolean] of Integer (DFCS_BUTTONCHECK, DFCS_BUTTONCHECK or DFCS_CHECKED);var DrawState: Integer; DrawRect: TRect;beginif (gdFocused in State) thenbeginif (Column.Field.FieldName DBCheckBox1.DataField) thenbegin DBCheckBox1.Left : Rect.Left DBGrid1.Left 2; DBCheckBox1.Top : Rect.Top DBGrid1.top 2; DBCheckBox1.Width : Rect.Right - Rect.Left; DBCheckBox1.Height : Rect.Bottom - Rect.Top; DBCheckBox1.Visible : True; endendelsebeginif (Column.Field.FieldName DBCheckBox1.DataField) thenbegin DrawRect:Rect; InflateRect(DrawRect,-1,-1); DrawState : ISChecked[Column.Field.AsBoolean]; DBGrid1.Canvas.FillRect(Rect); DrawFrameControl(DBGrid1.Canvas.Handle, DrawRect, DFC_BUTTON, DrawState); end; end; end; To finish this step, we need to make sure DBCheckBox1 is invisible when we leave the cell: procedure TForm1.DBGrid1ColExit(Sender: TObject);beginif DBGrid1.SelectedField.FieldName DBCheckBox1.DataField then DBCheckBox1.Visible : Falseend; We need just two more events to handle. Note that when in editing mode, all keystrokes are going to the DBGrids cell, we have to make sure they are sent to the CheckBox. In the case of a CheckBox we are primarily interested in the [Tab] and the [Space] key. [Tab] should move the input focus to the next cell, and [Space] should toggle the state of the CheckBox. procedure TForm1.DBGrid1KeyPress(Sender: TObject; var Key: Char);beginif (key Chr(9)) then Exit; if (DBGrid1.SelectedField.FieldName DBCheckBox1.DataField) thenbegin DBCheckBox1.SetFocus; SendMessage(DBCheckBox1.Handle, WM_Char, word(Key), 0); end;end; It could be appropriate for the Caption of the checkbox to change as the user checks or unchecks the box. Note that the DBCheckBox has two properties (ValueChecked and ValueUnChecked) used to specify the field value represented by the checkbox when it is checked or unchecked. This ValueChecked property holds Yes, a Winner!, and ValueUnChecked equals Not this time. procedure TForm1.DBCheckBox1Click(Sender: TObject);beginif DBCheckBox1.Checked then DBCheckBox1.Caption : DBCheckBox1.ValueChecked else DBCheckBox1.Caption : DBCheckBox1.ValueUnChecked;end; Run the project and youll see the checkboxes all over the Winner fields column.

The Impact Of Global Warming On Developing Countries Essay

The Impact Of Global Warming On Developing Countries - Essay Example Global warming has been directly linked to increased emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases. The Earth is warmed by the radiant heat from the rays of the sun, which is generally equal to the amount of energy that is radiated back from the Earth in the form of infra red radiation. Thus the temperature of the Earth remains constant. However, the temperature of the Earth is directly dependent upon the composition of its atmosphere and when there is an excess of carbon dioxide and similar gases in the atmosphere, it blocks the infra red radiation from the surface of the Earth, trapping heat in the lower atmosphere and creating a "greenhouse effect" which increases global temperatures Rapid industrialization has resulted in increased energy use, with the resultant multiplication of carbon dioxide emissions. According to Roberts (2004), energy demand in countries like India, China and Brazil is developing so fast that it may double by 2020, while in the developed countries, the demand for power is fast outstripping supply, raising the specter of blackouts. In fact Roberts (2004) also points out that â€Å"China has seen dramatic increases in its energy consumption in recent years (pp. 143–145). In the words of one scientist; â€Å"China's rapid industrialization has led to upward revision of predictions... While previously we thought in terms of doubling the strength of the CO2 content of the pre industrial atmosphere, current thought is moving toward a tripling† (Broecker 1586).

The Conduct of Health Insurance Policy Fraud in the Rainmaker Assignment

The Conduct of Health Insurance Policy Fraud in the Rainmaker - Assignment Example Great Benefit insurance company has wilfully committed fraud when it continued to accept premiums and new policyholders when it knows for a fact that it is in a precarious financial condition to settle obligations due to its huge debt. I would like to give Great Benefit insurance company the benefit of the doubt that when it incorporated the company, it did not intend to wrong its policyholders but meant to fulfill its obligation. In the novel or movie, the insurance company may have been caused to commit fraud to preserve itself as a business entity because it is already hemorrhaging financially due to heavy debts. They may have employed the initial policy of denying all claims regardless of its legitimacy as a coping mechanism of their dire financial status. So the first measure that I will institute is for the insurance company to avoid the circumstance that will cause them to commit fraud in the future. I will fix their financial position by devising a policy that will make the company liquid at all times to settle all the claims of its policyholders in the future. Just like in the banks, I will require the insurance to have a liquidity that is commensurate to a certain number of policyholders that should a significant number of them will file a legitimate claim against their policies, the insurance company will be in a financial position to fulfill its obligation. Equally important is the institution of a policy of limiting the acceptance of new policyholders in accordance with its financial capacity and liquidity. For the time being, I will recommend that Great Benefits insurance company not to accept new policyholder until it has restructured its financial position.

Synthesis and Properties of Liquid Crystals for VAN

Synthesis and Properties of Liquid Crystals for VAN Synthesis and properties of liquid crystals for vertically aligned nematic (VAN) displays Introduction Liquid crystals where first observed in 1853 and 1855 by Rudolph Virchow and C. Mettenheimer respectively, both observed a flowing fluid like compound which was birefringent (brightly coloured) between cross-polarisers much like a crystalline solid, hence the compound was both liquid and crystal thus liquid crystal. [3, 4]. It was not until the late 1980’s that Liquid crystals and their truly fascinating fundamental properties began their tremendous success in commercial applications.1–5 Subsequently giving rise to the vertically aligned nematic (VAN) mode in the early 1990’s. The liquid crystalline phase can be best described as a hybrid of the two most common phases of matter, Liquids and Crystals. LC compounds diffuse about much like the molecules of a liquid giving them a fluid nature, combined with this they manage to maintain a small magnitude of orientational order and sometimes some positional order in a similar manner as a crystalline solid would. Hence, liquid crystals are anisotropic fluids. Properties of Liquid crystals and the nematic mesophase The nematic phase of calamitic (rod like) liquid crystals is the simplest liquid crystal phase. In this phase the molecules maintain a preferred orientatioanl direction as they diffuse throughout the sample. There is no positional order in the phase as depicted by figure 1.1. Synthesis of Liquid Crystals General Synthesis Generally, the most common liquid crystals are based on aromatic sub units due to their ease of synthesis and obtainability. The vast majority of LC building blocks are commercially accessible or fairly simple to synthesize via electrophilic substitutions such as Friedel-Crafts acylation, bromonation and nitration. For those functional groups that cannot be directly substituted interconverions usually take place with bromine often being the chosen leaving group (e.g., CO2H, NH2, CN and OH). Due to the individual nature of substituents their specific directing effect and a specific effect on the rate of reaction must be taken into consideration. By taking this into account reactions must be carried out in the appropriate order to arrive at the desired product. Figure 1 Electrohpilic Substiutions of Benzene A key advancement in synthesis arrived with the recognition that a wide range of intermediates could be efficiently prepared from alkyl-bromo-benzenes due to the ease of conversion of the bromo substituent into a previously inaccessible groups. From a range of synthetic methods described in scheme 1 a valuable number of carboxcylic acids and phenols can be prepared. This follows on to the synthesis of multi-aryl LC materials where esterification (see Scheme 2) is employed to couple multiple aryl units. Esterification commonly occurs in two processes firstly, the traditional method (Method A) of converting the carboxcylic acid into the acid chloride derivative with either thionyl chloride or oxalyl chloride. The acid chloride is then reacted with the phenol in the presence of a base to remove the hydrogen chloride as it is formed. The second and more recent method (Method B) involves an in-situ reaction which uses N,N-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC) to activate the acid towards nucleop hilic attack from the phenol and a proton transfer catalyst ( 4-(N,N-dimethylamino)pyridine ) (DMAP). Scheme 2 Esterification coupling reaction LC materials with multiaryl cores (e.g., biphenyls and terphenyls) are somewhat more difficult to produce due to the direct bond between aryl sections. However, the development of palladium-catalysed cross-coupling reactions has created a means in which to form the direct carbon-carbon bonds needed. There are a vast number of methods to facilitate the generation of these carbon-carbon bonds but by far the most prolific involves the use of aryl bromides (4) and arylboronic acids (5). Figure 3 Palladium catalysed cross-coupling Alternative to the use aryl bromides are the aryl iodides, there increased stability as a leaving group provide a reaction pathway with an increased rate of reaction. Chloro and triflate are also other viable leaving groups, where the triflate group is essential in the synthesis of alkenyl-substituted LCs. Perhaps the most important palladium-catalysed cross-coupling reaction is the selective coupling that can occur by using a bromo-fluoro-iodo-substituted system (see Scheme 4) Figure 4 Dicouplong reactions of Benzene derivatives As the iodo group is a better leaving group it can be coupled with an arylboronic acid, following purification a second coupling reaction can occur on the bromo site giving rise to the synthesis of LC materials with more than two aromatic core units. In order to control the mesomorphic and physical properties of LC lateral substitutions are often employed, the fluoro substituent is the most commonly used lateral unit, as it is electron withdrawing in nature it renders adjacent H atoms acidic and thus making them vulnerable to strong basic conditions. By taking advantage of this vulnerability the desired functional groups for example the boronic acids needed for cross-coupling reactions are far more easily obtained. The only consistent approach for introducing a fluoro substituent into an aromatic system is via the diazotisation and successive fluoronation of the chosen aromatic amine, which in turn generated from the reduction of the nitroarene generated from the nitration of the bas ic aryl unit. Nonetheless, a broad variety of simple fluoro-substituted materials can be easily acquired commercially and thus synthesis often begins with fluro substituents already present (see Scheme 5). Unfortunately this gives rise to complications when trying to introduce terminal alkyl chains to the fluorinated compounds. Accordingly, a different approach is required and thus bromo-fluoro-iodo-benzene units are needed for successful synthesis of fluoro-substituted LC materials. Scheme 4 shows some reactions of these units to synthesis some adavance LC materials. The finishing touches Liquid crystals for VAN mode displays must have one vital property in order to be considered for this application, negative dielectric anisotropy. Negative dielectric anisotropy can be introduced by creating a strong lateral dipole within the LC material this is done by introducing lateral groups with high electronegativity such as fluorine as explained previously in this section, lateral chloro substitutents have also been considered in order to create negative dielectric anisotropy as they create a greater dipole than fluorine. However, the greater size of the chloro substituent renders it of little use as this subsequently gives the material low liquid crystal phase stability and high viscosity making it useless in VAN mode displays. Figure 5 Subsitution reactions of difluroaryl compounds Vertically aligned nematic (VAN) liquid crystal displays About the VAN displays The vertically aligned nematic (VAN) mode first came into development in the early 1990’s, first generation LC materials were based on rod like molecular structures and managed to achieve fast switching times of around 25ms. Unfortunately, the early attempts to introduce displays of this kind failed. This was for two major reasons, a switching time of What makes up a VAN display? VAN devices are made up of two parallel glass plates separated by a small gap of 3-10Â µm containing the nematic liquid crystal phase, on the top piece of glass sit a thin film of material which polarises a light that passes through it. On the inside of the top piece of glass there is a indium oxide (ITO) layer which acts as a conductor, this layer is linked to a surfactant. The inner layer of the bottom piece of glass is also coated with the ITO layer and the surfactant. The surfactant enables the liquid crystal to be connected with the conductor thus enabling the flow of a current. The display can be designed to be either passive or active. When passive the display does not generate any light itself it instead uses ambient light from surroundings which is reflected by a mirror like surface below the bottom piece of glass. When designed to be active the display is built with a light source behind the display which passes directly through the display rather than being reflected Working principle of VAN displays The average molecular orientation (director orientation) without the electric field is perpendicular to the substrate of the display. With this homeotropic orientation and crossed polarizers, the VA mode is working in the so called normally black mode. For the incident light the liquid crystal in the off state behaves like an isotropic medium (the light sees only the ordinary refractive index). As a consequence very good black states can be achieved independent of the wavelength of the light and the operating temperature. Pixel and electrode design of VA displays allow for a high aperture ratio resulting in a high brightness of the display. These two points are the main reason for the good contrast of VA LCDs.. Since the directors are oriented homeotropically in the off state, they can be tilted randomly in any direction by the electric field. This leads to disclination lines between domains of equal orientation, thus deteriorating the optical performance. Figure 6 VA Mode working display As VAN displays use LC materials with negative dielectric anisotropy, application of a voltage to the ITO films cause the director to tilt away from the normal to the glass surfaces as show in figure 2. This introduces a birefringence because the index of refraction for light polarised parallel to the director is different from the index of refraction for light polarised perpendicular to the director. Some of the resultant elliptically polarised light (all of it if the retardation is 180) passes through the crossed polariser and the display appears bright. In fact, since the retardation depends on the magnitude of the voltage applied to the display, this type of display can be used to produce a range of intensities of light. This is called a grey scale. For VA you have perfect black in the off-state and if apply a voltage the VA materials moves into the parallel position and this is bright. Therefore, you get a better contrast ration in VA displays. The second advantage is the switch ing process. It’s intrinsically faster to move the molecules this way.

AT&T Case study Essay

1. Review AT&T’s past financial policies and financing choices. Were these appropriate for the nature of the business? AT&T Corp., one of the largest companies in the United States, has had a long and storied history. Initially, AT&T operated as a monopoly, but in 1982, Justice Department, broke up the company into individual companies. Prior to divesture (in 1981), AT&T was the largest private company in the world and despite many challenges, AT&T remained an archetypical â€Å"widow-and-orphans† stock for a long time. The term â€Å"widows and orphans† was used to describe stocks with a relatively high degree of safety and dividend income and numbers from exhibit 1speak for themselves. By 1982 the company increased all its key financial indicators. Revenues and operating earnings increased 12% and 6% respectively comparing to year 1981. In ten years, the company raised its revenues, net income, cash and assets more than 2 times. It`s worth to mention that AT&T was able to reduce its total outstanding debt by $ 725 mil and at year-end, the company`s debt ratio stood 42.3% down from 46.7% in 1980. In addition, AT&T neither cancelled nor lowered dividends, and only increased dividend per share by 10% annually. Aforementioned facts suggest that company`s financial policies and financing choices were appropriate for the nature of the business and that AT&T was one stable, reliable and profitable companies in the world by 1982. 2. In what fundamental ways will AT&T’s business change in the near future? Throughout most of the 20th century, AT&T held a monopoly on phone service in the United States. In 1982, through an agreement between AT&T and the U.S. Department of Justice, AT&T agreed to divest itself of its local telephone operations but retain some of its businesses. The principal provision of the antitrust settlement was that the corporation would be split into seven completely independent regional corporations. Each regional company would continue to provide local telephone and other telecommunication services in addition to ability to sell telephone equipment. The remaining or new AT&T would focus on long distance, R&D and manufacturing arms. 3. In view of AT&T’s changing strategic and economic environment, what debt policy would you recommend? What other financial policies are appropriate for the â€Å"new† AT&T? What are likely to be the consequences of these financial policies? The new â€Å"AT&T† was no more monopoly and the company`s management group faced new challenges. First of all, I think that when AT&T was monopoly, managers were averse to risk and led more financially conservative policy. After divestiture, it was clear that the external environment changed and effective actions needed to be taken to beat off intense competition. Moreover, there were several serious questions about future profitability of the new AT&T divisions (especially Western Electric) and it was not clear whether they would be able finance their operations in competitive markets. Taking into consideration above stated facts, at that phase I would recommend to shift gears from debt financing and switch toward equity financing. In addition to the change in financial policy, I would also recommend considering a new acquisition strategy to reach more diversified portfolio and to broaden the company’s scope in other areas.