The Spearheading Commitments of Goldsmith

The spearheading commitments of Goldsmith (1969), Mckinnon (1973) and Shaw (1973) in regards to the connection between budgetary improvement and monetary development has remained a vital issue of level headed discussion in creating economies. The hypothetical contention for connecting money related advancement to development is that an all around created money related framework plays out a few basic capacities to upgrade the effectiveness of intermediation by diminishing data, exchange, and observing costs. An advanced money related framework advances speculation by recognizing and financing great business openings, activates reserve funds, screens the execution of administrators, empowers the exchanging, supporting, and expansion of hazard, and encourages the trade of merchandise and ventures. These capacities result in a more effective distribution of assets, in a more fast collection of physical and human capital, and in quicker mechanical advance, which thus bolster financial development [Creane, et al. (2004)]. The vast majority of the writing has fundamentally centered around the part of macroeconomic steadiness, disparity, pay and riches, institutional advancement, ethnic and religious decent variety and money related market imperfections.1 Among these components the part of budgetary markets in the development procedure has gotten significant consideration. In this system, money related advancement is considered by numerous financial analysts to be of central significance for yield development. Especially, government confinements on the saving money framework, for example, loan fee roof, high hold necessities and coordinated credit programs block money related improvement and diminish yield development [Mckinnon (1973) and Shaw (1973)]. The early commitments because of Mckinnon (1973) and Shaw (1973) hypothesize that the administration mediation in the valuing and distribution of loanable assets obstructs budgetary restraint chiefly discouraging genuine financing costs. Governments are looked with just restricted alternatives, for example, inflationary financing, in this manner much further crumbling the genuine financing cost. Mckinnon underlines that the request what's more, fitting sequencing of budgetary changes in the money related area would be much more compelling once value adjustment has occurred. Truth be told, budgetary improvement is not desolate a component of changing money related instruments but rather â€Å"predictable macroeconomic strategy bundle involving a scope of strategies, including brief money related market supervision keeping in mind the end goal to screen credit value of borrowers and to maintain a strategic distance from bends, for example, moral perils and unfavorable selection†.2 The endogenous development writing stresses the impact of budgetary markets on financial growth.3 Benhabib and Spiegel (2000) contend that a positive relationship is normal between monetary advancement and aggregate factor efficiency development and speculation. In any case, their outcomes are exceptionally touchy to display particular. Moreover, Beck, et al. (2000) locate that money related advancement has a huge and positive effect on add up to factor profitability, which bolsters through to in general Gross domestic product development [Neusser and Kugler (1998)]. Various scholars have underscored the part of budgetary improvement in better distinguishing venture openings, lessening interest in fluid however inefficient resources, activating investment funds, boosting mechanical advancement, and enhancing hazard taking. The issue with the past investigations is that a positive connection between budgetary advancement and yield development can exist for various reasons. As yield builds the interest for money related administrations increments as well, this thusly has a beneficial outcome on money related advancement. Robinson (1952) contends that â€Å"all things considered, it is by all accounts the case that where undertaking drives back streams†. Kuznets (1955) states that monetary advertise starts to develop as the economy approaches the middle phase of the development process and grow once the economy ends up develop. Lucas (1988) states that â€Å"the significance of budgetary issues is severely overemphasized† while Chandav arkar (1992) noticed that â€Å"none of the pioneers of improvement financial aspects†¦ Even rundown fund as a factor of advancement† [Luintel and Khan (1999)]. Consequently the interest for the specific kinds of monetary administrations produced by monetary development.Many observational examinations have researched the connection between budgetary profundity, characterized as proportion of aggregate bank store liabilities to ostensible GDP and monetary development. In any case, the outcomes are equivocal. The examinations in view of the cross segment and board information discover beneficial outcomes of money related advancement on yield development a great many representing different determinants of development and in addition for potential inclinations initiated by synchronization, overlooked factors and imperceptibly nation particular impact on the back development nexus.5 On the other hand, the investigations in view of the time arrangement information give opposing outcomes. Demetriades and Hussein (1996) discover the confirmation that back is a main factor during the time spent monetary development. They additionally found that for most of the nations, causality is bi-directional, while at times money related improvement takes after monetary development. Luintel and Khan (1999) utilized a test of ten less created nations and inferred that the causality between money related improvement and yield development is bi-directional for all nations. At long last, contemplates, which take a gander at the structure and wellsprings of organization back, likewise finish up that the advancement of the money related area encourages the development of corporate division [Rajan and Zingalas (1996)]. Every one of these outcomes demonstrate that an agreement on the part of budgetary improvement during the time spent financial development does not exist up until this point. The part of money related factor in financial improvement of Pakistan isn't well inquired about. This investigation is an endeavor to fill this hole. The target of the present contemplate is to look at the connection between budgetary advancement and monetary development in Pakistan for the period 1971-2004. We additionally look at the auxiliary solidness of the back development relationship within the sight of monetary segment reforms?which were indispensable piece of the advancement procedure of the economy started in mid 1990. The significant segments of the money related part changes identified with the deregulation of the business bank's loaning rates, bringing down of their save prerequisites and the presentation of prudential controls and gauges extensively alongside the lines suggested by the Basle Committee on Banking Supervisions.6 Whatever is left of the paper is sorted out as takes after. Segment II outline the monetary part changes in Pakistan. Demonstrate determination and information issues are exhibited in Segment III. Econometric strategy and observational discoveries are given in Section IV, while some closing comments are given in the last segment.

English Assessment Essay

? Controlled Assessment is a new form of internal assessment. Following a coursework review by QCA, Controlled Assessment has been introduced as part of nearly all new GCSEs, to replace coursework. High, medium or limited control levels are set for each of the Controlled Assessment processes: task setting, task taking and task marking. For each stage, the level of control will ensure reliability and authenticity, and make assessments more manageable for teachers and candidates. Weighting of Controlled Assessments is defined by QCA subject criteria and, depending on the subject, will be  25% or 60% of the total assessment. 1. 2 What does ‘control’ actually mean? QCA has produced a Glossary of terms for Controlled Assessment regulations. The levels of controls are defined as follows: ? Formal supervision (High level of control) – the candidate must be in direct sight of the supervisor at all times. Use of resources and interaction with other candidates is tightly prescribed. Informal supervision (Medium level of control) – questions/tasks are outlined, the use of resources is not tightly prescribed and assessable outcomes may be informed by group work. Supervision is confined to (i) ensuring that the contributions of individual candidates are recorded accurately, and (ii) ensuring that plagiarism does not take place. The supervisor may provide limited guidance to candidates. Limited supervision (Limited level of control) – requirements are clearly specified, but some work may be completed without direct supervision and will not contribute directly to assessable outcomes. ? ? 1. 3 What is the purpose of this Guide? This Guide provides detailed information for teachers about how to manage Controlled Assessment: some of the information applies to all GCSE subjects and some information provides subject specific guidance. It is important to make the point that this Guide plays a secondary role to the Specification itself. The Specification is the document on which assessment is based and specifies what content and skills need to be covered in delivering the course. At all times,  © OCR 2009 Guide to Controlled Assessment in GCSE Applied Business 3. therefore, this teacher support should be read in conjunction with the Specification. If clarification on a particular point is sought then that clarification should be found in the Specification itself. Teaching of this qualification will vary greatly from school to school and from teacher to teacher. With that in mind, this Guide is offered as guidance but may be subject to modifications by the individual teacher. 4  © OCR 2009 Guide to Controlled Assessment in GCSE Applied Business 2 Summary of the Controlled Assessment units Unit A242: Making your mark in business. This unit represents 60% of the total GCSE (Single Award) marks and 30% of the total GCSE (Double Award) marks. It has a maximum of 60 marks. Candidates will choose one business scenario from a selection of five. They then choose a local business on which to base their subsequent research and complete all the tasks. This unit is internally assessed, applying the principles of Controlled Assessment. Controls are set within the assessment in each of the stages of the assessment process: Task setting: high level of control in relation to the setting of tasks. Task taking: this stage is divided into 2 different stages, each with a different level of control: – Research/data collection: limited level of control – Analysis and evaluation: high level of control Task marking: medium level of control. More information about each stage of the process is provided in the following sections of this Guide. Unit A244: Business and you This unit represents 60% of the total GCSE (Single Award) marks and 30% of the total GCSE (Double Award) marks. It has a maximum of 60 marks. Candidates will choose one job role from a selection of five and investigate a range of human resource activities in relation to this role. This unit is internally assessed, applying the principles of Controlled Assessment. Controls are set within the assessment in each of the stages of the assessment process: Task setting: high level of control in relation to the setting of tasks. Task taking: this stage is divided into 2 different stages, each with a different level of control: – Research/data collection: limited level of control – Analysis and evaluation: high level of control Task marking: medium level of control. More information about each stage of the process is provided in the following sections of this Guide.  © OCR 2009 Guide to Controlled Assessment in GCSE Applied Business 5 3 Teacher guidance on how to plan Controlled Assessment 3. 1 Controlled Assessment delivery flow chart Timetabled Lessons OCR set tasks for centres Unit A242 Making your mark in business Task 1: Get prepared 2 hours Teacher Guidance/ Feedback Candidates Work in Progress Task induction Task research Task 2: Research Up to 30 hours Task 3: Consider your results 5 hours Task 4: Attract customers 6 hours Candidates Work in Progress Review outcomes of research. Task 5: Reflect on outcome 2 hours Unit A244 Business and you Task 1: Research Up to 30 hours Candidates Produce Outcome for Assessment Task completion Task authentication Task 2: Apply for the post 5 hours Task 3: Getting selected 5 hours Task 4: Best practice – induction 2 hours Evaluation/ Review Task 5: A promotional opportunity 3 hours Teacher Assessment and Submission to OCR for Moderation by specified deadlines Submission of marks: January series: 10 January June series: 15 May 6  © OCR 2009 Guide to Controlled Assessment in GCSE Applied Business 3. 2 Guidance on the release of Controlled Assessment tasks to candidates 3. 2. 1 Choice of Controlled Assessment task For these GCSEs in Applied Business, OCR will assume a high level of control with regard to task setting. A number of scenarios will be available from OCR for the Controlled Assessment units. Once a scenario has been chosen, then the candidate will carry out necessary research in order to respond to a series of tasks. These tasks have been designed to meet the full assessment requirements of the unit. It is important that before candidates begin the assessment, they are equipped with the necessary knowledge, understanding and skills specified in each of the unit specifications for Units A242 and A244. Unit A242 – The candidate must choose one business scenario from a list of five and then choose a local business on which to base their subsequent investigations. The series of tasks which the candidate must complete are supplied by OCR. It should be noted that the types of business scenario have been chosen to be as wide ranging as possible to suit all centre requirements. Unit A244 – The candidate must choose one job role scenario from a list of five and investigate a range of human resource activities in relation to this role. The series of tasks which the candidate must complete are supplied by OCR. It should be noted that the types of job role scenarios have been chosen to be as wide ranging as possible to suit all centre requirements. Further guidance on how to choose a scenario for the Controlled Assessment will be provided within the Controlled Assessment scenario. Live OCR Controlled Assessment material must NOT be used as practice material. Centres should devise their own practice material or use the specimen Controlled Assessment material. 3. 2.2 When and how to give Controlled Assessment tasks to candidates Controlled Assessment tasks will be available from Interchange from 1 June 2009. Centres must be aware that live Controlled Assessment material will be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure to ensure that it continues to be fit for purpose. Should it be necessary to amend or revise the material then centres will be notified. Centres should refer to the sample scheme of work and lesson plans which are available to download from OCR’s website to assist planning and delivery of the Controlled Assessment units and its assessments.  © OCR 2009 Guide to Controlled Assessment in GCSE Applied Business 7 3. 3 Guidance on research/data collection There must be a medium level of supervision when candidates complete the research/data collection element of these units. Candidates may need access to the internet; library, textbooks, and/or optional visits to local businesses. This research element can be carried out as part of a group or individually as outlined in the specification. (a) Authenticity control: Candidate can complete the research individually or in a group without direct teacher supervision. In Unit A242, each candidate MUST carry out both individual and group research. The write up of findings and responding to tasks must be completed individually and under direct supervision. The teacher must be able to authenticate the work. (b) Feedback control: Feedback to the candidate will be permissible but tightly defined. Within these specifications, OCR expects teachers to equip candidates with the knowledge, understanding and skills which they will need before they respond to the tasks. It should be remembered that candidates are required to reach their own judgements and conclusions without any guidance or assistance from others. When supervising tasks, teachers are expected to: Exercise continuing supervision of work in order to monitor progress and to prevent plagiarism Exercise continuing supervision of practical work to ensure essential compliance with Health and Safety requirements Ensure that the work is completed in accordance with the specification requirements and can be assessed in accordance with the specified marking criteria and procedures. (c) Time control: The overall time limits available to the candidate to complete the Controlled Assessments are specified in Sections 4. 1 and 4. 2 of these specifications. A more detailed breakdown of time limits for particular tasks is contained in the specimen Controlled Assessment material for Units A242 and A244. Tasks should be completed within the time limits set, and be supervised and marked by the teacher. Some of the work, by its very nature, may be undertaken outside the centre, eg research work. The use and application of the research material will be undertaken under direct teacher supervision. With all internally assessed work, the teacher must be satisfied that the work submitted for assessment is the candidate’s own work and be able to authenticate it using the specified procedure in Section 5. 4. 4 of these specifications. (d) Collaboration control: Group work is permissible in some cases for the research phase of the units. However, each candidate must respond to the tasks individually. Where group work is suggested as an alternative to individual work, candidates will still be analysing the outcome of the group work on an individual basis before forming their own conclusions. (e) Resource control: Access to resources will be limited to those appropriate to the task and as required by the unit. Candidates will need to be provided with the most appropriate materials and equipment to allow them full access to the marking criteria but this must be closely monitored and supervised, especially the level of ICT access. During the write up (Unit A242 Tasks 3, 4 and 5 and Unit A244 Tasks 2, 3, 4 and 5) candidates should only have access to their research which they have made during the research phase of task taking (Unit A242 Task 2 and Unit A244 Task 1). Generating and reviewing the action plan should be done in the specific time allocated for the completion of this task and should not form part of the write-up phase. It is the responsibility of the 8  © OCR 2009 Guide to Controlled Assessment in GCSE Applied Business centre to ensure that these are only research and that they do not include a draft or final version of the tasks 3. 4 Guidance on the production of the outcome 3. 4. 1 Controls for the production of the outcome Teachers must keep live Controlled Assessment tasks secure and confidential at all times whilst in their possession. For example, candidates may collect the results of any research or investigations undertaken in a research folder which must be handed in to the teacher before the writing up sessions begin. In such circumstances, it is the responsibility of the teacher to keep the research folders secure between the writing up sessions and that candidates do not have access to these folders outside of the allotted sessions. There must be a high level of supervision when candidates complete the Controlled Assessment tasks for these units. Although candidates will  have access to their research notes, they must work individually and be supervised at all times. Analysis and evaluation of findings – high control When candidates analyse and evaluate their findings as they address each of the Controlled Assessment tasks (excluding the research tasks, which carry no marks), they must be supervised at all times and work individually. Completing the tasks The candidate will be provided with sufficient time to complete all of the tasks. It is suggested that evidence is produced in a number of sessions, each focusing on a specific mini-task. Each candidate must produce individual and authentic evidence for each of the (mini) tasks. It is particularly important that those candidates who conducted research as part of the group still produce individual evidence. The teacher may give appropriate support and guidance to the candidates during the research phase of these units but not during the write-up phase. This support and guidance should focus on checking that the candidates understand what is expected of them. It is not acceptable for the teacher to provide model responses or to work through answers in detail. The candidate will have the opportunity to use information from a wide range of resources as part of their research time in Units A242 and A244. This research will help them to produce evidence which is clearly targeted to meeting the assessment requirements of each of the remaining tasks. It is not permissible, however, for candidates to introduce any new material into their evidence that is not accessed during this research time, and teachers must safeguard against this. Candidates must also be guided on the use of information to ensure that confidentiality and intellectual property rights are maintained at all times. It is essential that any material directly used from a source is appropriately and rigorously referenced. In both Units A242 and A244, candidates  © OCR 2009 Guide to Controlled Assessment in GCSE Applied Business 9 will be asked to complete a bibliography during their research time which will be required for review at the point of internal assessment and external moderation. 3. 4. 2 Controlled Assessment task security It is the responsibility of the centre to ensure that downloaded Controlled Assessment Tasks and candidates’ scripts are stored securely. Any breach in security must be reported to OCR as soon a possible by submitting a written report (a blank report form is available on Interchange) from Head of Centre to the OCR Quality and Standards Division detailing the circumstances, the candidates concerned and any action taken. Candidates’ scripts for all completed Controlled Assessment tasks must be stored securely and they should be available for moderation. It is suggested that they are destroyed after the last date for Enquiries about Results following the examination series in which entries for the units concerned are made. Candidate absence at the time of assessment If a candidate is absent from a centre when an assessment is carried out, the Controlled Assessment task may be set at an alternative time provided that the centre is satisfied that security has been maintained by keeping all materials secure. Unexpected circumstances If an unexpected problem (such as a fire alarm or other circumstances beyond the teachers’ control) occurs while a Controlled Assessment task is taking place, the task may be resumed subsequently provided the teacher ensures that no candidate is likely to have been advantaged or disadvantaged by doing so. 3. 4.3 Presentation of work Candidates must observe certain procedures in the production of Controlled Assessments. ? charts, graphs, images and tables may be produced using appropriate ICT. These should be inserted into the candidate’s evidence at the appropriate place any copied material must be suitably acknowledged quotations must be clearly marked and a reference provided wherever possible work submitted for moderation or marking must be marked with the: – centre number – centre name – candidate number – candidate name – unit code and title. ? ? ? 10  © OCR 2009 Guide to Controlled Assessment in GCSE Applied Business Work submitted on paper for moderation or marking must be secured by treasury tags. Work submitted in digital format (CD or online) must be in a suitable file structure as shown in Appendix B of the Specification.  © OCR 2009 Guide to Controlled Assessment in GCSE Applied Business 11 4 Controlled Assessment candidate guidelines 4. 1 Task setting For this subject OCR will provide a list of tasks. 4. 2 Task taking 4. 2. 1 What can I do in relation to research, drafting and re-drafting? Your teacher will discuss the tasks on offer and the proposed areas of enquiry and the resources available. An induction period into the research methods, sourcing and the use of equipment may also take place. Time constraints and a programme should be adopted and this will be explained by your teacher. Your research and planning may involve interviews, fieldwork, visits, library research, internet research or questionnaires. You should keep a record of the sources you have consulted at this stage and this will form part of your portfolio. You should provide a plan of action to the teacher which can be discussed. You teacher will inform you what materials are appropriate and inappropriate. Your draft piece will be discussed with your teacher and they may offer advice, answer any questions and give feedback. Throughout this process your teacher will supervise to ensure there is no plagiarism and will ensure all your work is within the Health and Safety requirements and that all candidates work is in accordance with the Controlled Assessment regulations. At no stage will model answers be provided. You should reach your own conclusions and make your own judgements and any teacher support will be recorded. You may be given opportunity to edit, check redraft and reorganise your work. During this period your teacher may make general observations but will not give any specific advice. 4. 2. 2 How much teacher support can I expect? During your work for Controlled Assessment you must produce work/evidence independently but your teacher will be able to give you some advice, support, guidance and feedback but the amount will vary depending upon the type of task you are doing. You must make your own judgements and draw your own conclusions but your teacher will: 12  ©OCR 2009 Guide to Controlled Assessment in GCSE Applied Business ? ? Offer advice about how best to approach a task offer guidance on the way you work in groups so that you all have an opportunity to tackle your tasks offer advice to help your research, possibly arranging visits to place of interest, if this is appropriate monitor your progress to make sure your work gets underway in a planned and timely manner ensure that your work meets the Specification requirements keep a log of the feedback they give you supervise any practical work you do to ensure you receive advice about health and safety. ? ? ? ? ? The support given by your teacher will be to make sure you understand what it is you have to do. Your teacher will not be allowed to provide model responses for you or work through your responses or outcomes in detail. 4. 2. 3 What can I expect in the supervised sessions? This period should include some form of evaluation either in the written form, in a teacher interview or a presentation to the group. For the last two your teacher may record these sessions. This is particularly essential in group work where the teacher will be attempting to ascertain your individual contribution within the group. You should reference all sources used and any materials you have used in the whole piece whether in supervised or unsupervised sessions. Quotations should be clearly marked and referenced to ensure all intellectual property rights are maintained. It is unlikely that complete downloaded documents from the internet are suitable. Your teacher will sign an authentication form to complete the process. You may also be asked to sign the form.  © OCR 2009 Guide to Controlled Assessment in GCSE Applied Business 13 5 Teacher guidance on task marking 5. 1 Generic guidance on how to mark Controlled Assessment tasks The marking criteria detail the skills, knowledge and understanding which the candidate is required to demonstrate. The (mini) task should be marked by the teacher according to the given marking criteria using a ‘best fit’ approach. For each of the (mini) tasks, the assessor should select the descriptors, provided in the marking criteria, which most closely describe the quality of work being marked. Marking should be positive, rewarding achievement rather than penalising failure or omissions. The award of marks must be directly related to the marking criteria. Teachers use their professional judgement in selecting the descriptor which best describes the work of the candidate. To select the most appropriate mark within this descriptor, teachers should use the following guidance: ? where the candidate’s work convincingly meets the descriptor, the higher marks in the mark range should be awarded where the candidate’s work adequately meets the descriptor, the most appropriate mark in the middle range should be awarded where the candidate’s work just meets the descriptor, the lowest marks in the mark range should be awarded. ? ? The final mark for the candidate for each unit is out of a total of 60 and is found by totalling the marks for each of the (mini) tasks. 5. 2 Unpacking assessment objectives in Controlled Assessment tasks Assessment objectives (AOs) identify what the candidate has to do. They specify the context and use the ‘command words’ to indicate the level of the intellectual task, so, for example, the candidate may be directed to ‘identify’, ‘describe’ or ‘explain’. 14  © OCR 2009 Guide to Controlled Assessment in GCSE Applied Business Assessment objective 1 assesses candidates’ ability to recall, select and communicate their knowledge and understanding of concepts issues and  terminology; Assessment objective 2 assesses candidates’ ability to apply skills, knowledge and understanding in a variety of contexts and in planning and carrying out investigations and tasks; Assessment objective 3 assesses candidates’ ability to analyse and evaluate, make reasoned judgements and present conclusions. 5. 3 Interpretation of the Controlled Assessment marking criteria These general assessment objectives have been contextualised to the specific tasks in each Controlled Assessment (see the assessment grids below). So the teacher needs to: 1.identify the knowledge and skills the candidate will need to demonstrate if they have meet the AO 2. identify what the candidate has to do with this knowledge and/or skill; for example, should they be describing or explaining? Each assessment objective has been written at 3 levels, which increase in intellectual difficulty. The teacher will need to make a holistic judgement of which level (1, 2 or 3) best fits the candidate’s work. In general terms, a candidate who is able to produce some limited evidence for achieve Mark Band 1. A candidate who produces a range or evidence but significant gaps in coverage, knowledge and understanding, is likely to achieve candidate who has addresses most, or all of the issues needed to fully complete to achieve Mark Band 3. a task is likely to where there are Mark Band 2. A the tasks is likely For example, in Mark Band 1 a candidate might identify some relevant knowledge required to address the task but fails to adequately explain the issues. In Mark Band 2 a candidate might list a comprehensive range of issues and explore them all to the required standard but some explanations are incorrect or lacking application to the context. In Mark Band 3 a candidate is likely to identify an appropriate range of issues and analyse them all appropriately, in depth and within the required context. 5. 4 Authentication of Controlled Assessment outcomes Teachers must be confident that the work they mark is the candidate’s own. This does not mean that a candidate must be supervised throughout the completion of all work but the teacher/course tutor must exercise sufficient supervision, or introduce sufficient checks, to be in a position to judge the authenticity of the candidate’s work. Candidates must not plagiarise. Plagiarism is the submission of another’s work as one’s own and/or failure to acknowledge the source correctly. Plagiarism is considered to be malpractice and could lead to the candidate being disqualified. Plagiarism sometimes occurs innocently when candidates are unaware of the need to reference or acknowledge their sources. It is therefore  © OCR 2009 Guide to Controlled Assessment in GCSE Applied Business 15 important that centres ensure that candidates understand that the work they submit must be their own and that they understand the meaning of plagiarism and what penalties may be applied. Candidates may refer to research, quotations or evidence but they must list their sources. The rewards from acknowledging sources, and the credit they will gain from doing so, should be emphasised to candidates, as well as the potential risks of failing to acknowledge such material. The candidate must sign a declaration to this effect. Centres should reinforce this message to ensure that candidates understand what is expected of them. Please note: Centres must confirm to OCR that the evidence produced by the candidate is authentic. The Centre Authentication Form includes a declaration for assessors to sign. It is a requirement of the QCA Common Criteria for all Qualifications that proof of authentication is received. 5. 5 Internal Standardisation of Controlled Assessment It is important that all internal assessors, working in the same subject area, work to common standards. Centres must ensure that the internal standardisation of marks across assessors and teaching groups takes place using an appropriate procedure. This can be done in a number of ways. In the first year, reference material and OCR training meetings will provide a basis for centres’ own standardisation. In subsequent years, this, or centres’ own archive material, may be used. Centres are advised to hold preliminary meetings of staff involved to compare standards through cross-marking a small sample of work. After most marking has been completed, a further meeting at which work is exchanged and discussed will enable final adjustments to be made. 5. 6 Moderation of Controlled Assessment All work is marked by the teacher and internally standardised by the centre. Marks are then submitted to OCR, after which moderation takes place in accordance with OCR procedures: refer to the OCR website for submission dates of the marks to OCR. The purpose of moderation is to ensure that the standard of the award of marks for work is the same for each centre and that each teacher has applied the standards appropriately across the range of candidates within the centre. The sample of work which is presented to the Moderator for moderation must show how the marks have been awarded in relation to the marking criteria. Each candidate’s work should have a cover sheet attached to it with a summary of the marks awarded. If the work is to be submitted in digital format this cover sheet should also be submitted electronically within each of the candidate’s files. 5. 7 Minimum requirements for Controlled Assessment There should be clear evidence that work has been attempted and some work produced. If a candidate submits no work for an internally assessed component, then the candidate should be indicated as being absent from that component on the mark sheets submitted to OCR. If a candidate completes any work at all for an internally assessed component, then the work should be assessed according to the internal assessment objectives and marking instructions and the appropriate mark awarded, which may be zero. 16.  © OCR 2009 Guide to Controlled Assessment in GCSE Applied Business 5. 8 Submission date for Controlled Assessment Candidate’s marks must be despatched to the Moderator and to OCR. Please refer to the OCR website for details of submission dates relevant to the current series of examinations.  © OCR 2009 Guide to Controlled Assessment in GCSE Applied Business 17 6 FAQs What are the dates in which the Controlled Assessments can be taken? Controlled Assessment is a form of internal assessment and as such there isn’t a specified date in which Controlled Assessment has to be taken. It is up to the centre to decide when Controlled Assessment will be taken: guidance on this can be found in Section 5: Controlled Assessment of all revised GCSE Specifications (first teaching in September 2009). When can teachers and candidates access the material? Controlled Assessment tasks will be available from Interchange on 1 June of the year prior to an assessment series, i. e. 1 June 2009 for assessment in June 2010 series. Tasks may be reviewed and it is the responsibility of centres to make sure that candidates are submitting the correct task. Why are you not making hard copies available to centres? This is an internal assessment and centres are responsible for the resource of internal assessment. It would be impossible to despatch hard copies of the Controlled Assessment without vast amounts of provisional entry data. Can any preparation work be done out of the classroom? Yes. Controls are set at the level of tasks setting, task taking and task marking. Preparation work comes into the task taking level, under Research and Data Collection, which have a limited level of control i. e. work can be carried out without direct supervision. More guidance on this can be found can be found in Section 5: Controlled Assessment of all revised GCSE Specifications (first teaching in September 2009). Is there a minimum or maximum time that can be spent on the assessments? Suggested time limits vary per subject: there are suggested time limits given in Section 5: Controlled Assessment of all revised GCSE Specifications (first teaching in September 2009). Where can the Controlled materials be accessed and by whom? Controlled Assessment tasks and other documents are accessed via Interchange. Centre access to the Interchange Controlled Assessment area will be available to the registered Centre User (normally the Examinations Officer). However, the Centre User can set access permissions to others within their centre, eg HODs, subject leaders or subject teachers. How long is each assessment valid for i. e can we use last year’s one this year? 18  © OCR 2009 Guide to Controlled Assessment in GCSE Applied Business Tasks may be reviewed and it is the responsibility of centres to make sure that candidates are submitting the correct task. Where can the Mark Schemes be accessed? Mark Schemes are included in the specifications and can also be accessed from the OCR website: In addition, Mark Schemes are attached at the end of each Sample Assessment Material and also available from OCR Interchange. Do we have to take the Controlled Assessment under exam conditions/teacher supervision? Yes, but only for the write up , i. e. the last part of Controlled Assessment when candidates are producing the outcomes of their research – note that this can be over more than one supervised session. More guidance on this can be found in Section 5: Controlled Assessment of all revised GCSE Specifications (first teaching in September 2009). Are the Controlled Assessments the same as written examinations, can we re-sit? Yes, candidates can resit controlled assessed units but as with any other unit, candidates can only resit once. Also, the 40% terminal rule means that 40% of the assessment has to be taken in the examination series in which the qualification has to be awarded. Centres have the responsibility to ensure that the correct tasks are used for a controlled assessme.

Psychology and Religion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Psychology and Religion - Essay Example The limited death I am sensing could be opened up by the psychologists for me to understand the current position but I have already decided that this is not bad news but just an interim challenge which could hold me up for a better or a worse day. It is my intention to make this a better day not just for me but also the kids that have been given to me and society which I want to serve. A good way for me to begin this unraveling of my thoughts through the following pages is to begin with an anecdote involving two of the esteemed psychologists who have impacted the class. As an emerging psychologist Gordon Allport was desperate to meet with Sigmund Freud. When Allport arrived for the all-important meeting which has been pre arranged, Freud was seated and remained quietly seated for Gordon to begin. Having grown impatient after some time Gordon blurted out an event, which had occurred on the way. Apparently a little boy had been very upset as he was seated next to a very dirty old man. Gordon remarked that it possibly was something the little boy had learnt from his mother, who on another seat remained stoic, the picture of neatness and domination. Without considering this a passing observation, Freud understood as a deep thought process consciously or unconsciously working within Gordon, and remarked â€Å"And was that little boy you?† (Boeree) If that boy on the bus were a girl it would have been me. I felt that very restriction deep within me. It was not prohibitive when I was growing up. However when I faced with the situations of life where I felt I did not have any options, I certainly felt like a good girl seated next to dirty man, with a mother looming over. As a good catholic I believed in the seven sacraments and adhered to them as religiously as possible. My morality was also pile driven into the catholic belief of seven deadly sins in

Key Factors that Underpin a Successful Entrepreneurial Team Engaged in Essay

Key Factors that Underpin a Successful Entrepreneurial Team Engaged in Setting up a Business - Essay Example He is also responsible to bring innovation in the business from time to time. All the entrepreneurial activities have to be planned in an effective way for succeeding in the venture. The business plans can range from plans for operation to strategic planning and financial planning. All these plans must be integrated in such a way so that the enterprise could achieve the desired objectives. The various departments should be linked with each other so that a proper coordination can be achieved among them. Nowadays enterprise is not only established by one person but a group of people who have common interest and work for the business. They work as a team in pursuit of the organisational goal. They are the entrepreneurial team. For the success of such type of entrepreneurial teams, every team member must have the qualities of the entrepreneur. They must have the vision, the capacity to arrange the resources and must act as per the plan. Apart from the basic entrepreneurial skills, there are other factors which lead the entrepreneurial teams to success. The success of an entrepreneur or the entrepreneurial team depends upon the success of the enterprise. ... , analysing the competition in the chosen field, analysing the operational work, analysing the human resource requirement, checking the financial viability of the business etc. This is a primary and very important step of setting up a business. Once the business plan is ready the next step is to analyse and take the assistance required for stating the business. The third step is to choose the location of the business. This step requires the analysis of the format of the business and the competitors. The location should be such which could be easily accessible to the customers and the suppli8ers, close to the competitors etc. The next step is to finance the business. This includes arranging the fund for the operations of the venture. Once the finance for the venture is arranged, the next step is to determine the structure of the business. In this step the suitable legal structure is determined according to the government rules and taxation policies and also the viability of the busine ss. The next step is to get the business registered as per the rules and regulations of the state. Once the business is registered, the next step is to register the organisation for the local taxes and the other taxes. After all types of registrations is done one applies for the required licences and permits for operating the business. This is a legal requirement without which an enterprise cannot function in the market. The last step for setting up a new business is to hire the required and efficient human resource needed for the enterprise (US Small Business Administration, No Date). Entrepreneurial process In the previous section the basic steps required for setting up a new business has been discussed. The entrepreneurial process is also to an extent similar to those steps. The

International Tax and Estate Planning Discussion Post 6 Coursework

International Tax and Estate Planning Discussion Post 6 - Coursework Example Cassandra should also note that the will has legal binding only when at least two witnesses watch when she is signing the will document. Spenceley (2009) advises that the two witnesses will form a reliable defense should someone contests the will in a legal system. Likewise, she should ensure that the witnesses’ signatures are verified by a public attorney. Furthermore, Cassandra is required to make clear and detailed instructions on how to distribute her properties after her demise. In this particular case, she ought to explain in the will that Aidan should inherit the house with Danika as the trustee. She should also mention the sale and subdivision of the sale amount among the three beneficially. If clear instructions are not available, Spenceley (2009) argues that the properties will be distributed according to the state’s intestacy laws Lastly, Cassandra must appoint a person that she trusts to act as her personal representative or executor of her will. The will must clearly identify the executor who will ensure that the will is executed. The trustee plays a significant role in ensuring that minors and beneficiaries living overseas are taken care of according to the provisions of her

Music Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 19

Music - Essay Example This is the aspect that distinguishes different artists. There are different genres of music with each having a unique history and features that define it (Patel 182). The preference for each of the genres is also considered as a way of self expression because the different genres convey varying emotions. Emotions that are expressed through music can be categorized into two groups. There are both negative and positive emotions depending on the type of mood that the emotions cause. For example, emotions such as happiness and love are expressed differently from negative emotions such as anger, resentment, grief and remorse. When students are seeking to express any of these emotions in their music, they must be aware that their gestures, body movements, facial expressions, tone variations, tempo and mode of the music as well as the accompanying instruments should be used to enhance the emotions to be expressed. When expressing negative emotions such as resentment and grief, a slow tempo is preferred. On the other end, fast tempo signifies happiness or positive emotions when used in a song (96). In a more specific way, students can use music to express emotions that define their experience as students. For example, students who are victims of bullying can use music to express the anger, resentment and the pain associated with bullying. Evidently, bullying is one of the terrible experiences that students have to handle. Such deep emotions can be expressed effectively using music as long as the student chooses the right features in conformity to the emotions being expressed. Other students have experienced the adverse effects of divorce and can rely on music to narrate their experience (300). One of the highly expressive music genres is the blues category which has its roots in African Americans who served as slaves. A close analysis of different features of the blues category can help students develop

International Trade Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

International Trade Law - Essay Example 1.Based on Trans-Oriented Marine Corp v. Star Trading and Marine , Inc 731 F. Supp.619(SDNY;1990) find, read and brief the Trans-Orient case and answer: : In 1983 Trans-Orient was granted a five-year exclusive agency agreement to represent the Sudan in the United States. Two years later, a military coup deposed the then head of state in the Sudan, declaring a state of emergency and suspending the constitution. A twelve-month transitional military regime followed, which was then replaced by a civilian coalition government. At that time, the name of the country was changed from the Sudan to the Republic of Sudan. In 1989, there was another military coup in which the present military regime overthrew the former civilian administration and suspended the constitution. During 1985, the Sudanese government sent letters advising Trans-Orient that a new agent had been appointed to represent the country in the United States. This termination of Trans-Orient did not provide the one-year termination notice required under the original contract. When Trans-Orient filed a breach of contract suit, the present Sudanese government asserted that it was not liable for the contractual obligations of the prior sovereign. Trans-Orient responded that neither the 1985 regime nor the present regime was a successor state, but that they represented mere changes in government which did not relieve them from the prior government's contractual obligations.

Choose one of the four topics given (Philosophy Class) Essay - 1

Choose one of the four topics given (Philosophy Class) - Essay Example In such a way, Descartes’ endeavor was a mission of knowledge, and to find that one, or many, â€Å"clear and distinct† and â€Å"perfectly certain† belief on which he could construct an entire deductive framework, reintroduce his previous beliefs with a proper justificatory structure, and construct new truths out of pure reason. To speak of Descartes’ skepticism is to speak of nothing at all; we must instead speak of the skepticism which Descartes set out to disprove, and the intellectual context in which he resolved to write the Meditations on First Philosophy. Only by understanding this context and evaluating it accordingly will we properly understand the types of themes emphasized throughout his magnum opus. In terms of the 17th century context of the Meditations we see quite clearly two major intellectual paradigm shifts. Both of these shifts presented deep challenges to the Catholic orthodoxy which had dominated for centuries throughout the Middle Ages, and troubled the Catholic Frenchman Renà © Descartes. The first was Galileo’s â€Å"new science† of induction—contrasted with the Scholastic pure deductive system. Galileo raised the doubt that what we think we see we might not really see at all. The colors of objections, for instance, seemed to be more in a person’s mind than in the objects. Descartes’ worry was that if we could be misled by something as fundamental as basic perceptive qualities, could we not be mistaken about much else besides? Or, more broadly, could we be mistaken globally; that is, about all beliefs and perceptions? Descartes consequently turns to creating his Meditations with pure reason, and not the empiricist epistemology of the Aristotelian Scholastics (Solomon). This is one way in which the historical context inexorably shaped Descartes’ methodological skepticism. Another event which both worried him and

Political Science Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Political Science - Essay Example But this rise was not unending. After huge growth in the 1980s, Japan suffered a terrible â€Å"lost decade† during the 1990s, beginning with the world recession in 1990-92. Why was the recession so especially painful for Japan? Why did it extend for almost a full decade, causing so many lost economic opportunities? And perhaps more importantly, what can the United States and the global economy, currently mired in a serious recession, learn from this period of economic doldrums in Japan? This essay will try to get to the bottom of these important and timely questions. In the decade before the long drawn out recession of the 1990s, Japan experienced unprecedented growth. Its flagship industries—electronics and automobiles—were taking over the world. These companies had an impressive reputation of high quality and reliability and were dominating their markets. American automobile makers were taken aback; American electronic companies were being bought up. Because of savings programs implemented by the government and tariffs against investing in foreign companies, there was a lot of money in Japan available to invest in Japanese companies and other investments. The government was trying to depreciate the yen, which had soared in value in the previous years. In order to do this, they dramatically eased monetary policy and increased spending. This economic stimulus led to a lot more money in the marketplace. Many economists believe that this situation led to an asset bubble in the late 1980s—similar to what happened in the United States over the last few years. Real estate and art, for example, rapidly appreciated. As an example of how extreme this bubble became: in the late 1980s it is said that the land in downtown Tokyo occupied by the Imperial Palace (about 3.5 square kilometres) was valued at more than all of the real estate in

Knolege creatain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Knolege creatain - Essay Example niversities are responsible for this in efficient growth of clusters and business industries are putting in no effort to make use of them for growth and innovation. Each sector has to play a certain role with constant coordination to overcome crises. Grant (1996) suggests that knowledge infuses increased performance opportunities for firms able to understand, and utilize relevant knowledge efficiently. The role of a business industry is to sponsor extensive funds for research work to universities who are struggling hard to raise funds beside their limited funds from government to bring in exceptional innovations, technology and knowledge. Mode 2 is interconnected and not possible without a thorough work of mode 1, therefore business industry should collaborate with universities to carry on research and expand the area of innovative knowledge with practical experiments over it and simultaneously, business industry should give internships, job training and design an individual area to comprehend mode 1 studies into mode 2 work which can examine the loopholes in academic knowledge and its implementation in practical experiences which is not possib le in isolated environment of universities. This changing wave of knowledge economy has a great impact and acts as a driving force towards new opportunities for industries and will smooth the dynamics between universities and industries in the long run. Students independently cannot achieve a complete combination of theoretical and practical work if exposure is not provided but can help demonstrate through their university projects, though not sufficient to unfold their growing minds but can contribute. It is beneficial for students to use their academia through internships or part time jobs in the relevant industry in summers or annual vacations. Universities are the pathways for students but students themselves should take initiative to promote practical enforcement of their academic theories however on large scale,

L4 Reading Essay Example for Free

L4 Reading Essay What do listening and reading comprehension skills have in common? ?BOTH ARE RECEPTIVE SKILLS ?THEY PROVIDE INPUT FOR LLS (LLS NEED TO BE EXPOSED TO THE LANGUAGE THEY LEARN AS much as possible) ?LLS LISTEN AND READ BOTH EXTENSIVELY AND INTENSIVELY ?INPUT HYPOTHESIS (KRASHEN) – LLS ARE ABLE TO ACQUIRE LANGUAGE THAT IS SLIGHTLY ABOVE their level (i+1) ? GOALS OF LISTENING AND READING – SIMILAR ?IT IS NECESSARY TO FOCUS ON THE PROCESS, NOT ON THE PRODUCT ?THREE STAGES: PRE-, DURING-, AFTER- ?IN COMPARISON WITH LISTENING AND SPEAKING, READING IS A RELATIVELY EASIER SKILL. ?REASONS: ? THE READER HAS TIME TO PROCESS THE WRITTEN TEXT (HELP OF A DICTIONARY) ? WRITTEN TEXT CAN BE USED REPEATEDLY Bottom-up view of Reading ?PROCESSING IN READING FROM LETTERS TO SOUNDS, TO WORDS, TO MEANING (DATA-DRIVEN) ?COMPREHENSION TO PROCEED LINEARLY FROM THE ISOLATED UNITS (LETTERS, WORDS) TO HIGHER units of comprehension. Top-down view of Reading Reading texts 1. Literary texts (novels, short stories, plays, essays) 2. Specialized or technical texts (reports, reviews, textbooks) 3. Correspondence (letters, e-mails, postcards) 4. Journalistic literature (articles from newspapers and magazines, weather reports). 5. Information texts (dictionaries, timetables, signs) 6. Realia (tickets, menus, recipes) Different kinds of reading 1. Scanning – looking for a particular piece of information. 2. Skimming – looking for the main idea or the general gist of a passage. 3. Extensive reading – longer texts for pleasure, needing global understanding 4. Intensive reading – shorter texts, extracting specific info, detail Decide: skimming, scanning, extensive reading or intensive reading ?THE ‘WHAT’S ON’ SECTION OF THE LOCAL PAPER ?A NOVEL ?AN ARMCHAIR TRAVEL BOOK ABOUT A COUNTRY YOU HAVE ENJOYED VISITING ?A NEWSPAPER  ? A TEXT IN CLASS ?A SERIES OF ARTICLES, ONLY SOME OF WHICH WILL BE USEFUL TO YOU, FOR A REPORT YOU’RE writing ?A POEM ?THE TELEPHONE DIRECTORY ?A POSTCARD ?INSTRUCTIONS FOR KITSET FURNITURE YOU’RE ASSEMBLING (YOU’RE USUALLY NOT VERY GOOD AT doing this) ?A TRAIN TIMETABLE ?A RECIPE ?A TRAVEL BROCHURE WHEN YOU ARE TRYING TO DECIDE ON A HOLIDAY DESTINATION Reading aloud ?FOR PRACTISING PRONUNCIATION AND INTONATION (CHILDREN) ?SHADOW READING: ? LLS FIRST LISTEN TO THE WHOLE TEXT (NOT BE VERY LONG, ONE PARAGRAPH) ?LLS LISTEN TO ONE SENTENCE, THE TEACHER STOPS THE CD AND LLS READ THE SENTENCE OUT,  paying attention to correct pronunciation and intonation ?WHEN THEY CAN DO IT WITHOUT ANY PROBLEMS, THEY ARE ASKED TO READ THE TEXT TOGETHER with the CD ?AFTERWARDS, INDIVIDUAL LLS MAY BE ASKED TO READ THE TEXT OUT. Feedback on during-reading activities ?AFTER LLS HAVE READ THE READING COMPREHENSION TEXT AND WRITTEN THEIR ANSWERS, THEN check the answers in pairs ? LLS UNDERLINE THOSE SENTENCES – THE EVIDENCE FOR THEIR DECISIONS ?AFTER THE ANSWERS AND THE EVIDENCE HAVE BEEN CHECKED IN PAIRS OR SMALL GROUPS, THE T elicits the answers from the LLs ?ELICITATION – T KNOWS WHICH PASSAGES CAUSED PROBLEMS AND CAN HELP LEARNERS TO  analyse the particular section ? IF LLS’ ANSWERS DIFFER FROM EACH OTHER, T SHOULD NOT TELL THEM THE CORRECT ANSWER, BUT let LLs discuss their decisions and evidence and come to a conclusion Reading Strategies for Efficient Reading ?BE PREPARED FOR READING THE TEXT (ASK QUESTIONS FOR YOURSELF WHICH YOU THINK THE TEXT may answer; read the title, subtitles; look at pictures and other visuals to predict the content of the text) ? READ THE TEXT QUICKLY FOR THE GIST; ?YOU MAY HIGHLIGHT KEY VOCABULARY AND LOOK THE KEY WORDS UP; ?TRY TO UNDERSTAND THE MAIN IDEAS AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THEM; ?TRY TO FIND THE LINKING WORDS; THEY INDICATE THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN IDEAS AND MAKE the text coherent; ?IGNORE UNKNOWN WORDS OR TRY TO GUESS THEIR MEANING FROM THE TEXT; ?USE DIFFERENT READING STRATEGIES TO READ DIFFERENT TYPES OF TEXTS (SKIMMING, SCANNING, reading for detail) ? READ WIDELY Don’t!!! ?TRANSLATE THE TEXT; IT REQUIRES VERY CAREFUL READING WHICH IS NOT NECESSARY FOR understanding the main ideas and doing the tasks; ?TRY TO UNDERSTAND EVERY WORD, IT IS NOT NECESSARY FOR UNDERSTANDING THE MEANING OF THE text; ?READ ALOUD; IT SLOWS YOU DOWN AND IT MAKES YOU LOOK UP THE WORDS YOU CANNOT pronounce.

Niger Delta Conflict On The Nigerian Economy Politics Essay

Niger Delta Conflict On The Nigerian Economy Politics Essay The objective of this Chapter is to provide a background to the study. This includes the implication of the Niger-Delta (ND) conflict on the Nigerian economy, the genesis of amnesty policy, the objective of the study, research questions, methodology as well as scope and limitations to the study. Background to the Study The centrality of the Niger-Delta Region to Nigerias economy is indisputable. This is because it produces the oil that presently sustained the economy. Unfortunately, however, over the last decades, it has become a centre for violent protests with destructive consequences on the Nigerian economy and socio-political stability as well as the rippled effect across the international. For instance, government statistics have shown that in 2005, Crude oil production has fell from 2.7million barrels per day (mbpd) to 2.4mbpd thereby showing a shortfall of 0.3mbpd in crude oil production. On the revenue side, in the same year, the projected revenue of N1.63trillion was revised downward to N1.4trillion due to shortfall in crude oil production (2006 FGN Budget Speech). Similarly, in 2006 expected revenue into the Federation Account fell by N570 billion due to loss of 600,000bpd (2007 FGN Budget Speech). In 2007, the projected revenue was short to the tune of N796billion due to disruption of cr ude oil production in the Niger-Delta region (2008 FGN Budget Speech). In 2008, crude oil production was projected at around 2.45mbpd but only 2.00mbpd was achieved also due to disruption of production (2009 FGN Budget Speech). In 2009, crude oil revenue projection fell by 17% due to disruption in production as well as fall in crude oil price at the international market (2010 FGN Budget Speech). Another pointer to the gloomy nature of the Nigerian economy was the use of the Excess Revenue Account (ERA) from year 2006 every month, except in some very few cases, to augment the monthly disbursement of revenue from the Federation Account. For instance, over N733.81bn and N795.41bn were withdrawn from the ERA to augment budget expenditure for the three tiers of government in 2007 and 2008 respectively (CBN, Annual Report, 2008). The conflict has been blamed on the nations imbalance political structure; long years of environmental pollution due to oil exploration and extraction activities; infrastructural neglect and demand for larger share of revenue from crude oil sales (Omeje, 2006). But, recognizably, over the decades, government have used carrots and sticks approaches both to coerce and appease the people of the Niger-Delta Region. While the past measures have made some significant impacts in some respects, there are recurring echoes of consternation from the region. Among the past efforts were the creation of the Niger-Delta Development Board (NDDB), Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC), Niger-Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Derivation Principle (from 1% to 13%) and the establishment of Niger-Delta Ministry in 2008. Fisher-Thompson (2010) writing for the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State observed that the key to Nigerias economic progress is stability in the Niger River Delta, where the bulk of the countrys oil and natural gas is produced and where a smouldering militancy and sabotage of production facilities threaten progress for the regions 30million residents. Thus recognising the enormous potentials of Niger-Delta for the nation at large, the late President YarAdua, for example, said it would be delusional to think that electricity could be generated and transmitted on a sustainable basis in Nigeria if resolution of the Niger-Delta question remains literally or figuratively in the pipelines (Adeniyi, 2010), Similarly, the Technical Committee on the Niger-Delta (TCND, 2008), noted that President YarAdua recognised the strategic importance of the Region as the main source of Nigerias foreign revenue by making the Niger-Delta problem one of the 7-Point prog ramme of the administration. Thus, amnesty was granted to the militants in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria in June 2009, by late President YarAdua to assuage the nagging militancy in the region. There is, however, hardly any study at the moment that have made any constructive attempt to analyse the impact of the amnesty programme on the nations crude oil production as well as revenue flow into the Federation Account except for the dotted newspapers clips and other scattered official documents. Also, as it is with most novel approaches, the amnesty programme has been greeted with lots of scepticism as its likely impact of restoring peace and improved crude oil production and flow of revenue into the Federation Account might not be achieved. Accordingly, as a topical issue in Nigeria, which viability is questioned, it provides the motivation and interest to peruse government documents in order to give a better picture of the situation. Moreso, as a staff of Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), an agency of government that is constitutionally charged with the function of monitoring revenue accruals into and disbursement from the Federation Account, added more impetus to the subject of the research. Hence, this research is an attempt to put together official records as well as other sources in order to give a preliminary impact of the amnesty programme on crude oil production and revenue into Federation Account. OBJECTIVES In this research, the quest is not to discuss the amnesty programme or to dwell on the oil debacle in Nigeria, but to relate the amnesty programme to some of the expected benefits, which are specifically interconnected with improved crude oil production and flow of oil revenue into the Federation Account. In other words, the primary aim of this research is to find out whether the acceptance of amnesty by the militants in the Niger-Delta has any significant impact on crude oil production output and flow of oil revenue into the Federation Account. RESEARCH QUESTIONS This research would particularly attempt to answer the following research questions: To what extent has the granting of amnesty as a mechanism to manage resource conflict in the Niger-Delta region contributes to improved crude oil production? What is the effect of the amnesty on the flow of revenue into the Federation Account (Common Pool) from the oil sector? How does the amnesty programme impact on the Nigerias fiscal federalism? METHODOLOGY Jankowicz, (1995) has defined methodology as a systematic and orderly approach taken towards the collection of data so that information can be obtained from those data. This research adopts a qualitative approach, which has been described as a subjective account that one generates by getting inside situations and involving oneself in the everyday flow of life (Gill and Johnson, 2005:89). In Strauss and Corbin (1990:17) Qualitative Research is any kind of research that produces findings not arrived at by means of statistical procedures or other means of quantification. The objective of using this approach is to be able to draw conclusion from the research question as to whether there was an increase in crude oil production as well as revenue flow into Federation Account as a result of the amnesty granted to the militants. This research uses secondary data collection approach. The data of crude oil production statistics and revenue inflow were sourced from Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Federation Account Allocation Committee Files (FAAC) and National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Despite, their shortcomings, the credibility of data from these institutions is not in doubt because no any other agency can provide such data within and outside Nigeria without referring to them as source. The data collected were evaluated using a simple data inspection technique which is a comparison between actual experience and counterfactual scenarios. This type of technique is comprised of three methods namely; with versus without, before versus after and target versus actual. This method is basically used to analyse the effects of programmes and performance (Douangboupha, 2004). This research adopted the before and after technique because it provide the basis in which comparison is done between crude oil production and revenue flow into Federation Account before and after the amnesty has been granted. The before versus after method is used to compare performance of a new policy with what was before the reform. This approach usually shows what happened and not why it happened. However, this approached is criticised on the fact that it ignores other external factors that can influence it outcome (Douangboupha, 2004). SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH The scope of this research is to examine crude oil and revenue data from January 2009 May 2010. Similarly, the research would not be interested in looking at the amnesty programme in general. Chapter Two LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction The main objective of this Chapter is to critically review literature from variety of perspectives on the causation and management of conflict with links to natural resources induced conflicts. Review of Literature Conflict is a tragedy and impediment to development (Collier and Hoeffler, 2000). Conflict is an interruption of development as no development project will ever take place in a state of conflict. Of course, this has been acknowledged by late President YarAdua that conflict is threatening peace, security, order and good governance and jeopardising the economy of the nation (YarAdua, 2009). Conflict has been defined by Burton (1990) as those behaviours of individuals or groups that go beyond disagreement that cause serious injury to physical, security and future development of individuals, groups and nations. As in Omeje (2006:17), Fisher (2000) defines conflict as uneasy relationship between two or more parties who have, or think they have incompatible goals. These incompatible goals are largely associated with deep-human needs characterised by interest, desires and aspirations. Without doubt, conflicts do not just happened as there are always such factors that lead to conflicts. The causation of conflicts have been theorised in various ways such as in biological disposition, psychology, religion, identity, ethnicity, nationalism, ideology, history and ancients hatred, bad neighbours, manipulative leaders, security dilemma, cultural dysfunction, nature of the State and incompatible world views (Mac Ginty, 2009). Despite these incisive but opposing perspectives, the rentier state theory and resource curse thesis were, indeed, two central frameworks that have provided in-depth analysis on the impact of natural resources to the political, economic and social settings of resource blessed nations. In the rentier theory, it is argued that it is any state reliant not on the surplus production of the domestic population or economy but on externally generated revenues or rents usually derived from the extractive industries such as oil (Omeje, 2006). The rentier theory believed that reliance on economic rents promotes inefficiency and impede socioeconomic development (Mahler, 2010). Proponents of this theory argued that, on the political strand, rents promote authoritarian rule because it encourages network of patronage, pervasive clientelism and selfish policies of distribution. The net effects of these are lack of democratisation and gross societal depoliticisation. Another contention is that the presence of cornucopia of revenues, particularly, coming from oil sector discourages taxation thereby making the political class less accountable to the people and less interested in the promotion of citizen participation in governance. Though rentier theory focus more on the stability of authoritarian rule, rather than violence, there are evidence that rents are used to finance security apparatus by the political class to repress opposition, which in essence amount to violence (Mahler, 2010). As an example, the Nigerian political history has been dominated by both military and political elites that have less sympathy for the promotion of democracy. The evidences of coup and counter-coups that shaped the nations political past are obvious while election rigging and disenfranchisement have so far characterises the democratic dispensation. On the whole, there are submissions that the bulk of the youths in the Niger-Delta were armed by politicians. Okolo (2009) aptly states that the politicians in their unbridled lust for power, arm these youths as private armies against their real and perceived enemies making all sorts of promises to secure their loyalty but immediately their aim is achieved they abandon them forgetti ng that they still hold the arms. The youths unemployed and angry must a matter of necessity employ the guns to some use? The world is today not faced by the Thomas Malthus (1798) assertion that scarcity leads to conflict but by the argument that resource abundance has a link to conflict. The Malthusian argument is based on the idea that natural resources are in fixed supply and as demand of the resources increased, the price also increases, while the resources depleted thus leading to conflict (Mahler, 2010). On the contrary, staple theorist argued that resource abundance leads to the improvement of peoples well-being because natural resources provide the much needed revenues for the provision of goods and services. Unfortunately, resource abundance is now seen as a curse that is associated with all sorts of problems ranging from slow economic growth, corruption and conflicts (Oyefusi, 2007). Economic theorists have contended that over-reliance on single source of revenue makes a nation vulnerable and prone to conflict (Herbst, 2001) because of large rents and exposure to variety of shocks (booms and bursts). For instance, Nigeria has faced several crude oil related shocks and conflicts from 1966 to date often resulting in loss of lives and dislocation of the nations economy. More compounding to Nigeria is that the oil resource is largely located in one geographical region. And, as aptly observed by Ndikumana and Emizet (2005), dependence alone does not motivate conflict but the concentration of the natural resources in one geographical region and their unequal distribution significantly contribute to conflict. Moreso, the topography of the Niger-Delta area seems conducive for militancy activiti es. Olowu (2009) described the Niger-Delta as an intricate network of lagoons, creeks, estuaries, and mangroves swamps, stretching across 1 million square meters. Howsoever, sound is the above proposition; a many countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Norway and host of others were able to demystify the resource-dependency theory by making considerable progress in transforming their respective nations. So, for Collier (2004) the solution is to diversify the sources, which reduces the risk of conflict. Also, the resource-dependency theory has been criticised on the fact that dependency alone on a single natural resource does not lead to armed conflict. As Mac Ginty, (2005:67) argued scarcity and violence are a product of social relations rather than inherent in the relative abundance of a particular good, object or resources. It is further argued that conflict arises from a complex mix of events in the presence of resources the mode of resource exploitation, perception on benefits and identity affiliations. As it has been observed if the stake are high, identity affiliations can mutate, with groups and individuals attaching increasing weight to the purity of their ethnic group and rediscovering (or inventing) their unique history (Mac Ginty, 2005). Added to this, Ross (2003:19) pointed out that any given conflict is brought about by a complex set of events; often poverty, ethnic or religious grievances, and unstable governments The fundamental problem noted in this context is that of the management of the resources. It has been pointed out that it is the nature of the extraction coerce or voluntary, licences distribution patronage or open competition, profit destination public or private pockets that significantly explained whether there is resource curse or not (Mac Ginty, 2005). Similarly, poor management of resources create situations where individuals or group that harbour some grievances will use that as opportunity to argue against plundering of the resources located in their backyard without benefits. This is, somehow, the case in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria where there is demand for fair share of revenue from the resources extracted from the area. The Resource curse thesis presumed misery in the midst of plenty. It is argued that abundance rather than serve as a means for development leads to struggle for the control of the natural resource which often result in armed conflict (Obi, 2008). Indeed, the armed conflict in the Niger-Delta is over the control of crude oil between the State and the local communities caused by poverty and low human development index (Omeje, 2006). On another hand, studies by Sachs and Warner (1997:3) demonstrated that resource-poor economies often vastly outperform resource-rich economies. The point is that nations with abundant natural resources tend to grow slower than economies with fewer resources. In support of the above, Ross (2003) reported that the GDP per capita of countries which mining export was between 6% to 15%, fell by an average rate of 0.7% while those with mining export of about 15% 50%, their GDP per capita fell to 1.1% a year. Similarly, it showed that the GDP per capita of count ries with over 50% of mining exports, dropped by 2.3% per year. Furthermore, Sachs and Warner, (1997) cited historical instances to buttressed this point that in the 17th century despite the overflow of gold and silver from the colonies of Spain, the Netherlands surpassed Spain. This is similar with Japan and Switzerland that cast shadow over resource abundant Russia in the 19th Century while Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong became the star performers of the 20th century despite having fewer resources. Sachs and Warner (1997:4) conceptually situate this economic puzzle within the context of easy riches leads to sloth and the Dutch disease proposition. The Dutch Disease thesis argued that the availability of large rents from a single natural resources often result in the neglect of other productive sectors of the economy (Ross, 1999). In other words, the Dutch disease demonstrates that booms in natural resource sectors usually affect the distribution of employment throughout the economy, as wealth effects pull resources in and out of non-traded sector s (Sachs and Warner, 1997:5). And this is evident in Nigeria where oil revenue continue to grow from 3% in the 1960s to now over 80% of federally collectable revenue while total agricultural export dropped from 60% in the1960s to less than 8% by 2005 (Omeje, 2006). However, contrary to the persuasive argument put forward by Sachs and Warner, (1997), that one surprising features of modern economic growth is that economies abundant in natural resources have tended to grow slower than economies without substantial natural resources, Stijns, (2000:3) argued that it was a misleading result which was short of recommending that developing countries should leave their natural resources undiscovered and/or unexploited. Stijns (2000:4) further contended that natural resources are not significant determinants of economic growth because of the coexistence of positive and negative channels of effect from natural resources to other economic factors. It has been variously argued that natural resources have the potentials of promoting violent conflict through grievance and greed. The grievance theory sees conflict emerging from the long concern over deprivation and injustice (Collier, 2004 and Collier and Sambanis, 2007). Therefore, Communities whose land is being exploited sees themselves as collateral damage and where benefits is not forthcoming, they resort to protest and violence that leads to economic sabotage such as disruptions of production. For instance, the Niger-Delta region has been famous for economic sabotage as a way of protest against environmental degradation and neglect (Omeje, 2006). However, economists like Collier and Hoeffler have argued that greed is more inherent in motivating conflict than grievance or conflicts are far more likely to be caused by economic opportunities than by grievance (Mac Ginty, 2005:79, Tar, 2008). This is because the abundance of natural resource often serves as an incentive in which elites and warlords loot. The greed theory also presupposes that natural resources provide attraction to covetous individuals or groups to rebel in order to take control over revenues from the natural resources. However, critics argued that the expression made economists on the causation of conflict is economic rationalism taken to extreme (Mac Ginty, 2005:71) and pointed out that conflicts cannot be measured only by econometric methodologies or mistook correlation for causation while also subjecting the causes of conflicts only within the national environment without placing external factors such as trade, religion, regional dynamics in arms flow, etc. G enerally, it is argued that the real agents of conflicts are politics and identity while economic factors only appear to change the nature and aim of the conflict at some stage (Mac Ginty, 2005). As further contended, economic factors can enable conflict, but it cannot combust or sparks the conflict without other factors. Closely related to the greed thesis is the frustration and aggression theory, which deals with relative deprivation as a perceived disparity between value expectation and value capabilities (Afinotan and Ojakorotu, 2009). The theory argues that if there is a gap between expectation and attainment caused by lack of capability, tension crept in as a result of unfulfilled aspiration, which leads to frustration that eventually produces violent aggression. It was noted by Afinotan and Ojakorotu, (2009) that men are most inclined to aggression when subjected to unjustified frustration. Indeed, the potentials of violence are define by the gravity of deprivation. As Afinotan and Ojakorotu, (2009) pointed out men who are frustrated have an innate disposition to do violence to its source in proportion to the intensity of their frustration. The Niger-Delta conflict is a perfect demonstration of this theory because people are frustrated by lack of development, etc. However, this theory has been criticised on the ground that aggressive response to frustration may be dependent upon the individuals level of tolerance Afinotan and Ojakorotu, (2009). The separatist theory suggests that natural resources portend the risk of a secessionist conflict because it gives those in the region where the resources is located the incentive to demand for separate State (0yefusi, 2007). Indeed, it is more obvious from the emerging picture and dynamics of the conflict in the Niger-Delta region that the element of greed rather than grievance is more pronounced as various groups and factions emerged making conflicting demands and more often violently clash with each other over the control of areas where pipelines installation passes through (Omeje, 2006, 2008). In another perspective, Bannon and Collier (2003:2) contended that conflict is more likely to occur in a state of low per capita income, low economic growth rate and the structure of the economy. For instance, since the 1970s oil exports generated huge revenues in Nigeria, and yet, per capita income has remain very low in 1975 the per capita from oil was $127 which raised to $351 in 1980 and plummeted to $81 in 1989 but gradually grew to $337 in 2007 and to $391 in 2007 (CBN, Annual Statistical Bulletin, 2008). Though growing population in Nigeria has played a pivotal role in this low per capita, it is hard to conclude that low per capita from oil revenue is not one of the factors that leads to conflict in Nigeria (Mahler, 2010). But Mahler (2010:15) persuasively argued that even though falling oil revenues in the 1980s and the 1990s have contributed to low per capita, it was not only the shrinking abundance of oil but also its interplay with weak resource management performance in the country that caused further socioeconomic problems. These are issues associated with managing environmental problems and resource allocation principles. Therefore, as a solution, Collier (2004:7) suggested that doubling the level of income halve the risk of conflict. A percentage point on growth rate reduces the risk by around a percentage point. Despite the preponderance of econometric and case study analyses, there are still profound opposition that resources alone cannot be the direct link to conflict. This is because other extraneous factors and historical assumptions which are necessary for creating a link between resources and violent conflicts have not been properly contextualized through in-depth empirical studies to create linkages between resources and conflicts (Mahler, 2010). To this end, Mahler, (2010) has provided in a tabular form a matrix of resource and non-resource contextual conditions that will guide debate on the link between conflict and resources: Using the matrix in Table IV, and as has been postulated, the conflict in the Niger-Delta is premise on four contextual factors with oil serving as the main attraction (Omeje, 2006) as well as other external factors. Some commentators have situated the conflict in the Niger-Delta within the hypothesis of historical context arguing that the amalgamation of Nigeria in 1914 was unconscious of the heterogeneous nature of the nation as it failed to address the concern of the minority groups. Thus, the dominance of majority groups over the minority groups whose environment eventually produces the nations revenue, give rise to agitation for the restructuring of Nigeria (Omeje, 2006). The second ground situates the conflict in the Niger-Delta on the legal framework relating to landownership and extraction policies. Proponents of this thesis argued that the existing legal framework has given more control to the Multinational Oil Companies operating in the country thereby making them less lia ble to the environmental problems associated with exploration and extraction. In other words, the current legal mechanism within Nigeria lacks the impetus of enforcement. In the case of landownership, it is argued that the Land Use Act of 1978, for instance, has given State Government the ownership of land thus depriving individuals and groups from the right to demand for appropriate compensation, a situation which late President YarAdua attempted to reverse (Adeniyi, 2010). The third view positioned the Niger-Delta conflict on the pedestal of dependency in which the incorporation of Nigeria into global economic and political scene that is yet to be understood has disadvantaged Nigeria thereby leading to conflict. The fourth school of thought with Marxist approach sees the conflict in the Niger-Delta as the contradictions of class or groups interest intrinsic to the political economy of Nigeria as well as the character of the state (Omeje, 2006). Indisputably, the above issues are cause largely by institutional arrangement. As noted by Bardhan (2005) institutions either economic or political constitute or form the nucleus in which equitable distribution of resources or powers among divergent groups are made. And where the institution is inefficient, it becomes less credible thus attracting disquiet among the people. Bardhan (2005:27) put it that the history of underdevelopment is littered with cases of formidable institutional impediments. The failure of the institutions gives birth to collective action problem such as dispute over the sharing of the cost of bringing change known as free-rider problem and disputes over the sharing of benefits. All these problems, often, lead to breakdown of coordination among divergent and competing groups. Douglass North in Acemoglu and Robinson (2008:2) define institution as the rules of the game in a society or, more formally, are the humanly devised constraints that shape human interaction. Both economic and political institutions are influence by collective choices. The political institution, for instance, allocates de jure and de facto powers even though the latter sometime uses the instrument of force to meet it objectives. Acemoglu and Robinson (2008:6-7) noted that de facto political power originates from both the ability of the group in question to solve its collective action problem and from the economic resources available to the group which determines their capacity to use force against other groups. They further noted that when a particular group is rich relative to others, this will increase it de facto political power and enable it to push for economic and political institutions favourable to its interests, reproducing the initial disparity. Certainly, the Niger-Delta co nflict is a prime example of this assertion because the militants were capitalising on the location of the crude oil in their geography as a weapon to move for drastic change in the way political power and resource distribution are made. The history of Nigeria has depicted vivid evidences of political and economic asymmetry, which means unequal power and resource distribution and relation between communities within the States and between the State and the Federal Government. It is palpable that despite the creation of more States in the last decades, the cries of marginalisation still pervade the nations political terrain. For instance, State and Federal relationship has been situated on the north/south divide created by the amalgamation of 1914 which created a presume fear that the north with numerical population would continue to dominate the south. Oputa (2000:113), for example, observed that political asymmetry in this case persists because of the fear of domination by the north in the context of party electoral competition for control of political power and, therefore, of the enormous fiscal resources and patronage deriving from it at the federal level. Another issue political asymmetry lies in the balance of po wer where the States have remained dependent on the Federal Government. But it should be noted that Nigerias federalism was unique because the centre created the units unlike in other federations where the units create the centre. Contributing to the conflict debates, the neo-liberalists through the conception that free-market made free men believe that individual freedoms, open markets and rational choice guides human beings away from encouraging conflicts but instead sees development as a ladder out of conflict. This argument was re-enforced by the submission that free trade prevents conflicts and was demonstrated by the post-colonial studies of Krause and Suzuki, which concluded that the probability of conflict under open trade is insignificant (Mac Ginty, 2009). However, this postulation was criticised on the ground that free trade encourages market-induced inequality thereby creating enmity and tension among individuals and communities. Indeed, the Niger-Delta region is the symbol of Nigerias international trade where Multi-national Companies (MNCs) engage in Oil and Gas business, surprisingly, it is the same region that has been inundated by violence. Often, there were clear evidences to suggest the invo lvement of the MNCs in the brewing of the conflicts (Omeje, 2006, 2008). Development is another issue that is said to be behind conflict. This is so because the process of development sometime provide s

Stimulants to Help Depressive Patients

Stimulants to Help Depressive Patients Different methods have been developed to train and improve executive function. The implications of those developments could revolutionize treatments for depressive patients in which there are executive function deficits. This paper proposes a study for patients diagnosed as having recurrent major depressive disorder to undergo counseling sessions coinciding with a stimulant or a placebo treatment group. The aim is to identify a causal linkage supporting the therapeutic aid of stimulants in treating depression by providing cognitive enhancement to the patient. Literature Review The main part of research I am interested in is how researchers find relationships in phenomenon impacting everyday life. Establishing relationships between events and prove elements of life are interrelated is an intricate process. Professor Twamley helped spur thoughts behind my fascination in her assigned academic journal when she designed a group based cognitive therapy to help veterans, some of which were diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury (TBI), with impaired cognitive functioning skills. The goal of the research was to provide evidence that this specific treatment was able to help improve veterans overall quality of life. The success of the treatment was tracked by testing executive function and quality of life throughout the process. The results showed that the compensatory cognitive training (CCT) improved participants levels of executive function but CCT for TBI was not associated with improvements on processing speed measures or executive tasks that involved switching (Storzbach et al., 2016). Executive functioning skills in participants were improved overall by the treatment, but participants with a traumatic brain injury still had deficits in executive functioning. It was difficult to see why a participant couldnt improve a particular aspect of executive functioning because a previous traumatic brain injury had inhibited the positive results that treatment could bring. This relationship between executive function improvement and TBI blocking those improvements led me to research more on the topic and develop questions about how improvement to executive function in populations with cognitive dysfunction can improve quality of life. Executive Function Finding a definition for executive function is a difficult process. A concrete definition of the term does not exist to easily describe it and it is still widely debated amongst researchers (Alvarez Emory, 2006). Most theories define executive function as non-routine processing that operates within the brain when presented with a novel situation (Gilbert Burgess, 2008). Its how our brain responds to unique situations that we dont know how to respond to. Specifically, executive function is involved in the control and regulation of lower-level cognitive processes and goal-directed, future-oriented behavior (Alvarez et al., 2006). In its truest essence, executive function is the higher level thinking of an individual. Much of the brain activity for executive function is likely to happen in the frontal lobe (Biringer et al., 2005). This is because the frontal lobe is the area most associated with reasoning and decision making. This region of the brains association with executive functi oning tasks helps to establish the relationship between executive function and higher level thinking. Deficits in Executive Function. Most notable in studies about executive function is what conditions are associated with deficits in executive functioning tasks. The relationship between depression and executive function is widely noted, but not fully understood. This was shown in a study in which persons with a diagnosis depression were found to have deficits in executive function tasks in comparison to non-depressed people (Channon Green, 1999). In this study depressive persons were even less likely to use aids to help them with executive function tasks(Channon et al., 1999). Much of the research on this topic explains how the diagnosis of depression and executive functioning deficits are interrelated, but there is still debate on how the rates of depression or executive function affect one another. Improvements in Depression. There is evidence that once a patients depression levels improve so will their levels of executive function (Biringer et al., 2005). This experiment followed depressive patients two years after to diagnosis to see a full recovery from depressive symptoms was highly related to normal levels of executive function. This study begins to show that improvement to depression is associated with improvement with executive function tasks. This association between depression recovery and executive function lacks causal implication and leaves much more of the relationship to be discovered. Digging deeper into this, another study finds there is evidence to support improvement to executive function after a specialized treatment with transcranial magnetic waves stimulating the frontal cortex (Moser et al., 2002). Transcranial magnetic wave therapy is sometimes used in some cases of severe depression as a final resort to treatment and its effectiveness is debated. It is n ot known how transcranial magnetic wave therapy works in the treatment of depression. This relationship between this method of depression treatment and executive function might explain why this therapy is sometimes successful in the depressed patients. Further research will be required to determine that but other treatments that improve executive function have been partially investigated. Stimulant Assisted Treatments. Modafinil, a stimulant, is known to enhance the cognitive functioning in healthy volunteers to help improve performance on a number of cognitive tasks (Turner et al., 2002). This relationship between modafinil as well sas other stimulants and cognitive improvement has been covered a lot in the media as smart drugs. Some of these drugs are labeled as cognitive enhancers, but there is little talk about how smart drugs can be used medicinally to help depressed populations. Since the relationship between depressive disorders and executive function deficits was established, trials for the treatments of depression in the 1980s with a stimulus drug were reviewed for this study because of the potential positive effects simulants have on executive function. In a meta analysis of stimulant use for the treatment of depression, Satel (1989) found that that more studies involving a placebo would need to take place in order to establish a causal relationship between improvement in depressive symptoms and stimulant treatments . Establishing a relationship between depressive symptoms and stimulant treatment could be beneficial to the overall treatment of depression. More studies need to be conducted to support this claim and the drug used should be investigated more as well. Werneke (1990) said that stimulants very useful role in the treatment of certain categories of depression as well as other psychiatric syndromes and such patients should not be deprived of symptom relief by these drugs. This paper follows that philosophy and intends to provide evidence that this is a viable treatment that should not be overlooked. Proposed Study This study will aim to identify that stimulants can assist already existing therapy for depression on the basis that executive function will improve with the use of stimulants. Participants will take a stimulant drug before the start of a therapy session to ensure that the drug will only be working during the therapy session. Depressed patients seeking care will first be placed in either a stimulant (Modafinil) or placebo condition , following that all volunteers will receive problem solving therapy (PST). This study will be double blind in order to ensure that therapists and patients will not have knowledge that would have an effect on treatment. Participants will be randomly assigned to each group. The goal of this study is to establish that stimulant aided depression therapy will be more effective than non-stimulant aided therapy. Ethical Guidelines In an effort to be ethical and to not cause unnecessary harm, patients will be provided with a form of therapy to coincide with either a placebo or stimulant pill. With this methodology, no patient will be purposefully put in danger of not receiving the care that is needed to treat their depressive symptoms and they will be attended to under a treatment plan by a psychologist to ensure that the study is not negatively affecting their lives. In any psychopharmaceutical area it would be the utmost importance to protect participants from any unforeseen harms. At any point, for whatever reason any participant can choose to withdraw from the study or a researcher can choose to withdraw any participants. Participants. To adequately represent the effect of stimulants on depression this study will recruit 200 participants in total aged 18-80 This age limit is designed to designate the study towards patients who have the right to get consent and that the depression scale used can accurately measure. Each person will be diagnosed with major depressive disorder according to the DSM-V. Each person should be diagnosed as a recurrent major depressive disorder patient ranging from mild to severe symptoms. Participants should be excluded if any hold a comorbid diagnosis or had concurrent symptoms with any of the following: an anxiety disorder, substance abuse or drug dependency, any symptoms of delusions, had experienced psychosis in the past six months, experienced a traumatic brain injury in their lifetime, or any other condition the researcher may conclude would affect the levels of executive function in an individual besides depression. Participants on medication for depression treatment will also be excluded from this study. These exclusions follow previous research for similar concerns. In this study we will not be controlling for level of executive function because the study is within subject design and we are interested in measuring overall improvement of individuals. Therapy Condition. Over the course of treatment each patient will be given counseling treatment for depression. A treatment will occur once a week for six weeks. Coinciding with this behavioral treatment, a patient will be receiving a pill. The pill will either be a low risk stimulant (Modafinil) or it will be a placebo. This pill will be taken at the start of each therapy session to allow the individual in the stimulant condition to have improved executive functioning skills throughout the duration of the therapy. These therapies were chosen specifically for their efficacy with their treatment populations. The problem solving therapy (PST) group was chosen in order to establish a successful treatment method. In a meta-analysis by Bell and DZurilla, PST was found to be equally as successful as medication treatment for depression (2009). By using this therapy we can evaluate if stimulus aided PST is more effective than non stimulus aided PST in the role of social problem solving. In addition, this study may determine if deficits in executive function are an epiphenomena of depression or not. Other studies have yielded conflicting results in relation between severity of depressive symptoms and impairment in executive function (Austin, Mitchell Goodwin, 2001). However, positive results could be the result of the combination of PST with stimulant aided therapy. To truly understand the relationship between stimulants and depression, the results of the stimulant group will be compared with the placebo. PST will focus in areas that have been proven to have the most effective results on participants. These areas are a training for positive problem orientation, problem definition, problem formulation, generation of alternatives, decision making, solution implementation and verification (Bell et al., 2009). This therapys focus is to mediate between stressful life events and wellbeing (Bell et al., 2009). Over the course of treatment we will see how stimulant aid will impact pre and post test analysis for levels of executive function and depression. Executive Function Measures. Three measures for executive function will be assessed in this study. Executive function of the participant pool will be tested at baseline and five weeks after the study has been completed both occurring without any use of stimulants. If there is improvement from before to after treatment it will reinforce other studies that state absence of depressive symptoms is associated with rejuvenated executive function skills. It is intended to see if there was improvement from before to after treatment without the use of stimulants in assessment to gauge the overall effect of treatment. The executive function measure used in this study has already been tested on depressed populations and was found that depressed populations did worse on the tasks below than non-depressed populations (Channon et al., 1999). Since the prior study had been used to compare group differences in executive function it is a suitable measure in our experiment for a between groups within subject design. All measures below are used from a previous study by Shelly Channon in the Department of Psychology of the University College London (Channon et al., 1999). Memory for categorised words task This task asks participants to remember 16 words presented in a random order. Each word would appear on a computer screen for 2 seconds and participants were asked to remember them so they could write them down after this session. They were asked to write down as many words as they can after the words had been shown in an unlimited time period. After that another session of 32 words would appear on the screen, again for 2 seconds each. Participants would have to identify which of the words presented were distractors or the correct 16 words. Response suppression task An experimenter will read 30 sentences in total to the participant with the final word omitted from the sentence. The participant would then be asked to insert a word to complete the sentence that made no logical sense to the sentence. Response would be categorized as nonsensical, semantically related word choice, and straightforward sentence completion. Multiple scheduling task These tasks were broken into four groups of mirror reading, identifying the position of words, object knowledge questions, and drawing objects. In mirror reading, words are presented backwards and participants are asked to write the correct word. In position of words task, participants are asked to write the word corresponding with a location in a certain row of a table. The table would consist of 176 numbers in column one and 176 unique words in column two. Finding words more efficiently was a way of measuring executive function. The object knowledge questions would ask open ended questions about everyday objects for them to identify. An example is, where would you find a keyhole?. For the final drawing objects task, participants are asked to draw everyday objects. Depression Scale. The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) will be used to assess the levels of depression in this participant population before each session of treatment. No participant should have their depression levels assessed while they are under the influence of Modafinil. This aim is to see how mood is progressing throughout the treatment not how stimulants are directly altering mood. The BDI-II assessment correlates highly with depression rates by the Hamilton Rating for Depression (Steer, Ball Ranieri, 1996). It is in a 21 multiple choice format and the severity is assessed on a scale of zero to sixty-three. The scores are broken into scores from 0-12 as nondepressed patients, 13-19 as dysphoric patients, and 20-63 as dysphoric or depressed patients (Beck, Steer Brown, 1996). The higher the decrease in rate of depression will be the basis for finding success of the treatment for depression. This depression measure was chosen for its accuracy in identifying depressive sym ptoms and its ability to be completed in two minutes (Beck et al., 1996). Potential implications of this study[1] This study has the potential to establish a causal linkage between positive effects of therapeutic depression treatment utilizing the aid of stimulant assisted therapy. Successful results in PST with stimulant aid versus PST without stimulant aid would infer that executive function aid could improve the success of a therapy. The results can determine that executive functioning and depression are more interrelated than we think. If a link is proven between depression and executive function improvement it could expand our treatment practices for depression. Fluoxetine, one of depressions most utilized treatment options, was found to be ineffective in some women who have low levels of executive function coinciding with their depression (Dunkin et al., 2000). If we are able to advance executive function, then we can further enhance treatments so that depressive symptoms would continue to decrease instead. In addition, stimulants can have less side effects than other psychiatric medicatio ns (Satel et al., 1989). Findings from this study can provide safer, more effective treatment for populations that have difficulty finding dependable treatment options. References Gilbert, S. J., Burgess, P. W. (2008). Executive function. Current Biology, 18(3). doi:10.1016/j.cub.2007.12.014 Beck, A.T., Steer, R.A., Brown, G.K. (1996). Manual for the Beck Depression Inventory-II. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation. [1]how to assess this?