Discuss the major changes in maternal physiology that are essential to Essay

Discuss the major changes in maternal physiology that are essential to a healthy pregnancy outcome and give examples of how placenta may adversely affect pregnancy outcome - Essay Example The changes, mostly those relating to early stages of pregnancy, are partially attributable to â€Å"the metabolic demands brought on by the foetus, placenta and the uterus† (Ciliberto & Marx 1998, para. 1). Besides, the increase in the levels of hormones during pregnancy, especially those related to progesterone and oestrogen are also responsible for inducing the changes. However, most of the changes that occur in the later stages of the pregnancy pertain to the woman’s anatomy, as a result of â€Å"mechanical pressure from the expanding uterus† (Ciliberto & Marx 1998, para. 1). The physiological changes that occur in a woman during pregnancy are intended to â€Å"facilitate the adaptation of the cardio-vascular system to the increased metabolic needs of the mother, thus enabling adequate delivery of oxygenated blood to peripheral tissues and the foetus† (Silversides & Colman n.d., p. 1). The physiological and anatomical changes that a woman undergoes dur ing pregnancy have high significance on pregnancy outcomes and appropriate physiological transformation is a crucial element in achieving healthy pregnancy outcomes. There are several changes that occur in pregnant woman during the gestation period, which can be anatomical or physiological, such as: gestational weight gain, cardio-vascular changes, hormonal changes, changes in respiratory system, changes in the immunity system etc. This study will contain an analysis of three of the major changes in maternal physiology, such as Gestational Weight Gain, Hormonal Changes and Changes in the Cardio-Vascular System, as endorsed below: - This is one of the major changes that occur in a pregnant female during gestation period. One significant development during pregnancy is that a woman’s uterus undergoes enlargement and, as a consequence, abdominal viscera gets displaced. This, in turn, causes elevation of the diaphragm as a result of which the heart is moved â€Å"upwards to the left and assumes a

Business Cycle Synchronization in Latin America

Business Cycle Synchronization in Latin America Business cycles synchronization in Latin America:  A TVTPMS Approach Introduction: Over the last decades, there has been a growing interest in the business cycle transmissions among countries and interdependencies. The design of regional co-operations and integrations, such as Mercosur or Latin America countries, has the purpose to reduce poverty, amplify society welfare and enhance macroeconomic stability. However, it is crucial to understand the influence of regional integration and the role of external factors on regional business cycle synchronization. Fiess (†¦..) find that a relatively low degree of business cycle synchronization within Central America as well as between Central America and the United States. Grigoli (2009) analyzed the causation relations among business activities of the Mercosur countries to determine which cycles are dependent on others, considering trade intensity, trade structure and the influences of the EU and US as well. He find some causation relations among the South-American countries; however, the EU and US do not play a relevant role in determining the fluctuations of their cycles. Gutierrez and Gomes (†¦..) use the Beveridge-Nelson-Stock-Watson multivariate trend-cycle decomposition model to estimate a common trend and common cycle. Aiolfi et al. (2010) identify a sizeable common component in the LA countries’ business cycles, suggesting the existence of a regional cycle Caporale and Girardi (2012) show that the LA region as a whole is largely dependent on external developments and the trade channel appears to be the most important source of business cycle co-movement. They report that the business cycle of the individual LA countries appears to be influenced by country-specific, regional and external shocks in a very heterogenous way. In order to investigate the degree of synchronization of the business cycles among the six major LA economies[1] (namely, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela) as a whole, we consider the presence of a regional cycle by estimating the common growth cycle with the aim of testing its effect on each country-specific cycle. Besides this introduction, this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 contains the model and describes the data. Section 3 presents the empirical results and finally, section 4 concludes. Data and Methodology : We use quarterly data of the real GDP growth rate of the LAC countries, extracted from Penn World Table , namely †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦, covering the period from the first quarter of †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ to the last quarter of †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. We focus on whether the economic activity in the LAC countries is driven by a joint business cycle. We first look at the engine of growth lies within the LA countries. We therefore firstly begin by studying the existence of a common cycle among the economies studied. Second, we attempt to find the influence of a common factor referred to as the LAC’s business cycle extracted from the estimation of a dynamic common factor model. We employ a measure of business cycles synchronization based on Hamilton’s (1989) original Markov-switching model and the time– varying Markov–switching model developed by Filardo (1994) and reconsidered recently by Kim et al. (2008) to investigate the regional common factor in dating the regional business cycles. This study analyzes whether the synchronization pattern of business cycles in a country has systematically changed with the expansion or recession phases of regional business cycle. In this context, we assumed business cycles in a particular country are driven by regional cycles proxied by the common dynamic factor in real GDP growth of the LA countries, thus we use a dynamic factor model to extract the regional cycle. The main interest of the analysis is that a latent dynamic factor drives the co-movement of a high-dimensional vector of time-series variables which is also affected by a vector of mean-zero idiosyncratic disturbances, ÃŽ µt (Stock, 2010) . The common factors are assumed to follow a first-order autoregressive process. This linear state-space model can be written as follows: (1) (2) where L1,t,†¦,Lk,t are common to all the series, ÃŽ µ and ÃŽ · are independent Gaussian white noise terms. The L matrix of factor loadings measures the instantaneous impact of the common factors on each series. There are two growth phases or regimes with a transition between them governed by a time-varying transition probability matrix. The advantage of such a model is that the regimes can be easily interpreted as regimes of recession and expansion. The estimated equation is the following[2]: , (3) where and The endogenous variable, yt (the real growth rate in a given country at time t) is assumed to visit the two states of a hidden variable, st, that follows a first-order Markov chain, over the T observations[3]. ÃŽ ¼st, ÏÆ', à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ are real coefficients to be estimated. Denoting zt the leading variable (the regional common factor at time t), we want to know whether zt causes yt+k, k= 1,2, †¦.Under the assumption that both y and z have ergodic distributions, we define the following transition probability functions: (4) where and are elements of the following transition probability matrix: (5) with Pij the probability of switching from regime j at time t − 1 to regime i at time t and i, j =1, 2 with for all i,j∈{1,2. k is a lag. In order to estimate the coefficients of equation (1), we need to maximize the log-likelihood of the unconditional density function of yt: (6) The unconditional density function is the product of the conditional density function and the unconditional probability of st. This is written as[4]: (7) Transition probabilities indicate that the states of expansion and recession are equally persistent, and this persistency is very strong. These probabilities aim to provide information about the likelihood of staying or switching from a given regime of k periods after a regime change in z. If the estimate of ÃŽ ¼1 is positive and ÃŽ ¼2 is negative, then regime 1 can be interpreted as one of expansion and regime 2 as one of contraction. Furthermore, assume that in eq. (†¦) ÃŽ ³1,2 is positive. This indicates that while any increase in leading indicator (z) increases P11, probability that y stays in regime 1, any decrease in z increases 1-P11, probability that y switches from regime 1 k periods later; that is, an expansion (recession) in z leads to an expansion (recession) in another country. Similarly, a negative ÃŽ ³1,2 means that an expansion in z leads to a recession in another country. Additionally, a negative ÃŽ ³2,2 means that any decrease (increase) in leading indicator in creases the probability of staying in regime 2 (switching from regime 2). If both ÃŽ ³1,2 and ÃŽ ³2,2 are insignificant, this would mean that there is no statistically meaningful impact of the occurrence of expansions or recessions in a leading market on the growth regime of the other markets[5]. Empirical Results Fig. 1 refers to the common factor, i.e. the regional growth cycle of the Latin America countries. As we can see, the common factor easily captures the well-known common features of the LA business cycle such as the 1994–95 Mexican crisis and the Tequila crisis. To test the hypothesis of a joint business cycle in the LA, we estimate the TVTPMS model given by Eqs. (1) and (2) with the variable z referring to the common factor (regional cycle). Fig. 1. Common factor in real GDP growth of the Latin America countries The estimation results for the regional cycle as leading variable are reported in Table 1. We find significantly positive ÃŽ ¼1 and negative ÃŽ ¼2 which correspond to a situation of distinct expansion and contraction regimes. Our main findings are based on the significance of the estimated coefficients ÃŽ ³1,2 and ÃŽ ³2,2. When looking at the significance of the coefficient ÃŽ ³1,2 , it is found that the common factor exerts direct effects on Mexico and Venezuela, implying that a high growth rate in regional cycle is informative of GDP expansion phases in these countries. That is, an expansion in common factor increases the probability that Mexico and Venezuela will continue to evolve in an expansion regime (i.e. P11). However, we see that ÃŽ ³2,2 is never significant for these countries. This suggests that the regional cycle can never be considered as a leading indicator of the future state of the cycle in Mexico and Venezuela when they are already in the contraction regime (i.e. P2 2 and P1-22). Conversely, our results show that regional cycle is sensitive to economic fluctuations in Colombia, Chile and Brazil because ÃŽ ³2,2 is significant, thereby implying that any change in regional factor does help predict whether these economies will stay into or escape from contractions. Table 1 Estimation results for the regional cycle as leading variable. The numbers in bold indicate that a high growth rate in Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, and the Brail has an impact on the expansion and recession phases of the regional cycle. The evidence presented here indicates that Latin America countries’ increasing economic interdependence has strengthened both interregional business cycles synchronization. A regional cycle could provide significant informational content in predicting the future state of Mexico and Venezuela only when they are already into the expansionary state and the future state of Colombia, Chile and Mexico when they are already in the contraction regime. That is, the high level of integration reached within the region has enabled Mexico and Venezuela to emerge as a pole of economic growth where their business cycles are mutually reinforced during expansions. In other words, while this increasing economic interdependence tends to strengthen output co-movements when these countries are already in the expansionary state, the shift from contractions to recovery, opposed to Colombia, Chile and Mexico, do not depend on the recovery in other countries. For Argentina, both ÃŽ ³1,2 and ÃŽ ³2,2 is insignificant, implying any change in the regional cycle regional cycle is not sensitive to economic fluctuations in this country. Conclusion The papers other main finding is that a regional cycle could provide significant informational content in predicting the future state of the five of the largest Latin American economies—Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, and Mexico. However, the amplitude and duration of the business cycle are asymmetric, indicating that nonlinearities are important in the growth process. Thus, since the Latin America countries’ business cycles are well-tied together through a regional cycle, the costs of joining a monetary union would be reduced if a deeper regional economic cooperation, including intra-exchange rate stability and macroeconomic policy coordination, before turning on to a full-fledged monetary union. Since the Latin American economies have historically been highly dependent globalization process and demand from outside trading partners it would be interesting repeating a similar exercise with interest rates and cyclical output in advanced countries. References Hamilton, J.D., 1989. A new approach to the economic analysis of nonstationary time  series and the business cycle. Econometrica 57, 357–384. Filardo, A.J., 1994. Business cycle phases and their transitional dynamics. J. Bus. Econ. Stat.  12, 299–308. [1] These countries have accounted for some 70 percent of the region’s GDP over the past half century (Maddison, 2003, pp. 134–140) [2] The lag structure has been tested with standard AIC, HQ and SC criteria. [3] The occurrence of a regime is referred by a variable st that takes two values: 1 if the observed regime is 1 and 2 if it is regime 2 [4] The lags in the model are chosen using the Akaike information criterion. Moreover, we perform the Ljung–Box (LB) test to check that there is no residual autocorrelation [5] In this case, The TVPMS model converges to the Hamilton fixed probability model

Essay --

The use of a necklace to adorn oneself can be traced back through the ages, despite having a sole purpose to be aesthetically pleasing and to enhance an outfit, they have been used to demonstrate our individuality; and to show individuals expression of non-conformism in an attempt to distinguish oneself from society (Menninghaus, W. in Robert, K. 2011). Necklaces have been used as complex visual decorations to convey various meanings; cultural, social status to dictate wealth to others, it was even normal at one stage for wealthy ladies to wear more than one necklace at any single time to signify her wealth and class (McCarthy, M). They can be worn to confirm love and loyalty, and in the case of lockets even store our most treasured mementos, such as photographs and locks of hair. For example, in the Zulu tribe, girls often communicated their feelings to boys through jewellery making; they would thoughtfully and delicately make the jewellery, choosing motifs with great care to subtly convey their feelings. (Vanhaeren, M. 2009). By studying jewellery not only can we identify people’s personal tastes, but we can travel back through the ages, especially by studying the materials in which they are made. The earliest known necklaces were discovered to be made from teeth, bones and such materials that were readily available (Gere, C and Rudoe, J. 2010), today however, the variations are never ending, made from varying materials, such semi-precious stones to gold and silver to more affordable materials, such as plastic and glass beads; with a vast amount of designs, from simple and sophisticated to elaborate and over the top. Jewellery can be passed down through family generations, or given as a gift to a loved one. Necklaces have a hig... ...o bring luck and good fortune for the rest of the month. However, they have not always been viewed as lucky creatures, for example, in the nineteenth century fishermen would refuse to speak the word while out at sea. Whilst in Devon to see a white rabbit would indicate a forthcoming death in a person that was currently ill (Russell, H. (1925). Through the Celtic tribes it was noted that it was taboo to eat rabbit meat, quoting to do so ‘was like eating one’s own grandmother’ (Ezpeleta, A. 1996) this shows us the importance of rabbits and how highly they were regarded throughout history, whilst elsewhere it was considered that eating rabbit meat would cause beauty and vitality. The Celtics also believed that rabbits burrowed underground in order to communicate with the spirit world, and that they could carry messages from the living to the dead. (Ezpeleta, A. 1996).

Budgeting and Performance Evaluation at the Berkshire Toy Company Essay

Executive Summary In 1974, Berkshire Toy Company (BTC) was founded by Franklin Berkshire, Janet McKinley’s farther. Janet was soon became the CEO of the company when her father retires on 1993. After two years, BTC was acquired by Quality Products Corporation, a manufacturer of different products, for a common stock of $23.2 million. The preliminary statement of divisional operating income for the year ended June 30, 1998 presented the actual values generated together with the master (static) budget and master budget variances for the period. The company obtained higher Total Revenue than their budget but it turned out to an Operating Loss near a million dollars. This paper aims to study the budgets from actual results, and to compute the budget variances and to analyze its causes. After that, the company performance will be evaluated to recommend alternative solutions for improvement. Introduction As a division of Quality Products Corporation, Berkshire Toy Company produces the Berkshire Bear, a fifteen-inch teddy bear which are fully jointed, washable, and dressed in various accessories. It is sold to customers like children and adult collectors with unconditional lifetime guarantee. The company is organized into three departments: purchasing (managed by David Hall), production (managed by Bill Willford) and marketing (managed by Rita Smith). An incentive compensation plan was implemented in 1997, intended to enhance the participation and teamwork of the managers. It provides bonuses for each  department heads in the following conditions: Purchasing: 20% of net materials price variance, assuming favourable Marketing: 10% of excess variance of net revenue, assuming favourable Production: 3% of net variance in material, labour, variable overhead, labour rate variance, and the variable and fixed overhead spending, assuming favourable variances. Statement of the Problem Obtaining a loss approaching a million dollars despite the increase in sales. Substantial unfavourable variances resulting from production department Effects of the incentive compensation plan to the performance of each departments Discussion Actual Master Budget Variance Units sold 325,556.00 280,000.00 45,556.00 Total revenue 14,446,487.00 13,006,000.00 1,440,487.00 (U) Total variable expenses 8,484,404 5,968,508 2515,896 (U) Contribution margin 5,962,083 7,037,492 1,075,409 (U) Total fixed costs 6,805,828 6,248,920 556,908 (U) Operating income -843,745 788,572 1632,317 (U) Table 1. Preliminary Statement of Divisional Operating Income for the Year Ended June 30, 1998 The following can be derived from the table: Revenue were 11% higher than the master budget Variable expenses were $2,515,896 higher than the master budget Fixed costs were $556,908 higher than the master budget Actual (1) Master (Static) Budget (2) Flexible Master Budget (3) Sales Mix variance (1-3) Sales quantity variance (3-2) Units sold 325,556.00 280,000 325,556.00 0 45,556.00 (F) Retail & catalog 8,573,285.00 11, 662,000.00 13, 559,407.40 4,986,122.40 (U) 1,897,407.40 (F) Internet 4,428,018.00 0 0 4,428,018.00 (F) 0 Wholesale 1,445,184.00 1,344,000.00 1,562,668.80 117,484.80 (U) 218,668.80 (F) Total revenue 14,446,487.00 13,006,000.00 15,122,076.20 675,589.20 (U) 2,116, 067.20 (F) Table 2. Sales Analysis Schedule Sales volume quantity variance indicates an increase in profit by $2,116,067.20 if the budgeted sales mix is maintained for the actual sales volume of 325,556. However, there is an unfavourable variance of $675,589.20 because the actual sales mix was not in accordance with the budgeted sales mix. If we would check the sales volume variance, sales volume quantity variance plus sales mix variance is equal to favourable $1,440,487.00, which is the variance in table 1. Production costs Actual Master Static Budget Flexible Budget Master Budget Variance Flexible variance Total Direct Materials 1,230,840.00 1,015,924.00 1,181,214.83 214,916.00 (U) 49,625.17 (U) Direct Labour 3,668,305.00 2,688,000.00 3,125,337.60 980,305.00 (U) 542,967.40 (U) Variable Production overhead 1,725,665.00 1,046,304.00 1,216,537.66 679,361.00 (U) 509,127.34 (U) Fixed Manufacturing overhead 658,897 661,920 769,614.38 3023 (F) -110,717.38 (F) Table 3. Schedule of Production Variances Direct Material variance The budgeted price is higher than the actual resulting to a favourable material price variance. This is due to the price discounts of 7 to 10 percent of the three main inputs of the product namely acrylic pile fabric, plastic joints, and polyester fiber filling which contributed to some savings. However, the actual quantity used in production is greater than the standard quantity allowed per unit that results to unfavourable material usage variance. This maybe because of substandard quality of materials used that more materials are needed to produce one unit of product. In addition, there was an incident of thunderstorm that ruined the uninsured materials wherein the company doesn’t able to recover large amount of fiber filling. Another factor that would affect the direct material usage variance is the lifetime guarantee that the company offers which include the bear hospital since repairs or replacements of teddy bear are free. Also, defects may be a factor for the material variances which are only traced after the production process. Direct Labour variance The actual number of hours used and the actual wage rate of BTC are higher than the standard rate allowed for the actual production. Since most part of the production of bear is labor-intensive, the company may have set a low standard for the number of hours required to produce a unit. Additional sewing steps and inspection of the fabric color may have contributed to the actual labor hours used. Moreover, shortages of length in the cutting stage may require additional cutting set-ups which increase production time. Considering the production of the company, they have operated near to maximum capacity that the people are tired and some of them quit and had to be replaced at higher-than-standard wage rates that may lead to higher cost when unskilled workers are employed. Variable Overhead Due to the effect of the increased in labor requirements, the company also incurred increased payroll taxes and fringes. Employees need to have overtime to meet the actual demanded product volume which is higher than the budgeted that consequently increase the overtime premiums paid by BTC. Since the company has been using the same machine since it was established, frequent breakdowns occurred that maintenance work have contributed to the increase in the variable expenses. This includes the maintenance labor and supplies needed. Fixed Overhead The increase in utilities expense was related to the overtime of employees in the production as the demand of teddy bear boost. Incentive Plan David Hall With the favourable net materials price variance of $295,144.00, David Hall the Purchasing Manager will have a bonus of $59,028.72. Rita Smith, Marketing Manager Since the Actual Net Revenue is a loss, the marketing manager will not have bonus even if she manage to increase the company sales. Bill Wilford, Production Manager Direct Labour Variable Overhead Fixed Overhead Direct Material Efficiency Variance $ 122,790 (U) Direct Labor Efficiency Variance 466,638.40 (U) Direct Labor rate Variance 76,329.00 (U) Variable Overhead spending variance 327,488.34 (U) Variable Overhead Efficiency Variance 181,639.00 (U) Fixed Overhead spending variance (3,023.00) (F) Total Variance 1,171,862 (U) Bonus Zero Advantages and Disadvantages of Incentive Compensation Plan Advantages Disadvantages The incentive plan will motivate department heads Marketing Department focuses on less profitable distribution mix. Increase the morale of employees as their efforts will be rewarded Production Department: uses low quality materials forced to work overtime Performance of the company will attract positive results Purchasing Department bought discounted materials which may sacrifice the quality of production. Conclusion Though the company may have increased their number of sales for the current period, they still have incurred losses due to the unfavourable variances that have resulted from their production.   Substantial increase in the number of bears sold is noted for the year’s performance. It can be assumed of a good performance of the marketing department. However, loss still occurred. The figures of sales may post a good performance conversely the current sales might give the lowest possible sales due to wrong sales mix. The marketing department has focused too much on the Internet Sales whereas it gives a lower contribution than the Retail Sales. Variances in the production of the product are due to the wrong focused of the department head because of the new incentive compensation program. Favourable direct material price variance occurred due to lower prices and discounts on the materials purchased. However, unfavourable material usage variance have occurred probably due to substandard materials were used to the production. Direct labour on the hand, have resulted to unfavourable variances on both efficiency and rate. Focused of the manager may be on the efficiency of labour due to the incentive program which gives the need to hire more skilled workers. This resulted to unfavourable labour rate variance. However, due to substandard materials were used the workers may have needed additional time to work on the teddy bears which still resulted to unfavourable variance. The incentive program may have good intentions but this lead the department heads on the wrong direction and have resulted to unfavourable variances. Other factors that may have affected the variances are the spoilage due to the thunderstorms that have occurred. Machine maintenance is another factor especially in the overhead variances where frequent breakdowns happened. Alternative solutions obtain First solution that we recommend is the revision of the incentive compensation plan. The objective of the plan is good and should be maintained however some computation for the said bonus should be changed. Computation of Bonus for the Marketing Manager could be retained as net revenue is a good measure not only in the performance of the marketing department but as well as the performance of the company. Computation for the Purchasing Manager should have also considered the Material Usage Variance as quality of the materials purchased in also a key factor in their production. Bonus for the production manager may have been a good computation as it may have covered different factors to assess the performance of the department. On the other hand, some overhead expenses should be observed by the company  as it continuously increase overtime. They may need to consider purchasing new machine as maintenance cost has been a big part of their cost. A new machine may also address the issue of frequent overtime of employees and the increasing maintenance supplies expenses.

Can built form influence social problems?

The concept of social problems is linked to a wide spectrum of contrasting definitions. Jerome G Monis defines it as â€Å"these social conditions identified by scientific enquiry and values as detrimental to human well-being†. On the other hand Malcom Spector and Jon I Kitsuse defined them as â€Å"the activities of individuals or groups making assertion of grievance and claims with respect to some putative conditions†. (http://syg2010-01.fa04.fsu.edu/Week_1.htm) Taking into consideration the different approaches to this debate the point that the main reason for people's behaviour is physical form can be argued. Urban form can be seen as one of the reason for social behaviour but to deny the influence of social, economical and political factors is to simplify the complexity of society and the different relationships within it. In any case both arguments will always be episodes in the long saga of traditional controversy. Social problems have been divided into 3 groups by Kenneth C Land (www.soc.duke.edu): Deviant behaviour, including drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness, crime and violence. Social inequality and conflict including aging, the ederly, racial and ethnics relations, the sexes and gender inequality, poverty and economic inequality and homelessness. Finally, human groups and social change which include the changes in the economy and workplace. The social problems that can be correlated directly to urban form are seen as the one under the social inequality category and antisocial behaviour. The line of thought that establishes that the built form influences directly to social problems has been named architectural determinism and assume that the layout and form of physical environment would shape, even determine the quality of social life. During the period following the Second World War the architects of the Bauhaus and architects such as Le Corbusier thought that they were in a position to alter society for the better through the medium of physical design. By design we understand the design of a whole town as well as the design of relatively small scale units. Maurice Broady described this as â€Å"the architects who builds a house or design a site plan who decides where the roads will and will not go and who decides which directions the houses will face and how close together they will be, also is, to a large extent, deciding the pattern of social life among the people who will live in these houses. It asserts that architectural design has a direct and determinate effect on the way people behave† ( Maurice Broady 1968 cited in Taylor, N, 1998). The case of the Business Academy located on Bexley and designed by Norman Foster can be an example of how a radical project has changed students behaviour towards education. Very different to the 1960's building where students use to attend lessons, the Academy is an open-plan where lessons are carried out in alcoves and where no division of spaces have been created. The Business Academy has been seen as a success where â€Å"the proportion of children at school achieving five good grades at GCSE has leapt from just 6% to 36%† (www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/b/building/shortlist.htm). The results of this achievement could change the life style of the generation of students attending lessons in the building. The improvement of the education can bring a change for better work opportunities for the students and at the same time will have an impact on the perception of one of London's most deprived areas. A building can also change the perception of the character of a city. Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum transformed Bilbao from an industrial Spanish Basque region to an international tourist destination. But is this, just the building form, which has made the difference? To resume the success of some enterprises or the failure of others in physical terms is to simplify the complexity of society. We can attribute the achievement of the Norman Fosters' project to the conjunction of a different kind of built environment, when compared with more traditional educative centres, and the introduction of new and innovative educational techniques. On the other hand the fact that such an important architect has designed a revolutionary building to be used as a school can have changed people's perception about education. It has built a sense of identity among the pupils and indirectly has lead them to improve their performance. On the other hand Guggenheim Museum has demonstrated the importance of power and identity. It has been part of the political strategy from an elite in order to change the image of one of the most problematic niches of nationalism in Spain, that is Bilbao. It does not only offer an optimistic view of the city but it also can be seen as the attempt of internationalisation of the Spanish culture after the cultural archaism of Francoism. It involves a tourist campaign which had the objective of promoting the city and radical regeneration projects which have improved the services and have transformed the vision of the city. Consequently, built form is only a minor reason for the development of social problems. Social problems find causes in social conditions. Giddens argues that â€Å"everyday lives are, of course, influenced, reproduced and changed by structures of social, economical and political power† (Giddens cited in Dickens 1990, pg 3) and it is extremely difficult to generalise about these affects. Physical space is socially constructed by people's perceptions. What Giddens calls Locales are spaces which â€Å"are indeed usually socially specified for some kinds of activities. Locales carry social meanings and symbols which are widely accepted and which considerably affect social relations† (Giddens cited in Dickens 1990, pg5). They affect how people interpret their own and people's circumstances. Physical space is socially constructed. There is a socially constructed perception in Britain about areas characterised by high, concrete, block of flats. This kind of housing has always been associated with high levels of graffiti, vandalism and litter. Alice Coleman argues â€Å"that vandalism take place in zones where residents are unable to keep a watch over who is entering or leaving their estates† (A. Coleman, 1985, pg158). They are seen as impersonal, stratified dwellings and undesiderable places to live. Crime, antisocial behaviour, unemployment, poverty and inequality are seen as distinctive features of these places. But factors such as poor services, no good transport links, authority government tenure and the meeting of several marginalised groups suffering from what Durkheim called anomya â€Å"condition or malaise in individuals, characterized by an absence or diminution of standards or values, and an associated feeling of alienation and purposeneless† (www.free-definition.com/Anomie.html) are ve ry relevant when considering the main reasons for this kind of problem. People who are not satisfied with society, who have not got the same access to commodities than the major part of the population and that experience from the indifference of institutions, which are characterised by low skill occupations, family disorganisation, poverty, illiteracy and racism suffers are grouped in this kind of residential development which are cheap to build and can accommodate a large number of people in minimal space. These people are the product of â€Å"exacerbation of a logic of economic and racist exclusion† (Savage, Warden & Ward, 2003, pg76). Again we can argue here whether the physical environment is the reason for these problems and again a new example contradicts the simplicity of the architectural determinism discourse. Spain, as almost all European cities is flat based. Almost 80% of the population in Spain live in flats. People in Spain have been brought up living in high density block of flats. The perception of people about living in this kind of housing is completely different to the British one. Being the common norm between the population it does not lead to any of the social problems described above. They are not associated to vandalism and poor quality accommodation. They are the standard residential housing where people live. The areas where vulnerable groups live are characterised by poor links of transport, no easy access to schools, located on the outskirts of the city and who residents are immigrants or part of a minor ethnic group. They are tenure tenants that lack sense of identity with the place where they live, lack of resources and are victims of some conditions that are made difficult to improve their situation. The areas where they live are characterised by the use of cheap materials and an even higher density than in other areas. Families live in small flats where they have to share rooms. The combination of all this features, together with the difficulties to establish zones of autonomy and self management is what, in Spain, generate major social problems and no the fact that people live in this type of housing. Even the new theories which aim to explain social change and society within the context of postmodernity claim that the city will evolve as mean of facilitating interpersonal communication â€Å"Although individuals live in a particular place and participate in community life in and around that place, it is interaction and not place that is the essence of life† (Clark, 2003, pg 139). Once again the importance of predominant social conditions over physical form are highlighted in order to understand the future of the cities or urban form and consequently its social costs. The global village is the sociological destination of the city. The power of media will spread urban values. Information, and no physical design, is being the basis for an explanation of the present and future society and of people way of living and behaviours. Information is the leviathan that will lead future changes and policies. Practically speaking in planning grounds, the future of the city is called â€Å"compact city† and will be the fruit of an urban renaissance supported by governments and elite groups. In its July 12 Spending Review the government announced â€Å"a 50% increase in new social house building†¦an extra 10,000 homes a year†¦and further plans to increase housing supply and improved affordability by funding the Sustainable Communities Plan to deliver 200,000 additional homes in the Thames Gateway and other growth areas† (http://global.factiva.com/en/arch/print-results.asp). The government has named this project urban renaissance and it involves the better use of buildings within developed land to accommodate about 3.8 million new households between 1996 and 2021 and to do this the government â€Å"supports the idea of the ‘compact city', that is a higher density, mixed use development on brownfield land close to public transport nodes† (Burton, 2002, pg 537). This encouraged urban renaissance will imply the adoption of high density constructions in order to satisfy the demand for new housing at minimal environmental costs and this means a high proportion of apartments and terrace houses. The benefits will be â€Å"the conservation of the countryside, less need to travel by car, thus reduced fuel emissions, support for public transport and walking and cycling, better access to services and facilities, more efficient utility and infrastructure provision and revitalisation and regeneration of inner urban areas† (Burton, 2002, pg 538). But which will be the social problems attributed to this new concept of housing form? According to Elisabeth Burton, nine social problems have been seen by population as are related to compactness (Burton, 2002, pg 547-548): * access to superstores * access to green open space * public transport use * extent of walking and cycling * amount of domestic living space * death rate from mental illness * crime * social segregation * death rate for respiratory disease. Again we can argue that although some of the social problems can be seen as a product of this kind of development they are not directly correlated to built form. The invocation of the high-rise horrors of post war urban Britain and the congested squalor of Victorian Britain is where Bowers see the root of this apprehension (Bowers cited in Jenks, Burton and Williams, 1996). For example the difficult access to services may find is cause in the increase in number of users within an area but may also be seen as lack of appropriate infrastructure and therefore a failure in developer and government's attempt of offering the necessary infrastructure for a new development. On the other hand, why does it promote crime and social segregation or how can it be associated to mental illness? When people live in close proximity they are more aware of the existence of neighbours and there are more opportunities to informally interact with your neighbours. The relationship between people living within flats is less gregarious. It also provides casual surveillance and respect for property. For designers and housing providers seeking to promote social equity, and according to the research developed by Elisabeth Burton, higher-density housing such apartments and terraces are the best form of housing, â€Å"especially if they are developed on derelict land in areas where there are plenty of locally-provided services and facilities† (Burton, 2002, pg 558). The extent to which built form influences social problems has therefore been seen as very limited. The confluence of several economic, social, political and environmental reasons results in the creation of social problems. In addition, the weight of the importance of the built form, when taking into consideration the different social problems, tend to change from one country to another depending on the perception of the different kind of built form by the population. This perception will always be shaped according to the culture and socialization the individual has experienced. What in some countries is seen as undesiderable form of housing in others is the common norm. In Britain â€Å"compact city† has been proved to be the best option for future urban development if sustainable reasons are taking into account. The promotion of places that make efficient use of available space and environmental resources will lead to the adoption of high-density development. This residential housing has been seen through history as a reason for the emergence of social problems and people associate this type of built environment to vandalism, crime and social inequality. The introduction of this new model into planning practice will need to be seen together with changes in the population mentality and will meet several difficulties when confronting well rooted ways of thinking. People will have to be educated to accept the change. It will not create additional social problems if it incorporates features that improve people's quality of life like high standard local services and an easy reach of a range of facilities. This new concept of built form will generate debates and modification in people's constructed reality before being able to be generally accepted, a shift in people's attitudes towards the new form of housing. It needs to be an attractive option and it will involve action and investment from government and agencies in order to disassociate false presumptions about this kind of built form.