Controlling Obesity in Canada

Controlling Obesity in Canada Public Health Policy: Controlling Obesity in Canada The World Health Organisation defined health in its constitution as â€Å"a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.† (WHO, 1946) The health of an individual is affected by multiple factors like personal hygiene, access to health care, socio-economics, genetics, living and working environment. The term public health is used for the efforts which are made to promote individuals health. Public health The field of Public health can be described as the science of wellness of society, community or an organisation by disease prevention to promote health by collective efforts and choices of a society. Public health is different from medicine as it is mainly concerned with the promotion of health and well-being of a society not by treating the sick but by preventing the spread of a co-morbidity or morbidity. The community benefited by public health department can be of any size. Promotion of health involves multidisciplinary approach involving other fields of community medicine like epidemiology, economics, biostatistics, behavioural sciences, healthcare providers, public policy, environmental health, community health and occupational safety. (Winslow and Amory, 1920). By using health indicators as a source of information about the health status of a society public health increases the health of the society by preventing the diseases and promoting a healthy life style. Public health measures can be exemplified as hand washing, use of condoms, breast feeding, promoting hygiene, vaccination, promoting exercise, use of boiled water etc. Public health ethics Public health decreases the cost of healthcare by preventing the diseases keeping in view the ethics and norms of a society. While implementing a health policy there can be a conflict of some moral issues and restrict the choice of living for an individual. For an individual a policy may appear to have some negative effects but if we see society as a whole it proves beneficial. The ethics and mortalities are incorporated in the field of medical practice, health policies and medical research. With the advancement in the field of science, the study of application of moral values ethics by the scientists lead to formation of a new discipline called bioethics and medical ethics. Medical ethics are taken into consideration while making a health policy by public health departments worldwide. This subsidiary is called public health ethics. Public health policy The Nuffield Bioethics Council has identified following ethical and moral points that should be taken into consideration while making a health policy. A policy should have following characteristics: Produce health benefits Prevent health morbidities Encourage participation and distributes its benefits to all factions of the society without disparities Be founded on the principles of justice and transparency Respect individuals liberty of action Respect individuals privacy, confidentiality, respect minorities and universal human rights Build and maintain trust (The Nuffield Bioethics Council) Besides this the any health policy must be implemented by government involving the public sector and third party approach. Unlike developed countries developing countries still lack the monetary resources and trained staff in their public health departments. Fundamentals of Public Health Policy While forming a public health policy first there should be evidence of the cause of the disease. The evidences in this case are authentic peer review research works. After that there is scientific assessment of the risks, cost estimation and transparency. Obesity Obesity A Cause Of Many Diseases Obesity is proved to be a main cause of increase in mortalities as it causes many co morbidities. (David et al. 1999) But the good thing is that obesity is a preventable morbidity. Obesity increases the risk of a list of diseases which are beyond the scope of this paper. To be concise obesity increases the risk of ischemic heart disease, diabetes mellitus type 2, infertility, stroke, osteoarthritis and many more. Libraries are stuffed with the research reviews suggesting obesity as a cause of different diseases. Since 1980 the individuals suffering from obesity has been doubled as in 2008, 1.4 billion adults and 40 million children have been found to be suffering from obesity. (EASO, 2014) Obesity In Canada In Canada 50% adults are obese or over weight. In the years 1981-1996 obesity among children ages seven to 13 has tripled. The percentage of obesity in agults is increasing since 1978. Till 2007 the percentage grew from 15% to 29%. (Statistics Canada, 2009) and if this keep on growing then by 2040 70% of the adult Canadian population will be obese. Obesity costs Canadas economy $2.7 billion and the health care system $1.6 billion in 2000-01. From 1985 to 2000 about 57,000 deaths in Canada were caused by obesity. (Katzmarzyk, Ardern. 2004) Recommended Health Policy For Obesity Controlling obesity will require some drastic measures by the government as the problem is so adverse and will become worse in the future. The government have to implement such measures that address a large group of population. Following are my recommendation about controlling obesity in Canadian population. Hate Obesity Education Campaign Government must launch an effective campaign for increasing the awareness about obesity among individual this can be implemented by organising seminars, workshops and lectures in schools, colleges, universities, work places and in community gathering. By involving teachers and mothers this strategy can be proved very effective, one proposal from my side is the labelling of food products which are high in fats and calories. We can label the amount of product which can be taken by an individual in a day. â€Å"Hate Obesity† campaign will be very helpful by affective advertisement by out health department like we conduct no smoking campaign. Food Policy Food policy should be reviewed particularly regarding the increase in use of junk food and canned food. Over the years the population is increasingly more attracted toward the junk food. The food companies must me taken under taken under regulation and they must provide the information about food ingredients and calories to their consumer. This would be very hard for the government due to immense revnue and tax they generate. Huge motivation and courage at the government side is needed to control this elephant. Promotion of Physical Activity According to recent research majority of children and adults donot fit in the international guideline of physical activity. One of the reson is the access to the playground and parks. This would need some huge funding from the government for providing these facilities. Moreover private organisations can be involved to provide the oppurtunities to their workers like physical fitness competitions and benefits against the physical fitness. This also need regulations and legislation. Politicians and civil society can come up with a solution to this problem. Promotion of Home Made Diet The use of premade food is a very unhealthy culture growing in our society. Community awareness program for the mothers can be conducted to educatye the mothers. If mothers are convinced that obesity is a disease not an ordinary problem then this fear can be used to promote home made food. The people must know what they are eating. The choice of food to eat must be in the hands of the motrhers References Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization. (1946) Winslow and Amory. (1920). The Untilled Fields of Public Health. Science. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/51/1306/23 The Nuffield Bioethics Council. 2007  www.nuffieldbioethics.org David B. Allison, PhD; Kevin R. Fontaine, PhD; JoAnn E. Manson, MD, DrPH; June Stevens, PhD; Theodore B. VanItallie, MD. Annual Deaths Attributable to Obesity in the United States. (1999) Ontario obesity reaches epidemic proportions  November 24, 2004, Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. Katzmarzyk PT Ardern CI. Overweight and obesity mortality trends in Canada 1985-2000. Canadian Journal of Public Health. 2004. European Association of Study of Obesity. Obesity Facts Figures. 2014.  http://easo.org/obesity-facts-figures Statistics Canada, Canadian Community Health Survey, 2009, 2010. Le Petit C, Berthelot JM. Obesity: A Growing Issue. Statistics Canada. 2005 Adult Vaccination: An Important Step in Protecting Your Health (2014)  http://www.cdc.gov/features/VaccinesChronicConditions Rankin, S. H., Stallings, K. D., London, F. (2005). Patient education in health and illness. London: Lippincott Williams Wilkins.

Pakistan-Vietnam Comparison Essay

Introduction Vietnam and Pakistan are two different nations displaying a broad spectrum of cultural values that these nations observe in their politics, economics, social and environmental domains. My study gave me an opportunity to learn about cultural comparisons between the two countries on a macro level which involve not only contrasts but incredible similarities and eventually how these 2 different societies have come out in past 50 years merely due to their cultures, behaviours and actions taken. Culture is one of the key Performance Indicator that builds up a country and displays the frame of mind of the respective nation. The Colonial Occupation & Cold War Era Pakistan and Vietnam share a similar background of colonial occupation. Pakistan appeared on the map of the world in 1947 after a long struggle against the British Occupation and then as a result of Sub-continent partition. The British had left behind a system which was later embraced by both Pakistan and India especially in the area of politics and education. As elaborated by (Marilyn. B. Young,2002), Vietnam was once a French Colony from 1861 till 1954. In contrast to Pakistan, The French colonial system had less impact on the Vietnamese society since before the French, Vietnam had been under strong influence of China therefore the Vietnamese culture has deep connections with the Chinese culture. Even during French occupation, China continued to have influences and links in Northern Vietnam. It was not surprising that Vietnam later emerged as a communist state. (Marilyn. B. Young,2002) explains Vietnam War as one of the most prominent cold war that started in 1963 when Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated in South Vietnam and National Liberation Front (NLF) started to operate in that region. NLF was strongly supported by North Vietnam establishment. This movement sparked the attention of the United States and then began the infamous involvement of the US army that resulted in 2 million Vietnamese causalities. During this phase Vietnam was in complete disorder and civil unrest was observed in the most hideous form. The war left the nation with horrifying memories and shattered economy. Pakistan though has not faced Cold War directly like Vietnam but it had a major impact on its society due to the Afghanistan Cold War which erupted as a result of Russian assault. Millions of Afghan Refugees flocked to Pakistan for shelter along with some undesirable elements that infiltrated which brought drugs and weapons into the country. By the end of Cold War and Taliban taking over Afghanistan, Pakistani nation was left with bigger challenges to face, both political and economic in nature. Most of the Afghan Refugees didn’t leave but they contributed in country’s economy by establishing businesses in the textile & transportation industry. In Pakistan around 1. 5 million Afghanis are living adding diversity in Pakistan’s cultural scene. It is very interesting to see how involvement of other nations like stated above can impact a country’s various cultural domains which we will discuss in following topics 1) Politics 2) Economy, and 3) Other Cultural Aspects. Politics One of the elements that Pakistan adopted from British colonial was the ‘Parliamentarian’ system. The system however is extremely mutated where power is concentrated at the Federal level and is centralized. Provisional autonomy is inadequate when it comes to distribution of wealth & natural resources with no accountability. The power distance has created an imbalance in the society and among the provinces which has given rise to biased approach by the people to support and elect parties that speak their language and belong to their provinces with a belief that if they elect politicians in the Federal government from their own region, they will get the due attention to the problems in their area. This has given rise to multiple regional political parties. The Politicians exploit the regional associations of the people who are divided based on ethnic background and language. All parties in Pakistan belong to elite families which continue to elect their own family members within the party without consultation with rest of the party members. High Collectivism is observed among the elite and the ruling groups to support common interests. The society shows high individualism by mostly supporting individuals of the political parties based on their regional or language affiliations. In contrast, the society shows high collectivism on religious matters and other national issues like Kashmir whereby society unites for the cause irrespective of race, language or ethnicity. The Political System failed miserably due to frequent intervention of the Military and mainly due to the feudalistic attitudes of the politicians and government. On top of this bureaucracy is working for the welfare of the elite rather than the people of Pakistan. There is a culture to suppress the under-paid subordinate to get work done by fair or unfair means. This has given rise to corruption throughout the Government & Institutions. Consultation is a far cry when it comes to making decisions on any level. (Wikipedia, 2009) explains Vietnam’s Governing Model which is centralised but is based on a single-party constitution over 58 provinces. The single party is the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV); clearly the Chinese influence has seeped into the Vietnamese Political structure as well. Non party independent candidates are allowed to contest elections. But CPV holds absolute power, an authoritarian regime (Tuong-Vu, 2009) argues, on state level which controls the workings of parliamentary, executive and judicial domains. The party agenda is established by the Politburo which is a 14 member party policy making committee. The President, Prime Minister and General Secretary are members of the Politburo. In contrast to Pakistan, President holds more power as compared to the Prime Minister. For example, in Pakistan the PM has the power to appoint the Army Chief while in Vietnam this decision lies with the President, the Pakistan National Assembly consist of members from multiple parties while majority in Vietnam National Assembly members belong to the CPV etc. In another contrast, there is no visibility of actual opposition party in the Vietnam which has curbed accountability of the ruling party & government officials augmenting corruption. High Collectivism of the CPV is seen in running the country’s political, judicial and economic streams. Same is observed in Pakistan’s government framework. A great positive advancement and signs of individualism for Pakistan in past few years is the independent media and up-rise of the civil society for an independent Judiciary. The media is getting stronger and freedom of speech is on the rise.

Causes and Effects of Cancer

In the human body, cells are constantly going through the cell cycle. An Important step of the cell cycle Is called mitosis, In which the cell (referred to as the parent cell) undergoes a series of steps that lead to the formation of two daughter cells. This process only occurs In somatic cells, which are any nongamete cells. Gametes are haploid (containing only half of a full chromosome set, 23 chromosomes vs. a diploid's 46) cells in the form of sperm (males) or ovum (females).Some areas of the body undergo very little mitotic division at all, such as muscles and nervous tissue. Other areas undergo mitotic division in response to a growth factor, which is a signal to cells of a specific area to begin mitosis. This growth factor is released into the extracellular fluid in certain portions of the body in response to four basic stimuli: growth, repair, asexual reproduction, and regeneration. In humans, growth and repair are the prevalent stimuli. Growth dictates the maturation of an o rganism during a specific period of time†known as puberty in humans.Repair, on the other and, occurs when an organism sustains an injury such as a laceration, in which mitotic division occurs to create a blood clot to seal the wound, and epithelial cells undergo the process as well to recreate the skin cells that were destroyed. To control the rate ot mitotic cell division, the body uses growth signals and antigrowth signals. cancerous cells are those that Ignore antgrowth signals, and can continue to replicate without growth factors. After a certain amount of rnltotlc dlvlslons, the telomeres In cells shorten until there Is none, and programmed apoptosis†cell death †occurs.Cancer cells elongate their telomeres, and so can also replicate almost indefinitely. When these cells start to build up, they form a mass called a tumor. Tumors can either be benign or malignant. Benign tumors on the skin have hair growth and clean edges, whereas malignant tumors do not and are cancerous. The condition can worsen if any cells from a malignant tumor detach and travel to other parts of the body through the circulatory or lymphatic systems. The tumor will then begin growing in the location where the cell ends up. nd can be fatal In certain organs like the liver or the brain, What makes these cells especially dangerous is ngiogenesis, in which the blood vessels near a tumor grow to increase the blood supply to that area, providing necessary nutrients and oxygen to the cancerous cells and depriving nearby healthy cells. Cancerous cells also divide more frequently because the length of time a cell spends in Interphase†the â€Å"inactive† phase†is shortened. This becomes even more dangerous when considering that less time is spent on replicating the DNA so the daughter cells are more likely to have chromosomal disorders. 3.The article presents new evidence and viewpoints regarding the formauon of malignant tumors and cells. At first, In the 90 s, It was elieved that cancer was â€Å"the result of cumulative mutations that alter specific locations In a cell's DNA and thus change the particular proteins encoded by cancer- related genes at those spots. † Of course It Is already clear that certain substances, such as tobacco, asbestos, and UV radiation, are common cancer-causers (carcinogens). wnat Is Delng aeoatea, nowever, Is wnat erect tnese suostances nave on cells that cause malignancy in the first place†or†What makes these substances carcinogens?In regards to the DNA mutation theory, evidence stemmed from observations of tumor suppressors and oncogenes. These two genes inhibit a cells' ability to divide, and stimulate growth respectively. DNA mutations would either disable tumor suppressors, or â€Å"permanently lock oncogenes into an active state. † While still supported by a few in the field, disagree. â€Å"No one questions that cancer is ultimately a disease of the DNA. † There are, however, a substantial amount of other factors that have been observed to vary between normal and cancerous genes.Opponents of the dogma feel that â€Å"Cancer is a consequence of a chaotic process, a combination of Murphys Law and Darwin's law; anything that can go wrong will, and n a competitive environment, the best adapted survive and prosper. † Age is a significant risk factor for cancer, as it is for most diseases. The older you are, the more likely you are to be diagnosed with cancer. On hypothesis that differs from the cumulative-mutations theory says that there are five or six regulation systems that need to be affected in order for a cell to be malignant.These six â€Å"special abilities† are: growth in the absence of growth signals, continued growth despite anti-growth signals, evasions apoptosis, ability to coopt blood vessels to branch off towards the mass, near-indefinite replications, and metastasis. Of the six, it is metastasis that provides the most di fficult aspect to counteract, as different drugs and treatment methods have to be utilized based on the region in which cancer is preset. For instance, chemotherapy is not very effective for bone cancer.Very few cells in a tumor have the ability to metastasize, however, once detected it is usually too late. â€Å"The prominent paradigm for 25 years has been that tumors grow in spurts of mutation and expansion. † Mutations affect genetic material in such a way that usual regulatory proteins are unable to be synthesized properly, or at all. Once mutated, cells then expand and replicate much faster than normal cells (explained in the background section). It is, however, much easier to permanently activate an oncogene than it is to suppress the tumor alleles (one mutation rather than two).It is, however, now believed that cancer is not Just caused from mutations to a few specific genes. If â€Å"Just a small fraction of the cells in a tumor are responsible for its growth and met astasis,† the â€Å"cure† for cancer is much more easily attainable. Seeing as mitosis produces two genetically identical daughter cells, DNA mutations present in the arent cells should also be observable in both daughter cells. Most tumors are not actually masses of identical clones; instead, there is an â€Å"amazing genetic diversity among their cells. While there are some commonly-mutated genes from cancer cell to cancer cell (like p53), â€Å"most other cancer genes are changed in only a small fraction of cancer types†¦ † Aneuploidy is a term describing abnormalities in chromosomes. â€Å"If you look at most solid tumors in adults, it looks like someone set Offa bomb in the nucleus†¦ there are big pieces of chromosomes hooked together and duplications or osses of whole chromosomes. † The issue though, is that most cancer cells's genomes are unstable as wells as aneuploid, and so the new introduced problem is whether mutations or aneuploidy occurs first in a cancerous cell.One of the three plausible answers is the modified dogma. This states that some external or internal factor disables the genes needed for synthesizing and repairing DNA, resulting in an ty to correct mutatlons tnat occur. Anotner optlon Is â€Å"early InstaDlllty,† statlng that there are specific master genes required for a cell to divide, and these are silenced. Thus, when chromosomes replicate and mistakes occur, the daughter cells fail to get the correct number of type of chromosomes. As replication continues, so do the â€Å"results† worsen.The last theory is the â€Å"all-aneuploidy' theory, in which a cellular division error produced aneuploid daughter cells that have varying amounts of different genes. The specific genes that code for enzymes which correct DNA mutations are unable to be synthesized, and thus the DNA begins to fail and kill the aneuploid cells with it. 4. While on the longer side of the spectrum, Gibbs' article i s well-written, detailed, and incredibly informative. Above all, the article is also relevant†both to our current unit in AP Biology, and in the medical field.The article is about ten years old at this point, however, much, if not all, of the information described and provided is still highly accurate and in question today. While there have been numerous developments in the biotechnology fields specializing in treatment and detection of cancer, not many advancements have taken place in regards to identifying the reasons why certain substances are carcinogenic. Mitosis and meiosis are subjects that go hand in hand with cancer, as it is literally an ncontrolled amount of mitotic division, making the article easy to relate too.New terms such as oncogenes and tumor suppressors are well explained, and numerous links to previous material (such as protein synthesis and chromosomal disorders) can be made by any knowledgeable AP Biology student. Comprehension was not an issue whatsoeve r, and the article was wonderfully written as well as fascinating. That said, I would highly recommend the article to anyone†AP Biology student or otherwise, as it is informative in layman's terms, as well as important in modern society.

New Finance Faces An Important Question Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 17 Words: 5010 Downloads: 6 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Narrative essay Did you like this example? The logic for an organization is its objectives. Each business organization tries to achieve its objectives by integrating different functions related to finance, marketing, personnel and operations. Finance is one of the major and important financial areas of each profit and non-profit organization. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "New Finance Faces An Important Question Finance Essay" essay for you Create order Not only for organizations, finance is quite critical for ones personal decisions also like where to invest savings? Companies who are in need of new finance faces an important question whether to raise debt or equity. There is less empirical evidence on how companies select the proper ratio of equity and debt at given point in time. Capital structure is the mix of the long term sources of funds used by the firm. Prudent capital structure requires answer to the following questions What should be maturity composition of the firms sources of funds In what proportion relative to the total should the various forms of permanent financing utilized The major influence of the maturity structure of the financing plans is the nature of assets owned by the firm. A firm heaving real capital investment, presented primarily by its fixed asset on its balance sheet, they have to finance those assets with permanent types of financial capital, investment in current assets should be fina nced with permanent capital. Assets are financed on temporary basis and it is also observed that companies current liabilities are consist of temporary capital. The objective of the capital structure is the source of the funds used by a firm in the way that will increase the companys common stock price. We may say that capital structure management is the objective by which firm seeks the mix of funds that will minimize its cost of capital. IMPORTANCE OF CAPITAL STRUCTURE: It makes economic sense of the firms to strive to minimize the cost of the using financial capital. Both capital costs and other costs, such as the manufacturing cost share a common characteristic in that it potentially reduces the size of the cash and dividend that could be paid to the common stock holders. The ultimate value of a share of common stock depends in parts on the returns investors expect to receive from holding the stock. Cash dividends comprise all part of these expected returns. All factors held constant that could affect share price expect capital cost. If capital costs would keep minimized, the dividend stream that flows to the common stockholders would be maximized. In result of this the firms common stock price increases. The firms capital cost can be affected by its capital structure, and then capital structure management is clearly an important subset of business financial management. Profitability is the primary goal of all businesses. Without profitabilit y the business will not survive in the long run. Profitability is measured with income and expenses. Expenses are the cost of resources used up or consumed by the activities of the business. Profitability is defined in two ways economic profit and accounting profit. Economic profit gives a long term perspective of the business. Accounting profit provides an intermediate view of the feasibility of business. One year losses may not permanently harm the business. Consecutive years loss may make your business vulnerable. Profitability is measured with an income statement because income statement is measure of income and expenses during a given time period. Profitability measurement is an important measure of the business success. The most important task of business managers is to increase profitability of the firm. They always look for the ways to improve business profitability. A variety of profitability ratios are used to access profitability of the business. CAPITAL STRUCTURE DECISION MAKING: Capital structure decisions are of the strategic importance for the organizations. Capital structure decisions are complex ones that involve weighing a variety of factors. The decision of capital structure becomes even more difficult where economic condition, like our country, is uncertain. Capital structure decisions have direct impact on firm value and return to stakeholders. With respect to capital structure firms are divided into two classes, Unleveled and Leveled firms. An unleveled firm uses only equity capital. A leveled firm uses a mix of equity and various forms of liabilities like bank debt, marketable bonds and debentures. Firms with strong profitability, reserve funds and high market dominance tend to have stable sales levels, assets that make good collateral for loans and a high growth rate which adopt high-risk production strategy and use more debt. In other words, firms at relatively lower and higher levels of market power employ more debt because if a business ca n earn a higher rate of return than the interest rate at which it borrows, it becomes profitable for the business to borrow money, while firms at intermediate level of market dominance are vulnerable to rivals competitive threat and reduce their debt. It is the financial managers responsibility to raise the money for the investment in real assets. When a company needs funds they can adopt one of the two options they may issue shares to investors and promise to give them share of the profit or they may take loan from investors and promise them to pay a series of payments. It is the financial managers responsibility to raise the money for the investment in real assets. When a company needs funds they can adopt one of the two options: They float shares and promise to give shares of the profit They make loan from investors and promise them to pay a series of interest payments. Therefore the focus of this study is to find whether the capital structure of the firm affect th e profitability of the firm or not. OBJECTIVE OF STUDY: To identify what kind of capital structure is suitable for firms in Pakistan Debt financing ( whether short-term or long term ) to what extent affects profitability To find, what extent to which equity financing affects profitability LITERATURE REVIEW: ` Laurence Booth, Varouj Aivazian, Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Vojislav Maksimovic (October1999) This study uses a new data set to assess whether capital structure theory is portable across countries with different institutional structures. They analyze capital structure choices of firms in ten developing countries, and provide evidence that these decisions are affected by the same variables as in developed countries. However, there are persistent differences across countries, indicating that specific country factors are at work. Their findings suggest that although some of the insights from modern finance theory are portable across countries, much remains to be done to understand the impact of different institutional features on capital structure choices. I M Pandey (March 2002) This paper provides new insights on the way in which the capital structure and market power and capital structure and profitability are related. They predict and show that capital structure and market power, as measured by Tobins Q, have a cubic relationship. This is due to the complex interaction of the market conditions, agency problems and bankruptcy costs. They also show saucer-shaped relation between capital structure and profitability because of the interplay of agency costs, costs of external financing and debt tax shield. Raghuram G. Rajan, Luigi Zingales They investigate the determinants of capital structure choice by analyzing the financing decisions of public firms in the major industrialized countries. At an aggregate level, firm leverage is fairly similar across the G-7 countries. They find that factors identified by previous studies as correlated in the cross-section with firm leverage in the U.S., are similarly correlated in other countries as well. However, a deeper examination of the U.S. and foreign evidence suggests that the theoretical underpinnings of the observed correlations are still largely unresolved. Josà © Marcos Carvalho de Mesquita, Josà © Edson Lara The determination of a companys capital structure constitutes a difficult decision, one that involves several and antagonistic factors, such as risk and profitability. That decision becomes even more difficult in times when the economic environment in which the company operates presents a high degree of instability. Therefore, the choice among the ideal proportion of debt and equity can affect the value of the company, as much as the return rates can. In the present study, the authors tried to examine the influence of the capital structure of Brazilian companies regarding the factor profitability. The data used in this research corresponds to the financial statements of 70 companies collected in the past seven years. There is, the historical series covers the period immediately after the implantation of Plano Real, with its consequences in terms of reduction of inflation rates, increase of interest rates and instability of the exchange rate politics. The Ordinary Least Squares ( OLS) method was employed in the estimation of a function relating the return on the equity (ROE) with the indexes of long and short-run debts, and also with the total of owners equity. The results indicate that the return rates present a positive correlation with short-term debt and equity, and an inverse correlation with long-term debt. Stewart C. Myers (spring, 2001), The study of capital structure attempts to explain the mix of securities and financing sources used by corporations to finance real investment. Most of the research on capital structure has focused on the proportions of debt vs. equity observed on the right-hand sides of corporations balance sheets. This paper is an introduction to that research. There is no universal theory of the debt-equity choice, and no reason to expect one. There are several useful conditional theories, however. For example, the tradeoff theory says that firms seek debt levels that balance the tax advantages of additional debt against the costs of possible financial distress. The tradeoff theory predicts moderate borrowing by tax-paying firms. The pecking order theory says that the firm will borrow, rather than issuing equity, when internal cash flow is not sufficient to fund capital expenditures. Thus the amount of debt will reflect the firms cumulative need for external funds. The free cashpow theory says t hat dangerously high debt levels will increase value, despite the threat of financial distress, when a firms operating cash flow significantly exceeds its profitable investment opportunities. The free cash flow theory is designed for mature firms that are prone to over invest. Erik Berglof and Ernst-Ludwig Von Thadden We study the problems of financial contracting and renegotiation between a firm and outside investors when the firm cannot commit to future payouts, but assets can be contracted upon. They show that a capital structure with multiple investors specializing in short-term and long-term claims is superior to a structure with only one type of claim, because this hardens the incentives for the entrepreneur to renegotiate the contract ex post. Depending on the parameters, the optimal capital structure also differentiates between state-independent and state-dependent long-term claims, which can be interpreted as long-term debt and equity. Milton Harris; Artur Raviv This paper surveys capital structure theories based on agency costs, asymmetric information, product/input market interactions, and corporate control considerations (but excluding text based theories). For each type of model, a brief overview of the papers surveyed and their relation to each other is provided. The central papers are described in some detail, and their results are summarized and followed by a discussion of related extensions. Each section concludes with a summary of the main implications of the models surveyed in the section. Finally these results are collected and compared to the available evidence. Suggestions for future research are provided. Long Chen; Xinlei Zhao (September 2004) This article is evidence in favor of the tradeoff theory. This evidence suggests that transaction costs are unlikely to be the main interpretation for the negative fund-debt financing decisions, the use of debt decreases with profitability even though more is caused by firms preference of internal to external funds. When resorting to external markets, more profitable firms show little incentive to rebalance their leverage ratios. Combined the profitability and leverage either. Second, through both theoretical and empirical illustration, profitable firms have lower (higher) marginal debt financing cost (benefits), suggesting that dynamic relation between profitability and leverage ratios. In addition, among firms facing internal tax considerations are unlikely to be the main reason for the negative relation between the competing theories since this pattern can arise as a mechanical result regardless of which the question of why more profitable firms have lower leverage ratios. We show that this relation theory best describes firm financing decisions. Their finding thus casts serious doubts on the We seek economic interpretations to two well-known empirical regularities. They first address we show that the mean reversion of leverage ratios may not be informative in distinguishing widely adopted convention of interpreting the mean reversion of leverage ratios as the definitive. Sheridan Titman; Roberto Wessels (Mar., 1988) This paper analyzes the explanatory power of some of the recent theories of optimal capital structure. The study extends empirical work on capital structure theory in three ways. First, it examines a much broader set of capital structure theories, many of which have not previously been analyzed empirically. Second, since the theories have different empirical implications in regard to different types of debt instruments, the authors analyze measures of short-term, long-term, and convertible debt rather than an aggregate measure of total debt. Third, the study uses a factor-analytic technique that mitigates the measurement problems encountered when working with proxy variables. STEWART C. MYERS (JULY1984) He contrasts two ways of thinking about capital structure: 1. A static tradeoff framework, in which the firm is viewed as setting a target debt-to-value ratio and gradually moving towards it, in much the same way that a firm adjusts dividends to move towards a target payout ratio. 2. An old-fashioned pecking order framework, in which the firm prefers internal to external financing and debt to equity if it issues securities. In the pure pecking order theory, the firm has no well-defined target debt-to-value ratio. Recent theoretical work has breathed new life into the pecking order framework. He argues that this theory performs at least as well as the static tradeoff theory in explaining what we know about actual financing choices and their average impacts on stock prices. DATA: We will obtain data of six years (2001-2006) of KSE-100 index listed companies from five sectors. These sectors include Fertilizer Sector, Tobacco, Oil and Gas Marketing, Oil and Gas Exploration and Cement. For this study only secondary data will be used and majority of data will gathered from the publication and the official websites of the exchanges for comparison. Equity: A firms total assets minus its total liabilities, equivalently it is  share capital plus retained earnings minus treasury shares.  Shareholders equity  represents the amount by which  a company is financed through common and preferred shares. Shareholders equity comes from two main sources. The first and original source is the money that was originally invested in the company along with any additional  investments made thereafter. The second comes from retained earnings which the company is able to accumulate over time through  its operations. In most cases, the retained earnings portion  is the largest component. Short-term debt: Short-term comprised of any debt incurred by a company that is due to within one year. It is also called unfunded debt. Its value is very important in determining companys financial health. If its amount is larger than the companys cash and cash equivalents, this suggests that the company may be in poor financial health and does not have enough cash to pay off its short-term debts. Although short-term debts are due within a year, there may be a portion of the long-term debt included in this account. This portion pertains to payments that must be made on any long-term debt throughout the year. Long-term debt: It is an obligation having a maturity of more than one year from the date it was issued. It is also called funded debt. The amount of long term debt on a companys balance sheet is crucial.   It refers to money the company owes that it doesnt expect to pay off in the next year.   Long term debt consists of things such as mortgages on corporate buildings and / or land, as well as business loans. A great sign of prosperity is when a balance sheet shows the amount of long term debt has been decreasing for one or more years. Total debt/ liability: Total debt/ liability is equal to the sum of long-term debt and short-term debt. It comprises of the total debt which a company have to pay. Profitability: Profitability is measured with income and expenses. Income is money generated from the activities of the business. Expenses are the cost of resources used up or consumed by the activities of the business. Profitability is measured with an income statement. HYPOTHESIS: Capital structure (proportion of debt and equity) of a firm affects its profitability Methodology: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: To examine proportion of debt and equity affects the profitability of the firms we use a following function. ROE=f (STD/TL, LTD/TL, SHE/TL, LTD /SHE, U) In this function we took ROE as a function of STD/TL, LTD/TL, SHE/TL, LTD /SHE, U Where; ROE is the profitability ratio and it corresponds to Net Profit to Equity, STD/TL corresponds to short-term debt to total liability, LTD/TL shows the ratio of Long-Term Debt to Total Liability, SHE/TL is the ratio of Share Holders Equity to Total Liability, LTD /SHE corresponds to the Long-Term Debt to Share Holders Equity, And U is the Error term. We use these ratios to determine that how much a portion of the capital structure in a firm RATIOS: ROE: A measure of how well a company used reinvested earnings to generate additional earnings, equal to a fiscal years after-tax income divided by book value, expressed as a percentage. It is used as a general indication of the companys efficiency; in other words, how much profit it is able to generate given the resources provided by its stockholders. Investors usually look for companies with returns on equity that are high and growing. STD/TL: This ratio indicates that how much a portion of short-term debt is used in total debt. This ratio helps us to determine the value of short-term debt that a company uses. LTD/TL: This ratio provides a value of long-term debt out of total debt. This ratio will help us to determine that how much a portion of long-term debt is used. SHE/TL: This ratio shows the companys equity in relation to debt, greater this ratio shows that there are excess earning available for dividend and there is a greater margin of safety for investors or low debt charges. Greater the ratio lower the risk. LTD /SHE: This ratio helps us to explain that how much a proportion of a companys long-term debt compared to its available capital is used. By using this ratio investor can identify the amount of companys risk exposure. Results and Discussion: The ratios are calculated and after that we took the average and standard deviation of the sector. The descriptive statistics of the analyzed data are shown in the tables below: Fertilizer Sector: Fertilizer sector has four listed companies and we also took four companies. Table 1. The table shows the data of Fertilizer Sector for the year 2001-2006 Index Average Standard Deviation ROE 0.328594 0.221084239 STD/TL 0.771944 0.221882109 LTD/TL 0.228056 0.231732808 SHE/TL 0.941613 2.008654713 LTD /SHE 0.314748 1.076046782 The data is taken from the financial statements of Fertilizer companies after calculating return on equity (ROE) of each company. As the average value of ROE is positive it indicates that the sector shows a good performance in the analyzed period. Its standard deviation shows the low dispersion of data. The variable STD/TL shows short-term debt in relation to a total liability. The average 0.73 shows that short-run debt corresponds to 73% of the total liability in this sector. The value of standard deviation shows a low dispersion of data. The variable LTD/TL corresponds to the long-term debt to the total liability. The average 0.26 shows that the total liability constitutes a 26% of long-term debt in fertilizer sector. Standard deviation indicates that there is low dispersion of data indicating a low diversity in the choice of long-term financing option for companies. The variable SHE/TL represents the participation of equity in the company financing. The index SHE/TL, presents average of 0.94 this average shows that this sector uses comparatively low debt financing and standard deviation of 2.008, which shows a high dispersion of data. The variable LTD/SHE shows that 31% of long-term debt is used in comparison to equity. There is a high dispersion of data. Tobacco Sector: Tobacco sector has total three companies and we took all these companies Table.2 The table shows the data of tobacco for the year 2001-2006 Index Average Standard Deviation ROE 0.240611 0.252326572 STD/TL 0.950483 0.056866476 LTD/TL 0.049517 0.066776577 SHE/TL 0.644447 1.262782892 LTD /SHE 0.026318 0.11588583 This table shows the average and standard deviation of tobacco sector. As the average value of ROE is positive it indicates that the sector shows a good performance in the analyzed period. Its standard deviation shows the low dispersion of data. The variable STD/TL shows short-term debt in relation to a total liability. The average 0.95 shows that short-run debt corresponds to 95% of the total liability in this sector. The value of standard deviation shows a low dispersion of data. The variable LTD/TL corresponds to the long-term debt to the total liability. The average 0.04 shows that the total liability constitutes a 4% of long-term debt in this sector. Standard deviation indicates that there is low dispersion of data indicating a low diversity in the choice of long-term financing option for co mpanies. The variable SHE/TL represents the participation of equity in the company financing. The index SHE/TL, presents average of 0.64 this average shows that this sector uses comparatively low debt financing and its standard deviation 1.26 shows a high dispersion of data. The variable LTD/SHE shows that financial leverage of a sector. Its average value is 0.02 shows a little proportion of long-term debt used, and there is a little dispersion of data. Oil and Gas Marketing: In Oil and Gas Marketing sector there are seven companies and four as a sample were chosen. Table.3 The table shows the data of Oil and Gas Marketing for the year 2001-2006. Index Average Standard Deviation ROE 0.174301 0.07058567 STD/TL 0.856325 0.133468824 LTD/TL 0.143675 0.122458627 SHE/TL 1.971033 0.901354066 LTD /SHE 0.289004 0.265712772 The return on equity in this sector is low but positive showing good performance of this sector, low dispersion of data indicating low variability in the choice of equity financing. The variable STD/TL shows that portion of short-term debt used in total debt is 85% and portion of long-term debt is 14% indicating that in this sector short-term financing is used more than a long-term financing, and dispersion of data is almost same in both variables STD/TL and LTD/TL. The average value of SHE/TL shown by data is 1.97 shows high portion of equity used in this sector and also high dispersion of data. The average of ratio LTD/SHE is 0.28 showing little portion of long-term debt used in relation to equity and also low dispersion of data. Oil and Gas Exploration: Oil and Gas Exploration has total four listed companies and we took two as sample Table.4 The table shows the data of Oil and Gas Exploration for the year 2001-2006. Index Average Standard Deviation ROE 0.283569 0.14484408 STD/TL 0.906538 0.107109764 LTD/TL 0.093462 0.116129665 SHE/TL 1.411654 1.098681229 LTD /SHE 0.180385 0.24426594 In Oil and Gas Exploration sector the average of ROE is 0.28 which is positive showing efficient performance of this sector and dispersion of data is low. The variable STD/TL and LTD/TL shows the portion of short-term debt and long-term debt as 90% and 9% respectively and dispersion of data in both variables is low. The variable SHE/TL shows a high dispersion of data indicating high variability in the choice of equity financing its average value according to given data indicates that this sector is using high equity. The average of the ratio LTD/SHE shows that little share of long-term debt is used. Cement Sector: Total listed companies in cement sector are twenty three and we have taken sixteen as sample from this sector. Table.5 The table shows the data of Cement for the year 2001-2006. Index Average Standard Deviation ROE 0.012989 0.798476188 STD/TL 0.569325 0.285958503 LTD/TL 0.43402 0.275472458 SHE/TL 2.034975 5.538369892 LTD /SHE 0.374572 6.614605791 The data in this table shows average and standard deviation, of cement sector, which is derived from the information collected in the financial statements of the companies. The return rate measured by the return on equity is positive which indicates that sector is good performing in the analyzed period and dispersion is not high. The average of the variable STD/TL is 0.57 that shows that in this sector share of the short term debt is 57% and dispersion of data is low. The variable LTD/TL indicates the portion of long-term debt in capital structure of the firms; its average is 0.43 which indicates that 43% long term debt is used of the total debt. The dispersion of the data is low. The average of SHE/TL indicates higher portion of equity used in relation to total debt, and higher dispersion of dat a. The average of LTD/SHE shows that 37% of long term debt is used in correspondence to share holders equity is used in this sector indicating very high dispersion of data Analysis: Correlation: Correlation is a measure of the degree to which any two variables vary together. In other words, two variables are said to be correlated if they tend to simultaneously vary in some direction. If both the variables tend to increase (or decrease) together, the correlation is and said to be direct or positive. If one variable tends to increase as the other variable decreases, the correlation is said to be negative or inverse. The sign of the correlation coefficient indicates the direction of the relationship (positive or negative). STD/TL SHE/TL LTD/TL LTD /SHE ROE STD/TL 1 -.123 -.746 -.182 .085 SHE/TL -.123 1 .162 .233 -.855 LTD/TL -.746 .162 1 .002 -.096 LTD /SHE -.182 .233 .002 1 -.225 ROE .085 -.855 -.096 -.225 1 ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). The correlation between STD/TL and SHE/TL is -0.123 which indicates that they move in an opposite direction, lower the share holders equity higher will be the short-term borrowing of the firm and vice versa. The correlation between STD/TL and LTD/TL is -0.746 which indicates an inverse relationship between these variables, it shows that if the firm uses more short-term debt the portion of its long-term debt will be less, as the correlation is close to -1 show that they are strongly negatively correlated. The correspondence between STD/TL and LTD/SHE is -0.182 which indicates that it is not strongly correlated but has a negative relationship, shows that high the portion of debt affects the portion equity used in the companys capital structure. The relationship between SHE/TL and LTD/TL is 0.162 indicating positi ve relation, which means that greater the debt higher will be financial leverage of the company. The relationship between SHE/TL and LTD /SHE is 0.233 indicating that greater the financial leverage greater will be the ability to pay long term debt. The correlation between ROE and STD/TL is 0.085 shows a positive relation and indicates that higher will be the portion of short-term debt in total liability higher will be the return on equity. The correlation between ROE and SHE/TL is -0.855 shows the negative relation between return on equity and financial leverage. Greater the financial leverage lesser will be the return on equity. The correlation between ROE and LTD/TL is -0.096 indicates a negative relation between these ratios as the portion of long-term debt in total liability increases the return on equity will decrease. The correlation between ROE and LTD/SHE is -0.225 is inverse. When companys long-term borrowing is excessive it will reduces share holders equity and this in turn affects this ratio of LTD/SHE and when this ratio increases it will decrease the return on equity. Regression: Regression investigates the dependence of one variable, conventionally called a dependent variable, on one or more other variables called independent variable. The relation between the expected value of the dependent variable and the independent variable is called regression relation. In our study we are using multiple regressions. Variables Entered/Removed Model Variables Entered Variables Removed Method 1 LTD/SHE, LTD/TL, SHE/TL, STD/TL . Enter a All requested variables entered. b Dependent Variable: ROE None of the variable is removed. Model Summary: Model R R2 Adjusted R2 Std. Error of the Estimate 1 .857 .735 .729 .327269 a Predictors: (Constant), LPPL, ELP, PL, ECP R is a multiple correlation coefficient. The co-efficient of multiple determination lies between 0 and 1. As the value of R is 0.857 is closer to 1 indicate strong relationship. R2 shows the variability in the dependent variable (ROE) due to independent variables (LTD/SHE, LTD/TL, SHE/TL, STD/TL). Greater value of R2 indicates that this model fits the data well and also shows that the change in ROE is 73.5% affected by these independent variables which are LTD/SHE, LTD/TL, SHE/TL, STD/TL. This table also indicates that approximately 32.7% changes in ROE are due to some other factors. We call it an Error term. Conclusion: It has been observed that the sectors we have chosen use more portion of short-term debt than long-term debt. As the ratio STD/TL is greater than LTD/TL. Its also been observed that the correlation between ROE and STD/TL is 0.085 shows a positive relation and indicates that higher the portion of short-term debt in total liability higher will be the return on equity. There might be many reasons that why the companies use more short-term debt than long-term debt. Few are that a short-term loan can be obtained much faster than long-term credit, if a business requires funds in a hurry; it looks to the short-term credit markets. ROE has a negative correlation with the long-term debt as long term debt in companies financial statement is crucial. The method we used shows that the profitability of a firm is affected 73% by a mix of capital structure and 27% by other factors. The least square method we used proves our hypothesis that profitability is affected by capital structure.