German Economy Essays - Economy Of Germany, German Federal Bank

German Economy The Federal Republic of Germany's economy has now flourished despite its harsh times that have been faced throughout the decades. Most people know about Germany from its historic involvement in World War II; its successful campaign to unite East and West with the successful collapse of the Berlin Wall; and its world class development and production of automobiles. Unfortunately, what most people don't know is that Germany continues to fight an uphill battle in keeping its established ranking among the world's most important economic powers. A historic look back at Germany shows that after its fall in World War II, it needed a massive rebuilding in order regain its status that it once held. Various events took place that helped it re-climb the pedestal ladder. The year 1948 brought a currency reform that was the turning point for economic reform. There was a continuous economic growth each year for Western Germany, but the strict, conservative ways of East Germany's communist rule still slowed true growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). To make matters worse, the whole country experienced a significant drop in its GDP, causing a recession from 1976 through to 1985. There was a growth again for the next eight years before a major down ward spiral began in 1992. Germany's early ?90s spiral was attributed to the reunification of the country between 1989 and 1990. Once the two countries formed their one republic, the economy took its major tumble. Economists have figured this to be true because West Germany continued to evolve with industrial and technological breakthroughs and standards, while the communist East Germany adhered to traditional, unproductive ways that in some cases dated back to the 1940s and World War II times. So instead of combining to form an economic powerhouse, the GDP tumbled and caused a massive surge to restructure and work began to regain the decades of reform that were no longer noticeable. The Republic formed after reunification consists of 16 states, which is still looked at and measured as East and West Germany. Despite all of these states following the established free-market economy, there is still a noticeable gap between the economies of the two sections. German government assistance of nearly $100 billion annually has helped contribute to an increased growth rate for eastern states. Despite this growth, a look at the added Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of eastern states ? $108.3 billion, an increase of 9% from the previous year ? shows it falls significantly short of the $1.23 trillion GDP of western states. The Western states recouped with a 2.3% increase that year, recovering from their 1.9% decline the previous year. So combined, this gives the Republic a valued GDP, in 1994, of nearly $1.34 trillion. To note another significant difference ? the $5,950 national product per capita for workers in the East severely undercuts the $19, 660 for Western workers. One of the largest contributors to the GDP is manufacturing and the goods that it produces ? claiming nearly 40% of the total GDP every year since 1992. This shows that the industry has steadily improved after its immediate 40% tumble it took back in 1989. It has not yet been figured if the GDP dropped because of the lack if manufacturing output, or the fact that both East and West Germany were now being figured into the equation as one instead of a split. Germany's main industrial area is the Ruhr Valley, in which a various amount of products are produced. The principle production item is the refinement of petroleum. This ranks first among other items such as steel castings; iron; cement; chemicals, resins and plastics; automotive vehicles, railroad rolling stock, aircraft; and cotton and other woolen fibers. Agriculture accounts for 2% of the GDP. Its chief vegetable crops include cabbage, carrots and cauliflower; while pears, apples, plums and strawberries lead the fruit crops. The country is also a leader in the production of hops, which helps contribute to its notoriety in the beer-industry. Wine grapes grown in the Rhine and Moselle Valleys help develop that notable industry. Germany has a fair balance of trade. Its exports include chemicals, motor vehicles, iron, steel and other raw materials. The value of these and other exports in 1996 where estimated at DM772 billion. Among items imported into the country are electrical products and apparel. With these products, the value of imports to Germany were DM670 billion. The most trade activity occurred with France, valuing their partnership at DM71 billion for exports and DM84 billion for imports. The United States figures stand

Probabilities for Dihybrid Crosses in Genetics

Probabilities for Dihybrid Crosses in Genetics It may come as a surprise that our genes and probabilities have some things in common. Due to the random nature of cell meiosis, some aspects to the study of genetics is really applied probability. We will see how to calculate the probabilities associated with dihybrid crosses. Definitions and Assumptions Before we calculate any probabilities, we will define the terms that we use and state the assumptions that we will work with. Alleles are genes that come in pairs, one from each parent. The combination of this pair of alleles determines the trait that is exhibited by an offspring.The pair of alleles is the genotype of an offspring. The trait exhibited is the offsprings phenotype.Alleles will be considered as either dominant or recessive. We will assume that in order for an offspring to display a recessive trait, there must be two copies of the recessive allele. A dominant trait may occur for one or two dominant alleles. Recessive alleles will be denoted by a lower case letter and dominant by an upper case letter.An individual with two alleles of the same kind (dominant or recessive) is said to be homozygous. So both DD and dd are homozygous.An individual with one dominant and one recessive allele is said to be heterozygous. So Dd is heterozygous.In our dihybrid  crosses, we will assume that the alleles we are considering are inherited independently of one another.In all examples, both parents are heterozy gous for all of the genes being considered.   Monohybrid Cross Before determining the probabilities for a dihybrid cross, we need to know the probabilities for a monohybrid cross. Suppose that two parents who are heterozygous for a trait produce an offspring. The father has a probability of 50% of passing on either of his two alleles. In the same way, the mother has a probability of 50% of passing on either of her two alleles. We can use a table called a Punnett square to calculate the probabilities, or we can simply think through the possibilities.  Each parent has a genotype Dd, in which each allele is equally likely to be passed down to an offspring.  So there is a probability of 50% that a parent contributes the dominant allele D and a 50% probability that the recessive allele d is contributed.  The possibilities are summarized: There is a 50% x 50% 25% probability that both of the offsprings alleles are dominant.There is a 50% x 50% 25% probability that both of the offsprings alleles are recessive.There is a 50% x 50% 50% x 50% 25% 25% 50% probability that the offspring is heterozygous. So for parents who both have genotype Dd, there is a 25% probability that their offspring is DD, a 25% probability that the offspring is dd, and a 50% probability that the offspring is Dd. These probabilities will be important in what follows. Dihybrid Crosses and Genotypes We now consider a dihybrid cross.  This time there are two sets of alleles for parents to pass on to their offspring.  We will denote these by A and a for the dominant and recessive allele for the first set, and B and b for the dominant and recessive allele of the second set.   Both parents are heterozygous and so they have the genotype of AaBb. Since they both have dominant genes, they will have phenotypes consisting of the dominant traits.  As we have said previously, we are only considering pairs of alleles that are not linked to one another, and are inherited independently. This independence allows us to use the multiplication rule in probability.  We can consider each pair of alleles separately from each other.  Using the probabilities from the monohybrid cross we see: There is a 50% probability that the offspring has Aa in its genotype.There is a 25% probability that the offspring has AA in its genotype.There is a 25% probability that the offspring has aa in its genotype.There is a 50% probability that the offspring has Bb in its genotype.There is a 25% probability that the offspring has BB in its genotype.There is a 25% probability that the offspring has bb in its genotype. The first three genotypes are independent of the last three in the above list.  So we multiply 3 x 3 9 and see that there are these many possible ways to combine the first three with the last three.  This is the same ideas as using a tree diagram to calculate the possible ways to combine these items. For example, since Aa has probability 50% and Bb has a probability of 50%,  there is a 50% x 50% 25% probability that the offspring has a genotype of AaBb.  The list below is a complete description of the genotypes that are possible, along with their probabilities. The genotype of AaBb has probability 50% x 50% 25% of occurring.The genotype of AaBB has probability 50% x 25% 12.5% of occurring.The genotype of Aabb has probability 50% x 25% 12.5% of occurring.The genotype of AABb has probability 25% x 50% 12.5% of occurring.The genotype of AABB has probability 25% x 25% 6.25% of occurring.The genotype of AAbb has probability 25% x 25% 6.25% of occurring.The genotype of aaBb has probability 25% x 50% 12.5% of occurring.The genotype of aaBB has probability 25% x 25% 6.25% of occurring.The genotype of aabb has probability 25% x 25% 6.25% of occurring. Dihybrid Crosses and Phenotypes Some of these genotypes will produce the same phenotypes.  For example, the genotypes of AaBb, AaBB, AABb, and AABB are all different from each other, yet will all produce the same phenotype.  Any individuals with any of these genotypes will exhibit dominant traits for both traits under consideration.   We may then add the probabilities of each of these outcomes together: 25% 12.5% 12.5% 6.25% 56.25%.  This is the probability that both traits are the dominant ones. In a similar way we could look at the probability that both traits are recessive.  The only way for this to occur is to have the genotype aabb.  This has a probability of 6.25% of occurring. We now consider the probability that the offspring exhibits a dominant trait for A and a recessive trait for B.  This can occur with genotypes of Aabb and AAbb.  We add the probabilities for these genotypes together and have18.75%. Next, we look at the probability that the offspring has a recessive trait for A and a dominant trait for B.  The genotypes are aaBB and aaBb.  We add the probabilities for these genotypes together and have a probability of 18.75%.  Alternately we could have argued that this scenario is symmetric to the early one with a dominant A trait and a recessive B trait. Hence the probability for this outcomes should be identical. Dihybrid Crosses and Ratios Another way to look at these outcomes is to calculate the ratios that each phenotype occurs.  We saw the following probabilities: 56.25% of both dominant traits18.75% of exactly one dominant trait6.25% of both recessive traits. Instead of looking at these probabilities, we can consider their respective ratios.  Divide each by 6.25% and we have the ratios 9:3:1.  When we consider that there are two different traits under consideration, the actual ratios are 9:3:3:1. What this means is that if we know that we have two heterozygous parents, if the offspring occur with phenotypes that have ratios deviating from 9:3:3:1, then the two traits we are considering do not work according to classical Mendelian inheritance.  Instead, we would need to consider a different model of heredity.