Case Study Whistleblowing - 1815 Words

(a) In your opinion, do you think whistleblowing will work in Malaysia? Elaborate on the reasons in support of your opinion. In my opinion, Whistle blowing will not work in Malaysia. From the passage, this is due to several reason. Firstly is due to culture, culture is where a group of people believe and behave the same way as it is. From this case, Malaysias culture is to prefer to keep things their own secretly. Basically they just dont want to review what is happening and just keep quiet and act nothing which is also known as open 1 eye close 1 eye basis. Just like in an office, many of them just prefer to keep quiet even bad things are happening, they just don’t want to get involve and end up being boycott or something else. Secondly†¦show more content†¦Protecting the identity of the whistle blower can be of paramount importance. To report an incident which exposes another individual can be seriously dangerous to the person doing the reporting and cases are documented where such whistle blowers have lost their lives. Anonymous reporting can reduces the perception that when significant matters are reported they not be affected. It can to ensure whistle-blowers can safe and disburden to report. For example, when employee Edmund anonymous whistle-blower his manager or supervisor fraud, it can avoid manager or supervisor makes him trouble after the case. That is because manager or supervisor will never who are the whistle blowers. To effective anonymous whistle-blowing is considering mode of communication of compliant. Depend on the communication channel it can represent a confidential level. People will think that is it the communication channel are safe for them to make compliant or is it confidential enough. The best channel is hotline and 24/7 operates. When make reports whistle blower is not necessary to provide them personal information. But it must provide sufficient corroborating evidence to justify the commencement of an investigation. Hotline operates 24hours per day; it can let people easy and free to make report when discover the misconduct orShow MoreRelatedCase Study: Whistleblowing in the Tobacco Industry961 Words   |  4 Pages Case study: Whistleblowing in the tobacco industry Q1. Briefly discern and report the background for the ethical situation. The tobacco industry has a curious status in the American economy and in American culture. On one hand, virtually everyone knows that tobacco is dangerous to human health. Unlike consuming alcohol, there is no safe limit for consuming tobacco and unlike powerful prescription drugs, nicotine has no medicinal value. The number of people in the U.S. who die each year fromRead MoreCase Study of Ethics5588 Words   |  23 PagesDilemmas Case Studies Professional Accountants in Business December 20112 Contents Introduction ...............................................................................................................................3 Case Study 1...............................................................................................................................5 Pressure to overstate stock valuation ...................................................................................5 Case Study 2...Read MoreThe Technological Revolution Has Changed The Access Of Citizens Within A Democracy1728 Words   |  7 Pagesavenues to make their concerns known is turning to the internet as a ‘platform for the swift dissemination of material and a layer of anonymity’ (Savage 2013) and this new era of what is known as whistleblowing has given rise to cyberethics. According to the Congressional Research Service, whistleblowing is defined as â€Å"making a disclosure evidencing illegal or improper government (and corporate) activities† (Whitaker cited in Koh, 2012). The individuals who make these disclosures are termed whistleblowersRead MoreThe Ethics Of An Organization1422 Words   |  6 PagesThe term that applies to reporting employees who commit immoral, illegal or illegitimate practices is referred to as whistleblowing. Whenever used in the context of an organization, whistleblowing is a controversial issue. The case study that I choose to talk about is one that happened in May of 2002. A woman by the name of Coleen Rowley, who works for the FBI, testified to the senate and the 9/11 Commission about how the FBI’s internal organization mishandled information related to the Twin TowerRead MoreWhistleblowing in The Medical Community Essay example1334 Words   |  6 PagesBouville (2008) describes whistleblowing as an act for an employee of revealing what he believes to be unethical or described as an illegal behaviour to a higher management (internal whistleblowing) or to an external authority or the public (external whistleblowing). Whistle-blowers are often seen as traitors to an organisation as they are considered to have violated the loyalty terms of that organisation while some are described as heroes that defend the values and ethics of humanity rather thanRead MoreA Case Study On The County Hospital Essay989 Words   |  4 Pages Introduction In this case study on the County Hospital (CH) the problems that this organization faced will be discussed. The case study explores in detail leadership, business ethics, strategic management, accountability, stewardship, whistleblowing, organizational change and performance architecture. The case will also mention the necessary steps taken to restore the organization proprietary within the market. The organization will determine/evaluate its culture and environment. Furthermore, CHRead MoreCorporate Approaches to Responsible Business1492 Words   |  6 Pages Week 8 Tutorial: Corporate Approaches to Responsible Business (Assessed) Critical Reflection: Question 6 (Shaw et al textbook, pp.198-199) Read the Kellogg case before your tutorial and prepare typed answers to the following questions. Question 1 : Do you think that Kellogg’s CSR statement is sincere, or is the company merely trying to convince stakeholders that it is a socially responsible company? Explain. Answer: CSR statement of Kellogg has deceived the public as their products has beenRead MoreWhistleblowing1650 Words   |  7 PagesHistory of Whistleblowing The definition of a whistleblower is a past or pesent employee or member of an organization, who reports misconduct to people or entities that have the power and presumed willingness to take corrective action, or to notify the general public of wrongdoing. In most cases, whistleblowers are employees of the ogranization but can be employees of government agencies as well. Normally the misconduct being reported is a violation of law, rule, regulation and/or a direct threatRead MoreU.s. National Security And Foreign Policy1427 Words   |  6 PagesAbstract: The theoretical and qualitative research findings discussed in this paper support the claim that the cases of Aldrich Ames and Edward Snowden led to monumental changes in U.S. national security and foreign policy. The effects of these cases extend beyond domestic change and have instigated international repercussions in both intelligence practices and diplomatic relations between the United States and multiple countries. Moreover, research acquired from journals, academic books, congressionalRead MoreWhistleblowing Case1640 Words   |  7 PagesThe Whistleblowing Case Studies There are various cases about whistleblowing, one of them is the case of Motorola CFO, Paul Liska.1 He has been fired after giving a presentation. In the presentation, Liska pointed out to Motorola directors that the cell phone unit, Mobile Devices, missed its sales projection for the preceding three months. Liska intended to attack Sanjay Jha, the head of Motorola’s cell phone division, by doing the presentation at the board meeting. The whistleblowing occurred because

Corporal Punishment and Children - 1935 Words

Is corporal punishment needed to discipline children? This is a very controversial question that is often debated. Even with as many arguments as there are against corporal punishment, there are also arguments for such punishment for children. This is something that tends to happen in both home and school settings. This type of punishment is very hurtful to the child and can have lasting effects on the child throughout their life. It can cause damage to relationships. It can also cause many different psychological problems as they get older. While some may not agree, there are other ways to discipline children that can be just as effective without causing any harm. What exactly is corporal punishment? Often referred to as child abuse,†¦show more content†¦Self-esteem and self-worth are often thought of as the same thing, but they are actually very different. Self-esteem is defined as, â€Å"a confidence and satisfaction in oneself† (Merriam-Webster.com, 2013). Self-worth is defined as, â€Å"respect for or a favorable opinion of oneself† (Merriam-Webster, 2013). Thinking highly of yourself and respecting yourself are very important and those that have been abused often think of themselves as unworthy and unlovable. Aggression is often also an issue for those that were disciplined using corporal punishment. They are taught by what is being done to them, for example, being spanked, that it is then okay for them to hit others when others do something that displeases them. This attitude is then carried over into adulthood and those children, now adults, will be more prone to getting into physical fights with others, with thei r spouse, and will be more likely to use corporal punishment on their own children (Morris amp; Gibson, 2011). Just as there are many different ways to negatively punish your child, there are just as many ways to properly discipline your child. Positive reinforcement is what is often considered to be the most effective way to get an undesirable behavior stopped. Positive reinforcement does not damage the parent-child relationship, and it also does not cause the child any negative psychological problems such as anxiety and fear. PositiveShow MoreRelatedCorporal Punishment Of Children.981 Words   |  4 Pages Corporal Punishment of Children When I was in middle school at St. Mary’s Catholic School, in Ethiopia, I used to see our teachers using different techniques to punish my classmates. I remember an incident in middle school where a friend of mine was punished in a harmful way because he failed to answer a question. Although the use of corporal punishment in schools is intended to change the behavior of the student, teachers should not be allowedRead MoreThe Corporal Punishment Of Children1223 Words   |  5 Pages Corporal Punishment of Children Thesis: Although using the corporal punishment method in schools is intended to change the behavior of the student, teachers should not be allowed to use this method to punish students because it’s not effective for the child’s behavioral change, and it affects the child’s behavior mentally and physically. I.Hurts the child physically and abuses the child right II. Destructive rather than constructive A. Many people believe that corporal punishment is a methodRead MoreCorporal Punishment And Its Effect On Children1587 Words   |  7 PagesThe term corporal punishment is defined as the use of physical force with the intention of causing a child to experience pain, but not injury, for the purpose of correction or control of the child’s behavior Seven nations Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Italy and Cyprus-have laws making it illicit for parents to utilize physical discipline on their children. Corporal punishment in schools has been banned in every one of the nations in Europe, South and Central America, China and JapanRead MoreCorporal Punishment And Its Effect On Children1708 Words   |  7 Pagesviewpoint on corporal punishment; some of the reviews take a look at who is most affected by corporal punishment in terms of focusing their lens on race, socio-economic status, gender, culture etc. Some also take a critical look at the advantages and disadvantages of corporal punishment. Some take a look at the widespread of corporal punishment in the US. Cases against corporal punishment and the effect of corporal punishment on children were also looked into. With all the different ways corporal punishmentRead MoreCorporal Punishment And Its Effect On Children1617 Words   |  7 Pagesof any child’s life is a huge determinate of what their future will turn out to be. Parenting styles are the normative prototypes that parents utilize to socialize and manage their children. Different parents employ different styles of discipline to ensure that their children develop to be all-rounded adults. Children who have been nurtured well by their parents turn up as self-regulated with disciplined behavior. Child discipline is thus a key parenting skill, and the choice of discipline styleRead MoreThe Effects Of Corporal Punishment On Children932 Words   |  4 PagesChildren and Corporal Punishment Punishing children has been one of the most controversial parenting topics this generation has seen. Physical punishment or corporal punishment is simple defined as the use of physical force with the purpose of initiating pain, but not wound, to teach the proper behavior of a child. Corporal punishment has been used for many centuries in schools and in homes but the use of such techniques have since decreased and are not being used in many places today. EvidenceRead MoreThe Effects Of Corporal Punishment On Children953 Words   |  4 Pagesmany views of the past relating to corporal punishment have changed significantly. During my readings I read things that instantly stood out to me. The first being how many issues and their solutions revolved around religion. John Wesley, was the founder of the Methodist Movement, and he believed that children were born with sin and that it was the parental duty to discipline the unruly child, starting at an early age. During this time period, corporal punishment was a common practice. Wesley usedRead MoreThe Effects Of Corporal Punishment On Children2225 Words   |  9 Pagesinternet that will point out the simple pros and cons of Corporal punishment. Many children psychologists state that violence will always produce violence, it will never reduce aggression. This is a generally accepted fact that has been proven and studied for decades. Will someone such as a child, not act out against an aggressor because of the natural drive to preserve their inherited material? There are usually four things that children who have experienced child abuse will do in later years. OneRead MoreCorporal Punishment And Its Effect On Children1860 Words   |  8 PagesReading/Writing L9 17 March 2015 Corporal Punishment by Spanking in Children Corporal punishment is hared way for children. According to Carol Bower, in the article Positive Discipline and a Ban on Corporal Punishment Will Help Stop Cycles of Violence. parents rely on corporal punishment on their children because violence is an acceptable way to solve problems. â€Å"The data showed that 57% of parents with children under 18 used corporal punishment, and 33% used severe corporal punishment in the form of beatings†Read MoreCorporal Punishment And Its Effect On School Children1251 Words   |  6 Pagesdistribute our findings so that all of the public cannot ignore the wholesale infliction of pain and suffering onto our school children, and the role â€Å"paddling† schools play in teaching our children that physically aggressive and coercive resolutions of conflict are legitimate. Contributing to the problem of violence by making children feel rejected and isolated, corporal punishment is unsafe in and of itself, but its discriminate application may be co-incident with problems unique to racial and gender

Understanding Responsibility For Detecting †Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Understanding Auditors Responsibility For Detecting? Answer: Introduction The ASA701 Communicating Key Audit Matters in the Independent Auditors Report, is the latest standard that was developed by the IAASB. The main aim behind this standard is to improve the overall audit practices and to remove the loopholes that are present in the system. The standard was developed to specify certain key matters on which the auditor needs to gives his opinion. It makes a specification on the important duties of the auditor while conducting the process of audit. This standard is applicable on the audit of all the listed companies and all the auditors needs to follow the same and mention it in their audit report(Abbott, et al., 2016). The auditors can follow the directions of the management or comment on the overall key matter on his own will. This standard was issued in December 2016. It is one of the biggest changes in the standards of auditing since 2004, when they were first issued. There were many factors that led to the same. However the most important factor that was behind the issue of these standards was the global crisis that the world faced when the ABC Learning company went into liquidation. As much as the management of the company was responsible for the same, the auditors were also equally responsible. However no actions could be taken against them because they made their point clear that the responsibility of the auditor is to check the accounts till he finds them to be inaccurate. If he finds that there are no errors than he does not need to comment on the validity of the accounts. This raised a big question on the responsibility of the auditors and had in turn led to the issue of the new standards. Every auditor was asked to follow the same and comment on the same in their financial reports. If they do not comply with the provisions of this standard then they will be punished for the same(Brannen, 2016). This was the main reason why the standard was developed. In this reports we will analyze this reason in detail, and also tell som e brief facts about the standards. And give some recommendations by which the auditors can improve their overall area of operation and make the reports as accurate as possible. Downfall of the ABC Learning Centre The ABC Learning institute was founded in 1988, and was one of the biggest educational institutes in Australia. It had many number of day care centers that imparted education and other services to large number of children and adults. The company was earning a lot of revenue and in 2001 the company was listed on the stock exchange. The total after tax profit of the company was A$143.1 million, and the overall revenue was A$1.7 billion. But due to many reasons the company suffered a major setback and went into liquidation. This affected the investors who had invested in the shares of the company and they suffered huge losses. The company had taken huge loans, because of which they earned huge losses. All these affected the health of the company which led to its delisting and finally led to the liquidation of the company. There was a huge fall in the share price of the company from A$8.62 to A$0.54. This reflected how badly the investors were affected and what setbacks they suffered bec ause of all this. There were several factors that were collectively responsible for the downfall of the company such that the overall business model of the company was not effective(Burke Clark, 2016). The company indulged in taking large amount of loans and also indulged in aggressive takeovers that had affected the overall market value of the company. The company also had incurred huge capital expenditures that were not mentioned in the audit reports. When the investors tried to analyze the main reasons behind the downfall of the company they found that the business model of the company was not up to the mark and the auditors have stated nothing of this in their reports. This raised a question on the authenticity of the audit reports and also made the government aware that there were some major loopholes in the system. If the auditors had audited the accounts properly then these factors would not been hidden and the management would have been made aware about the same. Thus we fi nd that along with the management of the company that indulged in malpractices, the auditors were also equally responsible in covering the shortcomings of the company. They gave a false picture to the investors that the company was earning huge amount of profits and the company was in a very stable position. The company had appointed Pitcher Partners as their auditors and they held this position for six long years. The auditors worked as per the discretion of the management and their audit report was framed on the same. Their decisions were influenced by the decisions of the management and they stated the same in their audit report. As per their reports the company was a profit earning institution and their going concern assumption was held true. But in reality there were many loopholes in the management. The company had shown huge amount of profit from loss making units , moreover they had a large number of intangible assets in their balance sheet whose valuation was not stated completely(Guragai, et al., 2017). Most of the intangible assets that consists of derivatives, goodwill, and other biological assets were hard to identify and value. Most of the revenues and the payments that the company was showing in their financial statements was from loss making units and the same were merely El Dorado. The auditors supported all these claims of the company and also gave an unmodified audit report that stated that the financial statements were showing the true and fair view. However, when the new audit Ernst and Young took over they had a very different opinion from the previous auditor. So they further probed into the matter and saw that the management of the company had indulged in a lot of malpractices and the same was supported by the previous auditor. They asked the management to make the necessary changes, however the management refused to do so as that might need them to change the entire scenario of the business and these would have cost them large amount of losses(Jones, 2017). When the management refused the new auditor issued a modified report in which it made clear that the management was not supporting them necessary details and also the company was not a going concern. But the previous auditor was not ready to accept the same. This led to a situation of a deadlock between the two auditors, the government finally appointed a third party to comment on the validity of the accounts and the two audit reports. The third party was not able to reach to any conclusion. Hence both the reports were held to be true and both the auditors were fixed on their decisions. This led to a lot of upheaval and a big question mark was raised on the authenticity of the audit reports. The previous auditor was not led guilty because they made a claim that it was no where mentioned that the auditors had to make assertions on specific matters. The auditors only need to check the account for their own satisfaction(Knechel Salterio, 2016). This led to the need of a new standard and hence the ASA701 was formed as per which the auditors needed to comment on the specific matters of audit and mention the same briefly in their audit reports. In case the auditor fails then he will be held liable by the court of law. This provided a limitation on the overall actions of the auditors and the necessary steps that they need to take to make sure that the books of accounts of the company are free from errors and the same mus t be very clearly stated in their audit reports. The main points that was concluded from this downfall was that there was a gap that was present between the demand of the investors and the auditors responsibilities. Just in the case of the ABC Learning we see how the actions of the auditors were responsible for the fail of the investors. The companies need to make sure that the audit report is genuine and the auditors must make sure that they are doing their duties genuinely. This standard will help the auditors in identification of the key matters on which they need to comment. This is an important change that was brought in the overall functioning of the auditors(Lefkowitz, 2017). Features of the ASA 701 This standard helps provides those guidelines that the auditors need for their development and the overall corporate governance. It is applicable on the audit of all the listed companies and every auditor needs to follow the same. The key features of this standard are It gives the auditor the chance to identify the key matters and comment on the same. They can take consultation with those charged with governance on the important matters that are affecting the company. But the decision of the auditor will be his own and wont be based on any biasness. The auditors mostly focus on those areas where there are chances of certain amount of risk like accruals, revenues, cost booking and taxes etc. All these require the auditor to make certain judgment, some estimations and recommendation and then prepare the audit report on the basis of the same. The auditors needs to define and explain each of the key audit matter in details and need to make proper recommendations on the same. The auditors must consider the effect of these key matters on the overall profit and the revenue of the company. It must be supported with proper research and findings and proper reasons behind each estimation must be given(Raiborn, et al., 2016) They also give a list of certain specific matters that cannot be included in the audit report. In case the same was included the auditor must give proper explanation of the same. It is important that the auditor must prepare a proper audit evidences file that must be maintained properly and will help the auditor in cases they need future reference. This will help the auditor is keeping a trail of the steps that were taken by them. Effect of the ASA 701 on the ABC crisis Previously these audit standards were not applicable and hence they worked negatively for the shareholders and the decision markers, but the auditors and the management of the company benefited from the same. If these standards were defined previously it would have helped the auditors in identifying the key matters on which they need to comment. In case if they fail, and worked as per the decisions of the management of the company, then they can be held liable and can be punished. In the case of ABC even if the previous auditors were known to be guilty no action was taken against them as they had made use of the loopholes that was present in the auditing standards. Thus this lead to a dead lock between two auditors who had different opinions(Sonu, et al., 2017). But with the introduction of this standard it was made clear that the auditors need to identify and comment on the key matters. This put a limitation on the overall actions of the management and the auditors and also gave the investors an insight into the financials of the company, which they can use to comment on important matters. The major loophole that was present in the auditing standards was removed and this embarked the biggest change that ahd taken place in the auditing standards since 2004. Thus we see how ABC learning and its downfall was responsible for the formation of these standard and what effect does it have on the overall functioning of the auditors. Conclusion From all the analysis it can be said that the auditors of the company must be true and fair in their approach. The investors are relying on their reports to take important decisions with their money, hence it becomes their duty to provide an unbiased report. In the given case we see that the auditors of the company were not true to their work and had malfunctioned in their actions. This had caused huge losses to the investors of the company. Thus the need for clear and transparent audit practices becomes more evident(DeZoort Harrison, 2016). It makes it more clear on how important it is that the financial statements that are prepared must be clear as so many stakeholders like banks, investors, the general public all are dependent on it in some way or the other. If the auditors had done their work properly the investors would not have suffered such huge losses. Thus it becomes clear that the issuance of the new standard was the need of the hour and all the companies must make it a po int to make sure that the auditors are stressing it in their audit reports. As for the auditors it is important to follow the same else if they are held guilty there are no more loopholes in the system that could save them. Recommendations It will thus be recommended that all the parties performs their duties with utmost conviction and genuineness there must not be any falsification of records that might give false picture to the investors. It is very important in the long run to make sure that the books of the companies are prepared free of errors else in the long run it wont be possible for these companies to survive. The companies those who indulge in malpractices will get liquidated one day. Hence it is requested that proper framework that has been defined must be followed and all the decisions must be taken on the basis of the same, so that none of the parties have to bear any losses. It is important that the actions of the auditors must be timely checked so that they are not able to do any mistakes. It is very important that all these auditing standards must be followed very seriously. It is important for the all round global development and health of the companies and the professionals around the world. References Abbott, L., Daugherty, B., Parker, S. Peters, G., 2016. INTERNAL AUDIT QUALITY AND FINANCIAL REPORTING QUALITY: THE JOINT IMPORTANCE OF INDEPENDENCE AND COMPETENCE. Journal of Accounting Research, 54(1), pp. 3-40. Brannen, J., 2016. Mixing Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Research. NY: Ashgate Publishing. Burke, J. Clark, C., 2016. The business case for integrated reporting: Insights from leading practitioners, regulators, and academics. Business Horizons, 59(3), pp. 273-283. DeZoort, F. Harrison, P., 2016. Understanding Auditors sense of Responsibility for detecting fraud within organization. Journal of Business Ethics, pp. 1-18. Guragai, B., Hunt, N., Neri, M. Taylor, E., 2017. Accounting Information Systems and Ethics Research: Review, Synthesis, and the Future. Journal of Information Systems: Summer 2017, 31(2), pp. 65-81. Jones, P., 2017. Statistical Sampling and Risk Analysis in Auditing. NY: Routledge. Knechel, W. Salterio, S., 2016. Auditing:Assurance and Risk. fourth ed. New York: Routledge. Lefkowitz, J., 2017. Ethics and Values in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Second Edition. second ed. NY: Routledge. Raiborn, C., Butler, J. Martin, K., 2016. The internal audit function: A prerequisite for Good Governance. Journal of Corporate Accounting and Finance, 28(2), pp. 10-21. Sonu, C., Ahn, H. Choi, A., 2017. Audit fee pressure and audit risk: evidence from the financial crisis of 2008. Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting Economics , 24(1-2), pp. 127

Abrams Company Essay Essay Example

Abrams Company Essay Paper MANAGEMENT CONTROL SYSTEMS Lecturer : Supriyadi, Ph. D. Nama : Handy nugroho - No: 1157021 Case : Abrams Company Abrams’Company manufactured a wide variety of parts for use in automobiles, trucks, buses, and farm equipment. Abrams sold their product both to the OEMs and the wholesalers. top management is satisfied with their management systems and performance measurement scheme but they are three areas of concern that need to be discussed. * First, the transfer prices disagreements of parts sold by the product divisions to the AM division. Second, is in the product divisions too often tended to treat the AM division as a captive customer and in the performance measurement system. * Third, the excessive yearly inventory carried by both the AM division and the three product divisions. Strength The company has a clear management structure. The company has employed a bonus plan for employees. The AM Marketing division will input products form the other three divisions, and sell it to domestic and foreign market, it helps the company save cost when it input internal. Weaknesses Abrams’ business model weakness is that its divisions operate as independent companies. Furthermore, all of these profit centers, participate in an incentive compensation plan that the higher the participant is in the organizational hierarchy, the more â€Å"incentive points† he or she will receive based on division profit variance. The Abrams Company has three totally independent divisions, and the three divisions are lack of connection. The transactions between the three divisions dispute the transfer pricing. Case Analysis and Recommendation The Abrams case is about using profitability measures to evaluate profit centers. In EU companies it is more common to evaluate PCs with Income measures like RI and EVA. It is very difficult to find a relevant and fair capital base for the ROI measure. Abrams use book value for fixed assets which inflate the ROI measure as the assets age. The age and mix of assets also differs among divisions which give unfair measures. It is also easy for the divisions to manipulate the capital base at the end of the year. ROI based bonus may rob the future, who want to invest in assets if that reduce the bonus. We will write a custom essay sample on Abrams Company Essay specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Abrams Company Essay specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Abrams Company Essay specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Recommendation to this company was to use RI or EVA instead of ROI and to control the investments separately using NPV and capital turnover measures. The bonus should be based on the budgeted income level, the RI target. The current transfer price system seems to work well with few disputes. Market prices are more used as a top-level for the TP. An advantage with cost base TP is that it will give all internal partners full information about the cost structure and you will avoid â€Å"upstream fixed costs† The problem with the inventory level cannot be controlled with ROI management. If the company change to RI/EVA it will be possible to to negotiate relevant inventory levels in the budget process. High inventory levels can also be managed with differentiated capital charges that will create high interest costs. The best way to control operational tasks is to use nonfinancial measures such as inventory turnover. Use nonfinancial measures to control the inventory levels. If it is an strategic issue you can connect this measure to the bonus system. In general, Abrams Company adopts the lowest cost, differentiation, market focus and ROI strategies to accomplish the organization’s goal. Furthermore, In order to implement the strategies the firm establishes its own management control systems. Suggestions  to  performance measurement  system: 1) ROI can be used combination with other performance measures to avoid the limitations of ROI. The company can establish a non-financial performance measurement system such as the balanced scorecard . With a good performance measurement system, the incentive compensation plan will be improved. 2) EVA ( Economic value added) can be used instead of ROI Suggestions to transfer pricing : a transfer price fixed by the top management in compliance with the AM division and the other divisions involved which could be revised when it is out of date. This fixed price could be adjusted due to inflation. There should be an internal policy on it. Therefore, top management should implement a c ost-based transfer prices because when competitive prices are not available, transfer prices may be set on the basis of cost plus a profit markup.

Free Essays on Depression And Healthcare

Depression and Healthcare in Our Society â€Å"In any given 1-year period, 9.5 percent of the population, or about 18.8 million American adults, suffer from a depressive illness. The economic cost for this disorder is high, but the cost in human suffering cannot be estimated. Depressive illnesses often interfere with normal functioning and cause pain and suffering not only to those who have a disorder, but also to those who care about them. Serious depression can destroy family life as well as the life of the ill person. But much of this suffering is unnecessary†(NIMH). There are three main categories of depressive disorder such as: dysthymia, depression and bipolar depression (manic depression). Depression tends to be a chronic and recurring illness. Dysthymia unlike clinical depression tends to be milder persistent symptoms that may last for years. The third depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, cycles between extreme highs (manias) and major depressive episodes, bipolar being the least common of the three. Depression affects 15 percent of Americans at one point during their lives (NIMH). Depression has affected the lives of children, teenagers and adults throughout the world. Of all the other mental illnesses, depression is the most treatable, and most commonly diagnosed. Eighty percent of the symptoms of serious depression can be successfully alleviated. There are three common treatments for depression; psychotropic drugs, psychosocial therapies and electroconvulsive therapy. Even a combination of these can be very effective in treating individuals, so that they are able to move on and live productive lives. Another major misconception about depression is that anytime you are feeling sad, you are depressed. Depression is more than just feeling down, it is a persistent feeling for at least two weeks, with many physiological as well as emotional symptoms. Including at least five of the following: depressed mood, diminish... Free Essays on Depression And Healthcare Free Essays on Depression And Healthcare Depression and Healthcare in Our Society â€Å"In any given 1-year period, 9.5 percent of the population, or about 18.8 million American adults, suffer from a depressive illness. The economic cost for this disorder is high, but the cost in human suffering cannot be estimated. Depressive illnesses often interfere with normal functioning and cause pain and suffering not only to those who have a disorder, but also to those who care about them. Serious depression can destroy family life as well as the life of the ill person. But much of this suffering is unnecessary†(NIMH). There are three main categories of depressive disorder such as: dysthymia, depression and bipolar depression (manic depression). Depression tends to be a chronic and recurring illness. Dysthymia unlike clinical depression tends to be milder persistent symptoms that may last for years. The third depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, cycles between extreme highs (manias) and major depressive episodes, bipolar being the least common of the three. Depression affects 15 percent of Americans at one point during their lives (NIMH). Depression has affected the lives of children, teenagers and adults throughout the world. Of all the other mental illnesses, depression is the most treatable, and most commonly diagnosed. Eighty percent of the symptoms of serious depression can be successfully alleviated. There are three common treatments for depression; psychotropic drugs, psychosocial therapies and electroconvulsive therapy. Even a combination of these can be very effective in treating individuals, so that they are able to move on and live productive lives. Another major misconception about depression is that anytime you are feeling sad, you are depressed. Depression is more than just feeling down, it is a persistent feeling for at least two weeks, with many physiological as well as emotional symptoms. Including at least five of the following: depressed mood, diminish...

Using French Semi-Auxiliary Verbs

Using French Semi-Auxiliary Verbs The most common  auxiliary verbs  are  avoir and à ªtre. These are the conjugated verbs that stand in front of another verb in compound tenses to indicate mood and tense. In addition to these two, French has a number of semi-auxiliary verbs, which are conjugated in order to express various nuances of time, mood, or aspect. These verbs are followed by an infinitive. Some semi-auxiliary verbs are equivalent to modal verbs in English and some are verbs of perception. Here are the uses and meanings of some frequently used French semi-auxiliary verbs. Aller In present or imperfect tense, aller means to be going to. Je vais à ©tudier. Im going to study. Jallais à ©tudier. I was going to study. In any tense, aller means  to go to/and. Va chercher les clà ©s. Go and look for the keys. Je suis allà © voir mon frà ¨re. I went to see my brother. In any tense, aller is used to emphasize the verb that follows. Je nirai pas rà ©pondre cela. Im not going to dignify that with a response. Je vais te dire une chose. Let me tell you something. Devoir In any tense, except conditional and past conditional, devoir indicates obligation or necessity. Jai dà » partir. I had to leave. Tu dois manger. You must eat. In conditional form, devoir means should. In past conditional, devoir means should have. Je devrais partir. I should leave. Il aurait dà » nous aider. He should have helped us. Faillir Fallir indicates that something almost happened. Il a failli tomber. He almost fell. Jai failli rater lexamen. I nearly failed the test. Faire Causative construction:  to make something happen, to have something done, to make someone do something. Jai fait laver la voiture. I had the car washed. Il me fait à ©tudier. Hes making me study. Laisser To let something happen, to let someone do something. Vas-tu me laisser sortir? Are you going to let me go out? Laisse-moi le faire. Let me do it. Manquer   Followed by optional de, manquer indicates that something was about to happen or nearly happened. Jai manquà © (de) mourir.   I almost died. Elle a manquà © (de) pleurer.   She nearly cried. Paraà ®tre   Paraà ®tre means to appear/to seem to. Ça paraà ®t à ªtre une erreur. That appears to be an error. Il paraissait à ªtre malade. He seemed to be sick. Partir Partir means to leave, in order to, to go to. Peux-tu partir acheter du pain? Could you go out and buy some bread? Il est parti à ©tudier en Italie. He went to study in Italy. Passer Passer means to call/drop in on, to call for, to go to. Passe me chercher demain. Come pick me up tomorrow. Il va passer voir ses amis. Hes going to drop in on his friends. Pouvoir Pouvoir means can, may, might, to be able to. Je peux vous aider. I can help you. Il peut à ªtre prà ªt. He might be ready. Savoir Savoir means to know how to. Sais-tu nager? Do you know how to swim? Je ne sais pas lire. I dont know how to read. Sembler Sembler means to seem/to appear to. Cela semble indiquer que†¦ That seems to indicate that†¦ La machine semble fonctionner. The machine appears to be working. Sortir de Sortir de means to have just done something  (informal). On sort de manger. We just ate. Il sortait de finir. He had just finished. Venir Venir means to come (in order) to. Je suis venu aider. Ive come to help. venir To happen to. David est venu arriver. David happened to arrive. venir de To have just done something. Je viens de me lever. I just got up. Vouloir Vouloir means to want to. Je ne veux pas lire à §a. I dont want to read that. Veux-tu sortir ce soir? Do you want to go out tonight? When Avoir  and  ÃƒÅ tre  Also Act as Semi-Auxiliary Verbs When followed by infinitive, avoir means to have to. Avoir   Vous avez rà ©pondre. You have to respond. Jai à ©tudier. I have to study. Être Être To be in the process of. Es-tu partir? Are you leaving? Être censà © To be supposed to. Je suis censà © travailler. Im supposed to work. Être en passe de To be about to (usually indicates something positive). Je suis en passe de me marier. Im about to get married. Être en train de To be in the process of, to be doing something right now. On est en train de manger. Were eating (right now). Être loin de To not be about/going to. Je suis loin de te mentir. Im not about to lie to you. Être pour To be ready/prepared/willing to. Je ne suis pas pour voler. Im not willing to steal. Être prà ¨s de To be about to, ready to. Es-tu prà ¨s de partir? Are you about to leave? Être sur le point de?   To be about to (positive or negative). Il est sur le point de tomber.   Hes about to fall. French Helping Verbs Any verb that can be followed by an infinitive may be a semi-auxiliary, including (but not limited to): adorer: to adore doingaimer:  to like, love doing(s)arrà ªter de:  to stop doingchercher :  to look to dochoisir de:  to choose to docontinuer /de:  to continue to docroire:  to believe (that one) doesdemander de:  to ask todà ©sirer:  to desire todà ©tester:  to hate doingdire ( quelquun) de:  to tell (someone) to dosefforcer de:  to endeavor to doespà ©rer:  to hope to doessayer de:  to try doingfalloir:  to be necessary to dohà ©siter :  to hesitate to dointerdire ( qqun) de:  to forbid (someone) to dopenser:  to be thinking of, to consider doingpermettre:  to allow to dopersister :  to persist in doingpromettre:  to promise to doprà ©fà ©rer:  to prefer doingrefuser de:  to refuse to dorisquer de:  to risk doing, to possibly dosouhaiter:  to hope to dotà ¢cher de:  to try doingtenter de:  to attempt doingvoir:  to see (someone) do, to see (something) done Word Order with Semi-Auxiliary Verbs   Semi-auxiliary verbs are used in what I call  dual-verb constructions, which have a slightly different word order than compound verb tenses. Dual verb constructions consist of a conjugated  semi-auxiliary verb, such as  pouvoir,  devoir,  vouloir,  aller,  espà ©rer, and  promettre, followed by a second verb in the infinitive. The two verbs may or may not be joined by a preposition. Agreement with Semi-Auxiliary Verbs In semi-auxiliary verb constructions, any direct object belongs to the infinitive, not the semi-auxiliary verb. Therefore, the past participle never agrees with any direct object.   Its a decision that I hated to make.RIGHT: Cest une dà ©cision que jai dà ©testà © prendre.WRONG: Cest une dà ©cision que jai dà ©testà ©e prendre. Here are the books that I wanted to read.Right: Voici les livres que jai voulu lire.  Wrong: Voici les livres que jai voulus lire. However, there may be other kinds of agreement: With the subject of the sentence, if the auxiliary verb of the semi-auxiliary is à ªtre (e.g., Nous sommes venus aider).With the subject of the infinitive.

Biomolecular techniques (bitter taste perception of Research Paper - 1

Biomolecular techniques (bitter taste perception of phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) - Research Paper Example The project was done to determine the phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of students, and the results that were obtained were matched to those of European and Sub-Saharan cohorts. It was found allele combination of homozygous tasters, heterozygous tasters, and homozygous non-tasters were similar to those of the European cohort. This implied that the experiment was largely successful and accurate for the determination of phenotypes and genotypes of the PTC gene. The results can be used in making informed decisions with regard to dietary intake of foods rich in anti-oxidants, in planning of alternative nutrient rich meals for children that are sensitive tasters and finally it can be used by clinicians in the treatment plan of cancer or cardiovascular complications patients. Every individual is different from another, and this is attributed to their genetic make-up. The sense of taste also varies between different categories of people where, for example, some people can sense the taste of some chemicals while others are not able to. One such chemical is phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) or phenylthiourea an organic compound that tastes very bitter to some people while others are unable to taste it at all. Studies done in the past have indicated that polymorphisms in sensory receptor genes in humans can alter the perception in individuals through the coding for receptor types that are functionally distinct (Bufe et al., 2005). The ability of an individual to taste PTC depends primarily on their genetic makeup and is controlled by the PTC gene known as the TASR238 taste receptor gene, located on the chromosome 7 (7q34) and is about 1003 bp long. There are three coding SNPs that are non-synonymous within the taster TAS2R38 gene which are: rs713598–G145C, Ala49Pro; rs1726866–T785C, Val262Ala; rs10246939 – A886G, Ile296Val, and are responsible several haplotypes (Kim, et al 2005; Bufe , 2005). PTC sensitivity is a Mendelian

Analyzing Literature with The Method(E) Assignment

Analyzing Literature with The Method(E) - Assignment Example Play, playing, dolls appear severally a clear indication that the narrator enjoys playing, but she feels stupid/weird for having played with a toy; â€Å"I felt stupid for having played with a toy that day† (Katie N.p). Play and bleeding- â€Å"I’ve been bleeding monthly for more than 20 years now and I figure I’m allowed to play with anything I want† (Katie N.p). The author states this when we very well know that she is already an adult and should not engage in childish plays. Contrasts; Play and bleeding- the narrator states that she is allowed to play after bleeding monthly for over 20 years yet the bleeding signifies ‘menstruation periods’ growing up thus should not be playing with toys. Step 5: one of the most important aspects that I can take from step 4 is play and bleeding. The narrator states that she is allowed to play after bleeding monthly for over 20 years yet the bleeding signifies ‘menstruation periods’ growing up thus should not be playing with toys. This indicates the narrators love for play and dolls. Even as an adult, she still plays with dolls, ironically. Moreover, the narrator repeats the playing concept to emphasize and reiterate her love for

Bigger, Faster, Stronger Essay Example for Free

Bigger, Faster, Stronger Essay Chris Bell who came from an overweight family narrated this film. Chris did not want to be like his father when he was younger; instead he wanted to be like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Chris’ older brother would beat up kids who made fun of him so he was nicknamed Mad Dog. His younger brother hated school and had a learning disability. His younger brother was nicknamed Smelly. Chris and his brothers would wrestle in their basement. Mad Dog had become football captain at his school, while Smelly and Chris began participating in body building competitions. Chris was the strongest kid in his high school and held the New York record. Chris had started to get accused of using steroids. By his senior year he was one of the strongest kids in the country. He moved to California and trained at the gym that Arnold Schwarzenegger trained at. All he accomplished with moving was landing a job at Gold’s Gym selling memberships. It was said that some move to California and live out of their cars to lift at Gold’s Gym. Chris was always against steroids, so when he found out that all his heroes had used them he was very bothered. Chris’ older brother, Mad Dog, stated using steroids while playing football at University of Cincinnati. Shortly after he quit college to pursue another dream of his which was professional wrestling. Mad Dog was the guy who got paid to make other wrestlers look good by getting beat up. Mad Dog was told he would get a contract, but never did. Mad Dog started doing drugs in addition to steroids. He said he would rather be dead than average and later attempted to commit suicide. Smelly also followed Mad Dog and took steroids. He also pursued his wrestling dream, but unlike Mad Dog he had a wife to consider. After having a son, Smelly realized that wrestling was not the life he wanted. Smelly and his wife settled down in the suburbs and opened a gym. But even after quitting wrestling the steroid usage did not stop. Chris could not understand why he was so against steroid usage, but his brothers were not. It is said that many of the baseball players were using steroids and baseball players because of this went from being scrawny to looking like wrestlers. In 2005 Congress spent 151 days in session and 8 of those they spent debating the use of steroids. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention anabolic steroids kills 3 people a year and is #142 in top killers. Steroids are synthetic versions of hormones that your body produces naturally. Some side effects of steroids are acne, hair growth, and reduced sperm count. Some side effects in women are deepened voice, menstrual problem, and enlarged clitoris. Some of these side effects are not reversible. Testosterone tells the body to increase muscle size and strength and helps you recover from workouts faster. For kids some experts think steroids can stunt their growth, but it is not proven. No one has ever done studies on long-term effects of steroids. Congress wanted to pass a law that would control steroids like cocaine and heroin. In 1990 Congress passed the Anabolic Steroid Control Act. This video has not changed my opinion on steroids. My thought on steroids before watching this video was that it should only be used for medical reasons. I consider those who use steroids to gain an advantage over others in professional sports as cheaters. This video, however, did introduce me to many other types of people who use steroids such as pilots, porn stars, and musicians.

Red Bull Energy Drink Essay -- Business Marketing Case Study, solution

Red Bull is an energy drink that doesn’t do well in taste tests. Some say it’s too sweet. Others just shake their heads, saying, â€Å"No.† Its contents are not patented, and all the ingredients are listed on the outside of the slim silver can. Yet Red Bull has a 70 to 90 percent market share in over 100 countries worldwide. During the past 15 years, the drink has been copied by more than 100 competitors, but such companies as Coca-Cola and Anheuser-Busch have been unable to take market share away from Red Bull. Says Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz, â€Å"If we don’t create the market, it doesn’t exist.† Mateschitz’s secret to creating a $1.6 billion worldwide stampede for Red Bull lies in a highly ingenious â€Å"buzz-marketing† strategy that herds consumers to exclusive and exciting events that get high media coverage. Red Bull supports close to 500 world-class extreme sports athletes that compete in spectacular and often record-breaking events across the globe. Mateschitz explains, â€Å"We don’t bring the product to the consumer, we bring consumers to the product.† Today Red Bull is a powerful global brand and very few customers know the story of the highly talented, creative and determined salesman, publicity-shy Dietrich Mateschitz. Tiny Austria’s only billionaire, Mateschitz located his office in the quaint lakeside village of Fuschl, near Salzburg, Austria. His architect is currently building a new office building in the shape of two volcanoes. His collection of 16 airplanes is located in a steel and glass hangar, which serves as an aviation museum and the home of the Flying Bulls at Salzburg Airport. He tries to keep it down to working three days a week. He likes to keep things simple. The size of his headquarter staff is only 200. Mateschitz farms out the production and distribution of the 1.5 billion cans sold worldwide. The total number of employees worldwide is only 1,800, which brings the sales volume per employee close to a million dollars. Mateschitz not only generates brilliant sales and marketing ideas, he is equally talent ed in the execution of the biggest and boldest business ideas. His latest project involves a $1 billion motor sport and aviation theme park in Styria, Austria. Dietrich Mateschitz founded the Red Bull company. According to company legend, the idea for Red Bull came about as Mateschitz sat at a Hong Kong hotel bar in 1982... ...key to remaining market leader in the energy-drinks business. Last year, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Anheuser-Busch, an American brewer, each launched an energy drink, attempting to get a slice of the market in which Red Bull currently has a 70-90% share. Mr Mateschitz is not worried. â€Å"The market isn't generic; it doesn't exist if we don't create it. It's a branded market,† he says. Keeping cool Mr Mateschitz now plans to spend two days a week coming up with wacky ideas to promote Red Bull. Already, the company sponsors an annual Flugtag, when contestants build their own flying-machines and leap off a parapet into water, true to the Red Bull slogan: â€Å"It gives you wings†. His latest project is to build a huge glass hangar at Salzburg airport to house his collection of ancient aircraft, including a DC-6 that once belonged to Marshal Tito, and to host airshows.  £Ã‚ £ That will change. â€Å"We have to go for diversification and acquisitions, and we are investing lots in R&D. We already have concepts and brand formulations for five years' time,† says Mr Mateschitz. But if Red Bull becomes a sort of Austrian Coca-Cola, that carefully cultivated ethos will vanish like bubbles in the brew.

Developmental Psychology and Good Quality Activities Essay

1.1 It is important to remember that these six areas of learning do not work in isolation but are in fact interlinked. Good quality activities will cover more than one area of development. For example, allowing children to access the outdoors will not only support their physical development, but encourage their communication and exploration of their environment. Where a child experiences a delay in one area, it is likely to limit their learning and development in the other five†¦a child with cerebral palsy who experiences hand-eye coordination difficulties is likely to find completing a puzzle difficult therefore hindering her problem solving, reasoning and numeracy. It is therefore vital that settings recognise each child’s individual needs and plan holistically in order to help children achieve their full potential across the six areas of learning. Personal, Social and Emotional Development †¢ Dispositions and attitudes †¢ Self confidence and attitudes †¢ Making relationships †¢ Behaviour and self control †¢ Self care †¢ Sense of community Communication, Language and Literacy †¢ Language for communication †¢ Language for thinking †¢ Linking sounds and letters †¢ Reading †¢ Writing †¢ Handwriting Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy †¢ Numbers as labels and for counting †¢ Calculating †¢ Shapes, space and measures Knowledge and Understanding of the World †¢ Exploration and investigation †¢ Designing and making †¢ ICT †¢ Time †¢ Place †¢ Communities Physical Development †¢ Movement and space †¢ Health and bodily awareness †¢ Using equipment and materials Creative Development †¢ Being creative/responding to experiences, expressing and communicating ideas †¢ Exploring media and materials †¢ Creating music and dance †¢ Developing imagination and imaginative play 1.2 We assess and record all the children’s observations and document them in their learning journeys. These get used by the staff to 9show how well the child has developed in their learning, the staff try and put at least 3 observations a month into the journeys. Once the child leaves the setting they can take them onto where ever they are going next. We also use daily diaries what the key workers fill out to show the parents how their day has gone and what they have eating. More important documents e.g. accident forms get filled out and stored away in the office where the manager will assess them and then lock them away for confidentiality. 4.2 Using a topic a child is really interested in can allow for sustained shared thinking it can be talking about something or doing something which encourages conversation like we have done planting with our children this has really captured their imagination the children are talking about what they think seeds are going to grow into what happens as the plants grows, what might the plant produce. We are getting the children to reach conclusions, and explore concepts at a deeper level. The children are thinking about processes and are making connections to things they have already learnt and new information. Processing the information we have given them making them think.

Body Shop

Anita Roddick, OBE, and The body Shop International Plc FEDBACK FOR QUESTION WEEK 3 for week commencing 19. 03. 12 1. Evaluate the Financial Position of the Company (at the time of the case study) and comment upon the apparent success or otherwise of its strategy, based on your findings. Introduction We may consider a company’s strategy from a number of aspects, but generally we are interested in answering the question: How well is the company’s present strategy working? To understand and analyse success in terms of strategy, we must begin by understanding what the strategy is.From Thompson, Strickland and Gamble (2012) we might examine the following areas * Identify competitive approach * Low-cost leadership? * Differentiation? * Best-cost provider? * Focus on a particular market niche? * Determine competitive scope * Broad or narrow geographic market coverage? * In how many stages of industry’s production/distribution chain does the company operate? * Examine r ecent strategic moves * Identify functional strategies We can also assess performance in terms of both quantitative measures (financial and strategic achievements against budget, plans, etc. and look to see if its performance is above or below the industry average. We can also look at qualitative measures (such as brand awareness /status, consumer attitudes to the company, and so on). There is only limited information in the case regarding some of these areas, but I will attempt to look first at the strategy followed by Body Shop, then at the financial ratios based on its figures, non-financial measures and then finally draw conclusions that attempt to answer the question.Strategy being followed by Body Shop Porter’s Generic strategies, as amended by Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson (2002) are shown below. If we consider first, their competitive approach, there is no evidence in the case study that Body Shop has any concern about Cost Leadership, and in fact we know from the Tradi ng Charter and Mission (case, page 539) that the firm pays above market rates for goods it buys from suppliers in poorer countries, where it can, which is not something a cost-leadership company would normally do.We also have plentiful evidence from the case that Body Shop occupies a unique position in the cosmetics retailing industry, as it takes a highly principled stance on many issues, as indicated in my earlier answer to question 2, and shown in the firm’s mission statement, which mentions many areas of Corporate Social Responsibility – ecological and ‘green’ issues, human and civil rights, against animal testing of cosmetics, and so on. The company must therefore be following a Differentiation strategy.The question then is whether this is broad or narrow in focus, as suggested by Thompson, Strickland and Gamble, as mentioned earlier – their competitive scope. The decision here rests on how one defines the market: Body Shop is a retailer that a lso manufactures, within the cosmetics industry. It is a specialist retailer, not selling anything apart from its own products and is not configured and structured like bigger retailers such as – in the UK – House of Fraser, Debenhams, Boots, Marks and Spencer or Tesco, all of whom retail cosmetics amongst many other product ranges.I therefore conclude that Body Shop is a Focused Differentiator. Firms that seek differentiation, according to Porter, seek higher profit margins through finding something unique about themselves, which consumers value more than the offerings of competitors. In the case of Body Shop we might see this as being their highly visible and principled ethical stance, and the range of products which they sell, being organic, fair trade and ethically produced and traded, so their competitive approach and scope is Focus Differentiation, as such a stance is not likely to appeal to all shoppers.Similarly, some, at least would be indifferent to the organ ic/fair trade/human rights etc appeal of the stores and others might consider the range of products to be relatively limited and not of sufficiently high brand status, as the products in Body Shop stores fit in price and value terms between the low-cost products offered in stores like Sainsbury and Tesco, and the high-end cosmetics of Helena Rubenstein, Elizabeth Arden etc, sold via stores such as House of Fraser and Debenhams.In terms of recent strategic moves, we can see from the case only that the firm has expanded reasonably quickly, via franchising mostly; from the case it seems that about 80% of stores are franchised out. In terms of functional strategies, we can see the small amount of vertical integration mentioned in the case, whereby the largest part of the business is involved in running the owned shops and franchise, and a small amount of manufacturing in terms of soap products, etc.It is important to note that for the next section, examining Body Shop’s finances, the franchising approach is important, as it has a major impact on revenues – however successful a store is, the majority of revenues will go to the franchisee, not the Body Shop. According to Cavusgil, Knight and Reisenberger (Called CKR in future – from p 246), the initial revenue to Body Shop will be from the franchising fee, but then they will get regular revenues from product sales to the stores and from the royalty fees. This is likely to amount to about 30% of revenue in total (25% from product charges and 5% royalty fee).Body Shop’s Financial Position We are asked to evaluate the firm’s financial position. Briefly, Body shop is a retailer that sells in around 45 countries and uses a mixed mode of Franchising and FDI though investing in owned retail stores. So far as I can tell, about 80% of the 1,208 stores are franchised. Franchising is a particular form of retail expansion, where, according to Cavusgil, Knight and Reisenberger, an entrepreneur buys into an established brand system. The best known franchise is probably McDonalds, but Body Shop is a medium-sized international franchise, given its range of countries and umber of stores (much smaller than McDonalds, which has over 33,000 restaurants worldwide, and annual revenues (2010) of about ? 15 billion. I will come back to this more modern data later in my answer. When examining the financial basis of a business, there are – according to Thompson Strickland and Gamble – five areas which can be studied – 1. Profitability (the profits made by the business on its activities), 2. Liquidity (the ability of a business to pay its debts [creditors] and collect money from customers [debtors]), 3.Leverage (the amount of money invested in the business by shareholder – v – the amounts borrowed from financial institutions, to fund the business and invest in its future), 4. Business Activities (amounts of stock held in the business, how quickly it t urns over, and so on), and 5. Stockholder Interests (the amount of money paid in dividends, value changes in share prices, etc. ) * According to the lecture notes in week 10, Ratio analysis can be used to: * Compare the performance of a company over a period of time. Compare the performance of your own company with that of one of your competitors or the industry sector. * Detect weaknesses in aspects of your operations, e. g. debt management, stock levels etc. which you can improve. * Assess a company's exposure to short term risk through its liquidity (ability to meet debts). * Determine a company's profitability. Much of this data is useful only when considered against the performance of other firms and we have no data from the case to illustrate any of this. However, I have approached the financial situation analysis in two ways.First I look at the basic ratios for the firm and comment on them; second, I have compared the latest data for Body shop, with a number of its contempora ries, both in retail and in franchising, in order to make some valid comparisons. Profitability the commonest ratios are Profit before Interest payments on loans, Taxation, Depreciation and other fixed costs like mortgage payments. Often referred to as operating profit or EBITDA; for Body Shop in 1995 I have calculated this as Profit for the year/turnover*100 (from figures, case pp553/4), this is 33. 5/219. 7*100 = 15. 24%.Calculated in the same way, net profit would be 21. 8/219. 7*100 = 9. 9%. Liquidity the commonest ratio here would be the Current Ratio, which measures balance of current assets against current liabilities, which for Body Shop yields a ratio of 2. 29:1. Similarly the Quick Ratio, which is a similar calculation but ignoring inventory or stock, would yield a ratio of 0. 83:1. This indicates that the business is not perfectly liquid and would struggle a little to pay off all of its debts (a ratio of 1:1 indicating perfection here) – but this is not seen as a p roblem when the ratio is over 0. . Without any share price data it is impossible to calculate meaningful ratios for stockholders, so we can only note that the dividend paid to shareholder appears high, at ? 11. 50 per share for 1995 (case, p. 554). A major measure for stockholders, however, might be Return on Shareholders equity, as this is the best comparison to the return that the investor might make if he or she had invested their money in a bank Savings account. For Body Shop I calculate this as: Net profit/Total Equity*100 or 21. /110. 6*100 = 19. 7%. However, these numbers by themselves, tell us only that the business is profitable and is a sound going concern, with a decent profit margin and a fair coverage against its debts. For shareholder it is making a very good return on invested amounts of nearly 20% – at a time when savings accounts would maybe have yielded 6%) and is paying a handsome dividend. We might conclude that the business is financially sound, therefore .Moreover, using Franchising as a way to expand internationally is a relatively low cost and low-risk method, according to CKR, as the franchisee pays for the initial setting up of the store; the stock; staff recruitment and training; and advertising and promotion. They also pay – in this case – to Body Shop PLC for the stock they must subsequently sell in their store and the franchise royalties on turnover. This is a very effective business model and allows a strategy of international expansion to take place reasonably quickly and at reasonably low risk. Conclusions General comments about the success of the strategy and body Shop’s financesBased on this evidence, it is possible to state that Body Shop’s financial position is clearly comfortable and they appear to have a sensible strategy for international expansion, which is sustainable, in that they have transferred the majority of risk for their expansion to the franchisee. The group should be able to comfortably expand its foreign operations in this manner, for a number of years. However, at the moment, as I indicated in my answer to question 1, the company at present has a very simple structure and this may have to change as the number of stores, and the number of countries in which they operate, continues to grow.We also know, from my answer to question 2, that in terms of what we might call non-financial measures, Body Shop is highly regarded as an excellent example of an Ethical and Corporately Responsible company. We might therefore conclude that both the financial and non-financial evidence as presented supports the view that B0dy Shop is a well-run business and has a sensible strategy that will allow it to expand. Comments updating Body Shop’s Position Without comparative data, however, it is impossible to make much more of an analysis or draw conclusions from the business.We know that the case ends in 1995/6 and that about ten years after this, the firm was sold t o L’Oreal, a very large, French-based cosmetics producer. This caused some controversy as it was not clear if L’Oreal still tested products on animals (they do) and if so, how such a principled owner as Anita Roddick could sell out to a large corporate that seemed to embody many of the things she had supposedly dedicated both her personal and professional life to fighting. However, the sale went ahead and the business has been part of the French company now for 7 years.Today (2011) it has expanded to 2,748 stores, of which 1,639 (59%) are franchised. This is interesting as it tells us that the proportion of franchised stores has fallen since 1995, even though the number of stores has more than doubled in 16 years. This would indicate a change in strategy, but it is not clear whether this was pre or post the L’Oreal takeover. Finally, in order to look at Body Shop in comparative terms, I prepared data for them and a number of rivals, which is presented below. | | Revenue ? billion| EBITDA ? million| EBITDA %| Net profit? million| Net Profit %| House of Fraser| | 0. 596| 36. 8| 6. 7| 8. 2| 1. 3| Debenhams| | 2. 112| 189. 7| 8. 98| 97. 0| 4. 6| Boots| | 23. 330| 1,444. 0| 6. 17| 221. 0| 0. 9| Marks and Spencer| | 9. 50| 852. 0| 9. 00| 523. 0| 5. 5| Tesco| | 60. 93| 3,810. 0| 6. 25| 2,670. 0| 4. 4| Body Shop| | 1. 01| 144. 4| 14. 2| 41. 2| 4. 1| McDonalds| | 15. 06| 4,670. 6| 31. 0| 3,093. 1| 20. 5| I chose data for several large retailers, like Tesco and M&S who sell at least comparative products to Body Shop, House of Fraser and Debenhams because they sell higher level products and McDonalds as the most obvious franchiser example.Regarding the large retailers, although Body Shop remains a small business, internationally speaking (just about ? 1 billion in turnover), its net profit margins are at the top end of those of its retailing rivals, but fall well short of its main franchise rival. My conclusion which I made at the end of question 2â €™s answer – that I am sure the impact of the ethical stance affects the performance of the company – is thus thrown into some doubt, but it would need much more research into the comparative financial data in order to prove or disprove this view.

environmental scarcity essays

environmental scarcity essays Conflict From Environmental Scarcity or Lust For Wealth? In "Environmental Scarcities and Violent Conflict," Thomas F. Homer-Dixon writes about the possible conflicts that are caused by environmental scarcities, using three different hypotheses's to do so. I found the first hypothesis to be most compelling because I feel it is the most prevalent in the world today. The first hypothesis in "Environmental Scarcities and Violent Conflict" states that environmental scarcity causes simple-scarcity conflicts between states . I selected "Lust for diamonds kills thousands in African wars," which I found on the web page www.cnn.com, to test this hypothesis. Homer-Dixon's hypothesis that environmental scarcity causes simple-scarcity conflicts between states is a valuable one and I feel that some conflicts such as the one involving diamond wars in Africa give this hypothesis merit although the wars in Africa cannot be solely based on it. Although Homer-Dixon concludes that the first hypothesis lacks empirical support, I feel that it is more interesting and easier to draw conclusions from it then the other two because of its simplicity. Unlike the other two hypothesis which are inter-woven with several elaborate ideas that all must coincide in order to justify it, the first hypothesis relies on the simple fact that a lack of resources and states quest for these resources drive the possibility of conflict and violence. I also like the examples used to support it such as Japan's strategy during World War II to obtain resources from China and the Persian Gulf War, which the United States was involved in. I lived through the Gulf War and believe that the war was almost solely based on the importance of obtaining oil from the Middle East. Contrary to what the United States wanted people to perceive, they where not simply helping out a weaker country like Kuwait in time of need but rather looking out for their own w ell being which mea ...

Definition and Examples of Linguists

Definition and Examples of Linguists A linguist is a specialist in linguisticsthat is, the study of language. Also known as a  linguistic scientist or a linguistician. Linguists examine the structures of languages and the principles that underlie those structures. They study human speech as well as written documents. Linguists are not necessarily polyglots (i.e., people who speak many different languages). Examples and Observations Some believe that a linguist is a person who speaks several languages fluently. Others believe that linguists are language experts who can help you decide whether it is better to say It is I or It is me. Yet it is quite possible to be a professional linguist (and an excellent one at that) without having taught a single language class, without having interpreted at the UN, and without speaking any more than one language.What is linguistics, then? Fundamentally, the field is concerned with the nature of language and (linguistic) communication.(Adrian Akmajian, Richard Demerts, Ann Farmer, and Robert Harnish, Linguistics: An Introduction to Language and Communication. MIT Press, 2001)Subfields of Linguistics- Linguists spend their time studying what language is and what it does. Different linguists study language in different ways. Some study the design features that the grammars of all the worlds languages share. Some study the differences among languages. Some linguists focus on struc ture, others on meaning. Some study language in the head, some study language in society.(James Paul Gee, Literacy and Education. Routledge, 2015)- Linguists study many facets of language: how sounds are produced and heard in physical acts of speech, conversational interaction, the different uses of language by men and women and different social classes, the relation of language to the functions of the brain and memory, how languages develop and change, and the uses of language by machines to store and reproduce language.(William Whitla, The English Handbook. Wiley-Blackwell, 2010) Linguists as Scientists- Like a biologist studying the structure of cells, a linguist studies the structure of language: how speakers create meaning through combinations of sounds, words, and sentences that ultimately result in textsextended stretches of language (e.g. a conversation between friends, a speech, an article in a newspaper). Like other scientists, linguists examine their subject matterlanguageobjectively. They are not interested in evaluating good versus bad uses of language, in much the same manner that a biologist does not examine cells with the goal of determining which are pretty and which are ugly.(Charles F. Meyer, Introducing English Linguistics. Cambridge University Press, 2010)- The  important point to remember about the complex sets of relationships and rules known as phonology, syntax, and semantics is that they are all involved in the modern linguists approach to describing the grammar of a language.(Marian R. Whitehead, Language Literacy in the Early Year s 0-7. Sage, 2010) Ferdinand de Saussure on the System of a LanguageThe pioneer linguist Ferdinand de Saussure criticized scholars who studied the history of a part of a language, dissociated from the whole to which it belongs. He insisted that linguists should study the complete system of a language at some point in time, and then examine how the entire system changes over time. Saussures pupil Antoine Meillet (1926: 16) is responsible for the aphorism: une langue constitue un systà ¨me complexe de moyens dexpression, systà ¨me oà ¹ tout se tient (a language makes up a complex system of means of expression, a system in which everything holds together). Scientific linguistics who produce comprehensive grammars of languages naturally follow this tenet. (Proponents of formal theories, who look at isolated bits of language for some particular issue, naturally contravene this fundamental principle.)(R. M. W. Dixon, Basic Linguistic Theory Volume 1: Methodology. Oxford University Press, 2009) Pronunciation: LING-gwist

National Vocational Educational and Training Essay

National Vocational Educational and Training - Essay Example NVET seeks to reconcile the educational training needs f the individual, the employer and the economy in such a way as to increase the competitiveness f organisations and British Industry as a whole, while at the same time ensuring that individuals can develop in ways that will enable them to lead meaningful and satisfying lives. Harrison, R. (1992).cited in Walton, J. (1999) p75. Methods f training and educating employees had been in existence in some form or other since medieval times. In certain industries such as engineering and printing apprenticeships had long been established. Although the education act f 1944 required employers to release young employees to attend 'further education and liberal studies' classes in 'county colleges', it wasn't until the nineteen sixties that national training and learning initiatives came into existence. Reid et al. (2004)Up to this point many organisations were still rigid in structure and ruled by bureaucracy as fathered by Weber, (1947) and followed the principles f Taylor (from Morgan.1997) where workers were deskilled for efficiency and hierarchic managers held a position f superiority and knowledge held by them was never shared as this knowledge was power. The middle years f the twentieth century saw theories from Maslow (1943) who defined a 'hierarchy f needs' for individuals in the work place and McGregor (1960 ) who contrasted management styles and categorised them into 'X and Y' theories, X being akin to Taylor's scientific management principles and his Y theory proposing that managers understood that workers wanted to contribute to the organisations objectives. Work now involved tasks being challenging and meaningful for the worker and the term 'job enrichment ' now existed as stated by Herzber,g et al. (1959). The later part f the century was subject to relentless change. Kolb, (1974, 1984) introduced a theory that managers should be naturally learned 'by experience' and described a four stage sequential process for learning at work without a teacher or trainer. In industry new products and processes emerged, especially regarding information technology and the advent f the internet. Organisations grew in stature and now had mission statements, corporate objectives and medium term plans which would include personnel issues. This era saw organisations introduce systems which were open to their environment and socio-technical systems, Trist (1981) a theory that proposed that a key task for managers was to understand changing relationships between people, tasks, technology and structure. Consultation now existed with the workforce and participation became respectable. Government agencies such as the 'Manpower Services Commission' the 'Training Services Agency' and Youth Training Schemes all

UK Education Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

UK Education Policy - Essay Example In the long run this is assumed to have a great impact over the larger proportion of the population which will lower down the economic development of the country. Overview of the Problem Initially there was a strong emphasis in the United Kingdom over the attainment of post compulsory qualification i.e. continuing education after 16. But the trends of 2009 have shown that only 80% of the overall population which is above 16 years of age is having full time education. It is not the case that UK has stopped its progress in the field of education however the much stronger efforts made by other countries have put United Kingdom in to a much competitive market. Apart from this the percentage of the younger generation who comes under NEET (not in education, employment or training) has significantly increased in the last few years which have a deep relationship of the skill development of students under 16. It is also noticed that students who have the opportunity of gaining basic education are not availing it to its fullest. Students at the age of 16 or below are having lower grades and poor performance over the examinations. It is a fact that the UK organizations give higher wages and salaries to their employees for very basic and essential skills as compared to the other countries in OEDC. This clearly reflects that UK does not have exceptionally skilled workers and that they do not have choice other than to appoint them. United Kingdom has a greater proportion of unqualified and unskilled individuals as compared to its significant competitors for instance, 60% population of Germany has the intermediate education whereas UK have only 48%. Similarly another major competitor of UK such as Canada has 49% of high... This paper approves that the Education Maintenance Allowance came up with an incentive plan in order to encourage the disadvantaged students from poor family backgrounds. The plan constituted of giving a substantial amount to the students who are willing to carry on with their studies beyond the age of 16. This has significantly increased the number of students applying for higher education. The social mobility is very closely affiliated with the development and upbringing of a child. The interferences made in child development are sometimes made to be more effective on the cognitive achievement or it becomes an unavoidable requirement in order to be successful in the later life. The early cognitive development is important for the future academics of a child but the study shows that there other interventions as well which encourages or discourages a student to enroll in full-time education after crossing the age of 16 though their abilities still have an effect over their social mob ility. This essay makes a conclusion that The socio economic differences among the population are mainly because of inequality at the school level and the educational attainment which further leads to noteworthy differences in choice of studying after 16. This can be controlled by establishing the same academic structure throughout the country with similar expenses and rewards so that the inequality on the basis of education can be eradicated. In addition to this the social mobility can also be improved by the individual participation at the school level for this the teachers would have to inspire students to some celebrity or social model in order to realize them the ultimate outcomes of good education

Business Financing and the Capital SStructure Assignment

Business Financing and the Capital SStructure - Assignment Example This fact ensures that there is no dilution of the company’s ownership. Second, the company is entitled to pay the amount they borrowed plus a predetermined interest. This implies that the company can budget efficiently on how to repay its debt. It does not have to share the future profits of the company in any case the company becomes successful. The interest paid on the debt that the company takes are taxation allowable expenses. This implies that the interests can lower the amount of tax a company pays resulting to it lowering the overall cost of capital. The process of raising debt finance is simple and easy since the company is not entitled to comply with any securities regulations and laws. Lastly, in debt finance the company does not have to hold periodic meetings to explain their various actions to the debt holders. Despite the many advantages that debt finance has, it also has some disadvantages. First, unlike equity, there must be payment of the debt at some point in time creating obligations to the company. Debt financing also come along with fixed costs which at times can be high. High interest costs increases the risk of insolvency of a company especially on difficult financial periods. Lastly, debt financing require companies to pledge their assets as collateral. Equity financing generates large amounts of money which do not require repayment. What the company has to do is to only share a portion of their profits to the new investors who become part of the company. The company can use this non-refundable money to expand their operations or diversify its business to generate future cash flows. Equity finance also helps the company to maintain a low leverage which would increase its chances of getting debt finance in the future. The major disadvantage of equity financing is that the company has to loose part of the ownership of the company to the new investors and they will have to take part

Jean Piaget: The Four Stages Of Cognitive Theory

Jean Piaget: The Four Stages Of Cognitive Theory Cognitive theory of Jean Piaget includes four stages of development that children move through during which the explanatory behaviors of infants transform into the abstract, logical intelligence of adulthood. There are three important specific characteristics of Piagets theory of which the first one is being a general theory, that is, cognitions all aspects undergo a similar course of change. Another characteristic is that children move through the stages in an invariant sequence. Piaget believed that there is a same order that children follow. Third, the stages are universal. Stages in cognitive theory assume the theory to include all children everywhere (Berk, 2003). Biological concepts are used in a limited way in Piagets theory. However, he stated the importance of genetic and environmental factors on the way that children move through the stages (Crain, 2005). He emphasized that the speed of children while passing those stages is affected by differences in genetic and environmen tal factors. Jean Piaget used the term scheme while explaining human beings organized way of making sense of experience (Mark, 1969). Traill (2008) explains that the term scheme used by Piaget is different from peoples everyday usage of scheme. The term can be any pattern for exploring and learning from the environment and it has three different intellectual structures. Piaget calls first intellectual structures to emerge as behavioral schemes, ones that appear after 2 years as symbolic schemes, and structures that appear after 7 years as operational schemes (Piaget, 1972, as cited in Traill 2008). For instance, dropping scheme of an 8 month old baby and a 25 months of will not be the same, as sooner it will become more deliberate and creative. Toddlers, different from infants, begin to think before acting and Piaget identifies that transition from sensorimotor to cognitive approach to the world which depends on mental representations. (Piaget, 1926, as cited in Berk 2003) Images and concepts are the two powerful mental representations. Especially, the shift from sensorimotor to cognitive approach is accounted for two processes; adaptation, consisting assimilation and accommodation, and organization. Interpretation of new structures into already existing schemes is called as assimilation and modification of existing schemes into adaptation of new experiences is called as accommodation. Cognitive adaptation aims to adjust to the environment and is a result of the equilibrium between assimilation and accommodation (Block, 1982). While trying to grasp an object, a baby is experiencing the assimilation process, while removing an obstacle and grasping an object, a baby now accommodates the scheme (Crain, 2005). During the organization process more complex intellectual structures are combined with existing schemes by children. For instance, after the baby experienced and covered dropping movement, then he/she will relate it with throwing movement as well as understanding the concepts of near and far (Berk, 2003). The Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to 2 Years) Jean Piaget observed his children during their developmental period and constructs the stages based on his observations. His books mostly involve many examples from his dialogues and interactions with his children. The sensorimotor stage consists of six substages. (Santrock, 2004) That stage starts with the use of reflexes from birth to 1 month. Newborn reflexes take important place in sensorimotor stage. According to Piaget inborn reflexes are consisted from first schemes. He states that as children use inborn reflexes and experience assimilation, they desire to put them to active use (Crain, 2005). After one month, children begin to repeat their chance behaviors and primary circular reactions period (one to four months) starts. A baby experiences the thumb sucking by bringing her hand to her mouth by a chance, when the hand falls she wants to get it back and experiences many failures until she gets it back (Crain, 2005). At that example the child organizes the hand movement and sucking which is a kind of circular reaction. Piaget also states that children at that period indicate the first efforts at imitation (Berk, 2003). The next substage is secondary circular reactions and is observed between fourth and eighth months. Infants start to experience motor achievements that encourage them to play attention to their environment. Infants begin to get enjoyment from the response of the environment to their attempts and they repeat their movements that get reaction from their surrounding (Santrock, 2004). Coordination of secondary schemes substage takes place during eight to twelve months. At this stage infants begin to coordinate tow or more actions to achieve simple objectives. In addition with an intentional purpose, babies try to imitate behaviors after watching a person. One may be able to observe a baby at this stage trying to stir with a spoon. In addition, a baby may begin to cry when she sees her mother wearing her coat in order to stop her mother leaving (Berk, 2003). In substage 5, tertiary circular reactions (twelve to eighteen months), children are interested with different outcomes. Piaget had observed one of his children hitting on a table at different rates in order to listen different sounds that he creates (Crain, 2005). It should be noted that all experiences are results of childrens intrinsic curiosity about the environment around them that Piaget emphasizes within his cognitive development theory. The last substage of the sensorimotor period is named as beginnings of thought or internalization of schemes lasting from eighteen to twenty months. During that substage children have the capacity to remember the behaviors that are not present (deferred imitation). Their efforts on imitation also indicate progress and they experiment with actions inside their heads. Besides, children can be observed to engage in make-believe play during that period (Santrock, 2004). Object Permanence: Piaget and many researchers concluded that infants appreciate concepts of permanence objects. Up to four months, children do not make any attempt to an object leaving in front of their eyes. During secondary circular reactions stage children are more able to explore their surrounding and they have a better sense of permanence of objects. At stage four children have the ability to find the hidden objects. If an adult takes a toy behind a box, the baby will look at the behind of the box and find the toy. During the stages five and six children are able to follow displacements and follow invisible shifts (Crain, 2005). Beginnings of Categorization: Before the capability of mental representation children are not able to categorize objects. During the first year of their life, children experience perceptual categorization. For example they can categorize the legs of an animal. Conceptual categorization begins with the end of first year; they are now able to categorize similar characteristics and behaviors. Active categorization period starts with the beginning of the second year. It is stated that sorting objects into two classes can be observed in eighteen months babies. In the second year babies can group two different kinds of objects without grasping them (Berk, 2003). When the observed milestones of research and the description of substages of Piaget are compared from birth to two years, both similarities and differences are seen. There are points that seem to occur earlier than Piaget accepted such as categorization, deferred imitation, and analogical problem solving. Those differences are explained differently from many researchers. Some of the surveys indicate that some children born with different intellectual capacities and some of them with a set off limits which causes those differences. The latter argue the theory of Piaget in terms of biological considerations. The Preoperational Stage (2 to 7 Years) Preoperational stage is lasting from two to seven ages in which the child is more capable while dealing with the environment. Although the reasoning of child is still unsystematic and illogical, that is the period that children begin to use symbols and rapidly develop representation. One of the important symbols that indicate increase during that period is language (Santrock, 2004). Piaget believed that experience of internal images occurs before labeling words and he did not take language as an important tool in cognitive development of children. Berk (2003) argues that Piaget had misadjusted the role of language in early intellectual development. She proposes that conceptual abilities of children are highly affected from the dialogues of children with adults. Moreover, there are many psychologists that believe as children develop their language ability, they begin to think more logically. Children experience transductive reasoning during that stage which means shifting from one particular to another. Children place two unrelated situations into the same case as if they have a relationship. One of Piagets children had concluded that she hadnt had her nap yet so it wasnt afternoon (Piaget, 1924). Piaget (1924) explains that statement as an example of transductive reasoning, because the child did not catch the understanding that afternoons include many different events and having nap is only one of them. An important milestone of the increase in mental representation is make-believe play during preoperational stage. The differences in make-believe play between sensorimotor and preoperational stage can be clearly observed. By the middle of preoperational stage make-believe play of children indicate real life conditions. In addition, by preoperational stage children begin to engage in sociodramatic play, they coordinate variety of roles and story lines during their play. One of the criticized points of cognitive theory of Piaget is based on the belief of Piaget that play reflects childrens cognitive and social skills, however there are many recent studies indicating the contribution of play on those skills. Especially during sociodramatic play, children interact with their peers longer and they are more cooperative. Many psychologists believed the role of strengthening of make believe play on a wide range of mental abilities and logical reasoning (Berk, 2003). Egocentrism: Piaget stated that children look at their surrounding from their own viewpoint and they ignore perspectives of others. Three-mountains study is one of the famous observations of Piaget explaining egocentric behavior of children at preoperational stage. He had used a model of three mountains and taken a child for a walk around the model in order to give opportunity for the child to look at the model from different view. Piaget had placed the child from one point of the model and placed a toy to another place. The child had been asked what he/she saw while looking at the model and what the toy would be seen while looking at it. All the children could correctly explain what they were seeing, however children at preoperational stage gave the same answer with their own view (Crain, 2005). Studies emphasize on the relation between egocentrism and social communication. Children at preoperational stage, according to Piaget, fail to recognize the needs of their peers during verbal interaction (Rubin, 1973). As they look only from their own view, they are able to understand view of the person interacting with them. They think that they can be seen from everywhere, everybody see and hear them. An adult may observe a child at this period telling that nobody could see him/her while closing his/her eyes with hands. Animism: Piaget (1951) proposes that the child recognizes no limits between himself and the external world and it is expected that the child would see many nonliving and non acting things as living and conscious and he explains this phenomenon as animism. In his book The Childs Conception of World, 1951, he identifies the reason for him to use the term animisim. He accepts that animism was term used for primitive human beings and responds the criticisms by telling that he had used that term as a generic term and emphasizing on the different types of animism in psychological origins (Piaget, 1951). Children at preoperational stage have a belief that objects are alive because they move and grow. For example, a child may tell that there are not any cars on the road, because they are sleeping. Piaget described animism inside four stages. Initially children accepted useful things as living. At this first stage broken or damaged objects were not alive for them. At the second stage, moving objects, whether are moved by an external factor or by themselves, were considered as alive. In stage three, to be categorized as living, things should move by themselves. Lastly, at the fourth stage, adults know that plants and animals are living things only (Moriarty, 2005). Irreversibility: Going through a series of steps and after changing direction is difficult for children at preoperational stage. Another well known experiment of Piaget indicates that problem in a way that there are children shown 16 boxes, 6 of which are yellow and 10 of which are red. When children are asked whether red boxes are more or boxes, children at this stage responds as red boxes and fails to be aware of that both yellow and red boxes are boxes. In his book The Childs Conception of World, 1951, Piaget gives examples about irreversibility. There are dialogues indicating their inability such as, asking a child about her sister, the child responds that she has a sister named A, then Piaget asks the child whether A has a sister or not, the child responds that A has not a sister. (Piaget, 1951) Inability to Conserve: Piaget propounds preoperational childs lack of conservation by applying experiments of liquids and number. He shows two same size glasses to the children and fulls the glasses with water. He asks children which of the water was more. All the children respond that they were equal in amount. Then he puts the water in one of the glasses into a different size glass (wider or taller) and repeats his question. Children at preoperational stage tell that they are now different. They have not the capability to perceive that certain physical features of objects remain same, even their physical appearance changes (Santrock, 2004) Based on experiments of Piaget, at the beginning of seven children begin to give the correct answer to the conservation tests. Before that age children indicates at conservation but not totally achieve it. They give answers like one is more because it is taller and then change their answers the other one is more because it is wider. Besides, irreversibility of the child can be concluded based on the conservation of liquid experiment. The child cannot understand the end result as a reverse of the original one. Jean Piaget also had thought about the failures of children from the linguistic point. Terms such as taller, more, wider takes time to be understood. He suggests ways to overcome that problem and tells adults to apply experiments by using different sentences and establishing questions by using different words within a particular case (Berk, 2003). Piaget experimented conservation of children also with using number. A row of egg cups and a bunch of eggs are given to children and they are asked to take enough eggs to fill the cups. At the first half of preoperational stage children ignored the number of eggs in the cups and they made an equal length with the rows. Children at the second half of preoperational stage made one-to-one correspondence. However, those children failed in the second question. Piaget then brought together the eggs and asked which of them was more and they could not respond that they are still same. Most of them thought that the longer was more in number. Piaget explains that phenomenon as been influenced by their sudden perceptions than by logic (Crain, 2005). Categorization: In coordinating and extending knowledge in cognitive development theory of Piaget, categorization takes an important place. Researchers state that children begin to make similar categorizations and form some categories with the age of two such as animals, plants, and vehicles (Scholnick, Nelson, Gelman, Miller, 2008). Things or objects in all of those categories have differences in perceptual characteristics, so a conflict emerges with the main idea of Piaget that childrens reasoning is governed by the way they see and objects appear. By the age of three children become able to make distinctions between basic and general categories such as furniture versus tables. However, children at preoperational stage are not able to organize objects into classes and subclasses based on their basic similarities and differences (Meadows, 1986). It is argued that Piaget was partly right and partly wrong with his conclusions of preoperational stage. Researchers give simplified tasks for children and preschoolers indicate the beginnings of logical operations, however there are important differences between their reasoning and children at school age. Difficulties were observed in conservation tests, three mountains tests and appearance-reality tests. As opposed to perceptual approaches to solve problems, children rely on increasing effective mental. In order to give an example, research indicate that children who have not the capability to use counting while comparing two groups of objects, do not also conserve number. They begin to find effective solution ways for proms with more objects when they become capable of counting. Piaget states that, as many other psychologists accept, children move through variety of stages of understating, although they do not totally handle conservation up to school years. The Concrete Operational Stage (7 to 11 years) The beginning of concrete operational stage is furnished by logical reasoning. That period is accepted as a major turning point in cognitive development. The time that a child begins to mentally resemble an adult starts with attaining concrete operational stage. A school-aged childs cognitive performance is more evident in terms of concrete operations. For example an eight year of childs response to conservation of liquid test is that the amount has not changed and they are still same. This explanation of the child also indicates the reversibility of the reasoning that the child has now the capability to understand that the reverse is the same with the original. Their ability to achieve conservation tasks indicate their logical thinking (Richardson, 2003). Between ages seven and ten, children take attention on relations between a general and two specific categories within the same case. Their awareness of classification is getting developed. In middle childhood period many children are interested in collections such as coins, rocks, and stamps which show their level of classification. Children in the concrete operational stage are fairly good at the use of inductive reasoning which involves going from a specific experience to a general principle, whereas children at this age have difficulty with using deductive reasoning. Deductive reasoning involves using a general principle to determine the outcome of a specific event. Seriation: Seriation refers to the capability to arrange objects along a quantitative dimension. Ordering sticks from different lengths is one of Piagets tests. Children at five and six years could create series but they made many errors. However, children at concrete operation stage, by starting the shortest and putting the next, indicate a perfect arrangement with an orderly plan. Children between ages seven to eleven have an ability called transitive inference which refers to mentally arrangement of items. Piaget had showed children three stick with different colors. Children had observed that first stick is longer than second stick and second stick is longer than third stick and they had made the inference that first stick is longer than third stick. Children at concrete operation stage mentally integrate three relations at once. On the other hand, preoperational stage children can achieve analogical reasoning by encouragement of an adult (Meadows, 1989). Spatial Reasoning: The ability of understanding space is more developed in concrete operational children. School age children begin to give directions as they gain more advanced space understanding. Children at five or six years indicate difference while representing an object on a persons, in front of them, left or right. Starting from seven age children achieve mental rotations, that is, they can recognize their own frame and of a person in a different direction (Santrock, 2004). While drawing large scale areas their performance indicate important changes representing their development of cognitive skills. In the middle period of concrete operational stage children achieve to place notes showing the location of objects in their classroom. Their capability to use a rotated map is improving and also their map drawing become more accurate. Research indicate that concrete operational thinking has a limitation that while children are reasoning in a logical manner, they are always dealing with concrete knowledge. With abstract information, they cannot catch the achievement (Crain, 2005). When they are given ideas that do not appear in the real world they are not able to indicate the same responds with concrete ones. That can be easily observed from transitional inference that when children are shown the sticks they give the correct responds whether which one is smaller or taller than the others. However, when the questions turned to a more concrete version such as As hair is longer than B, B2 hair is longer than C. Who has the longest hair?, up to eleven years children cannot give the right answer (Richardson, 2003). Jean Piaget believed the importance of rich and appropriate environment for the speed of concrete operational cognitive skills of children. Many research done in small towns or villages represent the lack of rich environment and its consequences on children. Even the easiest conservation tasks are not easily achieved until the age of eleven. On the contrary, many children living in big cities, especially Western nations, have many opportunities in terms of environment and from very young periods of childhood they meet with rich and varied materials. Hence, they easily understand the conservation tasks. The same comparison had done between children receiving a professional early childhood education and the ones that spend their early period at home or street. The conclusions indicate better results of the children continuing a preschool program (Berk, 2003). A survey had been made between Brazilian street vendors and Brazilian economically advantaged children on informal version and Piagetian version of class inclusion test of Piaget. In the informal one, the researcher asks children for the price of two chewing gums which are different. In the Piagetian one, four units of one type (mint) chewing gum and two units of the other (strawberry) one is set aside and the researcher asks In which one do you get more money, whether you sell me the chewing gum with mint or all the chewing gum? The success of two groups children indicates difference that on the informal version of the conservation task street vendors performed better and on the other version economically advantaged children performed well (Ceci Roazzi 1994, as cited in Berk 2003). The Formal Operational Stage (11 Years and Older) The child in sensorimotor period can do things and play with objects, the child in sensorimotor period and concrete operational period can think and make reasoning about those objects. Thinking about propositions and relations different from objects and events is another period. Now human beings are bale to make coordinations of coordinations, in other words, they can combine two different groupings of concrete operations within reversibility by reciprocity (Richardson, 2003). In formal operational stage adolescents do not require concrete things as objects of thought. Adolescents at this stage are capable of deductive reasoning. In order to overcome a problem, they start more generally and think evaluate all possible factors and then proceed to more specific predictions. Piaget used pendulum problem in that stage in which he had showed many strings with different lengths, objects differing in weight, and in order to hang the strings a bar to children. He asked the factors that will affect the speed with which a pendulum swings. Children in concrete operational level made an unsystematic experimentation. The influences of each variable could not be distinguished by them. Adolescents of formal operational stage separate the factors that have the possibility to affect the speed into four groups; strings length, objects weight, the level of force when pushing the object, and how high the object is raised before it is released. At the end they come up to a right conclusion that the length of the string affects the speed (Berk, 2003). They work systematically in terms of all possibilities as a scientist. Cognitive development theory of Piaget is mostly depending on mathematical and scientific reasoning; however he has some speculations on social life of formal operational stage adolescents. Piaget thinks that children between seven and ten live in here and now, whereas at the formal operational stage they start to think about long-term periods. They handle abstract ideas such as justice and love and they start to construct theories for better living world (Inhelder Piaget, 1955, as cited in Crain 2005). Piaget identifies egocentrism again and believes that a new kind of egocentrism is carried by utopian during that period. Piaget takes into account and repeat the forms of egocentrism from beginning to later periods: At the beginning, sensorimotor period, infants have no idea bout the environment around them and they are egocentric, still the objects that they cannot see have no existence on their own. At the next level, preoperational thought, children enter a representative world in terms of language and symbols. They indicate difficulty more than their own view. After a time they become aware of other perspectives and they start to think about concrete objects. Finally, adolescents, formal operational period, meet with a world full of problems and possibilities. Adolescents feel unlimited power in themselves for their thoughts and egocentrism reappears and they are now not able to distinguish self and others abstract views.(Crain, 2005). Teenagers feel that they are at the centre of their environment and they assume that everyone is looking at them. They spend many hours in front of a mirror feeling anxiety for the peoples criticism about them. This is called as imaginary audience. Then with having a thought that everyone is observing them, they start to feel themselves special and unique and this is named as personal fable. Propositional Thought: Adolescents do not need to refer real-life conditions and they are capable of evaluating the logic of propositions. Previously, they were evaluating statements when they were concrete in the real world. Piaget did not give an important role for language in childhood period, but he thought that it was more significant during adolescence. So, verbal reasoning about abstract situations and events is one of the important concepts in formal operational thought. Adolescents thoughts and opinions about abstract conditions and their capacity while expressing those views are demonstration of their propositional thought. Theory and research of Piaget have greatly changed the view at infant action and thought and provided a new way of looking at children (Fischer Heneke, 1996). Evaluation of Piagets Theory Jean Piaget has contributed to the field of child development than many other theorists, as many things he expressed were the first for his time. He was the first to tell that children were different from adults and they are curious and active learners (Berk, 2003). Piaget is the founder of discipline of cognitive development. He was interested in reasoning of children and that ensured the idea of that field would be developmental and should be different from the study of adult thinking. Piagets considerations through the idea about active roles of children on their development can be seen as obvious recently, but it was innovative for his time (Shaffer Kipp, 2001). Piaget tried to explain the process development and from that part he was one of the firsts who not only described the theory. Piagets explanations had a major impact about social and emotional developmental theories. By asking many questions about intellectual development of children and creating thousands of resource for that field, he had important contributions for the educators and researchers (Shaffer Kipp, 2001). Many studies criticize Piaget for underestimating mental capabilities of children due to his concern with defining the underlying cognitive structure which considered performance of children on a conservation task. Piaget is criticized as assuming that child making mistake in one problem will lack the underlying concepts he was testing. Validity of this assumption is refuted by stating that performance of a child may be influenced by many other factors instead of lack in cognitive skills (Scholnick et all, 2008). Researchers have challenged stage theory of Piaget by asking if intellectual development is at all stagelike. It is proposed that transitions in mental gradually occur and the consistency of a performance of a child in a test would be very little. For instance, problems of concrete operations and problems of formal operations may be achieved in different orders by many children with different abilities. Many theorists believe that cognitive functions are so complex that would be evaluated within a stage manner. For instance, a nine years old child may do well on verbal reasoning tests if he likes to deal with word puzzles and play verbal games, however he may not do well in mathematical reasoning (Shaffer Kipp, 2001). Besides, Piaget ignores cultural differences while claiming that his stages move on the same sequence in all cultures. Children from different cultures are educated differently and a s environment has a direct interaction with cognitive development, cultural differences should be taken into account to get a valid conclusion. Implications for Education Piaget did influence much from Montessori and Rousseau and emphasized on the importance of active learning of children. He believed that learning is a process of active discovery and should be related with the level of the child. The role of educator at giving the child appropriate and rich environment based on childs interests and modes of learning takes significant place in terms of encouraging innate curiosity of children. An environment with rich, variety, and interesting materials will encourage children to discover and become active learners (Crain, 2005). According to Piaget educators should not teach children in a direct way, children should be allowed to construct their own knowledge through experience. Children should be given the opportunities to make mistakes and learn through those mistakes, and look for solution ways. Piaget helps educators to be aware of that, meaningful interactions of children with environment and real activities will enable children to learn. All of those factors are the roots of constructivism which is a Apoptosis: Techniques for Measuring and Observing Apoptosis: Techniques for Measuring and Observing INTRODUCTION   The number of cells within an organism is tightly regulated- not simply by controlling the rate of cell division, but also by controlling the rate of cell death. If cells are no longer needed, they commit suicide by activating an intracellular death program. (Liao, 2008) Apoptosis, is defined by distinct morphological and biochemical changes mediated by a family of cysteine aspartic acid-specific proteases (caspases), which are expressed as inactive precursors or zymogens (pro-caspases) and are proteolytically processed to an active state following an apoptotic stimulus. (Liao, 2008) The aim of this paper is to discuss the techniques for measuring and observing apoptosis, whilst commenting on any limitations reported to date. DISCUSSION The intracellular machinery responsible for apoptosis Kerr, Wylie and Currie (1972) observed controlled cell death that was distinct from uncontrolled necrotic death. They noticed a characteristic, identical sequence of events in many different types of cells and published their observations in 1972 and used the term apoptosis. (Alberts, 2007; Cancer, 1972) In apoptosis, cell shrinkage and membrane ruffling (blebbing) occur, and the cell disintegrates into small membrane-bound apoptopic bodies. Inside the cell chromatin condensation and nuclear fragmentation occur, which are accompanied by breakdown of the DNA into regular size fragments. On the surface of the cell lipids are rearranged in the bilayer of the plasma membrane with the lipid phosphatidylserine becoming exposed to the outside. (Hancock, 2005) Measuring and observing apoptosis Apoptosis is essentially a morphological state arrived at by a whole variety of different biochemical pathways. Some routes may result in the expression or loss of an antigen but there is no assurance that the same biochemical alterations occur in every cell. The identification of protein markers permits ready detection by conventional immunohistochemistry, which facilitates rapid and confident assessment of apoptosis. (Harrison, 1996) The in situ end labelling and in situ nick translation techniques rely on the presence of DNA strand breaks characteristic of the nuclear implosion and fragmentation seen in apoptosis. Thus, labelling with biotinylated nucleotides and subsequent immunodetection can be used to identity sensitively cells with strand breakage. (Harrison, 1996) Activation of the caspase-3 pathway is a hallmark of apoptosis and can be used in cellular assays to quantify activators and inhibitors of the death cascade by molecular identification. The response is both time and concentration dependent suggesting that multiple pathways play a role in triggering the caspase-3 activation. (Bio Medicine, 2008) TUNEL assay is a technique used for observing activation of the caspase-3 pathway by biochemical verification. The enzyme TdT is able to add nucleotides to the ends of DNA fragments; most commonly, biotin-labelled nucleotides (usually dUTP) are added. The biotinylated DNA can be detected by using streptavidin, which binds to biotin, coupled to enzymes that convert a colourless substrate into a coloured insoluble product. Cells stained in this way can be detected by light microscopy. (Janeway, 2001) The cells with unsuccessful DNA repair may undergo apoptosis; in some cases, false positive labelling may result. TUNEL staining has been reported to give false positive staining in the kidneys of nude and BALB/c mice. In situ localization of activated or cleaved caspase-3 is starting to replace TUNEL as the molecular verification of the apoptotic process. (Hughes, 2007) Extrinsic and Intrinsic signal activation The extrinsic pathway is initiated by ligation of transmembrane death receptors (DR) with their respective to activate membrane-proximal caspases, which in turn cleave and activate effector caspases. A killer lymphocyte carrying the Fas ligand binds and activates Fas proteins on the surface of the target cell. Adaptor proteins bind to the intracellular region of aggregated Fas proteins, causing the aggregation of procaspase-8 molecules. These then cleave one another to initiate the caspase cascade. This pathway can be regulated by c-FLIP, which inhibits upstream initiator caspases, and inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs), which affect both initiator and effector caspases. (Alberts, 2007; Liao, 2008) The intrinsic pathway requires disruption of the mitochondrial membrane and the release of mitochondrial proteins, such as cytochrome c. Cytochrome c, which binds to and causes the aggregation of the adaptor protein Apaf-1. Apaf-1 binds and aggregates procaspase-9 molecules, which leads to the cleavage of these molecules and the triggering of a caspase cascade. (Alberts, 2007, Liao, 2008) The primary regulatory step for mitochondrial-mediated caspase activation might be at the level of cytochrome c release. The known regulators of cytochrome c release are Bcl-2 family proteins. Members of this family are divided into two main groups, the anti-apoptotic proteins with Bcl-2 and Bcl-Xl as archetypes and the pro-apoptotic proteins such as Bax. The ratio between these different proteins determines the sensitivity of the cell to apoptosis; antiapoptotic proteins inhibit apoptosis by counteracting Bax and Bak, and BH3-only proteins either trigger apoptosis through direct interaction with Bax or sensitize cells to death by inactivating Bcl-2 or Bcl-Xl. (Cartron, 2003; Liao, 2008) RT-PCR primer sets that are specific for genes involved in inducing and regulating the apoptotic response. These primers are specific for genes encoding proteins from the Fas and Fas ligand, Bcl-2 and ICE protein families. The RT-PCR primer sets for studying the apoptotic response are designed to meet several criteria. The primers sets, based on known genomic sequences, amplify a region that spans at least one intron. To distinguish the amplification products from genomic sequences, which are longer than the cDNA products, the primer sets amplify PCR products that are 400 bp to 650 bp in length. The primers are synthesized as 18- to 27-mer oligonucleotides. Each set of primers amplifies only a specific target. (Biomedicine, 2008) Direct measurement using fluorescence resonance energy transfer has shown the interaction between Bax and Bcl-2. (Cartron, 2003) Light microscopy and electron microscopy, including staining, are frequently used to observe the morphological changes of the cells undergoing apoptosis. There are many staining protocols used for identification of apoptotic cells, and the choice varies subject to the laboratory and the tissue being studied. (Wang, 2008) The advantages of Near-Field Scanning Optical Microscope (NSOM) are observing in normal environment, observing in nanometre scale resolution, and observing in non-contact mode. (Wang, 2008) CONCLUSION Using morphology, biochemical or molecular methods to identify, localize and quantify apoptosis gives strength to many research studies. The measurement of the level of apoptosis within tissue sections represents only a à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"snapshotà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ of one time point during a developmental, physiological or pathological process. Given the rapid nature of apoptosis and its cryptic nature in tissue sections, these measurements may often be underestimates of the actual extent of apoptosis. The ability to measure the levels of apoptosis within living organisms, including humans, non-invasively at repeated intervals over time would facilitate the analysis of apoptosis in many organs as well as tumours. (Hughes, 2007) These investigative techniques have broadened the understanding of disease development and will undoubtedly present real opportunities for novel therapeutic intervention. For example, the gene-driven nature of apoptosis and its modulation by various controlling molecules have provided a basis to develop therapies for selectively protecting or deleting cell populations. (Hughes, 2007)