Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Impact and Prevention of Inventory Fraud Essays

Impact and Prevention of Inventory Fraud Essays Impact and Prevention of Inventory Fraud Paper Impact and Prevention of Inventory Fraud Paper The Impact of inventory fraud can be expensive and affect an organizations reports. Inventory errors will not only affect the balance sheet but the Income statement as well. Errors from theft or fraud wealth the physical Inventory will misstate the costs of goods sold, gross profit, and net Income. If the losses from fraudulent are covered up, the organization will be misleading the government by not abiding by the fair disclosure responsibility, and basically guarantees unreliable ND false information within its financial documents. Prevention is the key to deter this type of fraudulent behavior. Strong controls. Policies that communicate theft will be prosecuted, and a hotlist can be introduced to this incidents. Since employees are at the heart of this problem, companies should have criminal and background checks on employees before they are hired. However, criminal and background checks do have there limitations, since the majority who steal may have never been caught. In addition, companies can also be checked to ensure that they have a valid tax id number, and that no complaints have filed with any agency such as Better Business Bureau. Random inventory checks instead of pre- planned inventory counts should be used. The inventory counts should match what is on hand to what is on record. In addition, to prevent collusion amongst employees during the inventory count the organization can change the personnel counting during this period. The shorting of shipments can be a tricky situation that may involve the supplier, delivery personnel, and the company employee. Control over the inventory should begin as soon as the inventory is received. A way to control fraud is by the use of pre-numbered receiving reports that are to be completed by the receiving department as soon as a shipment arrives. To make sure the inventory received is what is ordered, each receiving report should match the companys original purchase order for the goods. In addition, the price of goods on the purchase order, should be compared to price the vendor billed the company on the vendors Invoice. Lastly, additional security measures can be Implemented to prevent theft. For example, restricting unauthorized access, If business Is not operating the area should be locked, and when removing merchandise the use of requisition forms authorizing the removal of Items. In conclusion, Inventory fraud Is an expensive Illness that plaques companies worldwide. Inventories are essential for merchandising and manufacturing businesses. Prevention and Internal control procedures are needed to protect inventories from damage and employee and consumer theft. By genes as not being criminal, so where does it begin or where does it stop? There is no easy schemes may include management and its vendors/ suppliers. The impact of inventory fraud can be expensive and affect an organizations reports. Inventory errors will not only affect the balance sheet but the income statement as well. Errors from theft or fraud within the physical inventory will misstate the costs of goods sold, gross profit, and net income. If the losses from not abiding by the fair disclosure responsibility, and basically guarantees unreliable Prevention is the key to deter this type of fraudulent behavior. Strong controls, achieved is what is ordered, each receiving report should match the companys invoice. Lastly, additional security measures can be implemented to prevent theft. For example, restricting unauthorized access, if business is not operating the area should be locked, and when removing merchandise the use of requisition forms authorizing the removal of items. In conclusion, inventory fraud is an expensive illness that plaques companies worldwide. Inventories are essential for merchandising and manufacturing businesses. Prevention and internal control procedures are needed to protect

Saturday, November 23, 2019

The eNotes Blog A Cheaters Guide to theClassics

A Cheaters Guide to theClassics DISCLAIMER: If you are a student assigned to read any of the following classics in school, you should ABSOLUTELY read them all the way through! Not only are they classics for a reason, but thats your job as a student, and as members of the educational community we would be remiss if we didnt point that out. If you are, on the other hand, one of the 62% of adults who are simply willing to lie to make themselves appear smarter, well then this article is for you! Thats right, roughly 6 out of 10 adults claim to have read books theyve never even opened in an effort to appear more intelligent and impress others. How do they get away with it? Mostly through movie adaptations. But why rely on a directors interpretation of Great Expectations  when walking into the potentially vicious traps set by your dinner party counterparts? I mean, if you really want to get serious about appearing smarter, youll have to study with some study guides. And what a surprisewe just so happen to have some of those!   You could read the 1,225 pages this Tolstoy classic, or you could just prop it on your bookshelf at home and internally vow to get around to it one day The top ten books people claim to have read, but havent, are: 1984  by George Orwell – 26% War and Peace  by Leo Tolstoy – 19% Great Expectations  by Charles Dickens – 18% Catcher in the Rye  by J D Salinger – 15% A Passage to India  by E M Forster – 12% Lord of the Rings  by J R R Tolkein – 11% To Kill A Mockingbird  by Harper Lee – 10% Crime and Punishment  by Fyodor Dostoyevsky – 8% Pride and Prejudice  by Jane Austen – 8% Jane Eyre  by Charlotte Brontà « – 5% Titles that just missed the cut are The Bible (3%),  Homer’s Odyssey  (3%) and  Wuthering Heights  (2%). Be serious about appearing smarter: study smarter. Never walk into a dinner party unprepared again!

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Potential Benefits and Risks of Deeper Globalization for Guidia Assignment

Potential Benefits and Risks of Deeper Globalization for Guidia - Assignment Example This essay declares that globalization therefore is considered as multi-disciplinary in nature with its roots in politics, economics, technology, sociology etc. It is however, critical to understand that major emphasis of globalization is through the economic integration where economies integrate with each other through free and unrestricted trade. As a result of this trade, not only technological transfer becomes possible but more foreign direct investment also arrives. As a result of these changes, economic growth can actually quicken. This paper stresses that term globalization has emerged during 1960s however it was during so called roaring nineties that it started to take the serious public attention. Over the period of time, the early literature on globalization however gave it a connotation that globalization is actually westernization vs. the rest including nationalism etc. Post 9/11 scenarios have made this impression much stronger with globalization taking different meanings and assumptions. The emergence of rationalism as a major framework for knowledge is considered as the first element which encouraged the development of globalization. Over the period of time, rational decision making has made it more important for nations and societies to actually expand their activities in order to grow and evolve. Capitalism is another important factor which has actually made it mandatory for producers to actually look for new markets to increase their sales volumes. Under capitalist ideology, producers of the goods a nd services actually attempt to obtain more therefore in pursuit of profits, firms attempt to expand globally. (Scholte, 2002) Technological innovation is another important factor which has resulted into the globalization. Rapid changes in the communication technologies, transport as well as other technologies have allowed better integration of economies across the globe. It is however, important to note that the changes in the way capitalism have progressed and emergence of rational thinking has actually created a social order which has fostered the technological innovation. Technological innovation therefore is considered as the result of capitalist development and rational thinking. Globalization however, gained more momentum with the spread of technological innovation. Supportive regulatory framework has also resulted into the creation and speeding up of globalization also. Supportive regulatory frameworks have actually eased out the entry and exit barriers thus allowing domesti c as well as international firms to become more proactive in entering into and maintaining their presence in the global market. Supportive framework however, has been made possible only due to the economic development and r

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Mis 2200 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Mis 2200 - Essay Example Options that encourage interaction between members are preferable. Some of these options include blogs, group web sites, and team space offerings. These tools permit sharing of documents, thoughts and comments in an easy to use and access medium. The Internet has changed the way groups communicate and interact with each other. Group members who consistently use the available tools can easily contribute to the completion of classroom group assignments. Some of the benefits of using tools like a blog include enhanced group participation and immediate delivery of information to support assignments. There are no schedule constraints as group members are able to comment and share information whenever it is convenient for each individual. There are many challenges to completing classroom group work effectively and efficiently given the number of distractions and obligations group members must juggle. Group members need to be able to communicate and contribute to group assignments in an easy to use and manage forum. Technology offers a number of solutions that can assist groups with collaboration, management, and completion of

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Common Core Essay Example for Free

Common Core Essay The common core is a set of standards which were developed by state leaders along with teachers, school administrators and many other people, not the Federal Government. The common core has standards. Standards which are not curriculum. Standards that â€Å"do not tell principals how to run their schools, and they do not tell teachers how to teach. Local teachers, principals, and district administrators ultimately decide how the standards are to be met and the curriculum to be use† (Laine and Minnich). The school districts still have to choose which textbooks to use and, which curricula they wish to add and drop. The basic standards of the common core are: Aligned with college and workforce-training expectations; Rigorous in content and include the application of knowledge through higher-order skills; Built on strengths and lessons taken from state standards; Informed by standards in top-performing countries, so that all students are prepared to succeed in the global economy and society; and Evidence-based, clear, and aligned across a child’s K-12 education. The common core has many pros and cons to reforming the education system. In the Article The common core is a change for the better the authors mention that the common core provides a good foundation on what needs to be taught (Gardner and Powell). The authors also touched on the fact that students nowadays are â€Å"more mobile than ever†, families have to move around more to follow and find available jobs. With the common core all across the Country have the same standards. There is some consistency within all schools in America. If a family was to move from Maine to Nevada, it would be quite impossible to expect things to be the exact same. However, you can still have an idea of the standards and know what to expect. This is a great thing about the Common Core. Every Student this way is exposed to the same standards. Once students are mingled together in colleges and universities across the country the professors can expect almost every student to be able to do the same things, to a degree. Not to say that every student knows the  exact same co ntent, however they will all have graduated high school with the same skills. Skills that may be taught in a variety of styles, none the less resulting in the same skills. The common core requires teachers to be very specific and hand out rubrics, stating exactly the quality of work that is expected. This eliminates the confusion that can arouse from complicated projects or open research topics. The students will know exactly what the teacher is requiring of them. Ultimately making it easier on the students to provide what the teacher wants and getting the highest grade possible if the students puts in the effort required to meet the expectations. Effort: defined as â€Å"an earnest or strenuous attempt† by dictionary.com, is where a problem arises in the common core. The common core standard â€Å"Rigorous in content and include the application of knowledge through higher-order skills† is asking 21st century students to put in lots of effort, they can’t ask Siri to write their English paper or do their history project. Most high school aged students in the United States are not going to put in the required effort to achieve rigorous assignments. I know that when I was in high school my attitude was ‘if I wait to the last minute it only takes a minute’. That’s not because I was swamped with assignments or didn’t understand it. It was because I would rather be doing anything else, after having spent all day in classrooms with new information being drilled into my head. The absolute last thing I wanted to do was go home and spend more hours on homework. Making high school more rigo rous is going to prevent kids from being kids. Students in the United States are less motivated to learn and value education less and less. Stephen Krashen says that another problem with very rigorous assignments is â€Å"CCSS are so demanding that in English language arts classes, educators and students will have little time for anything not directly linked to the standards† (Krashen). I do not quite agree with this statement because the standards are not the curriculum being taught, just the way it is being taught. Teachers and schools have some free space to spend as much time as they feel necessary to focus on aspects they feel more important. The common core has pros and cons, just like anything in life. One set of standards isn’t going to please everyone in the United States. My personal opinion is that the common core has good intentions, but may be a bit unrealistic. If every school in America was teaching the same skills to the same degree, all students would have the same experiences entering college. There are 50 states with thousands of different schools in each states. Within those thousands of schools there are teachers who all have their own style of teaching. Not to mention the millions of students that all learn a little differently at a different pace. What are the odds that every state school, and teacher are able to provide every student with the exact same skills, using the exact same standards? There are good intentions behind it, and the United States can give it a chance, but I feel as though it may be unrealistic. Works Citied Fine, Sarah. Moving Forward With The Common Core. Education Week 30.8 (2010): 18-19. Professional Development Collection. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. Gardner, Nancy S. Powell, Rod. The Common Core Is A Change For The Better. Phi Delta Kappan 95.4 (2013): 49-53. Professional Development Collection. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. Krashen, Stephen. THE COMMON CORE. (Cover Story). Knowledge Quest 42.3 (2014): 36-45. Professional Development Collection. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. Richard, Laine, and Chris Minnich. Common Core: Setting the Record Straight. Education Week 32.36 (2013): Web. 16 Mar. 2014

Friday, November 15, 2019

Essay on The Crucible: Motivations for the Trials :: Essay on The Crucible

Motivations for the Trials in The Crucible  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚   In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the madness of the Salem witch trials is explored in great detail. There are many theories as to why the witch trials came about, the most popular of which is the girls' suppressed childhoods. However, there were other factors as well, such as Abigail Williams' affair with John Proctor, the secret grudges that neighbors held against each other, and the physical and economic differences between the citizens of Salem Village. From a historical viewpoint, it is known that young girls in colonial Massachusetts were given little or no freedom to act like children. They were expected to walk straight, arms by their sides, eyes slightly downcast, and their mouths were to be shut unless otherwise asked to speak. It is not surprising that the girls would find this type of lifestyle very constricting. To rebel against it, they played pranks, such as dancing in the woods, listening to slaves' magic stories and pretending that other villagers were bewitching them. The Crucible starts after the girls in the village have been caught dancing in the woods. As one of them falls sick, rumors start to fly that there is witchcraft going on in the woods, and that the sick girl is bewitched. Once the girls talk to each other, they become more and more frightened of being accused as witches, so Abigail starts accusing others of practicing witchcraft. The other girls all join in so that the blame will not be placed on them. In the novel, Abigail starts the accusations by saying, "I go back to Jesus; I kiss his hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!" Another girl, Betty, continues the cry with, "I saw George Jacobs with the Devil! I saw Goody Howe with the Devil!" From here on, the accusations grow and grow until the jails overflow with accused witches. It must have given them an incredible sense of power when the whole town of Salem listened to their words and believed each and every accusation. After all, children were to be seen and not heard in Puritan society, and the newfound attention was probably overwhelming. In Act Three of The Crucible, the girls were called before the judges to defend themselves against the claims that they were only acting.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Clinical Reasoning: Combining Research and Knowledge to Enhance Client Care

Making sound and client-centered clinical decisions in an area that demands accountability and evidence-based practice requires not only scientific knowledge, but also a deep knowledge of the practice of one’s profession and of what it means to be human in the world of combined strength and vulnerability that is health care. Every clinician must understand the importance of applying best research evidence to client care, the essence of evidence–based practice, to improve the overall quality of healthcare. Research continues to find that using evidence-based guidelines in practice, informed through research evidence, improves patients’ outcomes (Dykes et al, 2005). The literature is replete with definitions of evidence-based practice. Simply stated, evidence-based practice is the process of applying research to practice. Originating from the medical field in 1991, the term evidence-based medicine was established to ensure that medical research was systematically evaluated in a manner that could â€Å"inform medicine and save lives and that is superior to simply looking at the results of individual clinical trials† (Wampold & Bhati, 2004). An evidence-based practice is considered any practice that has been established as effective through scientific research according to a set of explicit criteria (Drake, et al, 2001). The term evidence-based practice is also used to describe a way of practicing, or an approach to practice. For example, evidence-based medicine has been described as â€Å"the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients† (Sackett, Rosenberg, Gray, et al, 1996). Evidence-based medicine is further described as the â€Å"integration of best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient values† (Sackett, Straus, Richardson, Rosenberg, & Haynes, 2000). Rather than a relationship based on asymmetrical information and authority, in evidence-based practice the relationship is characterized by a sharing of information and of decision-making. The clinician does not decide what is best for the client, but rather the clinician provides the client with up-to-date information about what the best-evidence is regarding the client’s situation, what options are available, and likely outcomes. With this information communicated in culturally and linguistically appropriate ways clients are supported to make decisions for themselves whenever and to the extent possible. According to Burns and Grove evidence-based practice is nothing more than a problem-solving approach to the care that we deliver that takes into consideration the best evidence from research studies in combination with clinical expertise and the patient’s preferences and values (Burns & Grove, 2004). Pierce described in â€Å"Evidence-Based Practice in Rehabilitation Nursing† that â€Å"making patient-care decisions with current information and one’s clinical expertise enhances the ability to provide the best practice†. The author added that â€Å"evidence-based practice is a process that begins with knowing what clinical questions to ask, how to find the best evidence, and how to clinically appraise the evidence for validity and applicability to the particular care situation†. Then, the best evidence must be applied by a clinician with expertise in considering the patient’s unique values and needs. As stated by Law& MacDermit, â€Å"evidence for practice is not only about using research evidence, but using it in partnership with excellent clinical reasoning and paying close attention to the client’s stated goals, needs, and values†(Law & MacDermit, 2008). Although the terms best practices and evidence-based practice are often used interchangeably, these terms have different meanings. Evidence-based practice can be a best practice, but a best practice is not necessarily evidence-based; best practices are simply ideas and strategies that work, such as programs, services, or interventions that produce positive client outcomes or reduce costs (Ling, 2000). In order to bring research and knowledge into someone’s practice, it’s necessary to think critically. Becoming a critical thinker is a prerequisite of becoming an evidence-based clinician. But what is critical thinking? Critical thinking involves the application of knowledge and experience to identify patient problems and to direct clinical judgments and actions that result in positive patient outcomes. Critical reflection requires that the thinker examine the underlying assumptions and radically question or doubt the validity of arguments, assertions, and even facts of the case. Critical reflective skills are also essential for clinicians; however, these skills are not sufficient for the clinician who must decide how to act in particular situations and avoid patient injury (Wheatley DN, 1999). Critical reasoning is a process whereby knowledge and experience are applied in considering multiple possibilities to achieve the desired goals (Noll et al, 2001) while considering the patient’s situation (Fowler, 1997). According to Simmons it’s a process where both inductive and deductive cognitive skills are used (Simmons et al, 2003). Each client’s problem is unique, a product of many factors, including the client’s physical health, lifestyle, culture, relationship with family and friends, living environment, and experiences. Thus, a health care professional does not always have a clear picture of the client’s needs when first meeting a client. Because no two clients have identical problems, a clinician is always challenged to observe each client closely, search for and examine ideas and inferences about client problems, consider scientific principles relating to the problems, recognize the problems and develop an approach to client’s care. When clinicians make healthcare decisions for a population or group of clients using research evidence, this can be described as evidence-based healthcare practice. Another prerequisite to becoming an evidence-based clinician is to be a reflective professional. Reflection is an important aspect of critical thinking. As described by Miller & Babcock reflection is â€Å"the process of purposefully thinking back or recalling a situation to discover its purpose or meaning. With reflection, a clinician seeks to understand the relationships between theoretical concepts and real-life situations. The importance of reflecting on what you are doing, as part of the learning process, has been emphasised by many researchers. The concept of reflective practice was introduced by Donald Schon in his book named â€Å"The Reflective Practitioner† edited in 1983, however, the concepts underlying reflective practice are much older. John Dewey was among the first to write about Reflective Practice with his exploration of experience, interaction and reflection (Dewey, 1933). Schon described the concept as a critical process in refining one's artistry or craft in a specific discipline. The author recommended reflective practice as a way for beginners in a discipline to recognize consonance between their own individual practices and those of successful practitioners. He also stated that reflective practice â€Å"involves thoughtfully considering one's own experiences in applying knowledge to practice while being coached by professionals in the discipline† (Schon, 1996). As it was earlier said, there are a few steps toward evidence-based practice and rehabilitation. The first and the most important step in evidence-based practice is to determine a well-designed question that not only affects quality care but is of interest to the rehabilitation clinician and is encountered in practice on a regular basis. A useful ramework for formulating an appropriate clinical question is suggested by Sackett & colleagues. (Sackett, 2000). They proposed that a good clinical question should have at least three and sometimes four components: Patient or Problem; Intervention; Comparison (not mandatory); Outcome of interest. This has been referred to as the PICO (Patient /Problem, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome) or PIO (Patient / Problem, Intervention, Outc ome) approach. The question usually comes from diverse sources. As stated by Pierce, â€Å"the most common source is the rehabilitation practice itself†. Once the question in searching of evidence was formulated, the next and probably the most important step is to find the relevant evidence in the literature that will help in answering the question. It can be difficult to distinguish relevant from irrelevant information and to decide which source contains the most credible information and research data. Using research findings in practice improves care. Research utilization occurs at three levels—instrumental, conceptual, and symbolic: 1. Instrumental utilization is the direct, explicit application of knowledge gained from research to change practice (Gills & Jackson, 2002). 2. Conceptual utilization refers to the use of findings to enhance one’s understanding of a problem or issue in nursing (Gills & Jackson, 2002). 3. Symbolic utilization is the use of evidence to change minds of other people, usually decision makers (Profetto-McGrath, Hesketh, Lang, & Estabrooks, 2003). According to Hameedullah & Khalid, â€Å"all evidence must be appraised in the following areas: validity, importance and applicability to the clinical scenario† (Hameedullah & Khalid, 2008). Performing the previous steps will result in the appearance of a concrete piece of evidence which should be valid and important for the question in consideration. Now is the time to combine the clinical expertise and experience with the evidence generated to improve the outcome of specific client scenarios. It is also important to remember client’s values and circumstances while making such decisions. The evidence regarding both efficacy and risks should be fully discussed with the client in order to allow them to make an informed decision. This approach allows the formation of a decision in consultation with the client in the presence of good evidence and is consistent with the fundamental principle of evidence-based practice i. e. ntegration of good evidence with clinical expertise and patient values (Hameedullah & Khalid, 2008). Whether the intervention was appropriate and resulted in good clinical outcome for a certain group of clients, in a particular clinician’s hands, will only be answered by careful prospective outcome research. As Strauss and Sackett have suggested, we need to ask whether we are formulating answerable qu estions, finding good evidence quickly, effectively appraising the evidence, and integrating clinical expertise and patient’s values with the evidence in a way that leads to a rational, acceptable management strategy (Straus & Sackett, 1998). Although the importance of research-based practice was identified decades ago and has gradually been adopted by rehabilitation professions, there are a number of challenges for clinicians who are attempting to be use research to aid in clinical decision-making. According to Bohannon and Leveau most challenges can be grouped under one of three areas: research methods, clinicians’ skill, and administrative factors (Bohannon & Leveau, 1998). The research procedures of randomly assigning patients to an experimental or control group, using standardized outcomes measures that may not have real-world relevance, and the difficulty of blinding investigators and clients to the research procedures all make research results difficult to be implemented, interpreted and utilized clinically (Ritchie, 2001). Evidence-based practice requires clinicians to read current research literature, understand research methodology, and incorporate best evidence into practice as appropriate. As Sumison noted in one of his studies, it may be difficult to use in client-centered practice. The research literature may be difficult to access and relevant information is often not compiled in one place (Sumison, 1997). Interpreting and implementing research evidence also requires clinical skill, judgement, and experience. Deciding what constitutes evidence that justifies a change in practice can be challenging and the opportunity for bias exists at every stage of the process as Pomeroy observed in one of his articles from 2003 (Pomeroy, 2003). There are many other factors that present challenges to clinicians who are attempting to use evidence to guide their practice. Time constraints are almost universally identified as a primary limiting factor. Schreiber and Stern stated that â€Å"clinicians refer to pressures of today’s health care environment and administrators’ emphasis on productivity as factors that directly inhibit their ability to seek out, gather, read, and integrate cientific information relevant to daily practice† (Schreiber and Stern, 2005). The concept of evidence-based practice is of great importance for rehabilitation and physiotherapy to allow for increased insight for all involved including patients, clinicians, third-party payers, and government and health care organizations, into the clinical decision-making processes. The purpose of promoting this paradigm is optimum quality of care with conservation of professional autonomy.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Corporation Rules and Regulations Essay

The group had been liable for 70% of Australian asbestos consumption. However, in February 2007, ASIC had started to impose civil proceedings against James Hardie, the directors and the officers, as ASIC alleged that JHIL and both executive and non-executive had breached their statutory duty. This short research report had outlined the role of ASIC and various penalty that ASIC can impose under Corporation Act 2001. Besides that, we will also discuss the position that ASIC had held from 2004 until current date in relation to the directors of Hardie group. At last, I had provided a summary of the ASIC’s media release that had been established on 13 May 2011, and indentified the element that ASIC is hoping the High Court to uphold. The Role of ASIC: The Australian Security and Investment Commission (ASIC) is a commonwealth statutory corporation that set up by Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act, and it is a regulator which in charge of monitoring the Australia’s Corporation, products, markets and financial services (Lipton, Herzberg and Welsh 2012, p. 736). On the other hand, ASIC is also a commonwealth authority that is responsible for governing the Corporation Act. ASIC Act provided that ASIC owned such powers and function that endowed by the corporation legislation to ASIC. Thus, what exactly is the corporation legislation means? Under Section 5(1), they had interpreted the term ‘corporation legislation’ to mean the ASIC Act and the Corporation Act (Baxt, Finnane and Harris 2012). Besides that, ASIC also owned the power to initiate prosecution for criminal offences or apply for civil penalty orders if they believed that there’s a contravention of the law. ASIC is also able to ban a director from managing a company for a certain period if they contravened their general duties. For instance, in the case of ASIC v Stephen William Vizard [2005], the court held that as a director of Telstra, Mr. Vizard has contravened the Corporation Act: Section 183, the duty of director to use the information in an improper purpose, and gain advantage for himself, thus, the court order pecuniary penalties and a disqualification order against Mr. Vizard (Price Waterhouse Coopers 2012). As a result of that, ASIC actually played a significant role in relation to initiate prosecution against companies directors for misconduct in order to ensure corporation and those related parties are complied with the corporation legislation. Now, let us look at the duties of a corporation’s directors under Corporation Act and what penalty can ASIC can imposed if the directors do not comply with the Corporation Act. The duties of a company’s director: The term ‘director’ is a person who is appointed to manage control or govern the affairs of a corporation. Under Section 9 definitions, the term directors extend to a person who is not formally appointed as a director, but they act as a director or whose instruction or whishes are followed customarily (Baxt, Finnane and Harris 2012). In chapter 2D. 1 of the Corporation Act, from Section 180 until Section 184, it dedicated that the principle duties of a director. They can be listed as followed: †¢Section 180 stated that a director or other officer of a corporation must exercise their power and discharge the duties in a manner with care and diligence (Mclnnes Wilson Lawyers 2011). Section 181 declared that, a director should exercise their power and discharge their duties in good faith where it’s in the best interest of the corporation and for a proper purpose (Mclnnes Wilson Lawyers 2011). †¢Section 182 stated that, a director must not improperly use their position to obtain an advantage for themselves or other or cause lesion to the company. (Armstrong Lawyers 2007). Having understood the general duties of a company’s director, we can now look at the penalties that ASIC could impose if the directors had breach their duty or do not comply with the Corporation Act 2001. The penalties: As we mentioned before, the Australian Securities and Investment (ASIC) is a national body that’s responsible to govern the corporation legislation and securities regulation in Australia. ASIC obtained the power to investigate potential contravention of the corporation law and significant penalties can be imposed on the directors who had failed to perform their duties. The section of the Corporation Act attracting civil penalties under Section 1317J (1), ASIC can apply to the court for a: †¢Ã¢â‚¬ËœDeclaration of contravention’ †¢Ã¢â‚¬ËœPecuniary penalties ‘ †¢Ã¢â‚¬ËœCompensation order’ (Baxt, Finnane and Harris 2012) 1)Pecuniary penalty order: The court may order a pecuniary penalty of up to $200,000 to a director who breaches his duty under Corporation Act. Once the declaration of a contravention by the person had been made (Section 1317E), and the contravention is a corporation penalty (Price Waterhouse Coopers 2012). (2)Compensation order: Under Section 1317H, the court may order a person to compensate the company where loss is suffered because the person had contravened a corporation civil penalty provision (Price Waterhouse Coopers 2012). (3)Disqualification from managing a company: The Corporation Act Section 206C conferred ASIC the power to disqualify the directors from managing a company for a certain periods of time due to the contravention of their general duties (Price Waterhouse Coopers 2012). This concept can be illustrated by the following case: ASIC v Vines [2006], it had been found that Mr. Vines had breached his duty of care and diligence by misleading and an inadequate disclosure of material information to the board of directors and failure to ensure the statement was incorrect. The board was relying on Mr. Vines to make complete disclosure to all material matters. The court held that, as the director had breach their duties of care and diligence b providing fault statement, thus, he had breach civil penalty provisions. The court decided that, Mr. Vines will have to receive a 3 years disqualification, pay a pecuniary penalty of $100,000 and 22% of the ASIC cost (Price Waterhouse Coopers 2012). ASIC’s position that held from 2004-2012: The position of ASIC held from 2004-2012 in relation to the directors of James Hardie case had not altered. Why would I say that? Below is the details of ASIC’s position in relation to the directors of James Hardie: On he 27th February 2004, the NSW government had authorized Mr. David Jackson to conduct a special commission of Inquiry into James Hardie newly founded foundation-Medical Research and Compensation Foundation (Australian Council of Trade Union 2007). At first instance, it had been found out that, the foundation was in fact had a nearly 1. 5 billion of shortfall, and a media release saying that the MRCF is ‘fully founded’ to meet all the current and future asbestos claims to the Australia Securities Exchange through the approval of the board directors during the directors meeting. Thus, ASIC had alleged that JHIL had made a misleading and deceptive statement. As a result of that, it had raised a principle issue for the board of directors of JHIL, whether or not they had knowingly voted in favor of releasing the ‘misleading’ announcement to ASX (Alcorn 2011). In addition, the sub issues that had been raised are under Section 180(1), was a general counsel can be treated as an officer? The Original Decision: In April 2009, ASIC held that all of the executive, non-executive and company officer had breached their duty of care by approving the media statement to be made in ASX. In particularly, ASIC had alleged that, the company chief executive officer and company secretary or general counsel, Mr. Macdonald and Mr. Shafron had breached the director’s duty of care and diligence under Section 180(1) as they had failed to advice the board to disclose the DOCI information to ASX (Hargovan 2009). Thus the court had imposed penalties on both of them: †¢Mr. Macdonald was disqualified from managing a company for 15 years and a pecuniary penalty of $350,000. According to the Corporation Act 2001, Section 180(1), an officer obtain the power in decision making which affected the whole or substantial part of a business, thus, Mr, Shafron had a positive obligation to advise the board of the disclosure of DOCI. In relation, he was given a disqualification order for 7 years and a pecuniary penalty of $75,000 (Baxt, Finnane and Harris 2012). †¢Mr. Morley had been banned from the management for 5 years and paid a pecuniary penalty of $35,000. †¢However, all of the seven former non-executives directors were disqualified from management for 5 years each and a pecuniary penalty of $30,000. The Appeal: In December 2010, the NSW court of Appeal overturned the finding in relation to liabilities and penalties of the non-executives directors, the CFO and secretary general counsel of James Hardie Industries Ltd as ASIC had failed to prove that the ASX media statement was approved by the board, and as the appellate court had established that some of the directors had acted honestly without any intention to gain benefit from themselves, which is under Section 1317 of the Corporation Act 2001 (Hargovan 2011). Thus, amendment had been made in relation to lessen the liabilities and penalty of the directors and officer can be found in later section (summary of media release). Nevertheless, it’s worth noting that Mr. Shafron, Mr. Morley and ASIC had filled application for special leave to appeal the decision of the Court of Appeal. In May 2011, ASIC had issued media release that stated that they had granted a special leave to appeal the James Hardie decision. ASIC didn’t change their position in relation to the directors of James Hardie and they are still seeking to uphold the finding that the directors of James Hardie had breached their duty by approving the ASX announcement made by the company (ASIC 2011). Media Release’s Summary: This article talk about the ASIC had granted a special leave from the High Court to appeal the decision of the New South Wales Court of Appeal in the James Hardie matter in relation to the former non-executive directors and the former company secretary and general counsel of James Hardie Industries Limited. The ASIC has actually filled his application in the High Court on 14 January 2011. The purpose of ASIC to strive for a special leave is they are seeking clarification about the nature, content and scope of ASIC’s obligation, while the Court of Appeal had concluded that ASIC had breached their duty of fairness, as they failed to call the witness Mr. Rob in the trial judge of James Hardie case (ASIC 2011). The failure to call the witness, Mr.Rob had make a tremendous impact on the decision of the court, as they cannot attest the non-executive directors had voted in favor of the ASX announcement’s draft (Thomas 2011). As a result of that, ASIC is hoping the High Court to uphold the finding if the trial judge that the directors had acted in favor in regards of the ASX announcement made by the company (ASIC 2011). Decision: As a result of that, in August 2009, the NSW Supreme Court had imposed pecuniary penalties on JHIL and all the non-executive officers and executive officers, plus a disqualification order on them for an extensive period.

Friday, November 8, 2019

Quick Guide to Command-Line Arguments in Ruby

Quick Guide to Command-Line Arguments in Ruby Many Ruby scripts have no text or graphical interfaces. They simply run, do their job and then exit. To communicate with these scripts in order to change their behavior, command-line arguments must be used. The command line is the standard mode of operation for UNIX commands, and since Ruby is used widely on UNIX and UNIX-like systems (such as Linux and macOS), its pretty standard to encounter this type of program. How to Provide Command-Line Arguments Ruby script arguments are passed to the Ruby program by the shell, the program that  accepts commands (such as bash) on the terminal. On the command-line, any text following the name of the script is considered a command-line argument. Separated by spaces, each word or string will be passed as a separate argument to the Ruby program.   The following example shows the proper syntax to use to launch the test.rb Ruby script from a command-line with the arguments test1 and test2. $ ./test.rb test1 test2 You may encounter a situation in which you need to pass an argument to a Ruby program but theres a space in the command. It seems impossible at first since the shell separates arguments on spaces, but there is a provision for this. Any arguments in double quotes will not be separated. The double quotes are removed by the shell before passing it to the Ruby program. The following example passes a single argument to the test.rb Ruby script, test1 test2: $ ./test.rb test1 test2 How to Use Command-Line Arguments In your Ruby programs, you can access any command-line arguments passed by the shell with the ARGV special variable. ARGV is an Array variable which holds, as strings, each argument passed by the shell. This program iterates over the ARGV array and prints out its contents: #!/usr/bin/env ruby ARGV.each do|a|   Ã‚  puts Argument: #{a} end The following is an excerpt of a bash session launching this script (saved as the file test.rb) with a variety of arguments: $ ./test.rb test1 test2 three four Argument: test1 Argument: test2 Argument: three four

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Do Longer SAT Essays Really Score Higher

Do Longer SAT Essays Really Score Higher SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Rumor has it, the longer your SAT essay, the higher your score. Could this be true? Does essay length affect your score? Let's unpack this belief and talk about the best strategies for scoring high on the SAT essay. Rumor Has It... When Milo Beckman was 14 and attending Stuyvesant High School in New York City, he started to suspect that the key to a high score on the SAT essay was simply filling up all the lines. He himself had already taken the SAT twice, and he found that his longer essay got a higher score, even though he thought it was inferior and contained lots of inaccuracies. To investigate this, Milo asked students at his high school to report their scores and the number of lines they wrote on their essays. Out of 5 essays, he found that the longer ones almost always received higher scores. Milo concluded that the more you write, the better you score. Milo Beckman hasn't been the only person to come to this conclusion. Lee Perelman, former director of writing across curriculum at MIT, holds to his position that the more words you put on the page, the higher your score will be. He also has some other tips for guaranteeing a high score that we'll take a look at below. To read more about Milo and Lee's studies, check out this intriguing article. What does the College Board think? So what does College Board have to say about these claims? Unsurprisingly, they're not having it. According to College Board, length often correlates with quality, but it does not in and of itself predict a good score. Instead, longer essays often have well developed arguments supported by nuanced examples. Quality, not quantity, they insist, is what the SAT essay is all about. So what does College Board think it takes to score a 12? And what are our suggestions for tackling the SAT essay? Let's take a look at the best strategies, but first, a quick review of how the essay is scored. How Is the Essay Scored? The highest score you can achieve on the SAT essay is a 12. The lowest is 2 (or 0, I suppose, if you were to leave it completely blank!). Two graders will read your essay and score it from 1 to 6. If they have very different opinions on your score, then a third reader will be brought in to give her input. Then these scores are added together. College Board says that its graders base their scores on five main domains: The development of a point of view supported by appropriate examples and effective evidence. Organization, coherence, and logical progression of ideas. Skillful language with a varied vocabulary. Variety in sentence structure. Good grammar, syntax, and mechanics. An essay that achieves a 6 is strong in all these areas and almost free of errors. Lower grades are progressively weaker in their points of view, supporting evidence, organization, vocabulary, sentence variety, and grammatical accuracy. Do these criteria seem easier said than done? Here we detail 15 key tips you need to know to fulfill these expectations and score highly on the SAT essay. You'll notice that none of these criteria mentions essay length. According to College Board,an essay does not necessarily need to fill all the pages or be five paragraphs to be insightful, use skillful language, or develop a point of view. The testmakers also stress that students should read the entire assignment given to them, including the extra reading material, which is usually a quote. As you saw above, Milo Beckman and Lee Perelman think otherwise. So what do we think about all these tips and strategies - should your essay be as long as you can make it? Or do they? With these strategies, the SAT essay might start to feel very simple indeed! How to Score Highly On the Essay Write a Lot Milo and Lee have a point - generally speaking, longer essays do score better. However, length really doesn't guarantee a high score if you don't write skillfully, develop a point of view, and use 2 to 3 well thought-out, relevant, and persuasive examples. You want to use all the strategies listed in this article to guarantee a high score. These approaches, in turn, will help facilitate your writing a long essay that merits a high score. You may argue, "But what if I can achieve all those things in less sentences?" I would say, it's great that you can be so concise, but on the SAT, less is not more. More is more. Check out our best tips on How to Score a 12 on the SAT Essay here.I'll go over a few of these strategies below, with some links throughout for you to read more in-depth advice. Pick a Side Lee Perelman stresses that students should always pick a side when answering the prompt, and I tend to agree. This doesn't mean that nuanced, middle ground essays can't score well. However, it is much more challenging to argue well for both sides in such a short, pressure-packed time frame. Even if you don't have a strong, passionate feeling on the prompt you're given - make it slightly easier on yourself and choose one side. No one is going to hold you to this opinion in the future. It's more about showing you can develop and support a strong point of view through writing, rather than revealing how you personally feel aboutthis topic or that topic. The SAT uses 6 types of essay prompts again and again. Read about the 6 types here, along with examples!And for the complete list of SAT essay prompts, this article has everything you need to know. Use Tried and True Structure Again, you only have 25 minutes! Don't try to awe the graders with postmodern literary experimentation or a rap song. Stick to the 5 paragraph structure - introduction, three paragraphs with supporting examples, and conclusion. Your introduction should close with your thesis statement, and your conclusion should have a strong last line that sums everything up with a punch. You can see how using this structure relates to writing a long essay - a true five paragraph essay, with 5 to 7 sentences per paragraph, should just about fill up all the available pages you're allotted in your test booklet. For a step-by-step breakdown of exactly how to write the SAT essay, examine this article here. Use Smooth Transitions and Varied Sentence Structure Both your individual sentences and general ideas should flow smoothly and logically. Transitions words like "furthermore, additionally, alternatively, similarly, therefore, because of this, for example," and many others, can help connect sentences, paragraphs, and concepts. On a similar note, you don't want every sentence to start with a simple 'subject-verb' construction: "I think, I said, I had," over and over again, for instance. Mixing up your sentence structure will help your essay read smoothly. This will probably happen naturally as you write, and you can improve by practicing and paying attention to sentence structure as you read books, news articles, and magazines in your day to day. These complex and varied sentence structures will also contribute to your writing a long SAT essay. Have Gos Your SAT essay will achieve the expected length if you are able to provide specific, thoughtful examples to support your point of view. But what if your mind goes blank during the actual test? To help avoid this worst-case scenario, you should show up with some go-to examples on hand. This article has some great examples of literary, historical, and current events examples that can be used to support a wide range of different arguments. Again, complex examples that you understand well will help you develop a full, long, five paragraph essay. As Milo Beckman and Lee Perelman suggested, you don't have to worry too much about accuracy, either! Pace Yourself You may be worrying that you can't fill up the essay pages in such a short amount of time. This is where practice and training is key. Your hand might ache and feel ready to fall off by the end of the 25 minute essay section, but you'll be able to finish the essay in time if you hit the ground running. How to structure your essay time: 3-4 minutes planning and structuring your essay 15-18 minutes drafting 2-3 minutes at the end to read over your essay and revise. As long as you do some serious prep, you can spend the majority of your time drafting,not staring at a blank page. This should be more than enough to achieve to create a nuanced, well developed, and long SAT essay. But seriously, are longer essays better? So Is a Longer Essay Better? For the most part, I would agree with Milo and Lee that longer essays do tend to garner higher scores on the SAT. However, they need to incorporate all those other elements, too - a well developed argument, detailed examples, skillful language, and logical organization. All of these elements help facilitate writing a longer essay, so they really go hand in hand. While you don't have a lot of time to produce this work, you can prep for it by using these tips and strategies and practicing leading up to the SAT. Writing is a skill like any other. It's not a fixed thing, like you're good at writing or you're not - instead, you can grow your skills and get better with practice. As you're prepping, maybe you can even ask a friend, family member, or teacher to "grade" your essay and give you feedback for improvement. After all your preparation and these strategies, you should be able to craft a clear, lengthy essay that scores highly on the SAT. What's Next? Are you deciding between the new SAT and the old SAT? Read about all the differences between the two tests here so you know what to expect. Is the essay on the new SAT any different from previous essays? We break down the new SAT essay here. Are you aiming for a perfect score? This 2400 scorer explains how you can achieve the highest score, too. Want to get serious about improving your SAT score? We have the leading online SAT prep program that will raise your score by 240+ points, guaranteed. Exclusive to our program, we have an expert SAT instructor grade each of your SAT essays and give you customized feedback on how to improve your score. This can mean an instant jump of 80 points on the Writing section alone. Check out our 5-day free trial and sign up for free: Have friends who also need help with test prep? Share this article! Tweet Rebecca Safier About the Author Rebecca graduated with her Master's in Adolescent Counseling from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has years of teaching and college counseling experience and is passionate about helping students achieve their goals and improve their well-being. She graduated magna cum laude from Tufts University and scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT. Get Free Guides to Boost Your SAT/ACT Get FREE EXCLUSIVE insider tips on how to ACE THE SAT/ACT. 100% Privacy. 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Sunday, November 3, 2019

Wind energy in Washington Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Wind energy in Washington - Essay Example This brief one page paper will seek to consider both the positive and negative aspects of wind turbine arrays and the means by which the communities that house them integrate with their presence. As has previously been noted, the rate of growth and expansion of renewable energy has skyrocketed within the last few years. As such, the prevalence and use of wind power in various populated regions around the United States has also increased. Although these alternative sources of energy account for less than 1% of current energy needs within the United States, they are nonetheless visible and provide a stark contrast to the otherwise unmolested natural environment that oftentimes existed prior to their installation. Although many environmentalists are happy to have such wind farms in operation, there is a strong level of pushback that exists with regards to the adulteration of key environment as well as a definite contingent of individuals that view such wind farms as something of an eyesore. Conversely, other environmentalists view alternative energy as a necessary means of preserving the planet and are willing to relinquish some aesthetic beauty for progress (Henderson 1). Although both sides have a valid concern, it is the belief of this author that the environmentalist seeking to promote the use of alternative energy are the ones that have the stronger point; both morally and logically speaking. Due to the fact that renewable energy provides nearly resource neutral power production, it should be in the best interests of all involved to increase the means of production for this particular type of energy, on mountaintops or in fields in prairies etc. Henderson, John. "The Big Debate | Puget Sound Off." Puget Sound Off | empower, encourage SOUNDING OFF in your community. N.p., 25  Oct.  2012. Web. 11  Feb.  2013.

Friday, November 1, 2019

Data Analysis Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Data Analysis Report - Essay Example Subjective norms refer to the beliefs about how other individuals in the society will perceive the particular behaviour whereas perceived behavioural control is characterized by the person’s perceptions with regards to their own ability in performing the specific behaviour. It has been considered that a more positive attitude and subjective norm along with a stronger behavioural control can significantly increase the person’s intentions of carrying out the behaviour (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). The application of the theory of reasoned action in various studies has shown the relevance of each of the variables as explained by the model. The findings of Ryu and SooCheong (2006) showed how subjective norms were insignificantly related to tourist intentions with regards to local cuisine whereas customer attitudes had a significant impact on behavioural intentions. Personal beliefs also had a positive impact on the intentions of customers. Therefore, it is of great importance that efficient strategies in marketing should be carried out, especially in yielding positive outcomes on tourist attitudes towards local cuisine. Bellman et al (2009) also found out that, among female shoppers, their attitudes along with subjective norms helped influence behavioural intentions when purchasing products. ... In order to measure the perceptions of customers regarding the quality of services, their expectations can be compared with the actual delivery of services. Five dimensions were proposed- reliability that refers to the employees’ ability of delivering consistent services; responsiveness that refers to the employees’ ability to provide timely assistance to their customers; empathy which is demonstrated through special care and attention for customers; assurance which is the ability of employees to establish trust and confidence among customers; and tangibles that refer to the physical surroundings and resources. It has been asserted that when customers are satisfied with services, they may perceive these to have high quality (Parasuraman et al 1985) or vice versa. Other researchers such as Bolton and Drew (1991) had been in agreement with this notion and asserted that customer satisfaction is associated with service quality, although there have been dissimilar views on t he relationship between these two concepts. Thus, it is of great importance that organisations and researchers alike be able to effectively identify the relationship between customer satisfaction and the dimensions of service quality. Customer loyalty has also been shown to be related to perceived service quality; this form of loyalty is characterized by the attitudes demonstrated by the customers regarding repeat purchases and patronization of product. Several service quality dimensions, such as empathy, responsiveness, and reliability have all been proven to influence loyalty among customers (Caruana, 2002; Ehigie, 2006; Ndubisi, 2006; Nguyen and LeBlanc, 2001). Yu Sum and Hui (2007) also concluded that perceptions of service quality can further be influenced by the price