Essay - 1168 Words

Development of ideas DeWitt and Osborne (2010) conducted a study to evaluate the effectiveness of science centre exhibits and examine how visitors engage with them, so recommendations for amendments and enhancements could be made to enhance visitor (experiences). No explicit research questions were provided, but the researchers mentioned that the questions examined focussed on students’ interactions with the exhibits, their cognitive response and their use of scientific concepts and knowledge when discussing the exhibits. The sample of the study consisted of 129 primary school students from five schools. As the study was exploratory in nature, a qualitative methodology was used to gather students’ experiences in-depth. The researchers†¦show more content†¦I had not considered interviewing my students in groups before reading this article. The authors contend that having other students present in the room may increase their comfort and facilitate group collaboration (DeWitt Osborne , 2010). Thus, as students may be more comfortable, this may elicit more detailed responses and the opportunity to collaborate may help students to come up with ideas †¦ Furthermore, this study has inspired me to use pictures and videos to assist students in the interview. With the parents’ and the children’s consent, I would record and photograph the children’s participation in ‘huff n’ puff’. These recordings may help the students to answer the interview questions by aiding recall and visualising the whole activity. For example, a student may not have considered a safety concern until they had viewed the recording. Taskin (2012) undertook an exploratory study to analyse the influence of the new constructivism-based curriculum on primary school students in Turkey. No research question was provided, but the researcher aimed to investigate how students define and view learning and the subsequent strategies teachers can use to assist learning. 55 students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds in middle and upper primary schools in Turkey participated in the study. The researcher aimed to gather a deep insight into the students’ experiences and views of learning. Thus, as the study was exploratory, the researcherShow MoreRelatedWhat Is an Essay?1440 Words   |  6 PagesBuscemi Essay #3 Rough Draft An essay is a creative written piece in which the author uses different styles such as diction, tone, pathos, ethos or logos to communicate a message to the reader using either a personal experience, filled with morals and parables, or a informative text filled with educational terms. Educational terms could mean the usage of complicated and elevated words or simply information you would get in schools. 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This paper will discuss everything one needs to know in order to write the perfect process essay such as the definition of a process essay, how to construct it, and how to use proper transitions to make the essay flow. Read MoreEssay763 Words   |  4 PagesCan’t be Built on Soccer Fever† and â€Å"Na Na Na Na, Hey Hey, Goodbye† In Jonathan Zimmerman’s essay â€Å"African National Identities Can’t Be Built on Soccer Fever† he describes how soccer brings the people of Africa together. He talks about the unity of Africans and how much soccer is a part of their lives. He also describes the underlying reason of why soccer is so heavily pushed. The perspective in the essay â€Å"Na Na Na Na, Hey Hey, Goodbye† Tim Bowling discusses his passion for hockey and his hate forRead MoreThe Colonel Essay1320 Words   |  6 PagesIn the essay, The Colonel, Michael Hogan illustrates the importance of the influential sport of tennis. Hogan writes about how tennis changed his life from an early age. 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child sexual abuse - 1658 Words

Child Sexual Abuse Siping Chen Laney College Psych 7A April 10, 2014 Child Sexual Abuse Child sexual abuse does not have a universal definition. However, a central characteristic of any abuse is the dominant position of an adult that allows him or her to force or coerce a child into sexual activity (American Psychological Association). Yet all offences that involve sexually touching a child, as well as non-touching offenses and sexual exploitation, are just as harmful and devastating to a child’s well-being. Touching sexual offenses, such as fondling; making a child touch an adult’s sexual organs; and penetrating a child’s vagina or anus no matter how slight with a penis or any object that doesn’t†¦show more content†¦In these cases, adult survivors of sexual abuse may come forward for the first time in their 40s or 50s and divulge the horror of their experiences (AHA). In most instances, the survivor never discussed the abuse with others while it was occurring. In fact, many survivors do not remember the abuse until years after it h as occurred, and may never be able to clearly recall it (RAINN). The effects of sexual abuse extend far beyond childhood. Children and adolescents who have been sexually abused can suffer a range of psychological and behavioral problems, from mild to severe, in both the short and long term. Sexual abuse robs children of their childhood and creates a loss of trust, feelings of guilt, depression, anxiety, fear, sexual dysfunction, withdrawal, and acting out. Additionally, high levels of anxiety in these adults can result in self-destructive behaviors, such as alcoholism or drug abuse, anxiety attacks, situation-specific anxiety disorders, and insomnia (APA). Revictimization is also a common phenomenon among people abused as children. Research has shown that child sexual abuse victims are more likely to be the victims of rape or to be involved in physically abusive relationships as adults are. In short, the ill effects of child sexual abuse are wide ranging. Some children even report little or no psychological distress from the abuse, but these child ren may be either afraid toShow MoreRelatedChild Sexual Abuse And Child Abuse1308 Words   |  6 PagesChild sexual abuse is a problem that many people are still unaware of. Currently, one in twenty boys and one in five girls are sexually abused (Child Sexual Abuse Fact Sheet). In the past, children’s accusations of sexual abuse have not been believed (Berk 352). Many children told adults, yet still had to carry the burden, as adults, of their rapist never being caught. However, now, people are recognizing the truth and are trying to come up with a solution (Berk 352). Despite the increased effortRead MoreChild Sexual Abuse1260 Words   |  5 Pages Child sexual abuse is a social crisis of significant magnitude. This type of abuse has been found to be correlated with the advancement of an extensive range of mental health and social problems in children and adults. Child sexual abuse is the term used when an adult uses a child or adolescent for his own sexual gratification or pleasure. Furthermore, a frequent expression of childhood sexual abuse is control over the abused child. This type of abuse knows no particular demographic and occursRead MoreChild Sexual Abuse1573 Words   |  7 PagesChild Sexual Abuse CONTENT PAGE 1. Introduction Page 1 2. Case Study Page 1 3. How this Affects learners Page 2 4. Policies and Procedures Page 2 5. Raising Awareness Page 3 6. Conclusion Page 3 7. References Page 4 Appendix 1. INTRODUCTION Research indicates that 1 out of every 4 children will be the victim of sexual abuse before reachingRead MoreChild Sexual And Sexual Abuse1659 Words   |  7 PagesChild Sexual Abuse Why does child sexual abuse happen and what are the effects of it? â€Å"Child sexual abuse is sexual contact with a child that occurs as a result of force or in a relationship where it is exploited because of an age difference or caretaking responsibility† (Finkelhor). Roughly 1.8 million children have been sexually victimized in the United States (NSOPW). Although there is no proof that racial or socioeconomic groups is a factor in a predators choosing, studies show that childrenRead MoreSexual Abuse And Child Abuse1983 Words   |  8 PagesSexual abuse to a child can be a confusing and devastating experience for the family. Families who are affected by child sexual abuse can have a difficult time talking about the abuse. 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Not only can children be physically abused, but they are also in danger of experiencing sexual abuse. In the more recent years, child sexual abuse has come to the attention of a larger part of society. As such, it is becoming more openly discussed. Child sexual abuse is a growing problem, and the stories that have begun to circulate around the world work to illustrate just how serious the problem is. Despite what society is lead to believe, the sexual abuse of a child is theRead MoreChild Abuse And Sexual Abuse1770 Words   |  8 PagesAccording to dictionary.com, child abuse is the â€Å"mistreatment of a child by a parent or guardian, including neglect, beating, and sexual molestation.† About five children die every day from child abuse and many children who are abused start experiencing it at eighteen months or younger. While abuse can start at any age, more than 25% are under the age of three and over 45% are under the age of five. The younger a child is, the more vulnerable they are. If signs of abuse are discovered at a young ageRead MoreChild Abuse And Child Sexual Abuse1951 Words   |  8 PagesTherefore that would mean 42 million adults are survivors of child abuse right here in the United States. Among these children there are 73% of children who do not tell anyone for a year, and many who never tell anyone (The Children’s Assessment Center). If we do not intervene many would say 500,000 babies will be born and sexually abused by the age of 18. It is important is it to be educated in the signs and symptoms of adult and child sexual abuse and getting involved in our own communities to stop thisRead MoreChild Sexual Abuse1410 Words   |  6 Pagescertainly many experiences before they became truly mature. A child can face lot of dangerous things from the environment surrounding them which might seriously affect their whole life. As definition in the Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act: Child abuse is any action from adult to a child that it could be harmful to the child’s body or mental (Children Welfare Information Gateway 2007). In 2005, among 3.6 million investigations by Child Protective Services agencies in the U.S, an estimated

Auditing solution free essay sample

Fraud is an intentional act involving the use of deception that results in a material misstatement of the financial statements. Two types of misstatements are relevant to auditors’ consideration of fraud (a) misstatements arising from misappropriation of assets and (b) misstatements arising from fraudulent financial reporting. Intent to deceive is what distinguishes fraud from errors. 2-26 Three common ways that fraudulent financial reporting can be perpetrated include: Manipulation, falsification or alteration of accounting records or supporting documents Misrepresentation or omission of events, transactions, or other significant information Intentional misapplication of accounting principles 2-27 The reporter’s statement makes sense. Asset misappropriations are much easier to accomplish in small organizations that don’t have sophisticated systems of internal control. Fraudulent financial reporting is more likely to occur in large organizations because management often has ownership of or rights to vast amounts of the company’s stock. As the stock price goes up, management’s worth also increases. However, the reporter may have the mistaken sense that financial fraud only occurs rarely in smaller businesses. That is not the case. Many smaller organizations are also motivated to misstate their financial statements in order to (a) prop up the value of the organization for potential sale, (b) obtain continuing financing from a bank or other financial institution, or (c) to present a picture of an organization that is healthy when it may be susceptible to not remaining a going concern. Finally, smaller organizations may conduct a fraud of a different sort, i. e. misstating earnings by understating revenue or masking owner distributions as expenses. This is often done to minimize taxes. It would also be a mistake to think that asset misappropriations do not happen in larger organizations. Whenever controls are weak, there is an opportunity for asset misappropriation. When the opportunity is coupled with motivation and a belief that the fraud could be covered up, some of those opportunities will result in asset misappropriation. 2-28 a. A Ponzi scheme occurs when the deposits of current investors are used to pay returns on the deposits of previous investors; no real investment is happening. b. The key elements of the Bernie Madoff fraud include: Fabricated â€Å"gains† of almost $65 billion Defrauded thousands of investors Took advantage of his high profile investment leader status to establish trust in his victims Accomplished the scheme by keeping all the fraudulent transactions off the real financial statements of the company Employed a CPA who conducted a sham audit Led to the PCAOB now having oversight of the audits of SEC-registered brokers and dealers c. The Bernie Madoff fraud is primarily a case of asset misappropriation. However, it is important to note that asset misappropriation then led Madoff to commit fraudulent financial reporting to hide the asset misappropriation. 2-29 a. Management perpetrated the fraud by filling inside containers with water in the larger containers filled with oil. Further, they transferred the oil from tank to tank in the order in which they knew the auditors would proceed through the location. b. The goal was to overstate inventory assets, thereby understanding cost of goods sold and overstating income. c. The Great Salad Oil Swindle is primarily a case of fraudulent financial reporting. 2-30 Incentives relate to the rationale for the fraud, e. g. , need for money, desire to enhance stock price. Opportunities relate to the ability of the fraudster to actually accomplish the fraud, e. g. , through weak internal controls. Rationalization is the psychological process of justifying the fraud. 2-31 The fraud triangle recognizes that when these three factors appear together the likelihood of fraud increases. For example, an individual needs to have an opportunity to commit the fraud, such as a weakness in internal controls. Second, there must be some pressure or incentive to conduct the fraud, e. g. there is a real or perceived economic problem. Third, the perpetrator must be able to rationalize, or somehow justify his/her otherwise unacceptable behavior. Therefore, if one of the three elements is not present, fraud can still be perpetrated, but it is less likely. 2-32 Factors, or red flags, that would be strong indicators of opportunity to commit fraud include: inadequate segregation of duties, opportunities for management override, absence of monitoring controls, complex organizational structure, unauthorized access to physical assets, inadequate reconciliations of key accounts, especially bank accounts, access to cash that it not supervised or reconciled by someone else. 2-33 The ability to rationalize is important. Unless fraudsters are outright criminals, they will often be able to come up with an excuse for their behavior. â€Å"Accounting rules don’t specifically disallow it† or â€Å"the company owes me† are potential rationales. Other common rationalizations include: Financial pressures for either improved earnings or improved balance sheet Personal factors, including the personal need for assets Debt covenants Personal wealth tied to either financial results or survival of the company Unfair financial treatment (perceived) in relationship to other company employees â€Å"It is only temporary†, or â€Å"it’s a loan from the company† â€Å"I deserve it† â€Å"The company is so big they won’t miss it† â€Å" The company is unethical† â€Å"The company comes by its profits in a way that exploits people†. 2-34 a. incentive b. incentive c. opportunity d. incentive e. rationalization f. opportunity 2-35 Refer to Exhibit 2. 3 for brief descriptions. a. Enron: fraudulent financial reporting b. WorldCom: fraudulent financial reporting c. Parmalat: fraudulent financial reporting d. HealthSouth: fraudulent financial reporting e. Dell: fraudulent financial reporting f. Koss Corporation: asset misappropriation g. Olympus: fraudulent financial reporting h. Longtop Financial Technologies: fraudulent financial reporting 2-36 a. Professional skepticism is an attitude that includes a questioning mind and a critical assessment of audit evidence; requires an ongoing questioning of whether the information and audit evidence obtained suggests that a material misstatement due to fraud may exist. b. Professional skepticism is necessary to detecting fraud because without it the external auditor will be easily convinced of alternative explanations to the fraud that management will provide to conceal the fraud. c. The key behaviors necessary to successfully exercise professional skepticism include validating information through probing questions, critically assessing evidence, and paying attention to inconsistencies. d. It is difficult to exercise professional skepticism in practice for a variety of reasons including, the nature tendency to trust people (especially client personnel with whom you have worked), lack of repeated exposure to fraud, many repeated exposures to situations that do NOT involve fraud. e. Personal characteristics and behaviors that might make you skeptical about an individual include some of the following: Providing inaccurate or conflicting evidence Interacting in a difficult or unhelpful manner Acting in an untrustworthy fashion Engaging in conspicuous consumption of material possessions beyond the level to which their salary would normally make that lifestyle possible. Publicly available evidence exists that might help you assess whether an individual warrants increased skepticism. Information can include: tax liens, credit scores, and legal filings. 2-37 a. If a company has good products, it would be expected that it should have comparable profitability with other industry participants. The fact that it does not have that profitability, coupled with a weakness in internal controls over disbursements, should lead the auditor to embrace the idea that there is an opportunity for a disbursements fraud and that such a fraud could be hurting the reported profitability of the company. b. The company is doing better than its competitors and it appears to have achieved these better results through cost control. While cost control might be a valid explanation, the auditor should consider other potential explanations such as inappropriately capitalizing expenses, inappropriately recognizing revenue, etc. c. The company would appear to be using ‘window dressing’ in order to bypass debt covenants. It is doing so by sharply discounting current sales. These actions are not necessarily fraudulent, but they may be created to portray a misleading picture of the current economic health of the organization. d. This brief description mirrors that of the Koss case where the CFO was very intimidating, not a CPA, and possessed limited accounting experience. The company did not increase profit during her tenure. The external auditor should consider these factors to suggest a heightened risk of fraud. 2-38 Some of the key findings of the COSO study included: The amount and incidence of fraud remains high. The median size of company perpetrating the fraud rose tenfold to $100 million during the 1998-2007 period. There was heavy involvement in the fraud by the CEO and/or CFO. The most common fraud involved revenue recognition. Many of the fraud companies changed auditors. The majority of the frauds took place at companies that were listed on the Over-The-Counter (OTC) market rather than those listed on the NYSE or NASDAQ. 2-39 a. The various failures and environmental characteristics during the time of the Enron fraud include: Weak management accountability. Weak corporate governance. Accounting became more rule-oriented and complex. The financial analyst community was unduly influenced by management pressure. Bankers were unduly influenced by management pressure. Arthur Andersen was unduly influenced by management pressure, especially since consulting revenues at Enron were very high. b. In terms of the fraud triangle, Incentives: management was very concerned about managing stock prices through keeping debt off the balance sheet; the underlying business model of the company was not working; the company had strayed too far away from its â€Å"utility† roots and employees were taking significant risks in the financial markets that did not yield expected profits, thereby creating strong incentives for top management to conduct the fraud. Opportunity: corporate governance and external auditor accountability were lacking. Rationalization: although not discussed in the text specifically, there have been speculations in the press that management thought they were smarter than everyone else and that they were very confident that they could get away with the fraud. It is difficult to know the internal rationalizations of top management. 2-40 Auditing standards historically have reflected a belief that it is not reasonable for auditors to detect cleverly implemented frauds. However, it is increasingly clear that the general public, as reflected in the orientation of the PCAOB, expects that auditors have a responsibility to detect and report on material frauds. Professional auditing standards do require the auditor to plan and perform an audit that will detect material misstatements resulting from fraud. As part of that requirement, auditors will begin an audit with a brainstorming session that focuses on how and where fraud could occur within the organization. Auditors also need to communicate with the audit committee and management about the risks of fraud and how they are addressed. The auditor should then plan the audit to be responsive to an organization’s susceptibility to fraud. 2-41 The three ways in which individuals involved in the financial reporting process, including the external auditor, can mitigate the risk of fraudulent financial reporting include: Acknowledging that there needs to exist a strong, highly ethical tone at the top of an organization that permeates the corporate culture, including an effective fraud risk management program. Continually exercising professional skepticism, a questioning mindset that strengthens professional objectivity, in evaluating and/or preparing financial reports. Remember that strong communication among those involved in the financial reporting process is critical. Will these actions be effective? This should promote a lively debate among students if this question is discussed in class. Some will argue that frauds happen no matter what, so these types of actions will be futile. Others will be more optimistic, arguing that these actions, if consistently applied, could help to mitigate fraud risk. 2-42 a. The financial literacy, integrity, and reputation of Board members enhance credibility of the regulation and oversight of the auditing profession. Inspections by the PCAOB act as a highly visible enforcement mechanism, hopefully leading to higher quality audits. Further, information that is learned through the inspection process can be used as a basis for modifying and enhancing auditing standards. b. These sections improve auditor independence by separating consulting and auditing by the same audit firm. The partner rotation requirement ensures that a â€Å"fresh set of eyes† will be responsible for oversight on the engagement. c. The â€Å"cooling off† period helps to avoid conflicts of interest between top members of the engagement team and the client. By requiring a cooling off period, an auditor will not be unduly influenced (or appear to be unduly influenced) by the possibility of high-level employment with the client. d. Audit committees clearly serve the role of the â€Å"client† of the auditor. They act as surrogates for the shareholders who are the actual audit client. They act as the liaison between management and the external auditor. By being independent they gain credibility and ensure that the external auditor can rely on them to perform their governance role. By requiring that audit committees can hire their own attorneys and by ensuring that they have adequate monetary resources the external auditor has confidence that they will act as truly independent monitors of management. e. The certification requirements help address the risk of fraud by forcing the CEO and CFO to take internal controls and high quality financial reporting seriously. By forcing them to sign, they will likely require individuals below them to provide assurance that those departments or organizational units are each committed to internal controls and high quality financial reporting as well. Of course, a signature is just a signature! So, the likelihood that a CFO who is committing fraud will certify falsely is probably 100%. Thus, this mechanism is not without practical flaws. f. It addresses off-balance sheet transactions and special purpose entities, which were the main mechanisms used to conduct the Enron fraud. g. A strong internal control system is critical to preventing fraud. These sections of Sarbanes-Oxley Act mandate the disclosure of weak internal controls, thereby providing a strong motivation to managers to ensure that controls are effective. By requiring external auditor assurance on management’s assessment, financial statement users can believe in management’s assertions about controls. h. One member of the audit committee needs to be a financial expert to ensure that there is the knowledge necessary on the audit committee to critically evaluate management’s financial reporting and internal control choices. Without that knowledge, the committee may be unduly influenced by management’s preferences. i. It imposes strict penalties for destroying documents, which is what caused the downfall of Andersen. 2-43 No, nonpublic organizations are not required to abide by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. However, many organizations view these requirements as â€Å"best practice† and so nonpublic organizations sometimes adhere to certain requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act voluntarily. 2-44 The major parties involved in corporate governance, and their role/activities are as follows: Party Overview of Responsibilities Stockholders Broad Role: Provide effective oversight through election of board members, through approval of major initiatives (such as buying or selling stock), and through annual reports on management compensation from the board Board of Directors Broad Role: The major representatives of stockholders; they ensure that the organization is run according to the organizations charter and that there is proper accountability. Specific activities include: †¢Selecting management †¢Reviewing management performance and determining compensation †¢Declaring dividends †¢Approving major changes, such as mergers †¢Approving corporate strategy †¢Overseeing accountability activities Management Broad Role: Manage the organization effectively; provide accurate and timely accountability to shareholders and other stakeholders Specific activities include: †¢Formulating strategy and risk management †¢Implementing effective internal controls †¢Developing financial and other reports to meet public, stakeholder, and regulatory requirements †¢Managing and reviewing operations †¢Implementing an effective ethical environment Audit Committees of the Board of Directors Broad Role: Provide oversight of the internal and external audit function and over the process of preparing the annual financial statements and public reports on internal control Specific activities include: †¢Selecting the external audit firm †¢Approving any nonaudit work performed by the audit firm †¢Selecting and/or approving the appointment of the Chief Audit Executive (Internal Auditor) †¢Reviewing and approving the scope and budget of the internal audit function †¢Discussing audit findings with internal and external auditors, and advising the board (and management) on specific actions that should be taken Regulatory Organizations: SEC, AICPA, FASB, PCAOB, IAASB Broad Role: Set accounting and auditing standards dictating underlying financial reporting and auditing concepts; set the expectations of audit quality and accounting quality Specific activities include: †¢Establishing accounting principles †¢Establishing auditing standards †¢Interpreting previously issued standards Enforcing adherence to relevant standards and rules for public companies and their auditors 2-45 These principles include the following: The boards fundamental objective should be to build long-term sustainable growth in shareholder value for the corporation. Successful corporate governance depends upon successful management of the company, as management has the primary responsibility for creating a culture of performance with integrity and ethical behavior. Effective corporate governance should be integrated with the companys business strategy and not viewed as simply a compliance obligation. Transparency is a critical element of effective corporate governance, and companies should make regular efforts to ensure that they have sound disclosure policies and practices. Independence and objectivity are necessary attributes of board members; however, companies must also strike the right balance in the appointment of independent and non-independent directors to ensure an appropriate range and mix of expertise, diversity, and knowledge on the board. 2-46 a. Independent directors are more likely to stand up to management and report fraud than those directors that are not independent. b. Holding meetings without management present enables a frank and open discussion, including enabling board members with concerns about potential fraud or weak management to alert other board members to express those concerns. c. By having a nominating/corporate governance committee composed of independent directors, the organization is more likely to attract high quality board members that are not unduly influenced by management. And by having a corporate governance committee, this important element of control achieves prominence in the organization and acts as a deterrent to fraud. d. Having a written charter and an annual performance evaluation ensures that the committee responsibilities are appropriate, and that the responsibilities are actually accomplished (or shareholders are alerted if they are not accomplished). Accomplishing such activities acts as a deterrent to fraud. e. By having an independent compensation committee, top management will be less able to inappropriately influence compensation decisions for themselves. f. Having a written charter and an annual performance evaluation ensures that the committee responsibilities are appropriate, and that the responsibilities are actually accomplished (or shareholders are alerted if they are not accomplished). Accomplishing such activities acts as a deterrent to fraud. g. This requirement ensures an adequate size and independence of the audit committee, which acts to strengthen governance and deter fraud. h. Having a written charter and an annual performance evaluation ensures that the committee responsibilities are appropriate, and that the responsibilities are actually accomplished (or shareholders are alerted if they are not accomplished). Accomplishing such activities acts as a deterrent to fraud. i. These requirements encourage a high quality set of corporate governance behaviors, which taken together act as a deterrent to fraud. j. By making the ethics issue a prominent disclosure, it encourages management and other individuals within the organization to take it more seriously. It acts to encourage a high quality â€Å"tone at the top†. k. By requiring this disclosure, users of the financial statements can evaluate for themselves whether the foreign companies’ governance is adequate, or gain an appreciation for governance differences. This knowledge encourages companies to adopt corporate governance mechanisms that they otherwise may not, thereby affecting the control environment and the opportunity for fraud. It also helps users know where deficiencies may exist, making them more skeptical. l. It attempts to ensure that the top-level executives place the appropriate importance on corporate governance and that they would be required to disclose if their company is not compliant, which would alert users to heightened fraud risk. m. An internal audit function is important to the control environment. Having that oversight internally improves internal control, thereby deterring fraud. 2-47 a. This requirement forces audit committees to take internal controls seriously, and to consider any potential independence impairments for the external auditor. Both internal controls and high quality external auditing are critical for the prevention and/or detection of fraud. b. This requires the audit committee to be engaged and informed about financial accounting at the company; being engaged and informed enhances the ability of the audit committee to detect fraud. c. Analyst interactions and the pressure to meet their expectations provide incentives for fraud. By requiring that the audit committee discuss the earnings release process, audit committees have more control over what and how management engages with analysts, and that control should assist in deterring fraud. d. Understanding risk assessment and risk management should alert the audit committee to weaknesses therein, thereby encouraging positive change, which should thereby deter fraud. e. Meeting separately with these groups encourages frank conversations about concerns, and such communication is key to deterring or detecting fraud. f. By understanding the nature of any problems that the external auditor is having with management, the audit committee gets a good sense of potential management aggressiveness, and the sources of disagreement between the auditor and management. In addition, this requirement gives the external auditor someone to turn to in reporting fraud on the part of management. g. By setting hiring policies regarding employees of the external audit firm, the audit committee can ensure that management is not exerting undue influence over the members of the audit team by possibly promising them employment at the company. h. By reporting regularly to the board of directors, the audit committee is put in a position of power in the organization, thereby giving them the clout necessary to oversee management and deter fraud. 2-48 a. The audit committee must be comprised of â€Å"outside† independent directors, one of whom must be a financial expert. The audit committee now has the authority to hire and fire the external auditor, and will therefore serve as the auditor’s primary contact, especially for accounting and audit related issues. In addition, at many organizations the audit committee sets the scope for and hires internal auditors. They would also review the work of both internal and external auditors. b. The audit committee certainly takes on much more responsibility with the new regulation. They will now be much more informed about the audit function and financial reporting processes within their company. The auditor must report all significant problems to the audit committee. For auditors, the reporting relationship should reinforce the need to keep the third-party users in mind in dealing with reporting choices. c. The audit committee is basically in a position of mediator, but not problem solver. One member must be a financial expert, but all members must be well versed in the field. This financial knowledge can help the audit committee to understand the disagreement. Ultimately, the company would like to receive an unqualified audit opinion. If the external auditor believes a certain accounting treatment to be wrong, they do not have to give an unqualified opinion. The audit committee’s responsibility is to assist in resolution of the dispute so that financial reporting is accurate. Skills of audit committee members that would assist in this type of situation include interpersonal skills, negotiation skills, and communication skills 2-49 Factors Explain Your Reasoning and the Implications of Poor Governance a. The company is in the financial services sector and has a large number of consumer loans, including mortgages, outstanding. This is not necessarily poor governance. However, the auditor needs to determine the amount of risk that is inherent in the current loan portfolio and whether the risk could have been managed through better risk management by the organization. The lack of good risk management by the organization increases the risk that the financial statements will be misstated because of the difficulty of estimating the allowance for loan losses. b. The CEO’s and CFO’s compensation is based on three components: (a) base salary, (b) bonus based on growth in assets and profits, and (c) significant stock options. This is a rather common compensation package and, by itself, is not necessarily poor corporate governance. However, in combination with other things, the use of ‘significant stock options’ may create an incentive for management to potentially manage reported earnings in order to boost the price of the company’s stock. The auditor can determine if it is poor corporate governance by determining the extent that other safeguards are in place to protect the company. c. The audit committee meets semi-annually. It is chaired by a retired CFO who knows the company well because she had served as the CFO of a division of the firm before retirement. The other two members are local community members – one is the President of the Chamber of Commerce and the other is a retired executive from a successful local manufacturing firm. This is a strong indicator of poor corporate governance. If the audit committee meets only twice a year, it is unlikely that it is devoting appropriate amounts of time to its oversight function, including reports from both internal and external audit. There is another problem in that the chair of the audit committee was previously employed by the company and would not meet the definition of an independent director. Finally, the other two audit committee members may not have adequate financial experience. This is an example of poor governance because (1) it signals that the organization has not made a commitment to independent oversight by the audit committee, (2) the lack of financial expertise means that the auditor does not have someone independent that they can discuss controversial accounting or audit issues that arise during the course of the audit. If there is a disagreement with management, the audit committee does not have the expertise to make independent judgments on whether the auditor or management has the appropriate view of the accounting or audit issues. d. The company has an internal auditor who reports directly to the CFO, and makes an annual report to the audit committee. The good news is that the organization has an internal audit function. However, the reporting relationship is not ideal. Further, the bad news is that a staff of one isn’t necessarily as large or as diverse as it needs to be to cover the major risks of the organization. e. The CEO is a dominating personality – not unusual in this environment. He has been on the job for 6 months and has decreed that he is streamlining the organization to reduce costs and centralize authority (most of it in him). A dominant CEO is not especially unusual, but the centralization of power in the CEO is a risk that many aspects of governance, as well as internal control could be overridden. The centralization of power in the CEO is a risk that many aspects of governance, as well as internal control could be overridden, which of course increases the risk of fraud and the risk faced by the external auditor. f. The Company has a loan committee. It meets quarterly to approve, on an ex-post basis all loans that are over $300 million (top 5% for this institution). There are a couple of elements in this statement that yield great risk to the audit and to the organization, and that are indicative of poor governance. First, the loan committee only meets quarterly. Economic conditions change more rapidly than once a quarter, and thus the review is not timely. Second, the only loans reviewed are (a) large loans that (b) have already been made. Thus, the loan committee does not act as a control or a check on management or the organization. The risk is that many more loans than would be expected could be delinquent, and need to be written down. g. The previous auditor has resigned because of a dispute regarding the accounting treatment and fair value assessment of some of the loans. This is a very high risk indicator that is indicative of poor governance. The auditor would look extremely bad if the previous auditor resigned over a valuation issue and the new auditor failed to adequately address the same issue. Second, this is a risk factor because the organization shows that it is willing to get rid of auditors with whom they do not agree. This is a problem of auditor independence and coincides with the above identification of the weakness of the audit committee. Contemporary and Historical Cases 2-50 a. Management at Koss may have placed a high level of trust in Sachdeva because they knew her for a long period of time and she did not exhibit behaviors that caused concern. Further, management at the company was reportedly quite relaxed in its approach to monitoring and control. These behaviors led to a lack of professional skepticism on the part of management. b. Grant Thornton was obligated to uncover the fraud in the sense that they ignored red flags (weakening financial condition, poor internal control and monitoring) that should have alerted them to problems in the company. Grant Thornton experienced an audit failure because they issued unqualified audit opinions on materially misstated financial statements. c. Sachdeva’s lavish lifestyle should have raised suspicions because her level of conspicuous consumption far exceeded her apparent ability to pay given her relatively modest salary. However, her lifestyle may have been explained away or ignored because of her husband’s prominent medical pr

Jails and Prisons free essay sample

Many people hear the words prison and or jail, and they believe that both are one in the same but in reality they are very much different. Jails are correctional facilities that house offenders before or after they are sentenced for their crimes committed. Those individuals that are confined in jails are: * Individuals pending arraignment and awaiting trial, conviction, or sentencing * Probation, parole, and bail bond violators and absconders (Seiter,2011 pg 71) There are many different other reasons jails house inmates. Jails are full service facilities that offer security, food service, medical care, and offender programs and are therefore different from lockups, which are commonly located in police stations and hold people only for a short period of time, usually no more than forty-eight hours. †(Seitter, 2011) Sheriff’s and local governments oversee the day to day operation of jails and there are different jails such as the regional jail which were created because th e basic operations of jails were becoming complicated for small counties and the need for funding to continue operations. We will write a custom essay sample on Jails and Prisons or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page There are about 3,600 jails in the United States. â€Å"The size of the jail population is a product of decisions made by various law enforcement entities that the jail serves, the courts, and other segments of the criminal justice system. The size of the jail population is also affected by local, state, and federal laws; crime rates; and public attitudes about crime. †(nicic. gov) The length of stay and those admitted to jails are quite different from prisons. There have been almost 9 to 11 admissions to jail and the average length of stay is 15 to twenty days. Sometimes a person stays longer if they are still fighting a case thus pushing out their court dates which extends their stay provided they cannot afford bail. â€Å"During 2003, 686,437 inmates were admitted to state and federal prisons, 656,320 inmates were released, and the average length of stay for released inmates was 36 months. The jail system booking and release procedures are on a constant whirlwind with bail bonds and so forth. There are different jails as well such as state jails and county jails. In state jails an inmate can spend no more than two years maximum. Prisons Prisons are run by state governments and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. There are only about 100 federal prisons, detention centers, and correctional institutions in the U. S. Prisons were created to house inmates that are serving a sentence of one year or more that are convicted of crimes. Prisons offer more to inmates such as work programs, Halfway houses and other educational programs that could possibly benefit the offender. These sorts of incentives are not offered in jails because inmates are usually serving shorter sentences. There are different facilities such as BOP operated prisons, long term contract facilities and jails/short term facilities. Many offenders in prison are set in place by their security levels. Some are deemed as low risk, medium risk or high risk offenders which determine where they are housed. The prison budget has been over exceeded with the operations and also building more prisons to prevent overcrowding. Corrections is the fifth-largest area of state spending after Medicaid, secondary education, higher education and transportation. State spending on prisons has swelled as the nation’s jail and prison population has climbed to 2. 3 million people, or about one in every 100 adults. But grim budget realities are forcing state lawmakers’ hand. †(pewtrusts. org) There is a difference in jails and prisons as well as how they are operated. Prisons house offenders that have been convicted of crimes whereas jails house those awaiting trial as well as those serving shorter sentences. Prisons and jails have come a long way and there will be more changes to come with the world’s crime rate as it is. References At Least 23 States Cut Funding for Prisons This Year, August 11, 2009 The Pew Charitable Trusts http://www. pewtrusts. org/our_work_report_detail. aspx? id=54481 Corrections: An Introduction; Richard P. Seiter 3rd edition 2011 Upper Saddle River New York Jail Resource Issues What Every Funding Authority Need to Know, Gary M. Bowker February 2002 http://static. nicic. gov/Library/017372. pdf Jails and Prisons free essay sample The four types of prisons are women’s, maximum, medium, and low security. Women’s prisons in our country are very different in some aspects as the male’s prisons. Women have greater needs than men do. They have to adjust to their needs, whether it is pregnancy, or the emotional needs of the woman. Maximum Security prison is a massive building with large inmate population. They offer tight security, high fences, thick walls, and secure cells. They are very closely monitored concerning every moment they are incarcerated there. (Schmalleger, 2011)Medium security prisons are permitted more freedom generally than the maximum security prisoners. They receive more privileges such as they can go to the prison yard, exercise room, and the library. They still strict security but they have more freedom. (Schmalleger, 2011) Minimum security prisons offer a number of programs for the prisoners. They offer services to help rehabilitate the prisoners. The primary force behind the minimum security is the prisoners’ own restraint. We will write a custom essay sample on Jails and Prisons or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page They are there because of their behavior and they have the choice to stay there and do well or get transferred to another level based on their behavior. (Schmalleger, 2011) These types of prisons are also classified as federal, state, women, and private prison’s. Even though every one of these institutions is different they are all there for the same reason. Prisons are made to house the most violent to the first time offenders. The concept of the institutions is to provide safety to the communities from these offenders. To keep control and keep them housed in a facility to spend out their sentence. (Schmalleger, 2011) Jail plays a very important role in our criminal justice system. Before an inmate gets sentenced to prison, they are often watched in jail to see how they react with others. Based on how they act in jail usually decides what kind of prisoner they will become. Jail is also used in our system for those spending less than a year in jail, to keep down overcrowding of prisons. They house individuals pending arraignment, readmit probation or parole, temporarily houses juveniles, the mentally ill, and bail bond violators. They also hold individuals for the military, they transfer inmates to their designated facility, and they also operate community-based programs. In conclusion all of the prisons and jails in our country work together like a fine oiled machine. They work together to ensure that an inmate gets from one place to another. They also work together to ensure the inmate remains safe and that the public is safe from the offenders.

Iceberg Model McClelland Theory free essay sample

The Iceberg Model has been used in systems thinking. It explains that an iceberg only exposes 10% of its mass above water while 90% of its mass is hidden below the surface. Similarly, an individual competence is analogous to an Iceberg Model because there are both observable and hidden components. (Refer to Illustration 1) The observable components would be the individual’s knowledge and skills while the hidden components include values, self-image and motives. (Refer to Illustration 2) The hidden aspect of the competencies is what drives an individual with knowledge and skills to perform at his best and to achieve superior performance. Let us understand this model through an example. In the current hiring practices in Singapore, many organisations are still using the traditional method of recruitment, where emphasis is on visible competencies of knowledge and skills. Hidden attributes like the individual’s value system, self-image and motives are only uncovered as the individual progresses within the organisation. We will write a custom essay sample on Iceberg Model McClelland Theory or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Specifically, in the current banking industry, an individual is deemed to be of a right fit for a sales advisory position once the individual has obtained all the industry certifications required by the Monetary Association of Singapore (MAS) and possesses a good understanding of the various financial instruments. However, by selecting an individual solely by his qualifications and knowledge, without a deeper understanding of the individual’s values, views on investment, aspirations and his thinking style may implicate the organisation reputation and goals. The individual may display sign of non-integrity through his dealings with the bank’s high net-worth clients. The bank may then discover that the individual’s aspiration is not aligned with the bank’s vision of client’s servicing and management Going back to the Iceberg Model, to identify a high performer for an organisation, it is essential for any organisation to recognise the visible and hidden components of an individual’s competencies. This will allow the organisation to have a bird’s eye view of the competence of the individual as the hidden aspect of the competencies will directly stimulate and encourage the usage of the knowledge and skills to align with the organisation goals and to achieve organisation success. McClelland Theory A brief review- Three needs theory McClelland is a renowned American Psychologist best known for his Motivation Theory. In the 1940s, McClelland stated that once an individual has fulfilled his basic needs of food and shelter, an individual would have 3 kinds of motivational needs. (Refer to Illustration 3) the need for achievement (n-ach)- desire to achieve and attain goals that are challenging but are realistic the need for power (n-pow)- desire to gain authority, influence and leadership the need for affiliation (n-affil)- seeks to form relationships and to interact with other people, seeking recognition Competence Based Assessment In the 1970s, McClelland became more interested in competence based approach and its use for recruitment. Competence is widely described as the underlying characteristic of an individual which allows him to deliver superior performance at a task, role or position. 1 McClelland published an article in 1973 entitled â€Å"Testing for competence rather than for intelligence† and identified that traditional gauge of performance such as aptitude test, examination results and references were not good predictor of an individual’s job performance. 2 In his study, McClelland developed 2 key tools to identify competencies Criterion Samples Study of two control group which involved the top performer and the average performer The objective is to identify the differentiating factor in performance and how to encourage better performance from the average group Behavioural Event Interviews (BEI) Highly structured and complex interview focusing on the characteristics of the individual The objective is to ascertain the individual’s deep rooted beliefs and to reveal the individual’s behaviour patterns under specific stimulated scenarios and incidents With these tools, organisations can now adopt McClelland’s competence based assessment to improve their overall performance by hiring the right individual for the job. The data collected from the assessment could be used to design highly targeted programs to develop the necessary competencies. This will in return motivate their average performance to become top performer. For example, it is a widely practice in aviation leader such as Singapore Airlines, whereby an individual who aspires to be a pilot, are required to go through the organisation’s rigorous interviews and training programmes to identify the individual characteristic and behavioural pattern under stress and his reliability and sense of responsibility. Apart from the behavioural event interviews, other forms of assessment for pilots may take the form of complex analytical questions and answers sessions, innovation test, lateral thinking test, and emergency cum stimulator experience test to observe the individual performance during the course. These are necessary approach in their recruitment and training as the airline recognises the importance of safety conscious, highly qualify and reliable pilots in delivering superior performance and maintain the organisation mission for aviation safety. Hence, it is notably evident that the McClelland’s Competence Based Assessment has direct similarities to the Iceberg Model which identifies the hidden components of competencies of an individual. Both stresses on the importance of looking beyond the knowledge and skill sets and into the deep rooted competencies of an individual such as self-image, traits and motives and behavioural patterns to correctly identify the right individual to achieve superior performance. Appendices Iceberg Model

USE OF Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane (DDT) in Ghana for Malaria Control

USE OF Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane (DDT) in Ghana for Malaria Control Free Online Research Papers USE OF Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane(DDT) in Ghana for Malaria Control The World Health Organisation (WHO) in September 2006 announced that nearly 30 years after phasing out the widespread use of indoor spraying with DDT and other insecticides to control malaria, this intervention will once again play a major role in its efforts to fight the disease. Although DDT has been banned from agricultural use in most countries it continues to be used in limited quantities for public health purposes. Countries continue to use DDT primarily because they cannot afford reliable alternatives or do not have the capacity to develop them. DDT which was widely used in Ghana for agricultural and public health purposes was officially banned in 1985 due to its damaging effects on human health and the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency is the regulatory body in Ghana with the mandate to register pesticides for use in the country. Recent pronouncements by the WHO recommending the re-introduction of DDT for disease vector control have necessitated the preparation of this paper, which provides an overview on the status of DDT in relation to some international conventions and the Pesticides Control and Management Act, 1996 (Act 528) to equip government with the relevant information on the chemical. 2.0 Status of DDT in relation to the Stockholm Convention The Stockholm Convention on POPs entered into force on 17th May 2004 with an objective to protect human health and the environment from Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) which include DDT. Ghana ratified the Convention and is thus obliged to abide by its provisions. The Convention contains details of conditions under which DDT may be produced and used in any country (Annex B, Part II of the Stockholm Convention). These are as follows: 1. DDT may be produced and used only for disease vector control and according to the recommendations and guidelines of the World Health Organisation. DDT may be used when safe, effective and affordable alternatives are not locally available in a country. 2. The WHO recommends only indoor residual spaying of DDT for disease vector control. 3. A country that decides to produce and/or use DDT for disease vector control is required to notify the Convention Secretariat and the WHO. All countries that so notify the Secretariat will be entered in a public register. 4. Every three years, each country that uses DDT will be required to provide to the Convention Secretariat and the WHO information on the amount of DDT used, the conditions under which it is being used, and how such use relates to the country’s disease management strategy. The reporting will be carried out in a format to be determined by the Conference of Parties in consultation with the WHO. 5. Countries using DDT will be supported and encouraged to strengthen their vector control programmes. The intention is to reduce and ultimately eliminate the use of DDT over time, by making such use unnecessary. In this connection, each country will be assisted to develop a national action plan that will include: a. The development of regulatory and other mechanisms to ensure that DDT is used only for disease vector control b. The implementation of alternative products, methods, and strategies, including vector resistance management strategies to ensure that the DDT alternatives remain effective. In developing such DDT alternatives, adequate consideration will be given to ensuring that viable alternatives present less risk to human health and the environment, and also that the alternatives are suitable for disease control within the particular context of each country. 3.0 Status of DDT in relation to the Rotterdam Convention The Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedure for certain hazardous chemicals and pesticides in international trade came into force in February 2004. Ghana ratified the convention and DDT is listed among the chemicals subject to the PIC procedure. The implication is that Ghana needs to seek or consult its trade partners if DDT should be imported into the country. 4.0 Status of DDT in relation to the Pesticides Control and Management Act, 1996 (Act 528). The Pesticides Control and Management Act, 1996 (Act 528) stipulates that ‘No person shall import, export, manufacture, distribute, advertise sell or use any pesticide in Ghana unless the pesticide has been registered by the Environmental Protection Agency in accordance with this Act’. DDT has been banned and is currently prohibited for use in the country. Under Act 528, a pesticide is banned when its use in accordance with widespread commonly recognized practice even in the presence of additional regulatory restrictions will cause unreasonable adverse effect on people, animals, crops or on the environment. Section 2 of Act 528 however stipulates that the Agency may authorize the importation of an unregistered pesticide in the event of national emergency or if the Minister responsible for the Environment by legislative instrument so prescribes. 4.1 Available alternatives to DDT The EPA has approved four pesticide products for residual spraying purposes. These are Bistar 10 WP (Bifenthrin), Icon 10 CS (Lambda cyhalothrin), Delete 2.5 EC (Deltamethrin) and Vectoguard 40 WP (Pirimiphos methyl). These products have been tried and tested by the WHO and recommended for residual spraying against mosquitoes. 5.0 Possible problems associated with the use of DDT in Ghana Problems associated with the use of DDT in Ghana include the following: 5.1 Environmental problems DDT is a Persistent Organic Pollutant (POP) and the effects of the pesticide on the environment will increase if appropriate measures are not taken to control its use/abuse if introduced. Cleaning of sites contaminated by DDT and disposal of obsolete stocks is expensive and difficult and should be avoided where possible. 5.2 Possible misuse on agriculture The use of DDT in agriculture was banned since 1985. DDT is however very cheap compared to other pesticides and also known to be very effective against a broad range of insect pests. These properties of the chemical will make it very attractive to farmers to misapply on their crops leading to high levels of environmental and human exposure when the pesticide is introduced. DDT, which was previously used extensively on cocoa in Ghana, is currently not permitted by the European Union, Japan and other countries on cocoa. If allowed in the country, misuse on cocoa (a major foreign exchange earner) could lead to rejection of cocoa exports by importing countries if residues of the pesticide is detected. 6.0 Recommendations Based on the above, the EPA recommends that the Government of Ghana should resist any external pressures to re-introduce DDT into the country since equally effective alternatives have been approved for use in the country. The use of these alternative pesticides should be intensified to control malaria in the country. The Stockholm Convention only recommends the use of DDT if safe, effective and affordable alternatives are not locally available in a country. Research Papers on USE OF Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane (DDT) in Ghana for Malaria ControlGenetic EngineeringPETSTEL analysis of IndiaThe Project Managment Office SystemInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfQuebec and CanadaThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductDefinition of Export QuotasNever Been Kicked Out of a Place This Nice

Brand Development Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Brand Development Plan - Essay Example Table of Contents Introduction 5 Assumptions 5 Position Strategy 6 Target Market 7 Competitor Analysis 8 Point of Difference 10 Point of Parity 10 Building Brand Equity 11 Brand Awareness 11 Selection and Justification of Brand Elements 12 Brand Image 12 Communication Strategy 13 Measuring Brand Equity 13 Recommendation 14 Conclusion 14 References 15 Introduction Last Chance is a diversified corporation based in Australia that produces and sells products of different kinds. The company now does not have any product in the beverage industry. It has, therefore, decided to make an entry into the Australian market for soft drinks. The company intends to develop a new product for the beverage market. In order to launch the brand successfully in the market, the company has to conduct a research on the existing brands in the market and their performance. ...A proposal has been presented in this article on how the brand can effectively manage its functionalities so as to yield positive and e ncouraging outcomes. The paper provides insights into strategic positioning of the brand, the target customers, potential and incumbent firms, strategies of developing brand equity and building the brand’s communication strategy on the basis of evaluation of the various factors that have been identified to make probable effects on the brand’s image. Assumptions Last Chance is planning to penetrate into a new market. It is important to note that this market has a number of established players. Hence in order to develop its brand image and retain it in the minds of the customers for a long period of time, Dew Fresh has to make certain reasonable assumptions about the characteristics of the market in which it is venturing. The most important assumptions are mentioned below: 1. The prime customer group for Dew fresh is the young population belonging to the age group of 12 to 30 years. The people of this generation are young, active and enthusiastic. 2. Trends in the soft d rink industry show that the majority of customers belong to the above mentioned age group. They are open to new ideas and are willing to experiment with the products that they use in their daily lives. 3. There are various kinds of beverages in the Australian market. However, any kind of herbal energy drink has not been yet developed. Hence this new kind of soft drink is expected to gain a comfortably big customer base.

Family violence Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Family violence - Research Proposal Example In this regard, Tjaden and Thoennes (2000) notes, â€Å"Approximately 1.3 million women and 835,000 men are physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the United States† (p. 34). The primary victims of these violence and crimes in the families are mostly women and children. In 2001, â€Å"intimate partner violence made up 20% of all nonfatal violent crime experienced by women† (Rennison, 2003). Exposure of Children to family violence is supposed to have adverse impacts on their psychophysical health and cognitive development. These adverse impacts include emotional disorder and distress, delays of physiological and cognitive growth, post-trauma stress, and disruptive external behaviors such absentmindedness, aggressive behaviors and unruliness. The internal symptoms of the violence-affected children include somatic disorders, mental depression, anxiety, etc. Aim of the Study This study aims at contributing to the current literature on the impacts of family on children with new information which will help researchers, scholars and other people who are involved in intervention programs for children exposed to family violence. The author of this study will focus on the following areas: a. What are the most common causes and consequences of family violence? b. The violent partners’ perception of the effects of their behaviors on their children. c. The violent partners’ perception about the way-out of the violence. Inalienability of Family and Children’s Wellbeing from each other: A Theoretical Exploration Children’s wellbeing and sound parental relationship are closely intertwined with each other. Epistemologically, children’s wellbeing refers to an overall psychophysical growth of a child such as cognitive growth, socialization, moralization, etc. Scholars in the field of child’s development, assumes family as an entity that stimulates and facilitate a child’s psychophysical development in many explicit and implicit processes. A family, if viewed from a child-developmental perspective, can be considered as an amphitheater which contains both visible and subconscious components of a child’s growth (Lerner, 1989, p. 34). Researches in this field show that a child’s personality traits, attitude, belief, behavior are grossly influenced first by the interplays between a child and its surrounding in a family. In this regard, Marian (1995) et al says, â€Å"The family is seen as a dynamic context in which the child is both transformer and transformed† (p. 23). Consequently, ‘parenting’ –both directly and indirectly- is supposed to exert huge influence on the development of a child. In his book, Belsky (1984) focuses on what factors of parental behavior and how they influence the child-rearing and the development of a child. In this regard, Belsky as well as Bronfenbrenner emphasize on two factors, husband-wife relationship and parent -child relationship, as most influencing. In order to elucidate the reasons of child-abuse, Belsky (1984) notes, Specifically, marital relations, social networks, and jobs influence individual personality and general psychological well-being of parents and, thereby, parental functioning and, in turn, child development.† (p. 84) Importance of Healthy Parental Relationship on Children’s Wellbe

Summary of Intervierw Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Summary of Intervierw - Assignment Example Riffle, noted that she had to carry out her roles in a certain way. As a coordinator, one has to ensure that they have a Master’s of Science, Development and cognitive disabilities and a Bachelor’s degree in Arts. In addition, it is necessary to have eight years of experience as a teacher teaching special education students. Like most Special Needs Coordinators in campuses, getting one year training as a NISD special Education Coordinator is critical. As a coordinator with such qualification, it is easier to manage special needs students if a coordinator has the skills and the qualifications (Wearmouth, 2013). In addition, parents are more likely to trust experienced professionals with their special needs children (Westwood, 2010). It is not only any special needs children that qualify for the programs, but those who are visually and emotionally impaired. Additionally, those with orthopedic, speech and auditory impairments are also included. Students with traumatic brain injuries and learning and intellectual disabilities are also qual ified. To admit these students into the special needs programs in the school, they have to do tests to check their adaptive behavior, cognitive and language skills (Wearmouth, 2008). Earlier tests used in special education schools were not suitable when it came to testing students with special needs (Frederickson & Cline, 2009). However, today, it is the work of the General Education Teacher to refer the students to the tests, but a Licensed Specialist in School Psychology (LSSP) carries out the testing. For the school district to get the testing process done, they have to follow the Federal timelines. The Full Individual Evaluation (FIE) or The Admission, Review and Dismissal (ARD) meetings where the parents of the students, special and general education teachers are present are a requirement. Without these meetings, it would not be possible to admit students without allowing the Admission, Review and Dismissal (ARDC) to

Racial discrimination and colonization in literature

Racial discrimination and colonization in literature Frantz Fanon once wrote, â€Å"Colonialism hardly ever exploits the whole country. It contents itself with bringing to light the natural resources, which it extracts and exports to meet the needs of mother country’s industries, thereby allowing certain sectors of the colony to become relatively rich. But the rest of the colony follows its path of under development and poverty or at all events sinks into it more deeply.† The term â€Å"Postcolonialism† refers broadly to the ways in which race, ethnicity, culture, and human identity itself are represented in the modern era, after many colonized countries earned their independence. However, some critics use the term to refer to all culture and cultural products influenced by imperialism from the moment of colonization until today. A work by postcolonial writer attempts at describing the interactions between European nations and the people they colonized. A post colonial reading reveals the characters racism and dis criminatory attitude that drives their action. A post colonial prospective presents a discourse describing an attempt of assimilation of a black man into a white society. One of the major characteristics of the principle of human rights is the fact that each and every human being was born free with equal rights and dignity. Hounding and favoritism of human beings based on ethnicity and race are violations that are very clearly going against this fundamental principle. Discrimination based on race can assume several forms, from the institutional discrimination and severe discrimination to other forms that are covert whereby certain ethnic and racial groups are barred from enjoying similar cultural, political, civil, economic and social rights as other classes of people in the same society. Postcolonial literature is something that cannot be bound by time. Post colonial studies especially theories cannot be made obligatory. It must be properly disseminated and assimilated before it can ever begin to address the issue of the complex cultural investment. The postcolonial literature reveals the characters racism and discriminatory attitude that drives the ir action. It prevails since the time of Shakespeare. Postcolonial Shakespeare for most of the people, means a little evincing an interest in the moor but there are certain specific Shakespearean text that are thought to lend themselves to post colonial reading because of their obvious engagement with the colonial issues of racial and cultural otherness. Tempest and Othello have received this status of most favored text by Shakespeare of the postcolonial label. In Othello, the postcolonial perspective presents a discourse describing an attempt of assimilation of a black man into a while society by marrying a white woman but by the end of the play the protagonist is stripped off from his white construct and is reduced back to the traditional role of a â€Å"moor†. Similarly Shakespeare’s Tempest, is considered a central work in postcolonial theory. It is thought to be, by some critics as an early postcolonial work. Many colonial theorists and critics tend to focus on th e character of Caliban as their centre of discussion. According to the critics, Caliban has been tied to the west’s image of the native people often described as bizarre in their appearance. The natives according to the colonizers are dehumanized and are considered one with nature, similar to that of Caliban’s character in Shakespeare’s Tempest. His character is also easily fooled and intoxicated by the Europeans. Such is the way the colonizers perceive the natives. It is mentioned by theorist Edward Said that the colonizers always considered themselves superior and considered the natives as â€Å"the others†. Racial discrimination has been rampant for many centuries, post colonial literature mainly focuses upon this segment in their discussion. Not only were the Europeans dominating over the natives physically but they also worked at erasing their cultural identity and their past in order to implant their own cultural customs. Racial discrimination is a theme that runs throughout postcolonial discourse, as white Europeans consistently emphasized their superiority over darker-skinned people. This was most evident in South Africa, whose policy of apartheid was institutionalized in national laws. Nadine Gordimer’s novel My Son’s Story is a brilliant example of the trials and tribulations of racially discriminated people. In her novel, Gordimer presents how a black family struggles to survive in a white dominated society. One of the main attractions of the plot is the character of Sonny. It’s his desperation to be one of the white people that sets Gordimer’s story apart from the rest. The character of Sonny has an affair with a white woman Hannah. Through this affair the mere logic of Edward Said is proven, the fact that the white masses dominated over the natives by rearranging their ideology and setting it in such a way that it perceives the white people as their superior in every sense. By Sonny’s affair with Hannah and his obsession with Shakespeare it is proved that his ideology was programmed in such a way that his attraction towards Hannah and Shakespeare are hints of him wanting to be one of the white masses. Unlike Gordimer’s My Son’s Story, there are other novels regarding racial discrimination that present the natives as â€Å"the other† and set the white colonizers as people with superior intellect. Although ironically in each of these novel their lies a hint of destruction that is caused by this very superior intellectual group of people and it is the natives who are represented with humanity. One such work of art is Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, that represents the natives from the view point of the colonizers. Although it is debated whether Conrad wrote it as a criticism to the colonizers or the natives. Heart of Darkness truly is deserving of its title name. The darkness that is emphasized in the title not only talks about the darkness of the region but the darkness that exists in the heart of the colonizers. The novel depicts some soul shattering images of the natives being tortured and chained by the colonizers. The novel beautifully narrates th e plight of the natives and depicts how the colonizers viewed them. Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart is another exemplary example of colonial racial discrimination. Achebe’s novel emphasizes Edward Said’s Orientalist theories, about how the colonizers dominated over the natives by implanting the colonial ideological thinking into the natives. The plot depicts how the natives are made to give up their own culture and customs and follow the colonial way of living. Achebe depicts in his novel how the things fall apart for the natives and their colony, how the natives are driven away from their own sense of identity and individuality. The concept of losing one’s identity has also been taken up by Derek Walcott in his poem The Sea is History. His poem talks about how the natives are clueless about their history, their roots and their identity. The poem depicts the native’s plight of not knowing their past and thus being unaware of their sense of identity. Discrimination was mainly done on the basis of colour, and one of the ways to dominate over the natives was to erase their sense of identity by dominating over their ideology. Since many of the natives culture was in form of orator and not written, it was fairly easy for the colonizers to establish their upper hand over the natives. Some other works that depicts racial discrimination are Coetzee’s novels Waiting for the Barbarians (1982), which is set in an imaginary empire not unlike South Africa, utilizes postmodern strategies and tactics to foreground their status as works of fiction, while at the same time suggesting a political posture t owards a real place and policy, which is, South African apartheid. Also, Salman Rushdie’s novel Midnight’s Children(1981), Michael Ondaatje’s novel The English Patient (1992), Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth (1961), Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place (1988), Isabelle Allende’s The House of the Spirits (1982), J. M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians and Disgrace (1990), Derek Walcott’s Omeros (1990), and Eavan Boland’s Outside History. Two essays that are worth mentioning in this particular genre are: Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin. White Masks and Ngugi Wa Thiongo’s Decolonising the mind. â€Å"When people like me, they like me in spite of my colour. When they dislike me; they point out that it isnt because of my colour. Either way, I am locked into the infernal circle.† This line of Frantz Fanon, a French psychiatrist, philosopher, revolutionary and writer, speaks about how he has been victimized by the same hard blow of hatred by white people. He believed that there is a paralytic judiciary system of whites towards the black. Franz Fanon gives utmost importance to the phenomenon of language. He said, â€Å"White men always claim to posses all knowledge of the world and believe in hallucinating black, because of their own means.† In his book Black Skin, White Masks, Fanon talks about how black race faces the lack of judgment in society and is always abolished out of societal virtues (Fanon, 1967 ). In another book on Colour Prejudice, he begins with the duality in the behavior of a black man towards a white man and towards another black man. His opposition towards such discrimination and racist factor was so strong that it compelled other revolutionaries to take a stand against such injustice firmly. Perceptions as far as the minorities are concerned, which specify that they are weak and inferior are usually planted in the minds of people from the majority group in their early stages of development. The minority group of people, in other words, the racially discriminated people are made to believe such perceptions by their parents, teachers and the society in which they grow in.Racism involves a set of actions or beliefs that considers an individual or a class of people to be inferior as compared to another individual or a class of people, due to their appearance physically, such as their skin color. These are perceptions that are fed in the minds of people and they usually have a lot of negative impacts on the individuals or group of people being considered to be inferior. One of the ways through which, ill-treatment and narrow mindedness against the minority can be eliminated is by reversing such unfounded perceptions. This can be done through increased awareness that all peop le are the same and those simple differences such as height or skin color cannot be adequate reasons for treating some people as less equals as the others and thus oppressed and exploited. The individuals that are racists are simply the product of a society that sponsors and encourages the vice in one way or another. In order to change such a society, there is need for both political and legal change to be shadowed. Politically, the interests of the minority should be well addressed and this can be done through increasing the political representation of the groups facing discrimination. Laws that are aimed at protecting the rights of the minority should be enacted so that anyone violating these rights is to be dealt with severe punishment. The minorities themselves have also a role to play in ending prejudice and discrimination against them. They should ensure that they are in the forefront in the campaign against oppression, prejudice and discrimination along racial lines. As African Americans place in today’s new age society has changed over the centuries and along with it so has the focus of African-American literature. Before theAmerican Civil War, the literature primarily consisted of memoirs by people who had escaped from slavery; the genre ofslave narrativescomprised accounts of life in slavery and the path of justice and redemption to freedom. There was an early peculiarity between the literature of freed slaves and the literature of free blacks who had been born in the North. Free blacks had to express their oppression in a dissimilar narrative form. Free blacks in the North often spoke out against slavery and racial injustices using the spiritual narrative. The spiritual addressed many of the same themes of slave narratives, but has been largely ignored in current scholarly conversation. At the turn of the 20th century, non-fiction works by authors such as  W. E. B. Du Bois  and  Booker T. Washington  debated whether to confron t or appease racist attitudes in the United States. During the  American Civil Rights movement, authors such as  Richard Wright  and  Gwendolyn Brooks  wrote about issues of  racial segregation  and  black nationalism. Today, African-American literature has become recognized as an integral part of  American literature, with books such as  Roots: The Saga of an American Family  by  Alex Haley,  The Color Purple(1982) by  Alice Walker, which won the  Pulitzer Prize; and  Beloved  by Toni Morrison achieving both best-selling and award-winning status. Bernice McFadden quoted, â€Å"Dont you know sugar is brown first? White folks couldnt stand the fact that something so sweet shared the same color as the people who cut the cane, slopped the hogs and picked the cotton. So they bleached it to resemble them, and now they have gone and fooled everybody. You included.† Decolonizing a person’s mind is quite difficult to do because it cannot be done. Once the natives have been colonized for certain time period the colonizers history merges with that of the natives. Aijaz Ahmed in his essay wrote that when India was colonized by the British, their language that they shared with the natives became a part of the Indian culture and if the natives wish to ignore that culture in order to decolonize their minds, they are unintentionally discarding a part of their own culture. Doing so, will not accomplish anything and it will only end up fogging the sense of identity in the natives. According to Ngugi Wa Thiongo, in his essay Deco lonizing the mind he writes that, The oppressed and the downtrodden of the earth preserve their rebelliousness: liberty from robbery. However the prevalent weapon wielded and actually daily set free by the imperialism against that combined disobedience is the cultural attack. The effect of a cultural bomb is to destroy people’s faith in their religion, in their speech, in their surroundings, in their inheritance of great efforts , in their harmony, in their capability and eventually in themselves. It makes them want to recognize with that which is furthest detached from themselves; for example, with other peoples’ languages other than their own. It makes them categorize with that which is immoral and backward-looking, all those forces which would end their own life. It even grows chain of doubts about the ethical aptness of struggle. Possibilities of success or conquest are seen as unreachable, unreasonable dreams. The intended results are despair, hopelessness and a c ollective death wish. Amidst this wasteland which it has created, imperialism presents itself as the restore to health and demands that the dependant sing hymns of praise with the regular refrain: ‘theft is holy’. Indeed, this refrain sums up the new statement of belief of the neo colonial bourgeoisie in many independent African states. The classes fighting against imperialism even in its neo-colonial stage and form and have to tackle this threat with the higher and more creative culture of unyielding struggle. These classes have to wield even more firmly the weapons of the struggle contained in their cultures. They have to speak the united language of struggle enclosed in each of their languages. They must discover their various tongues to sing the song: A people united can never be defeated. We have a black president in U.S now , but does it mean that we are witnessing a post racial America ? The answer is no. Present day America is more racially polarized .Racial violence is on the rise. Black people can never realize their potential and goals, unless the thinking of White colonizers is reconceptualized and perceived afresh by which I mean a change in the way the White people perceive their identity vis a vis their country .This reconceptualization is something which Baldwin tries to do in The Fire Next Time. He stresses the importance of mediating one’s own identity and necessity to move away from white mediums of representation. He aims at flipping the power equations and to invert the hierarchies. Going by this vision, it is the white man who is in shackles (trapped in history), who needs to be free for the black people to be free (Baldwin, 1963 ) . Though he is offering a paradigm shift in the sense that he is offering a conception of White men in nonwhite terms, yet he does not do away with the entire idea of the white and the black. White colonizers need to stop seeing each other through the lens of race/colour but as equals.

The Great Pyramid of Giza :: Ancient Egypt Egyptian History

The Great Pyramid of Giza The pyramids of Ancient Egypt are as fascinating and intriguing, as they are breathtaking. Egyptologists and historians have long debated the question of who built the pyramids, and for what reason. There are many different and often conflicting theories in regard to the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza. When turning back the pages of history, it is discovered that a number of theories have been developed to explain the presence of such a significant historical landmark. "Theories vary from a tomb for a king, to a special chemical factory, a beacon for extraterrestrial aircraft's, a stone form of the Bible, a possible way to contact a Higher Being and a stone announcement of the second coming of Christ..." (Schillings, M. : 1999 : Sheet 1). Such examples of varying controversial theories have sparked a number of speculations to the mystery of the Great Pyramid of Giza. According to traditional Egyptology, the Great Pyramid of Giza was built by Egyptian pharaoh Khufu during the Fourth Dynasty around "...the year 2560 BCE..." (Schillings, M. : 1999 : Sheet 1). It has been suggested that the Egyptian civilisation succeeded in establishing a complex and organised work force of people to create and build an astonishing burial tomb for the pharaoh in aid of his journey to the afterlife. However, contrary to this suggestion, one must ask why the modern Egyptians continue to rely on traditional beliefs and attitudes to explain the presence of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Could this be the prefect example of nationalistic views? It could be argued that as a result of the continual spread of Egyptian hearsay, the Egyptians obtained the understanding that the entire civilisation - past and present - is somehow superior in status to that of the average mortal man. Undoubtedly, in modern times, the world has gained an increased awareness of the uncertainties that surround investigations into such a distant past. Despite several emerging historical puzzles and conclusions, modern Egyptians continue to adhere to the theory presented by traditional Egyptology. The sheer size, the huge proportions and the amazing geographical positioning of the pyramid have greatly contributed to the rise of uncertainty as to it's origin and purpose. The construction of the pyramid was no mean feat, regardless of the creator. Considering the fact that the pyramid is "...thirty times larger than the Empire State Building.

Whole Foods Market Business Analysis

Sales have doubled since then and 66% of the British adults now consume organic food and drinks. Their weakness Is the fact they haven't expanded Into the global market except for Canada and the ASK. There has also been several recalls on brands purchased by the company. The opportunities appear to be significant In this retail market. There Is an Increasing desire for organic, healthy products which bodes well for the success of opening new stores. The threat is competition as the demand grows and more stringent regulation. Rental increases is also a concern.In making a decision on whether to invest in Whole Foods Market, the welfare and needs of the internal and external stakeholders need to be considered. Growth depends on Bonds and Stockholders. The company must show consistent growth in order to be able to have available borrowing outlets. The employees are instrumental in keeping the customer feel wanted and satisfied with their shopping. The surrounding community wants to feel compatible with Whole Foods facilities, products and service. And the distributors supplying the company's product need to know there Is a commitment from their customers.Whole Foods Market is a unique, organic food and natural product supermarket chain located in the US, Canada and ASK. As a wholly owned subsidiary, they are headquartered in Austin, Texas and employ approximately 64,200 people: 13,300 are part-time and 2,700 temporary employees (Denominator, 2012, p. 4). They have an increase in revenue in 2011 from the previous year of 12. 2%, an increase of 25% in operating profit and net profit increase of 42%. (â€Å"Event Brief of IQ , 2012 Whole Foods Market Earnings†, 2012).These figures are significant in recognizing the company's success in recovering from the recession which hit them In 2008. Presently, the organic food market Is fragmented with many small mom and pops which presents many opportunities for growth by Whole Foods. Fred Meyer, a discount chain, carri es an Increasing array of organic foods, but not the quality and quantity of their high end competitor. The company's strength is in its focused growth plan. â€Å"The new store openings has enabled it to grow at a compounded and annual growth rate of 26% during 1991-2011†. Denominator, 2012, p. 6). They have formalized their square footage for new and renovated stores by past analysis of their successes and allures. The expansion into the I-J market, in particular the 2007 acquisition of 80,000 square feet in London could be a major step into a market outside of the US. Sales have doubled and 66% of the British public consumes organic food and drink. (Live Business News, 2012, p. 3) Their weaknesses lay in lack of expansion into international operations, product recall of certain brands, and increasing rental costs.Recalls are an issue. They have had to withdraw Whole Foods Market Dairy Free bakery products because it contained milk which was not on the label. Texas had to c all cheddar cheese products because of an e-coli contamination and there was a possible Salmonella contamination for the Whole Foods, Carob Energy Nuggets in 2009. They have not been able to successfully expand into markets other than a few stores in Canada and the I-J. They have not been able to obtain competitive prices from their distributors for these stores because of the low volume.Whole Foods also has a weak advertising budget and relies heavily on Internet and word of mouth, a disadvantage when their competitors advertising strategies are expanded into other markets. (Live Business News, 2012, p. 7) Leases for space and equipment have increased significantly from 4. 8 million in 2004 to 201 million in 2007. Future growth could be impacted. The increasing demand for organic foods and the new emerging life styles of the American public appear as great opportunities for Whole Foods Market. â€Å"According to industry estimates, the sales of organic food increased three fold si nce 2000 to exceed $28. Billion in 2010† (Denominator, 2012 p. 7) With this increase in sales, the company is still the only chain catering and available to this market. They are continually expanding their product base to include such foods for customers with facial dietary needs. The trend of the American family is moving towards eating at home and eating healthy. Competition in the food retailing market is intense. Currently, Whole Foods does not experience significant competition in the organic food, natural products, and vitamin supplement area. But, as the demand and desire grow, so will the competition.