Fear motivation Essay

If you remember the movie Office Space, you might remember this great line where Peter (the guy trying to get fired) says â€Å"If you motivate people by fear, they will do just enough to get by and not get fired. This is the saddest of all motivational factors. Fear of rejection, fear of loss of respect, loss of money and country club status. It’s related to the above motivations, but from a different perspective. People who are motivated by fear are motivated from a position of having made it and are afraid of losing it. Its real difference is in its motivational power. Fear can be a strong motivator. . It’s one of the oldest forms of motivation and one of the most powerful†¦in certain situations. Most fears today are intangible fears. They are extremely powerful for the very reason that they are hard to find. Humans react to fear or threat in many ways, but those reactions can usually be divided up into the two categories of Fight or Flight. That is to say that when people are threatened they will either attack the threat or run away from it. This of course can be done physically or mentally. As a tool to motivate people, fear has many disadvantages. Fear based motivation causes resentment resistance and revenge. It is seen for what it is, an attack. By its very nature, fear is not sustaining or sustainable without negative consequences. People who are motivated by fear will seek ways to extricate themselves from the situation that causes the fear. This will not always be done by fulfilling the desire of the ‘motivator’. Threatening someone that they will be fired if they do not do their job correctly may have an impact upon the person causing them to try to improve their performance. However, that motivation is based on external forces and it requires that someone always be there to impose the threat. Because of these things, Fear motivation is the weakest force in our motivation definitions list and is reserved for the week and uneducated individuals who attempts to gain power by force.

Mobile Phones Essay

â€Å"Cell Phone† redirects here. For the film, see Cell Phone (film). For the Handphone film, see Handphone (film). The Qualcomm QCP-2700, a mid-1990s candybar style phone, and an iPhone 5, a current production smartphone. A mobile phone is a device that can make and receive telephone calls over aradio link while moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile phone operator, allowing access to the public telephone network. By contrast, a cordless telephone is used only within the short range of a single, private base station. In addition to telephony, modern mobile phones also support a wide variety of other services such as text messaging, MMS, email, Internet access, short-range wireless communications, business applications, gaming and photography. Mobile phones that offer these and more general computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones. The first hand-held mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell[1][2][3] and Dr Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing around 2.2 pounds (1 kg).[4] In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first to be commercially available. From 1990 to 2011, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew from 12.4 million to over 6 billion, penetrating about 87% of the global population and reaching the bottom of the economic pyramid. ————————————————- History Main article: History of mobile phones An evolution of mobile phones Before the devices that are now referred to as mobile phones existed, there were some precursors. The development of mobile telephony began in 1918 with tests of wireless telephony on military trains between Berlin – Zossen.[9] In 1924 public trials started with telephone connection on trains between Berlin – Hamburg.[9] In 1925 Zugtelephonie A. G. is founded to supply train telephony equipment[9] and in 1926 telephone service in trains of theDeutsche Reichsbahn and imperial post on the route between Hamburg and Berlin is approved and used.[9] This phone service was only offered to 1st class travelers, but in 1918, some 5 years after the invention of Meissnerischen tube based transmitters, the German Reichsbahn in Berlin led experiments with telephony via radio. [10] The first mobile telephone calls were made from automobiles in 1946. The Bell System’s – Mobile Telephone Service – inaugural call was made on 17 June of that year in St. Louis, Missouri, followed by Illinois Bell Telephone Company’s car radiotelephone service in Chicago on 2 October. [11] The MTS phones were composed of vacuum tubes and relays, and weighed over 80 pounds (36 kg).[12][13] There were initially only 3 channels for all the users in the metropolitan area, increasing later to 32 channels across 3 bands. This service continued into the 1980s in large portions of North America. Due to the small number of radio frequencies available, the service quickly reached capacity. In 1956, the world’s first partly automatic car phone system, Mobile System A (MTA), was introduced in Sweden. John F. Mitchell, Motorola’s chief of portable communication products in 1973, played a key role in advancing the development of handheld mobile telephone equipment. Mitchell successfully pushed Motorola to develop wireless communication products that would be small enough to use anywhere and participated in the design of the cellular phone.[14][15] Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive, was the key researcher on Mitchell’steam that developed the first hand-held mobile telephone for use on a cellular network.[16] Using a somewhat heavy portable handset, Cooper made the first call on a handheld mobile phone on 3 April 1973 to his rival, Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs.[17][18] As I walked down the street while talking on the phone, sophisticated New Yorkers gaped at the sight of someone actually moving around while making a phone call. Remember that in 1973, there weren’t cordless telephones or cellular phones. I made numerous calls, including one where I crossed the street while talking to a New York radio reporter – probably one of the more dangerous things I have ever done in my life. —Martin Cooper, [19] The new invention sold for $3,995 and weighed two pounds, leading to the nickname â€Å"the brick†. The world’s first commercial automated cellular network was launched in Japan by NTT in 1979, initially in the metropolitan area of Tokyo. In 1981, this was followed by the simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.[20] Several countries then followed in the early to mid-1980s including the UK, Mexico and Canada. On 6 March 1983, the DynaTAc mobile phone launched on the first US 1G network by Ameritech. It cost $100m to develop, and took over a decade to reach the market.[21] The phone had a talk time of just half an hour and took ten hours to charge. Consumer demand was strong despite the battery life, weight, and low talk time, and waiting lists were in the thousands.[22][23] In 1991, the second generation (2G) cellular technology was launched in Finland by Radiolinja on the GSM standard, which sparked competition in the sector as the new operators challenged the incumbent 1G network operators. Ten years later, in 2001, the third generation (3G) was launched in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA standard.[24] This was followed by 3.5G, 3G+ or turbo 3G enhancements based on thehigh-speed packet access (HSPA) family, allowing UMTS networks to have higher data transfer speeds and capacity. By 2009, it had become clear that, at some point, 3G networks would be overwhelmed by the growth of bandwidth-intensive applications like streaming media.[25] Consequently, the industry began looking to data-optimized 4th-generation technologies, with the promise of speed improvements up to 10-fold over existing 3G technologies. The first two commercially available technologies billed as 4G were the WiMAX standard (offered in the U.S. by Sprint) and the LTE standard, first offered in Scandinavia by TeliaSonera. ————————————————- Read more:  Uses and Abuses of Mobile Phone Essay Features Main article: Mobile phone features See also: Smartphone A printed circuit board inside a Nokia 3210 All mobile phones have a number of features in common, but manufacturers also try to differentiate their own products by implementing additional functions to make them more attractive to consumers. This has led to great innovation in mobile phone development over the past 20 years. The common components found on all phones are: * A battery, providing the power source for the phone functions. * An input mechanism to allow the user to interact with the phone. The most common input mechanism is a keypad, but touch screens are also found in some high-end smartphones. * Basic mobile phone services to allow users to make calls and send text messages. * All GSM phones use a SIM card to allow an account to be swapped among devices. Some CDMA devices also have a similar card called a R-UIM. Individual GSM, WCDMA, iDEN and some satellite phone devices are uniquely identified by an International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number. Low-end mobile phones are often referred to as feature phones, and offer basic telephony. Handsets with more advanced computing ability through the use of native software applications became known as smartphones. Several phone series have been introduced to address a given market segment, such as the RIM BlackBerry focusing on enterprise/corporate customer email needs; the Sony-Ericsson ‘Walkman’ series of music/phones and ‘Cybershot’ series of camera/phones; the Nokia Nseries of multimedia phones, the Palm Pre the HTC Dream and the Apple iPhone. Text messaging Main article: SMS The most commonly used data application on mobile phones is SMS text messaging. The first SMS text message was sent from a computer to a mobile phone in 1992 in the UK, while the first person-to-person SMS from phone to phone was sent in Finland in 1993. The first mobile news service, delivered via SMS, was launched in Finland in 2000, and subsequently many organizations provided â€Å"on-demand† and â€Å"instant† news services by SMS. SIM card Main articles: Subscriber Identity Module and Removable User Identity Module Typical mobile phone SIM card GSM feature phones require a small microchip called a Subscriber Identity Module or SIM Card, to function. The SIM card is approximately the size of a small postage stamp and is usually placed underneath the battery in the rear of the unit. The SIM securely stores the service-subscriber key (IMSI) and the Ki used to identify and authenticate the user of the mobile phone. The SIM card allows users to change phones by simply removing the SIM card from one mobile phone and inserting it into another mobile phone or broadband telephony device. The first SIM card was made in 1991 by Munich smart card maker Giesecke & Devrient for the Finnish wireless network operatorRadiolinja.[citation needed] In general Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants 1997–2007 A cellphone repair kiosk in Mumbai, India Mobile phones are used for a variety of purposes, including keeping in touch with family members, conducting business, and having access to a telephone in the event of an emergency. Some people carry more than one cell phone for different purposes, such as for business and personal use. Multiple SIM cards may also be used to take advantage of the benefits of different calling plans—a particular plan might provide cheaper local calls, long-distance calls, international calls, or roaming. The mobile phone has also been used in a variety of diverse contexts in society, for example: * A study by Motorola found that one in ten cell phone subscribers have a second phone that often is kept secret from other family members. These phones may be used to engage in activities including extramarital affairs or clandestine business dealings.[38] * Some organizations assist victims of domestic violence by providing mobile phones for use in emergencies. They are often refurbished phones.[39] * The advent of widespread text messaging has resulted in the cell phone novel; the first literary genre to emerge from the cellular age via text messaging to a website that collects the novels as a whole.[40] * Mobile telephony also facilitates activism and public journalism being explored by Reuters and Yahoo![41] and small independent news companies such as Jasmine New in Sri Lanka. * The United Nations reported that mobile phones have spread faster than any other technology and can improve the livelihood of the poorest people in developing countries by providing access to information in places where landlines or the Internet are not available, especially in the least developed countries. Use of mobile phones also spawns a wealth of micro-enterprises, by providing work, such as selling airtime on the streets and repairing or refurbishing handsets.[42] * In Mali and other African countries, people used to travel from village to village to let friends and relatives know about weddings, births and other events, which are now avoided within mobile phone coverage areas, which is usually greater than land line penetration. * The TV industry has recently started using mobile phones to drive live TV viewing through mobile apps, advertising, social tv, and mobile TV.[43] 86% of Americans use their mobile phone while watching TV. * In parts of the world, mobile phone sharing is common. It is prevalent in urban India, as families and groups of friends often share one or more mobiles among their members. There are obvious economic benefits, but often familial customs and traditional gender roles play a part.[44] It is common for a village to have access to only one mobile phone, perhaps owned by a teacher or missionary, but available to all members of the village for necessary calls.[45] While driving Main article: Mobile phones and driving safety Texting in stop-and-go traffic in New York City Mobile phone use while driving is common but controversial. Being distracted while operating a motor vehicle has been shown to increase the risk of accident. Because of this, many jurisdictions prohibit the use of mobile phones while driving. Egypt, Israel, Japan, Portugal and Singapore ban both handheld and hands-free use of a mobile phone; others —including the UK, France, and many U.S. states—ban handheld phone use only, allowing hands-free use. Due to the increasing complexity of mobile phones, they are often more like mobile computers in their available uses. This has introduced additional difficulties for law enforcement officials in distinguishing one usage from another as drivers use their devices. This is more apparent in those countries which ban both handheld and hands-free usage, rather than those who have banned handheld use only, as officials cannot easily tell which function of the mobile phone is being used simply by looking at the driver. This can lead to drivers being stopped for using their device illegally on a phone call when, in fact, they were using the device for a legal purpose such as the phone’s incorporated controls for car stereo or satnav. A recently published study has reviewed the incidence of mobile phone use while cycling and its effects on behaviour and safety.[48] In schools Some schools limit or restrict the use of mobile phones. Schools have set restrictions because of the use of cell phones for cheating on tests, harassment and bullying, threats to the school’s security, distraction of students, and the facilitating of gossip and other social activity at school. Many mobile phones are banned in school locker room facilities, public restrooms and swimming pools due to the built-in cameras that most phones now feature. Mobile banking and payments Main articles: Mobile banking and Mobile payment See also: Branchless banking and Contactless payment In many countries, mobile phones are used to provide mobile banking services, which may include the ability to transfer cash payments by secure SMS text message. Kenya’s M-PESA mobile banking service, for example, allows customers of the mobile phone operator Safaricom to hold cash balances which are recorded on their SIM cards. Cash may be deposited or withdrawn from M-PESA accounts at Safaricom retail outlets located throughout the country, and may be transferred electronically from person to person as well as used to pay bills to companies. Branchless banking has also been successful in South Africa and Philippines. A pilot project in Bali was launched in 2011 by the International Finance Corporation and an Indonesian bank Bank Mandiri.[49] Another application of mobile banking technology is Zidisha, a US-based nonprofit microlending platform that allows residents of developing countries to raise small business loans from web users worldwide. Zidisha uses mobile banking for loan disbursements and repayments, transferring funds from lenders in the United States to the borrowers in rural Africa using the internet and mobile phones.[50] Mobile payments were first trialled in Finland in 1998 when two Coca-Cola vending machines in Espoo were enabled to work with SMS payments. Eventually, the idea spread and in 1999 the Philippines launched the first commercial mobile payments systems, on the mobile operators Globe and Smart. Some mobile phone can make mobile payments via direct mobile billing schemes or through contactless payments if the phone and point of sale support near field communication (NFC).[51] This requires the co-operation of manufacturers, network operators and retail merchants to enable contactless payments through NFC-equipped mobile phones.[52][53][54] Tracking and privacy See also: Mobile phone tracking Mobile phones are also commonly used to collect location data. While the phone is turned on, the geographical location of a mobile phone can be determined easily (whether it is being used or not), using a technique known as multilateration to calculate the differences in time for a signal to travel from the cell phone to each of several cell towers near the owner of the phone. The movements of a mobile phone user can be tracked by their service provider and, if desired, by law enforcement agencies and their government. Both the SIM card and the handset can be tracked.[55] China has proposed using this technology to track commuting patterns of Beijing city residents.[57] In the UK and US, law enforcement and intelligence services use mobiles to perform surveillance. They possess technology to activate the microphones in cell phones remotely in order to listen to conversations that take place near the phone. [58][59] Thefts According to the Federal Communications Commission, one out of three robberies involved the theft of a cellular phone. Police data in San Francisco showed that one-half of all robberies in 2012 were thefts of cellular phones. An online petition on Change.org called Secure our Smartphones urged smartphone manuacturers to install kill switches in their devices to make them unusable in case of theft. The petition is part of a joint effort by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon and was directed to the CEOs of the major smartphone manufacturers and telecommunication carriers. [60] On Monday, June 10, 2013, Apple announced it would install a kill switch on its next iPhone operating system, due to debut in October 2013. [61] ————————————————- Health effects Main article: Mobile phone radiation and health Further information: Mobile phones on aircraft The effect mobile phone radiation has on human health is the subject of recent interest and study, as a result of the enormous increase in mobile phone usage throughout the world. Mobile phones use electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range, which some believe may be harmful to human health. A large body of research exists, both epidemiological and experimental, innon-human animals and in humans, of which the majority shows no definite causative relationship between exposure to mobile phones and harmful biological effects in humans. This is often paraphrased simply as the balance of evidence showing no harm to humans from mobile phones, although a significant number of individual studies do suggest such a relationship, or are inconclusive. Other digital wireless systems, such as data communication networks, produce similar radiation. On 31 May 2011, the World Health Organization stated that mobile phone use may possibly represent a long-term health risk,[62][63] classifying mobile phone radiation as â€Å"possibly carcinogenic to humans† after a team of scientists reviewed studies on cell phone safety.[64] Mobile phones are in category 2B, which ranks it alongside Coffee and other possibly carcinogenic substances.[65][66] At least some recent studies have found an association between cell phone use and certain kinds of brain and salivary gland tumors. Lennart Hardell and other authors of a 2009 meta-analysis of 11 studies from peer-reviewed journals concluded that cell phone usage for at least ten years â€Å"approximately doubles the risk of being diagnosed with a brain tumor on the same (‘ipsilateral’) side of the head as that preferred for cell phone use.† [67] One study of past cell phone use cited in the report showed a â€Å"40% increased risk for gliomas (brain cancer) in the highest category of heavy users (reported average: 30 minutes per day over a 10†year period).†[68] This is a reversal from their prior position that cancer was unlikely to be caused by cellular phones or their base stations and that reviews had found no convincing evidence for other health effects.[63][69] Certain countries, including France, have warned against the use of cell phones especially by minors due to health risk uncertainties.[70] However, a study published 24 March 2012 in the British Medical Journal questioned these estimates, because the increase in brain cancers has not paralleled the increase in mobile phone use. Dis-advantages : * Some people (especially teens) get so much addicted to cell phones for talking, video, messaging, games, etc that they forget the real purpose of the phone and waste large part of their time in unnecessary interaction over their cell phones. * Nothing more can be a distraction for a teached in the classroom, when a student’s phone rings. Cell phones are increasingly becoming a problem for the schools during classroom hours and are becoming a means of cheating during examinations and other kinds of ability tests. All this is really bad and does hurt the future of the student, who doesn’t realize that he/she is him/her-self responsible for it. * Health of those living in the vicinity of cell phone towers is becoming a growing concern. Towers result into an area with concrete development along with destruction of natural features (vegetation etc) around the place. The towers also emit strong electromagnetic signals, which can be health hazard for those living nearby and who are getting exposed to strong radiations continuously during a good span of their lives. * While remaining in touch is good thing but sometimes it becomes annoying to have to deal with continuous incoming phone calls. You are on a vacation and your boss calls up, how does that sound! * Cell phone monthly bills are usually more than a landline bill. Sometimes, we may not require to have a cell phone but we still buy one and start paying monthly bills; so it increases our monthly/recurring expenses. * Use of hands-free (wired/blue-tooth) can at times pass on loud sounds to our ears which can result in weakening of ear-drums. Nowadays, one can download lot’s of songs, so keeping the hands-free glued inside your ears for long hours can really affect the sensitivity of ears in the long run of life. * There have been cases of cell phone blasts, due to the excessive heating up of it’s battery. This can be a fatal issue; although rare. * No joke, the surface of a cell phone has millions of bacteria and virus on it and that can be a strong reason of immediate skin p roblem on face or can result into other internal infections wherein the microbes creep inside the body through mouth or other openings. * Some use the keypad excessively; due to size restrictions the buttons and keypad of the cell phone are not natural for human hands; so excessive and prolonged typing can be an issue for fingers and finger joints. * The continuous exposure of signal to and from our cell phone can be a cancer concern, although to a meagre amount- research is still going on. However, the mobile phone industry has long resisted any suggestion of a link to cancer, though it accepts that mobile phone radiation does affect the electrical activity in the brain. * The battery parts and other electonic parts of a cell phone can be environmental hazard if not disposed off properly through approved means. * A cell phone can be helpful while driving and talking in case of urgent matters but increasingly it is becoming cause of accidents because it deviates the attention of a driver; human brain can do only one thing at a time (however small span of time it may be). * It can be a big time distraction and nuisance in calm and silent places like libraries, cinemas, restaruants, etc. Some cell phone users lose the sense of deciding when and where they can talk on the cell phone and where they can’t, without slightest consideration for the fellow beings around. * The mobile phone advertisements through messages are becoming a pain for the cell phone users. * Your SIM can be exploited as tracking device and if you’re an important person then that can be a big concern for you. Advantages : * The more you talk, the more you know how to talk and the better your communication skills become. This is applicable if you’re a sensible person and keep note of your interacting habits over the phone. It can be a communication tutorial! * Nothing more than a cell phone comes to great help in emergency. You are driving by the freeway and the vehicle jams and cell phone comes to your rescue. You are stuck in a lone place, again call somebody and ask for directions. * Parents can be a little less worried about their kids by being in constant touch with them. * If you’re a net-savvy, you can have Internet handy all the time and anywhere the signal of your cell phone provider can reach. * Trendy and stylish cell phones can be used as a bait to receive attention. It can be part of fashion and styling. * From the industy and economy point of view, cell phone companies (communication industry) is flourishing with market capital in billions. This is a good thing for the economy to be smooth and healthy. * Companies find it yet another medium to advertise their products; so another medium to reach the consumers. * Nowadays, cell phones are not just phone calls; they’re about messaging, video, songs, games, alarm clock, notes, calendar, reminder, etc. So one equipment, lots’ of uses! * Although cell phone use can be dangerous while driving but sometimes it can be a time-saver – you are driving and simultaneously discussing some urgent matter as well. A sensible and only urgent usage during driving can be a great help at times.

Stakeholder and Governance Analysis Research Paper - 1

Stakeholder and Governance Analysis - Research Paper Example The role of main stakeholders of this project is really important. This is community development project that is aimed to facilitate and improve the living style of the poor people of the Bangladesh. The biggest stakeholder in this scenario is the Grameen Bank. The responsibility of this stakeholder is providing less interest rate for the poor people so that they feel easy to return the loan. Next, the government of Bangladesh needs to establish such policy that facilities the bank and as well as the general public for this project. The project manager has a very big responsibility in this project. First, we have to build the interest among the people regarding this project then we have to manage this project in such a way that it becomes easier to handle all aspects. Scope After a detailed analysis of this project, I have analyzed that this project is really helpful and effective for the rural communities of the Bangladesh. This project will add values to the lives of the poor people of the Bangladesh. Grameen Bank has taken a strong step for the betterment of the Bangladeshi people. As a result, this project will help to enhance the basic living facilities in the rural areas of the Bangladesh. In this report, I have presented and analyzed the main stakeholders of this project that is aimed at the better community development in Bangladesh. In this report, I have identified the main interested and effective parties that have influence or effect on this project regarding its execution.

Transport Issues in Developing Cities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 1

Transport Issues in Developing Cities - Essay Example It addresses the similarity and differences that exist between the transport situation in Lagos being a city from a lesser developed nation and the situation as portrayed by New York and London being cities from the developed nations of the world. Further analysis is presented herein in relation the extent to which logos city might benefit from the experiences of the cities from developed nations that is New York and London. Â  Over the years since 1995 Lagos is city characterized by complexity with a wide range of economic activities taking place. It is the largest urban center in Nigeria. The population of Lagos is approximated to be roughly 17.8 million (Oni 2004, p.35). In most cases when a city is large and as continues to acquire growth and development it becomes more and more complex having increased potential for diverse disruptions especially in relation to the transport network hence the need for the manager of the complexity in an effective manner. In addressing the similarities and differences in transportation in the cities mentioned it is quite crucial to note that the productivity of urban centres is highly dependable on the effectiveness and efficiency of the centre’s system of transportation to facilitate movement of labor, that of consumers as well as freight from one destination to another (National Transport Policy for Nigeria 2003, p.54). In addition, important terminals of t ransportation for instance airports, rail yards, and ports that are located within urban cities are known to be contributing factors leading to transportation problems. Â  There is quite a wide range of similarities that exist between the situation of transport in Lagos and that of New York and London since 1995.

Community assigment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Community assigment - Assignment Example Such drugs generally cause the victim to experience illusions and destabilize their mental capacities making them vulnerable to carry out acts that can be seen as immoral or even illegal. In most cases, the community and the family members of the drug addict are the ones most hit. Drug addict parents have been known to subject their children to verbal or even physical abuse. Furthermore, the children might not be able to have that parental connection to their parents that they so much need as they grow up (Cheperon, 2010). There is even a greater potential problem that is bound to happen; kids who grow up in families where parents or guardians abuse drugs are likely to take up substance abuse since they learn to see it as a normal thing to do. The community where such people with substance abuse issues live in will not develop. The development of the communities we live in depends on a number of aspects ranging from moral stands, education, and innovative skills (Cheperon, 2010). All these aspects need one to be able to be in the right mindset, which can be hard if they abuse drugs. Among the problems we face today globally, many of them can be traced back to substance abuse as their root causes. Unwanted teenage pregnancies, new HIV infections, domestic violence and abuse against children are just but a few of these problems. It all goes down to mental incapacitation that is brought about by psychoactive substances. When a teenager smokes marijuana, for instance, their perception of what is around them becomes disoriented; eventually they will lack a physical coordination and make unthoughtful judgments. All this makes them become easy targets for rape, or they might even engage in unprotected sexual interactions, which can lead to either unwanted pregnancies or infection of HIV, and in most cases both (Ann, 2012). Domestic violence and child abuse falls in a more parental level since it

Infantilization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Infantilization - Essay Example This was an act of extending the legacy that was set by the Sykes-Picot treaty whose main intention was allowing them to govern the Muslim nations from far (Russo, 2013). However, this move did not go well for both Obama and Cameron as their nations as well as other world leaders such as Russia outright rejected their intentions; consequently, the west still is in dilemma on what best to do with the case in Syria. The geographical regions of the Persian, Arab and Turkish world that were set in 1917 have little resemblance with the current situation. The collapse of Ottoman Turks 400-year rule left an impoverished and backward Egypt, Arabia and Syria in which the current Palestine was a Syrian province. In contrast, the Arab nations are draining the western world coffers with the sale of millions of oil barrels. This has given them an economic capability to purchase the most advanced weaponry that rivals that in the western countries, and this has made these nations from the era of th e Sykes-Picot treaty to be military upright. Consequently, it is not clear why the Arab nations cannot make use of these arms to topple the tyrannical and homicidal leader like Assad. This shows clearly that the western nations have over-extended their patronage to the level of moral infantilization. If indeed the photos of the gassed children were something concrete to go by, the same reaction would have been elicited in Cairo, Riyadh or Istanbul. The silence of the leaders in the Muslim world indicates differing approach to world conflicts, and the same has been echoed by Chinese and Russian nations when they advocated complacency in dealing with the Syrian allegations (Russo, 2013). The use of Tomahawk missiles would bring solution to a government under the threat of being toppled by rebel groups. It will only make the problem worse for a war ravaged and decimated country. The western countries should allow the Arab nations to speak and solve their problems independently as no mi litary intervention can address these issues. The whine of cruise missiles should not be used as a precautionary tactic by the west as this creates the need for the Arab worlds to arm themselves in readiness for retaliatory attacks. To overcome these tribulations, the Arab world has to develop a loud moral voice to silence the western nations, and in this way, they will be in charge of their destiny while achieving peaceful resolutions. After the death of Kim Jong II’s the western media displayed footages of people crying, which in a way was meant to be negative publicity since it was possible to show people praising his leadership. Thus showing the North Korea populace in emotional distress was just meant to further the infantilization of the nation. This has created a situation where the current regime appeals are to emotions of already infantilized people. This culture has helped North Korea to weather down the economic crisis and to improve the loyalty of its citizen (Kiv ima?ki, 2012). The North Korea media recently released stamps commemorating Kim Jong II former North Korean leader who would have turned 72 if he were still alive. The stamps showing the deceased leaders as a child indicated stern and creepy motives, and this move was part of a larger plan to continue infantilizing Kim after his death in the late 2011. In the same light, the state media has continued to play Kim’

Reading summaries Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Reading summaries - Assignment Example Protest scholars are concerned with restoring injustice. In protesters concept, they look at human rights as the theory that favors the status quo in favor of the oppressed (Dembour 3). However, the disclose scholars believe that human rights exist because everyone talks about them. Human rights according to Beitz, is a communication in the public ethics of world policies. He argues that every individual is the subject of the world concern and that it is everyone’s task to enact these rules (Beitz 1). Universality is a worry of whether all the human rights included can be seen as important by everyone. As such, most people tend to misuse these rules for their selfish reasons. There are different forms of skepticism in which some individuals think that there should be a form of a procedure to implement these human rights. The first skeptic clarifies that the satisfaction of some human rights is not realistic under the current social position of the world (Beitz 3). Finally, there is a skeptical concept that explains that human rights are universal. As such, the rights are relevant and are to be claimed by everyone. Maurice, an author supports the traditional human rights, which includes the political and civil rights. However, he rejects the universal human rights, which are termed as economical and social rights that encompass pensions, holidays, insurance among others. Universality according to Cranston is a right available to everyone at all times. For instance, the right to humane treatment is a perfect example of universality. There is a test for human rights and moral uprightness. Practicability Test, clarifies that it is not a duty for an individual to do what is physically impossible (Maurice and Raphael 50). For instance, if all workers in the world should ask for holiday rights then, it would not be practicable for industries that are establishing. The test of paramount

Becoming a Successful Student in Prince Sultan University Research Paper

Becoming a Successful Student in Prince Sultan University - Research Paper Example Becoming successful at PSU depends on one's personality, personnel management, emphatic communication, discipline, class attendance and having a vision in life. Excellence in life depends on one's personality and the external environment, and success is dependent on the one's trait. In academia, students need to focus on themselves and beware of the company they keep as this is one of the elements that determine one's prosperity. Friends can build or destroy one's character (Congos 2). This, in turn, influences the academic performance and personal growth goal in the university. Therefore, avoidance of bad company is essential as it ruins good moral. Personal management is one of the determinants of becoming a successful student. This element shapes the lives of students by managing things like time, personal growth activities that enhance the social life on campus (Covey 73). One should be able to become active by balancing academics and personal growth activities, which include attending social events, participating in sports among other activities. One should complete classwork before engaging in those activities. Empathic communication is another habit that may guarantee success in college life. This enables one to communicate clearly to convey the intended information without causing any misunderstanding to his/her lecturers, school staff and fellow students (Covey 119). Communication is one of the most important factors that shape one's life as it determines how one can interact with other people in the university. University assignments tend to test how a student can express his/her ideas in a manner that will be understood. Therefore, being clear in communication enhances success in a campus. Mission and vision are fundamental elements of becoming a successful student in PSU. The moment a student joins the campus, he/she should develop personal vision and mission that will guide him/her to achieve the set goals and expectation in his studies.Understanding the end will help the student to understand how his/her present actions will constitute to the end results.  

Leadership Across Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Leadership Across Culture - Essay Example The globalization trend has had a great impact on the hospitality industry. As aconsequence, people with diversecultural backgrounds work even more together. It presents an advantage to the corporate world as a way of an organization differentiating itself from others in the industry. On the other hand, diverse cultural backgrounds can create a lot of conflicts. The hospitality industry has great dimensions with cultural strands. Therefore managing the diverse workforce in an effective way is a successful way of obtaining competitive advantage. Managing this cultural diversified workforce has become a challenging issue to HR managers in the hospitality industry (Holaday, 2007). Due to cultural diversity firms in the hospitality industry have encountered some serious questions. 1. How to upscale fairness for all employees despiteof their different cultural backgrounds? 2. How to increase the contribution of every member in a diverse team? 3. How to make the diverse workforce to work together with harmony to achieve common goals? For purposes of tackling these problems, firms involved in the provision of hospitality services have to make an efficient effort aimed at addressing the issue of cultural diversity. This is irrespective of whether the multicultural character or aspect emanates from the workforce, who comes from various international locations or countries, or even in one country, such as United States, but from a mixed background (Day, 2007). The concept of culture has different meaning to different people. The concept itself is complex, and this is because the name it has, refers to a broad and multi-dimensional concepts or phenomenon (Reisinger 2009, 86). It is intangible and only exist in peoples minds. It is also continuously changing and it is easy to get lost in the memories and mind of people. Cultures purpose is to explain how to interact with other

A computer virus Essay Example for Free

A computer virus Essay A computer virus is much the same as a human virus, but whereas flu affects the human body, the wonderfully named viruses Antics, stoned, Notepad A, michealangelo all affect the computer in various ways human can carry a virus without even knowing they have it (measles has an incubation period of a couple of weeks), a piece of computer equipment such as a floppy dice may similarly be carrying a virus without knowing. Unfortunately, the virus carrier may maliciously pass the virus on, knowing that there is an infection. A virus is a computer program that is intended to copy itself to other programs and causes disruption to the infected equipment. There are different types of virus. The Trojan horse is a virus which hides inside another program, a time bomb is one which is activated on a certain date, a logic bamboo is one activated by a certain condition Su as file being accessed 10 times, there are literally thousands of viruses around, some have been written maliciously. Others were designed to be nice, such as displaying the message Happy Christmas, but then destroyed information as a side effect. Doctors in the computer world are other programs, known as anti-virus software, or virus killing software. Anti-virus software can search disks oft viruses, then disinfect the disk if a virus us found. Gatekeepers exist which will scan any newly accessed information such as loading a file from floppy, or downloading e-mails from your internet Service Provider. Software is regularly updated to take account of the new viruses which appear daily. Most people update monthly. Anti-virus software is of fundamental importance in the modern ICT world. The only time you are safe is if you have a stand-alien computer not connected to any network, in which you use no disks, and only use legal software. (Even then I m afraid you are not entirely safe, as viruses have sometimes affected legal software, such as the Notepad A virus which is a macro virus which comes with MS Word 6. 0) Viruses infect computers, we will never get rid of them, and must be aware of their existence, and use our computer equipment sensibly, including wrapping up warm when winter comes!

Voluntary disclosure and corporate governance

Voluntary disclosure and corporate governance Introduction: Theforces that give rise in demand of information disclosure in modern capital market stems from the information asymmetry and agency conflicts existing between the management and the stockholders. Therefore, the solution to agency conflicts lies in the ownership structure and the function of board of directors. (Jensen and Meckling 1976) found that the Ownership structure is assessed by the proportion of shares held by managers and blockholders.So managerial ownership which is (the proportion of shares held by the CEO and executive directors) and blockholder ownership which is (the proportion of ordinary shares held by substantial shareholders) are two major governance mechanisms that help control agency problem. In addition, [Fama 1980] argues that the board of directors is the central internal control mechanism for monitoring managers. Financial reporting and disclosure are important resources for management to communicate firms performance and success of efficient capital market (ECM).Fama (1991) defined ECM as a market in which new information is accurately and quickly reflected in share prices. The incentive to voluntarily reveal information still under interest to both analytical and the empirical researchers.Analytical research concerned and verified issues as how competition affects disclosure, (Darrough and Stoughton 1990). Empirical researchers documented the influence of firm characteristics like size, leverage, listing and managerial ownership on disclosure. Firms provide disclosure by financial statements, management discussion and analysis, footnotes, furthermore some firms involved in voluntary supply such as internet sites, press releases, conference calls, management forecasts. Corporate disclosure is proxied by an aggregate discloser score of annual report, including background information, summary of historical results, non financial statistics, projected information and management decision and analyses. (Botosan 1997])and (Endg and Mak 2003). Voluntary disclosure is measured by the amount and detail of non mandatory information that is contained in the management decision and analyses in the annual report. Research problem: Corporate governance mechanism that is well practiced could benefit shareholder financially by exercising more control in the companies management. Moreover, the corporate governance characteristic can be seen as proxies for independents and the alignment of interest between management and the shareholder in minimizing the agency conflict. Many researches have been done among different countries to find out which factors could contribute to more disclosure by companies in their financial annual reports.Accordingly this research examines the impact of ownership structure, the profitability and board composition on corporate disclosure, in other words examining the relationship between corporate governance and voluntary disclosure, because the disclosure of information helps to reduce the cost of agency problems when there is an information asymmetry between management and shareholders . The efficiency gab has been narrowed in the worlds major economies but there remain important gabs in what we know. In particular, we lack a sufficient understanding of the complicated ways in which the various corporate governance mechanisms interact with each other and with other characteristics of firms and economies. Research Questions: Is there any relationship betweenlevel of profitability and the extent of voluntary disclosure? Is there any relationship between managerial ownership and the extent of voluntary disclosure? Is there any relationship betweenthe family member sitting on the board and the extent of voluntary disclosure? Research Objectives: The main objective of this study is to examine whichamong the variables contribute to voluntary disclosure and which attributes drive management toward increase disclosure levels. Specifically, the objectives of this study are listed below: To examine whether level of profitability affect the extent of voluntary disclosure of companies in Jordan. To examine whether managerial ownership structure affects the extent of voluntary disclosure of companies in Jordan. To examine whether the family member sitting on the board affect the extent of voluntary disclosure of companies in Jordan. Significance of Study: There are many parties will get benefits from this study, corporations, regulators, policy makers, the analytical, andempirical researches.This research will improve their understanding on which corporate governance factors affect the extant of voluntary disclosure and will increase their information about this area via providing additional evidence on corporate governance and disclosure. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Since separation of ownership and control is the predominant form of corporate governance, previous studies have investigated the relationship between the corporate governance mechanisms and firms disclosure behaviors. Many different theoretical perspectives and research methods have been employed by a wide range of research questions covering different countries and time periods. For example studies have been done by Chow and Wong-Boren (1987); Penmann (1988), Cooke (1991), Hossain et al. (1994) and Balachandran (2004). 2.1 Corporate governance The prior study mentions that the corporate governance refers to the way companies are directed and controlled. A primary concern is the likelihood of a deviation in the objectives of corporate managers from those of shareholders due to the agency costs involved in monitoring managerial behavior (Berle and Means 1932). Another study also mentions that the quality of corporate disclosures is associated with corporate governance characteristics. According to Bujaki and McConomy (2002), corporate governance has been described as the process and structure used to direct and manage business and affairs of the corporation with the objective of enhancing shareholder value†. Corporate governance has also been defined by the Finance Committee Report (1999) as â€Å"the manner in which firms top officers are being monitored and discipline accordingly with the objective ofenhancing shareholders value†. It is also claimed that â€Å"Corporate governance is the process and structure used to direct and manage the business and affairs of the company towards enhancing business prosperity and corporate accountability with the ultimate objective of realizing long term shareholder value†. Dey (1994) stated that proper corporate governance system can help ensure an effective division of authority among shareholders, the board of directors, and the management. According to recent reports by Newby (2001), investors are increasingly basing their investment decisions on companies corporate governance records and are willing to pay more for shares of well-governed companies compared to those of poorly governed companies. This premium for well-governed companies is explained by the role of corporate governance in a companys overall risk management strategy. 2.2 The agency theory Jensen Meckling (1976) in the agency theory provides a framework linking disclosure behavior to corporate governance. Corporate governance mechanisms are introduced to control the agency problem and ensure that managers act in the interests of shareholders. Theoretically, the impact of internal governance mechanisms on corporate disclosures may be complementary or substitutive. If it is complementary, agency theory predicts that a greater extent of disclosures is expected since the adoption of more governance mechanisms will strengthen the internal control of companies. Further, agency theory provides a framework for analyzing financial reporting incentive between managers and owners. Signaling theory explains why firms have an incentive to report voluntarily to the capital market even if there were no mandatory reporting requirements,and voluntary disclosure is necessary in order to come successfully in the market for risk capital,the ability of the firm to raise capital will be improved if the firm has a good reputation with respect to financial reporting. 2.3 Voluntary disclosure Penmann (1988) stated that financial disclosure could be divided into mandatory and voluntary disclosures. Mandatory disclosure is defined as any financial item disclosed in companies annual reports that are prescribed by accounting standards and or the stock exchange regulations. However, voluntary disclosure is defined as any financial item or data disclosed in annual reports of companies that are not prescribed by the companies act and or accounting standards, and, in addition, for public-listed companies, the stock exchange regulations. Further, Meek, Roberts Gray (1995) defined voluntary disclosures as disclosures in excess of requirements, representing free choices on the part of company managements to provide accounting and other information that deemed relevant to the decision needs of users of annual reports. Many studies have been carried out to explain voluntary information disclosure such as Chow and Wong-Boren (1987); Cooke (1991) Hossain et al. (1994) and so forth in their attempt to determine different levels of disclosures and the association between firms characteristics such as firms size and industry type and the levels of disclosure. In addition, good reporting is expected to lower firms cost of capital because there is less uncertainty in firms that reporting extensively and reliably. Therefore, there is less investments risk and lower required rate of return. According to Welker (1995), managers are not likely to withhold information for their own benefits under an intensive-monitoring environment, because this could lead to improvement in disclosure comprehensiveness and quality of financial statements. On the other hand, if the relationship is substitutive, companies will not provide more disclosures for more governance mechanisms since one corporate governance mechanism may substitute one another. If information asymmetry in a firm can be reduced because of the existing internal monitoring packages, the need for having additional governance devices is considered smaller. These apparently conflicting viewpoints on the impact of corporate governance have not been totally resolved, in spite of this theoretical ambiguity. Companies that perform well have a strong incentive to report their operating results. Competitive pressures would also force companies to report even though they did not have good results. Silence of a failure to report would be reinterpreted it as bad news. Companies with bad news would be motivated to report their results in order to avoid being suspected of having poor result. Such a situation would also force bad news firms to disclose results in order to maintain credibility in the capital market. 2.4 The reasons for voluntary disclosure Management of companies provides voluntary items in their annual reports because they perceived those items as important to be disclosed. Management wants to give information to users through annual reports in such a way that they are capable of meeting various needs of users for decision-making. There are various user groups of annual reports and each group has different perception regarding the voluntary items. One group may perceive item A as more important than item B. These differing perceptions among groups might be caused by different information needs to fulfill their specific purposes. Through annual reports, users can obtain more firms information relating to their decision-making. Although there are many sources of information regarding business entity, an annual report is considered the most important and valued source of information Vergoosen (1993). With regard to reasons why companies disclose voluntary items, theory suggests that many of the reasons why managements disclose items voluntarily to users are centered on the need to raise capital at the lowest possible cost (Cooke 1989). The following explanations may support reasons why companies disclose information voluntarily: Additional disclosures may help to attract new shareholders thereby helping to maintain a healthy demand for shares. Additional disclosure by providing more information relating to the present and future condition of firms wealth in order to build an image that may generate goodwill for future benefits (Iqbal et al 1997) Increased information may assist in reducing informational risk, which could lower the cost of capital. For the purpose of raising capital on the market, companies may increase their voluntary disclosure in annual reports. Consequently, listed companies are more likely to have a higher level of disclosure than unlisted companies Multiple listed companies often have an interest in foreign capital markets since foreign operations are often financed by capital (Choi Mueller 1992). Disclosure level might be increased to adapt to local customs to meet the requirements of banks and other suppliers of capital. Listed and multiple listed companies might increase their social responsibility disclosure to demonstrate that they act responsibly (Watts Zimerman 1979). Companies may have attained their status on the securities markets and are able to attract new shareholders for raising fund because they act responsibly (Cooke 1989) Under the capital markets transactions hypothesis, managers who plan on making capital market transactions (i.e., issuing public debt or equity) have incentives to provide voluntary disclosures to reduce information asymmetry between the managers and investors (Healy and Palepu 1995). According to the litigation cost hypothesis, the threat of litigation can encourage firms to increase voluntary disclosure (Skinner 1994). Table 1: Summary of previous studies examining Firm characteristics and the level of voluntary disclosure Year of study Author Country Variables used Result 1987 Chow and Wong Boren Mexico Firm size, financial leverage, and assets in place. The extent of voluntary disclosure is significantly related to firm size but not to firm leverage and assets in place. 1991 Cooke Japan Company size, Stock market listing, and industry types. Size was the single most important variable in explaining variation in voluntary disclosure. Stock market listing was also found to be a significant predictor, and manufacturing firms were found to disclose more information that other types. 1994 Hossain et al. Malaysia Firm size, ownership structure, foreign listing status, leverage, assets in place, and size of audit firm. Firm size, ownership structure, foreign listing status is statistically related to the level of information voluntarily disclosed by publicly traded companies. In contrast, leverage, assets in place and size of audit firm do not appear to be important factors in explaining voluntary disclosure by firms. 2001 Ho, Wong Hong Kong independent directors, voluntary audit committee, dominant personalities, family members on the board, voluntary disclosure The results indicate that the existence of an audit committee is significantly and positively related to the extent of voluntary disclosure, while the percentage of family members on the board is negatively related to the extent of voluntary disclosure. 2004 Balachandran Malaysia Voluntary disclosure, CEO duality and the proportion of independent directors on the board and on audit committees He found that CEO duality is associated with lower levels of voluntary corporate disclosures. It was also found a positive relationship between the proportion of independent non-executive directors on both the board and the audit committee to the extent of voluntary corporate disclosure. CHAPTER 3 HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT 3.0 Introduction Upon existing academic literature several determinants explain why a firm may provide more information voluntarily than mandatory. Different theories such as agency theory, signaling theory, political cost theory, capital needs theory and so forth have also been used to explain those voluntary disclosures This chapter covers the theoretical framework, the hypotheses, the model specification and measurements of variables, disclosure index development and finally this chapter presents the model of the study. 3.1 Variables and framework 3.1.1 Profitability (Foster 1986) suggests that profitable, will managed firms have incentives do distinguish themselves from less profitable firms in order to raise capital on the best available terms by providing voluntary disclosures. Managers are motivated to disclose more detailed information to support the continuities of their positions and remuneration. Therefore, more profitable firms can be expected to disclose more voluntary information. (Haniffa and cooke 2002) find a positive and significant association between the firms profitability and the extent of voluntary discloser. This means that when there is increase in the profitability the voluntary discloser of this firm will increase. Therefore, it is hypothesized that: H1: there is a relationship between companys profitability and the extant of the voluntary disclosure 3.1.2 Managerial ownership ( Jensen and Meckling 1976) mention that agency theory argues that in a diffused ownership environment, firms will disclose more information to reduce agency costs and information asymmetry. In a more concentrated ownership situation, the impact on voluntary disclosure is more complicated. The argument can be made in either direction indicate that since managers pursue their own interest, higher management shareholding would imply a larger sharing of the loss, and ultimately, a lower possibility that management would lower corporate value. Managerial ownership is the percentage of ordinary shares held by the CEO and executive directors, and includes their deemed interests. When managerial ownership falls, outside shareholders will increase monitoring of managers behavior (Jensen and Meckling 1976). To reduce monitoring costs by outside shareholders, the manager will provide voluntary disclosure. Thus, voluntary disclosure is a substitute for monitoring. In addition, a study by (McKinnon and Dalimunthe 1993) found a significant association between ownership structure in diversified Australian companies and voluntary segment disclosure. (Hossain et al 1994) found that the level of disclosure of Malaysian companies is inversely related to the percentage of shares held by the ten most important shareholders. Further, empirical evidence shows that managerial ownership is negatively related to disclosure (Ruland, Tung and George 1990). Hence it is expected that voluntary disclosure increases with decreases in managerial ownership. Therefore it is hypothesized that: H2: There is a relationship between managerial ownership and the extent of voluntary disclosures. 3.1.3 Family member on the board When members of the board own a large number of shares and at the same time they are relatives from one family or a number of families, this may affect the financial disclosure practice of the firm. (Haniffa and Cooke 2002) in their study reported that the percentage of family ownership in any firm may influence the disclosure practice of the firm. It has been suggested that in countries where certain families have equity holdings there should be a little physical separation between those who own and those who manage the capital. (Ho and Wong 2001) mention that, the family control phenomenon is still in existence nowadays. However, it is still not clear to what extent the unique corporate ownership structure would impact the effectiveness of other monitoring devices such as audit committee, independent non-executive directors and CEO duality in determining a firms financial disclosure. Further, they stress that in a family-controlled firm, members of the controlling family would directly participate in the daily management of the firm by appointing themselves as executives and board directors. It is also assumed that every family member owns and votes its shares collectively. In theory, there are potential conflicts between the controlling and non controlling shareholders of a firm due to the formers propensity to extract private benefits through their involvement in the firm and other insider dealings. (Nicholls and Ahmed 1994) argued that capital owners do not have to rely completely on voluntary disclosure to the public to monitor their investments because they have greater access to internal information rather than the general public and stakeholders. This conclusion and findings are based on the idea that since members on the board have more information than external users this will negatively affect the extent of voluntary disclosure. This means that when the family ownership is large the voluntary disclosure of this firm will be less. It is assumed that companies with a family member sitting on the board are more likely to have lower level of voluntary disclosure than otherwise. Therefore, it is hypothesized that: H3: There is relationship between the family member sitting on the board and the extent of voluntary disclosure. 3.1.4 Control Variables From a review of the prior literature on voluntary disclosure, it was decided to include three control variables in the regression model for testing the main hypotheses. The control variables are firm size, leverage, and assets in place. Firstly, Firm size (SIZE): as a view of the association with higher levels of disclosure and firms size, (Firth 1978) who examined the impact of firm size, stock market listing, and auditors presence on voluntary corporate disclosure found that firms size and stock market listing were positively associated with voluntary disclosure. (McNally et al 1982) found that the companys size has significant relationship with the level of voluntary disclosure items. (Hossain et al 1994) found that firm size and Ownership structure of foreign-listing status are statistically related to the level of information voluntarily disclosed by publicly traded companies. Secondly, Assets in place (AIP): In relation to assets in place, (Hossain and Mitraa 2004) in their study examine the assets-in-place in determining the level of voluntary disclosure of data on foreign operations made by US multinational companies. The results indicate that assets-in-place influence the level of voluntary disclosure of data of US multinational companies. In contrast, (Chow and Wong-Boren 1987) examined the effect of proportion of assets in place on the voluntary disclosure. The results have not demonstrated any convincing evidence of any relationships. Thirdly, Leverage (LEVERAGE): the definition of leverage is the degree to which an investor or business is utilizing borrowed money. For companies, leverage is measured by the debt-to-equity ratio, which is calculated by dividing total debt by shareholders equity. The more total debt there is, the greater the financial leverage and the greater the risk of the company falling on its face. For investors, leverage means buying on margin or using derivatives such as options, to enhance return on value without increasing investment. Leveraged investing can be extremely risky because you can lose not only your money but the money you borrowed as well. Voluntary disclosure of information concerning debt fund may allow shareholders and bondholders to make better predictions about the growth, risk and return prospects of companies. Therefore, firms with higher leverage tend to disclose more information than the lower ones. (Cadbury 1995) in his study found that there was a positive associatio n between leverage and the extent of voluntary segment disclosure among New Zealand firms. 3.1.5 Framework Considering all factors of the independents and dependent variables, the model of the study is depicted the following figure. 3.2 Measurement Dependant variable Definition Measurement DSCORE Discloser score Total number of points awarded for voluntary discloser, strategic, non-financial and financial information (coding one â€Å"1† if the company disclose and Zero â€Å"0† otherwise) Independent variables Definition Measurement ROA Profitability Return on Assets MOWN Managerial ownership The proportion of ordinary shares held by the CEO and executive directors ( dividing the directors shares on total shared issued and fully paid) FMB Family member in the board Coding one (1) if there is family ownership and zero (0) otherwise Control variables Size Firm size This variable is measured by the log (base ten) of total assets LEV leverage The ratio of total debt of total equity value of the firm AIP Asset in place The ratio of net book value of fixed assets to total assets 3.3 Disclosure Index There is no agreed theory on the number and selection of items that should be included in a disclosure index. (Cooke and Wallace 1989) argued that the measurement of accounting disclosure is a procedure that has some inherent limitations and subjectivity. To reduce the subjectivity, the literature suggests that the following steps should be taken into consideration when constructing the index (see for example in Hossain et al. 1994). * Review the previous literature to draw a list of voluntary disclosure items. * Check that these items are not required by regulations and eliminate or omit any mandatory items. * Refine the list and get the views of academics and professionals on the items. Disclosure level can be measured in a number of different ways. The commonly used approach has been adopted using a discretionary item scores â€Å"1† if it is disclosed, and â€Å"0† if it is not disclosed. This method of scoring is known as the un-weighted approach based on the assumption that each item of disclosure is equally important. An un-weighted approach has been used in several prior studies like (Wallace 1988) and (Cooke 1989) in their study employ un-weighted disclosure index. (Gul and Leung 2004) reported that the final disclosure list contained 44 discretionary items such as background information, financial performance information and non-financial performance information. The background information includes matters that cover corporate goals, competition, products and markets. On the other hand, performance information includes items such as changes in sales, gross profits and RD expenditures. Furthermore, Non-financial information includes number of employees, and staff training and products segment analysis. For each item in the disclosure index, the company receives a score of ‘‘1 if it voluntarily discloses information on the item and ‘‘0 if otherwise. Furthermore, In (Balachandran 2004) study, he measures the disclosure score index that comprises the consideration of 66 discretionary items. He mentions that the study used approximately 60% of the discretionary items as used in the previously detailed studies. Further, (HO and WONG 2001), in their study measured also the reported disclosure by using a relative disclosure index. It was derived by first compiling a comprehensive list of voluntary disclosure items that companies may provide in their annual reports in Hong Kong. The index consists of total 20 items of most important that disclosed in annual report. However, in the present study, the extent of voluntary disclosure was measured by using a disclosure index which contains of items that disclosed in the annual report.For each item in the disclosure index, a company receives a score of ‘‘1 if it is voluntarily disclosed information on the items and ‘‘0 for otherwise. 3.4 Data Collection This research will use secondary data obtained from the annual reports of all the Jordanian companies. 3.5 Sample Selection The sample for this thesis is all Jordanian companies which are listed on Amman Stock Exchange; therefore the sample includes ninety three companies and covers the period 2002-2007. 3.6 Data Analysis: 3.6.1 The Descriptive Statistics This descriptive study produced the mean, minimum, maximum and standard deviation for each variable for Jordanian companies during 2002-2007. 3.6.2 The Correlation of variables This study shows how one variable is related to another. The results of this analysis represent the nature, direction and significant of the correlation of the variables used in this study and the correlation between variables is analyzed by using

Writers of the 1920s Essay -- Authors

Writers of the 1920's The 1920's had many influential writers in literature. While reaching this time period it is almost certain that the names William Faulkner, Earnest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald will be found. Each of the writers has their own personal style of writing and each one of the lives has influenced what they write about to even the way they each portray their literature. William Cuthbert Faulkner was born into a financially stable family from New Albany, Mississippi. Faulkner dropped out of high school to work in his grandfathers store. While at the store Faulkner found out he enjoyed writing. Faulkner enrolled at U of Mississippi to pursue his his passion of writing. ("William Faulkner",Discovering Authors) Another author of great influence was Earnest Hemingway. Hemingway was a genius. He had a way of making his novels talk to his readers. Hemingway had a very well to do childhood, but as he grew older he resented his parents. Hemingway's first writing job was for the Toronto Daily Star. (Nelson32) At the star he did a lot of police and hospital beat ...

The Themes of Love and Relationships in Pop Music :: Teaching Education

The Themes of Love and Relationships in Pop Music The life of an adolescent varies from day to day. For every good thing, most likely there is a bad thing. This doesn’t always happen, but this constant changing of moods can greatly affect the stress one feels. Adolescents will look for some form of relief, this often being music. Turning on the radio while doing homework can help people stay relaxed and get through an assignment. Drifting off for thirty minutes while you listen to your favorite band on a pair of headphones can be the cure also. It is not what an individual turns on that matters, as long as it is what they like. Not everyone is going to listen to Top 40 music, but a majority will so we focus on the top five songs. The top five songs of today do not differ that much thematically from when I was fourteen with the most common theme being love. The re-invasion of pop music has brought out the theme of love and relationships even more so then ever. If a songwriter has â€Å"writer’s block†, then the simple solution is to write a love song. â€Å"All I want is you (Come over here baby). All I want is you (You make me go crazy)... I‘m gonna love you right...† (Aguilera), is part of the chorus to Christina Aguilera’s song â€Å"Come on Over†. The attraction to this song to girls is in thinking that they could be in the situation of the female character in the song, finding the perfect guy and spending time with him. For guys, the attraction comes because a beautiful girl is singing this and they can pretend that she is singing to them. Something similar is also found in the song â€Å"Doesn’t Really Matter† by Janet Jackson. In this song she is stating all the things she loves about a certain individual. She can live with his imperfections and doesn’t care what a nyone else cares. â€Å"Doesn’t really matter what the eye is seeing. Cause I’m in love with the inner being. And it doesn’t really matter what they believe. What matters to me is you’re nutty, nutty, nutty for me.† (Janet Jackson) This song is good in that it is a love song unlike many out there today. In this song we see that the main character loves her man because of who he is.

Pentium 4 Essay -- Intel CPU Central Processing Units

Recently Intel introduced their newest line of the Pentium 4 processors with the new Prescott core. In this paper I will discuss how the Pentium 4 processor works and the changes that have been made since its release, but mainly on the modifications in the newest Pentium 4's with the Prescott core. I will also briefly compare the performance levels of some of the different types of Pentium 4's. The Pentium 4 line of processors encompasses a large range of clock speeds, from 1.7GHz up to 3.6GHz in the Prescott chip. Pentium 4's are all built with the same Netburst microarchitecture, but there are varieties of front side bus speeds, chip layout, and cores available. For example at 2.8GHz, one could choose from four different Pentium 4s: the 2.8GHz (a Northwood core with a 533MHz front-side bus), the 2.8C (Northwood again, but with an 800MHz bus), the 2.8A (Prescott with a 533MHz bus), or the 2.8E (Prescott with 800MHz bus). In all there are four types Pentium 4 versions that Intel has released each having slight improvements then the last. The first Pentium 4 (Willamette) was introduced in November 2000 to replace its predecessor the Pentium 3. The Pentium 4 was the first to have a totally new chip architecture since the 1995 Pentium Pro. The biggest difference being Intel's introduction of the Netburst microarchitecture, which involved structural changes that affected how processing takes place within the chip. Aspects of the changes include: a 20-stage pipeline, which boosts performance by increasing processor frequency; a rapid-execution engine, which doubles the core frequency and reduces latency by enabling each instruction to be executed in a half (rather than a whole) clock cycle; a 400 MHz system bus, which ena... ...helped immensely in offsetting Prescott's enlarged 31-stage pipeline, but did not entirely make up the gap. On balance, Prescotts are slightly slower than Northwoods. In time it is expected that the Prescott P4s will look relatively stronger as SSE3 instructions are adopted in more software application and, especially, as clock speeds rise. But it seems that the real strength of Prescott seems to lie in its Hyper-Threading performance. In the most of the multitasking tests, the Prescott performed better than the Northwood CPU. The Pentium 4 Extreme Edition was the best performer, but unfortunately it is also very expensive. The P4 Extreme Edition had the best results for content creation and video editing applications. Also as Intel suggested the P4 Extreme Edition performed very well for games, but I do not believe it is significant enough to warrant the extra cost.

Elizabeth Costello in J.M Coetzee’s in relation to the theme of Kafka’s works Essay

Elizabeth Costello is a humane, ethical and uncompromising creation of Coetzee. In Coetzee’s book The Lives of Animals, Costello is used to describe her dislike and rejection of the rationality of the criteria justifying the unequal treatment of animals. Costello claims that the purpose of the book is to clarify that to differentiate beings with regard of their species is a form of discrimination, indefensible and immoral. Costello also maintains that she had chosen the path not because she was not aware of the crucial kind of thoughts and sentiments of respect regarding other creatures, but because the reason was more universal and compelling to appeal. Costello maintains though she admired those who eliminated speciesism form their lives due to their compassionate regard for other creatures she did not believe a pressure to empathy and good-heartedness only would prove to majority of the people into the wrongness of speciesism. Nevertheless, the messages Costello portrays are not from the invisible world although from the invisible of this world most cases the voiceless like animals that she can access by imagination. She is not worried with other earthly, disembodied voices, although this-worldly, embodied and embedded voices, dead or alive perpetrators fictional or historical. The human critics such as Costello are opposed to the authority of the world of other world as he is to the powers of this world. Costello proclaims that there is not any salvation to be brought into being in an afterlife in immortality. Costello is midwife not to immortal Forms, although a mortal voices and to being of the voices. The power of imagination stays not only in its potential to stir up and listen to other voices and to enter into speaking for other including for the voiceless but also use narrative to depiction literature in the particular work of narrative that rationally is divine spark that raises mankind above the rest of nature therefore in showing our continuity with animal-kind which allows us to regain our death, our humanity and imperfectness. The similarities between Costello and Socrates are outstanding, and are more striking than their differences. Similar to Socrates, Costello attempts to prompt persons to realize their humanity, to open their hearts, to the anguish of animals. Costello just like Socrates is faced by unfairness, which in her case is the discrimination of specialism, which she attempts to dispel with counter-illusions. â€Å"What does one choose the side of justice when it is not in one’s material interest to? The magistrates give the rather Platonic answer: because we are born with the idea of justice. † (Paola, et al. , 95). In The Lives of Animals the disregarded has come to take account of non-human animals. Costello is convinced that there is a crime regarding animals as stupid that is perpetrated towards animals. Costello challenge is to attempt to extend justice to animals especially to those that resemble humans. In Socrates, Plato’s mouthpiece in the Republic, spends the whole discussion arguing for justice suggesting that it is better to live rightly and show to be unjust than being unjust with all material rewards that come by and yet show to be just, Costello ends her speech by saying that proof points in the opposite direction and that individuals can do anything and get away with it that there is no reprimand. In The Poets and the Animals Costello disapproves the ecological approach to animals suggested by Plato since Plato’s perception implies that only human beings can understand the position of living things in the entire picture of natural world and as a result solely have the right to manage animal populations not including human population. Therefore (Paola, et al. , 102), might have valid point which is that a person should not enforce principled vegetarianism on a society but its misdirected as a disapproval of the position of Costello since she had gone to the great lengths to disapprove reason as decisive criterion of moral worth and as an only means to live an ethical life. Costello maintains that it is not right to construe the animal rights movement like imposing vegetarianism upon free citizens. Instead it appears as protecting the interests and the rights of nonhuman animals, guarding animals form exploitation, though this might as well lead to outlawing the eating of meat. Nevertheless, is clear that just as Coetzee distrusts commitment to moral principles he is suspicious of certain notions of justice. Coetzee and Costello’s aim is to alter the heart of individuals through feeling, friction and compassionate imagination instead of enforcing a large-scale utopian changing of society as purportedly stated by reason. Costello is perceived as arrogantly superior and as heralding a foreign set of values that of fighting for animal rights in opposition to blindly anthropocentric culture, and both individuals made numerous enemies by courageously inquiring the prejudices of the people around them. The arrogance of Costello can be demonstrated by certain members his audience anger having their discrimination and lack of knowledge exposed. In addition, Costello seems to be earnestly attempting to break through the shadows of ignorance and prejudice with the light of her imaginative sympathy and is ready to admit that she dose not understand that she could be correct â€Å"Am I fantasizing it all? I must be mad! † (Derek, 69). Costello might be ironically aware that some of her images might be imaginative for example when she gives anthropomorphic feelings to ape, Sultan: â€Å"In his deepest being Sultan is not interested in the banana problem. Only the experimenter’s single-minded regimentation compels him on it. The question that truly occupies him, as it occupies a rat and the cat and other animal trapped in hell f the laboratory or the zoo, is: where is home, and how do I get there? † (Stephen, 69). Costello was attempting to get her audience to think, feel and imagine that in new ways about something persons do not care to regard at all, specifically their use and abuse of animals: certainly she desires people to imagine how it would experience in the place of an exploited animal a state of powerlessness. Costello believes the mission will awaken individuals form their assertive sleep. Costello does not attempt to reject the reason for the infallibility and its assertion to make a distinction between animals and human beings and therefore doe not give good reason for the exploitation of animals. In The Lives of Animals, Coetzee portrays Costello as a Socrates figure. The analysis starts with â€Å"What is Realism? † since it was first in 1997, prior to its publishing in Elizabeth Costello in 2003. The Socratic and Platonic ideologies are clearly evident in this story strengthens the contention that Costello plays a role as Socratic figure in The Lives of Animals. Certainly, Coetzee refers to this story in his fist foot note of The Lives of Animals therefore further sustaining this perspective. In â€Å"What is Realism? † Platonic ideas are crucial to the story. Even though Coetzee keeps interrupting his realist mode and drawing attention to the fact that it is an undertaking therefore suggesting that realism and certainly all fiction deals with imaginations and there are times the power of fiction to attain immortality is asserted though always ironical. The depiction to the monkeys echoes Costello’s discussion of Kafka’s ape, suggesting that artistic creation is what differentiates humans from other animals. The story of Socrates might also illuminate other features of Elizabeth Costello, as described in The Lives of Animals, namely her reference to her embodiedness and her mortality. A similar relationship takes place between Costello and Coetzee, and in spite of his undeniable intellectual contributions as a public thinker, Coetzee remains retiring and an imaginary figure. On the other hand Costello is depicted as heavily embodied throughout Elizabeth Costello and The Lives of Animals. Behind every dialogue of Plato Socrates emerges and there is a consciousness of the fact that Socrates will be executed by the Athenian democracy for impiety and corruption of the youth. The same feeling of Costello’s mortality, together with a declining sense of desire, accompanies all Coetzee’s works in which he is featured. Therefore when Costello cannot be regarded as a martyr for her beliefs as did the Socrates there is nevertheless a feeing in which she is dying for her beliefs. Costello’s own mortality and feeling of her mortality heightens her compassion for animals that are being bred in numerous numbers and when still healthy and young are being exploited for experimentation, hunting testing and slaughter. â€Å"After a long flight, Costello is looking at her age. She has never taken care of her appearance; she used to be able to get away with it; now it shows. Old and tired. † (Stephen, 3). These illustrations continue in the beginning of the first paragraph of The Lives of Animals: He is waiting at the gate when her flight comes in. Two years have passed since he last saw his mother; despite himself, he is shocked at how she has aged. Her hair, which had had sneaks of gray in it, now was entirely white; her shoulders stoop; her flesh has grown flabby. In Costello’s speeches death is recurrent topic, in a sense The Lives of Animals reads like a memento mori for Coetzee himself. John (Costello’s son) guesses that his mother was about to talk about death. John dose not enjoy Costello talking about death and in addition her audience who majority consists of young people do not want any talks regarding death. Costello goes ahead in comparing the mass killing of animals in abattoirs to the mass killings of Jews in Nazi death camps. All through her speech, Costello talk about and describes the Nazi death camps and she returns to discuss death while talking about Nagel’s bat-being. â€Å"What I know is what a corpse does not know: that it is extinct, that it knows nothing and will never know anything more. For an instant, before my whole structure of knowledge collapses in panic, I am alive inside that contradiction, dead and alive at the same time. † (Derek, 32). Costello’s talk about lives of animals can be more or less lessened to her own solitude, seclusion and awareness of her own human mortality and all that she required was compassionate interaction with other human beings. In Slow man Costello is illustrated as returning rejuvenated. In The Lives of Animals, when Costello starts her conversation, she returns to her use of Kafka earlier in another speech, â€Å"What is Realism? † in which she identifies with Kafka’s ape, Red Peter. In both cases Costello points her similarity with Red Peter in that they are both salaried entertainers performing before a literate audience. Afterwards in her speech, Costello returns again to Kafka, and uses the terminologyâ€Å" amanuensis† two times with reference to the association between Kafka and his imaginative creation, the ape Red Peter (Franz, 35). The meaning of â€Å"amanuensis† is a person employed to take dictation or to copy manuscripts. The use of the phrase is not usual since it implies that Kafka the author took dictation from Red Peters in his imaginative creation. The same case applies in the relation between the writer Coetzee and Costello his imaginative creation. In the two cases, the normal causal association between the author and the character, creature and creator is interchanged. Costello and Red Peters are used by the authors as creatures that have an artistic reliability, a life of their own, which the authors have represented faithfully. The authors have respected the individual beings and voices of these creations. The two creations are required to come across as living animals and not just the ideal of animals. In â€Å"What is Realism? † Costello disputes that the greatness of Kafka is that Kafka stays awake during the gaps when people are sleeping. † WORKS CITED Derek, Attridge, J. M. Coetzee and the Ethics of Reading: Literature in the Event. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2004. Stephen, Mulhall, The Wounded Animal: J. M. Coetzee & the Difficulty of Reality in Literature and Philosophy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008. Paola, et al. , The Death of the Animal: A Dialogue, New York: Columbia University Press: 2009. Franz, Kafka, The Diaries of Franz Kafka 1910–23 . London: Vintage, 1999.

Balance Sheet For Microsoft Corporation Accounting Essay

Microsoft is the most outstanding engineering corporation in the universe that deals with computing machines, † With one-year grosss of more than $ 32 billion, Microsoft Corporation is more than the largest package company in the universe: it is a cultural phenomenon. The company ‘s nucleus concern is based on developing, fabrication, and licencing package merchandises, including runing systems, waiter applications, concern and consumer applications, and package development tools, every bit good as Internet package, engineerings, and services † . ( http: //www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Microsoft-Corporation-Company-History.html ) hypertext transfer protocol: //www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/14/Microsoft-Corporation.htmlA A A A hypertext transfer protocol: //www.redciencia.cu/empres/Intempres2000/Sitio/Principal/Conferencias/CUBA_Inteligencia % 20Empresarial/victor/bcrc6.htm †The name of the celebrated individual – Bill Gates comes in one ‘s head with reference of the name of Microsoft. He is the laminitis of the company and is believed to be the smartest coders of all time. † ( hypertext transfer protocol: //www.bighistory.net/microsoft-a-short-history/ ) . Led by him, Microsoft had witnessed its flowers and has been able to hold its merchandise on about every personal computing machine in the universe, and in the procedure making criterions in the engineering industry every bit good as market re-definition. †Gates was foremost exposed to computing machines at school in the late 60 ‘s with his friend Paul Allen. At 14 ; Gates and he ‘s friend were composing and proving computing machine plans. In 1972 they established their first company, Traf-O-Data, which sold a fundamental computing machine that, recorded and analyzed traffic informations. He ‘s friend went on to analyze computing machine scientific discipline at the University of Washington and so dropped out to work at Honeywell, while Gates enrolled at Harvard. In 1975, Gates and Allen wrote a version of BASIC for the new Altair personal computer kit merely released by MITS Computer. Later that twelvemonth Gates left college to work full clip developing programming linguistic communications for the Altair, and he and Allen relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to be close MITS Computer, where Allen took a place as manager of package development. Gates and Allen named their partnership Micro-soft † . ( http: //www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Microsoft-Corporation-Company-History.html ) . The word Microsoft was developed from two different words, micro from personal computer and soft from package. The name was registered in New Mexico in November 1976. On November 1978, the first international office of Microsoft was established in Japan and its name was ASCII ( American Standard Code for Information Interchange ) . It is now known as Microsoft Japan. In January 1979 the company ‘s central office was moved to Bellevue Washington. ( http: //www.bighistory.net/microsoft-a-short-history/ ) . In the early 80 ‘s, Microsoft witnessed a period of great success when IBM contracted the company to develop an operating system for its personal computing machines ( Personal computer ) , which was underway. In the late 80 ‘s Microsoft issued IPOs ( initial public offering ) of over two million portions and in the infinite of one twelvemonth the monetary value or the portions tripled and in the procedure doing Gates a billionaire at about 30 old ages of age. Harmonizing to Richard B, McKenzie ( 2000 ) †Microsoft bases accused of seeking to widen its market laterality by bear downing the lowest of all monetary values for its browser Internet Explorer † . Nonetheless ; the company had tonss of other critics and legal instances against it from rivals and the likes. Microsoft success was further heightened by the tech bubble of the 2000 following the release of the Windowss XP, windows 2000, the acquisition of Visio corporation which stood as the largest acquisition in the life of Microsoft so far with dealing value of about One and half a billion dollars. The company besides spread its tentacles into the universe of bet oning with their popularly known X-BOX which has remained a success boulder clay day of the month. ( http: //www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Microsoft-Corporation-Company-History.html ) .DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF MICROSOFT PERFORMANCE OVERTIMECardinal Dates:1975: Microsoft is founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen ; they sell BASIC, the first Personal computer computing machine linguistic communication plan to MITS Computer, Microsoft ‘s first client. 1981: Microsoft, Inc. is incorporated ; IBM uses Microsoft ‘s 16-bit operating system for its first personal computing machine. 1982: Microsoft, U.K. , Ltd. is incorporated. 1983: Paul Allen resigns as executive vice-president but remains on the board ; Jon Shirley is made president of Microsoft ( he subsequently becomes CEO ) ; Microsoft introduces the Microsoft Mouse and Word for MS-DOS 1.00. 1985: Microsoft and IBM forge a joint development understanding. 1986: Microsoft stock goes public at $ 21 per portion. 1987: The Company ‘s first CD-ROM application, Microsoft Bookshelf, is released. 1990: Jon Shirley retires as president and CEO ; Michael R. Hallman is promoted in Shirley ‘s topographic point ; the company becomes the first Personal computer package house to excel $ 1 billion of gross revenues in a individual twelvemonth. 1992: Bill Gates is awarded the National Medal of Technology for Technological Achievement. 1993: The Company introduces Windows NT. 1995: Bill Gates publishes his first book, The Road Ahead. 1996: The Company acquires Vermeer Technologies and its package application, FrontPage. 1997: The Justice Department alleges that Microsoft violated a 1994 consent edict refering licencing the Windows runing system to computing machine makers. 1998: The U.S. Department of Justice files two antimonopoly instances against Microsoft, avering the company had violated the Sherman Act. 2000: The Company acquires Visio Corporation, its largest acquisition to day of the month. 2001: Microsoft Windows XP is released internationally. 2003: Microsoft launches Windows Server 2003. 2007: Microsoft launches Windows view 2009: Microsoft launches windows 7 Beginning: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Microsoft-Corporation-Company-History.htmlBalance sheet for Microsoft Corporation as at 30th June 2010. ( Annually )Assetss [ + ] in Millions of Dollars06/201006/200906/200806/200706/2006Cash and Equivalents 5,505 6,076 10,339 6,111 6,714 Restrictable Cash–––––Marketable Securities 31,283 25,371 13,323 17,300 27,447 Histories Receivable 13,014 11,192 13,589 11,338 9,316 Loans Receivable–––––Other Receivables–––––Receivabless 13,014 11,192 13,589 11,338 9,316 Inventories, Raw Materials 172 170 417 435 465 Inventories, Work in Progress 16 45 31 148–Inventories, Purchased Components–––––Inventories, Finished Goods 552 502 537 544 1,013 Inventories, Other–––––Inventories, Adjustments & A ; Allowances–––––Inventories 740 717 985 1,127 1,478 Prepaid Expenses–––––Current Deferred Income Taxes 2,184 2,213 2,017 1,899 1,940 Other Current Assetss 2,950 3,711 2,989 2,393 2,115Entire Current Assets55,67649,28043,24240,16849,010Land and Improvements 526 526 518 428 362 Buildings and Improvement 8,187 7,824 6,030 4,247 3,146 Machinery, Furniture and Equipment 7,546 6,732 5,996 4,691 3,715 Construction in Advancement–––––Fixed Assets, Other–––––Fixed Assets, Entire 16,259 15,082 12,544 9,366 7,223 Gross Fixed Assetss 16,259 15,082 12,544 9,366 7,223 Accumulated Depreciation ( 8,629 ) ( 7,547 ) ( 6,302 ) ( 5,016 ) ( 4,179 ) Net Fixed Assetss 7,630 7,535 6,242 4,350 3,044 Intangibles 1,158 1,759 1,973 878 539 Cost in Excess 12,394 12,503 12,108 4,760 3,866 Non-Current Deferred Income Taxes–279 949 1,389 2,611 Other Non-Current Assetss 9,255 6,532 8,279 11,626 10,527Entire Non-Current Assetss30,43728,60829,55123,00320,587Entire Assetss86,11377,88872,79363,17169,597Liabilitiess [ + ] in Millions of Dollars06/201006/200906/200806/200706/2006Histories Collectible 4,207 5,008 4,034 3,247 2,909 Short Term Debt 1,000 2,000–––Notes Collectible–––––Accrued Expenses–––––Accrued Liabilitiess 3,283 3,156 2,934 2,325 1,938 Deferred Grosss 13,652 13,003 13,397 10,779 9,138 Current Deferred Income Taxes––––1,557 Other Current Liabilitiess 4,005 3,867 9,521 7,403 6,900Entire Current Liabilitiess26,14727,03429,88623,75422,442Long Term Debt 4,939 3,746–––Deferred Income Tax 229––––Other Non-Current Liabilitiess 8,623 7,550 6,621 8,320 7,051 Minority Interest–––––Capital Lease Obligations–––––Preferred Securities of Subsidiary Trust–––––Preferred Equity Outside Shareholders ‘ Equity–––––Entire Non-Current Liabilitiess13,79111,2966,6218,3207,051Entire Liabilitiess39,93838,33036,50732,07429,493Preferred Shareholder ‘s Equity–––––Common Shareholder ‘s Equity 46,175 39,558 36,286 31,097 40,104 Common Par 62,856 62,382 62,849––Additional Paid in Capital–––60,557 59,005 Accumulative Translation Adjustments–––149–Retained Net incomes ( 16,681 ) ( 22,824 ) ( 26,563 ) ( 31,114 ) ( 20,130 ) Treasury Stock–––––Other Equity Adjustments–––1,505 1,229 Entire Capitalization 51,114 43,304 36,286 31,097 40,104Entire Equity46,17539,55836,28631,09740,104Entire Liabilities & A ; Shareholder ‘s Equity86,11377,88872,79363,17169Closing monetary value = $ 25.51 Volume sold =25.16m Beginning: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.answers.com/main/dsdata? dsid=2940 & A ; templateid=0 & A ; cid=27590212 & A ; qm_page=30703. [ Accessed, 4 April 2011 ] . The balance sheet above gives a brief sum-up of the plus and liabilities of Microsoft at a glimpse, it is evident that Microsoft has been able to keep plus at a greater proportion than liabilities overtime. The company has a good mix of debt and equity, for every $ 1 owned it is borrowing less than 90 cents. This shows that the company is non excessively leveraged and less hazardous while besides basking some degree of revenue enhancement shield from the purchase. Microsoft has a good opportunity of go oning into a traveling concern in the nearest foreseeable hereafter because its capital construction shows more of a residuary ownership. With more descriptive statistics, we can besides analyze the public presentation of Microsoft on a monthly footing from the twelvemonth 1988- 2009 utilizing returns ( unit % ) See excel for descriptive statistics. Microsoft return ( unit % ) Market return ( unit % ) Mean 0.021622876 Mean 0.857870722 Standard Error 0.00618845 Standard Error 0.269942879 Median 0.022084196 Median 1.41 Manner 0.064221396 Manner 1.78 Standard Deviation 0.100359793 Standard Deviation 4.377737838 Sample Variance 0.010072088 Sample Variance 19.16458858 Kurtosis 1.421423202 Kurtosis 1.709578314 Lopsidedness 0.366537791 Lopsidedness -0.812673531 Scope 0.751310392 Scope 29.51 Minimum -0.343529412 Minimum -18.46 Maximum 0.40778098 Maximum 11.05 Sum 5.686816298 Sum 225.62 Count 263 Count 263 From the descriptive statistics above, Microsoft has a positive lopsidedness unlike the market whose lopsidedness is negative, this indicates that Microsoft has a better flow or return than the market. It could besides be noted that Microsoft is ( 1 ) criterion divergence off from its average whereas the market is ( 4 ) criterion divergence off from its mean, this means that the returns of Microsoft had non been excessively volatile over the old ages and return on stocks are less hazardous.COMPARISON OF MOCROSOFT PERFORMANCE WITH S & A ; P 500 ( MARKET ) USING T-TESTSee t-test on Excel H0: Microsoft did non surpass the market H1: Microsoft outperformed the market t-Test: Paired Two Sample for MeansAVariable 1 Variable 2 Mean 0.021622876 0.857870722 Discrepancy 0.010072088 19.16458858 Observations 263 263 Pearson Correlation 0.539530773 Hypothesized Average Difference 0 df 262 T Stat -3.136067434 P ( T & lt ; =t ) one-tail 0.000953757 t Critical one-tail 1.650690284 P ( T & lt ; =t ) two-tail 0.001907515 t Critical two-tail 1.969059657ADecision: From the t-Test above, since the t-stats is greater in value than the t -critical ( irrespective of the -ve mark ) , we need to accept the alternate hypothesis ( H1 ) which says that Microsoft outperformed the market and reject the Null hypothesis ( H0 ) which says that Microsoft did non surpass the market. We can besides deduce this decision by looking at the P- value, here we can see that the p- value is less than the significance degree of.05, therefore we need to accept the alternate hypothesis ( H1 ) .Analysis OF MICROSOFT PERFORMANCE WITH CAPMArrested development Statisticss Multiple R 0.258985259 R Square 0.067073365 Adjusted R Square 0.063498933 Standard Error 0.185690508 Observations 263 Analysis of varianceAdf United states secret service Multiple sclerosis F Significance F Arrested development 1 0.647027164 0.647027164 18.764764 2.11102E-05 Residual 261 8.999531777 0.034480965 Entire 262 9.646558942AAAACoefficients Standard Error T Stat P-value Lower 95 % Upper 95 % Lower 95.0 % Upper 95.0 % Intercept -0.32415329 0.011530623 -28.1123831 6.17385E-81 -0.346858177 -0.30145 -0.34686 -0.30145 X Variable 1 0.011371441 0.002625088 4.331831484 2.11102E-05 0.006202393 0.01654 0.006202 0.01654 CAPM: – Tocopherol ( R ) =RF+I? [ RM-RF ] By replacing the CAPM expression into the arrested development, we have Y= I ±+I?x+e Y = dependant variable I ± = intercept I? = co-efficient of independent variable vitamin E =error When x=0, I ± is an estimation of Y, so extra return of Microsoft would be given as: Excess return= -0.32415329+0.011371441+0.185690508 Adjusted R Square = 0.063498933 The adjusted R Square indicates that 6.3 % of the variableness in the extra return of Microsoft is explained by the market. I.e. for every per centum alteration of return in the market, Microsoft ‘s return alterations by 6.3 % .DecisionMicrosoft