Video Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Video - Essay Example Five hundred thousand to Seven million people get sick because of the contaminated water in the United States. The belief that the water in your taps and showers is clean is entirely erroneous. Here, the safety of some of the most basic things is contradicted. Where water is, bacteria and germs will also be present. Industrial and agricultural use of water has led to more water being required by plants to grow the same amount that they would have grown with five to ten times less water. Animal remains are dumped by slaughter houses and our toilet water is recycled so that we end up drinking it. If our planet’s water supply continues to be exploited and misused in this way, man will cease to exist. Companies can somehow ‘’buy’’ water. Taking water and selling it at high prices while simultaneously depriving the poor population of this basic necessity of life is simply unethical. Companies deprive the people of water after purchasing it as though it is private property and then selling it to only those who can afford it. And if the image of endless women waiting in line for water wasn’t heart rendering enough, the babies born with birth defects most definitely is. Companies rob, cheat and lie to gain as much profit as they possibly can. If this situation does not get better, then the world will face what Cochabamba did.

Economic analysis of Obesity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Economic analysis of Obesity - Essay Example According to the World Health Organization, obesity is defined as the condition marked by excess body fat (Youfa and May 8). Body Mass Index (BMI) {weight (kg)/ height (m) 2} is widely used to assess obesity. For adults, world health organization defines obesity using BMI cutpoints of 25 and 30 kg/m2, respectively. It has also been recommended that waist circumference cutpoints of 40 inches for men and 35 inches for women be used to define central obesity. For children, BMI percentile of age and gender has been utilized particularly in the U.S. Specifically, overweight is defined as a BMI greater than 95th BMI percentile (Youfa and May 18). Generally, however, it is argued that obese people are defined as those who are more than 20 percent above their medically determined ideal weight. Statistics indicate that, in the past few decades, there has been an increase with the number of Americans who are considered to be obese from about 25 percent to about 33 percent (Ogalthorpe 94). Studies have documented that among the major contributing factors include poor eating habits and lack of exercise. Due to change in economic times and various laws regarding health and economic issues, many people are faced with the risk of becoming obese. With these deliberations, it has been argued that both economically advantaged and economically disadvantages become victims of obese. For example, rich people are argued to be busy with their jobs and businesses. Although they have all the resources necessary to have the diet they desire, they lack enough time to exercise (Sassi 102). Children who come from rich families are argued to have a tendency of taking meals of their choices as long as their desires are met. They go for sweet snacks and other foods with high contents of calories. As a consequence, they gain weight, but most of them fail to exercise. On the other hand, poor people may lack enough money to place a balanced diet on their tables. They tend to go for cheap meals, which most of them, unfortunately, contains a lot of starch. Getting alternative meals or other variety of diets is difficult. This leads to overweight (Youfa and May 12). Economic analysis Economic analysis in relation to obesity can be viewed from two perspectives. One involves economic as a contributing factor to obesity and economic in terms of consequences of obesity. When prices of calories fall, it is apparent that many people will be able to purchase plenty of it. This is argued to be true because, when food prices are high, some people find it difficult to purchase them (Youfa and May 17). Another issue of concern is when income for many people has gone up. It is obvious that when income has gone up, many people are able to afford different foods and in plenty. The apparent consequence of these deliberations is that rise in weight would be a natural phenomena. Unlike in developing societies, industrialized or post industrialized societies like the United States have problems with balancing weight gain and exercise (Ogalthorpe 91). For example, in developing societies, physical exertion is required to provide with labor. This involves

Ocean Carriers Essay Example for Free

Ocean Carriers Essay Iron ore and coal imports will most probably decrease the upcoming year With the increasing supply of vessels should result in a market surplus By creating this surplus, prices will be driven down, since we will have limited demand and suppliers competing Average daily rates, based on historical numbers, have a direct relationship with the number of shipments. Only Accept the project if we sell after 25 years in a tax free environment Reject all of the following; sell after 15 years in both a tax and tax free environment, also after 25 years with a tax environment The longer the wait to sell; the better How Long Should Vessels Operate? The company’s current policy is to not operate ships older then 15 years old If Ocean Carrier operates for 25 years the NPV will be higher then if they operate for 15 years and sell the scrap metal (,368,557 vs. $2,238,411) The present value of the future cash flows exceeds the value of selling the scrap metal 10 years earlier. Hence there is greater value operating the vessel for an additional 10 years/ Iron and coal’s demand is expected to increase annually and the charter rates are expected to increase by annually for the life of the vessel. The company can generate more income if they decide to operate the ship for an additional 10 years.

Describe The Mandatory Rotation Of Audit Firm Accounting Essay

Describe The Mandatory Rotation Of Audit Firm Accounting Essay Introduction From the 2008 financial crisis, the weakness of audit system has exposed in several aspect. European Parliament and public consider that the auditors fail to play during the financial crisis. The European Commission said that the auditors only consider majority of banks had exposed a great quantity of loss from 2007 to 2009 in both on and off balance sheet in the financial crisis, however, it is a hard work for the public and stakeholders to know how the auditors to give the clean auditing reports to their principal. In addition, the European Commission takes into account preventing the concentration in the audit industry, which including restricting the choices and competition. Further, they also consider the independence of the audit firm and the reduction of the expectation gap. All things the European Commission do is to increase the quality of audit, so they think that the current auditing system should be reform. According to KPMG (2012), because of the failure of auditors in financial crisis, the lobby of small firms and the US has taken action on the independent issue. Meanwhile, in order to adapt to the environments, which contain changes to financial reporting and increasing the risk and going concern issue for the companies. The European Commission came up the proposals on 30th November 2011 to address the matters that appeal in the financial crisis and rebuild the confidence of the audit system. The proposals define the role of auditors and propose more restrict provisions for audit firms. It aim at strengthening the independence and professional skepticism of auditors, making the audit industry more diversification, enforcing the regulation, promote the cross-border stipulation of audit services and relieving the burden of the small and medium-size enterprise. To enhance the independence of audit firm and prevent the concentration of the audit industry is the main purpose of the propos als. The Elliott and Jacobson (1998) suggested that audit independence is an absence of interests that create an unacceptable risk of material bias with respect to the reliability of financial statements. The basic goal of audit is to assure the information which provide to shareholders are reliable. Further, as for audit independence, the direct role is to provide auditing serve and make the cost of capital market more efficiently. Consider about preventing the concentration, should make the audit industry more dynamic, such as decreasing the power of the Big Four audit firm (KPMG, Deloitte, Pricewaterhousecoopers and Ernst Young). In addition, the dynamic of audit market give the opportunities for small and medium-size enterprise to benefit from the internal market. In order to strengthen the independence of audit and make the audit market more dynamic, the European Commission brought up the proposals to perfect the audit system, the key elements of the proposals is mandatory rotation of audit firms, mandatory tendering, non-audit services, and European supervision of the audit sector, Enabling auditors to exercise their profession across Europe, Cutting red tape for smaller auditors. This essay is aim at discussing the issue of mandatory rotation of audit firm, one of the key elements to enhance the independence of audit industry. The essay will divided into three parts, firstly, it will describe the mandatory rotation of audit firms; secondly, it will analyses the argument for and against this issue; finally, it will come to a conclusion. Describe the mandatory rotation of audit firm In order to strengthen the auditor independence, the European Commission is considering introducing mandatory external rotation. In the previous years, only internal rotation is required, which means only auditors should be rotated, because they think that auditors may make less suggestions because the routine activities of audit. However, the internal rotation cannot enhance the independence of the auditors, because the audit firm and audited entity build up partnership, no matter which auditors engage in the audit procedure, they have closely relationship, the independence of auditors cannot be enhanced. Therefore, current environment has suggest that the internal rotation is not sufficient, the external rotation should be taken in account to achieve the independence of audit. The proposal required the audit firm should be rotated after at most six years (with some exception). In addition, it should be after at least four year before the same audit firm can be entrusted again by the client, this is stated as the cooling period. The cooling period ensure the mandatory rotation can be implemented effectively, because if there is not the cooling period, the client can entrust the same audit firm after a short time, so that the closely relationship cannot be avoidance. There is a exception that the period of rotation can be extend to nine years if joint audits are engaged. This means that if an audited entity entrust at least two audit firm, it can extent the period of rotation to nine years, because the joint audit can make each audit firm work harder to avoid another audit firm find out their failure, this can increase the quality of the audit, so called four-eye principle. Hence, the joint audit is encouraged. According to Bocconi, which do a survey of the effect of mandatory rotation in Italy. The investigate shows that 69 % of managers of listed companies approve of rotation. 14 % consider it negatively. The survey presents a positive result, because they consider that in previous years, auditors focus on routine activities rather than making improvement. The people including in the survey agree the mandatory rotation in Italy can strengthen the independence. Discussion of the mandatory rotation The argument for the mandatory rotation of audit firm Firstly, the mandatory rotation of audit firm can reduce the risk of familiarity threat. If there is not mandatory rotation, the audit firm may have closely relationship with the audited entity, which would lead to several problems. For instance, the proposal (2011) of the European commission suggests that the audit firm tend to know well about the management of the audited entity, so that they may think the audit work as a routine work, which just repeating the work annually, and they pay less attention to make an improvement and find out the mistake the audited entity made. In addition, the auditor may be less suspicious of the audited entity, instead, they may decrease the difficulties so as to maintain the good relationship with the partner. The long period of engagement will cause routine, which may affect the competence and the quality of audit, hence, the mandatory rotation is necessary for reducing the familiarity threat. Secondly, according to Hoyle (1978), short term engagement will encourage the auditors to do better. If the audit firm fails to make the improvement in their auditing period, however, the next audit firm detects the unreported information, the reputation of the previous audit firm may be affected, so that the auditor will minimize the errors for managing the reputation. Further, the mandatory rotation can avoid the mistake or unreported information continue, because the next audit firm will scrutinize the document provide by the former audit form. Also, the long term engagement of the same auditor may cause the auditor trust the previous auditing procedure, so the rotation can reduce the risk of the auditor regards the engagement as the repetition of the last years work. Therefore, the mandatory can improve the quality of audit. Thirdly, the rotation provide the small and medium-size entities good opportunity to enter the competition in the segment of market. Although, the Bocconi study (2002) showed that the mandatory rotation did not provide the small and medium-size entity opportunity to compete in the audit market, they cannot compete against the large audit firm for the public-interest entities. However, take the mandatory tendering into account, the situation can be changed, the rules allow the small and medium-size entity to bid in the tendering, so that the rotation and joint audit enlarge the choice of audit firm for the audited enterprise. Therefore, combined with the mandatory tendering, the mandatory rotation can encourage the competition of the audit firm and provide more opportunity for small and medium-size entity to enter the audit market. Last but not least, the rotation can reduce the risk of fraud, which the audited entity collude with the audit firm. If both of the audited entity and audit firm fraud the public, when rotation implement, the fraud will be exposed by the coming new audit firm. The scandal of Enron can give a good example of this, if the rotation enact, the deceptive accounting may be found early or the audit firm will not collude with Enron in order to prevent the impairment of the reputation. So the mandatory rotation can reduce the risk of fraud. The argument against the mandatory rotation of audit firm According to the Bocconi study (2002), the opinion the audit firms and managers argue is that the cost of auditing fees as well as man-hours will increase under the mandatory rotation. It takes time for the incoming audit firm to read the sufficient document to know the audited entitys business. If the incoming audit firm do not know the audited entity enough, the quality of audit will decrease. Further, because there are many kinds of industry, it is difficult to maintain the industry specialization and may cause lack of choice of audited entity. According to Chi et al. (2004), they do not agree the mandatory rotation, they hold the opinion that the rotation may have negative impact on the quality of audit. They show the explanation that in the last year of audit before the rotation, the auditors may abandon their independence because they do not need to worry about the loss of quasi rents for they will not be re-elected. These can lead to the decrease of the last periods auditing quality. Bigus and Zimmermann (2007) said that because of the rotation, the quasi rent had been decreased, which implies the rotation may not increase the independence of audit firm. Consequently, the mandatory rotation cannot increase the quality and independence of audit firm as expect. Conclusion When come up the new proposals, there will have different voice because of the different role they play. As for the rule of the mandatory rotation of audit firm, according to the European Commission, the Big Four hold the opposed attitude, they insist there is studies that have certify the mandatory rotation affect the quality of audit firm; the Mid Tier Firms and small and medium-size entities also do not stand by the rule, they consider the increase cost and harm to the quality of audit firm; the investors had divergent opinion; some of public authorities did not favor of the mandatory rotation, while others think the rule will be beneficial, one of the idea regards to the issue they came up it to allow the committee to decide whether the rotation of a firm should be needed. To sum up, the new rule of the mandatory rotation of audit firm may be beneficial, but only under certain situation. For example, the cost of fees and man-hours can be low to change audit firm; the negative impact of last period of audit before rotation can be avoid. So that, the proposal can be beneficial if more detail and rules can be add in to make the mandatory rotation more perfection.

Anorexia Nervosa Essay -- Eating Disorders

Thesis Statement: Anorexia Nervosa effects a person both physically and mentally. Anorexia represents one percent of most prevalent eating disorder diseases. The word anorexia itself means, â€Å" lack of appetite†. Anorexia is an all-encompassing pursuit of thinness. The person effected by Anorexia has an absolute fear of becoming obese (Matthew 4). Approximately one percent of adolescent girls develops Anorexia Nervosa, a dangerous condition in which they can literally starve themselves to death. People who starve intentionally starve themselves suffer from an eating disorder. The disorder, which usually begins in the young people around the time of puberty, involves extreme weight loss. At least fifteen percent below the individuals normal body weight. Many people with the disorder look emaciated, but are convinced they are over weight (Matthew 5). Anorexia Nervosa has three Diagnostic Criteria. One is refusal to maintain body weight at or above normal. The other is, intense fear of becoming fat, even though under average weight. The last one is, Disturbance in the way in which one’s body weight or shape is experienced, undue influence of body weight or shape on self- evaluation, or denial of the seriousness of low body weight (Long 15). Anorexia Nervosa has two specific types, one is Restricting type and the other is Binge-Eating/Purging type. Restricting type during the current episode of Anorexia Nervosa, the person has not regularly engaged in binge- eating or purging behavior. In Binge- Eating /Purging type, during the current episode of Anorexia Nervosa, the person has regularly engaged in binge-eating/purging behavior (Rockwell 10). Anorexia may not be noticed in early stages. The Anorexic usually chooses to wear layered and baggy clothes to hide the â€Å"ugly fat body† .An Anorexic may have ritualistic eating patterns such as cutting food into little tiny pieces and weighing themselves. These can be found in people who are on a healthy diet, but in Anorexics these behaviors are extremely exaggerated. Other warnings are deliberate self-starvation with weight loss, fear of gaining weight, refusal to eat, denial of hunger, constant exercising, sensitivity to cold, absent or irregular periods, loss of scalp perception of being fat when the person is really to this. Some other associated features are depressed mood, somatic sexual dysfunction, and ... ...l with in society. Two developed Anorexia after seeing a â€Å" movie of the week† where the main character was Anorexic. Mike’s ten year old daughter developed Anorexia after seeing â€Å"The Body Trap†, a program on Nickelodeon. These findings seem to exemplify along standing debate, if educational programs prevent eating disorders or contribute to them. This is not a scientific study , just a dad with some very disturbing news: Television programs dealing with Anorexia and / or eating disorder are triggering Anorexia in some of our children (Long 15). Works Cited Cottrell, Randall R. "Anorexia Nervosa." Grolier Wellness Encyclopedia: Weight Control. Ed. Robert E. Kline. Vol. 15. Guilford, CT: Duskin, 1992. 117. Long, Phillip W. "Anorexia Nervosa." Internet Mental Health. Jan. 1997. St. Joseph Medical Center. 19 Aug. 1998 . Matthews, John R. Library in a Book: Eating Disorders. New York: Facts on File Inc. 1991 O’Dwyer, Michael P. Student Eating Disorders : Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia. Washington, D.C.: National Education Association, 2005. Rockwell, L., Understanding Eating Disorders. Washington, D.C.: Taylor & Francis. 2004

If you were directing the play a view from a bridge what Essay

If you were directing the play "a view from a bridge" what advice would you give to the actor playing Eddie about his character? Use quotations and close reference to the text. "A view from a bridge" is a play with five main characters. Eddie and Beatrice are married whilst they adopt Catherine, who is Eddie's niece. Marco and Rudolfo are their cousins who come to stay from Sicily. They are both illegal immigrants. A situation in the play occurs where Eddie becomes possessive of Catherine while Rudolfo plans to marry her. From the director's point of view advice to the actor playing the part of Eddie is complicated, but crucial. If I was the director looking for an actor to play Eddie it would have to be a man in his forties because that is most likely to be approximately the age of a man who has a niece the age of seventeen. Eddie is a longshoreman in the play and it would make sense if the actor was well built. In the film we watched Eddie had no real muscle definition. Also the play we watched Eddie seemed to sit in the same seat all the time. This shows that the character of Eddie was perceived as lazy, I did not think this was the case because of his active job. I would tell the actor to be more dynamic, energetic and move about the stage more, especially when he gets frustrated. The play was set in the nineteen fifties so Eddie would be told by me to dress appropriately. Eddie should wear old rugged clothes because of the limited income provided by his job. This brings me to Catherine who, in the film we watched was definitely overdressed and too clean for the circumstances she lives in. Another big aspect I would give advice to the actor about is his relationships with other characters. In the play we watched it was hard to comprehend the part where Eddie's innermost feelings for Catherine were exposed. This was the scene where Eddie came home drunk and found Rudolfo in Catherine's room. To make the scene more believable Eddie should show more love for Catherine. He should do this through body language. His facial expression should show over concern and love for Catherine or he could stare gapingly at her body. The play we watched the actors face was expressionless and all he did was say his lines whilst sitting in a chair. That was not enough. Although curiosity should be put across to the audience it should... ...s when he has the urge to be a macho and man of the house. Also respect is the most important thing and is greatly valued, this explains Eddie's behaviour towards the end of the play. I think that the background culture should be kept in mind because part of the specification is a strong macho man capable of a convincing accent and not slouching or looking lazy. In the play we watched Eddie sat in the same chair too much so either a younger is needed or an actor that looks dynamic at least. Also a good point is to advise the actor to walk about the stage when Eddie seems to struggle to express feelings through his limited vocabulary. Eddie's character shows stubbornness. He shows that attribute throughout the play and does not expect his family to correct him on anything he has already stated. I also think that when he releases bottled up emotions, like in the situation when he comes home drunk the actor should exaggerate his facial expressions. In the play we watched Eddie's face was expressionless showing poor acting, which was disappointing. As the play progresses Eddie seems to lose his mind, and also at one point he loses his sense of Sicilian justice.

Harley-Davidson’s Just-in-Time (JIT) Journey Essay

Case Summary This case is about the Just-in-Time (JIT) implementation at Harley-Davidson Motor Company. After World War II, they faced with competition from Japanese companies, which were able to produce better quality motorcycles at comparatively lower cost. Harley-Davidson found that there were three most important practices of Japanese companies, which differentiated their production process from that of others: JIT manufacturing, employee involvement, and statistical process control. Harley-Davidson adopted those three principles and formulated different strategies to make this move possible and to make its manufacturing processes as efficient as that of its Japanese counterparts. The company finally succeeded in achieving its goals of reducing the cost of production, improving quality, and increasing its market share. With the company again getting into hard times, this case presents how it was trying to focus on â€Å"continuous improvement† in a bid to bring itself back into profits . Question #1: Why has continuous improvement been so successful at Harley Davidson? Continuous improvement is ongoing effort to improve products, services or processes. These efforts can seek â€Å"incremental† improvement over time or â€Å"breakthrough† improvement all at once. Under continuous improvement, a task or series of tasks were identified as the problem area in the business process, manufacturing operations, and product development where improvement could be made. Harley-Davidson required the active participation and commitment of its employees to help in eliminating unnecessary steps and complexity for the process and to bring more flexibility into the system. Continuous improvement helped the company identify savings opportunities and put those mechanisms into places, also improved the quality standards and the reduced the waste in the forms of cost, time and defects. Therefore with a year, all Harley-Davidson’s manufacturing operations were being converted to JIT: components and sub-assemblies were â€Å"pulled† through the production system in response to final demand. Question #2: Considering the road ahead, what specific actions can Harley Davidson take that will move them toward their goals? Harley Davidson could keep doing â €Å"continuous improvement.† Take a closer look at its operations in a bid to get its cost structure right and manage shipments consistent with the expected slowing of consumer spending. For continuous improvement, it’s begins with identify the current process and take a vote on which process would most benefit from improvement, then map out the existing process using a project board like A3 report. After fully understand the process, identify areas of opportunity surrounding the mapped process, to do this teams should analyze the current process and scrutinize areas that may be streamlined. Finally, the team will decide on a new process. In order to reduce excess capacity or costs and gain efficiencies, the company has consolidated some of its production facilities, and parts, accessories and general merchandise distribution operations to improve its overall process. The company also made it a high priority to manage supply in line with demand. In addition, the company started restructuring its production process to reduce complexity and create the flexibility to produce multiple product families on the same assembly line every day at the beginning of 2009.