Enrollment system Essay

Welcome! The following terms serve as a contract that governs your use of our family of websites, applications and services (the â€Å"Service†). BY SIGNING UP, OR ACCESSING OR USING THE SERVICE, YOU SIGNIFY THAT YOU AGREE TO THESE TERMS (â€Å"AGREEMENT† OR â€Å"TERMS†) AND TO RESOLVE ANY DISPUTE BY ARBITRATION. 1. Summary of Terms These Terms have the same force and effect as an Agreement signed in writing. If you do not agree to these Terms, you may not use the Service. Each time you access, upload, or download any content from the Service, you signify your agreement to the then-current terms. This Agreement is subject to change at any time; therefore, you are responsible to review these Terms regularly to learn about any changes. We will post an updated version of these Terms if we modify them. You understand and agree that your ongoing use of the Service after we post or provide notice of the changes to this Agreement means that you accept and confirm that the updated Terms apply to you. The laws of the State of California govern this Agreement. You agree to resolve any dispute with us as provided in the Dispute Resolution Procedures described in Sections 21 and 22 below, which include arbitration and the options you have with arbitration. We use the term â€Å"You† to mean the person or entity who will access or use the Service as an end user. The term â€Å"Login† means the combination of unique username and password that is used to access our Service. A login is a license to use a site, application or service for a period of time that is specified. â€Å"Membership† or â€Å"Members† means a single registration and/or subscription account per user of a valid username and password (login) for the service during the term of a subscription. â€Å"We† or â€Å"us† in this Agreement shall mean: its brands, affiliates, subsidiaries and operating divisions.

FASB Accounting Standards Codification Essay

This section deals with certain general background considerations and information related to the FASC and the answers can be found by clicking the â€Å"About the Codification† and â€Å"Notice to Constituents† sections on the FASC Welcome Page. This section is a good general source of information about the FASC and should be reviewed prior to starting to answer the specific questions set forth in all sections. The related research questions that you must answer are: (a) When did the FASC Codification become effective? †¢It was released on July 1, 2009 and became effective for Interim and Annual periods ending after September 15, 2009. (b) Did the FASC change prior GAAP? †¢No it didn’t change, it only got restructured. (c) What does the FASB expect from the new FASC structure and system? †¢The System is expected to reduce the amount of time and effort that is used to solve an accounting research issue. (d) What are the â€Å"topics† used in the ASC? †¢The General Principles †¢The Presentation †¢The Assets †¢Liabilities †¢Equity †¢Revenue †¢Expense †¢Broad Transactions †¢Industry (e) Are Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) references included in the ASC? †¢Yes It is. 2. Transfer of Receivables FASC 860-10 As the new staff person in your company’s treasury department, you have been asked to conduct research related to a proposed transfer of receivables. Your supervisor wants the authoritative sources for the following items that are discussed in the securitization agreement. Access the FASB Codification at http://asc.fasb.org/home to conduct research using the Codification Research System to prepare responses to the following items. Provide Codification references for your responses. (a) Identify relevant Codification section that addresses transfers of receivables. †¢ 860-10-05 (b) Provide definitions for the following: (i) Transfer †¢transference of a noncash financial asset by and to someone other than the issuer of that financial asset (ii) Recourse uncollectable †¢When the transferor of receivables retains the risk of uncollectability. (iii) Collateral †¢Assets that a borrower pledges as security for a loan, which the financier seizes if the borrower seizes to pay (c) Provide other examples (besides recourse and collateral) that qualify as continuing involvement. 3. Inventories FASC 330-10 Jones Co. is in a technology-intensive industry. Recently, one of its competitors introduced a new product with technology that might render obsolete some of Jones’s inventory. The accounting staff wants to follow the appropriate authoritative literature in determining the accounting for this significant market event. Access the FASB Codification at http://asc.fasb.org/home to conduct research using the Codification Research System to prepare responses to the following items. Provide Codification references for your responses. (a) Identify the primary authoritative guidance for the accounting for inventories. †¢Accounting Research Bulletins (ARB) No.43 Chapter 4. (b) List three types of goods that are classified as inventory. †¢Goods awaiting sale (finished goods) †¢Goods in the course of production (work in process), †¢Goods to used directly or indirectly in production (raw materials and supplies) What characteristic will automatically exclude an item from being classified as inventory? †¢Long-term assets that are subject to depreciation accounting †¢Goods which, when put into use, will be so classified as depreciable Assets (c) Define â€Å"market† as used in the phrase â€Å"lower-of-cost-or-market.† †¢market means current replacement cost (by purchase or by reproduction) provided that it meet the two conditions 1.Market shall not exceed the net realizable value 2.Market shall not be less than net realizable value reduced by an allowance for an approximately normal profit margin

Customer Is Always Right

A business’s keeness to put customers first Important to reach a business’s objectives and goals Customer is the main source of revenue Important to follow the policy in order to retain customers To retain company’s image and reputation Avoid bad public relation Avoid customer desertion Avoid law suits Leads to higher profitability 10. Satisfied and happy customers will promote your products or services 11. Having your customers as ambassadors help you expand your business quickly 12. Helps company to operate more efficiently in long run 13. Listening to complaints or feedbacks will help a business to identify and ammend its weakness. 14. Customers whose complaints are attended to are more likely to be returning customers. 15. Lowers employees’ morale 16. Unfair to employees 17. Reduces a business’s profitabilty 18. Demanding customers are a waste of time and resources 19. Time used to deal with over-demanding customers can instead be used for potential good ones instead. 20. Employees should be well equipped with training to improve customer service. 21. Customers who are angry and unsatisfied will resort to a business’s rivals. Argument 2 : Obtain higher profitability in the long term. Argument 3 : It helps the business to operate more effectively in the future. Counter Argument 2 : It creates unhappy employees, lowers employees morale and motivation to work. Thesis Statement : Is is important for businesses to always have the policy that the customer is right because it will retain a company’s image, uphold its reputation, leads to a higher profit and enables the business to operate more effectively. Topic Sentence 1 : Retain a company’s image and reputation. Supporting statement: 1) It will be quicker to reach a business’s objectives and goals. ) Avoid unwanted situations such as negative publicity, desertion by customers and legal suits. Topic Sentence 2 : Obtain higher profitability in the long term. Supporting statement: 1) Customers whose complaints are attended efficiently will most likely be returning customers; there will be brand loyalty. 2) Unhappy customers are most likely t o tell their unsatisfaction to others and the business will risk losing potential clients to their rivals. Topic Sentence 3 : It helps the business to operate more effectively in the future. Supporting statement : 1) Negative feedbacks can be used as constructive criticism for improvement. ) Customers will remain loyal if their feedbacks are taken into consideration and they will not defect to a business’s rival. Topic Sentence 4 : Some customers are more troubles than they are worth. Supporting Statement : 1) In the midst of satisfying customers, business profitablity will drop due to the need to rectify problems and givecompensations. 2) Some customers are just wasting your time and resources. Topic Sentence 5 : It creates unhappy employees Supporting statement : 1) It lowers employees’ morale. 2) It lowers employees’ motivation to work. Refutation : ) Although the policy will cause businesses to spend more time and resources in dealing with demanding customer s, it will garner higher customer loyalty and expand the consumer base. 2) Despite that the policy may create unhappiness among employees, it is their job to ensure that customer satisfaction comes first above others. Conclusion: Thepolicy is important to all businesses because it not only generate higher profits but also maintain it’s image and reputation alongside to an effective opperation Topic Sentence 1 : First of all, it will retain the company image and reputation. ) It will avoid negative image of public relation. 2) Save cost as possible legal suits can be prevented. 3) Desertion by the customers can be avoided. *Topic Sentence 2 : Second*ly*, it wil*l increase profitability. Supporting statement : 1) Brand loyalty will exist and customer can be retained. 2) Happy customers will help to advertise and promote your company. 3) Unsatisfied customers will persuade others to stop the purchase of goods and services from your company. Topic Sentence 3 : However, maintainin g this busine*ss policy will eventually makes *the employees unhappy. Supporting statement : *Topic Sentence 4 : In addition, *it gives abrasive customer an unfair advantage. Supporting statement : 1) Company is forced to compensate and this increase cost. 2) Similar incidents will happen again if is not handled properly. At this point, one may wonder if we should maintain this policy or dispose it, but in order for a company to survive, this policy should be followed by every company to avoid profit declination and due to the reason that satisfying employees’ needs will eventually ignore the customer satisfaction. Introduction : In today’s competitive world, a business must always have the policy that the consumer is right because it does not only retain a company’s image and reputation, it also leads to higher profitability in the long term and helps the company to operate more efficiently in the future. *Topic Sentence 1 : *The policy will retain and strengthen *a company’s *image and reputation, making them a step quicker at reaching their objectives and goals. Supporting statement: 1) Good customer service is important for a company to be different from others. ) Avoid unwanted situations such as negative publicity, desertion by customers and legal suits. *Topic Sentence 2 : *It is undeniable that higher profits are obtained in the long term by these businesses as well. Supporting statement: 1) Customers who have their complaints and suggestions attended efficiently are most likely to be your returning customers. 2) When a client becomes dissatisfied, you risk losing t hat business plus potential business if negative comments about your company are passed along. Topic Sentence 3 : It helps the business to operate more effectively in the future. Supporting statement : 1) Negative feedbacks can be used as constructive criticism for improvement. 2) Customers will remain loyal if their feedbacks are taken into consideration and they will not defect to a business’s rival. Topic Sentence 4 : Some customers are more troubles than they are worth. Supporting Statement : 1) Company begins to suffer from having a bad seed on your client list and this will cause profit to drop. ) Some customers are just a waste of time because they will never be satisfied. Topic Sentence 5 : It creates unhappy employees Supporting statement : 1) It lowers employees’ morale. 2) It lowers employees’ motivation to work. Refutation : 1) Although the policy will cause businesses to spend more time and resources in dealing with demanding customers, it will garner higher customer loyalty and expand the consumer base. 2) Despite that the policy may create u nhappiness among employees, it is their job to ensure that customer satisfaction comes first above others. In today’s competitive world, a business must always have the policy that the consumer is right because it does not only retain a company’s image and reputation, it also leads to higher profitability in the long term and helps the company to operate more efficiently in the future. Businesses must be aware that their consumers are the essence of their company. Without consumers, the business would cease to exist. The phrase, ‘The customer is always right’ can be explained as the trading policy that states a company's keenness to be seen to put customers first (Martin, 1996). It was originally coined by Harry Gordon Selfridge in 1909 and often used by businesses to convince customers that they will receive good service or convince employees to deliver good service. Many businesses argue that there are customers who are just plain wrong and unreasonable while others are mostly just seeking advantage. However, in this current economic climate, companies cannot afford to neglect their customers’ wants and needs if they are planning to stay in business for the long term. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that the said policy encourages a company’s growth despite lowering employees morale and giving abrasive consumers an advantage. Businesses which implement the policy will retain and strengthen their image and reputation, making them a step quicker at reaching their objectives and goals. James Kocsi (2006) says, â€Å"To be competitive, you need to analyze what makes your company different from others in your industry. Pricing and quality are always the key factors, but do not overlook the value of customer service. † Clearly, this shows that customer service means delivering satisfaction to all your clients even if they are wrong or irrational. In short, your consumers are always right and this meant making an adjustment to satisfy them even when your company is not at fault. It helps minimize negative image of public relation being passed around when customers are unsatisfied with your product or services, avoid desertion by them and most ultimately, save your company from the complications of possible legal suits (Witzel, 2005). It is undeniable that higher profits are obtained in the long term by these businesses as well. Customers who have their complaints and suggestions attended efficiently are most likely to be your returning customers. The policy indirectly creates brand loyalty among them and they become your product ambassadors. In Josh Hall's (2009) view, engaging with unsatisfied customers and exceeding their expectations can frequently result in a positive business outcome from a potentially damaging situation. This can be done by sending a letter of apology or similar gestures to help solidify a positive impression in the customer’s eyes. Rombel (2004) points out that bad customer service can cost you a long-time client. He added that the customer scorned is likely to tell everyone he knows about what happened to him. When a client becomes dissatisfied, you risk losing that business plus potential business if negative comments about your company are passed along. Witzel (2005) states that disgruntled consumers tend to defect to rival businesses. He suggests accepting responsibility than to argue with customers where responsibility lies. This is due to the fact that there is little profit earned and more damage being done regardless of whom is at fault. Besides that, business will operate more effectively in the future upon having the policy that the customer is always right. Rather than taking negative feedbacks as criticism, they should have the mindset that their customers are always right and use it for improvement to provide better products or services. Daud (2009) stated that pleasing customers is fundamental and it should be at the forefront of our minds when we work and gaining new ones as the ultimate incentive for improving service. He further explains that shoppers read reviews prior to making purchase decisions. Positive reviews are beneficial as a form of effective form of advertising while negative ones can be used as constructive criticism to fix weak areas. According to Morisson (2008),complaints usually come from loyal customers, rather than disloyal ones. He added that loyal customers tell you what is wrong in the hope that it will improve the situation, so that they do not have to defect to your competitors, and it gives your business a valuable opportunity to identify and fix problems, make amends and retain a possibly lost business. Granted, the policy that the customer is right is vital to a business’s wellbeing but however, in reality, some customers are just more troubles than they are worth. There are times where a customer is not always right, especially if your company begins to suffer from having a bad seed on your client list (Brodsky & Mitchell, 2007). According to Brodsky and Mitchell, living by the policy may cause businesses to overlook or excuse a customer's bad behavior due to the need to satisfy any client that pays. These customers are usually your regular clients, but despite attempts to rectify their dissatisfaction, they constantly complaint that you are not up to their expectations. This clearly gives abrasive customers an unfair advantage, and as a result, the company will need to compensate them in terms of monetary, refunds, exchanges and discounts which will all lead to a lower profitability. Besides that, repetition of similar incidents will happen if it is not dealt with in a proper way. For example, Brown (2009) argues that bad customers are a waste of time and resources because the costs of serving them will outweigh the benefits you will receive from them. Furthermore, businesses need to decide if they are to side with a emanding and unreasonable customer or their loyal employee. The act of trying to please your customers, even if they are at wrong, will create unhappy employees and this will eventually lead to lower morale and less motivation to work. Forcing employees to deal with obnoxious, unrealistic and abusive customers reduces morale (Brown, 2009). It gives employees a mentality that they are not valued by the company and they should not have an y respect for the customers. She adds that, â€Å"The time that you spend trying to satisfy the impossible customer decreases the benefits you can provide to the good ones. Your most demanding customers are not your profitable ones. Rewarding them reduces your resources without a return on investment. † ING Direct, a finance institution, reported that there was a 45% of increase in profits between 2002 and 2003 when they started getting rid of overly demanding customers (Esfahani, 2004). Although the policy might cause a business to spend more time and resources in dealing with demanding customers, it has been proven that it garners higher customer loyalty and greatly expands consumer base. A survey conducted by Retail Council of Canada proved that store loyalty increases dramatically when customers enjoy a great shopping experience. This is because of the high likelihood of returning customers and those who spread their great shopping experiences to others will help boost business sales (Retail Council of Canada, 2009). Kent (2004) points out that good customer service should be emphasised above all else, even when it comes to customers who may simply waste time with never-ending, pointless calls. He quoted that employees are employed to satisfy every customer and therefore, customer satisfaction comes first above all else. They should therefore be equipped with training programs to provide better services and deal with demanding customers effectively. In conclusion, the policy that the customer is right is a fundamental rule to all businesses because it retains a company’s image and reputation, leads to higher profitability in the long term and helps the company to operate more efficiently in the future. Brown, P. B. , 2009. â€Å"Know When to Fire a Customer. New York Times, September 16. Avaliable from: http://www. proquest. com/ [Accessed on October 16, 2009] Daud, N. , 2009. The Power of Online Customer Feedback. Available from: http://www. businesswings. co. uk/articles/The-power-of-online-customer-feedback [Accessed on October 18, 2009] Esfahani, E. , 2004. â€Å"How To†¦ : Get Tough With Bad Customers. † Business 2. 0, 5, no. 9: 52. Available from: Business Source Premier. [Accessed on October 16, 2009] Hall, J. , 2009. â€Å"How To Deal With Customer Complaints and Profit. † Real Business, [internet] Septenber 20. Available from : http://www. realbusiness. co. uk/news/sales-and-marketing/5692676/how-to-deal-with-customer-complaints-and-profit. thtml [Accessed on October 15, 2009] Kent, S. , 2004. When is enough, enough? Personnel Today. Available from: http://www. proquest. com/ [Accessed on October 18, 2009] Kocsi, J. , 2006. â€Å"What Makes You Different from the Rest? † NJBIZ, September 4. no. 36:10. Martin, G. , 1996-2009. The customer is always right. Available from: http://www. phrases. org. uk/meanings/106700. html. [Accessed on October 15, 2009] Morrison, R. , 2008. Spinning Straw Into Gold:Turn Customer Feedback Into Business Success. Available from: http://www. customerthink. com/article/spinning_straw_gold_turn_customer_feedback [Accessed on October 18, 2009] [Accessed on October 18, 2009] Rombel, A. , 2004. â€Å"Who Says The Customer Is Always Right? † Business Journal (Central New York) 18, no. 50: 24. Available from: Regional Business News [Accessed on October 15, 2009] Witzel, M. , 2005. Keep your relationship with clients afloat. FT. com, January 30. Available from: http://www. proquest. com/ [Accessed on October 15, 2009]

Cloud Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Cloud - Essay Example Access rights given allow the client to run applications, save data, or compute virtually any task. It has been enabled by the ever improving computer processing capabilities while reducing cost on the other hand. The distinctive services provided by cloud computing are either; SaaS (software as a service), PaaS (platform as a service), or IaaS (infrastructure as a service) (Rodrigues, 2012). Saas’ functionality can be explained in a business perspective. Uses of software as a service, clients are availed with access to databases and application software. Cloud vendors manage the involved technicalities platform and infrastructure running the involved applications. On-demand software is the other term used to describe software as a service and is charged on the basis of pay per us. The vendors tag prices on their services based on a subscription fee per package. The subscription may be monthly or annual allowing the prices to be adjustable and scalable where users are removed or included at a certain point. Manipulation is not possible for the clients as the owner of the infrastructure manages applications. The cost of I.T infrastructure is cut from the clients end through the process of outsourcing software and hardware support and maintenance from the cloud computing vendor. The salvage cost is channeled to equally productive objectives. Updates are done without affecting the client or without the need of any installation. The main demerit is that the clients’ data is stored in these servers which risks unauthorized penetration that turns clients to increasingly embrace intelligent or third-party managing systems to attempt to secure their data. As for the pros of Amazon EC2, there is no vendor-locks system, which eases code transfer. It also allows for code writing in simpler languages such as MVC, C#, and Net above being backed by a strong support team. It allows its clients to scale single instances to several more giving full

Crony Capitalism and Political Corruption are the worst forms of White Research Paper

Crony Capitalism and Political Corruption are the worst forms of White Collar Crime - Research Paper Example The arrangement of crony capitalism has increasingly been influencing the legislative and regulatory actions of governments throughout the world. On the other hand, the aspect of political corruption has been imposing serious threat on the integrity of the national democracy. The concept of political corruption can be defined as abuse of public power or right for illegitimately, usually for gaining secret and private benefits. The practice of political corruption often varies depending upon the country and its jurisdiction. Both the concept of crony capitalism and political corruption are associated with white color crime and their practice in various forms has rendered adverse impacts on socio-economic environment of a country. Thesis Statement In the present day context, the role of government and its influence on socio-economic activities have immensely augmented. It has been recognized that crony capitalism and political corruption in the modern day context present worst forms of white collar crime committed by political persons and business organizations. In relation to this, the paper intends to identify the impact of crony capitalism and political corruption on the socio-economic environment of a country and develops arguments favoring the notion that crony capitalism and political corruption are the worst forms of white collar crimes witnessed by the world today. Crony Capitalism and the Case of Solyndra Crony capitalism in general is a way of caricaturizing the relations between the two or more parties in two different spheres in a capitalist economy. The first subject related with crony capitalism may include economy or the market. The economy or the market areas may involve the operations of businessmen who own and manage business organizations engaged in a variety of activities with a prime goal of making profit. The other subject area includes the public authority or the state through which public rules, regulations, policies and laws are made and enforced (Allen 129-139). Contextually, the case of Solyndra that has been witnessed by the United States in the recent times provides evidence about how crony capitalism is being practiced in the country. California based Solyndra, a solar panel manufacturer declared bankruptcy in August 2011 after having received US$528 million as federal loan guarantees. Moreover, its bankruptcy rendered more than 1000 people jobless. It was been observed that the loan guarantee was allowed in 2009 following the pressure from the company itself and the White House. A report issued by House of Energy and Commerce committee argued that the sinking of Obama led government’s US$528 million investment was the result of involvement of Obama Administration Officials and certain key Solyndra players. It has been further argued that despite the risks associated with funding of loan to Solyndra, the federal government did not resist in approving loan guarantee to the company rather it has been invol ved in backing the company in raising the loan guarantee. The political and government involvement in such scams is one of the worst examples of Obama led Administration’

Wheelchair Experience Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Wheelchair Experience Assignment - Essay Example So I decided to bring him to a mall in his wheelchair and have lunch there at the same time. The first difficulty we had was looking for a space to park our car which had to be somewhat near the entrance. We were fortunate to find a spot very close to the mall entrance, but found it frustrating that there were no ramps to access the curb. I finally rolled my cousin up to the entrance, where a nice young man held the door open for us. Upon entering the mall, my cousin found it somewhat simple to move the wheelchair through the aisles and walkways. Deciding to have lunch, we had to take an elevator to the first floor to get to the food court. We got directions from a store map to find where the elevator was, and we found out it was on a far side of the mall. However, we were pleased that the elevator was quite fast and spacious. After that, we found the entrance to the food court very easily, and my cousin was able to maneuver to the food court by himself. As soon as we arrived at the food court, my cousin commented that the brick flooring made it a quite uneven ride up to the food counters. After selecting a food stall, my cousin was able to hold and stretch for the orders with my help, until it was time to look for a table. My cousin had to let me carry his food to me until I got seated at the table. We finally managed to find an oval table with enough room to get my cousin’s body conveniently level to the table. Eating in the wheelchair appeared fairly alike to eating while in a regular chair, and my cousin shared that it was easy to do so. However, we noticed that he needed to lock the wheelchair in place to keep from rolling away while he ate or stretched for the food. After eating we decided to visit some shops. We went inside several clothing shops, and all three were just about the same in construction. The first shop was the easiest of the stores to maneuver, since there was a

Doping in Sports Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Doping in Sports - Research Paper Example Doping in athletes is the most current element that threatens the entire athletics body in the world. Athletes have been found to have used performance enhancing drugs in various athletic competitions through out the world. The motive behind the use of these drugs is not yet established. But the fact remains constant that the primary reason for using performance enhancing drugs by some athletes his to gain competitive advantage and thus snatch the rewards. In some cases personal accomplishments and ambitions such as the need to win medals for their countries are among the driving factors that make athletes engage in doping. Among the commonly abused drugs among athletes include anabolic asteroids, androstenedione, human growth hormones, stimulants, creatine, erythropoietin and diuretics. According to this research, about 1-3 million athletes in the United States have been involved in the use of anabolic steroids by the year 2005, with designer steroids being the commonly abused (O'Le ary and John 23). II. Dangers and Side effects The side effects and the health risks associated with performance enhancing drugs are difficult to assess to the fact that these drugs are illegal. However, studies have revealed the consequences of using these drugs as discussed below. Effects of anabolic steroids The use of anabolic steroids comes with very adverse effects on athletes. The effects however, manifest themselves differently depending on gender. For instance, men develop prominent breasts, baldness, infertility and impotence. In advanced stages, the male testicles become shrunken. On the mother hand, females develop deeper voice, increased body hair, baldness, frequent or sometimes absence of periods (Houlihan and Barrie, 67). Effects of Androstenedione This is a drug that is legally found in prescription form. However, the use of it as a performance enhancing drug is illegal in some countries like the United States of America. The effects of androstenedione in men are; diminished sperm production, breasts enlargement and shrinking of the testicles. In females the effect is that is common is masculinization, such as voice deepening and male-pattern baldness. Effects of human growth hormones This hormone is also known as gonadotropin, and is mainly used by athletes to increase the mass of the muscles and performance. However, the human growth hormones have anabolic effect. Among these effects are; High blood pressure (hypertension), Muscle weakness, Diabetes, pain in the joints and impaired glucose regulation (Khan et al, 12). III. Drug testing procedures Test for doping can be done in two ways. One through blood sample test and the other is done through urine sample test. However, urine sample test is the most commonly used method. The procedures followed are as shown below. Step1. Notification of selection for a urine test The athletes are notified of selection for a test an anti-doping agency through the use of an official Doping Control Form. Step2. Reporting for sample collection The notified athletes are expected to report to the Doping Control Station with immediate effect on the specified time. The

Where do we want to be and how might we get there (Blacks Leisure Essay

Where do we want to be and how might we get there (Blacks Leisure Group plc) - Essay Example A complete analysis is taken in account to know the real position of the firm in the market place, renewal of strategies that will help to achieve the next five years goal. The firm is facing severe and serious challenges as it is internally weak and facing different external pressures. The firm has very weak supply chain management and facing losses due to its many stores which are poor in their yearly sales. The customer expectations and competitors are high and they are dealing with prices to capture maximum market share. The yearly profit is zero due to the formation of many unwanted goods. The firm is internally weak due to lack in leadership and is unable to gain talented employees. The firm is not including any system of grooming that will transfer a smooth power in the hierarchy. The firm lacks sustainability strategy which is another main weakness of the firm. Their marketing for their brand is very weak and this is the reason that their brand is not famous in the market. Moreover, the firm is holding their stores at location which does not cause convenience to the customers. The inventory control system of the firm is also very weak and requi res many software upgrading. The firm is required to revamp its management and strategies. Moreover, the firm is required to tune up its supply chain management and should enhance its marketing to appeal the customers. Black Leisure Free spirit brand and women’s sport wears are the most attractive in the market and these brands are providing yearly revenue to the firm. They are operating a surf academy to attract new customers. Furthermore, it is a known name in the market due to its oldest working and that is the major advantage to the firm. The competitive position of the firm within the UK market is very weak and reason is their yearly loss and unable to attract the customer. As already mentioned, that the competitors are using the price technique to attract many

Exams Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Exams - Coursework Example A good example is a situation whereby some individuals interpreted the scriptures in relation to Christ as a being; thus, assumed his ontological feature4. In this case, this group visualized God as the Father and that there was no difference between the two5. In the contemporary society, a lot of individuals failed to understand the two natures of God and can barely explain Jesus. This can then be related to the Christological errors that saw differences in the Church. More differences were to arise in the Church, as no tangible conclusion was reached in a discussion of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. I, however, believe in the Holy Trinity due to my strong conviction in the doctrines of Christology that emphasizes on the forms of Jesus. Question 2 Christendom may simply be referred to as a Christian world that entails social and political polities6. Christendom created a subtle division of power between the state and the church as medieval Christendom aimed at creatin g a government that would uphold Christian doctrines and values7. The clergy were then given a lot of political authority- what was acceptable throughout Europe- though politicians and clergymen differed in function. In the Middle Ages in Europe, religion and politics were linked, as both were western and Christian concerns8. It was argued that religious authorities were to limit their powers if law enforcement had to be implemented by the state institutions9. A good example can be the rivalry between the Pope and the Emperor in Europe. At times the government may use its powers excessively; thus, hinder the contribution of the Church in the society, and its autonomous operation. The vice versa would also happen if the Church almost takes over the roles of the government forcing the government to submit. In the country today, there is clear separation of power between the Church and the State, and each operates independently. This prevents a situation where either of the parties wil l be forced to work under the mercies of the other. Question 3 Luther’s theology aimed at reforming the practice and theology of the Catholic Church. According to Noll, Luther believed in faith and grace of God10. Additionally, Luther’s theology upheld respect for authority of the Roman Catholic, and other practices of the Catholics such as participation in Eucharist11. Luther advocated for justification by faith where belief in Jesus Christ would spare one from the wrath of destruction. He also believed in the sufficiency of the Scripture as the binding authority of Christians12. The word of God can then be equated to a golden chance in a Christian’s life. Lastly, Luther appreciated the sovereignty of God, and that God gave to human kind on a free will13. Human beings are then under the mercies of God and God uses us as He pleases. Luther’s theology questioned the medieval conception of Christendom. This explains why his theology of the cross is factual of the Christian Heritage. Christians, therefore, believe as being one body of believers, and that Christians are ministers of God’s word. Christians also believe that Jesus Christ was crucified, died for our sins and rose again for the sake of the human race. Question 4 As argued by Bettenson and Maunder, culture plays an immense role in the life of an individual in relation to religion14. At times culture may pose a major

Curleys Wife Essay Example for Free

Curleys Wife Essay What methods does Steinbeck use to present Curley’s wife and the attitudes of other to her? And How Does Steinbeck present attitudes to women in the society in which the novel is set? The novel ‘Of Mice and Men’ is set in a very patriarchal society, a society in which men dominate women and use them for their own needs. Women, who lived within this society, were not seen equal to men. Steinbeck uses many different language techniques to describe Curley’s wife. She plays a complex and misfit character in the novel and is made to sound like a ‘tart’ as mentioned by George himself. Curley uses her for his own needs and controls her. As Curley’s wife walks through the bunk house, ‘the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off’, describing the fact that it goes dark, a sign of evil and danger. A very strong sense of foreboding is given and this continues throughout the text yet, getting stronger. Curley’s wife is kept away from the men. ‘A girl was standing Looking in’. Curley’s wife is standing at the doorway like there’s an invisible barrier, preventing her from entering the men’s dorm. This is because the men don’t want her mixing in with them. They are afraid to talk to her as it would result in losing their jobs. She is ostracised and excluded from the male fraternity. She knows her beauty is her power, and she uses it to flirt with the ranch hands and make her husband jealous. She is utterly alone on the ranch, and her husband has seen to it that no one will talk to her without fearing a beating. For this specific reason, Curley’s wife uses ‘I’m lookin’ for Curley’ as a pick up line to get through to the other men even if it means getting a hello. She mentions this twice throughout the text. Once when she’s talking to George and another when she’s talking to Slim however, the men still keep their distance in fear of Curley. Because of her beauty, ‘Lennie’s eyes move down over her body’. Lennie finds her attractive and wants to touch her like he did to the girl in the red dress. As mentioned in the beginning of the novel, the ‘girl in the red dress’ was trouble for George and Lennie. This is creates an atmosphere of foreboding. Curley and his wife’s relationship isn’t very tight so for this reason, Curley’s wife tries to seek companionship but goes about it the wrong by openly flirting and dressing to impress. She had full rouged lips and wide spaced eyes. Heavily made up’. She covers her face in make-up and puts on an innocent look however it creates the thought she’s seducing in the readers head. As well as this, she uses a flirtatious but coy voice,’ her voice has a nasal, brittle quality’. Brittle meaning fragile, proves that she talk the way she does for friendly attention. Not just to gain sexual attention. As I have previously mentioned, Curley’s wife has a very complex character in which she is, at some points, made to sound naive and at some points very seducing. To back up my point, during mid text, Curley’s wife ‘puts her hands behind her back and leaned against the door frame so that her body was thrown forward’. At this point, Curley’s wife starts to seduce. She does this because, her pick up line didn’t gain much attention from George as he simply replied, ‘he was in here a minute ago, but he went’. Curley’s wife does so much for someone to talk to her but doesn’t go about it the right way. On the other hand, Curley’s wife has a lot of importance in the novel. At the beginning of the text, Steinbeck uses the colour ‘red’ many times. In this particular piece of text, ‘red’ isn’t just an ordinary colour but has much more depth to. It’s repeated in the first paragraph thrice. ‘Her finger nails were red†¦and red mules†¦red ostrich feathers’. ‘Red’ is mainly associated with Curley’s wife who is symbolic to Eve- the female character who, in the biblical story ( the garden of Even) bring sin and death to the society. However, ‘red’ also represents the anger of a bull, which, relating back to the novel, attracts Lennie similar to ‘the girl in the red dress’. It also signifies love, impurity and desire, the type of attention Curley’s wife is looking for. Yet, also, ‘red’ in a traffic light, stop and look. As I previously mentioned, the novel was set in a patriarchal society. The women had no dignity and no rights to speak up for themselves or make their own decisions. Similarly, Curley’s wife is treated with a very low level of respect and is isolated from the male society. She has no possession of her own name and is classified as a ‘tart’. The men don’t try to talk to her because of the fear of Curley and the consequences they would face after. Finally, Curley’s wife gets worried when she finds out that Curley went back to their house. She was suddenly apprehensive†¦ and she scurried away’. Curley likes to fight with big men, so if he finds out that his wife was in the bunk house with the big man, he’ll be sure to pick out a fight once he finds her. To conclude my essay, Curley’s wife is treated like a no ‘one and has no importance in the eyes of the men . She is treated similar to Candy and Crooks like she’s good for nothing and only good to be used as a toy. Steinbeck indirectly mentioned the rights of women and discrimination in this novel through the way Curley treats his wife and the way the men are scared to talk to her.

Using Semi Structured Interviews Health And Social Care Essay

Using Semi Structured Interviews Health And Social Care Essay Before initiating the interviews, approximately eighteen semi-structured questions were formulated, some of which were changed or re-worded during the course of the interview. Interview subjects were selected based on their position. The name of the delegation leader for each African member state was obtained from the UNFCCC secretariat. For certain member states, where the leading delegate was unable to be interviewed due to security reasons or timing, an alternative senior member of the delegation was sought. A total of 23 African leaders were interviewed. Appendix E lists the African Group leaders who were interviewed as part of the study. The African leaders who were interviewed consisted of Presidents, Ministers, Ambassadors, Director Generals, Directors and other senior personnel of the countries delegation such as the UNFCCC Focal Point Representative. The choice of a semi-structured rather than a structured interview was employed as it offered sufficient flexibility to approach the individual respondents in different ways, while collecting the same data. All interviews were held in the various meeting rooms of Bella Centre and half of the interviews took place during the high level segment of COP15, i.e. between the 16th 18th December 2009. The interviews were pre-scheduled; however, due to the overrunning of a number of the COP15 Plenary sessions, a certain degree of flexibility was required by the researcher. In some of the interviews, an interpreter had to be used. In all cases, this interpreter would be a member of the same African delegation as the interviewee. The duration of each interview varied from 45 minutes to 1 hours and 15 minutes. Before each interview commenced, the researcher gave an introduction highlighting the purpose and background to the research, the interview questions, the length of the interview in terms of time and the confidentiality of the results. Most senior interviewees were accompanied by security officers, directors or special assistants. A number of interviewees had invited one or two members of their delegation to give comments or information in addition to their own response and these were also recorded. The interviews were recorded using a combination or methods. Some were recorded using a tape recorder, whilst others were transcribed or a combination of both methods was used during the interview. The intention was to use a tape recorder for all interviews conducted, as this would ensure the most accurate account of the conversations held. However, due to certain reasons, some security aides and ministerial assistants did not allow the use of a tape recorder. In these instances, the interview was transcribed and a synopsis of the interview was read back to ensure the accuracy of the data captured. However, this slowed down the progress of the interview. 4.7.5 Participant Observer According to Jorgensen (1989), participant observation is most appropriate when certain minimal conditions are present: The research problem is concerned with human meanings and interpretations gained from the insiders perspective. The phenomenon is sufficiently limited in size and location to be studied as a case Study questions are appropriate for a case. The research question can be addressed by qualitative data gathered by direct observation and other means pertinent to the field setting. Jorgensen (1989) further states that participant observation is especially appropriate for exploratory studies [as it is a] a special form of observation and a unique way of collecting data [] Direct involvement in the here and now of peoples daily lives provides both a point of reference for the logic and process of participation observational inquiry and a strategy for gaining access to phenomena that commonly are obscured from the standpoint of a non-participant. Furthermore, according to Iacono et al (2009), participant observation can arise from an on-going work situation where the researcher is an industry practitioner. Given this researchers professional status as a practitioner in the field of management consultancy and her current assignment as the Special Technical Assistant to the Minister of Environment, participant observation was used as a method to further understand the group decision-making process of African leaders within the context of the African Group. Observed were the daily activities in relation to how decisions were made, the interaction between delegates and the group dynamics. The formal African Group meetings scheduled from 8am 9am daily were attended, as well as the African Group meetings relating to the Kyoto Protocol between 7pm 8pm, each day. These African Group meetings were at the technical level. A total of 18 African Group meetings at the technical level were attended during COP15. The researcher also attended all four meetings of the African Ministers Committee on Environment (AMCEN) and the two meetings of the Conference of African Heads of State on Climate Change (CAHOSCC). The plenary sessions of the COP15 / MOP5 were closed to party delegates. However, as the researcher was registered as a participant to the Conference, further need to negotiate access to the plenary sessions was not required. During the meetings of the African Group, AMCEN, CAHOSCC and the plenary sessions, detailed observations and field notes were made, including observations on the culture of the UNFCCC decision-making environment. As a researcher, being in the midst of the decision-making process allowed my own understanding and notions to be continually challenged by the action and words of the African leaders within COP15. Conversations were had and questions were asked during the African Group meetings only. 4.7.6 Focus Groups According to Morgan (1997), Focus Groups are a way of collecting data through group interaction on a topic determined by the researcher. Morgan (1997) also states that focus groups are especially useful when seeking to gather a large amount of interaction on a topic in a limited period of time. According to Greenbaum (2000), the goal of a focus group is to delve into attitudes and feelings about a particular topic, to understand the why behind certain behaviours. Other researchers, such as Gibbs (2007) states focus group research involves organised discussions with a selected group of individuals to gain information about their views and experiences of a topic that is particularly suited for obtaining several perspectives about the same topic. Gibbs further states the benefits of focus group research includes gaining insights into peoples shared understandings of everyday life and the ways in which individuals are influenced by others in the same situation. According to Fern (2001) focus groups can be distinguished in terms of the research purpose they serve, the types of information and knowledge they produce, their scientific status and methodological factors. Fern (2001) also states that there are three types of focus groups i.e. exploratory, experimental and clinical. This research uses the exploratory type, as this type is used to explore a new issue, generate a hypothesis and for theory applications including generating theoretical constructs, causal relationships, models and theories. The researchers choice of using an Exploratory Focus Group can be summarised as follows: The nature of the topic under investigation; The exploratory nature of the research; The fact the researcher had ready access to members of the African Group; The data collected would strengthen the findings of the research in conjunction with other research methods adopted for the research. The focus group process consists of seven components. These include: group cohesion, the discussion process, the outcome, group composition, research setting, the moderator and the group process factors (Fern, 2001). Some of these can be controlled by the researcher, while others cannot. The central component is the discussion process and the exchange of information. The discussion process, in turn, affects the nature of the focus group outcome. Fern (2001) also states that group cohesion is important to the success of a focus group as it provides the reason for participants to contribute to the discussion. Group composition and the focus group setting affect cohesion, both directly and in combination. Morgan (1997) states focus groups generally comprised of 6 10 individuals, whereas according to Fern (2001), smaller mini-group focus groups are also common with 4 6 participants. Morgan (1997) also states that the amount that each participant has to contribute to the discussion is a major consideration in determining group size. Small groups work best when the participants are likely to be both interested in the topic and respectful of each other when the researcher desires to gain a clear sense of each participants reaction to the topic. The researcher conducted 6 focus groups comprising of 4 9 members. Compatibility is a major concern when determining the composition of focus groups. According to Morgan (1988), when participants perceive each other as fundamentally similar they can spend less time explaining themselves to each other and more time discussing the issues at hand. Morgan (1988) also states that the classic way to achieve compatibility is by bringing together homogeneous participants. A shared background or demographic characteristics, i.e. gender, race or ethnicity, age, location or residence, educational level, occupation, income, marital status or family composition are a common basis for selection. Too much homogeneity, however, can restrict the range of issues and positions discussed; therefore a degree of heterogeneity was sought in the selection of the African Group members. In this research, the participants were selected on the basis of gender, occupation and location (in terms of the African county they represented). Gender was chosen to ensure female representations amongst members. In terms of occupation, all the respondents were leaders within the environmental sector and had a relatively good understanding of the purpose of COP15. Locality was an important factor, as the researchers aim was to have a member from each of the African states represented in the various focus groups. This was not achieved, due to the difficulty of getting participants together at the same time due to the volume of meetings and side events being held during COP15. The size of each focus group varied from 6 9 participants as stated above. The setting refers to the space in which the focus group takes place. Considerations for setting include the ambient (i.e. tangible or physical) characteristics of a room, the tables, chairs and recording equipment (Fern, 2001). The setting of the focus group meetings was fixed for the duration of the conference. The set-up of the meeting room for the focus groups is illustrated in Figure 5 below. This is based on a group comprising of six participants. The date of each focus group meeting was fixed; however there was need to be flexible on the timing due to meetings and plenary sessions over running. Most of the focus group meetings were held during the first week of the conference, to avoid impacting on the meetings scheduled to interview Ministers and Heads of Governments during the second week of the conference. The majority of the respondents used for the focus group interviews, were technical members of their delegation, but all were in a position of leadership. Suggestions about the optimal number of focus group sessions range from 2 to 8 (Fern, 2001). Though most focus group research shows that fewer than five sessions are adequate, if the purpose of the research, as is the case with this study, is to collect a total population of thoughts rather than common or unique ones (Fern, 2001). Appendix F gives a breakdown of the focus groups held, the participants and the country of origin of the participants. The aim of the researcher was to achieve a good representation of leaders across the continent. Morgan (1997) identifies some more considerations in determining the number of focus groups. Probably the most important of these is the variability of the participants both within and across the groups. Within groups, when there are more heterogeneous participants, this will typically require a larger number of groups to sort out the different sets of opinions and experiences. Degree of structure of the interview also has an impact on the number of groups required. Less structured interviews, with lower levels of moderator involvement, require more groups. Another significant consideration concerns the availability of participants. If there are fewer potential participants available or if they are highly dispersed, several smaller groups of a smaller size are required to address the criterion of saturation. All these factors were considered in determining the exact number of focus groups used in this research. Discussion process (Foulkes, 1964, as cited in Fern, 2001) provides a series of factors which guide the focus group discussion process. These factors represent sequential stages in the group discussion. The first factor, social integration, is the opportunity for equal participation of all group members in the discussion. The second, the mirror reaction, is the individual participants realization that others share similar ideas, anxieties, or impulses and this then relieves the anxieties they feel in relation to participation in the focus group. Condenser phenomenon, as the third factor, is an activation of the collective conscious and unconscious that makes it easier to talk about the issues raised in the discussion. Finally, exchange, is the process of sharing information and explanations that makes up the bulk of the discussion. In the 90 minutes scheduled for each focus group, the first 10 minutes were devoted to the first two factors, social integration and mirror reaction. This included time for participants to check in and become acclimatised to the room and engage in light conversation with the researcher and other participants. Introductions were made and participants got to know a little about each other. Participants were then asked to take a seat around the table. The researcher set the stage in terms of the role of the researcher, the purpose, and the ground rules (i.e. use of audio recorder) and the role of the researcher as the moderator for the session (Greenbaum, 2000). Interview questions were tailored for about 80 minutes of discussion. Each focus group was conducted in a moderately structured manner. As such, the researcher was guided by a set of questions, but neither the exact wording nor the order of questions was predetermined. Likewise, the questions themselves were adjusted from focus group to focus group as information gleaned and data analysed from previous groups was used to guide each subsequent group. As previously explained in earlier chapters, fully structured style was not used as this research is exploratory and the intent was to determine the participants perspective. On the other hand, a fully unstructured approach was not considered suitable as the researcher possessed insights into the relevant discussion topics from an extensive review of the literature and her personal experience as a consultant/practitioner. Generally, the focus group began with each participant providing a brief personal introduction. Questions were then asked about Africas preparedness for the COP15. This was followed by questions relating to how the African Group worked. These questions were used to ascertain, whether there was an understanding and awareness amongst members on the decision-making process of the African Group, and whether the Group leaders fully understood the process. Furthermore, it was important to ascertain whether members of the group were aware of the background and commencement of Africas common position. Other questions that were discussed included those relating to the participants views on the impacts of Climate Change on Africa and the main concerns of the African Group. In addition there were questions relating to their views on whether they felt the decisions made by African leaders were rational and what the likely outcome from COP15 in terms of the expectations of the African Group would be. A final important component to the discussion process is the moderator. In a focus group, the moderator is a facilitation or discussion leader, not a participant to the discussion (Fern, 2001). Two important considerations must be taken into account when deciding on a moderator. These are prior experience and relationship to the participants (Morgan, 1998). As the researcher had both, she made the decision to use an independent moderator for the focus groups. Focus Group Outcomes The focus group outcome refers to the success of achieving the researchers goal. Fern, (2001), defined outcome as: Task performance effectiveness (i.e. quality, quantity, and the cost of information); The users reaction (i.e. satisfaction with the process and output), and; Group member relations (i.e. cohesive, compatible, and lively groups) (Fern 2001).

An investigation in the phenomenon of humour

An investigation in the phenomenon of humour Humor is a universal phenomenon which shows in the tribal and industrialized societies (Apte, 1985). In the Oxford English Dictionary, humor is defined as that quality of actions, speech, or writing which excites amusement; oddity, jocularity, facetiousness, comicality, fun (Simpson Weiner, 1989). From the psychology perspective, humor is stated as a cognitive, emotional and motivational stance toward incongruity, as inherent in funny artifacts, but also in inadvertently amusing situation, our fellow behaviour and attitudes, in fate and life and human nature and existence in general (Ruch, 2002). The term sense of humor will be more specific which refer to a personality trait or individual-differences variable (Ruch, 1998). In addition, Schmidt-Hidding (1963) and Ruch (1998) pointed out that humor has changed rapidly throughout history and during different epochs which has been viewed as predominant mood, talent virtue, style, philosophical attitude or world view. According to Marti n, Puhlik-Doris, Larsen, Gray and Weir (2003), the different facets of sense of humour lend themselves to different measurement approaches, including maximal performance tests (eg. Humour as cognitive ability), funniest ratings (eg. Humour as aesthetic response), observer ratings and self-reported scale. Furthermore, Tamaoka Takashima (1994) stated that humor actually is grounded in a cultural and social context as understanding humor should requires some knowledge of the language which humor was written. From past research, humor is often to be tested in different dimensions which include how it deals with stress and depression (Thornson, Powell, Sarmany-Schuller Hampes, 1997). Lefcourt (2001) stated that people with great sense of humor are easily get well with others, have better ability to cope with stress and also have a better mental and physical health. Martin (2000) explained that humor has become a broad and multi-faceted construct in current psychological research which refers to mental processing in creating, perceiving, understanding and appreciating humor, to characteristics of a stimulus or to the responses of the individual. Nowadays, there are lots of approaches to measure humor, which includes the self-report scales, ability tests, behavioural observation techniques and human appreciation measures. Among all the measurements, there are a few well-known measurements which are frequently used by researchers in their studies. These measurements include Coping Humor Scale (CHS; Matin Lefcourt, 1983), Situational Humor Response Questionnaire (SHRQ; Matin Lefcourt, 1984), The Sense of Humor Questionnaire (SHQ; Svebak, 1974), Multidimensional Sense of Humor (MHSH; Thorson Powell, 1993), and Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ; Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Gray Weir, 2003). Coping Humor Scale was a 7 items scale which designed to report individuals on the humor in coping with stress and the association between sense of humor and both mental and physical health. Besides that, Coping Humour Scale inquires participants used humour to alter difficult situation (Ruch, 1998). Following that, Situational Humor Response Questionnaire was a 21 items scale which has been used in research on sense of humor as a stress-moderator and also the association between sense of humor and both mental and physical health. Thorson (1990) critic SHRQ is a measurement that defines sense of humor purely in terms of laughter frequency. Kuiper and Martin (1993) stated that individuals who score higher marks in both the Coping humour Scale and Situational Humour Response Questionnaire had higher level of self esteem, less discrepancy between their actual and ideal self-concepts, and greater stability in their self concepts over time. Sense of Humor Questionnaire was a 21 items measured with 3 dimensions (Metamessage sensitivity, liking of humor, and emotional expressiveness. SHQ used for investigating relationship between sense of humor and other personality dimensions as well as measures of psychological and physical health and well being. Then, Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale was a 24 items scale with 4 factors (humor creativity and uses of humor for social purposes, uses of coping humor, appreciation of humorous people and appreciation of humor) comparing groups on sense of humor for determining correlates between sense of humor and other personality variables. Humor Styles Questionnaire was a 32 items scale which used to measure 4 humor styles (affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive and self-defending) in accessing both positive and negative styles of humor in correlational research on the role of humor in psychological and physical health, etc. Lefcourt (2001) described that humor has always been found to occur in everyone across many different cultures around the world. Three different categories of research area in cross cultural differences or national differences in humor were suggested by Goldstein (1976): cross cultural comparisons, cross national replications, and intracultural research of Western and non-Western cultures. Other than that, Nevo, Nevo Yin (2001) stated that cross cultural studies are valuable because they help assess the generality of empirical phenomena and highlights the effects of specific cultural influences which show in Castell and Goldstein (1976) research. They compared different culture group like Belgium, Hong Kong and US, and found out that US unlike others nations, they preferred jokes which related to sexual and aggressive content. In addition, humor tends to be interpreting in different way by various cultures which results of cultural and linguistics differences (Thorson, Brdar and Pow ell, 1997). Besides that, Hofstede (1983) found out that cultures could be differentiated on two dimensions: individualism-collectivism andpower-distance. There are several studies using Multidimensional Sense of Humor to measures humor in cultural differences with the finding which culture score higher in creativity. In Nevo, Nevo Yin (2001) studies, there is a significant cross cultural difference found in the structured questionnaires was the tendency of Singaporean students to rely less on humor when coping with difficulty which concludes (Crawford Gressley, 1991) that they are tendency to produce humor rather than to appreciate it. The relationship of humor and gender are being discussed over year and year. According to Lampert Tripp (1998), men are more likely to joke, tease and kid, whereas women are more likely to act as an appreciative audience than to produce humor of their own. Powell, Sarmany-Schuller and Hampes (1997) stated that there are pretty much gender neutral in using the MSHS questionnaire, however, there are still some differences between male and women in the sense of humor. A past research which done by Thorson and Powell (1996) using the MSHS questionnaires showing that males tended to respond with higher score on the humor production and the social uses of humor, while woman respond with higher score in the coping mechanism. The study of Ho Chik (2010) have examines there is a gender differences in association with the moderating effects of coping humor on environmental mastery. The present study is interested in investigating the humour responses in both Malaysian and British cultures, cross gender comparison and also the interaction between the culture differences and the gender in humour. There are few studies in humour using Western countries culture like British, Canadian and Eastern countries culture such as Singaporean, Hong Konger and Japanese but they arent studies done on Malaysian humour. There wasnt any research have been done between Malaysian and British but there were researches done between western and eastern culture which the hypothesis was made accordingly to the results done by previous cultural studies. In the support of the past research, two hypotheses were made for this study. The first hypothesis were that male participants will be more humorous than female which based on the finding of past research like Thornson Powell (1996) which shows men will score higher in the humour production and humour creativity of Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale. Additionally, the second hypothesis was British tend to be funnier, hilarious comparing to Malaysian due to the cultural differences. Acordingly to the studies of humour in most of the eastern culture showed that they are not humourous as western cultures because of their own cultural bias. Method Participants There were 100 participants (28 female Malaysian, 28 male Malaysian, 22 female British, 22 male British) were recruited for this study. 75% of British and Malaysian participants were recruited Middlesex University and Malaysia, the remaining 25% were recruited through email within Middlesex database and Malaysias friends. All the participants were required to respond to a demographic form and 4 sets of questionnaires (Coping Humour Scale, Situational Humour Response Questionnaire, Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale, Humour Scale Questionnaire). For this experiment, participants were between 16 to 57 years of age, the average mean of the age was 24.44 (SD= 6.76). All of them were English literate, able to do their questionnaire without others help. Design The present study carried out had an independent groups design. There were two independent variables which the first independent variable was the nationality of the participants and the second independent variable was the gender of the participants. The dependant variables are participants humour responses, which measured through 4 sets of questionnaires. These dependent variables include the Coping Humour Scale questionnaires, Situational Humour Responses Questionnaires, the affiliative humour, self-enhancing humour, aggressive humour and self-defeating humour of Humour Scale Questionnaires, the humour creativity, coping humour, attitude towards humorous people and facility of social uses of humour of Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale. Materials Participants are required to complete a demographical form with few questions, eg.Gender, nationality, age etc. (appendix 3) and 4 sets of Humour questionnaires which they were Coping Humour Scale (appendix 4), Situational Humour Response Questionnaire (appendix 5), Multidimensional Sense of Humour (appendix 6), and Humour Styles Questionnaire (appendix 7). The Coping Humour Scale (CHS; Martin Lefcourt, 1983) is a 7-item scale which designed to measure participants tendency to make use of humour as a strategy for coping with stress and also the association between sense of humor and both mental and physical health. The CHS (Coping Humour Scale) is a 4-point Likert scale which ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (4). Eg 1. extract from appendix 4 Strongly disagree Mildly disagree Mildly agree Strongly agree 1. I often lose my sense of humour when I am having problems. 2. I have often found that my problems have been greatly reduced when I try to find something funny in them. Example 1 The Situational Humour Response Questionnaire (SHRQ; Martin Lefcourt, 1984) is designed to assess participants sense of humour as the tendency to laugh and smile in a wide range of situations. The SHRQ includes 18 situational items that describe a possible life situation. Participants were asked to respond to the situation by imaging or recalling it, which they could be as irritating or they might be amusing. These questionnaires will be rated in a 5-point Guttman-type scale ranging from I wouldnt have found it particularly amusing (1) to I would have laughed heartily (5) (Martin 2006). Besides that, Martin (2006) also explain that the SHRQ correlated significantly with peer ratings of participants laughter, and tendency to use humour in stressful situations . Eg 2. Extract from appendix 5. 1. If you were shopping by yourself in a distant city and you unexpectedly saw an acquaintance from school (or work), how have you responded or how would you respond? (a.) I would probably not have bothered to speak to the person (b.)I would have talked to the person but wouldnt have shown much humor (c.) I would have found something to smile about in talking with him or her (d.)I would have found something to laugh about with this person (e.) I would have laughed heartily with the person Example 2 Humour Style Questionnaires (HSQ; Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Gray Weir, 2003) is a 32 items scale which consists of 4 humour style (each humour style contains of 8 items). The four humour style includes affiliative humour ( I enjoy making people laugh), self-enhancing humour (If I am feeling depressed, I can usually cheer myself up with humour), aggressive humour (if someone make mistake, I will often tease them about it) and finally the self-defeating humour (I let people laugh at me or make fun at my expense more than I should). Humour Style Questionnaires consists of 21 positively- phrased item and 11 negatively-phrased items which the 11 negatively-phrased items will be reversed in scoring. All questions are answered by participants on a seven-point scale ranging from totally disagree (1) to totally agree (7). Eg 4. Extract from appendix 7 Totally Disagree = 1 Moderately Disagree = 2 Slightly Disagree = 3 Neither Agree nor Disagree = 4 Slightly Agree = 5 Moderately Agree = 6 Totally Agree = 7 1. ______ I usually dont laugh or joke around much with other people. 2. ______ If I am feeling depressed, I can usually cheer myself up with humor. Example 4 The Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale (MHSH; Thorson Powell, 1993) contains 24 self descriptive Likert item testing for the four factors which assess individual aspects of the sense of humour. These four factors includes humour creativity (sometimes I think up jokes and funny stories), use of humour as a coping mechanism (Uses of humour help to put me at ease), attitudes towards humour itself (people who tell jokes are a pain in the neck) and appreciation of humour (I appreciate those who generate humour). Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale consist of 18 positively- phrased item and 6 negatively-phrased item. The 6 negatively-phrased items are reversed in scoring. In this questionnaire, participants with higer scores indicate higher sense of humour (Thorson, Powell and Samuel, 2001). Participants were required to indicate their choices on every question on a Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Eg3.extract from appendix 6 Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree 1. I can often crack people up with the things I say. 1 2 3 4 5 2. Other people tell me that I say funny things. 1 2 3 4 5 Example 3 Procedure Participants were invited to participant in the study as they will be given an information sheet (appendix 1) which explained about the study. After finished reading the information sheet, they will be given the informed consent form (appendix 2) to sign if they willing to participate the experiment. After signing the consent form, they will require to fill in the demographic form (appendix 3) which consists of gender, age, nationality etc. Then, four sets of questionnaires which include the Multidimensional Sense of Humour Questionnaire, Humour Styles Questionnaire, Coping Humour Scale and Situational Humour Response Questionnaire will be given to them to fill in. After finishing all the questionnaires, participants were given a debriefing sheet (Appendix 8) and dismissed from the study. For participants recruited through email, they had also received the information sheet by email before they agreed to do the experiment. Then, they will receive a consent form to sign and together with the demographic form and four sets of questionnaires to fill in. After finished filling in all the answer, the consent form, demographic form and four sets of questionnaires will be given back through email. After receiving the questionnaires set, a debriefing sheet will be emailed to them. Results Descriptive statistics The means and standard deviations (S.D) for each of the measures are shown in table one to table two, by splitting gender (male, female) and nationality (British, Malaysian) respectively. From the table 1 shown below, British male had higher mean than Malaysian Male in all of the measures except Coping Humour scale. In the other hand, Malaysian female had higher mean compare to the British Female except Multidimensional sense of Humour Sense which shown in table 2. To be more specified, descriptive tables for both four subscale of Humour Style Questionnaires and Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale are shown in table three to table six. The Mean and Standard Deviation (S.D) of the dependent variables of Male Participants (50) were shown below as table 1. British Male Sample size = 22 Malaysian Male sample size= 28 Total Sample size =50 Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D Coping Humour Scale 2.89 0.43 2.96 0.40 Situational Humour Response Questionnaire 2.70 0.62 2.47 0.45 Humour Style Questionnaire 5.44 4.33 4.09 0.50 Multidimensional sense of Humour Sense 4.01 3.17 3.22 0.24 Table 1 The Mean and Standard Deviation (S.D) of the dependent variables of Female Participants (50) were shown below as table 2. British Female Sample size = 22 Malaysian Female sample size= 28 Total Sample size =50 Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D Coping Humour Scale 2.60 0.37 2.90 0.32 Situational Humour Response Questionnaire 2.34 0.43 2.46 0.39 Humor Style Questionnaire 4.05 0.46 4.09 0.67 Multidimensional sense of Humour Sense 3.30 0.29 3.16 0.26 Table 2 The Mean and Standard Deviation (S.D) of the Humour Style Questionnaires sub-factors (dependent variables) of Female Participants (50) were shown below as table 3. Humor Style Questionnaire British Male Sample size = 22 Malaysian Male sample size= 28 Total Sample size =50 Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D Affiliative humour (HSQ) 5.41 1.23 5.18 0.79 5.29 1.00 Self-enhancing humour (HSQ) 4.70 1.10 4.00 0.89 4.28 1.04 Aggressive humour (HSQ) 3.50 1.04 3.50 0.68 3.49 0.85 Self-defeating humour (HSQ) 3.75 1.03 3.73 0.86 3.74 0.93 Table 3 The Mean and Standard Deviation (S.D) of the Humour Style Questionnaires sub-factors (dependent variables) of Female Participants (50) were shown below as table 4. Humor Style Questionnaire British Female Sample size = 22 Malaysian Female sample size= 28 Total Sample size =50 Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D Affiliative humour (HSQ) 5.58 0.96 5.28 0.82 5.41 0.89 Self-enhancing humour (HSQ) 4.05 0.82 3.88 0.77 4.00 0.79 Aggressive humour (HSQ) 3.55 0.83 3.47 0.71 3.50 0.76 Self-defeating humour (HSQ) 3.03 0.90 3.72 1.05 3.42 1.04 Table 4 The Mean and Standard Deviation (S.D) of the Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale Questionnaires sub-factors (dependent variables) of Male Participants (50) were shown below as table 5. Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale British Male Sample size = 22 Malaysian Male sample size= 28 Total Sample size=50 Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D Humour creativity 3.48 0.94 3.49 0.61 3.46 0.76 Coping humour 3.63 0.48 3.62 0.51 3.62 0.49 Attitude towards humorous people 3.89 0.65 3.91 0.55 3.90 0.59 Appreciation of humour 4.25 0.65 4.29 0.63 4.27 0.63 Table 5 The Mean and Standard Deviation (S.D) of the Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale Questionnaires sub-factors (dependent variables) of Female Participants (50) were shown below as table 6. Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale British Females Sample size = 22 Malaysian Females sample size= 28 Total Sample size= 50 Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D Humour creativity 3.36 0.61 3.32 0.76 3.29 0.70 Coping humour 3.56 0.67 3.53 0.43 3.54 0.54 Attitude towards humorous people 4.31 0.63 3.95 0.72 4.11 0.70 Appreciation of humour 4.57 0.44 4.52 0.59 4.54 0.52 Table 6 Factor Analysis Factor analysis was carried out in order to test the validity of the sub-scales in two measures (Humour Style Questionnaires and Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale). It was expected that the four factors of each measure would emerge from this analysis. Both Humour Style Questionnaires and Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale used Principal Component Analysis (PCA) as the analysis. Table seven and table eight showed both of the results of the PCA of Humour Style Questionnaires and Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale using the Varimax rotation and Kaiser-Meyer-Oblin test. The results showed that the expected factors loading in previous studies did not emerge from the current sample. For the Humour Style Questionnaires, five items (questions 6, 22, 26, 27, 28) load in different factors comparing to Martins (2003) original questionnaires, which looks a bit confusing. In addition, four items (questions 7, 13, 16, 30) did not load significantly (at above .3), therefore, there were excluded from the tables 7. For the Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale, table 8 showed messy values load in each factors. Two factors can not be identified due to the messy items comparing with Thornson Powells (1993) original scale. Only one item did not load significantly (at above .3) on any factors. The overall results of the factor analysis were not satisfied, because the analysis came out in a mess. One of the reasons which contribute the following table 7 and table 8 might because of the small sample size (100) comparing with the large sample size (>1000) in Martins (2003) and Thornson Powells (1993) studies. Therefore, the following reliability test and ANOVA will adopt past researchs scale. Table 7: Factor loadings of the 32 items of Humour Style Questionnaires (Principal Componenet Analysis using Varimax Rotation, N=100) Items Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Factor 4 I usually dont like to tell jokes or amuse people. .765 I dont often joke around with my friends. .711 I usually dont laugh or joke around much with other people. .654 I enjoy making people laugh. .650 I usually cant think of witty things to say when I m with other people. .640 Even when Im by myself, Im often amused by the absurdities of life. .564 I rarely make other people laugh by telling funny stories about myself. .557 I dont have to work very hard at making other people laugh I seem to be a naturally humorous person. .468 I often go overboard in putting myself down when I am making jokes or trying to be funny .767 Letting others laugh at me is my way of keeping my friends and family in good spirits. .716 I often try to make people like or accept me more by saying something funny about my own weaknesses, blunders, or faults. .618 I will often get carried away in putting myself down if it makes my family or friends laugh. .598 If I dont like someone, I often use humor or teasing to put them down .554 I let people laugh at me or make fun at my expense more than I should .517 When I am with friends or family, I often seem to be the one that other people make fun of or joke about. .479 It is my experience that thinking about some amusing aspect of a situation is often a very effective way of coping with problems. .391 -.311 If I am feeling upset or unhappy I usually try to think of something funny about the situation to make myself feel better. .775 If Im by myself and Im feeling unhappy, I make an effort to think of something funny to cheer myself up. .755 If I am feeling depressed, I can usually cheer myself up with humor. .703 My humorous outlook on life keeps me from getting overly upset or depressed about things. .357 .322 .360 If I am having problems or feeling unhappy, I often cover it up by joking around, so that even my closest friends dont know how I really feel. .344 I do not like it when people use humor as a way of criticizing or putting someone down. .654 If I am feeling sad or upset, I usually lose my sense of humor. .393 .579 Even if something is really funny to me, I will not laugh or joke about it if someone will be offended .506 If someone makes a mistake, I will often tease them about it. .487 Sometimes I think of something that is so funny that I cant stop myself from saying it, even if it is not appropriate for the situation. .443 I never participate in laughing at others even if all my friends are doing it. -.334 .336 Eigenvalue 4.73 3.21 2.41 2.02 % of Variance 14.80 10.04 7.53 6.34 * Only Coefficient above .3 were shown Table 8: Factor loadings of the 24 items of Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale (Principal Componenet Analysis using Varimax Rotation, N=100) Items Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Factor 4 I can say things in such a way as to make people laugh. .837 Other people tell me that I say funny things. .825 Im confident that I can make other people laugh .793 My clever sayings amuse others. .785 I use humour to entertain my friends .779 Im regarded as something of a wit by my friends. .779 People look to me to say amusing things .773 I can often crack people up with the things I say. .755 Sometimes I think up jokes or funny stories .699 I can actually have some control over a group by my uses of humour .643 .324 I can use wit to help adapt to many situations. .545 .337 Trying to master situations through uses of humour is really dumb. .704 .333 Humour is a lousy coping mechanism .697 Calling somebody a comedian is a real insult. .695 I like a good joke .592 People who tell jokes are a pain in the neck. .581 Humour helps me cope .814 Uses of wit or humour help me master difficult situations .798 Coping by using humour is an elegant way of adapting. .750 I appreciate those who generate humour .774 Uses of humour to put me at ease. .523 .641 I dislike comics .566 Im uncomfortable when everyone is cracking jokes .372 .447 Eigenvalue 6.67 3.41 2.26 1.13 % of Variance 27.82 14.19 9.40 5.61 * Only Coefficient above .3 were shown Reliability Test The internal consistencies (Cronbach Alpha) were run in order to check the reliability of the test. The Cronbach Alpha for the Coping Humour Scale was low, .50 but still acceptable and it was lower than the value .61 found in Martin and Lefecourts (1983) studies in Canada. The corrected item-total correlation for the 7 item of Coping Humour Scale fall between .199 to .483, with an exception of Item 1 ( I often lose my sense of humour when I am having problems), which the corrected item-total correlation was -.22. This means that item 1 is not consistent with other items, if item 1 was deleted, the Cronbach Alpha of Coping Humour Scale will become .58, higher than current value .50. The Cronbach Alpha of the Situational Humour Response Questionnaire was high, .78 which was a reliable measure although it only consists of 18 items comparing to 21 items. The corrected item-total correlation for the 18 items of Situational Humour Response Questionnaire falls between .151 and .519. Given its comparability to previous study of 21 items, Cronbach Alpha ranging from .70 to .85 and test-retest correlation of around .70 was presented (Lefcourt Martin, 1986; Martin Lefcourt, 1984). The Cronbach Alphas of the four sub-scales (affiliative humour, self-enhancing humour, aggressive humour and self-defeating humour) of the Humor Style Questionnaire were .77, .68, .47 and .69 respectively. The Cronbach alpha of aggressive humour was low .47, if the item 27 (If I dont like someone, I often use humor or teasing to put them down) was deleted, the Cronbach alpha will rise to an acceptable value .50. Comparing with Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Gray and Weirs research(2002), reliabilit

A & P - John Updike :: essays research papers

A & P takes place in a community inland that is sandy, yet near the coast. It starts out in the supermarket in which three girls in bathing suits walk in. One of these girls catches the eye of Sammy, which is working at the supermarket, Queenie. â€Å"The one that caught my eye first was the one in the plaid green two-piece. She was a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit, at the top of the backs of her legs.† Sammy sees these girls and wants to be like them, free in a sense. As time goes on the girls finally get what they wanted and decided to check-out. They make there way to Sammy’s register where there comes Sammy’s manager, Lengel, to complain to the girls about their dress attire. Sammy's feelings for Queenie changes when he hears her voice. Her voice is normal and he has built this romantic image of her in his mind. Hearing her voice and realizing she is a normal person, (that happens to be wealthy) slightly changes his feelings for her. It brings him back to reality a little. â€Å"Her voice kind of startled me, the way voices do when you see the people first, coming out so flat and dumb yet kind of tony, too, the way it ticked over "pick up" and "snacks." All of a sudden I slid right down her voice into her living room.† Sammy feels as if he has no chance to get noticed by her unless he does something out of the ordinary. So after she is done arguing with Lengel, Sammy decides to stand up for her and quit his job in hopes that she will notice him. The girls, and who'd blame them, are in a hurry to get out, so I say "I quit" to Lengel quick enough for them to hear, hoping they'll stop and watch me, their unsuspected hero. They keep right on going, into the electric eye; the door flies open and they flicker across the lot to their car, Queenie and Plaid and Big Tall Goony-Goony (not that as raw material she was so bad), leaving me with Lengel and a kink in his eyebrow. As this is happening Sammy starts to see the stupidity of what he just did, but still quits since he already stated it he might as well do it.

Basketball Essay -- essays research papers

Basketball Basketball was created a simple game. The primary objective was to place a ball, without dribbling, into a peach basket. However, like Darwin's theory of man, basketball has evolved into the most exciting exhibition of athletic ability. Basketball has seen many rule changes, because of the increasing ability of the players. Basketball is a melting pot, where black, white, and European people excel. This is a sport that is color-blind. This sport requires complete control over one's body and mind. Pure strength is required to fight through opposing teams picks, and to gain position for rebounds. Speed is necessary to create space for a shot attempt or a pass. Concentration is vital to dribbling a ball up the court, with an opposing defender harassing you. With as much physical prowess that is required for success, basketball is a mental chess match. "Thurber, make the smart play!" yelled Coach Balderama all last season.This game is only "ten percent" physical as Duke's Coach K explains it. For those who deny the mental aspects of the game, John Stockton is an ideal example. He is not the fastest, strongest, or best player on the floor. Stockton uses angles and his understanding of basketball to quietly and consistently outplay much more talented opponents. There is a growing problem in the NBA, and it is evident in the "Pop Warner" leagues also. Basketball is not the same game it was ten years ago, and ESPN's Sportcenter, the lack of fundamentals, and the influx of teenagers into the professional ranks. "Vince Carter on the baseline†¦ He raises up†¦ Boo-ya, all in Alonzo Mourning's grill!" States an exited Stuart Scott. Every day ESPN gathers the most amazing highlights from the games the night before, and creates a visually appealing collage. As a religious viewer I am fed a ste ady diet of no look passes, monstrous slam-dunks, and impossible fade-away shots that only NBA caliber players are capable of making. This, almost unknowingly, has assisted in creating a new mentality towards the sport. Last season I would find myself in situations where I was trying to execute a spectacular play, instead of completing the easy one. Why do I try to imitate the sweeping crossover dribble glorified by Allen Iverson? ESPN has made "Playground" basketball in style. Allen Iverson is the pioneer of this ghetto re... ...aliber, and he educated himself about the game and life off of the court. Many of these players who jump to the pro's after little or no college are ignorant. The NBA, these days, has a combined IQ of fifteen, and we wonder what is wrong. The NBA is in a limbo, and is tripping over it's own clumsy feet. The game will not get better until the players improve their levels of play. But improvement comes with experience, and it is difficult for players to gain experience and confidence when they are only children trying to master a complex game. In conclusion, ESPN's Sportcenter, the lack of basic basketball fundamentals, and the decreasing age of players entering into the league is a recipe for disaster. It is a cycle that is going to be hard to break. Today's kids are presented with options that are too difficult for them to comprehend. So instead of doing it the right way and going through school and listening to their coach, agents are give utter control over these exploited chil dren. However, with all of the negatives surrounding the game, basketball will survive. David Stern is a competent commissioner and there is too much money involved for people to let the NBA self destruct.

Assignment Questions

FEDERAL TAXATION 307__________________________________ Week 2 – Chapter 4 Homework: student’s name #20. Brenda loaned her son Bart $250,000 to purchase a new home. Brenda did not charge interest on the loan. Brenda was required to recognize imputed interest income and Bart had imputed home mortgage interest expense that he deducted as an itemized deduction. Would Brenda’s and Bart’s combined total income taxes likely increase or decrease as a result of the imputed interest? #23. On July 1, 1998, when Betty was 65 years old, she purchased an annuity contract for $108,000.The annuity was to pay Betty $9,000 on June 30 each year for the remainder of her life. Betty died on March 31, 2011. What are the effects of the annuity on Betty’s gross income and taxable income for 2011? #31. Al is a medical doctor who conducts his practice as a sole proprietor. During 2011, he received cash of $280,000 for medical services. Of the amount collected, $40,000 was fo r services provided in 2010. At the end of 2011, Al had accounts receivable of $60,000, all for services rendered in 2011.In addition, at the end of the year, Al received $12,000 as an advance payment from a health maintenance organization (HMO) for services to be rendered in 2012. Compute Al’s gross income for 2011† a)Using the cash basis of accounting. b)Using the accrual basis of accounting. c)Advise Al on which method of accounting he should use. #34. Color Paint Shop, Inc. (459 Ellis Avenue, Harrisburg, PA 17111), is an accrual basis taxpayer that paints automobiles. During the year, the company painted Samuel’s car and was to receive a $1,000 payment from his insurance company.Samuel was not satisfied with the work, however, and the insurance company refused to pay. In December 2011, Color and Samuel agreed that Color would receive $800 for the work, subject to final approval by the insurance company. In the past, Color had come to terms with customers only to have the insurance company negotiate an even lesser amount. In May 2012, the insurance company reviewed the claim and paid the $800 to Color. An IRS agent thinks that Color, as an accrual basis taxpayer, should report $1,000 of income in 2011, when the work was done, and then deduct a $200 loss in 2012.Prepare a memo to Susan Apple, a tax partner for whom you are working, with the recommended treatment for the disputed income. #36. Marlene, a cash basis taxpayer, invests in Series EE U. S. Government savings bonds and bank certificates of deposit (CDs). Determine the tax consequences of the following on her 2011 gross income. a)On July 1, 2011, she purchased a CD for $10,000. The CD matures on June 30, 2013, and will pay $10. 816, thus yielding a 4% annual return. b)On December 31, 2011, she cashed in a CD and received $11,025. She purchased the CD on January 1, 2010 and the yield to maturity was 5%. )On September 30, 2011, she cashed in Series EE bonds for $10,000. She purchase d the bonds in 2011 for $7,025. The yield to maturity on the bonds was 4. 5%. #38. Freda is a cash basis taxpayer. In 2011, she negotiated her salary for 2012. Her employer offered to pay her a total of $250,000 for the year. Freda countered that she would accept $10,000 each month for the 12 months in 2012, and the remaining $130,000 in January 2013. The employer accepted Freda’s terms for 2012 and 2013. a)Did Freda actually or constructively receive $250,000 in 2012? b)What could explain Freda’s willingness to spread her salary over a longer period of time? 42. Fran, Gary, and Heidi each have a one-third interest in the capital and profits of the FGH Partnership. Each partner had a capital account of $50,000 at the beginning of the tax year. The partnership profits for the tax year were $240,000. Changes in their capital accounts during the tax year were as follows: Fran Gary Heidi Total Beginning balance$50,000$50,000$50,000$150,000 Withdrawals(25,000)(35,000)(10,00 0)( 70,000) Additional contributions -0- -0- 5,000 5,000 Allocation of profits 80,000 80,000 80,000 240,000 Ending balance $105,000 $95,000 $125,000$325,000In arriving at the $240,000 of partnership profits, the partnership deducted $1,800 ($600 for each partner) in premiums paid for group term life insurance on the partners. Fran and Gary are 39 years old, and Heidi is 35 years old. Other employees are also eligible for group term life insurance equal to their annual salary. These premiums of $10,000 have been deducted in calculating the partnership profits of $240,000. Computer each partner’s gross income from the partnership for last year. #49. On June 30, 2011, Ridge borrowed $62,000 from his employer. On July 1, 2011, Ridge used the money as follows:Interest-free loan to Ridge’s controlled corporation (operated by Ridge on a part-time basis)$31,000 Interest-free loan to Tab (Ridge’s son) 11,000 National Bank of Grundy 5% CD ($14,700 due at maturity, June 30 , 2012) 14,000 National Bank of Grundy 5. 5% CD ($6,678 due at maturity, June 30, 2012) 6,000 $62,000 Ridge’s employer did not charge him interest. The applicable Federal rate was 5% throughout the relevant period. Tab had investment income of $800 for the year, and he used the loan proceeds to pay medical school tuition. There were no other outstanding loans between Ridge and Tab.What are the effects of the preceding transactions on Ridge’s taxable income for 2011? #51. Vito is the sole shareholder of Vito, Inc. He is also employed by the corporation. On June 30, 2011, Vito borrowed $8,000 from Vito, Inc. , and on July 1, 2012, he borrowed an additional $4,000. Both loans were due on demand. No interest was charged on the loans, and the Federal rate was 8% for all relevant dates. Vito used the money to purchase a boat, and he had $1,100 of investment income. Determine the tax consequences to Vito and Vito, Inc. in each of the following situations: )The loans are consi dered employer-employee loans. b)The loans are considered corporation-shareholder loans #52. Tess retires after 30 years of service with her employer. She is 66 years old and has contributed $37,800 to her employer’s qualified pension fund. She elects to receive her retirement benefits as an annuity of $3,000 per month for the remainder of her life. a)Assume that Tess retires in June 2011 and collects six annuity payments this year. What is her gross income from the annuity payments in the first year? b)Assume that Tess lives 30 years after retiring.What is her gross income from the annuity payments in the twenty-ninth year? c)Assume that Tess dies after collecting 180 payments. She collected six payments in the year of her death. What are Tess’s gross income and deductions from the annuity contract in the year of her death? FEDERAL TAXATION 307__________________________________ – Chapter 5 Homework: #7. Lime Finance Company requires its customers to purchase a credit life insurance policy associated with the loans it makes. Lime is the beneficiary of the policy to the extent of the remaining balance on the loan at the time of the customer’s death.In 2010, Lime wrote off as uncollectible a $5,000 account receivable from Wally, which included $1,500 of accrued interest. When Wally died in 2011, the life insurance policy was still in force, and Lime received $3,500. Is the $3,500 of life insurance proceeds received by Lime included in its gross income? #13. Melba’s employer provides a flexible spending plan for medical and dental expenses not covered by insurance. Melba contributed $1,500 during 2011, but by the end of December 2011, she still had $300 remaining in the account.Melba intended to get new eyeglasses, but was too busy during the holiday season. Is Melba required to forfeit the balance in her flexible spending account? #23. In 2011, Montgomery County experienced a budget surplus. The County is considering using a po rtion of the surplus to rebate part of the real estate taxes paid by county real estate owners. What would be the income tax consequences to the real estate owners of receiving the rebate in 2012? #25. Molly is a cash basis taxpayer. In 2011, she earned only $6,500, which was less than the standard deduction and personal exemption.In January 2012, Molly’s employer determined that he had miscalculated her December 2011 bonus and that she should have received an additional $1,000 of compensation in 2011. The employer paid Molly the $1,000 in 2012. If Molly had received the $1,000 in 2011, it would not have resulted in any tax liability because her gross income would still have been less than her standard deduction and personal exemption. In 2012, Molly had over $30,000 in taxable income. Does the tax benefit rule apply to Molly’s situation? Explain. #28. Ed, an employee of the Natural Color Company, suffered from a rare disease that was very expensive to treat.The local media ran several stories about Ed's problems, and the family received more than $10,000 in gifts from individuals to help pay the medical bills. Ed’s employer provided hospital and medical insurance for its employees, but the policy did not cover Ed’s illness. When it became apparent that Ed could not pay all of his medical expenses, the hospital canceled the $25,000 Ed owed at the time of his death. After Ed’s death, his former employer paid Ed’s widow $12,000 in â€Å"her time of need. † Ed’s widow also collected $50,000 on a group term life insurance policy paid for by Ed’s employer. What are Ed’s and his wife’s gross income? 31. What is the taxpayer’s gross income in each of the following situations? a)Darrin received a salary of $50,000 in 2011 from his employer, Green Construction Associates, Inc. In July 2011, Green gave each employee $2,500 as a bonus for exceeding the monthly sales goals. b)Megan receive d $10,000 from her employer to help her pay the college expenses of her daughter. c)Blake received $15,000 from his deceased wife’s employer in â€Å"recognition of her 30 years of faithful service to the company. † d)Clint collected $50,000 as the beneficiary of a group term life insurance policy for which his deceased wife’s employer had paid the premiums. 33. Ray and Carin are partners in an accounting firm. The partners have entered into an arm’s length agreement requiring Ray to purchase Carin’s partnership interest from Carin’s estate if she dies before Ray. The price is set at 120% of the book value of Carin’s partnership interest at the time of her death. Ray purchased an insurance policy on Carin’s life to fund this agreement. After Ray had paid $45,000 in premiums, Carin was killed in an automobile accident, and Ray collected $800,000 of life insurance proceeds. Ray used the life insurance proceeds to purchase Carinâ €™s partnership interest. )What amount should Ray include in his gross income from receiving the life insurance proceeds? b)The insurance company paid Ray $16,000 interest on the life insurance proceeds during the period Carin’s estate was in administration. During this period, Ray had left the insurance proceeds with the insurance company. Is this interest taxable? c)When Ray paid $800,000 for Carin’s partnership interest, priced as specified in the agreement, the fair market value of Carin’s interest was $1 million. How much should Ray include in his gross income from this bargain purchase? #36.Leigh sued an overzealous bill collector and received the following settlement: Damage to her automobile the collector attempted to repossess$ 3,300 Physical damage to her arm caused by the collector 15,000 Loss of income while her arm was healing 6,000 Punitive damages 80,000 a)What effect does the settlement have on Leigh’s gross income? b)Assume Leigh also collected $25,000 of damages for slander to her personal reputation caused by the bill collector misrepresenting the facts to Leigh’s employer and other creditors. Is this $25,000 included in Leigh’s gross income? #39.The UVW Union and HON Corporation are negotiating contract terms. Assume the union members are in the 28% marginal tax bracket and all benefits are provided on a nondiscriminatory basis. Write a letter to the UVW Union members explaining the tax consequences of the options discussed below. The union’s address is 905 Spruce Street, Washington, DC 20227. a)The company would impose a $100 deductible on medical insurance benefits. Most employees incur more than $100 each year in medical expenses. b)Employees would get an additional paid holiday with the same annual income (the same pay but less work). )An employee who did not need health insurance (because the employer’s spouse works and receives family coverage) would be allowed to receive the cash value of the coverage. #52. Tonya, who lives in Virginia, inherited a $10,000 State of Virginia bond in 2011. Her marginal Federal tax rate is 35%, and her marginal state tax rate is 5%. The Virginia bond pays 4% interest, which is not subject to Virginia income tax. She can purchase a corporate bond of comparable risk that will yield 6% or a U. S. government bond that pays 5. 6% interest.Tonya does not itemize her deductions. Which investment will provide the greatest after-tax yield? Chapter 6 Homework #7 Nanette is a third-grade teacher. Potential deductions are charitable contributions of $520, personal property taxes on her car of $225, and various supplies purchased for use in her classroom of $225 (none reimbursed by her school). How will these items affect Nanette’s income tax return? #11 Mary Kate owns a building that she leases to an individual who operates a grocery store. Rent income is $10,000 and rental expenses are $6,000.On what Form 1040 schedule or sch edules are the income and expenses reported? #20 Gordon anticipates that being positively perceived by the individual who is elected mayor will be beneficial for his business. Therefore, he contributes to the campaigns of both the Democratic and the Republican candidates. The Republican candidate is elected mayor. Can Gordon deduct any of the political contributions he made? #25 Are there any circumstances under which taxpayers can rent their personal residence and not be required to report the rent income received?Does this have an effect on the deductions allowed? #37 This has not been a good year for Betsy. During the year, she had losses from the following sales: Personal use sailboat$ 6,000 Personal residence$30,000 Rental house$12,000 Orange, Inc. stock$ 4,000 City of James bonds$ 2,000 a)What is the amount of Betsy’s deductible losses b) Classify the deductible losses as deductions for or from AGI #45 Vermillion, Inc. , a publicly held corporation (not a TARP recipient ), pays the following salaries to its executives: Retirement Plan SalaryBonus ContributionCEO$2,000,000$100,000 $80,000 Executive vice president 1,800,000 90,000 72,000 Treasurer 1,600,000 -0- 64,000 Marketing vice president 1,500,000 75,000 60,000 Operations vice president 1,400,000 70,000 56,000 Distribution vice president 1,200,000 60,000 48,000 Research vice president 1,100,000 -0- 44,000 Controller 800,000 -0- 32,000 Vermillion normally does not pay bonuses, but after reviewing the results of operations for the year, the board of directors decided to pay a 5% bonus to selected executives.What is the amount of these payments hat =Vermillion may deduct? #47 Terry traveled to a neighboring state to investigate the purchase of two hardware stores. His expenses included travel, legal, accounting, and miscellaneous expenses. The total was $52,000. He incurred the expenses in June and July 2011. Under the following circumstances, what can Terry deduct in 2011? a)Terry was in the hardw are store business and did not acquire the two hardware stores. b)Terry was in the hardware store business and acquired the two hardware stores and began operating them on October 1, 2011. )Terry did not acquire the two hardware stores and was not in the hardware store business. d)Terry acquired the two hardware stores, but was not in the hardware store business when he acquired them. Operations began on October 1, 2011. #58 The Robin Corporation is owned as follows: Isabelle26% Peter, Isabelle’s husband19% Sonya, Isabelle’s mother15% Reggie, Isabelle’s father25% Quinn, an unrelated party15% Robin is on the accrual basis, and Isabelle and Peter are on the cash basis. Isabelle and Peter each loaned the Robin Corporation $40,000 out of their separate funds.On December 31, 2011, Robin accrued interest at 7% on both loans. The interest was paid on February 4, 2012. What is the tax treatment of this interest expense/income to Isabelle, Peter, and Robin? #59 For each of the following independent transactions, calculate the recognized gain or loss to the seller and the adjusted basis to the buyer. a)Bonnie sells Parchment, Inc. stock (adjusted basis $17,000) to Phillip, her brother, for its fair market value of $12,000 b)Amos sells land (adjusted basis $85,000) to his nephew, Boyd, for its fair market value of $70,000. c)Susan sells a tax-exempt bond (adjusted basis $20,000) to her holly owned corporation for its fair market value of $19,000 d)Ron sells a business truck (adjusted basis $20,000) that he uses in his sole proprietorship to his cousin, Agnes, for its fair market value of $18,500. e)Martha sells her partnership interest (adjusted basis $175,000) in Pearl Partnership to her adult daughter, Kim, for $220,000. #61 Lee incurred the following expenses in the current tax year. Indicate, in the spaces provided, whether each expenditure is deductible for AGI, from AGI, or not deductible. DeductibleNot Expenses Item For AGI From AGI Deductible a) Lee’s personal medical expenses. ______ ______________ b) Lee’s dependent daughter’s medical expenses _______ ______________ c) Real estate taxes on Lee’s rental property _______ ______________ d) Real estate taxes on Lee’s personal residence _______ ______________ e) Real estate taxes on daughter’s personal residence _______ ______________ f) Lee’s state income taxes _______ ______________ g) Interest on Lee’s rental property mortgage _______ ______________ h) Interest on Lee’s personal residence mortgage _______ ______________ i) Interest on daughter’s personal residence mortgage _______ ______________ j) Interest on Lee’s business loans. _______ ______________ k) Lee’s charitable contributions. ______ ______________ l) Depreciation on Lee’s rental property _______ ______________ m) Depreciation on auto used in Lee’s business _______ ______________ n) Depreciation on Lee’s personal use auto _______ ______________ o) Depreciation on daughter’s personal use auto _______ ______________ Chapter 7 Homework: student’s name #7Many years ago, Jack purchased 400 shares of Canary stock. During the current year, the stock became worthless. It was determined that the company â€Å"went under† because several corporate officers embezzled a large amount of company funds. Identify the relevant tax issues for Jack. #22Green Corporation made extensive modifications to a portion of a building so that it could be used to conduct product research. Discuss whether the modification costs would qualify as research and experimental expenditures. #29Monty loaned his friend Ned $20,000 three years ago.Ned signed a note and made payments on the loan. Last year, when the remaining balance was $11,000, Ned filed for bankruptcy and notified Monty that he would be unable to pay the balance on the loan. Monty treated the $11,000 as a nonbusiness bad debt. Last y ear Monty had no capital gains and taxable income of $12,000. During the current year, Ned paid Monty $5,000 in satisfaction of the debt. Determine Monty’s tax treatment for the $5,000 received in the current year. #32Mary, a single taxpayer, purchased 10,000 shares of  §1244 stock several years ago at a cost of $20 per share. In November of the current year, Mary received an offer to sell the stock for $12 per share.She has the option of either selling all of the stock now or selling half of the stock now and half of the stock in January of next year. Mary will receive a salary of $80,000 for the current year and $90,000 next year. Mary will have long-term capital gains of $8,000 for the current year and $10,000 next year. If Mary’s goal is to minimize her AGI for the two years, determine whether she should sell all of her stock this year or half of her stock this year and half next year. #35Heather owns a two-story building. The building is used 60% for business us e and 40% for personal use. During 2011, a fire caused major damage to the building and its contents. Heather purchased the building for $800,000 and has taken depreciation of $150,000 on the business portion.At the time of the fire, the building had a fair market value of $900,000. Immediately after the fire, the fair market value was $200,000. The insurance recovery on the building was $600,000. The contents of the building were insured for any loss at fair market value. The business assets had an adjusted basis of $220,000 and a fair market value of $175,000. These assets were totally destroyed. The personal use assets had an adjusted basis of $50,000 and a fair market value of $65,000. These assets were also totally destroyed. If Heather’s AGI is $100,000 before considering the effects of the fire, determine her itemized deduction as a result of the fire. Also determine Heather’s AGI.