Question for discussion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Question for discussion - Essay Example There are some important aspects in King’s argument. King said that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. He discussed the interrelation of life and affirmed that all actions have global repercussions. Racism, for instance, may be seen as something that affects only African Americans, but in the end, it affects the whole continent. It hinders relationships across people from different races, and in the end, they cannot unite for a common good such as combating challenges that prevent economic equality. There are some ideas from the letter than can help shine light on current problems facing the American society. King had the idea of people sacrificing their ideas, energy, and time for the common good. Economic inequality as a current problem has been hard to overcome because people fail to sacrifice to achieve economic parity. The society is more of capitalistic, rather than encouraging economic opportunity for every citizen. The government is not willing to make tangible solutions that can transform the economy, as profit making is the main

Bees Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Bees - Research Paper Example The tiny bees may appear to be aggressive in nature but, are yielding so many benefits in the form of honey and wax. For all the women out there, one be should be thankful to these tiny insects as they have been taking care of an individual’s skin for a very long time. As one all are familiar with the common role of bees which is the pollination, some other useful role of bees include its antibacterial effect, its skin care benefits and who can forget the sweetest role of bees which is the making of honey. There are approximately 20,000 species of these little insects, the bees. The tiny creatures can be found in every part of the world but not in Antarctica. European honey bee is the most widely known specie of bees. As the human nature forces him to keep himself abreast about everything that happens around so, the human being could not resist to extract the benefits out of the honey bee. Today, beekeeping is being carried out by human beings to manage the benefits out of honey bee. Bee keeping is necessary to take care of the population of these useful creatures. Check out how one can benefit from this little creature but, do not forget to give it some space too. As far as the question is concerned how to give space to bees then the answer to it is simple! Drill deep holes into a large pine block and place a roof over it. The bee box is ready. Later, place this bee box in such an area where pollination is required. After one are done with this kind gesture, it is time to contribute in boosting pollination. This initiative will help one to ensure that maximum number of plants are building an active reproduction and producing fruits. Honey bees are required by the plants for an efficient as well as effective reproduction. Mason bees also actively play their part in pollination but, they do not produce honey. Carpenter bees are very helpful as they pollinate those plants which are not pollinated by honey bees. Please do not get wild upon seeing a bee

Internal Auditing System Effectives for Detecting Fraud

Internal Auditing System Effectives for Detecting Fraud INRODUCTION The chapter shall looks at the background of the study, statement of the problem, research questions, objectives of the study, purpose of the study, hypothesis, assumptions of the study, delimitation of the study, limitations of the study, and the organisation of the study. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Auditing was firstly introduced in the year 1879, in the banking sector when banking institutions were required by the statute to have an audit system, which was not generally extended until 1900 (Millichamp and Taylor: 2012). It was defined by Mainoma, (2007) as an independent examination of the financial statements, and expression of an opinion on the financial statements of an organisation by the selected auditor, in line with their professional requirements and the required statutory regulations. This means that the appointed auditor is responsible to expressing an opinion on the financial statements of an organisation, the auditor here mean an individual or a firm doing audit of an organisation. The auditor should be approved and must have personal and operational independence in order to perform his duty effectively. Since it was introduced, auditing is mainly divided in to two broad categories as internal and external auditing. Internal auditing as its name implies, operates within the organization and external auditing also operates externally. The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), as cited by Johnson (2006:47) defines internal audit as â€Å"an independent appraisal function within an organisation for the review of activities as a service to all levels of management. It is a control which measures, evaluates and reports upon the effectiveness of internal control, financial and otherwise, as a contribution to the efficient use of resources within an organisation.† From this definition then it means Internal audit’s objective is to assist organisational members in the effective discharge of their duties and also most organisations in the world either large or small undertake internal auditing as a vital measure of internal control systems in their opera tions. Internal auditing is a legal requirement in all tiers of the government including local authorities. The reason behind this is that local authorities and all public sector organisations are funded by the public funds and therefore must be accountable for its use, hence auditing process of the public sector bodies’ place greater reliance on the effectiveness of internal auditing than what the private sectors does. Local government as a segment of the public sector is one of the three tiers of government in Zimbabwe. At local government level, all local authorities are entrusted with public resources and they are charged to have a duty of ensuring proper utilisation of those resources. In a bid to optimise proper utilisation of those resources, laws and regulations are enacted in order to control expenditure and the sources to financing these expenditures. To ensure adherence to laid down laws and regulations internal auditing system was established in the local authorities (Bad ara 2012). According to the Institute of Internal Auditors (2001) Internal auditing system within an organisation is expected to safeguarding the assets of the organisation and where appropriate, they verify the existence of such recorded assets. That it means internal auditors have powers to undertake observations, enquiries and also independent checks on the firm’s operations, documents and assets in line with the organisational rules and regulations to come up with an effective audit output. Despite the fact that internal auditing system exists in various local authorities worldwide with internal control systems in place, the act of financial crime such as fraud and other irregularities still continue and mostly detected by the external auditors. Regardless of the internal auditing system in Zimbabwean organizations (both public and private), the value of fraud and other financial irregularities is extremely high; in six months to December 2012 it was reported at US$1.2 billion which is about 32 percent of the overall value of fraud and other financial irregularities cases in Africa (KPMG 2012). Internal auditing was introduced in Zimbabwean local authorities by the Ministry of Local Government[M1] in a bid to reduce the risk of fraud and other financial irregularities; to assisting the external auditors; to identifying opportunities for improving economy, efficiency and effectiveness and to assess the organization’s internal controls (Zimbabwe Councils Act 29:13). ZRDC is one of the seven administrative district councils in Masvingo province. It is a structured organization with the internal auditing system in place. Its internal auditors report functionally to the councilors through the audit committee and administratively to the chief executive officer, they also communicate and interact directly with the council through the audit committee, including in executive sessions and committee meetings as appropriate (ZRDC Internal Audit Charter 2012). Despite the existence of internal auditing system at ZRDC, numerous cases of fraud and other financial irregularities were continuously reported by the external auditors (ZRDC External Auditors Report 2012). This prevailing situation at ZRDC gave rise to doubts on the unit’s competence and effectiveness mostly in fraud and other financial irregularities detection and prevention by local government authorities and all other interested stakeholders as since their expectations were not fulfilled. This was mainly characterized by misunderstanding on what users of the council’s financial information expect management to do, and what management expects internal auditors to do as far as fraud and other irregularities detection and prevention is concerned. Users of the council’s financial information expressed their concern on the system’s weakness as since they expect the system to be the council’s â€Å"watchdog† on any fraudulent activity existing (Zimbabwe Councils Act 29:13). The research project will therefore sought to evaluate the effectiveness of internal auditing system in Zimbabwean local authorities mostly in detecting, preventing and reducing fraud and any other financial irregularities in the day to day operations of Zaka Rural District Council. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Numerous cases of fraud and other financial irregularities have been continuously reported at ZRDC despite the existence of internal auditing system. The council is losing more revenue from its income generating projects, rates collection, donations and government grants due to fraudulent activities, errors and distortion of figures in the preparation of financial statements by the council employees and management. Internal auditing system is failing to detect most of these cases such that they take too long uncovered or sometimes never been detected. As a result the council is failing to meet its statutory obligations and delivering quality services to its clients. To this end the effectiveness of the council’s internal auditing system in fraud and any other financial irregularities detection needs to be evaluated RESEARCH QUESTIONS How effective is the Internal Auditing system at ZRDC in detecting fraud and other financial irregularities Why are most material fraud and other financial irregularities go for so long undetected and some never detected by the Internal Auditing system? To what extend is ZRDC Internal Auditor’s independence considered by both users and management? Are all the recommendations passed by the Internal Auditors acted upon by management? OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The objectives of the study are to: evaluate the effectiveness of the internal auditing system in detecting fraud and other financial irregularities at ZRDC. discover why most material fraud and other financial irregularities take too long to be detected and some never detected by the internal auditing system at ZRDC. establish the independence of ZRDC internal audit unit. establish whether the internal audit unit’s recommendations are acted upon by management. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The research is to be carried out in partial fulfilment of the Bachelor of Commerce (Hon) Degree in Accounting at Great Zimbabwe University. The research will widen the researcher’s academic knowledge through detailed analysis of the project The researcher wants to draw an evaluation of the effectiveness of the council’s internal audit unit in detecting fraud and errors that will save to reduce discrepancies between what the users, management and the audit unit believes to be the purpose of the internal audits and the actual nature of the internal auditor’s duties. To find the reason why the internal auditing system is failing to detect most material fraud and other financial irregularities that the external auditors detects. The final researched work may be used as reference by other students who may want to do the same or related topic. HYPOTHESIS Null hypothesis ZRDC’s internal auditing system is not effective in detecting fraud and other financial irregularities. Alternative hypothesis ZRDC’s internal auditing system is effective in detecting fraud and other financial irregularities. ASSUMPTIONS The researcher assumed that the study would be successful and methodology used was appropriate to produce true results. The researcher will gather information which is free from bias and relevant to the area under study. There will be good cooperation between the researcher and the respondents. The sample to be selected representing the whole organisation of ZRDC and its environment. ZRDC is the good representative of all local authorities in Zimbabwe. DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY The study will focus on effectiveness of internal auditing in Zimbabwean local Authorities using a Case of Zaka Rural District Council in Masvingo province for the period of 2012 to 2013. It will be confined to the CEO, council employees, internal auditors, audit committee, finance committee, councilors and district administrator of Zaka Rural District Council from which information and data will be gathered. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY The researcher may have limited access to information due to the need to respect ethical code of the council in the process of gathering information. Access to information will be facilitated by the Treasurer due to the good relationships which were established while on attachment. Limited resources will be a problem; however most of the typing will be done by the researcher in order to reduce costs. The researcher started to conduct the research during the vacation which started in December 2013 to February 2014 in order to reduce pressure during the learning period Organisation of the Study Chapter one is an introductory chapter that paves out the research study. It gave a brief outline of the introduction and background of the study, statement of the problem, research questions, objectives of the study, justification of the study, statement of hypothesis, assumptions of the study. The chapter also highlighted the limitations and delimitations of the study. Chapter two gives a detailed review on the conceptual, theoretical and empirical review of related literature pertaining to the effectiveness of internal auditing in local authorities. Chapter three also explain the research methods that were used in the research study including, research design, research instrument, data connection procedures and data presentation and analysis plans. Chapter four focuses on data presentation, interpretation and analysis of the data collected from respondents during the research. Lastly, chapter five focuses on the conclusions which can be drawn from the research and making recommendations where necessary to various stakeholders. Summary This chapter concentrates on brief description of the background to the study, justification of the study and what the research sought to achieve. The next chapter focuses on review of related literature. [M1]When?

Severe Burns: Neutrophil and Complement Levels Essay -- Medicine

Mortality rate in burn patients continues at a steady 5-10%, 75% of those deaths are related to sepsis (2). In order to understand why, we must elucidate the nature of the innate immune system in these patients. The innate immune system is the first line defense versus pathogens from the outside world. Burn patients receive a double hit to their first line defenses due to the nature of thermal injury to tissue. The skin barrier is breached, the inflammation begins, and though the numbers of neutrophils increases substantially in response to the elevations in compliment activation at the tissue level (1), it seems that the behavior of these neutrophils is aberrant (2). Neutrophils in burn patients were found to be impaired in their ability to adhere, phagocytose, and kill off pathogens via the oxidative burst. Additionally, they were found to have decreased migration speed with abnormal directionality in response to chemoattractants (2). One study suggested that neutrophils in burn pa tients became desensitized to C5a. In the rich inflammatory cytokine milieu, which develops after a severe burn, complement levels increase dramatically, but neutrophils downregulate their C5a receptors and their migratory directional speed decreases (3). This is the perfect situation for the wandering pathogen to invade and sneak past the body’s defenses in the chaos of a massive breach in security. Three studies are presented here to describe the relationship between complement and neutrophils in the severely burned patient. Van de Goot et al. demonstrated that plasma complement levels initially decreased, then rose sharply and stayed elevated for months afterward. Complement levels correlated with the severity of the burn wound and subsequent sc... ...enter around how to control the inflammatory response to the thermal injury such that wound healing occurs more quickly with less scarring, while preserving the patients’ ability to fight infectious agents with normal neutrophil responses. Works Cited 1. Van de Goot et al. Acute Inflammation is Persistent Locally in Burn Wounds: A Pivotal Role for Complement and C-Reactive Protein. Journal of Burn Care and Research 2009; 30:274-280. 2. Butler KL, Ambravaneswaran V, Agrawal N, Bilodeau M, Toner M, et al. (2010) Burn Injury Reduces Neutrophil Directional Migration Speed in Microfluidic Devices. PLoS ONE 5(7): e11921. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011921 3. Solomkin JS, Nelson RD, Chenoweth DE, Solem LD, Simmons RL. Regulation of Neutrophil Migratory Function in Burn Injury by Complement Activation Products. Annals of Surgery 1984; Vol 200 No. 6: 742-746.

Apple Tows Matrix Essay

Pestel Analysis Political Factors : * War, terrorism, geopolitical uncertainties; issues beyond company’s ability to control. * 52% of the company’s net sales in 2007 coming from countries outside America. * Manufacturing or logistics might be interrupted by political events in the manufacturing countries. Economic Factors : * Overall global economy outlook is not good. * Inflation reduced consumer’s expenditure on luxuries. * Economic crisis influencing Apple’s retail’s business. Social Factors : * A variety of regulations & law for health and Safety may adversely affect company’s financial condition. * It is reported that the improper use of iPod may lead to hearing loss for users. * Technological Factors : * Fast technological changes. * Frequent introduction of new products and the continual improvement in product performance. Legal Factors: * Employments laws nationally and internationally * Tax laws in the U.S. and other countries * Foreign trade laws * Environmental Factors * Apple products are made from a high grade titanium which is to reduce pollution during the making and be recyclable as well * Products are also energy star qualified so they do not burn as much energy as traditional laptops do Porter Five Forces Threat of New Entrants-Low * As the Apple leads the market with the different products like Pc, iPhone, iPad and iPod which are full of the features. * As the Apple’s customer are loyal and they are ready to pay even the premium price to the company. * Apple has no debts. New entrants will not affect them initially. * The leaders of the market already capture the major distributors like * AT&T and Verizon in U.S which gain the 60% of the  market. Same thing with Hp, Toshiba, etc. Threat of Suppliers: Moderate * The supplier of the products like, memory, chips, disks and drive are not the same. * The products that are provided by the companies are standardized and had no substitute. * The companies are going to use the standardize products to reduce the cost hence the suppliers products essential for the industry. * As they are many suppliers in number, so the switching cost is low. * The products that are provided by the companies are standardized and had no substitute. * The industry is the growing industry and for the suppliers it is very profitable. Bargaining Power of Buyers: Moderate * The buyers are few and the customers are now moving towards the big stores like superstores, electronic retailers and web based retailers. * The buyers are seemed more concern about the product features and availability. * The products like PC’s and the mobiles phones are very individual and the brand is definitely critical for the success. * As there are many suppliers of the products like the * Apple, HP, Dell etc in the market and they all struggle for the distribution. The switching cost for buyers is low. Competitive Rivalry: High * The industry is fastest growing industry as the product lifecycle is not long. * The business has a high cost as in the case the all the players fight for the market share by cutting their cost. * The products are highly differentiated, because all are branded. * * The brand is definitely is critical for the success that is why the * Apple has a larger profit margins. * The competitors in the industry are using the different strategies. * The companies in the industry are in the market with the different strategies Threat of Substitutes: Low * There are many substitute of the technologies * Switching brands sometimes is costly but sometimes is easy. It may depends on the how much the product is standardized with the demanded features.

US and California Compared

The United States Census is taken every ten years in order for the U. S. government to count exactly how many people live in the country to the best of its abilities. Aside from taking the population, the census asks many other questions, such as the age of the persons living in a given household, their race and ethnicity, the languages that are spoken at home, their educational attainment level, and household income. These questions, when answered by the entire population, provide the government a sense of the composition and the needs of its people. Without this information, public services such as education, hospitals, health care, and social security cannot be provided to all in need and therefore it is important data that deserves our careful examination. For my term paper, I have decided to compare the data of the state of California to the United States of America to discover how similar or different the sets of data may be. I would predict some of these data to be similar, such as age distribution, due to the fact that California is a relatively large state with a large enough population that it would serve as a pretty good sample of the entire nation. However, I would expect to see differences in factors such as race and ethnicity and the languages spoken at home, because California has a relatively larger Hispanic and Asian population than most other states in the US. Also, the income level of California will be slightly higher than the nation due to the existence of two large metropolitan cities in the state. The paper takes a careful look at the various socio-demographic variables that are taken by the United States Census in order to compare the state of California to the nation as a whole. The first obvious step in my analysis is to look at both populations counted by the 1990 United States census. The population of the United States is estimated to be 248,709,873 and California is estimated to be 29,760,021. This data is important to this paper because when making comparisons between the two geographic locations, I will use percentages taken from the actual data given in the census divided by the total populations. This way, the comparisons are scaled in relation to one another and it is easier to analyze and to make comparisons. The first demographic variable that I will examine is the age distribution between the two areas. The age distribution given by the population age pyramid (Graph 1) show that both are quite similar, with a pyramid-like shape starting from age 25 to 80+, with the large base of the pyramid beginning at age 25. From age 0 to 24, there is an overall tapering in from the base of the pyramid above as the ages decrease, indicating a fewer number of people aged 0 through 24. It means that the largest number of persons in both regions is between the ages of 25 and 34 in 1990. This implies that there were a larger number of births in the 1950s and 1960s than in the 1970s and 1980s. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that the baby-boom children had reached reproductive stage in their lives and gave birth to many babies in the 50s and 60s. There is also relatively fewer people aged 45 to 80+. The upper narrow upper region of the graph, ages 65 and up, can be explained by the fact that the life expectancy in the United States is around 70 years old and it is natural to see a tapering off of the population at these ages. However, the age group from 45 to 64 is also quite narrow. This is most likely due to the fact that these are the people who fought in World War II. Looking at the graph, the only noticeable difference between the two regions is that California has a relatively fewer number of people aged 10 through 19. This could be due to many economic, social, and physical factors in the 1970s that affected California births, but not the entire nation. I would predict that since children of the baby-boomers (ages 25 to 34) have now reached reproductive stage, the census 2000 would show that the base of the graph would continue to grow a little bit wider, from babies being born in the 1990s. The second demographic variable I will focus on is the racial composition of California and the United States. Graph 2 shows the percentages of the total population, which fall under the five racial categories: 1. White 2. Black 3. American Indian, Eskimo, or Aleut 4. Asian or Pacific Islander and 5. Other. It is important to note that people of Hispanic origin are mainly categorized as either White or Other, depending on how each individual has chosen to categorize him or herself. The category, Other, also include people who are mixed, such as Mulatto, Creole, and Mestizo. The breakdown of the races are pretty similar, as can be seen by the graph with Whites being the overwhelming majority of the total population for both regions. However, it may be interesting to note that the origins of the people who make up the White category for the two regions may be quite different. For the United States, the composition of the people who make up the White category are mostly of European origin. The origin of people who make up the White category for California also include many people of European origin, but also many of Hispanic origin. This is due to the fact that California shares the border with Mexico and therefore would have a larger Mexican or Latino population. Also due to the large Mexican and Latino population, the Other category for California is almost 10% larger than for the United States. The lower Black population in California can be attributed to the fact that the majority of Blacks in this country are concentrated in the southern states of the US, such as Alabama, raising the composition for the nation, but not for California. Lastly, the Asian and Pacific Islander category is almost 8% higher in California because many Asians tend to be concentrated on the west coast of the US. The third socio-demographic variable I will examine is language spoken at home. The first thing to note on Graph 3 is that English is spoken in the majority of homes both in California and the United States. The population speaking languages other than English at home is higher in California due to the racial composition examined above. The higher Asian/Pacific Islander and Latino concentration has raised this California percentage to twice that of the US. Of these â€Å"other† languages, the existence of Spanish spoken in homes is more than 10 percent higher in California than in the rest of the nation. Subsequently, the English at home contingent will be smaller in percentage comparison for California. This type of data is extremely important to the government because it raises issues such as the appropriateness of ESL programs, bilingual education, and public services that must be provided to the public in many languages. Comparing two different regions such as California and the US may seem useless due to the similar data, but it is differences such as these that make the census crucial data that deserve our careful analysis. Educational Attainment is another variable I will analyze between the two regions. Graph 4 reveals that in the US, highschool graduates (including equivalency) make up the highest percentage of education attained. This is not surprising because formal education in the US is required for all children until the age of 14 through 18, depending on the state, and therefore it is expected that most children would finish high school. In California, people attending some college without obtaining a degree make up the highest percentage. This implies that California†s students have a tendency to pursue their education further than the national student. The higher percentage of Californian†s attending some college can be attributed to the proliferation of junior colleges in the state. The concern for California should lie in the fact that a higher percentage of children do not progress beyond the ninth grade than in the nation. This may be attributed to the large Spanish speaking population who are cushioned in schools by bilingual teachers during their elementary and secondary schooling years but are left to themselves in non-bilingual high schools to survive on their own and as a result, drop out. Finally, the comparison of household income between California and the US shows that income levels for both regions are concentrated under $60,000 per year (Graph 5). In analyzing these data, I have taken the income data from the census and divided that figure with the total number of households, not the population, so that a direct comparison between the income of each households would be possible. In general, Californians have higher income than the US as a whole. The 1990 Census shows that the median household income of California is $35,798. This figure is higher than the national median household income of $30,056. The data on the graph shows that the higher percentage of Californians earn incomes higher than $30,000. The higher income in California can be attributed to the two metropolitan areas of Los Angeles and San Francisco as mentioned earlier and additionally, to the recent boom of the computer and internet industry in Silicon Valley, which has increased the number of Californians earning higher wages. The different variables examined in this paper have revealed several demographic trends between California and the US as a whole. While the two regions share similar demographic profiles, several differences arise upon closer analysis of the data. Generally, California has a higher concentration of racial minorities. Thus, more families speak languages other than English at home. The data also shows that a higher percentage of Californians pursue degrees in higher education than the national percentage. Since college graduatess and advanced degree holders tend to earn higher wages, the data for household income is consistent with the previous observation as more Californians are in the higher income bracket. It can then be concluded that California is more racially diverse than most other states, and that Californians tend to do better economically than the rest of the nation. This type of analysis would not have been possible without the United States Census, which I believe is an important tool that allows researchers to do their own analysis with the hard data that it provides. The different conclusions I have drawn from this paper clearly indicate a need for different public programs that are specifically designed for each individual state because the United States is not made up of a homogeneous group of people, but is composed of an exremely diverse group of individuals.