Wednesday, December 25, 2019

TV Advert you love or loathe - 600 Words

TV Advert you love or loathe Do you love or loathe Dole bananas. Have you ever seen something which was so unusual yet awe inspiring that it’s imprinted inside your hippocampus that you have dreams of telling your future grandkids about it? I remember that fateful day of July the 28st 2012, the year the Mayans were wrong about predicting the world was going to end. It was a beginning to another boring Saturday. I was in my room watching your typical YouTube videos on my computer since I’d had nothing interesting to do†¦ After browsing through a few funny cat videos and a baker’s dozen of people prank each other, I’d eventually begin to watch a video called â€Å"Japanese Banana Commercial†. I hesitated since the video was only 15 seconds long†¦show more content†¦He then places one hand on his nostril and blows releasing a decent amount of bananas. Her depressing mood fades and he flaps his hand and floats away. Talk about a climatic finish. I can’t help wondering if she threw those bananas away and went out and bought some fresh ones. I wouldn’t eat those. Would you? Hear me out, in my humblest opinion I think that this may be one of the best adverts ever made because, of three main reasons: Quite simply it’s simple; most advertisements nowadays are loud, obnoxious and headache inducing, trying to be revolutionary such as â€Å"Go compare† but, I’ll rather not go into that. I guess most adverts are starting to become like this however, at least Dole man relates to what he is selling, looking at you, car commercials. The average child in America watches over 40,000 television commercials in a year, or over 100 a day and a staggering 90% of successful adverts are less than 30 seconds since that’s is the average attention span of your average Joe. The point is that even if you don’t personal enjoy it, it’s only there for a brief 15 seconds! It’s as nostalgic as an episode of Tom and Jerry; the whole purpose of an advertisement is to sink its message across the minds of the particular viewer and it certainly has. You might develop a disease that soldiers get called post-traumatic stress disorder whenever you see a banana but, who cares! How can you not remember the all-powerful Dole man? â€Å"Have you heard† syndrome; word ofShow MoreRelatedExploring Corporate Strategy - Case164366 Words   |  658 Pagesof the gay clubs of Chicago and New York. The new style had been picked up by British DJs in Ibiza, who combined it with the drug Ecstasy to create a new ‘blissed-out’ sound. Dance music arrived in the UK during 1988, the so-called ‘Second Summer of Love’, strongly associated with recreational drugs. By the early 1990s, drug-dealing in its most ugly sense had become part of the dance culture. Palumbo recalled: When I came into this business, with my bonuses and my nice City suits, I was completely

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

A Short Note On The Biology Of Retinoblastoma - 1454 Words

The Biology of Retinoblastoma Abstract Retinoblastoma is a cancer that develops in the retina of the eye, predominantly in young children. It occurs due to the mutation in the Rb gene, leading to the production of a dysfunctional Rb protein that cannot bind to a transcriptional factor in order to prevent further progression in the cell cycle. Consequently, uncontrolled proliferation takes place which results in a cancer developing. Two forms of the disease exist; familial and sporadic. In the familial form, the individual inherits one mutated copy of the gene and the other copy mutates in early childhood leading to presentation of the disease. In the sporadic form, both copies of the gene are normal at birth, however, chance mutations occur in both copies of the gene in a retinal cell causing the tumour to arise. Retinoblastoma is usually detected by abnormalities of the eye such as leucakoria and deterioration of vision. Treatments involve enucleation, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Introduction Retinoblastoma is a malignant cancer of the eye manifesting primarily in children, with more than 90% of the cases present in those under the age of five (1). The cancer affects the immature retinoblast cells of the retina, the light sensitive membrane that connects the optic nerve with the brain, creating visual images. During gestation and early life, retinoblasts proliferate to produce cells to form the retina. As children age, differentiation takes place and the cellsShow MoreRelatedNeoplasia10526 Words   |  43 Pagestestis and spread throughout the body a) Biology of tumour growth: Benign and malignant neoplasms The nature history of most malignant tumours can be divided into 4 phases: 1) malignant change in the target cell (transformation); 2) growth of the transformed cells; 3) local invasion; and 4) distant metastases. Differentiation refers to the extent to which neoplastic cells resemble comparable normal cells, both morphologically and functionally. a) Biology of tumour growth: Benign and malignant neoplasms

Monday, December 9, 2019

Waste Management Case Analysis free essay sample

1 . Based on the fraud triangle, there are several factors present at Waste Management that are indicative of each of the three fraud conditions. Incentives: from the case, the SEC staff claimed that the top Waste Management officers fraudulent conduct was driven by greed and a desire to retain their corporate positions and status in the business and social communities. Their bonuses, retirement benefits and stock options closely correlate with the performance of the company. If the company meets predetermined earnings targets, those top managements will earn a lot from profit sharing. Furthermore, aside from money, those people can maintain their high social status by constantly using those ill-gotten gains to contribute to charitable affairs, which will give them a lot of respect and power. Opportunities: during the 1990s, approximately 14 employees who play either key financial or accounting positions are former employees of the companys long-time auditor, Arthur Andersen. This management structure gave Waste Management a great opportunity to manipulate their financial performance because we can infer that Waste Management maintained a good relationship with its auditor. Attitudes/Rationalization: it was a time when Waste Management was encountering intense competition. The competition came from various sources in all phase of its waste management and related operations. Although the management of Waste Management noted that the pricing, quality, and reliability of services and the type of equipment utilized are key elements to compete in the industry. Those improvements usually take time to accomplish. In contrast, deferring several expenses and manipulating earnings are shortcuts to improve their financial performance. In addition, the management believes that the future performance will ffset the extra earnings they currently adjusted so that nobody will even notice. In other word, the company adopted the wrong way to improve its performance and justify their action by fraudulently believed that meeting the target earning is the most important no matter which approach to use. 2. Based appendix on the AU Section 342, examples of accounting estimates, compared to Waste Managements Consolidated Balance Sheet, we can find several items were based on management estimations. Assets Cost+estimated earnings in excess of billings: this amount depends on the outcome of future event thus is uncertain. Accumulated depreciation of property equipment: the salvage value of property affect depreciation expense. Furthermore, different depreciation methods adopted also result in different amount. Liabilities Current portion of LTD: this amount comes from the amount due within the current year of the present value of long-term debt. To calculate the long-term debt, the discount rate is assumed based on the relative risk of the company compared to correspondent US treasury securities. However, the interest rate in the future is uncertain thus the present value of long-term debt is arbitrary. Unearned revenue: the company cannot sure that their future service will be actually rendered thus is uncertain. Long-term debt and put options: the present values of financial instruments are always based on future discount rate as mentioned above thus is subjective and uncertain. 3. Accounts involving significant management estimation mean that the balances of these accounts are based on subjective as well as objective factors such as managements knowledge or experience about past and current events and its assumptions about conditions it expects to exist and course of action it expects to ake. If management does not maintain high ethical standard or is simply too careless to make the right estimation, the numbers shown on the financial statement cannot reflect the true value of the company and will mislead current and potential investors. Since investors are not sure whether management has sufficient knowledge and experience to make the right estimations and the criterions of these estimations are somewhat ambiguous, those accounts are comparatively more risky. 4. Based on the AU Section 342. 04, the auditor is responsible for evaluation the easonableness of accounting estimates made by management in the context of the financial statements taken as a whole. The auditors should consider, with an attitude of professional skepticism, both the subjective and objective factors of the estimates. Also, based on article . 07, the auditors responsibilities when evaluating accounting estimates is to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to provide reasonable assurance that a. All accounting estimates that could be material to the financial statements have been developed. b. Those accounting estimates are reasonable in the circumstances. c. The accounting estimates are presented in conformity with applicable accounting principles and are properly disclosed. techniques commonly used by auditors are shown as follows: a. Review and test the process used by management to develop the estimate. b. Develop and independent expectation of the estimate to corroborate the reasonableness of managements estimate. c. Review subsequent events or transactions occurring prior to the date of the auditors report. 5. To evaluate the reasonableness of estimate of salvage values and useful lives for property and equipment, Arthur Anderson should follow the procedures mentioned n the previous questions as follows. a. Review and test managements process by using the procedures in article . 1 steps (a) through (i) to determine if the supporting data and factors are sufficient and consistent to sustain the managements estimation as well as comparable to industry level. b. Use other alternatives to develop the estimation and compare the result to the original estimation. c. Review subsequent events or transactions to confirm the credibility of the previous estimation. 6. For those officers who previously served Arthur Ander son, they may implicitly or xplicitly force the auditor to accept their adjustment of Waste Managements financial report. Since they worked for Anderson, they know every detail of auditing procedures performed by the auditor and thus may use their relationship to influence the Judgments of auditors. Furthermore, if there is an conflict of interest between those officers and the company, they may chose the ways which are beneficial to themselves. To avoid this kind of fraud, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 Section 206 clearly identified what a company should do when potential conflict of interest may occur. Based on the article, it shall be unlawful for registered public accounting firm to perform for an issuer any audit service required by this title, if a chief executive officer, controller, chief financial officer, chief accounting officer, or any person serving in an equivalent position for the issuer, was employed by that registered independent public accounting firm and participated in any capacity in the audit of that issuer during the I-year period preceding the date of the initiation of the audit. Therefore, the article tells us that Waste Management can still employ hose personnel coming from Arthur Anderson but should not allow them to involve in the auditing process within one year restriction. for Anderson and during that time there is no such law like Sarbanes-Oxley Act to prevent those people from participating in auditing process, it was very difficult for Anderson to clear-cut the relationship with those former workers and work independently. Furthermore, Anderson not only did audit but also provide consulting service for Waste Management. In other words, on one hand, Anderson audit Waste Managements financial and negotiate for the correction of errors. On the other hand, Andersons consulting service may provide several recommendations about how to manipulate their financial performance to externally improve its profitability. This is also one of the most important issues of the introduction of Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which force the consulting service under an accounting firm to be separated as a single business entity. In addition, the extra bonuses are also important reasons for Anderson to accept and help to hide those errors. This situation is slightly relieved because the new regulation puts into practice. However, any accounting firms should avoid auditing for companies which may have conflict of interest and do their work independently. Also, managements of accounting firms should periodically examine their audit works done by their auditors and constantly tell their employees to do their Jobs with integrity and professional ethics. Most important of all, managements should discipline themselves to follow the audit standards and no reconcile with any improper requests from their clients. Only when the top management do their work with integrity will the other workers follow.

Monday, December 2, 2019

Web-Based Tools for Electronic Commerce free essay sample

Expertise and staffing problems can be avoided by client company †¢ Design problem can be minimized because server firm provides fundamentalpromotional features to sell productDisadvantages include possible limitations on availability and bandwidth whenmultiple customers  are stacked on  a single T1  line. Figure 3-1  on page 76compares the costs and services associated with web hosting. In making the server decision, â€Å"Scalability†, which is the potential for rapidexpansion of  the e-commerce  system, should  be of  paramount concern. Webserver performance measurements and evaluations including both hardware(computer) models, software such as the O/S involved, as well as benchmarks ofperformance will permit comparison shopping and more bang for the buck by theclient firm. Figure 3-3  on page 79 presents  Mindcraft web  server performancereports as an  example of the  capacity for  comparison-shopping. The results ofbenchmark tests demonstrate that there are measurable differences in serverperformance that a web site manager must consider before purchasing or leasinga web  server. We will write a custom essay sample on Web-Based Tools for Electronic Commerce or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Those differences include  the speed and  efficiency with whichstatic web pages can be handled, through put time from request to performance,and maximum capacity for requests. Web Server Software Feature Sets Web Server software features such as security, FTP, search capacity and dataanalysis  should be  analyzed  in terms of user  needs. Search enginesand indexing programs are a component of the web package, which should alsobe considered in terms  of their security  aspects. Data analysis features can yieldinformation on the number and frequency of visit to the web page as well as anaccumulator of marketing information. CS160  Chapter  3:  Web-based  tools  for  Electronic  Commerce 3-4 Site management considerations include authoring tools such as Microsoft Frontpage 2000, as well as script checking, HTML validation, web server log fileanalysis and identification of orphan pages, broken links, error-prone pages etc. Authoring issues involve construction of both static and dynamic web pagesusing web editors and extensions to customize the Web site to the user’s needs. A distinction is made between a web server, that handles web pages in general,and a commerce server that deals with the purchase/sale arrangements ofproducts. Web Server Software and Tools Web server software and tools are divided into two markets-intranet servers andpublic Web servers. Figure 3-8 on page 89 displays a pie graph showing therelative market  share of  installed public  web server  software. Apache HTTPserver software dominates 56% of the market because it is free, efficient and IBMlicensed it  for its  own Websphere application server  package. Microsoft Internetserver’s package, which is also free, has only 23% of the market perhapsbecause it only runs with Windows NT. Netscape Internet server is popularsoftware, which  is a descendant of  the original  web server  program. O’Reilly’sWeb Site Professional Server software may have the most sophisticated featuresrelated to e-commerce,  however it currently costs $799 to license it. The abilityof this software to easily insert database information would make it very useful toa firm with rapidly changing prices or other market conditions. Other Web Server Tools Other web server tools such as portals, search engines, push technologies andintelligent agents are issues for consideration in the acquisition of a commercialWeb site. Web portals are customizable home bases from  which users do  theirsearching, navigating, and other web-based activity. All search engines contain three components; a spider, an index and a searchengine utility  program. A spider  searches the web to find  pages, or updateexisting pages. The index  is a  catalog of  everything that the  spider locates. Thesearch engine’s utility program, upon request of the client, searches millions ofpages to identify matches and then ranks them in order of each link’s relevance.