The Value of HRM to Business Organisations Essay Example for Free

The Value of HRM to Business Organisations Essay This essay will evaluate the literature available on the value of the selection method of personality tests to business organisations. These tests measure individual’s responses to what are usually fixed choice questions to uncover characteristics that have important implications for their job performance (Beardwell and Claydon, 2007). Personality tests were first reviewed in a personnel selection context in 1965 (Guion and Gottier, 1965) but it is only recently that they have become popular with around 30% of companies using them (Heller, 2005), particularly for candidates applying for managerial and graduate jobs within the top companies in the UK (Faulder, 2005; Newell, 2005: 133). However, despite their popularity there is still continuing controversy in debates surrounding this selection method. These debates will be explored alongside identifying relevant concepts such as the validity and reliability of personality tests which have implications for their value to business organisations. Although there are many debates surrounding personality tests they can be broadly grouped into four main areas (Taylor, 2005). The first of these debates concerns whether and to what extent it is actually possible to measure an individual’s personality. The uptake of personality tests highlights that there is now a level of agreement that personality is measurable, but there is a need therefore to adopt similar systems of personality descriptions if findings are to be compared (Newell, 2005: 134). The five factor model also referred to as the â€Å"Big Five† is close to achieving this as it becomes more readily accepted as the model of choice when constructing personality tests (Robertson, 2001). This model breaks personality into five important traits of open to experience, agreeableness, emotional stability, conscientiousness and extraversion (Rothstein and Goffin, 2006) with the latter two being considered the most valid predictors of job performance (Barrick and Mount, 1993), however it is important to note it is not without its critics (Murphy and Dzieweczynski, 2005). Furthermore, when using personality tests in selection an individual’s willingness to be honest when answering questions needs to be considered and will be explored in more detail later (Torrington, 2005). Secondly, there is much discussion about whether personality is context dependent (Torrington, 2005: 152) or whether it remains consistent over time (Barrick and Mount, 1993). This has significant ramifications for the value of personality tests in selection methods and specifically the reliability of research to establish its predictive value. There would be ultimately no value to a business organisation spending resources to measure a characteristic which is fluid as it would only serve to identify an individual’s personality at one point in time. This issue also feeds into the notion of faking personality tests and social desirability which has been the subject to much research into reliability (Furnham, 1986). It has been argued that such limitations in selection can be overcome by implementing detection measures into tests which can expose when a candidate is trying to fake their responses (Dalen et al, 2001). Another debate which is central to the use of personality tests as a selection method is whether personality characteristics can really be matched as necessary for a specific job. As some jobs will pose more constraints on an individual than others and therefore limit their ability to express their personality (Barrick and Mount, 1993). This perhaps explains why the increased uptake in personality tests has been specific to certain types of work where this matching is possible (Taylor, 2005) and therefore that in a large amount of recruitment the use of personality tests would be undesirable and pose little value to the business organisation. The final debate which has implications for the value of personality tests is whether the method, i. e. the completion of a fixed questionnaire, provides a suitable depth of information about the candidate’s personality to make decisions about their suitability for the job they are applying for (Taylor, 2005). Iles and Salaman (1995) have argued that these measures are stronger predictors than had previously been thought but there have been many limitations of studies demonstrating its predictive value. Armstrong (2006) points to the need to have tests which are sensitive, standardised, reliable and valid in order for them to be considered effective. It has also been suggested that instead personality tests should be used as part of a two way process whereby results are discussed during interviews to consider how an individual would deal with certain situations (Newell, 2005). This would perhaps help manage the limitation that individuals feel pressurised into giving a ‘right’ answer and therefore fake their responses to a personality test. Throughout these debates there is the reoccurring theme of the need for reliability and validity in personality tests, as with any other selection method a business organisation may adopt. Here it is important that the method is consistent in its measures both throughout the personality test itself and should the personality test be applied to individuals over time. Furthermore, the predictive value will be heavily affected if no clear relationship is established between the tests results and job performance (Newell, 2005). In conclusion, from the literature review it is evident that there is still little clarity or agreement about the validity and reliability of personality tests as a selection method. What is certain, however, is that it is necessary to carefully match certain personality characteristics against aspects of performance on the job for personality tests to have predictive value. Building on this literature review, this essay will now focus on and describe the research findings of two relevant papers.

Hospital Management In Nepal Health And Social Care Essay

Hospital Management In Nepal Health And Social Care Essay There is no internationally accepted clear definition for hospital. There are several types of hospitals based on the facilities, equipments and services, i.e. district hospitals, provincial hospitals, speciality hospitals and referral hospitals, teaching University hospitals and other types of health care facilities. There is no international standard defining what should be the minimum services that each hospital should provide during a health crisis. Each country has to develop a national policy and technical guidelines to deal with a health crisis. Before defining the essential services, the ministry of health has to define the essential health services that the health sector will provide to the community to the community in order to identify what more specific services will be delivered by hospitals (WHO, 2009). Management is defined as the organization and coordination of the activities of an enterprise in accordance with certain policies and in achievement of defined objectives. Management is included as a factor of production along with machines, materials and money. Renowned guru of management Peter Drucker (19909-2005) has said that the basic task of management is two fold: marketing and innovation. Practice of modern management owes its origin to the 16th century enquiry into low efficiency and failures of certain enterprises, conducted by the English statesman Sir. Thomas Moore (1478-1535). As a discipline, management consists of the interlocking services of formulating corporate policy6 and organizing, planning, controlling and directing an organizations resources to achieve the policies objectives (Walden University, 2011).Hospital managenmnet.net suggests that Hospital Management provides a direct link between healthcare facilities and those supplying the services they need ( Hospi tal management.net 2011) . WHO in 2009 suggests understanding by hospital management as the effective and combined management of, the following factors:- (a) Acute care for emergency patients; (b) Out Patient Department (OPD) activities; (c) Investigation (laboratory; X-ray; other diagnostic elements); (d) Referral for primary health care (PHC); specialized consultations or services; (e) Contribution to public health programmes; (f) Part of health information system (surveillance system, including a EWS Component); (g) Public information and education; and (h) Preparedness for health crisis management. . Nepal is a landlocked country which is mostly covered by hills and mountains and it has a population of 25.8 million as estimated in 2006. It is in the south Asian continent, north to India and south to China. Its area is 147,181 sq. km (WHO, 2007). It has been facing several challenges to establish a functional health management system (Thapa, 2010). This essay deals with the challenges which Nepali health system is facing at present and suggests the possible ways for its improvement. Statement of the problem Nepals health system is in transition. Nepal is an underdeveloped country where the health indicators are very poor. The health service facility is not adequate to Nepali people. So the hospitals are (Dixit, 2005). Nepals hospital bed per ten thousand populations is 4.26 (2001/02), physician per ten thousand populations is 2 and Nurses per ten thousand population is also 2 as per the data of 2004 Similarly, Total Expenditure on Health (THE) as % of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) 5.3% and Public Expenditure on Health (PHE) as % of Total Expenditure on Health (THE) is 28 while Private Expenditure on Health (PvtHE) as % of Total Expenditure on Health (THE) 72(WHO, 2007). If it is compared with the other developing countries in the same region i.e. south east Asian region, the level of the problem may be perceived. Maldives, a small tiny country with population 298 thousand has Total Expenditure on Health (THE) as % of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) 6.2. Maldives Public Expenditure on Health (PHE) as % of Total Expenditure on Health (THE) is 89 as compared with 28 of Nepal. Private Expenditure on Health (PvtHE) as % of Total Expenditure on Health (THE) in Maldives is 11. It shows that the state has better involvement in Maldives than in Nepal. More over, the population per hospital bed is 381, which are 26.2 hospital beds per 10000 populations. Similarly, number of populations per physician 959 and nurses per 10000 populations are 33 (WHO, 2007). It clearly shows the scenario of health development of Nepal. As part of health, curative health services have a major role in providing quality health service to the people. Until the health care provider organizations are strong, the curative health service can not be delivered to the beneficiaries properly (Edelman and Mandle 2006). Hospitals are the key component of health care delivery system and they needs to be reformed to ensure a quality health care system (McKay and Healy, 2000).Unfortunately the hospitals in Nepal have very poor in quality management and they are not able to deliver quality health services to the people (Dixit, 2005). To address the needs and requirement of the hospital, the government of Nepal ( GON), Ministry of Health and Population ( MOHP) has published The guideline on the establishment, Operation policy and standard and infrastructure for Private and Public Health Hospitals in 2004 ( MOHP,2004). But it is still lacking in the formulation of the standard for the hospitals run by the government (Dixit, 2005). However, the policy published by the MOHP tries to clarify on the basic parameters of the infrastructures required for the hospitals which may be applied for the general hospitals as well. But the document does not speak about the application in the government run hospitals (MOHP, 2004). That is why; there is a lack of clear cut guideline for the management of hospital. Nepals health sector is facing a challenge regarding the management (Dixit, 2005). As part of whole system of health in the country, management of the hospitals is also a challenge. 1.2 Summary of the problem Nepal has set a target to achieve the millennium Development goals by 2015. It has to meet the target in all health indicators. Goal no 3 and 4 are c loosely related with health and as part of curative health, hospital and hospital management have crucial role in health promotion. In Nepalese context, hospital management skill and concept of hospital management is still beyond the priority of the government and the government still does not have any policy guidelines over the hospital management sector (Dixit, 2005). People skill is a key asset for the development of key management styles. Dealing the people is a professional skill in itself. Being able to see from the perspective of others is essential, and caring for their welfare is also of prime importance. There are many high-profile examples of how to develop a successful management style. Managers like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have famously developed their own distinctive management style from which others can learn. However, the fact that the two examples are very different management styles shows that there is no single route to success (Bono and Hellers, 2009). But unfortunately, there are no clear guidelines or policy found in the government documents. The recent document on the guideline on the requirement of a hospital, government does not speak about the hospital management, its skill development and transfer for the improvement of a hospital (MOHP, 2004). Lack of professional skill in the person responsible to manage the hospitals has created a problem in hospital management. The government run or supervised hospitals still do not have positions for the hospitals. MOHP in its policy document has not mentioned anything about the hospital managers (MOHP, 2004). However, the private hospitals have started hiring them which is still out of the government policy (Thapa, 2010). Nepal is a underdeveloped country where the literacy rate is only 62.7% for male and 34.9% for female as per the report of census 2001 (CBS, 2001). It means still 64.1% women are out of literacy coverage. Nepal has poor health facilities all over the country except in capital Kathmandu and other urban areas. Most of the doctors are not willing to go to the rural areas hospitals and they are often running without (qualified) doctors (Dixit, 2005). In conclusion, the poor socio-economic conditions, hard geographical conditions and lack of awareness of the people and traditional beliefs and superstitions, lack of will in the political parties and their leaders are the main burning issues for the improvement of health sector in Nepal (Chaulagain, 2004). These all are problems associated with the hospitals and ultimately with their management. The factors associated to hospital management are still not uncovered in Nepal (Thapa, 2010). So, it Purpose of the study As mentioned above, it has been obvious that Nepal is facing the problems to strengthen the management of the health sector. The documents are not found to have been lacking regarding the strategies and policies on the health management. So, the essay aims to identify the hindering factors affecting the hospital management in Nepal. It will study the existing policies and strategies of the government of Nepal on hospital management, international principles, theories and practices on hospital management and identify the factors which are affecting the betterment for hospital management sector of Nepal. So, the purpose of the study is to identify the current issues that hinder the hospital management in the case of Nepal and suggest the concerning authorities about improving the management system, formulating the policies and implementing them. It will analyse the strength and limitations of the hospital management system in Nepal and help all the concerned to mitigate and minimize them. Main research question The study can not answer all questions that come on surface while studying about the issue. So, to narrow down the study area and sharpen the focus, the study has defined the main study questions as follows:- What are the hindering factors that effect the hospital management in Nepal? Subsidiary Questions To supplement the main research question, these questions are defined as subsidiary questions as follows:- What are the existing strong aspects of the hospital management in Nepal? What are the limiting factors in hospital management in Nepal? How is the existing hospital management system in Nepal? What is the appropriate modality or best practices of hospital management that are applied in the world by other countries and What are the factors that are hindering the in the betterment in the hospital management in Nepal? Hypothesis Lindsen and Jong (2005) have defined hypothesis as an alternative explanation of residual switch trial costs or, more precisely, of the empirical finding that the repetition trial (RT) distribution for switch trials with a long preparation intervals can be modelled as a mixture of the RT distributions for repetition trials and for switch trials with a short preparation interval (Lindsen and Jong, 2010). In here, the hypothesis tries to establish an alternative factor that might be supposed to be the commonest hindering factor for the management of hospitals in Nepal. The hypothesis taken here is the lack of professionalization of hospital managers or the person who are involved in the management of either government run or private or community run hospitals in Nepal. It will be verified by the study afterwards in here. Significance of Study As mentioned above there are no special policies and practices established for hospital management in Nepal. The hospitals are managed by the medical doctors or surgeons so far (MOHP, 2004). The doctors are not entitled to diagnose the patients, treat them, run medical and surgical and public health cams campaigns in the hospitals or in the periphery of the hospitals. The Medical council is liable to assign the job responsibilities of the doctors in the case of Nepal. But it has not mentioned about the management part of the hospital and its regulation, Nepal Medical Council Act, 1964 (amended in 2001).It does not speak who is responsible for that (Nepal Medical Council, NMC, 2001). There is no one professionally responsible for the hospital management in the present context. In the country where the government policy about the medical sector does not speak about the role of hospital management, it becomes obvious that the hospital management sector is not running smoothly. No presen ce of the monitoring body to supervise and evaluate the hospital management is found in the present documents whether published by the government or private organizations. So, the studies significance is in establishing the fact what is the main barrier and other minor barriers in the hospital management of Nepal. That is why this study is has an important significance.

Air Pollution In Beijing Environmental Sciences Essay

Air Pollution In Beijing Environmental Sciences Essay Air pollution is the substances that accumulated in the atmosphere, which will endanger human health or produce other measured effects on living matter and other materials. [1]Air pollution is mainly emitted from the exhaust of motor vehicles, the combustion of fossil fuels as well as the burning process of coal and oil. As can be seen, the production of electricity generates the most of the pollution through coal burning. Generally speaking, pollutants can be in the form of solid particles or gases. In addition, they may be natural or man-made. [2] Pollutants in the air can be classified as either primary or secondary. Usually, primary pollutants are substances directly emitted from a process by human or natural sources, such as carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, dust, sea salt, smoke from forest fires, ash from a volcanic eruption and chemicals from human activity. (See picture1.1) Picture1.1 Sources of primary pollutants Secondary pollutants are not emitted directly, they occur when primary pollutants react with atmospheric gases to make new, hazardous substances. An important example of a secondary pollutant is ground level ozone. [3] However, some pollutants may be both primary and secondary: That is, they are both emitted directly and formed from other primary pollutants. As is addressed in an overview by World Bank of the 20 cities exposed to highest concentrations of particulate matter, which are tiny subdivisions of solid or liquid matter suspended in a gas or liquid, quite a lot of Chinese cities were mentioned, as Beijing is the sixteenth. In fact, not only the concentration of particulate matter, the overall environmental situation of Beijing is indeed a serious problem. Since the mid-1960s, industrialization took the place of agriculture and became Chinaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s primary economy. However, the pollution generation and resource depletion followed, which directly contributes to environmental degradation. The high density of fine particulate matter, ozone as well as SO2 and NOX is the major air problem in China. When it comes to the effects of air pollution, the damages to human health, vegetation and materials fully account for the reasons why it is important to pay attention to air pollution management. Exposure to these air pollutants has been associated with the increases of mortality and hospital admissions due to respiratory and cardiovascular disease. In fact, air quality management is not simply a euphemistic synonym for air pollution control; rather it represents a well defined process or rationale for establishing and enforcing regulations governing emissions of a wide array of pollutants from diverse urban and rural sources. Beijing, a typical representative of rapid developing cities, is an example to illustrate the measures that are applied in urban air pollution controlling and management concerned with a sustainable perspective. Conclusion and Limitation Conclusion As can be seen from this dissertation, the most serious air pollution in Beijing is the concentration of PM10, which is mainly from dust-soil, coal burning, construction, vehicle exhaust emission, waste incineration, concrete manufacturing, metal smelting industry emission, as well as urban road traffic. In addition, because Beijing is located at the downstream of Mongolia and Inner Mongolia which are the source areas of the dust storms, and therefore makes the density of PM10 more complicated. In addition to the PM10 problem, the influences caused by O3 and SO2 could not be ignored. High temperature and relative humidity conditions in summer accelerate the transformation of air pollutants, which results in high concentration of O3. While in winter, high demand of coal consumption leads to the dramatic increase of SO2 concentration. Due to the damages such as human health, vegetations and materials, caused by these air pollutants, the municipal government of Beijing starts to pay mor e attentions to this aspect. To reduce the air pollutants in Beijing, a more reasonable transportation system had been implemented already. For example, the new city planning called à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Two Axles, Two Corridors with Multi-centeredà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  was adopted by the government, which could divide the traffic flow effectively during the rush hour. This leads to the reduction of air pollutants from vehicles when they are at idle. Moreover, public transportation like bus, light rail, and subway are encouraged, the amount of such public transportation is increasing, and light rail and subway were sped up several times. When the usage of public transportation is at an increasing trend, trips by private cars are at a decreasing tendency, and then the emissions from vehicles reduced. What else, the quality of vehicle fuel was also improved, Euro 5 standard tends to be adopted around 2012 in Beijing, the content of sulfur in Euro 5 standard for gasoline and diesel is less than 10 ppm. Beijing municipal governm ent also carried out a lot of incentives on vehicle retrofit, scrappage and purchase to make the on-road vehicles cleaner and emit less air pollutants. Apart from traffic system, there is also transition in energy system. For example, government encourages the usage of renewable energy such as nuclear, solar, wind, biomass, and hydrogen, etc. Economic incentives are applied to encourage the enterprise to invest in the renewable energy. For customers, there are discounts when purchase the electricity that produced by the renewable energy. What is more, green planning is also important in controlling the air quality in Beijing, because trees can absorb air pollutants. And vegetation can also conserve the soil, which would improve the dust storm situation. Although the air pollution level is still high compared with some European countries, it is developing at a satisfied trend with these efforts from municipal government of Beijing, which means a gradual improvement of air quality every year. In the August of 2008, the average air pollution index was about 56, which was 30% lower than API 80 at the same period of last year. The PM10 concentration during the Olympics stayed at a satisfied level, and there were even 9 days, in which, the concentration of PM10 came to be lower than 50 micrograms per cubic metre, achieving the WHO air quality target. With regards to the density of O3 in this period, the mean value in the daytime came to 42 ppb, which was the lowest point during these three years. These improvements provided a sound environment for the Beijing Olympic Games. Limitation Before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Beijing municipal government carried out a set of phased measures and policies such as the odd-even day vehicle operation and closure of some construction sites. There were also restrictions for the coal-burning facilities. The results of these policies were significant, which made the air quality during the Olympics even achieve the WHO air quality target instead of the WHO interim target for developing countries. However, from the perspective of author, air quality during Olympics has its particularity, and the specific measures that were applied to improve the air quality during this period have their limitations when continue after the Olympics. For example, coal is still the primary energy in China and this situation will last a very long time in future. In addition, coal burning industries could not be restricted too much, which may affect the economic growth significantly. Therefore, attentions should still be paid to the general policies or measures the author mentioned above. Developing a better city map and improving the vehicle fuel quality are necessary. The encouragement of public transportation and renewable energy can contribute to air quality. Furthermore, improving the efficiency of energy and expanding the green areas in urban area of Beijing should be advocated by government and citizens. These measures are mainly applied within Beijing, in the authorà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s opinion it is not enough. As is propounded that the surrounding provinces Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, and Shanxi contribute a lot of air pollution to Beijing through the activities such as rural biomass burning, which is an important contributor to fine PM concentrations. The emitted air pollutants pervade the entire region and add to the local pollution in Beijing during transport on the prevailing winds. These four provinces are also the most polluted provinces in China. [68] So in order to improve the air quality in Beijing, the measures should not only be implemented in Beijing, but also applied in the surrounding provinces. Further researches and investigations of the surrounding provinces are of consequence needed. Furthermore, the whole dissertation is based on the analysis of relative literatures, without any research activities such as questionnaire and interviews, and this may make the dissertation less realistic. To improve this situation, more research methods such as empirical study and observations should be encouraged if available in the further research. What is more, sometimes the opinions and conclusions from the authors of the relative literatures may be subjective which would influence the analysis results. As a student at the university, both the analysis ability and research ability are sometimes not skillful enough for academic work.

The Controversy Over Music Downloading Essays -- Internet Online Commu

The Controversy Over Music Downloading Imagine you are driving down the road, listening to the radio, and a new song begins to play that catches your attention. You decide, after listening to this song, that you enjoy it, so you listen carefully to the DJ to hear what the name of the song is and whom it is by. When you get home, you log on to your favorite music-downloading site and download the song that you heard earlier in the day. Would you consider yourself stealing and disobeying copyright laws? Many artists believe that people who are downloading their music are stealing from them and they are striving to stop it. On the other hand, many artists and music lovers are happy with the new technology of music downloading. I believe that there is a way to reach a happy medium in-between these two groups to solve this problem. With a few website modifications, along with some minor changes in the music world, we will be able to leave this problem behind us. Thanks to today’s technologies, music can be compacted into MP3s and sent all across the Internet. MP3s use about a tenth of the memory that CD format does. This makes MP3s extremely popular on the Internet. Being of a small size, downloading speeds are faster, and hard drives can store ten times the amount of songs it previously could. Digital music is also popular because of its perfect reproducibility. Analog music can be copied, but the more copies you make, the worse the quality gets. Unlike analog music, digital music can be copied over and over again. Digital music, such as CDs and MP3s are made up of bits, which are 1s and 0s. You can infinitely copy 1s and 0s correctly, but imagine trying to copy something like the graph of ... ...ter the search of a song will be one to take you directly to the artist’s website. This will allow users to find out more about the artist. While on the website, a fan could find out that a band or artist is coming to a city near them, and they could buy tickets to the show, or just find some merchandise that they like. This would profit the artist who was complaining about having their music stolen from them. Although the opinions vary of the existence of free music, one thing is for sure; something needs to be done about it. Going around suing and having the government attempt to shut down technological advances is not the way to handle this problem. I believe that my solution, may not be the greatest, but it is a step in the right direction. The Internet is a powerful tool and each artist should be able to use it how it best suits them.

white fang :: essays research papers

White Fang By Jack London   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  White Fang, by Jack London is an amazing tail of survival and the wild. White fang is a wolf born into a cruel life, but endures it and becomes stronger because of it. He finds hate, but then finds love in the epic tail of this amazing animal.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Two men, Henry and Bill go sledding with six dogs. Each night they camp in the merciless wilderness, a dog is killed by a wolf pack. The wolves come closer to camp every night, until there are three dogs left. One of the wolves is different and bigger then the rest, a she-wolf, who’s use to people and afraid of guns. One day the men’s sled overturned and got caught up in trees. They had to untie the dogs to fix things. One of the dogs saw the she-wolf and took off after her, only to be ambushed by a dozen wolves. The dog ran for his life, while Bill went with his gun to save him. Bill and the dog both became a meal to the wolves. A couple of nights later, so did the rest of the dogs. The only thing that saved Henry was sheltering in the middle of a fire he’d made. By the time the fire had died, other men came with sled dogs to his rescue.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The she-wolf had taken off with her pack, only to abandon them to be with her one-eyed mate. They traveled to an Indian camp and stayed a few nights, then found a cave where the she-wolf had her five puppies. The father loyally went out hunting for them and let them eat before he did. Sometimes food got scarce though and all but one pup died from hunger. The father also died from tangling with a sphinx. The last pup was curious one day, While his mother was hunting, he went out of the cave and got his first kill, baby birds. He also fought with the mother bird, but lost the battle from getting pecked. Later a hawk ate that bird. Then the pup walked up to a stream and accidentally fell in. he was quickly swept downstream. Downstream the cub swam to shore and was met by a weasel and her babies. The pup attacked and was nearly killed by the mother weasel, but his mother came to the rescue. She killed the weasel and they ate it.

Balance Sheet and Net Sales

3 shows the December 31, 2009 pro- forma balance sheet and income statements for R& E Supplies, Inc. The pro- forma balance sheet shows that R& E Supplies will need external funding from the bank of $ 1. 4 million. However, they show $ 1. 27 million in cash and short- term securities. Why are they going to the bank when they have most of the required amount in their cash account? 2. Pro forma financial statements, by definition, are predictions of a company’s financial statements at a future point in time.So why is it important to analyze the historical performance of the company before constructing pro forma financial statements? 3. Suppose you constructed a pro forma balance sheet for a company and the estimate for external financing required was negative. How would you interpret this result? 4. Harlin Fencing Company’s sales, half of which are for cash, over the past three months were: August September October $70,000 $120,000 $80,000 a. Estimate Harlin’s cash receipts in October if the company’s collection period is 30 days. b.Estimate Harlin’s cash receipts in October if the company’s collection period is 45 days. c. What would be the October balance of Accounts Receivable for Harlin Fencing if the company’s collection period is 30 days? 45 days? 5. Suppose you constructed a pro forma balance sheet and a cash budget for a company for the same time period and the external financing required from the pro forma forecast exceeded the cash deficit estimated on the cash budget. How would you interpret this result? 6. Table 3. 5 presents a computer spreadsheet for estimating R& E Sup-plies’ external financing required for 2009.The text mentions that with modifications to the equations for equity and net sales, the fore-cast can easily be extended through 2010. Write the modified equations for equity and net sales. 7. Using a computer spreadsheet, the information presented below, and the modified equations de termined in question 6 above, extend the fore-cast for R& E Supplies contained in Table 3. 5 through 2010. Is R& E’s external financing required in 2009 higher or lower than in 2010? R& E Supplies Assumptions for 2009 ($ thousands) Growth rate in net sales 30. 0% Tax rate 45. 0% Cost of goods sold/ net sales 86. % Dividend/ earnings after tax 50. 0% Gen. , sell. & admin. Current assets/ net sales 29. 0% expenses/net sales 11. 0% Net fixed assets $270 Long- term debt $560 Current liabilities/ net sales 14. 4% Current portion long- term debt $100 Interest rate 10. 0% 8.This and the following two problems demonstrate that pro forma forecasts, cash budgets and cash flow forecasts all yield the same estimated need for external financing— provided you don’t make any mistakes. For problems 8, 9, and 10, you may ignore the effect of added borrowing on interest expense. The treasurer of Pepperton, Inc. a wholesale distributor of household appliances, wants to estimate hi s company’s cash balances for the first three months of 2009. Using the information below, construct a monthly cash budget for Pepperton for January through March 2009. Does it appear from your results that the treasurer should be concerned about investing excess cash or looking for a bank loan? Pepperton Selected Information Sales (20 percent for cash, the rest on 30- day credit terms): 2008 Actual October $360,000 November 420,000 December 1,200,000 2009 Projected January $600,000 February 240,000 March 240,000Purchases (all on 60- day terms): 2008 Actual October $510,000 November 540,000 December 1,200,000 2009 Projected January $300,000 February 120,000 March 120,000 Wages payable monthly $180,000 Principal payment on debt due in March 210,000 Interest due in March 90,000 Dividend payable in March 300,000 Taxes payable in February 180,000 Addition to accumulated depreciation in March 30,000 Cash balance on January 1, 2009 $300,000 Minimum desired cash balance 150,000 9. C ontinuing problem 8, Pepperton’s annual income statement and balance sheet for December 31, 2008 appear below.Additional in-formation about the company’s accounting methods and the treasurer’s expectations for the first quarter of 2009 appear in the footnotes. Pepperton Annual Income Statement December 31, 2008 ($ thousands) Net sales $6,000 Cost of goods sold1 3,900 Gross profits 2,100 Selling and administrative expenses2 1,620 Interest expense 90 Depreciation3 90 Net profit before tax 300 Tax (33%) 99 Net profit after tax $ 201Balance Sheet December 31, 2008 ($ thousands) Assets Cash $300 Accounts receivable 960 Inventory 1,800 Total current assets $3,060 Gross fixed assets 900 Accumulated depreciation 150 Net fixed assets 750 Total assets $3,810 Liabilities Bank loan $0 Accounts payable 1,740 Miscellaneous accruals4 60 Current portion long- term debt5 210 Taxes payable 300 Total current liabilities $2,310 Long- term debt 990 Shareholders’ equity 510 To tal liabilities and equity $3,810 1.Cost of goods sold consists entirely of items purchased in first quarter. 2 Selling and administrative expenses consist entirely of wages. 3 Depreciation is at the rate of $30,000 per quarter. 4 Miscellaneous accruals are not expected to change in the first quarter. 5 $210 due March 2009. No payments for remainder of year. a. Use this information and the information in problem 8 to construct a pro forma income statement for the first quarter of 2009 and a pro forma balance sheet for March 31, 2009. What is your estimated external financing need for March 31? b.Does the March 31, 2009, estimated external financing equal your cash surplus (deficit) for this date from your cash budget in problem 8? Should it? c. Do your pro forma forecasts tell you more than your cash budget does about Pepperton’s financial prospects? d. What do your pro forma income statement and balance sheet tell you about Pepperton’s need for external financing on F ebruary 28, 2009? 10. Based on your answer to question 9, construct a first- quarter 2009 cash flow forecast for Pepperton. 11. Toys- 4- Kids manufactures plastic toys. Sales and production are highly seasonal.Below is a quarterly pro forma forecast indicating external financing needs for 2009. Assumptions are in parentheses. Toys- 4- Kids 2009 Quarterly Pro Forma Forecast ($ thousands) Qtr 1 Qtr 2 Qtr 3 Qtr 4 Net sales $300 $375 $3,200 $5,000 Cost of sales (70% of sales) 210 263 2,240 3,500 Gross profit 90 113 960 1,500 Operating expenses 560 560560 560 Profit before tax (470) (448) 400 940Income taxes (188) (179) 160 376 Profit after tax ($282) ($269) $240 $564 Cash (minimum balance $200,000) $1,235 $927 $200 $200 Accounts receivable (75% of quarterly sales) 225 281 2,400 3,750 Inventory (12/ 31/ 08 balance $ 500,000) 500 500 500 500 Current assets 1,960 1,990 3,120 4,450 Net plant & equipment 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 Total assets $2,960 $2,708 $4,100$5,450 Accounts payable ( 10% o f quarterly sales) 30 38 320 00 Accrued taxes ( payments quarterly in arrears) (188) (179) 160 376 Current liabilities ( 158) ( 142) 480 876 Long- term debt 400 400 400 400 Equity (12/ 31/ 08 balance $3,000,000) 2,718 2,450 2,690 3,254 Total liabilities and equity $2,960 $2,708 $3,570 $4,530 External financing required $ 0 $ 0 $ 530 $ 920 a. How do you interpret the negative numbers for income taxes in the first two quarters? b. Why are cash balances in the first two quarters greater than the minimum required $ 200,000?How were these numbers deter-mined? c. How was â€Å" external financing required† appearing at the bottom of the forecast determined? d. Do you think Toys- 4- Kids will be able to borrow the external financing required as indicated by the forecast? 12. Continuing with Toys- 4- Kids introduced in the preceding problem, the company’s production manager has argued for years that it is inefficient to produce on a seasonal basis. She believes the company sho uld switch to level production throughout the year, building up finished goods inventory in the first two quarters to meet the peak selling needs in the last two.She believes the company can reduce its cost of goods sold from 70 to 65 percent with level production. a. Prepare a revised pro forma forecast assuming level production. In your forecast assume that quarterly accounts payable under level production equal 10 percent of average quarterly sales for the year. To estimate quarterly inventory, use the following two formulas: Inventoryeoq = Inventoryboq + Quarterly production – Quarterly cost of sales Quarterly production Annual cost of sales/ 4 where eoq and boq refer to end of quarter and beginning of quarter, respectively.Please ignore the effect of increased external financing required on interest expense. b. What is the effect of the switch from seasonal to level production on annual profits? c. What effect does the switch have on the company’s quarterly ending inventory? On the company’s quarterly need for external financing? d. Do you think the company will be able to borrow the amount of money required by level production? What obsolescence risks does the company incur by building up inventory in anticipation of future sales? Might this be a concern to lenders? 13. You will need to use the Standard & Poor’s Market Insight Web site ( www. hhe. com/ edumarketinsight) for this problem. Market Insight presents a spreadsheet entitled â€Å" Forecasted Values. † ( Excel Analytics, Valuation Data, Forecasted Values. )a. How are these forecasts generated? Are they more than simple extrapolation of past trends? b. How useful might these forecasts be for projecting a company’s future financing needs? 14. This problem asks you to construct a simple simulation model. If you do not own simulation software, you can download to your computer a free, full- strength version of Crystal Ball for a one- week trial. Point your b rowser to www. crystalball. om and select download. a. Problem 7 above asked you to extend the forecast for R& E Sup-plies contained in Table 3. 5 through 2010. Using the same spread-sheet, simulate R& E Supplies’ external funding requirements in 2009 under the following assumptions. i. Represent the growth rate in net sales as a triangular distribution with a mean of 30 percent and a range 25 percent to 35 percent. ii. Represent the interest rate as a uniform distribution varying from 9 percent to 11 percent.iii. Represent the tax rate as a lognormal distribution with a mean of 45 percent and a standard deviation of 2 percent. . If the treasurer wants to be 95 percent certain of raising enough money in 2009, how much should he raise? ( Grab the triangle below the frequency chart on the right and move it to the left until 95. 00 appears in the â€Å" Certainty† window. ) 15. This problem asks you to prepare one- and five- year financial fore-casts for Aquatic Supplies Company. An Excel spreadsheet containing the company’s 2008 financial statements and management’s projections is available for download at www. mhhe. com/ higgins9e. (Select Student Edition Choose> a Chapter >Excel Spreadsheets. Use this information to answer the questions posed in the spreadsheet. 16. The financial statements and additional information for Noble Equipment Corp. appear at www. mhhe. com/ higgins9e. (Select Student Edition Choose >a Chapter> Excel Spreadsheets. ) The company’s fiscal year end is September 30. Noble’s management wants to estimate the company’s cash balances for the last three months of calendar year 2008, which are the first three months of fiscal year 2009. The questions accompanying the spreadsheet ask you to prepare a monthly cash budget, pro forma financial statements, and a cash flow forecast for the period.

Analog to Digital Comparison

Analog to Digital When the conversion takes place between analog and digital it becomes the base of all communication technologies. Just about all hardware uses digital so it is very important to convert analog signals into digital to perform support for hardware applications. All hardware devices are aimed to be digital. Therefore, devices in the future will not need conversion because they will already be digital. There are many examples of analog to digital like a scan picture. The analog information provided by the light present in the picture is converted to digital signal to complete the process.The digital conversion use the means of binary coding for data transmission and output. The digital signals work only by using only two numbers known as one and zero (Analog to Digital). When users convert the signal to digital it allows plenty of data to be stored on a single device. This help save bandwidths and space. There are seven ways that signals are structured; direct conversio n, ramp compare, successive approximation, delta encoded, pipeline, time stretch, and sigma delta. When the hardware uses one of those signals the destination hardware will find the best data encryption and utilization.The most common analog to digital conversion are the digital TVs, cameras, and other video captures. The newer microcontrollers’ technologies are used to convert analog to digital by reducing the size of the chip to get a better signal. Frequency Modulation The advantages and disadvantages of frequency, and frequency modulation vary from one application to the next. However, the frequency modulation choice depends on the applications, and system requirements. Knowing the type of system as well as the requirement will help the technician choose the correct form or type frequency modulation to generate to get the required output for use.Comparing, and contrasting Amplitude Modulation (AM) to other forms of modulation frequencies an individual will find that (AM) frequency is relatively inexpensive, minimum circuitry required for connection as well as the demodulation process. (AM) covers a larger area when compared to (FM) greatly with the aid of atmospheric conditions. A disadvantage of (AM) includes a limited amount of bandwidth where-as the bandwidth needs to be double the strength of the highest frequency, noise mixes easily at higher frequencies, and only one side of the frequency carries the signal where-as the other side has a loss of power.Applications that normally use (AM) include radio transmission news, weather, music, aircraft communication to the aircraft tower in a very high frequency (VHF) form, and walkie-talkies for two-way communication. Frequency Modulation (FM) advantages include a stronger signal than (AM), noise control with the aid of increasing or decreasing the deviation, constant power output with no loss. The disadvantage includes cost, the demodulation process that may require knowledge of complicated circuitry. The application for (FM) includes radio communication, and some analog applications.Phase Modulation (PM), which is analog version phase shift keying. The advantages include includes modulation to demodulation made easier when compared to (FM). (PM) is also used to determine speed or velocity. A disadvantage of (PM) will include the displacement of the original signal of more than 180 degrees will cause phase ambiguity. Applications for (PM) include boat radio communications, radio, music, and news communications. When an individual uses his or her wireless Ethernet (802. 11b) he or she does not care as to how the signal is generated just as long as it works.Modulation Techniques Modulation is the method used to transmit and receive signals from a carrier. Different types of equipment make it possible for the signals to be used. Each piece of equipment uses different techniques but is essence offers the same results. The three most common methods by which signals are transmitted ar e 56K modem, asymmetrical digital subscriber line (ADSL), and Wireless Fidelity also known as Wi-Fi. Throughout the growth of the Internet, each of these processes has proven themselves to be effective ways to transmit digital signals.However, the 56K modem has become somewhat obsolete with the emergence of Wi-Fi. The signal modulation that the 56K modem receives is provided by the telephone network. When there is no interference or problems with the network’s connection, a 56K modem has a maximum speed of 64K but will rarely come close to achieving this because of typical issues with the network. The modulation takes place by converting the digital signal that the Internet Service Provider (ISP) transmits into an analog signal that the telephone company can use.The individual uses a modem to convert the analog signal received from the telephone company back to a digital signal. After the access to the Internet became more demanding, this process proved to be too time-consumi ng and ADSL emerged. ADSL uses two opposing modulation techniques that rely on Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM). QAM uses a process to conserve bandwidth that was widely used by earlier modems. The first modulation technique used is the Carrierless Amplitude Phase (CAP) that was developed by AT&T.The carrier retains no information because it is suppressed before transmission and unsuppressed after it reaches its destination. This process offer two advantages for its users, a less expensive and more flexible way of modulation and demodulation. The other modulation technique is the Discrete Multi-Tone (DMT). The DMT has been selected as the standard for ADSL. This method is a bit more complex because of the way that it separates the bandwidth into 256 channels. Each of these sub-channels uses about 4. 3125 kHz of bandwidth using the QAM process.It also uses more low frequency channels to minimize the noise interference present during high frequency transmissions. It also uses met hod like Discrete Wavelet Multi-Tone to maximize the separation between the channels to assist in minimizing interference. The final modulation technique is the Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi uses two radio transmission methods for modulation. The 802. 11b uses the process complementary coded keying (CCK) at around 11Mbps to process the signal with special codes and modulate it using Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) (â€Å"Tutorialspoint†, 2013). The other is the 802. 1a and g type that use a 64 channel orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) that divides the available radio band into sub-channels to send bits on each (â€Å"Tutorialspoint†, 2013). By using Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK), QPSK, or one of the QAM variants, the transmitter can encode the streams of bits carried on the 64 sub-channels. The receiver only uses the information that it needs to construct the information and disregard the redundant information. Sonnet SONET, or synchronous optical network (G ilmer, 2003) was designed in the 1980’s due to the break-up of AT&T.The current technology was overwhelmed by the sheer number of new telephone companies around the country. SONET was designed to deliver T-1 and T-3 speeds for data transfers. The SONET frame is designed as an 810-byte setup utilizing nine rows of 90 bits. The remaining bits are left out of the rows to perform separate tasks for each section. SONET is still used today as a means of telecommunication as it has a superior amount of flexibility over cables, such as those utilized by Ethernet that can be only stretched a fraction of the distance achieved by fiber optic cable.Where Ethernet maxes out at 348 feet, fiber optic cable is used at distances over a mile long, a drastic difference in usability. Conclusion It is apparent that as the popularity of the Internet increases, the technology must increase as well to meet the demands. The different conversion method used today for analog to digital has made it easi er for users than in the past. The modulation techniques have improved making it possible to transmit information faster and less expensive for users. Finally, the SONET technology has propelled the industry even further with its increased range and flexibility.References Analog to Digital. (2013 April). Retrieved from http://www. wifinotes. com/computer-hardware-components Gilmer, B. (2003). Sonet. Broadcast Engineering, 45(7), 24-24. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com/docview/204171727? accountid=35812 Goleniewski, L. (2007). Telecommunications Essentials (2nd ed. ). Boston, MA: Pearson. Analog to Digital. (2013 april). Retrieved from http://www. wifinotes. com/computer-hardware-components Tutorialspoint. (2013). Retrieved from http://www. tutorialspoint. com/wi-fi/wifi_radio_modulation. htm