Biblical Similarities in Hawthorne’s “Rappaccini’s Daughter” Essay

Biblical Similarities in Hawthorne’s â€Å"Rappaccini’s DaughterIn Nathanial Hawthorne’s â€Å"Rappaccini’s Daughter,† many biblical parallels can be found. This short story duplicates the first three chapters of Genesis in the Bible. The similarities range from the characters, to the setting, and even to the deadly plant in the story. The account of Adam and Eve in Genesis chapters 1-3 is extremely similar to the situation of Giovanni and Beatrice in â€Å"Rappaccini’s Daughter†. In both â€Å"Rappaccini’s Daughter† and the Genesis chapters in the Bible, lush, beautiful gardens are the setting. Both gardens are exotic and pretty, but the Garden of Eden is bright and tropical, whereas Dr. Rappaccini’s garden is dark and mysterious. Both gardens are home to a type of â€Å"forbidden† plant, but the Garden of Eden was created by God, whereas the garden in the story is created by a man with a god complex, Dr. Rappaccini. The forbidden plant in Genesis is a gorgeous fruit tree. The tree in the Garden of Eden is called the Tree of Knowledge and was extremely tempting to Adam and Eve. However, the tree was deemed prohibited by God. The plant in Rappaccini’s garden is a large flowering bush. The flowers on this bush are unlike any others and are extremely exquisite. The two plants share the trait of â€Å"forbidden,† but in different ways. The fruit on the tree in Genesis was forbidden because God said so. The plant in Rappaccini’s garden was forbidden because it was poisonous. The only person immune to the poison of this plant was Beatrice, then soon Giovanni. In Hawthorne’s story, a parallel between Giovanni and Adam is established. Both are young men, and each were tempted by a beautiful young woman. Giovanni in Hawthorne’s story was lured into the garden by Beatrice’s beauty. Adam was lured by Eve’s beauty to betray God. Beatrice and Eve also share similarities. They both are beautiful and young and are naà ¯ve to the evils of the world they live in. The serpent in â€Å"Rappaccini’s Daughter† is clearly represented by Dr. Rappaccini and Professor Pietro Baglioni. Dr. Rappaccini is responsible for luring Giovanni into the garden for his daughter, and also for exposing him to the toxin that led to him becoming like Beatrice, poisonous and stuck in the garden. Professor Pietro Baglioni is responsible for giving Giovanni the silver vial with the supposed antidote for the poisons. When Giovanni gives Beatrice the vial she then dies because the poison is too entwined with her body. Sadly, she was not given a second chance like Adam and Eve. The story of â€Å"Rappaccini’s Daughter† is an extremely enjoyable story with close biblical ties. The parallels are extremely apparent and also very important. What seems to be a story simply of fatal love is quite possibly a retelling of the opening chapter of Genesis in the Bible.

Willy Loman and Gatsby Comparison

His mall Idea was to obtain the â€Å"girl of his dreams† alongside this, but ended with either as he took a ferocious ride to his own self-destruction. Wily, In contrast, was able to accomplish the envious American Dream, but was far too ambitious to notice. When Wily decides he wants to search for his father with his brother Ben, he met Dave Signalman who essentially changes his inure future. In order to make a sale all he had to do was â€Å"pick up his phone and call the buyers, and without ever leaving his room, he made his living†¦ (Miller, pop 1. After seeing how successful he was, Wily totally reconsiders his original decision of going to Alaska, and Instead, became a legman which marks the beginning of his downfall. Both characters prove to be very lacking in moral sense. Jay Gatsby only motivation for becoming rich was to win Daisy back. Gatsby threw exuberant parties and lies about his background just to prove his worthiness to Daisy. â€Å"There was music fr om my neighbor's house through the summer nights.In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and he champagne and the stars†¦ † (Fitzgerald, pop). In Will's case, after arriving home from â€Å"work†, he boasts about his sales, despite it being blatant lies Just to impress his family. If old man Wagner was still alive I'd a been in charge of New York now. † (Miller, pa). This quote truly shows how far Wily has fallen, as it could not be further from the truth. The biggest factor that separates the two characters is their lifestyle and financial situation.Gatsby lives his life in an astonishing fashion, with the ability to buy anything anyone could ever desire. Inhabiting a giant mansion on the lakefront property of West Egg, it is very easy to envy Gatsby and the money he possesses. In contrast, Wily Loan lives a life very few would envy. With financial troubles throughout, Wily Loan has extreme rubles providing for his fa mily. Despite leading very divergent lifestyles, Jay Gatsby and Wily Loan were both amoral and caught up in the illusion of the American Dream.It is no coincidence, that at their lives conclusions, both found themselves terribly alone, even on their deathbeds. Wily Loan and Gatsby Comparison By Edgewood Gatsby hosts parties in an attempt to fit in, but his attempt is inevitably a failure as main idea was to obtain the â€Å"girl of his dreams† alongside this, but ended with neither as he took a ferocious ride to his own self-destruction. Wily, in contrast, was Dave Signalman who essentially changes his entire future.In order to make a sale all room, he made his living†¦ † (Miller, pop). After seeing how successful he was, Wily totally reconsiders his original decision of going to Alaska, and instead, became a very lacking in moral sense. Jay Gatsby only motivation for becoming rich was to win Daisy back. Gatsby threw exuberant parties and lies about his background Just to Willis case, after arriving home from â€Å"work†, he boasts about his sales, despite it new Gatsby and the money he possesses. In contrast, Wily Loan lives a life very

Audit Delay

Pg1Pg1 International Bulletin of Business Administration ISSN: 1451-243X Issue 10 (2011) EuroJournals, Inc. 2011 http://www. eurojournals. com Audit Report Lag and the Effectiveness of Audit Committee Among Malaysian Listed Companies Ummi Junaidda Binti Hashim Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin E-mail: [email  protected] edu. my Tel: 609-6653760; Fax: 609-6669220 Rashidah Binti Abdul Rahman Accounting Research Institute, Universiti Teknologi Mara Shah Alam E-mail: [email  protected] uitm. edu. my Tel: 603 55444745; Fax: 603 55444921 AbstractThe purpose of this study is to examine the link between audit committee characteristics and audit report lag among 288 companies listed at Bursa Malaysia for a three year period from 2007 to 2009. The characteristics of audit committee examined are audit committee independence, audit committee diligence and audit committee expertise. In this study, audit report lag refers to the number of days from the company’? s year end (financial year ) to the date of auditor’? s report. The results of this study show that audit report lag for the listed companies in Malaysia ranges from 36 days to 184 days for the three year period.The results of this study also show that audit committee independence and audit committee expertise could assist in reducing audit report lag among companies in Malaysia. This study however could not provide any evidence on the link between audit committee diligence on audit report lag. Overall, the findings in this study provide some evidence supporting the resource based theory, whereby characteristics of the audit committee as the resources and capabilities could improve companies’? performance as well as corporate reporting. Keywords: Audit Committee, Audit Report Lag 1.Introduction Financial reporting in general will provide useful information and assist users in decision making as capacity of capital providers in companies. Particularly users rely on the audited financial reports i n their assessment and evaluation of companies’? performance. The audited financial reports will increase its reliability and users will feel affirm on the reports verified by the auditors and would be able to make decision wisely (FASB, Concepts Statement 2). Timeliness itself will enhance the usefulness of the information. There are many ways to define timeliness.Commonly known that timeliness is the reporting delay from the company’? s accounting year end to the date of the audit report completed (Chambers and Penman, 1984). Audit report lag would lead the shareholders and potential shareholders to postpone their transaction on shares (Ng and Tai, 1994). This in turn, would provide negative effect to the company. 50 Pg2Pg2 Bursa Malaysia1 has demanded for timely financial reporting through the provision of Chapter 2 and Chapter 9 of the Listing Requirements (2009), Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad.Bursa Malaysia listing requirement under chapter 9. 23 (a) provides t hat a public listed companies must submit its annual report to Bursa Malaysia within six months after the company’? s year end. To prevent companies from late submission of their audited financial reports, Bursa Malaysia in consultation with Securities Commission has imposed penalty to public listed companies for failure to disclose the material facts such as the annual report within the time frame. However, despite the penalty being imposed, there are companies that could not meet the submission deadline.This current scenario as reported in Bursa Malaysia website 2010 (www. bursamalaysia. com). Many professional and regulatory bodies have taken various actions to identify the factors that hinder companies in delaying the submission of financial reports. Bursa Malaysia highlighted that corporate governance mechanisms which is audit committee would play a significant role in the company to ensure that the objective of Bursa Malaysia on timely reporting can be achieved. The ame nded Bursa Malaysia Listing requirement in 2009 provides that the members of audit committee must not be less than 3 persons.All members of the audit committee must be non-executive directors, with a majority of them being independent directors and at least one member is a member of the Malaysia Institute of Accountants (MIA). If the member of the audit committee is not a member of MIA, the member must have at least three years of working experience. Malaysian Government has recommended Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (MCCG, 2000) which was later revised in 2007. The revised code recommends that member of audit committee to comprise of fully non-executive directors, be able to read, analyse and interpret financial statements.This is to ensure that they would be able to effectively discharge their functions. Since audit committee has a close working relationship with external auditors, the audit committee would able to assist the level of audit coverage and assurance. This cou ld be done by employing knowledgeable members in the audit committee (Abbott et al. 2003), thus, would improve timeliness and reduce audit report lag. Past studies that have examined the determinants of audit report lag among companies focused only on company’? specific variables such as company size, (Al-Ajmi, 2008), profitability (Ahmad and Kamarudin, 2003), year end (Ahmed, 2003); leverage (Owusu-Ansah and Leventis, 2006), industry type (Jaggi and Tsui, 1999), audit opinion (Ng and Tai, 1994), and type of auditor (Afify, 2009). However, these studies did not examine corporate governance mechanisms in relation to audit report lag. Afify (2009) and Tauringana (2008) examined the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on audit report lag. Both studies were conducted in a non-Malaysian setting.Within the Malaysian context, studies that have examined the issue of timeliness using firm’? s specific variable include those by Ahmad and Kamarudin (2003) and Che-Ahmad and Abidin (2008). These two studies did not examine the issue of timeliness in relation to corporate governance mechanism. The current study extends the corporate governance literature by examining the issue of timeliness of annual reports in the Malaysian market by incorporating corporate governance, firm’? s specific variables in relation to audit report lag.The aim of the current study is to examine whether the existence of audit committee could assist in reducing audit report lag. Such examination is important since the audit literature has identified the role of audit committee in reviewing the financial statement. This study aims to answer the following research question: â€Å"? Could audit committee play an important role in effectively monitoring the timeliness of audit report? This study contributes to the corporate governance and audit literature by examining association of corporate governance; audit committee and the audit report lag.The findings of the study would have policy implications for MCCG. It provides supporting evidence on whether the development of corporate governance could significantly increase the timeliness of annual reports among companies in Malaysia. This study could assist Malaysian Institute of Corporate Governance 1 Bursa Malaysia was previously known as Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. 51 Pg3Pg3 (MICG) to provide best practice in order to enhance corporate governance mechanisms. The findings could also assist external auditors in evaluating the effectiveness of the audit committee in their audit planning.Such assistance would assist the external auditors in identifying the best time to be allocated for their audit engagements in terms of effort such as whether to reduce or increase effort and the amount of fees to be charged. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. First, it discusses on literature review and hypotheses development. Next, it describes on research design to conduct the study. It further provides the results of the analysis and discussion. The final part concludes and provides suggestions for future research. 2. Literature Review and Hypotheses DevelopmentWithin the corporate governance mechanisms, audit committee plays an important role in the monitoring process as well as its reporting role in companies. These members would reduce auditors’? task complexity and increase timeliness. Therefore, arguably, audit committee would be able to reduce audit report lag. This is because the appointment of audit committee are in line with the agency theory (Jensen and Meckling 1976) where agents act on behalf of principles in ensuring the company is performing well and provides quality annual reporting.The following sections develop three hypotheses to meet the objectives of the study which are related to the characteristics of audit committee. 2. 1. Audit Committee Independence According to the agency theory, the independent members in audit committee could help the principals to monitor the agents’? activities and reduce benefits from withholding information. This is because audit committee with more independent directors is considered as being a more reliable group other than board of directors in monitoring the company.The effective role provides by audit committee would be appropriate to represent the rights and privileges for all stakeholders. An independent audit committee enhances the effectiveness of monitoring function since it serves as a reinforcing agent to the independence of internal and external auditors in a company. Menon and Williams (1994) posits that an audit committee must comprise entirely of independent directors in order to be more effective. Klein (2002) shows that independent audit committees reduce the likelihood of earnings management, thus improving transparency.Carcello et al. (2000) found that audit committee independence have positive significant relationship with audit fees. This provides evidence that independence of the audit committee would lead to higher quality of financial report. Further, Ismail et al. (2008) found that the independence of audit committee would not influence the quality reporting of the companies. They argue that this is due to the companies only fulfilling the requirements, rather than the impact of the requirements. In contrast, Ali Shah et al. 2009) found that companies in Pakistan are having good corporate governance through having independence of audit committee. Bursa Malaysia Listing requirements (2009) and MCCG (2007) have highlighted that the audit committee might institute stronger internal control and good monitoring of financial reporting process in a company. The strong internal control managed by audit committee would lead to auditors reducing their work on the company’? s accounts because of their reliance on the internal control of the company. This would subsequently lead to the decrease in audit delay.Therefore, the first hypothesis is develope d. H1: There is negative relationship between the audit committee independence and audit report lag. 52 Pg4Pg4 2. 2. Audit Committee Diligence Ismail et al. (2008), measure audit committee diligence based on actual number of audit committee meetings held in a year. Audit committee meetings are considered as an important tool in ensuring audit committee members are fulfilling their responsibilities towards the company. Audit committee must carry out activities effectively through increased frequency of meetings in order to maintain its control functions (Bedard et al. 2004). Abbott et al. 2000) in their examination found that audit committee that meets at least twice annually is subjected to less exposure of sanction by the authorities. This is because regular meetings conducted would indicate that the audit committee discharges their duties in a well manner as an agent in the company. They also noted that audit committee that is wholly independent is also active by way of having mee tings. Dechow et al. (1996) argue that audit committee is an integral part of a company that emphasises high level monitoring. Moreover, the monitoring function would be more effective in terms of financial reporting.American Bar Association posits that an audit committee which holds less than 2 meetings annually is considered not committed to their duties. This indicates that the audit committee is unable to contribute to the internal control in that situation. Auditors who really monitor the internal control function of the company would reduce their works. However, Ismail et al. (2008) found that frequency of audit committee meeting could not influence the quality reporting of the companies. They argue that this is due to the companies only fulfilling the requirements, rather than the impact of the requirements.Razman and Iskandar (2004) found Malaysian companies that have good reporting meet more frequent than poor reporting companies. This is because, during the meeting, they c an monitor the management activities. Of consequence, this will lead to the decrease time taken on auditing by the auditors and reduce the reporting lag. Therefore, following hypothesis is developed. H2: There is negative relationship between audit committee diligence and audit report lag. 2. 3. Audit Committee Expertise Audit committee expertise is important in order to deal effectively with external auditors.This is because audit committee typically acts as the mediator between the management and the auditors. DeZoort et al. (2003) note that audit committee members with experience in financial reporting and auditing especially those who are CPAs would understand auditors’? tasks and responsibilities. They would become more supportive of the auditors compared to audit committee members who do not have similar experience. Audit committee members who are experts are more ‘? friendly’? with the auditors, comprehensible, logical and coherent when they are discussing with the auditors regarding the financial reporting of the company.Audit committee with more expertise would be more concerned about the financial reporting quality of the company. DeZoort (1998) contends that an audit committee with more internal control experience makes decisions or judgments similar to auditors compared to those audit committee members who are without experience. This reflects that experience in the accounting, internal control or auditing is fundamental to enable the audit committee to understand and cater on the problematic issue on the financial reporting system of the company. They would also realise the benefits of producing financial statement on time at the market.It is also identified that audit committee with financial expertise are going to facilitate each other. As discussed in resource based theory, the resources and capabilities that audit committee posses with financial expertise may assist in improving the firm performance. Listed companies in Mal aysia that have financial literate members of audit committee would have ability to end up with good financial report (Razman and Iskandar, 2004). This is because audit committee who has knowledge in accounting and auditing is able to demonstrate their ability in monitoring of internal control and reporting.Strong internal control also would lead the auditors in 53 Pg5Pg5 reducing their work because of their reliance on the credibility of the internal control. Therefore, the following hypothesis is developed: H3: There is negative relationship between the audit committee expertise and the audit report lag. 3. Research Design Sample covered in this study are among 288 companies listed at Bursa Malaysia for three years from 2007 to 2009. The samples are chosen randomly from 806 of the population. Table 1: Total number of companies and sample based on industry IndustryPopulationSample of companiesPercentConstruction49197 Consumer1395318 Hotel521 Industrial2658830 Infrastructure731 Prop erty883111 Plantation43166 Technology29124 Trading & services1816422 TOTAL806288100 The companies listed at Bursa Malaysia are selected for this study because they are governed by the rules and regulations imposed by MCCG and Bursa Malaysia Listing Requirements. The companies selected include consumer, industrial products, trading and services, construction, infrastructure, hotel, property, technology and plantation. Table 1 provides the number of companies selected from each of the sector.There are seven operational variables which comprise of one dependent variable, three independent variables and three control variables as describe in Table 2. Table 2: Variables Measurements VariablesDefinition Dependent ARLAudit report lag Independent ACINDAC independence ACMEETAC meeting (ACdiligence) ACEXPAC expertise (AC experience) Control SIZECompany size AUDIT TYPEType of audit firm PROFProfitability Measurement Represents the number of days elapsing between the end of the fiscal year of t he company to the completion of the audit for the current year for each individual firm (the audit report date)Percentage of non-executive directors to the total of audit committee members Number of audit committee meeting No of audit committee member with background experience in financial reporting (such as MIA,MICPA) to the total of audit committee members. Natural log of year end total assets Dummy variable, ‘? 1’? if auditor is one of the former Big-4 audit firms, ‘? 0’? otherwise PROF = Return on asset, measured by net income divided with total assets 54 Pg6Pg6 4. Results 4. 1. Descriptive Statistic Table 3: Descriptive Statistics for Audit Report Lag (N= 288) YearNMinimumMaximumMeanMedian 2007ARL28840. 00184. 00103. 14110. 50 008ARL28840. 00146. 00103. 42111. 00 2009ARL28836. 00136. 00102. 46110. 00 2007- 2009ARL86436. 00184. 00103. 00111. 00 Notes: ARL = number of days between the end of the fiscal year to the date of completion of audit As shown in Table 3, the mean score of audit report lag for the pooled sample is 103 days with a maximum and minimum days of 184 and 36 respectively. This indicates that on average, the companies took 103 days to complete their audit report. Using the pooled sample from period from period 2007 to 2009, the results indicate that the companies did comply with Bursa Malaysia listing requirements and he Companies act where they submit their report within six months except for one company which took 184 days to submit the report. It shows that companies are improving over the years on the number of days taken to complete the annual reports. The results of this study are somewhat similar to Afify (2009) that found the maximum and mean score number of days to complete the annual report was 115 days and 67 days respectively. The results indicate that the number of days that the companies took to complete the audit report has reduced from 2007-2009 by 48 days. Results on previous study show relative di fference with the current study.Che-Ahmad and Abidin (2008) found that 442 days while Ahmad and Kamarudin (2003) reveal 273 days on the maximum of days to complete the annual report. Table 4: Number of companies and audit report lag for 2007 – 2009 Audit report lagNo. ofNo. ofNo. of ARL (within)companiescompaniescompanies Year / percentage2007Percent2008Percent2009Percent 1 month (30 days)00. 0000. 0000. 00 2 months (60days)227. 64206. 94258. 68 3 months (90days)4214. 584114. 244114. 24 4 months (120days)19868. 7521173. 2620872. 22 5 months (150days)258. 68165. 56144. 86 6 months (180days)00. 0000. 0000. 00More than 180days10. 3500. 0000. 00 Total288100288100288100 Table 4 shows that for the three year period, no company has completed and submitted their annual report within a month. The results also show that for the three year period, 41 to 42 companies have completed and submitted their annual report within 3 months. None of the companies have submitted their audit reports exceeding 6 months except for one company which managed to submit their audited report only after 184 days in year 2007. The results in Table 4 shows that most companies reports way ahead the date stipulated by Chapter 9 (9. 3a) of Bursa Malaysia Listing Requirement that the annual report shall be issued and submitted within a period not exceeding 6 months from the financial year end of the company. Such results indicated that the companies are concerned and realised that audited reports are useful for users’? 55 Pg7Pg7 decision-making. The results support the notion that excessive delay in publishing financial statements would increase uncertainty in relation to investment decisions(Ashton et al. 1987; Ahmad and Kamarudin, 2003). Table 5: Descriptive statistic for Audit Committee Characteristics and Control VariablesIndependent VariableNMinimumMaximumMeanMedianStd. Deviation ACIND8640. 601. 000. 931. 000. 18 ACDIL8641. 0012. 004. 845. 001. 67 ACEXP8640. 001. 000. 400. 330. 19 Control variable SIZE TOTASSET (RM BILLION)8649 -336. 640. 790. 242. 86 TYPEAUD864010. 580. 000. 49 PROFITABILITY864-1. 8811. 0590. 030. 030. 40 Notes: ACINDP= percentage of non-executive directors to the total of audit committee members ACDIL= number of audit committee meeting ACEXP= no of audit committee member with background experience in financial reporting TOTASSET= total assets that the companies have at the end of the financial year.TYPEAUD= ‘? 1’? if audited by Big-4, ‘? 0’? if otherwise PROFITABILITY= net income divided with total assets Table 5 presents the characteristics of the audit committee among the listed companies. The results show that audit committee independence (ACIND) has a mean score 93 percent. The results also show that the listed companies minimum score of 60 percent of their audit committee member being represented by independent directors. The results indicate that the companies comply with the Bursa Malaysia listing require ment (2009) which requires a company to have majority of the audit committee members being ndependent directors. Although the requirement of Bursa Malaysia on the number of independent directors in a board of directors is different from MCCG’? s (2007) requirement, the requirement of Bursa Malaysia listing requirement prevails MCCG’? s requirements2. Table 5 also presents the results on the number of meetings held by the audit committee. The results show that almost all audit committee in the listed companies discharge their duties appropriately in which on average 5 meetings were being held.The highest number of meeting held by the audit committee during the three year period was 12 times. MCCG (2007) provides that companies should have their audit committee meeting at least 4 times a year. Table 5 also shows the mean score of audit committee expertise (ACEXP) as 0. 4 (40 percent). Such results indicate that most audit committee in the listed companies have audit comm ittee members with experience in financial reporting. Only 24 of the companies (2. 78 percent) formed their audit committee with members not having accounting qualification.The later results did not comply with requirements of Bursa Malaysia listing requirements and MCCG that states at least one member of the audit committee must fulfill the financial expertise requisite. In fact, two companies for the three year period have yet to comply with the requirement to have one of the audit committee members’? with financial expertise. 4. 2. Correlation Matrix Analysis Table 6 shows a non-significant value (0. 333) which is more than 0. 05, indicating data normality. Based on Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro Wilk tests, this study concludes that audit report lag is normally distributed. MCCG (2007) provides that, all members of the audit committee should be non-executive directors. 56 Pg8Pg8 Table 6: Normality Test for Audit Report Lag Kolmogorov-SmirnovaShapiro-Wilk StatisticdfSig. S tatisticdfSig. NARL0. 0348640. 0210. 9988640. 333 a. Lilliefors Significance Correction Table 7 shows no correlation problem among the variables since the value is less than 0. 5. The variance inflation factor (VIF) indicates all variables have a value below two which is within the acceptable range of 10. Table 7: Correlation Matrix Table ARLACDILACINDACEXPLog_AssetTYPEAUDROA ARL1 ACDIL0. 096**1 ACIND-0. 68*0. 0301 ACEXP-0. 0190. 0220. 0131 LOG_ASSET-0. 170**0. 093**0. 078*-0. 0031 TYPE AUD-0. 170**-0. 088**0. 010-0. 0210. 195**1 ROA-0. 076*0. 0330. 029-0. 032-0. 0210. 0061 **Correlation is significant at the 0. 01 level (2-tailed). * Correlation is significant at the 0. 05 level (2-tailed) Notes: ACINDP= percentage of non-executive directors to the total of audit committee members ACDIL= number of audit committee meeting ACEXP= no of audit committee member with background experience in financial reporting LOG_ASSET= natural log of total assets (in billions of ringgit Malaysia) TYPE AUD= ‘? 1’? f audited by Big-4, ‘? 0’? if otherwise ROA= net income divided with total assets 4. 3. Fixed Panel Regression This section presents the results of the fixed panel regression using Eviews. The panel data analysis is an increasingly popular form of longitudinal data analysis among social and behavioral science researchers (Hsiao, 2003). A panel is a cross-section or group of people who are surveyed periodically over a given time period. In this study, the group is the listed companies selected and the time is the duration of the data collected, which is the three year period of 2007 until 2009.Since the data is bound to be heterogeneity, the panel data technique could take such heterogeneity explicitly into account by allowing individual specific variables (Gujarati, 2003). Normal regression does not adjust firm’? s specific effect which would lead to variables being omitted and mis-specified the model (Fraser et al. 2005). Fixed effect mo del could overcome such problem by adjusting the effects through firm’? s specific intercept by capturing immeasurable firm’? s specific characteristics (Fraser et al. 2005). Panel data provides more informative of data, variability and efficiency.Under the panel data, the model is generated as follows: ARL = 1ACINDP + 2ACMEET + 3ACEXP + 4SIZE+ 5AUDTYPE + 6PROF + it Table 8: Fixed Panel Regression Result VariableCoefficientProb. ACIND-0. 0217060. 001* ACDIL-0. 0098350. 899 ACEXP-0. 0400840. 001* LOG_ASSET-0. 1297820. 012* ROA-0. 0021460. 264 TYPEAUD0. 0025350. 294 C5. 7867340. 000 N864 57 Pg9Pg9 Table 8: Fixed Panel Regression Result – continued Adjusted R-squared0. 802562 F-statistic12. 811 Prob(F-statistic)0. 000 Notes: ACINDP= percentage of non-executive directors to the total of audit committee members ACDIL=number of audit committee meetingACEXP= no of audit committee member with background experience in financial reporting LOG_ASSET= natural log of to tal assets (in billions of ringgit Malaysia) TYPEAUD= ‘? 1’? if audited by Big-4, ‘? 0’? if otherwise ROA= net income divided with total assets Adjusted R2= adjusted R2 coefficient determination F stat= indicate how much variation is explained by the regression equation. *significant at 1%. Table 8 shows that the audit committee independence (ACINDP) and audit committee expertise (ACEXP) are significant at 1% level. Thus, accepting hypotheses one and three respectively.On the other hand, the results show that there is no relationship between audit committee diligence and audit report lag. Therefore, hypothesis two is rejected. The results indicate that audit committee independence and audit committee expertise may reduce on audit report lag but audit committee diligence could not influence audit report lag. Carcello et al. (2000) found that audit committee independence and audit committee expertise have significant relationship with audit fee while audit co mmittee diligence did not provide any relationship on audit fees.The results in this study shows significant relationship between audit independence and audit report lag which is similar to Klein (2002) that found that more independent audit committee members would effectively influence financial reporting quality. The results of this study support the view that audit committee with a simple majority of independent audit committee members are more likely to fulfill its duties effectively compared to an audit committee members that have no independent audit committee members.This is consistent with agency theory where independent members in an audit committee could assist principals to monitor the agents’? activities and reduce benefits from withholding information. They would have had provided more effective roles in monitoring the companies. Further, the number of financial experts on audit committee will reduce incident of fraud (Farber, 2005). A member with financial exper tise demonstrate a high level of financial reporting knowledge and thus expected to lead the committee, identify and ask knowledgeable questions that challenge management and external auditor (He et al. 009). In practice, it is a general belief that more meeting and discussion of the committee would improve the performance of the company. However, similar to the study done by Uzun et al. (2004), the results in this study show that the number of audit committee meeting held is not significantly associated with audit report lag. More frequent meeting that the company has does not necessarily provide better achievement to the companies. Thus, the company needs to ensure audit committee member raised and resolved issues with management during the meeting, and as a result improve the quality of reporting. . Conclusion The results of this study show that audit committee characteristics: audit committee independence and audit committee expertise contribute as important factors that affect audit report lag of the companies. Such results correspond to the resource based theory where those characteristics of audit committee as the resources and capabilities that may improve companies’? performance as well as on the corporate 58 Pg10Pg10 reporting.These two characteristics represent the Bursa Malaysia listing requirement that require audit committee compose of not fewer than 3 members with majority of them being independent directors and requires at least one member of the audit committee to have financial expertise requisite. Audit committees with those characteristics could assist the companies to be timely in their annual reporting. Finally, this study could not find significant link between audit committee meeting to audit report lag.This study suggests that audit committee could prioritise important things that need to be resolved during the meeting in order to improve the performance of the company as well as in assuring audit report lag. This study is not w ithout limitations. This study does not include other factors such as government policy or political issue that also might affect audit report lag. McGee (2007) noted that the influence of timeliness might be attributed by culture, political and economic system of the country.Secondly, covering a bigger sample would provide greater generalization on the Malaysian listed companies on audit report lag and corporate governance characteristics. Finally, this study only covers a three year period from 2007 until 2009. A longer period such as ten year period data would be more interesting as it can show the trend on audit report lag. For future research avenues, a possibility is to examine other corporate governance mechanisms; characteristics of board of directors in assuring audit report lag.Future research can also examine which parties are liable for the delay of annual report, either on the hands of the preparers or auditors. References [1] Abdul Rahman, R. and Mohamed Ali F. H. , 20 06. â€Å"? Board, audit committee, culture and earnings management: Malaysian evidence†?. Managerial Auditing Journal, 21 (7), 783-804. [2] Abtott, L. J. , Parker, S. , Peter, G. F and Raghunandan, K. , 2003. â€Å"? The association between audit committee characteristics and audit fees†?. Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, Vol. 22 (2, 17-32. [3] Abbott, L. J. and S. Parker. , 2000. â€Å"?Auditor selection and audit committee characteristics†?. Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory. 19 (2), 47-66. [4]Afify, H. A. E. ,2009. Determinants of audit report lag: Does implementing corporate governance have any impact? Empirical evidence form Egypt. Journal of Applied Accounting Research, 10(1), 56-86. [5] Ahmad, R. A. R. and Kamarudin, K. A. , 2003. â€Å"? Audit delay and the timeliness of corporate reporting: Malaysian evidence†?. Working paper, MARA University of Technology, Shah Alam. [6] Ahmed, K. , 2003. â€Å"? The timeliness of corporate r eporting: a comparative study of South Asia†?.Advances in International Accounting, 16, 17-43. [7]Al-Ajmi, J. 2008. â€Å"? Audit and reporting delays: Evidence from an emerging market†?. Advances in Accounting, Incorporating Advances in International Accounting, 24, 217- 236. [8]Ali Shah, S. Z. , Ali Butt S. and Hasan, A. ,2009. â€Å"? Corporate governance and earnings management an empirical evidence form Pakistani listed companies†?. European Journal of Scientific Research, 26(4). [9]Ashton, R. H. , Willingham, J. J. and Elliott, R. K. , 1987. â€Å"? An empirical analysis of audit delay†?. Journal of Accounting Research, 25(2), 275-92. [10]Atiase, R. K. , Bamber, L. S. nd Tse, S. , 1988. â€Å"? Timeliness of financial reporting, the firm size effect, and stock price reactions to annual earning announcements†?. Contemporary Accounting Research, 5(2), 526-552. [11]Bedard, J. , Chtourou, S. M. and Courteau, L. 2004. â€Å"? The effect of audit c ommittee expertise, independence, and activity on aggressive earnings management†?. Auditing, 23 (2), 23-36. [12]Bursa Malysia website, Retrieved 12 July 2010 at http://www. bursamalysia. com. [13]Carcello, J. V. and Neal, T. L. 2000. â€Å"? Audit Committee Composition and Auditor Reporting†?. The Accounting Review. 75 (4), 453-467. 59 Pg11Pg11 [14]Carslaw, C. A. nd Kaplan, S. E. , 1991. â€Å"? An examination of audit delay: further evidence from New Zealand†?. Accounting & Business Research, 22(85), 21-32. [15] Chambers, A. E. , and Penman, S. H. , 1984. â€Å"? Timeliness of reporting and the stock price reactions to earnings announcements†?. Journal of Accounting Research, Spring, 21-47. [16] Che-Ahmad, A. and Abidin, S. , 2008. †? Audit delay of listed companies: A case of Malaysia†?. International Business Research, 1(4, 32-39. [17] Davies, B. and Whittred, G. P. , 1980. â€Å"? The association between selected corporate attributes and timeliness in corporate reporting: further analysis†?.Abacus, June, pp. 48- 60. [18] Dechow, P. M. , R. G. Sloan and A. P. Sweeney. , 1996. â€Å"? Causes and consequences of earnings manipulation: an analysis of firms subject to enforcement actions by the SEC†?. Contemporary Accounting Research, 13(1), 1-36. [19] DeZoort, F. T. ,1998. â€Å"? An analysis of experience effects on audit committee members’? oversight judgments†?. Accounting, Organizations and Society. 23(1), 1- 21. [20] DeZoort, F. T. , Hermanson, D. R. and Houston, R. W. , 2003. â€Å"? Audit committee support for auditors: the effect of materiality justification and accounting precision†?.Journal of Accounting and Public Policy. 22, 175-199. [21]Farber, D. B. 2005. Restoring trust after fraud: â€Å"? Does corporate governance matter? †? The Accounting Review, 80(2, 539-561. [22]FASB, 1979. Proposed statement of financial accounting concepts, qualitative characteristics: crit eria for selecting and evaluating financial accounting and reporting policies, Stamford, CT. [23]Fraser, D. R. , Zhang, H. , and Derashid, C. , 2005. â€Å"? Capital structure and political patronage: The case of Malaysia†?. Journal of Banking & Finance. [24]Gujarati, D. N. , 2003. †? Basic Econometrics, (4th Ed. ). New York: McGraw-Hill. 25]He, L. , Labelle, R. , Piot, C. and Thornton, D. B. , 2009. â€Å"? Board monitoring, audit committee effectiveness, and financial reporting quality: Review and synthesis of empirical evidence†?. Journal of Forensic & Investigative Accounting, 1(2). [26]Hsiao,C. 2003. â€Å"? Analysis of panel data (2nd Ed. )†?. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. [27] Hsu H-H. , and Wu, Y-H. , 2010. â€Å"? Board composition, ‘? grey directors’? and the incidences of corporate failure in the UK†?. Retrieved 16th June 2010 from www. ssrn. com [28] Ismail, H. , Mohd. Iskandar, T. , and Mohid Rahmat, M. 2008. â€Å"? Corporate reporting quality, audit committee and quality of audit†?. Malaysian Accounting Review, 7,(1), 21-42. [29] Jaggi, B. and Tsui, J. , 1999. â€Å"? Determinants of audit report lag: further evidence from Hong Kong†?. Accounting and Business Research, 30(1), 17-28. [30]Jensen, M. C. and W. H. Meckling. , 1976. â€Å"? Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs and Ownership Structure†?. Journal of Financial Economics, 3(4), 305-360. [31]Klein, A. 2002. â€Å"? Economic determinants of audit committee independence†?. Accounting Review, 77(2), 435-52. [32]Leventis, S. , and Caramanis, C. 2005. â€Å"? Determinants of audit time as a proxy of audit quality†?. Managerial Auditing Journal, 20, 460-478. [33]Listing Requirements Bursa Malaysia2009. Retrieved16th April2010 from http://www. bursamalaysia. com. my [34]Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance, Revised 2007. Retrieved 16th April 2010 from www. sc. com. my [35] McGee, R. W. , 2007. â€Å"? Corporate governance and timeliness of financial reporting: a case study of Russian energy sector†?. Working paper, Barry University, Miami Shores, USA. [36] Menon, K. , and Williams, J. D. , 1994. â€Å"? The use of audit committees for monitoring†?.Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 13, 121-139. 60 Pg12Pg12 [37] Mohd Ghazali, N. A. ,2010. â€Å"? Ownership structure, corporate governance and corporate performance in Malaysia†?. International Journal of Commerce and Management, 20, (2), 109- 119. [38] Ng, P. H. and Tai, Y. K. , 1994. â€Å"? An empirical examination of the determinants of audit delay in Hong Kong†?. British Accounting Review, 26, 43-59. [39] Owusu-Ansah, S. and Leventis, S. , 2006. â€Å"? Timeliness of corporate annual financial reporting in Greece†? , European Accounting Review, 15, 273-287. [40] Razman, S.R. , and Iskandar M. T. , 2004. â€Å"? The Effectiveness of Audit Committee in Monitoring the Qu ality of Corporate Reporting†? , A Chapter in Corporate Governance: An International Perspective. MICG Publication: 154-175. [41] Tauringana, V. , Kyeyune, M. F and Opio P. J. , 2008. †? Corporate governance, dual language reporting and the timeliness of annual reports on the Nairobi Stock Exchange†?. Research in Accounting in Emerging Economies, 8, 13-37. [42] Uzun, H. , S. H. Szewczyk and R. Varma. , 2004. â€Å"? Board composition and corporate fraud†?. Financial Analysts Journal, May/June, 33-43. 61

Fear and trembling by Soren Kierkegaard Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Fear and trembling by Soren Kierkegaard - Essay Example In his argument, he shows that objectivity falsehood can be revealed by lack of individual obligation. Fear and trembling, written by Soren Kierkegaard provides a description of two people: knight of faith and knight of infinite resignation. According to him, knight of infinite resignation refers to an individual that has had to surrender something they dearly treasure. Among such things are loved ones or a calling that can happen due to unavoidable circumstances in the current world. An Individual in the knight of infinite resignation has to reassign to stated facts and await his death as he lies with the circumstance that renders him impossible to achieve the desired object. Never the less, the individual has hope in the afterlife and still holds on without giving up. He remains hopeful that his aspirations of the commitments that are supposed to define his life will be granted in the afterlife. In his argument in knight of faith, Kierkegaard goes beyond his description of faith pe rsonalities in knight of infinite resignation. Both interpretations of faith ensure that the prospected individual has to surrender a valuable item that they treasure and is essential in providing a meaning in their lives. However, their difference is that the knight of faith has the belief that they will posses again all that they treasured and lost, an aspect identified as the absurd’s strength. He has the trust that regaining his treasured items will not have to happen in the afterlife but in the temporality life of the finite world. On the other hand, Concluding Unscientific Postscript conceives correspondence in objects and thoughts in both transitive and symmetrical ways. Kierkegaard argues that true objects could correspond to these ideas. In depth, he explains the manner in which objective truth differs from subjective truth. Explaining that objective truth is an outer truth and subjective truth an inner truth, he shows the entire writing as a philosophical method of reasoning that has the aim of gaining truth. Although Kierkegaard elaborates on faith, his interpretation in these two writings is dissimilar. Whereas Knight of faith and knight of infinite resignation provides an account of faith in requisites of conviction in the absurd, concluding unscientific postscript proves that faith is the contradiction amid vast passion of individuals’ inwardness and the purpose uncertainty. He identifies the former aspects as the only two steps that used in the development of real faith, but states in the latter that truth is all about subjectivity. Concluding unscientific postscript is explained in a major contrast of objectivity and subjectivity. Objectivity entails science, history, speculative philosophy, and they lack any relationship with the knower’s existence. Subjectivity is not inclusive of any worldly perceptions, but involves occurrences and introspections that have a single relationship with the Creator. On the other hand, knigh t of faith and the knight of infinite resignation show major aspects of freedom related to individualism in major choices of life. Kierkegaard uses the story of a lad falling and staying in love with a princess despite knowing that his expectations are impossible in showing some choices that different people make. The knight of faith presents faith in the form of a paradox that explains the difficulties involved in reconciling with logic. This is explained using the knight of faith where logic does not appear in the manner he trusts that he will gain his commitment in the present world. However, he still holds on to his belief complying with the aspect named above: the aspect of strength of the absurd. This is considered paradoxical

Training And Development Manual For Happy Wine Miami Term Paper

Training And Development Manual For Happy Wine Miami - Term Paper Example In this similar concern, this particular research study entails training needs assessment of Happy Wine. Training needs assessment will be based on the assessment of management skills and its effectiveness. Especially mentioning, this frames an important part of any organization as it encompasses various critical activities with regard to training as well as development function. In order to plan, prepare and implement advanced and effective strategies with regard to training needs assessment related to management skill program for Happy Wine, the company’s constraints are to be considered initially (Happy Wine, 2013). Overview of Training and Development of Happy Wine Miami Happy Wine Miami represents the US-based wine company. In this regard, it can be stated that the company follows the norms and the standards that have been fixed by the US government in association with wine industries. Therefore, constraints, as well as challenges faced by such wine industries, are almost same being situated within the similar country. The vision statement of Happy Wine reflects about its extension of wine shops worldwide. It further inculcates accessible as well as knowledgeable inclusions that further help the company to achieve success within national as well as international context. Wine industry represents the highly extensive market as it involves higher capital. This acts as a hurdle or a barrier for the entrance of such industries within the prevailing market scenario. Furthermore, wine industries incorporate the aspect of product differentiation which acts as an effectual marketing strategy for industries. Thereupon, Happy Wine also enjoys a variety of wines from all over the world. The strategy concerning product differentiation supports the company in terms of adopting various valuable decisions and executing effectual plans to foster growth and development in this competitive landscape. Furthermore, it can be apparently observed that in recent years, wi ne consumption has accelerated to its height. Wine is being consumed by the younger group that has given it a new height and growth. This further has given rise to numerous issues and challenges that wine industries are fronting in recent market scenario (Wall Street Journal, 2013). In relation to the training needs assessment with regard to management skill, it is necessary to analyze the breach between the present scenario and the need for training and expansion program to fill in the gap.  

Discuss how authors critique gender roles in thire noveles Season of Essay

Discuss how authors critique gender roles in thire noveles Season of Migration and Beer in the snooker club - Essay Example Salih writes about characters from poorer parts of northern Sudan while Ghali writes about city people in Egypt. The main characters in both of these books are male. The men in the books also meet a number of women and from time to time there is discussion of gender relations in British society and in their homeland also. Contact with Western society, and with London in particular, makes the authors think about potential changes to local family and social relationships, and especially to gender roles. In the first novel it is quite difficult to work out what the author’s views on the topic of gender are, because the male narrator has quite a different perspective from the other main character, Mustafa Sa’eed. The village in which they meet is rather traditional which means that life runs on the basis of Islamic law. The narrator describes his family, with emphasis on his grandfather who is a good male role model for him. There are also a number of elderly males who make a lot of sexist jokes about women. One of these characters, Wad Rayyes, seems to represent the dominant view : ‘He had been much married and much divorced, taking no heed of anything in a woman except that she was a woman, taking them as they came, and if asked about it replying â€Å"A stallion isn’t finicky†.’ (Salih: 66) The narrator observes this behaviour and repeats the animal comparison when he says (Salih: 81) â€Å"Wad Rayyes, who charged women as he charged donkeys†. This kind of womanizing behavior is also displayed by Mustafa Sa’eed who goes after several different British women when he is in London. He actually marries Jean Morris and she compares him to â€Å"a savage bull that does not weary of the chase† (Salih: 33). The fact that Sa’eed kills Jean Morris and drives several of his lovers to suicide underlines the aggression that this character feels in his romantic relationships. At one point Sa’eed describes his bedroom in

Commensal and Parasitic Barnacles Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Commensal and Parasitic Barnacles - Term Paper Example Barnacles are both commensals and parasites. As commensals, barnacles usually benefit from their hosts by having a place to stay, and being carried to nutrient-rich areas of the sea (â€Å"Hitchhiker†). Although the host animal, such as whales, does not benefit from barnacles attached to its body, the host remains unaffected. On the other hand, parasitic barnacles bore through the exoskeleton of the host and moves to the blood and the midgut of the animal until it branches into a mass of harmful tissue, thus killing the animal host (â€Å"Sacculina†). Overall, there are several types of barnacles but only four orders. Order Thoracica or the â€Å"True Barnacles† The first order of barnacles is the order Thoracica, or the â€Å"true barnacles† Newman & Abbott). The Thoracica are the most important because they are more abundant and more conspicuous than the species of the other orders. Although the Thoracica occur most abundantly in the tropical Indo-Pacifi c region of the ocean, they are basically found in all types of marine environments, both in saltwater and freshwater. However, it remains a fact that â€Å"none completes its life cycle in freshwater† (Newman & Abbott). ... ally dependent† on larger animals like shark, corals or worms, especially during the earlier stages of barnacle evolution, and although their symbiosis was only for â€Å"support or protection,† these relationships were still considered parasitic (Newman & Abbott). There are three suborders of Thoracica barnacles: the stalked barnacles or Lepadomorpha, the assymetrical sessile barnacles or the Verrucomorpha, and the symmetrical sessile barnacles or the Balanomorpha. The Lepadomorpha or stalked barnacles usually have a body â€Å"divided into a capitulum with cirri and mouthparts as feeding appendages, and a peduncle or stalk which attaches the animal to the substratum. Occasionally, the capitulum and the peduncle are heavily laden with calcareous plates (Newman & Abbott). Source: http://cccmkc.edu.hk/~kei-kph/Ecology/Stalked%20barnacle_Pollicepes.htm Certain Lepadomorpha barnacles, which act as commensals, are usually found in the teeth of the pygmy killer whale or Fere sa attenuata, the sperm whale or Physeter macrocephalus, the goosebeak whale or Ziphius cavirostris, and the Antillean beaked whale or Mesoplodon europaeus, as well as other cetaceans that thrive the deep marine waters (Mignucci-Giannoni, â€Å"Metazoan Parasites†). One unique Lepadomorpha barnacle is the goose barnacle or Lepas anserifa, which is similar to the Balanomorpha or acorn barnacles because of its protective shell (â€Å"Barnacles†). The buoy barnacle, or Dosima fascicularis, is also closely related to the goose barnacle. Although almost all true barnacles are commensals, based on early research, there is a Lepadomorpha barnacle which is parasitic and that is the Conchoderma virgatum (Williams; Hastings). According to information from Williams, the Conchoderma can parasitize two species of whale

Assess the significance of religious conflicts in creating a Essay

Assess the significance of religious conflicts in creating a parliamentary challenge to royal authority in the years 1529-164 - Essay Example The open conflict that developed between the King and parliament in 1629 arose from a series of clashes that had begun when Charles I succeeded to the throne in 1625, but its root course laid much deeper intensions that had existed since 1603. James had inherited a monarch with conditions of a mixed inheritance from his predecessors. On one hand, he had inherited a very stable system of government where the royal power was accepted and also exercised through a legal system which drew from the common law in the kingdom. There were also areas where direct power was exercised through the royal prerogative. The society he inherited was relatively prosperous and well ordered with characteristics of increased education and able administrators (Noble, Strauss, Osheim, Nauschel and Accampo, 2010). During the same time, he was the head of the Church of England and so he had the responsibility of very contentious issues that could affect individuals in the society. He was also faced with major financial problems which were worsened by the war against Catholic Spain and the rebellion in Catholic Ireland. Most of Elizabeth’s subjects welcomed the accession of James I into power because being a male protestant king with several children; he offered the prospects of security and stable succession. Catholics hoped that the respect for his dead mother, Mary queen of Scots would make him ease the persecution they suffered. The puritans on the other hand hoped that his upbringing in the Presbyterian church of Scotland would actually favor their plans for reform. However in the long run, both were utterly disappointed because James suspended the collection of fines for recusancy. However he re- imposed them in 1604 when he was faced with complaints in his parliament and thus feared the loss of income (Noble et al, 2010). His move led an extremist minority

British Olympic Team Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

British Olympic Team - Essay Example Bill Sweetenham, the national swimming coach, said: "In swimming, we have the worst facilities in the top 20 countries in the world. That's not investment in sport - that's neglect and negligence. None of the 36 British Olympic swimmers trains at a London club" (Londonpoolscampaign.com 2004). Financing sport is an investment made for future. Many promising athletes may not reach the Olympic podium because of need for training facilities of world-class, which are currently in great deficit. There is a certain positive trends in this area: "Under the plans, young children aged between 10 and 16 will be able to apply for grants of up to 20,000 to help fund their training programmes" (The Evening Standard 2004, p.6). Situation described above is a significant subject to the study of the degree lack of facilities has on the overall performance of British Olympic Team. Many of contemporary UK athletes were trained on the base of sport development level achieved in previous years. Therefore their current performance may seem contrasting. However it is extremely important to determine what impact will have the current UK policy of investments in sport on the British Olympic Team of tomorrow. In the light of Olympic bid made for London 2012 it is crucial to find out whether UK has enough facilities of world-class to contain an Olympic capital for the year 2012. The research of the impact the lack of facilities has on the ov... class events and ethically fair and drug-free sport - aims considered by UK Sports as their mission - would help not only to determine whether it needs changes, but also could help to indicate what changes are needed. This proposal gives an insight on how the subject research should be held. Starting from questions' raising it describes methodology, which should be used when conducting the research. Interviewing and questionnaires were chosen as the main sources of data gathering. Additionally a case study of UK swimming could prove useful for demonstrating the results of survey. Implications Implications that should be considered when conducting the proposed research can be divided into two groups: research methods-related limitations and ethics-related considerations. Later on in the proposal both of these groups will be examined with more detail. It is important to stress that if not considered each of these implications could mislead researchers into false outcomes and thus inadequate recommendations on the investment policy. Research question: The research proposed will try to determine what place in the overall success of British Olympic Team, clearly illustrated at Athens is taken by governmental support, or more generally: to what extent does lack of facilities have on the overall success of the British Olympic Team Proposed Methods Design of the Study To answer questions pointed out in previous sections I suggest using a combination of a survey and a case study design. Arguments for using these methods are as follows: survey belongs to descriptive methods of research providing a descriptive information, which enables generalization to be made; surveys gather data at a certain point in time to describe the existing conditions, therefore they are economically

e-Learning systems Essay Example for Free

e-Learning systems Essay Online learning or e-Learning refers to the application of electronic technology for the delivery of instructional content or knowledge domains. Beamish et al. defines e-Learning as: â€Å". . . a wide set of applications and processes allied to training and learning that includes computer-based learning, online learning, virtual classrooms and digital collaboration. These services can be delivered by a variety of electronic media, including the intranet, internet, interactive TV and satellite † Despite the great flexibility and wide range of tools that e-Learning provides to imparting education, the implementation of such can be a complicated and complex undertaking. Likewise, online learning it can be a frustrating task for both the students and the teachers alike. A number of personal barriers affect students and teachers alike in any online learning system. Personal Barriers of Students The nature of the course content is greatly affected by the technology that is within the access of the students. Students may simply not have the required bandwidth to access high-end multimedia content. The course designer has to tailor the contents to suit the technology availability of the students. This is especially true of e-Learning courses catering to international students scattered all over the world. Due to the limits that technology brings, it is but inevitable that the universities and schools have several restrictions for the students that is conveyed to them during the admission process. In fact, many universities take special care to ensure prior to registration that their respective e-Learning course content is accessible to the students. â€Å"Technical infrastructure deficiencies on the student side can impede course activities, especially in an online distance-learning environment† (Arabasz 42). The proficiency level of the student in using ICT tools would enhance or undermine his e-Learning experience to a great extent. In the international context it would be unwise to expect uniform familiarity with ICT usage. A student, previously not exposed to ICT, will therefore not only have to handle the course requirements, but will also have to acquire the necessary skills in ICT to pursue the course effectively. From the learner perspective, literacy and IT skills, aptitude for self-direction, confidence, and motivation in participating in the online courses have also been identified as potential barriers to effective online learning (Australian Institute for Social Research 15). The factor that students have to study alone in an e-Learning system has caused certain issues to arise. Many perceive this isolation as disadvantageous to the development of e-Learning systems for higher education. Brouner and Flowers even suggested that the lack of human interactions due to the technology introduced into higher education would have to be compensated by increased human contact . The e-Learning environment lacks the discipline and time regulations imposed on students in conventional education. This requires students to be more motivated, better time managers and more attentive during e-Learning sessions.

Physiological Effects of Pressure on Man and Cetaceans

Physiological Effects of Pressure on Man and Cetaceans Air and water are always exerting pressure on every object or organism on Earth. Pressure is the force or weight exerted on an object per unit area in order to move it (Anderson, 2011). It is measured in bar or atmosphere (ata as an abbreviation) and changes depending on the place on Earth affecting organisms in different ways.   Ã‚   Despite that all three groups within this study belong to the class Mammalia, they all evolved in different ways adapting them to their environment. Being cetaceans the group who is entirely aquatic including whales, dolphins and porpoises (The Editors of Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica and G. Mead, 2014). Pinnipeds are the group of fin-footed mammals who spend most of their time in the water, however, coming to shore to rest or mate and it includes seals, sea lions and walrus (NOAA, 2014). Therefore, it is aimed to analyse and compare the effects of pressure in humans, cetaceans and pinnipeds as well as comparing possible adaptions of each one. At sea level, despite being imperceptible any object or being is subject to the pressure exerted by the air defined as one bar/ata. When going underwater to the pressure exerted by the water the pressure of air at sea level has to be added. When the altitude drops every 10 meters below sea level the pressure increases by 1 bar/ata plus the one at the surface (PADI, 1996). Resulting in 2 bar/ata and so the pressure underwater can change as demonstrated in figure 1. Figure 1. The relation between Depth and Pressure. (PADI, 1996) However, if the dive is made in a submarine to a depth of 120m/396 feet the crew inside will still be subject to 1 bar of the pressure of the air and the submarine would be the one subjected to the pressure of 24bar/ata from the water and air combined (Martin, 1997). Gas Exchanges All mammals have a bidirectional respiratory system that isnt prepared for living permanently underwater like fish are. In a respiratory system like this, gas exchanges occur by using the same airways. They start to inhale oxygen (O2) at the surface before diving and at some point, all must return to release carbon dioxide (CO2) and inhale again (Martin, 1997). The exchange itself occurs in the alveoli within the lungs, being the O2 transported to different parts of the body by the circulatory system and the CO2 expelled back through the nose or mouth in humans and pinnipeds and through the blowhole in cetaceans according to WhaleFacts.org and NOAA. Cetaceans and pinnipeds being well adapted to a marine life they can hold longer underwater between dives comparing to humans who need scuba gear to dive deeper and for longer. At first, could be assumed that in the case of cetaceans the reason for longer dive time or deeper dives is lung size. However, according to Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) comparing whale average body and lung size to the one of a human, a whales lungs take 4% less space in their bodies than a humans. Therefore, the key isnt in the lungs but in the blood and haemoglobin concertation which in a whales is 30% higher than in a human. This helps the whale to storage more O2 in their bloodstream and muscle tissues instead of inside their lungs and this way avoid depth related complications. And the same can be verified in some deep diver pinnipeds (Kooyman and Ponganis, 1998).   The effects of pressure on body cavities As these three groups belong the Class Mammalia they all share three main body cavities which are normally filled with air, ears, sinuses and lungs. With air being a gas it changes volume along with pressure changes, so when pressure increases air get compressed and tends to decrease in volume. On one hand in humans this results in feeling an unconformable squeeze in the ear sinus and mask when using scuba gear. If these areas arent regularly equalised by adding air to them during a dive can end up in an eardrum rupture or a large headache (PADI, 1996). On the other hand, in cetaceans, evolutionary adaptations occurred within the hearing mechanism and sinus to be suited for water-borne sounds. Adaptations such as the fusion of the middle and inner ear capsules allowed cetaceans to better interpret sounds underwater however without being able to do the same to air-borne sounds (Au, Fay, and Popper, 2000). Similarly, to humans hearing pinnipeds ears more adapted to interpret air-borne sounds as most of the communication between individuals occurs above water. Although they do hear sufficiently well underwater (Riedman, 1990). Finally, the lungs commonly to all three groups the main rule is not holding your breath completely while diving. During ascends as pressure decreases air volume increases and not realising it can cause lung rupture (PADI, 1996).   Among other major depth related consequences are barotrauma, decompression sickness or the bends and nitrogen narcosis. Decompression Sickness (DCS) While underwater the organism accumulates nitrogen and due to not being used, it must be expelled which normally happens with each exhalation. If the amount of excess nitrogen is too high when ascending the nitrogen leaving the tissue, forms large bubbles that can cause symptoms from dizziness, tingling and numbness to in severe cases unconsciousness and death. It is commonly called by divers as the bends due to the nitrogen bubbles being trapped in the joint open area and not allowing them to bend their joints without pain. With a wide range of noticeable signs and varying from mild to moderate it is difficult to diagnose DCS in humans. In the case of cetaceans despite study made by Jepson et al. showing a lot of individuals with bubble lesions, it cannot be assumed that all cetaceans mass stranding are related to severe cases of DCS when actually it was not possible to determine the origin of those bubbles. Nitrogen Narcosis This symptom is a result of a direct toxic effect of high nitrogen pressure in the body and it is similar to being under the effect of alcohol. May affect human divers at different depths but once it starts only gets worse has the depth increases and can be deadly as divers under this effect will commit dangerous actions while diving (Martin, 1997). It can also be associated with cases of DCS as it usually happens before DCS.   Regardless of being completely aquatic, semi-aquatic or terrestrial, all three groups may suffer from the effects of pressure like DCS and nitrogen narcosis. Being completely terrestrial humans are the most affected ones. Cetaceans are the most adapted group to life underwater, however, it is not safe to assume yet that this means that they are less affected or even immune to DCS nitrogen narcosis as the origin of the bubbles, that at first would be characteristic of DCS, was not determined by Jepson et al. studies. Nonetheless it is possible to say both cetaceans and pinnipeds retrieve and storage oxygen a lot more efficiently than human beings thus more efficiently avoiding DCS (Kooyman and Ponganis, 1998). Text: Anderson, M. (2011) The Physics of Scuba Diving. Available at: https://www.dawsonera.com/abstract/9781908062512 (Accessed: 19 February 2017). Au, W.W.L., Fay, R.R. and Popper, A.N. (2000) Hearing by whales and dolphins. (12 Vols). New York, NY: Springer New York. Chapter 2 Martin, L. (1997) Scuba diving explained: Questions and answers on physiology and medical aspects of scuba diving. Flagstaff, AZ: Best Publishing Company. PADI (1996) PADI open water diver manual. Santa Ana, CA: Atlantic Books. Ponganis, P.J. (2015) Diving physiology of marine mammals and Seabirds. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (2014) Whats the difference between seals and sea lions? Available at: http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/seal-sealion.html (Accessed: 24 February 2017). Riedman, M. (1990) The pinnipeds: Seals, sea lions, and walruses. Berkeley: University of California Press. Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) (no date) How do whales breathe? Available at: http://uk.whales.org/blog/2012/10/how-do-whales-breathe (Accessed: 24 February 2017). WhaleFacts.org (ed.) (2017) Whale Anatomy. Available at: http://www.whalefacts.org/whale-anatomy/ (Accessed: 24 February 2017). Images:   Ã‚   Figure 1: PADI (1996) PADI open water diver manual. Santa Ana, CA: Atlantic Books.

Irish Immigration to American

Irish Immigration to American Immigration has come a long way in our country. Immigrants have come to this country to capture The American Dream that we see portrayed, nearly every day, on our television screens. Irish immigration occurred as a major rush in 1845. These immigrants came pretty much only came with the clothes on their backs, a little bit of faith, and hope to start a new life in this new world. Like most other immigrant groups, the Irish had it bad. However, unlike other groups of immigration, the Irish had more advantages with their education, politics, and labor unions, which helped them pave their mark in their new American homeland. The Irish famine of 1845, which killed nearly one-eighth of the entire population was the main reason why the Irish immigrated. This was major was because potatoes were the major source of food in Ireland (Donnelly). People ate potatoes to live and survive. People without much money were able to grow them, for they grew in great quantities on just small pieces of land. People had farms of them and grew them to sell them and make money. Potatoes were a godsend for the Irish. Unfortunately, in 1845 a disease or blight struck Ireland. When the blight hit, stemming from a fungus, potato fields turned black. Potatoes rotted soon after they were dug up from the ground. Racked with hunger, people sometimes ate the rotten potatoes anyway and became sick. As the blight spread across Ireland people became desperate (Goldstein 20). The effects of the blight have taken a toll far too great for the people to handle in Ireland and it was time to finally move. Families had no choice and knew that there will be a long period of time before this famine would end. Some believed that they might not even survive through it. The Irish packed their bags and got on ships to America. Some landlords actually bought some Irish their tickets because they knew it would save them money. The method was for the landlords to just but their way out. The landlords bought the people their tickets to ship them off to America. The landlords made promises of money, clothes, and food, so they packed the people in cheap, dirty, and unseaworthy ships. These ships got there name of coffin ships (Johanson). Many of the people who bordered these ships had diseases which were very contagious and easily contracted. People left and right where getting sick and even dying before they even stepped one foot on America. The rides to America on boats took up to eight weeks and with bad weather up to 10 weeks. Still though with all of these mishaps the Irish people still manag ed to have a positive state of mind and were still hopeful of all the fortunes America can bring for them and their families/ Upon arriving in America, The Irish, who were sick, were quarantined and treated. People started to fear that with their conditions they might not even be allowed to enter America. The conditions were horrible and many diseases could not be cured for they were too strong, epically the ones children had. In America the Irish felt as if its a new marriage between two worlds. Some people even poured some soil they brought from Ireland as a symbol of their combination. Now in America families knew it was time to finally experience that America like they always dreamt about. Education is very important for someone who wants to make something out of their lives in America. The Irish knew education offered a promising path to success in America. However, parents found it very difficult for their children to attend school in America. The reason was because most Irish were Catholics. Public schools in America mostly taught by the protestant culture and read from King James or protestant bible.(Henderson) Parents needed a solution, so they came up with the idea of building schools. Parents and cities began to build religious schools to teach their children both academics and Catholic studies.(Jones) When it came to University levels of education, many Irish Americans enrolled in Jesuit Universities, such as Fordham University. With many Irish Americans now enrolled in universities and colleges, they began to receive degrees and enter better professions such as teaching, medicine, engineering, and law. As the number of Irish grew in big cities such as Boston, Philadelphia, and New York so did the political power in the Irish communities. Many Irish politicians organized rallies in neighborhoods with family and friends. With politics rising in the communities, Irish Americans soon became mayors and city councilors. The politicians were effective,  but not always ethical: Some Irish politicians used such tactics like bribing people in exchange for votes(Goldstein.p49) In New York a democratic party called Tammany Hall used such tactics. Tammany Hall won most of their votes from their peers, the Irish communities. Tammany Hall helped immigrants with jobs, social services, and sometimes they even just flat out paid them.(Bayliss) Despite its corrupt reputation, Tammany Hall helped many Irish new comers. Tammany Hall also helped many Irish politicians rise higher in politician ranks. Most famous was Alfred Smith who went from Tammany Hall to New York government, becoming governor in 1919. He also ran for presidency in 1928, but eventually lost to republican Herbert Hoover. Alfred Smith reached very high positions in the offices of government, but he missed one major step left for the Irish Americans to achieve, Presidency. However, that all was changed in the 1960s. Nearly 30 years after Alfred Smiths run and nearly 100 years after the potato famine, John F. Kennedy was elected president of the United States. Many people did not like the idea of him becoming president, epically because he was Catholic. With Kennedys victory, the last Irish barrier to Irish achievement had fallen. An Irish catholic had reached the highest point of office in America. When the Civil War ended, many Irish Americans went back to work in factories, mills, farms, and mining companies. America was now literally booming with population growth. Cities were now filled with cars, railroads, buildings and so forth. The people who were keeping all of this together were the Irish. With these steady jobs in place more Irish began to go out into newer professions, including the most popular job irish hold in the 20th century, the police force. These jobs were very dangerous and women and children worked these jobs, neither of them had no rights. Some jobs with miners had cave-ins which were common. Poisonous gases sometimes seeped into mines and killed many workers. It was a point that where miners lives were in complete control of the mining company. People can conclude that even though the Irish had there politics and education in line they still had a tough time, just like any other group of people like the now freed blacks or any other ethnicity. However, with this mistreatment the Irish actually stood up for themselves with their unions. All across the nation, laborers began to form construction, factory, and mining unions. They joined prominent national groups such as the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor. They had strikes and fought for child and women rights.(Griffin) We can see here that with the Irish bonding together and working as a whole we can see that they fought for rights like no other group of immigrants and they got what they were looking for. The Irish have come through a long way to get and start a new life from Ireland to America. Fortunately, they had some better ways to things than others. Their politics, education, and labor unions helped them secure their presence in America and helped them start their new generations in this once known foreign land. The Irish are now no longer new comers in America.

What Should Be Done About Internet Pornography? :: Internet Pornography

Is it an abridgment of freedom to restrict access to internet pornography? How would such an abridgment work? Pornography: What it is. For purposes of discussion I will be using the term in 3 different contexts: 1, referring to the collection of visual depictions of erotic activity, usually but not always involving full contact sex; 2, as well as the production and transmittal of same; 3, the industry in general, its depiction, portrayal, and distribution. At every step I hope to make clear in context which I'm referring to. What I won't be referring to is whether there is an intrinsically detrimental effect to the consumption of pornography. Research seems clear that when it comes to issues of linking porn to violent or sexually aberrant behavior, there are no causal relationships that can be established (Diamond, Jozifkova, Weiss, 2011, Math, et al., 2014). Pornography: What it is not. Although there have been a number of cases throughout the 20th century (and, depressingly), still into the 21st, that attempt to cast one or another work of literature as being pornographic or against community standards, we won't be discussing Huck Finn or James Joyce's Ulysses here. A case could be made that sections of the latter are pornographic; they are certainly erotic. Pornography as an industry, generates an estimated $100 billion per year. The questions that arise are: Are consumers obligated to know where and how products come to us to be consumed? Is the prod uction chain of any concern to us at all? Is there an immediate danger or concern to us personally? Is there a long term concern to us personally? Is there a danger to producers or workers in the short or long term? Are we supporting misery not just in the primary instance, but the secondary instance (at home) or tertiary (abroad)? In the 2009 preface to his book, How Good People Make Tough Choices, author Rushworth M. Kidder discusses how there has been a sea-change in the treatment of ethics in the workplace (Kidder, 2009). In looking at the issue again, it is worthwhile to see if the assumptions regarding pornography stand up under scrutiny. In regard to the claim that every aspect of the production of pornography is rife with criminal involvement, the source of that claim is the infamous Meese Report, since discredited (Calidia, 1986). While there are credible reports of criminal involvement in the production of porn overseas, the involvement in the trade is concerned mostly with the acquisition, production and distribution of illegal materials (Diamond 1999, Diamond 2011).

A Leader: Love and Hatred, Fear and Love Essay example -- Literary Ana

Many philosophers have discussed, written, and influenced the implementation of their ideas of the perfect qualities of a leader, and the techniques that one must use to improve and perfect their leadership abilities. Majority of these philosophers conclude that a leader must demonstrate favourable traits, which will in turn generate the public in which he is ruling over to love him. This will result in a successful leadership. These philosophies are also devised as if the real world was a perfect world. However, Niccolo Machiavelli wrote a book, named, The Prince, which introduced the realistic idea that the world is not perfect and people do bad things. Because of this, leader must act differently to take charge of the naturally bad behaviour of the human race (The Prince 1). In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, there are numerous leaders who apply these ideas, and many who don’t. Although The Prince discusses many dark and relentless ideas of the perfect leader, his philo sophy is proven true by the characters from Shakespeare’s playwright, Julius Caesar, and the cause and effect of their actions. Brutus is a perfect example of a leader who did not follow Machiavelli’s advice, and did not succeed as a leader. For instance, Brutus’s main concern was pleasing the public and doing what was best for Rome. He did this by killing Julius Caesar (3.2.23-28). â€Å"If you want to acquire a reputation for generosity, therefore, you have to be ostentatiously lavish; and a prince acting in that fashion will soon squander all his resources, only to be forced in the end if he wants to maintain his reputation†¦to impose extortionate taxes.† (The Prince 2). Machiavelli stated that to be generous will have damaging effects on the leader. The damaging co... ...owed Machiavelli’s idea and as a result, killed anyone that was a threat to him (the conspirators). Machiavelli said that this was a good technique for a leader to use, because if a man does this, then everything that could possibly put him out of leadership is out of his way, leaving his leadership roll open to only him (Fears). Killing the conspirators was a great advantage to Antony because it gave him the opportunity to become a leader in the second triumvirate. Weather the characters of Shakespeare’s playwright, Julius Caesar followed or did not follow Machiavellian traits, each of the previous examples prove Machiavelli’s philosophy in The Prince true. Even though many philosophers conclude that a leader should have all positive traits such as kindness and generosity, a leader can be cruel and feared and be a better leader than one that is kind and loved.

Imperialsim †proper and legitimate course Essay

Have you ever wanted something because you felt you deserved it? Throughout history people have wanted to expand and take what they wanted. It is human nature to want things and set goals to acquire those wants. Imperialism was a proper and legitimate course of action for the U.S. Imperialism is the proper thing for America to practice. Reverend Josiah Strong wrote Our Country stating, â€Å"The highest civilization will spread itself over the earth. â€Å"This means that Americas are better than all the people who we took the land of. Alfred T. Mahan wrote The Interest of America in Sea Power which says, â€Å"The growing production of the country demands it.† This means that America needs to expand to allow more people to purchase our products. President McKinley said, â€Å"we could not leave them to themselves they were unfit for self government.† This means that our way of government is so much better than theirs in our eyes that we must take over them to help them prosper. Albert Beveridge, a Republican senator from Indiana said, â€Å"Almighty God He has marked us as His chosen people.† This means that it’s our god given right to pursue more land. Henry Cabot Lodge stated â€Å"Taking Philippines does not violate the princ iples of the Declaration of Independence, but will spread them among a people who have never known liberty.† This means he want us to force freedom on the Philippines and eventually more people. Imperialism is legitimate and proper however some people disagree with this statement. Senator George F. Hoar says â€Å"under the Declaration of Independence you cannot govern a foreign territory, a foreign people, another people than your own†. This being said means that many things America has done goes against the declaration which is unjustifiable. Anti-Imperialist League said, we hold that the policy know as imperialism is hostile to liberty and tends toward militarism, an evil from which it has been out glory to be free.† This is basically saying that imperialism is evil and goes against liberty. In conclusion, Imperialism was a proper and legitimate course of action for  the U.S. Imperialism is a very controversial topic that can prove to be just or not in many ways. In the end if America did expand we would of wasted or true potential to be what we are now. If one this imperialism isn’t just how ever then why will there option matter because without land there would be overpopulation and lack of commonly used resources.

Poverty in India Essay

Poverty is the deprivation of food, shelter, money and clothing that occurs when people cannot satisfy their basic needs. Poverty can be understood simply as a lack of money, or more broadly in terms of barriers to everyday life. It refers to a situation where a person is unable meet the basic necessities of life. Absolute poverty or destitution refers to the state of severe deprivation of basic human needs, which commonly includes food, water, sanitation, clothing, shelter, health care, education and information. The amount of income a person or family needs to purchase an absolute amount of the basic necessities of life. These basic necessities are identified in terms of calories of food, BTUs of energy, square feet of living space, etc. The problem with the absolute poverty level is that there really are no absolutes when in comes to consuming goods. Relative poverty views poverty as socially defined and dependent on social context, hence relative poverty is a measure of income inequality. Usually, relative poverty is measured as the percentage of population with income less than some fixed proportion of median income. There are several other different income inequality metrics, for example the Gini coefficient or the Theil Index. Relative poverty measures are used as official poverty rates in several developed countries. As such these poverty statistics measure inequality rather than material deprivation or hardship. The measurements are usually based on a person’s yearly income and frequently take no account of total wealth. Definitions United Nations: Fundamentally, poverty is a denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to food and clothing a family, not having a school or clinic to go to, not having the land on which to grow one’s food or a job to earn one’s living, not having access to credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living in marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation. World Bank: Poverty is pronounced deprivation in well-being, and comprises many dimensions. It includes low incomes and the inability to acquire the basic goods and services necessary for survival with dignity. Poverty also encompasses low  levels of health and education, poor access to clean water and sanitation, inadequate physical security, lack of voice, and insufficient capacity and opportunity to better one’s life. Copenhagen Declaration: Absolute poverty is a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to social services. The term ‘absolute poverty’ is sometimes synonymously referred to as ‘extreme poverty.’ World Health Organisation: Poverty is associated with the undermining of a range of key human attributes, including health. The poor are exposed to greater personal and environmental health risks, are less well nourished, have less information and are less able to access health care; they thus have a higher risk of illness and disability. Conversely, illness can reduce household savings, lower learning ability, reduce productivity, and lead to a diminished quality of life, thereby perpetuating or even increasing poverty. Poverty line is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a given country. In practice, like the definition of poverty, the official or common understanding of the poverty line is significantly higher in developed countries than in developing countries. The common international poverty line has in the past been roughly $1 a day. In 2008, the World Bank came out with a revised figure of $1.25 at 2005 purchasing-power parity (PPP). Determining the poverty line is usually done by finding the total cost of all the essential resources that an average human adult consumes in one year. Individual factors are often used to account for various circumstances, such as whether one is a parent, elderly, a child, married, etc. The poverty threshold may be adjusted annually. Below Poverty Line is an economic benchmark and poverty threshold used by the government of India to indicate economic disadvantage and to identify individuals and households in need of government assistance and aid. It is determined using various parameters which vary from state to state and within states. The present criteria are based on a survey conducted in 2002. Going into a survey due for a decade, India’s central government is undecided on criteria to identify families below poverty line. Poverty in India The problem of poverty and unemployment is considered as the biggest  challenge to development planning in India. High poverty levels are synonymous with poor quality of life, deprivation, malnutrition, illiteracy and low human resource development. The slogan of poverty eradication has been adopted by all political parties in one form or another and there is a national agreement for the goal of poverty alleviation. The national consensus on poverty alleviation provided the necessary condition for launching various schemes and programmes aimed at achieving this objective. But the persistence of poverty during all these years suggests that the national consensus on objectives did not and could not provide sufficient conditions for poverty alleviation. The starting point for estimating the number of households below the poverty line is a nutritional requirement per person per day at some base point. There is a debate on the minimum calorie requirement, and whether it should be the same for all parts of the country. Most acceptable figures are 2,400 calories per person per day in rural areas, and 2,200 calories per person per day in urban areas. The next step is to translate the nutrient requirement into monetary terms. The expenditure level of households which are able to spend the requisite amount to obtain the desired calories serves as the cut-off point, or the poverty line. To adjust the poverty line over a period of time, price variations have to be considered and an appropriate price deflator has to be selected. The problem arises in deciding upon such a deflator. Thus, the following elements mainly affect the magnitude of the poverty ratio: (i) the nutrition norm (translated into monetary terms); (ii) price deflator used to update the poverty line; and (iii) pro rata adjustment in the number of households in different expenditure classes to determine the number of households below and above the poverty line. Different assumptions and methods are used for these three purposes, which accounts for the different estimates provided by scholars. The Planning Commission has been estimating the incidence of poverty at the national and state level using the methodology contained in the report of the Expert Group on Estimation of Proportion and Number of Poor (Lakdawala Committee) and applying it to consumption expenditure data from the large sample surveys on consumer expenditure conducted by the NSSO (National Sample Survey Organisation) at an interval of approximately five years. Estimates of Poverty (Per cent) Year All India Rural Urban All India Poverty Ratio Rural Poverty Ratio Urban Poverty Ratio Number (per cent) Number (per cent) Number (per cent) (Million) (Million) (Million) 1973-74 321 54.9 261 56.4 60 49.0 1977-78 329 51.3 264 53.1 65 45.2 1983 323 44.5 252 45.7 71 40.8 1987-88 307 38.9 232 39.1 75 38.2 1993-94 320 36.0 244 37.3 76 32.4 1999-2000 260 26.1 193 27.1 67 23.6 2004-05 239 21.8 170 21.8 68 21.7 Problems caused due to poverty Human poverty measures suggest even worse outcomes than for income poverty in India. India has never been a good performer in human development terms, despite the much better indicators in some states, particularly Kerala. Overall, both health and education indicators have lagged well below those in other countries at similar levels of development and with similar per capita income. But food poverty has been of particular concern. Recent studies have shown alarming levels of hunger, especially in certain states of India. Studies by IFPRI and ISHI quoted in Banerjee (2008) suggest that most states in India rank somewhere among the poor Sub-Saharan countries:  Punjab, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Assam have a „serious‟ level of hunger; Madhya Pradesh fares worst in the „extremely alarming‟ cohort of hunger. All the other states record an „alarming‟ level of hunger, which is also the general ranking for the whole country. More appallingly, the situation appears to have worsened in the recent period of rapid economic growth. National Sample Surveys shows declining per capita calorie consumption, not only among the entire population, but also among the bottom quartiles, for which consumption was already very inadequate by international standards. Other indicators of both nutrition and health are also extreme. The latest National Family Health Survey for 2005–06 shows that the proportion of underweight children below the age of five years was 45.6 per cent in rural India and 32.7 per cent in urban India, indicating hardly any change from the previous survey undertaken eight years previously. More than one-third of the rural population was also underweight. Anaemia often a good indicator of nutritional deprivation was also widespread: 79.2 per cent of children aged 12–23 months and 56.2 per cent of ever-married women between 15 and 59 years were found to be anaemic. Conclusion Poverty Alleviation Programmes The poverty alleviation programme have been broadly classified into self-employment programmes, wage employment programmes, food safety programme and social security programmes. The focus is on the central government schemes only. It is not possible to map the special programmes of all the states. It must be noted here that some of the progressive states have added additional components or given further subsidy to enhance the benefits of the central schemes. For example, in the highly subsidized public distribution system of Andhra Pradesh, the BPL card holders were provided rice at Rs. 2 per kg. Self-employment programmes: This programme was started in 1970s in rural areas of the country in the name of Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) to increase the source of income of small farmers and landless labourers. The beneficiaries were given subsidized credit, training, and infrastructure, so that they could find new sources of  earning. In this scheme, agricultural labourers and small farmers received new skills to involve in vocations other than cultivating land. They included fishery, animal husbandry, and forestry. In the 1980s, this scheme was extended to schedule castes and tribes, women and rural artisans. Wage employment programmes: The main purpose of the wage employment programmes is to provide a livelihood during the lean agricultural season as well as during drought and floods. Under these programmes, villagers worked to improve the village infrastructure such as deepening the village ponds, constructing village schools and improving the rural roads. Thus the programmes not only provided employment to the villagers but also improved village infrastructure and created village public assets. A positive fall out of this programme is that it created higher demand for village labour, thereby pushing up the wage of the labourer in the villages. Food security programmes: Meeting the very basic need of access to food is a major challenge to the government in the post-economic reform era. Those who are below poverty line are faced with the problem of meeting this very basic need. Starvation and hunger have been reported in different parts of the country, even in economically advanced states like Maharashtra. There is malnutrition in all age groups, especially among children. Problem of low birth weight due to under nutrition of mother during pregnancy and underweight of children are rampant in the country. The purchasing power of certain section of the society is so low that they cannot access food at the market price. They need the safety net of food subsidy. In this context, public distribution system or PDS assumes importance. Social security programmes: Social security programmes are meant for those who are at the bottom of the BPL facing destitution and desertion. The central government has launched the National Social Assistance Programme or NSAP in August 1995. Under NSAP, there are three schemes. The first one is the National Old Age Pension Scheme or NOAPS. A pension amount of Rs. 75 per month is given to those who are above the age of 65 years and are destitute without any regular source of income or support from any family members or relatives. Though it is a very useful scheme for the elderly destitute, the coverage of the programme was not satisfactory. In the year 1999-2000, 8.71 million eligible elderly were identified, but the scheme could reach out to only 5 million beneficiaries. It was found that the benefits really reached the  poor and the leakage rate was found to be low.