Doping in Sport and the AFL Policy on Drugs - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 468 Downloads: 10 Date added: 2017/09/16 Category Advertising Essay Did you like this example? ?Drugs in sport What is it? Drug’s in sport or doping is when an athlete takes performance enhancing drugs or any banned substance. The sports that have the most trouble with drugs are Weightlifting, cycling, badminton, boxing, track and field. These athletes take drugs so they can be the best in there sport. One of the most recent cases was American sprinter Marion Jones who won five gold medals in the 2000 Olympics at Sydney, since then she has been stripped of all her medals after admitting that she took performance enhancing drugs in 2007. She had lied in front of two judges saying that she never had taken steroids. Another case was Australian Cricket hero Shane Warne who was banned for a year after taking diuretics. Another one was former West Coast Eagle champion, brownlow medallist, and premiership player Ben cousins who was banned from playing football for taking cocaine and other banned substance. What is a drug? A drug is a substance (other than food) that when taken into the body, produces a change in it. If this change helps the body it is referred to as a medicine. If this change harms the body, it is referred to as a poison. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Doping in Sport and the AFL Policy on Drugs" essay for you Create order I think drugs in sport is terrible because these are highly paid professionals who are role models to so many kids and they are taking drugs to make them better at there chosen sport. These athletes are respected by there country and in my opinioni should never be allowed to compete in there sport again. Some reasons an athlete might use drugs are the effects of the drug, physical dependence, easily available or they might be dissatisfied with there performance or progress, the environment, pressure to win from coach, parent, media, public, financial reward, unrealistic qualifying standards or performance expectation. This is a list of some prohibited substances and doping methods: ? Stimulants ? Anabolic agent ? Non-steroidal ? Diuretic Many different sports have different policies on drugs. The AFL policy has been under a lot of scrutiny lately. The policy is as follows First positive test: Players enter treatment/education program coordinated by an AFL medical officer. The result is confidential to those involved in the treatment. Second positive test: Dealt with by and AFL medical officer with a view to further educating, counselling and treating the player. Third positive test: Player is deemed to have breeched an AFL rule and will face the tribunal if found guilty player may be suspended between 0-12 matches Fourth Positive test: Player will face tribunal and be suspended for no less than 6 weeks. I think this policy is way to easy on the players because they have so many chances. I think the player should have one chance and then be kicked out of the AFL for at least a year.

Three Steps to the Happy Life Why this Approach Does Not...

The happy life. What does this mean to me? Kristen Linker, a third year student at Redeemer University College. It begins with balance: trusting God, finding Joy, having harmonious relationships with the people in my life and doing the best I can with what I have at this stage in life. If I would have had to write this paper at the beginning of this semester, I would have had a completely different view on the happy life. However, through this course, I have learned what I think are the most important things to work towards. Lyubomirsky’s happiness activities have also given me some ideas about what I find to be imperative to living a life pleasing to God. Now, I will not be describing a three step program to achieve the happy life.†¦show more content†¦Grow us in His grace. Change happens when there is pain. And, as I have learned in this course, people who suffer pain often have a more optimistic outlook on life and tend to be happier overall when they have dealt wi th the pain in a healthy way. Trusting God is the only way to achieve this. Trusting in His purpose and plans – not my own. What does the Bible Say about Happiness? 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, â€Å"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus† (Holy Bible). These are not suggestions that are recommended for us to lead a Godly life. These are commands. We are expected to abide by them. It doesn’t say ‘be joyful only when things go your way’ or ‘only when you are not stressed.’ Always. This is essential. The magnitude of the word always astounds me. It is not temporary. It is continuous. Personal Experience and Happiness This group of words â€Å"be joyful always† and â€Å"give thanks in all circumstances† are hard for me sometimes. I like to be stubborn and think, ‘Oh, people in Bible times did not have to deal with the stress I have to deal with.’ When, honestly, they had their own battles to face. For me, I enjoyed the happiness activities most weeks. There were many that resonated with me: expressing gratitude, avoiding overthinking and social comparison, developing strategies for coping, learning to forgive, and savouring life’s joys. Those were my top five. How Have I Seen â€Å"The Happy Life†Show MoreRelatedProfile On Camp Bow Wow1312 Words   |  6 Pagesâ€Å"Profile on Camp Bow Wow† video 1. Identify three skills that companies look for in managers and explain which might be most needed for the Camp Bow Wow leaders highlighted in the video. According to Williams, 2014, â€Å"when companies look for employees who would be good managers, they look for individuals who have technical skills, human skills, conceptual skills and the motivation to manage,† (Williams, p. 14). 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Basic Chemistry for investigating living things Free Essays

Which test tube represents the control? The one with water. C. Why? When protein molecules are present, Beirut Reagent reacts with the protein to form a purple color. We will write a custom essay sample on Basic Chemistry for investigating living things or any similar topic only for you Order Now Tube number one is the control tube because it is distilled water and has no protein; the tube has no color. C. Which test tube contained the most test substance? Amylase D. Other than the control, which test tube contained the least test substance? Hard to say because the other ones didn’t have much of a color, so it didn’t seem like there was much protein at all. E. Did the results agree with your initial hypothesis in every case? Yes F. Why or why to? Starches and sugars are helped by protein enzymes and Amylase is an enzyme. Good source of protein, so I thought Albumen would have protein Eggs are a foods, but the Beirut reagent isn’t strong enough to pick up small amounts G. If the color change is not as you expected, what might be the reasons? Contamination H. Add another 5 drops of Beirut Reagent to each test tube and stir as before. Do your results change? I didn’t notice any change Discussion A. What is the purpose of this exercise? To use color to detect if substances have protein since Beirut reagent would react with a protein to form a purple color B. Why is it important to clean droppers and equipment between chemical uses? To avoid cross contamination C. What other types of foods or substances contain high levels of protein? Meat or fingernails D. Suggest a situation where you might use the Beirut Reagent colorimetric test. It kidney disease E. What other types of analytical procedures detect the presence of proteins? The Lowry Method Exercise 2: Testing for the Presence of Starch in Cells A. What is the test substance? Starch B. Which test tube represents the control? Water C. Why? Water has no starch and it turned amber, so if your color was amber, you ad no starch D. Which test tube contained the most test substance? Potato starch Other than the control, which test tube contained the least test substance? Albumen and amylase E. Did the results agree with your initial hypothesis in each case, why or why not? Known to have starch, and they did. I didn’t expect the proteins Yes, potatoes are to have starch sources, but they’re not in every natural food source G. If the color change is not as you expected it to be, what might be the reasons? That items I did not think had starch, actually did have it. A. What is the purpose of this exercise? Iodine reacts with carbohydrates to form a dark blue color, so you would know if the substance had carbohydrates based on the color it turned. B. What other types of foods or substances contain high levels of starch? Wheat grain C. Suggest a situation where you might use the iodine colorimetric test. Testing for thyroid issues D. What other types of analytical procedures detect the presence of starch? Detect the presence of starch by using the chemical method A. What is the test substance? Sugar C. Why? There is no sugar in water, and it turned a light blue. Any test with that color old mean that there was no sugar C. Which test tube contained the most test substance? Glucose D. Besides the control, which test tube contained the least test substance? Potato starch D. Did the results agree with your initial hypothesis in every case? Yes E. Why or why not? The test specifically looks for glucose, so other carbohydrates and starches that don’t have glucose, will not show sugar F. What are you conclusions about the results? Glucose will react with Benedicts reagent G. If the color change is not as expected, what might be the reasons? Contamination How to cite Basic Chemistry for investigating living things, Papers

Management Decision Making Financial Figures

Question: Describe about the Management Decision Making for Financial Figures. Answer: 1 (a) In the current case, Mr. Brad Shelton, who works as consultant for Software Solutions Ltd, has been given a task to find out a suitable software package for job costing. For this purpose, he has been given a duty to analyze different software packages available in the market and finalize the one. Thus, Mr. Brad is in a position where he has the highest authority in respect of finalization of the software package. This position could encounter some ethical issues. For example, Mr. Brad Shelton could be bias in taking decision as regards software package and he may give preference one over another due to some freebees being offered to him. For instance, Jennifer Jolie, who works as salesperson for Pitt Ltd, a software developer, could offer him some sort of inducement to finalize her companys software package. Further, since Mr. Brad is the only person, so it is also possible that he faces allegations for being unethical despite discharging his functions ethically and honestly. Therefore, considering the sensitivity of the matter and ethical concerns, it is advisable that Mr. Brad should not take that trip offered by Jennifer Jolie (Bredeson Goree, 2012). 1 (b) No, the management of software solutions should not allow Mr. Brad to go on the trip to analyze the software of Pitt Ltd. If the company allows Mr. Brad to go on this trip, it may give rise to many ethical issues as discussed on question 1 (a) above. Jennifer Jolie is offering the trip to Mr. Brad on behalf of her company, Pitt Ltd. For this trip, Pitt Ltd is offering to bear all expenses of the trip that Mr. Brad will incur. Further, Pitt Ltd is also offering Mr. Brad to take his family along with him on this trip, the expenses of which will also paid by Pitt Ltd. This is clearly an inducement given by Pitt Ltd to Mr. Brad so that he can finalize its software for sales to accounting firms. In this case, it is likely that Mr. Brad would be biased and despite being of lower quality, he may finalize the software package of Pitt Ltd. Therefore, considering the above situation and facts of the case, the management of Software Solutions Ltd should not allow Mr. Brad Shelton to go the trip (Bredeson Goree, 2012). 1 (c) A code of conduct is necessary to guide the employees and infuse in them a culture of ethics. Every company needs to have a proper code of conduct in place for its employees so that their activities could be guided in the right direction. Thus, Software Solutions Ltd should also have code of conduct for its employees. The properly drafted code of conduct helps to inculcate the ethical behavior in the employees and creates a positive atmosphere within the organization. It reduces inequality by providing safeguards against any kind of biasness. Further, the code of conduct reduces the vulnerability and brings in stability in the operations of the organization. It is not only advantageous for strategic decision making, but it also benefits the day to day management of the affairs (Engle, 2006). In addition to the above, companys reputation is also strengthened when the activities of the employees are guided by the code of conduct. The positive reputation of the company in market is handy from financial view point also. Further, code of conduct also provides legal backing to the company against the criminal conducts of its employees (Engle, 2006). Although, code of conduct is advantageous to the company in all respects, but in some instances, its advantages may reverse. For example, code of conduct may limit the employees ability speak up against something noticed wrong. The employees may, because of fear to lose their jobs, not speak up against something unethical done by the top management. Further, improperly drafted code of conduct may create chaos among the employees (Engle, 2006). 2 (a) The consolidated profit and loss account is prepared to by the parent company taking its subsidiary companies together. It is prepared to present the financial performance of the group as a whole. The statement of profit and loss of Greencross Limited for the financial year 2016 presents the consolidated financial performance of the Greencross group as a whole. 2 (b) S.No. Item As at 30 June 2016 $000 Classification with reason i. Cash and cash equivalents 62,583 Asset: Simply asset means cash or other resources owned by the entity which can be converted into cash. ii. Marketing cost 17,821 Expense: an item which is incurred in one period and does not benefit over two or more periods is classified as expense. iii. Occupancy costs 10,880 Expense: an item which is incurred in one period and does not benefit over two or more periods is classified as expense. iv. Cost of goods sold 324,949 Expense: an item which is incurred in one period and does not benefit over two or more periods is classified as expense. v. Provisions 10,118 (5,601+4,517) Liability: Provisions are obligations on the company to be paid out in future. vi. Inventories 92,002 Asset: Inventories are resource controlled by the company that can be converted into cash in future by selling off. vii. Property, plant and equipment 156,867 Asset: Property, plant and equipment are the resources controlled by the company that generate economic benefits over the number of periods and these can be converted into cash in future by selling off. 2 (c) Item 2016 2015 % Change Summary (what this means for Greencross Ltd) Gross margin percentage 55.73% 54.42% 1.31% Increment in gross profit margin by 1.31% indicates operational efficiency and savings in the cost of goods sold. Operating expenses 339,404.00 302,219.00 12.30% Revenue Growth 734,009.00 (Greencross, 2016) 645,016.00 13.80% Revenues grew by 13.80%, which indicates that the company is growing and demand of its products increasing (Bohm, 2008). NPAT 54,649.00 35,723.00 52.98% Substantial increase in NPAT is the result of increased sales and savings in cost of goods sold. It indicates improvement in the profitability. Finance cost 15,986.00 13,580.00 17.72% Increase in finance cost indicates that the company has raised more borrowings Non-current assets 726,404.00 682,509.00 6.43% Increase in Non-current assets appears to be due to additions in the property plant and equipment, which indicates that the company is expanding (Bohm, 2008). Number of stores and veterinary clinics at the end of the year 440= (220 stores+120 clinics) 332= (200 stores+132 clinics) 108 The increase in the number of stores and clinics indicates that the company is expanding the business operations. Cash flow from operating activities 78,636.00 14,691.00 435.27% Substantial increase in cash flow from operating activities indicates improved liquidity position of the company. 2 (d) In order to analyze the trend in the financial progress of the company, it is essential to compare the figures of current year with the previous year(s). This is the primary reason that the organizations give comparative figures in the financial statements. Further, the comparative analysis is also crucial for the investors in analyzing their investment decisions. Analyzing the current years financial figures and comparing them with the previous year gives an understanding of the direction which the companys business is running in. Taking these things into consideration, Greencross Limited has presented corresponding financial figures of the year 2015 in the financial statements of the year 2016. This information is vital for the shareholders of Greencross Limited because it provides relevant information for investment decision making to them (Bohm, 2008). References Bohm, A. (2008). Interpretation of key figures in financial analysis. GRIN Verlag. Bredeson, D. Goree, K. (2012). Ethics in the Workplace. Cengage Learning. Engle, E. 2006. Private Law Remedies for Extraterritorial Human Rights Violations. Eric Engle. Greencross. (2016). Annual report of Greencross Limited. Retrieved November 22, 2016, from https://www.greencrosslimited.com.au/Docs/2045-GXL0002-_Greencross-Annual-Report-2016.pdf

A Guide to Writing in Nursing

Writing in Nursing Even though all disciplines are different, some rules apply to all kinds of papers. Every essay writer engaged in scholarly work needs to follow basic requirements, such as correct grammar and punctuation, concise and clear structure, and critical thoughts. Most often, especially in case of Walden programs, papers should be written according to APA standard.To be able to deliver proper content, writers must be familiar with specific features of the profession. Many nurses are mostly concerned about working with patients. Just like writing, this kind of work requires necessary technical knowledge. Nurses also must be able to express their ideas in a correct way. Even though their papers will likely contain specific medical terms, everyone must be able to understand them. Thus, nursing writers must have the following sufficient skills:Creativity;An ability to provide a qualitative research;An understanding of various learning activities;Critical thinking.ThesisIt’s impossible to tell all about everything in one paper, so writers need to narrow their topics and to choose their personal perspective. The writer’s position is a thesis statement, and it’s the most important part of any paper. The thesis must be true, informative, and significant. It also must provide new information or a new perspective. A strong thesis also addresses the opposite opinion or some point that contradicts to a currently accepted opinion, explaining why the author’s point is true and important.The reader’s perception of a paper directly depends on the thesis. It must show that the author really has something to say and the paper is worth reading it. If you want to provide important and unique information, you must do a research, noting gaps in knowledge that you find in existing works and trying to fill them with your own contribution. You must support the ongoing discussion and share your own creative ideas, taking into account different viewpoints. A q ualitative research is impossible without comparing different points and identifying gaps in knowledge.EvidenceA proper research is a sufficient part of the high-quality healthcare. The whole success of this industry depends on an accurate research and the proper use of evidence. Given the importance of it, students must learn how to support all their ideas and assertions with evidence from existing sources. However, students also must be able to evaluate sources and generate their own critical opinion. This ability helps in finding sources that have the necessary information about a specific clinical issue. Writers must understand whether or not a certain source can be useful in their practice.Therefore, you need to use credible sources. To do it, you can ask a librarian. We suggest using only authoritative web sources, journal articles, and other sources that have been reviewed by experts in this field.FormattingAs we said above, research papers in nursing should meet standards of APA style. This format includes such basic elements as an introduction, a discussion, and references, as well as an abstract, a literature review, methodology, results, and appendices.This structure is logical and clear. The introduction presents a topic of the paper, the literature review provides readers with information that is already known about this subject, and methods describe how the author collected data. Results and discussion are two other sections focused mostly on presenting and explaining results of the research, taking into account all limitations. However, the structure of any particular paper may differ from this model, so we suggest getting acquainted with common academic structures and reading your prompts carefully.MethodsNursing writers mostly use qualitative and quantitative methods. There are also mixed methods that imply the use of the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The quantitative method, in general, implies collecting quantifiable d ata, while the qualitative method usually includes interviews or an analysis in the narrative form. The best method depends on a question of the research, so the writer must choose it taking into account the topic.The chosen method shouldn’t affect the general approach to writing — the writer’s goal is to make it credible, presenting all information in a scientific manner, without bias. It’s important to choose only reliable methods if you want your work to be appreciated by readers.LanguageAll instructors agree that good works are written using an appropriate language that reflects the discipline. All nursing writers must be familiar with a standardized nursing language because it allows providing better communication between nurses and other people who work in the healthcare industry. The use of the nursing language also creates a proper environment for a correct evaluation of nursing care.The general goals of any nursing writer are to demonstrate devel oped thinking skills, to deliver a message clearly, and to provide professional communication using an appropriate language.

Media Violence Essay

Media Violence Essay Media Violence Essay Media Violence Nowadays, media has become a dispensable part of modern world. However the past 50 years have seen a dramatic increase in the argument of the effects of violence in media. Different people hold different views, I personally believe that the negative impacts of violence in the media far outweigh its benefits. Some laud media violence brings potential threaten to social stability. Since teenagers are lack of ability to distinguish right and wrong well, they will accept information from media without considerable judgments. For instance, the American media shows heroes justifiably using violence as a means to resolve conflict. In popular TV series Nikita, Nikita and her partners are heroes who defend the country against terrorism secretly. They are good men, but they are not perfect. They tortures enemies to get information to stabilize society as well. Although they are doing right things, their ways are cruel. Teenager will believe it is fine to use violence if they are doing right things. In addition, many younger children cannot discriminate between what they see and what is real. Teenagers watch TV shows with violence images hour after hour, they will see the world as a dark and sinister place, being frightened or upset. Media violence causes aggressive behaviour and fear of being harm ed, and lead to social instability at the end. Others argue that it helps to protect people from real-life violence because it plays as an alarm. People who have seen the harm impacts that are brought from violence in media

THE IMPORTANCE OF EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT IN THE GLOBAL WORLD Essay

THE IMPORTANCE OF EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT IN THE GLOBAL WORLD - Essay Example The logic behind employee's participation and empowerment is quite simple: by involving workers in those divisions that affect them and by increasing their autonomy and control over their work lives, employees will become more motivated, more committed to the organisation, more productive and more satisfied with their jobs. Empowerment is the authority to take decisions within one's area of operation without having to get approval; from anyone else. Here the operatives are encouraged to use their initiative to do things the way they like. To this end, the employees are given not just authority but resources as well so that they not only take decisions but implement them quickly. This empowerment means giving the employees the authority to make decisions and providing them with financial resources to implement these decisions (Koch & Godden, 1997 11). Employees participation and empowerment participation means sharing the decision making power with the lower ranks of an organisation in an appropriate manner (Lashley & McGoldrick, 1994, 35). When workers participate in organisational decisions they are able to see the big picture clearly and also how their actions would impact the overall growth of the company. They can offer feedback immediately based on their experiences and improve the quality of decisions greatly. Since they are now treated with respect, they begin to view the job and the organisation as their own, and commit themselves to organisational objectives whole heartedly. 3. Creating an Empowerment Culture Organization culture depends basically on its history, technology, industry, custom and practice, leadership style organization structure etc. All organizations are unique and therefore have unique cultures. However, if one examines the attributes of the majority of industrial organizations, there are a number of traits that are seen as desirable for effective organization. First, no organization can be isolated from cultural environment, that is, organization as a social unit must operate within the framework of the larger cultural system. As such, a congruency has to be maintained with the values of total culture. Second, organization may be considered as a subculture within the framework of total broader culture. No doubt, every organization develops its own norms and cultural pattern of behavior; these elements are developed within the context of the larger cultural pattern. No part of the system should go against it if both have to succeed. From this point of view, the creating an empowerment culture is important for the functioning of a modern organization. A model for understanding organizational culture is: Which effect

Supply Chain Management. Webinar summaries Essay

Supply Chain Management. Webinar summaries - Essay Example The session will include a set of video case study segments which have been filmed at the fulfilment centre in Von Maur. Challenges with order fulfilment The current challenges faced by Von Maur with order fulfilment are those to do with accuracy, productivity, speed, and flexibility in seasonality, services and products. Out of these primary hurdles in order fulfilment experienced by Von Maur are those related to providing services with respect to free shipping, free returns, free gift wrap and acknowledging offers and store coupons, speed wherein products have to be shipped the same day, selecting online inventory to the offerings in the store and offering more than brick-and-mortar stores and lastly its growth is unpredictable. Reasons for selecting mobile robotic warehouse automation (KIVA) Traditional automation ties operation to a fixed SKU set, location, workflow and order profile. On the other hand, mobile-robotic fulfilment provides picking, packing and shipping orders by ro bots, pickers stay in ergonomic work stations, delivery of inventory to stations are carried out by robots and above all robots and shelves are mobile. Also the parts of mobile robotic warehouse automation contain human operators, bots, stations, pods and software. The advantage of this system is that all activities like picking, packing, shipping, replenishment, inventory control and return are simultaneously conducted. As of now, orders received before 11 A.M. are shipped the same day, Von Maur online stocks and sells 95 per cent of items available in Von Maur stores, personnel enjoy working in the eCommerce business, this online shop will provide more items than those available in Von Maur stores starting the end of summer. Solution items The system was designed prior to the decision to erect a building by Von Maur for the eCommerce Division. Integration of Kiva Software with Von Maur’s home grown eCommerce order management software, deploying solutions took around 30 days , during the peak seasons temporary workers are hired for the back/wrap areas. Bots are automatically recharged at charging stations. Recap of the outcomes The operation is 4 times productive than when the store did not adapt the mobile-robotic automation system. During average volumes, at least 15 pickers are placed by Kiva. Inaccurate orders hardly exist and the store chain can add solution capacity in future. The eCommerce Division is rapidly growing and is keeping pace with its retail outlets. Kiva – Mobile robotic warehouse automation Kiva automated warehouse operations software help in productively, accurately, flexibly and portably picking, packing and shipping orders. Van Maur is a traditional company having a progressive thinking system. The eCommerce division contains only 35 personnel but despite this they effectively handle operations and this has led to growth in online sales of Van Maur products. Webinar 2: Global Mission Strategies - Webinar by World Trade Grou p Plant Location International (PLI) is the international Center of Excellence for IBM and focuses on economic development and international location strategies. It contains a team of 25 consultants, above 50 years of experience for advising governments and multinationals, having around 3000 projects globally, developed robust analytical and methodological tools and closely operates with IBM’s international network of operations and business strategy consultants and subject and industry matter experts. Global location trends It has been observed that recent crisis impacted foreign

Media audiences embody the fears and fantasies of their social Research Paper

Media audiences embody the fears and fantasies of their social context. - using The Hunger Games (dir. Ross, 2012) - Research Paper Example Conversely, the media does not contain relevant information alone, but contains a lot of harmful content that make the audience uncontrollably lost. The Hunger Games does not play to the knowledge of the extent of playing to the unseen eyes. The film seeks to entertain, or explore on any value that an individual may derive from watching the film, even if it means data for marketing purposes. The film brings out a metaphoric sense, which is resonant enough to make me accept the surveillance pleasures. This is in line with the Hunger Games focus in enhancing organization in the society (Ross Film). The hunger Games film, is designed in a manner that appeals to everyone else, especially the teenagers, who considers it a source of entertainment by living with pressure, which is unavoidable of being scrutinized. Constant surveillance value-seeking behavior is explored in the film, as its effects come out clearly. The constant value seeking surveillance influences behavior of the characters because they are obsessed with fact that other people derive something from the actions we undertake. The â€Å"unseen† eye influences behavior of the actors whose focus is based on entertaining the viewers. The Hunger Games indicates that the media is normally on purpose when it misses the point universally (Ross Film). Ideally, the media has been very relevant in enhancing communication. Through media, individuals whose voices could not be heard for specific reasons are now heard. Additionally, the individuals who oppressed others can now be categorically identified and prosecuted. The media has been influential for various cultures where many individuals have assimilated and adopted cultures that they observe on the media. Newer resources and facilities have resulted from the media as the media now acts as a tool for creating awareness as well as for providing education for the public and the audiences (Bury 3). The Hunger Games is broadcast and the viewers get riveted to

Pre-fabrication Technology and Conventional Construction

Pre-fabrication Technology and Conventional Construction 1.1 Introduction Construction industry plays an important role in Malaysias economy. Therefore, it is important to introduce more advance or new technologies from overseas to our country in order to growth the economy. Pre-fabrication technology is a new construction method in construction industry. This technology has been widely used in many countries due to many pros it has over the traditional construction methods, which is cast in-situ method. Pre-fabrication is the assembling components making in a factory or manufacturing before deliver those components to the construction site. After completed the selected components on factory or manufacturing, those components will transport to the construction site where the structure is to be located. On the other hand, for conventional construction method, which is cast in-situ, is transporting those selected materials like cement, sand, aggregate, brick, etc from factory or manufacturing to the construction site. Then the assembly only will carry out on site after those materials have delivered to site. Industrialised Building System (hereinafter referred to as ‘IBS) is a technique of construction, which introduced by Construction Industry Development Board (hereinafter referred to as ‘CIDB) was succeed and applied the pre-fabricated technology into the construction industry in Malaysia. IBS is define as a construction system in which components are manufactured in a factory, on or off site, positioned and assembled into structure with minimal additional site work (CIDB, 2003). The first IBS project was a 7 blocks of 17 storeys flats, which involved 3000 units of low-cost flat and 40 units of shop lot along Jalan Pekeliling in the late 1960s. In addition, there have some of the projects been satisfied completed by used of IBS components such as campus building, apartment, residential, office, hospital, etc. 1.2 Problem Statement Pre-fabrication technology has become more and more famous and popular in Malaysias construction industry recently. This is due to the technology has many benefits over the traditional construction methods which is cast in-situ technology. However, it also contains some weaknesses for pre-fabrication technology. For example, the transportation costs may be very expensive to deliver the complete components to the construction site. Not only that, the maintenance cost and repairing cost is higher depend to the cast in-situ method. Therefore, for long term buildings are not suitable to construct by using pre-fabrication technology. 1.3 Aim The aim of this research is to compare the construction speed for typical wall element between pre-fabrication technology and conventional construction method, which is cast in-situ. 1.4 Objectives To define Industrialised Building System (IBS) There have some of the projects been satisfied completed by IBS of using pre-fabricated components such as campus building, apartment, residential, office, hospital, etc. To compare the advantages and disadvantages of using pre-fabrication technology and cast in-situ in construction industry Although pre-fabrication can save more construction costs and decrease construction period, but the demand of using this technology are still very low in Malaysia. To compare the construction speed by using pre-fabrication technology and cast in-situ in typical wall element In practically, the construction period of a project can take few years to complete. By using pre-fabrication technology, the construction period can be decrease, which compare with traditional construction method. 1.5 Hypothesis By using pre-fabrication technology is cheaper and efficiency than traditional method, which is cast in-situ technology. 1.6 Research Methodology There have three different types of research studies relating to the pre-fabrication and cast in-situ technology have carried out to fulfill this dissertation. They are literature review, questionnaire and case study. 1.6.1 Literature Review The study undertakes a comprehensive review of the relevant literature on the subject of pre-fabrication and cast in-situ technology. The resources for literature are from books, magazines, journal and articles, which available from library and internet research. 1.6.2 Questionnaire This stage involved preparing and sending out the questionnaire to number of Construction Company in Malaysia. The questions are mainly asking about the actual construction speed by using pre-fabrication technology in Malaysia. 1.6.3 Case Study Few case studies for pre-fabrication technology in Malaysia will be carrying out for this research, either in supplier and/or in construction. Through these case studies, the problems, benefits and cost for pre-fabrication technology in actual construction industry can defined. 1.7 Scope of Study The scope of study for this research included to define the background of the IBS system as well as the previous projects done by IBS system with satisfied completed in Malaysia. Besides, research on the advantages and disadvantages of the pre-fabrication and cast in-situ methods. In addition, it will cover the construction speed for actual construction projects, mainly in Malaysia. Pre-fabrication Technology and Conventional Construction Pre-fabrication Technology and Conventional Construction 1.1 Introduction Construction industry plays an important role in Malaysias economy. Therefore, it is important to introduce more advance or new technologies from overseas to our country in order to growth the economy. Pre-fabrication technology is a new construction method in construction industry. This technology has been widely used in many countries due to many pros it has over the traditional construction methods, which is cast in-situ method. Pre-fabrication is the assembling components making in a factory or manufacturing before deliver those components to the construction site. After completed the selected components on factory or manufacturing, those components will transport to the construction site where the structure is to be located. On the other hand, for conventional construction method, which is cast in-situ, is transporting those selected materials like cement, sand, aggregate, brick, etc from factory or manufacturing to the construction site. Then the assembly only will carry out on site after those materials have delivered to site. Industrialised Building System (hereinafter referred to as ‘IBS) is a technique of construction, which introduced by Construction Industry Development Board (hereinafter referred to as ‘CIDB) was succeed and applied the pre-fabricated technology into the construction industry in Malaysia. IBS is define as a construction system in which components are manufactured in a factory, on or off site, positioned and assembled into structure with minimal additional site work (CIDB, 2003). The first IBS project was a 7 blocks of 17 storeys flats, which involved 3000 units of low-cost flat and 40 units of shop lot along Jalan Pekeliling in the late 1960s. In addition, there have some of the projects been satisfied completed by used of IBS components such as campus building, apartment, residential, office, hospital, etc. 1.2 Problem Statement Pre-fabrication technology has become more and more famous and popular in Malaysias construction industry recently. This is due to the technology has many benefits over the traditional construction methods which is cast in-situ technology. However, it also contains some weaknesses for pre-fabrication technology. For example, the transportation costs may be very expensive to deliver the complete components to the construction site. Not only that, the maintenance cost and repairing cost is higher depend to the cast in-situ method. Therefore, for long term buildings are not suitable to construct by using pre-fabrication technology. 1.3 Aim The aim of this research is to compare the construction speed for typical wall element between pre-fabrication technology and conventional construction method, which is cast in-situ. 1.4 Objectives To define Industrialised Building System (IBS) There have some of the projects been satisfied completed by IBS of using pre-fabricated components such as campus building, apartment, residential, office, hospital, etc. To compare the advantages and disadvantages of using pre-fabrication technology and cast in-situ in construction industry Although pre-fabrication can save more construction costs and decrease construction period, but the demand of using this technology are still very low in Malaysia. To compare the construction speed by using pre-fabrication technology and cast in-situ in typical wall element In practically, the construction period of a project can take few years to complete. By using pre-fabrication technology, the construction period can be decrease, which compare with traditional construction method. 1.5 Hypothesis By using pre-fabrication technology is cheaper and efficiency than traditional method, which is cast in-situ technology. 1.6 Research Methodology There have three different types of research studies relating to the pre-fabrication and cast in-situ technology have carried out to fulfill this dissertation. They are literature review, questionnaire and case study. 1.6.1 Literature Review The study undertakes a comprehensive review of the relevant literature on the subject of pre-fabrication and cast in-situ technology. The resources for literature are from books, magazines, journal and articles, which available from library and internet research. 1.6.2 Questionnaire This stage involved preparing and sending out the questionnaire to number of Construction Company in Malaysia. The questions are mainly asking about the actual construction speed by using pre-fabrication technology in Malaysia. 1.6.3 Case Study Few case studies for pre-fabrication technology in Malaysia will be carrying out for this research, either in supplier and/or in construction. Through these case studies, the problems, benefits and cost for pre-fabrication technology in actual construction industry can defined. 1.7 Scope of Study The scope of study for this research included to define the background of the IBS system as well as the previous projects done by IBS system with satisfied completed in Malaysia. Besides, research on the advantages and disadvantages of the pre-fabrication and cast in-situ methods. In addition, it will cover the construction speed for actual construction projects, mainly in Malaysia.

Confinement vs. Escape in Madame Bovary :: Madame Bovary Essays

Confinement vs. Escape in Madame Bovary      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A theme throughout Flaubert's Madame Bovary is escape versus confinement. In the novel Emma Bovary attempts again and again to escape the ordinariness of her life by reading novels, having affairs, day dreaming, moving from town to town, and buying luxuries items. It is Emma's early education described for an entire chapter by Flaubert that awakens in Emma a struggle against what she perceives as confinement. Emma's education at the convent is perhaps the most significant development of the dichotomy in the novel between confinement and escape. The convent is Emma's earliest confinement, and it is the few solicitations from the outside world that intrigue Emma, the books smuggled in to the convent or the sound of a far away cab rolling along boulevards.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The chapter mirrors the structure of the book it starts as we see a satisfied women content with her confinement and conformity at the convent.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   At first far from being boredom the convent, she enjoyed the company of the nuns, who, to amuse her, would take her into the chapel by way of a long corridor leading from the dining hall. She played very little during the recreation period and knew her catechism well. (Flaubert 30.)Footnote1      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The chapter is also filled with images of girls living with in the protective walls of the convent, the girls sing happily together, assemble to study, and pray. But as the chapter progresses images of escape start to dominate. But these are merely visual images and even these images are either religious in nature or of similarly confined people.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   She wished she could have lived in some old manor house, like those chatelaines in low wasted gowns who spent their days with their elbows on the stone sill of a gothic window surmounted by trefoil, chin in hand watching a white plumed rider on a black horse galloping them from far across the country. (Flaubert 32.)      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As the chapter progresses and Emma continues dreaming while in the convent the images she conjures up are of exotic and foreign lands. No longer are the images of precise people or event but instead they become more fuzzy and

Black People and Affirmative Action Essay

Please be advised that Assignment One on the printed Tutorial Letter 101/3/2013 on pages 12 – 14 has a number of both typographical and numerical mistakes. This happened as a result of a number of factors: the initial assignment reading was too costly for the Department to commission in terms of copyright and had to be retracted at the last minute. The reading on â€Å"Affirmative Action: a losing battle? † was then included but with an almost impossible deadline, which resulted in the errors reflected therein. This is regrettable and we apologise for any inconvenience this might have cost you. The corrected version of the assignment is on page 3 and is attached to this TL and again on my UNISA for your convenience. The marks are out of 100 marks – 50 for Section A and 50 marks for Section B. NB: Please note that the due date has not changed in any way (4 March 2013). 2 ENN103F/102 8. 4. 1. FIRST SEMESTER ASSIGNMENTS The purpose of this assignment is to teach you how to read an article and to critically engage in academic reading and reflecting on the material in an academic manner by answering the short paragraph questions provided as well as an essay. Assignment 01 will be marked fairly fully and sent back to you. Affirmative action: a losing battle? There are considerable reasons to suppose that this topic, which affects all citizens of South Africa, in particular, seems dated. In some instances it is a policy viewed with hostility as it is said to discriminate against sections of the population, yet in others it is seen as beneficial to women, black people and the disabled. Studies show that in many instances this form of historical redress has proven a hindrance to performance and makes the beneficiaries doubt their abilities when viewed by their superiors. This has a negative effect on an organization since the quality of work is seen as being sub-standard. Equally, there are significant indicators, both in industry and the private sector, that the opening up of previously closed avenues through the policy of affirmative action made companies perform better since the beneficiaries of such workplace selection viewed their work as a challenge. Where beneficiaries claim stigmatization by such a selection process, it means they prefer not to have been selected through such efforts. Either way, the battle seems to go on and on. In the light of this ongoing and divisive debate, the level of debate regarding the policy has not progressed further since comparative studies of the policy have not been seriously undertaken. There has been no systematic study of the developments in how the policy actually proves beneficial as a tool of redress. Part of the reason is that, firstly, there is a lack of monitoring of what goes on in organizations, and secondly, that the regulations are not strictly enforced. For instance, companies will usually ‘front’ a black person, a woman or a disabled person, as a chief executive officer and leave the matter of compliance as a secondary issue. Rarely do such companies face serious consequences even if they do business with the government. The question then is whether a time limit should be placed on the policy and Act or whether it should be declared unconstitutional. Consideration has not been taken, for instance, of measures used in other countries to actively promote privilege. Very few advocacy groups ever mention the Naturalization Act of 1790, the Homestead Act of 1862 or even the Federal Housing Administration Loan Program of the 1930s used by the government of the United States of America to promote racial preference; or that such Acts were also used as models for other racially divided societies. Advocacy groups for and against the policy and Act have routinely made it a point that the policy is unsettling, needless and discriminatory, on the one hand, while others argue forcefully that the amelioration of past injustices justifies its implementation. Whichever side is on the ascendancy cannot take the other side’s viewpoint, and in the end the past divisions are set to continue. 3 SECTION A: Short questions Answer the following questions in short paragraphs. Please note that each question will be marked out of 10 marks: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Is the affirmative action policy morally defensible? Explain. In your opinion, which country has successfully implemented the policy of affirmative action and why did it succeed? In your view, why did the South African government choose to implement the Affirmative Action policy and Act, and was it ever justifiable? Does the policy need to be discontinued after a certain length of time, and why? In your opinion, why is it that people from a different racial group are unemployable in certain sectors of the economy and not in others? [10 X 5 = 50] SECTION B: Essay Write an essay of approximately one and a half page on either of the questions below. Please note that each essay will be marked out of 50 marks: 1) Do you think cultivating an equal opportunity society has helped countries such as South Africa and America to move forward? In a carefully worded essay, show why this is the case or why it is not. OR 2) To what extent do you consider such a policy and act relevant to the needs of any society today? [50 marks] Best wishes The ENN103F Team 4.

Is Media Biased

Is Media Biased Al – Jazeera TV is Biased in its Reporting The emergence of technology that facilitates a comprehensive coverage of news in real-time has enabled many media outlets to reach millions of viewers globally. The modernization of the media industry has also escalated live streaming of news online.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Is Media Biased specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More It is notable that the sovereignty, autonomy, and information over personal analysis determine the level of news coverage objectivity. However, some media outlets have failed the objectivity test because of their partiality when it comes to reporting certain events. This paper discusses the notion that some media outlets are biased and focuses the debate on the Al –Jazeera Television. Al – Jazeera is the largest media outlet in the Middle East reporting events mostly to the Arab world. Presently, Al – Jazeera has also exp anded to the Western world. Notably, individuals in the private sector own and run the media outlet. The media outlet is insensitively anti – Israel and America. Al – Jazeera tend to report events involving Arabs and Islam positively and objectively. However, it has remained deeply against the Western ideals in its reporting of conflicts. The way it covers news in which the Western nations are involved normally shows a bias. This has been noted in its one-sidedness, unequal presentation, and unreasoned opinion on its commentaries. It is notable that countries such as Algeria, Morocco, and Bahrain among others have alleged that Al – Jazeera is biased in its reporting of events. The media outlet’s leniency towards Iraq has been evident in its reporting. The media outlet reported anti – occupation aggression news in Iraq, which received global condemnation. In fact, the media outlet appears to be facilitating a psychological conflict with its fundamen talist opinions. Al – Jazeera normally report news about the search for democracy in some Arab countries experiencing revolution. The media outlet has equated revolutions in Egypt and Libya with the ejection of totalitarianism in the search for political order. However, Al – Jazeera fails to report the lack of democracy in Qatar. For example, Qatar does not conduct elections and the citizenry have no basic political rights. This is an indication of bias because it delivers sensational reports about problems in other countries without projecting to the world the challenges facing Qatar.Advertising Looking for essay on communications media? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The unbalanced reporting of the war in Syria has also generated massive problems for the media house. This was occasioned by the resignation of some reporters over the media outlet’s lack of objectivity. The media outlet reported the revolutionary activities that occurred in Egypt and Libya. However, it has reported nothing about the serious anti – government uprising activities occurring in Bahrain. The media outlet is allegedly forcing its reporters to twist their stories to conform to the ideals of Emir Sheik and his Qatar administration. Furthermore, Al Jazeera has occasionally turned down stories, which are thought to be against the Qatari government brought by its journalists, Al – Jazeera has created the notion that it is serving Emir Sheik’s personal agenda by failing to report on the role played by the Qatar leader in the Syrian war. In fact, many former employees contend that Al – Jazeera has degenerated into a propaganda platform. The former reporters have indicated that Al – Jazeera has deviated from its mission goals. The media out let was originally the voice for transformation agenda and objective criticism of political activities in the region. The former workers argue that Al –Jazeera presently represents the views of the Qatari leadership particularly reporting in a lopsided manner when it comes to issues that require objectivity.

Akindele Owolabi Essays (1010 words) - Free Essays, Term Papers

Akindele Owolabi Essays (1010 words) - Free Essays, Term Papers Akindele Owolabi Jovonne Bickerstaff English 104-25 November 30, 2015 Ebola in Africa The social issue that I am presenting is Ebola in west Africa. Ebola is a dangerous disease that affected the world population as a whole, and it struck the hardest in West Africa. This was extremely bad because the countries in west Africa have some of the lowest gross domestic products per capitas in the world. This means that they have a lack of means to treat people when they get the disease. Taking into consideration the lack of treatment for the virus and how contagious it is, it's easy to realize why this virus became a pandemic. People were dying at such high rates that the available treatment in western Africa could not keep up with the rate at which people were getting infected. This became a major concern for me because although I no longer live in Nigeria, my grand-mother, uncle, father, and other family members still live in the first infected city of Nigeria. The part of my multi-modal assignment that would be considered the "respectable" portion was a documentary done by Vice news. The documentary took place in Liberia: the start up location for the new cases of Ebola. The documentary definitely puts the issue into perspective by showing it from the outside looking in, as well as the view point of the actual citizens of Liberia. I put certain excerpts from the documentary into my project that I thought held value. The first one was Barack Obama giving a speech about how dangerous Ebola can be and that it is spreading rapidly all around the globe. I also included some interviews that the journalist did in that same documentary where he interviewed the people of the country of Liberia. The journalist asked a man how he feels about the current situation and he responded saying that it is sorrowful that his people are just dying on a daily basis. Also included is the note that there is a complete shortage of medical professionals and he althcare facilities to treat this disease. The people call ambulances and police and get no reply. Their people are just left to die. When someone is infected in the community, they have nowhere to go, being forced to stay in their community. This is the main cause of the disease spreading. That's the main aspect of the documentary; it tells specifically what the diseases is, how hard it is to treat, and how fast the people that are infected are dying. The song portion of my project, or the "ratchet" part is a song made by a native of Liberia that goes by Shadow. The name of the song is Ebola in town. The song is written partly in pidgin English, so it might be a little difficult to understand for some. The main point of the song is that Ebola is highly contagious. The song is supposed to be sort of a comical song stating the facts about Ebola. Some lines are that "Ebola can kill you fast, no touching your neighbors, no eating bush meat like bat and monkey meat" because they tend to have the virus in them. The song also says you can't run from it. You can go to Guinea but the virus is still there. Everywhere you go the virus is there. I feel like the documentary and the song add important aspects to one another. The documentary is more for outsiders and non natives that aren't aware of the situation going on in west Africa and the song is clearly made for natives considering the fact that the artists uses pidgin English. The song also shows the how some Liberians see the disease. Below I have written the lyrics of the song so if its hard to understand, you can follow along with it. Please enjoy! Something happen Something in town Oh yeah the news I said something in town Ebola Ebola in town Don't touch your friend! No touching No eating something It's dangerous! Ebola Ebola in town Don't touch your friend! No kissing! No eating something It's dangerous! (Repeat) I woke up in the morning I started hearing people dem yelling "Da what thing happen?

Main Issues surrounding women in Sports Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Main Issues surrounding women in Sports - Essay Example However, there is also a belief that these screwed up views of female athletes are actually coming to an end in the 21.st century. One of the main issues that surround these female athletes is the way that these athletes are portrayed as sex objects instead of athletes in the media. The athletes prowess in the sport is often swept under the rug because they would rather present the women in an ambivalent light. Thereby not threatening the male athlete counterpart in terms of game knowledge and skill. If possible, these women are pictured as the girl next door or hyper-heterosexual in order to reinforce the traditional female roles of daughter, girlfriend, wife, and mother. But of all of these presentations, the worst two have to be the sexy babe and soft- porn images as depicted in the cover and article photo layouts in sports magazines. There is only one reason as to why the female sports players are presented in this manner and it has everything to do with gender equality and sexual orientation dynamics. For centuries, women have been viewed as the weaker sex and therefore, the second class citizens in their countries. Their influence in society is often limited by economic, social, and political institutions thereby suppressing the media images of women that do not depict them in anything more than feminine or sexual. The need to present women in a non-threatening manner to men (non-sports activity related) is the medias way of assuring those who may be affected by the female athletes success, that a woman can be athletic and excel in her sport of choice and yet remain traditional and fulfill her obligations as expected by society when not actively participating in her sport. Another problem faced by female athletes in their media portrayal is related to the nouns used to describe their mindset while in competition. Whereas men are introduced as young men or young men in order to

Dynamics of Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Dynamics of Strategy - Essay Example The implementation of the same has also been discussed in alignment with the chosen strategic option. The conclusion summarises the points discussed and provides some enriching revelation. Toyota Motor Corporation, based in Japan, is one of the world’s leading automobile manufacturers. Having started in the year 1937, the company has extended its operation to include 170 countries world wide. Some of the leading brands of this company are Toyota, Lexus, Scion and a part of Daihatsu brands. TMC’s consolidated total revenue for the period 2009-2010, has increased to 18.5 trillion yen. The net earnings amount has increased to 1.25 trillion yen to 1.59 trillion yen after some revised profit activities. Toyota overtook Chrysler and Ford in global sales and outshone General Motors in the year 2008 (Hoovers, 2010). This section deals with the external environmental factors that impact the automobile industry. It is very much important to asses the environmental factors as this helps the organisation to fix its strategies in alignment with the external environmental factors. Government laws pertaining to environment and safety are significant for the operation of automobile industry. Toyota is a multinational organisation with its operations spread across the world. There can be trade barriers and fare restrictions in many countries. Such deciding political factors need to be taken care of to ensure a smooth run in the automobile industry. There are some emergent markets in India and China where the buying power of the customers have enhanced since the last few years. Companies must tap these markets to fetch the advantage. The recent financial downturn has adversely affected the consumer spending worldwide. This has put the automobile industry in difficult situation. The fuel prices have increased due to inflation as well as due to fuel squeeze in certain parts. This has in turn adversely affected the automobile sales. The

International Human Resource management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

International Human Resource management - Essay Example The range of markets served by InterContinental Hotels Group span along the regions of America, Europe, American-European-African Nexus or AMEA and also encompasses Greater China. Total number of hotels encompassed by IHG in the global context range to 4,542 operating based on different brand portfolios (IGH-a, 2012). Current Global Position Pertaining to Global Ranking or Position IHG was found firstly to gain the award of Gifted Ranking in an evaluation made by the Digital IQ Index. The same Index related the hotel company to the Sixth Rank in comparison to around 52 other competing hotel brands (IHG-b, 2012). IHG’S Approach to Human Resource Management HRM in Hospitality IndustryThe recruitment of the people in the hospitality industries undergoes a process of evaluation of the personality traits and attributes of the individual to work in a challenging job atmosphere. Moreover the individual is subjected to different types of psychometric tests to understand the individual ’s problem-solving and team building abilities. Similarly different types of amenities and benefits related to work-time flexibility along with bonuses and increments are rendered to motivate the individual. Opportunities for growth are framed through incorporation of training programs in the work culture along with encouraging the people to intercommunicate amongst each other. Moreover incorporation of a 360 Degree Appraisal Process coupled with Empowering Individuals to take managerial and strategic decisions and rewarding.

Anabolic Steroids in the Enhancement of Muscle Development Essay Example for Free

Anabolic Steroids in the Enhancement of Muscle Development Essay People nowadays have been more conscious of their physical appearance. The will of others to be physically fit, enables them to enroll in different programs or even engage themselves in the administration of drugs that help enhance muscle development. One of these drugs is the Anabolic steroid. Anabolic steroids are defined as synthetic substances that are similar to the sex hormones in men. These are used as treatment for other conditions, and may also be used to increase the testosterone level in men. In addition to this, the use of such steroids also enhances the muscle mass of its users. Most of these, if not all, require a prescription upon purchase, for these may have effects on the body of the individual, causing irreversible health problems (National Institute of Drug Abuse, March 2007). These drugs are often used by athletes, bodybuilders, and people who are in need of excellent physical performance. Steroids are known to help in the increasing of the strength, aggressiveness, and body mass of its users. In addition to this, the continuous use of this drug increases the muscle size of users, at the same time helps in the improvement of the physical appearance through the reduction of the body fat (Greater Dallas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, 6 March 2006). The Mayo Clinic website defines that steroids may be administered in a number of different ways. Two of the most common routes of administration were oral and parenteral. For oral administration, these come in the form of tablets (Mayo Clinic, 1 January 2008). They may also be administered parenterally, either through the subcutaneous and intramuscular routes (Greater Dallas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, 6 March 2006). Some of the most common oral steroids used include Oxymetholone (Anadrol), Oxandrolone (Oxandrin), Dianabrol (Methandrostenolone), and Winstrol (Stanozolol). Injectable steroids, on the other hand, include Nandrolone decanoate (Deca-Durabolin), Nandron phenpropionate (Durabolin), Testosterone cypionate (Depo-Testosterone, and Bodlenon undecyclenate (Equipoise) (National Institute on Drug Abuse, April 2000, p2). Steroids help in the increase of muscle development in the body. This occurs when hypogonadal men receive treatments to increase their testosterone levels. The continuous use of anabolic steroids contribute to the increase in muscle mass of the user, most specifically in the mass of the upper part of the body. Furthermore, studies have shown that the administration of these drugs have an effect in the biochemistry and the morphology of the muscles. Biopsies have shown that there was a dramatical increase in the muscle fibers and the average fiber size, especially in the trapezius muscle upon continuous use of the steroid (Kuhn, 2002). The excessive use of anabolic steroids may result in negative effects in the body. Some of its major effects include liver tumors, jaundice, fluid retention, hypertension, trembling, severe acne, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle cramps, and stunted height. Some people take these symptoms for granted, associating them with another illness other than steroid use. Aside from these effects, there were also gender specific effects of steroid use (ATOD Prevention Center, n. d. ). Even adolescents, when given excessive doses of steroids are greatly affected. Puberty changes arise, with their skeletal system growing prematurely. Men, being the most users of steroids, are also affected. Their testicles tend to shrink, with their sperm count greatly reduced to that of normal. There is also a great risk of baldness and the possible development of breasts, and worse, the risk of acquiring prostate cancer. Women on the other hand, tend to grow facial hair, and have male-pattern baldness tendencies. Steroid administration also results to the stopping or irregularity of the menstrual cycle, and the tendency to be moon-faced. For others, the drug administration may also result in a deeper speaking voice, accompanied by clitoris enlargement (Narconon Trois-Rivieres, 2 April 2008). Aside from all these effects, steroid abuse may also have psychological effects on the user. Depression, irritability, distractions, forgetfulness, paranoia, aggression, and manic episodes are the most common psychological effects of steroid use (ATOD Prevention Center, n. d. ). The continued use results in the sudden change in an individuals way of thinking and their urge to hurt other people. The Drugtext website has stated that a test was made on three cases, marking their changes on their steroid use. All three resulted in a higher rate of aggression rates with the use of steroids, as compared to those who do not use the drug (Williamson, 1994). With the given data, it is just but necessary for people to learn how to control the use of these drugs. More lives may be saved, and addictions may be avoided. Let us all contribute to the upheaval of a healthy environment towards a drug-free life. Works Cited â€Å"Anabolic Steroid Abuse. † National Institute on Drug Abuse Research Report Series 4 (2000): 1- 8. â€Å"Drug Rehabilitation Center: Steroids. † 2 April 2008. Narconon Trois-Rivieres. 8 April 2008 http://www. narconon. ca/steroids. htm. Kuh, Cynthia M. â€Å"Anabolic Steroids. † 2002. Recent Progress in Hormone Research. 8 April 2008 http://rphr. endojournals. org/cgi/content/full/57/1/411. â€Å"NIDA: InfoFacts: Steroids (Anabolic-Androgenic). † January 2, 2008 National Institute On Drug Abuse. Retrieved 7 April 2008 http://www. nida. nih. gov/Infofacts/Steroids. html. â€Å"Steroids. † ATOD Prevention Center. 8 April 2008 http://www. umes. edu/atod/abuse/drugs/steroids. htm. â€Å"Steroids. † 6 March 2006. Greater Dallas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse. Retrieved 7 April 2008 http://www. gdcada. org/statistics/steroids. htm Williamson, Doug. â€Å"The Psychological Effects of Anabolic Steroids. † The International Journal of Drug Policy 5. 1 (1994): 8 April 2006 http://www. drugtext. org/library/articles/945104. htm.

Factors Influencing Corporate Strategy: UK Supermarkets

Factors Influencing Corporate Strategy: UK Supermarkets Tesco Plc Corporate Strategy The definition of corporate strategy has changed over the years. In the past it was deemed to be a set of internal plans and policies designed to enable a business to succeed in the pursuit of its aims and objectives (Pettigrew et al 2002). Robert Grant (2004, p.7) in his study stated that the implementation of successful strategy could not happen until the business managers had appraised the available or required resources, have an in-depth knowledge of the competitive environment they operated within and the whole team had agreed upon the objectives. More recently, the understanding of corporate strategy has been extended to include external forces and thus it can rely upon the definition statement made by Collis and Montgomery (1997, p.5) which observes that: â€Å"Corporate strategy is the way a company creates value through the configuration and coordination of its multimarket activities.† The purpose of this paper is to promote further understanding of the factors that influence corporate strategy within a particularly competitive industry sector. For this purpose the supermarket retail sector has been chosen for analysis. To assess how these factors impact upon the market players, the Tesco organisation has been used a focus for a case study. The reasoning behind this particular choice is that Tesco Plc has maintained a position of industry dominance, despite strong competition from other players, including Asda and Sainsbury Retail Industry Supermarkets During the course of the past four or five decades the Supermarket has taken a progressively increasing share of the grocery retailing market, with their store size and low prices driving local and independent stores in increasing numbers. In 2005 the organisations had reached a position where collectively their revenue accounted for approaching two thirds of total UK grocery sales. in Supermarket sales now account for around nearly two thirds of total grocery sales in the UK and were having an increasing impact in other retail sectors. However, as can be seen from the breakdown of the supermarket sales in grocery products, there is a considerable amount of competition between the supermarket players (see table 1). Table 1: Supermarket grocery sales 2005 (Source: BBC News 2006 and company reports) As can be seen from the above Tesco’s leads the industry sector by a considerable margin in terms of percentage. Furthermore , despite the intensity of competition that is focused upon around a dozen competitors, in revenue terms Tesco’s sales are almost equivalent to the sum of their three closet rivals, which gives them a commanding lead in terms of the number of consumers that are attracted to their stores. Tesco operates a total of 3,262 stores internationally, including 1,988 located throughout the UK. Employing in excess of 450,000 people globally, the business has so far achieved a market leadership position in four other countries as well as the UK and is currently considering expanding its operations in the US. Similarly, in line with other retailing organisations, the business is expanding its home delivery and Internet presence through the development of its online retailing website. (www.tesco.com). As Hill and Jones (2007) identify in their research into the subject of strategic management, the key drivers change and the market players have to respond positively to these changes. The supermarket industry is no exception to this rule. Initially supermarket organisations were driven by the need to create a competitive advantage. In essence this is achieved when the business reaches a position â€Å" â€Å"whenever it outperforms its competitors† (Pettigrew et al 2002, p.55), but as Grant (2004) observes, ultimately it needs to build upon that advantage, thereby reducing the opportunities for others to compete. Grant (2004, p.30), Collis and Montgomery (1998, p.65) state that competitive advantage can be gained through cost or differentiation, either of which return greater value to the consumer. However, competitive advantage is also relevant to the business marketing process, where it is important for the organisation to â€Å"understand its consumers and the decision processes they go through (Kolter et al 2004, p.29). However, advantage in this area is also achieved by a better understanding than that of competitors Consumers also drive the industry as has been seen through recent years. Initially the consumer determinant was for lower prices, wide range of selection, convenience and to a lesser extent the ability to do a one-stop shop, hence the development of the supermarket and out of town hypermarket locations, where all the weekly shop could be performed at one time. They have achieved the objective on price through a strategy of low cost and strategy through a process of low cost and the offering of substitute products (Hill and Jones 2007), which as a side effect, has also enable d the businesses to achieve a level of power over suppliers that has forced such organisations to address their own internal issues in order to remain economically viable. However, more recently consumer demands have changed and the emphasis has now moved to other areas of importance. These include the need for quality, customer service and â€Å"organic† and environmentally friendly products. Similarly, w ith the advent of concerns regarding the natural environment supermarkets are having to respond to these changes as well. To address consumer issues human resource management has also become an important driver in the industry development. The majority of researchers believe that the manner by which a business manages their HR resources has a significant impact on strategy (Collis and Montgomery 1998, p.163) and (Grant 2004, p.144). Thus the supermarket organisations have devoted a considerable amount of effort to increasing motivation and satisfaction within their workforce. The more successful organisations, such as Tesco’s and Asda have created the appropriate style of leadership and team building that has helped them achieve success in this area (Pettigrew et al 2002, p.285). As Hills and Jones (2007) have identified, the better the abilities of management and leaders in dealing with HR management, the easier it is to get a corporate strategy accepted and implemented. Technological developments have also brought about a change in the supermarket retailing industry. By incorporating these within all aspects of the supply chain, such as using new software and Internet systems that enable a closer control of stock, this has â€Å"set the overall context of competition for all firms in the industry (Porter 21004, p.142). It has also enabled organisations such as Tesco’s to continue to maintain their position within the industry. As the supermarkets have increased size and market share, so there have found themselves being increasing subject to the constraints of external forces being exerted upon them for the political and legislative stakeholders(Porter 2004, p.56 and Collis and Montgomery 1998, p.68). For example, the competition commission has often stepped in during the past few years to halt development of new stores on the grounds that it would be detrimental to fair competition. Similarly, as a result of the increasing concerns being expressed regarding health and environmental issues, the supermarket has be driven to introduce new â€Å"health† and â€Å"organic† brands and, as part of the brand management process, to increase the level of product knowledge in respect of these issues that appears upon the packaging. Therefore, all of these external issues are now having to be borne in mind during the planning of the strategy process.(Pettigrew et al 2002, p.190). In essence, at present the critical success factors for the industry can be identified as relating to three specific areas. The first of these is the efficient management of its supply chain, where the effective performance of each part is important to the smooth running of the whole (Porter 2004, p.311). Secondly, the quality of its products and customer services and effective marketing of the brand is important in order for the business to maintain both its market position and competitive advantage. Thirdly, is the effectiveness of its change management strategy. In this later respect it is essential that there is a â€Å"continuous interaction between strategy formulation and strategy implementation in which strategy is constantly being adjusted and revised in light of experience† Grant (2004, p.17). All of these factors are important to the industry players in that there form the vital elements that enable the maintenance of the business main objective, which is to continue to add value for the business stakeholders (Hills and Jones, 2007). The structure of an organisation, how it manages its resources and the relationship that it builds with employees and customers are key elements in a business that is seeking success and profitability. The level to which each organisation can achieve the harmonisation of all these factors will determine both the competitive advantage and the position that the organisation holds with the industry. As will be shown in the following section, Tesco’s has been consistently achieving a position of successfully incorporating all of these elements into their corporate strategy. Tesco Case Study During the past five years, and before this period, Tesco’s have based the main thrust of their corporate strategy on Porter’s â€Å"cost leadership.† By concentrating upon ensuring that all aspects of the supply chain were cost driven, thereby lowering unit price, the business has been able to maintain its policy of reduce prices to the consumer whilst at the same time ensuring that it has the funds and ability to invest in the new technology needed to maintain this advantage (Porter 2004, p36). In terms of the former, this can be evidenced by the fact that, as one of the current advertising campaigns states, there are able to maintain a price advantage over all of their competitors across a wide range of their products. Even given that, partially because of the business cycle, which can be said to have reached a level of some maturity (Hills and Jones 2007), together with the constraints that have been placed upon the industry by political, regulatory and legislative forces, the same low cost strategy is being maintained as the Tesco’s organisation seeks to enter and make an impact upon other market segments, for example fashion, home products and finance. For example, the current range of prices throughout all of these non-core products are still promoted using the organisation’s brand marketing message of â€Å"every little helps,† which indicates that the consumer will receive the same approach to low prices as has been offered within the grocery retail segment of the business revenue. However, as will be noted from their website[1], the business has taken info account the other factors that are important to the cusses of corporate strategy. For example, the human resources management policies are prominent in terms of the employee importance to the business, as is the relationship that the business is maintaining within both its suppliers and consumers, mainly through the increasing use of technology. Another import element of Tesco’s success has been its ability to manage change. As Porter (2004, p.21) suggests, different stages of the business life cycle can bring about change, as can the movement of the consumer demands and aspirations (Collis and Montgomery 1998, p.3). Tesco’s has respond quickly top both of these areas of change rapidly and in an efficient manner (Porter 2004, p.71 and Grant 2004, p.382). In the former instance, as indicated, it has moved into other market segments, and in terms of the latter, it has introduced new brands, including those that concentrate upon the environmental and health issues being raised by consumers and to address the issue of quality, where it now includes a â€Å"Tesco’s finest† range. However all of these moves have been performed whilst still maintaining a dedication to the core business strategy of cost leadership. As can be seen from the following graph, during the course of the past five years, as witness to the success of the Tesco corporate strategy, the business has consistently outperformed the FTSE 100 and the shares of its nearest UK quoted rival Sainsbury. The only time there was any near convergence of the two supermarket chains share value was earlier this year, and this was because of potential bidders showing an interest in Sainsbury, not related to their performance. Conclusion As has been shown during the course of this research, Tesco’s have consistently led the UK supermarket retailing sector of the business during the course of the past few years. This has been achieved by the implementation and maintenance of a successful corporate strategy, which has enabled the business to maintain a competitive advantage despite strong competition from other industry players. In reality this success, which has been evidenced from the financial performance, has been achieved by their turning this strategy into a unique business culture, which as Hofstede et al (2004) has created a situation where the business is seen to have, has resulted in the:- â€Å"†¦the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of the group or category of people from others† Anther major element of the organisation’s success is the effectiveness of the way in which they manage change, being able to respond appropriately and rapidly to anything that poses a threat to the business future. There is little doubt that as long as the management remain focus on these strategies, that the business will maintain its present marketplace position. References Collis, David J and Montgomery, Cynthia A (1998). Corporate Strategy: A resource Based Approach. McGraw Hill. US. BBC News (2006). Tesco’s market share still rising. Retrieved 19 November 2007 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4694974.stm Faulkner, David and Campbell, Andrew (2006). The Oxford Book of Strategy: A Strategy Overview and Competitive Strategy. New ed. Oxford University Press. Oxford, UK. Grant, Robert (2004). Contemporary Strategy Analysis. 5th Edition. Blackwell Publishers. Oxford, UK. Gregory, David (2005). Supermarkets and Standards. Presentation, UK. Retrieved 27 September 2007 from http://www.odi.org.uk/speeches/apgood/Agric_in_Africa_05/apgood_nov23/index.html Heavens, Andrew (2005). E-commerce soars by 88%. Times Online. Retrieved 25 September 2007 from http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article417278.ece Hill, C.W.L. Jones, G.R. (2007). Strategic Management Theory: An Integrated Approach. (7th ed) Houghton Mifflin. Boston, US. Hofstede, G. Hofstede, G.J.(2004). Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. New York: McGraw-Hill. Kelly, Sean. (2005). Customer intelligence From Data to Dialogue. John Wiley Sons Ltd. Chichester, UK. Lucas, R. Lupton, B. Mathieson, H. (2007). Human Resources Management in an International Context. London: CIPD. Pettigrew, Andrew M. Thomas, Howard and Whittington, Richard (2002). The Handbook of Strategy and Management. Sage Publications Ltd. London, UK. Porter, Michael E (1985). Competitive Advantage. The Free Press. New York. US. Porter, Michael E (2004). Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analysing Industries and Competitors. The Free Press. New ed. The Free Press. New York, US. Survey (2006). The UK’s Best Online Shopping Experience 2006. www.blastradius.com. Retrieved 26 September 2007 from http://www.blastradius.com/ukshopping2006.pdf Tesco (2007). Tesco at a glance. Retrieved 27 September from http://www.tescocorporate.com [1] http://www.tescocorporate.com/page.aspx?pointerid=3DB554FCAE344BD88EEEEFA63D71B831 Analysis of the Accrual Anomaly | Accounting Dissertation Analysis of the Accrual Anomaly | Accounting Dissertation Sloan (1996), in a determinative paper, added the accrual anomaly in the list of the market imperfections. Since then, academics have focused on the empirical investigation of the anomaly and the connection it has with other misspricing phenomena. The accrual anomaly is still at an embryonic stage and further research is needed to confirm the profitability of an accruals based strategy net of transaction costs. The current study investigates the accrual anomaly while taking into consideration a UK sample from 1991 to 2008. In addition, the predictive power of the Fama and French (1996) factors HML and SMB is being tested along with the industrial production growth, the dividend yield and the term structure of the interest rates. Chapter 1 Introduction Since the introduction of the random walk theory which formed the basis for the evolvement of the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH hereafter) proposed by Fama (1965), the financial literature has made many advances but a piece of the puzzle that is still missing is whether the EMH holds. Undoubtedly, the aforementioned debate can be considered as one of the most fruitful and fast progressing financial debates of the last two decades. The Efficient Market Hypothesis has met many challenges regardless of which of its three forms are being investigated. However, the weak form and semi strong hypothesis have been the most controversial. A literally vast collection of academic papers discuss, explore and argue for phenomena that seem to reject that the financial markets are efficient. The famous label of â€Å"anomaly† has taken several forms. Many well-known anomalies such as the contrarian investment, the post announcement drift, the accruals anomaly and many others are just the beginning of an endless trip. There is absolutely no doubt that many more are going to be introduced and evidence for the ability for the investors to earn abnormal returns will be documented. Recently, academics try to expand their investigation on whether these well-documented anomalies are actually profitable due to several limitations (transaction costs etc) and whether the anomalies are connected. Many papers are exploring the connection of the anomalies with each other proposing the existence of a â€Å"principal† misspricing that is documented into several forms. The current study tries to look into the anomaly that was initially documented by Sloan (1996) and has been labelled as the â€Å"accrual anomaly†. The accrual anomaly can be characterised as being at an embryonic stage if the basis for comparison is the amount of publications and the dimensions of the anomaly that light has been shed on. The facts for the accrual anomaly suggest the existence of the opportunity for investors to earn abnormal returns by taking advantage of simple publicly available information. On the other hand, accruals comprising an accounting figure have been approached from different points of view with consequences visible in the results of the academic papers. Furthermore, Stark et al (2009) challenge the actual profitability of the accrual anomaly by simply taking transaction costs into consideration. The present paper employs an accrual strategy for a sample comprising of UK firms during 1991-2008. The aim is to empirically investigate the profitability of such strategies during the whole data sample. The methodology for the calculation of accruals is largely based on the paper of Hardouvelis et al (2009). Stark et al (2009) propose that the positive excess returns of the accruals’ strategy are based on the profitability of small stock. In order to investigate the aforementioned claim, the current study employs an additional strategy by constructing intersecting portfolios based on accruals and size. Finally, five variables are being investigating at the second part of the study for their predictive power on the excess returns of the constructed portfolios. The monumental paper of Fama and French (1996) documented an impressive performance of two constructed variables (the returns of portfolios named HML and SMB). In addition, the dividend yield of the FTSE all share index, the industrial production growth and the term structure of the interest rates will be investigated as they are considered as potential candidates for the prediction of stock returns. Chapter 2 Literature review 2.1. Introduction During the last century the financial world has offered many substantial advances. From the Portfolio Theory of Markowitz (1952) to the development of the Capital Asset Pricing Model of Sharpe (1964) and Lintner (1965), and from the market Efficient Market Hypothesis (hereafter EMH), developed by Fama (1965), to the recent literature that challenges both the CAPM and the EMH, they all seem to be a chain reaction.   The financial academic world aims to give difficult but important answers on whether markets are efficient and on how investors should allocate their funds. During the last two decades, many researchers have documented that there exist strategies that challenge the claim of the supporters of the efficient and complete markets. In this chapter, the effort will be focused on reviewing the financial literature from the birth of the idea of the EMH until the recent publications that confirm, reject or challenge it. In a determinative paper, Fama (1970) defined efficient markets and categorised them according to the type of information used by investors. Since then, the finance literature has offered a plethora of studies that aim to test or prove whether markets are indeed efficient or not. Well known anomalies such as the post announcement drift, the value-growth anomaly or the accruals anomaly have been the theme of many articles ever since. 2.2. Review of the value-growth anomaly We consider as helpful to review the literature for the value growth-anomaly since it was one of the first anomalies to be investigated in such an extent. In addition, the research for the value-growth anomaly has yielded a largely productive debate on whether the documented returns are due to higher risk or other source of mispricing. Basu (1970) concluded that stocks with high Earnings to Price ratio tend to outperform stocks with low E/P. Lakonishok, Shleifer and Vishny (1994) documented that stocks that appear to have low price to a fundamental (book value, earnings, dividends etc) can outperform stocks with high price to a fundamental measure of value. Lakonishok, Shleifer and Vishny (1994) initiated a productive period that aimed to settle the dispute on the EMH and investigate the causes of such â€Å"anomalies†. Thus, the aforementioned researchers sparked the debate not only on the market efficiency hypothesis but also on what are the sources for these phenomena. Fama and French (1992) supported the idea that certain stocks outperform their counterparts due to the larger risk that the investors bear. Lakonishok, Shleifer and Vishny (1994) supported the idea that investors fail to correctly react to information that is available to them. The same idea was supported by many researchers such as Piotroski (2001). The latter also constructed a score in order to categorise stocks with high B/M that can yield positive abnormal returns (namely, the F Score). Additionally, the â€Å"market efficiency debate â€Å"drove behavioural finance to rise in popularity. The value-growth phenomenon has yielded many articles that aim to find evidence that a profitable strategy is feasible or trace the sources of these profits but, at the same time, the main approach adopted in each study varies significantly. Asness (1997) and Daniel and Titman (1999) examine the price momentum, while Lakonishok, Sougiannis and Chan (2001) examine the impact of the value of intangible assets on security returns. In addition, researchers have found evidence that the value-growth strategies tend to be successful worldwide, as their results suggest. To name a few, Chan, Hamao and Lakonishok (1991) focused on the Japanese market, Put and Veld (1995) based their research on France, Germany and the Netherlands and Gregory, Harris and Michou (2001) examined the UK stock market. It is worth mentioning that solely the evidence of such profitable strategies could be sufficient to draw the attention of practitioners, but academics are additionally interested in exploring the main cause of these arising opportunities as well as the relationship between the aforementioned phenomena (namely, the value growth, post announcement drift and the accrual anomaly). In general, two schools of thought have been developed: the one that supports the risk based explanation or, in other words, that stocks yield higher returns simply because they are riskier, and the one that supports that investors fail to recognise the correct signs included in the available information. 2.3. The accruals anomaly 2.3.1. Introduction of the accrual anomaly. Sloan (1996) documented that firms with high (low) accruals tend to earn negative (positive) returns in the following year. Based on this strategy, a profitable portfolio that has a long position on stocks with low accruals and short position on stocks with high accruals yields approximately 10% abnormal returns. According to Sloan (1996) investors tend to overreact to information on current earnings. Sloan’s (1996) seminar paper has been characterised as a productive work that initiated an interesting to follow debate during the last decade. It is worth noting that even the very recent literature on the accrual anomaly has not reached reconciling conclusion about the main causes of this particular phenomenon and about whether a trading strategy (net of transaction costs) based solely on the mispricing of accruals can be systematically profitable. At this point it is worth mentioning that the accruals have been found to be statistically significant and negative to predict future stock returns. On the other hand, there are papers that examine the accruals and its relations with the aggregate market. A simple example is the paper published by Hirshleifer, Hou and Teoh (2007), who aim to identify the relation of the accruals, if any, with the aggregate stock market. Their findings support that while the operating accruals have been found to be a statistical significant and a negative predictor of the stock returns, the relation with the market portfolio is strong and positive. They support that the sign of the accruals coefficient varies from industry to industry reaching a peek when the High Tech industry is taken into account (1.15), and taking a negative value for the Communication and Beer/Liquor industry. 2.3.2 Evidence for the international presence of the phenomenon. Researchers that investigated the accruals anomaly followed different approaches. At this point, it is worth noting that the evidence shows the accrual anomaly (although it was first found to be present in the US market) to exist worldwide. Leippold and Lohre (2008) examine the accrual anomaly within an international framework. The researchers document that the accrual anomaly is a fact for a plethora of markets. The contribution of the paper though, is the large and â€Å"complete† number of tests used, so that the possibility of pure randomness would be eliminated. Although, similar tests showed that momentum strategies can be profitable, recent methodologies used by the researchers and proposed by Romano and Wolf (2005) and Romano, Shaikh and Wolf (2008), suggest that the accruals anomaly can be partially â€Å"random†. It is noteworthy that the additional tests make the â€Å"anomaly† to fade out for almost all the samples apart from the markets of US, Australia and Denmark. Kaserer and Klingler (2008) examine how the over-reaction of the accrual information is connected with the accounting standards applied. The researchers constructed their sample by solely German firms and their findings document that the anomaly is present in Germany too. We should mention at this point that, interestingly, prior to 2000, that is prior to the adoption of the international accounting standards by Germany, the evidence did not support the existence of the accrual anomaly. However, during 2000-2002, Kaserer and Klingler (2008) found that the market overreacted to accrual information. Hence, the authors support the idea that an additional cause of the anomaly is the lack of legal mechanisms to enforce the preparation of the financial statements according to the international accounting standards which might gave the opportunity to the firms to â€Å"manipulate† their earnings. Another paper that focuses on the worldwide presence of the accruals mispricing is that of Rajgopal and Venkatachalam (2007). Rajgopal and Venkatachalam examined a total of 19 markets and found that the particular market anomaly exists in Australia, UK, Canada and the US. The authors’ primal goal was to identify the key drivers that can distinguish the markets where the anomaly was documented. Their evidence supports the idea that an accrual strategy is favoured in countries where there is a common law tradition, an extensive accrual accounting and a low concentration of firms’ ownership combined with weak shareholders’ rights. LaFond (2005) also considers the existence of the phenomenon within a global framework. The author’s findings support the notion that the accrual anomaly is present worldwide. In addition, LaFond argues that there is not a unique driving factor responsible for the phenomenon across the markets. It is worth noting that LaFond (2005) documented that this particular market imperfection is present in markets with diverse methodology of accrual accounting. Findings are against the idea that the accrual anomaly has any relation with the level of the shareholders protection or a common law tradition, as suggested by Rajgopal and Venkatachalam (2007). Finally, the author suggests that, if any, it is not the different method of accrual accounting (measurement issues) that favours or eliminates the accrual anomaly, but the accrual accounting itself. 2.3.3. Further Evidence for the roots of the accruals anomaly. Additionally, papers such as those of Thomas and Zang (2002) or Hribar (2000) decompose accruals into changes in different items (such as inventory, accounts payable etc). The findings catholically suggest that extreme changes in inventory affect returns the most. On the other hand, many articles connect the accruals with information used by investors, such as the behaviour of insiders or analysts, as the latter can be considered a major signal to the investors for a potential manipulation of the firms’ figures. In particular, Beneish and Vargus (2002) documented that firms with high accruals and significant insider selling have substantial negative returns.  Bradshaw (2001) and Barth and Hutton (2001) examine the analysts’ reports and their relation with the accruals anomaly. Their findings support that the analysts’ forecasting error tends to be larger for firms with high accruals, while analysts do not revise their forecasts when new information for accruals is available. Gu and Jain (2006) decompose accruals into changes in inventory, changes in accounts receivable and payable and depreciation expenses and try to identify the impact of the individual components to the anomaly. Consistent with Sloan (1996), Gu and Jain (2006) document that the accrual anomaly exists at the components level. The findings are important since Desai et al (2004) supported the connection of the accrual anomaly with a single variable (cash flows from operations). The researchers suggest that the results yielded by Desai et al (2004) were highly dependent on the methodology used and thus, suggested that the accruals anomaly is â€Å"alive and well†. Moreover, other articles try to confirm whether the anomaly is mainly caused by the wrong interpretation of the information contained in accruals. Ali et al. (2000), investigate whether the naà ¯ve investors’ hypothesis holds. Following the methodology introduced by Hand (1990) and Walther (1997), they found that for smaller firms, which are more likely to be followed by sophisticated investors, the relation between accruals and negative future returns is weaker compared to larger firms, which are followed by many analysts. Therefore, the researchers suggest that, if anything, the naà ¯ve investors’ hypothesis does not hold. In contrast to other market anomalies where findings suggest that the naà ¯ve investors hypothesis holds, the accruals anomaly is suggested as unique. Shi and Zhang (2007) investigate the earnings fixation hypothesis suggesting that the accruals anomaly is based on the investors â€Å"fixation† or â€Å"obsession† on earnings. Their primal hypothesis is that if investors are highly based on the reports about earnings and misprice the value-relevant earnings, then the returns should be dependent not only on the accruals but also on how the stock’s price changes according to reported earnings.  The researchers’ hypothesis is confirmed and finding support that an accrual strategy for firms whose stocks’ price highly fluctuates according to earnings yields a 37% annual return. Sawicki and Shrestha (2009) aim to examine two possible explanations for the accruals anomaly. Sloan (1996) proposed the fixation theory under which investors fixate on earnings and thus overvalue or undervalue information for accruals. Kothari et al. (2006) proposed the â€Å"agency theory of overvalued equity† according to which managers of overvalued firms try to prolong the period of this overvaluation which causes accruals to increase.  The paper uses the insider trading and other firm characteristics and tries to compare and contrast the two major explanations. Evidence produces bd Sawicki and Shrestha (2009) support the Kothari et al. (2006) explanation for the accrual anomaly. In a relatively different in motif paper, Wu and Zhang (2008) examine the role that the discount rates play in the accrual anomaly. They argue that if anything, the anomaly is not caused by irrationality from the investors’side but by the rationality of firms as it is proposed by the q-theory of investment. They argue that since the discount rates fall and more projects become profitable (which makes accruals to increase) future stock returns should decline. In other words, if the capital investment correctly adjusts to the current discount rates, the accruals should be negatively correlated with the future returns and positively correlated with the current returns. The evidence of Wu and Zhang (2008) support that the accruals are negatively correlated with the future stock returns but the contribution of the paper is in that they document that current stock returns are positively correlated with the accruals. 2.3.4. The relation of the accrual anomaly with other market imperfections. Many papers examine the relation between the accruals anomaly and other well-known anomalies such as the post announcement drift or the value-growth phenomenon. Desai et al. (2002), suggest that the â€Å"value-growth† anomaly and the accruals anomaly basically interact and conclude that the  ¨accruals strategy and the C/P reflect the same underlying phenomena†. Collins and Hribar (2000) suggest that there in no link between the accruals anomaly and the â€Å"PAD†, while Fairfield et al. (2001) support that the accruals anomaly is a sub-category of an anomaly caused by the mistaken interpretation of the information about growth by the investors. Cheng and Thomas (2006) examine the claim that the accrual anomaly is a part of a broader anomaly (and more specifically, the value-glamour anomaly). Prior literature suggested that the operating cash flows to price ratio subordinates accruals in explaining future stock returns (Deshai et al (2004)). Their evidence suggests that the Operating CF to price ratio does not subsume neither abnormal nor total accruals in future announcement returns. This particular result does not confirm the claim that the accrual anomaly is a part of a broad value-glamour anomaly. Atwood and Xie (2005) focus on the relation of the accrual anomaly and the mispricing of the special items first documented by Burgstahler, Jiambalvo and Shevlin (2002). Their hypothesis that the two phenomena are highly related is confirmed since the researchers found that special items and accruals are positively correlated. Additionally, further tests yielded results that suggest that the two imperfections are not distinct, while the special items have an impact on how the market misprices the accruals. Louis and Sun (2008) aim to assess the relation between the abnormal accrual anomaly and the post earnings announcement drift anomaly. The authors hypothesize that both anomalies are related to the management of the earnings and thus, they aim to find whether the two are closely connected. The findings are consistent with the primal hypothesis, as they found that â€Å"firms with large positive change of earnings that were least likely to have manipulated earning downwards† did not suffer from PEAD, while the same result was yielded for firms that had large negative change of earnings that were least likely to have managed their earnings upwards. As supported by many researchers the value-growth anomaly and accruals anomaly might be closely related or they might even be caused by the similar or even identical roots.  Fama and French (1996) support that the book to market factor captures the risk of default, while Khan (2008) suggests that in a similar pattern firms with low accruals have a larger possibility to bankrupt. Therefore, many researchers try to connect the two phenomena or to answer whether a strategy based on the accruals can offer more than what the value growth strategy offers. Hardouvelis, Papanastopoulos, Thomakos and Wang (2009) connect the two anomalies by assessing the profitability of interacting portfolios based on the accruals and value-growth measures. Their findings support that positive returns are obtainable and magnified when a long position is held for a portfolio with low accruals while combined with stocks that are characterised as high market to book. The difference of a risked-based explanation or an imperfection of the markets is considered to be a major debate, as it can challenge the market efficiency hypothesis. Many researchers, such as Fama and French (1996) noted that any potential profitable strategy is simply due to the higher risk that the investors have to bear by holding such portfolios. In a similar way, the profitable accruals strategies are considered as a compensation for a higher risk. Stocks that yield larger returns are compared or labelled as stocks of firms that are close to a financial distress. Khan (2000) aims to confirm or reject the risk-based explanation of the accruals anomaly. The researcher uses the ICAPM in order to test if the risk captured by the model can explain the anomaly first documented by Sloan (1996). It is worth noting that the descriptive statistics results for the sample used showed that firms that had low accruals also had high bankruptcy risk.  The contribution of the paper is that, by proposing a four factor model enhanced by recent asset pricing advances, it showed that a great portion of the mispricing that results in the accrual anomaly can be explained within a risk-based framework. Furthermore, Jeffrey Ng (2005) examines the risk based explanation for the accrual anomaly which proposes that accruals include information for financial distress. As proposed by many papers, the accrual anomaly is simply based on the fact that investors bare more risk and thus low accrual firms have positive abnormal returns. The researcher tries to examine how and if the abnormal returns of a portfolio which is short on low accruals stocks and long on high accrual firms changes when controlling for distress risk. Evidence supports that at least a part of the abnormal returns are a compensation for bearing additional risk. Finally, the results support that the big portion of the high abnormal returns of the accrual strategy used in the particular paper is due to stocks that have high distress risk. 2.3.5. The accruals anomaly and its relation with firms’ characteristics. A noteworthy part of the academic literature examines the existence of some key characteristics or drivers that are highly correlated with the accruals anomaly. Many researchers have published papers that aim to identify the impact of firm characteristics such as the size of the firm, characteristics that belong to the broader environment of the firms such as the accounting standards or the power of the minority shareholders. Zhang (2007) investigates whether the accrual anomaly varies cross-sectionally while being related with firms’ specific characteristics. The researcher primarily aims to explain which the main reason for the accrual anomaly is. As Zhang (2007) mentions, Sloan (1996) attributes the accrual anomaly to the overestimation of the persistence of accruals by investors, while Fairfield (2003) argues that the accrual anomaly is a â€Å"special case of a wider anomaly based on growth†. The evidence supports the researcher’s hypothesis that characteristics such as the covariance of the employee growth with the accruals have an impact on the future stock returns. Finally, Zhang (2007) documents that that accruals co-vary with investment in fixed assets and external financing. Louis, Robinson and Sbaraglia (2006) examine whether the non-disclosure of accruals information can have an impact on the accruals anomaly. The researchers, dividing their sample into firms that disclose accruals information on the earnings announcement and firms that do not, investigate whether there exists accruals’ mispricing. The evidence supports that for firms that disclose accruals information, the market manages to correctly understand the discretionary part of the change of the earnings. On the contrary, firms that do not disclose accruals information are found to experience â€Å"a correction† on their stock price. Chambers and Payne’s (2008) primal aim is to examine the relation of the accrual anomaly and the auditing quality. The researchers’ hypothesis is that the accruals mispricing is related with the quality of auditing.  Additionally, their findings support that the stock prices do not reflect the accruals persistence characterising the lower-quality audit firms. Finally, their empirical work finds that the returns are greater for the lower-quality audit portfolio of firms. Palmon, Sudit and Yezegel (2008) examine the relation of the accruals mispricing and the company size. Evidence shows that company size affects the returns and, as the researchers documented, the negative abnormal returns are mostly due to larger firms while the positive abnormal returns come from the relatively small firms. Particularly, as the strategy with the highest profits they found the one that had a short position in the largest-top-accrual decile and a long position in the smallest-low-accrual decile. Bjojraj, Sengupta and Zhang (2009) examine the introduction of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the FAS 146 and how these two changes affected the accrual anomaly. FAS 146 (liabilities are recognized only when they are incurred) reduced the company’s ability to â€Å"manipulate† earnings while the SOX aims to enhance the credibility of the financial statements. The evidence recognises a change on how the market conceives information about restructurings charges. The authors propose that a possible explanation is that before the introduction of SOX and the FAS 146, the market was reluctant due to the ability of the firms to manage earnings. Finally, Bjojraj, Sengupta and Zhang (2009) document that post to the FAS 146 and the SOX act, low accrual portfolios do not generate positive abnormal returns. 2.4. The applications of the accruals phenomenon and reasons why it is not arbitraged away. The importance of the analysis of the anomalies is substantial for two reasons. Firstly, the profitability of a costless strategy challenges the EMH, especially if the strategy is based on bearing no additional risk. Secondly, managers’ incentives to manipulate the financial statements and consequently the accruals would be obvious if a profitable strategy based on such widely available information existed. Chen and Cheng (2002) find that the managers’ incentive to record abnormal accruals is highly correlated with the accrual anomaly. The hypothesis of the researchers, which their findings support, was that the investors fail to detect when the managers aim to record abnormal accruals and that may contribute to the accruals anomaly. Richardson’s (2000) main objective is to examine whether the information contained in the accruals is utilized by short sellers. As the researcher mentions, previous articles such as that of Teoh and Wong (1999) found that sell side analysts were unable to correctly â€Å"exploit† the information contained in accruals for future returns. Richardson suggests that short sellers are considered as sophisticated enough to utilize the accruals information. Findings confirm previous work, such as that of Sloan (2000), who suggests that even short sellers do not correctly utilize the information contained into accruals. Ali, Chen, Yao and Yu (2007) examine whether and how equity funds benefit from the accrual anomaly by taking long position into low accruals firms. The researchers aim to identify how exposed are the equity firms to such a well known anomaly and what characteristics these funds share. By constructing a measure called â€Å"accruals investing measure† (AIM), they try to document the portion of the low accruals firms into the actively managed funds. The evidence shows that generally funds are not widely exposed to low accruals firms but when they do so, they have an average of 2.83% annual return. It is worth noting that the annual return is net of transaction costs. Finally, the side-effects of high volatility in returns and in fund flows of the equity funds that are partially based on the accrual anomaly might be the reason behind the reluctance of the managers. Soares and Stark (2009) used UK firms to test whether a profitable accrual strategy is feasible net of transactions costs. Their findings support that indeed the accrual anomaly is present in the UK market. The authors suggest that for such a strategy to be profitable, someone is required to trade on firms with small market capitalization. They also suggest that although the accruals’ mispricing seems to exist also in the UK, the transaction costs limit the profits to such an extent that the accrual anomaly could be difficult characterised as a challenge to the semi strong form of the efficient market hypothesis. Finally, we should not neglect to mention two papers that discourse on why the markets do not simply correct the accruals anomaly. According to the classical theory, markets are so imperfect that can produce the incentive to the market to correct the â€Å"anomalies† at any point of time. Mashruwala, Rajgopal and Shevlin (2006) examined the transactions costs and the idiosyncratic risk as possible reasons of why the accrual anomaly is not arbitraged away. The researchers aimed to investigate why the market does not correct the anomaly, but also to identify whether the low accruals firms are riskier. The paper poses the question of what stops the informed investors from taking long positions into profitable stocks according to the accrual anomaly so that they can arbitrage it away. The paper examines the practical difficulty of finding substitutes so that the risk can be minimized and its relation with the accrual anomaly. Additionally, the paper investigates the transaction co sts and findings support that according to the accrual anomaly, the profitable stocks tend to be the ones with low stock prices and low trading volume. Lev and Nissim (2004) focus on the persistence of the accr