Audit Assurance and Compliance Glover & Wood

Question: Discuss about theAudit Assurance and Compliancefor Glover Wood. Answer: Introduction In the words of Christensen, Glover Wood (2012), audit is the procedure of verifying the different accounts of a firm. In this context, the auditors bear the responsibility for performing and planning the process of auditing by complying with the mandatory regulations, rules and doctrines of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). The auditors issue two kinds of audit reports, which include qualified and unqualified audit reports, after performing the audit procedure of an organisation (Becker Bailey, 2014). The qualified auditors opinion denotes that the scope of the given accounting and financial information is restricted and the firm has not complied with the GAAP principles effectively. On the contrary, unqualified audit report implies that the accounting and financial records of the organisation are presented with accuracy and appropriateness. Therefore, the auditors are needed to maintain diverse aspects, while performing the audit operations of an organisation. Firstly, it is necessary for the auditors to maintain their transparency while evaluating the financial reports. Secondly, the auditors are required to take into account the different aspects of the financial position of the firm, which could influence the investment decision of the banks, financial institutions, banks and investors (Chambers Odar, 2015). From the provided case study, it has been observed that the audit report was unqualified after 30 June 2012. However, it could be noted from the audit report of King Queen audit firm, the position of Impulse Pty Limited has been effective at the time of the audit process. The organisation has been suffering from intense liquidity problem, since the turnover of the debtors along with inventory turnover has been poor. This implies that the organisation has fallen short of its liquid assets. The auditor of King Queen has been aware of the fact; however, adequate priority has not been provided to this matter. As a result, the firm has not used effective measures to gauge the appropriate asset values. Along with this, the auditor has not considered the fact that the additional process was needed in order to ascertain the debtor and inventory valuations of the organisation. Depending on the unqualified audit report of the organisation, Easy Finance Limited (EFL) has granted a large sum o f loan to Impulse, since the report depicts the liquidity position of the organisation has been effective. However, the liquidity position of the organisation has declined in 2012 and EFL has been struggling to recover the provided loan amount. The above signifies the case of negligence of the auditors responsibility, in which the auditor has failed to consider the significant aspects of the financial position of the organisation, which has caused problems in recovering the loan amount (Cohen Simnett, 2014). In this context, some identical cases pertaining to the negligence of the responsibility of the auditor are described as follows: The first case has been considered as Hedley Byrne and Co Ltd v Heller and Partners (1964) AC 465. From the outcome of the case, it has been observed from the court verdict that the auditors report would have direct influence on the decision-making process of the audited parties. Therefore, the auditors negligence has influenced the audited party significantly (Decaux Sarens, 2015). The second case that has been considered constitutes of Law Society vs. KPMG Peat Marwick and Others; CHD 3 NOV, 1999. From the case, it has been identified that the auditor of the auditing organisation believes that the community and the fund of compensation would rely on the auditor decisions. However, the negligence of the auditor has delayed the discovery of the malpractices of accounting, which has resulted in increased costs. Therefore, considering the depicted facts, the auditor could be held responsible for neglecting his professional responsibility (Duncan Whittington, 2014). From the instances of the above-mentioned two cases, it could be evaluated that negligence in the responsibility of the auditor has been a serious offence from the side of the auditor. Hence, the firm of King and Queen is liable to EFL. According to the accounting doctrines of the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), both the auditor and the audited party need to maintain confidentiality. Therefore, as per the policy of confidentiality, the auditor could not unveil any information relating to the audit of the organisation (Erickson, Goldman Stekelberg, 2015).Moreover, in special cases, the auditor could not disclose any information related to internal audit to the third party. The special cases denote the instances, in which the classified audit information could enable both the auditors and the audited party to earn something (Homb et al., 2014). According to the provided case study, there could be two chances. The first instance is the situation, in which the auditor could unveil the information pertaining to internal audit to the third party. The decision of investment is greatly dependent on the report of the auditor. Therefore, King Queen would be liable to EFL, as the former has been instructed to unveil the internal position of the organisation to the banks, financial institutions and investors. In the provided case, King Queen has not disclosed any sort of internal financial information to the third party, which has decreased its liability to EFL. This is because it would violate the GAAP regulations for disclosing any kind of information pertaining to internal audit (Knechel, 2016). Thus, the liability of King Queen towards EFL is minimised. Therefore, these are two different types of conditions, in which the answer would vary based on the consent of the audited party. Auditors independence refers to the independence given either to the internal or external auditors from the parties involved in the financial interest of the business being conducted. The independence of the auditor could be featured through objective approach and integrity to the audit procedures. It is the cornerstone of the audit being conducted. It provides the audit approach to the process of auditing and is characterised by the integrity (Mollik Berapi, 2014). The concept of independence requires the auditors to carry his work in an objective manner. Actual Independence: Actual independence is also known as real independence. This actual independence of the auditors is regarded as the independence of mind. It is concerned with the way auditors deals with the specific situation. It determines the ability of the auditors to take the independent decisions even if they are placed in a compromising situation on the part of the directors of the company or the management (Schmidt, Wood Grabski, 2016). The personal integrity and the mental attitude of an auditor determine whether the auditors are actually independent. The opinion made by the auditors on the financial statement of the company is valued by maintaining the principle of actual independence. Perceived Independence: The perception of the auditors in tackling and solving the various problems associated with the auditing process is the perceived independence. The auditors make use of different perceptions in solving the single problems, which helps in arriving at the solution, which is optimal. The judgment of the perceived independence cannot be done using any particular process, as the perception varies across the auditors (Shah Jarzabkowski, 2013). Therefore, there is high chance that could lead to material misstatements while conducting the asset valuations of an organisation. Since the arrangements are perceived in a different way by users and for this, the professional judgement needs to come to the fore. The auditor who faces the issue concerning the perceived independence needs to consider the materiality. It is mainly the consideration of the independence of the auditors by the third parties from the clients participating in the arrangement of the process of auditing. In the first case, Bob is performing two tasks at the same time. While undertaking the studies at University, he is also an audit assistant of the Club Casino. Bob needs to complete the university assignment and at the time of conducting the auditing, he came across the financial information, which would provide the assistance in the completion. Here, Bob is sing the internal information of the company for his own personal use. The principle of confidentiality is being breached by this act of Bob. He has also breached the integrity principle and being the auditor, he is liable to maintain the integrity and confidentiality while conducting the auditing process. The confidentiality of the information should be maintained and he should not disclose or use the internal financial information without the authority. The second case discusses about the Ace limited, where Wendy is the audit partner for long time. The organization does not have company secretary and in the absence, Wendy is performing all the company secretary duties for a period of six months. The entity is required to comply with all the rules and regulation and maintain the professional behaviour in carrying out the activities of the organisation. In accordance with the regulations and rules of GAAP, the acting partner of audit could not perform the responsibility of any member of the directors board or the team of higher management. In accordance with the same guideline, this act could be treated as a major offence in the audit profession. Therefore, after committing such act, Wendy has breached the regulations of audit procedures. Hence, it is suggested to Wendy to put forward his resignation from the secretarial position of the organisation as the safeguarding measure for the action (Shah Nair, 2013). Coming to the third case as per the provided scenario, Leo is the eldest son of the factory worker of an organisation, which is Precision Machinery Limited. During the period of vacation work, Leo has been assigned with the role of acting as the internal auditor of the above-mentioned organisation. In addition, added responsibilities have been assigned to the person, which constitute of the internal control testing and the payments of cash systems associated with the organisation. As a result, this particular act has resulted in breach of the regulations and rules of the audit procedures (Spears, Barki Barton, 2013). This is because according to the audit regulations and rules, the acquaintances of any staff or employee of an organisation could not be appointed as the audit partner of the same organisation. This contradicts the auditing regulations and doctrines. There are two available measures, which could be utilised to protect against such breach of regulations. The first alternative that is available is that Leo needs to resign from the internal auditor position of Precision Machinery Limited. The other alternative available is that the father of Leo could resign from his position, which would allow Leo to continue as the internal auditor of Precision Machinery Limited. Therefore, adopting any one of the two above-stated alternatives would help the organisation to comply with the audit regulations and procedures. From the fourth case, it has been observed that Chan Associates are the auditors of Classic Reproduction Pty Limited. The firm has been passing through stringent financial complexities, since it has failed to settle the fees of Chan Associates for the past three years. Therefore, in order to settle off the dues, the organisation has provided its furniture, which is worth 50% of the outstanding fees of Chan and Associates. Along with this, the latter has accepted 25% shares of an unconnected listed firm in order to recover the remaining portion of the fees from Classic Reproduction Pty Limited. According to the auditing rules and regulations, the auditors could not accept bribes as a substitute of their fees. In addition, the auditors could not accept shares from the unlisted organisations (Sta?iokas Rupys, 2015). This implies the breach of principle on the part of the auditor. Therefore, in order to undertake remedial measures, Chan Associates is required to return the furniture taken and shares obtained to Classic Reproduction Pty Limited. Such remedial action would help Chan Associates to conform to the prevailing audit regulations and doctrines. References: Becker, J., Bailey, E. (2014). A Comparison of IT Governance Control Frameworks in Cloud Computing. Chambers, A. D., Odar, M. (2015). A new vision for internal audit.Managerial Auditing Journal,30(1), 34-55. Christensen, B. E., Glover, S. M., Wood, D. A. (2012). Extreme estimation uncertainty in fair value estimates: Implications for audit assurance.Auditing: A Journal of Practice Theory,31(1), 127-146. Cohen, J. R., Simnett, R. (2014). CSR and assurance services: A research agenda.Auditing: A Journal of Practice Theory,34(1), 59-74. Decaux, L., Sarens, G. (2015). Implementing combined assurance: insights from multiple case studies.Managerial Auditing Journal,30(1), 56-79. Duncan, B., Whittington, M. (2014, September). Compliance with standards, assurance and audit: does this equal security?. InProceedings of the 7th International Conference on Security of Information and Networks(p. 77). ACM. Erickson, M., Goldman, N., Stekelberg, J. (2015). The Cost of Compliance: FIN 48 and Audit Fees.Journal of the American Taxation Association. Homb, N. M., Sheybani, S., Derby, D., Wood, K. (2014). Audit and feedback intervention: An examination of differences in chiropractic record-keeping compliance.The Journal of chiropractic education,28(2), 123. Knechel, W. R. (2016). Audit quality and regulation.International Journal of Auditing,20(3), 215-223. Mollik, A. T., Berapi, M. K. (2014). Effects of Audit Quality and the Qualifications of Audit Committee Members on the Firms Compliance with IFRS: Evidence from Australias Listed Firms. Pitt, S. A. (2014).Internal Audit Quality: Developing a Quality Assurance and Improvement Program. John Wiley Sons. Schmidt, P. J., Wood, J. T., Grabski, S. V. (2016). Business in the Cloud: Research Questions on Governance, Audit and Assurance.Journal of Information Systems. Shah, M., Jarzabkowski, L. (2013). The Australian higher education quality assurance framework: From improvement-led to compliance-driven.Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education,17(3), 96-106. Shah, M., Nair, C. S. (Eds.). (2013).External Quality Audit: Has it Improved Quality Assurance in Universities?. Elsevier. Spears, J. L., Barki, H., Barton, R. R. (2013). Theorizing the concept and role of assurance in Information Systems Security.Information management,50(7), 598-605. Sta?iokas, R., Rupys, R. (2015). Application of Internal Audit in Enterprise Risk Management.Engineering Economics,42(2), 20-25.

The answer to all answers Essays - Speculative Fiction,

The answer to all answers There was once a boy called Nico who was relatively normal, apart from this one crucial thing, he didn't have a soul. Now most people don't know what a soul is but I can tell you: it's what stops us from using 100% of our brain power, it's what programs your brain, it's the thing that created natural reflexes, and it's the thing that conceals answers. Now Nico didn't know this, he thought he was just a normal boy until the answer of all answers was revealed. Now all answers come after a question and the answer to all answers question was why is humanity here? What is our job?' And this was the dream: he was on a spaceship, now not one of those spaceships you imagine, like alien one, no, this was a proper one and it was amazing! But there was only one thing wrong, half of it was missing. And then the visions came flashing first he was on a planet looking through a pair of five generations away binoculars and saw earth, but there weren't any humans or buildings, only dinosaurs and jung le. Then there came the next vision, he was on a different planet looking through the same binoculars and he saw a star come flying at the planet he had just been on, then came the next vision and he was in some sort of lab, scientists where rushing around everywhere and out the window another star flew into the planet and then he was floating in the galaxy watching as all the planets burned except earth. He was on another spaceship and there where these monsters huddling over human corpses , eating them and then he was in another lab and then he heard two people talking about nothing interesting, but then he heard one say "now that experiment one has failed let's see if the human colonies can live on earth then once there are enough we will destroy they're planet with the star shooter and eat there toasted bodies and once we destroy they're planet we will move onto the next" and then suddenly Nico woke up and realised that humans where just food for the aliens and that they were ma de to be eaten. He got up and looked out the window hoping that the view of the sky would calm him but all he saw was a bright star coming closer and closer.

Behavioural based safety strategy The WritePass Journal

Behavioural based safety strategy Abstract Behavioural based safety strategy ). The safety management systems currently implemented within organisations generally are centred on policies, procedures, objectives, processes such as risk assessment, hazard identification the use of various safety tools such as JSA’s and the wearing of personal protective equipment, or PPE, and focus on measuring compliance against key targets and objectives. This dissertation examines how Behaviour Based Safety, or BBS, aids in the drive to prevent accidents and boost overall employee development (Lebbon, Sigurdsson and Austin, 2012). Qatar holds the position of second smallest country in the Arabian Peninsula after the island state of Bahrain. Qatar’s population currently stands at 2.04 million of Development Planning and Statistics, 94 per cent of which are foreign nationals (Qsa.gov.qa., 2014). Of this 94 per cent the majority is low-paid migrant workers. This number is expected to rise significantly in the coming years primarily due to the coming 2020 World Cup and the need for an influx of foreign labour for the booming construction requirement associated with it (Qsa.gov.qa., 2014). These migrant workers will primarily work on critical construction projects, drastically increasing the need for an effective safety program to be in place. The country has grown in a record breaking manner in the last ten years, to become the wo rld’s highest per capita GDP National (Fromherz, 2013). This achievement is primarily based on the vast resources of oil and gas discovered in the country. As a consequence of this discovery, construction of mega production plants has been the main focus of development in the country. This level of construction indicates an influx of safety challenges requiring an up to date and efficient method of implementation. These projects have historically required vast numbers of multi-cultural and diverse workforces, coming from different parts of the world (Orr, 2008). This being the case there are many challenges and great difficulties in bringing about a consciousness of safe work practices and in instilling a positive safety culture (Fromherz, 2013). The recognition of the need for workplace safety publicly materialized in the work of Mr Heinrich, an Assistant Superintendent of the Engineering and Inspection Division of Travellers Insurance Company during the 1930’s and 1940’s (Heinrich, 1959). His position required an investigation into the high and rising rate of supervisor accident reports during the period .This report revolutionized the working world by concluding that 88% of industrial accidents were primarily caused by unsafe, possibly preventable acts (Heinrich, 1959). This transformative moment in safety strategy motivated an entire industry to introduce reform (Fogarty and Shaw, 2010). Prior to these period witnessed steadily decreasing standards of working conditions that led to the need to reform the system. Heinrich (1959) subsequently published his first book in 1931; Industrial Accident Prevention: A Scientific Approach, laying out a more systematic approach to the study of accident data. This indicat ion of a willingness to embrace change was tempered by the overwhelming capacity that big business interests had to keep costs low, creating a volatile safety environment. The modern era has maintained that safety is significant concern for companies, often requiring a considerable fraction of their overall revenue stream (Fromherz, 2013). This drive to increase performance and reduce injury has resulted in many companies showing excellent improvement in the area of safety performance, thereby reducing cost and increasing productivity. The rationale for this research rests on assessing the potential for improvement of HSE performance in the Oil and Gas sector, specifically in the Middle East; through a means of behavioural based safety. The intention of the study is to establish the appropriateness of this hypothesis, whether as a process to be used as a standalone mechanism, or additionally, for the augmentation of an existing HSE management system. Behaviour based safety concept, or BBS, has been  considered in industry worldwide for around a decade as a means to achieve a positive safety culture and an improved organizational safety performance (M ohr, 2011). An organisations culture can be as influential in achieving good safety results as a safety management system. The positive or negative safety culture of an organisation is directly linked to human factors and the positive behaviour of its workforce (Mohr, 2011). According to Books (1999), the largest influences on safety culture are; 1) the style and management commitment; 2) the involvement of employees; 3)training and competence; 4)ability to communicate at all levels; 5) compliance with procedures; and 6)organisational learning. The current research has affiliation with an earlier study conducted as part of the Post Graduate Diploma award (Turner, 2013). The subject of the previous research was â€Å"Safety Culture or Climate: An Appraisal of Perceptions and Scale†. This research sought to measure the health and safety, culture and climate of the researcher’s employer organisation. In this case the researcher determined that there was evidence of a positive safety culture within the XXXX Group of companies. However, this research also illustrated that this positive safety culture has not entirely achieved the expected and desired outcome of zero harm to people. All these factors in themselves do not prevent injuries from continuing to occur within the organisation. The previous study and current research focuses on the Middle East region. In particular to the varying needs and challenges faced by operations based in the region; specifically those that require the engagement of personnel from a vast array of differing backgrounds and cultures and how the principles of behavioural based safety may effectively be used to influence this specific workgroup. To facilitate understanding, it is also important to outline the distinctiveness of the location, (Qatar), the demographics of the workgroup, and the difficulties and challenges related to the management of such a work group within a safe work environment. Based on the above reasoning this affords the researcher the ideal incentive to both address the topic as an area of research for the required dissertation element in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Postgraduate MSc Degree in Health, Safety Risk Management and to make recommendations that will enable XXXX Group to continue its safety culture development journey; that is, towards a more safety aware, proactive and empowered workforce; ultimately leading to an overall improvement in the safety performance results attained 1.2 Aims Objectives This dissertation research focuses on the potential for improvement of HSE performance in the Oil and Gas sector, specifically in the Middle East; through a means of behavioural based safety. It is evident from recent research that traditional methods of safety management, such as safety management systems and risk assessments, do not wholly protect employees from incidents and injuries, as such organisations are looking for an alternative approach to improve performance and eradicate injury from the workplace, therefore the aim of this project is The following aim has been developed in order to meet this goal of this research: Critically evaluate existing research into behavioural based health and safety strategies, programmes and model with a view to identify a best practice model for future implementation. Objectives: The objectives of the research are as follows: 1) To critically analyse available literature and research studies pertaining to behavioural based health and safety. 2) To ascertain employee perceptions. 3) To identify best practices and success rates of behavioural based safety programmes. 4) To evaluate performance improvement. 5) Determine an appropriate behavioural approach for Labour safety in Qatar. 1.3 Research Questions In order to fully develop this dissertation the following questions will be considered by this research: 1) What is behavioural based safety and how does it impact Qatar? 2) Which elements of the behavioural based safety process are suited for Qatar? 3) What is the best method of behavioural based safety implementation for Qatar? 4) How to assess behavioural based safety effectiveness in the workplace? 1.4 Scope of this research This research examines safety perception and behavioural application from 2000 until 2014 in order to ascertain the best possible elements for future implementation. With a national focus on Qatar this research incorporates studies conducted in similar environments and conditions internationally in order to gain insight for these research objectives. 1.5 Structure of the Dissertation This dissertation will consist of an Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology and Analysis, followed by Discussion/Conclusion. 2 Literature review 2.1 Overview â€Å"BBS is about everyone’s behaviour, not just the frontline† (Agnew Ashworth, 2012:1). 3 Methodology / Analysis 4 Discussion/Conclusion 5 References Agnew, J. 2012. Behaviour based Safety.  Performance management magazine, 1 (1), p. 1. Books, H. 2009. Reducing error and influencing behaviour. New York, NY. Fogarty, G. J. and Shaw, A. 2010. Safety climate and the Theory of Planned Behaviour: Towards the prediction of unsafe behaviour.  Accident Analysis \ Prevention, 42 (5), pp. 14551459. Fromherz, A. J. 2013. Qatar: Politics and the Challenges of Development by Matthew Gray (review).  The Middle East Journal, 67 (4), pp. 649651. Greene-Roesel, R., Washington, S., Weir, M., Bhatia, R., Hague, M., Wimple, B. 2013. Benefit cost analysis applied to behavioural and engineering safety countermeasures in San Francisco, California. Heinrich, H. W. 1959.  Industrial accident prevention. New York: McGraw-Hill. Santos-Reyes, J. and Beard, A. N. 2002. Assessing safety management systems.  Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 15 (2), pp. 7795. Lebbon, A., Sigurdsson, S. O. and Austin, J. 2012. Behavioural Safety in the Food Services Industry: Challenges and Outcomes.  Journal of Organizational Behaviour Management, 32 (1), pp. 4457. Mehta, RK.   Agnew, MJ. 2013. Exertion-dependent effects of physical and mental workload on physiological outcomes and task performance.  The IIE Transactions on Occupational Ergonomics and Human Factors,  1(1), 3-5. Mohr, D. P. 2011.  Fostering sustainable behaviour. Gabriola, B.C.: New Society Publishers. Orr, T. 2008.  Qatar. New York: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark. Qsa.gov.qa. 2014.  . Welcome to Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics-Statistics sector website :.. [online] Available at: qsa.gov.qa/eng/index.htm [Accessed: 27 Mar 2014].

dreams1 essays

dreams1 essays Dreaming is an experience that has fascinated people for a very long time. Although researches about dreams have been limited in the past, it has developed tremendously in its field of science. There are many explanations why people dream, but there are three main theoretical explanations for why there is dreaming: the biological view, the cognitive view, and the psychoanalytic view. I will be assessing a dream of my own, using all three perspectives. All three views have been debated thoroughly in the past, but it is the psychoanalytic view that has created the most attention to me. In the end, I will show why I find the psychoanalytic view most valuable. I recently had a very simple dream of going fishing with my dad at a lake. The dream was very vivid, in that I went through a series of steps. The initial step was setting up the fishing gear, the second step was the actual fishing, and the last step was catching fish. I frequently have this dream and it has reoccurred throughout my life. Maybe dissecting my dream with these three theories will help explain why I dream of this so frequently. Perhaps one of the most important discoveries for neurobiology of dreams occurred in 1953. It was the discovery of the rapid eye movement(REM)(Piero, 3). REM is a stage of sleep marked by rapid eye movements, high frequency brain waves, and dreaming (Huffman, 144). It is this stage that influenced the coming of the first theory I will talk about, the biological view or also known as the activation-synthesis hypothesis. It was Alan Hobson and Robert W. McCarley in 1977, who showed that most physiological and cognitive characteristics of REM sleep are associated with the same brainstem physiological control system that activates body and mind in the waking state (Antrobus, 2). In other words as certain cells in the sleep center of the brain stem are activated during REM sleep, the brain struggles to make sen ...

Markets and the Economy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Markets and the Economy - Research Paper Example 1996). Due to unemployment and reduced profits, income reduces hence a decline in tax revenue. Tax revenue is thus lower than expenditure resulting in automatic federal budget deficit. The budget deficit resulting from the recession can help to stabilize the economy. Increased government spending in provision of welfare payments is a source of income for households and this result in increased consumption (Hyman, 2010). As consumption increases, aggregate demand increases thereby prompting producers to produce more hence increased output and employment. The economy thus stabilizes as full employment is reached or aggregate demand equals aggregate supply. Furthermore, improved infrastructure as a result of government spending attracts current and future investments, output growth and employment. Though deficits lead to economy stabilization, there have been concerns about the impact of deficit on national savings. According to Hyman (2010), the financing of deficits by the government from credit markets denies them savings thus inducing increases in interest rates and reduction in private investment hence unemployment and decline in standards of living. The government should thus engage in spending on areas that produce long-term effects such as investment in education to improve workers skills, building infrastructure to provide future employment among other initiatives. Movement from Short-run Equilibrium to the Long-run Equilibrium The short-run supply indicates the quantity of output produced or Real GDP in an economy at a given period. The relationship between the price level and quantity supplied is depicted by a short-run aggregate supply curve which is upward sloping due to a direct relationship between the two. The short-run supply is based on the assumption that wages are sticky and that there are misperceptions in the labor market. An increase in price level pushes real wages downwards and since quantity of labor supplied depends on real wages, labor supply declines leading to low output (Arnold, 2010). Workers often have misperceptions about real wages; if the nominal wages fall accompanied by same proportion of a fall in price level then there is no change in real wages but workers may believe that the real wage has fallen thus reduce demand for labor hence quantity of labor supplied falls as well as output. The equilibrium is reached when aggregate demand curve intersects with short-run aggregate supply. There are other factors that affect short-run supply other than prices. These include wage rates, price of nonlabor inputs, productivity and supply shocks (Arnold, 2010 p. 168). If wage rate increases (stop being sticky), the firm profits decline since the company had already set nominal wages based on constant wage level leading to decline in output or Real GDP as firms are unable to produce more with high costs. The same case applies to other factors of production such as capital and other inputs. This causes shift in short -run aggregate supply curve to the left. If productivity increases, output increases hence shifting the curve to the right. The intersection between aggregate demand (AD) curve and short-run aggregate supply( SRAS) curve determines the equilibrium price level and equilibrium Real GDP which is also determined by whether AD curve shifts more than SRAS curve or vice versa. When the â€Å"

The Logical Problem of Language Acquisition Essay

The Logical Problem of Language Acquisition - Essay Example (Cook, 1988) Language acquisition begins very early in the human lifespan, and begins, logically enough, with the acquisition of a language's sound patterns. The main linguistic accomplishments during the first year of life are control of the muscles that produce speech and sensitivity and the acquisition of native phonetic distinctions used in the parents' language. Interestingly, babies achieve these feats before they produce or understand words, so their learning cannot depend on correlating sound with meaning. They must be sorting the sounds directly, somehow tuning their speech analysis module to deliver the phonemes used in their language (Kuhl, et al., 1992). Shortly before their first birthday, babies begin to understand words, and around that birthday, they start to produce them (see Clark, 1993; Ingram, 1989). Despite the vast differences in language, children's first words are similar all over the planet. About half the words are for objects: food, household items, and people. There are words for actions, motions, and routines. Finally, there are routines used in social interaction, like yes, no, want, hi. Around 18 months, language changes in two ways. ... Once more, children's two-word combinations are highly similar across cultures. These sequences already reflect the language being acquired: in 95% of them, the words are properly ordered according to his/her particular grammatical rules. (Pinker, 1984; Ingram, 1989). Between the late two's and mid-three's, children's language blossoms so rapidly that it overwhelms the researchers who study it, and no one has worked out the exact sequence. Sentence length increases steadily, and because grammar is a combinatorial system, the number of syntactic types increases exponentially, doubling every month, reaching the thousands before the third birthday (Ingram, 1989, p. 235; Pinker, 1984). Though many of the young 3-year-old's sentences are ungrammatical for one reason or another, it is because there are many things that can go wrong in any single sentence. When researchers focus on a single grammatical rule and count how often a child obeys it and how often he or she ignores it, the results are very impressive: for just about every rule that has been looked at, three-year olds obey it a majority of the time (Pinker, 1984, 1989; Crain, 1992). Though our ears perk up when we hear errors, more than 90% of the time, the child is on target. Children do not seem to favor any particular kind of language (indeed, it would be puzzling how any kind of language could survive if children did not easily learn it!). They swiftly acquire free word order, SOV and VSO orders, systems of case and agreement, and whatever else their language throws at them. Even grammatical gender, which many adults learning a second language find challenging, presents no problem: children acquiring language like French, German, and Hebrew acquire

Portfolio management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Portfolio management - Research Paper Example Aim of this work will be then to analyze into details the success factors of this nation on an economic basis, together with a comprehensive analysis of the growth of Qatari market, and the major characteristics of two corporations, Almeera and Qatar Telecom, according to the following factors: Assets analysis Profit and return analysis Growth in shares Market analysis Risk analysis QATAR ECONOMY AND THE FINANCIAL SECTOR For hundreds of years it’s believed by many experts on an academic perspective that Qatar will be a nation where hydrocarbon exports will be the major export driver1, mainly due to the high consistency of the ongoing reserve, despite the geographical limits and relative small size of the country, and due to the increasing trend of oil prices. In this perspective it’s therefore believed that Qatar is and will continue to be a country where oil production and refinery will be a major contributor for the growth of the economy. Oil and Gas sectors, through all the production chain, from the extraction to the refinery and distribution (with the innovative presence of gas liquid transformation sites on the major cities) counts approximately for around 50 percent of the national GDP, according to many experts2. In addition to this, evidence has been found on the fact that oil counts for approximately 85% of export earnings, and 70% of government revenues. The revenues stemming from this sector and industry are very high, and count for the major part of gross national product. Meantime, the Governmental Intervention has recently deeply focused on the development, through appropriate and well -designed incentivizing schemes, the growth of the so called â€Å"knowledge economy†, so that the capability to increase the other sectors of the economy can be made possible on a larger perspective3. With the exception of Oil, other primary industries that are receiving major consideration in this sense are the following: Manufacturing indust ry (which can properly leverage on Health and Educational services: the central government has deeply incentivized the development of a proper net of educational institutions, so that skilled students can enter the labor market and improve the economic condition of the country also by competing with knowledge intensive industries as well. On an economic perspective the growth and the well - designed incentives for the economy have been deeply investigated, and their effectiveness has been already proved. On the other side, however, a major area of concern is related to the administrative and bureaucratic side, due to the fact that on a major and broader perspective a main limitation for foreign investors within the country and for internal entrepreneurs to grow and to expand their business Is highly dependent on the capability to adequately guarantee the administrative speed and accuracy of the operational activity of the companies operanting in this country: on a more precise basis , it’s widely believed that a necessary limit for further growth is related to the governmental authority increasing regulations that may pose a limit to the further development of small medium enterprises, which are the real engine of growth. The financial sector in this field is also increasing its role and