Drugs: Hurt Players And Sports Essay -- essays research papers fc

Drugs: Hurt Players and Sports Brett Favre, Diego Maradona, and Darryl Strawberry are all big name sport stars. They all play different sports, but all have the same problem: they tested positive for using illegal drugs. Cocaine, anabolic steroids, and painkillers are just a sample of drugs found in sports. Cocaine is described this way, â€Å"It makes you feel like you can do anything, and for athletes who long to be in control all the time, that's a strong temptation† (Coffey 1). Anabolic-androgenic steroids are synthetic forms of hormones that produce muscle faster (Rozin 176). Over fifty percent of the players in the National Football League are weekend or recreational users of cocaine (Burwell 1) . Forty-four Olympians have been caught with steroid use since 1972 (Corelli 28). Through Favre's painkillers, Strawberry's and Maradona's cocaine, one can see that drugs hurt the athletes as well as the sport. First Brett Favre, who was the Most Valuable Player in the National Football League last season, entered a drug abuse center for his addiction to Vicodin, a very strong painkiller (Plummer 129 ). Favre had problems because of Vicodin. Favre suffered a seizure in February while in surgery to repair a broken bone. The seizure resulted from the abuse of the painkiller (Howard 1). Favre states, â€Å"I went to Topeka, because the pills had gotten the best of me† ( qtd. in Plummer 129). Favre's daughter Brittany asked his wife Deanna, â€Å"Is he going to die?† (qtd. in Plummer 129). He not only scared himself but his family as well. Favre not has to submit up to ten urine tests a month. His losses were internal as well. â€Å"It is kind of embarrassing,† says Favre; â€Å"I will do whatever it takes† (qtd. in Plummer 133). He spent several weeks in rehabilitation but was not be fined or suspended. If caught again his charge will be a four game suspension with loss of pay. Another famous athlete, Diego Maradona, was once considered the most skilled soccer player in the world. Now he is considered a loser. Maradona was banned from international soccer play for testing positive for cocaine. Shortly after that, he was arrested for cocaine possession (Longman 1). The fifteen month suspension ended in time for Maradona to play in the 1994 World Cup. He was then caught with five illegal drugs in his system. One doctor cal... ...re greater than ever and fines are outrageous. The chance to play and perform must outweigh the desire to experiment with drugs and suffer the painful consequences of drug abuse. Works Cited Burwell, Bryan. "The NFL Confronts the Burgeoning Drug Crisis." Social Issues Resources Series August 21, 1983, Article #54 Volume 2. Coffey, Wayne. â€Å"Cocaine Back in Sports News, and Many Ask About Bias' Death.† New York Daily News. May 20, 1996. "Cornered Kicker." Sports Illustrated. July 11, 1994. Volume 81. Corelli, Rae. "The Drug Detectives." Maclean's . July 22, 1996, Volume 109. Longman, Jere. "Maradona's Suspension Disappoints U.S. Team" New York Times. July 1, 1994. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. â€Å"Packers QB Favre Enters Substance Abuse Program.† May 15, 1996. Plummer, William. "Beating the Blitz." People. October 28, 1996. Rozin, Skip. "Steroids and Sports: What Price Glory?" Business Week. October 17, 1994. Sports Illustrated. "Cornered Kicker." July 11, 1994. Volume 81. Verducci, Tom. "The Hard Price of Hard Living." Sports Illustrated.. February 27, 1995. Volume 82.

Effect of television advertisements for foods on food consumption in children Essay

Effect of television advertisements for foods on food consumption in children Introduction Question 1 Â   Â   Â   Â  This research describes a research that is both qualitative and quantitative. To start with, the research can be said to use quantitative research method because it employs the use of the top down scientific method of research. Throughout the research, the researchers make use of quantitative data that involves the analysis of a number of variables like the preference of certain foods by some children and attraction to certain advertisements by some children. Moreover, the research uses quantitative research which involves the use of data that can be measured. For example, the number of children who took certain types of foods and the number of adverts that every child was shown. The main use of quantitative data in the research is to understand the behavior patterns of the children. Question 2 Â   Â   Â   Â  This research summary describes cross-sectional study which is also referred to as prevalence. This is because the research involves collecting data from a number of students who represent a large population. The study applied in the research summary is mainly descriptive and uses a small sample of students from a larger children population in England. In addition, the research summary describes cross sectional study because the findings can be used to describe the prevalence risk ratio of the concerned population. Question 3 Â   Â   Â   Â  The research summary is full of evidence to indicate that the researchers concerned did everything possible to ensure that the exercise was carried out ethically. The first evidence of attention to ethics was to inquire from the children involved whether they wished to take part in the exercise. This is important because nobody should be coerced into taking part in any study. Moreover, the researchers involved made sure that the advertisements that were used in the study were sourced from children and family programming. This is important because it ensured that the adverts did not contain any explicit contents. Question 4 Â   Â   Â   Â  The type of experiment contained in the research summary is a quasi-experiment. This is because all the independent variables used in the experiment like the age of the children, their gender and body mass index are things that already exist in the sample population. Unlike in a true experiment where people are assigned to different condition, all the children involved in the study were assigned to the same conditions. Question 5 Â   Â   Â   Â  Some of the variables that the experimenters considered were the weight of the children, exposure to TV food adverts, different types of foods and the amount of foods consumed by each child. The independent variable used in the experiment is the amount of food given to the children and the food adverts they were exposed to. The dependent variables that were used in this research were the effect of food adverts on the amount of food consumed by each child and relationship between the weight of a child and his/her ability to recognize food adverts. Question 6 Â   Â   Â   Â  The main reason why the researchers used commercials of non- food product was to see whether the children would remember the adverts that they had seen in general. The main role of non-food commercials was to test whether they would attract the attention of the children the same way with food adverts. Question 7 Â   Â   Â   Â  The conclusion at the end of the research summary suggests that there is a correlation between viewing TV and childhood obesity. This means that there exists a relationship between viewing too much TV and increased food intake. However, it is worthy noting that the relationship between the two is mutual or complementary. Question 8 Â   Â   Â   Â  There are two things that i would do differently if I were conducting this experiment. To begin with, I take into consideration the rate of physical activity in every child. This is because they extra calories consumed by each child could be used due to physical activity therefore reducing the probability of obesity. Secondly, I would consider factors that may lead to excessive viewing of TV like limited parental involvement and lenient parental rules. Reference Halford, J. C. G., Gillespie, J., Brown, V., Pontin, E. E., & Dovey, T. M. Effect of television advertisements for foods on food consumption in children, 2004. Print Source document

Critically evaluate whether flexible working arrangements are beneficial for employers and employees?

Flexible work options provides an alternative approache to getting work done through non traditional work hours, job structures ,and locations. The availability of flexible work options grants an opportunity for individuals to mould their careers in order to optimise their work and personal commitments. As for organisation it promises an increase in productivity,boost ‘employer of choice’,reduce fix cost. However flexibility is also reputed as costly for employers and favours unequal treatment in terms of pay and benefits for employees.This essay aims to examine the nature of flexibility and further highlight the different types of flexibility throught the flexible firm model(Atkinson) . In the 1990’s up til present day flexible work practices has become a central point for Uk government policies with Fagan et al (2006) believing globalisation; competition,productivity,active ageing; the long hours culture were particularly the source for the rise of flexible work ing practices.It is important to note that this belief remains the same today, except that advancement in technology is an additional influencing factor. Atkinson’s model of the flexible firm is an arrangement in which mangament offers employees different forms of flexibility practices namely functional,numerial and financial flexibility in order to optimize the use of human resources and quality of work. It is mainly focused on dividing the workforce into core and peripheral groups. The core group entails full time,well paid,secure professional jobs,functional flexible and difficult to replace.Whereas the peripheral group consist of employees who are numerically flexible(Legge) because their skills are abundant in the labour market hence relatively despensible thus low job security,consequently may lead to low productivity due to low morale or they are only needed to complete particular task e. g lawyers. From the employees view,it is better to be part of the core than the p eriphery since the former provides job security,increase career opportunities and better work conditions.Alteration in job design grants the core workers the benefit of soft HR practices implemented to achieve high performance, high commitment and high motivation and thus loyalty to the organisation despite managements persuasion to work across demarcation line as it reduces cost for them. But on the other hand it enhances the ‘its not my job syndrome’in employees(Mcdonals,2010). If employees don’t practice their new skill regularly they loose it. Therefore the cost of training and retraining does not serve the purpose significantly.However in the Uk there is a liking for numerical and temporal flexibility at the expense of functional flexibility(Macdonald,2010). This can be witnessed in an increased use of part timers,short term contract,cleaning agencies. This facilitates the firms ability to adjust the level of labour inputs to meet flunctuations in output(Jen kins,2004). However campos and Cunhas highlights the downside of outsourcing as there is a loss of control over proprietary information and less job security. Nontheless numerical flexibility through part timers helps to reduce costs for employers, for example, workers can be employed when they are needed.It is not necessary to pay for workers who are not productive. This helps attract inward investment. Unlike temporal flexibility it relates to variation in the number of working hours. Flexi time gives employees control over their work schedule thus not only benefiting the employee in terms of achieving a work life balance,job satisfaction but the employer too as it reduces absentism(Lee,1991) therefore higher productivity. Furtheremore teleworking allows employees individual choice in the location of work and covers the possibility to work from home and cutting down job related expenses e. g food,clothes,communiting expense.However Brannen (2005) argues that what appears on the su rface to represent a ceding of control by management to empower employees actually results in a loss of control,because flexible work arrangements unsettles what is a ‘reasonable amount of time’ to spend at work. This is because individuals find it hard to disengage from work. Hence critics of the flexible firm model by Legge. She believed there is a hidden agenda in the flexible firm model,which craftiliy promotes flexibility is good,but the real question is for whom? Futhermore there tends to be a pattern of professional isolation(Macdonald,2010).To conclude one can note that flexibility promises to provide organisations with a competitive edge by cutting down cost for employers,boost employer choice,increase in productivity and assure employees job satisfaction,motivations,work life balance. However,there still appears to be many unresolved issues relating to the flexibility debate. This is highlighted by legge’s critism of mixed empirical support for the flex ible firm model and the advantages of the flexibility is not equally shared. Notedly due to unequal treatment in terms of pay and increased job insecurity for workers.

The Haunted Palace

â€Å"The Haunted Palace† Everyone has seen a once beautiful estate fallen into disrepair: expensive satin curtains, ripped and stained; high support columns, broken and crumbling; moss covering the once brightly painted exterior. People look at it, sigh with disappointment at what was and no longer is, and then move on. The cause of ruin is rarely known, but the effects are clear. This is the scene portrayed in Edgar Allen Poe’s â€Å"The Haunted Palace. † Poe paints a picture of an elegant manor with spectacular features that comes under the influence of evil and thus falls to pieces.Upon closer inspection, though, the reader begins to see that the meaning of the poem delves much deeper than the destruction of a house: it is the destruction of the human mind that truly concerns Poe. The double meaning is central to the poem and once the pattern of symbolism is established, the other details fall nicely into place. Poe uses diction to establish the brilliance th at pervades the house and symbolism within the poem equating the house to a human mind to demonstrate its susceptibility to corruption.Poe’s diction emphasizes the initial majesty of the house. At first, the house is â€Å"radiant† (4), â€Å"glorious† (9), â€Å"happy† (17), â€Å"fair† (26), â€Å"sparkling† (28), and â€Å"beaut[iful]† (31). Poe goes as far as saying that â€Å"good angels tenanted† the house (2) and the home is softer and kinder than angels’ clothing (7). Then, in the fifth stanza, the scene changes drastically: the palace is no longer majestic and stately, it is inhabited by evil and is in disarray. It is now permeated by â€Å"sorrow† (33) and is â€Å"desolate† (35).The sudden shift from uplifting words to mournful ones alerts the reader to the dire change that has taken place in the house. After a second reading, the audience begins to notice a pattern of symbolism. Poe equates the â€Å"Thought’s dominion† (5), â€Å"banners,† (9), â€Å"windows† (18), â€Å"door† (26), and â€Å"Echoes† (29) to a human’s head, hair, eyes, mouth, and voice. The hair is flowing and beautiful, the eyes are understanding and see everything transparently, the mouth has ruby gums and pearly teeth, and the voice carries in it the wit and wisdom of the mind it speaks for.It is clear that this mind has brilliant ideas (â€Å"spirits†) (19) constantly formulating and expanding within it. The reader is, presumably, familiar with the sight of a mansion that is clearly luxurious. The reader may not, however, be able to picture a clearly brilliant mind. Poe’s use of symbolism enables the reader to visualize the brilliance and wealth of the â€Å"monarch’s† mind prior to its destruction. Symbolism is still essential to the poem in the final stanzas, even though the scene has changed.The once magnificent mansion ha s been invaded by evil. The windows are now â€Å"red-litten† (42), meaning the eyes are red and evil. The spirits still move through the house (the ideas still move in the mind), but now in a distorted way. Instead of Echoes (a voice) full of wisdom, a â€Å"hideous throng† (47) rushes out of the door (the mouth), that will â€Å"laugh – but smile no more† (48). The eerie mad laughter escaping the mouth of the â€Å"king† is the most horrifying aspect of change.Where the â€Å"king’s† mind was once strong and productive, constantly growing, it is now perverted and ruined. The reader can see the house: paint chipped, windows broken, a manifestation of evil. This comparison allows the reader to picture the broken mind of the once great â€Å"king. † The mansion looked impenetrable, invulnerable. But it was nevertheless the victim of evil. The mind was corrupted in the same manner and Poe’s symbolism allows for a more tang ible representation of the process.Poe’s use of symbolism and diction provide a concrete description of the mind’s destruction when compared to the destruction of a great estate. The drastic change in diction from words of elegance and reverence to words of sorrow and despair demonstrate the magnitude of the change occurring in the house and mind. The symbolism allows the reader to more accurately envision the process and effects of the mind’s devastation as it can envision a house falling to pieces. Poe’s techniques allow the reader to solidify an abstraction in order to comprehend it.

Cost Allocation

Cost allocation for indirect costs Cost Pool – Set of costs that are added together before being allocated to cost objects on some common basis Cost Driver/ Allocation base Cost Object Cost Driver Rate = Total Costs in Pool/ Total Quantity of Driver Where total quantity of driver = practical capacity of driver Cost of excess capacity = Cost Driver Rate * Excess capacity Predetermined overhead rate – cost per unit of the allocation base used to charge overhead to products. Predetermined overhead rate=Estimated overhead/Estimated allocation base One-stage allocation system Single cost pool – Entire manufacturing overhead * Single allocation base / cost driver-Direct materials cost/ Direct labor hours/ Direct labor cost/ Machine hours/ etc. * Predetermined Overhead Rate or Burden rate = Total manufacturing overhead / X * Where X = Total Direct materials cost or Total Direct labor hours or Total Direct labor cost or Total machine hours used * Total product costs of A = Direct materials cost + Direct labor cost + allocated overhead cost where allocated overhead = Burden rate * # of machine hours used by ADisadvantage: Assumes that all products consume direct labor (or other driver) and overhead in the same proportion. Two-stage allocation system and Product Costing Overhead costs are divided into different cost pools. Each cost pool has a cost driver (allocation base). * Split manufacturing overhead into more than one cost pool (e. g. create 2 cost pools whose costs add up to total manufacturing overhead cost) * Calculate burden rate Cost pools| Cost Drivers|Overhead related to direct materials| Direct materials Cost| Overhead related to direct labor hours| Direct labor hours| Overhead related to direct labor cost| Direct labor cost| Overhead related to machine-hours| Machine hours| Advantage: * Provides most accurate cost information * Cost system captures differences in the way overhead is consumed in different parts of the production process Disadvantage: * Cost of the system redesign may be high. The selection of an optimal cost system is based on trade-offs between increased accuracy and the cost of system redesign.Predetermined Overhead Rate or Burden rate = Overhead cost related to direct materials/ Total Direct materials cost OR Overhead cost related to direct labor hours/ Total Direct labor hours OR Overhead cost related to direct labor cost/ Total Direct labor cost OR Overhead cost related to machine hours/ Total machine hours used Total product costs of A = Direct materials cost + Direct labor cost + allocated overhead cost where allocated overhead = Burden rate per machine hour * # of machine hours used by A + Burden rate per direct labor $ * direct labor cost of ADepartmental overhead rate – Rates based on a department's direct and indirect overhead costs and some measure of the department's activity, such as the department's machine hours. Departmental rates are more accurate than plant-wide rates when a company manufactures diverse products requiring a variety of processes. Allocate overhead on a plantwide basis using machine hours – Burden rate per machine hour = total overhead costs of all departments/ total machine hours used by all departmentsAllocate overhead using department rate with machine hours as the allocation base – Burden rate per machine hour = Overhead costs of a department/ Machine hours used by that department Activity Based Costing 1. Identify activities, and identify overhead costs for each activity 2. Identify the cost drivers for each activity 3. Compute cost driver rates (cost per driver unit)= activity overhead cost/ total driver volume 4. Allocate costs to cost objects Overhead costs allocated to A = cost driver 1 rate * cost driver 1 volume for A + cost driver 2 rate * cost driver 2 volume for AABC Costs and Benefits Costs are very high if: †¢ You have a large number of activities, none of which dominate †¢ You do not know/unders tand your activities †¢ Your activities are changing quickly and dramatically †¢ You do not have any sort of ERP system in place Benefit: * Detailed Cost break-down at activity level can manage costs at activity level, or charge customers for their activity use * More accurate information * Flexibility in Choice of Cost objects * Flexibility in Types of Companies/Organizations this works for such as Product companies, Services, Non-profitsSymptoms of faulty accounting system †¢ The outcome of bids is difficult to explain †¢ Customers do not complain about price increases †¢ Competitors’ prices appear unrealistically low †¢ Profit margins are hard to explain †¢ Products those are difficult to produce show high profits †¢ Operational mgrs want to drop products that appear profitable †¢ Some departments are using their own accounting system †¢ The accounting department spends a lot of time on special projects †¢ Product cost s change because of changes in financial reporting RegulationsCommon Cost Allocation Systems Plantwide/Company-wide Cost System (â€Å"Peanut-Butter†) – Typically 1 cost pool – â€Å"burden rate† based on 1 cost driver (1 stage†¦) Department Allocation Method – Typically 1 cost pool per department – cost driver for each department (testing rooms in Seligram) 2-stage Cost System with Logical Cost Pools – Typically at least 1 cost pool per department, but might split more carefully (For example, what if Seligram’s electronic and mechanical testing had all been in 1 room? ) Direct cost can be directly traced to specific cost objects, in an economically feasible way. Example: direct materials, direct labor, etc. * One-stage costing system (â€Å"Peanut butter†): pool all indirect costs together, use a single cost driver. inaccurate. * The Seligram case: in the original costing system, â€Å"burden was grouped into a si ngle cost pool†, they use a single cost driver â€Å"testing and engineering labor dollars† * Two-stage costing system: first stage, costs are traced/allocated to cost pools (at least two).Second stage, costs are allocated from cost pools to cost objects using cost drivers. * The more cost pools, the more accurate your cost numbers, but the more costly to track. * The Seligram case: the costing system proposed by the accounting managers is a two-stage system. * Stage 1: burden is traced to two pools: (1) burden related to admin and technical functions; (2) all other burden costs * Stage 2: pool 1 will be charged on a rate per direct labor dollar. Pool 2 would be charged based on machine hours. Sometimes firms are already using two-stage costing, but they need to add new cost pools. * Add a new category * Divide current pool into subcategories * The formula for cost driver rates: total costs in pool / total quantity of driver * Activity-Based Costing system: 1 cost pool for each major activity performed in the company. * Idea is that resource usage is homogeneous within each activity, so the allocation is more accurate. * Disadvantage of ABC system: costly. * When NOT to use ABC system: when activities change quickly, when there is no ERP system in place

Lockheed management Essay

We examined the decision to invest in the Tri-Star project by forecasting the cash flow associated with the project for a volume of 210 planes. We also asked what a valid estimate of the NPV of the Tri-Star project at a volume of 210 planes as of 1967 would be. We found this to be -$584 M. This was clearly an unacceptable NPV for capital budgeting on the project. A break-even analysis revealed that the project reached economic break-even with the production of 275 planes at $12.5 M per unit but did not reach value break-even at that level of production. Despite industry analysts predicting 300 units as Lockheed’s break-even sales point, at this level, net present value remained insufficient to cover costs at negative $274 million. If the company had performed a true value break-even analysis, management would have realized that roughly 400 Tri Star aircraft (about 67 per year for six years) costing somewhere between $11.75 million and $12 million per unit would have to be sold in order to break even. The investment decision made by Lockheed to pursue the Tri Star program was not a reasonable one. A true value analysis shows that at the production level of 210 units, the project would result in an economic loss of $584.05 million and a profit loss of $480 million. In addition to miscalculating the break-even level of production, Lockheed management overestimated the growth rate of air travel industry.

The Corporate Giant WorldCom Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Corporate Giant WorldCom - Essay Example As the E/R ratio imbalance kept increasing, the managers sought to cook the books so as to prevent investors and government from getting the consistent results. 1. Case Summary WorldCom, the Nation’s second largest long-distance Telecommunications Company filed for bankruptcy protection on July 21st, 2002 revealing that it had overstated earnings in 2001 and the first quarter of 2002 by more than $3.8 billion. Further on August 8th of the same year the company again admitted that it had maneuvered its reserve accounts also affecting another 3.8billion. Substantial accounting fraud was charged against the firm by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The actual cause of the corporate failure lies with the enormous oversupply that could be attributed to excessively optimistic projections of Internet growth. Evidently, the company’s projections on expense-revenue ratio flawed as â€Å"the industry conditions began to deteriorate in 2000 due to heightened competition, overcapacity, and the reduced demand for telecommunications services at the onset of the economic recession† (Kaplan & Kiron, 2007). Subsequently, the stock market value of the firms in the telecommunication industry plunged and people at the WorldCom’s helm of affairs intervened in the accounting practices to conceal the actual trouble from the public. In short, what they did was that they transferred a considerable part of current expense to a capital account as the capitalized cost would normally be considered an investment. 2. What were the pressures that led executives and managers to â€Å"cook the books?† Evidently, the company struggled to maintain its E/R ratio since the first quarter of 2000 ‘while facing revenue and pricing pressures and its high committed line costs’ (Kaplan & Kiron, 2007). WorldCom had to spend beyond its capacity due to unnecessary acquisitions of other firms. In order to overweigh the short term loss, managers were as ked to spend exceedingly so as to raise immediate revenue. There was incessant pressure from the top. For instance, CFO Sullivan directly insisted Myers and Yates carry out his plans. And on the bottom line, individuals like Betty were forced to partake in accrual releases and capitalization of line costs. These were the situations in brief that made executives and managers to â€Å"cook the books. 3. Why were the actions taken by WorldCom managers not detected earlier? What processes or systems should be in place to prevent or detect quickly the types of actions that occurred in WorldCom? The company officials could qualify a considerable amount of costs as an investment in 2001 and the first quarter of 2002, and this could have allowed the company to spread the costs to subsequent years if Cooper had not come across the issue. Obviously, the incident indicates the prevailing pitfall in the US corporate governance. Evidently, audit firms have to make strategic amendments to their processes and procedures to detect frauds and errors in the account books of the client on time. WorldCom was indirectly supported by the Andersen accounting firm, who ignored the fact that the organization’s practices were apparently unethical. Only government can safeguard the interests of its citizens against unscrupulous business practices. Likewise, various service institutions particularly that of banking and accounting must keep themselves reliable and sustainable to prevent this kind of fraud in future.