Thursday, October 31, 2019

Climate Change Displacing People and Animals Research Paper

Climate Change Displacing People and Animals - Research Paper Example Studies that were previously conducted posit to the effect that the phenomenon of climate change can be mainly attributed to the activities of a human kind which immensely contribute to the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. There remains confusion with regards to universal policies that can be implemented in order to check that the activities of men are under control such that they do not wantonly continue damaging the climate (Makombe 1993). It can thus be noted that the issues of climate change have become topical in many societies during the contemporary period, but there is need to generate more knowledge about the major effects and causes of climate changes such as global warming. A holistic approach has to be taken in an attempt to combat this threat to the climate. In essence, there is a need to recognize that conservation of the environment and development are both necessary to human life and are also interdependent. It can be seen from this argument that conservation of the environment cannot ignore the needs of the human beings while development projects by human beings that ignore the limits of the environment will be doomed (Gore 2006). There is a need to create a fine balance between the activities of human beings and the need to maintain a safe environment. Such a holistic approach may be difficult to attain but it is necessary as far as minimizing the negative impacts of human activities on climate are concerned. This paper, therefore, seeks to critically analyze the concept of climate change and its impact on the welfare of the people. The paper will begin by reviewing the published literature that is related to the topic area. The bulk of the reviewed literature will be centered on the concept of global warming which is central to the phenomenon of climate change.  

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Essay Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Assignment - Essay Example Tax cuts for businesses encourage the company to expand, invest, or stay in the state through enabling the probability of higher profits. In addition, it stimulates new companies to start up and convince other companies to relocate to state that offers these cuts. Tax cuts lead to job creation, via the promotion of greater activities in business. However, local and state taxes are not that huge of a burden on the business and the reduction in profits is small in comparison (Lynch 5). Rates of after-tax profits in industries are also not significantly varied by different states and jurisdictions. Finally, these taxes should not be seen as burdens but as a provider of financial support to public service that act to reduce business costs. Another argument for Business tax cuts has to do with the supply side, which contends that business tax cuts provide incentives for jobs, as well as leading to an increase in investment and savings, which stimulates economic activity (Lynch 7). Lower b usiness taxes could encourage businesses to retain more earnings and, thus, avail more funds for increased investment in business that is vital for growth of state and local economies. Tax cuts for businesses also allow incentives for business investments, via increasing the profitability inherent in the investment and providing funds for firms to invest by allowing firms to retain more of their earnings. However, a counter-argument contends that the positive effects that are inherent in tax cuts on savings and work effort have been greatly exaggerated by the proponents of this argument (Lynch 8). In fact, tax cuts could act as a disincentive for people to work. Additionally, although tax cuts for businesses may result in sizeable gains, in savings, for businesses and individuals, the gains will not lead to a decrease in interest rates or a productive investment increase in particular jurisdictions. The effect of the demand side argument is likely to reduce growth of the economy and a slowdown in employment creation. A third argument for the implementation of business tax cuts by local and state administrations is the demand side argument. This argument contends that business tax cuts stimulate the local and state economies by making an impact on consumer spending (Lynch 9). When business taxes come down, individuals and businesses are left with increased after tax incomes. Some of these after tax increases could be saved while the rest is spent on the purchase of more services and products. Increased spending will have a corresponding effect on business volumes of sales and allow firms to produce more products and services. As the companies produce more of these, they will have to hire extra workers. Therefore, employment numbers are increased by business tax cuts. Conversely, while local and state tax cuts can cause businesses to use more of their earnings on investment, they also lead to a reduction in government revenue that leads to reduced spending for l ocal and state governments (Lynch 9). Probably, this will result in the drop for in-state spending. Additionally, this very same theory can be utilized for justification in the increase of local and state taxes. The business climate argument holds that local and state governments can promote the development of the economy by improving on the business climate

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Semantics And The Structure Of Sentence

Semantics And The Structure Of Sentence Semantics is the study of meaning. It typically focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for. Linguistic semantics is the study of meanings that humans use language to express. Other forms of semantics include the semantics of programming languages, formal logics, and semiotics. The word semantics itself denotes a range of ideas, from the popular to the highly technical. It is often used in ordinary language to denote a problem of understanding that comes down to word selection or connotation. This problem of understanding has been the subject of many formal inquiries, over a long period of time, most notably in the field of formal semantics. In linguistics, it is the study of interpretation of signs or symbols as used by agents or communities within particular circumstances and contexts. Within this view, sounds, facial expressions, body language, proxemics has semantic (meaningful) content, and each has several branches of study. In written language, such things as paragraph structure and punctuation have semantic content; in other forms of language, there is other semantic content. The formal study of semantics intersects with many other fields of inquiry, including lexicology, syntax, pragmatics, etymology and others, although semantics is a well-defined field in its own right, often with synthetic properties. In philosophy of language, semantics and reference are related fields. Further related fields include philology, communication, and semiotics. The formal study of semantics is therefore complex. Semantics contrasts with syntax, the study of the combinatory of units of a language (without reference to their meaning), and pragmatics, the study of the relationships between the symbols of a language, their meaning, and the users of the language. In international scientific vocabulary semantics is also called semasiology. LEXICAL CONCEPTUAL SEMANTICS This theory is an effort to explain properties of argument structure. The assumption behind this theory is that syntactic properties of phrases reflect the meanings of the words that head them. With this theory, linguists can better deal with the fact that subtle differences in word meaning correlate with other differences in the syntactic structure that the word appears in. The way this is gone about is by looking at the internal structure of words. These small parts that make up the internal structure of words are referred to as semantic primitives. LEXICAL SEMANTICS A linguistic theory that investigates word meaning. This theory understands that the meaning of a word is fully reflected by its context. Here, the meaning of a word is constituted by its contextual relations. Therefore, a distinction between degrees of participation as well as modes of participation are made. In order to accomplish this distinction any part of a sentence that bears a meaning and combines with the meanings of other constituents is labeled as a semantic constituent. Semantic constituents that can not be broken down into more elementary constituents are labeled a minimal semantic constituent. COMPUTATIONAL SEMANTICS Computational Semantics is focused on the processing of linguistic meaning. In order to do this concrete algorithms and architectures are described. Within this framework the algorithms and architectures are also analyzed in terms of decidability, time/space complexity, data structures which they require and communication protocols. Many companies use semantic technologies to create commercial value. The fundamental point is that you cannot create much value from content that you do not understand. Once you understand, then you can interrogate more effectively, create explicit relationships between content around topics and issues, inform contextual advertising and product placement, and build a standard method of sharing structured data between publishers. Halliday (1987) describes some syntactic and semantic differences between the spoken and written modes of communication. Hoey (1986), Van Valin (1984) and Winter (1977) describe the syntax and semantics of clause connection, focusing largely on several English registers According to the traditional grammar, sentences consist of words, but not every string of word constitutes a sentence as we can see in the following example: Lion cage this less in dangerous is the. A possible analysis is that if we look at this example we know the meaning of the individual words, but the sequence as a whole does not make sense, so we cannot consider this structure a sentence. Thus, we can affirm that if a sequence of words is to constitute a sentence, it must he meaningful, for instance: The lion is less dangerous in this cage. The network of relations between the words of a sentence is called its structure. There are many different aspects that influence the structure of a sentence. A very important one is word order. The different order of the words in a sentence can bring by a difference in its meaning, as in the following example: Did he say who he was?= Who did he say he was? But a difference in word order does not always imply a difference in meaning. Sometimes it simply entails a difference in emphasis: John ran away //A way ran John . In relation with the words, the structure of the sentence also depends on the individual meaning of the words or word-groups making up the sentence; in the following example the difference of structure is not due to word order but to the relationship between the words: Peter was waiting for seven friends. //Peter was waiting for seven minutes. Then this kind of Grammar deals with the concept of Ambiguous sentences and explains that the structure of sentences is not always unambiguously derivable from overt marks like word order, lexical items etc Sometimes we come across sentences to which more than one structure can he assigned, having therefore, more than one meaning. This type of sentence receives the name of Ambiguous Sentence, as in the following examples: George likes Susan more than Joan // Visiting relatives can be boring. Only through the context in which these sentences may appear can we know which of the two possible meanings is intended. According to the Transformational Grammar, it deals with the idea that a sentence has a syntactic structure, and it follows this term in order to develop its theory. The first important point deals with the idea that the evidence for claiming that sentences have a syntactic structure in language comes from the native speakers intuition about the structure of sentences in his language. These structural intuitions which native speakers have about the Syntax of their languages are two types: 1. The constituents: intuitions about how sound-sequences in sentences are structured into larger structural units. 2. Categories: intuitions about whether structural units belong to the same category or not. So, the following example is going to illustrate this fact: To analyze the concept of sentence we can do the following analysis: words are grouped into lower constituents. For example à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"incredibly modifies intelligentà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ , so the sequence [incredibly intelligent] is a phrasal constituent of the sentence. Also, following the analysis, this modifies pupil, so the sequence [that pupil] forms a single structural unit, a constituent of the sentence. The same happens in the sequence [that teacher]. But furthermore also the sequence [to that teacher] is another constituent. To the transformational grammar, the phrases [incredibly intelligent] and [to that teacher] both modify seemà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ , then the whole sequence [seem incredibly intelligent to that teacher] is also a constituent. Thus, all this information can he represented as we see before in diagrammatic form, that is a tree diagram. Each point in the tree is called a node, and each node represents a constituent. But, however, since nodes are predictable, later they were suppressed in subsequent tree-diagrams. But a tree-diagram does not provide any representation of our intuitions about which constituents are constituents of the same type. The traditional way of describing the similarities and differences between constituents is to say that they belong to categories of various types. And the same happens with the phrases. Finally, to this type of grammar, the whole sequence [that pupil must seem incredibly intelligent to that teacher] is a special type of constituent traditionally termed a clause or sentence. 3. Conventions to Be used in the analysis of a sentence, the constituents aNd its levels Every sentence can he analysed at four distinct form levels: the word-level, the phrase-level, the clause-level and the sentence- level. And this is called the rank scale. Later, after the explanation of the constituents of a sentence we will see the different levels and how they can he analysed following the same example. Thus, a diagram as this provides a visual presentation of the categorial constituent structure of the sentence. It shows us how sentence is structured out of its constituent phrases, and how each of the phrases is structured out of its component words, and also it provides a visual presentation of the phrase structure of sentence. The type of labelled tree- diagram used here is referred to as a Phrase-marker (P-marker) because it marks the hierarchical grouping of words into phrases, and phrases into sentences. Another method of visual display used in the linguistic literature is to make use of labelled bracketing. Within this system, we could represent the categorial status of the words in the structure mentioned before as in the following example: [D This] [N pupil] [M must] [V seem] [Adv incredibly] [A intelligent] [P to] [D that] [N teacher] We could use this system of labelled bracketing to represent the fact that [this pupil] and [that teacher] are noun phrases, that [to that teacher] is a prepositional phrase. That [incredibly intelligent] is an adjective phrase, that [seem incredibly intelligent to that teacher] is a verb phrase, and that [this pupil must seem incredibly intelligent to that teacher] is an S = clause. As follows: [S [NP [D this] [N pupil]] [M must] [VP [V seem] [AP [ADV incredibly][A intelligent]] [PP [P to][NP [D that] [N teacher] ] ] ] ] Then the two diagrams represented here contain the same information. Many linguists prefer tree-diagrams as a form of visual representation of syntactic structure because they are easier to read, and the reason for that is that the information they contain is less condensed. Thus, diagrams like these provide a virtually complete representation of the syntactic structure of the sentence. Also we can find partial tree-diagrams or partial labeled bracketing: for instance if we take the sentence mentioned before, we can see that it contains three major constituents: CONCLUSION According to grammarians, it can be said that there is a hierarchical order. That is to say, sounds are the constituents of words, words are the constituents of the phrases and phrases are the constituents of sentences or clauses. Then as a conclusion to this point, we can say that sentences are not just unstructured sequence of sounds; rather they have a hierarchical constituent structure in which sounds are grouped together into words, words into phrases, and phrases into sentences. On the other hand, it is important to point out the main features of the different categories although they have not been explained in this assignment. That is to say, when we talk about sentences, it is absolutely necessary to know the features of the categories as constituents of the own sentence. In a nutshell, it can be said that Radfords book, Ouhalla ´s work and the linguistics dictionaries are a useful guide for the student in the sense that they make easier the comprehension of grammar. It is due to the fact that they give us (as students) clear information by using simple examples.

Friday, October 25, 2019

The White Man’s Burden :: Literary Analysis, Kipling

In the â€Å"White Man’s Burden†, Rudyard Kipling claims that it is the duty or burden of the white men to civilize the non-whites, to educate them and to religiously lift them (lecture notes, 2/8). Kipling is specifically talking about the colonized non-whites (lecture notes, 2/8). The idea that the newly colonized non-whites were lacking and needing help from a greater society was common among American whites at this time (lecture notes, 2/8). Rudyard uses the whites’ public feelings towards the issue and writes â€Å"The White Man’s Burden† in an attempt to move the whites to help the non-whites because he thinks it is a very beneficial movement for the U.S. Rudyard meant this poem to be a shocking and informative form of encouragement for the whites to take up the burden of saving the non-white civilizations that they have now signed up for responsibility over. In â€Å"The White Man’s Burden†, Rudyard claims that the whites are bound to help the non-whites out of religious duty and for the whites’ own good (Rudyard). In the last stanza, Rudyard also explains that the non-whites have been through a lot do to the whites’ imperialism (Rudyard). Although he explains the non-whites’ grievances, Rudyard does not really seem to be that sympathetic for the non-whites but instead, he seems to think very little of them and pretty much says they are incapable of taking care of themselves. At the time that Rudyard published â€Å"The White Man’s Burden†, whites were already conflicted on what to do about the non-whites (US, 437). Some whites claimed that there should be little to no intervention of the whites on the non-white societies because Charles Darwin’s theory of â€Å"survival of the fittest† is the way that things should be (US, 437). The whites who were for intervention argued that it was the humane and religious duty of whites to become involved (US, 437). They also exclaimed that it was better to help the non-white develop because of the need for trade (US, 437). Because there had already been such a debate between the whites over this issue, Rudyard’s poem gained attention quick (lecture notes, 2/8). Rudyard’s work gained attention of American leaders and became an inspiration for future actions of imperialism (lecture notes, 2/8). Rudyard’s poem seemed to have gained a lot of popularity because of his tone of nationalism. In the poem, he basically says that in order to be respected as one of the greater nations, America has to do some charity work and help some of the less fortunate (Rudyard).

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Natural Resources and Energy Paper

Natural Resources and Energy Paper Spechelle Jones, Cherrie Chicaletto, Robert Hernandez, Jamie Hughes SCI/256 October 13th, 2010 The world is growing at a rate of speed of 2. 8 people per second and losing 1. 6 acres of land per second in accordance with an article last month titled Environmental Impacts from Unsustainable Population Growth on the World Population Awareness website. World Population Awareness is an organization concerned with recent problems of as well as solution ideas to popular global warming theories caused directly by overpopulation of the world. (World, 2010).In addition to all natural resources on this planet fading away, there is an ever growing apprehension with the number of species of wildlife and the respective habitats of each. All over the world, nature preservation parks have been constructed just so a small group of people can be accountable to enforce certain guidelines for that preserve which support and ensure safety of life within that area. With more and more natural resources required to maintain our â€Å"natural† function of life, it is inevitable that the natural resources will run out sometime. It is only a question of when.E. O. Wilson said, â€Å"The one process ongoing †¦ that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us. † This theory has been the fuel for the modern â€Å"Go Green† campaign. Individuals everywhere have formed organizations promoting new resources that do not compromise the state of our planet. Ideas are being televised worldwide to educate people and suggest new ways of heating our homes or washing our clothes with a new detergent.With this in mind, it could only be a matter of time before the government requires everyone to follow certain procedures for the disposal of waste or building a house. Suddenly, it just does not seem s o important anymore that the government may be infringing on our rights as an American citizen to force regulatory guidelines. Taking the place of this common concern, is a universal interest and effort to save our planet for the sake of our children. Renewable forest resources are declining due the increased use of nonrenewable forest resources.Coal and natural gas are two examples of nonrenewable forest resources. These resources are nonrenewable because they cannot be recycled. The high abundance of coal and natural gas hit its peak one hundred years ago, after sitting under the earth for more than an estimated one million years. The supply of coal and natural gas is nearly gone due to excessive use of the resources in the past century. The coal and natural gas is not renewable; these resources are causing pollution to the ocean and all waters alike.Extracting natural gas and oil from forests for energy source is convenient to humans, but the environment is suffering as well as t he natural resources that are part of the local ecosystem of the forest. The forest resources were so abundant; however the transformation to these natural lands is irreversible. The forests can provide natural resources for centuries to come (Derr, 2007). Proper management of these resources is necessary for renewable forest resources. Water, air and paper are all examples of renewable forest resources.However, once these resources are polluted by the other resources; it is much more difficult to recycle them. In many cases, it is just too late to recycle those items because of the high amount of pollutant they had sustained. Carbon Dioxide is recycled into clean oxygen by plants and trees. Since many trees are being cut down and burned, more charcoal is being produced; which is a nonrenewable resource. The trees are being cut down, which can leave renewable forest resources.However, many of the trees in these big forests have been growing for thousands of years. The strength and p ower of these trees is impossible to regain. The trees have been putting clean oxygen into the air for thousands of years. New trees begin growing each year with the seeds from those who were cut down. None of those trees will have near the amount of power and/or shelter important to the surrounding ecosystem like those who had been growing for hundreds of years. It is vital to the local ecosystem of the forests that the trees remain.Animals do not want paper for shelter, nor can paper produce clean air to breath. It is important that the natural resources be taken care of, too much of the natural resources are depleting too quickly.References Derr, A. (2007). RENEWABLE RESOURCES. Boys' Life, 97(3), 38. Retrieved from MasterFILE Premier database. World Population Awareness. (2010). Environmental Impacts from Unsustainable Population Growth. Retrieved from Google at http://www. overpopulation. org/impact. html. Natural Resources and Energy Paper Natural ecosystem is a natural unit consisting of all plants, animals, and microorganism in an area functioning together with all the non-living physical of the environment which plants and animals are dependent upon one another, and their particular surroundings-for survival. Natural ecosystems make up the planet on which we live as well as the entire universe. They are dynamic and interconnected. An ecosystem is a collection of all plants, animals, microorganisms, bacterium, and fungus as well as the non-living components that function together as one unit in a given area (The Ontario Plan, 2011). Living and non-living things intertwine with each other in a natural ecosystem. San Diego’s wetland is an example of a natural ecosystem. In this paper it will discuss about the effects that a growing human population may have impacted on San Diego’s wetland’s resources, including loss or harm to populations of wild species. It would also discuss one management practice for sustainability and conservation of natural resources. Also to identify the risks and benefits of extracting or using one resource from this ecosystem, or in any areas near this ecosystem. Effects of Human Population Coastal Wetlands are one of many endangered habitat in the world, only next to tropical rain forests. It is said that in the United States there are estimated more than 50% of wetlands have been severely altered or destroyed. San Diego wetland is the most threatened resource on the California coast. By 1900, wetlands have been affected by human activities. Wetlands everywhere have been filled in for human developments such as housing, industrial plants, and airport. They have been dredge for use as canals, waterways, and marinas. Highways are over the streamside canyons and cut right through coastal marshes, causing habitat fragmentation (Sea World, 2002). Loss and harm to population of wild species Between 1990 and 2000 wetland loss was approximately 24 square miles per year, which is one football field lost every 38 minutes. The loss over the next 50 years with current restoration efforts is expected to be 500 square miles. Human activities cause wetland degradation and loss by changing water quality, quantity, or flow rates resulting increasing pollution and change the makeup of species within a habitat. These changes occur when wetland ecosystems are disturbed or non-native species are introduced to a habitat. Wetland plants can suffer as a result of both pollution and hydrologic changes. Other ways wetland plants can be damaged are cattle and other livestock grazing, introduction of non-native plants that compete with native plants and removal of plants to use land for other human development. Management for sustainability and conservation In the 1970s and 80s state and federal agencies, together with many private conservation groups, spent millions of dollars to purchase San Diego County wetlands to establish wildlife preserves. As a result, most of the county’s wetlands are publicly owned. This has largely stopped the filling, dredging, and other direct destruction of the wetlands, but they are still suffering from the erosion and sedimentation caused by upstream development. The City of San Diego has recently restored seven acres of salt marsh on the north end of Mission Bay, which expands the wetlands of Mission Bay Northern Wildlife Preserve. The Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project aims to acquire more than 1,500 acres, and to restore or enhance more than 500. In San Diego County the Project includes 20 acres of restored salt marsh in the Tijuana River Estuary (Sea World, 2002). Nonrenewable and renewable energy Oil and coal are currently the most used forms of nonrenewable energy. Coal is a combustible material that comes from the earth. It is obtained from mining and is the most difficult resource to get. Oil is another combustible energy obtained from drilling, although unlike coal, once the hole is drilled the oil can be pumped out of the hole. This makes it easier and more cost effective to gather oil then coal (Oracle ThinkQuest, 2011). No risk or benefit found by extracting or using a nonrenewable type of resources. Renewable energy is energy that automatically replenishes itself from ongoing natural processes. For example, sunshine, wind, flowing water, biological processes, and geothermal heat flows are creators of usable renewable energy (Oracle ThinkQuest, 2011). Wetlands cannot use any of none or renewable energy because wetlands are very sensitive that anything alien expose or introduce to it would lead fragmentation or even damage. View as multi-pages

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Natural food and drink industry Essay

Executive Summary The all natural food and drink industry is relatively new, it has emerged as part of the clean label trend and is seen as an alternative to the organic products or products labeled as â€Å"free-from†. The global all natural food and drink market has shown a steady growth during the last few years and is expected to grow due to rising demands for healthy, nutritional, natural foods and drinks without chemicals and artificial ingredients. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 35% annually, Indian non-carbonated drink market is likely to touch Rs. 54,000 crore by 2015 from the current level of Rs. 22,000 crore including fruit drinks, nectars and juices etc. Our company J-GAPS started in 2014 thereby tapping this potential in the Indian market had come up with a natural flavored drink segment in terms of coconut water with Kewra and Mint with the product named SIPCO in order to revive freshness. This could be seen as great opportunity in Maharashtra near the Konkan region where the natural source of tender coconut could be fully utilized to provide healthy natural beverage to people. The financial assistance is catered by coconut development board in terms of 50% cost of production. The vision of our company is to provide a natural drink to the consumer so as to improve their health in a fast paced lifestyle. Identifying the gap in this market through market analysis especially in terms of coconut water wherein there are hardly tetra packs available in order to make it convenient for people to have the nutritional drink without carrying the hard husk. The main drivers of introducing such a natural beverage includes rising consumer concerns regarding artificial ingredients, artificially introduced hormones and genetically modified products, and their awareness of the long term health benefits of natural food and good nutrition thereby having a lifestyle of health and sustainability (LOHAS). We therefore see ahead a great potential in this market as GEN – Y would be the most prominent segment to be tapped in order to sustain in the market and thereby expand our presence in India. 1. Current Marketing Situation 1.1 Industry overview The Indian packaged tender coconut water is still an industry in its development phase. There exist a very few players in this market. J-GAPS  aims to position its product in the general market where exist players like Pepsi, Coca cola, Parle agro foods etc. who are major players in the soft drink segment. The emerging trend among consumers to go for healthy and natural food products will drive this industry. Coconut water is a fruit juice with many unique features and a major one is a low calorie content .This makes it a very attractive prospect for weight management positioned juices. 1.2 Company description J-GAPS will primarily engage in extracting, processing and adding flavors to tender coconut water which is then ready to be delivered to stores. It is a privately held firm will be located in Ratnagiri in the state of Maharashtra .We have identified a location which is closer to the coconut farms. J-GAPS sources the tender coconut for its requirements from its own farms and also additionally from other farmers directly. Our processing unit has a capacity of processing liters water annually. 1.3 Market analysis- Tender flavored coconut water is recommended for people of all ages. With the consumers turning health conscious and preferring natural products, we believe that our product has a strong market both in domestic circles and in countries abroad. Our main target customer is the young generations who have a fancy for energy drinks. We also target sport persons with our special energy pack. We want to make our drink available for homes, offices, hospitals, sports persons, marriages, other occasions, hotels and restaurants. The recent studies showing the impact of aerated drinks on health has turned customer to ignore such artificially produced drinks and go for natural food drinks. The rising population will require larger amount of food drinks. Our product will be a natural thirst quencher with added flavor of Kewra essence in it which will be beneficial during the long summer months. 1.4 Major Segmentation Approach 1.5 PESTLE Analysis The Pestle Analysis identifies the political, economic, social, technological, legal and ecological influences on an organization. Political factors Various political factors affect the fruit juice industry. With the change of government the policies regulating the industry might change. As the taxation policy keeps changing, it has a significant effect on fruit juice industry. The government plans of encouraging foreign direct investments would affect our industry highly as organized fruit juice industry has only 3 % share as of now in the market but with FDIs it could increase significantly by coming of bigger players. Economic factors Our company would rely on trucks to move our raw materials to the processing plant and distribute our finished product so, fuel is also an important subject, so the company is subject to the fuel price fluctuation, and to possible fuel crisis. Since, ours is an agro based industry so we would be exposed to the risks of high prices due to crop failure, non-availability of raw material because of pest attack etc. Other economic factors affecting fruit juice industry are often linked to variability in real growth, inflation, interest rates, governmental actions and other factors. Factors like money supply, energy availability and cost, business cycles, etc. would also affect our company. Socio-cultural factors We are more than a billion strong nations and the youngest country as well. We are also home to the great Indian middle class. The major growth drivers in fruit juice market are increase in health consciousness among consumers, increase in disposable incomes and more sophisticated cocktail culture. There is more money circulating in the economy. With life becoming more hectic and tiring, consumer preferences are witnessing a visible shift towards healthy foods. Even the younger generation has started shifting from fizz to fresh and healthy. As people are becoming more and more educated, they are taking the healthy route. Technological factors Fruit juices have become big business throughout much of the developed and developing world with the increasing health conscious proportion of population. In this ever growing industry technology plays a major role in maintaining the quality and cost efficiency to generate higher profits.  Better technology can increase the shelf life of our product. Technology refers to both production process as well as machinery. Legal factors Processed fruit juices are regulated under the Food and Drugs Act and Regulations as a food product and the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act. The Food and Drugs Act creates identity standards, provides a basis for labelling requirements and establishes the safety parameters for soft drinks. As food safety requirements become more advanced across the beverage industry, tracking and traceability capabilities are a prerequisite. Ecological factors One environmental issue that food processing companies face is waste remaining from packaging. However, the problem often lies in feasibility of collection, separation and purification of the consumers’ disposed bottles or drinks packets. Environmental issues have gained importance because of regulatory requirements. It is not possible to sell a new packaging material without covering all the environmental issues. The reduction of materials in packing cartons can potentially provide both financial and environmental benefits. . We propose to provide our product in tetra packs so that lesser damage is done to the environment in comparison to PET bottles. 2. Product review 2.1 Product features In India coconut water has always been considered as a health drink to refresh the body due to its nutritional value. Tender Coconut Water is considered the healthiest & best sports drink in the world, because it contains vitamins. It is very refreshing and rich in sugar, electrolytes and minerals – available in the natural form in most sterile conditions. It is a natural isotonic drink where the electrolyte levels are similar to those found in the human body. The water of fresh green coconuts is actually fat free. Our company keeping this factor in mind has come up with two natural flavored drink containing 1. Kewra essence which has a floral fragrance thereby providing a cooling effect in the drink. 2. Mint flavor to provide freshness and energizing flavor to the drink Chota Anna would have two variants in terms of Kewra drink and Mint drink. Kewra drink Mint drink Coconut water Coconut water Kewra essence Mint sugar honey Farm Fresh Tender Coconut are selected (50% capacity extracted) and the rest purchased from the Ratnagiri Association Coconut supplier and Natural Tender Coconut Water is squeezed out, untouched by hand and put through a special process in order to add the natural flavors of Kewra essence and Mint. The product is packed in food-grade Bottles/ Cans, which keeps it fresh for 9/18 months. The taste is natural and hence good.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Romantic Period essays

Romantic Period essays The Enlightment was the movement that spread and caused and influence in its society. Romanticism, was wide spread in many different areas. Since the middle ages, had there been in artistic movement that made a big change. That changed was quickly traveled on to Germany and England and quickly spread through to the Western Hemisphere. The beginnings on the last decades in the 18th century transformed poetry, novels, drama paintings, sculptures, all forms of concert music especially opera and ballet. It was deeply connected with the politics of its time, echoing peoples fear, hopes and aspirations. It was starting to become what is called the voice of revolution at the beginning of the 19th century and the voice establishment at the end of it. The last shift, was a result of a triumph of the class that invented and adopted a romantic movement. Many things occurred and where invented around the Romantic period. Inventions such as omnibuses that gathered several people in horse carriages and took them around town, to producing fuel gas with coal were several of the few. Unfortunate people started to get hurt a little more. Around August of 1819, workers gathered at the St. Peters field to protest their unfairness working conditions. About 600 people were injured and approximately 17 were killed. Wealthy people lived in huge homes. Dandy began to be a word very well used describing conscious men filled with style. Most dandys used the color black as evening wear. Music like always continued to be a popular form of entertainment. In 1813, the Philharmonic Society was formed and won acclaim for its talented musicians. Among the many Beethoven was one of them. People would attend museums to view famous painting along with sculptures. Fairs were very well attended, while the fortune-tellers and fire-eaters entertained the people. In the Romantic Period, the person was valued over society, imagi...

Monday, October 21, 2019

Orchestras and Orchestral Instruments essays

Orchestras and Orchestral Instruments essays Classical music and the evolution of the orchestra started in 500 BC. It has changed a lot since then. Not only have new instruments been introduced but the instruments that are still in existence have been modified greatly. From 500 BC to about 300 AD music was made up of various chants which were mostly in monotone, with no pitch variation. Nothing like the music that we hear today. People believed that music was created by the Greek god Apollo. That idea was dismissed when Egypt first started the "orchestra." Egypt was the first to have their people playing instruments and creating different melodies. During that period the Romans despised music in an informal setting, this is why there are so few written pieces from that time. Soon music playing disappeared in Rome in all aspects but church. After the fall of the Roman empire, music reappeared. Rome hadn't contributed much to the instrument evolution; they did, however, bring about some brass instruments which they used in battles to give signals to their armies. The 12th century solved two problems; firstly they created a primitive music staff, which lead to their second creation, fixing their pitch problem. Music before the creation of the music staff had varied dramatically from group to group. There was no standard pitch so each time something was played it was different. Also without a way to write music down, there was no easy way to reproduce the music. The 16th century saw its changes. What is considered now to be an orchestra start to evolve then? The music consisted of more organized instrumentation which included harmonies as well as melodies. There were three ways to make a living by being a musician, at church, at a noble's court or a rich man's home. The 17th century was a century of movement. The composers of that time wrote music to be more selective. For example, Bach wrote during that time, and he wrote many pieces for string quartets and small groups o...

Sunday, October 20, 2019

1994 Rwandan Genocide Essay Example for Free

1994 Rwandan Genocide Essay ? The 1994 Rwandan Genocide impacted on a lot of people in a lot of different ways. In this essay the causes I will be covering are ethnic tension as a result of Belgium Colonisation, Propaganda and hate rhetoric, the role of the international community, and political problems. The consequences I will be covering are causalities, the economic effects, remembrance and education, and population displacement. In this small country in Africa called Rwanda this terrible killing took place. The Rwandan Genocide began on April 6th 1994 when the president was assassinated, followed by the prime minster the next day. It lasted 100 days, â€Å"100 days of slaughter† ending on the 18th of July 1994. The genocide included many groups. The perpetrators were – Hutu civilians, Hutu army, Interhamwe-the youth of Hutu organised into an extremist militia, and radio RTLM-a radio station announcing to kill all Tutsis. Victims included – Tutsi, Hutu political moderates for example prime minster AgatheUwilingiyimana. Other groups include – RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front). President Juvenal Habyarimana who was in charge if the Hutu government, and the international community for example the UN (United Nations) Peacekeepers. During these 100 days of slaughter hundreds of thousands of Tutsi we killed. Women and girls we raped, and many tortured by having their breast chopped off and sharp objects inserted into their vaginas. Many people tried to hind in schools and churches but were found and executed. I have just written about the context and the course of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. I am now going to write the causes of this horrific event starting with ethnic tension as a result of Belgium Colonisation. Ethnic tension as a result of Belgium Colonisation is arguably the biggest cause in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. It is a political and social cause that happened over a long period of time. Starting in 1860 and coming right down to 1926. In 1860 the first Tutsi king was appointed. In 1884 German explorer Carl Peters enters the Rwandan kingdom and obtains treaty rights. In 1885 Germany declares a protectorate over present-day Rwanda. In 1890 Rwanda accepts German colonial rule with resistance. A German territorial administrator is not appointed until 1907. In 1916 WW1 Belgium Allied Forces capture German East Africa. In 1924 Great Britten assumes control over Tanzania, while Belgium is granted trusteeship over Rwanda and Burundi. Belgium Colonisation begins. In 1926 Rwandans were given an identity card showing if a person was Hutu, Tutsi or Twa. Prior to colonisation people could ‘jump’ races e. g. Hutu’s could become Tutsi’s. Callipers were the tools of colonisation. The size of the cranium and nose and the colour of the eyes were the factors that determined whether a person was a Hutu, Tutsi or Twa. The result of the unfair system was – Tutsi could have government positions, be landlords, be supervisors of Hutu, collect taxes, get an education (only Tutsi could go to school after the colonisation), be an administrator for the justice system. Hutu were denied higher education, land ownership and positions in government. The identity cards that everyone was given were very clear they had what ethnic group they were from, their place of birth, their date of birth, their profession, their place of residence, the name of their spouse, their C. I number, and their signature. A quote form chief prosecutor of the international Rwandan court sums up this cause well â€Å"European colonial history was a major contributor to what eventually became the genocide in Rwanda†. The second cause I am going to discuss is Propaganda and hate rhetoric. This is a social Cause; it is short term because it happened quite fast after the death of the president and prime minster. Kangura Newspaper was a newspaper about how discussing the Tutsis were, this was launched by first lady AgatheHabyarimana in 1990. Kangura means wake them up in English. In the newspaper they had racist comments such as â€Å"They look like animals, actually they are animals†, â€Å"If you allow snakes to live amongst you, you will be exterminated†, â€Å"They look hideous with their bushy hair and beards that are full of fleas†. RTLM (Radio Television des Milles Collines) or commonly known as â€Å"Hate Radio†, used good rock music to get people to listen to it then they used in to convey hateful messages such as â€Å"cut down the tall trees† this meant for all Hutu extremists to wipe out the Tutsis. RTLM often referred to Tutsi as cockroaches. In 1990 Kangura newspaper published the 10 commandments for the Hutus they were an extended version of 1, Every Hutu must know that the Tutsi woman is working for the Tutsi ethnic cause Hutu is a traitor who a) Acquires a Tutsi wife, b)Acquires a Tutsi concubine, c) Acquires a Tutsi sectary or protegee. 2, Every Hutu must know that our Hutu daughters are more worthy and more conscientious as a woman, as wives and as mothers. 3, Hutu women, be vigilant and make sure that your husbands, brothers and sons see reason. , All Hutus must know that all Tutsis are dishonest in business. We have learned this from experience from experience. Hutu is a traitor who a) forms a business alliance with a Tutsi, b) invests in own funds/public funds in a Tutsi enterprise, c) Borrows money from/loans money to a Tutsi, d) Grants favours to Tutsis. 5, Strategic positions such as politics, administration, economics the military and security must be restricted to Hutu. 6, A Hutu majority must prevail throughout the education system. 7. The Rwandan Army must be exclusively Hutu. No Solider may marry Tutsi women. 8, Hutu must stop taking pity on the Tutsi. 9, Hutu wherever they are must stand united, in solidarity, and concerned with the fate of their Hutu brothers. Hutu must constantly counter Tutsi propaganda. Hutu must stand firm and vigilant against their common enemy. The Tutsi. 10, The social Revolution of 1959, the Referendum of 1961 and the Hutu Ideology must be taught to Hutu of every age. Hutu must spread the word. Any Hutu who persecutes his brother Hutu for spreading the word and teaching this ideology is a traitor. A quote from Leon Mugesera sums up this cause â€Å"The fatal mistake we made in 1959 was to let them escape †¦ they are foreigners from Ethiopia so we will send them by the shortest route throwing them into the Nagbarongo river. We must act. Wipe them all out†. The third cause I am going to discuss is the role of the international community; it is a political cause that is a short term because it became an issue soon after the colonisation. During this cause the world just stood by and watched. Following WW11 and the Holocaust, The United Nations adopted a resolution on December 9, 1948, which stated â€Å"genocide, whether committed in time of peace or time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish†. There were two opportunities to intervene that were missed. In October 1993 The United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda began with the deployment of 21 troops under the command of Brigadier – General Romeo Allaire of Canada. Additional troops continued o arrive until February 1994, when the mission was fully staffed with 25,000 personnel. Many soldiers arrived without weapons, food or water; vehicles and radios were sent out second hand from other missions and rarely in working condition. On 11th January 1994 Officers were stockpiling weapons and training civilian militias; the level of preparedness would enable the murder of 1000 Tutsis every 20 minutes. This saying will finish off this cause nicely, â€Å"clearly, the massacres in Rwanda constituted genocide, so why didn’t the world steep into stop it? In my fourth and final cause I’m going to discuss political problems (the role of the Hutu extremists in the Habyarimana government and the catalyst). This is a political cause which was short term. President Juvenal Habyarimana came to power through a military coup in 1973. He promised national unity. By 1994 many Rwandans were calling for democratic government. In January 1994 in spite of increased state oppression and the French-supported up-build of armed forces, 50,000 Rwandans marched in a pro-democracy demonstration in Kigali. The build-up to the Hutu’s wanting power is over quite a short period of time†¦ only 3 years! In October 1990 civil war started when the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a militia of Rwandan Tutsi excels and Hutu dissidents based in Uganda, invaded Rwanda. Thousands of Tutsis were arrested. In 1991 RPF military victories pressured President Habyarimana into drafting a new multi-party constitution. In 1992 UN led peace talks led between the RPF, The Rwanda government and 12 opposition parties to try and achieve a power-sharing agreement. In August 1993 Arusha Peace Accords were signed to neutral Tanzania. Hutu Power’ started broadcasting Tutsi hate messages in the media. In 1993 A Hutu Power Party no participating in the government established Radio/TV Libre de Millie Collines (RTLM) to get round the Arusha agreements explicit prohibition on government sponsored hate speech. I has been believed that the ‘final nail in coffin’ was the assignation of P resi dent Habyarimana. At 8. 30p. m on April 6, 1994, President Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda was returning from a summit in Tanzania where, under international pressure, he was negotiating with the opposition to reach a settlement. A surface-to-air missile shot the plane out of the sky. All on board were killed. I have just written about the causes of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, I am now going to write about the consequences of the ‘100 days of slaughter’. Starting with causalities. The 1994 Rwandan Genocide left behind some major consequences but beyond all others the biggest is the casualties. This is a political, social and ideological cause and is most defiantly immediate timing because it happened during genocide obviously; so many people were left both physically and mentally scared. Over the course of 100 days from April 6 – July 16 1994 it is estimated 800,000 – 1 million Tutsi and some moderate Hutu were slaughtered. The UN estimated 800,000 but the Rwandan government has estimated 1,071,000. It’s very difficult to get exact numbers because these numbers do not include people who were thrown into river/lakes and those who were burnt. Mass graves held up to 50,000 making it even harder to count exact numbers. If the numbers of Tutsis living in Rwanda before and after the genocide are correct then 77% of the Tutsi population was wiped out. 8,640 per day; 360 per hour, 6 per minute. If this is correct this is the equation 6 people x 60 minutes x 24 hours x 100 days = 864,000 people! There is between 300,000 to 400,000 survivors. Almost 50,000 women were left without husbands. Almost 100,000 of the survivors were aged between 14 and 21. 75,000 of the survivors were orphaned. A 1999 study showed 80% of women surveyed showed signs of trauma. Many face health problems such as HIV/AIDS as a direct act of violence during the genocide. Some of the survivors are still threatened with violence, attacked or killed by former perpetrators. Almost all women and girls that survived were raped, many also tortured and mutilated by having their breasts cut off and sharp objects being inserted into their vaginas. Numbers of women and girls raped are somewhere between 250,000 and 500,000 exact numbers are not known. Children of rape during the genocide numbers are 2,000 to 5,000 children. Most children show trauma and signs of neglect. More than 67% of women raped were infected with HIV/AIDS. Men with HIV/AIDS used it as a weapon to leave their mark on Tutsi women and their families. To sum up the consequence what the presiding judge said after the verdict â€Å"From time immemorial, rape has been regarded as spoils of war. Now it will be considered a war crime. We want to send out a strong message that rape is no longer a trophy of war†. In the second consequence, I am going to discuss the economic effects. This is an economic consequence and it is immediate because the things that happened during left people with big struggles. The Rwandan government has struggled to rebuild the economy. In the year of the genocide, growth slumped by 50% and inflation reached 64%. Almost two thirds of the 8. million population live below the poverty line. Coffee is Rwandans major export. Rwanda exported 14,000 tonnes in 1986. The positives of the economic problems were the exiled business leaders returning home, since the genocide in 1994 business leaders have been returning home from Burundi, Congo, Uganda and Tanzania. Desire Kamanzi’s father sold his three houses in Burundi to return to Rwanda. This was no unusual. To sum up this consequence a quote from Leon Haguma, acting director of coffee marketing â€Å"All was abandoned, they were dead or had fled the country, there was nobody to work the plantations†. In the third consequence, I am going to discuss remembrance and education. This is a social consequence because most of Rwanda have contributed in some way. It is a long term consequence because it still goes on today and the world can’t see it stopping anytime soon. The focus of remembrance is to teach the history of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide and emphasise moral values. There are many memorial sites in Rwanda, which pays tribute to the hundreds of thousands killed. Marimba Technical School, where many victims were killed and still remain as a museum. Other ways of remembrance is art and photos taken in tribute such as people standing in a line with other people laying in front making human words saying END GENOCIDE NOW! There is also a national day of reflection in Rwanda on April 7th. To sum up this consequence a quote from Kofi Annan general of the UN in 1994, â€Å"If the pictures of tens of thousands of human bodies being gnawed on by dogs do not wake us out of our apathy, I do not know what will†. The fourth and final consequence I am going to write about population displacement. This is a political and social consequence because the government feel through and society took over. This is a short term consequence because lots of people started to come back into Rwanda once the genocide was over. The 1994 Rwandan Genocide resulted in massive exodus of refugees to bordering countries. Another one million people remained internally displaced in Rwanda itself. Millions of Hutu and displaced Tutsi had crowded refugee camps beyond the Rwandan boarders. International relief efforts were mobilised to care for refugees, but available supplies were inadequate and outbreaks of disease were widespread. More than 20,000 refugees died in cholera epidemic. During the genocide Tutsi and Hutu moderates fled. From April 1994 Tutsi and Hutu moderate refugees poured out of Rwanda and into neighbouring countries. After the genocide Tutsi refugees returned. In July 1994 when the seize fire was called Tutsis began to return to Rwanda, including refugees who had fled in the 1960’s. Hutu perpetrators fled the country. Genocide only ended when the RPF eventually defeated the Rwandan government’s armies and took control of the country. Retaliatory violence by Tutsis caused thousands of lives. By mid July, and estimated 2 million Hutu perpetrators and bystanders had fled. 850,000 refugees entered the area in just 4 days. During the influx, 15,000 refugees an hour crossed the Rwanda-Zaire boarder. The camps became like countries in exile for the Hutu extremists who used members of the Hutu army to maintain control of the refugee camps. Between July and November 1996 the refugee camps were shut down. One million exiles returned to Rwanda including tens of thousands of perpetrators who had been living side by side with Tutsi in the refugee camps. In November 1996 more than 600,000 Hutu refugees returned to Rwanda from Zaire. In December 500,000 returned from Tanzania. In summery†¦ Ironically, both Hutu perpetrators and Tutsi and Hutu moderate victims ended up in the same camps. In conclusion the causes I have just written about were the ethnic tension as a result of Belgium Colonisation, Propaganda and hate rhetoric, the role of the international community, political problems. The consequences I have just written about were the casualties, the economic effects, remembrance and education, and population displacement. All of these were major events that happened before, during and after the 1994 Rwanda Genocide there were also a number of other causes and consequences, causes are economic problems, and independence problems. The consequences were political effects, apologies from the international community, and justice, responsibility & reconciliation. A quote to sum up the 1994 Rwandan Genocide is, â€Å"The Rwandan Genocide is perhaps the most horrible and systematic human massacre we have had to witness since the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis†. 1994 Rwandan Genocide. (2016, Sep 13).

Friday, October 18, 2019

Chinese Foreign Direct Investment Research Paper

Chinese Foreign Direct Investment - Research Paper Example This study examines Chinese investments in Zambia as foreign aid to the country. The general objective of the paper will be to find out whether Chinese foreign direct investments could lead to the long-term economic growth of Zambia. The paper seeks to fulfill these specific objectives:  This study examines Chinese investments in Zambia as foreign aid to the country. The general objective of the paper will be to find out whether Chinese foreign direct investments could lead to the long-term economic growth of Zambia. The paper seeks to fulfill these specific objectives:  1) To find out the extent of Chinese foreign direct investments in the Zambian Mines2) To establish the impact of the Chinese foreign direct investments on the performance of mining firms in Zambia.3) To investigate the effects of the mining firms on the economic growth of Zambia both in the short-term and long-term.Study questions based on the above objectives, this research will seek to answer these research qu estions regarding the foreign direct investment of China in Zambian Mining firms.  1) What is the extent of the Chinese Foreign direct investments in Zambian mining firms?2) What is the impact of the Chinese foreign direct investment on the performance of the Mining firms in Zambia?3) What is the existing relationship between Chinese foreign direct investments with short and long-term economic growth of Zambia?Study HypothesisThe Zambian economy is a small open economy that depends on the inflows of the foreign direct investments from China and export of the mining products from its economy. Therefore, this study seeks to fulfill the hypothesis that the Zambian economic growth is positively related to the FDI from China and increased export of Zambian mining products. Literature Review Financial Crisis and Chinese Economy The business environment experiences cycles that occur in different periods. Some of the cycles include the boom, recession, depression and lastly growth. As noted by Gruen, a recession is a cycle that occurs immediately after a boom. It

Library Research Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Library Research Assignment - Essay Example Using this business model, the company can sell its products to the customers present in different parts of the world. An appropriate business model is one of the key necessities in upgrading a company to the world of e-commerce. Benefits of the Website for the Company E-Business means running a business using internet technologies in order to improve the level of profits, as well as to expand the business. In today’s world of competition, it has become the need of every retailer to have online presence to increase the level of sales. In this regard, website plays the role of the most important player as it is the main way to make people aware of the products and services being offered by the company. As Holub (2005) asserts, â€Å"one of the easiest ways to help your business gain more exposure and potential customers is to have a professionally developed website† (p. 1). Our company, A to Z Laptops, will also make use of a website for marketing purposes. The company w ill have an attractive website which will be placed on the most famous search engines, such as, Yahoo and Google in order to be searchable for general users in a convenient manner. The website will perform all key business operations that include marketing, sales, customer support, and internal communications. The website will also reduce the need of having a physical location for trading. A perfectly designed and user-friendly website will provide a lot of benefits to A to Z Laptops. Some of these benefits include increased volume of sales through attracting more customers, improved and efficient customer service, increased business credibility, and reduced business operating cost. Benefits of Internet for the Company Some of the main benefits of internet for A to Z Laptops include internet marketing to enable the business reach international markets, online communication system to serve customers’ queries, and email system to improve customer service. A to Z Laptops can use many methods to sell its services to the customers. Some of the most popular ways include classified ads, internet marketing, selling through company’s website, and email marketing. Online ads and promotions hold a key place in internet marketing. A to Z Laptops can use promotion techniques and ads placed over famous websites and search engines to make people aware of the products of the company. The company can also make use of emails as a direct marketing tool. As Williams (2012) states, â€Å"e-mail marketing is the oldest method to reach the prospects and maintain goodwill in the market† (p. 1). The company’s officials can use emails to send relationship-building and personalized messages to the targeted population. A major benefit of direct marketing is that it reduces marketing costs (Ojha, 2012). The company cal also use social networking websites to improve the process of socialization and increase public awareness about new technologies. Such websites are a great way to reach a large number of people (Hawkins, 2012). Functional Specifications The key electronic business processes of A to Z Laptops will include internet marketing, electronic processing of order, and electronic customer service. We will establish our contacts with the online suppliers of the computer accessories and laptops to ensure provision of items to customers on the due date and time. We will put a link in the

Origin of Sin Thesis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Origin of Sin - Thesis Example It is not always that people come up with one agreed upon explanation on the origin of whatever they were trying to address. For again, it is human nature to disagree, and this explains why there are very many views that try to explain the origin of a single phenomenon. There are those who believe that the world was created, while others believe that it evolved. Every side of the debate is backed by what they believe to be irrefutable evidence to back their claims. The same applies to the debate that surrounds the origin of evil. It is a fact that evil exists in our society. To understand it, it is important to first discern its origins. Many views exist on the origin of evil. The most notable ones are the Christianity and scientific views. Christian or what is commonly referred to as Augustinian view contends that when God created the world, it was good and perfect, devoid of evil. But something happened down the line that polluted the serenity of the universe. This school of thought credits the devil as been the source of all evil in the world. The second school of thought believes that there is a gene that causes men to behave wickedly. It is what they refer to as the evil gene. This paper is going to compare and contrast these two views. Augustine, and in extension all those who subscribe to this view, base their explanation on the writings to be found in the bible. ... "To know the truth about origins, we have to consult the bible".1 This is to be found in the book of genesis, where the story of the creation is told. According to MacArthur, the first and second chapters of the book of genesis explain on the origin of the universe2. This means that these two chapters explain the story of the creation. But the chapter that is of interest when it comes to origin of evil is the third one. In genesis Chapter 1, we read "everything God has made was very good. He rested on the seventh day of creation"3 (verse 31). This goes to show that God had created an evil free universe. But that is not the case today. We live in a world where evil reigns. So what happened If God, the creator of all things, did not create evil, where did it come from The answer to this question is to be found in chapter three of the same book. We read here that Satan took the form of a serpent and convinced Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. This was where the evil began, since the tree was banned for the duo's consumption by God. By eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve went against the will of God. This was the original sin, the cradle of all evil. From this reading, we can see that evil originated from Satan. The problem with the story of creation when it comes to explaining the origin of evil is that God is the creator of all things. This is well captured in the bible. The reasoning progresses through three premises. The first is that "God created all things"4. The second premise is that "evil is a thing"5. The third premise connects the previous two by stating that "God created evil"6. If the previous two premises hold, then it is only logical that the third premise is also true.

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Adam Smith Wealth of Nations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Adam Smith Wealth of Nations - Essay Example Smith is actually considered to be the Father of Modern Economics.Adam Smith's ideas as reflected in his work are still relevant today. His concept of free-trade is still what majority of the world's economy is practicing. Free trade, according to Smith, is the ability of the economy to produce the sufficient amount of goods and provide different varieties with the guidance of what he calls "the invisible hand." If there is a shortage of a certain product, price tends to increase which, in turn, gives higher profit to the producers. This entices more producers to enter the market which leads to the increase in supply of the product and more competition among the producers. Given this condition, price naturally gets lower. Once the price gets too low that the producers would incur losses than profits, they will be out of business. Although this competition can be due to human's pursuit of self-interest, this benefits the society as a whole by keeping the prices of goods at a low level and, at the same time, having a variety of products and services.This idea is what happens in our modern economic society. Businesses get into the market because they can see a potential profitable market. And what prevents these businesses to monopolize in their field is the fact that there will be other businesses or individuals who would want to get into the same market and have a fair competition.

Why organisations should be concerned with high levels of labour Essay

Why organisations should be concerned with high levels of labour turnover and what can organisations do in an attempt to reduce it - Essay Example These people thereby tend to drift away from the main organisational objective and in a bid of frustration turn out from the organisation. Similarly a concern rendering enhanced emphasis on the training activities but working less on helping to enhance the productivity of the workforce also face similar problems. The organisation with less focus on enhancing the compensation aspects and also in rendering of other benefits happens to disturb the interest and productivity of the workers. Workers would thus endeavour to shift from such no gains concern to high gain jobs where they would be able to gain high increments both in the compensation package and other benefits. Thus absence of proper supervision and training mechanism coupled with a poor pay package with no proper increments happens to provoke the employees to take to new jobs. Hence the event of labour turnover significantly emerges onto the business scenario (Mudor and Tooksoon, 2011, pp.41-45; Aswathappa, 2007, p.615). The f actors that contribute to the growth of labour turnover problems in the organisation can be broadly grouped into two main types-internal and external. In the internal scenario the employees can get frustrated owing to the internal job policies of the concern for which they tend to quit the concern. The policies of the concern can largely change in relation to the technological and structural framework of the concern making the employees feel uncertain about their job and employee security. This tantamount to the employees seeking jobs in other stable concerns. Moreover a change in the management structure of the concern also happens to change the outlook of the supervisory tem... The paper tells that employees are concerned as the life blood of the organisations. The organisational managers are concerned in effectively managing this large pool of human resources through proper training and motivational functions. Training helps in enhancing the productivity mechanisms of the workers and also develops the relationship between the employer and the employees. Similarly different motivational activities both financial and non-financial are also taken to retain the employee base in the concern. Organisations in such approaches tend to render large amount of investment and thereby would endeavour to gain effective returns out of such. Therefore it is highly needed by a business concern to minimize the amount of employee turnover as it happens to impact the profitability parameter of the concern. Employee turnovers in a firm can occur both in a voluntary and in an involuntary manner. Voluntarily the employees can leave the firm owing to rising job pressures or being unable to fit into the required job role. Again a sudden accident or fatal event can lead the concern lose an employee. The employee turnover activity adds to the cost of the concern in that the concern would need to hire another employee to fill the post thus enhancing the recruitment cost. Again losing a skilled an experienced employee leads to considerable productivity loss for the concern. Labour turnover as an incident results in the organisation losing a large pool of effective human resources that would help in enhancing the productivity potential of the concern.

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Origin of Sin Thesis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Origin of Sin - Thesis Example It is not always that people come up with one agreed upon explanation on the origin of whatever they were trying to address. For again, it is human nature to disagree, and this explains why there are very many views that try to explain the origin of a single phenomenon. There are those who believe that the world was created, while others believe that it evolved. Every side of the debate is backed by what they believe to be irrefutable evidence to back their claims. The same applies to the debate that surrounds the origin of evil. It is a fact that evil exists in our society. To understand it, it is important to first discern its origins. Many views exist on the origin of evil. The most notable ones are the Christianity and scientific views. Christian or what is commonly referred to as Augustinian view contends that when God created the world, it was good and perfect, devoid of evil. But something happened down the line that polluted the serenity of the universe. This school of thought credits the devil as been the source of all evil in the world. The second school of thought believes that there is a gene that causes men to behave wickedly. It is what they refer to as the evil gene. This paper is going to compare and contrast these two views. Augustine, and in extension all those who subscribe to this view, base their explanation on the writings to be found in the bible. ... "To know the truth about origins, we have to consult the bible".1 This is to be found in the book of genesis, where the story of the creation is told. According to MacArthur, the first and second chapters of the book of genesis explain on the origin of the universe2. This means that these two chapters explain the story of the creation. But the chapter that is of interest when it comes to origin of evil is the third one. In genesis Chapter 1, we read "everything God has made was very good. He rested on the seventh day of creation"3 (verse 31). This goes to show that God had created an evil free universe. But that is not the case today. We live in a world where evil reigns. So what happened If God, the creator of all things, did not create evil, where did it come from The answer to this question is to be found in chapter three of the same book. We read here that Satan took the form of a serpent and convinced Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. This was where the evil began, since the tree was banned for the duo's consumption by God. By eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve went against the will of God. This was the original sin, the cradle of all evil. From this reading, we can see that evil originated from Satan. The problem with the story of creation when it comes to explaining the origin of evil is that God is the creator of all things. This is well captured in the bible. The reasoning progresses through three premises. The first is that "God created all things"4. The second premise is that "evil is a thing"5. The third premise connects the previous two by stating that "God created evil"6. If the previous two premises hold, then it is only logical that the third premise is also true.

Why organisations should be concerned with high levels of labour Essay

Why organisations should be concerned with high levels of labour turnover and what can organisations do in an attempt to reduce it - Essay Example These people thereby tend to drift away from the main organisational objective and in a bid of frustration turn out from the organisation. Similarly a concern rendering enhanced emphasis on the training activities but working less on helping to enhance the productivity of the workforce also face similar problems. The organisation with less focus on enhancing the compensation aspects and also in rendering of other benefits happens to disturb the interest and productivity of the workers. Workers would thus endeavour to shift from such no gains concern to high gain jobs where they would be able to gain high increments both in the compensation package and other benefits. Thus absence of proper supervision and training mechanism coupled with a poor pay package with no proper increments happens to provoke the employees to take to new jobs. Hence the event of labour turnover significantly emerges onto the business scenario (Mudor and Tooksoon, 2011, pp.41-45; Aswathappa, 2007, p.615). The f actors that contribute to the growth of labour turnover problems in the organisation can be broadly grouped into two main types-internal and external. In the internal scenario the employees can get frustrated owing to the internal job policies of the concern for which they tend to quit the concern. The policies of the concern can largely change in relation to the technological and structural framework of the concern making the employees feel uncertain about their job and employee security. This tantamount to the employees seeking jobs in other stable concerns. Moreover a change in the management structure of the concern also happens to change the outlook of the supervisory tem... The paper tells that employees are concerned as the life blood of the organisations. The organisational managers are concerned in effectively managing this large pool of human resources through proper training and motivational functions. Training helps in enhancing the productivity mechanisms of the workers and also develops the relationship between the employer and the employees. Similarly different motivational activities both financial and non-financial are also taken to retain the employee base in the concern. Organisations in such approaches tend to render large amount of investment and thereby would endeavour to gain effective returns out of such. Therefore it is highly needed by a business concern to minimize the amount of employee turnover as it happens to impact the profitability parameter of the concern. Employee turnovers in a firm can occur both in a voluntary and in an involuntary manner. Voluntarily the employees can leave the firm owing to rising job pressures or being unable to fit into the required job role. Again a sudden accident or fatal event can lead the concern lose an employee. The employee turnover activity adds to the cost of the concern in that the concern would need to hire another employee to fill the post thus enhancing the recruitment cost. Again losing a skilled an experienced employee leads to considerable productivity loss for the concern. Labour turnover as an incident results in the organisation losing a large pool of effective human resources that would help in enhancing the productivity potential of the concern.

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Human Resource Management in Canada Essay Example for Free

Human Resource Management in Canada Essay The human resource department of any company plays a significant role to the advancement of its employees as well as the increase of the company’s profits and improvement of the manner of production. Although the process of hiring employees may appear to be a simple task, the execution thereof as well as the complications and intricacies involved in the process is not that easy to counter. The job of the human resource department, according to Dessler and Cole is two-fold. First the human resource is responsible for the handling of the hiring of employees. They assess the qualifications of the employees and determine if their skills and capabilities are suited for the job that they are applying for. It is essential that the human resource adequately match the capabilities and educational attainment of the applicant as this will benefit the company in the long run. Hiring employees who cannot deliver the expectations of the company from them will not only be problematic, it will also unjustly drain the resources of the company. Another role of the human resource is to employ individuals who will meet the strategic goals of the company. Going over the qualifications of an applicant is not enough in order to complete the task of hiring. There must be a suitable position for him and the placement of this individual to such position should be made not just because of pure discretion but also in order to meet the goals of the company. There should be human resource planning in order to anticipate the future needs and demands of the company. Without this process, it will be more difficult for companies to combat the different challenges that may hamper their path to success. Having strategic goals mean evaluating the available resources of the company and the needs thereof. This is important so as to avoid the creation of redundant positions and it will also allow the employees and the management to maximize their skills and resources respectively. There are several ways and means in order to plan for the human resource needs of a company. Among these ways are the quantitative techniques for forecasting and the two qualitative techniques which are utilized for forecasting demand. Aside from setting the strategic goals of the company, there is also a need for the human resource department to go through job analysis. Through the job analysis, the people from the human resources department of a company will investigate and collect data regarding the needs of the company. Dessler and Cole have indicated six steps in order to complete the process of job analysis and they are as follows: determining the information that will be assessed, collecting background information, selecting the positions as well as the jobs that will be analyzed, collecting the available data, reviewing the information which are collected with the superiors, and developing the specifications of the job as well as the job descriptions. After the creation of a plan, recruitment and the assessment of the qualifications of the applicant, the human resource department goes through reference checking. This is very essential as the process will spill relevant information about the applicant. Once the human resource is satisfied with the qualification and the information gathered about the applicant, the latter will go through a training period. This process will show whether or not the applicant is capable of meeting the expectations from him. Orientation follows after the hiring. Through the orientation process, the newly-hired employee become knowledgeable with the do’s and dont’s in the company and for them to be fully aware of the systems and procedures. The job however of the human resource does not end in the hiring of the employee. Just like a guardian, the human resource continuously oversees the performance of the employee. Such performance will be used as the basis of the employee is entitled to a promotion or to the assignment of different tasks. Overseeing the performance of the employee is not limited to his work productivity. Other factors such as work ethics and the way the employee deals with his superiors, subordinates and other co-employees will also be assessed. The information gathered in this process may be instrumental in deciding issues which may concern the employee in the future. In addition to the task of overseeing the employees, it is also the job of the human resource to determine the ways and means to motivate employees and improve their performance. Among these methods are the appraisal and giving of additional pay or benefits to those who have exhibited excellent performance. Coming up with effective incentive plans may increase the productivity of the employees and yield to the increase in profits that employers are looking for. In the creation of such plans, the interests and needs of the employees should be taken into consideration in order to attain the greater success rate. In order to determine what the employees desire, it is important that the human resource make an effort to establish good communication relations with them. Good communication as well as the imposition of proper and fair treatment may help the company in avoiding labor cases. The human resource should take an extra effort to make sure that the employees are short changed by the company or the other way around. The human resource should make sure that the employees’ rights are not being violated. The role that the human resource undertakes is very important to the advancement of the company since they handle all matters which concern the employeesthe life blood of every company. Without the human resource, the company may face great difficulties in attaining the progress that it desires.

Monday, October 14, 2019

Concepts and Theories of Auditing

Concepts and Theories of Auditing Auditing has been present for years in different stage of development following the evolution of accounting. Starting since the epoch when the records were approved after a public reading, to the era when governments officials were measured by their honesty. Followed by the times of the industrial revolution were the ownership of companies started separating from management; when owners required more protection of their investments increasing the use of auditors, consequently; to the times were an auditor was always searching for frauds or errors (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 7) and then to ascertain the actual financial condition and earnings of an enterprise (Montgomery, 1913, p. 9). However, the acceptance of auditing as an academic discipline is not old and just after the development of different concepts and techniques within the audit model such as the use of sampling, the study of the internal control environment, and the risk assessment, is when more focus to the theoretical and conceptual framework of auditing it is been devoted. Andrew Sayer (1992) discussed the concept of theories in social science from the perspective of theory as an ordering-framework (p. 50), indicating that theory allows the use of the observed data and their relationships to predict and explain empirical events. Additionally Cooper and Schindler (1998) define theory as a set of systematically interrelated concepts, definitions, and propositions that are advanced to explain and predict phenomena (facts) (p. 47). Another concept is expressed by Singleton and Straits (2005) explaining theory as a set of interconnected propositions (p. 19). The success in the explanations or predictions of any phenomena depends on the level that the theory holds and do not fails fitting in the situation, and the challenge is to perfect the process of matching theory and fact (Cooper and Schindler (1998). Different authors have started the development of the audit theory such as Mautz and Sharaf (1961) with their publication titled The Philosophy of Auditing; also Tom Lee (1986) with his approach in the book Company Auditing, and later David Flint (1988) with his book Philosophy and principles of auditing (as cited in Moizer, 1989). The auditing analysis in this demonstration will be framed on the postulates proposed by David Flint (1988) as a foundation for the theory of auditing. Flint (1988) stated that there is a matter of public accountability demanding an independent audit for its demonstration with clear definition and intention, based on evidence that only skilled auditors gather, measure it, and compare it against the standards, which generates economic or social benefit (as cited in Moizer, 1989). Following are the seven postulates or assumptions stated by Flint (1988): There is a relationship of accountability or a situation of public accountability. Accountability cannot be demonstrated without an audit. An audit requires independence and freedom. The subject matter of audit is susceptible to verification by evidence. Auditors are skilled judges who are able to measure and compare actual performance against standards of accountability. The meaning, significance, and intention of statements to be audited must be clear. An audit produces an economic or social benefit. (Flink, 1989) Whenever an economic relationship exists one of the parties owe a duty of an acceptable accountability, consequently audits are voluntary, imposed for the health of the relationship. There are also audit related to the interest of the public in matters of the society institutions. As expressed by Whittington and Pany (2004) dependable information is essential to the very existence of our society (p. 1). They explained the social need for audit and professionals who can attest that the reported information is fair respect to the reality for purpose of allocating resources for the production of services and goods based on reliable financial information (p. 1). Normally the financial and economic aspects of the related subject matter are complex, not physically accessible, or have the level of significance that necessary demand an audit to accept the accountability. No all investors or stakeholders of an entity understand the complexity of the business and financial environment, or are near to the place were their resources are to oversee for accountability. The credibility of the information is important and the preferable form of obtaining credible information to rely on is by using independent auditors to perform an audit. That reduce the business risk that relates to the permanence and profits of the company, and the information risk that the financial information used to make a decision is materially misstated (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 6). Therefore, if the audit must add credibility it must be performed independently and without bias or prejudice. Audit is subject to verification and that is possible only if sufficient evidential matter of the audit is gathered. Additionally, some standards of accountability and performance need to be in place to easy the auditors measurement. Therefore, the parties involved must agree on their acceptable standards. The auditing community has set some professional guidance as a form of general accepted practiced standards. For an audit to add value to the financial information, the purpose of the information should be clear, and the findings effectively communicated. The audit should be performed only when its benefits weigh more than the costs. As a consequence auditors should be aware of the cost of collecting evidence especially in situation were the risk is high. The practice of auditing auditors agree on an attest engagement in which they issue or does issue an examination, a review, or an agreed-upon procedures report on subject matter or an assertion about subject matter that is the responsibility of another party (e.g., management) (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 2). In an examination of financial statement, referred to as an audit the standards may be the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), and the auditors collect sufficient evidence to attest about how fair is the information in the financial statement respect to the GAAP. However, here are three types of audits: (a) audits of financial statements, (b) compliance audits, and (c) operational audits. Financial audits determine if the statements were prepared according with GAAP. Compliance audit verifies if the company had complies with law, regulations or polices and procedures. Finally, operational audits review the effectiveness and efficiency of particular unit of an organization (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 11). Relative to the public accounting standards, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) has developed the framework for the general accepted auditing standards (GAAS), which are the fundamentals principles of independent auditing in the U. S. The framework is divided in three major areas that are summarized as follow: General standards. A professional possessing adequate technical training and proficiency, independent in mental attitude and free from bias and with professional care planning and performing diligently, perform the audit. Standards of field work. The audit should be adequate planned and the staff properly supervised. Auditor should acquire sufficient understanding of the internal control environment to be able to determine the weak areas, and gather sufficient competent evidence to support their conclusions. Standards of reporting. The final report should state if the statements are consistent with GAAP and if necessary indicate those circumstances departing from GAAP, include adequate informative disclosure, and includes the opinion of the auditors about the financial statements. Likewise, the AICPA has issued a series of auditing standards on auditing procedure, auditing and accounting guides, and auditing statements of position, to help auditor in the fulfillment of their responsibility of detecting misstatement (Whittington Pany, 2004, pp. 34-35). Auditing involve a serious processes that expose auditors to a different situations in which they need to exercise professional ethics. Those moral principles and values leading decisions and actions of the profession of auditing are provided by the AICPA in the Code of Professional Conduct, and by the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Code of Ethics. Normally auditors are involved in a decision process of ethical dimension. CPAs decisions during performing their duties can affect thousands of investors and their resources; therefore, they need to measure the implication of their decisions. Additionally, as Whittington and Pany (2004) indicated, what is considered unethical in a particular society is not specifically prohibited (p. 11), giving relevance and support to the need for the establishment of those principles and values in the accounting and auditing profession. The public accounting, as well as the rest of professions, has the following characteristics: (a) their responsibility to serve the public with independence and due care with fairness and free from bias. (b) Involves a complex body of knowledge that includes different authoritative pronouncements of standards and principles governing the profession and the financial reports due to the need of technical competency. (c) Has establishes some standard of admission to the profession that each CPA is required to meet. In addition (d), need public confidence to be successful (Whittington Pany, 2004, pp. 61-62). The AICPA leads public accountants to recognize their responsibility to the public in general, to their clients, and to the profession. The section one of the code of conduct describes the organization and CPAs principles of responsibilities, public interest, integrity, objectivity and independence, due care, and scope and nature of services. The section two depicts the institutes rules that are compounded by the following: independence, integrity and objectivity, general standards, compliance with standards, accounting principles, confidential client information, contingent fees, acts discreditable, advertising and other forms of solicitation, commissions and referral fees, and form of organization and name (Whittington Pany, 2004, pp. 63-83). Similarly, the IIA has their own code of ethics divided in three main sections, an introductory section, principles, and rules of conduct. Their principles apply to the profession and practice of the internal auditing, and include integrity, objectivity confidentiality, and competency. The IIA rules on conduct include integrity, objectivity, confidentiality, and competency (Whittington Pany, 2004, pp. 83-84). The IIA is the organization that provides the standards for the professional practice of internal auditing. As it can be deduced from the previous summaries, both institutes the IACPA and the IIA require high level of self-discipline and commitment to a honorable professional behavior, integrating similar principles of integrity, objectivity, and competence. Their rules differ in the fact that internal auditors perform internally; public accountants attest on the financial statements to the company as outsiders performing professionally to honor the public trust. However, the concept of independence is common to both ramification of auditing because it refers to the ability to maintain and objective and impartial mental attitude (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 66), and without of conflict of interest. After the previous review of the auditing theory and how CPAs support it with a professional framework that includes principles, ethical codes, and general accepted standards for the auditing practice, the following section depicts a discussion of audit procedures as well as an introduction of important concepts that are fundamental part of the theory of auditing and the auditing practice. The Audit Procedures The ultimate product after the performance of an audit is the issuance of a report indicating if the financial statements audited comply with GAAP. Sufficient evidence must support the audit report and such evidence is gathered and documented by exercising rigorous procedures that, among other important goals, help the auditors in assessing the risk of misstatement. According to Whittington and Pany (2004), audit procedures involve: (a) the understanding of the client, the business, and industry to use it in assessing risks; (b) the understanding of the internal control environment; (c) the design and performance of controls testing to assess how effective the controls are in preventing or detecting material misstatements; and (d) the design and performance of substantive procedures that include analytical procedures, direct testing of transactions and ending balances (pp. 138-139). Because the internal control is the focus of interest for this demonstration, a separate section will discuss it. The substantive procedures include analytical procedures, the testing of transactions, and the testing of the ending balances on the statements. Analytical procedures consist of an analysis and evaluation of the information present in the financial statements, and a review of the relationship between financial and nonfinancial information. The assumption behind the analytical procedures is that the relationship and trend of the financial information is expected to follow the historical data and projections of the business and in contrary situation evidence must be obtained to support the reasonability of the changes (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 141). Different techniques are use during the analytical procedures. From simple verification of a number to complicated mathematical models, such the comparison of cumulative expenses and revenues with prior years to find significant differences, the use of multiple regression model to estimate revenues by using economic and industry data, and ratio analysis and its comparison with other businesses in the same industry (Whittington Pany, 2004 (p. 141). The testing procedures seek to prove the occurrence and correct recognition of transactions, and prove of existence and misstatements on what the ending balances represent. The substantive testing procedures are performed as an interim mode before year-end, and then after the business year-end. The level of risk established by the auditors during the overall business assessment guides the extent of the substantive audit procedures. The greater the risk of material misstatement the greater the needed extent of substantive procedures (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 139), but always keeping under evaluation the cost-benefit relation of increasing the procedures to perform. Among the most common test performed in an audit process, Whittington and Pany (2004) summarized the following: Accounting System: Comparison-Agreeing amounts from different internal records. Documentary evidence: Tracing-Establishing the completeness of transaction processing by following a transaction forward through the accounting records. Vouching-Establishing the existence or occurrence of recorded transactions by following a transaction back to supporting documents forms a subsequent processing step. Inspection-Reading or point-by-point review of a document or record (the terms examine, review, read, and scan are used to describe the inspection technique). Reconciliation-Establishing agreement between two sets of independently maintained but related records. Third-party representation: Confirmation and evaluating a response from a debtor, creditor, or other party in reply to a request for information about a particular item affecting the financial statements. Physical evidence: Physical examination-viewing physical evidence of an asset. Observation-viewing a client activity. Computations: Reperformance-repeating a client activity. This may include operations such as footing (providing the total of a vertical column of figures); cross footing (proving the total of a horizontal row of figures); and extending (re-computing by multiplication). Data interrelationships: Analytical procedures-Evaluation of financial information made by a study of expected relationships among financial and nonfinancial data. Client representations: Inquires-questions directed toward appropriate client personnel. According to Whittington and Pany (2004), auditors also collect evidence from some subjective areas such as the accounting estimates, the fair market value measurement and disclosures, and transactions with related parties (pp. 146-148). After the development of audit procedures auditors test for existence or occurrence to search for misstatements and completeness searching for understatement, from transactions start to finish, and they test the accounting system from source documents to journals to ledgers. (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 195). The audit program includes two main parts, the assessment of the effectiveness of the client internal controls, and substantive testing. Normally the system portion of an audit program is divided by cycle such as revenue, purchasing and payments, production, payroll, investing, and financing (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 196). Audit Risk The risk concept is use in different disciplines for different purposes. A simple definition of the concept is that: risk is the level of exposure to the chance that some event happens. The event might be beneficial or prejudicial, or might have subsequent implications to other situations or process. Therefore, in business there is a risk of losing money, a risk of fraud, and a risk of misstatement the financial information. As consequence, business and individuals manage risk and the level of exposure to specific risk according to their judgment. The audit process involves the management of risk in different areas with the goal to reduce it to the minimum level possible. Whittington and Pany (2004) introduced some of the risks concepts such as: business risk, the risk associated with a companys survival and profitability (p. 6). Information risk, the risk that the information used to assess business risk is not accurate (p. 6). Audit risk, the risk that the auditors may unknowingly fail to appropriately modify the opinion on financial statements that are materially misstated (p. 35). Inherent risk, the possibility of a material misstatement of an assertion before considering the clients internal control (p.128). Control risk, the risk that a material misstatement will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis by the clients internal control (p. 129) Detection risk, the risk that the auditors will fail to detect the misstatement with their audit procedures (p. 129). Within the audit risk, auditors assess the risk level of occurrence of the different form of misstatement of financial statement, such as errors, fraud, and illegal acts. In measuring audit risk auditors use the following model: AR = IR x CR x DR Where: AR = Audit risk, IR = Inherent risk, CR = Control risk, and DR = Detection risk. (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 130) Additionally, because the auditors are expose to some legal responsibility and are subject to be sued by any clients stakeholder, they have to take in consideration the reputation of the management, financial strength, and other financial rating to assess the overall risk or engagement risk of the association with that particular business (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 174). The process of planning the audit involves the understanding of the client and its environment, an overall audit strategy, and the risk assessment of financial statements material misstatement. Therefore, auditors seek to understand the nature of the client and accounting polices, the industry, regulations and external factors affecting the client, the clients objectives, strategies, and related business risk, how the client measure and review performance, and the internal control environment. (Whittington Pany, 2004, pp. 179-180). Consequently, auditors use different sources to obtain the client overall understanding. That includes electronic research tools, visit to different plant or location of the client, and some analytical procedures. (Whittington Pany, 2004, pp. 181-183). A Companys internal control consists of the policies and procedures established to provide reasonable assurance that the objectives of the company will be achieved; including the clients internal control, they could identify areas of strength as well as of weakness. The stronger the internal control, the less testing of financial statement account balances required by the auditors. For any significant account or any phase of financial operation in which controls were weak, the auditors expanded the nature and extent of their tests of the account balance. With the increased reliance on sampling and internal control, professional standards began to emphasize limitations on auditors ability to detect fraud. The profession recognized that audits designed to discover fraud would be too costly. Good internal control and surety bonds were recognized as better fraud protection techniques than audits. (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 8) The assessment of inherent risk involves considering the likelihood that material misstatement in financial statement will result, and each risk related to the management assertions. At this stage, auditors identify what it is not correct or the significant risk by area and based on that assessment they adjust their approach, modifying the nature, timing, and extent of the audit procedures (Whittington Pany, 2004, pp. 188-189). Audit Evidence Evidence is all data and information gathered by the auditors to support auditors conclusions. The importance of the evidence is that audit risk is reduced by gathering audit evidence (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 127) and when the risk is high more evidence is necessary as well as the increasing the coverage of audit procedures. According to Whittington and Pany (2004), evidence need to be collected for each financial statement assertion sufficiently to support their opinion. As issued in the Statement of Auditing Standard (SAS) 31 about evidential matter, the financial statement assertions are the following: Existence or occurrence-assets, liabilities, and owners equity reflected in the financial statements exist; the recorded transactions have occurred. Completeness-all transactions, assets, liabilities, and owners equity that should be presented in the financial statements are included. Rights and obligations-the client has rights to assets and obligation to pay liabilities that are included in the financial statements. Valuation or allocation-assets, liabilities, owners equity, revenues, and expenses are presented at amounts that are determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Presentation and disclosure-accounts are described and classified in the financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and all material disclosures are provides. (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 174) The above assertions are the base for the risk assessment performed by auditors, and to determine misstatements possible to occur and consequently decide the audit procedure to exercise. Guidelines are included in the SAS 31 regarding what sufficient competent evidence is, which relates to the quantity of evidence auditors should collect. The competence of the evidence is determined by the combined condition of relevant and valid. That means that it most related to the assertion, and that it is dependent on the circumstance in which it is obtained. The reliability or validity of the evidence increase when is received from independent sources, when is produced by an effective internal control, gathered directly by the auditor, is documented, obtained from original documents, and when is received from more than one source (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 132). Different types of audit evidence is obtained by the auditors such as accounting information system, internal and external documentary evidence, third-party representations such as confirmations, reports, and lawyers letters; physical evidence such as fixed assets and inventory, computations re-performance, data interrelationships of financial and nonfinancial information, and client representations oral and in writing (Whittington Pany, 2004, pp. 131-137). An important supporting evidence of the audit report and conclusions is the audit documentation, which is required by the SAS 96 for the auditors understanding and review of the audit work, the nature of audit work performed, and to show the agreement between the records and the financial statements. The working papers have some important functions: (a) are the best way to assign and coordinate the auditing work, (b) help audit managers and partners in the supervision and reviewing or the work of assistants, (c) support the audit reports, (d) documents the auditors compliance with GAAS, and (d) assist in the conduction of future audit to the client (Whittington Pany, 2004, pp. 148-150). The working papers are confidential and unrestricted documentation owned by the auditors, principally because they represent the major factor to use in case of negligence charges. Part of the working paper are the administrative working papers, the working trial balance, separate schedules, adjusting journal entries and supporting schedules, and analysis of ledgers accounts such as a reconciliation, computational working paper, corroborating documents. They are filed in two major groups, permanent file, and current files (Whittington Pany, 2004, pp. 151-158). Audit Sampling As a large-scale corporate grow rapidly auditors began to sample selected transactions, rather than study all transactions. Auditors and business managers gradually came to accept the proposition that careful examination of relatively few selected transactions would give a cost-effective, reliable indication of the accuracy of other similar transactions (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 8). As explained before, auditors need sufficient and competent evidence to support their conclusions, but because business grows involving high volume of economic events and transactions, they need to rely in sampling testing. Audit sampling can be statistical or no statistical, involves the selection of a sample from a group of items and the use of the sample characteristics presuming that the auditors can draw inferences about the whole population. (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 309). From the previous sampling introduction, we have the sample risk that is the risk that the auditors conclusion based on a sample might be different if they examine the whole population. According to Whittington and Pany (2004) sampling risk is reduced by increasing the size of the sample (p. 309) or by auditing the whole population. Auditors use statistical and no statistical sampling to perform a random selection, which involve that every item in the population has an equal chance of being selected for inclusion in the sample. Different techniques are used such as random number tables, random number generators, systematic selection, haphazard selection, block selection, and stratification (Whittington Pany, 2004, pp. 310-313). There is a sample risk for test of controls in which auditors face the risk of assessing control risk too high, which is related to efficiency, or too low based on the operating effectiveness of the control. The AICAP guide suggest the statistical sample sizes for tests of controls at 5 percent risk of assessing control risk too low, providing the following tolerable deviation rate per assessed level of control risk: for low 2 7%, for moderate 6 12 %, for slightly below the maximum 11 20%, and for maximum level of control risk they recommend to omit test (Whittington Pany, 2004, pp. 316-320). Besides sampling, auditors became aware of the importance of effective internal auditing. Following section presents a discussion about internal auditing. Internal Auditing The internal auditing developed rapidly during the decade of 1930s generating the foundation of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), which is an organization with local chapter in the main cities worldwide. The IIA defines internal adducting as follows: An independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve an organizations operations. It helps an organization accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance process. (The Institute of Internal Auditors [IIA], 2008) Internal auditors are an important part of the internal control environment of entities, representing the highest level of control that measure and evaluate the effectiveness of other controls. Additionally to the financial controls, the internal auditors scope includes the evaluation and testing of control effectiveness, and other assurance and consulting services to the management. Some companies have focus on outsourcing the internal audit functions, which is also provided by CPA firms as an extended audit service and according to the AICPA guiding. However, opposition to the participation of accounting firms exist under the argument of possible conflicts of interest having then as part of the internal control when they also audit the company. The IIA have issued the standards for the practice of internal auditing with the following purpose: To delineate basic principles that represent the practice of internal auditing. Provide a framework for performing and promoting a broad range of value-added internal auditing. Establish the basis for the evaluation of internal audit performance. To foster improved organizational processes and operations. The auditing standards of the IIA includes two parts, the first is the attribute standards that state basic requirements for the practice of internal auditing. According with this attribute, organizations should define in a formal document or internal audit charter, the purpose, authority, and responsibility of the internal audit, and the nature of assurance and consulting services that the internal auditors will provide. Additionally, the chapter should include recognition of the definition of internal auditing, the code of ethics, and the auditing standards (IIA, 2008). The standards also state the independence and objectivity condition for internal auditors during the performance of their work. The need of freedom from conditions, bias, and subordination of judgment, or conflict of interest that impairs their ability to perform objectively, is rigorously presented in the standards. Additionally, the competencies, knowledge, and skills that an auditor must possess are described as well as the due professional care requirement for the performance of the engagement as important elements of the IIA standards. Finally, the attribute standards set requirements for continuing professional development and quality assurance for the internal audit activity (IIA, 2008). The second part of the IIA standards covers the Concepts and Theories of Auditing Concepts and Theories of Auditing Auditing has been present for years in different stage of development following the evolution of accounting. Starting since the epoch when the records were approved after a public reading, to the era when governments officials were measured by their honesty. Followed by the times of the industrial revolution were the ownership of companies started separating from management; when owners required more protection of their investments increasing the use of auditors, consequently; to the times were an auditor was always searching for frauds or errors (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 7) and then to ascertain the actual financial condition and earnings of an enterprise (Montgomery, 1913, p. 9). However, the acceptance of auditing as an academic discipline is not old and just after the development of different concepts and techniques within the audit model such as the use of sampling, the study of the internal control environment, and the risk assessment, is when more focus to the theoretical and conceptual framework of auditing it is been devoted. Andrew Sayer (1992) discussed the concept of theories in social science from the perspective of theory as an ordering-framework (p. 50), indicating that theory allows the use of the observed data and their relationships to predict and explain empirical events. Additionally Cooper and Schindler (1998) define theory as a set of systematically interrelated concepts, definitions, and propositions that are advanced to explain and predict phenomena (facts) (p. 47). Another concept is expressed by Singleton and Straits (2005) explaining theory as a set of interconnected propositions (p. 19). The success in the explanations or predictions of any phenomena depends on the level that the theory holds and do not fails fitting in the situation, and the challenge is to perfect the process of matching theory and fact (Cooper and Schindler (1998). Different authors have started the development of the audit theory such as Mautz and Sharaf (1961) with their publication titled The Philosophy of Auditing; also Tom Lee (1986) with his approach in the book Company Auditing, and later David Flint (1988) with his book Philosophy and principles of auditing (as cited in Moizer, 1989). The auditing analysis in this demonstration will be framed on the postulates proposed by David Flint (1988) as a foundation for the theory of auditing. Flint (1988) stated that there is a matter of public accountability demanding an independent audit for its demonstration with clear definition and intention, based on evidence that only skilled auditors gather, measure it, and compare it against the standards, which generates economic or social benefit (as cited in Moizer, 1989). Following are the seven postulates or assumptions stated by Flint (1988): There is a relationship of accountability or a situation of public accountability. Accountability cannot be demonstrated without an audit. An audit requires independence and freedom. The subject matter of audit is susceptible to verification by evidence. Auditors are skilled judges who are able to measure and compare actual performance against standards of accountability. The meaning, significance, and intention of statements to be audited must be clear. An audit produces an economic or social benefit. (Flink, 1989) Whenever an economic relationship exists one of the parties owe a duty of an acceptable accountability, consequently audits are voluntary, imposed for the health of the relationship. There are also audit related to the interest of the public in matters of the society institutions. As expressed by Whittington and Pany (2004) dependable information is essential to the very existence of our society (p. 1). They explained the social need for audit and professionals who can attest that the reported information is fair respect to the reality for purpose of allocating resources for the production of services and goods based on reliable financial information (p. 1). Normally the financial and economic aspects of the related subject matter are complex, not physically accessible, or have the level of significance that necessary demand an audit to accept the accountability. No all investors or stakeholders of an entity understand the complexity of the business and financial environment, or are near to the place were their resources are to oversee for accountability. The credibility of the information is important and the preferable form of obtaining credible information to rely on is by using independent auditors to perform an audit. That reduce the business risk that relates to the permanence and profits of the company, and the information risk that the financial information used to make a decision is materially misstated (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 6). Therefore, if the audit must add credibility it must be performed independently and without bias or prejudice. Audit is subject to verification and that is possible only if sufficient evidential matter of the audit is gathered. Additionally, some standards of accountability and performance need to be in place to easy the auditors measurement. Therefore, the parties involved must agree on their acceptable standards. The auditing community has set some professional guidance as a form of general accepted practiced standards. For an audit to add value to the financial information, the purpose of the information should be clear, and the findings effectively communicated. The audit should be performed only when its benefits weigh more than the costs. As a consequence auditors should be aware of the cost of collecting evidence especially in situation were the risk is high. The practice of auditing auditors agree on an attest engagement in which they issue or does issue an examination, a review, or an agreed-upon procedures report on subject matter or an assertion about subject matter that is the responsibility of another party (e.g., management) (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 2). In an examination of financial statement, referred to as an audit the standards may be the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), and the auditors collect sufficient evidence to attest about how fair is the information in the financial statement respect to the GAAP. However, here are three types of audits: (a) audits of financial statements, (b) compliance audits, and (c) operational audits. Financial audits determine if the statements were prepared according with GAAP. Compliance audit verifies if the company had complies with law, regulations or polices and procedures. Finally, operational audits review the effectiveness and efficiency of particular unit of an organization (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 11). Relative to the public accounting standards, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) has developed the framework for the general accepted auditing standards (GAAS), which are the fundamentals principles of independent auditing in the U. S. The framework is divided in three major areas that are summarized as follow: General standards. A professional possessing adequate technical training and proficiency, independent in mental attitude and free from bias and with professional care planning and performing diligently, perform the audit. Standards of field work. The audit should be adequate planned and the staff properly supervised. Auditor should acquire sufficient understanding of the internal control environment to be able to determine the weak areas, and gather sufficient competent evidence to support their conclusions. Standards of reporting. The final report should state if the statements are consistent with GAAP and if necessary indicate those circumstances departing from GAAP, include adequate informative disclosure, and includes the opinion of the auditors about the financial statements. Likewise, the AICPA has issued a series of auditing standards on auditing procedure, auditing and accounting guides, and auditing statements of position, to help auditor in the fulfillment of their responsibility of detecting misstatement (Whittington Pany, 2004, pp. 34-35). Auditing involve a serious processes that expose auditors to a different situations in which they need to exercise professional ethics. Those moral principles and values leading decisions and actions of the profession of auditing are provided by the AICPA in the Code of Professional Conduct, and by the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Code of Ethics. Normally auditors are involved in a decision process of ethical dimension. CPAs decisions during performing their duties can affect thousands of investors and their resources; therefore, they need to measure the implication of their decisions. Additionally, as Whittington and Pany (2004) indicated, what is considered unethical in a particular society is not specifically prohibited (p. 11), giving relevance and support to the need for the establishment of those principles and values in the accounting and auditing profession. The public accounting, as well as the rest of professions, has the following characteristics: (a) their responsibility to serve the public with independence and due care with fairness and free from bias. (b) Involves a complex body of knowledge that includes different authoritative pronouncements of standards and principles governing the profession and the financial reports due to the need of technical competency. (c) Has establishes some standard of admission to the profession that each CPA is required to meet. In addition (d), need public confidence to be successful (Whittington Pany, 2004, pp. 61-62). The AICPA leads public accountants to recognize their responsibility to the public in general, to their clients, and to the profession. The section one of the code of conduct describes the organization and CPAs principles of responsibilities, public interest, integrity, objectivity and independence, due care, and scope and nature of services. The section two depicts the institutes rules that are compounded by the following: independence, integrity and objectivity, general standards, compliance with standards, accounting principles, confidential client information, contingent fees, acts discreditable, advertising and other forms of solicitation, commissions and referral fees, and form of organization and name (Whittington Pany, 2004, pp. 63-83). Similarly, the IIA has their own code of ethics divided in three main sections, an introductory section, principles, and rules of conduct. Their principles apply to the profession and practice of the internal auditing, and include integrity, objectivity confidentiality, and competency. The IIA rules on conduct include integrity, objectivity, confidentiality, and competency (Whittington Pany, 2004, pp. 83-84). The IIA is the organization that provides the standards for the professional practice of internal auditing. As it can be deduced from the previous summaries, both institutes the IACPA and the IIA require high level of self-discipline and commitment to a honorable professional behavior, integrating similar principles of integrity, objectivity, and competence. Their rules differ in the fact that internal auditors perform internally; public accountants attest on the financial statements to the company as outsiders performing professionally to honor the public trust. However, the concept of independence is common to both ramification of auditing because it refers to the ability to maintain and objective and impartial mental attitude (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 66), and without of conflict of interest. After the previous review of the auditing theory and how CPAs support it with a professional framework that includes principles, ethical codes, and general accepted standards for the auditing practice, the following section depicts a discussion of audit procedures as well as an introduction of important concepts that are fundamental part of the theory of auditing and the auditing practice. The Audit Procedures The ultimate product after the performance of an audit is the issuance of a report indicating if the financial statements audited comply with GAAP. Sufficient evidence must support the audit report and such evidence is gathered and documented by exercising rigorous procedures that, among other important goals, help the auditors in assessing the risk of misstatement. According to Whittington and Pany (2004), audit procedures involve: (a) the understanding of the client, the business, and industry to use it in assessing risks; (b) the understanding of the internal control environment; (c) the design and performance of controls testing to assess how effective the controls are in preventing or detecting material misstatements; and (d) the design and performance of substantive procedures that include analytical procedures, direct testing of transactions and ending balances (pp. 138-139). Because the internal control is the focus of interest for this demonstration, a separate section will discuss it. The substantive procedures include analytical procedures, the testing of transactions, and the testing of the ending balances on the statements. Analytical procedures consist of an analysis and evaluation of the information present in the financial statements, and a review of the relationship between financial and nonfinancial information. The assumption behind the analytical procedures is that the relationship and trend of the financial information is expected to follow the historical data and projections of the business and in contrary situation evidence must be obtained to support the reasonability of the changes (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 141). Different techniques are use during the analytical procedures. From simple verification of a number to complicated mathematical models, such the comparison of cumulative expenses and revenues with prior years to find significant differences, the use of multiple regression model to estimate revenues by using economic and industry data, and ratio analysis and its comparison with other businesses in the same industry (Whittington Pany, 2004 (p. 141). The testing procedures seek to prove the occurrence and correct recognition of transactions, and prove of existence and misstatements on what the ending balances represent. The substantive testing procedures are performed as an interim mode before year-end, and then after the business year-end. The level of risk established by the auditors during the overall business assessment guides the extent of the substantive audit procedures. The greater the risk of material misstatement the greater the needed extent of substantive procedures (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 139), but always keeping under evaluation the cost-benefit relation of increasing the procedures to perform. Among the most common test performed in an audit process, Whittington and Pany (2004) summarized the following: Accounting System: Comparison-Agreeing amounts from different internal records. Documentary evidence: Tracing-Establishing the completeness of transaction processing by following a transaction forward through the accounting records. Vouching-Establishing the existence or occurrence of recorded transactions by following a transaction back to supporting documents forms a subsequent processing step. Inspection-Reading or point-by-point review of a document or record (the terms examine, review, read, and scan are used to describe the inspection technique). Reconciliation-Establishing agreement between two sets of independently maintained but related records. Third-party representation: Confirmation and evaluating a response from a debtor, creditor, or other party in reply to a request for information about a particular item affecting the financial statements. Physical evidence: Physical examination-viewing physical evidence of an asset. Observation-viewing a client activity. Computations: Reperformance-repeating a client activity. This may include operations such as footing (providing the total of a vertical column of figures); cross footing (proving the total of a horizontal row of figures); and extending (re-computing by multiplication). Data interrelationships: Analytical procedures-Evaluation of financial information made by a study of expected relationships among financial and nonfinancial data. Client representations: Inquires-questions directed toward appropriate client personnel. According to Whittington and Pany (2004), auditors also collect evidence from some subjective areas such as the accounting estimates, the fair market value measurement and disclosures, and transactions with related parties (pp. 146-148). After the development of audit procedures auditors test for existence or occurrence to search for misstatements and completeness searching for understatement, from transactions start to finish, and they test the accounting system from source documents to journals to ledgers. (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 195). The audit program includes two main parts, the assessment of the effectiveness of the client internal controls, and substantive testing. Normally the system portion of an audit program is divided by cycle such as revenue, purchasing and payments, production, payroll, investing, and financing (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 196). Audit Risk The risk concept is use in different disciplines for different purposes. A simple definition of the concept is that: risk is the level of exposure to the chance that some event happens. The event might be beneficial or prejudicial, or might have subsequent implications to other situations or process. Therefore, in business there is a risk of losing money, a risk of fraud, and a risk of misstatement the financial information. As consequence, business and individuals manage risk and the level of exposure to specific risk according to their judgment. The audit process involves the management of risk in different areas with the goal to reduce it to the minimum level possible. Whittington and Pany (2004) introduced some of the risks concepts such as: business risk, the risk associated with a companys survival and profitability (p. 6). Information risk, the risk that the information used to assess business risk is not accurate (p. 6). Audit risk, the risk that the auditors may unknowingly fail to appropriately modify the opinion on financial statements that are materially misstated (p. 35). Inherent risk, the possibility of a material misstatement of an assertion before considering the clients internal control (p.128). Control risk, the risk that a material misstatement will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis by the clients internal control (p. 129) Detection risk, the risk that the auditors will fail to detect the misstatement with their audit procedures (p. 129). Within the audit risk, auditors assess the risk level of occurrence of the different form of misstatement of financial statement, such as errors, fraud, and illegal acts. In measuring audit risk auditors use the following model: AR = IR x CR x DR Where: AR = Audit risk, IR = Inherent risk, CR = Control risk, and DR = Detection risk. (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 130) Additionally, because the auditors are expose to some legal responsibility and are subject to be sued by any clients stakeholder, they have to take in consideration the reputation of the management, financial strength, and other financial rating to assess the overall risk or engagement risk of the association with that particular business (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 174). The process of planning the audit involves the understanding of the client and its environment, an overall audit strategy, and the risk assessment of financial statements material misstatement. Therefore, auditors seek to understand the nature of the client and accounting polices, the industry, regulations and external factors affecting the client, the clients objectives, strategies, and related business risk, how the client measure and review performance, and the internal control environment. (Whittington Pany, 2004, pp. 179-180). Consequently, auditors use different sources to obtain the client overall understanding. That includes electronic research tools, visit to different plant or location of the client, and some analytical procedures. (Whittington Pany, 2004, pp. 181-183). A Companys internal control consists of the policies and procedures established to provide reasonable assurance that the objectives of the company will be achieved; including the clients internal control, they could identify areas of strength as well as of weakness. The stronger the internal control, the less testing of financial statement account balances required by the auditors. For any significant account or any phase of financial operation in which controls were weak, the auditors expanded the nature and extent of their tests of the account balance. With the increased reliance on sampling and internal control, professional standards began to emphasize limitations on auditors ability to detect fraud. The profession recognized that audits designed to discover fraud would be too costly. Good internal control and surety bonds were recognized as better fraud protection techniques than audits. (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 8) The assessment of inherent risk involves considering the likelihood that material misstatement in financial statement will result, and each risk related to the management assertions. At this stage, auditors identify what it is not correct or the significant risk by area and based on that assessment they adjust their approach, modifying the nature, timing, and extent of the audit procedures (Whittington Pany, 2004, pp. 188-189). Audit Evidence Evidence is all data and information gathered by the auditors to support auditors conclusions. The importance of the evidence is that audit risk is reduced by gathering audit evidence (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 127) and when the risk is high more evidence is necessary as well as the increasing the coverage of audit procedures. According to Whittington and Pany (2004), evidence need to be collected for each financial statement assertion sufficiently to support their opinion. As issued in the Statement of Auditing Standard (SAS) 31 about evidential matter, the financial statement assertions are the following: Existence or occurrence-assets, liabilities, and owners equity reflected in the financial statements exist; the recorded transactions have occurred. Completeness-all transactions, assets, liabilities, and owners equity that should be presented in the financial statements are included. Rights and obligations-the client has rights to assets and obligation to pay liabilities that are included in the financial statements. Valuation or allocation-assets, liabilities, owners equity, revenues, and expenses are presented at amounts that are determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Presentation and disclosure-accounts are described and classified in the financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and all material disclosures are provides. (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 174) The above assertions are the base for the risk assessment performed by auditors, and to determine misstatements possible to occur and consequently decide the audit procedure to exercise. Guidelines are included in the SAS 31 regarding what sufficient competent evidence is, which relates to the quantity of evidence auditors should collect. The competence of the evidence is determined by the combined condition of relevant and valid. That means that it most related to the assertion, and that it is dependent on the circumstance in which it is obtained. The reliability or validity of the evidence increase when is received from independent sources, when is produced by an effective internal control, gathered directly by the auditor, is documented, obtained from original documents, and when is received from more than one source (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 132). Different types of audit evidence is obtained by the auditors such as accounting information system, internal and external documentary evidence, third-party representations such as confirmations, reports, and lawyers letters; physical evidence such as fixed assets and inventory, computations re-performance, data interrelationships of financial and nonfinancial information, and client representations oral and in writing (Whittington Pany, 2004, pp. 131-137). An important supporting evidence of the audit report and conclusions is the audit documentation, which is required by the SAS 96 for the auditors understanding and review of the audit work, the nature of audit work performed, and to show the agreement between the records and the financial statements. The working papers have some important functions: (a) are the best way to assign and coordinate the auditing work, (b) help audit managers and partners in the supervision and reviewing or the work of assistants, (c) support the audit reports, (d) documents the auditors compliance with GAAS, and (d) assist in the conduction of future audit to the client (Whittington Pany, 2004, pp. 148-150). The working papers are confidential and unrestricted documentation owned by the auditors, principally because they represent the major factor to use in case of negligence charges. Part of the working paper are the administrative working papers, the working trial balance, separate schedules, adjusting journal entries and supporting schedules, and analysis of ledgers accounts such as a reconciliation, computational working paper, corroborating documents. They are filed in two major groups, permanent file, and current files (Whittington Pany, 2004, pp. 151-158). Audit Sampling As a large-scale corporate grow rapidly auditors began to sample selected transactions, rather than study all transactions. Auditors and business managers gradually came to accept the proposition that careful examination of relatively few selected transactions would give a cost-effective, reliable indication of the accuracy of other similar transactions (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 8). As explained before, auditors need sufficient and competent evidence to support their conclusions, but because business grows involving high volume of economic events and transactions, they need to rely in sampling testing. Audit sampling can be statistical or no statistical, involves the selection of a sample from a group of items and the use of the sample characteristics presuming that the auditors can draw inferences about the whole population. (Whittington Pany, 2004, p. 309). From the previous sampling introduction, we have the sample risk that is the risk that the auditors conclusion based on a sample might be different if they examine the whole population. According to Whittington and Pany (2004) sampling risk is reduced by increasing the size of the sample (p. 309) or by auditing the whole population. Auditors use statistical and no statistical sampling to perform a random selection, which involve that every item in the population has an equal chance of being selected for inclusion in the sample. Different techniques are used such as random number tables, random number generators, systematic selection, haphazard selection, block selection, and stratification (Whittington Pany, 2004, pp. 310-313). There is a sample risk for test of controls in which auditors face the risk of assessing control risk too high, which is related to efficiency, or too low based on the operating effectiveness of the control. The AICAP guide suggest the statistical sample sizes for tests of controls at 5 percent risk of assessing control risk too low, providing the following tolerable deviation rate per assessed level of control risk: for low 2 7%, for moderate 6 12 %, for slightly below the maximum 11 20%, and for maximum level of control risk they recommend to omit test (Whittington Pany, 2004, pp. 316-320). Besides sampling, auditors became aware of the importance of effective internal auditing. Following section presents a discussion about internal auditing. Internal Auditing The internal auditing developed rapidly during the decade of 1930s generating the foundation of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), which is an organization with local chapter in the main cities worldwide. The IIA defines internal adducting as follows: An independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve an organizations operations. It helps an organization accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance process. (The Institute of Internal Auditors [IIA], 2008) Internal auditors are an important part of the internal control environment of entities, representing the highest level of control that measure and evaluate the effectiveness of other controls. Additionally to the financial controls, the internal auditors scope includes the evaluation and testing of control effectiveness, and other assurance and consulting services to the management. Some companies have focus on outsourcing the internal audit functions, which is also provided by CPA firms as an extended audit service and according to the AICPA guiding. However, opposition to the participation of accounting firms exist under the argument of possible conflicts of interest having then as part of the internal control when they also audit the company. The IIA have issued the standards for the practice of internal auditing with the following purpose: To delineate basic principles that represent the practice of internal auditing. Provide a framework for performing and promoting a broad range of value-added internal auditing. Establish the basis for the evaluation of internal audit performance. To foster improved organizational processes and operations. The auditing standards of the IIA includes two parts, the first is the attribute standards that state basic requirements for the practice of internal auditing. According with this attribute, organizations should define in a formal document or internal audit charter, the purpose, authority, and responsibility of the internal audit, and the nature of assurance and consulting services that the internal auditors will provide. Additionally, the chapter should include recognition of the definition of internal auditing, the code of ethics, and the auditing standards (IIA, 2008). The standards also state the independence and objectivity condition for internal auditors during the performance of their work. The need of freedom from conditions, bias, and subordination of judgment, or conflict of interest that impairs their ability to perform objectively, is rigorously presented in the standards. Additionally, the competencies, knowledge, and skills that an auditor must possess are described as well as the due professional care requirement for the performance of the engagement as important elements of the IIA standards. Finally, the attribute standards set requirements for continuing professional development and quality assurance for the internal audit activity (IIA, 2008). The second part of the IIA standards covers the