Social Studies

Social studies is defined by the Board of Director of the National Council for the social studies as, the integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence. Within the school program, social studies provides coordinated, systematic study drawing upon such disciplines as anthropology, archeology, economics, geography, history, law, philosophy, political science, psychology, religion, and sociology, as well as appropriate content from the humanities, mathematics, and neutral sciences. The primary purpose of social studies is to help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world. There are two main characteristics of social studies as a field of study. First is social studies promoting civic competence, the knowledge, skill, and attitudes of a student needed to assume â€Å"the office of citizen† in our democratic republic. The National Council for the Social Studies considers civic competence as a main goal for social studies. The NCSS says, students who learn these skills in social studies will help shape the future of a democratic society. The second characteristic of social studies is the social studies program, K-12, integrates knowledge, skills, and attitudes within and across disciplines. A third characteristic is one in which social studies programs help students construct a knowledge base and attitudes drawn from academic disciplines as specialized ways of viewing reality. This can be achieved with courses such as, history, geography, political science, sociology, and language arts, English and fine arts. Examples from each help students experience concepts reflectively and actively, through reading, thinking, discussing and writing. The fourth characteristic of the social studies program is the demonstration of the changing nature of knowledge, fostering entirely new and highly integrated approaches to resolving issues of significance to humanity. The social studies program should help students gain knowledge of how to know, how to apply what they know, and how to participate in building a future. A well designed social studies curriculum will help each student achieve a blend of personal academic, pluralist, and global views of the human condition with a personal perspective, academic perspective, pluralist perspective, and global perspective. A personal perspective will help to explore events and recurring issues, consider implication for self, family, and the while nation and world community. Students should be able to make choices for themselves and others. Students should learn how to construct an academic perspective through study and application of social studies learning experiences. Based on diversity, social studies students should construct a pluralist perspective. A global perspective includes knowledge, skills, and commitments needed to live wisely in a world that possesses limited resources. It involves viewing the world and the people with understanding and concern. A social studies student will be able to connect knowledge, skills, and values to civic action as they engage in social inquiry. Knowledge is constructed by learners as thy attempt to fit new information, experiences, feeling, and relationships. In social studies educators draw from a number of disciplines to construct circular experiences enabling students to actively relate new knowledge to their existing understanding. For students to be better thinkers and better decision makers, they must have contact with those accustomed to thinking with precision, refinement, and clarity. They should be encouraged to be critical. Skills promoted in an excellent social studies program includes, acquiring information and manipulation data, developing and presenting polices, arguments and stories, constructing new knowledge, and participating in groups. The social studies curriculum focused on how values are formed and how they influence human behavior rather than on building commitment to specific values. The emphasis is placed upon helping students weigh priorities in situations in which a conflict exists between or among values. With each position students will be able to improve the ways in which they deal with persistent issues and dilemmas and participate with others in making decisions about them. Students who pose knowledge, skill, and values are prepared to take appropriate civic action as individuals or as members of groups devoted to civic improvements. The principles of teaching and learning document which must undergird all social studies programs include, social studies teaching and learning are powerful when they are meaningful, social studies teaching and learning are powerful when they are integrated, social studies teaching and learning are powerful when they are value based, they are powerful when they are challenging and they are powerful when they are active. The document also states additional requirements to support an excellent social studies program which lie beyond the control of the individual teacher. The purpose of the social studies standard is to serve as a frame work for K-12 social studies program, to serve as a guide for curriculum decision, and to provide examples of classroom practice to guide teachers in designing instruction to help students meet performance expectations. They provide criteria for making decisions as curriculum planners and teachers address issues, and how to access whether students and apply what they have learned. The social studies standards are presented as a set of ten thematically based curriculum standards, corresponding sets of performance expectations and illustrations of exemplary teaching and learning to foster students achievements of the standards at each school level. The ten standards for the social studies curriculums at every school level are, One culture; two time, continuity, and change; three people, places, and environments; four individual development and identities; fume individuals, gourd, and institutions; six power, authority, and governance; seven production, distribution, and consumption; eight science, technology, and society; nine global connections; and ten civic ideals and practices. The NCSS House of Delegates voted in November 1992 to approve the final version of the definition of social studies. NCSS recently issued position statements on curriculum, assessment, teacher education, and professional development. The purposes and goals of social studies are stated in NCSS’s â€Å"Essentials of the Social Studies,† it identifies citizenship education as the primary purpose of K-12 social studies. It states that, effective social studies programs prepare young people to identify, understand, and work to solve problems. Assumptions about social studies as a school subject include social studies as diverse, all students should have access to the full richness of the social studies curriculum, teachers need adequate time and resources to teach social studies well at every grade level, and social studies teachers need to treat the social world realistically and address its controversial aspects. The vision of powerful social studies teaching and learning comes from the goals and purposes of social studies, the assumptions, and the available research and scholarships. Social studies teaching and learning is powerful when they are meaningful, integrative, value based, challenging and active, all of which are equally important. Powerful social studies teaching and learning is likely to become more common when assessment approaches at all levels focus on measuring progress toward social understanding and efficacy goals; teachers benefit and education receives support from administrators, parents, the local community, and government agencies; and the nation successfully meets ceratin currently recognizable challenges. Social Studies Social studies is defined by the Board of Director of the National Council for the social studies as, the integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence. Within the school program, social studies provides coordinated, systematic study drawing upon such disciplines as anthropology, archeology, economics, geography, history, law, philosophy, political science, psychology, religion, and sociology, as well as appropriate content from the humanities, mathematics, and neutral sciences. The primary purpose of social studies is to help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world. There are two main characteristics of social studies as a field of study. First is social studies promoting civic competence, the knowledge, skill, and attitudes of a student needed to assume â€Å"the office of citizen† in our democratic republic. The National Council for the Social Studies considers civic competence as a main goal for social studies. The NCSS says, students who learn these skills in social studies will help shape the future of a democratic society. The second characteristic of social studies is the social studies program, K-12, integrates knowledge, skills, and attitudes within and across disciplines. A third characteristic is one in which social studies programs help students construct a knowledge base and attitudes drawn from academic disciplines as specialized ways of viewing reality. This can be achieved with courses such as, history, geography, political science, sociology, and language arts, English and fine arts. Examples from each help students experience concepts reflectively and actively, through reading, thinking, discussing and writing. The fourth characteristic of the social studies program is the demonstration of the changing nature of knowledge, fostering entirely new and highly integrated approaches to resolving issues of significance to humanity. The social studies program should help students gain knowledge of how to know, how to apply what they know, and how to participate in building a future. A well designed social studies curriculum will help each student achieve a blend of personal academic, pluralist, and global views of the human condition with a personal perspective, academic perspective, pluralist perspective, and global perspective. A personal perspective will help to explore events and recurring issues, consider implication for self, family, and the while nation and world community. Students should be able to make choices for themselves and others. Students should learn how to construct an academic perspective through study and application of social studies learning experiences. Based on diversity, social studies students should construct a pluralist perspective. A global perspective includes knowledge, skills, and commitments needed to live wisely in a world that possesses limited resources. It involves viewing the world and the people with understanding and concern. A social studies student will be able to connect knowledge, skills, and values to civic action as they engage in social inquiry. Knowledge is constructed by learners as thy attempt to fit new information, experiences, feeling, and relationships. In social studies educators draw from a number of disciplines to construct circular experiences enabling students to actively relate new knowledge to their existing understanding. For students to be better thinkers and better decision makers, they must have contact with those accustomed to thinking with precision, refinement, and clarity. They should be encouraged to be critical. Skills promoted in an excellent social studies program includes, acquiring information and manipulation data, developing and presenting polices, arguments and stories, constructing new knowledge, and participating in groups. The social studies curriculum focused on how values are formed and how they influence human behavior rather than on building commitment to specific values. The emphasis is placed upon helping students weigh priorities in situations in which a conflict exists between or among values. With each position students will be able to improve the ways in which they deal with persistent issues and dilemmas and participate with others in making decisions about them. Students who pose knowledge, skill, and values are prepared to take appropriate civic action as individuals or as members of groups devoted to civic improvements. The principles of teaching and learning document which must undergird all social studies programs include, social studies teaching and learning are powerful when they are meaningful, social studies teaching and learning are powerful when they are integrated, social studies teaching and learning are powerful when they are value based, they are powerful when they are challenging and they are powerful when they are active. The document also states additional requirements to support an excellent social studies program which lie beyond the control of the individual teacher. The purpose of the social studies standard is to serve as a frame work for K-12 social studies program, to serve as a guide for curriculum decision, and to provide examples of classroom practice to guide teachers in designing instruction to help students meet performance expectations. They provide criteria for making decisions as curriculum planners and teachers address issues, and how to access whether students and apply what they have learned. The social studies standards are presented as a set of ten thematically based curriculum standards, corresponding sets of performance expectations and illustrations of exemplary teaching and learning to foster students achievements of the standards at each school level. The ten standards for the social studies curriculums at every school level are, One culture; two time, continuity, and change; three people, places, and environments; four individual development and identities; fume individuals, gourd, and institutions; six power, authority, and governance; seven production, distribution, and consumption; eight science, technology, and society; nine global connections; and ten civic ideals and practices. The NCSS House of Delegates voted in November 1992 to approve the final version of the definition of social studies. NCSS recently issued position statements on curriculum, assessment, teacher education, and professional development. The purposes and goals of social studies are stated in NCSS’s â€Å"Essentials of the Social Studies,† it identifies citizenship education as the primary purpose of K-12 social studies. It states that, effective social studies programs prepare young people to identify, understand, and work to solve problems. Assumptions about social studies as a school subject include social studies as diverse, all students should have access to the full richness of the social studies curriculum, teachers need adequate time and resources to teach social studies well at every grade level, and social studies teachers need to treat the social world realistically and address its controversial aspects. The vision of powerful social studies teaching and learning comes from the goals and purposes of social studies, the assumptions, and the available research and scholarships. Social studies teaching and learning is powerful when they are meaningful, integrative, value based, challenging and active, all of which are equally important. Powerful social studies teaching and learning is likely to become more common when assessment approaches at all levels focus on measuring progress toward social understanding and efficacy goals; teachers benefit and education receives support from administrators, parents, the local community, and government agencies; and the nation successfully meets ceratin currently recognizable challenges.

Mercury Athetic

Net Present Value of Mercury Athletic Enterprise The results of my financial analysis based on the Free Cash Flow Method considering the base case of financial projections and assumptions for Mercury Athletic Footwear collated and developed by John Liedtke indicate that that the project to acquire Mercury Althletic has a positive net present value at $243,025 (in thousands) [ given by PV(FCF)=86,681+ PV (Terminal Value) =156,343] which is also greater than the recommended acquisition price of $186,216 (in thousands),therefore Active Gear Inc. hould proceed with the acquisition of Mercury’s operation. Free Cash Flow The free cash flow from Mercury’s business operations was determined using the base case for the consolidated operating income, expenses, tax rate and depreciation to determine the net operating profits after tax (NOPAT) for the years 2007-2011. Free cash flow was then calculated using the formula (FCF= NOPAT + Depreciation-? Net Working Capital -?Fixed Asset s) which was evaluated at $21,240, $26,727, $ 22,097, $25,473 and $29,545 for the years 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 respectively. The Cost of Debt and the Cost of Equity The next step was to determine the coast of debt, using the assumptions made by Mr. Liedtke which outlines a tax rate of 40%, the cost of debt of 6% for a leverage of 20% debt. The after-tax cost of debt (RD) was determined to be 3. % [using RD =(R*(1-Tax Rate), where RD =after rate cost of debt, R= cost of debt] The cost equity estimated using the CAPM approach, Surfside Footwear was selected as a comparable company since its EBIT Margin of 9. 3% was the same as the average consolidated EBIT Margin of Mercury Athletic for period 2004-2006, the Equity Beta for Surfside from Exhibit 3 was 2. 13. The risk free was determined to be 4. 69% using US Treasury Bills Yield given in the case Footnotes on page 7. The 5 year T-bill yield was selected as†¦

If accounting policies only determine how past transactions are Essay - 1

If accounting policies only determine how past transactions are recorded and reflected in financial reports, how can the choice - Essay Example Discussion In 1977, the Financial Accounting Standards Board proposed to change the accounting methods used in the oil industry from full costing (FC) to successful efforts (SE). The FSAB through the Exposure Draft received great opposition from oil companies because the change in accounting method could adversely reduce the market share price and earnings at the same time. From an analysis carried out, 64% of the oil companies will have their earnings decreasing by 5% or more and 74% of the companies surveyed could have a 5% or more decrease in the market share price if they changed the accounting method from full costing to successful efforts (Zeff, 1979). On average, it was established that the industry’s market share price and earnings decreased by 4.5% in three days after the release of the Exposure Draft (Lev, 1979). The financial accounting standards board put forward two method used to account for oil and gas exploration cost. These include the full costing method and the successful efforts method. The two methods differ in the way they treat exploration costs (Myers, 1979). Successful Efforts method Under this method, the costs are incurred in unsuccessful exploration are charged as current expenses and therefore not carried forward as assets. Under the SE method, costs are capitalized by collection if the costs directly end up in the development of proved reserves. Costs not resulting in proved reserves are expensed as are incurred or as a determination of verified reserves is made. Simply, within a cost group, wells that are explored and found dry are expensed and wells that are successfully explored and developed are capitalized (Lev, 1979). Full Costing Method The FC method, on the other hand, treats all costs that oil companies incurred in exploration oil and gas reserves as assets subject to a limitation that the total amount carried forward does not exceed the approximated value of the reserves, anywhere the well is located either within the country or across any continent (Lev, 1979). Under the full cost method, all charges of discovering and evolving wells are capitalized regardless of the fact that they are proven or not. After which, depletion is done using the units of production technique where the all the proven oil and gas reserves are taken into consideration (Myers, 1979). Fundamentally, all of the costs of developing gas and oil reserves, both successful and unsuccessful are depleted as output units which are recovered from the successful wells (Myers, 1979). This method is permitted by the Securities Exchange Commission but not favored by the FASB and is proposed as an inducement for the investigation of further oil and gas assets since charges related to failed exploration can be expensed over time rather than as incurred (Myers, 1979). The Securities Exchange Commission was in charge of regulating the oil industry as per the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975. Shortly before this act, FASB had expressed interest of setting accounting standard to be used in the oil industry. For this reason, SEC relied on FASB for setting accounting standard for the oil industry. FASB then came up with the Exposure Draft the proposed to change the accounting method used in the industry (Lev, 1979). According to FASB, the full costing method was inappropriate as it did not reflect uniformity in the oil indust

Blogging and Privacy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Blogging and Privacy - Essay Example Ellen Simonetti (2004), a Delta Air Lines flight attendant, for example, was fired after she posted some problematic photos of herself in uniform on her blog. Simonetti might want to show her blogger friends her daily life as a flight attendant through those pictures, but unfortunately, her pictures became a reason for losing her job. In general, visiting Simonetti's blog and looking up her pictures are exactly what most bloggers usually do. Yet, if someone would report her pictures to somebody without her permission, and so Simonetti might lose her job, this is certainly a violation of her privacy. If so, in what ways might Simonetti protect her personal information and privacy Regardless of any possible personal security issue, the number of blogs is still steadily increasing, and the purposes of using blogs is becoming more diversified from one blog to another blog. Hence, taking such diversity into account, bloggers must carefully consider the level of disclosure of personal information based on the content posted and the targeted audience. The rest of this analytic argumentative paper is organized as following. In the first two sections, two opposite tendencies of current bloggers towards their personal information, such as disclosing versus anonymity or hiding, are discussed with benefits and disadvantages. Then, in the next paragraph, it suggested way to efficiently manage such personal information problem in blogging will be addressed. Lastly, another helpful suggestion is explained while concluding this essay. Most of the bloggers reveal their personal information about themselves on blogs. Especially, young generation has a propensity to disclose their personal information. According to a research conducted by David A. Huffaker, Ph.D. student at Northwestern University, and Sandra L. Calvert, professor of Psychology at Georgetown University," Many teen bloggers expose their first name (70%), age (67%), and contact information (61%) as an email address" (2005, para.10). The reason why teen bloggers reveal such personal information often seems unintentional. This is just because their purpose of maintaining blogs is often to establish a close relationship with other bloggers. By sharing such type of personal information given above, the teen bloggers match the age groups that they want, and keep in touch with each other outside the blogs, too. From this point of view, blogs are an extension of the real world to teenagers in which they make more friends and share a matter of daily life. In addition to disclosing personal information, however, they also post diaries and photos which altogether have a chance of causing a security problem as which happened to Simonetti, a fired stewardess mentioned above. In regard to this issue, Mr. Henry G. Rhone, a vice provost at Virginia Commonwealth University, asserted that "[teen bloggers] have never had any problems with [their personal information and contents on their blogs], so they just assume that when they're online, they're safe" (quoted in Read, 2006, para. 17). As Mr. Rhone pointed out, Simonetti's case is rarely happened phenomenon for bloggers to realize its

American Apparel Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

American Apparel - Assignment Example This leadership style could be disadvantageous when American Apparel expands in future. Thus in the subsequent years, it is necessary that the management of American Apparel makes serious attempts to separate the repute and corporate image of the company from the personal life of Dov Charney. Moreover, with the growth and expansion of American Apparel, it would be advisable to shift towards a flatter hierarchy of business management. The success of the business strategies of a company depends on the alignment of the strategies with the core business strengths of the company. This is because the consideration of the strengths of the company while planning its future business strategies would ensure that American Apparel sustains its competitive advantage over time. The strategies that America Apparel should pursue in consideration to its unique business strengths in order to ensure future success are discussed as follows: American Apparel had always concentrated on the market segment comprising of young adults and believed that there was enormous potential for high quality and elegant fashion essentials in this segment (American Apparel, 2011). The designs as well as aesthetics of the products offered by American Apparel should hence be attractive and alluring to the young and urban adults. American Apparel should offer a line of iconic and everlasting styles for their target segment throughout the year in an extensive assortment of colours. They should also make an attempt to price their offerings at a reasonable rate. This would facilitate the sustainability of American Apparel over time. The advertisement campaigns of an organization communicate an exclusive and specific brand image of the business that differentiates it from its peers (Shah, & D’Souza, 2009). American Apparels’ advertising campaigns should attempt to build a connection with its target customers.

Final essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 11

Final - Essay Example She outlines the theme of oppression and power in similar ways. The struggle for power was between the slaves and the owners of plantations who were equally ruling these slaves (Butler 9). However, the novel also shows the struggle for power between the slaves themselves. The slaves were struggling to be in higher or better ranks of slavery that is, the â€Å"field-hands† slaves were fighting to become â€Å"house slaves.† This was because the slaves who worked in the whites’ homes were entitled to proper housing conditions, could eat better foods and were expected to perform less harsh jobs. In her article, Octavia reiterates that in as much as the slaves had to vie to work as house slaves, working in the whites’ houses came with many challenges. These problems were mostly faced by the women who worked there since those roles could mostly be taken up by the females. She gives an example of female slaves who reported rape cases within themselves to maintain their positions of being house slaves. They never had their personal freedoms with their sexual body and could be inhumanly harassed by their owners. This condition of slavery makes Butler create a portrait of emotional charge showing the cruelty in slavery with all the accuracy in history that she can muster (Butler240). The novel points out the aspect of feminism in the slaves’ oppression. Dana is an example of the female slaves who went through domination in 1976, having attained only 26 years by the time of enslavement (Butler29). This shows how the most vulnerable of the blacks (the women) were exploited by the whites’ power since they could not fight for themselves. Dana further expresses her pain in parenthood stating that she seemed to be the worst possible parent. It felt so demeaning bringing up a child in a society where she felt so inferior (Butler 77). The theme of motherhood in slavery is equally emphasized in the novel.

Critical literature review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Critical - Literature review Example This insufficiency of theory based knowledge undoubtedly brings the importance of evidence based learning and understanding. In the field of medicine, healing is vastly defined. Many authors have not been able to limitise its definition and concept within a few representative sentences. This brings the presence of vast dimensions within the process of healing. It is not only linked with the physical parts of human body, but also finds its application in psychology and spirituality as well. And many researchers have tried to define healing in patients with chronic illness, disability, pain and at the end of life (Kigler, 2004; Marshall et al. 2004; Geller et al., 2004; Cherkin & Sherman, 2004; Waters, 2006; Farber, 2002; Silver, 2004). Additionally, various other fields such as nursing and anthropology have also identified it to be a useful part of their practices. As we are critically analysing two articles-Healing in Primary Care: A vision shared by patients, physicians, nurses and clinical staff and Understanding healing relationship in primary care, it is more appropriate to define healing, which is defined as a multidimensional process with emotional, physical and spiritual dimensions (Hsu et al., 2008). This definition of healing is sufficiently consistent with the healing definition in other literatures (Hsu et al. 2008,Egnew, 2005, Dossey, 2003; Wendler, 1996) Each article has a different summary. In the article Healing in primary care: a vision shared by patients, physicians, nurses and clinical staff, the fundamental focus of the focused groups was to obtain understanding of the fundamental concept of healing among patients, physicians, nurses and clinical staff; also, what they consider as facilitators and barriers to promoting healing in primary care were discussed. In this article, for the purpose of learning via evidence based, the instrument of focused group is used; in which nine focused groups were arranged with 84 participants, 28 patients, 23 primary care physicians (19 family physicians), 11 licensed practical nurses, 20 registered nurses, and 2 medical assistants. On the other hand, in the article understanding healing relationship in primary care, much emphasis is given to highlight and understand the development and maintenance of healing relationships between patients and clinicians. Here, the method of interview was used to serve the objectives of healing relationships with three processes resulted as fostering healing relationships-valuing non-judgmental emotional bond, working in a way to serve the maximum facilitation for patients and displaying a caring attitude towards patients. Critical evaluation of these articles serves the objectives of this literature review. The methods, data, outcomes and theories enlisted in both articles are going to be made part of this process of assessment with a critical look. Have these two articles really served the way for which they were planned? Have these objectives provided something useful towards the process and practice of healing? These are the fundamental questions are discussed further below. Critical evaluation: Healing in primary care: A vision shared by patients, physicians, nurses and clinical staff Healing is a fundamental part of medical science, yet its role is insufficiently understood in the modern health care system (Brody, 1992; Lown, 1996; Cassell, 1991). In this article, many

Human Resources Recruiter Career Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Human Resources Recruiter Career - Term Paper Example This career study will help current MCC students to find the career that is the most suitable to their personality, interests, and skills, using Holland’s Personality Type model. The report also provides all detailed information regarding the particular career of their choices such as required education, skills, experience, current and future job opportunities, work environment, work conditions, salary, and benefits. The career study project also summarizes all gathered information for each HR recruiter career level in an easy-to-read summary table for a quick reference. Sources of the information are listed in the summary table as well. This report targets students with Conventional Holland’s Personality Type Model, who would be suitable for the career of HR recruiter. This personality type has excellent organizational skills and prefers building relationships across diverse cultures and backgrounds. To evaluate the suitability of this career, the following topics were researched using current government and internet sources: The information regarding the career of HR recruiter is divided into the following categories: 1. Conventional type person likes being precise, orderly, organizing, and paying attention to details, so a bachelor’s degree in labor relations, personnel, and human resources are helpful and a good knowledge of labor law is an asset. 2. Examples of the required skills are: effective oral and written communication skills, relationship building skills, excellent computer skills in a Microsoft Windows environment, ability to work independently with minimal supervision, database management and record keeping skills, excellent interpersonal and teaching skills, excellent organizational skills, data and information analysis skillfully, and active listening skills. These skills match with the abilities most conventional personality type students posses, so the suitability for this career is excellent. 3. The current and future jo b opportunities should be above average. That is adequate for candidates with conventional personality type. 4. The work environment and conditions of an HR recruiter should fit the conventional personality type. This personality type prefers business-detail, traditional office settings with rewards, conformity, and dependability. 5. The salary and benefits should be adequate given the education and the work tasks required. The earned salary should be average or above average. The conventional personality type person does possess management skills with no risk exposure so the salary and benefits are adequate.

Short - Term Financial Management Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Short - Term Financial Management - Case Study Example The second section will also come up with accounts receivable investment assuming the annual sales of the company is 4 million dollars. Consequently, the paper will come up with the number of times the company will turn over some of its inventories. The CCC of the company measures the number od days it will take the company cash in from their client from their previous inventories (Sagner, 2014). Above CCC indicates that the payable will be made within 67 days and the inventory will be made available to the client and later sold to a singleclient on account. The client will then pay for the inventories within 67 days after buying it. The amount of days taken between the vendor payment and when the retailer receives the money from the client will be 67 days. The company has a smaller calculation meaning that it is good to the company. This means that the money of the company is tied in the inventory at a manageable time   (Studyfinance.com, 2015) The CCC of the company measures the number od days it will take the company cash in from their client from their previous inventories. Above CCC indicates that the payable will be made within 51 days and the inventory will be made available to the client and later sold to a singleclient on account. The client will then pay for the inventories within 51 days days after buying it. The amount of days taken between the vendor payment and when the retailer receives the money from the client will be 51 days   (Studyfinance.com, 2015). When the company maintains the accounts receivable of 5.589 million dollars, it will enable the company to extend loans free from interest to their customers. The accounts receivable investment is important for the company to carry out some of its business. From the calculation, the investment accounts receivable of 5.589 million dollars is healthy for the company. The figure is due to the controlled ambition of the company to collect their policies from the

Risk management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Risk management - Assignment Example The bottlenecks realized during peak hours are quite frustrating and the need for a more convenient solution cannot be understated. The construction of the viaduct, however, comes with its risks and challenges and which must be borne carefully for a successful construction period. The demand for a better transit for the people living in the south of Auckland needs to be considered from all fronts with the risks of seismic performance, load capacity and environmental conditions being carefully considered. As part of the risk management outlook, the report herein will look at some of the attributes that the government and the construction companies ought to look out for in dealing with the construction of the NGA newmarket viaduct and how these risks can be mitigated or minimized. Categories As an agency, identifying and categorizing the possible risks and evaluating how important they are in the overall construction of the Newmarket Viaduct is essential. The categories will be discuss ed under four distinct provisions. The first risk is the operational risk. This is where the construction company has to look for alternatives that could cost the company due to improper process implementation and how system failure would affect the operations within the company and during the construction period. ... The company has to look for a better way of ensuring that the project does not fail in any way nor does it stall due to some attributes that could easily be sorted out through better planning (Flyvbjerg, Nils, and Werner, 2003). The third attributed risk category is that of a budget deficit risk. Wrong estimates coupled with changing financial prospects in the world could hamper the proper completion and adherence to the budget provisions available. This risks stalling the project since the government must get a clear picture as to why they have to add more money to a project that they had completely financed according to their initial estimates (Flyvbjerg, Holm and Buhl, 2002). The other type of risk is the quality and process risk where the company is wary of making blunders during its construction period (Cox, 2002). The issue of quality especially on a public system is important and requires that each guideline to be used is tailored to meet expected results. As a matter of fact, opening the area around the viaduct is paramount and proper construction coupled with timely delivery of the project will open up the south and give the people the quality they aspire to. By working on these categories, the company will ensure that the people of Auckland receive that which they desire and that which is greater and better quality than what they have at the moment. Risk identity and response Operational risk The first risk that had to be courted was the operational risk. This is the risk that played the greatest role in shaping the way the construction of the Newmarket Viaduct would be conducted. Risk identity: Priority had to be given to the most essential resources and provide continuity despite the delays that would result

Enders Game Essay Example for Free

Enders Game Essay I selected this book because I was thinking that it would keep me entertained and make it so that I will not fall asleep. This was one of those books that it did not matter about what happened before it you can just start reading it from the start, so before the book began I have now idea what happened I just started to read the book and I liked it. When the book begins it starts out with ender and his brother and sister and his brother is mean and is always threatening his younger brother ender and his younger sister. In this story it is the narrator that is telling it. The setting was important because it was at Enders house at first and his older brother, bulling hem, which made ender stronger and made it so that he would look out for himself. In the beginning the author held my interest because the government shipped ender off to military school at age three. Journal Entry #2 Ender go’s to military school and he gets bullied from the start and makes a name for himself right at the beginning by braking some kids arm, so after that every one starts to put together gangs and start having gang wars in the battle rooms and in the cafeteria. There where lots of twist in this story like ender would always when the war games and he was the commander of army’s and he was just smarter than the older boys. It was pretty easy to fallow the plot if I didn’t zone out but if I did zone out than it was pretty easy to know what was happening because the story would repeat its self. The language in the book was really easy to understand there was a lot of a made up words but it was all right. The mane thing emerges in the book when it comes to the battle games and ender is better then everyone else. Journal entry #3 The climax of the story was when ender meet bean, ender was hard on bean just like how the government was hard on ender and that made bean a lot stronger. But ender and bean come together and they start to when all of these battles together. There are lots of lessons I learned about this book, I learned that life isn’t always easy and the hard things in life make you stronger. If someone talked to me about this book I would tell him or her it was a good book and I would recommend it to them because there was a lot of action in it. But the book did not meet my expectations because I do not like it when three year olds are talking like they are 25 years old I think that was a little over bored and when the three year olds are going to military school that was dome I think that he should have made them 18 because that is more realistic.

The Residential Child Care Practice Processes Social Work Essay

The Residential Child Care Practice Processes Social Work Essay To consider the process and practice of admitting young people into residential care today it is important to have an awareness of the history of residential child care. The second half of the 19th century saw the introduction of Childrens homes by philanthropists such as Victorian Gentleman William Quarrier and the Reverend Jupp. Residential child care was provided in groups of small cottages usually in rural locations. Residential child care today still contains charitable/voluntary interventions. (RGU 2007) Prior to 1983 there was no specific legislation that controlled the admission of young people into secure accommodation, an exception to this was if a young person was convicted of a serious offence through the criminal courts. In these circumstances the Secretary of State had the power to place the young person in a place of security. A hearing could name a specific school for a young person or child but it was left to the head of the establishment as to whether or not the placement was in a secure or open setting. This meant that the child could be moved between the units within the residential establishment without informing the hearing system. This raised concerns that the European Convention of Human Rights was being breached by Scotland. The three heads of the existing establishments and the Scottish office set out criteria for admission into secure accommodation. This resulted in new legislation being added to the health and social services and social adjudications Act (1993) which took effect from 1st February 1984. (Secure in the Knowledge, 2005, p7, p8) Scandals that led to public enquiries involving the standards of residential care for children and young people have also contributed to the higher level of care now provided. Grounds for referral: The reasons a child or young person is referred to the reporter and childrens hearing system vary, the child may have been abused physically or sexually or both. They may have been absent from school without reasonable cause, offended, been a victim of an offence or bullying, misused drugs or alcohol, be out with parental control, or any combination of these could be grounds for referral. (Childrens hearings 2011) Referral: The foundation of the childrens hearing system has laid out the following guidelines for the childrens reporter and panel. When a Reporter receives a referral, they will undertake an initial investigation to decide what course of action, if any, is in the child or young persons best interests. The Reporter has to consider whether there is enough evidence to support the grounds of the referral and then decide whether compulsory measures of supervision are required. The Reporter has statutory discretion when deciding the next step, they may à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ decide that no further action is required. The child or young person and usually the parent or appropriate person will be informed of any decision in writing. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ refer the child or young person to the local authority so that advice, guidance and/or assistance can be given on an informal and voluntary basis. This usually involves support from a social worker. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ arrange a childrens hearing because they consider that compulsory measures of supervision are required for the child. A childrens hearing panel is made up of three members of the public who have had training in this area. It must be made up of both male and female members and aims to have a balance of age and experience. One of the panel members will chair the hearing. The hearing thinks about and makes decisions on the welfare of the child or young person, taking into account all of the relevant circumstances, including any risk taking and offending behaviours. (ibid) According to Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) Consultation Pack on the Review of the Childrens Hearings System, the most common decision for disposal of a hearing is a supervision requirement. This means that the child will have contact with a social worker or other identified professional on a regular basis. The child or young person will have to meet certain criteria. This is as well as other people and professionals having to do specific tasks to work with the child or young person. A supervision requirement can have any condition attached if the hearing thinks it will help the child or young person. The local authority has to put the supervision requirement into action. Some examples of conditions attached to disposals are: seeing your appointed social worker regularly; attending a special programme to address their behaviours; being placed in foster care or in a residential school or in a secure unit because of particular concerns; victim-awareness and/or mediation. (GI RFEC) Pre-admission: Requests for placements must normally be made by Practice Team Workers. Exceptions to this are out-of-hours Referrals from the Emergency Social Work Services or emergency Referrals through the Criminal Justice system from Court Social Workers. Once initial requests for placement are received and considered appropriate, and then the referring worker will be required to complete our Secure Referrals Application Form. This will then be considered by the next meeting of the Secure Referral Group. The main principles that guide this decision are: Secure Accommodation must only be used as the last resort and all secure placements must be for the shortest time possible. (Edinburgh Secure Services 2009) It is always better if there is a transition plan put into place for a child or young person coming into care but this is not always available as the child or young person may have a secure warrant attached to them or they may have to be accommodated imideatly for their safety or the safety of others. Admission: The admission process is the same for all children and young people who are entering the care system. This is however a more relaxed process if the child or young person has a planned transition into care. A transition plan follows a basic four week plan. This is not set in stone but the principals are. Week 1 induction, this is a chance for the keyworker to become familiar with the young persons background and file, do risk assessments based on the available information and start to develop a transition plan. Week 2 transition plan, this will include meeting the young person discussing the care plan and putting a transition plan with visits to the unit into place. Week 3 introducing the young person to the open unit through meeting staff and other young people, Week 4 building on Week 3, within the secure environment there would be preparation for endings. The keyworker from the secure unit would also visit the young person in the open unit during the move and once they have moved to provide support for their transition. (ibid) By following these guidelines the trauma of being admitted into care can be minimised although the child or young person will still suffer the feelings of loss and separation from their family, community and peers. Elizabeth, Kubler Ross describes the stages of separation and loss as D.A.B.D.A, Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. These stages of grief can also be applied to a young person going into care and will not necessarily follow any set order. (Kubler Ross, 1969) Anthropologist Kalervo Oberg discussed four stages of culture shock which an individual can go through when entering a strange culture. These stages can also be related to a young person entering into care. The four stages of culture shock are described as, the honeymoon period, the crisis phase, the adjustment phase and adaptation. Young people coming into care often display behaviours that they would not normally use, this will include being really quiet, angry, violent, hostil and submissive before they accept the new milieu they find themselves in. Staff in the unit can also assist in a less traumatic transition by assisting the young person to decorate their bedroom with posters and personal effects to make them feel more at home. Facilitating contact with parents or careers and ensuring the child is made to feel welcome in the unit by introducing them to the other residents and staff. Institutionalism is the syndrome which is now used to describe a set of poorly adapted behaviours that are induced by the pressures of living in any institutional setting. (McNown, Miriam. Johnson Rhodes, Rita. 2007) There is always a danger of becoming institutionalized when staying in care for extended periods, by trying to promote a sense of self and personal identity within the young people this is less likely to happen. If a young person is to be secured under section 70 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 they have no involvement in the identification of a placement. The resources available may mean that the child is placed out with their geographical area. This is an institutional response which is in direct conflict with the rights of the child; thought also needs to be given to statutory requirements and the law. The national care standards for care describe what each individual child should expect from their time in care. The relevant section is beginning your stay standards 1-7. The standards are grouped under headings that follow the child or young persons journey through the service. The significant ones in this case are Beginning your stay (standards 1 to 7) 1 Arriving for the first time 2 First meetings 3 Keeping in touch with people who are important to you 4 Support arrangements 5 Your environment 6 Feeling safe and secure 7 Management and staffing arrangement By following these standards admission trauma can be minimized and the young person will be able to continue to have a sense of self and personal identity. Forming new attachments is another area that a young person coming into care can find problematic, a securely attached child, according to, Mary Ainsworth, in the Strange Situation study, exhibit distress when separated from caregivers. Edinburgh children and Families department are now working towards an attachment promoting model of care. This will work in conjunction with anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory practice. It is vitally important to us that young people are able to develop their identity within a positive environment. Therefore, we will not tolerate any unfair treatment or discrimination of young people which is based on their age, gender, culture, race, religious practices or beliefs, sexual orientation or indeed any other characteristic of the young person that they have a right to hold or express. (Edinburgh Secure Services 2009) In 1989, governments worldwide promised all children the same rights by adopting the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. These rights are based on what a child needs to survive, grow, participate and fulfil their potential. They apply equally to every child, regardless of who they are, or where they are from. (GIRFEC) Within the care setting it is vital that all children have access to a childrens rights officer to act as an advocate for the young people who are looked after by Children families Services. The Care Commission was set up in April 2002 under the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001 Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001 to regulate all adult, child and independent healthcare services in Scotland. From 1 April 2011 a new regulatory body, Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (SCSWIS), is responsible for regulating social services. (National Care Standards)

Role of Institutional Investors in Corporate Governance

Role of Institutional Investors in Corporate Governance CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE Corporate governance paradigm is based on the argument of Berle and Means (1932) that separation of ownership and control leads to the problems associated with agency theory so that the managers of a company may not act in the best interest of owners. Throughout the twentieth century, the pattern of ownership continued to change from declining individual ownership to increasing institutional ownership. So, it is not surprising that institutional investors are increasingly looking more carefully at the corporate governance of companies because good governance goes hand in hand with increased transparency and accountability. Many studies have been conducted to see the impact of institutional holdings on corporate governance. Some researchers contend that substantial holdings by institutional investors and corporate governance are significantly correlated while others argue the absence of such a relationship. Evidences are also inconclusive on whether institutional investors invest in good governed companies or their holdings improve the governance practices. The role of institutional investors is visualized in two perspectives, the corporate governance and the firm performance. The present chapter covers the empirical studies on the above issues as institutional holdings and corporate governance, institutional holdings and firm performance, corporate governance and firm performance with special emphasis on the studies conducted in India on the above aspects. The present submission seeks to evaluate the impact of institutional holdings over corporate governance and firm performance by constructing governance score and taking various measures for firm performance. Various studies have focused on different aspects/levels of ownership and their effects on firm performance. As a result, various arguments have been put forward both in support and against the notion of the effects of ownership structure on the firm performance. While some researchers denied the direct correlation between ownership structure and firms economic performance while the others argued that there exists such a relationship for certain. Amongst those who establish such causality, some provide evidence that there is a negative relationship, while others plead a positive relationship between the two. Studies have also been carried to determine a link between varied aspects of corporate governance and firm performance; evidence in this regard too appears fairly mixed. There has been extensive literature to document a positive relationship between the two, based on identified individual aspects of corporate governance and firm performance whereas others do not find any conclusive evidence in this regard. Prepositions put forwarded by the researchers in this context are being reviewed here as under in the perspectives identified above: 2.1 Institutional Holdings and Corporate Governance Coombes and Watson (2000)1 on the basis of a survey of more than 200 institutional investors with investments across the world showed that governance is a significant factor in their investment decision. Three-quarters of the investors say that board practices are at least as important as financial performance. In fact, over 80% of the investors in the survey stated that they would pay more for the shares of a well-governed firm than a poorly governed firm with comparable financial performance. The survey indicated that the premium these institutional investors would be willing to pay varied by country, with premiums being higher in Asia and Latin America (where financial reporting is less reliable) than in Europe or the U.S. Bradshaw, Bushee and Miller (2004)2 indicated that firms whose accounting methods conform to U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles have a greater level of investment by U.S. institutional investors. They found further that increases in conformity with U.S. GAAP are positively associated with future increases in U.S. institutional investment, but that the reverse does not hold (i.e., increases in U.S. institutional ownership are not associated with later changes in accounting methods). The authors attributed this relation to home bias rather than better transparency (and corporate governance) however; their results are also consistent with the latter interpretation. Chung, Firth, and Kim (2002)3 hypothesized that there will be less opportunistic earnings management in firms with more institutional investor ownership because the institutions will either put pressure on the firms to adopt better accounting policies or they will be able to unravel the earnings management rule so it will not benefit the managers. They found that when institutional investors own a large percentage of a firms outstanding shares, there is less opportunistic earnings management (i.e., less use of discretionary accruals). Hartzell and Starks (2003)4 provided empirical evidence suggesting institutional investors serve a monitoring role with regard to executive compensation contracts. First, they found a positive association between institutional ownership concentration and the pay-for-performance sensitivity of a firms executive compensation. Second, they reported a negative association between institutional ownership concentration and excess salary. One implication of these results, consistent with the theoretical literature regarding the role of the large shareholder, is that institutions have greater influence when they have larger proportional stakes in firms. Parrino, Sias and Starks (2003)5 indicated that those firms that fired their top executives had a significantly greater decline in institutional ownership in the year prior to the CEO turnover than firms experiencing voluntary CEO turnover (even after controlling for differences in performance). These results support the hypothesis that institutional selling influences decisions by the board of directors-increasing the likelihood a CEO is forced from office. This implies that boards care about institutional trading and ownership activity in their firms. Further, the authors found that larger decreases in institutional ownership are associated with a higher probability of an outsider being appointed to succeed the CEO. This result suggests that directors are more willing to break with the current corporate management and institute change. They also noted that there are several potential effects when institutions sell shares. First, heavy institutional selling can put downward pressure on the stock price. Alternatively, institutional selling might be interpreted as bad news, thus triggering sales by other investors and further depressing the stock price. Finally, the composition of shareholder base might change, for example, from institutional investors with a long-term focus to investors with a more myopic view. This last effect might be important to directors if the types of institutions holding the stock affect share value or the management of the company. Cremers and Nair (2005)6 stated that the interaction between shareholder activism on behalf of institutional investors and the market for corporate control is important in explaining developments in abnormal equity returns and accounting measures of profitability. Davis and Kim (2007)7 found that mutual funds with conflicts of interest (based on management of pension assets) more often vote with management in general. On the other hand, mutual funds have more incentive and power to oppose management in firms in which they have a larger stake. McCahery, Sautner and Starks (2008)8 have relied on the survey data to investigate governance preference of 118 institutional investors in U.S. and Netherlands. The study found that the majority of institutions that responded to the survey take into account firm governance in portfolio weighting decisions and are willing to engage in activities that can improve the governance of their portfolio firms. Brickley, Lease and Smith (1988)9 found evidence supporting the hypothesis that firms with greater holdings by pressure-sensitive shareholders (banks and insurance companies) have more proxy votes cast in favor of managements recommendations. Moreover, firms with greater holdings by pressure-insensitive shareholders (pension funds and mutual funds) have more proxy votes against managements recommendations. The authors differentiated between the different types of institutional investors, noting the difference between pressure-sensitive and pressure-insensitive institutional shareholders and arguing that pressure-sensitive institutions are more likely to â€Å"go along† with management decisions. The rationale is that pressure-sensitive investors might have current or potential business relations with the firm that they do not want to jeopardize. Maug (1998)10 noted that institutions use their ability to influence corporate decisions are partially a function of the size of their shareholdings. If institutional investor shareholdings are high, shares are less marketable and are thus held for longer periods. In this case, there is greater incentive to monitor a firms management. However, when institutional investors hold relatively few shares in a firm, they can easily liquidate their investments if the firm performs poorly, and therefore have less incentive to monitor firm performance. Almazan, Hartzell and Starks (2003)11 provided evidence both theoretical and empirical that the monitoring influence of institutional investors on executive compensation can depend on the current or prospective business relation between the institution and the corporation. They concluded that the monitoring influence of institutions is associated more with potentially active institutions (investment companies and pension fund managers who would be less sensitive to pressure from corporate management due to lack of potential business relations) than with potentially passive institutions (banks and insurance companies who would be more pressure-sensitive). Marsh (1997)12 has argued that short-term performance measurement does work against the active monitoring by institutional investors. The performance of fund managers is evaluated over a shorter time period. Hence, they act under tremendous pressure to beat some index. So, when they find a case of bad governance, they find it economical to sell the stock rather than interfere in the functioning of the company and incur monitoring costs. Denis and Denis (1994)13 found no evidence to suggest that there is any relationship between institutional holdings and corporate governance. They stated that if companies that create shareholders wealth are the ones with poor corporate governance practices, and then one really cannot blame the institutional investors for having invested in such companies. For, after all, a fund manager will be evaluated on the basis of stock returns he creates for the unit holders and not on the basis of the corporate governance records of the company he invests the money in. If however, one finds that companies with poor corporate governance practices are the ones, which have consistently destroyed shareholders wealth, then the contention that the institutional investors need not look at corporate governance records cannot be justified. David and Kochhar (1996)14, provided empirical evidence regarding impact of institutional investors on firm behaviour and performance is mixed and that no definite conclusions can be drawn. They argued that various institutional obstacles, such as barriers stemming from business relationships, the regulatory environment and information processing limitations, might prevent institutional investors from effectively exercising their corporate governance function. Agrawal and Knoeber (1996)15 found little evidence of an association between total institutional ownership and other possible control mechanisms (e.g., insider ownership, block holders, outside directors, CEO human capital, and leverage). Payne, Millar, and Glezen (1996)16 focussed on banks as one type of institutional investor that would be expected to have business relations with the firms in which they invest. They examined interlocking directorships and income-related relationships, and noticed that when such relations exist; banks tend to vote in favor of management anti-takeover amendment proposals. When such relations dont exist, banks tend to vote against the management proposals. Leech (2002)17 is of the view that many institutional shareholders do not seek control of a company for a variety of reasons, which include the fear of obtaining price sensitive information, and that it is more likely that institutional investors seek only influence rather than complete control. Moreover, it has also been argued, in line with the â€Å"passive monitoring† view, that institutional investors may not be keen to â€Å"exit† on their investments â€Å"i.e. sell their equity stakes when the firm is not performing optimally, mainly because they hold large investments and thus selling may lower the price and further increase any potential loss. Woidtke (2002)18 concluded by comparing the relative value of firms held for public versus private pension fund that relative firm value is positively related to private pension fund ownership and negatively related to (activist) public pension fund ownership. These results supported the view that the actions of public pension fund managers might be motivated more by political or social influences than by firm performance. Ashraf and Jayaman (2007)19 examined mutual funds trading behavior after the release of voting records. The study found that funds that support shareholder proposals reduce holdings after the release of voting records. Since the time of releasing voting records could be very far from the shareholder meeting date, mutual funds trading behavior after the release of voting records may be unrelated to the votes cast in the meeting. Dahlquist et al. (2003)20 analyzed foreign ownership and firm characteristics for the Swedish market. The study found that foreigners have greater presence in large firms, firms paying low dividends and in firms with large cash holdings and explained that firm size is driven by liquidity. It reiterated that foreigners tend to underweight the firms with a dominant owner. Leuz, Nanda and Wysocki (2003)21 asserted that the information problems cause foreigners to hold fewer assets in firms. Firm level characteristics can be expected to contribute to the information asymmetry problems. Concentrated family control makes it more likely that information is communicated via private channels. Informative insiders have incentives to hide the benefits from outside investors by providing opaque financial statements and managing earnings. Haw, Hu, Hwang and Wu (2004)22 found that firm level factors cause information asymmetry problems to FII. It found evidence that US investment is lower in firms where managers do not have effective control. Foreign investment in firms that appear to engage in more earnings management is lower in countries with poor information framework. Choe, Kho, Stulz (2005)23 found that US investors do indeed hold fewer shares in firms with ownership structures that are more conducive to expropriation by controlling insiders. In companies where insiders are dominating information access and availability to the shareholders will be limited. With less information, foreign investors face an adverse selection problem. So they under invest in such stocks. Covirg et al. (2008)24 concluded that foreign fund managers have less information about the domestic stocks than the domestic fund managers. They found that ownership by foreign funds is related to size of foreign sales, index memberships and stocks with foreign listing. Leuz, Lins, and Warnock (2009)25 found that foreign institutional investors prefer to invest in firms with â€Å"better† governance practices. This literature assumes that firm level corporate governance mechanisms substitute for weak country level legal protections of minority shareholders. Aggarwal, Klapper and Wysocki (2005)26 found that U.S. mutual funds tend to invest greater amounts in countries with stronger shareholder rights and legal frameworks (controlling for the countrys economic development). In addition, within the countries, the mutual funds also discriminate on the basis of governance in that they allocate more of their assets to firms with better corporate governance structures. Resume After reviewing the literature on the above sub-section, it is concluded that the results are inconclusive regarding the association between institutional holdings and corporate governance as some studies invariably support the hypothesis that institutional holdings and corporate governance are significantly related while the others reject it. But the results are uniform on one issue that there is positive relation between the foreign institutional holdings and corporate governance as foreign institutional investors are relatively more concerned about the governance practices of companies and countries as well. They prefer to invest more in the countries with stronger shareholder rights and legal frameworks. Similarly, they do invest in the companies with good disclosure and transparency measures. A group of studies contend that institutional investors consider governance practices of companies as an important consideration for investment decision. They not only care for financial performance of target companies, but also put great emphasis on the board practices. They are ready to pay premium for good governance. Institutional investors can put pressure on firms improve their governance practices if they have substantial stake in the target companies and do not have business relations with them. Moreover, if they dont involve themselves actively in governance but only vote with their feet it serves as a deterrent for the management in practicing bad governance. As it will send bad signal to the stock market leading to further decline in the stock prices and may be changing the shareholder base from dynamic institutional investors with long-term focus to myopic investors. Whereas in other studies, it has been observed that institutional investors prefer to remain passive and concentrate on their own business objectives, rather than look into the governance practices of companies. They do not involve themselves actively in the governance of firms for variety of reasons as short-term performance measurement, business relationships, regulatory environment, information processing limitations, free-rider problem etc. Moreover, they may not be interested in selling the shares of poor firms as they have large holdings and selling may aggravate their potential loss. 2.2 Institutional Holdings and Firm Performance Pound (1988)27 explored the influence of institutional ownerships on firm performance and proposed three hypotheses on the relation between institutional shareholders and firm performance: efficient-monitoring hypothesis, conflict-of-interest hypothesis, and strategic-alignment hypothesis. The efficient-monitoring hypothesis says that institutional investors have greater expertise and can monitor management at lower cost than the small atomistic shareholders. Consequently, this argument predicts a positive relationship between institutional shareholding and firm performance. The conflict-of-interest proposition suggests that in view of other profitable business relationships with the firm, institutional investors are coerced into voting their shares with management. The strategic-alignment hypothesis states that institutional owners and managers find it mutually advantageous to cooperate. Holderness and Sheehan (1988)28 found that for a sample of 114 US firms controlled by a majority shareholder with more than 50% of shares, both Tobins Q and accounting profits are significantly lower for firms with individual majority owners than for firms with corporate majority owners. Hermalin and Weisbach (1988)29 further stated that the managerial ownership is positively related to performance between 0-1% of managerial ownership, negatively related thereafter up to 5%, and again positively related from 5-20% and negatively related thereafter. Boardman and Vining (1989)30 compared the performance of state owned enterprises, joint enterprises, and private corporations among the 500 largest non-US industrial firms, and found that mixed enterprises and state owned enterprises perform substantially worse than similar private enterprises. McConnell and Servaes (1990)31 found a strong positive relationship between the value of the firm and the fraction of shares held by institutional investors. They found that performance increases significantly with institutional ownership. Han and Suk (1998)32 found (for a sample of US firms) that stock returns are positively related to ownership by institutional investors, thus implying that these corporate owners are actively involved in the monitoring of incumbent management. They also found that alignment effect dominates if the managers own up to 41.8% of the share capital. They further evidenced that beyond the limit of 41.8%, the mangers are able to control the Board of directors and so the entrenchment effect dominates the alignment effect. Majumdar and Nagarajan (1994)33 found that levels of institutional investment are positively related to the current performance levels of firms. However, a less-stronger, though positive, effect is established between changes in performance levels and changes in institutional ownership. The results are based on a study investigating U.S. institutional investors investment strategy. Bethel et al. (1998)34 consistent with the view that market for partial corporate control identifies and rectifies problems of poor corporate performance, found that activist investors typically target poorly performing and diversified firms for block share purchases, and thereby assert disciplinary effect on target companies plans in mergers and acquisitions. Douma, Rejie and Kabir (2006)35 investigated the impact of foreign institutional investment on the performance of emerging market firms and found that there is positive effect of foreign ownership on firm performance. They also found impact of foreign investment on the business group affiliation of firms. Investor protection is poor in case of firms with controlling shareholders who have ability to expropriate assets. The block shareholders affect the value of the firm and influence the private benefits they receive from the firm. Companies with such shareholders find it expensive to raise external funds. Bhattacharya and Graham (2007)36 investigated the relationship between different classes of institutional investors (pressure-sensitive and pressure-resistant) and firm performance in Finland. It documented evidence that these institutional owners own stakes in multiple firms across industries, leading to a possible two-way causality or endogenous problem between firm performance and ownership structure. It was also evidenced that institutional investors with likely investment and business ties with firms have negative effect on firm performance and the impact is very significant in comparison to the negative effect of firm performance on institutional ownership. Wiwattanakantang (2001)37 investigated the effects of controlling shareholders on corporate performance and found that presence of controlling shareholders is associated with higher performance, when measured by accounting measures such as return on assets and the sales-asset ratio. However, the controlling shareholders involvement in management has a negative effect on the performance and it is more pronounced when the controlling shareholder and managers ownership is at the 25-50 percent. The evidence also revealed that family controlled firms display significantly higher performance. Foreign controlled firms as well as firms with more than one controlling shareholder also have higher return on assets, relative to firms with no controlling shareholder. Abdul Wahab et al. (2007)38 examined the relationship between corporate governance structures, institutional ownership and firm performance for 440 Bursa Malaysia listed firms from 1999 to 2002 and found that institutional investors have a positive impact on firms corporate governance practices. Qiet et al. (2000)39 found that firm performance is positively related to the proportion of shares owned by the state. In addition, they found little evidence in support of a positive correlation between corporate performance and the proportion of tradable shares owned by either domestic or foreign investors. Wahal (1996)40 observed that although institutional investors, particularly, activist institutions, have been successful in their efforts to affect the governance of targeted firms, these same firms have not demonstrated performance improvements. Studies examining the relationship between institutional holdings and firm performance in different countries (mainly OECD countries) have produced mixed results. Chaganti and Damanpour (1991)41 and Lowenstein (1991)42, for instance, find little evidence that institutional ownership is correlated with firm performance. Seifert, Gonenc and Wright (2005)43 study does not find a consistent relationship across countries. They conclude that their inconsistent results may reflect the fact that the influence of institutional investors on firm performance is location specific. The above studies generally consider institutional investors as a monolithic group. However, Shleifer and Vishnys (1997)44 as well as Pounds (1988)45 theorizations and later empirical examinations by McConnell and Servaes (1990)46 suggest that shareholders are differentiable and pursue different agendas. Jensen and Merkling (1976)47 also show that equity ownerships by different groups have different effects on the firm performance. Agrawal and Knoeber (1996)48, Duggal and Miller (1999)49 find no such significant relation between institutional holdings and firm performance. Resume Various studies on relationship between institutional holdings and firm performance have been reviewed in the above sub-section and the results are mixed. Different researchers have taken different performance measures as some of them have considered accounting measures but others have taken stock market indicators.Some of the observations contend that institutional investors are more expert in monitoring the affairs of companies as compared to individual investors; their holdings improve the financial performance of target companies. The results are more significant, where managers also have some ownership stake so as to have alignment effect. Moreover, if their stake is substantial, they can also assert disciplinary action against the poorly performing firms. Similarly, foreign institutional investors have also positive impact on the firm performance. But the results of other observations state otherwise. They state that if institutional investors have business ties with the firms, they would go along with the management and it may have negative impact on the firm performance. The studies have revealed out an interesting observation that Institutional holdings have positive effect on firm performance but their active involvement in management has negative effect. Some of the observations state that institutional investors may have significant impact on the governance practices of companies but do not improve financial performance. 2.3 Corporate Governance and Firm Performance Lipton and Lorsch (1992)50 found that limiting board size improves firm performance because the benefits by larger boards of increased monitoring are outweighed by the poorer communication and decision-making of larger groups. Millstein and MacAvoy (1998)51 studied 154 large publicly traded US corporations over a five-year period and found that corporations with active and independent boards appear to have performed much better in the 1990s than those with passive, non-independent boards. Eisenberg et al. (1998)52 found negative correlation between board size and profitability when using sample of small and midsize Finnish firms, which suggests that board-size effects can exist even when there is less separation of ownership and control in these smaller firms. Vafeas (1999)53 found that the annual number of board meeting increases following share price declines and operating performance of firms improves following years of increased board meetings. This suggests meeting frequency is an important dimension of an effective board. Core, Holthausen and Larcker (1999)54 observed that CEO compensation is lower when the CEO and board chair positions are separate. It is further shown that firms are more valuable when the CEO and board chair positions are separate. Botosan and Plumlee (2001)55 found a material effect of expensing stock options on return on assets. They used Fortunes list of the 100 fastest growing companies and obtained the effect of expensing stock options on firms operating performance. Morgan and Poulsen (2001)56 found that pay-for-performance plan generally helps to reduce agency problems in the firm as the votes approving the plan are positively related to firms that have high investment or high growth opportunities. On the other hand, votes approving the plan are inversely related to negative features in some of the plans such as dilution of shareholder stakes. Mitton (2002)57 examined the stock performance of a sample of listed companies from Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. It reported that performance is better in firms with higher accounting disclosure quality (proxied by the use of Big Six auditors) and higher outside ownership concentration. This provides firm-level evidence consistent with the view that corporate governance helps explain firm performance during a financial crisis. Claessens et al. (2002b)58 observed that firm value increases with the cash-flow ownership (right to receive dividends) of the largest and controlling shareholder, consistent with â€Å"incentive† effects. But when the control rights (arising from pyramid structure, cross-holding and dual-class shares) of the controlling shareholder exceed its cash-flow rights, firm value falls, which is consistent with â€Å"entrenchment† effects. Deutsche Bank AG (2004a and 2004b)59 explored the implications of corporate governance for portfolio management and concluded that corporate governance standards are an important component of equity risk. Their analysis also showed that for South Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, the performance differential favored those companies with stronger corporate governance. Fich and Shivdasani (2004)60 based on Fortune 1000 firms, asserted that firms with director stock option plans have higher market to book ratios, higher profitability (as proxied by operating return on assets, return on sales and asset turnover), and they document a positive stock market reaction when firms announce stock option plans for their directors. Gompers et al. (2003)61 examined the ways in which shareholder rights vary across firms. They constructed a ‘Governance Index to proxy for the level of shareholder rights in approximately 1500 large firms during the 1990s. An investment strategy that bought firms in the lowest decile of the index (strongest rights) and sold firms in the highest decile of the index (weakest rights) would have earned abnormal returns of 8.5% per year during the sample period. They found that firms with stronger shareholder rights had higher firm value, higher profits, higher sales growth, lower capital expenditures, and made fewer corporate acquisitions. Brown, Robinson and Caylor (2004)62 created a broad measure of corporate governance, Gov-Score, based on a new dataset provided by Institutional Shareholder Services. Gov-Score is a composite meas

Role of Symbols and Symbolism in C. S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia :: Chronicles of Narnia Essays

Role of Symbolism in C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia It has always been amazing to realize how well the literature I read as a child has stayed with me through the years. It takes an exceptional writer to compose a narrative that maintains a storyline on the same level of a child's understanding; it takes everything short of a miracle to keep a child's interest. However, that undertaking has been accomplished by many skilled authors, and continues to be an area of growth in the literary world. Only this year the New York Times has given the genre of children's literature the credit it deserves by creating a separate best-sellers list just for outstanding children's books. Yet, on another level, children's literature is not only for the young. I believe that the mark of a brilliant children's author is the age range of those who get pleasure from the stories; the wider the range, the better. I believe a retention of knowledge, as well as the love for a book (whether as an adult or child) is partly linked to the quality of words and imagination utilized in the author's tales. C. S. Lewis is a wonderful example of an author whose work extends to reach beyond the level of children, and brings into view the scenery of Narnia as an expression of life. His storytelling style brought the lands and people of the chronicles intothe view of my mind's eye as a child, and in the same way let my imagination interact with the story. Now I am an adult, and I have come to realize that the symbolism and parallels in the Chronicles of Narnia, which I may have overlooked with my child's mind, are presently real to me. The Chronicles of Narnia are wonderful to read whether one be six or thirty-six; they relate to childhood as well as life in a general sense. While the Chronicles tell the story of an imaginary land full of talking animals and heroic princes/princesses, I tend to look further into it in order to grasp the symbolism and relation to life. Symbolism plays an important role in the chronicles by being the background and foundation of a character. I get the impression that in some ways the characters were constructed around their symbolic purpose, and not the opposite way.

Falling into Oblivion :: Education Learning Schooling Papers

Falling into Oblivion Education is the knowledge or skill obtained or developed by a learning process. Education is the field of study concerned with the pedagogy of teaching and learning. The dictionary provides simple definitions of education. We are given a straightforward meaning of what education is, but according to B.F. Skinner, a renowned psychologist, "education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten." Ever since I was a little girl, I was constantly reminded how important education is. I went to a Catholic school, and my entire elementary education was spent with nuns, teaching out of the Bible. I soon realized, these nuns were teaching me about people who weren't "formally educated." These people never went to a structured school, like the one I felt I was being forced to attend. They never had to get up early in the morning, wear uniforms, take the bus to school, had classmates, and they were never told by different teachers what to do. Their parents taught them at home, and they just heard stories in the streets, and in the marketplace from their elders. No books existed, and I wasn't quite sure if they had anything to trace their education back to. Who, all of a sudden, decided to teach their young, and to turn that idea into a universal tradition, to keep it going for generations? I sat there and I couldn't help but wonder why these nuns were teaching me about people, whom I saw, as uneducated. I felt the entire biblical course was irrelevant. I thought I was in school to learn, so what could I possibly learn from people who didn't even know what a book was, or who probably couldn't read from a book even if they did? Who made the decision what we should learn or if we should even learn at all? Why have we stressed the importance of education historically? Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one. Knowledge is first acquired from open-mindedness. As much as we might want to, we can't filter through what is being taught to us. We cant' choose the things we want to learn and claim we are educated. We can't read a book written by a black author and not know what his background is or have some knowledge and understanding of the history of his people.

My Experience with Music :: Personal Narrative, Autobiographical Essay

My Experience with Music At the age of ten, my parents decided that I should learn how to play an instrument. In addition, they also chose which instrument I should learn, the guitar. I had no interest in learning the guitar, because all I wanted to spend my leisure time on was improvising my soccer skills. However, my parents believed soccer was a waste of my precious time, time which I should be using to focus on school and expanding my brain by taking on a difficult task, such as learning to play music. This was contrary to what I believed, but I had to do it or else my parents would be displeased. Therefore, the following week, I began taking guitar lessons. Since day one of lessons, I disliked the guitar with a passion. My teacher was old, grumpy, and did not like young children. We did not get off to a promising start, especially after I told him I hated the guitar, which made my instructor even angrier. Guitar lessons were something for which I had no enthusiasm. I wanted to play soccer as much as I could. However, what is a ten year-old supposed to do when his parents promise to punish him for not applying himself to something other than sports. I was a regular child who just wanted to enjoy life. I did not believe in learning something that did not interest me. For the sake of conformity, I had to accomplish this task so that I could put a smile on my parents’ faces, even though I despised that guitar with all my heart. I went week after week to the instructor, and week after week, I would come back distressed and tired of the lessons and of the incredible amount of practice hours required. After wasting a year of my life learning how to play the guitar, I still had not accomplished anything special. My parents began to realize that I was not born to play this instrument and that I was not having fun trying to learn either. They finally understood how much I wanted to play soccer. So after one miserable year, my parents called the music instructor and told him I would no longer be taking guitar lesson. The instructor was quite happy about my decision, telling my parents I was his worst student ever, but at least I had given it my best shot.

Environmental Protection: Whose concern? Essay

Environmental protection is a multi-faceted issue amid alarming figures of environmental degradation and the growing concerns on global warming and its doomsday consequences. As such, each players within the society: the government, private companies, and individual citizens share the load together. The primary social institution that should care much to address the problem is the government. The government sets the priority direction, and creates strategies, promulgates policies and laws, provides incentives, and supports the private sector on every program to mitigate environmental problems, and protect the remaining undamaged ecological resources. The US is even lauded for its focus â€Å"on cleaning up the most obvious examples of environmental pollution through rigid command and control of industrial and government facilities to reduce end-of-pipe sources of pollution (American Chemical Society, 2008). † The industry is one of the major contributors to environmental problems. Without the efforts of this business sector, the problem would be harder to solve. Rivera & Delmas (2004), however reported that most businesses only employ environmental management systems because they are forced by government regulations and not voluntarily. In the other hand, some concerned business sectors also agree and help government efforts. The energy sector for instance realized that â€Å"for the longer term, the development of economically viable renewable energy sources is a key challenge for Research (Jennings, 2008). † The consumers as the end point in the value chain also share the chunk and encouraged to take actions. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spelled out a lot of things people can do from proper waste handling and disposal systems, energy saving, and many others (Environmental Protection Agency), and these can be done at home, in office, in the community, and almost every place. There is an urgent need to take action, or else humanity would suffer the consequences. And it has been proven long that all sectors of the society are responsible. The governments take set the tone and take the lead while the other sectors must cooperate to achieve the global environmental management goals. Bibliography American Chemical Society. (2008, September 27). Statement on Federal Government Role in 21st Century Environmental Protection. Retrieved April 1, 2009, from ACS: http://portal. acs. org/portal/fileFetch/C/CSTA_015555/pdf/CSTA_015555. pdf Jennings, J. (2008, February 2). The Role of Business in Environmental Protection. Retrieved April 1, 2009, from China Council for Internaltional Cooperation on Environment and Development: http://www. cciced. org/2008-02/02/content_9638865. htm Rivera, J. , & Delmas, M. (2004). Business and Environmental Protection: An Introduction1. Human Ecology Review, Vol. 11, No. 3 , 230-234.

Exam Study Guide

Egypt- Ancient Egypt was sustained by a river as well. The Nile river valley was named Kempt â€Å"the black land† because of the rich black soil that was deposited yearly by the Nile floodwater's. The Egyptians were skilled in geometry which was important in measuring out the dimensions of property after the floods had destroyed old reporter lines. Religion was a major role in Egyptian society, so people made sacrifices to the gods in order to protect their families from the river. This Egyptian society is a great example of how the geography of the land can help shape almost every aspect of a society. . How can the Epic of Galoshes help historians better understand Sumerian Sumerian city-state of Rusk in the third millennium BCC and who was probably responsible for constructing the city walls, which archaeologists later determined had a perimeter of almost six miles. We can also look at how the society is described n the epic, and what kind of place, for example, women had i n that society. Pig 17 3. How did Sumerian advances in technology help shape society in the Fertile Crescent? Civilization began in the Fertile Crescent, the arable plain of the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys.The rivers deposited fertile soil in a rainfall-scant region. Irrigation and technological advances produced food surpluses for population growth. Sumerians, migrating from the north about 4000 B. C. E. , mixed with local groups to establish Mesopotamia civilization. Pig 9 4. What is the concept of matt and how did it influence Egyptian culture and society? Matt concept- truth, balance, order, law morality and Justice; Mat as a principle was formed to meet the complex needs of the emergent Egyptian state that embraced diverse peoples with different interests.The significance of Mat developed to the point that it embraced all aspects of existence, including the basic equilibrium of the universe, the relationship between constituent parts, the cycle of the seasons, heavenly m ovements, religious observations and fair dealings, honesty and truthfulness in social interactions. 5. Compare writing systems of Mesopotamia and the Phoenicians. What are the advantages of each? Why are the systems so different? Mesopotamia Writing Systems- the Sumerians used a cuneiform; these tablets provided a valuable source of information of modern scholars.Phoenicians Writing Systems- it contained thousands of characters each, meaning that it was much easier to learn a very much smaller writing system that encoded the limited number of distinct sounds (phonemes) in a language instead of trying to encode separately all the ideas that the language could express. 6. Describe and explain the differences in the Egyptian and Mesopotamia views of he afterlife. What primary sources can be used as evidence to help answer this question? Mesopotamia afterlife- There is no resurrection.Egyptian afterlife- Mummification, which, the dead need their bodies in the afterlife. Pictures. 7. Wh y do the Phoenicians develop a simple writing system (alphabet)? It is much easier to learn and understand. 8. How might a simple writing system like the alphabet developed by the Phoenicians affect a society? It affects the culture, religion, and writing. 9. How does the religion of the Hebrews differ from most other religions of the ancient world? Use the Book of Exodus excerpt we have in our book as evidence for religions, sharing a covenant with one merciful God.There is no direct punishment. There is a code of ethics which is the Ten Commandments. 10. What are the advantages of monotheism as illustrated through the experiments of Generation in Egypt and the Hebrew nation? What are the disadvantages? Advantages of monotheism of Generation- Sharing a covenant with only one God. Disadvantages of Monotheism of Generation- There are three, which are, impersonal, priests are now unemployed, and there is a new capital and monuments, which, drains resources. Exam Study Guide The body which provides research support and bill-drafting assistance to legislators is the Legislative Council. District lines for the Texas legislature are drawn by the Texas Legislature. The authority to investigate and punish violations of Texas ethics laws is granted to the Texas ethics commission To understand the operations the Texas legislature, one must understand the power of the Correct Answer: c. lieutenant governor and the speaker of the house. The Texas body that periodically evaluates state agencies and makes recommendations as to restructuring or abolishing such agencies is the Correct Answer: b.Sunset Advisory Commission. The Texas senate has how many members? Correct Answer: c. 31 A committee action that tables legislation, effectively killing it, is called Correct Answer: b. pigeonholing. A rule in the Texas senate which allows a senator to halt consideration of a bill for forty-eight hours is called Correct Answer: d. tagging. In the Texas senate, a bill placed on the calendar solely to assure a two-thirds vote on legislation is called a Correct Answer: a. blocking bill. The Texas legislature may override a governor’s veto by a Correct Answer: c. two-thirds vote of both houses.The political power of the Texas Lieutenant governor is largely based on Correct Answer: c. the rules of the Texas Senate. The Texas legislature has historically been organized on the basis of Correct Answer: b. conservative ideology. A procedure whereby a bill can be forced out of committee for consideration by the chamber as a whole is called Correct Answer: c. a discharge petition. The governor’s legislative power stems from all the following except his Correct Answer: a. authority to appoint committee chairs. When the senate forms itself into a committee of the whole, Correct Answer: d. simple majority is required to consider legislation. The Texas house committee which controls the budget requests of all other committees is the Correct Answer: c. App ropriations Committee. In Texas, the body responsible for reviewing the expenditures of state agencies is the Correct Answer: a. Legislative Audit Committee. A committee appointed to resolve differences between the house and senate versions of a bill is known as a Correct Answer: d. conference committee. In practice, bills are taken off the Texas senate’s calendar for immediate consideration through a Correct Answer: a. suspension of the rules.Being a member of a board by virtue of holding another office is called Correct Answer: b. ex officio. A formal question to the chair regarding parliamentary procedure is known as a Correct Answer: c. point of order. Formal qualifications for membership in the Texas senate would not include Correct Answer: d. being at least 18 years of age. The selection of committee chairs in the Texas legislature is made on the basis of a Correct Answer: d. presiding officer appointment. The office responsible for giving opinions of law to state agenc ies is that of the Correct Answer: b. attorney general.The governor’s budget proposals are not as influential as those of the Correct Answer: d. Legislative Budget Board. Which of the following is an example of an ex officio board? Correct Answer: d. Texas Bond Review Board A mainly symbolic role of the Texas governor is that of Correct Answer: d. chief of state. If the Texas National Guard is called to active duty, a back up organization is the Correct Answer: c. Texas State Guard. The governor’s important bargaining tools are mainly Correct Answer: d. legislative. A role of the Texas governor not based on the constitution is that of Correct Answer: c. hief of party. The official who certifies the amount of income available for Texas’s biennial budget is the Correct Answer: d. Comptroller of Public Accounts. The individual responsible for administering the state tax system is the Correct Answer: c. Comptroller of Public Accounts. The â€Å"Iron Texas Star† consists of all the following except Correct Answer: b. the Texas electorate (voters). A formal role of the Texas governor based on the constitution is that of Correct Answer: d. commander-in-chief. The lieutenant governor of Texas is an ex officio member of all except the Correct Answer: b.Board of Pardons and Paroles. If the governor of Texas is removed from office before the end of his or her term, Correct Answer: c. the lieutenant governor succeeds. The annual salary of the governor of Texas is approximately $150,000 The attorney general of Texas is not required to Correct Answer: b. follow directives of the governor. Texas riverbeds, tidelands, bays and inlets are overseen by the Correct Answer: b. Commissioner of the General Land Office. An official who hears and investigates complaints by private individuals against public officials or agencies is called Correct Answer: b. an ombudsperson.The governor of Texas can be removed from office before the end of his or her term on ly by Correct Answer: d. Impeachment. Which of the following officials is appointed by the Texas governor? Correct Answer: c. Adjutant general, Texas National Guard The governor’s tools to influence the legislature include all the following except the Correct Answer: b. appointment of committee chairs. Which is probably the least significant informal qualification for Texas governor? Correct Answer: a. Age Which of the following is an appointed Texas executive position? Correct Answer: a. Commissioner, Health and Human Services Exam Study Guide Egypt- Ancient Egypt was sustained by a river as well. The Nile river valley was named Kempt â€Å"the black land† because of the rich black soil that was deposited yearly by the Nile floodwater's. The Egyptians were skilled in geometry which was important in measuring out the dimensions of property after the floods had destroyed old reporter lines. Religion was a major role in Egyptian society, so people made sacrifices to the gods in order to protect their families from the river. This Egyptian society is a great example of how the geography of the land can help shape almost every aspect of a society. . How can the Epic of Galoshes help historians better understand Sumerian Sumerian city-state of Rusk in the third millennium BCC and who was probably responsible for constructing the city walls, which archaeologists later determined had a perimeter of almost six miles. We can also look at how the society is described n the epic, and what kind of place, for example, women had i n that society. Pig 17 3. How did Sumerian advances in technology help shape society in the Fertile Crescent? Civilization began in the Fertile Crescent, the arable plain of the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys.The rivers deposited fertile soil in a rainfall-scant region. Irrigation and technological advances produced food surpluses for population growth. Sumerians, migrating from the north about 4000 B. C. E. , mixed with local groups to establish Mesopotamia civilization. Pig 9 4. What is the concept of matt and how did it influence Egyptian culture and society? Matt concept- truth, balance, order, law morality and Justice; Mat as a principle was formed to meet the complex needs of the emergent Egyptian state that embraced diverse peoples with different interests.The significance of Mat developed to the point that it embraced all aspects of existence, including the basic equilibrium of the universe, the relationship between constituent parts, the cycle of the seasons, heavenly m ovements, religious observations and fair dealings, honesty and truthfulness in social interactions. 5. Compare writing systems of Mesopotamia and the Phoenicians. What are the advantages of each? Why are the systems so different? Mesopotamia Writing Systems- the Sumerians used a cuneiform; these tablets provided a valuable source of information of modern scholars.Phoenicians Writing Systems- it contained thousands of characters each, meaning that it was much easier to learn a very much smaller writing system that encoded the limited number of distinct sounds (phonemes) in a language instead of trying to encode separately all the ideas that the language could express. 6. Describe and explain the differences in the Egyptian and Mesopotamia views of he afterlife. What primary sources can be used as evidence to help answer this question? Mesopotamia afterlife- There is no resurrection.Egyptian afterlife- Mummification, which, the dead need their bodies in the afterlife. Pictures. 7. Wh y do the Phoenicians develop a simple writing system (alphabet)? It is much easier to learn and understand. 8. How might a simple writing system like the alphabet developed by the Phoenicians affect a society? It affects the culture, religion, and writing. 9. How does the religion of the Hebrews differ from most other religions of the ancient world? Use the Book of Exodus excerpt we have in our book as evidence for religions, sharing a covenant with one merciful God.There is no direct punishment. There is a code of ethics which is the Ten Commandments. 10. What are the advantages of monotheism as illustrated through the experiments of Generation in Egypt and the Hebrew nation? What are the disadvantages? Advantages of monotheism of Generation- Sharing a covenant with only one God. Disadvantages of Monotheism of Generation- There are three, which are, impersonal, priests are now unemployed, and there is a new capital and monuments, which, drains resources.