Travon Eterprises Essay Example for Free

Travon Eterprises Essay Jennifer Nelson, the accountant for Travon Enterprises, performed several low end estimates in preparing the financial statements for the company president.   Her justification for her actions was lack of time and that she did not want to make the financial statements look worse than they are.   Jennifer failed to inform the company president of her estimates.   Jennifer’s decision lacks effective moral decision making.   She could have selected several alternatives as a better course of action.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   First, Jennifer could have asked for help in getting the accounting done.    Many companies have several accountants that work for them.   Additionally, there may be other employees within the organization who can assist Jennifer in her other duties as she focuses all of her attention on the report.   If those were not available, she could have consulted with the CFO of the company for assistance and support.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Second, if estimating was necessary, Jennifer could have used statistical estimating rather than taking all of the low numbers.   Statistical estimating provides effective, balanced estimating that project more realistic numbers.   The company president was meeting to obtain loan financing.   If the actual numbers turned out to be far different than the numbers that Jennifer projected, Travon Enterprises could face losing funding and the project could be dropped, highly affecting the business operations and future of the company.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Thirdly, Jennifer could have explained to the president her situation and decision to forecast the low estimates.   In doing this, the burden would then have transferred to the president to explain the low estimates, and the president could have Jennifer spend time working on more accurate estimates.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Finally, Jennifer could have taken from her personal time and worked longer hours in order to provide the most effective and accurate report.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   If I was in Jennifer’s shoes, I would have taken a combination of alternatives.   First, I would have sought help from my supervisor in completing the project on time.   Second, I would have used statistical estimating.   Finally, if necessary, I would have stayed the extra hour or so to make sure that my work was of top quality.

Observations of an Apple Essay Example for Free

Observations of an Apple Essay The assignment was to observe a fruit or vegetable for at least an hour. I thought it was crazy and pointless but not so ridiculous that I would not do it and earn a bad grade. Before I started, I read Samuel Scudder’s essay â€Å"Learning to See† where he talks about having to do a similar type of assignment but with a fish. He eventually became engrossed in the fish and so I became determined that I was going to try to find all I possibly could about my apple in the hour that I had. With this in mind, I chose an apple from my bowl of fruit and prepared for what I thought would be a tedious sixty minutes. I grabbed some paper and a pen, turned on some music, and began the observation process. I started just by writing everything I could see on the outside of the apple. The skin of the apple had many different shades of red as well as a yellow patch on one side. It was covered in dark red stripes that looked like quick paint strokes from a tiny paintbrush. Little white and yellow dots gave it the appearance of a speckled egg. I then noticed the apple’s shape as well as the lumps, dents, and scratches on its skin. It was slightly cold to the touch, as well as smooth and dry. I was tempted to go ahead and cut the apple open but I wanted to make sure I had written down all the small details that would normally go completely unnoticed. After I was sure I had noted as much as I could about the outside, I sliced the apple in half horizontally to observe the inside. When it is cut horizontally, the little pit where the seeds are kept is in the shape of a star and feels like thin cardboard. There were five seeds, all dark brown and shaped like a raindrop. The flesh was softer on its own without the protection of the skin and almost mushy. When I looked even closer, it seemed that the flesh of the apple was made up of tiny crystals that glistened in the light because of the juice and its cream coloring. The inside was even colder since it was wet. The sweet smell of the apple grew stronger and I finally gave in and took a bite. I wrote about the crunchiness, how crisp it was, how my teeth left their impression in the apple, how the skin ripped when it was bitten, and how  juicy it was. I decided to check the time at that point and was extremely surprised that I had only fifteen minutes left to finish up my notes. So I decided to get a little more creative with what I did to the apple. I began dissecting pieces of it, cutting little spots in half, finding the veins and what seemed to be roots of the apple. I even noticed how it stained the paper towel it sat on when I cut it. Soon I realized I had just a few minutes left and so to finish it all off, I decided to see what would happen when the apple, or what was left of it, would do when thrown hard against the pavement. I quickly ran outside and excitedly hurled the apple at the ground. I was pleased to watch it break apart and splatter all over the sidewalk and even into the snow. I walked back inside and was surprised at how excited and enthusiastic I had become by going through this sort of experiment. I did not expect that sort of reaction to come from me especially when my first thoughts had been that I would end up hating this assignment and giving up on it. I never would have believed someone if they had told me that I would one day spend an hour observing an apple, and in the end, find that I had actually enjoyed it.

The Stress In The Workplace Psychology Essay

The Stress In The Workplace Psychology Essay Stress is a common daily experience for many people, increasingly in the workplace. Employees complain that there are many elements that produce stress in the workplace; for example, relationships with other employees, occupational demands and lack of control work (Cooper, Dewe and ODriscoll 2001). A survey of over a million employees in the UK found that over fifty percent of them experienced health problems due to stress. More and more employees appear to be suffering from ill health, often attributed to stress. Some psychologists claim that job stress affects more than sixty percent of all workplaces in the UK (Cartwright 2000). Stress is a significant and increasing problem in many countries (Chmiel 2008). Many researchers believe that there are three main types of stress (Copper and Payne 1988): stress as a reaction; stress as a stimulus; and stress as an intermediary procedure between both reaction and stimulus. Thus, stress is a psychological or physiological response when peo ple face a difficulty. Currently, some theories suggest that stress is a negative sentimental state which is due to the reaction between people and their surroundings (Arnold et al. 2010). However, stress may also have a positive effect on employees. This essay will focus on the definition of stress and two causes of stress work-related causes and individual personality causes in the workplace. Then evaluate the organizational techniques and individual techniques of reducing stress. The first step in solving any problem is to be beginning by understanding the issue. The definition of stress is argued by many psychologists. Since 1929, different researchers have developed various definitions of stress. Some researchers believe that the definition should be impartial, while others suggest that it could depend on individual opinions (Furnham 2005). According to the early studies, Selye defines stress as the non-specific response of the body to any demand made upon it (1956 ¼Ã…’pp.27-29). Selyes definition concerns the physiological reaction instead of incorporating both psychological and physiological responses. A few years later, Cox (1978) illustrates that stress can be explained into three meanings: reaction-based, stimulus-based and interactive. Moreover, this theory is developed by other psychologists. Semmer (2003) claims that stress can be divided into stimulus, response and the intercede course between response and stimulus. Hence, Semmers definition is the most popular definition in sphere of learning. People use his definition to deeply understand stress. At present, stress is regarded as a public problem for most of employees. People try to find the roots of stress, especially in workplace. Some psychologists say that stressors such as workload, work schedule and conflict at work are the main sources of stress in the workplace (Landy Conte 2004). Furnham (2005) divides the main stressors into two types of cause: work-related causes and individual personality causes. He separates these stressors from the internal cause (personality) and external cause (environment). Currently, several studies prove that these two main causes which can produce stress in workplace. One of causes is work-related cause. Regarding work-related causes of stress, it includes job requirements, job role, work overload, work underload, organizational change, and other stressors. Firstly, Job requirements are the most significant factor which cause stress in the workplace. There are some demands which can make a job more and more stressful for instance, risk and danger. Police officers, firefighters, and other people in occupations where they often have to face physical threats always need to reduce the stress (Arnold et al. 2010). Secondly, Role-stressors include role conflict and role ambiguity (Woods West 2010). It affects the work settings and social support. Role ambiguity can also be a source of stress if a job description is too vague, and therefore employees are unsure of what duties they have in the office. Thirdly, Work overload and underload also influence emp loyee physical and mental health. Work overload means that there is too much work or work that is too difficult for an employee to complete. On the other hand, work underload means work is too simple to being a challenge for employees (Schultz Schultz 2002). Both work overload and work underload can lead to stress. The more time required completing a task, the lower employees level of happiness, and as a result, it impacts employees health and state of mind. The next factor is organizational change. Usually, it is difficult for employees to find their positions when the situation or environment changes. In that instance, not only the organization changes but also the demands of the organization changes, which in turn can make employees feel stressed. Finally, there are additional stressors in workplace, such as negative leadership and career development. Negative leadership gives employees pressure when they are provided negative feedback. Moreover, most of employees worry about th eir career development. In an employees career development, worrying over promotion and performance appraisals can be a significant factor of stress. Consequently, Work-related causes are external causes, which are objective and hard to change. The other main cause is individual personality causes. In this case, stress is influenced by individual factors, such as personality types, subjective opinions, and intelligence (Furnham 2006). There are many unique elements which can produce stress. Furthermore, peoples tendency to pay attention to the negative sides of an event is also a source of stress for employees. An individuals personality is an internal cause which can change by employees. Thus, these two causes are the common reasons of producing stress. Most employees are bothered by work-related causes, and are suffering from the negative effects of stress for a long time. As the cause of stress already discussed indicate, most researchers assert that stress is a growing problem in many countries one that has the potential to increase in the future (Chimel 2008). In general, stress tends to have negative consequences. Nevertheless, there are also some positive effects of stress in workplace. While, Selye (1956) believes that there are two kinds of stress distress and eustress. Distress is negative stress which can affect peoples health. Eustress is positive stress which can motivate people to reach a goal. Distress expresses the negative consequences of stress. These negative consequences can be separated into three main types: behavioral, psychological, and physiological (Woods West 2010). Initially, for behavior outcomes, people could make more mistakes during the learning and understanding processes. For example, fast food delivery workers can get into accidents more easily when there are too many deliveries to make (Landy Conte 2004). This is because they cannot pay more attention to the situation on the road when they are worried about how they can make deliveries on time. That is very dangerous for workers. Then, the psychological consequences of stress are also serious. Burnout, a common psychology consequence of stress, is a prominent negative effect of stress especially in caring careers nursing and teaching (Landy Conte 2004). For instance, a job which has massive workload and high work demands, usually leads to burnout. Normally, burnout will affect individual achievement. Employees who have low individual achievement will have difficulties facing challenge or difficulties well. It is clear that the high workload and job demands will increase the risk of burnout. In the meantime, some physiological changes result from stress as well. Some early studies reported that stress not only causes heart disease and headaches but also increases blood pressure and heart rate (Arnold et al. 2010). It is hazardous for employees that stress can threaten their life. The negative consequences of stress are easy to uncover, although, many articles have shown that stress can also have a positive influence in workplace. Selye (1956) suggests that a suitable amount of stress can help employee to develop their full potential. Because of eustress, they are good at receiving and acting on positive feedback during work time and they continue to find new challenges in their career development. Consequently, employees can get their goal soon. Stress can encourage employees to be successful in workplace. Nevertheless, most of the time, people spend lots of time studying the negative side of stress instead of the positive. The negative consequences of stress are the main problems that mostly disturb employees in workplace. Because of the negative consequence of stress, nowadays, there are many methods that can reduce or manage stress in the workplace. Some psychologists say that people can use organizational techniques and individual techniques to reduce stress in the workplace. Organizational techniques include changing the organizational climate and providing employee assistance procedure. The organization should make sure that employees are able to adapt to change (Cooper Locke 2000). It is important that employees engage in the decisions leading to change in the workplace. Participation could assist employees in adapting more easily to changes. Employees have a right to express their ideas and opinions. It can help employees to reduce or prevent the stress. Providing employees with assistance procedures means that organizations define employee roles and provide programs about stress management. In order to reduce stress which due to role ambiguity, organizations should give employees a clear job d escription before they start to work. It is an effective way to reduce employees stress. Moreover, appropriate job demands can prevent and reduce work overload and underload. Anther effective way to help employees reduce stress is by providing stress management programs. For example, a survey of 130 workers in Netherlands who engage in a stress management training program reported that it is an effective solution for reducing psychology stress. More importantly, the effects of this program lasted for six months (Schultz Schultz 2002). Accordingly, training programs could be successful in helping employees reduce stress levels in the workplace. On the other hand, Individual techniques for reducing and limiting stress are also important for employees. Since the 1930s, relaxation training has been used as an effective solution for reducing stress. The purpose of this kind of training is decrease the blood pressure. That way, employees begin to feel relaxed more quickly. In addition to the methods already described, biofeedback is another popular technique for reducing stress. Through the feedback of heart rate or blood pressure, people are taught to manage their internal state. Biofeedback can also be used to control brain waves. Keeping calm is an essential element of reducing stress. As a consequence, both organizational techniques and individual techniques are effective ways for helping employees to reduce stress. However, in fact, the organizational techniques are easier than individual techniques to enforce in a company. In conclusion, stress, an increasingly public problem, bothers most employees in modern society. Some psychologists claim that stress is a reaction and stimulus. It is a kind of psychological or physiological response shown when people face challenges or a threatening situation. There are internal causes individual personality and external causes work-related causes. Work-related cause is the main cause for producing stress in workplace. Selye (1956) demonstrates that eustress is one kind of positive stress. Eustress can motivate employees to improve themselves and get their goal. Other researchers, however, say that stress only has negative effects on employees, such as disease and burnout. In accordance with the negative effects of stress, the measures of reducing stress are divided into two categories: organizational techniques and individual techniques. These techniques deal with the stress due to work-related causes and individual personality causes. In the workplace, not only the employees but also the organizations leaders should be concerned about reducing stress.

To what extent is Lord of the flies a pessimistic book? Essay -- Engli

To what extent is Lord of the flies a pessimistic book? Lord of the Flies highlights the flaws in human nature and shows how they affect the societies we create. Lord of the flies has a pessimistic atmosphere throughout. Although to begin with the book seems to be quite positive, (the boys have fun and are optimistic about being rescued) the atmosphere is slowly transformed into one of savagery, fear and betrayal. The ending of the book leaves the reader feeling pessimistic about human nature and sorry for Ralph. The first time the boys meet together there is a positive atmosphere, the boys are excited and their progress towards constructing a civilized society makes us hopeful. They vote for a leader and Ralph is chosen,' This toy of voting was almost as pleasing as the conch.' The way both the conch and voting are expressed as 'Toys' reminds us that these are small children. They need toys to keep them busy. It is almost as if they are playing a game and this is Golding; first ominous hint that there is trouble ahead- the language suggests that the boys do not see the seriousness of the situation. In chapter 1 Ralph Jack and Simon search the island. It seems beautiful, 'every coign of the mountain held up trees-flowers and trees'. This optimistic atmosphere is increased by the description of the island and the mood of the boys, 'this time Ralph expressed the intensity of his emotion by pretending to knock down Simon; and soon they were a happy, heaving pile in the under-dusk.' However this is a great contrast to later in the book, the violence becomes real rather than playful when, 'Roger sharpened the stick at both ends.' The last time this had been done was to stick a pig's head, which Jack and h... ...ere is evil within man. I think Golding's point is quite a realistic one, society around us is shaped on the natures of the people with in it and how easily they are swayed or how manipulative they are. If they can manipulate many people they can do what they want and take control, however if a person is easily swayed they would make a weak leader. I found this book very interesting as it put forward many interesting views and questions. I found it quite pessimistic. I think this is because Golding concentrated on the flaws in mans nature rather that the positive aspects. Maybe this is because Golding thought that it is easier for man to do wrong than to do right and that the brutality within can come out with less effort then it takes to do good. Ralph certainly reflects my feelings when he 'wept for the end of innocence and the darkness of man's heart.'

Lab Report: Bramble Leaf Morphology Essay -- essays research papers

B. IMPLEMENTING SUN SITE SHADE SITE Thickness of bramble leaf/ mm 0.31 0.30 0.25 0.26 0.31 0.29 0.27 0.26 0.33 0.32 0.29 0.25 0.35 0.34 0.27 0.27 0.29 0.25 0.29 0.32 0.25 0.33 0.36 0.31 0.37 0.34 0.27 0.36 0.28 0.29 0.22 0.17 0.24 0.19 0.19 0.21 0.22 0.18 0.16 0.22 0.16 0.19 0.22 0.19 0.17 0.19 0.17 0.19 0.20 0.16 0.22 0.21 0.18 0.19 0.15 0.20 0.16 0.21 0.19 0.18 Mean bramble leaf thickness / mm 0.30 0.19 Light Intensity / mV At 10:30 7.81 At 13:00 8.34 At 15:30 7.65 At 10:30 3.89 At 13:00 4.02 At 15:30 3.76 Mean light intensity/mV 7.93 3.89 Aspect of Site South East South East Results In order to investigate the effect of light intensity on bramble leaf morphology, it was decided that thickness would be the particular morphological feature that was going to be investigated. It was felt that the best possible use was made of the equipment and sites available in order to attain reliable data under the time constraints involved. The sample size for this investigation was set at 30 – this allowed a reasonably large sample and thus reasonably confident conclusions and tests are possible for the Analysis and Evaluation sections. However, a sample size of 30 is still small enough in order to feasibly collect data within the allocated time period. The two sites chosen were suitable in order for valid data to be collected and compared. The two sites were comprehensively distinct sun and shade sites. As can be seen on the photograph, the sun site had virtually no major branches or trees in its vicinity and thus a lot of light was able to shine on the leaves. In contrast, the shade site was surrounded and shadowed ... ...ns, it has to be stated that the validity of the results have been undermined and the conclusion is certainly stated with less confidence. The accumulation of so many sources of error seems to suggest that the conclusion may even be an altogether incorrect one due to unreliable collection of data. However, the sources of error do not change the conclusion itself. Pieces of evidence such as the significant differences in means, use of standard deviation and the comprehensiveness of the t-test suggest that the conclusion is still a valid one. Although the data is not completely normally distributed, the 99.999% confidence at which the t-test accepts the hypothesis is considerable. Certainly, these limitations suggest that that percentage is unlikely to be that high, but given the nature of the investigation and results ascertained, the conclusion is still a valid one.

Wasteland by TS Eliot :: essays papers

Wasteland by T.S. Eliot The driving force of all life is procreation and re-birth. For mankind, vegetation, the animal kingdom, the survival of the species is the dominant factor and only the fittest survive. For millennia, different races have believed that the fertility of the land depended on the sexual potency of their ruler or favour of their gods. Pagan, Roman, Greek and other gods have been invented who were believed to control the fertility of the land, such as Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, on which the survival of their populations has been believed to have depended. Various superstitions and religions have further developed and become significant factors in the lives of billions of the world's population. The Waste Land takes these themes and portrays a dead land that lacks the fertility and sexual potency needed to sustain and progress life. A land void of what is needed for re-birth. The 4 life-giving elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water. Earth is sterile; Air is turned to "brown fog"; Fire burns; Water drowns. The sexual imageries are unproductive: sex is present as a lustful functional device but lacking of the necessary fertility. Superstitions are turned to by the society in search of the answer in the form of Tarot cards and religion is a constant thread as evidenced by the recurring Biblical references and themes. In The Burial of the Dead we see that he gives us an image of the Earth as sterile, instead of being the foundation of vegetation. It is only a repository for the dead. Earth is the 1st. of the 4 natural elements. These 4 opening lines echo the "April", "root", "Lilac/flower", and "rain/shower" imagery of the 4 opening lines of The General Prologue of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. These lines are reflecting the image of life and death. Rain usually nurtures and strengthens plants and sustains them, but here we see that life even with water is slowly dying and wasting away. He later goes on to say that the trees will give no shelter and the crickets, no relief. This line comes from Ecclesiastes 12:5-7: "Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets. Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.

Kuleshov Effect Essay

Montage is one of the three important steps in cinematographic creation, with pre-production and shooting. Technically, it is the action of cutting, pasting and putting together shots. It helps creating rhythm, meaning and order to the story. Montage is an art form : with the same shots, you can express thousands of different feelings and visions according to the montage used. Kuleshov, a Russian filmmaker in the 1920’s, is the first one to write about this theory, now known as the ‘Kuleshov Effect’. This theory is used everywhere now (advertisement, news paper†¦). The Kuleshov Effect theory is that every shot depends on the context, of what happened before and what will happen after. Kuleshov discovered that the viewer creates his own interpretation of what he sees on the screen. For example, with the shot of a man with no expression on his face, he can create the impression of hunger when putting a shot with food right after, or of sadness with a shot of a dead person, or of kindness with the shot of a little girl playing. This theory can be summarized with the formula A + B = C ; ‘A’ being the first shot, ‘B’ the second one, and ‘C’ the meaning the viewer’s mind creates by putting those two shots together. So the Kuleshov Effect is very powerful. When we had to work on a project using the Kuleshov Effect, with my teammates, Giovanna and Christian, we first decided to create a funny story. So we decided to do a funny final twist for our first work. The first shot, the ‘A’, was a boy running in the hallway, as if he was in a hurry to go to some very important place. The second shot was him looking desperately to something, and then the camera moved to the student store’s sign saying : ‘Closed’. So the emotion the viewer has when he sees the whole video is disappointment, because he was waiting for something very important to happen. But if we had used the same first shot with another ‘B’ shot, for example a policeman running, or someone dying in a hospital bed, the emotion would not have been the same. For our second work, we chose to do something more typical, like what Kuleshov did for his own experiment. So we shot the face of a boy, with no expression, for the ‘A’ shot. Then we shot three different situations : a vending machine (B1), a Tic tac toe (B2), and a girl walking in the hallway (B3). The idea was to show that with the same ‘A’ shot, put with different ‘B’ shots, a different emotion could be created ; A+B1 shows hunger, A+B2 shows focusing, and A+B3 shows attraction. To have the best shots as possible, we learned how to white balance a camera, which was not very easy since we had to do it manually ! When we started shooting, we had a very good time looking for how we should put the camera to have the greatest shot as possible ; it was very fun because we felt like real filmmakers. For example for our shot of the boy running in the hallway, we first wanted to use a pan and follow the boy running, but then we realized that the result was not as powerful as we would expect it to be, so we chose to use a steady shot instead, with an eye-level angle and a long shot to see the whole movement. Then another interesting shot in my opinion was the one of the ‘CLOSED’ placard ; we decided to use a tilt movement of the camera down to up, which was a smart choice I think because it seemed that the boy who was squat on the floor after running was looking up to the sign. For the second part of the work, we only used steady shots because we thought it would be more powerful for the experiment of the Kuleshov Effect. The face of the boy with no expression is a Close Up and Eye Level shot, because we learned that a close up was the best way to show the expressions of someone, and the goal of this shot was for the viewer to create his own emotion for that particular shot. But shooting is not the easiest thing of the world, most of the time we had to do the shots twice because the angle was not good, or the camera not white balanced enough. For the montage with FinalCutProX, we discovered that we could cut some of the shot we had, to reduce their length. That was a very effective feature for us because some of our shots tended to be too long for their purpose, for example to create suspense. Another really important feature of the software, of course, is that it allows you to place your shots as you want, and not especially in the order you shot them, which was great because sometimes we did not film our shots in the order we wanted them to appear in the final video. So montage is really a key step in the process of filmmaking.