The Availabilityof Safe and Clean Water in Nigeria Essay Example for Free

The Availabilityof Safe and Clean Water in Nigeria Essay One would agree that something so basic and necessary should readily be available but that has not been the case with Africa. Africa is home to most of the poorest people in the world. It is a continent faced with numerous conflicts, trials and challenges; and a severe lack of access to safe water is amongst its biggest. An estimated eight hundred and eighty-four million people do not have access to safe drinking water, while some one and a half million children under five died each year from sickness caused by water-borne diseases. In Sub-Sahara Africa in general, there is no water shortage, but there is a lack of storage capacity and distribution systems. Nigeria is Africas most populous nation and is home to an estimated one hundred and sixty-seven million people. It is a country that receives a relatively high level of annual rainfall which is not distributed evenly through time or space. Because of these variations in time and space, people in different parts of Nigeria use water in different ways. For example, in the drier northern parts of Nigeria where rainfall is lower and less evenly distributed throughout the year, efforts have been made to develop irrigation. Down south, the rainfall is more abundant and supplies the teeming population who use it as a source of portable water. While irrigation is important in a few parts of the country, the vast majority of people use water mainly for day-to-day household activities like cooking, drinking, and washing. In a relatively well-watered country like Nigeria, one would think that acquiring water would not be a problem. Providing safe, abundant supplies of household water, has been an immense challenge however. Unfortunately, access to safe drinking water is far less than thirty percent on the aggregate. In a poor country like Nigeria, gaining access to safe, continuous water supplies is an ongoing struggle for many. Human wastes and pollution make many water supplies unsafe for many people. In addition, the state has been unable to provide safe, affordable water. This is particularly true in rural areas. In many rural areas, where the majority of the population live, women and girls are forced to walk long distances to acquire household water. In extreme cases, women and children may spend from two to three hours per day gathering water. It goes without saying that most rural households do not have their own pipe-borne water supply. In the best of circumstances, small villages or neighborhoods will have their own wells. While water supply is somewhat better in urban areas, major challenges still remain. In cities without a functioning public water system, individual households and groups of households must either drill their own well or purchase their water. The proliferation of small urban wells and boreholes is not a thorough end to the problem, however. There is no guarantee that the water drawn from the wells especially is safe for drinking. Due to a lack of sanitation facilities, household wastes filter into the cities underground water supplies. Furthermore, with an eighty-five percent increase in urban population from 1990 to 2004, the number of urban dwellers unserved with either safe drinking water or basic sanitation doubled from 1990 to 2004. In addition to rapid urbanization, ineffective governance and persistent poverty remain the root cause of water infrastructure associated problems. Access to safe water is also a critical factor in Nigerian public health. The most damaging drinking water-borne illnesses are typhoid, cholera, and diarrhea. Other human diseases are spread merely through contact with contaminated water. Bathing water illnesses include schistosomiasis (formerly known as bilharziasis), dracunculiasis (guinea worm infection), and roundworm infections. Drinking and bathing are not the only methods through which water-borne illnesses are spread. Contaminated water is often used to wash foods like fruits and vegetables. This often provides another channel for diseases to spread. Bad management of the water bodies too has led them to even becoming breeding sites for vectors of parasites that cause diseases such as malaira, river blindness, dengue fevers, sleeping sickness and so on. Nigeria is masked with challenges of coping with failing infrastructures, inadequate finance, poor legislation, lack of appropriate institutional capacity for regulation and control and often the political will to enforce control measures to bring about change. The position is complicated by the fact that governments have been at a loss on how to set standards to improve the water situation. Consequently, they resort to dependence on adopted standards, policies and guidelines as presented by international organizations. But in the midst of these seemingly insurmountable challenges efforts, are being made to bring about a shift in the status quo but they have not been enough. The theoretical and practical knowledge of water, sanitation and hygiene are of relevance in overcoming this water crisis and providing safe and clean water to Nigerians. The practical aspect may be undertaken in the form of a community development project. Objectives of such water supply projects will involve the following: †¢ Assessing community needs in relation to water supply. †¢ Developing a joint plan of action with the government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and community members for the supply of water and romotion of environmental hygiene and health. †¢ To promote the adoption of safe hygienic practices within the project communities in order to limit the occurrence and effects of water and sanitation related diseases. To assist in empowering the communities for behavioural changes through participatory approaches. †¢ To establish a powerful network with international organizations working on water, the environment and health in order to provi de technical assistance for the project, especially as regards training of trainers. Establishment of a joint planning committee including all the stakeholders and community members is very necessary for the project. This is important in order to have active participation and a sense of ownership of the project; such multisectoral committee will enhance the sustainability of the programme. The second stage of the planning involves the determination of a hierarchy of the project goals, objectives and targets which is to provide clean and safe water to members of the community. Going further, a generation and assessment of the various options available for achieving the set objectives and targets, as there are usually several ways of reaching a target. This will result in preferred options or a combination of approaches, which will then form part of the plan to bring safe and clean water to Nigerians. The programming stage translates the results of the option appraisal into a series of programmes, each with a budget, over the plan period. The penultimate stage involves the implementation of the plan, bearing in mind the various dynamics of the Nigerian poplulation. This involves transforming the broad programmes drafted to suit the smaller rural communities, into more specific timed and budgeted sets of tasks and activities, and involves the drawing up of a more operational plan or a work plan to service the bigger cities and the nation at large. The work plan is closely monitored during the implementation stage. This is to see that the corruption so frequently encountered in the system does not hamper the progress being made in providing clean and safe water to Nigerians. Simple behavioural changes have complex repercussions. However, such changes will not occur unless they are appropriate, affordable and acceptable, considering the complex web of socio-cultural and economic factors impacting at the individual and the community level in Nigeria; ultimately determining whether or not people are willing or able to make basic changes in their lifestyles in order to help serve them clean and safe water. These changes are geared towards safeguarding public health and delivering a better life to Nigerians, and must involve each and every one of us. Countless lives will be saved, and the attending socio-economic advancement would be rewarding to every Nigerian.

Resource Planning and Accounting Informations

Resource Planning and Accounting Informations ERP has become one of the most popularity systems for a company that planning to implement a full ERP system to increase the productivity and efficiency on current business process flow. This report objective will discuss on the definition and function of ERP system, advantages and disadvantages that will bring to an organization after the implementation. Which and what major element and factor that needs to be well taking care for a successful implementation. The major implication of AIS will also further discuss in this report and how AIS will be affected with the implementation of the software. Introduction An Information system (IS) is any combination of Information technology and peoples activities using that technology to support operations, management, and decision making.(Miranda, E., 2010). ERP which is Enterprise Resource Planning is business software systems in different type of industries and companies. (Vala, P., 2010). ERP system is a process of integration of different data and sources from different department of one organization under one single unit system. ERP software that will make sure this integration to be work accurately and effectively. While AIS which stands for Accounting Information system is a computerized system that gather all the data, stores and then processes it into information used by managers, investor and creditors. This information generated from AIS can eventually help the company decision maker to operate organizations more smoothly. Main Body 3.1 Role and Purpose of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems With the growth of technology, everything have found in rapidly changing especially for business environment. Most of the organizations have choosing to implement the ERP software as the best solution which ERP is the only system that designed and developed to integrate and linked all the information among the internal department system. Major role of ERP is to streamline the business operation and workflow. All functional departments that are involved in operations or production can be integrated by using one system, while the elimination of the unnecessary manual work has simplified the business process. Production planning team can directly check for the goods produce process through the latest status updated by production operator. According to Sheldon D.H (2005), ERP maintain the inventory accuracy that enhance the process of tracking on supplier purchased and planning team are able to predict the demand of the market based on input from various department, the system can even schedule a plan when the product shall start produce and when to buy in extra raw material. In finance module, ERP allows a company to maintain their financial information, assist a company save a sum of money for long term while efficiency, performance and productivity will be improved as well. A company is also able to study their processes, earnings, and performance by combining the operation information with the financial information. With this information, a company can become more competitive and productive and so it can gain more customer satisfaction. Perceived benefits and drawbacks for companies of implementing ERPs There are many different type of ERP that serve businesses varying procedure types. With the ERP solution there are numerous benefits after an organization implementing the ERP system example in department of Sales, Human Resource, Finance, Procurement and Production. The ERP system will integrate all the data from other system so that the information will not have to be entered into several systems which will save a real time and manpower for the manual work. Every department information are linked and the sales person no longer need to take time to check with production or warehouse for the goods delivery status, checking with finance on the term on payment This knowledge indirectly can increase the sales performance and improve customer satisfaction. HRM system developed in the payroll module, recruitment module and HR Management module to ease the human resource department in operating their daily workflow and help to increase the efficiency and deliver the best service to their employees. They no longer need to manually count for the thousands of employees salary, overtime, incentive and other allowance. Besides saving up a lot of time, this may also reduce the risk of human error and mistake in calculating. The employees attendances are now even easier with the punch in/out system. By implement the E-pay statement its help the organization to reduce costs and work load of HRD as well, employees can access to corporate intranet to view, to save or to print the pay slip. (Edward, J., 2008) In Production department, most of the organization has using the Baan, BPCS, ERPLN, and ERPLX. It has developed solutions for the company that covers the bar-coding of transactions, such as receiving, put away, cycle counting, production order completions, and shipping. This has increased the productivity and cost reducing. From the warehouse to the shop floor, material and manpower processes become easier, complements and extends the existing ERP applications, empowers users in the production department speed up transactions, and ultimately eliminates the root causes of data inaccuracy. For purchasing department with Purchase Order System, the employees are able to go for electronic market place to order the stationary/ tools and consumable. By clicking a submit button, in about 3 minutes supplier can actually receive the order from the company. This has enhances the information sharing among one company and the supplier. Manager are easily to check which employee are creating the PO and which preferred supplier is selected on the order that its actually ease and shorten the lead time for the process, as lead time is shorten, production operation are able to meet the schedule and on time delivery for orders. Disadvantages of implementing ERP system: The most common disadvantages of implementing an ERP system are the high cost. (OLeary, D. E., 2010). According to Escalle et al, 1999, the cost might be a two o three percent from the revenues for the startup and on-going maintenance fees. Some hidden implementation costs like buying software, hardware, expert consultation fees, staff training cost that will incur to smoothen the project as the implementation process will need the expert consultation and IT administrator in developing this kind of system. (Mabert, V. 2002). The licensing fees can be one of the huge costs that need to be paid annually which depending on the size of the software established. That is why the expensive cost and long times consuming to implement may not be acceptable to each company specially for those small-medium size business. Besides, there is limitation on ERP software customization. ERP system can be a complex and difficult to use software, the organization daily activities will be impacted and usually will involve business process reengineering to fit the current standard process after the ERP implementation. (Benjamin, B. and Paul, A., 2004) There is a risk of failure on the implementation process if an organization did not having a proper planning. Inadequate resources, training, inexperience staff and invest not within budget will bring the company down to winding up too. Role and purpose of Accounting Information Systems (AIS) A primary role of AIS is to fasten the financial transaction recording, accountants that input the financial transaction into the AIS that will create information and financial reporting for review. Besides, AIS also important in support management to get timely information in decision making. AIS are usually web or server based which provide a centralized place where financial data stored, allowing managers have quicker access to review the financial information for that organization. Accountants play roles of tremendous significance in the economy. Without information expertise of accountants, business will be unable to evaluate their cost and profit position, gauge product or business unit performance, or to plan future financial success (Martin, B., 1996). Well-organized AIS will make everyday business a lot easier and more effective (Hall, 2001). How AISs may be affected by the implementation of a full ERP system. Before ERP implementation, finance department employee are still using the pen-paper basis in recording finance transaction, legacy system that only able to focus on one function and cannot be replaced. After the implementation of a full ERP system with SAP, AIS seems to have bigger changes in all the function. SAP that will integrates all the business transaction that entered from different area of operation. Thus, employee from different branches or division can automatically access to review the information at whatever place and however often it is necessary while in a discussion or meeting with the accurate and timely information. Thus, it really saves a great deal of time. AIS will make the accounting activities quicker and accurate as the transaction and records are prepared with the system and this has indirectly reduced human error and mistakes. It is also increased flexibility in information generation and improved quality of reports and financial statements. (Spathis and Constantinides 2003) AIS help to maintain financial control and accountability. (Joel, D. Wisner et al, 2009). Financial information are reliable and up to date all the time in order to prevent the management had use the old and out-dated information for decision making as with the uses of irrelevant data may seriously affect the decision in reducing cost, raise profit, increase sales and purchase new assets and etc. The merged of ERP and AIS has also improving the auditor task while auditing task while performing auditing in the company. Each transaction record can link to other related transaction record or softcopy attachment with just a click. (Anon, 2010) For negative effect, the integration process will be very complex and consume a long period to complete, thus it will incurred a very high cost for an organization. Data security not guarantee safe because info are shared and linked among the module within the ERP system, some of the important financial or business strategic information might easily spread out to the market or competitor that will affect the business strategic. Major Implication of AIS There are several components to the AIS such as transaction processing system, general ledger or financial reporting system and the management reporting system. (Hall, J.A., 2004). Major implications of AIS are to analyzed and determine whether the information should captured by the AIS and its speed up the bookkeeping process which bookkeeping mean to keep track the day to day activities of one organizations income and expenses, to collect necessary financial information for reporting and tax purpose, thereby improving the company profitability. (Anderson, C., 2010) After the bookkeeping process, system will automatically generate those data into information to generate a reporting that will use by both internal and external parties and reporting format may vary from different users for different purpose. (Anderson, C., 2010) Conclusion The implementation of ERP has a big impact for an organization business performance especially in accounting module that help to make the accounting transaction become easier and manageable, thus many of the other small-medium size organization can actually take consideration for implementation of ERP system in order to improve the productivity and efficiency and most importantly to maintain competitive. ERP system that will have drawbacks if the implementation process did not manage correctly, if an organization that required a successful implementation, top management should have a plan ahead that consist of the time consuming, the implementation cost, enough expert consultation on the process and special training provided to their staff.

Burger King Operation Strategy Analysis

Burger King Operation Strategy Analysis Operation Strategies Todays operation managers must have a global view of operation strategy. As the barriers such as cultural, religious, political that constrain the productivity across the countries disappear, simultaneous advances are being made in technology, reliable shipping, and cheap communication. The unsurprising result is the growth of world trade, global capital markets, and the international movement of people which drive the globalization. It is not surprising that fast food sales are doing so well in this generation. Fast food is a fast and inexpensive food choice for everyone no matter youngster or elder. Although there are many criticisms about the fast food, they remain favorites from the consumers around the world. They have more than 12,000 restaurants in all 50 states and in 73 countries and U.S. territories worldwide. Burger King known as the second largest fast-food chain around the world which is a reputation of which they should be proud. Understand the Environment (SWOT) There are many fast-food restaurants around the world such as McDonalds, KFC, and Wendys. Burger King knows that the potential competitor which is the McDonalds, serve the similar foods as hamburger. McDonalds are doing the multidomestic strategy that can maximize the response to the local market. Besides that, McDonalds have a lot of services and promotions such as the McValue meal, McDelivery, Drive Thru and others. McDonalds are also welcomed by everyone and recognize as the largest fast-foods burger chain. The strengths of the Burger King may include wide selection of menu items and fast and efficiency services. Burger King offers different varieties of menu items and choices for the consumers. It also has a different process in order taking and preparing the orders of the customers. One is where the customers order and one is where the customers collect their foods. This process of order taking and serving is considered very fast and efficient. In contrast, the weaknesses of Burger King are not able to communicate with the customers. It has lesser promotions or advertisement in compare with other fast-food chain. On the other hand, there are the opportunities for Burger King to expand their business internationally. In year 2007, Burger King opened 441 new restaurants around the globe. It also entered into other countries such as Indonesia, Japan, and Egypt. This is the benefit for the company to seek more profit. However, there are also some threats for the company such as potential competitors. Burger king is considered as the second larger fast-food chain next to McDonalds. Price wars, product innovation and growth strategies have increased the competition. Consumer health expectation also another threats for the fast food chain. In this generation, people more concern about the health. Consumers are demanding quality, healthier menu items. Missions An effective operations management effort must have a mission so it knows where it is. The mission states the rationale for the organizations existence and provides the boundaries and focus for the organization and the concept around which the firm can rally. Burger King Corporations mission is: The Burger King Corporation moves proudly into the future with over 50 years of experience tucked safely under our belt. As a brand, our company has never been stronger. Weve got millions of customers, who we love to bits. And our Executive Team, along with each of our individual employees, ensures our customers always receive exceptional, consistent service (as well as burgers, fries and drinks.) The mission statement states that the operations need to fulfill the customers needs, exceed the customers satisfaction and expectations. Besides that, we also found that the values of Burger King (Malaysia) are fairness, diversity, respect, caring, clear accountabilities, teamwork, high standards, commitment to excellence, celebrating their successes. These provide an environment and ethics which can encourage the employees to work with fully commitment. Competitive Advantage and Strategy With the mission established, strategy and its implementation can begin. Strategy is an organizations action plan to achieve the mission. Burger King has employed the differentiation strategies to enhance its profit. The Have It Your Way slogan has encouraged the company to differentiate their products and services. Some of its innovative products are BK Chicken Fries, BK Stacker, BK Value Meal and BK Breakfast. Thus, consumers are given more choices. Furthermore, the efficient services also make customers experiencing the unique dining ways. Besides that, Burger King also competing on response. The drive-through and delivery services promote the quick and flexible response to the customers. Franchising strategy also helps to offer different foods to customers. We explored that Burger King Corporation employed the franchise strategy to expand their business and enhance the profitability. The advantage of this strategy is maximizing a competitive response for the local market. Burger King provides different menus and foods in different countries. For example, American need to eat more in a meal, so the Burger King has served the Double Whopper, Triple Whopper, BK Quad Stacker, which are larger and larger. In addition, Burger King also serves the foods according to the common favor of the citizens. Besides that, for the Burger King Malaysia, they serve the halal foods. Furthermore, vegetarians have been avoiding taking the fast-food; however, in response to the vegetarians, Burger King also has served the BK Veggie which is a vegetarian soy-based meatless sandwich that is served at Burger King Restaurants. Burger King was also the first to offer the drive through services which can make the customers much more convenient to take away their fo ods. It also helped the company can operate in more effective and efficiency manners. All these strategies can have a quick response to the local demand and expectation in order to enhance the profitability. Moreover, this is also the key success factor for Burger King because of the ability to explore the new market and survive for longer time. Some of the Strategic Operation Decisions In the products and services design section, as mentioned earlier, Burger King has designed the products which meet the customers expectations and needs such as the BK Veggie, halal food and others. Burger King also has designed the efficient services such as the drive through. After that, when going into the process, Burger King adopts the make-to-order approach to produce the goods and provide the services. Burger King can customize the products because it builds sandwich one at a time rather than batch-process them. For instance, meat patties will be holding in the steamer after being grilled until an order comes in. Then, the patty is taken out from the steamer and then is added the requested condiments. Finally, the completed sandwich chutes to a counter worker, who gives it to the customer. In contrast, many of Burger Kings competitors, such as McDonalds, apply the make-to-stock. They made a batch of sandwiches in one time with the same ingredients. If a customer wants a sandwich without lettuce, he or she needs to wait for another batch of sandwiches for extra several minutes; however, Burger King can make it in several seconds. Besides that, as a service provider, one must unceasingly look for ways to improve operational efficiency. Burger King has introduced a series of innovations that have helped make the company more efficient and profitable throughout the half century history. For example, Burger King was the first who initiated the drive through service. Location selection is the most important issue when starting or expanding a service business. A poor location can cost the owners and customers because of inaccurate estimation for demand and therefore influence the quality. The first consideration for selecting the location is the ability to attract the customers. The favorite catchphrase for looking a spot for expanding the business which is used by the Burger Kings planners (United States) is Through the light and to the right. In picking a location, Burger Kings planners execute a detailed analysis of demographics and traffic patterns. The most important consideration is the number of cars or people pass by and the population at the specific area. In the United States, Burger King finds for busy intersections, interstate interchanges with easy off and on ramps. Besides that, crowded areas as shopping malls, tourist attractions, downtown business areas, or movie theaters were also the primary concentration for location selection. Public transportation which is very common in Europe makes the planners focus on the subway, train, and bus stops also. Furthermore, for the size and layout option, it is also important for the operation which the size and layout must be designed to attract the customers and make them more convenient while buying, serving, dining, storing and others. In the first three decades, each Burger Kings restaurant had about four thousand square feet of space. Yet the planners decided to reduce the space to continue growing and to meet the customers expectations because the customers tended to be in hurry, and more customers preferred the convenience of drive-through instead of dining in. So, the restaurant trims the size of a restaurant from four thousand square feet to as little as one thousand. The reduction of size had enabled the company to enter the markets that were once cost prohibitive such as airports, center-city areas and even schools. On the other hand, forecasting demand for capacity design is easier for Burger King. Burger King can estimate the sales for a new restaurant by combining its knowledge of customer-service patterns at existing restaurants with information collected about each new location, including the number of cars or people passing the proposed site and the effect of nearby competition. Service organizations emphasize on scheduling workers because of the stability and availability to handle the fluctuating demands. Burger Kings managers not only schedule the workers for peak period such as the three main meal time which are breakfast, lunch and dinner, but also arrange enough workers for other period in between. If the managers staff too many people, labor cost per sales dollar will be too high. If there arent enough employees, customers have to wait in lines. This phenomenon will discourage the customers and make the owner loss the customers and sales. That will also influence the reputation of a company. Scheduling is made easier by information provided by a point-of-sale device built into every Burger King cash register. The register keeps track of every food items sold by the hour, every hour of the day, every day of the week. Thus, to determining the staffing levels for a specific time, managers can set it based on the data provided. Each manager can adjust this forecast to account for other factors, such as current marketing promotions or a local sporting event that will increase customer traffic. Moreover, to do a business, everyone will worry about the inventory control problems such as high holding cost or shortage of inventory that will alter the smoothness of operations. Burger King Corporation has used the technology system which is the point-of-sale registers to track everything sold during a given time and lets each store manager know how much of everything should be kept in inventory. It also makes it possible to count the number of burgers and buns, bags and racks of fries, and boxes of beverage mixes at the beginning or end of each shift. Due to there be fixed numbers of materials or supplies in each box, employees can count boxes and multiply easily. In a consequence, manager also can detect the theft quickly. Ethics and Social Responsibility Burger King Corporation defines corporate responsibility as a strong bottom line to consider the impact of everything they do. These are also the guideline for the company to follow to make sure their business can do well. There are four corporate responsibilities which are commitment to food, commitment to people, Care for the environment and corporate governance. For the commitment to food, Burger King Corporation promises to customize and design more menu options for the customers to meet the individual diets and lifestyles. They will continue to explore the new ways to make their food innovative as well as nutritious. On the other hand, Burger King Corporation also promotes commitment to people. They will continue to distinguish themselves from the competitors by being an exceptional employer. They will accomplish this goal by creating a culture that is bold (innovative thinking), accountable (responsibility to shareholders and franchisees), empowered and fun (commitment). Furthermore, there is also an important issue which is care for the environment. Burger King Corporation also continues to make changes that will be a positive on the environment. They are researching ways to deliver consistent policies and practices across all of their operations globally. They have begun holding Burger King Green Sessions for employees, members of supply chain and others. Furthermore, as importance, Burger King Corporation has committed to purchase beef from suppliers that source only beef that has been raised in environmentally responsible ways. As a result, none of our beef comes from recently deforested tropical rainforests. At last, Burger King Corporation will continuously reinforce their policies and procedures to ensure compliance with the law as well as openness and accountability. Conclusion As conclusion for the operation strategies of Burger King, we found that Burger Kings operations are focusing on the customers site. They always consider about the expectations and demands of all customers include the vegetarians, kids and others. They also provide the efficient services. Both of this can enhance the profit and reputation of the Burger King. In my opinion, this is the potential strengths and strategies of Burger King and that is also a big opportunities to expand their business due to the innovative thinking that will always offer the new products that are welcomed by everyone.

Tornado Essay -- Natural Disasters Weather

A tornado is defined as a violently rotating column extending from a thunderstorm to the ground. The most violent tornadoes are capable of tremendous destruction with wind speeds of two hundred and fifty miles per hour or more. Damage paths can be more than one mile wide and fifty miles long. In an average year, eight hundred tornadoes are reported nationwide, resulting in eighty deaths and over one thousand five hundred injuries. In the body of my essay, I will tell you about types of tornadoes, where tornadoes come from, where and when tornadoes occur, the damage they inflict, variations of tornadoes, and how to detect tornadoes. There are many types of tornadoes. The average tornado is usually split up into categories based on the strength of the tornado. Most tornadoes, about sixty nine percent 69%, are considered weak, which means they usually last between one minute and ten minutes, have winds less than one hundred and ten miles per hour, and the percent of deaths that occur during these is less than five percent. Strong tornadoes, about twenty nine percent 29%, may last about twenty minutes, have winds between one hundred and ten and two hundred and five miles per hour, and the percent of deaths that are found are about thirty percent of all tornado deaths. The last category for tornadoes is violent ones. With these comes winds greater than two hundred and five miles per hour, they can last about an hour, and have seventy percent of all deaths from tornadoes. Another type of tornado is known as a waterspout. This is a weak tornado that forms over warm water. They are most common along the Gulf Coast and southeastern states. In the western United States, they occur with cold late fall or late winter storms, during a time when you least expect it to develop. They occasionally move inland becoming tornadoes that can cause a great deal of damage and many injuries. Most tornadoes evolve from energy. Tornadoes come from the energy released in a thunderstorm. As powerful as they are, tornadoes account for only a tiny fraction of the energy in a thunderstorm. What makes them dangerous is that their energy is concentrated in a small area, perhaps only a hundred yards across. Not all tornadoes are the same, of course, and science does not yet completely understand how part of a thunderstorm's energy sometimes gets focused into something as small as a tornad... ...ms using all the information they can obtain from weather maps, modern weather radar’s, storm spotters, monitoring power line breaks, and so on. These are all important tornado facts and reasons of why this phenomenon occurs. Tornadoes are natural disasters that we can not do anything about, we just have to learn to live with them and be smart about how we approach them. There is no preventing a tornado from occurring so we must merely take all the precautions so we will be safe. Bibliography: Rosenfeld, Jeffrey O.; Eye of the Storm: Inside the World's Deadliest Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and Blizzards; HarperCollins Trade Sales Dept, January 1999 Robinson, Andrew,; Earth Shock: Hurricanes, Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Tornadoes and Other Forces of Nature; Themes & Hudson Ltd., September 1993 Tufty, Barbara; 1001 Questions Answered about Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and Other Natural Air Disasters; Dover Publications, Incorporated, August 1987 Verkaik, Arjen; Under the Whirlwind; Whirlwind Books, March 1998 Miller, Norman; "How A Whirlwind Works"; Geographical Magazine, June 1999 Compton's Encyclopedia Online; www.comptons.com SKYWARN Online; www.skywarn.org

A Descriptive Analysis of Nigger: The Meaning of a Word by Gloria Naylo

A Descriptive Analysis of Nigger: The Meaning of a Word by Gloria Naylor What is the rhetor’s purpose? In the essay â€Å"Nigger: the meaning of a word† Gloria Naylor discusses the essence of a word and how it can mean different things to different people in a myriad of situations. Depending on race, gender, societal status and age Naylor outlines how a word like ‘nigger’ can have different meanings within one’s own environment. Naylor discusses how a word can go from having a positive to a negative connotation merely due to how it is spoken and by whom. Naylor shares a personal experience with her audience as she describes the first time she really â€Å"heard† the word ‘nigger’. A young white boy in her third grade class spit it in her face. Naylor states, â€Å"I didn’t know what a nigger was, but I knew that whatever it meant, it was something he shouldn’t have called me.† (Naylor 460) Naylor writes about her own personal experience and is obviously biased. This, while powerful, can also be seen as a limited view of the subject. Her audience only understands thorough her eyes and her experiences. Naylor is trying to educate her audience by sharing a personal experience. I think she wants her audience to sit back and think about the words they use and how others may use them and how this can affect others. Naylor wants her audience to understand how she was affected not only by a young boy but also by how she didn’t really think about the word ‘nigger’ until the moment it was used to hurt her. She is striving to make her audience think about the words they use and hear and how the context these words are immersed in can change the meaning of them. Who composes the target audiences? To be a part of Naylor’s target audience one must have obviously had experience with language and how people use it. She is targeting those who have heard and/or used the word â€Å"nigger† before. Naylor wants her audience to take on her experience and be empathetic towards her. She doesn’t do this in a seemingly pathetic way, as she seeks no pity. She outlines her experience and wants her audience to understand her view and how this view came to be. What roles or personas does the rhetor assume? Naylor assumes the role of an educator in her writing. She assumes a persona of a young girl experiencing a new way of understanding a word. ... ... She uses a conversational tone that adapts nicely to the audience. I say this because draws the reader in and he or she easily understands and accepts her experience. Naylor uses her experience to exemplify her point and to offer validity. One is drawn in by her experience as a young girl, and her evolution of understanding. Naylor makes her audience think about what it would be like to really â€Å"hear† a word for the first time, to look back and realize you had heard the word many times in a different context. What strategies are used? The language used by Naylor is common, as she doesn’t use large words one has to look up to understand. She writes in low style which is effective for her argument. This use of languages conjures an almost friendly relationship with her audience, like she is sitting down with you over a cup of coffee discussing how context can change your understanding of a word. She is sharing a part of her life and experience with the audience in order to shed light on her argument. Works Cited: Naylor, Gloria. â€Å"Nigger: The Meaning of a Word† Ed. Goshgarian, Gary. Exploring Language. Ninth Edition. Toronto: Longman, 2001. Pages 460-462

High School and School Counseling Interventions Essay

Introduction and rationale for the research In the fields of counseling, education, and psychology, there has been a strong emphasis placed on evidence-based practices to determine the effectiveness of school counseling interventions. In this article, two types of Meta-Analysis interventions were used during this study. Meta-Analysis 1 involved treatment-control comparisons and Meta-Analysis 2 involved pretest-posttest differences. The overall average weighted effect size for school counseling interventions was . 30. This study determined how effective moderator variables influenced effect size of, guidance curriculum, individual planning, responsive services, and system support. Analyses of moderator variables are designed to determine the effectiveness of school counseling program activities in this article. Major strengths/weaknesses in the article The overall school counseling interventions produced an average effect size of . 30 which is significant. However, in this article, the average effect size of Meta-Analysis 2 intervention was not significant, only . 07. Previously research has found that meta- analyses using pretest-posttest typically produces a higher effect size compared to the more traditional treatment-control group comparisons. It’s difficult to determine the non-significant mean effect size for pretest-posttest meta-analysis. Additional analyses in the pretest and posttest form will need to focus on specific interventions and additional information regarding the effectiveness of specific strategies in school counseling. One of the common criticism of meta-analytic approaches is that studies with weak methodological rigor may artificially inflate average effect sizes(M. W. Lipsey,2003). M. W. Lipsey (2003) also argued that methodological moderator variables that often are assumed to be independent are not necessarily independent and carefully conducted meta-analytic reviews should explore methodological relationship patterns. The effect size of . 30 was based on 117 experimental studies that involved 153 interventions, which is a significant increase from the six studies used by Sprinthall (1981). Many more studies were conducted with elementary school students; however, school counseling interventions included in this meta-analysis appeared to be slightly more effective with middle or junior high students followed by high school students. Thus, these studies show a significant effect on school counseling interventions for all levels of K-12 education. There are also some limitations when meta-analytic techniques are used. The validity of effect size largely depends on the quality of studies that were included in the review. Some major limitations in school counseling research could not be addressed statistically. Also there are few studies that address the issues of treatment integrity. Only a handful of studies used treatment manuals or well-developed curricula. It was difficult for researches to determine what was effective because researchers could not determine what interventions were implemented with students. Another limitation was the elimination of 111 studies that had insufficient data or missing information. Another limitation from this article concerns the dominance of non-standardized outcome assessments in school counseling research. Meta-analysis also lacked long-term follow-up data. The lack of longitudinal data allows for the measurement and analysis of only short-term effectiveness. Another issue with meta-analysis research is that interventions focused mostly on specific interventions rather than comprehensive school counseling programs. There has been very few research studies conducted on comprehensive school counseling programs. Summary of research outcome.  There were 118 studies that used meta-analysis 1, involving treatment-control comparisons and 153 school interventions; however, two studies were considered one study because of the same simple. Out of the 117 studies, 81 were published in journals and 36 were theses or dissertations. This meta-analysis study had 16,296 participants and the sample ranged from 8 to 5, 618, with the average study involving 139. 28 participants. From these studies, 50. 4% were elementary school students, 17. 9% were middle or junior high school students, and 24. 8% were high school students, and 6% had a mixture of ages, and one study did not report the age of the student participants. There was an overall weighted effect size of 27% for students that received school counseling intervention compared to those students that did not receive school counseling intervention. The average effect size was significant. Also, there were a total of 33studies that used meta-analysis 2, involving pretest-posttest design; however, two effect sizes were eliminated from one study. Therefore, 31 studies that involved 51 school counseling interventions were used. The effect sizes calculated from these 31 studies involved 2,015 participants and the average study involving 62. 97 students and the sample ranged from 9 to 283. Out of the 31 studies, 17 were published in journals, 13 were theses or dissertations, and one study was an ERIC document. From these studies, 29% involved elementary school students, 12. 9% were middle or junior high school students, and 54. 8% were high school students, and 3. 2% had a mixture of ages and grade levels. There was only a . 07% weighted effect size on pretest and posttest meta-analysis which indicates the average effect size was not significant. Two methods of applying this research to practice Firstly, my goal as an aspiring school counselor is to implement a comprehensive school counseling program for all students. I would provide a variety of interventions and activities using the four components of the delivery system of a school counseling program, guidance curriculum, individual student planning, responsive services, and system support. I would then, conduct studies in my school, collecting data, and determine which services students and the school will benefit from the most. This will help me determine what type of programs and activities are most effective for our students and school. Secondly, I would consider taking additional research courses to prepare me to contribute to the knowledge base of school counseling, while conducting research projects related to school counseling. Simply, there needs to be more and better research in the area of school counseling. â€Å"Without additional empirical support, some schools may eliminate professional school counseling programs†(Erford, p 68). Conclusion. From this research on meta-analyses not all school counseling interventions were equally effective. Additional research is needed to examine the impact these studies had on students from diverse backgrounds. Although more research is often a recommendation after completing a meta-analysis (e. g. , Ehri et al. , 2001; Swanson, 1999; Whiston, Brecheisen,& Stephens, 2003; Xin, Grasso, Dipipi-Hoy, & Jitendra, 2005), we contend that lack of methodological rigor and dearth of studies make the calls for additional sound research in school counseling particularly important. Also, the issues of treatment integrity and increasingly use standardized outcome assessments will enhance future school counseling interventions. From this study, one would learn that additional research is needed, however, from this research; data shows that school counseling interventions have a positive effect size on student outcomes. Furthermore, there were significant effect sizes for interventions at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. School counselors’ were able to increase students’ ability to solve problems while decreasing discipline problems. However, the researchers were unable to identify specific programs or approaches that produce positive outcomes. Additional research is needed to address what interventions for school counseling works, with what students, and under what circumstances. References Erford, B. T. (2011). Transforming the school counseling profession (3rd Ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. Whiston, Tai, Rahardja, and Eder. (Winter 2011 Volume 89). School Counseling Outcome: A Meta-Analytic Examination of Interventions. Journal of Counseling.

Beginning the Audit Report

Senior Partner From: Kim Cummings Re: Apollo Shoes Audit Dear Senior Partner: As you know, our firm has been selected to perform the Apollo Shoes audit. The planning process has been the most delicate stage as we want to ensure we have a solid audit approach. The team I select will be dedicated in meeting the objectives and strategies for completing the audit. I will briefly explain to you how I plan to begin the audit process.Now that Apollo Shoes has selected our firm, the initial planning process has begun. Our team must make every effort to understand Apollo Shoes' business and industry. We will assess the client business risk before performing any preliminary analytical procedures. Our audit team will work hard to understand what type of documentation is required, collect documents from previous audits and gather all preliminary statements from all involved parties. Our team will start with a review of the company's policies and procedures to establish our objectives.Our audit t eam will set materiality and review acceptable audit risk and acquired risk. It is our responsibility to understand the internal control and assess the type of sis each control holds. By doing this, we must understand each and every process of Apollo Shoes. This may include reviewing any area workflow and identifying key controls in those area processes. Our audit team will sit down with department heads to gather a detailed understanding of each process so nothing is misinterpreted in our review.Once we have a clear understanding of the internal controls and have assessed their risk, we will begin to collect information to assess fraud risks. The last part of our plan and design phase of the audit process will be to develop an overall audit strategy and audit program. With this step, we will determine the guidelines of our audit review and the best technology to use for this client. The scope of our audit will be planned during this phase as well as setting our objectives. I have a ttached some key documents related to the Apollo Shoes audit.These documents cover how the audit objectives, responsibilities, and strategies for completing the audit will be accomplished. I have also included an explanation of how analytical procedures will be used to plan, conduct and complete the audit. An explanation of how our team will consider materiality and risk in designing the audit s also attached along with the technology we plan to use in the audit. I have attached an engagement checklist and a rough draft of the client engagement letter for your review. The outline of timeshares and milestones for the Apollo Shoes audit has also been included for your review.Should you have any questions regarding the beginning stages of our audit process or any changes or comments related to the engagement checklist, engagement letter and timeshares, please let me know so we can discuss further. Sincerely, Kim Cummings Audit Objectives, Responsibilities, and Strategies for Audit Comp letion The primary objective of an audit is to review a company's procedures, the original data to determine procedure compliance, and form an audit opinion on the data presented and level of compliance.The four main objectives are to outline and test controls; validate proper procedure was followed; establish the risk of audit error; and write an audit opinion. A control objective is established to ensure procedure is in place to prevent staff from not following policy. It is important to verify a procedure has been followed. To do this, an auditor will take a random collection of the documents from the data set. The auditor can use statistics to establish how many documents need to be tested and the risk of an error in the data set.A specialized computer program is used by the auditors to select a document and compare the document against company policy to ensure compliance. The level of compliance is assessed against the data size group and degree of compliance failure. The risk of audit error is the probability an auditor has reached an inaccurate conclusion, which is why the auditor must review all workflow, policies and procedures prior to drawing any conclusion from the samples they have pulled. A Ritter auditor's opinion is a report published by the auditor to ascertain company procedures used, the audit scope, and the results from testing.Many interested parties, such as business owners and investors, review this report. The auditors are responsible in finding errors, cut costs, and improve the overall general accounting used by a company. The auditor is to verify company records against the information the company has provided. It is important for auditors to plan and execute the audit to achieve reasonable assurance. The main strategy of completing the audit is to obtain an understanding of the linnet's financial statements, operating processes, and governance policies.The auditor must adopt a blueprint to determine the external factors that could a dversely affect the company's operations. The auditor needs to evaluate regulatory practice and ongoing litigation events. With these strategies in place, the audit should be easily streamlined to stay on track and completed in the designated timeshare. Analytical Procedures Used to Plan, Conduct and Complete the Audit Analytical procedures are used to identify items associated with uncommon transactions and events, amounts and developments that may point towards items hat have financial statement and audit planning complications. The analytical procedures used in planning the audit generally use data aggregated at a high level (www. Baobabs. Org). † Procedures may consist of reviewing changes in account balances from the prior year to the current year using an unadjusted working trial balance or general ledger balance. Procedures may involve an extensive analysis off company's quarterly financial statements. The analytical process used in the overall preview phase of the audi t â€Å"will assist the auditor in assessing conclusions reached and in the evaluation of the overall uncial statement presentation (www. Scabrous. Org). † A wide variety of analytical procedures may be used for this purpose. The procedures our team will use consist of reading financial statement and notes, consider adequacy of the evidence gathered, and consider unusual or unexpected balances. Materiality and Risk in Audit Design Materiality is essential when considering the appropriate type of report for a given set of circumstances. Audit risk is the risk the auditor may unintentionally â€Å"fail to appropriately modify his or her opinion on financial statements that are materially misstated (wry. WAC. Org). Materiality is considered by auditors when planning and evaluating the results of an audit. Audit risk and materiality affect the applications of generally accepted auditing standards, particularly the measures of field work and reporting. â€Å"Audit risk and mater iality need to be considered together in designing the nature, timing, and extent of audit procedures and in evaluating the results of those procedures (mm. ‘. PWS. Org). † Technology Incorporated Into Audit There are numerous data analysis tools to use for an audit such as Microsoft Excel, Audit Command Language (CAL), and Monarch.Microsoft Excel is an office application that is easy to use. It comes with a data-analysis toolkit and built-in functions with a capacity of 65,536 rows by 256 columns and 255 chars per field. CAL has an unlimited capacity. It requires basic training and is menu based. CAL has analytic capabilities and a complete set of preprogrammed analysis. Monarch is a 1,000,000 input page capacity. Training is required, and Monarch provides basic analytic capabilities. Data analysis software is useful in distinguishing fraud of assets and fraudulent reporting.It permits an infinite number of analytical interactions to e measured within sizeable databases . The use of data analysis software will test objectives, ascertain data, request test data, enhance the test data if results are poor and request full data if results are good. The use of filters, sorting statistics, gaps, classification, and samples are Just a few tools to be used in the audit process. The data analysis methodology we will use will be to define, validate, execute, and retain data.Engagement Checklist Learn about the Control Environment Operating Processes Corporate Procedures Regulatory Compliance Test Internal Controls Detailed Steps in Task Performance Sampling of Company Documents Rank Controls and Risk High and medium – may cost the business a substantial loss in operating activities Low – corrective measures provided by Department Heads and Managers Issue the Final Report Senior Auditor reviews solutions provided by senior leaders for high and medium risks. Note risk mitigation progress in the risk and control assessment reports prepared by depa rtment heads.Rough Draft of Audit Engagement Letter Anderson, Olds, and Watershed 1234 Audit Trail way panama City, FL 32405 January 18, 2015 Larry Lancaster President and CEO Apollo Shoes, Inc. Showdown, ME 12345 Re: Audit Engagement Dear Mr.. Lancaster, This letter confirms our prior discussion regarding the agreement for our firm to audit the financial statements of Apollo Shoes, Inc. Our firm will audit Apollo Shoes balance sheet as of 12/31/07, as well as related Statement of Income, Retained Earnings and Cash Flow Statements for all of 2007.We will provide our professional opinion based on this audit. The financial statements will be the responsibility of the Apollo Shoes management team. The opinion on the financial statements based on our audit is the responsibility of the audit team. Our team will conduct the audit process in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards. These standards require our team to â€Å"conduct the audit in order to obtain reasonable assu rance if the financial statements are free of false and misleading statements (wry. NCSC. Deed). This type of audit will measure the accounting principles used by your company along with any assessments made by your management team. Our firm's audit will deliver the basis of our opinion. The practices we will use include tests of documented data provided to support all of your company transactions documented n your company accounts. We will also test documents related to your receivables and liabilities through randomly selected customer accounts and creditors. The audit we will perform cannot be relied upon to detect irregularities or all fraud.We will notify you of any material errors we find as well as any illegal acts that grab our attention throughout the audit process. If the financial statements are going to be published or reproduced with reference made to the audit our firm conducted, you must agree to give us the statement proofs for our approval prior to publication. As p art of the audit engagement for the year ending in 2007, a review of your company's state and federal tax returns will be conducted for Apollo Shoes.The fees our firm charges Apollo Shoes will be billed as the work is performed and based on the time it is needed to fulfill each deliverable plus any acquired out of pocket expenses. The invoices will be due upon receipt. After your review, please sign the enclosed copy and return it to our firm promptly. Our firm appreciates the opportunity to perform the Apollo Shoes' audit and looks forwarding to working with you. Sincerely, Timeshares and Milestones References Arena, Alvin; Elder, Randal; and Basely, Mark(2014).