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The basic three financial reports that are part of financial accounting are the Balance Sheet, Income Statement, and Statement of Cash Flows. According to an essay written by Michael Dennis and published online on the Encyclopedia of Credit website, a Balance Sheet presents information about a company's assets, liabilities, and equity. A Balance Sheet will normally divide assets into current assets, and noncurrent or fixed assets. Current assets are those assets which will be converted to cash within the next 12 months. Fixed and non-current assets are not ordinarily sold by a business entity. Liabilities are debts. On the Balance Sheet, debts are subdivided into current liabilities and non-current liabilities. Current liabilities or obligations or debts due within a year. Non-current liabilities are those obligations that will not come to in coming year. The third part of a Balance Sheet is equity. Equity can be thought of as the residual amount on the Balance Sheet. It represents assets minus liabilities. Therefore, equity can be either negative or positive. Equity would be negative when liabilities exceed assets, and positive when

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Introduction Tortora (2006) reports that the connective tissue in the human body provides both substance and support to several body structures. These include tendons, blood vessel walls, cartilage, ligaments, heart values, and other structures. If the connective tissue is abnormal in some way, an individual is usually diagnosed with Marfan Syndrome; in most cases the abnormality involves a lack of stiffness to the tissue (Midla, 2008). This paper presents a general overview of this disorder. Specifically, the paper defines the symptoms of the disorder, delineates its cause as well as the associated risk factors. The paper also describes the disorder's signs and symptoms. The body systems affected by Marfan's syndrome are listed and its treatment and prevention are discussed. Signs and Symptoms Frydman (2008) reports that the person with Marfan Syndrome has a typical appearance. He or she is tall and quite thin with long spidery fingers. The length of the arms is slightly g

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According to the Walt Disney Company (2008a), the mission of the firm is to be one of the world's leading producers and providers of entertainment and information and to use its brand portfolio to differentiate its content and services while developing the most creative and innovative entertainment experiences and products in the world. The vision of Walt Disney Company (2008b) encompasses developing a multi-brand and product strategy offering high quality products, depicting optimism for the future, great storytelling, and an emphasis on family entertainment. Values at Walt Disney Company (2008b) include innovation, quality, a focus on community and families, storytelling, an optimistic and aspiring outlook on life, and an orientation toward decency, honor, and respect. The culture of the company, according to its Internet site, emphasizes the integration of a diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise with a workplace that meets the needs of a multicultural group of employees known as "cast members" (Walt Disney Company, 2008c). Wi

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Edgar Allen Poe was a master of the literary art. His use of symbolism is quite intentional, and nearly all of his stories are an allegory of some sort. "The Gold Bug" and "The Black Cat" are allegories of journeys, one into fulfillment and health, the other into madness and death. The story of "The Gold Bug" is one of a treasure hunt told backwards. The reader, seeing through the eyes of the unnamed doctor, assumes he is on a wild goose chase with a madman, only to see him produce a treasure of gold seemingly out of nothing. Only once we have seen enough to believe are we told how he came about the realization that the treasure even existed in the first place. The bug itself is symbolic of the find that makes a person believe that a fortune is nearby. In normal life it could be a rise in the stock market, the illness of a rich relative, or a real estate developer that wants to buy your land. The bug is not is not something of the person, like an invention, publication, or ac

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Ann Carson's Autobiography of Red features the names Stesichorus; Geryon; Geryon's red dog, Geryoneis; and Herakles. Carson did not invent these figures; they have a reality outside her fiction. Stesichorus, for example, was a 6th-century poet whose name means "chorus master" ("Stesichorus"). Inspired by Homer, he specialized in long narrative poems having mythological themes and wrote similar stories, such as "The Wooden Horse" and "The Capture of Troy" ("Stesichorus"). Stesichorus is said to have been struck blind for writing a slanderous poem about Helen and to have recovered his sight after recanting the poem ("Stesichorus"). All that remain of his poems are approximately 30 fragments no longer than six lines each ("Stesichorus"). Geryon was

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The key statement in Romans 8:31-39 is "If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31b, KJV). Deffinbaugh points out that "The 'if' here is not 'iffy.' It could just as well be translated 'since.'" The "if" here is not "iffy." It could just as well be translated "since." The New Jerusalem Bible renders Paul's question this way, "With God on our side, who can be against us?" The rest of the passage elucidates and expands upon this primary concept, that with God on our side, no one can be against us. Verse 32 points out that if God delivered up His own Son for our sakes, then He will obviously "freely give us all things," as this is only logical (KJV). Verses 33 and 34 contend that no one can charge God's elect with anything either, because if Christ is the one making intercession for us, our accusers are overpowered by the One who died and rose again and sits at the right hand of the Father. Verse 35 explains that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ,

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James G. March and Johan P. Olsen (1989) provide a fresh perspective on institutions in their book Rediscovering Institutions. As Terry M. Moe (1991, p. 106) points out, "In some fashion or another, political scientists spend much of their time trying to understand organizations," and this is precisely what March and Olsen attempt to do as they think through the political dynamics of organizations in their book. Taking an institutional perspective on politics, they note that institutions have become larger and more complex than in the past, thus challenging traditional organizational theory. As they address the gap between traditional theory and the realities of modern institutions, they identify a number of themes that characterize the new organizational theories-contextualism, rules, and meaning. The authors identify contextualism as resulting from the loss of the state's "centrality in the discipline," noting along with Easton (1968) that "politics mirrors its

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The purpose of this report is to compare two wooden sculptures of Guanyin, both from the Song Dynasty in the mid-tenth through late thirteenth century CE era in China. The first is a monumental rendition of this image that is in the Eugene Fuller Collection of the Seattle Art Museum. The second is found in the Sackler Museum at Harvard University. The Fuller Guanyin is a wood and polychrome sculpture that stands 162.56 centimeters tall. Large scale wooden sculptures dating to the Song period were commonly found in northern China and less frequently so in the south (Washington.edu, 1). This particular sculpture depicts the female apparition of Guanyin in a traditional seated posture on a bench or plinth of stone.

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Introduction This paper examines the development of a true republic (as a form of government) within a framework that contrasts the positions of Machiavelli and Augustine in relation to the concept of free-will. Before addressing this issue in this paper, it is desirable to define for purposes of this paper the terms (a) free-will and (b) true republic. The, the philosophical positions of Machiavelli and Augustine are examined. Free-will has been a contentious concept for centuries. Without going into great detail concerning the various points of contention, for the purposes of this paper, the concept of free-will refers to the perceived extent to which an individual human being has control of and is responsible for her or his own behavior. At one end of the continuum of thought on this issue is the existentialist position holding that individuals are in total control of and are fully responsible for their own behavior. At the other end of this continuum of thoug

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Overview of Communication Effective communication in the workplace is vital. Max De Pree, author of The Art of Leadership, wrote, "There may be no single thing more important in our efforts to achieve meaningful work and fulfilling relationships than to learn and practice the art of communication" (La Lone, n.d., p. 3). Since a workplace is comprised of multiple people, the ability of those people to share their knowledge, coordinate, and collaborate is key to the successful conduct of business. Not only is it essential for management and staff to communicate well, but communication among staff and between staff and customers is also closely aligned with business success. Although many companies have internal communication vehicles such as newsletters or bulletins for disseminating company-related information, these forms of communication are not a satisfactory substitute for direct communication in the form of conversation, because "written communication is all one-w

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To undertake the project of comparing the Byronic hero in Frankenstein with a similar figure in Dracula is to acknowledge the Romantic sensibility that the novels share. How that sensibility informed character and theme in such texts as Shelley's Frankenstein and Stoker's Dracula can be seen in ways that Romanticism bubbled up from the intellectual climate of the Enlightenment in the early 19th century. Although Romanticism owed much to the Enlightenment, it deified feeling instead of reason, was suspicious of institutional constraints, entailed nature mysticism, and conceptualized humanity as "living in a world of creativity and becoming" (Baumer 274), whether of one's selfhood or of one's physical and social environment. That helps explain the affinity Romantics had with reform and revolution, which can be construed as opportunities for wholesale transformation of the human condition, even if the record of such transformations might be spotty. The concept of the Byronic he

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The United Kingdom's Equalities Minister, Harriet Harman, has referred legislation to the House of Commons, which, if enacted, will replace 116 different pieces of equality legislation now in force in the United Kingdom (UK) and will address the pay gap between men and women while broadening the scope of current age discrimination legislation (BBC News, 1). At issue herein is an analysis of how the Equality Bill will affect Wal-Mart, which has been characterized by Thomas Grose (1) as deeply invested in the UK and dependent in its international strategy on achieving and maintaining high levels of profitability there. Basically, Wal-Mart must modify its existing diversity and affirmative action initiatives to reflect the new Equality Bill provisions specifically with respect to the gender pay gap and eliminating discrimination against older workers. Wal-Mart (1) describes itself as an organization focused on providing customers a wide assortment of good quality merchandise, the

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The video "Building the Relationship: Quanxi" demonstrates the importance of sensitivity in conducting business with the Chinese. As Lewicki (232) notes, "People from different cultures appear to negotiate differently" and "may also interpret the fundamental processes of negotiations differently." This video illustrates the differences between American and Chinese cultural norms with respect to business meetings and negotiations. As the video demonstrates, many cultural differences between Americans and Chinese could be pitfalls for American negotiators that are unaware of Chinese business traditions. Even the exchange of business cards is executed differently and when Americans do not handle this ritual with the appropriate respect and attention to detail, it can cost them substantially in terms of their ongoing relationship with the Chinese. The style of negotiations is not just a difference between Western modernity and Chinese tradition; it is viewed by the Chinese as a

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DQ1. Under the promotions "P" are three legs...advertising, public relations, and sales promotion. Define these marketing tools and provide a current example of each one. Advertising is promoting the sale of a product by introducing and describing it and citing its benefits so that the public will be aware of it and want to buy it. A current example of advertising is text ads delivered to cell phone users. Public relations is the building of a brand's positive identity through the dissemination of information about the company that reflects well on it. An example of public relations is the type of ad that describes the company's charitable endeavors rather than touting its products. Sales promotion is an approach to gaining more sales of a product that generally involves special sales incentives such as rebates, cents-off coupons, sales, and other special offers. An example of a current sales promotion is the loyalty card discount offered by many large chain grocers. Only loyalty card holders can obtain the special sales pricing, and customers with loyalty cards can

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Sherley A. Williams' Dessa Rose is a fictional story based on real events. In it, Dessa Rose, a slave convicted through her own confession-"I kill white mens"-of murdering her white master for killing her husband, meets Rufel, a white woman with a sympathy toward the liberation movement (Williams 20). Each woman suffers a bondage of her own. Dessa Rose is literally enslaved, while Rufel is figuratively enslaved in an ad

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The introduction of Media, Messages, and Men: New Perspectives in Communication makes clear that the text is not intended to replicate the mission of typical college-level journalism textbooks, which is to instruct aspiring journalists in the techniques of reportage and the editorial process. Rather, their avowed purpose is to discuss principles of the discourse of media and raise what come down to the ethical and moral implications of the uses to which mass media are put. It unpacks the finished product of the media-generation effort and seeks to supply a measure of media savvy to the student and consumer of media artifacts. In constructing the text of Media, Messages, and Men: New Perspectives in Communication, Merrill and Lowenstein, who at the time of writing were professors of communication and journalism at the University of Missouri, Columbia (a noted journalism school), more or less alternate chapters to build their critique of the extraordinary power of the mas

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A company that has faced serious employee safety issues is Ritrama, a Minneapolis plant that manufactures pressure-sensitive films and labels. In 1997, Ritrama received 14 citations for safety, of which nine were for major safety infractions (Conklin, 2007). Plant managers acknowledged that they had been "focusing on day-to-day operations, content with the status quo and devoting inadequate time to evaluate their current safety and health program, even though the Ritrama philosophy-that nothing is more important than employee health and safety...was very important" (Conklin, 2007). The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or MNOSHA, recommended that Ritrama managers institute a safety program that involved employees in safety and suggested appointing a director and forming a committee dedicated to safety, as well as developing an injury recordkeeping program (Conklin, 2007). The numerous safety violations at Ritrama go back to a specific safety issue-lack of safety control. To fix its safety control problem, Ritr

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Introduction Langston Hughes' "On the Road" and Richard Wright's "The Man Who Was Almost a Man" have notable similarities. Both protagonists are black men disadvantaged by living in a white society, and both find themselves suddenly unwilling to yield to their circumstances any longer and determined to resist. Both stories clearly pivot on racial differences, focusing on the difficulties associated with being a member of a minority race. Both Hughes' character, Sargeant, and Wright's character, David, become angry at the way they are being treated and decide to stop allowing themselves to be victimized and start insisting on equitable treatment. Despite these salient likenesses, however, there are some differences when these stories are viewed at a deeper level. This paper will examine the issues that make the stories distinct from one another-survival vs. random ac

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As an MBA student planning on a career in finance, I am deeply disturbed by the ongoing credit crisis taking place not only in the United States but also across the world. The government-financed bailout of $250 billion for various major banks, as described by Lohr (2008), may provide a temporary cushion to allow larger banks and some smaller banks to remain solvent. The question remains as to whether or not the bailout represents a plan that will succeed in restoring confidence in failing or troubled institutions. In addition, while this is a crisis measure in a time of crisis, I cannot help but be concerned that it foreshadows a movement in which major financial institutions will be owned and therefore controlled by the government. It is indeed, as Lohr (2008,

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According to Faragher, Buhle, Czitrom, and Armitrage (285), the "ultimate resistance" against the abuses of slavery was the "slave revolt." On a hot August night in 1831, Nat Turner, a lay preacher and slave, led a revolt he had planned after having a religious vision in which he saw "white spirits and black spirits engaged in battle" (Faragher, et al. 285). Turner and five other slaves first struck and killed Turner's master, Joseph Travis. Traveling from one plantation to the next, the rebels killed fifty-five

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Technology History Blood glucose meters were originally intended to monitor patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus and have undergone improvements through the years that have made them suitable for self-monitoring (Bimenya, Nzarubara, Kiconco, Sabuni, & Byarugaba, 2003, p. 23). The first patently successful blood glucose monitor was developed by Genetics International with assistance from Cranfield and Oxford Universities (Newman & Turner, 2005, p. 2435). It was designed for use at home was a mediated device that used a "disposable, screen-printed sensor design" (Newman & Turner, 2005, p. 2435). The instrument went through several iterations through the years, from a pen-shaped device to a credit card format, and then to a computer-mouse-shaped device, but the concept itself has remained relatively unchanged (Newman & Turner, 2005, p. 2435). The three types of glucose meters currently in use include the amperometric, reflectance, and colorimetric transduction devices (

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Presidential authority Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. undertook to rank the U.S. presidents in a 1997 Political Science Quarterly article, and President Bush can be ranked similarly according to Schlesinger's ranking system (Schlesinger, 1997). Schlesinger (1997) noted in his article that all of the "Greats" and "Near Greats" among the presidents "took risks in pursuit of their ideals" and "provoked intense controversy;" the same can be said of George Bush. Using S

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Introduction Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain have largely divergent social economic plans covering health care, education, energy, and the economy. In a presidential race marked by the nation's serious challenges in each of these areas, the candidates' views and plans are pivotal to the nation's recovery. This paper will compare and contrast the candidates' platforms on each of these four issues and will conclude with a summation of their opposing stances. Health Care Obama's health care plan offers new health care options for people that do not have health insurance; insurance companies will be required to cover pre-existing conditions "so all Americans regardless of their health status or history can get comprehensive benefits at fair and stable premiums" ("Healthcare: Barack Obama and Joe Biden's Plan"). In addition, the plan will provide a tax credit to allow small businesses to provide "affordable health insurance" to their

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Introduction Recent events in financial markets around the world have made the question of whether it is possible for an individual investor to outperform the market as a whole extremely timely. In the short-term, luck, timing, and possibly insider information can make it possible to outperform the market. But in the long-term, the efficient market hypothesis holds that the market renders anything but normal profits impossible. This research evaluates the efficient market hypothesis and whether it is possible for an individual investor to outperform the market in the long-term. The Efficient Market Hypothesis The efficient market hypothesis holds that capital markets are efficient in that they do not enable above-average reward without above-average risk. This "efficiency" comes about from the idea that all known information about a company at any point in time is reflected in the price of that security at the same point in time. Unknown informati

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1. Keeping a database of personal preferences such as bookmarks and favorite sites is critical to making the Eternal Egypt project both popular and a reality. Without these features, the site's popularity would wane because the vast number of exhibits in the site would make it difficult for people to return to their favorite places, and the site would then become too large and cumbersome to be meaningful. The site could not even become a reality without a defined structure and the ability for site visitors to track their way through it, as it would just be an enormous repository for artifacts that people would be unable to navigate successfully. 2. It is important to create a content delivery channel for mobile and pervasive devises because so

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